Frank Appel
“To be elected to the
superintendency of the schools of the leading city of his native
county, is a recognition which seldom comes to a school man, but
Frank Appel has been accorded that recognition and, what is still
better, he fully merits it.”
From
The Ohio Educational Monthly, Volume 57
From its beginnings, Lucasville has
been home to a strong commitment to education. From the early efforts
of State Senator Robert Lucas (later governor of Ohio), who threw his
support into the 1825 bill that created a common system of schools
and financed public education in Ohio to the Valley Local System of
today, the area has a long history of educational excellence.
One of the celebrated influences on
education in Lucasville – and, for that matter, on the process in
all of Scioto County – was Frank Appel. He was born September 15,
1868, not far from Lucasville. Frank's parents were Theodore and Mary
E. (Brant) Appel. His mother was the daughter of Joseph H. Brant of
Lucasville. On June 15, 1895, Appel was married to Martha Jane Cook,
a daughter of George Cook.
Frank passed through the regular
“laboratory course” of farm work as a boy. He attended the
village school, where, under the direction of Principal M. F. Andrew,
he made up his mind to be a teacher – “or at least too secure a
teacher's certificate.”
In the face of initial failure, Appel
set out to achieve his goals. The Educational Monthly reported
...
“The first trial resulted in
failure, not so much on account of a lack of knowledge as on account
of fright due to being so far from home, the journey to the county
seat taking him out of his home township for the first time.
“The second trial brought success
and one more country lad was started on the road to achievement. In
the school room he soon found himself and began to work with that
earnestness so characteristic of the
man.
“In 1888, he entered the
preparatory department of the Ohio Wesleyan University with six years
work ahead and money enough to last but one year. By means of
teaching, at times, he supplied himself with the necessary funds to
go on with his college work.”
Appel taught locally while pursuing his
degree – his teaching experience covered the entire range of public
school work from the six months' term in the county at $33 per month
to positions as superintendent. He began teaching in 1885, in
Jefferson Township and taught there and in Clay township until 1891,
when he was appointed superintendent of the Lucasville schools.
Frank remained in Lucasville two years,
and in September, 1894, he went to Wheelersburg, where he was
superintendent until 1899. In June, 1899, Appel went to Piketon and
was superintendent of the Piketon schools until January 1, 1900, when
he was appointed superintendent of the Ludlow, Kentucky, schools
where he had twelve schools under his charge. Later, he became
principal at Portsmouth and eventually superintendent in 1908.
Appel also taught summer school at
Wheelersburg, in 1898, and at Lucasville, in 1899, 1900, 1901 and
1902.
In 1894 Appel completed his course and
secured his A.B. Degree from Ohio Wesleyan. He passed his
examinations before the state board for a common school life
certificate in December, 1899, and he passed his high school life
certificate the following June – both requiring “scholarship and
training of a high order.”
Educational Monthly paid Frank the
highest of compliments ...
“Best of all Frank Appel is a
genuine, true, manly man. He loves sport and can throw a ball with
all the curves known to a professional. He has travelled a hilly road
himself, and can sympathize with boys and girls and teachers in their
difficulties. He is loyal to his friends, and when Supt. J. I. Hudson
resigned his position to take up other work, it was natural, just and
right that the high school principal who had served so faithfully in
that position should be called to the highest place. The board of
education of Portsmouth is deserving of congratulations on its wise
action in electing Supt. Appel and the teachers, pupils, and patrons
of the schools have reason to rejoice that a true and tried friend is
to be their guide and leader in educational affairs.”
Frank Appel is also well-noted in the
annals of local history. The History of Scioto County,
“Biographical Sketches” reported ...
“Appel is honest, energetic and
thorough in everything he undertakes. As a superintendent, he is
fearless and efficient in the discharge of his duties. As a county
school examiner, he did much to raise the standard of scholarship
among the teachers of Scioto County. He was a leader among the
teachers of Scioto county while he was one of them, and has made a
permanent impression in his institute work in the county. He was
regarded as one of the brightest teachers ever in the county.”
The Frank Appel/Branch Rickey
Connection
The educator Frank Appel was a major
influence in young Branch Rickey's life. Along with another
Lucasville superintendent who succeeded Appel, James H. Finney, he
built Rickey's self-esteem and supported his burning desire to
continue his formal education. Appel viewed Branch as “an
especially passionate and intelligent young man” with great
potential.
In the fall of 1892 the Rickey family
(with the exception of Frank, Branch's father, who stayed to work the
farm on Duck Run) moved into Lucasville. Part of the reason for their
move was their belief that 11-year-old Branch was especially bright
and the one-room schoolhouse near Duck Run at Little Buck Knob had
given him all it could. It was recorded that “Lucasville had a
better school, with more than one overworked teacher and with a more
complex curriculum.”
The Rickeys moved into Squire Crain's
house on Valley Pike across from Chandler Moulton's store, – the
village evidently called this dwelling a hotel (“Just a big house,”
said Branch Rickey, later recalling the move.). They rented three
rooms on each of two floors with separate entries at the front and
rear.
At the time, the Lucasville school
offered instruction in twelve grades but no diploma. Its two-story
wooden building, bustling halls, and three large classrooms were a
dramatic change from Duck Run.
One biographer said …
“And whatever its physical and
scholastic limitations, the school was blessed successively with two
spirited and resourceful young superintendents, both still students
at Ohio Wesleyan University, who chose teaching, as did many rural
young men, as a stepping-stone to professional careers elsewhere. The
first was James H. Finney, a vigorous, talented, and athletic farm
boy. Finney quickly developed a reputation as a pedagogic innovator
and a firm proponent of a humane liberal arts education with stress
upon classical literature; as Rickey recognized later in life, he was
a born psychologist too.”
After Branch finished schooling in
Lucasville in 1898, it was Finney who encouraged him into taking the
exam for Scioto County primary-school teachers that summer. Finney
also tutored Rickey without charge in preparation for the test.
Branch passed the exam and started teaching the next fall at the
one-room school at Turkey Creek, seventeen miles from Lucasville. The
money he made would aid the family and help finance Branch's desire
to continue his education.
To be honest, there was more to Branch
Rickey's educational desires than just scholarship. Let me explain
...
Chandler Moulton – who would one day
become Rickey's father-in-law – was born in Vermont in 1839, the
grandson of a Revolutionary War veteran. In 1848 the Moultons settled
in Scioto County, In time, Moulton became a Republican member of the
Ohio legislature, “a man of commanding influence in business and
politics. He takes everything easy and does not worry about anything.
Job could have taken lesson of him and improved his book,” said an
admirer. Needless to say, Chandler Moulton was a well-respected
resident of Lucasville – of special interest to the young Branch
Rickey.
To get to the point … Jennie (later
called Jane), the fourth of Moulton's six children, was Branch's age
and …
“Rickey knew her from the time of
his arrival in town, but at some point – he always claimed it was
“love at first sight” – in their adolescence, he saw her as a
young woman and fell in love. This feeling was unshakable and in
1898, when he was seventeen and she sixteen, they began to correspond
after Jane and her sister Mabel were sent to the Western College for
Women, in Oxford, Ohio, where she studied French and drawing, read
Caesar, sang in the chorus, played piano, joined the school's
athletic club, and participated in golf, tennis, basketball, cricket,
and battle ball.”
While at Oxford, Jane wrote a steady
stream of “My dear Branch” letters, and even confessed she could
not concentrate on her studies while thinking of Rickey. She told him
she had failed a French recitation because of him. Branch was highly
motivated to pursue this attraction and make Jane the future Mrs.
Rickey. Securing an education that would improve his station in life
would help solidify his plans. After all, “it was expected that all
the Moulton children, girls included, would go to college and marry
respectably.” The Moultons harbored “grave doubts about whether
Branch could support her I the manner they expected.”
Frank Appel, then school superintendent
in Wheelersburg, wrote Branch a letter at that time. He and Finney
had been talking about him, Appel wrote. They agreed that something
had to be done to help him go on to college, especially – it was
meant to be a joke – as the OWU team needed a reliable catcher.
Appel wondered would, therefore, Branch be willing to spend the
summer in Wheelersburg with him cramming for the entrance exam for
OWU's prep school, a pre-college academy which shared ties to the OWU
campus and faculty in Delaware? If he passed the exam, and afterwards
the prep school courses, he would be admitted into the college, Appel
explained.
Rickey jumped at the chance but also
thought again about a military career and decided to take the United
States Naval Academy examination, which Jane Moulton had been urging
him to do. When the results were in, he learned he had placed third,
losing to Jane's cousin. Branch was crushed.
Appel's tutoring offer was a clear
alternative. In late June Rickey rented a room in a boardinghouse
across the road from Frank Appel's house. For the next eight weeks,
six days weekly, they spent much of the day studying geometry and
reading Caesar, Cicero, and the school's basic text, Grove's Latin
Grammar. Except for Sundays, when Branch visited church, each day
was an academic grind and each evening was spent ingesting and
memorizing the required materials.
The relentless study was brutal ...
“By the end of August, exhausted
by the intense heat and endless rounds of study, looking thin, drawn,
and ashen, he returned home intent on talking with his father about
his dream of college. Frank listened but then said he was 'really
opposed' to the very idea. Frank Rickey firmly believed that, unlike
West Point or Annapolis, and ordinary college might corrupt his son
as he thought it corrupted other men's sons. Young Rickey had no high
school diploma, argued Frank; besides, college was for the sons and
daughters of the well-to-do people and Chandler Moulton's kids,
people with money.”
However, Finney and Appel, most likely
at Rickey's request, went to see Frank Rickey. They argued for
Branch's continued education and were quite persuasive. Finney and
Appel bombarded Branch's father with questions ...
“'What sort of life had Frank in
mind for his son?' They asked. 'Dirt farming? Storekeeping?
Schoolteaching?' The boy, they argued, had 'a first-rate mind,' and
Frank 'ought to be encouraging him.'”
Frank reluctantly agreed that if Branch
truly wanted, he could go. But then he raise another objection: why
attend OWU and not Ohio State University? Patiently the two educators
explained once more about OWU's unique prep school. At last, a
decision was made. Branch could – if he still wished – enter
college after his second year teaching at Turkey Creek.
In his wonderful biography of Rickey,
Murray Polner tells the tale of Branch's departure ...
“At 5:00 A.M. On March 7, 1901,
Branch awoke to prepare for his long days' trip north to Delaware,
Ohio, home of the OWU campus. As he began dressing, he heard his
father speak from the bedroom. 'Branch,' he began, 'I think you
should go to Ohio State and not Ohio Wesleyan. I know Mr. Rightmore'
– actually he had a nodding acquaintance with George Rightmore, an
OSU alumnus and local school administrator – 'and he will take care
of you.' Branch did not reply. His father's voice rose, filled with
anxiety over his son's leaving. 'In Fact, Branch, I don't believe you
should go.' Branch continued dressing, saying nothing, his first
rebellious act. Then, in an even more exasperated and fretful voice,
his father shouted, 'I think you ought not go to college at this
time!'
“His mother was preparing
breakfast and brewing a pot of coffee. She helped her son pack and
included Grove's Latin Grammar and a catcher's mitt in his
satchel. He would wear his only suit on the train. She also gave
Branch a torch made up of rolled copies of the Lucasville
Transcript bound with a string, and some matches, to flag down
the Norfolk and Western train for Columbus at the Lucasville depot.
Packed, dressed, fed, he embraced his mother, shouted good-by to his
unhappy father, and left for the station with $62 in his pocket. At
6:00 A.M., the Columbus-bound train stopped, and four hours later, in
the state capital, he changed to the Hocking Valley Railroad and
reached Delaware a little past noon.
“'I wanted to go to college more
than anything else in the world, and I didn't care how I got there,'
he said. 'I just wanted to go.'”
Lucasville chums
Clyde Brant and Ed Appel, Frank's younger brother, met Rickey at the
train station in Delaware. And, the rest is well-known history.
Sources
Murray Polner.
Branch Rickey: A Biography. 1982.
Nelson W. Evans. A History of Scioto
County, Ohio. 1903.
The Ohio Educational Monthly,
Volume 57. 1908.
Lee Lowenfish. Branch Rickey:
Baseball's Ferocious Gentleman. 2007.
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