The concern of a pioneer East Liverpool area businessman  and for the education of youth almost a century and a half ago is scheduled to yield new benefits for district young people.

 Columbiana County Probate Court recently designated to what purpose the annual income from $115,000.00 is to be put as originated willed by John Bever who died in 1836.

 Bever, who helped found the first paper mill in 1806, left East Liverpool property and $2000.00 which has accumulated over the years under the guidance of The Neville Institute.

 Long unused, interest from the accumulated funds is now to be allotted to the Citizens Scholarship Foundation under a ruling issued by Judge Guy Mauro.  The annual income is estimated at about $6000.00.

 BEVER specified in his will that a five-acre tract along the hillside at the present site of Pennsylvania Avenue at Elizabeth Street be used for a “seminary of learning.”  His will also established a $2000.00 endowment to be “applied exclusively to the purpose aforesaid by vesting the principal in some public stock or in such other manner as that the principal will be secured and productive.”

 Bever was born in Ireland, the son of a German father and Irish mother, and came to America in 1788.  He settled in Western Pennsylvania, developing a profitable business selling construction supplies for blockhouses built to protect settlers from Indians.

 He founded a grocery store at Georgetown, and married Nancy Dawson of that small riverside village about 1790.  They had five children.

 After Ohio was admitted as a state in 1803, Bever became a surveyor, traveling in Columbiana County and throughout the eastern part of the state.  He came upon various attractive lands which he purchased, adding to his fortune.

 HE NOTED the water power potential in Beaver Creek, and in 1806 joined with Jacob Bowman of Brownsville, Pa., and John Coulter of Brooke County, W. Va., to plan and erect  the paper mill about three fourths of a mile from the creek mouth.
 
 In 1809 he and Thomas Moore, Smiths Ferry postmaster, built a covered bridge over the creek, and turned in over as a gift to Columbiana County in 1933.

 His wife died in 1818, and two years later, he married Lydia Vaughn who bore him a son, Henry.  She died in 1849 at the age of 69.

 Bever spent his final years on his sprawling farm on the high hill overlooking the creek and the river.  He died May 26, 1836, at 80, his estate valued at $74,000.00.

 At his request, he was buried in a brick tomb about 200 yards from the house.  But 19 years later, heavy rains washed away the tomb, baring the wooden coffin, and Henry Bever had the remains transferred to Oneida.

 In his will, Bever named James Morgan, William Phillips “and other judicious and intelligent residents of Columbiana County, not to exceed six in number.... as trustees of an academy or public school for education of youth” to be appointed by the state legislature, Phillips at the time resided on the land to be used.

THE WILL concluded: “and it is my wish and I enjoin it upon the trustees that they shall and do exhibit to the Court of Columbiana County once in each year a statement of the institution and its funds.”

 A special bill incorporating the directives of Bever’s will was approved by the General Assembly at Columbus in March 1837. Creating the “Trustees of Neville Institute” with Young, Phillips, Morgan and others as members.

 The legislature specified the proposed school should be called the Neville Institute, and the trustees be empowered to “appoint teachers to conduct the academy, to repair the building, to devise and erect others, to procure proper furniture and apparatus, to regulate admission of students and enforce the necessary discipline.”

 Records show a committee was named by the trustees in 1837 to “employ a teacher.” And Simon Morgan was hired for a term of three months, beginning Dec. 22, 1838, at a salary of $23.00 a month.

 In 1841, the trustees voted themselves $1.00 each for services “for all future time.”  In 1845, the trustees ruled no school would be taught for a year, and loaned out $2318.38 in the hands of the trustees at 8 percent, “taking such security as may be deemed sufficient.”

 UP TO this time, classes were conducted in an old brick building bequeathed by Bever.  In the 1850’s. The trustees voted to erect a “suitable building on the institute land, sufficient to accommodate the wants of the neighborhood as a public school” setting aside $4000.00 for the new structure.  The board held its first meeting in it in 1857.

 Around 1858 the Liverpool Township board of education revised its school operations, and rented a room at the Institute for providing instruction to some pupils of the township in that area.  This use of the Institute facilities continued for some years.

 The financial strain to the township board was not staggering - in 1883 W. S. George and David Boyce, Institute trustees, asked for an increase of the room rent to $6.00, but no action was taken on the suggestion.

 In 1905, the Township board withdrew from the arrangement, removing their equipment from the class for use in the new school in Dixonville.

 The Institute also termed the Dry Run School by many residents, became a district school about 1863, and naturally the various texts included the famed McGuffey Readers.

 Besides providing secular education, the Institute also aided the cause of religion.  The St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church was organized at the Institute building Feb. 20, 1837, by the Rev. William Mitchel, and the structure was used until the present church was completed at the present site along West fourth Street, in 1839.

IN 1859, A. R. Campbell was named teacher at the school for a five month term at $30.00 a month, later reduced to $25.00 when John D. West was elected to be in charge of classes.  Henry I. Abraham was named teacher in 1866.

 In 1862 school was extended to four months, starting the third Monday in November.  The trustees were called into session in January 1863 for the purpose of “quelling a difficulty arising with a few of the largest male scholars.”  The trustees recommended the teacher take any reasonable means to enforce observance of the rules.

 The legislature in 1885 enacted a bill referring the appointment of the trustees to the Probate Judge of the county to require the treasurer to post bond and receive annual reports of finances.

 Neville Institute up to this time was open to an person who cared to attend.  There were no fixed courses of study, and - of  course - no compulsory attendance, as was the custom of early days.

 The legislature, however approved a law requiring all children to attend school for a fixed number of years.  Public school had been established in downtown East Liverpool, and the school district expanded with the growth of the village.

 The city board of education finally agreed to fix a course of education for Neville Institute, with trustees paying the salary of the teacher for two months and the local board paying for the balance of the term.

THE PLAN continued for a number of years, but the city board of education then offered to take over the Neville building and maintain it at city expense.  The trustees accepted.

 As the East End grew, the building could not accommodate all the children in the area, and in 1905 a four room brick building was erected by the board at the rear of the Institute building.  An addition was constructed in 1912.

 The Bever endowment, which had provided money for maintenance, began to grow when the public school system assumed actual operations of the education program, and the endowment no longer was needed.

 Several organization had recently sought the Bever funds.

 But Judge Mauro selected the “Dollars for Scholars,” which aims at aiding needy students, as the recipient of the interest.  “If he were living today,” Judge Mauro explained, “his interest in education of youth would most certainly prompt him to provide in his trust a scholarship fund in lieu of the provision made by him for the education of youth in 1832.”

 THE JUDGE’S entry in the court journal reads:  “It is quite evident that he personally was a well educated man; that he was a very much education minded; that he was a religious man; that he was primarily concerned about the education of youth .....”

 Judge Mauro pointed out that the five acres of property has little value at present, but because of its location along the planned extension of the freeway to Pennsylvania, it may command a higher price in the future.

 John Bever’s investment in the future of the early development of Ohio, exemplified in his paper mill and land holdings, was not misplaced.  And his investment in the future of the young men and women of his day and now in the youth of the late 20th Century should also reap a harvest of which he and his fellow Americans can be proud.