The Lecture System from Beers History of Warren County, Ohio

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The History of Warren County, Ohio

The Lecture System

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Contributor::	Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 3 December 2004
Sources:	The History of Warren County Ohio Part IV Township Histories Turtle Creek Township (Chicago, IL: W. H. Beers Co, 1882; reprint, Mt. Vernon, IN: Windmill Publications, 1992)
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In the earlier days of the town, lectures and other evening entertainments were usually free, and given by the literary persons of the community. The lawyers, ministers, physicians, teachers, and ambitious students of the learned professions responded to the call of their fellow-citizens for an occasional literary address or lecture on a scientific topic. Before the close of the civil war. it was rare indeed that a public speaker of national fame appeared before a Lebanon audience as a paid lecturer.

The lyceum or lecture system may be said to have originated in New England about 1838. Horace Mann was one of its earliest friends, and Wendell Phillips one of its most popular speakers. This system has grown and extended from New England over the whole country. It has given rural communities the opportunity of hearing the most eminent lecturers of this country and of Great Britain. As a means of popular instruction and entertainment, the lecture is not to be despised. In a great city, it is of less importance, but in an inland town the assembling of the people in a bright, comfortable hall, filled with neighbors and friends, to listen for an hour to one who tells of a great discovery, explains the newest science, gives the results of foreign travel, or points out the beautiful in art, and literature, is pleasing, inspiring and instructive.

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with lectures have been sustained. Lectures have been given by John B. Gough, Bayard Taylor, Wendell Phillips, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore, Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Frederick Douglass, Joseph Cook, Dr. A. A. Willitts, Prof. R. A. Proctor, Hon. William Parsons and others; readings and musical entertainments by Mrs. Scott-Siddons, Helen Potter, Mendelssohns of Boston, Remenyi, Anna Louise Cary, Clara Louise Kellogg and others. The most successful public entertainment ever given in the town was the lecture of Henry Ward Beecher in the public hall, May 9, 1879, on "The Reign of the Common People," which was attended by 1,200 persons, and the proceeds of which were over $800.

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