In Shelby county, of 188 candidates, but one received a certificate for two years In Sandusky county, of 317 examined, 12 were licensed for two years, and 64 were rejected.

These items indicate a degree of thoroughness on the part of Examiners which promises the happiest results to our schools. We hope that the day is not distant when incompetent Teachers will be obliged either to seek higher attainments, or devote themselves to some less responsible calling.

We bespeak for the Commissioner the cordial coöperation of all school authorities to whom he shall appeal for aid in securing the requisite data for a full report of the educational condition of the State.

- The people of Marion have just completed a noble school edifice, at an expense of $25,000 It is to be dedicated on the 9th inst., when an address will be given by Commissioner Smyth.

SUPERINTENDENTS' MEETING.-This organization did not meet in Columbus on the 4th of Sept., as designed. A correspondent thus speaks of one of the topics assigned to him:

NEWARK, Aug. 31, 1857.

J. D. CALDWELL-I do not forget that the semi-annual meeting of our Superintendents' Association occurs this week. It will be impossible for me to attend, and I regret it. It is indeed strange that a Teacher, especially one that has served in the ministry so long as I hive, should be affected by bank explosions! But so it is. The little cash I had is shut up in Franklin's Bank, which closed its doors last Thursday, and therefore it is out of my power to furnish means to pay my expenses to Columbus. Please make my excuse to the Association in such manner as you think best.

I was made chairman of a committee to report on Diplomas. I have wondered what the Association could expect from a committee on this subject. There can be no doubt in the minds of any, about the propriety of furnishing to those who complete the course of study, a certificate of that fact; and what is a diploma but such a certificate? Surely it cannot require the wisdom of so distinguished a committee, far less the combined wisdom of the Superintendents' Association, to say what shape it shall take, or how the simple fact it states shall be expressed! It might be a question whether that certificate shall be printed or written-whether it shall be parchment or paper-whether it shall be plain, or gilt, or beautifully embossed--whether, when the auspicious time comes, it shall be presented publicly or privately, by the President or Secretary of the Board of Education, or by the Superintendent. But these nice questions it could not have been the intention of the Association to commit; therefore, the chairman of the committee (his associates concurring) would offer, through J. D. Caldwell, Editor of the Journal of Education, (to whom doubtless this delicate and important duty may be safely committed,) the following resolutions:

1. Resolved, That Diplomas are expedient.

2. Resolved, That they should be written or printed-on parchment or paper-gilt or plain --or embossed and signed, and delivered by whomsoever, and at such time and place, and in such manner, as each Board of Education shall in its wisdom designate.

A. D.

Do what you can, thoroughly; sham nothing.

He who has never formed in his mind the idea of something superior to what he is used to, will never arrive at any great degree of excellence.

ERRATA. In line 7, page 304, read $1.000 instead of $1.500.

- Important items and editorial articles have been crowded out of this number

ITEMS.

The Teacher's Institute of Columbiana Co. will be held at New Lisbon during the first week in November.

1

The Steubenville High School is now opened for the admission of pay pupils, outside of the corporation.

Commencement of Muskingum College took place at Concord, on the 24th ult. Anniver sary Address by Hon. Wm. Laurence, Washington O.

Our next number will contain an interesting historical article on the Ohio University, Athens, accompanied with an engraving.

A situation as Teacher in Primary School wanted for two young ladies, who are desirous of engaging permanently in the profession of teaching. Address T. S. Sedwgick, Chillicothe, O.

W. B. Smith & Co., Publishers of School Books, Cincinnati, have removed into their elegant and commodious new edifice on Walnut St., near Fourth St.

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Michigan Teachers' Institutes for this month, are held as follows-holding ten days each: Ionia, Ionia Co., commencing Oct. 5th.

Lansing, Ingham Co., commencing Oct. 19th.

Hon. S. S. Randall, Supt. of N. Y. Public Schools, having become possessed of important materials, is about issuing a Life of Jefferson.

The Hon. Robert Allyn has resigned the office of School Commissioner of Rhode Island, and has entered upon his duties as Professor of Ancient Languages and Literature in the Ohio University, to which he was recently elected. Prof. Allyn is a fine scholar and an efficient and successful educator. The Teachers of Ohio, as well as the Ohio University, may congrat ulate themselves on his accession to their ranks.

The Athens Co. Teachers' Institute will open its session on the first Monday in October, and continue one week. Mr. Ogden, Mr. Royce and Prof. Allyn have engaged to be present. The Atheneans will regard Teachers as guests, and accommodate all with board and lodging gratis.

Mr. Edward E. Spalding of Chelmsford, Mass., has been chosen Principal of Pomeroy Academy, Pomeroy, Ohio, in place of A. A. Keen, appointed Professor of Greek and Latin in Tuft's College, Medford, Mass.

BOOKS, ETC.

Cincinnati Guide and Business Director. F. W. Hurrt, Publisher, a well known school Teacher, has changed the direction of his energies, and has devoted himself to the publishing

business.

Introduction to Monteiths' Manual of Geography, for junior classes. A. S. Barnes & Co., N. Y., 1857.

Alabama Educational Journal, a monthly, quarto form, $1.00 per year, commenced in January last. Wm. F. Perry, Editor and Proprietor, Montgomery, Ala. - American Educator, No. 1, Vol. 1.

- Educational Herald, Vol. 1, No. 5.

Sept. 15, 1857. Wm. H. Boyd, New York.

July, 1857. Smith & Boyd, New York.

- The Rose Bud, Vol. 1, No. 1. July, 1857. Pupils of Union School, Mendon, Ill.

- The Polylingual Journal, a magazine in five languages-French, Spanish, Italian, German, and English, Vol. 1, No. 1. August, 1857; quarterly. Hiram C. Sparks, Editor, New York. $2.00 per annum.

The American Journal of Education for Sept. Henry Barnard, Hartford, Conn. MCGUFFEY'S NEW ECLECTIC READERS are having great and justly merited popularity among intelligent Teachers. Published by W. B. Smith & Co., Cin

cinnati.

THE

Ohio Journal of Education.

COLUMBUS, NOVEMBER, 1857.

2 SKETCH OF THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE OHIO UNIVERSITY

The dark and angry storm of the Revolution had spent its strength. Its last sullen mutterings had died away on the plains of Yorktown, and the black cloud of war had sunk behind the Atlantic billows. Except that occasional flashes of border warfare were playing on the western horizon, the bright sun of liberty and peace was shining in noontide splendor upon an excellent people.

Such was America in 1784, when the soldiers of the Continental Army, with many a burning tear and warm embrace, wrenched asunder the ties of long and endearing companionship in arms, and sought their homes and families. Yes, sought these but found blackened ruins, ruined fortunes and scattered friends. New England had sent out her choicest spirits, her noblest blood. They suffered, they fought, they bled, they conquered, but the merciless foe had been abroad in the land with the fire and sword that spare not, and those hardy veterans found that poverty and want were, with them, the conditions of victory. True, the broad acres and noble forests of the interminable West were before them, and in this direction their "continental scrip" and military bounties were available, yet it was a hard thing to give up the purchase of their toil, privation and blood, and seek new homes even in the beautiful West, whose hills still resounded with the scream of the panther, and whose valleys were trailed by the wily savage.

It is a winter night in 1786. Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper are spending an evening of earnest conference at the hospitable home of the former, in Rutland, Massachusetts. We may now and then catch the words 'soldiers,' 'west,' Ohio,' 'schools,' University,' etc. The fire burns low on the hearth-the long night wears awayyet those patriot friends weary not of their thoughts, nor cease their VOL. VI.-No. 11.

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conference until the gray dawn comes and finds them the pledged lea ders of an emigrant band. Two weeks later, Jan. 25, they issued a call to the officers and soldiers of the revolution to send delegates, to meet at the "Bunch of Grapes Tavern" in Boston, to organize a colony for the banks of the Ohio. Here is the origin of the Ohio Company, the first white settlers of the Northwest Territory. An organi zation was soon effected, such men as Gen. Putnam and Gen. Tupper, of the Massachusetts line, Gen. Parsons of the Connecticut, and Gen. Varnum of the Rhode Island lines, old Com. Whipple, who fired the first gun from a "Congress" ship, Dr. Manasseh Cutler, the sons of Gen. Israel Putnam, Colonels Cushing, Sproat, Oliver, Sargent, and others of enviable memory, were the leading minds of the enterprise. Articles of association were agreed upon, officers elected, and Manasseh Cutler and Winthrop Sargent commissioned to negotiate with Congress for a grant of land lying between the Muskingum and Scioto rivers. By the terms of the contract two townships were reserved for a University, and the date of this contract, Oct. 27th, 1787, may be set down as the initiatory act in establishing the Ohio University.

We cannot sufficiently admire the wisdom and forethought of the men who, though still wearing the sword, were the first to provide the sure conditions of a peaceful prosperity, on the spot where the red man's camp fire was still burning, and the arts of civilization were as strange as the wild forests were untamed. Let it be remembered that the Ohio University was the first educational institution provided for by an act of Congress, and that its originators and founders were the men who instituted the great and beneficent policy of providing for education in the northwest by the donation of public lands.

The readers of Ohio history may follow that band of soldier pioneers from their landing at Marietta, in 1788, through their block-house discipline, their pioneer privations, their border skirmishings, down to their final triumph of success and prosperity. Ours is another labor.

The University Townships were located by Gen. Putnam, in 1795, ere yet the settler's axe had rung its echoes within a score of miles, and with true classic taste, that designed for the seat of the University was christened Athens. One of the first acts of the first Territorial Legislature, convened in 1799, appointed Rufus Putnam and others to select a site and lay off a town. In 1800, their action was confirmed, and the town of Athens established. In 1802, a bill passed the Territorial General Assembly incorporating the American Western University, and appointing Rufus Putnam and others, Trustees. As no action

pwas taken under this bill, in 1804, the Territory in the meantime havthej ing become a State, another bill was passed, repealing the former, and

incorporating the Ohio University with the following Board of Trustees, viz: Rufus Putnam, Elijah Backus, Dudley Woodbridge, Benjamin Tappan, Bazaleel Wells, Nathaniel Massie, Daniel Symmes, Daniel Story, Samuel Carpenter, James Kilbourne, Griffin Greene and Joseph Darlington. The act of incorporation also provided that the lands should be appraised and leased to occupants in consideration of the payment of an annual rent, amounting to six per cent. of the valuation, said lands being subject to a re-valuation at certain stated periods thereafter. Accordingly, among the archives of the University we find the following:

"At a meeting of the Trustees of the Ohio University, convened at the house of Dr. Eliphaz Perkins, in Athens, on the first Monday in June, 1804, the day ordered by his Excellency Edward Tiffin, Esq., Governor of the State of Ohio, for the first meeting-present the following Trustees, viz: His Exc'y Edward Tiffin, Elijah Backus, Rufus Putnam, Dudley Woodbridge, Daniel Story, Samuel Carpenter, James Kilbourne."

The house of Dr. Perkins, here referred to, was one of the three or four cabins then standing, and built by himself and others, who, in 1797, had paddled their way up the Hockhocking in canoes, and made the first settlement in Athens. The Trustees met serious difficulties on the threshhold of their labors. At this early date of American history our national inclination to "squat" had began to manifest itself. Ever since the site of the University had been fixed, in 1795, new settlers had been coming and "squatting" on the lands, and it required no small degree of prudence, firmness and decision, to adjust the claims of conflicting parties, and protect the corporation in its rights. The Board remained in session some days, surveying and laying out lots, classifying lands, adjusting claims, etc.

Here is presented a scene of moral sublimity that we cannot duly appreciate. A company of veteran pioneers, laying aside the axe and shouldering the musket, traveling on foot or horse 40 to 100 miles through the haunts of the deer, panther and bear, to lay the foundation of a seat of learning, where the track of the elk and buffalo is still seen, and the red man gathers his winter's store. It was not then, as now, when a single community may richly endow a college, and fill its halls with their own sons and daughters-the only palaces were cabins, the currency was skins and game, the high roads were Indian trails