Page
528
|
The following advertisement appeared in the
Western Spy and Hamilton Gazette, published at Cincinnati, by Joseph
Carpenter & Co. The paper bears date of August 31, 1803:
SCHOOL.
A schoolmaster is much needed in this place. A person
qualified to teach an English school will find employment.
W.
C. Schenck.
FRANKLIN, August 17, 1803.
What the result of this advertisement was we have not learned, but old
citizens tell of schools at private houses for a number of years. A brick
school-house formerly stood near where the depot buildings now stand,
but it had been torn down at an early date. Mr. J. B. Morton
had a private school, in which not only common, but classical studies
were pursued. The building on the northeast corner of Second and Center
street, could it speak, would tell of some excellent masters and some
bad boys. The old Council chamber in the first market-house was also used
as a school-room. Miss Fannie Coleman, Mr. Kingman,
Miss Sarah Knipple, Miss McAroy and
a number of others had schools which were good for the times. In the year
1848, the citizens saw the benefits arising from a central school, and
erected the front part of the Union school building, the Odd Fellows and
the Sons of Temperance putting on the third story and roof. The Masons,
who had an interest in the north
|
Page
529 |
room, finally bought that of the Sons, and, with the Odd
Fellows, occupied it until the erection of the Odd Fellows Hall, when they
both removed to that building.
The first Principal had but a few departments, but there are now in the
house, with the rooms that were added about 1874, ten departments. The
name of the first Principal was Laman; then followed
Marchant, Elliott, Elder, Beall, Hawthorne, Turner, Finch, Hawthorne,
Van Horne, and, in 1866, Mr. H. Bennett took
charge, and has, by his untiring zeal and unflagging industry, gained
for the Franklin Union Schools a reputation that extends throughout the
State. The graded system is here carried to perfection, and the results
of the careful training obtained in this school manifest themselves wherever
its graduates are found. Two of its graduates have entered the ministry,
several are engaged in teaching, some in law, others in medicine and all
look back to this school as the scene of their early triumphs, and of
purposes formed that have resulted in much good. The number of graduates
is about sixty. The high school was at one time bitterly opposed, but
is in a flourishing condition with about fifty in attendance.
|