"Of these commissioners, General Andrew Jackson is chairman, and they, as well as the directors, are appointed first to meet in Chillicothe, Ohio, on the third Friday of July next, at 2 o'clock p. m., and subsequently on their own adjournment.'

Among the directors named in the rest of the notice appear those of Rev. William Speer and John Thompson. Mr. Thompson was also a commissioner. Other directors were Rev. Drs. Gideon Blackburn, Mathew Brown, Francis Herron, Robert G. Wilson, James Blythe, Rev. Messrs. Duncan Brown, Randolph Stone, William Wylie, James Scott, James Hoge, John T. Edgar, Allen D. Campbell, Obadiah Jennings, Elisha P. Swift, John Breckenridge, John Seward, James Culbertson, Murdock Murphy, Donald McIntosh; Elders Edward Ward, George Plumer, Walter Dun, Samuel Hudson, M. B. Lowrie, John Milligan, T. T. Skillman, Samuel F. McCracken and T. P. Smith.

The commissioners met in Chillicothe and called for proposals for the site, made arrangements for subscriptions and attended to various other business, after which they adjourned to meet in Washington, Pennsylvania, on the 25th of November, 1825. The Chillicothe meeting was held on the 15th of July, at which time the directors met also. The meetings lasted three days, at the conclusion of which the directors adjourned to meet in Wheeling on the third Thursday of April, 1826. The proposed seminary was finally located at Cincinnati, on Walnut Hills, because a gift of land and a liberal subscription were made for that place.

PIONEER SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS

The year when the first school was opened in Chillicothe is not a certainty, but its location is stated to have been on the northeast corner of Fourth and Paint streets. "Built in the last years of the eighteenth century" is as definite a birthday as can be announced for this first local schoolhouse. Nathaniel Johnston is generally credited with the honor of being the first school teacher of any consequence. Some time after the crude log schoolhouse was occupied, a large frame building was erected near it, boasting of real windows and considerable of a bell, and with these improved accommodations Mr. Johnston added to his reputation. In 1802, according to the advertisements of the Gazette, he had a school for boys in "an apartment commodiously fitted up" in his own house. He announces that "great care will be paid not only to learning, but to the morals of the students," for which he humbly expects to "merit the favour of the public." Mr. Johnston taught English grammar, reading, writing, arithmetic, bookkeeping and mensura

tion. After residing for many years in Chillicothe he retired to a farm in Springfield Township, where he died about 1837.

Mr. and Mrs. John Hutt, in March, 1802, opened a school for girls "in the house occupied by McLandburgh & Candlish." Johnston was an uncle of Mrs. McLandburgh, which may account for the location. In the Hutt School the young ladies were taught "reading, writing, arithmetick, English grammar, needlework, both plain and open, tambouring and embroidery." The wife of the schoolmaster taught the needlework branches; and the prospectus states that "Mrs. Hutt will be particular in attending to the morals of the school."

A little later N. R. Smith opened a more pretentious school which he called the "Chillicothe Academy and Boarding School." He respectfully informed the public that he had started a select school for young ladies in the "Borough of Chillicothe," "in which will be taught, on principles strictly analytical, the following general circle of literature." The list is too long to reprint, but besides the common branches, the course included Greek and Latin; the Use of the Globes; theoretical and practical mathematicks; astronomical calculations, rhetorical criticism and logick; the philosophy of natural history, with lectures on philosophy and elocution. Boarding, washing, lodging, mending and tuition, $230 a year. Boarders to supply all beds and bedding and to be charged with all firewood, books and stationery.

The Old Chillicothe Academy was built about 1808 at the northwest corner of Sixth and Paint streets, and was the leading educational institutional of the town and the city for more than forty years. An English school was first established in the front. lower room of the building, the first teacher being Mr. Dunn, an Irishman. Mr. Dunn was succeeded in the English school by Peter Patterson.

A Lancastrian School was also established in the largest secondstory room, the first teacher being Daniel W. Hearn. William D. Wesson was afterward at the head of this school, but no record exists as to the time of service of any of the teachers of the old academy.

About the year 1813, a school of languages was opened in a smaller room on the second floor, on the west side of the building. These three schools were not departments under a general head, but were entirely independent. The Rev. John McFarland was the first teacher of languages, and taught for many years.

The Reverend Mr. McFarland was succeeded by Rev. Dr. Robert G. Wilson, a man of extensive learning and every way calculated to give character to the institution. Other classical teachers were Rev. Joseph Claybaugh and Rev. William T. Finley. Many of the

students of the Chillicothe Academy distinguished themselves in the various professions, while some occupied high stations in the State and National councils. Their regard for their Alma Mater, after years of separation from the scenes and companions associated with her palmy days, when she was the pride of the ancient capital, was often exemplified by pilgrimages made by her sons for one more sight of her "classic shades" still dear, even though her glory had departed.

The old academy and its grounds were absorbed by the city system of public schools in 1852, and many years afterward the building was refitted and modernized as a portion of the Central School.

In 1830 a female seminary was founded and in 1835 a building was erected on West Fifth Street between Paint and Walnut. It continued as a popular select school for many years after the public high school was fully organized. The present high school building embraces the site of the original seminary.

CHILLICOTHE IN 1807

The most graphic general word-picture of Chillicothe in its early formative period was written by F. Cuming, a Philadelphia traveler who passed up the Scioto Valley and visited the town on August 13, 1807. He describes it thus: "Chillicothe, which signifies town in most of the Indian dialects, is most beautifully situated on the right bank of the Scioto, about forty-five miles by land, and nearly seventy, following its meanderings, from the confluence of that river with the Ohio, between Portsmouth and Alexandria. In all that distance the river has a gentle current, and unimpeded navigation for large keels and other craft for four feet draught of water. It continues navigable for smaller boats and batteaux upwards of one hundred miles above Chillicothe, towards its source to the northward, from whence it glides gently through a naturally rich, level and rapidly improving country.

"The situation of the town, which is the capital of the State, is on an elevated and extensive plain, of nearly ten thousand acres of as fine a soil as any in America, partly in cultivation and partly covered with its natural forests. This plain is nearly surrounded by the Scioto, which, turning suddenly to the northeast from its general southerly course, leaves the town to the southward of it, and then forms a great bend to the eastward and southward.

"Water street, which runs about east by north, is half a mile long, and contains ninety houses. It is eighty-four feet wide, and would be a fine street had not the river floods caved in the bank in one place, near the middle, almost in the center of it. There is now

a lottery on foot to raise money for securing the bank against any further encroachments of the river.

"Main street, parallel to Water street, is one hundred feet wide, as is Market street, which crosses both at right angles, and in which is the market house, a neat brick building eighty feet long. The courthouse in the same street is neatly built of freestone, on an area of forty-five by forty-two feet, with a semi-circular projection in the rear, in which is the bench for the judges. It has an octangular belfry rising from the roof, painted white, with green lattices, which is an ornament to the town; as is the small, plain belfry of the Presbyterian meeting house, a handsome brick building on Main street, in which street, also, is a small brick Methodist meeting house. These are the only places of public worship in the town, if I except the court house, which is occasionally used by the Episcopalians and other sects.

"The whole number of dwelling houses in Chillicothe, as I counted them, is two hundred and two, besides four brick and a few frame ones, now building. I reckoned six taverns with signs, which small proportion of houses of that description speaks volumes in favor of the place. There are fourteen stores, a postoffice, and two printing offices, which each issues a gazette weekly.

"The site of the town being on a gravelly soil, the streets are generally clean. The houses are of freestone, brick, or timber clapboarded, the first of which is got in the neighborhood, is of a whitish brown color, and excellent for building. They are mostly very good, and are well painted. On the whole, I think Chillicothe is not exceeded in beauty of plan, situation, or appearance, by any town I have seen in the western part of the United States.

"There is a remarkable Indian monument in Mr. Walchup Winsip's garden, in the very heart of the town. Like that at Grave creek, it is circular at the base, about seventy or eighty feet in diameter, but differs from that by being round, instead of flat, on the top, which has an elevation of about thirty feet perpendicular from the level of the plain. It is formed of clay, and though it has been perforated by the proprietor, nothing has been found to justify the common opinion of these mounts having been burrows or cemeteries. They talk of having it leveled, as it projects a little into Market street; but I think it a pity to destroy any of the very few vestiges of aboriginal population which this country presents to the curious and inquisitive traveler.

"From a steep hill, about three hundred feet perpendicular height, just outside the western extremity of the town, is a most charming view of the streets immediately below, under the eye like a plan on paper. Then the Scioto, from one hundred to one hun