Читать книгу History of Indianapolis and Marion County, Indiana, Volume 2 - Berry Robinson Sulgrove - Страница 5

Schools and libraries of Indianapolis

Early Schools. — The history of the early schools of Indianapolis is very meagre, but happily not confused or uncertain. There seems to be no doubt that the first school-house was a log cabin on the point of junction of Kentucky Avenue and Illinois Street, adjacent to a large pond or mud-hole, and built during the pestilent summer of 1821. The first teacher was Joseph C. Reed, who was the first recorder of the county. He taught but a few weeks, a single quarter, probably, and was followed by one or two others, possibly, though there is no record or safe memory to assure us of it; but the first year of the settlement appears to have been one of no considerable solicitude about education. There was enough to do to get something to eat and keep a stomach healthy enough to hold it. By the summer of 1822, however, affairs were getting in better shape, and with the irrepressible instinct of Americans for education, measures were taken to secure adequate tuition for the children of the yearling city capital. A meeting was held at the school-house on the 20th of June, 1822, to arrange for a permanent school. Trustees were appointed, says the sketch of 1850, but the names are not given. James M. Ray, or James Blake, or Calvin Fletcher, one or the other, or all, most likely, made the first educational board of the city. A Mr. Lawrence and his wife were engaged as teachers, and continued in the first school house till the completion of the First Presbyterian Church in 1824, when they removed to that more eligible locality and building, and the first school-house disappears from history as it probably did from nature thenceforward. Whether it was torn down or turned into the log pottery-shop that preceded the old State Bank, there is no certain indication to suggest. Nor is there anything to enlighten antiquarian curiosity as to the origin or fate of that other log school-house on Maryland Street and partly in it, west of Tennessee, which the Baptists used for a time as their place of worship. In 1825, after the arrival of the capital and its accompaniments, Mr. Merrill, the treasurer, who was probably the best educated man in the place, at the solicitation of the citizens, undertook to relieve the educational stress of the time, caused by a large influx of population with the capital and the Legislature, and taught a school for a time in the log house on the south side of Maryland, west of Meridian, which the Methodists used for a church about that time. A Mr. Tufts taught there too, and one or two others later.

It is not likely that there were more than this and the original school-house till the completion of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Lawrence and his wife, it is supposed, continued in the church till near the time that Ebenezer Sharpe came here from Paris, Bourbon Co., Ky., in 1826. For three years before this the Union Sunday-school had been in operation in Caleb Scudder's cabinet-shop, and later in the church, and here Mr. Blake and his coadjutors had taught the alphabet and spelling, as in any primary school, to some of their young pupils. It was more like a school, and less like a sort of semi-theological recreation, than the modern Sunday-school. Mr. Nowland says he learned his A, B, C's of Mr. Blake at the Union, and he was not alone by any means. Mr. Sharpe succeeded Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence in the school of the old church which was kept in the back part on the alley that runs northward from Market Street past the Journal building. Some years later, about 1830, he took his school to a frame house on the site of the Club House, corner of Meridian and Ohio, where he continued till near his death in 1835. He was assisted a part of the time by his son, Thomas H. Sharpe, one of the best known and esteemed of the relics of the early days of the city. About the time that Mr. Sharpe took his school to the house on Meridian Street, Mr. Thomas D. Gregg opened a school in an old carpenter-shop on the northwest corner of Delaware and Market Streets, where he was succeeded till about 1840, or a little later, by William J. Hill and others, and lastly by Josephus Cicero Worrall.

Contemporaneously with these, about 1832, Miss Clara Ellick opened a school in the old Baptist Church, corner of Meridian and Maryland Streets. She taught here a couple of years, probably, and then, in 1834, a little frame house was built purposely for a school-house near the west end of the lot, abutting on the alley east of the Grand Hotel. About 1835, Miss Ellick was married to a Methodist preacher by the name of Smith, and give up the school to Miss Laura Kise. During her tenancy of the little frame school-house the Baptists built a bell-tower of open frame-work for their church against the east end of the school-house, a hundred feet from the church. It stood there as long as the old church remained, and was sometimes made the occasion of a general uproar by frolicsome boys, who could not resist the temptation to climb up the frame and jerk the bell-clapper about like a fire alarm. One night two boys, one of whom is now the distinguished author and general. Lew Wallace, climbed up to the bell and fastened a cord to the clapper, which they led across the street and the intervening lots to the bedroom of one of them over a store on Washington Street, and here they kept a lively alarm going as long as they liked, to the infinite disturbance and mystery of the neighbors, who could not discover what made the bell ring.

As related in the general history, the Legislature, on the 26th of January, 1832, authorized the town agent to lease University Square, No. 25, to the trustees of Marion County Seminary for thirty years, with permission to them to build on the south or southwest corner, the other corners were then " out of town;" and, if the square should be needed for a university before the termination of the lease, a half-acre, where the seminary stood, was to be sold to the trustees. Under this arrangement the old county seminary was built, in 1833-34, on the southwest corner, where a tablet, set in the ground by Ignatius Brown and some others of the " old seminary boys," marks the center of the site. It was two stories high, about one hundred feet long from east to west from one lobby-wall to the other, with five windows in each story on a side, and about forty feet wide in the main body, while the lobbies at the ends were about fifteen feet square. A stairway ascended from each lobby to the second story. That at the east end entered the lecture-room, or exhibition-room, where more than one church made its place of worship before it was able to build a house. The stairway in the west lobby ascended to a room about twenty feet square, where was kept the philosophical apparatus of the institution. The chief of these were an air-pump and an electrical machine. South of this room was another smaller, for the teacher's private room. A door led from the apparatus-room to the platform of the exhibitioner lecture-room. After the free-school system was put in operation, in 1853 till 1859, the old seminary was occupied as the high school of the system. It was torn down in September, 1860. The only surviving trustee is Simon Yandes, Esq., and the last who died was James Sulgrove, in the fall of 1875. In the summer of 1860, before the old house was torn down, the whole square was enclosed with a high fence, and covered with an immense show-house or shed by a Mr. Ferine, who called it the " Coliseum," and proposed to make it a meeting-place for large assemblies, political or otherwise, and for big shows. It was opened on the 4th of July with a military parade, an instrumental concert, a balloon ascension by Mr. J. C. Bellman, and a display of Diehl's fire-works at night. The enterprise was too big for the place. The seats would hold twenty thousand spectators. In a few weeks the work was all torn away, and the old house too, and the square was left vacant all through the war. In 1865-66 the city got possession of it, fenced it, laid it out in walks, set trees in it, and made it a very pretty park, which it will remain.

The seminary was opened by the late Gen. Dumont, Sept. 1, 1834. He left after a single quarter's experience, and William J. Hill succeeded in January, 1835. Three or four months satisfied him, and Thomas D. Gregg came in May, 1836. William Sullivan followed in December, 1836, and Rev. William A. Holliday in August, 1837. James S. Kemper took the school in the summer of 1838, and retained it till the spring of 1845. Of the effect of his administration on the reputation of the seminary, and the character of the pupils he taught there, the general history has treated as fully as it properly may. In 1845, J. P. Safford succeeded Mr. Kemper, and gave way to Benjamin L. Lang in 1847 or 1848, who continued till 1853, when the free-school system absorbed the seminary. Of these noted teachers, Mr. Holliday, Gen. Dumont, Mr. Gregg, Mr. Hill, and Mr. Safford are dead, the last only two years ago in Zanesville, Ohio. Mr. Gregg made a valuable bequest to the city at his death. Of the schools contemporaneous with the old seminary, the Franklin Institute, the Worrall School, the Axtell Female Seminary, the general history has given an account, as well as of the later ones, the Indiana Female College and the McLean Female Institute. The Baptist Young Ladies' Institute, occupied now as the high school of the city school system, was founded in 1858 by the Baptists of the city, who formed a stock company for the purpose, the paper of which was indorsed by the individual credit, to the amount of sixteen thousand dollars, of Rev. J. B. Simmons, pastor of the church; Rev. M. G. Clark, editor of The Witness, the denominational paper; Mr. Judson R. Osgood, of the Sarven Wheel-Works; and Mr. James Turner. Thus the company was enabled to buy the acre at the northeast corner of the intersection of Pennsylvania and Michigan Streets. The first superintendent was Rev. Gibbon Williams, and his daughter was the principal. In 1862, Rev. C. W. Hewes succeeded, and became substantially the proprietor of the institution. Up to 1866 the site, building, and improvements had cost fifty-three thousand dollars. The site was for many years the residence of Robert Underbill, one of the earliest iron manufacturers and millers of the city. In 1871 the school board bought the site and buildings, and removed the high school there from Circle Hall (or the old Beecher church).

The McLean Female Institute filled so conspicuous a place in the educational advantages of the city and was so wholly the work of its founder, the Rev. C. G. McLean, that a short sketch of his life will be of interest to many who knew him without knowing anything of his past life. He was born in Ireland in 1787. His father. Dr. John McLean, a surgeon in the British navy, died in early manhood on the coast of Africa. His mother, who was also a McClain, was left a widow before she was twenty-one. She became the wife of Rev. James Gray, D.D., and soon after, with her husband, came to this country. For many years Dr. Gray was the honored pastor of Spruce Street Church, Philadelphia. Under him Dr. McLean prepared for the University of Pennsylvania, of which he was a graduate. His theological studies he pursued under the celebrated Dr. John M. Mason. In 1815 he married Helen Miller, of Philadelphia, who died in 1822, leaving two daughters. In 1844 he married Mary Yates, daughter of Henry Yates, of Albany. His first charge was in Gettysburg, Pa., where he was pastor for twenty-seven years in the Associate Reformed Church. He was afterwards pastor for eight years of the Dutch Reformed Church, Fort Plain, N. Y. Being unable from ill health to perform pastoral duty, he came in 1852 to this city and opened a female seminary known as McLean Female Institute, in which he was aided by his son-in-law, C. N. Todd, by whom it was continued after his death in 1860. For some time previous he had been unfitted for his duties by a stroke of paralysis. The institution received a good share of the best patronage of the city and State, and was regarded as permanently established at the time of its transfer to other hands on account of the health of the family. After a life of about fifteen years, it was suffered to go out of existence, but its elevating influence has not been lost. Dr. McLean was best known as a minister. He had rare pulpit gifts. By his famous teacher he was trained to independent thinking and thorough investigation of subjects. Having no pet theories, he sought every field of inquiry. Hence his discourses, rich in thought, had variety, freshness, and originality. He never read his sermons. His choice language and attractive elocution secured and held his hearers. The young were drawn to him. A winning playfulness led them to seek his presence, and even in his later years he would sport as a companion with them. In prayer he was gifted, and he scarcely placed a limit to its power. His strong faith kept him bright and hopeful in the darkest hours.

The Northwestern Christian (now Butler) University was the suggestion of the late Ovid Butler. He drafted the charter for it, and planned the outline of the system upon which it has been conducted, donated the ground for its first site, endowed one of its chairs permanently, provided a large portion of its general endowment fund, and so identified himself with its history, progress, and interests that the change of its name from the cumbrous anti unmeaning combination that loaded its first feeble existence to the deserved and descriptive name it now bears was an act of equal justice and good taste. The charter for it was passed by the Legislature in 1850, and authorized a stock company with a capital of one hundred dollar shares, the total to range from ninety-five thousand to five hundred thousand dollars. One third might be expended in a site and building, but two-thirds at least must be an endowment fund. Rev. John O'Kane was appointed by the friends of the enterprise in Indianapolis soliciting agent. He visited all parts of the State in pursuing his work, and in two years had succeeded so far that in July, 1852, the company organized and elected the first board of directors. Mr. Butler donated the ground, twenty-five acres of a beautiful natural grove of sugars, beeches, and walnuts, on the northeastern border of the city at that time, and part of the farm which was Mr. Butler's residence, called Forest Home, and here the college building was begun and never completed. The style was Gothic, — handsome, striking, and convenient, — and the plan so contrived that it could be built in divisions, which, when all were completed, would present a harmonious and effective mass. The first section, which would have been about a third of the completed edifice, was finished and opened for collegiate purposes on the 1st of November, 1855, the first and only college or institution for the more advanced degrees of education ever known in the capital, except the seminary in Mr. Kemper's time, and some of the high school classes.

The leading feature of the Butler system, as distinguished from that of all the institutions of learning in this country at that time, was the admission of female pupils upon the same conditions in the same classes, with the same course and graduation, as male students. No distinction was made, and no other school twenty years ago followed the example. Some years later another innovation was made on the old system of sexual separation even more startling than this. On the death of a young daughter, Mr. Butler determined to erect a memorial " more enduring than brass," and endowed a chair of English History and Literature called the Demia Butler chair, and provided that the professor should be Miss Kate Merrill, daughter of the State treasurer who brought up the capital from Corydon, and the best known of the native teachers of the city. Another feature of a liberalizing tendency (in which, however, it was preceded partially by Alexander Campbell's college at Bethany, W. Va., and by Brown University of Rhode Island) was the permission to a student to take any part of the full course he pleased, and graduate with the appropriate title in the division pursued. Thus, some took the full course, with the degree of A.B.; others took only the scientific division, and graduated as Bachelors of Science; and a third class, following what is called the philosophical course, graduated as Bachelors of Philosophy. Just how these masculine titles have been softened into fitness for female proficiency and educational honors we are not informed. About half of the students take one or the other of the partial courses, scientific or philosophical, and about a third of the higher grades of students are females. In the academic or preparatory courses the proportion of girls is larger. Of the four literary societies, two, the Athenian and Demia Butler, are composed of female students.

A law department was opened in connection with the university in 1871, the first term beginning January 16th, composed of three chairs or classes, taught by Judge Byron K. Elliott, Judge Charles H. Test, and Charles P. Jacobs. This was maintained for some years, but was recently discontinued and dissolved. A commercial department, to assist students who desire to qualify themselves for business, was formed and carried on for a time, but appears to have been discontinued in the last few years. Musical instruction is made a specialty also, and is still a part of the university system, though not of the regular course. The most important division of the university is the medical department. The Medical College of Indiana, referred to particularly in the chapter on the medical profession, forms this department. The last catalogue shows one hundred and sixty-eight students in the literary department of the university, and one hundred and sixty-four in the medical department. Practically the two are little concerned with each other, one being in the city and the other five miles away. In the literary department is what is called a post-graduate course, of which the authorities say that it, " with the Bible-classes of the freshman, sophomore, and senior years, presents a complete course of Bible study." This course is free. Of the different degrees conferred by the institution the following official statement is made:

" I. The degree of Bachelor of Arts is conferred on students who complete the studies in the course of arts and pass the examinations in the same.

" II. The degree of Bachelor of Science is conferred on students who complete the studies in the course of science and pass the examinations in the same. This degree may be conferred also on students in special studies whenever the special work done shall be deemed by the faculty a full equivalent for the part of the scientific course which may have been omitted.

" III. The degree of Bachelor of Philosophy is conferred on students who complete the studies in the course of philosophy and pass the examinations in the same.

" No Bachelor's degree will be conferred on any person who may not have studied at least one year in this university.

" IV. (1) The degree of Master of Arts, Master of Science, or Master of Philosophy will be conferred on any student who shall have taken the corresponding Bachelor's degree at this university, on the following conditions: (a) When such student shall have pursued a post-graduate course of study for one year under the direction of the faculty, have passed a satisfactory examination, and have presented an approved thesis on some one of the subjects chosen for examination; or (b) When, after not less than three years from the time of receiving the Bachelor's degree, such student shall have given satisfactory evidence of having been engaged in some literary or professional pursuit, and shall present to the faculty an approved thesis on some subject of research. (2) Any of the above-named Master's degrees may be conferred on any person who may have taken the corresponding Bachelor's degree at any other institution authorized by law to confer such degree, when he shall have given to the faculty satisfactory evidence of scholarship, have pursued a post-graduate course of study under the direction of the faculty, and have presented an approved thesis on some one of the subjects chosen for examination.

" V. The degree of Doctor of Philosophy will be conferred on graduates of this university or of any other institution authorized to confer Bachelor's degrees, who, by special study in some department of science, literature, or philosophy, may have obtained eminence as original investigators, and shall present to the faculty a meritorious thesis based on such investigations.

" VI. The honorary degree of A.M. or LL.D. will be conferred occasionally on persons who, in addition to possessing fair scholarship, may have obtained eminence in some pursuit or profession."

In 1876 the university authorities determined to remove to the present location, on the west side of the handsome suburban town of Irvington, where strong inducements were offered by the citizens, and the sale of the old site, then entirely surrounded by the business and residences of the city, and largely enhanced in money value, would help to place the institution firmly on its feet. New buildings were erected, a fine " Campus" laid out, and the work kept moving on steadily and successfully in spite of the change. Soon after the removal some of the trustees sought to change the school into a more rigidly sectarian exclusiveness, and confine the tuition wholly to members of the Christian Church, the denomination which bad originated and supported it, and which had regarded it as a denominational school. This so far succeeded as to force out two or three of the best-known professors, and would probably have made the institution wholly sectarian but for the interference of Mr. Butler, who saw, if its injudicious friends could not, that this was not the day, nor this the community, to turn back a liberal revolution to old-time bigotry and exclusiveness, and the mischievous action was reversed. But not without some ill effect lingering, and possibly not wholly lost yet. The old site, the gift of Mr. Butler, has been partially sold out in city lots; but part has been retained, and, with the building, is now occupied by the City Orphan Asylum. The following is the faculty:

Harvey W. Everest, LL.D., president; Allen R. Benton, LL.D., William M. Thrasher, A.M., Catharine Merrill, A.M., Scott Butler, A.M., Oliver P. Hay, A.M., Hugh C. Garvin, A.M., Demarchus C. Brown, A.M., Virginia K. Allan, Letitia Laughlin, librarian.

Contemporaneously with the larger institution a German-English school was maintained for a number of years on East Maryland Street, east of Virginia Avenue, and several smaller schools of the same kind have been carried on in different parts of the city, and are still. Though German is now taught in the city schools, it does not serve the purpose of German children who have to be taught in the German language the use of English.

There are five Kindergartens in the city, all of the last three years. One is in the Riverside Chapel, corner of McCarty and Chadwick Streets; one is at No. 134 West Ohio Street, under Miss Steiger; another is at No. 443 North Meridian, under Miss Jane M. Moore; the fourth is at No. 224 Broadway, under Miss Ella D. Oakes; the fifth at No. 456 North Meridian, Miss Alice Chapin, principal. There are two schools of the Sacred Heart, one for girls and one for boys, connected with the Franciscan Convent, on Palmer Street, and besides these there are some ten other Catholic schools, of which an account is given by Rev. Father O'Donnoghue, in his statement of the Catholic institutions of the city. Schools, as intimated in the chapter on churches, are maintained in connection with the German Evangelical Lutheran Church on New Jersey Street, south of Merrill, and by one or two other German Lutheran Churches. The Indianapolis Classical School for Boys is carried on by Mr. T. L. Sewell on the northwest corner of North and Alabama Streets, and a similar school for girls is maintained by the same man at the southeast corner of St. Joseph and Pennsylvania Streets. A female seminary of high character, conducted by John H. Kappes and wife, on North Pennsylvania Street, till last summer, was given up by them to go to some remote Western region. Mr. Hadley, and Mr. Roberts at one time principal of the high school, have for some years maintained an academy of excellent repute, which seems to fill much the same place and need that the old seminary did. Colored schools are now mainly or wholly carried on in connection with the city school system.

The first Commercial School was opened here by Mr. William McK. Scott, who maintained it with moderate success for some years, and during about a year, in 1851, as noted in the general history, kept up a reading-room in connection with it, intending to make a library a part of the plan; but the public would not sustain it. Since then there have been but few and brief intervals without a commercial college. Sometimes there have been two or three together. The oldest and best known was Bryant & Stratton's, which Mr. Bryant has recently revived after an absence from the city of several years. Mr. W. W. Granger also has a commercial school in efficient condition in the upper story of the Vance Block. Of law and medical schools an account is given in the chapters touching those topics. The only theological school is that, if it can be called so, offered by the post-graduate course of Butler University. A serious if not strenuous effort was made to induce the Legislature to locate the Agricultural College here. The location was practically put up at auction, to raise means enough to create a competent endowment with the avails of the land-grant made by Congress, and Indianapolis bid high. The late James Johnson made a munificent offer of land west of the city, but within the township, and other offers were made with the obvious superiority of a central situation here; but Mr. Purdue offered a fine site and a liberal cash endowment, which were just what the college needed, for the honor of putting his name to it, and thus Indianapolis lost it. Attempts have been made, or rather discussed, to remove the State University here from Bloomington and to remove Asbury University here from Greencastle, but nothing more than talk ever came of either suggestion, or ever will, now that a disastrous fire in the State institution has failed to stir it, in spite of strong suggestions in the papers up about the capital; and Asbury has been permanently and munificently endowed by Mr. De Pauw, the citizens of Greencastle, and the Methodists of Indiana, and has changed its name to that of its benefactor.

The City Schools. — The education of the city is so nearly absorbed by the free-school system that no apology need be made for tracing here the history of it fully and authentically in the official reports of the managers in 1866:

" During the Legislative session of 1846-47, the first city charter, prepared by the late Hon. Oliver H. Smith, for the town of Indianapolis was introduced into the General Assembly. It would have passed without opposition as a matter of course and courtesy, had not a well-known member from this town, Mr. S. V. B. Noel, presented as an amendment Section 29, which provided that the City Council should be instructed to lay off the city into suitable school districts, to provide by ordinance for school buildings, and the appointment of teachers and superintendents; and, further, that the Council should be authorized to levy a tax for school purposes, of not exceeding one-eighth of one per centum of the assessment. The amendment met with a vigorous and determined opposition from several influential members, whose arguments carried weight; and the amendment was in peril, when a prudent and useful member, who advocated all sides on vexed questions moved to still further amend by providing that no tax should be levied unless so ordered by a vote of a majority of the town at the ensuing April election, when the ballots should be marked ' Free Schools' and ' No Free Schools.' The charter, thus amended, became a law.

" An animated contest ensued in the town, and at the first charter election the school question became the overshadowing issue. The opposition was thin and noisy. The friends of free schools were quiet, but resolute, and on the day of election were by no means sanguine of the result. A citizen, who was to a considerable degree a representative of the learning, jurisprudence, and capital of the town, the late venerable and eminent Judge Blackford, was earnestly cheered as he openly voted a ballot indorsed ' Free Schools.' The cause of impartial education triumphed by an overwhelming majority.

" The population of Indianapolis was then about six thousand. City lots and building material were cheap and abundant; but the valuation of property (for taxation) was low, and twelve and a half cents on a hundred dollars produced but a slender revenue. The proceeds of the tax were carefully husbanded, and economically invested, from time to time, in school lots and buildings. Lots were purchased and houses built in seven wards of the city, and teachers appointed, who received their limited compensation from the patrons of the schools.

" For a period of six years the records show payments made by the city treasurer for lots and buildings, but none for teachers' salaries. Previous to 1853 the schools were managed by trustees in each of the school districts into which the city was divided. The schools had no central head, and no organization outside of the several districts. In January, 1853, the Council appointed Messrs. H. P. Coburn, Calvin Fletcher, and H. F. West the first board of trustees for the city schools. At their first meeting, March 18, 1853, they elected ten teachers for the city schools, and ordered that they receive two dollars and twenty-five cents a scholar for the term, to be paid by the parent or guardian. April 8, 1853, it was ordered that the Sixth Ward lot be graded. It is interesting to note that thirteen years elapsed before the grade was made. April 25, 1853, the first free schools were opened for a session of two months. On this date a code of rules and regulations, prepared and reported by Calvin Fletcher, was adopted. These rules were comprehensive and well matured, and constitute the basis of the code now in force in the schools. May 14, 1853, occurs the first record of the payment of salaries to teachers.

" From this time forward the receipts from city taxation and the State school fund by slow degrees increased, and the schools flourished and grew in favor with all good citizens. Early in 1855, Mr. Silas T. Bowen was appointed superintendent of the schools, with instructions to visit and spend a day in each school every month, and to meet the teachers every Saturday for review of the work done, instruction in teaching, and classification. His contract with the board called for about one-third of his time in the discharge of these and other duties. It is clear, from the arduous labor performed, that the schools got the best of this bargain.

"March 2, 1856, Mr. George B. Stone was appointed superintendent. All his time was given to the schools, and they were conducted with vigor and success. The schools were fully and generously sustained by the public. The revenue, in great part derived from local taxation, was sufficient to sustain them prosperously during the full school year. But this period was of short duration. Early in 1858, the Supreme Court of the State decided that it was unconstitutional for cities and towns to levy and collect taxes for the payment of tuition. The effect was most disastrous. It deprived the city schools of the principal part of their revenue, and in spite of generous efforts on the part of a portion of the public the free-school graded system, which had taken ten years to build up, was destroyed at a blow. The superintendent and many of the teachers emigrated to regions where schools were, like light and air, common and free to all, with no constitutional restrictions or judicial decisions warring against the best interests of the people.

" Then commenced the dark age of the public schools. The school-houses were rented to such teachers as were willing, or able from, scant patronage, to pay a small pittance for their use. The State fund was only sufficient to keep the schools open one feeble free quarter each year; and, in 1859, even this was omitted for want of money. (The schools remained in this crippled condition, improving hardly at all, till after the outbreak of the war. Then a new set of Supreme Court judges succeeded to that bench, and virtually reviewed and reversed the disastrous decision.) The Legislature then made provision for more efficient and prosperous schools, and fuller taxation for their support.

"During the last five years (from 1861 to 1866) the schools have been rapidly gaining in length of term, and in general prosperity and usefulness. We cannot here give even a condensed statement of the successive steps by which this improvement has been accomplished. The schools during the last two years have been in session the usual school year of thirty-nine weeks. Considering the ten years required to develop an efficient system of schools, previous to the judicial blotting-out, and the slow growth of the nine subsequent years, it is hoped that no further disaster will occur to set them back another decade, but that they may go on increasing in strength and vigor, and each succeeding year be stronger and better than the last."

In April, 1854, an enumeration of the school population was taken by order of the board of trustees. The number of persons in the city between the ages of five and twenty-one was found to be three thousand and fifty-three. The number enrolled in the schools was eleven hundred and sixty, with a daily average of eight hundred and one, all about evenly distributed among the seven wards into which the city was then divided. At the high school, conducted upon a rather low grade for lack of proficient pupils to go higher, were one hundred and fifteen children, in the old seminary, under the direction of Mr. E. P. Cole, who served at one thousand dollars a year.

The school fund fell off in June, 1858, after the decision of the Supreme Court, till the balance in the city treasury belonging to the schools was only twenty-eight dollars and ninety-eight cents. At that time Mr. Thomas J. Vater was employed to take care of the school property, a good deal of which was, or soon became, vacant, from the paralysis of the system, and was often abused by the riotous occupancy of tramps, thieves, and strumpets. Mr. James Green was appointed school director in September, 1858, at a salary of five hundred dollars a year when employed, and two hundred and fifty dollars in vacation. In term time he was to give half of his time to his school duties. In April, 1859, the school fund had accumulated to three thousand five hundred and forty-seven dollars for the current expenses of the schools, and in June the amount belonging to the tuition fund was three thousand three hundred and seventy-seven dollars. In order that the accumulation of means, in the crippled condition of resources made by the court, might be sufficient to maintain the schools effectively when they were opened, the opening was put off till February, 1860, just two years after the calamity that had overtaken them. Teachers to the number of twenty nine were appointed, at salaries from one hundred dollars down to fifty dollars a quarter. The high school, killed in 1858, was not resurrected till August 18, 1864.

In June, 1861, the first board of trustees, com. posed of a representative of each ward elected by the voters of the ward, was organized. Previously three trustees had been elected by the Council. In 1865 the law was again changed and the trustees elected by the council till 1871, when a board of school commissioners was created, each commissioner to represent a school district. The first districts were the nine city wards, each ward making one; but the commissioners, being authorized to change the districts when they deem it necessary, have made eleven. The commissioners hold office three years, and have complete control of all taxes, revenues, outlays, buildings, teachers, libraries, apparatus, grounds, everything appertaining to the school system, but they must account every year to the county board for their receipts and expenses.

At the close of the winter term, 1861, the schools remained closed till February, 1862, continuing in session then for twenty-two weeks. Professor George W. Hoss was appointed school director, to serve during the school term, giving one-half his time to the schools, at a salary of five hundred dollars per annum. Twenty-nine teachers were appointed at the following rates of pay, being an increase on the previous salaries: Principals of grammar schools, one hundred and fifty dollars a term of eleven weeks; assistants of same, seventy-five dollars. Principals of intermediate departments, seventy-five to eighty-five dollars a term; and teachers in the primary schools, fifty to sixty-eight dollars. The aggregate compensation of teachers for the two terms was four thousand six hundred and fifty-eight dollars. Miss Nebraska Cropsey, the present and for a number of years past superintendent of the primary department, first appears among the teachers in 1862. She has been in the schools twenty-two years continuously, and always most efficiently.

Owing to the pressure of taxation, by reason of the war of the Rebellion, the annual levy made in March, 1862, was reduced to three cents on each one hundred dollars valuation, and thirty cents on each poll. The same spring, by order of the trustees, shade-trees were planted on all the school property. In October of this year Professor Hoss was appointed superintendent. He was required to give one-fourth of his time to the schools for the quarterly pay of sixty-two dollars and fifty cents. The next term of the schools opened in November, 1862, with twenty-eight teachers. The salaries were fixed at the following prices for each day's services actually rendered: Principals of the grammar schools, two dollars and fifty cents per day; assistants, one dollar; principals of the First, Third, Fourth, Sixth, and Seventh Wards (one-story buildings), one dollar and twenty-five cents per day; principals of the First, Second, Fifth, and Eighth Wards (two-story buildings), one dollar and fifty cents per day; primary and secondary principals, one dollar and ten cents; and all assistants, eighty-five cents a day. A few months later an increase of twenty per cent, on the above salaries was voted.

In the spring of 1863 the trustees levied a tax of fifteen cents on the one hundred dollars. The payroll of twenty-nine teachers for the quarter ending May 2, 1863, amounted to two thousand eight hundred and thirty-four dollars. On the 29th of August, 1864, the trustees, by resolution, defined at length the duties of superintendent, fixed the salary at one thousand dollars a year, and elected to the position Professor A. C. Shortridge. The income arising from special taxation and the apportionment from the State tuition fund now rapidly increased, so that the schools, in spite of the rapid increase of the number of pupils, were kept open during the usual school year of thirty-nine weeks. In August, 1864, the high school, which went down in the crash of 1858, was again organized in the school-house on the corner of Vermont and New Jersey Streets, and placed in charge of W. A. Bell, at a salary of nine hundred dollars a year. Mr. Bell was for some years president of the school board.

William Allen Bell was born near Jefferson, Clinton Co., Ind., Jan. 30, 1833. His father, Nathaniel Bell, settled in Michigantown, in the same county, when young Bell was only six years of age, and the village and vicinity continued to be his home until he was twenty years old. His early education was obtained in the common school, and at the age of eighteen he taught his first school of sixty-five days for one dollar per day and board himself. He likes to recall the inaugural address of Horace Mann upon the opening of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ill., in 1853, at which time he entered the preparatory department of that institution, from which he was graduated in 1860 with a standing above the average of his class. Dependent entirely upon his own resources to defray the expenses of his college course, he met this necessary obstacle with a will to succeed by engaging in outside work and teaching during his vacations and in connection with his studies. Upon leaving college he went to Mississippi as a teacher, but the breaking out of the war caused his return the same year. In 1861 and 1862 he had charge of the schools at Williamsburg, Ind., and in the summer of 1863 he was chosen principal of the Second Ward school at Indianapolis. Upon the organization of the present city high school, in 1864, Mr. Bell was made its principal. In 1865 he was superintendent of the schools of Richmond, Ind., and the following year resumed the principalship of the Indianapolis high school at an increased salary, which position he filled creditably until the close of the school-year 1871. During the last four years of this time he served as school examiner for Marion County, and in the summer of 1870 visited Europe. On July 20, 1871, Mr. Bell married Miss Liza C. Cannell, a woman of high literary attainments, a native of Waterford, N. Y., who had efficiently served as first assistant teacher in the city high school for five years prior to her marriage.

In August, 1871, he became sole proprietor and editor of the Indiana School Journal, and has devoted his time and energies largely to its interests since, thereby increasing its size, improving its character, and more than quadrupling its circulation. In his hands the Journal has been a power for good, and Indiana teachers have reason to be proud of it. In 1873, Mr. Bell was president of the Indiana State Teachers' Association, and since 1873, over ten years, he has been a member of the Indianapolis School Board, of which time he has served seven consecutive years as its presiding officer. His practical knowledge of school work has made him a most valuable member of the board, and his long gratuitous service cannot easily be repaid.

Since his connection with the Journal Mr. Bell has spent much time in traveling over the State doing school work, and his efficient school labors in teachers' institutes and lecturing tours have reached eighty-nine out of ninety-two counties in the State. His editorial writings are perspicuous, and have a remarkable adaptedness to his purpose and his readers, and have exerted a pronounced influence upon school legislation arid methods. Whether in the school, the church, or in any other field of labor, Mr. Bell is known as a faithful and conscientious man, and his candor, earnestness, sociability, and high moral and Christian worth have won for him a large circle of friends.

In the spring of 1865 the income from the special fund was fifteen thousand nine hundred and eighty-three dollars, and from the tuition fund fourteen thousand four hundred and eighty-nine dollars. In April of that year, under the new common-school law of the State, a board of three trustees was elected by the Common Council, and in the summer they ordered the erection of the first really adequate and creditable school buildings of the city. One was on the corner of Blackford and Michigan Streets, the other on the corner of Vermont and Davidson Streets. The two, with the fences and out-buildings, cost seventy-one thousand dollars. Thenceforward the managers built only large, durable, and valuable houses. It is not necessary to notice the addition of these to the school system in detail. In 1866 was issued a full report of the condition and progress of the schools, from which this sketch of their history has been condensed. During the school year, 1869-70, schools for colored pupils were opened in the old houses of the Fourth and Sixth Wards. A second story was added to the Fourth Ward house in 1870, and an evening school for colored pupils opened in the winter of 1871.

Evening Schools were reported in 1871 to have had the preceding winter three hundred and seventeen pupils enrolled, the average attendance being one hundred and sixty-one. The total cost was but five hundred and seven dollars, or one dollar and fifty-nine cents per enrolled pupil and three dollars and fifteen cents per pupil actually attending. The first report says:

" Their instructions have been eminently useful to a class of persons who have no other opportunities for obtaining useful learning, but their numbers should be largely increased from that class of untaught boys and girls who, as at present situated, are subjected to the worst influences during the long nights of winter. The evening schools have been even too respectable, containing few youth who are not of confirmed steady and industrious habits. We earnestly commend these schools to all good citizens as worthy of their best endeavors to increase the interest in them by frequent visitations, and to add to their numbers by solicitations, watchfulness, and missionary effort among those young persons who can hardly escape becoming bad citizens unless rescued by the influences thrown around them in these schools by exciting a thirst for knowledge which shall overcome the fascinations of idleness and vice."

In 1866 the lowest school age, which had previously been five years, was increased to six, reducing the total of enrollment for that year from twelve thousand four hundred and fifty-five in 1865 to nine thousand one hundred and seventy-seven. Part of the difference is ascribed to incomplete returns. Since 1870 all children, colored and white alike, are counted in the school enumeration. On the basis of this the State's fund, derived from the State school tax and the income of the congressional township fund and the sinking fund, is apportioned to the counties and cities and school districts. The city school tax constitutes a large and indispensable part of the school revenue. This is now assessed by the school board, but until within a few years past was fixed by the City Council with other city taxes. The rate of school tax is limited to twenty cents on one hundred dollars.

A recent report of the school board presents some interesting facts in regard to the grounds and houses, modes of lighting, warming, and ventilating, that are important in giving the reader a clear idea of the free-school system of Indianapolis in its entirety. Where so many thousands of those whose habits are unformed, physical systems immature, and modes of life unsettled have to pass so large a portion of every working-day, the conditions touching health are of the highest importance. President Bell says of the school grounds, " It has been the policy of the board to purchase large lots upon which to erect school-houses; the lots will average for twelve-room buildings one hundred and fifty by two hundred feet; and for smaller buildings the lots average one hundred and twenty-five by two hundred feet. In most instances these lots are bounded on three sides by streets and alleys. Sixteen of them are corner lots. Schools Nos. 3, 4, and 9 have less than the desired amount of space, but in no instance does the school building cover one-third the lot upon which it stands. In no instance does a neighboring building stand within the distance of its own height from the school building. In other words, no building stands so near a school-house as in any perceptible degree to cut off its light or air. Thus the size and location of the school lots secure sufficient play-ground, and ample light and air."

In regard to the construction and character of the school buildings he says, " Out of our twenty-six school buildings but three are more than two stories high, and one of these three will be abandoned soon. This arrangement saves the climbing of stairs by both teachers and pupils, and greatly lessens danger in case of fire. The halls and stairways are uniformly wide, and all outside doors and all doors that open from the school-rooms into halls swing outward on their hinges to prevent danger in case of a panic. The school-rooms are, with few exceptions, twenty-seven by thirty feet in size, and most of them fourteen feet in height of ceiling. This gives fifty pupils, which is more than the average number in a room, each seventeen square feet of floor space and two hundred and thirty-eight cubic feet of air space. All school-rooms are furnished with comfortable desks; twelve rooms with double desks, two hundred and six with single desks.''

Of heating and ventilation he says, " The simple matter of heating a school-room is comparatively an easy task, but to heat it and at the same time ventilate it so that the air can be kept pure in it when it is occupied by fifty pupils, is a problem most difficult to solve. The solution the board has arrived at is to make a separate ventilating shaft for each room, and they have done this in all the buildings erected for several years past. The foul-air registers have twice the capacity of the heat registers. The stoves used for heating warm the cold air before it gets to the pupil. This system is applied to about one hundred school-rooms, and gives the best satisfaction. The average of children to a room in the primary department is about fifty, and it ought not to be more than forty. That of other departments is thirty-eight."

Of the lighting of the school-rooms the report says, " Next in importance to pure air in a schoolroom is good light. Too much care cannot be taken of the children's eyesight. It is safe to say that there is not a badly-lighted school-room in the city. Out of the two hundred and ten rooms in use, in not one of them do the children sit facing the light, and in one hundred and sixty-four of them the light is admitted from the left hand and from the back, and in fifteen rooms from the left hand only, and in the remaining thirty-one the light comes from the right hand and the back. In our later buildings all the rooms are so arranged as to admit the light from the back and the left only, and this is the best possible arrangement, according to the weight of authority and our experience.

" There are in these buildings four windows in each room, — two in the rear and two at the side, — each window nine feet six inches by three feet ten inches in size."

Course of Instruction. — In the first application of the system of grades to the city schools there were four divisions, the primary, the intermediate, the grammar, and the high school. Some years later, about the close of the war or soon after, these were reduced to three grades, the primary, the intermediate, and the high school. Still later the intermediate was changed to a grammar department, as appears in the " Manual of 1881," and four years were assigned to each, making a full course of the free schools cover twelve years. Since 1881 the grammar department has been eliminated and the course below the high school runs on continuously from the first year to the eighth. In each year there are two grades, the lower, B, advancing quarterly into the next, or A grade. The first year has Grade 1 B and Grade 1 A; the second year, Grade 2 B and Grade 2 A; the third year. Grade 3 B and Grade 3 A; the fourth year. Grade 4 B and Grade 4 A, and so on through the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth years, each year marking the numbers of the grades in it. There are two quarters to each year, and the school year consists of thirty-nine weeks.

First Year, or Grade 1 B. — Reading Monroe's " Chart Primer," spelling by sound words of reading, general lessons, inventions, and oral lessons on pictures and plants, music, writing. These for the first quarter. Second quarter the same, with addition of arithmetic, counting with and without objects, and Ending a given number of objects. The general lessons on color and animals. 1 A, reading, spelling, arithmetic; general lessons (the human body and drawing, first quarter; oral compositions on pictures and lessons on plants, second quarter), music, writing.

Second Year, 2 B. — Reading, spelling, arithmetic, language (how to talk, oral compositions, lessons on color), writing, drawing, music, continued through both quarters. 2 A, reading, spelling, arithmetic, language, writing, drawing, music, through both quarters.

Third Year, 3 B. — The course in both quarters consists of the same studies substantially as in Grade 2 A, with slight variations that are of no consequence to such a summary as this. 3 A, the same as 2 A, advancing in the text-books, and in the second quarter introducing geography.

Fourth Year, 4 B. — The same as in 3 A, last quarter, with some changes of text-books and methods, continuing through both quarters. 4 -4 still continues reading, spelling, arithmetic, language, geography, writing, drawing, and music through both quarters. Both B and A are going the same road, with one a little ahead of the other.

The other four years of the course preceding the high school continue the same studies, only advancing from quarter to quarter till the seventh year of A, when history is introduced and kept up through the year, and introduced in the eighth year of B. In eighth year of A physiology is introduced, and continued through the year in the place of history.

The Gregg Fund. — This is the bequest of Thomas D. Gregg, one of the early teachers of the city, who died in Virginia some years ago. The condition of the gift was that the value of the lands of which it consisted should be safely invested and the income applied to the city schools. The last report of the trustee of the fund, Mr. Merritt, shows that the amount of it is ten thousand two hundred and one dollars and eleven cents, and the income fund is one thousand seven hundred and forty-three dollars and thirty-three cents.

Normal School. — In 1867 a normal school department was formed, and placed in charge of Miss Funelle, in which the chief purpose was the education and training of the pupils of our own schools for teachers in them. The present superintendent of this department, Mr. Lewis H. Jones, says that fifty-seven per cent, of the teachers now in the city schools have graduated from it since 1867. He says that according to present regulations applicants must be at least eighteen years of age, and of good moral character and good health, with an education equivalent to that given by the high school, but that graduates of that school may be subjected to competitive examination by the principal of the normal school. There are now two departments in it, — a theory department, in which instruction, in methods of teaching and in school management is given; and a practice department, in which the pupil-teachers, under the care of a competent critic, put into practice the theories of school work learned in the other. Each pupil-teacher is required to remain in each department twenty weeks, filling the place of a regular teacher during her stay in the practice-school, without pay, her instruction paying for her services. The following is an outline of the course of study:

Psychology, one recitation per day for 20 weeks.

Arithmetic and methods in primary number, 10 weeks each 20 weeks

Rhetoric, practical composition, and language 20 weeks

Botany (elementary), 8; school economy, 12 20 weeks

Geography, 12; lessons on place, 4; object lessons, 4. 20 weeks.

Methods in primary reading and spelling, 10; form, 6; moral instruction, 4 . 20 weeks

Music, drawing, and penmanship, one lesson per week

Within the three years sixty-four persons have received its diploma.

Present Commissioners

Dist. Term expired

I., J. P. Frenzel, Merchants' National Bank 1885

11., Charles W. Smith, 76 East Washington Street 1885

III., H. G. Carey, corner North and Illinois Streets 1886

IV., George Merritt, 411 West Washington Street 1886

V., J. J. Bingham, 148 West Maryland Street 1884

VI., Austin H. Brown, 290 South Meridian Street 1884

VII., E. P. Thompson, Post-Office 1886

VIII., I. W. Stratford, 187 Buchanan Street 1886

IX., Clemens Vonnegut, 184 East Washington Street 1884

X., William A. Bell, No. 12 Journal Building 1885

XI., Robert Browning, 7 and 9 E. Washington Street 1885

Officers of the Board. — President, Austin H. Brown; Secretary, Charles W. Smith; Treasurer, H. G. Carey; Superintendent of Schools, H. S. Tarbell; Assistant Superintendent, J. J. Mills; Superintendent of Primary Institution, Nebraska Cropsey. Special Teachers: Jesse H. Brown, drawing; Charles E. Emmerich, German. Librarian, William DeM. Hooper; Assistant Secretary, Emma B. Ridenour; Building and Supply Agent, H. C. Hendrickson; Clerk, Therese E. Jones.

Trustees. — -From 1853 to 1861, as before stated, the board of trustees was elected by the Common Council. From 1861 to 1864 the board was elected by the people, one from each ward; and from 1865 to 1871 the trustees were again appointed by the Council. In June, 1871, a board of school commissioners, one from each school district, was elected by the people.

1853.— Henry P. Coburn, Calvin Fletcher, H. P. West. School Director, the city clerk.

1854.— H. P. Coburn, Calvin Fletcher, John B. Dillon, William Sheets. Director, the city clerk.

1855. — Calvin Fletcher, David Beaty, James M. Ray. School Superintendent, Silas T. Bowen.

1856.— Calvin Fletcher, David Beaty, D. V. Culley. Superintendent, George B. Stone.

1857. — D. V. Culley, N. B. Taylor, John Love. Superintendent, George B. Stone.

1858-59.— D. V. Culley, John Love, David Beaty. Director, James Greene.

1860. — Caleb B. Smith, Lawrence M. Vance, Cyrus C. Hines. Director, James Greene.

1861-62. — Oscar Kendrick, D. V. Culley, James Greene, Thomas B. Elliott, James Sulgrove, Lewis W. Hasselman, Richard O'Neal. Director, George W. Hoss.

1863-64.— James H. Beall, D. V. Culley, I. H. Roll, Thomas B. Elliott, Lucion Barbour, James Sulgrove, Alexander Metzger, Charles Coulon, Andrew May, Herman Lieber. Superintendent, A. C. Shortridge.

1865-68.— Thomas B. Elliott, William H. L. Noble, Clemens Vonnegut. Superintendent, A. C. Shortridge.

1869-70.— William H. L. Noble, James C. Yohn, John E. Elder. Superintendent, A. C. Shortridge.

Commissioners. — The board of school commissioners of this city was organized in July, 1871, and since then the following gentlemen have served on the board: John R. Elder, James t. Yohn, H. G. Carey, Thomas B. Elliott, J. J. Bingham, Austin H. Brown, William F. Reasner, Peter Routier, Clemens Vonnegut, Thomas R. Norris, A. L. Roache, Moses R. Barnard, John M. Youart, C. C. Hines, E. R. Moody, George Merritt, Charles W. Smith, John Coburn, Robert Browning, I. W. Stratford, Edward P. Thompson, and John P. Frenzel.

City Library. — This is by far the largest, most complete, and best-managed library in the State. It is a part of the city school system, under the direction of the board of school commissioners, and supported by a tax levied with the city school tax. The history of this institution deserves more than a cursory notice. On the 24th of May, 1872, a committee on the Public Library was appointed, in connection with the high school and night schools, consisting of Dr. Harvey G. Carey, Dr. Thomas B. Elliott, Austin H. Brown, and Judge Addison L. Roache, and the same members were continued for the following year. On the 5th of July, 1872, the committee employed W. F. Poole, of the Cincinnati Public Library, to prepare a catalogue of at least eight thousand volumes. On the 6th of September the school board appointed an advisory committee of citizens on the library, consisting of Mr. John D. Howland, Rev. Hanford A. Edson, and Judge Elijah B. Martindale, whose duty was to " attend the stated meetings of the committee for consultation in regard to all matters affecting the interests of the library."

On the 20th of September, 1872, the selection having been made by W. F. Poole, Esq., who was then librarian of the Cincinnati Public Library, the contract for supplying the books, bids having been invited for that purpose, was let to Messrs. Merrill & Field, of this city. On Nov. 15, 1872, Charles Evans, Esq., who had been thoroughly trained for its duties, was appointed librarian, at a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum. To his many admirable qualifications for the position, his zeal in the work, and his indefatigable labors while librarian, is the success of the library in a large measure due.

At this time there was in existence the Indianapolis Library Association, a stock company, having a catalogue of near four thousand well-selected books. With great liberality this association, on Dec. 20, 1872, offered to transfer its library to the board upon the condition that the Indianapolis Public Library should ever be free to the citizens of the city. This generous gift was the corner-stone of our free Public Library.

On March 21, 1873, rules for the government of the Public Library were adopted by the board. On the 4th of April, 1873, the terms of transfer of the Indianapolis Library Association to the city were accepted by the board, and at the same time it made the following acknowledgment of the donation: " The board, in behalf of the citizens of Indianapolis, desires to return its thanks for this timely and munificent benefaction. Without it the free library could not have been opened at this time, nor would it at an early day have adequately supplied the immediate wants of the people."

The first catalogue of the library was ordered to be published July 5, 1873. On July 18, 1873, the board added to its standing committees one on Public Library, and the following members were appointed:

H. G. Carey, A. H. Brown, W. A. Bell, and J. M. Ridenour. Advisory Committee, J. D. Rowland, H. A. Edson, Simon Yandes, and C. C. Hines.

The following persons have composed that committee since that time: 1874-75, A. H. Brown, W. A. Bell, J. J. Bingham, J. M. Youart. Advisory Committee, H. G. Carey, J. D. Howland, H. A. Edson, Simon Yandes, and C. C. Hines.

1875-76, same as last year, with the exception of Simon Yandes, on the Advisory Committee, who resigned.

1876-77, C. C. Hines, J. J. Bingham, A. P. Stanton, and Clemens Vonnegut. Advisory Committee, J. D. Howland, H. A. Edson, H. G. Carey, W. P. Fishback. Mr. Stanton resigned on September 15th, and Robert Browning, Esq., was appointed in his place.

1877-78, C. C. Hines, J. J. Bingham, H. Q. Carey, and Robert Browning. Advisory Committee, J. D. Howland, H. A. Edson, W. P. Fishback, and A. C. Harris.

1878-79, C. C Hines, J. J. Bingham, Robert Browning, and H. G. Carey. Advisory Committee, Rev. O. C. McCulloch, Rev. Myron W. Reed, O. B. Hord, and Rev. C. H. Raymond.

1879-80, N. A. Hyde, J. J. Bingham, Robert Browning, and H. G. Carey. Advisory Committee, Rev. O. C. McCulloch, C. C. Hines, Mrs. Martha N. McKay, and Mrs. India Harris.

1880-81, same as last year. 1881-83, same.

The Public Library and Reading Room were opened in the high school building, where they remained until January, 1875, when they were removed, with the offices of the board, to the Sentinel building, corner Meridian and Circle Streets, a more central location and additional room. The rapid growth of the library at the end of the five years' lease required more commodious quarters, with diminished fire risks. The board not having the means to erect a building for the purpose, conditionally purchased from E. S. Alvord, Esq., the property on the corner of Pennsylvania and Ohio Streets, very near if not quite the center of the population of the city, paying annually five per cent, interest on ten-year bonds for sixty thousand dollars, dated Jan. 1, 1881, with the privilege of reconveying the property at the end of that time. By agreement, the improvements and additions to the property having been completed, the library, reading, and reference rooms, and the offices of the board, were removed to their present home in September, 1880.

Mr. Charles Evans continued librarian until July, 1878, when Mr. Albert B. Yohn succeeded him, but on account of ill health he resigned at the end of the school year. During his brief term Mr. Yohn did much to popularize the library, especially by increasing the usefulness of the reference department. In August, 1879, Mr. Arthur W. Tyler, who had been connected with the Astor Library, New York City, and the Johns Hopkins Library of Baltimore, was elected librarian. He resigned on the 30th of June, 1883, and Mr. W. DeM. Hooper was elected. He has proved very efficient and popular.

The Indianapolis Public Library was opened to the public April 8, 1873, with appropriate ceremonies. At a meeting of citizens, held in the high school hall on the evening of that day, addresses were made by the Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, Rev. H. A. Edson, and Rev. Mr. Kumler, who forcibly and eloquently presented the advantages of a public library as an educational institution, and, being free to every citizen, making it a library for all who availed themselves of its privileges as a means of intellectual culture or enjoyment. The following historical sketch of the library was given by Judge Roache at the opening:

" The public library is a part of the common school system of Indianapolis. After a trial of the general common school system in force in the State, it becomes evident that, while admirable in the main, it did not fully suit the wants of the larger class. A number of our citizens who felt an interest in the subject, held several meetings with the view of considering whether some plan could not be suggested which, while constituting a part of the general system, should be flexible enough to be adapted to the various needs and capacities of the larger cities of the State. One of the defects of the general law, when it came to be applied to cities, was the absence of any sufficient authority for the creation and maintenance of such a library as it was felt we ought to have. No system of education can be complete without such a collection of books as is beyond the ability of private individuals. Other cities are rapidly providing their people with such institutions, and regard them not only a most beneficial and material part of the system, but as the crown of the whole. The problem was to supply this defect.

" The idea was suggested of embodying in the statute then being prepared for organizing the city schools a provision authorizing the board of school commissioners to levy an annual tax, so small that no one would feel it, the proceeds of which should be devoted exclusively to the providing and maintaining of a public library, free forever to all the inhabitants of the city. The law under which our present city schools are organized was accordingly drafted, and on the 3rd of March, 1871, passed by the Legislature, one of its sections authorizing the board to levy a tax, for the purpose of creating a library, of one-fifth of one mill, equal to two cents on the hundred dollars of assessed valuation. This section was the origin of the Indianapolis Public Library.

" The board levied the tax and immediately addressed themselves to the task of selecting the books and perfecting a proper system of management, and they soon found they had more of a task on their hands than any of them had expected. Sensible of the importance of starting out on correct principles, and of their own want of the technical knowledge and experience in management necessary to its successful working, they sought to avail themselves of the experience of men who were already familiar with the organization and working of such institutions in other cities. A committee was accordingly appointed by the board, consisting of Dr. H. G. Carey, Dr. T. B. Elliott, and Austin H. Brown, Esq., who visited the cities of St. Louis and Cincinnati, which had in operation most successful free public libraries, the former of thirty thousand and the latter of forty thousand volumes.

" These gentlemen spent considerable time in studying the systems of those libraries, and were afforded every facility for so doing by all the officers, who cheerfully imparted to them the fullest information as to the plans and details of management. Mr. William F. Poole, the efficient and accomplished manager of the free library of Cincinnati, took a very deep interest in the enterprise, and rendered most valuable assistance, visiting this city on several occasions for the purpose of advising and consulting as to the selection of books and the organization of the library.

" Upon the report of the committee a plan suggested by them was adopted, and the work of selecting and purchasing books was proceeded with as rapidly as was consistent with a due regard to economy and to the proper care and discrimination in making the selections. It was found that certain classes of books could be purchased much cheaper in Europe than at home, and whenever that was the case they were bought abroad. It occasioned some delay, but that was amply compensated by the saving of our very limited means.

" Some years since a number of our public-spirited citizens, impressed with the great need that existed in so rapidly a growing city for a public library, organized a society for the purpose of providing one by public donations, and with a design of making it free to the public on such moderate terms as would barely provide for its maintenance. At a very considerable cost to themselves, a collection of near four thousand volumes of admirably selected books was made, and was rapidly becoming efficient and useful. When the Public Library of Indianapolis was organized, these gentlemen, perceiving that it would, if properly sustained by the people, accomplish the purpose they had mainly in view, and with much ampler means than they could command, conceived the generous idea of abandoning their organization and donating their handsome collection to the public library. The generous purpose was as generously carried out, and the entire body of the stockholders of the Indianapolis Library Association have united in transferring their admirable collection of books to the public.

" On the completion of the donation, the committee was enlarged by the addition of A. L. Roache, from the school board, and the appointment of Hon. John D. Howland, Rev. H. A. Edson, and Hon. E. B. Martindale, the last three as advisory members, selected because of their former connection with the Indianapolis Library Association, and because of their great interest in the subject. The books embraced in this donation number three thousand seven hundred and forty volumes, the number purchased by the board six thousand two hundred and eighty, making in all ten thousand and twenty volumes now on our shelves, and there are still outstanding orders for two thousand five hundred more, making a total of twelve thousand five hundred and twenty volumes."

Officers of Library. — Librarian, William DeM. Hooper, 258 North Delaware Street. Assistant Librarians, Mrs. I. McElhennen, 32 Winslow Block; Miss Alice B. Wick, 264 North Tennessee Street; Miss Mary E. Lloyd, corner New Jersey and Seventh Streets; Miss Mary E. Keatinge, 331 North Alabama Street; Miss Emily S. Bingham, 148 West Maryland Street; Miss Lyde Q. Browning, 300 South Meridian Street; Mrs. E. L. S. Harrison, 191 Christian Avenue; Miss I. C. Schonacker, 220 North New Jersey Street. Night Attendants, Miles Clifford, 384 North West Street; Lindsay M. Brown, 4 Mayhew Block; Paul B. Hay, 14 Talbott Block; Charles W. Moores, 232 North Alabama Street.

Accession catalogue, June 30, 1881, 35,198 volumes, 3252 pamphlets; June 30, 1883, 38,689 volumes, 3417 pamphlets. Gain from June 30, 1881, to June 30, 1883, 3491 volumes, 165 pamphlets.

Of these, 2902 volumes have been acquired by purchase, and 589 volumes and 165 pamphlets by gift. This does not represent, however, the number of volumes actually upon the shelves, many of the Tauchnitz edition of the English authors being bound two volumes in one; many volumes having been worn out and condemned or lost, which have not been replaced. By actual count, the volumes upon the shelves amount to 35,025. The losses through failure to get the books back from borrowers, or to collect the cost of them, have been very small, amounting during the past two years to only five. Many books reported lost or missing will undoubtedly come to light when an examination of the shelves is made

The registration of borrowers continues in about the same ratio, 22,815 cards having been issued to date, — 1268 and 1211 having been issued during the years ending June 30, 1882, and June 30, 1883, respectively. It is to be regretted that some means cannot be devised to prevent the frequent forgeries and frauds which are to be met with in the filling of certificates of guarantee. Exercise what diligence we may, such cases will still occur, and occasionally it is necessary to call in a card for investigation upon the certificate on which it was issued. It is impossible to state how many of these cards are in actual use at present, since it is very seldom that a person leaving the city, or discontinuing the use of a card, will take the trouble to surrender it.

The experience of this library has been similar to that of almost every other free library in the country, in a decrease of circulation during the busy and prosperous times of the past two or three years. Our circulation steadily decreased until it fell to 188,239 during the year 1881-82. The year 1882-83 just closed, however, shows a gain of 7138, having reached by June 30th, 195,377. From present indications the current year will show a larger increase in circulation.

The Indianapolis Library, to which reference is made by Judge Roache in the historical sketch of the City Library, was formed in March, 1869, by one hundred citizens, each of whom was to contribute one hundred and fifty dollars, to be paid in annual installments of twenty-five dollars, the annual amount to go to the maintenance and increase of a public library for five years to begin with. The officers were John D. Rowland, president; William P. Fishback, vice-president; D. W. Grubbs, secretary; William S. Hubbard, treasurer. A .sketch of the City Library has related that the books of this association were given to the city institution and the organization dissolved.

The County Library. — This library was founded in 1844 on a public fund, of which a share was given to each county for library purposes. The first trustees were Demas L. McFarland, George Bruce, Henry P. Coburn, John Wilkins, James Sulgrove, and Livingston Dunlap. The first librarian was Augustus Coburn, elder brother of Gen. John, who removed to Ontanagon in 1846, and was drowned in a wreck on Lake Superior while returning from a visit here in 1862. The next were B. R. Sulgrove, Gen. Coburn, and later Charles Dennis, recently of the Review. The number of volumes is about four thousand; it was about two thousand when started. The first location was a little room in the southwest corner of the old court-house. It now has ample and superb accommodations on the first floor of the new courthouse. The income of a fund of two thousand dollars is spent in the addition of new books and repairs of old ones. Any citizen of the county can take out two volumes for a week for about a dollar a year, or one a week for half of it. Henry P. Coburn selected the first books, and it was as admirable a selection as was ever made for a small library. It never had more than seventy to one hundred subscribers at once, and these were chiefly in the country.

The Township Library contains one thousand or twelve hundred volumes, under charge of the township trustee. It is founded on the township's share of money due to the State from the general government in some of the early business affairs of the two.

The Catholic Workingmen's Library is kept in the building on the northeast corner of Georgia and Tennessee Streets, where the Sisters of Providence School was first established, and is open every night from six to ten o'clock. It contains some five hundred volumes, and is the property of one of the Catholic Sodalities of the parish. The Sisters of Providence have a library of about one thousand volumes connected with their school.

The State Library contains about seventeen thousand volumes. It was formed in 1825, and kept by the Secretary of State till 1841, when enough volumes, including public documents and legislative journals, had been got together to make a decent show, and it was thought becoming to constitute the library a positive and visible existence. This was done in that year by appropriating to it two rooms in the southwest corner of the first floor of the State-house, and electing John Cook librarian. His successors in office will be found in the list of State officers. Before the old State-house was torn down the State Library had become a sort of museum of historical relics, and contained daguerreotypes of all the members of the Constitutional Convention of 1850, memorials of the Mexican war, flags of Indiana regiments in the civil war, Indian weapons and utensils of pre-historic times, and other things of like interest, and filled nearly the whole of the west side of the lower floor of the building. When the old house was about to come down, quarters were found for the library in the Gallup or McCray Block, on Market and Tennessee Streets, where it is likely to remain till it goes into the new State-house. The law library of the Supreme Court is kept in the State buildings, but it is not a public library, though open to the profession.

The State Geological Museum is in the rooms of the building over the State Library. It contains more than one hundred thousand specimens of fossils, many of them the finest ever discovered. Dr. Cox, while State geologist, made considerable progress in the accumulation of this museum; but it was left to the professional enthusiasm, personal liberality, and scientific sagacity of Professor Collett, present State geologist, to make it the rare and wonderful collection and the admirably systematized work it is.

The State System. — All the school revenues derived either from permanent funds or taxation go into a common fund which is apportioned to the counties according to their population of school age. This arrangement is cumbered by the very serious defect of forcing honest counties, which take fair enumerations and pay their taxes fairly, to pay a large share of the school expenses of rascally or slothful counties. Marion pays into the State treasury in her school tax one-third more than she gets back. The difference goes to counties that will not help themselves, or make exaggerated enumerations, as some were alleged to have done a few years ago, for the purpose of getting an undue allowance of State money. There is no remedy visible, however, and the better counties have to grin and bear it. Indianapolis and the county have not had much to do with the State system, except feed it. The only superintendent born and bred here was Professor Miles J. Fletcher.

Hon. Miles J. Fletcher. — The subject of this biographical sketch, who was the son of Calvin Fletcher, a distinguished citizen of Indianapolis, a sketch of whose life is elsewhere found in this volume, was born June 15, 1828, in Indianapolis. He was the fourth in a family of eight adult sons, who in the various walks of life have made themselves honorable places. He received the rudiments of education at the old seminary of the city of his birth, under the guidance of Rev. James S. Kemper, and subsequently entered Brown University, from which he graduated in 1852. Almost immediately on his graduation he was elected professor of English literature in Asbury University, Indiana. This position, which he held but a few months, was resigned to attend the law school at Harvard University. Graduating at the law school, he returned to the professorship at Asbury, discharging its duties with great success until he received the nomination for superintendent of public instruction in 1860, to which office he was elected in October of the same year. He was at the time of his death filling its onerous and responsible requirements. It was an office which suited his tastes and satisfied his ambition, his labor being a " labor of love." Though frequently interrupted by circumstances incident to the war, and absent for weeks in efforts to learn the fate of and rescue his brother. Dr. Wm. B. Fletcher, then a prisoner, he yet worked so energetically as to fulfill every requirement of the law and to visit the schools extensively, giving a decided impetus to the cause of education. He possessed the untiring energy peculiar to his family, with a full share of enterprise, qualities which, combined with an intellect of more than usual vigor, indicated great promise and usefulness. Professor Fletcher was, in 1852, married to Miss Jane M. Hoar, of Providence, R. I., to whom were born two children, William T. and Mary B. The incident of Professor Fletcher's death was peculiarly sad. He was requested on the night of the 10th of May, 1862, to join Governor Morton and a small party of gentlemen en route by special train for Pittsburgh Landing, their mission being provision for the immediate transportation of such sick and wounded soldiers from Indiana as could be safely brought to their homes, and the completion of suitable hospital arrangements for tho.se whose condition would not admit of removal. The train had made but little progress when a detention occurred which alarmed Professor Fletcher, who on investigating its' cause was instantly killed. This sad termination of a noble Christian career lost to the soldier an inestimable friend while fulfilling a mission of mercy and love, to the State a model officer of irreproachable character, and to the people an example of integrity and uprightness worthy of lasting remembrance. The expressions of sorrow over the death of Professor Fletcher were not confined to his home but extended over the entire State, and were no less a tribute to the exemplary citizen than to the efficient public officer.