Mount Pleasant Boarding School

The Friends of Mount Pleasant went through variations in their educational objectives similar to those of Quakers of other areas. A number of college men among the early settlers of Mount Pleasant realized the necessity of developing a sound educational system as early as possible. The first record of any concern among the Ohio Quakers for the advanced education of their children came in the 1814 Ohio Yearly Meeting. The next year the yearly meeting appointed a committee to study the subject, which advised that each quarterly meeting make provision for contributions from its members for a yearly meeting school fund. The committee also recommended a boarding school be built since many Friends lived too far from any school to send their children on a daily basis. In 1816, the yearly meeting school fund committee membership included Abel Knight, Jonathan Taylor, Nathan Updegraff, Isaac Packer, William Heald, David Brown, Emmor Bailey, James Paty, Richard Barrett, and George Shugart.

The school fund grew slowly until 1824 when Thomas Rotch bequeathed $5,000 to it. For the next several years nothing was accomplished regarding a school because the Friends were too immersed in the Great Separation problem beginning in 1828. Also, many Quaker families wanted their children at home in the winter to do the "chores." So it was not until 1831 that the Friends again seriously considered the subject of a school. By that time the fund totaled around $7,000. It was reported at the Ohio Yearly Meeting that other yearly meetings had taken an interest in the school project and had volunteered to supply funds. As a result, the school committee of forty-five persons began to seek an appropriate site for the proposed boarding school.

In 1832 the committee purchased sixty-four acres of land, near the yearly meeting house lot, from Dr. William Hamilton of Mount Pleasant. Also, lumber was purchased for the building. The committee recommended that the school be open to both male and female students but that there should be distinctly separate facilities for the sexes. There was to be a wing on either side of the main building for separate classrooms and lodging and dining halls for the students and teachers. In addition, there were to be a garden and walks on each side connected with the wings but entirely separate from each other. Finally, the committee emphasized that it was their hope that the children should receive a religious, not a literary, education.

In 1835 the boarding school committee decided on the building dimensions: a 40 by 46 foot center building, three stories high, plus a basement; a wing at each end of the building two stories high above the basement. The principal building was to cost $ 1 0,000 with the completion date set for September 1836. The building was actually completed in 1837, at a cost of $10,450. Friends in New England and in England pledged $2,000 each for the construction of the boarding school. It was designed to accommodate about 120 children and youth.

The Mount Pleasant Friends Boarding School, or, as it was popularly called, the "Quaker Seminary," was opened to students on January 23, 1837. Daniel Williams and his wife Elizabeth were the first superintendent and matron. Robert S. Holloway and his wife Abby, George K. Jenkins, and Abigail Flanner were the first teachers. The men were paid a maximum of $400 and the women $250. A governor for the boys department, who was to provide for the good order of the school, was added in 1838. During the first six months of operation the school averaged about eighty-five pupils who paid a tuition rate of $65 for the six-month term.

The proposed school calendar was two sessions of twenty-four weeks with two two-week vacations. During the winter term, which normally opened the week following the Ohio Yearly Meeting, morning classes began at 8:30 and ended at 11:30 o'clock, and afternoon classes lasted from 2 until 5. There was an evening class from 6 to 7:30. During the summer term, the evening class was transferred to the morning, beginning at 6 and ending at 7:30. The times of the other classes remained the same. Religious meetings were held the first and fifth days of the week.

The education received was guarded and liberal, one of literary and scientific instruction as well as the imparting of the doctrines of the Gospel and the Quaker testimonies. The primary pupils had instruction in spelling and definitions, reading, geography, arithmetic, English grammar, and writing. Advanced pupils studied natural philosophy, chemistry, rhetoric, logic, mineralogy, botany, bookkeeping, astronomy, political economy, moral philosophy, political grammar, mensuration, trigonometry, algebra, geometry, use of globes, theory of astronomy and calculations, French, Latin, and Greek. Also, students had Scripture recitations and exercises during the afternoon of the first day of the week and passages of Scripture were read every evening just before bedtime.

Operation of the Mount Pleasant Boarding School was not without problems. Living conditions at the school were only adequate at best. Since there were no cook stoves, all preparation of meals was made over open fires. There were no washing facilities and no indoor plumbing-common conditions in those days and communicable diseases occurred frequently. The school's financial records during the first several years revealed a deficit of $500 to $800 a year. This resulted in the need to increase tuition. The boarding school never seemed to have enough capital with which to operate. However, in the late 1850's a new superintendent, Yardley Warner, began to economize by joining several of the previously separate boys and girls classes and by having all persons at the boarding school eat in the same dining room.
Despite the many obstacles, in comparison with other schools of the day, the Mount Pleasant Boarding School furnished its young students with a narrow but solid range of studies. Certainly the students grew immeasurably in the education of life, living and learning together in a religious atmosphere.

But the boarding school was not destined to last indefinitely. A conflict over possession of the school developed from the separation created by the controversy between Joseph J. Gurney and John Wilbur. In 1854 the Hoyle group (Wilburites) maintained control of the school, although allowing the children of the Binns group (Gurneyites) to attend. In 1868 the Binns group sued for possession of the property and finally, in 1874, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in its favor. Subsequently, the school closed that year. The new owners of the Mount Pleasant Boarding School were in the process of renovating the structure when it was destroyed by fire in 1875, and was never rebuilt. However, plans had been made in 1874 for a new school, which opened in 1876 near Barnesville. It is still in existence, under direction of the Conservative Friends.