patronage the paper was discontinued after an existence of a few months.

The Democratic Pioneer commenced publication in August, 1845. Its editor and publisher was William T. Giles, and this paper was also a five-column folio. The Pioneer continued under this management until 1849, when the establishment was sold to Josiah Smith and Elijah Giles. This paper had quite a checkered career which is too elaborate to follow in this sketch. However, the name had been changed to the Wyandot Pioneer, when in 1866 Pietro Cuneo became editor and proprietor. In 1869, Cuneo changed the name of the paper to the Wyandot County Republican. He was the first publisher in Upper Sandusky to introduce steam power.

A number of other newspapers have been started in Upper Sandusky, but only existing a short period. The Tribune was started in 1849 and discontinued in 1851. Another shortlived paper was the Herald. The Democratic Union newspaper was first issued in 1857. After a number of years of publication and many changes, the Union was in 1903 absorbed by the Republican, and the paper is now known as the Wyandot Union-Republican, and is issued tri-weekly. Sherman A. Cuneo, son of Pietro Cuneo, is the editor and publisher.

In 1879 the first number of the Weekly Chief was issued by H. A. Tracht, who is at present the editor and publisher of the Daily Chief.

OAK HILL CEMETERY

For several years prior to the founding of this cemetery, the people of Upper Sandusky and vicinity had deeply felt the want of a suitable place for the interment of the dead, and efforts were made at various times to secure such a place, but no effective measures were taken to that end until 1874, when an association was organized and Oak Hill cemetery established by purchasing thirty acres of land on the Radnor road, one and a half miles south of Upper Sandusky. It is situated upon a tract of high table land bordering and overlooking the Sandusky valley. Its elevated position furnishes it perfect drainage, which with a subsoil composed mainly of sand and gravel and an undulating surface covered with an abundance of native forest trees, makes it a suitable resting place for the dead, with its picturesque and beautiful settings.

The grounds were surveyed and platted and the cemetery formally opened and dedicated, on the 4th day of October, 1876.

Prior to the opening of Oak Hill cemetery, the Old Mission burial ground had been the principal place of interment.

THE FLOOD OF 1913

Wyandot county was but little affected by the recent flood as compared with the damage to adjoining counties.

Upper Sandusky is over forty-five feet above ordinary water stage in the river. The worst experience her people had was flooded water works, throwing them out of commission for probably fifteen days. These water works are down near the river, and though "leveed" for ordinary high water, this flood submerged levee, basin and works. It points to the necessity of a new site, of better water, free from the sewage of other towns on the river above. Already agitation to that end has been begun.

The damage by the flood was confined to the valley, to fences, loss of stock, etc. But one important bridge was taken and that was the covered bridge across the river at Upper Sandusky, and known as the Old Indian Mill bridge. It was a modern structure but needed repairing. Some damage was done to other bridges over the Sandusky, and to some smaller bridges over other streams in the county, some being carried away. The loss will not exceed fifty thousand, and the money for replacement is in hand-or will be shortly.

There was no loss of life. The flood was the highest ever known here, no former record coming any way near it.

The loss to the Pennsylvania railroad will be considerable in the damage done to the great fill across the valley, the stage of water being such as to saturate the bank and cause it to go down in the flood in slides. The south track had to be condemned.

THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The following statement shows the efficiency and progress of educational affairs in Ohio within the past half century. In 1853 an act passed the Legislature to provide for the reorganization, supervision and maintenance of common schools.

Prior to the passage of this act the common schools had become inefficient in their character, and the laws so often amended as to render them incapable of being understood, or receiving a consistent judicial construction. It was for this reason that the first general assembly, under the new constitution of 1851, revised the school laws and passed the reorganizing act of March 14, 1853. This act introduced radical changes in the school system-changes which have given the common schools a deservedly high character for their excellence. The provisions of the act, with slight amendments, remained in force for twenty years, when most of its provisions were embraced in the codification of the school laws in 1873, and are still operative. By the close of the year 1855, the free graded system was permanently established, met with hearty approval, and received high commendation and support from an influential class of citizens.

Public high schools were not known in Ohio before the middle of the century. Long before that, however, many private academies had been founded to furnish an education superior to that given by the district school.. The few colleges founded in the first half of the century also maintained preparatory schools, which, doing work similar to that of the academy, bridged over the chasm between the ungraded school and the college proper.

A law passed in 1848 provided for a board of six directors, who should have full control over all the schools of the town. It authorized the board to establish a number of primary schools and one central grammar school; to fix the terms of transfer from one to another; to make and enforce all necessary rules; to employ and pay teachers; to purchase apparatus; to determine and certify annually to the town council the amount of money necessary for school purposes; to provide for the examination of teachers.

In the early schools of Ohio, as of every other state, all the pupils sat and recited in one room and to a single teacher, and any systematic gradation or classification was impossible even if proposed. The chief impediment was the lack of suitable and sufficient school buildings. Where two or more schools existed within a village or city the pupils were divided geographically, not by grades, among the several schools. Pupils of all ages and degrees of advancement sat in the same

room.

The first systematic gradation and classification of