which statements are liable to prejudice the minds of the people of the State against higher education, and WHEREAS, We have reason to believe that a correct statement of the relative cost of Primary and Secondary education, will prove the comparative cheapness of the latter, therefore, be it Resolved, That a committee of three be appointed whose duty it shall be to ascertain, so far as may be possible, the actual cost of the High Schools of this State, including buildings, instruction, &c., and report at the next annual meeting of this Association. The resolution was adopted and the subject-matter referred to a committee consisting of E. W. Coy, of Cincinnati, E. H. Cook, of Columbus, and H. P. Ufford, of Chillicothe. R. W. Stevenson, of Columbus, read a paper on THE LATE COL. JOHN A. NORRIS, EX-COMMISSIONER OF COMMON SCHOOLS. John A. Norris was born near Painesville, Lake County, Ohio, August 10, 1835, and died January 19, 1877, after a severe illness of nine weeks. Mr. Joseph Norris, the father of the subject of this sketch, was by occupation a farmer, and came to Ohio from New Hampshire, and settled near Painesville in the year 1830. In 1837 he purchased a farm in Guernsey County, Ohio, upon which he remained for about twenty-three years. Here his six sons were reared. Farming in those early days, before the invention of reapers, mowers, and planters, and when the country was new, required an amount of labor to raise and gather a crop, of which modern farmers have no conception. Farmers who were so fortunate as to have several boys found it often necessary to put them to work as soon as they were able to handle a hoe or an axe, and only when the weather was too inclement for out-door work on the farm, were the boys allowed to attend school. And the farmers of those days whose whole life was one of hard daily toil, seldom ever dreamed of any other way of earning a living than by tilling the soil. Mr. Joseph Norris was a plain, industrious, well-to-do farmer, having had few advantages of education, and seeking few for his growing family. He honestly believed that education was of little value to men in his occupation, and hence he had no disposition to encourage his sons to endeavor to gain an education beyond what could be acquired in such schools as the rural districts could afford. John, the fifth son, early manifested a love for books and study, and soon acquired all the knowledge he could obtain from the teachers of his district school. The nearest school of a higher grade than the one in his immediate neighborhood, was at the village of Newcomerstown. Here he was supported by his father for a term during the winter of 1852-53. He continued a second term, paying for his board by working mornings and evenings. During the fall of 1853 he attended school at Marlboro, taught by Mr. Holbrook, now of Lebanon Normal School. He procured his first certificate to teach school in Stark County. Young Norris had now reached that point in his education which he could turn to some service in the pursuit of further knowledge. He felt for the first time that he was independent. He taught successfully his first school and like man others, I have no doubt, learned much to his advantage. He entere Madison College, Antrim, Ohio, the spring of 1855, and was in attendanc about one year. Here I first met Norris and remember him as a modest young man, at once, on account of his bearing and ability, winning the confidence and respect of the faculty and students. He was compelled by the want of means to return to teaching. While teaching he continued his studies, until in 1857, he entered the Sophomore class of Kenyon College. He graduated in 1860. During the three years which were necessary to complete his course, he was absent one year, being compelled to teach to obtain money to defray his expenses. By close application and indefatigable effort the two years he was in actual attendance in college and the year he was teaching he succeeded in securing the honors of graduation with his class. During his college-life he made few intimate friends. This was not because he was not naturally social, but because time to him was too valuable. His manly bearing, industry, and ability, won for him the respect and admiration of both faculty and fellowstudents. Among the few of his intimate college friends was Murray Davis, Esq., now of San Francisco, California. Mr. Davis, in answer to inquiries made to him concerning his recollections of Norris, has made the following reply: "His scholarship was decidedly high. It lacked that complete finish in minor details which wins class honors. This was due to his entering the Sophomore year without having followed the exact Freshman course, and to the bent of his mind in particular directions, and his disregard for other prescribed channels which had no attractions for him. * * * * Norris was capable of success in any direction whither his ambition pointed. He specially excelled in mathematics and logic. His mind was intuitively quick, accurate, logical, acute, practical, grasping relatives, the practical bearing of exact principles upon real problems. He had a clear, instantaneous perception of the logically true, discarding as trivial or scarcely seeing the by-ways and side-issues which constitute the recreative grounds of a dreamy mind. I think the nature of his mind, as well as the necessities of his life, and the struggle for self-elevation made Norris rather underrate, at least in those early days, what we call culture in the sense of classical polish and refinement of intellectual expression. He rather regretted the time devoted to the classics and did not read his Homer and Virgil con amore. * * * His deportment was entirely honorable, law-abiding, and free from serious cause of blame, yet it was not studiously so, and there was not that servility about it to be observed in less manly characters who live in the smiles of those in authority. He had a decided taste and talent for mischief of a harmless sort. I remember his being engaged with myself and one other. classmate in entering the recitation-room of natural science one night and abstracting our names from the Professor's drawer where he had them on slips of paper to be drawn at random in asking questions after lectures. He was a member of a secret organization having the reputation of doing a good deal of nocturnal feasting upon chickens, &c., &c., but I never heard them charged with anything more serious. They were good fellows and among them were some theological students. None were dissipated men, and the fun was innocent and decent mischief. As a true friend and true man, Norris should be rated more highly than any one in my college experience. He was absolutely true, loyal, generous, manly, actively sympathetic, and helpful. He would go through fire and water to serve a friend, was enthusiastic, undaunted, discouraged by no obstacles, and regardless of public opinion in supporting what he deemed right. This belief in him was general by all who knew him well. They felt as I do, perhaps not all so strongly, for few knew him as well. The chief tie perhaps between us was that we were both poor and earning our own living by teaching, &c., &c. It is a strong evidence of the real manliness of boys, that this fact brought neither to Norris nor myself one single unpleasant slight or painful incident of any kind that I can remember. Millionnaires were not treated with more respect or kindness. Norris was a moral man but not religious. I am aware of no single act of an immoral nature, but this avoidance of wrong-doing was not referred to any belief as to man's relations with a divinity—and certainly not as taught in any religious creed. In the literary societies his standing was high. The two local societies which included all students were secret, and as he and I did not belong to the same one, I was not personally a listener to his efforts therein. I knew from others that he was a ready and powerful debater, and a strong and leading member, and in my day he had more success and was more active and zealous than any other man in recruiting new men for his society. Being myself an active worker for the other society, I had occasion to know him as a serious antagonist. We worked hard but without the slightest disturbance of good feeling. It was in the secret society of the AA of which we were both members that I knew him best. The membership was limited to about sixteen, selected for scholarship and literary taste, and the literary efforts therein were more studied and labored, with a view only to mutual culture, having no audience to reward for the cheap applause which is won by rhetorical declamation. This was the best field in college for real improvement. Norris was a prominent and active member, and won the respect and esteem of all his fellows as a writer and a good fellow. He had a mind of the first order, capable of reaching out and grasping truth and throwing light wherever it was directed. What he lacked as a scholar was due to the necessities of his situation which required him to push on and acquire without taking time to sit down quietly in the evening of his labor 'sub tegmine fagi,' and reflect and digest the acquisitions of hours of labor which give to learning that mellow richness of color and tone which makes it fruitful, graceful, and soft, like a picture of the old masters. He was eminently a man for the practical work of the world. In his schooldays he had an inclination to politics." After graduation in 1860, he secured the position of tutor in a family in Baton Rouge, La. This position he held till in the summer of 1861, when the feeling of the Southern people against Northern men became so bitter, that prompt acquiescence in the doctrine of secession or imprisonment or death was the only alternative, he chose to escape, if possible, leaving his books and extra clothing. He came North on next to the last train which got through from the South. His good sense and discretion kept him free from difficulty long after other Northern men were compelled to flee, without yielding one sentiment of loyalty to his government. He made his home in Cadiz, Ohio, where he began teaching as Principal of the High School, and shortly afterwards as Superintendent of the schools of the village. This position he filled with marked ability, till the call for 300,000 men, when he enlisted and organized Company C of the Ninetyeighth Regiment of Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and was mustered into service at Camp Mingo, near Steubenville, Ohio, August 23, 1862. The regiment was ordered to the field soon after its organization and equipment. In the bloody battle of Perryville or Chaplin Mills, fought October 8, 1862, Captain Norris was severely wounded in the right leg. He soon, however, reported for duty. He was in the battles of Chickamauga, Kenesaw Mountain, and Peachtree Creek, in the Atlanta campaign. In the latter he was again wounded in the right leg, July 20, 1864. The wound was so severe that amputation was necessary. Eleven days after the operation he was on his crutches and soon thereafter was sent home, receiving his discharge. He was a vigilant, brave, and patriotic soldier. In the camp and in the field, he was the same honorable, large-hearted, and high-toned gentleman. He was ambitious, but at the same time no honors would satisfy his ambition which were not won by meritorious conduct and given as a voluntary acknowledgment of the value of his character and services. No officer was more desirious than he of honorable promotion. To his men he was courteous, considerate, and generous. He often sacrificed his own ease, comfort, and convenience for the benefit of his men. Always temperate in his habits, he was ever ready for duty, clear-headed, and fruitful of resource, he was reliable and successful in the execution of commands entrusted to him, and no obstacle in the way of what he conceived to be his duty weighed one hair in deterring him from any undertaking. Shortly after his discharge from the army, Colonel Norris received the appointment of Provost Marshal of the Sixteenth Congressional District. His headquarters were first at Uhrichsville, and afterwards were removed to Barnesville. He held this position discharging its duties with his characteristic energy and fidelity till the discontinuance of the office, about September 1, 1865. of this year, he was married to Miss Nettie Beebe, of Cadiz, Ohio, a lady of good position and good family. In the summer of 1865, he received the nomination by the Republican party for the office of State School Commissioner, and was duly elected. Hon. E. E. White, who was then acting as State School Commissioner, under appointment of Governor Tod, was also a candidate before the same Convention for the nomination. Mr. White was well known to the teachers of the State and Colonel Norris was not extensively known. Mr. White had carried through the General Assembly several very important school measures, had shown himself to be a wise and capable officer, and worthy of the confidence and support of the friends of education. They believed the nomination to be due to Mr. White. Colonel Norris not being known by the school March 6th, men generally, his nomination and election was regarded as disastrous to the interest of popular education. He entered upon the duties of the office in February, 1866, with no assurances of co-operation and aid from the leading educational men of the State. But he began his work with so much intelligence, with the exercise of so much good common sense, and with so much modesty, energy, and earnestness, as at once to win the confidence and respect of the prominent schoolmasters of the State. Those who had occasion to visit Colonel Norris or to correspond with him were treated with so much courtesy and cordiality, and their business with the office was attended to so promptly, and managed so wisely and satisfactorily, that they became at once friends and admirers. Before the issue of his first report, he had quelled almost all opposition, and secured the co-operation of the prominent school men. Colonel Norris, in his first report, which was for the school year, ending August 31, 1866, made so able a presentation of the condition, excellencies, and defects of the Common Schools of the State, exhibited so much breadth of knowledge in educational affairs, maintained his points with so much . force and logic, showed so much rare good sense, and modesty, in the discussion of all topics pertaining to the schools, and manifested so much vigor and culture in the use of language, that he was with one accord acknowledged to be worthy of the position of a leader among the educational men of the State. Warm hearts now greeted him everywhere. He gave his whole energies to secure legislation in favor of county supervision, and in this report he discussed the subject thoroughly and forcibly. He succeeded in persuading the teachers to concentrate their influence and efforts in favor of this important measure. In his second and third reports, while making prominent the subject of county supervision for which measure the whole body of teachers were now working, he discussed in his usually able and clear manner many other important educational topics. He believed that the right arm of power to raise the standard of the qualifications of teachers, to arouse a progressive spirit of improvement, and to awaken the people from apathy upon schools and their administration was the agency of the Teachers' Institute. He urged the importance of more systematic work in the organization and conduct of Institutes; and to this end he recommended putting into the field at least two of the most successful institute men of the State, whose whole time should be given up to the work of attending Institutes and Teachers' Associations. Colonel Norris's addresses before Institutes and other public assemblies, were earnest, logical, and practical appeals for better teachers and better schools. His statements were always correct, and therefore inspired confidence. Although he did not succeed in securing any material legislative enactments for the benefit of the schools, he did prevent unfavorable legislation. He filled the position of State School Commissioner with dignity and honor to the State, harmonized and gave direction to the educational forces, infused a spirit of progress, and left us in his reports educational documents of rare excellence and value. Colonel Norris was re-elected in 1868, but to the great regret of the friends of education, he resigned in May, 1869, to accept the position of Pension Agent at Columbus. He was led |