The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-09-13
REVIEW OF THE SCHOOLS
GROWTH OF THE MAGNIFICENT SYS-
TEN IN INDIANAPOLIS.
Establishment of the First Free
schools and Attending Difficulties
The Opening To-MorrGw.

|
| of my school years. said citizen of mid
| die age yesterday, lis the fact that I was
| never allowed to go to school the first day.
! For reason my parents always
! thought the first week of school
a waste of time and that if
was taken the second Monday morning
that would be soon enough. When L was
4 led in my sorrow began. The children had
| all the seats, the teacher knew them and
! they each other, the lessons had begun
| and altogether | was decidedly strange to
| the situation and stranger to the school.
1 have always thought that my children
| should be present at the first session at the
| earliest hour and have an equal chance
| with all the others
| Tomorrow will be the day when the In
| dianapolis children who are to enter
| school will take up their books, their GER
! tifcate of the last year and, dressed in
| the neatest of clothes, with clean and
| smiling faces, will turn to this ward to
| that ward, to High School or to Training
| School for a season OF nine months with
various holidays, to learn all that is pos
sble in that time. The little ones who
have never been to school before will be
accompanied by mothers or big sisters, and
while some will go with delight, others
will go with terror in their little hearts.
1neTS Is some QlIlGTenC0 DetW6e1I the dtl-
vantages which the children of to-day have
in the famous public schools of Indian
apolis and those which the little Hoosiers
of twenty, thirty and forty years ago had.
For thirty-three years after the founding
of the town, the schools were all private
or denomination AS far back as 1921
teacher appeared, but there were SO few
pupils and those few were so poor, that he
could not make a living and he soon gave
up the school and went to some more con-
genial place. The next school con-
Quoted by James Blake in a cabinet shop
and there some old men now living
who secured their early education there.
In the next three years there were private
schools started.
1t was after the capitol of the State was
removed to this place that there We're
enough children to make a respectable
showing OF pupils, but there was no one to
teach them. The parents were anxious
that there should be a school and finally
Mr.. Samuel Merrill was induced to open
one. The room that was taken for the
school was a log Methodist church on
Maryland street. between Illinois and
Meridian. In 1926 Ebenezer Sharpe
and his family came here from Kentucky
and opened a school and Thomas H. Sharpe
assisted him. Mr.. Sharpe, whose death oc-
Cured only two years ago. was. well-known
to the members of the First Presbyterian
Church and to many others In 1880 there
came another teacher, Thomas d. Gregg,
and after that Rev. William Holiday, who
conducted a school.
FIRST FREE SCHOOLS.
1t was not until the winter of 1867 that
there were any free schools in the city
and then the matter was taken up in the
LEGISLATURE After the bill TO provide
schools had been brought up and various
amendments were made, bill to divide
the town into school districts and provide
buildings, superintendent and teachers
was passed. The City Council was given
charge of the system. There was great OPP
position to the bill and SO at the school
election ballots were cast for free schools
and mo free schools The cause OF Tree
schools fortunately triumphed. Lots were
bought and seven schools were erected,
but the tax levied was small that there
was TO provision for the teachers salaries
They had to be paid from the pupils tuition
fees and were given $2.25 a scholar for the
term and the money paid by the pa
rent or guardian. 1t ordered by the
trustees who had control of the schools,
that the lot of the Sixth ward be graded
A note to the effect that the work was
not done for thirteen years has been re-
corded to tell of the delay. In April OF
1853 the free schools were opened and main
tanned for two months (ali that the fund
would supporD, and Calvin Fletcher drew
ND a code of rules and regulations which
is a basis of the rules to this day.
SiIas T. Bowen, who died last winter,
was the first superintendent of public
schools in this city He had to visit and
spend 4 day in each school each month
ha tpa SATURDAY. to
review the work of the week. In 1896
George r Stone was elected superintend-
emf From that time on the schools were 4
sometimes successful and then there
would come times when there was very
little money in the treasury and one year
schools were only open for one quarter
and the teachers had to go to some other
place to get work in order to support
themselves 1t was in 1860 that the schools
were opened for twenty-five weeks and
among the list of teachers was Miss Eliza
Ford who still holds the principalship of
one of the public schools. Prof. Hoss was
elected superintendent in 1862 and in 1863
Prof. A. c. Shortridge succeeded him. The
High School, which had died out in 1858,
was resuscitated and Prof W. A. Bell
was made the principal.
In February 1856 the first training school
was organized and Miss A. P. Funnelle, a
graduate of the Model School, at Oswego,
N V and of the State Normal School, at
Albany n. Y, was put in charge and this
was the. beginning of the school which has
furnished hundreds of teachers, not only
for the schools of the city, but for many
other places The first board of trustees
of the public schools consisted OF James
G. Yohn William II. Noble and John r.
Elder and they controlled matters until the
first board of School Commissioners was APP
pointed These latter were John r. Elder
J. c. Yohn, H. G. Carey, Thomas B. Ell
lott, Joseph J. Bingham. Austin II. Brown,
w H. L. Noble, Peter Reuter- and Glenn
ems Vonnegut. The trustees turned over
TO the commissioners eleven buildings
which accommodated in a more or less sat
isfactory way the enrolment of pupils
No / was a four-room building; No. 2
twelve rooms; old No. g. -four rooms;
No. f. eight rooms; old No
4 four rooms; No 5, four rooms:
Colony two rooms: No. 6, twelve rooms;
old No Z, two rooms: No. S, six rooms
and n 9. eight rooms. The total valua-
ton of the property at that time was
$500, $50 The school property to-day is
valued at over 81 100000.
GROWTH OF ENUMERATION.
In 1871 the enumeration of children of