(Third in the series)

As intimated previously, change and the needs of change, were no different in the organization of the B.I.S. than any other human organization. Perhaps it even needs to be said it would be surprising if no changes were ever needed or made. My wife and I wrote a history of a county children’s home here in Lancaster, Ohio, and early in our research we found evidences of discontent, prejudices and other negative vibrations but we chose not to build on that because few of the former superintendents of that 99 year-old institution (Fairfield County Children’s Home) were alive to enable them to have a “last word”. Indeed, change in itself is a fact of life that serves as a guarantee that things will not always be as they seem and this fact alone serves as a relief valve to those of us who find the need to criticize and even condemn the work of others. As in the work of either of these county and state organizations, the work was often left to those whose willingness to help surpassed their abilities or qualifications and further they were often found doing a job that no one else wanted to do. It is almost like children criticizing a parent for the way they were treated, until they became a parent themselves. Leaders are not always able to find or are provided the trained and qualified workers needed.

A JOURNEY BACK IN HISTORY

We have to turn the pages of history back around 153 years to learn about Charles Reemelin’s extended trip visiting reform schools in the United States (but none of those convinced him as being what was needed).

“I wanted a school that was in no way a prison, except for temporary punishment.” His visits abroad took him to reform schools in England, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. He was most impressed by an institution in Paris called, “Colony de Mettray.” In his visits there, interviewing boys and staff in that institution, he learned “…boys became good gardeners, fine mechanics and trusty laborers. … I talked with many boys there and found, that, with most of them, being taken there, was in itself a reform, because it effected a liberation from prison aid and discipline.” Charles Reemelin’s enthusiasm was challenged by a German Catholic Bishop who accompanied him to Mettray: “You will never succeed in establishing a Mettray in the United States, because you will not have the requisite persons for the right economical administration, or the right religious education.” The priest went on to caution Mr. Reemelin, “In the United States they have not yet learned the value of especially capable public administration, by servants in the best sense; to-wit: that of well disciplined persons, animated by a stern public spirit, that has its best reward in accomplishing high moral good.”

This bishop’s advice had more truth in it than was pleasant for Charles Reemlin to admit but he hoped the United States would sometime reform their public administration. Many years had to pass before this prophecy of a Catholic bishop began to uncover circumstances and events that were to further challenge the work and mission of such a reform school in America. Fortunately, this experience probably became a benchmark to those whose minds were made up to “make this work” whatever circumstances arose. One thing, or so it seems to this writer, deeply set cultural philosophies are not to be overlooked and what works in one part of the world is no guarantee it will work (forever) in another part of the world. America is constantly changing in its views of values and ways of dealing with societal issues. The following words of Clarence Shepard Day contain the essence of reality in the examination of the beginnings of the B.I.S.,; however, the unfortunate and ultimate closing of this unique boys reform school in Ohio , was a fulfillment of that prophecy made by a Catholic bishop came to pass 150 years later. Again we are reminded of those lyrics from a song, “And nothing stays the same.”

"The world of books is the most remarkable creation of man. Nothing else that he builds ever lasts. Monuments fall; nations perish; civilizations grow old and die out; and, after an era of darkness, new races build others. But in the world of books are volumes that have seen this happen again and again, and yet live on, still young, still as fresh as the day they were written, still telling men's hearts of the hearts of men centuries dead.

— Clarence Shepard Day

In 1939, according to reports made in the previously mentioned book, the current administration at that time worked in cooperation with state appointed survey workers to address problems that existed and the results of that survey were published in 1940. As mentioned earlier it should not surprise anyone that problems (today they are called “issues” as if that would smooth over the “problems”) existed at the institution; what is good about all this is that accomplishments resulted to benefit the organization. Early on in that report, it was stated in some “General Conclusions”: “Fifth, Greater efforts by local communities to care for the delinquent boys at home, should reduce the number of boys sent to the school.” Excuse me, but isn’t that exactly what homes of the Judeo-Christian values have preached for centuries? What new idea is this? Virtuous men and women have valiantly fought for such circumstances and philosophies endlessly and the statement of President Woodrow Wilson attests this is nothing new:

“The sum of the whole matter is this, that our civilization cannot survive materially unless it is redeemed spiritually.”

Woodrow Wilson

Are we then to be surprised when a need is found at a state reform school that problems exist? Even a cursory observation of our society gives a basis for the following quote:

“A happy childhood is poor preparation for human contacts.” Colette French novelist, Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette -- January 28, 1873 – August 3, 1954

This observer of life freely announced that idealistic “happiness” is not the total answer either. Finally, it was good that minds could be brought together to find the root of the real problems and they were addressed. Later the school was able to continue, at least until “society” moved in again, making still more “improvements”. Criticisms from on-lookers are not always those that come from the well informed. Again, in our research for the history book, A PLACE TO CALL HOME, we were once told about an occasion where some people drove by a “group of children being made to work in the heat of the day in a garden”; after exclaiming this to be unreasonable work for children, the response of one of the children put the complaint in perspective, “But when we get done we can go swimming!!”

Work and everyday goings on, at an orphanage or a boys’ reform school were not exactly a Sunday school picnic environment. The children at the Fairfield County Children’s Home were there through no fault of their own but they were taught by precept and example that as a result of their labors in the field, in the barn lot, in the poultry houses, there would be food on the table. In other words they were taught individual responsibility is part of the marriage of life where “each and all” become one. Certainly it was not different in principle at the B.I.S. but one distinct fact exists, the boys at the B.I.S. were there because of a crime against society, so why would or should they be treated less propitiously than children at the orphanage? At least, as the thief on the cross was able to see, “we are here because of our crimes, and this man has done no wrong”. How we raise children has been an issue ever since the first child was born.

At least, in whatever era or generation of confinement, in a children’s home or a reform school, attempts were being made to teach young people there are responsibilities for all: shirking responsibilities only makes us further wards or dependents on the community, state or government. If someone finds fault with this, we lose touch with the reality that individuals are responsible and it is not realistic to claim “it’s not my fault” when a person is obviously guilty. Most children we interviewed (as adults who had matured through their residency at the Children’s Home) looked back with appreciation for the home they were given when their homes were ravaged by a turn in societal circumstances. In all honesty, some could not swallow such pride (guiltless individuality) and resented the years they spent at the orphanage. Are we to assume every boy who graduated from the B.I.S. or the Fairfield School for Boys would totally appreciate how they were treated as a resident?

Let’s leave the philosophical arguments and agendas to the historians and look back into those annals of time to see what the “current residents” in 1930’s had to say about the B.I.S. It is good, however, to mention Terry Selby, of Lancaster, Ohio, who has followed these essays since their beginning, related an occasion when he was able to participate in a sporting event at the B.I.S. After being in a boxing match with one of the B.I.S. boys, his remark was, “Boy, some of those boys could fight.” Perspective helps in any examination of facts.

HUMOR NOTES from “Boys’ Industrial School Journal”

Usher: (to cold dignified lady): Are you a friend of the groom?
The Lady: Indeed no! I am the bride’s mother.

The man who laughs at the awkward way his wife parks a car should see himself sewing a button on his shirt.

DEPARMENTAL NEWS ITEMS

THE SHOE SHOP
(written by one of the boys)

”Well, well! Here we are folks, back in this month’s journal. These notes find us working on new shoes and repairing those that need repairing. We have lost a few boys since our last report; also receiving a few new ones.

We still have the same line up on the working outfit. That is Federico, chief line boy and Big Shot-Slim, his helper.
Our enrollment for this month is 17 "all day" boys, 2 A.M. and 4 P.M. boys. All trying hard to keep their positions assigned by Mr. Moore, our instructor.

Crile, our blocker, is busy blocking out soles, heels, and half soles, also insoles. He said that “IF” he had a dime for every time that blocker hit boom on that block he’s be a millionaire and then some.

Mr. Moore, our instructor, has made up his mind at last to to on a vacation that he has been talking about. That leaves us working speedy ahead in our work so as we will not fall back in our work the first or second week he’s gone. We boys up here wish him a happy trip, for he sure deserves it, as he is the coolest, mildest office[r] to work for; just ask the boys up here and they will flood you over telling you the nice things he does for us. Oh, he just now said it is time to sweep, and so is it is so hot, I guess I will play around and then I won’t have to use a broom. I’m kind of a lazy fellow anyhow. The repair boys are the ones that use the broom the most, because they are the ones that make the dirt and now and then one of the other ones sweep out when all the repair boys are not here. Then when the floor is swept each and every boy tries to find some odd work to do until the whistle sounds, and then we close up for the day.”

THE BUTCHER SHOP
(one of the boys reported)

The past month the weather has been very hot and hard on fresh meat, but our cold storage has been working fine.
Temperature is held at 32 to 33 degrees and the meat keeps fine until it goes to the table. The boys will all have a chicken dinner Sunday. We have been busy all morning cutting up chicken ready for the pan.

Among our last lessons have been the several different uses a beef rump can be put to. The many different cuts of pot roast and how to save all the meat on a beef head.

Our spare time lately has been put in cleaning and painting pork barrels, getting them ready for winter. It takes about 60 barrels to take care of our pork. Well, we are through carving chicken and we all have cut fingers. You see we are not used to carving chicken, they don’t want to lay still long enough to get the “ax.”

The people “holler” about it being hot outside and we cry about it being too cold (in the cooler).

More to come from old records of the Boys’ Industrial School once in the Hocking Hills near Lancaster, Ohio.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Second in the series

The history of any organization, a nation or even a family presents a nearly presumptuous task and the only caveat that is lasting is the aphorism, “The only lasting thing is change.” No doubt any of the numberless (except to the true historian’s charts) superintendents of The Boys’ Industrial School would write the history almost entirely different than any previous or succeeding official. Right or wrong, history is often written as we see it, not as others might have seen it. The philosophy of a society or culture is under constant scrutiny and change is the only constant within any organization be it a family, a nation or any group between large and small entities. Naturally, ideas and the way things are done are the first casualties of change.

The very name of this state reform school for boys is an example of such changes. In 1858, the year of its beginning, “The Ohio Reform Farm & School” was the official name; words, phrases and terms were naturally different and would be as each generation followed. Succeeding administrations brought new and different people with concepts and procedures to fit the work as they saw it. Basics, although viewed or applied with verities of following administrations, were the change-less principles and precepts for this organization regardless what it was called.

Reading about the work the boys were required to do in 1858 compared to the work the boys were required to do in each succeeding “generation” is like visiting a library, going through doors of time. The very words “reform or reform school” came to mean something different as the times changed. Methods change as years pass and consequently people see issues differently and what was once thought to be proper or the best way are destined to become “old fashioned” or simply not in sync with the way things are done today.

The Ohio Reform & Farm School (name) was changed to The Boys’ Industrial School (B.I.S.) in 1885. In 1964 the name was changed to Fairfield School for Boys. In 1980 the Fairfield School for Boys (F.S.B.) was changed completely and became a prison for hardened criminals, replete with razor-fencing, etc. This series of essays is not to be regarded as a history of this Ohio Reform School, the Boys’ Industrial School or the Fairfield School for Boys. The purpose of this series of essays is merely a continued story of change and how it affected this particular reform school here in Fairfield County and the Hocking Hills region as it has been known for generations.

There is a song made popular by the Irish Tenors, which has a line in it that says, “And nothing stays the same…” Only a person with a tag or label, “Senior Citizen”, can hear that and not grin or perhaps even allow a tear to slide down our cheek. Lessons can either be learned or ignored as the torch of life’s circumstances is passed from one generation to another. This fact is so apparent in the business world that all eyes watch the third generation of a family business just to see what that generation will do with the business their grandfather started and their father continued; now history will reveal the success or failure of the third generation. Again, these essays are not really about this issue either, but rather the consequences of change can and will be seen to affect how this institution was run from one administration or generation to another. It is hoped that the reader can enjoy and appreciate simply reading how this all happened in the period from 1858 to 1980, over one hundred years of how Ohio addressed the problems of “boys who got in trouble”.

The very words used to describe the location of the B.I.S in its beginning days are descriptive of the times: “…three bathing houses, two shop buildings, two large barns, a wood house, bake house, lockup, wash house, ice house…” and the list goes on. Those terms are as foreign to us as night and day. In my own lifetime I have seen iceboxes replaced by refrigerators. As a child we used to go swimming at the public Miller’s Park swimming pool and customarily stop off at the Ice House to watch the delivery truck route men load their trucks with assorted sizes of ice blocks. Those men would use ice picks to break or divide larger blocks into smaller blocks and virtual piles of ice chips would be there and boys would grab assorted slivers of ice to suck on as they went on their way to further play or go back home. Today’s mothers would shutter to think of their children touching such ice today, let alone put it in their mouths.

In the early days of the B.I.S., the boys were regarded as human beings who, for the most part, did not have the privilege or blessing of being raised in a family but they had suffered greatly being from broken homes. The reform school attempted to instill in the boys under their care the need for an education, to learn how to “make an honest living when they leave us, to honor themselves, their commonwealth and their God.” It was recognized that many of the boys put into their care simply had no such rearing. Today our society even argues whether or not the name of God should be on our coins or biblical names or things, e.g., The Ten Commandments, should be prominent in public places. There was no shame felt for attempting to give boys in reform schools the fundamental principles of life that our country once felt essential. Similar examples of work ethics could be noted as an important part of life’s training.

Naturally times change and such adaptations were implemented as time went by at the Boys’ Industrial School. Where once it was felt the boys should even be taught how to sew, making the clothes (garments) that they wore and make shoes for their feet. Keeping boys busy was paramount and even as the “time changed” the principle was still the same – the objects in life simply took on new descriptions. Work, however, was an integral part in the farm of the B.I.S. A built-in task or labor force was there and made use of – thousands of fruit trees bore fruit that needed harvesting. Same with vegetable gardens, seedlings were planted and nourished into plants. Beef and pork were required staples for the dining tables. Cows needed to be milked; chickens were cared for, killed and dressed. Again, in my own lifetime I saw mothers tie the legs of a chicken on a clothes line in their back yards and using a sharp butcher knife cut off the chicken’s head and leave the animal bleed [dry]; later take that chicken and dip it in scalding water in preparation for removing (plucking) the feathers. Today, buying live chickens is not the way we shop or get a meal ready, at least in the United States. The B.I.S. taught the boys how to live in the society of that day; and such teaching changed as the society or culture of our country changed.

Looking back in the Boy’s Industrial School Journal of September 1930, one item lifted from Departmental News about the Carpenter Shop, on Page 23, was reported by one of the boys as follows:

“Well folks, we start the month of September with twelve all day boys. (Their names, although listed there, are not listed here with respect for their privacy)

”Now to explain in detail the work we were instructed to do during the last month. We will begin with Mr. Harmon and his chief carpenter, Schneider, who have been working down at the old power plant and also some of the amateur carpenters were helping out. (he again lists the ‘amateur carpenters, the B.I.S. boys). We also have a new instructor; his name is Mr. Rockey. He has done quite a bit of work around the School.

“We have been tearing down the old green house, while some of the boys were repairing crates. We have some boys who have been paroled; one was always feeling happy while another was singing the blues and yet another ‘doing the jig’. You can bust him up and he will keep smiling, you can give him a good calling down and he will still smile and feel happy and gay. [He named him because the boys would be reading this report later on and they would have a good laugh.]

”Well, all the same, we carpenters are pretty busy. Well, I guess we will close with our motto as follows: A good promise is poor pay if not kept.”

It is easily seen that the personality of any boy surfaced and how he reacted to either the work or the circumstances was evidence of how he regarded life as he knew it.

Next essay will tell about a couple more shops, e.g., the Shoe Shop and the Butcher Shop. Future essays will relate incidences about the Central School Library and The Commercial Class. Further episodes of The Poultry Yard and the Bake Shop will be featured. Communication was an important part of the lives of the boys “on the hill” and the boys in the Print Shop were a vital part of getting that word in print.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(First in the series)

Leslie Townes Hope could easily have been one of the most famous residents (aka, BOB HOPE) but I didn’t find that youthful stopover in his official web site. But this true account is one claim to fame that many natives of Lancaster Ohio have in regard to the B.I.S. (the Boys' Industrial School). Bob often joked about his English heritage by saying, “I left England at the age of four when I found out I couldn’t be King.” He was fifth in a family of seven sons. But I am wandering from my story.

The Boys' Industrial School has to be one of many success stories of Lancaster, Ohio, and the United States for that matter. According to a short piece I found on the internet by Leona L. Gustafson, “It was the first penal institution in America to make the ‘open system’ experiment, and so successfully was it operated that twenty-eight states have used the Lancaster school as a model.”

On this state property of 1200+ acres, six miles south of Lancaster, Fairfield County, Ohio, the population ranged in boys aged 8 to 18 serving time to have demerits cancelled by exemplary deportment. This system was quite different from typical reform schools since the property was not surrounded by walls and was entirely free from bolts, bars or other signs of restraint.

In this brief series of essays it is my hope to tell the story of how our state penal system worked in the last half of the 19th century and through the middle of the 20th century to teach young men virtue was to be found in industry – or hard sweat related work instead of learning how to make “easy money” in crime. “An idle mind is the devil’s workshop” was not an easy thing to find “on the hill” (as the B.I.S. was called by its inmates). While the boys lived there they were introduced to nearly all the common occupations of that period of history and “…taught useful mechanical knowledge and at the same time contribute to the comfort and support of their fellows. Chief among these trades are blacksmithing, floriculture, tailoring, baking, printing, carpentering, telegraphy, stenography, brick making, shoe-making, dairying, cooking, etc.” The residents (inmates) of the B.I.S. operated and maintained the property of the state tending their own electric and steam plants as well as a working farm, laundry and poultry facilities. They even had a musical band and several battalions of regimentation overseen by competent military personnel. Whenever there were parades in downtown Lancaster you could always count on seeing the B.I.S. boys march in precision drill style. Limited sports activities were also a part of the program.

Facts and figures for such an institution might be staggering to our 21st century minds but some facts taken from The Industrial School Journal, dated September, 1930, will give a good example of what went on back then:

INSTITUTION NOTES

THE POULTRY YARD now has 596 laying hens and 1596 cockerels and pullets. During the past month 382 chickens were dressed for the dining rooms.

ACTIVITIES IN THE BAKERY for the month of July were 19,995 loaves of bread, 3,350 pies, 18,995 cookies, 1,250 slabs coffee cake, 14,350 buns and 1,560 rolls.

STATISTICS detailing the birthplace by States of the 72 boys committed to this school during July, were: Ohio 46, Pennsylvania 9, West Virginia 3, Tennessee 2 and one each from Alabama, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and one each from Hungary, Italy and Poland.

OF THE 72 BOYS COMMITTED to this school during the month of July, we find the causes of commitment to be: Auto theft 14, burglary 19, delinquent 3, (delinquent) stealing 1, destruction of property 1, immoral 3, incorrigible 7, forgery 2, stealing 20, truancy 1 and tampering with an auto, 1.

THE POPULATION of the school, July 31st, by Families, was as follows: Ohio Cottage, 90; Highland 86; Herrick, 80; Bushnell, 76; Lagonda, 65; Hocking, 63; Muskingum, 65; Harris, 73; Pattison, 73; Cuyahoga, 34; Scioto; 83; Auglaize, 3; Nash, 63; Harmon a, 63; Harmon B, 69; Union, 52; Maumee, 51; Farm Cottage No. 1, 6, making a total of 1,094.

An incidental note explaining the names of the cottages is to mention the names, as most Ohio natives will note, were named after the counties of the State and other names of significance to the administration of the school. Each “family” (cottage) was assigned an officer, usually a husband and wife team.

As mentioned earlier, the Boys’ Industrial School had their own print shop, and the material above is from the 66-page journal. Another publication the boys produced was the B.I.S. Journal Scrap Book. The following humor is an example of the brand of humor of those days:

A FINE POOR EFFORT

‘Twas midnight on the ocean, not a horse car was in sight,
When I stepped into the corner store to get myself a light.
The man behind the counter was a woman, old and gray,
Who used to sell bananas on the road to Mandalay.
She said, “Hello there stranger,”
Her eyes were dry with tears,
She put her head beneath her feet and stood that way for years.
Her children were orphans except one tiny tot,
Who lived alone across the street above the vacant lot.
As we gazed out through a tight shut door, a whale went drifting by,
His legs were hanging in the air; he wore a green necktie.
The quietness of the noise was still, the evening star was dawning.
A dead horse galloped up and said, “we won’t be home until morning.”
“Women and children first,” he said as he passed his plate for more.
Then took his hat from the rack and hung it on the floor.
An ax came walking through the air,
The clock struck twenty-six,
I dropped my eyes up toward the sky and saw a flock of bricks,
And when they buried him in the evening, when the grass was parched with dew,
He took his razor with him, in case his whiskers grew.

(Above from Page 19 of the B.I.S. Journal Scrap Book)

It appears the boys in the print shop got a chance to smile in spite of their confinement and duties. The boys did all the typesetting (by hand and some by machine most likely--this is an assumption based on a comment in the Journal on Page 61, “The printing department is one of the better equipped shops of the institution) and then printed these books on letterpress equipment popular in that day. The Scrap Book was 24 pages, plus the cover.

More to come from old records of the Boys’ Industrial School once in Lancaster, Ohio.

THE WORDWRIGHT

Posted by Bill Venrick at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)