By the latter half of the nineteenth-century, the First-Day School at Cincinnati Friends Meeting was also referred to as a Sabbath School or Bible School. It convened at 9:30 A.M., before meeting for worship, from September through June. (During the summer months, William H. Taylor occasionally taught an adult Bible class, which by 1875 was offered year-round.)

In the first few years at the Eighth Street meetinghouse, the First-Day School was attended by about 65–70 young people, although only about half them were the children of members, suggesting that the rest were either children of attenders or other local youngsters whose parents simply wanted them to receive a religious education. “A larger and more regular attendance of older scholars is desirable,” noted the minutes from 1871, “and if Friends would do more to encourage it, and occasionally visit the school themselves, there might be an improvement in this respect.”

Revival meetings, which were referred to among Quakers as general meetings or public meetings, were also drawing children to the school. “One or two meetings for children were held in connection with our late general meeting, with good results,” reported H. Howard Smith in 1874 on behalf of the First-Day School Committee, “and we believe that the influence of the general meeting has extended to the school.”

Not everyone was pleased with this influence, however, with “a few Friends objecting to the practice of singing hymns by the school.” (In previous years, the Discipline had exhorted Friends to avoid “music, dancing, and other vain sports and amusements,” although this was targeted more at secular than religious music.) As a compromise, the classes started with “reading a hymn, afterwards a portion of scripture, and frequently brief devotional exercises follow, then the lesson of the day on which some pertinent remarks are usually made at the close. The concluding exercises are usually the repeating of a hymn in concert and on a few occasions in vocal melody under a solemnizing feeling.” Within a few years, however, the resistance to music was overcome. The first 15 minutes of each class were devoted to singing gospel hymns, with another sung at the end. By 1903, the school had its own music committee, and Grace Henley was its pianist.

During this period, the First-Day School classes also generally closed “in repeating the Lord’s Prayer, sometimes followed by prayer from one of the teachers.” This occurred in spite of the fact that according to the Discipline, “[Quakers] continue to believe that our disuse of set forms of prayer is founded on a correct view of the spiritual nature of the Gospel dispensation.”

Initially, the Bible was the only text used, with lessons drawn from both the Old and New Testaments. Over the years, however, the school utilized a wider variety of materials and teaching techniques. In 1898, Americus V. Williams delivered the following report on the practices of the First-Day School:

We feel that our school has been greatly blessed. It has increased in number, and the interest manifested by both teachers and scholars is very gratifying. A feeling of kindness one for the other seems to permeate the whole school and each one shows a willingness to do their part. The teachers and scholars are fond of their school, many of them coming long distances and making considerable sacrifices to be present.

 

The number of scholars enrolled is 101 and the average attendance for the past eight months has been 85.

 

There are nine classes, graded according to age and their standing in their day school.

 

The teachers are ten in number, faithful in their attendance and have proved themselves “apt to teach.”

 

The lessons selected by the International Committee are taught. Besides the teaching of the regular lesson, the scholars have been taught the books of the Bible and how to find them, portions of Scripture have been committed to memory, and at the close of school each First day the different classes recite a text learned that day—thus storing their minds with God’s word, which may come to them in time of need. …

 

For punctual attendance each scholar receives a card, and when ten have been received, they are exchanged for a card representing a value of ten cents. When a sufficient number of cards have been received, they are presented to our prize-book committee for redemption. We take pleasure in informing you that in most cases Bibles are taken in preference to other books, and many of our scholars now have Bibles of their own. The Bible given are Teachers’ Bibles, having concordance, references, maps, and other information necessary to the Bible student.

 

On Fourth-day evening of each week a meeting is held to study the Sabbath School lesson, followed by a time for prayer. These meetings are very interesting and helpful to all who attend. Besides the study of the lesson, many interesting subjects brought out by the lesson are looked into.

 

A Home Department has recently been added to our Sabbath School, the object of which is to encourage persons who cannot attend the school to study the lesson at home. We have in this department 19 members, all of whom have been supplied with quarterlies.

 

A sewing school composed of children from our Sabbath School was begun in second month, and is held every Seventh day afternoon. Those who have attended have made rapid progress with their needles, and we doubt not will look back with pleasure and gratitude to the time they spent in Friends Meeting house learning to sew.

 

Teachers’ meetings are held once a month at the homes of the different teachers. Reports from our Secretary, Treasurer, and other officers are read. Various methods for the improvement of the school are discussed, after which a social time is had. We feel that much good has come to our school through these meetings. …

 

In conclusion, we return our thanks to Cincinnati Monthly Meeting for the liberal financial support they have given the school and we promise with the Master’s help to work faithfully to build up a First-day school, which will in the future do more and better work than ever before.

In addition to the funding it received from the meeting, the First-Day School also benefited financially from a $200 bequest from Peter T. Williams, who passed away in 1897. He was not a Quaker, but he “believed that great good came from instruction given in Sabbath Schools, and…was in accord with the view of Friends.” Interest income from the fund established in his name was used to purchase books for the school’s library.

J. Lindley Spicer also donated a number of curios that he had collected while traveling in the Middle East, for use in supplementing the Bible lessons. And in 1903, the meeting raised the money needed to purchase a stereopticon, lantern, and screen—an early slide projector.

Nevertheless, as membership in the meeting began to decline, attendance at the First-Day School did as well. By 1910, the average weekly attendance was down to 31 students, about a third of what it had been at its peak.

This article comes from the book Friends Past and Present: The Bicentennial History of Cincinnati Friends Meeting (1815–2015). You can obtain a copy of the printed book or a Kindle version from Amazon.com. The proceeds of all sales go to Cincinnati Friends Meeting.