NOTE. — In the following chapter we have quoted largely from an article written by Dr. N. H. Chaney and Principal E. M. Faust, which was published in the Youngstown Daily Times of Nov. 26, 1903, under the title of "The School Board of Long Ago."  The data, which pertains to the period since l890, was kindly furnished by Mr. W. N. Ashbaugh, the present clerk of the School Board.  The rest is from miscellaneous sources.

     As early as 1788 a resolution was adopted by the directors of the Ohio Company authorizing the employment "for the education of youth and the promotion of public worship among the first settlers, an instructor eminent for literary accomplishments and the virtue of his character, who shall also superintend the first scholastic institutions and direct the manner of instruction."
     The ordinance of 1787 under which the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio river was organized contained a strong declaration in Article Third, which is destined never to pass from the history of Ohio: "Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary for good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall be forever encouraged."  Congress also provided that the public lands be surveyed into townships six miles square, reserving section sixteen of each township for school purposes.  A later law by the same body set apart two townships for the perpetual support of a seminary.
     The settlers of Ohio never varied in tastes and habits of living.  The descendants of the Roudheads from New England of the Cavaliers of Virginia, and the Germans from Pennsylvania, came in groups and settled in knots throughout the state.  Schools of some kind were maintained in every locality settled, notwithstanding the poverty and privations of pioneer life, and the encroachments of hostile Indians.
     But very moderate qualifications were demanded of the pioneer school teacher, and he usually received but moderate remuneration, $10 to $12 per month for male teachers and $4 to $5 per month for females.  A fair mastery of "the three R's," with an equal, or more than equal ability to wield the rod or birch, and the pedagogue of the early settlements would pass muster.  Possibly the superior muscular endowments of the male teachers was the cause of their receiving more than double the salary paid the females.  There were not a few teachers, however, who had superior literary attainments.  Thus Perlee Brush, the pioneer school-master of Youngs-

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town, who had charge of the school on the Diamond as early as 1806, was a good Green and Latin scholar, and was also one of the earliest lawyers on the Reserve.  The usual charge for tuition for reading, spelling, writing and arithmetic was $1.50, and when grammar and geography were added, $2.00 per quarter.  This was usually paid in produce, the only money in use on the Reserve at that time being what was received at Pittsburg in exchange for the whiskey into which the greater part of the corn and rye crop was converted.
     Up to 1838 the studies above mentioned were the only ones pursued in the Youngstown schools, and the schools throughout the county, outside of Youngstown were no more advanced.  The Bible was often used as a reading book, in connection with Dillworth's or Webster's spelling book and Adam's arithmetic.  There were usually two terms of school each year, the winter term of December, January and February - and the summer term which lasted until harvest time.  It was not unusual to see married people considerably older than the teacher, occupying the benches of the school house during the winter months, in this way making up to some extent for their meagre opportunities in early youth.  In addition to the payment of the regular school fees, the residents were obliged to contribute a certain portion of wood to be used for warming the school house during the winter.  Quill pens were used for writing, the only desk for this purpose being a long board attached in a slanting position to the wall, before which the scholars sat on rough log benches.  For their books they had no support but their knees.
     Among the early teachers of Milton township were Peggy Stevens, Gain Robinson, Joseph Duer, Phoelie Canfield, and Billings O. Plympton, who afterwards became a famous Methodist preacher.  For many years teachers in this township were paid by subscription, receiving during the summer terms from $4 to $5 per month and very often taking their pay in grain or orders on the neighboring stores.  On one occasion a teacher who was to be paid in grain ordered it to be taken by the farmers to J. Orr's distillery, and a few months afterward he carried his winter's wages home in liquid form in a barrel.
     In Jackson township the public schools were few, and but little interest taken in education until 1840, when a new impulse moved the settlers.   They divided the township in eight school districts with a fractional district in the southwest corner.   They hired competent teachers, secured a good attendance of scholars, and from that time until the present the citizens have felt a deep interest in the cause of education.  An academy was erected at the center in 1859, and the efforts of those who erected it were crowned with fair success.
     The first school in Coitsville township was taught by Jeremiah Breaden, in a log cabin on the farm of Joseph Beggs, a little distance west of center.  The second school organized was in the Harris district in the northeast portion of the township.  It was held in a cabin house erected for the purpose which was after wards taken away, and a frame house built on its site.  The new one was used for a number of years, and was finally burned about the time when the first laws for the regulation and support of common schools were enacted in Ohio.  In that school the Bible was one of the most important school books used.  Rev. William McGuffey, author of the popular and excellent series of school books entitled McGuffey's Eclectic Readers, was born in Washington, Pennsylvania, in 1797, and subsequently became a resident of Coitsville.  He probably did more for the cause of common school education than any other person of his day, his school books being used throughout many, if not all the states of the Union.  His parents had emigrated to this country from Scotland and were old school Presbyterians.  He was a graduate of Oxford College, England, and although licensed to preach the gospel, was never settled as a pastor over any congregation, but spent his life in promoting education.  He presided at different times over several colleges in this state and in Virginia.

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He died at the residence of his daughter in Dayton, Ohio, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
     In Greene township the early settlers took a deep interest in education and when there were only eight families in the township, and but eighteen prospective pupils, and some of these living three miles apart, a school house was erected, and in the winter of 1818-1819 Roswell Bartlett taught the first school.  In the following winter the teacher was John Harrington, in 1821 William Harrington, and in 1822 W. Bartlett.  The summer schools during these four years were taught by Rhoda Rice, Mary and Syrena Evans, and Charlotte Bascom.  Good schools have always been maintained in the township.

EARLY YOUNGSTOWN SCHOOLS.

     The first school house in the village of Youngstown, which was erected about 1805, or possibly a little earlier, was a one-story log building, containing one room which stood on the Public Square, on the spot where the Soldiers' monument now stands.  Perlee Brush, as has been already mentioned, was teaching this school in 1806, though it is not certainly known whether or not he was the first teacher.  He was followed by James Noyes, whose description has come down to us as "a tall, slim man from Connecticut."  In 1818, Jabez P. Manning occupied the school house on the Diamond, and in the following year Fanny Roth, or Ross, taught school either in Youngstown or just south of the village.  Besides the school house on the Diamond there was one near the residence of Isaac Powers, a building that served both as a church and school house at Cornersburg, and another near Parkhurst Mills.
     In 1820 Miss Phebe Wick taught the school on the Public Square; Miss Mary Case, afterwards Mrs. Benjamin Stevens, also taught in the village about this date.

THE ACADEMY.

    
     In 1823 the second school house in Youngstown, sometimes known as the academy, was built in Youngstown village by A. R. Bissell, and paid for by subscription.  It stood upon the present site of the Diamond Block, near the southwest corner of the square.  It was taught about 1827 by a Mr. Robinson, who at the same time was studying for the Methodist ministry.  Upon the introduction of the union schools system in 1851, this school building was sold to the Disciples congregation, who used it as a church until 1873, when it was moved over on East Federal street and occupied as a store.  According to the best information at hand. Miss Phoebe Wick and Jabez P. Manning were the principal teachers in Youngstown between 1820 and 1827.

STATE LAWS.

     In a true sense the early schools were not public schools, and, as we have seen, were far from being free schools.  Land grants were for many years not productive of any revenue, and school taxes were unknown before 1821, when an enabling law was enacted by the legislature providing that the townships might be divided into independent districts by the trustees if authorized by the electors, and that each independent district might elect three directors, who were empowered to erect a school building, employ a teacher of whose qualifications they were the sole judges, and make assessments for expenses with the consent of two-thirds of the electors.  This law, being permissive, was of little consequence, and was followed in 1825 by what is usually referred to as "the first school law of Ohio," and was mandatory in its provisions.  This law made it the duty of the township trustees to lay off the respective townships into school districts, hold annual elections for school directors in each district, and authorized them to build a school house and maintain a school.  A penalty was imposed if they failed to employ a teacher.  The law also provided for a board of county examiners to examine teachers.
     In 1837 a law was enacted creating the office of superintendent of common schools of Ohio, and elected Mr. Samuel Lewis as super-

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intendent at a salary of $500 per year.  Mr. Lewis was a man of remarkable ability and had the

STATE THOROUGHLY ORGANIZED

at the end of his three years' of service, when he resigned.  The reactionists then came into power, and so many laws were enacted and repealed that it is very difficult to determine what the exact condition was when the Akron Law of 1847 was enacted, providing for organizing all the independent districts in the borough into a union school, with a board of six members with full authority to employ a superintendent and conduct graded and high schools, followed in 1849 by a general law providing for the organization of union schools in all towns with a population of 200 or over, similar to the union schools of Akron.  It was under this law that the Youngstown Union Schools were organized.  Youngstown had at that time a population of about 1,800, with a school enumeration between the ages of 5 years and 21 years of 530.  There were three school buildings, the West Side, the Middle or Front street building, and a building situated on East Federal street.  Additional rooms were rented.

THE FIRST MEETING.

     "At a meeting held by the directors-elect - elected under the Act of Assembly of Feb. 21, 1849 - for the borough of Youngstown and the territory attached thereto for the school purposes - on the evening of the 3d of May, 1851, Dr. H. Manning was elected president of the Board of Education; William J. Edwards, secretary, and Wilson S. Thorn, treasurer of said board.
     "Homer Hine was appointed school examiner for one year; R. J. Powers was appointed for two years, and R. W. Taylor for three years. 
     "It was ordered by the; board that the treasurer give bond and security for the faithful discharge of his duties to the amount of two thousand dollars.
     With this auspicious beginning the union schools of Youngstown began their history with a board of education composed of Dr. Henry Manning, Theodotius Garlick, William J. Edwards, Wilson S. Thorn, Jesse Baldwin and A. D. Jones.
     Mr. Samuel F. Cooper was employed as superintendent and teacher in the High School at a salary of $500 for forty weeks.  Mrs. Cooper was employed as assistant teacher in the High School at a salary of $160 per year.  Teachers in the primary and secondary schools were employed at $140 per year, each teacher in the primary, secondary and grammar schools to sweep her own room and build her own fire.
     Mr. Cooper was elected superintendent July 9, 1851, and served until July 9, 1853.  Mr. Cooper remained in the service of the board two years.
     Mr. W. S. Gray, who was a Disciple minister, was in the employ of the board in the secondary schools at a salary of $300 per year.  Mr. Gray enjoyed the reputation of being a clear, incisive teacher, was much interested in oratory and oral reading, and a profound believer in the virtue of the rod.  If pupils were truant, Mr. Gray would assign work to his pupils and then act as truant officer.
     The board met Aug. 15, 1853, and "W. S. Thorn was appointed to visit Mr. McMillen and hire him for a sum not exceeding $500 per year, to superintend our schools," is the entire record of the proceedings of a meeting.  Mr. McMillen resided at Canfield, where he was. employed in a harness shop.  On August 16 the board met and confirmed the action of Mr. Thorn, who drove to Canfield and closed a contract with Mr. McMillen to superintend the schools and teach the High School.  Mrs. McMillen was employed as assistant teacher at the rate of $20 per month.  Schools were to be open forty weeks of five days each, and teachers were expected "to spend a portion of each Saturday together for mutual improvement."
     1853 marked an era in school legislation.  By the law of 1849 town and city schools were reorganized, but township schools were still

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managed in part by the township trustees, and by the directors of the independent districts.  By the new law a township board of education was created, consisting of one representative chosen from the board of local directors from each sub-district, with the responsibilities divided between the two boards.  A provision to maintain a free school library was included, with an annual levy of one-tenth of a mill for its support.  This law was in effect until 1860, when reactionary legislation repealed this excellent law.  By this law the best literature found its way into every school house in the state, and many of the books then distributed are yet to be found in city and village libraries.
     The schools were supported by the various state funds and a local levy of two and one fourth mills to four mills each year during the first twenty years of the union schools.  If a deficit was encountered, pupils were assessed in the High School one dollar, in the grammar school seventy-five cents, and in the secondary and primary schools, fifty cents.
     Mr. McMillen was engaged June 26, 1854, for $650 for the ensuing year.  On July 13, 1855, the board proposed to employ Mr. McMillen one year for $800, which he declined and Ephraim Miller was employed for $550 a year.  The following year an effort was made to secure Mr. McMillen, but without effect.  Mr. Charles H. Lathrop was employed at $600 per year "unless the board should become dissatisfied with his management, in which case they are at liberty to discharge him."  Mrs. Lathrop was made assistant at $200 per year.
     During 1857 and 1858 Mr. A. B. Cornell was superintendent and was succeeded by Dwight Hubbard in 1859, and Mr. Hubbard by H. A. Hall in 1860.  In 1861 Reuben McMillen was elected at a salary of $1,100.
     In 1860 a union school building was erected on Wood street, on the site of the present structure (then Coal street), at a cost not to exceed $6,500, the building to be three stories high and 76x50 feet.
     The journal of the board shows that on June 16, 1862, an order was drawn for $326 in payment of "eleven weeks' salary for Mr. McMillen, deducting $24, his share of keeping school house clean.  He is engaged at the same meeting for one year at a salary of $1,100.
     On May 4, 1866, a regulation was made requiring the schools to commence at 1:30 in the afternoon and close at 4:30.  At a meeting of the board on July l0th of the same year, the board made its first agreement recorded in the minutes, by which the public schools and Rayen school, which was opened in 1863, co-operated.  By this arrangement the Rayen school was to assume the salary of the principal of the High School, $1,000; assistant teacher of the High School, $500; one-half the salary of the superintendent, $750; salary of teacher for lower grades at Rayen school, $350, and janitor and incidental expenses amounting to $400, making a total of $3,000.  It was arranged that a joint meeting of the two boards be held every three months.
     In 1867 Superintendent McMillen again severed his connection with the schools of Youngstown, and Mr. P. T. Caldwell served until 1873, when Mr. McMillen's name appears upon the pay roll again.
     On June 8, 1871, the board closed the contract for the construction of

THE FRONT STREET SCHOOL.

     The cost aggregated $22,186.96.
     Ironclad rules were adopted for the management of teachers and pupils.  Early in the sixties, a teacher who was tardy three times in one term was to be discharged unless a good reason for tardiness was given to the sixties, a teachers who was to be discharged unless a good reason for tardiness was given to the board.
     In 1867, on the return of a pupil who had been absent, the parent or guardian was required to give excuse in person or writing, stating the cause of absence.
     "In every case of the absence of a pupil for more than three half days in any four consecutive weeks without a satisfactory excuse to the teacher, the absentee shall without exception or favor, with the approval of the superintendent, be suspended from school, and the facts immediately reported to the board or

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IMMACULATE CONCEPTION SCHOOL, YOUNGSTOWN; (top left)
CITY HALL AND JAIL, YOUNGSTOWN; (top right)
WEST FEDERAL STREET, YOUNGSTOWN, LOOKING WEST; (bottom left)
ST. COLUMBA'S SCHOOL AND URSULINE CONVENT, YOUNGSTOWN (bottom right)

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their chairman, and shall not be readmitted until the beginning of the next term, unless by a written order from the board."
     Mason Evans elected clerk, Mar. 23, 1876-79.
     August 7, D. A. Wilson resigned as principal of Front street school, and on September 4 H. C. Muckley was employed to fill the vacancy.

RAYEN SCHOOL.

     The Rayen school owes its existence to the farsighted beneficence of Judge William Rayen, one of the best known and most highly respected citizens of early Youngstown, who, dying in 1854, set apart by will a residuary fund of over $31,000 to be vested in trustees, in the interest of which wa to be expended in establishing a school to be known as the Rayen school.  By an act of incorporation passed in 1856, it was provided that five trustees should be appointed, one each year, each to serve five years.  The appointments were to be made by the judge of the court of common pleas.  The first board appointed in June, 1857, consisted of Jonathan Warner, Charles Howard, Charles E. Cook, James Mackey, and Robert W. Taylor.   With the accrued interest a lot was purchased and the original building completed in 1866.
     In the same year the trustees made a working agreement with the city Board of Education under which the Rayen school became the High School for the city and township.  This arrangement still continues, the board of trustees being organized under the Ohio state law governing endowed schools, and the property belonging to the township.  The ground and school buildings now have an endowment of $60,000.
     Prof. Edwin S. Gregory, who had had a previous experience of thirteen years as professor of Latin and principal of the preparatory department at the Western Reserve College, was elected principal, Miss Mary Emma Cutter being chosen as assistant teacher.  His efficient administration gave Rayen a high standing, and he gained in a high degree the love and respect of his pupils.  He was succeeded by Mr. Mitchell, who served one year.  In 1879 Mr. M. S. Campbell, superintendent of schools of Portsmouth, Ohio, a thorough scholar and man of rare wisdom, became principal.  He left in 1883 to become principal of the Central High School of Cleveland, Ohio.  The next principal of Rayen was Mr. Hill.  Mr. Jewett came in 1891 and served until the present principal, Prof. Wells L. Griswold, was elected in 1901.  Prof. Griswold, who is a graduate of Oberlin College (class of 1894) was superintendent of schools in Collonwood, a thriving suburb of Cleveland, before coming to Youngstown.  He has proved himself a very efficient and successful instructor and is a man of exceptional executive ability.
     The school began with about forty scholars, and now (1907) has an enrollment of about 650.  To meet the growing demands for more ample accommodations, the school was remodeled in 1881; but within fifteen years the facilities had again become inadequate and it was necessary again to enlarge the building.  The contract for the erection of the addition now used as a study room, was let Aug. 20, 1894, and in the following year the new building was occupied.
     In the classics and mathematics the course of study is practically the same now as it was thirty-five years ago; but the other departments during the last ten years have been largely reconstructed.  In 1901 a new chemical laboratory was fitted up.  There is also a large physical science laboratory containing much valuable apparatus and recognized as one of the best in the United States.  The manual training department introduced about 1896 is equipped with a large variety of tools, including wood and steel lathes.  The work in English is extended so as to include the study of leading English and American authors.  The other languages taught are Latin, Greek, French and German.  There is also a normal department, which includes the study of civics, psychology and the science of education, designed expressly to fit young ladies fur teaching.
     The school possesses a fine collection of

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pictures, most of which are gifts of classes; others have come to the school through the liberality of citizens.  The school emphasizes the college preparatory work, and its graduates have almost invariably made good records in college, especially in Harvard.  Provision has been made for athletic training.  There are also two literary societies, the "Rayen," for boys, and the "Galaxy," for girls, which hold outside debates on current topics.
     In the words of Prof. E. F. Miller: "With this evidence of success in its work, we may feel assured that the school is realizing the ideal of its noble founder, and, as in the past, so in the future, Rayen school will offer incentives for all youth who enter her walls seeking knowledge."

FREE KINDERGARTENS.

     The Free Kindergarten Association was organized in 1892, and incorporated three years later under the name of The Youngstown Free Kindergarten and Day Nursery Association.  It took this name because Mr. George D. Wick had given the association $1,000 to establish a day nursery.  Conditions seemed to demand such an institution, and it was carried on for four years, when not enough mothers taking advantage of it, it was given up.
     The first kindergarten was located at the corner of Basin and Boardman streets, in the office of the old stamping works in the midst of the foreign element.  But four of the forty children could speak English.  It was conducted by Miss Mary S. Morgan, who had come direct from the Chicago Free Kindergarten Association training class and had presented the need of such work to the people of Youngstown.  The first officers were: Miss Emilie Bonnell, president; Mrs. A. M. Clark, Mrs. George Fordyce, Miss Balch, vice-presidents; Miss Louise Edwards, secretary and treasurer.
     The institution owes much to Mr. John C. Wick for his encouragement and financial aid during those first years.  He is still the largest individual contributor.
     At Thanksgiving time the kindergarten was transferred to a better home on E. Federal street.  After several changes of location, the Hugh B. Wick heirs donated the use of their old homestead at Front and Market streets and it remained there seven years.  By this time the kindergarten ideas had been so well rooted that the work had grown and spread so that there were several other kindergartens in various parts of the city.
     One had been opened in the old City Mission by Mrs. William Bonnell and Mrs. Arabella Ford, who undertook to raise funds for its support.  This has now come under the direction of the association and has been transferred to Brier Hill.  Through the interest of Mrs. E. L. Ford, Mr. Ford induced The Youngstown Steel Company and The Brier Hill Iron & Coal Company to maintain it for the children of their employees.  They have built a substantial little home for it resembling somewhat a Swiss chalet.  It is the first corporation kindergarten in the city.
     The next kindergarten was opened by the managers of Christ Mission, who still continue it and have added another at Westlake's crossing.  This was followed by one at Haselton which was soon adopted by the association and named the Anna P. Haseltine Kindergarten in memory of Miss Haseltine whose mother donated the lease of a lot for a kindergarten building.
     The latest kindergarten to be added to the association is the Harriet and Leslie Bruce supported almost entirely by Mrs. Bruce.  It is located in the Valley Mill district.  The rent and fuel are donated by the Republic Iron & Steel Company.

LUCRETIA K. BALDWIN MEMORIAL KINDERGARTEN.

     After ten years of struggle in the original kindergarten with dark rooms and crowded quarters, the principal made a strong plea for a central building for kindergarten purposes.

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The work had proven its worth.  It needed a building which could be used as the center of kindergarten interests.  The training class, the board meetings as well as lectures, could be held in it.  Other lines of work could be carried on for older children, such as sewing and cooking classes, manual training and garden work, also free baths and a summer play ground.
     These needs were set forth at a meeting of the Board of Trustees.  It was decided to undertake the raising of a building fund of $10,000.00.  So generously did people respond to the earnest women who undertook it that $12,000.00 was raised in about four months.
     They sent out a printed appeal through the daily papers, one of which found its way across the ocean to Mr. and Mrs. William H. Baldwin, who were traveling in Turkey.  The latter gave up their planned trip in the Orient and returned to offer the association a kindergarten building in memory of Mr. Baldwin's mother, Mrs. Lucretia K. Baldwin, who was a daughter of Dr. Henry Manning, and who lived in Youngstown for seventy years after her birth here on Oct. 5, 1827.  Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin felt that in no better way could they honor her memory than by the erection of a suitable building as headquarters for the work of the association.
     The Grute lot, upon which the building now stands, offered the most suitable location, and was obtained at an expense of $20,000, of which the association paid half.  Ground was broken for the building Mar. 18, 1903, by the kindergartners and children, who marched in a body to the new lot.  The contractor marked out the main entrance, handed them a new pick and shovel, and they dug the great doorway line with happy, hearts.  The corner stone was laid on Froebel's birthday, April 21, by Imogen Baldwin, the little granddaughter of Mrs. Baldwin.  On November 25th of the same year, the building, which had cost $28,000, was transferred to the association by Mr. and Mrs. Baldwin, with appropriate ceremonies.  It is a handsome two-story structure, seventy-two by sixty-one feet, of light brick, with stone trimmings.  The big sunny room is entered from the vestibule, contains a Tiffany stained glass window with a medallion of Christ blessing little children.  A tablet over the open tire bears this inscription: "Hoping that other children than her own may rise up and call her blessed, and in loving memory of Lucretia Kirtland Manning Baldwin who died in this, the city of her birth, Nov. 5, 1897, aged seventy years; this building is erected by her son, William H. and Isabel Cort Baldwin, his wife.  All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children."  Isaiah 54:13.
     What more enduring monument could be founded than a shrine in the hearts of the multitudes of little ones whose feet shall cross its threshold and whose happy laughter shall make its walls ring.  Her life is not ended; it is enlarged and she will still be doing her part in the redeeming work of the world.

BATHS.

     Near the children's entrance is a tile-lined bathroom.  The kindergarten children are bathed in the morning and after 4 o'clock p. m. it is open to school children.  Over thirteen hundred baths were given during the last school year and over four hundred during the summer vacation.
     The second floor has a large lecture room, an overflow kindergarten room, a trustees' room, a room for the cooking class, and others.

DOMESTIC SCIENCE.

     The trustees used part of hte endowment fund to equip the cooking room.  The classes are limited to twelve, so each has her own set of utensils and is given individual attention.  A different class meets each afternoon from 4 to 6 o'clock p. m.  Beside the individual equipment, there is a gas range for other forms of cooking, a sink, ample cupboards and supplies.

MANUAL TRAINING.

     The manual training department is in the large, light basement.  Mr. John A. Logan,

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 Jr., fitted this out with twelve benches and all necessary tools.  Two years ago classes were organized by a teacher from Pratt Institute.  They met from 4 to 6 p.m. , and accomplished good work.  At present the work is among younger children, but will eventually lead up to he bench work again.

INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.

     A large sewing school is held here every Saturday during the winter under the direction of Miss Louisa M. Edwards.
     The lecture room was used by a Boys' Club, which met one winter with an attendance of between seventy and eighty.  It was held six evenings a week.  During the first summer vacation the building was used by the Council of Jewish Women for classes and clubs organized among the poorer Hebrew children.

VISITING NURSE.

     One room in the building is used by the Visiting Nurse Association, who have their headquarters here.  The building is used every evening by the Boys' Club under the management of the Boys' Club Association.  They have evening classes in manual training, also various kinds of games.  The basement is finely equipped with apparatus for a gymnasium.  Shower baths will soon be put in one room by the Club Association for the use of the older boys.

PLAYGROUNDS.

     The opening of the playground was deferred until the past summer.  There were over a hundred children admitted each day and about sixty present all the time.

FINANCIAL.

     More funds were needed to carry on the enlarged work and the Board of Education placed four of the teachers and two janitors on the pay roll.  A little later a fund was made available through the township trustees, who decided that what is known as the Shehy Fund could be used for the kindergarten, as that alone stands for the education of the poor.  Such was the purpose of Mr. Daniel Shehy when he made his will more than a quarter of a century ago.

YOUNGSTOWN TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS.

     Before the incorporation of the city of Youngstown, all the schools in the township were included under one school system, under the provision of an act passed about 1830, at which time Jedediah Fitch was representative from this legislative district.  The township then had five school districts, or sub-districts, each of which elected directors.  The respective chairmen of the different boards of directors formed the Board of Education.  The directors had full control of all school matters.  Before the annual school term opened it was customary for them to visit all the parents in their respective districts in order to ascertain just how many children were going to attend school.  The parents were then assessed pro rata according to the amount required to meet expenses and the number of children attending from each family.  The teachers "boarded around," and were not paid until the end of the term.  A school then stood on the site now occupied by the Tod house.  There were also the Madden district, the Connorsburg district (which included portions of the townships of Canfield, Boardman, Austintown, and Youngstown, and which corresponded with the present sub-district, No. 11), the Haselton district, and the district southwest of the city, now covered by No. 5.
     About 1852 a new constitution was adopted, the school board being reorganized in the following year substantially upon its present basis.  The Board of Education now consists of five members who are elected by the township at large, and who have full control of the township schools and school property, with power to engage teachers.  There are now twelve sub-districts, each with a schoolhouse of one or more rooms.  A teacher is provided for each room.  Those sub-districts having

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one room only are No. 1, Park Hill; No. 3, Holmes Road ; No. 5, southwest of the city limits (formerly a special school district); No. 6, west end of Mill Creek Park; No. 7, west of Brier Hill; and No. 12, west of Lansingville, on the Foster and Haselton road.  The schoolhouse in the last-named district being crowded, it may soon be necessary to provide another room.  The following sub-districts have schoolhouses of two rooms each; No. 2, Crab Creek; No. 4, east of Kyle's Corners; No. 9, Perkins Corners; No. 10, southwest of city and adjoining No. 5; and No. 11, known as the Connorsburg sub-district, which, as above mentioned, includes parts of other townships.  The school house of the last-named sub-district is situated in Youngstown township; only one room is at present in use.  Sub-district No. 8, Kyle's Corners, has a schoolhouse of four rooms, built last fall (1906), three of the rooms being now in use.  It has 120 scholars, and the attendance is increasing so rapidly that it will probably be necessary to make use of the fourth room next year.  Altogether eighteen teachers are now employed.  The present school board consists of John Mitchell, president; Wade E. Simons, Edward Ipe, L. T. Foster, and Myron Wehr.  The clerk of the board is James Parfitt.  Since 1853 the board has met in the old Town Hall at No. 268 West Federal street, Youngstown.

END OF CHAPTER XXIV -