Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/494

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��HISTORY OF RICHLAND COUNTY

��CHAPTER XLIX.

SCHOOLS, PRESS AND POST OFFICE.

The Pioneer Schools and Teachers of the City — The First Schoolhouses — Division into Districts — The Present System of Teaching — The Female College — The Superintendents of the Schools

The Board of Education — The Erection of Schoolhouses — Progress and Statistics — The City

Press — The Olive — Mansfield Gazette — Western Hfrald — Ohio Spectator — Richland Whig — Ohio Shield — Shield and Banner — Richland Jeffersonian — Mansfield Herald — Morning Pennant — Richland Bugle and Independent Press — Mansfield Courier — Ohio Liberal — Richland Democrat —Sunday Morning Call— The First Post Office— The Early Mail Routes— Stages— Postmasters- Location OF Post Offices — The Business of the Office.

��'■There in his quiet mansion skilled to rule,

The village master taught his little school.



I knew him well, and every truant knew ;



Ypt he was kind ; or, if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was his fault. The village all declared how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher too."

— Goldsmith.

THE present system of public schools in the citj^ has been in operation more than twenty years, during which period great advancement is supposed to have been made over the old sys- tem of public teaching ; manj- of the best citi- zens of Mansfield having put their shoulders to the wheel and kept them there until the schools of this city have been pushed to the front rank of the public schools of the State. A complete history of these schools and their progress would be interesting, but of the early schools veiy little is known, and that little is unwritten, existing only in the memory of " the oldest inhabitant."

In gathering the general history it is found that wherever half a dozen families settled near each other (and from one to five miles was called near in early days), they first established a school and a place of worship. So deeply rooted and firmly established in the American heart is the fundamental idea that the common

��school is the hope of the Republic, that every opportunity for establishing a school was im- proved. Hence the early schools were taught years before the settlers were able to construct schoolhouses, and before any puljlic money could be obtained for that purpose. These were " subscription " schools. The teacher, or '• schoolmaster," as he was more frequently called, carried around his subscription paper ; parents of children agreeing to give so much per scholar for a certain time, or a certain num- ber of weeks or months, and the teacher recei^-ed his pay when the work was done ; teaching the future statesmen wherever he could find an empty room or cabin. Thus it was with the early schools of Mansfield. Among these first schools was one taught by Eliza Wolf in one of the block-houses on the square. This lady was the sister of John M. May's wife and the mother of W. W. Drennan, of Plymouth. Her school was probabl}' the first in the town, and it may be proper to say here that she was also the cus- todian of the military stores which occupied one of the block-houses during the war of 1812, and \)j reason of her connection with this position, became intimately acquainted with a number of the leading officers of the army. She seems to liave-l)een a lady of rare tact and ability.

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