Heterick Memorial Library Ohio Northern University

Contact Us Library Hours

School Year 1879-80 and Students

January 26, 1906, V. XXIII, No. 36

CHAPTER 77.

The attendance the school year 1879-80 was much larger than the previous year. The gain was 311, 45 percent. The gain the school year 1878-9 had been 222 or 47 percent. In two years the gain in attendance was 533. The whole number of different students for the year 1879-80 was 1006.

On the morning of August 13, 1879, were held the first chapel exercises in the new building. As the house was not nearly completed, there were no formal dedicatory exercises, but it was dedicated to the service of the Lord in spirit. The founder of the school read the whole of the 6th chapter of second Chronicles and Rev. Philip Darwon, pastor of the M.E. church, made the dedicatory prayer. Prof. Ewing remarked after the chapel service, "The house was finely and properly dedicated."

Each of the two literary societies was now to have a hall of its own and apparently both societies wanted the north hall; N.G. Stringfellow really preferred the south hall. My plan was for the president of the societies to cast lots; but Mr. Stringfellow proposed to the Philo executive committee that if the Philos would pay the Franklins $25 they might have the north hall. They accepted the offer and paid the money. The arguments in regard to the pros and cons of the two halls I will not repeat.

Too many new students entered school that year to name them all; shall therefore name but a few of the more active workers although I still remember very many of them. Among the prominent Franklins who entered that year were George Conley, O.E. DeWitt, Ida Sisson, Flora V. Teagarden, Elmer J. Teagarden Viola Herbert, E.T. Herbert, C.N. Haskins, H.E. Blacksten, L.E. Sisler, C.O. Sorick, W.M. Axline, C.H. Apt, Mary Cooney, G.W. Foltz, C.W. Legge, James C. Laser, Henry Nieman, F.C. Rutan, C.E. Ridenour, S.J. Reiter, T.R. Steiner, S.G. Steiner, J.S. Steel, A.N. Swank, Theo. T. Buel, H.M. Drury, C.M. Fisher, Dye Gallogly, J.I. Hursh, F.D. Morrison, Sophia and Bertha Wehrmeister, Minnie Wright, D.C. Amstutz, C.D. Amstutz, Fred Black, Olive Lane, Brice Truner, Emily A. Brundige, Lydia A. Baum, Noah Basinger, Georgie Brook, H. Blankenhorn, Mr. and Mrs. D.W. Corle, E.M. Counseller, C.S. Culp, Minnie Dickinson, of Ada, Clara Donaldson, F.F. Douglas, S.A. Doty, Sade Edwards, N.E. Ebert, Millie Friedley, Charles Ganyard, G. Herbert, A.P. Haight, Retta Kidd, Alice Inskip, J.L. Kemp, D.C. Meck, T.W. and W.C. Orr, Jennie Peters, Hattie Peters, F. Rusher, Anna B. Seitz, Amanda Seitz, C.M. Shook, B.B. Wentz, H.P. Wagner, Crissie Adams, later Belle Amanda, now Mrs. Vogenitz, Nora Stumm, D.W. Sullivan, Mabel Burton, Davis Oldham, Will R. Park, and many others I can recall but I presume I am tiring the patience of the reader.

Of those names above, Ida Sisson is the sister of Mrs. Maglott. She was a fine worker; and the society never had better or more loyal workers than Flora Teagarden, the Misses Peters, the Misses Seitz, the Misses Wehrmeister, Mary Cooney, Minnie Dickenson, Clara R. Donaldson, Crissie Adams, the noted contralto of the Franklins, Nora Stumm, Elmer Teagarden, "Budd" Herbert, the comic singer, Haskins, Rutan, Foltz, Blacksten, "Senator" Apt, Laser, the Amstutz boys, the Steiners, Brice Truner and Minnie Wright. Miss Wright was a good solicitor, a good performer and was called one of the Franklin beauties. F.F. Douglass and Frank Rutan are practicing law in Chicago, Blacksten is practicing medicine in Mo. Apt, the Senator, is a lawyer, but I have lost his last address; Laser practices law in Mansfield, O.; Teagarden and "Budd" Herbert are preachers and are doing well; Shook has a good business in Cleveland and has a beautiful home. He married a handsome and rich wife. Clara Donaldson one of the Normal's finest students, teaches in the Philippines; Meck is a high school principal in Cleveland. Drury edits a paper at Van Wert, O. The Misses Peters and Seitz are teaching in Marion, O.; Will Park holds a government position in Toledo; and H.P. Wagner was for many years my secretary. He was a noble young man. C.S. Culp is preaching and I think Noah Basinger preaches. Ebert is teaching, Minnie Wright is married and lives in Findlay. Jennie Peters, Sade Edwards, H.P. Wagner, Minnie Dickinson and Alice Inskip are dead. Counselor preaches, Sullivan is a Catholic priest. He was a good student. Byron Wentz takes part in politics.

I could relate a hundred anecdotes of those days, but will relate but one. When James Laser came into the office I surmised that he belonged to the class that Lincoln called the "plain" people. I asked him when and how he lost his arm. He answered the question fully and kindly. When he paid his tuition I handed one-half back to him. He refused to take the money. He said, "I will show to the world that I can make my way with one arm," and he has. He has made life a success.

Fred Black entered the Normal this year. I named him among the Franklins. As I now remember he was a Franklin of the Franklins, and he delighted to have a scrap with the Philos. And what a solicitor and what a schemer! Sometimes he would cause a little trouble about some new member, but I always liked him. Full of fun, but a royal good fellow, I never could tell which he loved, the Franklin Literary society or the Democratic party. All agreed that he enjoyed the society of lively school girls. He and Mr. Funk and a student whose name I have forgotten entered the spring term of '80. We had a long hunt for rooms and had to wade through deep snow drifts. He was (a) successful attorney; was at one time mayor of Mansfield. His death occurred only a few months ago at Mansfield.

But I must pass to the Philo group. What a fine lot of students joined that society that year. The first one whom I shall name is E.C. Long of Kentucky. The boys called him "Ned." Next I shall name J.E. Bunker, T.J. Robinson, Perry Turner, J.W. Zeis, Lizzie Hart, now Mrs. Zeis, Anna Bassett, Chalieu and Laura R. Cook, G.W. Newsock, J.S. Stells, Lella Smith, Laura Smith, T.L. Smith, Louis Smith, E.M. Smith, E.S. Stevens, Dora Tompson, W.A. Dean, C.M. Fisher, W.E. Hart, F.D. Morrison, C.M. Ruggies, L.H. Seager, J.E. Virden, Vina V. Brown, J.F. Casebeer, Callie Delph, Ida B. Donaldson, J.W. Eggerman, Ida Ewers, Mame Enoch, several Elliotts of Logan Co., Daniel Fritch, W.H. Fishel, Fannie Fudge, Maria Hawk, S.D. Hazlett, Alice K. Inskip, Mary E. Mateer, Lottie Mathews, Clara House, Emma House, J.B. Maul, Carrie McDowell, W.E. Putt, Susie Richardson, Dora Smith, later Mrs. W.O. Bailey, now deceased. Sarah C. Smith, Sara Day, A.B. Stuck, Lucy Van Derwort, J. Jerome Welty, Donna Fitzgerald, Annie Plummer, Flo Cunningham and many others.

Then there entered another student that year, W.W. Poultney by name. He had a sharp eye and a Roman nose. It was commonly reported, especially in later years by the Adelphians that Poultney was a Philo. If my memory serves me aright the report was and is correct. We will put Poultney in the Philo ranks. Oh what a worker and a schemer; but on the whole a fair fighter. He loved his society dearly as he will ever love a wife. He loves the school and he loves Ada. He was in school many terms, completed about all the courses in the different departments and taught in the institution a number of years. Ada is his Mecca. He advised against the organization of the Adelphian society. He said it would destroy the annual contests between the Franklins and Philos and he was correct. It happened as he predicted. He said a triangular fight would cause the loss of interest. My argument was that the societies were getting too large, and that we would soon get another large building and have four societies, but in that we failed. We had so far devoted a third of our floor space to the use of the literary societies. Very few schools, if any, had devoted so much space for that purpose as we did. From the very inception of the school we had been pinched for money. When Mr. Poultney entered the school he was generally considered a skeptic. Now he is a Baptist and has the largest Sunday school class in Washington, D.C. I will speak of him again.