it to build. course, cou nebors' chi e nineteer th co Primary dutyeducated. Thes unat com non edu ¡ every rid the m 2 of discharry the ent bad its oppon. descen ated the cor •lective. Sim.pr ya among i thes That part of the eighth article of the Constitution of 1802 which relates to slavery, religion and education was prepared by Ephraim Cutler of Marietta. A very positive advocate of schools he made the provisions relating to education mandatory on the Legislature. Notwithstanding this, nothing was even attempted toward creating a school system until Mr. Cutler became a member of the General Assembly in 1819. At this session he moved to have a committee appointed to prepare a bill for the creation and regulation of a school system. He was made chairman of the committee appointed for that purpose and he prepared a bill embodying his own ideas. His plan was to divide the townships into school districts, and school houses were to be built with money raised by local taxation. Part of the pay of the teachers was also to be paid from the public funds. This bill passed the House, but it was not considered by the Senate, and it died at the end of the session. So the friends of the schools commenced again an agitation which was intended to produce results in the next General Assembly. Cincinnati, Marietta, the Western Reserve and the eastern part of the State furnished the most substantial and aggressive school sentiment. The leading spirit in this movement in southern Ohio was Nathan Guilford of Cincinnati. He advocated popular education through an almanac edited by "Solomon Thrifty" and which had, like "Poor Richard's Almanac," a wide influence. Through this medium Nathan Guilford presented the cause of education to thousands. Every page of his almanac was crowded with matter which was well calculated to advance the common school system. When it could not be sold it was gratuitously circulated; the result was that it awakened a public sentiment throughout the State to which the General Assembly that met in 1821 gave a respectful response. Nathan Guilford, like most of the advocates of a free school system, in his day, was a New Englander. He was born at Spencer, Worcester County, Massachusetts, July 19, 1786. He received a liberal education, graduating at Yale College in 1812. For a while he taught a classical school at Worcester in his native State, and afterwards was admitted to the Bar. He came to Cincinnati in 1816. It was here that he developed the idea of a system of free schools for Ohio. He formed a small band of friends and acquaintances to whom he explained his project. He soon won their hearty coöperation in his plans. He commenced a systematic correspondence with all parts of the State, especially the Western Reserve. Although he was a lawyer in active practice, he, with his brother, opened a bookstore and publishing house. From this establishment was issued his almanac, which for seven years was freely mailed by him and his associates to every address in Ohio they could secure. To Caleb Atwater, a Representative from Pickaway County, can be credited the next forward step in educational progress. A progressive of the most versatile and aggressive type, he has left his impress on the history of his time in more ways than one. As educator, author, legislator and antiquarian, he has left behind reports and writings that stamp him as a man of strong originality and untiring industry. His quaint "History of Ohio" (1838) is full of material |