Lehr Statue

Henry Solomon Lehr, born in Ohltown, Ohio on March 8th, 1838, founded Ohio Northern University in 1871. Lehr’s family consisted of 11 siblings, his father, George, and mother, Salome Lehr. Lehr, well-educated and bright, got introduced to schooling at the age of 12 and earned his teaching certificate at the age of 16. While getting his teaching certificate, he started teaching part-time while working as a farmer as well. He then began studying at Mount Union College in 1857. While studying there, he started to organize and collect information on how colleges should develop and organize courses. Lehr believed that colleges needed to work with the students’ schedules instead of the other way around. His studies, unfortunately, halted for a while due to the Civil War. After the war, Lehr moved to Ada, Ohio where his house was built at 310 South Main Street, just north of the Church of Christ Disciples. The green, wooden house was his first house constructed in Ada, Ohio. With his new ideas of how to organize a college, he began teaching these principles and opened Northwestern Ohio Normal School as a schoolmaster in 1871. Northwestern Ohio Normal School taught students how to teach the way Lehr thought was correct when learning in a classroom.

Mr. Lehr led as president of Ohio Northern University from 1871 to 1900. He initially opened the university for students to study professional education, programs for creating education, engineering, pharmacy, and law. Today, many more programs and degrees are offered. With this new university established, costs were kept to a minimum in hopes to increase affordability for applicants.

After many years, Lehr stepped down from the president of Ohio Northern University and Dr. Leroy Belt stepped in as lead successor. Lehr still served the university and had many administrative roles. But, after 1903 Lehr left Ohio Northern University because of differences with Dr. Belt and re-located to Winona, Indiana. Belt then took over for two more years and resigned. Dr. Albert Edwin then came in as head schoolmaster. In 1905, Lehr came back to Ada, Ohio and lived in his second house by Stambaugh Hall on campus. He brought in a designer from Kenton, Ohio named E.L. Lambert. Lehr requested his house to be a two-story house with the newest advancements. The cost of the house ended up totaling $8,500. He moved into the new house when he moved back to Ada, Ohio in 1905. Lehr stayed in his second house until he died on January 28th, 1923. The house is still located next to Stambaugh Hall and is used as the Student Development Center as it is being preserved by the university as the founder’s home.

Lehr is an important part of Ohio Northern University’s history. To commemorate Lehr on all of his accomplishments and establishment of the school, Lehr has two buildings dedicated in his memory as well as an honorable statue. The buildings that are named after Lehr and his family include the engineering building, James Lehr Kennedy, and Lehr Memorial Hall. Ohio Northern also honors Lehr with a statue of him that is located between the Dicke College of Business Administration and Hill Memorial. The statue of Lehr is facing the village of Ada and standing right at the forefront of the university. The sculpture was designed by Tad McKillop who lived in Ann Arbor, Michigan. On October 6, 2007, during homecoming weekend, students and staff celebrated the statue of Henry Solomon Lehr.

Lehr Memorial, Library.onu.edu. June 29th 2018. Accessed November 5th 2020. https://library.onu.edu/c.php?g=357885.

Lehr-Kennedy, Library.onu.edu. June 29th 2018. Accessed November 5th 2020. https://library.onu.edu/c.php?g=357885.