Ford School was in Lafayette. At the moment I've forgotten where; perhaps
someone else can tell us. I have a great grandmother (Julia Alice Royal
Frantz) who attended there, probably in the late 1870s or early 1880s. The
Royals lived on the west edge of Dayton, Indiana. It seems that county
young people attended there as well as Lafayette youth, either by staying
in town or by coming in each day.
Here is an article about the Ford School from the Lafayette "Daily
Courier," dated Saturday, July 6, 1872:
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Lafayette Public Schools
[picture of Ford School Building]
We occupied a leisure hour this forenoon in accompanying J. T. Merrill,
Esq., the efficient Superintendent of the Public Schools, to the Ford
School Building, to take a look through the various rooms and examine the
varied and large assortment of geological specimens, which comprise the
cabinet of curiosities, as well as the splendid apparatus used in the
illustration of the scientific studies of the pupils.
Upon the walls, in tasteful letters, are inscribed mottoes,
reminding the youth who gather within their sacred precincts to drink from
the Pyerian spring of their duties and privileges. Some of these we
transfer to our columns: "Prize the Truth," "Love One Another,"
"What I do
I will do Well," "No Excellence Without Great Labor,"
"Perseverance," "God
Bless our Schools," "He does well who does the best he can," "Be
Faithful
to Every Trust."
There are fourteen rooms occupied as school and recitation rooms,
admirably seated and complete in all their appointments, including a
lecture room which will readily seat three hundred pupils. They are
tastefully adorned with pictures, rendering them cheerful and giving an air
of refinement to all the surroundings.
The cabinet embraces many rare specimens of fossil formation, some
two hundred of which came from Germany, all appropriately labelled. We are
not sufficiently conversant with geology to describe them, or to give their
names. Superintendent Merrill has been at great pains to collect them and
to have them properly arranged. Many of them were contributed by Mr. Stein,
of this city, who brought them with him from California and Utah, on his
return from the Pacific slope last summer. The appliances for making
chemical tests are ample and excellent.
The astronomical and electrical apparatus have been purchased under
the supervision of Mr. Merrill, and are perhaps the best to be found in any
public school in the State of Indiana. The electrical machines, the
telegraphic battery, the astronomical views, with the gas generators, all
in the hands of the skillful teacher, assist in making clear to the pupil
the hidden mystery of science. We can not forbear giving a description of
the "Celestial Indicator," an admirable apparatus in facilitating the study
of astronomy, which it has been eloquently said has "the beauty of poetry
and the exactness of geometry."
The Celestial Indicator, invented and constructed by Mr. Henry
Bryant, is a simple apparatus which illustrates with great clearness many
important astronomical phenomena.
It is a celestial sphere within which the sun and planets are
placed in their proper positions. All the parts have freedom of motion
whenever motion is required. Without entering into detail, a few of the
most striking illustrations are the following:
The subject of celestial measurements is made very clear, the
meaning of right ascension and declination being seen as [illegible on my
copy].
The procession of the equinoxes is beautifully shown, also the
changes consequent thereon, of the places of the fixed stars, referred to
the vernal equinox, the ecliptic, and celestial equator, and the varying
positions of the poles of the heavens through thousands of years. The
changes of the seasons, the phases of the moon, and eclipses, both solar
and lunar, are all illustrated.
The conjunction, oppositions, and the direct and retrograde motions
of the planets are also explained by means of this apparatus, and likewise
the transits of Mercury and Venus.
Every true citizen feels a just pride in our public schools, which,
with the excellent corps of teachers the Superintendent has called around
him, and ably seconded by the present Board of Trustees, are, we may say
without exaggeration, equal to any in the West. The interest of our
citizens in their prosperity was manifested in the large number who crowded
the First Baptist Church and thronged the pavement in front of it, on the
occasion of the exercises attending the first graduating class of the Ford
School, a few evenings since. They have a right to be proud of the
magnificent educational facilities in our midst, and they can most heartily
join in the invocation, "God bless our schools." They are, indeed, poor
men's colleges, where their children can be educated and fitted for the
active duties of life.
------
The above beautiful cut of the Ford School building will soon appear in
"Hissam [?]'s Historical Sketch, &c, of Lafayette," which is about to
be
issued.
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The Daily Courier is available on microfilm at the Tippecanoe County Public
Library.
On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:42:48 -0400 Michele <mshaffer(a)erols.com>
wrote:
Subject: [INTIPPEC-L] Ford School--Clarks Hill?
In the Mar 13, 1880 obituary of Ollie Shaffer, it states he was "late of
the Ford school." He lived in Clarks Hill and was age 22 when he died.
Does anyone have information on this school?
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