The Coolidge examiner., 1932-09-30
him TO his aunt'S.

college, In Pennsylvania, and there came under
the influence of DIR. Andrew Wylie, president of
the college He studied Latin, Greek and Hebrew
well English and graduated with honors
in 1896, receiving the bachelor of arts degree.
While attending Washington college he sup
ported himself in part by teaching. He taught
pioneer school in Kentucky. his work being
observed by the first president of Miami uni
versity that had been founded at Oxford Ohio
In 1909. This man, Rev. Robert Hamilton Bishop
at once recognized the power and devotion of the
young undergraduate student and offered him a
position at Miami, to begin In the autumn of 1896.
The minutes of the board OF trustees show
that he was employed as professor of languages
Miami tradition tells that he rode into oxford
with his little brother Alexander with his per
sonal copies OF Livy, Horace, Memorabilia and
the Greek and Hebrew texts of the Bible in his
saddle bags
Soon after coming to oxford he met Harriet
Spinning, daughter of Judge Isaac Spinning of Day
ton, who was visiting her uncle In Oxford. They
became engaged and were married April 3, 1927.
In 1923 Professor McGuffey built as their
home the house that still stands in the shadow
of the campus In this home three children,
Mary, Henrietta and Charles were born.
While at Miami, McGuffey wrote the first and
second of the graded set of readers The third
and fourth readers were written later at Gin
cinnati. His brother, Alexander as he grew TO
manhood became an attorney in Cincinnati. He
aided Professor McGuffey in the revision of the
readers and collected much of the material for
the fifth and sixth readers.
After some time at Miami Professor McGuf-
fey. whose interest lay in the field of literature
and philosophy, rendered professorship of
mental philosophy. He carried on theological
studies privately and on March %, 1920 he re-
ceived his ordination into the ministry of the
Presbyterian church, with the degree of doctor
of divinity. He never held regular charge,
but filed many pulpits on Sundays.
McGuffey recognized the dearth Of reading
material in the common schools of the time.
He had keen literary sense and able TO
select much that appealed to young minds. 1t
was this selection of lessons from wide range
of authors that caused him to name the readers
McGuffey Eclectic Readers.
The first reader was issued in 1886, the sec
ond in 1887, and the third and fourth in 1888.
The qualities that made the readers so pop
uar are the basic principles of life, honesty,
justice and truth behind the lessons. In find
ing application of moral principles he selected
the best in British and American literature.
He takes in every phase of life with the
home as the foundation of it all. The first
reader is all play. but in the second he begins
to get a little more responsibility, holding to
the home and stressng kindness to the family
and to animals.
The third reader is character builder.
Every lesson has moral The fourth reader be
gins to give a bigger and broader vision of life
with lessons of travel religion and craftsmanship.
In 1886 Doctor McGuffey left Oxford to accept
the presidency of Cincinnati college. In 1889
he became president of Ohio university at
Athens In 1914 he returned to Cincinnati
and served as professor at Woodward college,
afterward known Woodward high school.
In 1916 McGuffey went to the University of
Virginia as professor of natural and moral
philosophy He remained at this institution,
designed and built by Thomas Jefferson until
his death on May 4, 1873
Even the most casual survey of the McGuffey
Readers reveals the stern reality of life in the
century before this one There is not a speck of
humor in them, from McGuffey's New First
Eclectic Reader. from which the wee children
learned their ABC's and gazed with fascinated
eyes at the quaint woodcuts of birds and beasts,
| to McGufey's New Sixth Eclectic Reader, an
imposing volume containing 456 pages of solid
and forbidding type described on the fyleaf as
| Exercises of Rhetorical Reading With Intro
| ductOry Rules and Examples"
The stories always end with a moral, and