The blackness of midnight hung over the ocean,
And savagely, shrilly, the Storm Spirit screamed.
Athwart the dark billows, which wild in commotion,
Sublimely, yet awfully, heavenward streamed.
A bark that but rode from her moorings at morning,
'Neath bright sunny skies, and prosperous gales,
With streamlet and banner, in beauty adorning
Her tapering masts and snowy white sails,
Now rolls in the trough of the tempest-plowed surges!
A wreck! madly urged to a rocky bound shore;
Where from the dark jaws of wild ocean emerges,
To fear-stricken hearts its ominous roar
Her sails are in ribbons, her banners in tatters!
Her masts are afloat from the perilous wreck,
And now o'er the billows the Tempest Fiend scatters
With one mighty effort her hurricane deck!
The voice of the clarion-toned captain is ringing,
Above the hoarse murmuring roar of the surge,
And an echoing voice, seems sepulchrally flinging,
Far back o'er the waves, for the vessel, a dirge.
And now the doomed vessel is beating and crashing,
With violence on the dark, rough, rugged rocks;
And the tempest-tossed surge, while resistlessly dashing
Around her, each effort to save her but mocks.
The lightnings play luridly, fiercely above her,
Illuming with horror the wind-cloven waves!
Displaying the wreck, as their flashes discover,
The victims despairingly gaze on their graves.
For forked and furious, the fiery flung flashes,
Gleam o'er the sad wreck like a funeral pyre;
And louder and louder each thunder clap crashes.
The air in a roar! the billows on fire!
The heart-anguished cries o'er the pitiless waters,
Are borne on the blast of the thunder-rocked air,
As husbands and wives, as sons and as daughters,
Unite in a wild shrieking wail of despair.
But now from the moss covered fisherman's dwelling,
The _Life-Boat_ is manned by the chivalrous brave!
Though the wild howling storm of the tempest is swelling,
They'll peril their own lives, the wrecked ones to save.
And now to the merciless surges they launch her,
And back she is flung to the white-pebbled beach!
Now cleaves the wild surf, for never a stauncher,
Or braver crew mounted a deadlier breach.
Now swift o'er the waves madly bounding and dashing!
The nobly manned life-boat speeds on her lone way,
Now sinks she below, the waves o'er her splashing,
Now cleaves like arrow, the white foaming spray.
And now for a moment she's hid from our vision,
As darkness, and thick gloom enshroud her frail form;
A flash! and we see that the life-saving mission,
Still skims o'er the waves like a Bird of the Storm.
Hurrah! they have triumphed! the wrecked ones no longer
Resignedly list to the ocean's hoarse roar;
But now with strong arms, that bright Hope has made stronger,
They pull with a hearty good-will for the shore.
Hurrah! and Hurrah! on the whirlwind's commotion,
And the howl of the storm, uprose cheers from the land;
From hearts throbbing wildly with grateful emotion,
As safely she reaches the surf-beaten strand.
The Æronaut's Song.
Up! up! from the ground, for the chords that bound
Us to earth are rent in twain;
And our Aerial boat shall gracefully float,
Far, far, o'er the sea and main.
O'er the forest trees, on the rippling breeze,
We'll proudly soar away:
And higher and higher, will still aspire,
Toward realms of endless day.
To regions on high, like an arrow we fly,
Through limitless fields of air;
And away apace, through trackless space,
The giddiest flight we dare.
Earth's brilliance fades, and her everglades
Assumes a softer hue;
Her hills and dales, her lake gemmed vales
Are glorious to the view.
Meandering round enchanted ground,
Earth's crystal rivers seem;
So far below to brightly flow,
Like liquid silver's stream.
Her cloud capped hills o'er rocks and rills,
That proudly seem to stand,
Now fade like gleams in passing dreams
Of lovely fairy land.
Yet on we mount to the drainless fount,
Of wild tempestuous storms;
And our fairy shrouds now kiss the clouds;
In all their varied forms.
Proud man, who at birth was king of the earth,
Soon made himself lord of the sea;
And now we arise to empyrean skies,
For kings of the air are we.
Grim centuries old to the past have rolled,
Since the stars from chaos-woke;
Yet no earth-born sound hath this deep, profound
And solemn silence broke.
The highest note of the lark ne'er floats
To this region of sunless cloud;
Nor hath eagle bird the silence stir'd,
With his screaming, shrill and loud.
Yet our joyous song, as we sweep along
In pathless realms afloat,
Rings on the air and trembles there,
From out our fairy boat.
On eddying waves a thousand caves,
Where Aerial spirits throng,
Repeat each tone as though they'd known
Our unfamiliar song.
O'er billowy seas with fresh'ning breeze,
'Tis glorious oft to roam;
And joy to mark a graceful bark,
Divide the salt sea foam:
And joy to wake at morning break,
When huntsman's bugle sounds,
And gaily lead on fiery steed,
In chase of deer and hounds.
But moonlight sail with fresh'ning gale,
Or merry chase afar,
Can ne'er compare with flight through air,
In our Aerial Car.
Early in 1853, Mr. Gray, who was also then postmaster, offered him a
position in the Cleveland post-office, which he accepted, and entered upon
its duties; but at the end of two months, being dissatisfied with the dull
routine and monotony of such an occupation, he threw up his position; and
having, on the very day he left the post-office, decided to adopt the
legal profession, before night he had secured a position in the law office
of Charles Stetson, Esq., then in large and active practice, and had
entered upon the study of the law, where he continued for over a year and
a half, pursuing his studies with assiduity and success. He then entered
the law office of Hon. William Collins and pursued his studies with him
until June, 1855, when he was admitted to the Bar by the District Court in
Delaware, Delaware county, Ohio.
[Illustration: Yours Very Truly, James M. Jones.]
Shortly after his admission to the Bar, he was retained as leading
counsel for the defence in the famous "Townsend McHenry" extradition case,
a proceeding pending before U. S. Commissioner Grannis, on the charge that
the prisoner, who claimed to be Robert McHenry, was no other than the
notorious William Townsend, a well known, desperate Canadian highway
robber and murderer; and in this Mr. Jones attracted attention by the
skill with which he managed it. Indeed, it became necessary to send to
Canada for several successive lots of witnesses, before they could make a
case. The prisoner was, however, taken to Canada and put upon his trial
for murder as William Townsend, the sole question on the trial being one
of identity; and a more extraordinary trial in that respect cannot be
found in history. And although on the trial about one hundred witnesses
testified to his being the veritable William Townsend, he was,
nevertheless, able to produce a still larger number of equally credible
witnesses to testify that they knew Townsend, and this was not the man,
and also such an array of circumstances as satisfied the jury he was not
the man, and he was acquitted!
Mr. Jones was nominated by the Republican party of Cleveland as judge of
the City Court, in 1857, but in common with the entire ticket, was
defeated. He was an early adherent of the old Liberty party, and a warm
advocate on the stump and elsewhere, of the election of John C. Fremont to
the Presidency, and a firm supporter of Lincoln's administration.
He was appointed Attorney for the Western Union Telegraph Company, one of
the largest corporations in the United States, in the year 1865, and has
ever since continued, as such attorney, to have charge and supervision of
a large and peculiar legal business for the company, extending over the
various States and Territories embraced in what is known as the Central
Division of the territory covered by its lines. He has made telegraph law
a speciality for several years, and has probably had as large and extended
experience in that comparatively new and peculiar branch of the law as any
other attorney in the country.
He was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the county of Cuyahoga, in the
Fall of 1867, and was distinguished during his term for the zeal,
fidelity, and ability with which he discharged his officiai duties. It
fell to his lot to prosecute many important and difficult criminal cases;
prominent among them was the trial of Sarah M. Victor, for the murder, by
poison, of her brother, William Parquette. The case was peculiar and
remarkable; the murdered man had lain in his grave a whole year before
suspicions were aroused that his death was caused by foul play; slight
circumstances directed attention to suspicious appearances in the case,
which a quiet investigation did not diminish. The prosecutor, therefore,
caused the body to be secretly disinterred, and engaged J. L. Cassells, an
accomplished chemist, to subject the body to a chemical analysis, which on
being done, arsenic in sufficient quantity to produce death was found in
the stomach and other internal organs. Her arrest for murder, therefore,
immediately took place. The circumstances of the case were well calculated
to arouse an intense interest in the public mind as to the result of the
trial. The facts that the alleged poisoner was a woman, that the murdered
man was her own brother, that her own sister was supposed to be an
important witness against her, that the murder, if murder it was, was in
the highest degree cruel, mercenary, and devilish, that at the time of her
arrest she was prominently connected with religious and benevolent
institutions of the city, though it was well known she had previously led
an irregular life, and the profound secrecy in which the dark deed had
slumbered for a whole year, all seemed to concur in riveting public
attention upon it; and yet, previous to the trial, the belief was
prevalent in the community generally, as well as among the members of the
Bar, that however guilty the prisoner might be, she would not be
convicted. In this belief the prosecutor did not share, but at once went
to work with his accustomed energy to unravel the evidences of the great
crime; and for many weeks, with an energy that never flagged, himself and
his assistant, H. B. DeWolf, Esq., patiently and persistently explored the
dark secrets of her life, examined hundreds of witnesses, and inextricably
wound the coils of evidence around her.
The case, which was tried in the May term of the Court of Common Pleas,
1868, lasted fourteen days, was fully reported phonographically, and made
about twenty-seven hundred pages of testimony, which was pronounced, when
closed on the part of the State, "a marvelous net-work of circumstantial
evidence."
The case was closed by Mr. Jones in an able and conclusive speech of six
hours in length. The prisoner was convicted by the jury after but a
brief deliberation, and she was sentenced to be hanged, but her sentence
was afterward commuted to imprisonment for life. In numerous other
important and warmly contested criminal cases Mr. Jones has been almost
uniformly successful, displaying in them all, much tact, self-possession,
and legal ability.
Mr. Jones was married at Chagrin Falls, Cuyahoga county, Ohio, February
8th, 1860, by the Rev. Luther Lee, to Ermina W., daughter of Harmon and
Leonora Barrows, of the latter place.
Educational.
Citizens of Cleveland are justly proud of their Public Schools, and of the
system of education under which they are conducted, but yet the history of
these schools, until within a few years, was one of struggle against
parsimony and prejudice. It was only by persistent efforts on the part of
a few public-spirited citizens, who believed that money spent in educating
the masses is the best investment that can possibly be made, that the
Public School system of Cleveland has attained its present excellence, and
the miserable make-shift school buildings, in which the children of the
city were taught have given place to the large, convenient and elegant
buildings of the present.
The first public school of Cleveland, the "Cleveland Free School," was
established in March, 1830, "for the education of male and female children
of every religious denomination," and was supported by the city. It was
held for years in the basement of the Bethel church, which was then a
frame building, measuring forty by thirty feet, situated at the corner of
Diamond street and Superior Street hill. In 1837, the average number of
pupils in attendance was ninety males and forty-six females. There were
also the Young Ladies' Seminary, or the old "Academy," on St. Clair
street, presided over by Miss Harrison, and the Cleveland Female Seminary,
in Farmer's Block, corner of Ontario and Prospect streets, incorporated
April, 1837, with Henry Sexton, Benjamin Rouse, H. H. Dodge, A. P. Smith,
and A. Wheeler as trustees. At that date, Ohio City supported two district
and one free school, but the attendance is not recorded.
The story of the growth of the school system of the State and of its local
development in the city of Cleveland is mainly told in the biography of
Mr. Harvey Rice, on pages following this, and in the preceding pages which
sketch the history of Mr. Charles Bradburn. All that is necessary to be
given here, is a brief summary of some of the leading events in the
history of the Cleveland Public Schools as prepared by one who took a
leading part in their organization and development.
The Public Schools were organized under the city charter in 1837, and the
control vested in a board of five school managers, elected by the Council.
The chairman of the board was styled the acting manager, and was secretary
and Superintendant of repairs and of discipline. This original arrangement
was succeeded in 1853, by a board of seven members, appointed by the
Council. In 1854, when Cleveland and Ohio City were united, another change
occurred. One member of the school board from each of the eleven Wards was
chosen by the Council. In 1856, the number was reduced to five, and
finally, in 1859, by authority of a law of the State, the members of the
Board of Education, one from each Ward, were elected by the people, for
the term of one year, which was extended to two years in 1862, and so
remains to the present time. The powers of the board were greatly enlarged
by a law passed in the Spring of 1869.
Charles Bradburn was the first acting manager, secretary and
superintendent, assisted and encouraged by a few warm friends of
education, chief of whom, at this time, was Geo. Willey. In 1840, Mr.
Andrew Freese was employed as principal teacher, and soon became actual
superintendent, though not formally clothed with that authority until
several years afterwards. In the meantime, school buildings were erected
on Prospect street, Rockwell street, West St. Clair street and Kentucky
street, (West Side).
For several years the course of instruction was quite limited, and of low
grade. The school buildings, then supposed to be large and commodious,
were soon crowded with scholars very much mixed, as to standing, and
moving forward amid much confusion. In 1841, the second stories of the
Prospect street and Bockwell street buildings were converted into grammar
schools of a higher grade. The West St. Clair street school was the first
one arranged for the improved grading of primary and secondary schools in
separate departments.
In 1850, the board directed Mr. Freese to exercise a general
superintendence over the classification, instruction and discipline in all
the grammar and subordinate schools, but no superintendent was authorized
by law, until 1853. It was full time that some authority should be
introduced to correct the abuses which had insensibly and unavoidably
crept into the discipline and course of instruction, and vigorous
enforcement of strict rules brought out a fierce opposition from anxious,
but ill-informed and partial parents, who felt provoked and discouraged by
the discovery that their children were in classes far ahead of their
actual qualifications and must be put back to be more thoroughly drilled
in preparatory studies. Gradually confusion gave place to order, scholars
were ranked as near as could be according to their actual standing; the
grades arranged as Primary, Secondary, Intermediate and Grammar
departments, the entire course consummated in the East and West High
Schools. But all this was the work of immense labor, extending through
years of ceaseless effort and expense, little anticipated by the people,
or perhaps by the hopeful projectors of the system, when they so manfully
entered upon the undertaking. Twenty-six years ago the entire corps of
teachers numbered only fifteen. In 1848, they had increased to twenty. In
that year, children under six years of age were excluded, to the great
disgust of many fond mothers who thought the public school the very best
place to keep the troublesome young ones out of their way.
Under the general school law a portion of the taxes collected was set
apart for the support of the schools, while a special fund for school
buildings was raised, from time to time, by direct taxation, or by
loan, and buildings erected in the different Wards as the city
increased in extent.
In 1846, the East High School was opened in the basement of the old
Universalist Church (now the Plymouth Church) on Prospect street, near
Erie street. A strong opposition was made to this advanced step. It was
objected to as illegal, which it actually was, though that was soon
remedied; and as unnecessary and unreasonable.
It is gratifying to know that many of those strenuous opponents are
now among the warm friends of the High Schools, and justly proud of
their success.
Richard Fry, then Principal of the West St Clair school, distinguished
himself by his writings through the press, and his speeches at public
meetings, in advocating the claims of the High School, and thus powerfully
sustained its friends in their unpopular contest. The law authorizing a
High School limited the whole course to two years, and required one year's
previous attendance at one of the grammar schools.
In 1851, a regular course of instruction was adopted, extending to three
years, but still confined to English studies. In 1856, the Latin and
Greek languages were introduced, and in 1859, the German was added to
the full course. These ancient and foreign languages were optional with
the students, as well as the French language, which was introduced some
years later.
The first graduated class consisted of ten scholars, eight of whom
afterwards became teachers. Indeed, it soon became evident that the High
School was not only the best, but almost the only reliable source of
supplying teachers for the subordinate schools, which were fast
increasing. The extreme difficulty of procuring competent and reliable
teachers had, all along, been one of the greatest embarrassments in
carrying forward a course of instruction, extensive, thorough, and
heretofore almost unknown west of the mountains.
The original design of one central High School was found to be unsuited to
the extended territory on both sides of the river, and two High Schools
were substituted.
The East High School building was completed and opened in 1856. The West
High School was first opened in the Kentucky street building, and
continued there for several years, until in 1861, the new building was
completed.
In 1861, Mr. Freese was relieved from the superintendency which had become
too laborious for his declining health, and L. M. Oviatt took the
management for two years, when he was succeeded by Anson Smyth, formerly
State Superintendent. On his resignation, Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff, of
Cincinnati, was called to the position. Under his management important
changes in the classification and management of the schools have been
introduced.
The prominence given to Messrs Bradburn, Willey and Freese, in the history
of the public schools, is not intended to disparage or undervalue the
services rendered by many others, without whose hearty and efficient
co-operation the whole undertaking would have failed. Prominent among these
cooperators were J. D. Cleveland, J. Fitch, Dr. Maynard, Harvey Rice, Bev.
J. A. Thome, T. P. Handy, W. D. Beattie, (since deceased,) R. B. Dennis,
Ansel Roberts, L. M. Oviatt, and Thos. Jones, Jr.
In 1868, there were eighteen male, and one hundred and thirty-nine female
teachers employed in the public schools of the city, making an aggregate
of one hundred and fifty seven. The total number of pupils enrolled was
10,154. The average number belonging to the schools, 7060, and the average
daily attendance, 6623.
[Illustration: Yours Truly, Harvey Rice]