the teachers, local societies and the State, to seventeen hundred volumes in 1860.

The first eastern school building was sold, and a new building at the northwest corner of Main and Bridge streets completed in 1872 at a cost of about seventy-five thousand dollars, and about the same time an addition was made to the western building at a cost of $10,000. In 1874 the schools of the city were reorganized, under one general superintendent, with principals at each building, and the classification of primary, grammar and high schools adopted, with four years' instruction in each.

A building for colored pupils was erected on South Walnut street in 1874, and in 1875 the Old Academy building was refitted for the use of the central school, adding four rooms to the accommodation.

The board of education of Chillicothe consists of two members elected from each of the six wards, and its present organization is as follows: President, Albert E. Culter; clerk, F. C. Secrest; treasurer, Geo. Wooster. Members of the Board: First ward, Forrest C. Secrest, Lucius Burgoon; Second ward, A. L. Fullerton, Geo. Wooster; Third ward, Albert E. Culter, W. W. Gunther; Fourth ward, John Doerres, Charles E. Larimore; Fifth ward, Gilbert E. Robbins, Albert Keim; Sixth ward, James I. Boulger, John Miller. The public schools occupy seven convenient and commodious buildings known by the following designations: High school, new high school, central school, eastern school, southern school, western school and Jackson school. These are in charge of the following named principals, in the order named: George H. Bemis, F. W. Yaple, Wade J. Byerly, Helen E. Veail, H. E. Streightenberger and Anna J. Hayes. There are five special teachers, of penmanship and drawing, music and German, and in the High School there are instructors making specialties of Latin and Greek, history, German and French, and natural sciences. Eighteen teachers are employed in the grammar grades, and thirty-two in the primary, with three substitute teachers under pay. The monthly pay roll, during the school year, aggregates above four thousand dollars. The contingent and schoolhouse expenses augment these figures materially, hence the school expenses of the city may be conservatively estimated at five thousand dollars per school month. The school property and apparatus, in the various departments, foots up into the hundreds of thousands. N. H. Chaney, D. D., recently retired, was superintendent of the city schools for several years, and possessed the confidence of teachers, pupils, and patrons in a remarkable degree. He is recognized as one of the ablest educators in the State, and his efficiency and good standing among his subordinates have had much to do with the high standard of excellence attained by Chillicothe's public schools. Dr. Chaney's successor is Prof. M. E. Hard, formerly of Sidney, O.

In the smaller towns of the county there are excellent schools of higher grades than the common schools, of which mention is made. in the township histories. Altogether the school system of the county is worthy of its historical importance and widespread fame.

Ross county now has in the township districts 170 schoolhouses for elementary schools, and three high schools; in the separate districts 16 elementary schools and three high schools, making a grand total of 192 school buildings, with 268 rooms. The value of the school property in the township districts is $126,550; in the separate districts, $131,000, making an aggregate of $257,550. Two hundred and seventy-three teachers are employed, teaching thirty-one to thirty-two weeks in the township schools and thirty-six in the others, at salaries ranging from $34 to $85 per month. The enumeration of children of school age (between 6 and 21) is 12,267, of whom 9,500 are in the Virginia military district. The actual enrollment of pupils is 73 per cent of the enumeration in the township districts and 82 per cent in the separate districts. There are six high schools in the township districts and four in the separate dis tricts. The average cost of tuition of the pupils enrolled is $9 in the elementary schools, and $15.60 in the high schools of the townships, and $9.40 in the elementary and $31.40 in the high schools of the separate districts. The county received from the State, mainly from the common school fund, $20,957 for the support of education in 1900; from local taxation $104,935; from the sale of bonds, $47,099; from all other sources, $1,930, making the total receipts but a little less than $175,000, to which should be added a balance on hand September 1, 1899, of $58,457, swelling the aggregate funds to $233,381. Out of this there was paid $83,344 to teachers in elementary schools, and $8,455 to teachers in high schools; $2,855 for supervision, $2,136 on buildings and grounds, $2,800 on bonds and interest, and $24,300 for all other purposes, making an aggregate expenditure of $123,942. On September 1, 1900, the close of the fiscal year, the balance on hand was $109,438.

In the city of Chillicothe, with its seven schoolhouses and seventytwo school rooms, the total value of school property is $105,000, sixty-five teachers are employed, at salaries ranging from $43 to $100; the enumeration is 3,878, enrollment 2,471, daily attendance 1,989. The receipts for the year were $90,950 and expenditures $45,330.

In the county there are the village and special districts of Bainbridge, J. A. Shannon, superintendent, and school property valued at $10,000, annual expenditures, $3,332; Frankfort, J. A. Drushel, superintendent, property valued at $8,800, annual expenditures, [$2,766; Hallsville, J. F. Warner, superintendent, property valued at $3,000, annual expenditures, $1,085; Kingston, A. L. Ellis, superintendent, property valued at $10,000, annual expenditures,

$2,190; and North Union, property valued at $3,000, annual expenditures, $1,940.

The county examiners of teachers are A. L. Ellis, F. W. Yaple and R. C. Galbraith. The teachers have a county institute annually, and a county and a tri-county meeting.

Among Ross county people who have become prominent in educational work may be mentioned Professor James Woodrow, formerly president of the University of South Carolina, son of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, at one time pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Chillicothe. In this connection may be named his cousin, President Woodrow Wilson, of Princeton University, whose mother was a daughter of Rev. Thomas Woodrow, born in Chillicothe. The late Prof. William Williams, the oldest and one of the most distinguished educators of the Ohio Wesleyan University at Delaware, was born in Chillicothe. Two connections of his, grand nephews, both of Chillicothe, hold places in the educational world, Dr. Charles Graham Dunlap, professor of English in the State University at Lawrence, Kan., and Dr. Frederick Levy Dunlap, assistant in the chemistry department of the University of Michigan. Lieut. Matthew Elting Hanna, son of Robert Hanna, a respected citizen of the vicinity of Richmond Dale, is distinguished for his work, under General Wood, in establishing the school system of Cuba, which was modeled after that of Ohio.

II-11

CHAPTER XI.

T

BENCH AND BAR.

HE bar of Chillicothe from the earliest days has been famous for the ability of the lawyers that composed it. Marietta, of course, has the distinction of being the place where court was first held in Ohio, where Fearing and the younger Meigs and their contemporaries began the practice. Cincinnati, almost as old as Marietta, and for many years the Queen City of the West, drew to itself brilliant talent and soon outstripped its Scioto valley rival in numbers at least of practitioners of law. Lancaster was the seat of a remarkable group of jurists, and when Columbus became the capital of the State there was an inevitable gravitation of lawyers to that center. But Chillicothe had some notable lawyers at the founding of the State and she has ever since been the home of men distinguished in this field of professional Settled largely by Virginians and North Carolinians, she partook in some degree of that tendency in the South that impels young men to law and politics-a tendency that present industrial conditions favor, but which was much stronger at the beginning of the last century.

effort.

It does not appear that there were any lawyers among the party of first settlers of Chillicothe, though the doctors and preachers were represented; but some of these first comers served upon the bench as justices in the first courts, and the lawyers were not long in following the advance guard.

Upon the organization of new counties Governor St. Clair appointed, under the provisions of the Territorial laws, a number of justices of the peace, five of whom should constitute a quorum for holding court. This body of justices was required to meet three times a year, and hence received the name of the Court of Quarter Sessions of the Peace.

"The first court held in this county convened at Chillicothe on the fourth Tuesday of December, 1798. It was called the court of common pleas for the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, and was presided over by 'gentlemen justices' commissioned by Gov. Arthur

St. Clair. Thomas Worthington, James Scott, Samuel Finley, William Patton, Elias Langham, James Ferguson, John Guthrey, James Dunlap, Robert Gregg, Isaac Davis and Reuben Abrams, were appointed justices by commissions which bore date, October 11, 1798. James Scott, Samuel Finley and James Ferguson soou resigned; but the others served until the judiciary was reorganized under the State constitution, and even after that event, Patton and Abrams, with Felix Renick, Isaac Cook, and others, served the State long and well as associate judges of the court of common pleas.*

"At the opening of the first term of this court, there were present of these justices, Worthington, Scott, Finley, Patton and Langham. Edward Tiffin was the prothonotary, or clerk, and Jeremiah McLene (afterwards secretary of state) was sheriff. So far as we can ascertain, the only licensed attorneys present at this first court were John S. Will and Levin Belt. The licenses to practice law, granted by this territorial court, were as follows: Robert F. Slaughter in March, 1799, William Creighton and James Montgomery in June, 1799, Michael Baldwin in November, 1799, and Thomas Scott in June, 1801. The first cause docketed was: 'Blair vs. Blair. In case. Damages thirty dollars. Daniel Rotruck, special bail.'

"The first jury was empaneled in the case of Kennett vs. Hamilton, and the entry upon the journal is as follows: 'A jury was returned by the sheriff, to-wit: Isaac Davis, Jas. Hays, Joseph Tiffin, William McLinahan, Isaac Owens, Jno. Wilkinson, Robert W. Finley, Elias Bootman, Jno. Bishong, Jno. Patton, Benj. Miller and Jas. Kilgore, who, being duly elected, tried and sworn, found a verdict for the defendant.' Truly a model entry for conciseness and simplicity. Failure to agree upon a verdict was rare in those good old times when 'rogues were hung that jurymen might dine;' and the modern practitioner is often tempted to wish for a return to the old practice.

"Nearly all the entries in 'order book A' are in the neat and correct handwriting of Edward Tiffin; but at the September term, 1799, the prothonotary tried a deputy, and that deputy, evidently an Irishman who wrote a good hand, but spelled with a brogue, for he always wrote Justice Ferguson's name 'Faugorson' and Guthrey's 'Gutery,' and closed the daily records of the courts 'adJournments.' His record, however, only fills six pages, when Tiffin resumed the pen, and continued them until the January term, 1803, when, says the record, "Thomas Scott, esq., produced a commission from Charles Willing Byrd, Esq., acting governor, appointing him prothonotary of the county,' after which, having taken the required oath, he assumed the

*This and other paragraphs quoted in this chapter are taken, by permission of Col. William E. Gilmore, from his sketch of the Bench and Bar of Ross county.