[Nfb-history] Oregon State School for the Blind 1876

Fri Sep 17 21:45:27 UTC 2010

Hello List:

     I recently acquired two copies of the 1876 report of the Oregon State School for the Blind. The pamphlet was printed well enough that I was able to scan it. I am attaching an MSWord 2007 version and appending the plain text version. Of course the pamphlets themselves will soon be on their way to the JTL.

Regards,

Robert Jaquiss

------------------------------------

BIENNIAL REPORT

OF THE

GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT

OF THE

OREGON

INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.

FROM SEPT., 1874, TO SEPT., 1876.

NINTH REGULAR
SESSION-1876.
h

SALEM, OREGON:
MART. V. BROWN, STATE PRINTER.
1 8 7 6 .

OF Tfl FC

BIENNIAL REPORT

OF THE
GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT

OREGON'
INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.

FROM SEPT., 1874, TO SEPT., 1876.

NINTH REGULAR SESSION-1876.
SALEM, OREGON:
MART. V. BROWN, -STATE PRINTER.
1876.

N.PORT.

to the Honorable the State Board of Education :
The third school-year of the Institute began on the
twenty-first day of September, 1874. , The number of
pupils in attendance during the year was nine. The
teachers were the same as during the preceding year, until
April, 1875, when Miss Fannie Barker was appointed.
Music Teacher ' in place of Miss Hernandez, who had resigned.

On
the sixteenth of April, Mrs. Nesbit, the Matron, was
fatally injured by being thrown from a wagon. She had
performed the duties of her responsible charge with great
diligence and fidelity, winning the love of the pupils and
the esteem of the officers of the Institute: It being im- .
possible to find any one, to fill the important place which
her sad death had made vacant, the Board thought best
to close the term, which was done on the twenty-first of
the month. In July, Miss Simpson, who had been Principal
from the first opening of the Institute 1873, removed
from the State. .

A contract having been made with Dr. E. Y. Chase for
the care and maintenance of the school, the fourth term
was opened on the fourth day of October, 1875. Mr.
Charles H. Kaiser, a graduate of and a teacher in the New
York Institute, was appointed Principal, and took charge
of both the Literary and Musical Departments. During
the term there were six pupils ; the school-year closing on
the seventeenth of March, 1875.
17.1,

INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.

The pupils during the two years were:
Brewer, David H Wasco County.
Lewis, Louisa E Benton County.
McFadden, Harriet  Linn County.
Morgan, Zuritha Yamhill County.
Morris, Ernestine E Marion County.
Savage, Blanche Marion County.
Tomlinson, Frank Coos County.
Watkins, Josephine  Linn County.
Whitaker, Benjamin Lane County.
Total,, nine; of whom three were males and six females.
Instruction has been given in the following studies:
Reading, in three different systems of raised print, viz?'
The line system generally used in this country; the Moon
system, invented by a blind man in England; and the
New York point system. Arithmetic, mental and practical;
Geography; History of the United States; Spelling,
and Vocal and Instrumental Music.
The students have been diligent in their use of the apparatus
and attentive to the faithful teaching of their instructors,
and have accordingly made commendable progress
in their studies. They deserve credit for excellent
deportment as wen as for good improvement of the advantages
offered them. There is also great cause for
thankfulness that they have enjoyed almost uninterrupted
good health. And much praise is due to Mrs. Chase, the
Matron during the past year, for her affectionate and
watchful care of the pupils.
In November, 1875, the Institute received from Sir
Chartes Lowther, Leeds, England, a. generous donation of
over one hundred and twenty volumes of miscellaneous
reading, religious, biographical and historical. These
books are printed in the Moon type.

INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND. 5

It is very important for the best interests of our State
that the nature and design of this institution should be
rightly understood. All our people ought to know that
this Institute for the Blind, maintained at the public
expense and placed under the direction of the. State board
of Education, is not an asylum, nor a hospital, nor a poorhouse,
but a school. It is a part of our common school
system. Its object is to fulfill the duty which the State
owes in the matter of education to one peculiar class of
its citizens; to furnish the blind with the means of obtaining
at least as much knowledge of the ,ordinary
branches of learning as seeing children can acquire in the
public schools; to give them also the mental training
which they specially need; to make good their unfortunate
physical defect, and to put them, as far as possible,
on an equal footing with others as regards that edncation
which it is claimed the State ought to give to all its
children. And it is further the design or the school to
cultivate a right and honorable feeling of independence in
the pupils and to teach them that it is their duty to use
diligently all the capabilities with which they have been
endowed, and to labor truly, as others do, to get their living.

The welfare of the ,State requires that this object should
be accomplished. It is only in this way that the blind
can be prevented from being always a helpless, unproductive,
expensive and wretched class in the community.
Only by some such plan as this, wisely and faithfully
carried out, is it possible to attain the result which all
good citizens must wish may be speedily attained, viz: the removal of this grievous defect of blindness. The final
result that ought to be our aim is the curing of every
defective class of persons.

INSTITUTE FOR THE BLIND.
And that desirable end can be secured so far as regards
the blind, only by teaching them to consider that they are
not to be any more dependent upon charity than others
are; and by furnishing them the means, not of living idly
at the expense of the State, but of supplying their defect
and making themselves useful members of society.
There are, probably, at least twenty-five persons in our
State who might profitably use the advantages of the Institute.
In order to extend its benefits to them, the appropriation
ought to be much larger than has heretofore
been granted. Ample and liberal means given now,
enough to remedy the evil soon, will save the commonwealth
great expense in the future performance of its duty.
- Respectfully submitted,
JOHN H. BABCOCK.

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