THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES ' Nor blame I Death, because he Sar« i !i ■ u :e of virtue out of earthy ! k i .' t.Mnsplanted human worth 'ff:\\ bloom .> profit, otherwhere. For this alone on Di^^ • I 'i^ ■■<■■ The wrath tha' Hi- i. , i, • ' Nor blame I Death, because he bare The use of virtue out of earth ; I know transplanted human worth Will bloom to profit, otherwhere. For this alone on Death I wreak The wrath that garners in my heart; He put our lives so far apart We cannot hear each other speak," —Tennyson. JOHN HANCOCK, Ph. D. A MEMOIR, WITH SELECTIONS FROM HIS WRITINGS W. H. VENABLE, LL D author of " The Teacher's Dream," "Beginnings of Literary Culture in THE Ohio Valley," etc. CINCINNATI C. B. RUGGLES & CO. The New American Teachers' Agency Room C, 237 Vine Street 1892 Copyrighted i8gi BY C. B. RUGGLES & Co. Press of McDonald & Eick. CONTENTS. LIFE— Childhood and Youth, ..... The Awakening of Intellectual Desire, First Experiences in the Teacher's Vocation, Teacher and Principal in Cincinnati, . A Soldier in the Hundred Days' Service, Superintends a Business College, Employed by Wilson, Hinkle & Co., Superintendent of Cincinnati Schools, Joins Cincinnati Literary Club, Ten Years in Dayton, Superintendent in Chillicothe, State School Commissioner, Connection with the Ohio Teachers' Association The Ohio Teachers' Reading Circle, . Services in the National Association, Writings for Educational Journals, Other Writings and Addresses, As an Institute Worker, .... Labors as Trustee of Ohio University, . A Champion of Normal Schools, Other Offices and Dignities, . Death and Burial, Genealogy and Family Connections, Character and Life Services, PAGE. , 5 10 . 11 14 . 20 27 . 30 31 . 37 38 . 43 47 . 62 58 . 60 62 . 69 71 . 73 76 . 77 77 . 82 87 CONTENTS. II. IN MEMORIAM— Personal Letters and Messages of Condolence, Action of the Ohio Teachers' Association, . Passages from Dr. Findley's Eulogy, Remarks of Dr. Ellis, Remarks of Dr. R. W. Stevenson, Remarks of Prof. M. R. Andrews, Remarks of Dr. J. J. Burns, .... Action of the National Council of Education, Remarks of Dr. E. E. White, .... Remarks of Dr. A. J. Rickoff, • Remarks of Dr. W. T. Harris, Remarks of Dr. Robert Allyn, Remarks of Dr. B. A. Hinsdale, Remarks of Dr. Le Roy D. Brown, Remarks of Dr. Peabody, . . . . PAGE. , 103 106 , 107 111 113 114 . 115 116 . 116 124 . 124 125 . 126 126 . 127 III. SELECTIONS- A Place of Solemn Delight, 129 Not too Conservative, .... . 129 Ignorance is Power, 129 One Secret of Success, .... . 129 A Nation's Power Computed, 130 Natural Ability versus Education, . . 130 Knowledge and Modesty, .... 130 Teach How to Talk, .... . 130 Great Thinkers Utter Themselves, 130 Don't be too Serious, .... . 130 A Full Compensation, .... 130 Fighting Talk, . 131 CONTENTS. PAGE. The True Preacher Plain Spoken 131 The Teacher a Reformer, , 131 The True Teacher an Inspirer, 131 Great Men the Product of Their Times 131 The School System Based on Social Equality, . . 132 The Lowly Laborer, I33 Tribute to Some Lecturers, I33 Ohio's Small Colleges, I34 A Chance for all Children, I35 Teachers Must Face Criticism, , . . . .136 Education for Everybody, ...... 137 The Old-time Schoolmaster, I39 The Spelling School, I45 Manual Training, I43 The Thinking Farmer, I49 Mason Doan Parker, 151 The Common Man, 156 A Tribute to Patriots, Igg JOHN HANCOCK. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. Not unlike Whittier's New England country lad, with " red lips " and " cheek of tan," must the Buckeye boy, John Hancock, have appeared, when, some sixty years ago, he began his education by taking object lessons of Nature in the free school of Out-doors. We picture him a sturdy urchin, wearing his "torn brim " with "jaunty grace," enjoying all the advantages which bare feet and "turned-up pantaloons" afford, in the pursuit of knowl- edge or pleasure, in wood and field or beside the alluring brook. The visible surroundings of the log-cabin home in which he spent his first years were varied, beautiful and inspiring ; and if physical environment has much to do in forming individual character, the Clermont hills and valleys are to be reckoned among the influential teachers of him whose career it is the purpose of this memoir to trace, John Hancock was born February i8, 1825, in a small farm house, a log-cabin, built by his father, situated on a high summit overlooking Point Pleasant, the home of General Grant, and commanding a noble view of the Ohio River and the Kentucky hills beyond. The village nearest to this rustic home was the quiet hamlet of Laurel. 6 JOHN HANCOCK. David Hancock, the father of John, born in New Jersey in 1797, came with his parents to Clermont County, Ohio, early in the century, and "grew up with the country." He was a man of force, rigid in morals, devout in religion, a Methodist, thoroughly versed in Scripture, a fluent and agreeable talker, and a person of considerable local influence. The ancient and honorable trade by which he earned his living was that of carpentry, a craft which he practiced with much industry and skill, building many houses and barns in his neighborhood. He married Thomas Anne Roberts, a woman of Welsh origin and good family, who is described as a " bright and attractive little lady." The issue of the union was a family of three sons and two daughters. The first-born of these was John, the subject of our sketch. The mother died at the age of thirty-five, leaving to the care of her bereaved husband the five young children. It happened very fortunately for the motherless lad that he attracted the attention and v/on the sympathy of a worthy couple, Mrs. Mary Moore and her husband Jeptha Moore, who lived near Laurel, and who, being childless, besought David Hancock to allow them to adopt John as their own. Mrs. Moore, familiarly known in the neigh- borhood as " Aunt Mary," on account of her kindliness, seems to have been the prime mover in this solicitation, which resulted according to her desire and proved greatly to the advantage and happiness of all concerned. The semi-orphan boy found a nevv^ mother in "Aunt Mary," and continued to reside with the Moores during the years of his minority. The wide-ranging intelligence of Mrs. Moore, her positive principles, political and social, her enthusiasm, her genial humor, and her extraordinary energy, all CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 7 brought actively to bear on the training of the lad she had undertaken to " bring up," did much to determine his habits, studies and motives. She was a typical Quakeress. Mrs. Hancock writes that the "good lady's dear old face, at the age of ninety years, would still ripple with smiles at the mirthful sallies of the boy, long grown a man, whom she had reared. She had a marked influence on his character, being strong intel- lectually, and kindly firm. The snug library she had collected, supplemented by his own limited buyings of books, was very helpful to him." Among the books on "Aunt Mary's" shelves were Gibbon's "Rome," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and Fox's "Book of Martyrs," and these the rigorous matron required her charge to read aloud to her of nights. It proved a long, hard pull to go through Gibbon; the "Pilgrim's Prog- ress" seemed, by contrast, in the nature of recreation; but the " Book of Martyrs " was pure pain, as the reader declared in after years : he was ashamed, when a boy, to confess to the serene Mrs. Moore how a lump came into his throat and a mist before his eyes whenever he opened the pages of Fox, and beheld the awful pictures. Dr. Hancock's obliging amiability was shown towards his benefactress by the habit he maintained of paying her occasional visits until the end of her long life, and of reading to her in compliance with her request or dictation. Only two weeks before the day of her death he called on her. She had been for some time confined to her bed, and unable to do her own reading, but she had preserved carefully on file the late numbers of the " National Era" and the "Anti-Slavery Standard," and availing herself of her opportunity, she solicited her obedient foster-son to read in regular order the newspaper report of the 8 JOHN HANCOCK. leading political events that had transpired since her illness began. Of course her wish was gratified. The first teaching outside of the home circle that John Hancock received, was given in the Carmel school near Laurel, and the next in the Franklin district. The veteran educator of Clermont County, Prof. James K. Parker, familiarly but reverently known by his friends and former pupils as " Teacher Parker," furnishes some interesting reminiscences of the boy. He writes: "My first acquaintance with Dr. John Hancock was in the autumn of 1838, when 1 was teaching a country school in the Franklin district in Southern Clermont County, and he was enrolled as one of the pupils. His fondness for reading was early developed. In my school I kept a weekly record of the number of pages read by each pupil — aside from the regular studies — and reported to me every Monday morning. John's record was among the highest, if not the very highest. At that time the inhabitants of Franklin district were more noted than those of any other neighborhood in the county for intelligence and commendable aspirations. Prof. Joseph Herron, late of Cincinnati, was one of the earlier teachers in that district ; he left his wholesome impress upon the young people. Among Mr. Hancock's schoolmates in that fall term, at least three arose to some degree of eminence. Hon. John Ferguson became a very successful teacher. County Auditor and member of the Ohio Legislature ; P. J. Donham, Esq., was for many years a prominent member of the Hamilton County bar ; the late Judge T. Q. Ashburn arose through various grades of honor to a place in the Senate of Ohio. These four men were firm and lifelong friends. Mr. Donham is the only survivor. CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 9 They were all greatly aided in their aspirations by a circulating library, established by some of the older citizens of the district, which these young men read freely. Mr. Hancock had chosen the profession of law, and commenced his preparatory studies about the time the Clermont County Teachers' Institute was organized. He was invited to become a member of it, which he did, and soon became so enamored of teaching as to adopt it as his life work. After he had been a teacher in the Cincinnati public schools a few years, he again became my pupil in Cler- mont Academy to pursue, during his summer vacation, some of the higher branches of mathematics. He was always a diligent student, respectful, loyal and be- loved." Mr. Charles N. Browning, of Wilmington, Ohio, a schoolmate of Mr. Hancock, gives additional facts. He says : " The writer remembers him from the day he first entered the district school at Franklin, noted in those days for the high standard which it occupied among the schools of the section. Among his schoolmates at that time were Rev. James H. Noble, who afterwards became and still is a prominent Methodist minister of Indiana and Illinois; the Donhams, the Shaws, the Fergusons, the Nichols, the Robbs, and many others who became promi- nent in agricultural, educational and political affairs in Southern Ohio. John was a bright and studious boy, and soon found his place at the head of his classes. It is too long a story to tell how the boy studied and worked, and how, even after he had become a teacher, he used to dismiss his summer school and come home to assist his foster parents and their neighbors in their harvesting. lo JOHN HANCOCK. He was a prime favorite with those with whom he mingled in those early days." Dr. Hancock himself gave, in one of his lectures, a very lively reminiscence of his early school days, from which I quote a passage describing most felicitously THE AWAKENING OF INTELLECTUAL DESIRE. "Perhaps I may be pardoned if I illustrate, from my own observation, the power of advanced studies to wake up the mind. In my own early boyhood, I attended a country district school in Southwestern Ohio. The school had been served by many masters, the boundaries of whose mathematical knowledge extended not beyond the limits of Pike's Arithmetic, and whose very small stock of grammar was gathered in a painful way from the pages of Kirkham. Most of these teachers worked on the farm in the summer, and kept school in the winter. Of the quality of their farming 1 know nothing derogatory, but of their school-keeping, with an honorable exception or two, one would have to be very liberal indeed to say anything commendatory. Winter after winter we ground over our Kirkham ; and winter after winter we worked through Pike — for we never recited in arithmetic, the master ' doing ' the sums for us when we were 'stalled,' as we called it — that is, if he could. Into this weary, arid and stultifying routine broke a shy young man who had, by some chance, wandered away from Williams College, in old Massachusetts, to that secluded spot. This young man was an elegant scholar, a person of excellent judgment, and a born teacher. He breathed into us young skeletons the breath of life. The old Pikes, on his advice, were thrown aside, and algebra, a FIRST EXPERIENCES AS A TEACHER. ii thing of which we had not even heard, was substituted. The study was a revelation to us, and under his quiet and stcillfui leadership became, as the boys said, more interesting than a novel. A young man residing outside the district, who, prompted by a divine hunger for knowledge, had spent some time in a distant academy, came into the school to read Latin. The Latin, to us, who, perforce, must listen to the recitation in it, was indeed a dead language, but the elegant English into which our master turned 'the great orator's periods, appealed to a slumbering sense of the beautiful, and we began to wish very earnestly that we might some day be able to read Cicero. The young man from Williams stayed with us but a single quarter, but the life he had breathed into us did not die." FIRST EXPERIENCES IN THE TEACHER'S VOCATION. John Hancock began his experience as school-master in the old log school-house of the Franklin district, Monroe township, in the year 1843, when he was about eighteen years of age. He afterwards taught m other rural districts, and later in the villages of Amelia, Batavia and New Richmond, Clermont County. Con- stantly gaining in power and influence, he soon won his way to leadership among the teachers of his vicinit)-. When it was proposed to organize a teachers' association in Clermont County, being willing to work, and compe- tent to plan, he was pushed forward by the older teachers and shared with them the highest duties of local manage- ment. I am indebted to Mr. Browning for particulars concerning the Clermont Association, and the part taken in its founding by Mr. Hancock. Mr. Browning says, 12 JOHN HANCOCK. referring to certain manuscripts in liis possession : "Among them we find the minutes of a teachers' meeting held near Laurel, Clermont County, Ohio, January 29, 1848. Charles Robb, a younger brother of the late Dr. Andrew Robb, was made chairman, and Mr. Hancock, secretary. Mr. Hancock read an essay ' On the National Association for the Promotion of Education.' Mr. Han- cock was then but twenty-three years old, a mere boy as we think of him now, and yet at that early age was beginning to grapple with questions, the mastery of which in later years, made him the power in the educational world which he became. This gathering adjourned to meet at Franklin School-house on the last Saturday in April, 1848. Another paper of the collection is a copy of the ' Preamble and Constitution of the Clermont County Association of Teachers.' This is in Mr. Hancock's handwriting and shows the neatness and care with which he was wont to do such things. This paper has no date, but evidently was written in 1848 or '49. Appended thereto we find the following names : E. T. Small, Wm. T. Parker, Wm. H. Heyford, Henry S. Kerr, Wm. Sargent, Wm. L. Rob- inson, John Dimmitt, Mark Stinchfield, C. C. Parker, Robert Shaw, Daniel L. Stinchfield, E. Sears, Wm. Young, John J. Hooker, F. L. Cleveland, Wm. B. Fisher, M. Jamieson, James K. Parker, Thomas W. Rathbone, L. Behymer, David Mulloy, John Ferguson, L. Jeffers, Joseph Shaw, Uriah Rice, Wm. L. Hamilton, Rev. A. J. McLaughlin, Dr. Hopkins, E. Ricker, and Jacob Clark." The Hon. E. C. Ellis, now of Crestvue, near Glendale, Ohio, and formerly prominent in educational affairs in Southern Ohio, sends the following informal and graphic account of his early acquaintance with Mr. Hancock: "About the time the Clermont County Institute was FIRST EXPERIENCES AS A TEACHER. 13 organized I had been instrumental in organizing one in Brown County, and I visited the Clermont Institute on a ' still hunt ' for ideas. In those days, Institutes were conducted on the class system instead of the modern method of instructing hy lectures. At that session, Hancock was the teacher of mental arithmetic, and his class was the first to recite after 1 entered the room. At that time but few teachers had been trained to oral solu- tions, as they were only beginning to introduce this subject into the school. Hancock had made good preparation and was master of the situation. I remember with what delight he would propound his ' puzzlers ' to the older teachers, most of whom were compelled to acknowledge their inability to ' work the questions ' without using the pencil. If no one in the class could solve the example, or if the solution and every step was not logical, he would give the solution himself, and as I write I can see him, as I saw him then in his quiet way, leading the class, step by by step, from the premises to the conclusion. He was methodical in his work. Everything was systematized, and the solution must not deviate from the order he had marked out. The steps in his solution were as rigidly adhered to as if he were demonstrating a theorem in geometry. This charac- teristic, developed so early in life, it has always appeared to me, furnishes the key to his future success. During this class exercise our acquaintance, which ripened into a life-long friendship, began. You know, that in my younger days 1 had a penchant for mathe- matical studies, and it happened that I was familiar with the class of examples he was presenting. Being a stranger, 1 was not called upon to solve any of the examples, but ' wise in my own conceit ' and anxious, 14 JOHN HANCOCK. as young men usually are, to display my erudition (?), 1 volunteered a solution to a problem that was giving the class trouble. The teacher pronounced it correct, inquired my name, residence, etc., and placed my name in his class-book." TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL IN DISTRICT AND INTERMEDI- ATE SCHOOLS OF CINCINNATI. Generally there is found "room at the top" for ambitious worth. Fortunately for Mr. Hancock, his ability was discovered by an appreciative educator of prominence, who had the inclination and the power to secure for him an advantageous position in one of the District Schools of Cincinnati. Doctor Joseph Ray, the mathematician,— whose distinguished services as profes- sor in Woodward High School began in 1831 and continued to the date of his death, April, 1855— became acquainted with Mr. Hancock in 1850, at a teachers' gathering in Clermont County, and was impressed so favorably by the young man's qualifications that he induced the author- ities to appoint Hancock first assistant in what was known as the Upper Race Street School, of which Mr. Andrew J. Rickoff was then principal. Thus, by Doctor Ray, were brought into collaboration two men whom common pursuits and mutual sympathies drew together into a close, warm and enduring friendship. "Andy " Rickoff, as he was called familiarly by his friend "John," came to Cincinnati to teach, in August, 1847. His experience up to that time had been not unlike that of Mr. Hancock. The two were of nearly the same age, and both had proven successful in the management of several country and village schools. Mr. Rickoff began TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL IN CINCINNATI. 15 his professional career in 1840. He was identified with educational affairs in Cincinnati, as principal of public and private schools, or as Superintendent of Schools, and President of the Board of Education, for a period of about eighteen years, or until 1867, when he removed to Cleve- land; and during all that time, Hancock and he were very intimately associated, in private life and in public educa- tional concerns. Dr. Rickoff kindly contributes to this Memoir some personal reminiscences of his friend. He writes : "While Dr. Joseph Ray was delivering a course of lectures before the Teachers Institute of Clermont County, his attention was attracted by Mr. Hancock, then about twenty-five years of age. He marked him as a particularly able teacher, and on his return to the city the Doctor recommended him to me as one who would fill the vacant place of first assistant in the old Sixth District School, of which 1 was then Principal. Mr. Hancock was accordingly invited to take the place, and in only a few days he showed that the Doctor had not been mistaken in the man. This was at least forty years ago. From that time to the day of his death I regarded him as a very dear friend. There have been, indeed, few, if any, with whom I have ever been so intimately associated. Soon after Mr. Hancock became an assistant in the schools of Cincinnati, he, in company with Mr. O. J. Wilson, then Principal of the Twelfth District School, and afterwards for many years the head of the great Western firm of school book publishers, and two or three others, formed a literary club that met weekly in the Principal's room of the old Sixth District. At the meet- ings of this club, the time was passed in the reading of l6 JOHN HANCOCK. essays by the members, in the discussion of the authors of the day, and of the older worthies whose works are the favorite studies of all true students of English litera- ture. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Wilson were the principal contributors to the exercises of this club. The meetings of the club were discontinued on the retirement of two of its members from the public school service. It was not long, however, until we find Mr. Hancock engaging with peculiar zest in the work of another club, that held its meetings in my private school room. The lectures of Sir William Hamilton on Meta- physics and his Lectures on Logic, then just published in this country, received our principal attention for nearly a year. During our reading of these works, and for a long time afterward, we were favored by the presence and participation of Dr. Eli T. Tappan, who was facile princeps in these studies. It is worthy of note that Mr. Hancock succeeded his old friend as State School Com- missioner, and it is sad to think that both of them, within so short a time, should have been removed from their offices by the hand of death. The names of two more noble men never graced public records. They were the purest men whom I have ever known. They were ambitious only to do their whole duty. It is fortunate for the State when such men are called to fill its most important offices. Their mutual friendship was an honor to both of them. Mr. Hancock's readiness in debate, his thorough information on almost every subject pertaining to edu- cation, have been observed by all who have heard him in teachers' institutes. State and National conventions, in the meetings of the Superintendent's Department of Education, or in the National Council. Debate was not TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL IN CINCINNATI. I? likely to flag when he was present. Hence he was an invaluable participant in any meeting where questions of importance were to be discussed with a view of arousing public interest. His ability in this direction was, no doubt, owing in great degree to the faithfulness with which he kept up his reading on psychological subjects and the earnestness with which he entered into the exercises of the literary clubs of which he was a member. On my retirement from the principalship of the Sixth District School, Mr. Hancock was appointed. Soon after this, the present plan of organization was recommended and adopted by the Board of Education. The particular change which was destined to bring Mr. Hancock prom- inently before the public was the establishment of the Intermediate Schools whereby the higher classes of the Common District Schools were gathered together in four separate schools. The First Intermediate did not draw any pupils from Mr. Hancock's school, and hence he was not then promoted ; but only a year elapsed when it was found that the new school needed a man at the head of it of superior administrative ability, and Mr. Hancock was chosen to v/hat was then and is still considered a difficult position. His selection was at once justified by the result. He soon carried the experiment to complete success. Opposition to the new system rapidly abated and soon died out. Owing to his executive tact, his industry, the straightforward, manly way in which he met the objections of the conservatives, it was not long before the school became very popular, and was followed by the establishment of two or three more schools of the same class." Mr. B. B. Stewart, now of New York City, gives a iS JOHN HANCOCK. lively and forcible description of Dr. Hancock's character and methods as shown in the management of the First Interm.ediate School, in which school Mr. Stewart was a teacher for several years. He writes : " Early in September of 1861 I began teaching in the First Intermediate School with Mr. H. for Principal. Then began a friendship that 1 have reason to believe was mutual. He was an earnest and devoted teacher. He taught more than was found in books. Among teachers and pupils he knew no favorites. He was exacting, but kind ; and honest effort in the performance of duty always won his sympathy and commendation. He was an example to those around him. He believed all he taught. He taught only the manly and the true, and his influence on pupils was always for good. He won and held the respect of the rudest boys. As a disciplinarian he was unsurpassed. The expression coming from a group of noisy boys, ' Oh, you can't fool Hancock,' meant a volume. The boys sat in judgment on the teacher— as boys will. Their rough expression was earnest and honest, the result of clear conviction, and carried with it the boys' belief in its converse. 'Hancock won't fool the boys.' Fathers, Mothers, Teachers, has the experience of years brought this truth home to you ? ' You can't fool the boys.' When ' the boys ' believe you will not try to fool them you have their full confidence and you have reached the basis on which Mr. Hancock rested all his efforts to do boys good, when they came under his care. He never forgot that ' Men are only boys grown tall.' He encouraged incipient manliness in a boy, believing that with man- hood's years he would be a 'manly man.' I once asked a boy who had been a pupil under Mr. Hancock, how TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL IN CINCINNATI. 19 he liked the teacher in whose care he then was. He replied, 'Oh, I don't like him as much as I do Hancock.' Tasked him why. * Oh, well, Mr. Hancock never went sneaking around the school-house on his tip-toes and look- ing through the key-holes.' I replied, * How do you know your present teacher does such things.?' ''Cause we caught him at it,' came the reply, prompt and true. Conviction was complete and words were useless. That boy grew into a manly man. A few years ago he sat as President of the Cincinnati School Board. He expressed the boys' opinion of John Hancock, the teacher and the true gentleman. Mr. Hancock's sense of justice in dealing with boys was perfect. With it there sometimes was a vein of humor that was readily discerned, and made acceptance of the most severe decree less repugnant to a culprit boy. The 'genuine boy' Mr. Hancock liked and thoroughly comprehended. The genuine boy likes to start to school immediately after breakfast. He can thus avoid doing any chores at home, and he can crowd more fun into the time before school. At the First Intermediate there was a rule, ' Boys are not required to be in school before 8:45 A. M. If they choose to come earlier, they must at once go to their respective rooms for study.' Coming to his school-room one morning, the hilarious shouts of half a hundred boys quickly assured Mr. Hancock that this rule was being broken. An ominous sound of the bell from the window stopped the play, and all the boys were directed to report at once to Mr. H. Less than ten came. The others dodged into their rooms, hoping to escape the consequences. With Mr. H., justice proceeded on care- ful lines. He did not promptly punish the honest fellows who came forward, so confessing themselves violators of 20 JOHN HANCOCK. the rule. He talked with them, and told them to report at recess. Then more talk, and an order to report at noon before going for dinner ; more talk and instruction to report before school afternoon session. Then report at the afternoon recess, and again after the close of school for the day. This order continued, until after school on Friday evening about forty boys reported, each admitting that he had played ' Foot-and-a-Half — a kind of leap-frog game — before school in the morning, in viola- tion of rule. Air. H. had been so pleasant in his seeking for facts that the boys became interested in bringing every ' dodger ' to the front. In time they saw fun in reporting to Mr. H. They would conjure together, trying to bring in every boy they could. I am not sure some of the boys did not assume that some previous violation of the rule entitled them to report and join in the investigation. What followed I have from the father of one of the boys. He learned that the investigation had closed, and asked his boy the result. 'Well,' said the boy, ' Hancock told us he disliked whipping, but his dislike was a constant quantity, it neither increased nor decreased with the number of boys, and he licked us all. We didn't care much for a whipping from Hancock ; he was kind o' funny before he went at it.' Truly, Mr. Hancock disliked the use of the rod. In dealing with boys he surely had 'malice towards none, charity for all.' " A SOLDIER IN THE HUNDRED DAYS' SERVICE. The news of Sumter's bombardment and surrender imparted swift heat to Mr. Hancock's patriotic blood. The military strain in his composition, imparted by a soldier father and transmitted to a soldier son, responded A SOLDIER FN THE HUNDRED DAYS' SERVICE. 21 to the rumor of war. His editorials in the Journal of Progress betray his manifest excitement; the school- master's habit of peace was ruffled by the storm and stress of the crisis. The teachers of Cincinnati organ- ized a military company of Home Guards, April 20, 1861, only eight days after the first cannon shot of the Civil War sent its echo booming over the continent. The Journal of Progress for May, 1861, describes a flag- raising over the new building of the Fifth District School ; and mentions that President Lorin Andrews had become a captain, at Gambler, and that Oxford and Antioch Colleges, and the Southwestern Normal School at Lebanon had lost many of their best students by volun- teering — a loss which editor Hancock seemed rather to rejoice in than to deplore. In 1863, just previous to the famous Kirby Smith raid, and the threatened siege of Cincinnati, the teachers of the public and private schools were formed into a mili- tary body, the Teachers' Rifle Company. Early in 1864 came the call for Hundred Days' Men from Ohio's Governor, and May 2, 1864, found the Teach- ers' Rifles a part of the 138th Regiment, O. V. I., in camp, under Col. S. S. Fisher. John Hancock was enrolled, with many of his personal friends, as a private soldier. What manner of man he proved himself to be, under the trying condition of soldier life, is well told by his devoted friend, Ben. B. Stewart, who sends me the following : " It became an axiom in camp, ' If you would know a man, enlist him in the army for active service and go with him.' Free from home influences, and free from the social restraints imposed by good society, men in the army soon reached their natural level. All the selfish- 22 JOHN HANCOCK. ness, cowardice, laziness — in sliort, all the mean traits in a man — sooner or later came to the front. In camp to say of a man, ' We know him,' was to furnish him with a lasting certificate of character, good or bad. Good stand- ing at home was no guarantee of conduct when in the full swing of army life. Men entered the army thinking they knew one another. After a term of service, they came home knowing one another. Too often, old friendships were broken ; but new and lasting ones were formed. From the first, Mr. Han- cock was a typical soldier. He never questioned orders. He obeyed. He never shirked any duty, however dis- tasteful. In camp or on the march he was willing to look on the brighter side. Whether it was duty to shovel dirt in the fortifications on the Potomac, or cut brush on the Appomatox, he responded promptly and cheerfully to duty's call. As a soldier he had the regard of the meanest man in camp. More than one graceless fellow did better than he planned because he knew Hancock and desired to be esteemed by him. Mason D. Parker and John Hancock were friends from boyhood. I was born in the same county, and hence vv^as adopted. We three tented together. Camp life in connection with special mention of Mr. Hancock necessarily includes us all. Parker once said, ' The only blemish on John's character is, he can't cook. The provoking feature is, he delights in his awkward- ness.' My friendly regard for Mr. H. has always been such that 1 deem it best to rest on Parker's testi- mony in the case, rather than press investigation. Mr. H. did once undertake to make our morning coffee. We kept our coffee in a bag. Mr. Hancock never realized apparently that in the culinary art * exact science ' is A SOLDIER IN THE HUNDRED DAYS' SERVICE. 23 always requisite. He tried to make coffee and at the same time discuss the results of a recent cavalry raid against the Weldon Railroad. He got lost on the raid and kept on making the coffee. He shook our coffee bag over the coffee-pot as he talked, until the dry brovvn coffee poured out over the top. Parker was a prudent housekeeper. He thundered out, ' John, mercy sakes alive — what are you doing.!" 'Why, Mason! I guess I've put in a leetle too much.' The conversation of these time-tried friends sparkled often with wit and humor. 'John, I'm a man of remarkable forethought.' 'Well, Mason, I never knew it' 'Yes, John, I am a man of remarkable forethought — but it always comes behind.' Another time, 'John! I wish you'd take me out and knock me in the head.' 'All right, but what for. Mason.?' ' Well, I forget to do something I ought to have done.' The forgotton 'something' was never a serious matter. Near our camp the colored people were holding a camp-meeting. We all felt an interest in it and the leader, Uncle Richard Baily. ' Uncle Richard ' was a colored brother advanced in years. He told us they called their gathering ' The Union Camp Meeting,' because it was the first one ever held without the permission of masters, and also because of the presence of ' de union soldiers.' Uncle Richard reported at our tent almost every morning on one pretext or another. One night during service the old man was standing in the pulpit, when he suddenly made a leap in the air that seemed likely to land him outside the pulpit and to end in disaster. The brethren caught him and placed him safely on his feet. When he visited us next morning Mr. Hancock gravely inquired why he jumped so high 24 JOHN HANCOCK. last night. * Well, Massa ! when the 'ligion ob de Lawd Jesus Christ git in my soul dis ole body it aint nothin'; it go right up.' It surely did go up. The last night of the series, the meeting was a 'powerful one.' When Uncle Richard reported in the morning Mr. Han- cock asked him how many were converted. 'About five head shuah, and more, I think, come in by mawnin.' Counting immortal souls by the head seemed droll enough, but at once adopting Uncle Richard's method, Mr. H. asked ' how many head had been converted in all.' ' Twenty-three head, sah,' came the answer, in tones that implied no doubt. We never, by any levity of manner, led Uncle Richard to think we were otherwise than solemnly impressed. Pleasant reminiscences these. How many more do follow, but not for record here. One evening, in the quiet of my home, after a rush- ing day — here in busy New York — a newspaper slip was handed me. It told me 'John Hancock died at his desk, in the midst of his work' — the work beloved. Dead? On the hearts of those who love him still is written ' not dead.' Not mustered out, but mustered in. He heard the sound of the bugle call and entered into a service of love forever. Thus we believe, and so — dear friend of many years — sure that, at the longest, we soon shall follow thee, we will say not good night, but in a better world 'bid thee good morning.' " To this tribute, at once humorous and pathetic, we may here appropriately add the testimony of another friend and comrade, Mr. Rickoff, who writes : "A military company formed shortly after the break- ing out of the War of the Rebellion, and of which Mr. Hancock and I were both members, being called into service in the spring of 1864, we were thrown together A SOLDIER IN THE HUNDRED DAYS' SERVICE. 25 the following summer more intimately than at any time before. Though the company was not exposed to any particular danger nor subject for any considerable time at a stretch to any severe privations, yet the campaign was not all a pleasant picnic to be remembered with unwonted pleasure. To men who had not for years, perhaps never, been accustomed to physical labor of any kind, marching for two or three days together in dusty sand two or three inches deep, carrying arms, ammu- nitions, haversack and knapsack till strong men fainted, and when in camp, digging in trenches with pickaxe and spade, were, to say the least, not pleasant recreations. Under these circumstances Mr. Hancock bore the test of true manhood. His patient endurance, his unflinching performance of every duty, his readiness to aid those of his comrades who were not so strong as himself, were fit subjects for the admiration of all. His humorous anec- dotes enlivened the march; reminiscences drawn from readings of history and literature, humorous comments on the rumors that at times agitated the regiment, and his discussions of military and political characters then prominent, served to inform as well as entertain his mates at the camp-fire. When I recall these things to mind my thought recurs to Mason D. Parker, who was Mr. Hancock's most inti- mate friend. He was a man of fine literary taste and a writer of ability. The essays that he read in the liter- ary clubs were worthy of the best magazines, but his ideals of excellence were so high and his modesty so dominant that he shrank from any effort to bring them into public notice in any form. He had been recom- mended for employment in the schools of Cincinnati by Mr. Hancock, and at the time of the Hundred Days' 26 JOHN HANCOCK. Service he was Principal of one of the Intermediates. On the march from Fort Powhatan to City Point he sank at the roadside, so exhausted that his vitality was per- manently affected, and shortly after his return home he bade his wife and little daughter his last good-bye." The devoted friendship existing between Hancock and Parker, feelingly dwelt upon by both Mr. Stewart and Mr. Rickoff, demands special commemoration in these pages, and there is a mournful satisfaction in recording its almost sacred history. These congenial spirits were to each other as Damon and Pythias. Nothing more beautiful and touching in biography than the noble, manly, tender, and poetical attachment between these faithful souls. They went to school together ; they pur- sued common studies ; they roomed together in the bachelor days when teaching in Cincinnati; they went together courting their sweethearts; they were in almost daily intercourse up to the time of Parker's death. Mr. E. C. Ellis writing of Mr. Hancock's love for "Mase" Parker says, "A few years ago I visited H at his home in Chillicothe, and, in talking over the bygone, the death of Parker was referred to, and Dr. Hancock heav- ing a deep sigh said, ' The death of Mason D. Parker was the heaviest blow of my life. He was a brilliant young man, devoted to his books, a staunch friend, and 1 felt that I could not live without him.' " Shortly after Parker's death, Mr. Hancock wrote a sketch of his life and character, which was published in the "Ohio Educational Monthly," and which is repro- duced among the selections contained in this volume. 27 SUPERINTENDS A BUSINESS COLLEGE. On his return home after the Hundred Days' Service, Mr. Hancock resigned his position as Principal of the First Intermediate School, and entered into an engage- ment with Richard Nelson to become Superintendent of Nelson's Commercial College, at a salary of ;^2,ooo a year. On the occasion of his retirement from the school his assistant teachers presented him with a magnificent set of Shakespeare's works. His friend and first assist- ant, Mr. B. B. Stewart, also resigned the place he had filled in the First Intermediate School, and was likewise employed by the Nelson Business College. The general duties of Mr. Hancock in the college were managerial. His executive capacity was exercised in the efficient control of the students. In addition to his supervisory work he took upon him the editorship of a weekly newspaper, " The News and Educator," pub- lished by Nelson & Co. Not long after his installment in this new position, Mr. Hancock was made the recipient of a splendid silver ser- vice, the gift of friends connected with the work of edu- cation. The writer recalls every circumstance of the occasion on which the present was bestowed, on the evening of November lo, 1865, in one of the rooms of the Nelson College. An exceedingly merry company of ladies and gentlemen assembled, quite unexpectedly to Mr. Hancock, who was overcome with surprise and pleased confusion when Mr. Rickoff addressed him in these words : " Mr. Hancock : — I am requested by your old friends among the Teachers and Trustees of the Schools, to pre sent you, in their behalf, these testimonials of their high 28 JOHN HANCOCK. appreciation of your success as a teacher, and their regard for you as a man. No evidence of your success as an instructor of youth is necessary, other than the great prosperity in which we find the First Intermediate School. I well recollect with what diffidence, almost reluctance, you consented to take charge of it, when, ten years ago, in behalf of the Trustees, I tendered to you its principalship. The experiment of the Intermediate School System depended in no slight degree upon the result of our action. The institution was committed to you with confidence, and I have to say to-night that no one has ever doubted the wisdom of the choice we then made. The final adoption of the Intermediate scheme was doubtless owing to your skill and indomitable perseverance. You secured not only the success of the school, but since you went into it, not less than a thousand pupils have passed through the prescribed course under your direction, and 1 may safely say that in as many young and enthusiastic hearts, kind remembrances of you are warmly cherished. The gentlemen and ladies who have been associated with you, as assistant teachers, will always remember you with peculiar satisfaction. In their arduous and perplexing duties you have given them wise counsel and unflinching support. That you have had a good influ- ence upon them it is sufficient evidence for us to call to mind the fact that a large proportion of those who have been with you have become most devoted and successful teachers in the schools. The delicacy of private friend- ship forbids us to speak of your genial qualities as a friend with the freedom which it is our duty to use when speaking of the way in which you have discharged your public duties. The free expression of gratitude for SUPERINTENDS A BUSINESS COLLEGE: 29 a man's public services, though they be very great, is sometimes obstructed by a want of sympathy for the man himself. Let the cordiality of your friends here assembled to-night testify for them whether this be so in your case. For their sake, we regret that you are leaving the public schools, but from the part you have always taken in public affairs, we have no doubt that you will continue to show an active interest in their welfare." The embarrassment of Mr. Hancock, and the abound- ing good humor of the company, prompted much genial speech-making and sportive talk on this informal occasion, and among the personal addresses brought out was a playful skit in verse entitled "Hancock John," which afforded its victim considerable amusement at the time, and was often quoted by him with ludicrous gravity,in after years. The passage which he most relished in this metrical rhyme reads : " O number 1 is Hancock John, And letter A is he,— He loveth youth, he loveth truth. He loveth libertee ; He loveth roast chickens, He loveth Charles Dickens, He loveth his children and wife. He loveth a sunshiny life, He loveth his friend and his nation, And the pedagogue's noble vocation ; He loveth a funny conundrum. He laughs at your puns though you blund'r 'em ; Stupidity soon is he sick of. He loveth to love Andy Rickoff ; Invention he knoweth tiie trick of; His editor's pen is a swinger, He writeth like pepper and ginger; 30 JOHN HANCOCK. He loveth a man that is honest ; Deceit in his character non est ; He isn't deficient in temper, He'll fight for his principles semper ; He bled in the Hundred Days' service, And wasn't affrighted or nervous." EMPLOYED BY WILSON, HINKLE & CO. Mr. Hancock's connection with the Commercial Col- lege was not of long continuance. He was employed, in 1866, by Wilson, Hinkle & Co., school-book publishers of Cincinnati, and he collected material for a new series of School Readers. He entered upon this work early in the year, had an office in the publishing house, and was regular and prompt in attendance upon his duties. In collecting suitable material for the work assigned him, he was obliged, in his reading and research, to range widely over a broad field of literature, embracing the writings of the best authors of both prose and verse in the English language. His industry, good taste, and sound judgment enabled him in the course of a few months to bring together a mass of material admirably adapted to the end in view. He then entered upon the work of arrangement and progressive gradation of his selections, the composition of brief biographical sketches of authors, explanatory notes, illustrations and comments. While thus employed he devoted considerable time to attendance upon Teachers' Institutes in Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky, lecturing upon educational topics, and furnishing valuable class instruction. While so engaged he was able to submit the material he had compiled to the criticism and judgment of practical educators, and learn their views as to its adaptation to school- SUPERINTENDENT OF CINCINNATI SCHOOLS. 31 room uses. He was thus making most satisfactory progress in the preparation of his manuscript, and was repeatedly assured by the senior member of the publishing house of the approval of his work by himself and associates. But Mr. Hancock, while a patient and cheerful worker wherever duty placed him, was ambi- tious of success in a more active and public sphere of education. The Superintendency of the Public Schools of Cincinnati was offered him, and after brief hesitation he accepted it, necessarily leaving to other hands the completion of the literary work upon which he had been engaged. During the year he was with Wilson, Hinkle & Co. he displayed in a high degree those qualities which characterized his career in every field of labor in which he engaged, — earnestness, zeal, conscientious fidelity and devotion to his work, and a generous, hearty sym- pathy, and sunny cheer that endeared him to all with whom he came in contact. His withdrawal from the work upon which he was so successfully engaged was deeply regretted by everyone connected with the house, but by no one more sincerely than by his early and life- long friend, Mr. Wilson. Had he desired to remain in the business, he probably would soon have been promoted to a partnership in the great firm. SUPERINTENDENT OF CINCINNATI SCHOOLS. Mr. Hancock was elected to the superintendency of the public schools of Cincinnati, in September, 1867, succeeding Lyman Harding. Samuel S. Fisher was at the time President of the Cincinnati Board of Education. In the Spring of 1868, the Board granted to the Super- 32 JOHN HANCOCK. intendent a three weeks' leave of absence, and made an appropriation to pay his expenses, in order to afford him an opportunity to visit some of the eastern cities to study the workings of their pubUc schools and other educa- tional institutions. Mr. Hancock set out on this tour of inspection on May 15, 1868, and, after his return, embodied in his first Annual Report, for the year ending June 30, .1868, the results of his observations. The report is a lengthy one extending over 62 pages, and is a valuable document of its kind. The first schools visited were those of Cleveland, Ohio, then recently reorgan- ized by Mr. Rickoff ; and of these a pretty full description is given. From Cleveland he passed on to Oswego, and saw the Normal and other schools, under the guidance of E. A. Sheldon. Proceeding to Boston, Mr. Hancock was entertained by Superintendent Philbrick, who explained to him all the peculiarities of the Common School System as exhibited in the famous center of Yankee culture. The Cincinnati pilgrim did not fail to cross the Charles and look inside Cambridge walls, — he sought out Dr. Hill, then President of Harvard, and caught glowing ideas from him. The Boston Public Library had strong attractions for our Ohio educator : he says of it in his report, "I doubt whether the public schools themselves are doing a much more important work than this public library." From New England he went to New York, and spent several days visiting the schools of New York City and Brooklyn. Before turning his face homeward, however, he revisited Boston, the charm of whose liter- ary institutions seems to have decidedly attracted his taste. After recounting the particulars of this eastern sojourn in a graphic manner, the Report for 1868 deals with SUPERINTENDENT OF CINCINNATI SCHOOLS. 33 several other topics ; viz. : State Normal Schools, Educa- tion in France, Prussia and England, and the Condition of the Cincinnati Schools. The Superintendent dwelt upon the importance of "good reading" in the schools, and still more earnestly on the paramount necessity of "moral education" in all grades. A step in progress is marked in the announcement that "It is proposed, the coming year, to begin the instruction of all the pupils in our Public Schools in Drawing. This," says the Report, "is an experiment that has not been made in any other city in this country." Mr. Hancock's Semi-Annual Report, January, 1869, discusses the several branches of learning required to be taught in the city schools. It states that the experiment of introducing Drawing in all grades had proven success- ful ; and recommends that Phonography be made a regu- lar exercise in the Intermediate Schools. The Superin- tendent took much interest in the City Normal School, which was first opened in 1869, with Miss Sarah D. Dugan, of Oswego, as principal. Discussing the con- dition of pupils in the lower grades, Mr. Hancock suggested to the Board that fewer hours of study be required of the children. He said, "I believe they are kept in school too long." In his Report of June, 1869, he calls attention to the fact that the gap is too wide between the Intermediate and the High Schools, and proposes a better adjustment of the courses of study. He warns the Board and the teachers against the danger, always imminent in the schools of a large city, that modes of instruction may fall into mechanical routine ; and deprecates such a result as fatal to the best ends of human training. He would have more attention paid to cultural studies such as lead 34 JOHN HANCOCK. to generous ideas, wide sympathy and lofty aspiration. As regards school government he declares, with the emphasis of experience, "Too much importance can not be attached to discipline in a great school system. It lies at the very foundation of both intellectual and moral success. A more thoroughly demoralizing institution does not exist than a disorderly school." The Superintendent's Reports for 1870 are devoted largely to general discussion of the philosophy of educa- tion, and to an urgent presentation of the importance of higher learning as supplementary to the common school courses. The merits and claims of Cincinnati University are set forth with much force. Another question con- sidered is that of compulsory laws to secure school attendance, which Hancock strongly favored. The Report for 1871 devotes many pages to school statistics. It also enters into the practical consideration of several minor details of advice, suggestion and criticism concerning methods and motives of school teaching and management. Objection is made to concert reciting, to mere memoriter tests of knowledge, to the abuse of the percentage system, and to a blind and mechanical dependence upon text-books and records. Dr. Hancock's opinion respecting the inutility of records of recitation is very positive. He says : " I am sure that the record of recitations of the pupils kept by the teachers of the higher grades of the District Schools, and in all the grades of the Intermediate and High Schools, might be profitably dispensed with." In order to break up the prevailing tendency to parrot-like repetition of words without ideas, the method of objective teaching, to which the Normal School of Oswego, New York, had given a new impulse, was adopted in Cincinnati, and, for a time, it produced SUPERINTENDENT OF CINCINNATI SCHOOLS. 35 excellent results. The method was applied especially to language teaching, with the design to animate the observing powers and to elicit original expression. Mr. Hancock wrote, with enthusiasm: "If the Cincinnati Schools possess one distinguishing trait above all others, it is the prominence that language culture occupies in the course of study." Following out the theories suggested by the objective method, and persistently combating rote study and per- functory teaching, the Superintendent made the most of drawing, music, and language lessons, as means of awakening the mind and firing a genuine interest in school work. With a similar purpose he introduced a new plan of imparting the facts of history, — the plan of continuous and animated reading, instead of the cut-and- dried method in vogue. It was hoped the experiment would relieve the pupils of drudgery hateful to them, and as ineffectual as repulsive; but the new departure was only partially successful. Taken throughout, the administration of Mr. Hancock, covering a period of seven years, was characterized by his policy of opposition to dullness, routine " cram," and in general, to mechanical as distinguished from vital education. The Superintendent thought constantly of the development of the children's faculties, and measured the value of all books and methods by their result in producing mental power and moral conduct. He saw no probability of much good to be derived from any study or system that was not intelligently applied by competent and conscientious teachers. His reports insist again and again upon the necessity of professional fitness on the part of instructors in every grade, and therefore upon the paramount importance of Normal Schools, Teachers' 36 JOHN HANCOCK. Institutes, and, above all, the habit of reading. One of his reports strenuously recommends the city teachers to make a systematic study of the science of education ; and counsels every teacher to possess himself of a collec- tion of reference books. The principal test that he would apply to ascertain the character and culture of teachers and pupils is the test of a liberal, but pointed and sug- gestive, written examination. It has been said that Dr. Hancock pursued a very conservative course in the discharge of his duties as Superintendent of the Cincinnati Schools. If by this is meant that he v/as moderate and deliberate in his pro- cedure, it is true ; but it would not be fair to charge him with that sort of conservatism which clings to the dead past and seeks to compromise with the living future. I should say he was decidedly progressive. The period of his superintendency fell in a time of much political, religious and social agitation. One of the " burning questions," that excited the Board of Education, and the city of Cincinnati, while he was in office, was the memorable one of the Bible in the Public Schools. The outcome of the long battle, as all the world knows, was the adoption of a rule forbidding the reading of the Scrip- ture in the Schools. In this contest the Superintendent's sympathies were not with the majority of the Board ; — he thought the Bible should be retained, — and perhaps it is owing to the decided position he took against its removal that many considered him a strict conservative. In June, 1874, Mr. Hancock was succeeded in office by Dr. John B. Peaslee. 37 JOINS CINCINNATI LITERARY CLUB. In 1867, Mr. Hancock joined the Cincinnati Literary Club, a society organized in 1849, which still exists and has ever maintained a very high rank as regards member- ship, and the tone of its literary and social exercises. It is exclusively a gentlemen's club, of limited numbers, with elegant and rather expensive appointments, and holds its delightful meetings regularly every Saturday night. Mr. Hancock held his membership in this charm- ing club during the whole period of his Superintendency of the Cincinnati Schools ; was a regular attendant upon its meetings, and took part in all its privileges and pleasures. The records of the Club show that he contributed at least ten papers to its programs, either through its Budget or as appointed essay reader, with title and time of presentation as follows : American Humorists, February 29, 1868; The New Education, May I, 1869; The Oldfashioned Schoolmaster, January 22, 1870; Conversation, December 17, 1870; The School- master, February i, 1873; The Statesman's Manual, February 22, 1873 ; The Cincinnati University, January 31, 1874; Our Hundredth Birthday, January 4, 1876; Civilization and Humor, January 29, 1876; Glimpses from the Greek, a poem. May 30, 1885. For the year 1874-5, ^^' Hancock was president of the Literary Club. How keenly he relished the associations of the Club, is attested by a passage from one of his unconstrained letters, written to Prof. E. S. Cox, the Superintendent of the Schools of Portsmouth, Ohio, November i, 1887. The letter says: "Saturday night I ran down to Cincin- nati (from Chillicothe) to attend the anniversary of the Literary Club. This Club is unique among the clubs of 38 JOHN HANCOCK. the world, and has included in its membership nearly all the distinguished people of South-western Ohio, — and some not so distinguished. Among the former may be mentioned Chase, Hayes, Hoadley, Halstead, Noyes, Spofford, Librarian of Congress, Donn Piatt, J. J. Piatt, Judge Taft, General Pope, etc. If 1" know myself, I have as little of the snob about me as any man living ; yet 1 must confess that there is to me a particular charm in the society of highly cultivated gentlemen, — especially of young men, — people whose courtesy fits like a tailor- made coat, and not as though it were made for another man. Such people are sometimes called aristocrats by envious outsiders. But whatever they may be called, they are admirable fellows. I have not been at a meet- ing before for several years, and the hearty reception by old friends, made me feel as though 1 was the owner of a corner in Elysium." TEN YEARS IN DAYTON. It is unnecessary to record the details of Dr. Hancock's career as Superintendent of the Dayton Schools. Much of his work was necessarily in the ordinary routine which the best usage in educational supervision has established in the leading cities of Ohio. Yet he was little disposed to run the educational car in old ruts, and ever and anon he put his strong shoulder to the wheel to urge usage in the direction of well-considered reform. He tried some experiments in Dayton, the purpose of which was to ascertain the actual contents of children's minds. His Reports, though similar in their leading doctrines to those he had produced in Cincinnati, were new in subject TEN YEARS IN DAYTON. 39 matter, and wisely adapted to the conditions of iiis changed field of action. In June, 1877, Dr. W. D. Henkle, then editor of the Ohio Educational Monthly, said, in a review, "The Report of the Dayton Schools is a valuable document. It has several features that are new to us. It is not necessary to say that Superintendent Hancock discusses the topics selected by him with his accustomed vigor." Calling attention to the fact stated in the Report that "the whole number of cases of tardiness in the year did not average one for each pupil," Henkle remarks that "such a result is astonishing." In another number of the Monthly, giving an account of an Institute which he had just attended in Dayton, Mr. Henkle said, "Super- intendent Hancock resolved to depart from the usual routine and introduced some new features. In this he was successful." Dr. Hancock was Superintendent of the Dayton Schools for ten years, from 1874 to 1884, under Repub- lican city rule, and he was retired, by a strictly party vote, when a Democratic Board came into political power. He was succeeded by Dr. J. J. Burns. On the occasion of Dr. Hancock's retirement from the Superintendency, a number of gentlemen, who had been members of the School Board in the course of his incumbency, gave him a banquet, and took the oppor- tunity to compliment him in cordial speeches, which were fully reported in the daily Journal. Mr. Robert W. Steele, as chairman of the meeting, gave expression to the general feeling in an address, part of which is here reproduced. On taking the chair Mr. Steele said: "We have met in this social way as members of the 40 JOHN HANCOCK. Board of Education, past and present, to give expression to our regard for Dr. John Hancock as a man and as the Superintendent of our public schools. Dr. Hancock may look back with proud satisfaction to his ten years of labor in Dayton. It might well satisfy the laudable ambition of any man to be permitted for so long a time to impress and mould the character of thousands of youth and children. As members of the Board of Education, associated with him at various times in his work, we have had the best means of knowing how faithfully and efficiently he has discharged the duties of his office. He has not been a mere office Superintendent, but has given his whole time during school hours to personal supervision of the daily work of the schoolroom. While an excellent general system of instruction has been adhered to, rigid rules have not been enforced to crush out the individuality of teachers. He has insisted on good work, but has been content when it has been accomplished in whatever manner. He has harmonized the discordant elements in our schools, and during his administration peace and good will have characterized all the intercourse between superintendent and teachers. But best of all, he has exerted • a beneficent influence on our schools by the purity of his character. On all moral questions he has given no doubtful sound. No boy in our schools could point to his example as an excuse for the slightest departure from the purest morality. In addition to his work in the schools he has ever been a public-spirited citizen. No effort to advance the intellectual and moral culture of the community has failed to enlist his warm sympathy and support. With such an appreciation of your character and TEN YEARS IN DAYTON. 41 work, you, Dr. Hancock, need no assurance from us that we deeply regret your removal from our midst. A man of national reputation in your profession, you have reflected honor on our city by your residence here, and have made our schools widely known for their excellence. A generous, warm-hearted friend, we shall miss you in all the walks of life. Our earnest good wishes for your prosperity and success will follow you to your new field of labor. You need not seek a place to work, for places will seek you. We envy the city that shall secure for superintendent of its schools a man of your ability and ripe experience. What is our great loss will be the great gain of that city." Thrown out of employment by the political change we have mentioned. Dr. Hancock entered upon an enforced vacation of a year. It was the only year of his life, since he began the work of teaching, in which he had no regular work to do. The powe^r of habit had so fixed upon him the expectation and performance of set duties, that, when the schools opened in the autumn of 1884, he was at a loss what to do with himself. The strange, unwonted experience of having nothing in particular to do, produced novel sensations. At first he hardly knew whether he had stepped into a vacuum, or into a new atmosphere vital with exhilarat- ing qualities. He wrote to a familiar friend, " I wish you would tell me how to put in leisure time to the best advantage. I do nothing— that is of business profit— and still I seem to be about as busy as I did when I had regular employment. I do some more reading, but not so much more as 1 expected. Yet life has put on other colors, and somehow I feel freer,— and I am sure you will • not mistake me when I say manlier,— than when I was 42 JOHN HANCOCK. tramping in the old bark mill round. Variety of employ- ment and scene seems to me to be the essence of the higher life." Among the books that he read in this fallow period were Pascal's " Pensees," " Obiter Dicta," James Payn's "Literary Recollections," Cross's "Life of George Eliot," Mrs. Field's "Reminiscences of Emer- son," and Matthew Arnold's " Essays in Criticism." He found stimulation also in Professor Seely's three articles on Goethe, in the Cotemporary Review. He did some writing, in the way of lectures, and contributions for the Chicago Present Age, and other periodicals. The meeting of the National Association of July, 1884, he enjoyed to the top of his bent. "We had the grandest education meeting at Madison," he writes, "ever held on this continent, perhaps in the world. In both num- bers and quality it was inspiring." Dr. Hancock was appointed in November, 1884, by State School Commissioner Brown, to assist in preparing the Ohio Education Exhibit, for the World's Fair at New Orleans ; and he spent several weeks in New Orleans, in charge of the interests of his State. An article of several pages, in the June number of the Ohio Educa- tional Monthly, gives his report of the "Ohio Exhibit." As time wore on, and no prospect of satisfactory regular employment opened before him. Dr. Hancock, in spite of his optimistic nature, yielded to depression. He grew tired of rest, and sighed even to be tramping once more in the " old bark mill round." " 1 am still drifting. I know not yet what 1 shall be, nor where," he said despondently. Again, to one who had expressed a shrinking dread of returning to the wearing drudgery of the school-room, to be ground in a "mill of boys," he wrote, in April, 1885, "There are worse things than SUPERINTENDENT IN CHILLICOTHE. 43 being ground in a mill of boys, and one is to have nothing to do when you need something to do." At last a door opened. Superintendent William Richardson retired from the Chillicothe schools to take a place in Sedalia, Missouri, and Dr. Hancock was called to fill the vacancy. SUPERINTENDENT IN CHILLICOTHE. In the summer of 1885, Dr. Hancock received a unanimous call to take charge of the schools of Chilli- cothe, the old capital of Ohio. This call was due in large measure to the influence of Hon. B. F. Stone, a man of vigorous intellect and of wide knowledge of educators and educational work. Dr. Hancock remained in charge of the Chillicothe schools until the winter of 1889, when he retired to accept an appointment to the office of State School Commissioner. 1 am indebted to his successor in Chilli- cothe, Superintendent E. S. Cox, for a succinct estimate of Dr. Hancock's character, and his educational services in Chillicothe. Professor Cox writes, "He left every- where on the school system of Chillicothe the marks of a large and liberal intelligence. He was not a mere instrumental superintendent, but a man of a real power who uplifted whatever he touched. Whether considered as an educator or a man, what impressed one most was, I think, his noble breadth of spirit. To the last he remained untouched by professional pedantries, and his mind was always open to the best thought of his time. Under the supervision of such a man, no system of schools could long remain mean or narrow, and 1 think every teacher under his charge was constantly stimulated to higher work by his inspiring example. 1 have never 44 - JOHN HANCOCK. known any man who was more loved and honored by his teachers and by his Board of Education." These warm expressions of Professor Cox are fully borne out by the general testimony of Chillicothe people, young and old, and by the city newspapers of whatever party. The Chillicothe Leader, for example, used the following most emphatic language: "Dr. Hancock was the best friend the teachers of the Chillicothe public schools ever had; he was the best friend the scholars o'f the public schools ever had ; he was the best friend the Board of Education ever had." The feeling of the citizens towards him is well expressed in the words of an accomplished and influential lady of Chillicothe, Mrs. M. C. Nipgen, who writes : " How universally was he admired for his great, logical mind ; how much beloved for his tender, sympathetic heart ! His capacities were many, and he used them; his opportunities great, and he employed them. He was a true man, one of God's noblemen, faithful and zealous in duty, just, gen- erous, — a man among ten thousand." If we inquire by what means it was, — by what art this unostentatious man won the confidence and liking of so many men, women and children, in so short a time, the answer is not hard to give. He used " no art at all." Ripe and wise and good-hearted, he gave himself up simply and wholly to his duty. He served the com- munity. He mixed with the people. He took part in the affairs of the town, got acquainted with families, went to church, aided the libraries, founded night schools and reading circles, joined in the services of Decoration Day. He took a real interest in his work and in his " charge." What a " pastorate " is that !— the flock that a Superintendent of a city school shepherds. In a letter SUPERINTENDENT IN CHILLICOTHE. 45 to Professor Cox, dated October 23, 1888, Hancock speaks of a visit he made to Columbus for the encourage- ment of some Chillicothe boys who had gone to college. " We have quite a number of students in the University there," he explains, "who were writing home in a discouraged sort of way. So I concluded to run up and see whether 1 couldn't put them into a happier frame of mind. This I think I succeeded in doing. They are an excellent lot of boys, likely to do well, if they get the right start." Such disinterested services as this, simpte though they seem, are the kind that endear men to their fellows and win lasting gratitude. Many men are ready to promise help, and forget the promise ; or to do a good turn with the implied expectation that an equivalent shall be rendered ; but how few volunteer a helping hand, or seek opportunities of doing secret good to others without a thought of putting them under obligation. John Hancock was one of the few. He was always assisting others in a practical way by word and deed. In looking over the shower of telegrams and letters of condolence that came from everywhere to Mrs. Hancock after her husband's death, I have been surprised at the number that make tearful acknowledgment of kindnesses received from this generous and magnanimous man. It adds to the pathos and beauty of these messages that many of them are from comparatively humble sources — from those who found a friend in time of need, and who could pay only in the coin of love. Young teachers — old teachers, too, but especially young teachers — struggling to obtain a secure position were often put in the way of prosperity by Dr. Hancock's influence, provided he felt quite sure of their uprightness and professional fitness. His cheerful and hopeful dis- 46 JOHN HANCOCK. position prompted him to lift the burden of despondency from those whom he discovered to be cast down by any sort of trouble, physical, pecuniary or mental. His sun- shine dispelled the clouds. We have seen how he went up to Columbus to put the college boys in a "better frame of mind." The medicine of his cheering words was not infrequently administered to men and women as well as to boys and girls, though not obtrusively or officiously. To a personal friend of his in eastern Ohio, — a Superintendent temporarily out of a situation, and therefore dejected, — he wrote, in October, 1888 : "Don't begin to distress yourself. Such feelings are apt to creep over one situated as you are. I speak from experience. The year I was out of employment I often found myself dropping into the belief that I was a first- class humbug, and always had been. If it hadn't been for assurances which occasionally came from friends in whom I had confidence, I don't know to what depths of wretchedness 1 might have fallen. Keep out of that Slough of Despond." Dr. Hancock's habitual conduct in Chillicothe seems to have been even more than usually controlled by the guidance of the golden rule. "Help ye one another" was the text that he obeyed from principle and from impulse. This impelled him to undertake more work than he should have done. He wrote to Professor Cox, in February, 1888 : "I am likely to have the duties of a County Examiner thrust upon me. Think of three examiners being rolled into one ! — State, City, County, — there's honor for you ! And now comes General Hurst, and commissions me as County Commissioner for the State Centennial. But this honor I must put aside. I shall have to draw the line somewhere. Iron, as 1 have STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER. 47 generally thought myself to be, — even iron may be crushed. I won't neglect my regular duties in the smallest degree for any outside work." STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER. Dr. Hancock's field of labor was transferred from the old Capital to the new, in the autumn of 1888. Hon. Eli T. Tappan, Commissioner of Common Schools, died, in office, of heart disease, resulting in brain paralysis, October 23, 1888; and Governor Foraker appointed Dr. Hancock to fill out the term which expired the second Monday in July, 1890. At the Republican Convention held in Columbus, January 26, 1889, Dr. Hancock was nominated to succeed himself, and he was elected in the following November, for the regular term to expire in July, 1893. He discharged the duties of the office until the date of his death, Jiane 2, 1891, something over two years and seven months. Within that time he issued three Reports, being the 35th, 36th and 37th Annual Reports of the State Commissioner to the General Assembly of Ohio, for the years 1888, 1889 and 1890, The First Report of Commissioner Hancock, trans- mitted to Governor J. B. Foraker, March 2, 1889, is taken up mainly with a biographical sketch of Dr. Eli Todd Tappan. It contains, also, "as a specimen of Dr. Tappan's style of thought, and as a fresh and vigorous discussion of an important educational topic, his inaugural address as President of the National Education Associa- tion, delivered at Saratoga Springs, July 9, 1883." Having thus paid sincere, delicate and merited respect and honor to his predecessor. Dr. Hancock modestly fore- casts his own. purposes in a brief view of the history of 48 JOHN HANCOCK. school legislation in Ohio, closing with the recommenda- tion of certain desirable changes in the law, especially in regard to one of his favorite measures; viz.. County School Supervision. The spirit, and the essential substance of the ideas put forward in this his first State document are couched in the following extract : "What our school system needs most is reorganiza- tion on a definite and comprehensive plan. What would approximate a perfect system, according to my judgment, would be to make the township the educational unit, with its Board and its Superintendent. Above this should be a County Board, composed of representatives from the Township Boards, the duty of which should be to appoint a superintendent who should be responsible to it for the proper discharge of the duties of his office. And at the head of all, a State Board of Education, having general supervision of the whole system. Substantially, this ii> the system under which the States making greatest progress in educational affairs are working. Such a system provides for effective administrative force and for thorough supervision of school work at every point. The Ohio Teachers' Association embraces in its membership a public-spirited and zealous class of work- ers. It is a large force in shaping opinion on educational matters, and is of the utmost benefit to the profession of teaching, and, through that profession, to the State at large. All the multiform questions pertaining to education are discussed in its meetings by our ablest educators. The annual meeting held at Sandusky, last July, was STATE SCHOOL COMAVISSIONER. 49 noted for the unusual excellence of the papers read and the discussions thereon. A comparatively new organization, the State Associa- tion of Examiners, is also exercising a direct and health- ful influence over the school work," The Report for 1889 enlarges on the suggestions made the year before. Perhaps the most significant passage in the Report is that which endorses the law for compulsory education, a measure urged by Mr. Hancock as long ago as 1870, when he was Superintendent of the Schools of Cincinnati. He says, "The most striking advanced step in school legislation made in Ohio, within the last quarter of a century, was the enactment, last winter, of the Compulsory Education Law." His com- ments on this topic are followed by a clear and vigorous discussion of the several subjects : Organization of the School System ; Supervision ; Permanency of the Teacher's Position ; Examination of Teachers ; Training Teachers; Teachers' Associations; Continuance of Schools ; State Board of Examiners ; Manual Training. It would be difficult to find sounder or more sensibly expressed views on the examination and training of teachers, than those laid down in Dr. Hancock's Report of 1889, — the views of a thoughtful educator given deliberately, after mature reflection corrected by obser- vation and experience. The Report for 1890, — Dr. Hancock's last, — begins with a brief essay on Higher Education, and this is followed by the topics, College Statistics ; High Schools ; Number of Pupils in the Public Schools; School Houses; The Compulsory Law; County Boards of Examiners, etc. To the Report for 1889 are appended the Compulsory Law, the noted School Book Law, and other additions 50 JOHN HANCOCK. and amendments to the School Laws of Ohio passed by the Sixty-ninth General Assembly ; and, to that of 1890, Dr. E. E. White's Plans of Adjusting High School and College Courses of Study in Ohio ; and other matter. These Annual Reports, though they represent a vast deal of painstaking labor, and indicate the scope and character of the office duties devolved upon the Commis- sioner by the issues of the times, do not acquaint us fully with the tasks and responsibilities of his onerous position. It was said of Dr. Hancock, in a prominent print, that "he was probably the most competent and successful, as well as the most popular. Commissioner of Common Schools Ohio has ever possessed. It is doubt- ful whether any other man in the State had the knowl- edge of the theory and practice of the Public School System of the State which he possessed." This may be an exaggerated statement, yet certainly no prominent educator will deny that the right man was in the right place when John Hancock entered the State-house as head of the department of Public Schools. His fitness, and the recognition of it, by State officers, teachers and people, entailed on him an enormous amount of work that a less prominent and popular incumbent might have escaped. A thousand demands were made upon his time and strength. The body of his correspondence was necessarily increased. The drains upon his social and his literary resources were numerous. If he had been overtaxed by duties at Chillicothe, the demands of his new position at Columbus were no less exacting. Far from being a sinecure, the Commissioner's office, with its disgracefully meager salary, proved to him, though a seat of honor, a post of responsibility, care and never- ending activity. To his successor in Chillicothe he STATE SCHOOL COMMISSIONER. 51 wrote, February 12, 1890, "I appreciate what you say as to leisure being an important factor of a full life. But how are you going to get any considerable amount of it when you have any number of friends pushing at your back and yelling in your ears : ' Don't stop ! go ahead ! Do ! Do !' (1 don't know whether those d's ought to be capitals or not.) So, in consequence of this shoving process I had to work right along — all the time I had la grippe — writing up my report, — which is now, thank fortune, in the hands of the printer. * * * I do not find time to read anything in the literary line. I am drying up to such an extent that I am expecting soon to hear my brains rattle in my skull as I walk. * * * Would you wonder if I sometimes felt tired .-' Yet, when I am entirely well, I do not." On May 13, 1890, he wrote to the same correspondent, "I tire of these skirmishing expeditions among country schools, but haven't the moral heroism to refuse invitations." And again, in November, 1890, " I am induced to think this office holds one up to routine with a firmer grasp than does the work of Superintendent of Schools. It is only by a wrenching process that I can get away from it to write a friendly letter." And again, in December of the same year, "Last evening 1 wrote the final sentence of my Report, and what a relief it was! But the relief would be greater were it not that 1 must plunge into work immediately on the Report of the School Book Board (confound its •picture'!) for the meeting of the General Assembly. I should like to present in that about all the facts in regard to the making of text-books that can be procured, so that if the Legislature should wish to take further action in the matter, it may do so with some intelli- 52 JOHN HANCOCK. gence. So 1 see nothing but hard work before me for the next two months ; but you know I am getting used to that." In a similar strain of mingled weariness and energy, Dr. Hancock sent out his occasional greeting to other friends, — half apologizing for his enforced neglect of social recreations. To the recorder of these lines he wrote " I spend most of my waking hours in a cell of the stone jail called a State House." The genial tone, and the irresistible tendency to relieve the pressure of serious business by the buoyant counter-force of mirth and humor, remained with him to the end. One of his letters, dashed off in a rollicking mood, in November 1890, closes with this droll piece of self-burlesque: "I am engaged in writing up my Annual Report. Wait till you get that, 'me boy!' There you will find excellence blooming! There you will find thoughts as large as California pumpkins ! There you will find strength and delicacy of style and refinement of sentiment ! There you will find, you will find — Hancock, John. (I can throw off that kind of humor all day with one hand tied behind me.) Please to make my graceful bow to the Madame and to each and every of the scions of a noble house. And believe me — although a partially forlorn and shipwrecked brother — Yours always, Hancock John." connection with the ohio teachers' association. Dr. Hancock joined the Ohio Teachers' Association at its fourth annual session in 1852, and from that date to 1890, inclusive, attended all its meetings except two. OHIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 53 At the sixth annual meeting, in Columbus, December 28, 29, 30, 1853, he was Secretary pro tern. Joseph Ray, the mathematician, then Principal of Woodward High School, Cincinnati, was President of the Association ; and among those in attendance were Lorin Andrews, Alfred Holbrook, Wm. D. Henkle, E. E. White, Dr. Cal- vin Cutter, the physiologist, and Alphonzo Wood, the botanist. Horace Mann delivered the annual address. The meeting was held in the old City Hall. Dr. Find- ley, alluding to this occasion as being the first on which he met Hancock, says, "He was in the ante-room, wait- ing, with considerable perturbation, as I remember, to be called to read what was probably his first paper before the Association." The subject of this paper was the " Position and Duties of Teachers." The seventh annual meeting of the Association con- vened at Cincinnati, and Mr. Hancock, being the regular Secretary, had much to do with the business. The Min- ► utes record that, on behalf of the teachers and trustees of the Public Schools of Cincinnati, he invited the mem- bers to attend a festival at Greenwood Hall, in the Mechanics' histitute Building. In the meeting of 1855, held at Columbus, Hancock was very active, especially in the advocacy of State legislation and support for Normal Schools. He was one of the earliest friends of the Hopedale Normal School and its founders, and one of the organizers of the South- western State Normal School Association, formed at Oxford, Ohio, in August, 1855, under the auspices of which the South-Western State Normal School, now Normal University, was started, at Lebanon, November 17, 1855, under the control of Alfred Holbrook. We find Hancock supporting a resolution, offered by Holbrook, in 54 JOHN HANCOCK. favor of Normal Schools. He was chosen Chairman of the Executive Committee, an office which he held for several years. At the tenth annual meeting, Columbus, December 29, 1857, Hancock made himself felt as a vigorous force, participating in all the debates. The record tells that he moved that the report of James A. Garfield, on the "Self-reporting System," betaken up. This was a time in which Horace Mann, by his eloquent insistency on the moral correctness of the "Code of Honor," or self- reporting, as practiced at Antioch College, had created an intense general interest in the subject. The discus- sion, a very radical and stimulating one, was resumed by the State Association, in 1858, at the meeting held in Delaware. Mr. Hancock opposed the "Self-reporting System," on the ground that it provokes pupils to falsehood. The meeting of 1859 was held in Dayton, July 6 and 7, and the President, Mr. Cowdery, being absent;* Mr. Hancock, Vice-President, occupied the chair during its sessions. He delivered an address on the " Diffusion of Knowledge," which was published in the Ohio School Journal of November, 1859. The Association promoted him to the presidency of their body in 1859; and, at the next meeting, the twelfth annual, held at Newark, he delivered an able inaugural, which may be read in the School Journal for August, i860. This address is in its author's best vein, — a characteristic discussion of the educational topics of the day. It derives special historic interest from a passage eulogizing Horace Mann, who died at Yellow Springs, August 2, 1859. From the beau- tiful tribute which Hancock paid to the famous educator, I quote a few sentences : " Terribly in earnest, he worked OHIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 55 with terrible and unsparing energy, and fell, as every true warrior would wish to fall, with his armor on. His ideal of manhood was a grand and noble one, and he endeavored to live it in his own person. None has ever set forth its beauties in more eloquent terms, or succeeded better in implanting in the hearts of young men a desire to rise into the regions of a pure and ennobled activity. The greatest educator the New World has produced, his influence on American instruction will last while time endures." To give, in detail, the history of Dr. Hancock's participation in the proceedings of the Ohio Teachers' Association, for the forty years in which he was a prominent and always active member of it, would require a small volume. Of the many papers which he read before it, mention may be made of that on "The High School Question," 1874; that on " What Studies should be Required below the High School," 1878; and that on "The Examination of Teachers," read at Akron, in 1887. At the Toledo meeting of 1889, he responded to the Mayor's speech of greeting, and read a noble and generous tribute to his friend and predecessor. Commis- sioner Eli Todd Tappan. The part he took in the meeting at Lakeside, in July, 1890, — the last State Convention he was permitted to attend, — was varied and energetic. Scarcely a paper was presented for public consideration, that he did not discuss with wise and discriminating judgment, yet with the ardor and enthusiasm of earnest conviction. He spoke with the confidence of a veteran who had passed through every experience that the field of common school education can afford, from subordinate teacher in a district school to State School Commissioner. But not an arrogant 56 JOHN HANCOCK. word, not a presumptuous syllable, escaped his lips during those three genial days, July i, 2 and 3, in which he moved among his fellow teachers, conscious indeed of his right and duty to counsel and advise ; not so much by virtue of his office, as from a perfect knowledge of the problems in discussion, and an absolute devotion to the best interests of the commonwealth in matters educa- tional. There was no slightest indication of break or decay of body or mind in what he did or said, in those his last days of mingling, as it proved, with his co-workers in the familiar old Association, endeared by so many years of memory. Commenting on Mr. Jack- son's paper on "The Use and Abuse of Methods," he remarked, how forcibly, and with what truth of truth: " Nobody can make anything out of a method unless he sees whither that method tends, and recognizes that there is a spirit in the child that must be touched and reached by the method. But if he will recognize that we are striving to reach the soul of the boy or the girl and stir it as it has never been stirred before, then his method is a good one. That is the way all the great teachers have done. Our pupils go through the Normal Schools and they learn methods, but in the end they are entirely mechanical, because the teachers fail to recognize whither they all tend." Again, in discussing Mr. Baker's paper on "The Value of a Library in Connection with School Work," how animated and suggestive his little off-hand speech ! "This is an old, old story for me to talk upon," he began. " There is a problem connected with this teach- ing of literature that is not yet by any means solved, and it is, How shall they (to use Carlyle's expression) give warmth who have no live coal in their own bosoms ? OHIO TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. 57 The gentleman before me spoke of the difficulty of teaching literature to classes, some members of which have never read a book. There are plenty of teachers in Ohio that have never read a book.- They are found in every county of the State. Now how shall they give instruction in literature .-' How shall they make literature attractive to those who have not any natural taste for it ? There are always in every class some who inherit a love for books. It is a love that never ceases, constantly reaching out for more in that direction. You do not need to give them any attention, except to direct that love to proper objects. But the majority in the classes in schools are not of that character. They have not that inherent love for the masterpieces of literature. They have no love for art. They can not see nature. How shall we give them that love, unless we have something of it ourselves ? We must begin solving this problem at the teachers' end of it. We can not solve it by going to the pupils. I am discouraged when I see the amount of ignorance among teachers in this respect. Of course, there are none of that class of teachers in this Association. They do not go to Associations; they do not go to Institutes. They live in secluded places, perhaps, and yet I could tell of incidents in my own experience, as a member of a Board of Examiners, where one of the teachers in one of the principal cities of Ohio could not answer a single one of my questions in English literature. I asked him questions in general history, and the past might never have been, so far as he was concerned. But there is a vast improvement being made, and you will not find such men any longer in the schools of Ohio. I find now young men and young women everywhere who are enthusiastic in this. They may not have read 58 JOHN HANCOCK. much, but they have caught the sweet infection of knowledge and they are going to do something, not alone for themselves, — but they are going to do for those they are called upon to instruct, — and we shall have built up in this State of ours a little mountain upon which shall be a shining light to all around, and we are going to have that to-morrow." The words which 1 have quoted, on a favorite topic of his, were among the last uttered by Dr. Han- cock before the Ohio Teachers' Association. It was set for him to appear on the program of 1891, at Chau- tauqua, and he was to open the discussion on the ques- tion, "What Further Work is there for the State Associ- ation ?" He fell at his post of duty a month before the Chautauqua meeting convened. The last work that he could do for the Association, and for the cause of educa- tion, was to die in the service. THE OHIO TEACHERS' READING CIRCLE. Closely related to the State Association, if not an integral part of it, is the Ohio Teachers' Reading Circle, organized by members of the Association at Chautau- qua, July 3, 1883, mainly by the exertions of Mrs. Delia Lathrop Williams, of Delaware, Ohio, who has ever since been at the head of its Board of Control. Mrs. Williams prepared the original report or plan upon which the Circle was organized, being chairman of a Committee of three to which the drafting of the report was en- trusted. The two other members of the Committee were Dr. John Hancock and Hon. J. J. Burns. The zeal for culture which impelled Dr. Hancock to cooperate in the founding of the Reading Circle, kept THE OHIO TEACHERS' READING CIRCLE. 59 alive his interest in its growth and prosperity. An ever active member of its Board of Control, he employed every means within his reach to encourage and assist its ben- eficent operation. Indeed he took the liveliest satisfac- tion in the contemplation of its manifest good results, for if he had a " hobby," it was literature and reading. To the direct influence of the pedagogical department in the course of reading of the Circle, he ascribed a marked improvement, noticeable by the State Board of Examiners, in the qualifications of applicants for certifi- cates. Discussing the value of libraries as an educa- tional means, at the meeting of the State Association in 1890, he said, "If there is any one thing above another that I am specially proud of besides the Truant Law, it is that in Ohio has originated the idea of having a great Reading Circle that shall bring within its bounds hundreds and thousands of teachers, so that they are beginning to taste more of the sweets of literature. We must encourage this reading among teachers themselves. Get into their hands the best books, and get into their hearts the love for them, and the remainder of the problem will be very easy. Inspiration will go out of every pore of them, as it were, and we shall gradually uplift the communities of this State and spread abroad this in- fluence from Ohio, as a central State, all over this Union. Every one of us, to bring this about, is to do as the young gentleman has been doing in his High School, and this lady who read the paper. Let us do this sort of work, and we can accomplish any purpose which we undertake." It was in furtherance of the higher objects of the Reading Circle, that Dr. Hancock was induced, in 1886, to prepare a booklet of "Selections from Wordsworth, 6o JOHN HANCOCK. with a Brief Sketch of his Life," his only venture in authorship, aside from strictly professional Reports and the like. The "Selections," published by Robert Clarke & Co., Cincinnati, 1886, formed part of the literary course for the years 1886-7. The introductory "sketch " is an admirably clear account of Wordsworth, with a critical estimate of his theory and practice of poetry. The dozen selections which follow, covering some thirty pages, are of the noblest strain, beginning with the mag- nificent Ode on Immortality, and closing with the great Sonnet on Milton. SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. The loving esteem in which Dr. Hancock was held by his fellow members in the National Educational Associa- tion, the Council, and the Round Table, is attested by the report of the action of the Memorial meeting of the Council, July 10, 1891, at Toronto, which is appended to this Memoir. Dr. Hancock became a member of the National Asso- ciation at its second annual meeting held in Cincinnati, at Smith &"Nixon's Hall, beginning July 11, 1858. Dr. Z. Richards was President of the Association in that year, and was succeeded by A. J. Rickoff. In 1871, Dr. Han- cock was chosen Treasurer of the Association, for the term of four years. He became a life member in 1876. He was elected President at the Louisville meeting in 1877. The Association held no meeting in 1878, and hence Dr. Hancock did not serve until the Philadelphia meeting, 1879, over which he presided with great accep- tance. He was one of the original members of the National SERVICES IN THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 6l Council, being present at its organization at Chautauqua, in 1880. Dr. Hancock was a regular attendant upon the meet- ings of these organizations, and an active participant in their work. Among the contributions which he made to the National literature of education, may be mentioned his inaugural address at Philadelphia, in 1879; a paper on "School Supervision in the United States Compared with Supervision in Other Countries," read at Chicago, in 1887; a "Tribute to Dr. E. T. Tappan," delivered in 1889, at Nashville, and a paper on "Coeducation," given at St. Paul, in 1891. Another rather informal, yet by no means unimpor- tant, educational junto to which Dr. Hancock belonged, was that known as the Round Table, of which, one of the members. Dr. Rickoff, furnishes a brief account. He says: "While Mr. Hancock was Superintendent of the Cincinnati Schools, the Round Table Convention was first assembled. It was mainly through the active inter- est of Dr. W. T. Harris, then Superintendent of the Schools of St. Louis, that Mr. Hancock, Mr. Pickard, of Chicago, and 1 (then of Cleveland) were called together annually in the fall to discuss the problems of adminis- tration which particularly affected the larger cities in which we were severally interested. We had no Constitution and no officers, but engaging a parlor in the hotel in which we had agreed to meet, we were accus- tomed to spend the greater part of the day and all the evening — sometimes till late at night for two or three successive days — in discussing principles of education ; methods of teaching ; organization and seating of classes ; the best nomenclature for the several grades ; the influence of parochial schools ; the best method of regu- 62 JOHN HANCOCK. lating the salaries of teachers ; the building of school- houses; plans of ventilation, etc., etc. In fact no subject pertaining to the organization or management of schools was ever considered as foreign to the legitimate purposes of our Convention. Mr. Stevenson, of Columbus, and Mr. Shortridge, of Indianapolis, sometimes joined us, but they were not so regular in attendance as the rest of us. Mr. Hancock and Mr. Harris were most valuable mem- bers. They were the readiest to raise questions for con- sideration, and most interesting and instructive in their discussion. Though it called together so few, and though its proceedings were never reported to the press, the influence of this Association over the schools of the West has been said to have been valuable : certainly it was not without great advantage to those who attended, and to the school systems which they represented. It was our rule to spend the morning of each day in visiting the schools of the city where we met. Thus, each one had an opportunity to study the work done by the others, and substantial uniformity was the result. The united influence of the larger cities doubtless produced a good degree of uniform.ity in the smaller ones, and in this way perhaps the good results did not stop with the schools of which we had charge." DR. HANCOCK'S WRITINGS FOR EDUCATIONAL JOURNALS, AS EDITOR OR CONTRIBUTOR. The Ohio School Journal — now The Ohio Educa- tional Monthly and National Teacher — was, perhaps, the first educational publication for which Mr. Hancock wrote. This well known periodical was started in 1852, and of the forty volumes which have been issued, there AS EDITOR OR CONTRIBUTOR. 63 is not one that does not mention the name of John Hancock ; and many of its pages are occupied with matter from his prolific pen. Besides numerous addresses, papers and reports of his, forming part of the proceedings of the State Teachers' Association, or of other public educational bodies, the Journal contains many contribu- tions sent by him, from time to time, on subjects mainly professional. In March, 1856, was published in the columns of the Journal an article entitled, "The Present Condition of Education." This was followed, in 1857, by an article on "New Methods." The July number of Volume VII., 1858, contains a very interesting paper by Mr. Hancock called, " Free Books," describing the Public Library of Cincinnati, and closing with the sentence: "Free Schools and Free Books are the two premises of a syllogism, and a Free People the inevitable conclusion." The June number of Volume VIII., 1859, preserves one of his humorous productions, a rollicking piece, of four pages, entitled, "Not an Article," a defense of mirth and laughter in general, and enjoining pleasantry upon the schoolmaster as a duty. This was a string upon which Hancock was wont to play most musically. He was fond of a joke, and always jocular. One of his whimsical proposals, often announced with much solemn- ity, was to prepare a " Book of Conundrums and Funny Jests, for use in the Common Schools," with a " Key," by means of which the unwittiest teacher might explain the obscurest points in the jokes ! The Educational Monthly for May, i860, prints an article from Hancock, bearing the title "Our Homes," a plea for house decoration ; and the December number has a noble and eloquent contribution from the same source, headed, "Will it Pay?" The question is applied 64 JOHN HANCOCK. to the public school system, and demonstrates the weak- ness of a parsimonious policy in school affairs, and shows conclusively how inestimable to the State is the value of education and culture. In January, i860, Mr. Elias Longley, of Cincinnati, began the publication of the Journal of Progress in Education and Social Improvement, a monthly journal, of which Hancock became chief editor, without relin- quishing any of his duties as Principal of the First Intermediate School. The Journal of Progress was, as its name would suggest, a v/ide-awake and lively periodical, though short-lived, for it was abandoned in September, 1861, on account of business disturbances caused by the Civil War. The subscription list was transferred to the books of the Ohio Educational Monthly, then published at Columbus, by E. E. White and Rev. Anson Smyth. The Journal had a Phonetic Department, in the interest of the publisher, and a Mathematical Depart- ment, conducted by W. D. Henkle, at that time Professor of Mathematics in the Normal School at Lebanon, Ohio. Among the leading contributors to the periodical were : A. J. Rickoff, Principal of Cincinnati Boys' Academy ; E. E. White, late of the Portsmouth, Ohio, Union Schools ; Thomas W. Harvey, of Painesville ; Charles S. Royce, of Norwalk; R. W. Stevenson, Superintendent Public Schools, Norwalk; Edwin Regal, of Hopedale Normal School ; Dr. 1. J. Allen, Superintendent of Public Schools, Cincinnati ; A. Schuyler, Principal of Seneca County Academy ; Mason D. Parker, Principal Second Inter- mediate School, Cincinnati ; Rev. Robert Allyn, Presi- dent of the Weslyan Female College, Cincinnati; Wm. E. Crosby, Principal of the Sixth District School, Cincin- AS EDITOR OR CONTRIBUTOR. 65 nati ; Daniel Hough, Principal of the First District School, Cincinnati; Lucius A. Hine, Author of "Political and Social Economy," Loveland, Ohio, and W. H. Venable, Teacher in Lebanon Normal School. Mr. Hancock's buoyant and ambitious energy brought to the editorial department of the Journal of Progress, monthly, a variety of reading matter remarkable for quantity and quality. He wrote with evident enjoy- ment, and with more care and precision, perhaps, than he ever used before or after those years of special pains- taking. Every issue of the Journal contained from four to six double column pages of closely printed text from his hand. Besides a multitude of minor articles, book notices, personal items, and scraps of restated vital news, he prepared regularly a series of keen and thought- ful leaders on such subjects as, "Teachers and Educa- tional Journals," " Intellectual Culture," " Boston Read- ing Books," "Self-made Men," "Learned Men," "What Knowledge is of Most Worth." hi a business para- graph headed "A Word to Our Friends," he outlines the intended character of his magazine. He says, "If our Journal has in any way approached a realization of our design, it has, in some measure, made itself the representative of living, practical thought, in the wide field of popular education, rather than of dry, pedantic forms. * ^: * * Wherever you find a real live teacher or friend of education, who does his own think- ing, and who is interested in the live thoughts of others of his brethren, show him our Journal and ask him to try it if but for six months. Pass by the old fogy school-z^^r/^r^,— they will not be interested." The questions brought to issue by the breaking out of the Civil War were immediately taken up and discussed 66 JOHN HANCOCK. by him whose name was the same as that of the first signer of the Declaration of Independence. No hesita- tion about John Hancock in such a crisis. Sumter was bombarded April 12, 1861 ; the May number of the Journal says, in its first editorial : " Since the bombard- ment of Fort Sumter, our people have been breathing nothing but pure oxygen. The adult pulse has beat a hundred to the minute ; that of the boys and girls, too rapidly to be computed. Patriotism is catching, and the editor has not entirely escaped the contagion. What with flag-raisings, school-teaching during the day, and military drill each night, he has been obliged to forego pen-work. He believes, whatever may be the final result, he and his fellow citizens generally will be the better for this present storm. They will have learned and felt what true patriotism is. Never have our people before felt how dear the old flag, under which they have so long lived and enjoyed the blessing of liberty, really was." From the time of this writing forward, the war-spirit dominated the editorial department of the Journal of Progress. We find in its pages the captions, "Patriot- ism in Educational Institutions," "President Lorin Andrews a Captain," "A Visit to Camp Dennison," "Teachers' Rifle Company," "Patriotism and the Teachers," " What are We Fighting For?" Doubtless the belligerent tone of the magazine wrought some disturbance in its subscription list. That such was the case is testified by the following epistle and comment which appeared in the editorial department for August, 1861, under the title " A Model Letter." AS EDITOR OR CONTRIBUTOR. 67 '" August l8th, 1861. MR. EDITOR :— Will you please not to send me any more of your Journals of Progress for 1 will not receive no more it does not fill the Bill 1 did not subscribe for a Political Paper. I will not read any such a thing. JOSEPH W. CLAXON.' This specimen of schoolmaster literature, which we give verbatim et literatim et ptmctuatim, must be from a regular 'Secesher.' We are exceedingly sorry we can not reproduce for our readers Mr. Claxon's very unique chirography— there is nothing like it in Spencer's Book of Specimens. We also regret that our anti-political friend has not informed the world where he lives. Such a bright and shining light ought not to be hid under a bushel. We don't think, however, that much learning has made him mad. — J. H." During his connection with Nelson's Commercial Col- lege, in 1865-6, Mr. Hancock was one of the editors of a paper called The News and Educator, published by Richard Nelson, in Cincinnati. The form and name of this paper were changed in 1867, when it was published by R. W. Carroll & Co., as The Educational Times: An American Monthly Magazine of Literature and Education. Of this, W. D. Henkle wrote in 1876, "Mr. Hancock edited the first number, and introduced it with his Valedictory." The editorial diversions of Mr. Hancock of which I have just written, did not alienate his affections from the Ohio Educational Monthly, nor prevent him from contributing frequently to that recognized organ of the State Teachers' Association. Articles from his pen are to be found in almost every volume of the Monthly down to the year of his death. Some of the most important of these are here mentioned, with date of publication, for 68 JOHN HANCOCK. the convenience of any who may wish to refer to them: "Some Hobbies and their Riders," December, 1861, a humorous "take-off" on certain classes of pedagogues; " Sl