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A
History of My Education in Center Township
and in Beverly School District
[Beverly, Ohio]
by Nathaniel Silvus
[#339a]
Schools were kept up chiefly by subscription.
The teacher was hired at such a price as he and his patrons agreed upon, and he was
expected to "board around". The earliest record of a school here accessible to
this writer, is that of July 25, 1838. My school experience began in 1844 and lasted until
1854.
The school board records for 1848 show that
the highest paid teacher received $118 and the women teachers received $87. A new school
was erected in 1854 at a cost of $3,000.
In 1852, 66 volumes were received for the
school library.
In 1849 a course of study was set up by the
school board.
The Primary Department:
First Year—Alphabet, Spelling, First
Reader, Counting, Adding and Subtracting Numbers.
Second Year—Spelling, Second Reader,
Multiplication, six lines.
Secondary Department:
First Year—Spelling, Third Reader,
Printing, Mental Arithmetic, Part lst.
Second Year—Spelling, Printing, Writing,
Fourth Reader, Geography, Mental Arithmetic, part 2d to Section XI. [He then tells all
the courses for the Secondary Department—this would be the present day fifth grade up
to grade nine. Jmb] this is when I started to school in Beverly and stayed at the home
of [obliterated by a fold in the paper]
High School:
First Year—Arithmetic, Grammar, 1st
Latin, Bookkeeping, Algebra, English Analysis, Latin Grammar, or Physical Geography.
Second Year—Algebra, 2nd part,
Geometry, Latin Reader or Physics, Caesar or Science of Government.
Third Year—Algebra, 2nd part
Geometry, Latin Reader or Physics, Caesar or Science of Government.
Third Year—Trigonometry, Mensuration and
Surveying, Analytical Geometry, Rhetoric, Virgil or Physiology, Astronomy, Logic, Virgil
or Zoology.
Fourth Year—Astronomy, Intellectual
Philosophy, Virgil or Zoology, Ancient History, Horace or Botany, Moral Philosophy, U. S.
History, Constitution of the US., Declamations, Compositions and Vocal Music, through out
this course. Constitution of U.S. throughout this course.
Of this course only 3 persons have completed
it in good order with certificates and I am very proud to say that this writer is one of
them.
In 1855 I enrolled in Beverly College with my
courses being paid by Dr. S. C. Clark who had great dreams that I would become the new
young doctor of this town, but in the meantime I met and fell in love with the beautiful
Harriet Brown who was in her second year of the course. I then took a job carrying the
mail from Beverly to Moscow Mills, Ohio, in addition to helping my father on the farm.
Mention must be made of the many wonderful
teachers who greatly improved the minds and deportment of many pupils, not the least being
this writer.
N.Silvus
This was sent by someone on the Internet
from an old clipping in the Beverly paper. I am sorry to say there is no date on it and
they cannot find more . . .
Judy Bedford
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Nathaniel Silvus
#339a
Marietta Ohio Times, January 29,1905
FOUL PLAY SUSPECTED
In death of Silvus
Aged Beverly Farmer Found Dead
in Bar
Gambling Clerk Skips Out
"The village of Beverly is in a state of great excitement
resulting from several cases in which murder, sensations, gambling and scandals figure. On Monday
evening December 26th, [1904] an old and well known farmer who resides about three miles
from Beverly died under suspicious circumstances, and the next morning his body was found in a
livery stable. An investigation failed to reveal anything that would tend to show that a
murder had been committed. The verdict reached was that he came to his death by heart
failure, but recently an investigation has been made and a slight clue has been obtained that seems to
indicate that the man was murdered. Silvus had some $20 in his pocket but the next morning when
his body was found the money was missing. An investigation is being made and some starling developments
may be expected within the next few days. Mr Wm Fowler, a clerk of Beverly said that a man
named Null or Nulf was a shady character implicated in the poker games and gambling at the
hotel there and has not been seen since the day after Christmas. His arrest was expected
to follow....."
Nathaniel Silvus was a postal
carrier for the rural route from Beverly to Moscow Mills at the time and had just been paid.
Nathaniel is #339a on Mary's Chart and is my great grandfather. His
third wife Ella Williamson was pregnant with his 21st child. She was Irish and
very superstitious and said that she had been having fearful apparitions for a while.
First someone in the family had rocked an empty chair--this was a sign of impending
doom--and my mother, to this day, goes ballistic if anyone sits and taps the rocker of an
empty chair.
Next she saw a falling star hit the ground. This was a sign of a coming death. And then while she
awaited his return that night, a big red coal fell from the hearth rolled onto the floor
and this determined
for sure something awful was happening because three bad omens in a short period sealed her
fate. When she heard the news she took to her bed and was unable to go to the funeral or
spearhead an investigation. They had a two-room log cabin that I used to ride by every day on the
bus. She later married a man named Simeral who shortly thereafter died in a bridge-building accident. She
received a large payment and was able to buy a nice farm in the area. The descendants of
this family still have their reunions every year on the first Sunday of August in Beverly
Ohio. Nathaniel
Silvus is my great grandfather and is 339a on Mary Cole's chart.
Judy Bedford
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