Notes from my Knapsack 9-27-18

Notes from my Knapsack 9-27-18

Jeff Gill

 

Log cabin education as it was

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Thomas Jefferson promoted public education from his first days in the Virginia legislature, and on into his service in the Confederation Congress and later as President.

 

In 1784 he was pushing for educational provisions to be built into plans for expanding settlement across the Ohio River; the Land Ordinance of 1785 set the table for the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, all of which brought us the outlines of state government and county landscapes we have today.

 

The plan was to survey townships into 36 sections of six square miles each, and of those, Section 16 would generally be designated the "school land." The idea was that number 16 would be close to the center of each section, and from this central location, a school house would be built by the citizens of the township and its upkeep and the pay for a teacher would come from the proceeds of those acres.

 

Local citizens could rent out the land and use that income, or farm it jointly and share the income with the school district; a township might combine efforts with a neighbor, and sell one section for principal funds that would then maintain the school covering both. A fair amount of latitude was given, the point being that, like township governance, the authority was in the hands of the people.

 

If you've been to the Hartford Fair (and if you haven't, make plans next August, because you should) you might have vaguely noticed the church now incorporated into the fairgrounds just south of the track and grandstands. The sign says "School Land Church" because it was originally built on Hartford Township's school land section. School lands were once found in each township of Ohio; there was even a College Township in the original plan for Ohio, which is now Oxford Township in Butler County, which contributed to establishing Ohio's second college, now Miami University (Ohio University being the oldest).

 

The point being that local autonomy was promoted, and resources were provided. As you can imagine, some counties and townships handled this better than others; in some places, Section 16 was so desirable that it mysteriously got reassigned, and in many places the school lands were not optimal, didn't produce much or any revenue, and the grand dream of Thomas Jefferson in 1784, of westward expansion without slavery beyond the Appalachians, with a school in every township was set back for generations.

 

But the idea continued. Local school houses went up, just as the abolition movement grew, and the nation lurched uneasily towards Civil War and the end of slavery; by the end of 1864, Ohio had developed a teacher certification system for the state as a whole.

 

Before that, many cities and some villages had voluntarily established education beyond the then-standard eight grades. The first Granville settlers in their last act of 1805 had established their school land section, the area around Clouse Lane and Newark-Granville Road, and began classes for children almost as soon as they put up the first log cabins, in a simple structure where Opera House Park is.

 

That first schoolhouse lasted until 1810, and had an interesting demise…

(To be continued!)

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; he's interested in how we do things together as a community. Tell him what we can do better together at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.