Millennium Update
It's All Academic
September 19, 1999

School days, school days, dear old golden rule days.

I'm not sure, but I believe there are certain people who've been walking around town for the past month with a song on their lips, a spring in their step and a smile on their faces.

They are parents. And school has started. Whew!

Well, they're in good company. Packing the youngins' off to school has been an autumn ritual in Fostoria for over 100 years.

Education here dates back to 1833, 22 years before Fostoria's incorporation, when the village of Rome (the area surrounding Tiffin and Main Streets) built a log school house at Poplar and South Streets.

The first teacher was Freeman Luce. He came from Ashland County and was engaged to teach three months, 26 days per month, at a rate of $10 a month.

He also received free lodging.

By 1845, Risdon (Countyline and Summit Streets) had its own school having seceded from a "country district." One of the early teachers was James Hays.

It was recorded that Hays "ruled his little school of Risdon youngsters with a stern manner and a birchen rod."

By 1863, Fostoria had been incorporated for nine years. On March 21, the electorate voted unanimously to establish a city school district.

The first school board included Charles Foster. Edwin Bement was the first board president.

From the 1870s until 1908, Fostoria engaged in an ambitious building program. Eight schools were built including the "Central Building" or "Union School" which most folks know today as the abandoned Emerson Junior High School.

Other schools were built on Sixth Street, Crocker Street, Columbus Avenue, Center Street, Union Street, and Sandusky Street. These schools went by their street names (or by their ward designations) until the names were changed to honor American Poets -- Longfellow, Lowell, Field, Holmes, Riley, Bryant, Whittier and Emerson.

In 1900, the school board issued its annual report and it's an interesting look at the schools a century ago.

If you can believe it, the total amount spent on teacher salaries came to a tidy $15,972 -- for both the elementary schools and the high school. Total enrollment was 1,541 pupils who were instructed by 40 teachers, a ratio of 38.5 students per teacher.

And what were each of those teachers imparting to his or her 38.5 eager students? Here is the curriculum -- American history and government, history, English, Latin, mathematics, science, reading, music and physical culture.

Fostoria first facts -- educationally speaking.

The first of the schools, the one completed in 1874 was the Central Building which was the high school from the beginning.

And space considerations be hanged, the Focus hereby provides its readers a complete list of the 1874 FHS graduating class -- Lucille and Ida Whitacre. (We don't fool around when it comes to complete lists!)

The first student publication was "The Signal" which appeared just before the turn of the century. An annual subscription was 75 cents. You could also buy it off the shelf at Cunningham and Manecke's Drug Store.

The first FHS basketball game was played March 12, 1904. Arcadia provided the opposition and the match was contested in the Arcadia Town Hall.

But guess what? The result of the game isn't known! That part has been lost in the shrouded mists of 95 years of history.

Of course, having mentioned roundball, it wouldn't do at all to neglect a mention of Redmen football.

FHS first took to the gridiron on 1896. Alas, 'twas a dismal beginning. FHS played four games, lost all four and got shut out in all four.

Fortunes brightened swiftly. By 1900, the team was 7-1.In '01, the record was 5-2-1 and FHS was named Northwestern Ohio Champions.

In 1902, the Red and Black, as they were known then, captured their first state title, outscoring their nine opponents 271-5.

Speaking of Red and Black, here's how they became the colors of FHS athletics. By 1898, FHS had adopted Red and Black.

That would have been simple enough except that Findlay High School had the same colors. Needless to say, that was simply an intolerable situation. The two schools were scheduled to play on Thanksgiving Day 1898.

The principals of the schools agreed that the outcome of that game would decided forevermore who would cover themselves in Red and Black and who would be banished to the fabric shops searching for new hues, tones, tints, casts and shades.

Score? Fostoria 15, Findlay 12. Yay.

In its report for the year 1900 the school board said, "From 1833 to 1900, the schools of this community have enjoyed a progressive development...The people of Fostoria have been noted for their deep interest in education. They have taxed themselves liberally for the support of the schools. The intelligence, the enterprise and the moral earnestness of the people have constantly sought and realized high educational goals."

That sentiment is just as worthy of our consideration as we stand poised on the beginning of the 21st century as it was of our forebears' as they embarked on the 20th.

(I'm not going giving short shrift to St. Wendelin's schools. They might just be the subject of next month's Millennium Update. It could happen. - L.Sk.)