Ohio Northern University - Northern Yearbook (Ada, OH)

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rkATlON r«f r.A f CAMPUS AfTf R SCENES OF THE OHIO NORTHERN UNIVERSITY

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OFFICERS CLASS OF 1910 President, W. E. DAVIDSON Vice-P sident, EDWARD GRUETZNER Secretary, H. B. BUNSTON Treasurer, DALE ERNSBERGER Historian, HELEN POND Valedictorian, WILLIAM FLEMING Prophet, A. A. STAMBAUGH Orator, W. O. DOW Poet, MABEL COYNER MOTTO: He Can Who Thinks He Can COLORS: Silver Gray and Cardinal Red

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DA was selected as the location of the O. N. U. for three distinct reasons. 1st. There were no institutions of learning located in northwestern Ohio with the exception of a small college at North Wood, Ohio, in Logan County, Heidelburg College at Tiffin, Ohio., and a Seminary at Milan, Ohio. 2nd. Ada was selected because it is on the water-shed dividing the waters flowing into the Great Lakes and into the Gulf via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and being situated on an elevated plateau would assure its healthfulness. 3rd. Its railroad facilities. The Pennsylvania, the great thoroughfare between the East and the West, intersected at Forest by the lines North and South, at Lima by the lines North and South, giving access from the East and West, Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest. The Founder visited a number of towns along the Pennsylvania road in the western part of the state assur¬ ing the citizens that if they would employ him to superintend the public schools and permit him to take in foreign students and retain him a few years until he would become known as a teacher he would open up a Normal School, and judging by his success in the past he promised to build up a school where thousands of students would be enrolled annually. The older citizens of Ada still remember that statement. He began teaching in Ada on the 9th day of April. 1866, and whenever the public school was not in session he would organize what he called a select school, teaching every week of the year. His last select term was in the Fall of 1870 when he enrolled 119 students and was compelled to employ several assistant teachers. The Founder defined a normal school as a natural school. His object was not simply the training of young men and young women for the profession of teaching, but also to educate and train them for other professions and to become useful citizens . In the Fall of 1870 he associated with himself B. F. Niesz and J. G. Park who is still connected with the school. They then began to erect the first Normal School building which is now known as the Old Brick. The Normal School proper began its first term on August 14, 1871. That year the founder was superintendent of the public schools, giving the public schools by contract two hours a day. He was also president of the Normal School and taught from seven to ten hours a day. The first catalog published predicted that the school would become the millenium of learning of North-