by Roz Young
Father Meyer negotiated an agreement with John Stuart to pay the capital $12,000 price in three $4,000 payments at intervals of three or four years, leaving it optional to Stuart to spread the payment over nine or 12 years.
He agreed to pay the interest on the debt every six months. He assumed all risk of fire or destruction of the property by accident or otherwise.
Stuart asked for a payment of at least $500 of the year's interest to be paid on the day of purchase, March 19, 1850, the Feast of St. Joseph.
On that day Father Meyer said Mass in one of the rooms of the house. Afterwards he signed the terms of agreement and, using a little medal of St. Joseph to seal the agreement, he gave the medal to Stuart. "I have no money now," he said, "but St. Joseph will pay." Stuart took the medal.
Meyer felt he had made a good purchase. Property in the vicinity was selling for between $60 and $100 an acre.
Meyer took immediate possession of the crops. He planned to plant a vineyard on the eastern edge of the property and dreamed of realizing enough income from the selling of wine to pay the annual interest on the purchase price.
Brothers Schultz, Edel and Zehler were called from Cincinnati to Dayton, and Meyer also requested some more brothers to come from France. Brother Edel took charge of the garden, Brother Zehler had charge of the farm and outlying land, and Brother Schultz took charge of the domestic arrangements. The brothers took up residence in the farmhouse a few days before the agreement was signed.
Meyer renamed the settlement Nazareth, in honor of the Holy Family. He reserved a room for himself in the mansion.
The farmhouse had two rooms and a large porch on one side.
There was only one bed for the three brothers. For utensils, the brothers had one small pot, which they had bought from the ship they came over on, a saucepan, two spoons, two forks and one knife. They used a sharpened piece of wood for a third fork and a flattened piece of wood for a stirring spoon.
Their food consisted of potatoes, flour and corn. Before he left for France, Stuart sometimes gave them milk and eggs.
The brothers prepared a special meal for Meyer when he arrived for the signing of the deed. The meal consisted of potato soup, a dish of potatoes and three kinds of pancakes: one of flour, water and salt; one of water, flour, salt and potatoes; and one of water, salt and cornmeal.
The purchase of the farm was a significant event for the Society of Mary. It made Dayton the headquarters of the Brothers of Mary in America.
Father Meyer opened a day school for boys on July 1, 1850. He commissioned Brother Zehler to take charge of the school, which was held on the porch of the farmhouse. The age of the first 14 students was from nine to 12, and Brother Zehler taught the entire school, as well as worked on the farm before and after school.
The prospectus for the boarding school, which opened Sept. 1, 1850, announced that instruction would be in reading, writing, English, French, German, arithmetic, geometry and mensuration, bookkeeping, history, geography, drawing, vocal music, botany, agriculture and horticulture. Terms for tuition and board were $18 per quarter. Tuition for day students was $3 per quarter. There was an additional charge for supplies, bedding, laundry and doctor's fees, or the parents could furnish those.
Boarders lodged in the Stuart mansion and classes met in the farmhouse.
The school had no desks or benches. Students sat on planks nailed together. A drawing board served as a blackboard.
The school was known as St. Mary's School for Boys.
Father Meyer cooked and washed dishes to free Brother Schultz to work on the farm. He also plowed and planted potatoes, corn and beans.
One morning, Jefferson Patterson came over from his farm, Rubicon, established by his father, Col. Robert Patterson, to see what kind of men the brothers were. He found them out in the field, spreading manure.
He said he had formed the wrong impression of them, and after his visit he helped them with advice and material assistance.
In addition to cooking, Meyer helped in the garden and on the farm, and in the evenings he knit.
Three more brothers, Ignatius Kling, Anthony Heitz and Andrew Dilger, left Europe for Nazareth in August. They landed in New York on Sept. 19 and at Cincinnati Oct. 7, 1850. They arrived by canal in Dayton on Oct. 8.
"Reverend Leo Meyer met them at the door, wearing his big straw hat," wrote one of Meyer's biographers. "The first dish he placed before them was green beans. After the meal, he took his basket and told them to accompany him to the orchard for picking up apples. ... As there were neither bed nor bedstead ready for them, they had to construct rough bedsteads of boards, sawbucks and ropes; and Brother Kling had to sew the bags for putting in straw."
ROZ YOUNG is a columnist, author, historian and lifelong Dayton-area resident. Address: Dayton Daily News, P.O. Box 1287, Dayton, Ohio 45402. Phone messages can be left at 225-2289.