William Venable

April 29, 1836 (age 84)

Warren County, Ohio, United States

In 1860, Venable went for one year to Vernon, Indiana, as principal of the Jennings Academy. He helped to edit the Indiana School Journal. Returning to Cincinnati in 1862, he taught natural science in Chickering Institute for twenty-five years, being a proprietor of the school from 1881 to 1886. In 1889, he became a teacher of English literature in the Hughes High School; subsequently, he taught in the Walnut Hills High School and served as head of the department of English. He also enjoyed a local reputation as a poet, dealing for the most part with homely themes: "My Catbird, " "The School Girl, " "Tunes Dan Harrison used to Play. " Several volumes of his verse were published during his lifetime, and after his death, his son, Emerson Venable, edited The Poems of William Henry Venable (1925). Venable is chiefly remembered, however, for his Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley (1891), the result of more than twenty years of interest in the intellectual life of his native region. During that time, in preparing numerous papers for local journals and historical societies, he had assembled through research in libraries and conversations with members of an elder generation a store of information which he was urged to publish. Encouraged by several friends interested in local antiquities, including the publisher Robert Clarke, he assembled a volume of more than five hundred pages which he modestly described as "discursive, even desultory a repository of accumulated notes" and equipped it with an excellent index. Though in no sense a finished treatise, the book is a valuable compilation, and Venable's appreciation of the significance of the material and his scrupulous work in gathering and preserving it entitle him to the gratitude of later students of the field.

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Works

book

June on the Miami: An Idyl 1912

(Originally published in 1912. This volume from the Cornel...)

Saga of the Oak, and Other Poems 1904

(Originally published in 1904. This volume from the Cornel...)

June on the Miami: An Idyl,

A Dream of Empire or the House of Blennerhassett

(This collection of literature attempts to compile many cl...)

A Centennial History of Christ Church, Cincinnati, 1817-1917 1918

(Originally published in 1918. This volume from the Cornel...)

Melodies of the heart, Songs of freedom, and other poems

(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

Let him first be a man: and other essays chiefly relating to education and culture

(This book was digitized and reprinted from the collection...)

John McCarthy, PH.D. A memoir, with selections from his writings

(High Quality FACSIMILE REPRODUCTION: Venable, William Hen...)

William Henry Venable Edit Profile

educator writer author poet

Background

William Henry Venable was descended from William Venable who settled near the Delaware River about 1680 and became a Quaker preacher.

The third of five children of Quaker parents, William and Hannah (Baird) Venable, William Henry was born on April 29, 1836, in a log cabin on a farm near Waynesville, Ohio.

Education

In 1843, the family moved to Ridgeville, a hamlet near Cincinnati, where the boy attended a district school and through the influence of his father began to read Josephus, Plutarch, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, and Lewis and Clark's Journal.

In his late adolescence, he began to teach at Sugar Grove; he attended a teachers' institute held at Miami University, and studied for three years, teaching to support himself, at the South-western Normal School, Lebanon, Ohio.

Career

In 1860, Venable went for one year to Vernon, Indiana, as principal of the Jennings Academy. He helped to edit the Indiana School Journal. Returning to Cincinnati in 1862, he taught natural science in Chickering Institute for twenty-five years, being a proprietor of the school from 1881 to 1886. In 1889, he became a teacher of English literature in the Hughes High School; subsequently, he taught in the Walnut Hills High School and served as head of the department of English. He also enjoyed a local reputation as a poet, dealing for the most part with homely themes: "My Catbird, " "The School Girl, " "Tunes Dan Harrison used to Play. "

Several volumes of his verse were published during his lifetime, and after his death, his son, Emerson Venable, edited The Poems of William Henry Venable (1925). Venable is chiefly remembered, however, for his Beginnings of Literary Culture in the Ohio Valley (1891), the result of more than twenty years of interest in the intellectual life of his native region. During that time, in preparing numerous papers for local journals and historical societies, he had assembled through research in libraries and conversations with members of an elder generation a store of information which he was urged to publish.

Encouraged by several friends interested in local antiquities, including the publisher Robert Clarke, he assembled a volume of more than five hundred pages which he modestly described as "discursive, even desultory a repository of accumulated notes" and equipped it with an excellent index. Though in no sense a finished treatise, the book is a valuable compilation, and Venable's appreciation of the significance of the material and his scrupulous work in gathering and preserving it entitle him to the gratitude of later students of the field.

Achievements

William Henry helped to develop the educational system of Cincinnati and had some influence in a wider sphere through the textbooks in literature and expression which he compiled, his School History of the United States (1872), and his activities in connection with teachers' institutes and associations. Some of his thoughts on education were set forth in a volume of short papers, Let Him First be a Man, and Other Essays (1893).