by Emily Rinaman, Technical Services Manager
Ludwig van Beethoven and Thomas Edison. Two historical figures who made lasting contributions to society – one as a composer of music and the other as inventor of the light bulb, among many other things. But being famous in history books isn’t the only thing they share in common. Both suffered from hearing loss.
Hearing loss happens on a continuum. One can be completely deaf as Beethoven was, but one can also be hard of hearing. Hearing loss doesn’t discriminate. April (previously March until 2022) has been designated by Congress as Deaf Awareness Month to help educate the general public about the issues that those with hearing loss face on a daily basis.
Over ten percent of the American population has significant hearing loss and Seneca County has made efforts over the last several decades to help mitigate the stress individuals with hearing loss may experience.
A staff member at the Betty Jane Memorial Center works with small children wearing headphones. The Betty Jane Center was a rehab facility which offered a number of services, such as speech therapy, to residents throughout Northwest Ohio. This photo was featured in the 1965 Tiffin Glass Festival Souvenir Program, available to view on the Seneca County Digital Library.
In fact, Seneca County belongs to a state with a long history of support for the deaf or hard of hearing. In 1829, just two years after Beethoven died, the Ohio School for the Deaf was established, thus, joining only four others of its kind in the country (Connecticut, New York, Kentucky and Pennsylvania). Previously, Ohio-born children had to migrate to the Pennsylvania tuition-based school or be admitted to the Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb (it changed it’s name in 1827 to the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb).
Only 20 years later, when the Seneca Chapter of the Royal Arch Masons (#42) was chartered, it chose to sponsor the Royal Arch Research Association, which aided the deaf or hard of hearing, as its main charity.
Another major milestone for the deaf or hard of hearing community happened less than two decades later – the founding of America’s first and only higher education institution for hard-of-hearing students, Gallaudet.
At this point, deaf or hard of hearing children learned lip reading and articulation instruction as sign language was slowly developing into a standardized language. Throughout the United States, over 20 “deaf schools” had been established yet it was a major accomplishment for the deaf or hard of hearing to be able to effectively communicate with the rest of the population and Tiffin had its own hero in that regard.
While the circumstances of his illness or accident aren’t known, it was the after-math of becoming partially deaf that circumstantially “drafted” John Lennartz to Tiffin (he was born and raised in Mercer County). Lennartz didn’t let being hard of hearing stand in his way even if it was seen as a “disadvantage” in those times. A lengthy biography of his childhood and career in the Seneca County History Volume 2 goes into detail about his “hustle to work at whatever labor he could find” that brought him to Tiffin the 1880s and subsequently resulted in him making his roots here.
Prior to his hearing loss, he had been a schoolroom teacher. After relocating to Seneca County, he began his climb through the ranks starting with a position as clerk of courts. After a decade he was promoted to deputy auditor. Finally, in 1908, he was appointed auditor by a large majority of votes – “the largest majority ever given to a county auditor in Seneca County” up to that time.
The original Betty Jane Memorial Center, a non-profit founded in 1957 to assist handicapped children and adults with “attaining their fullest physical, mental, social and vocational independence.”
Lennartz was described as being “a man of untiring energy, prompt and punctual, faithful, straightforward in all his dealings, high-principled, strictly honest, kind, thoughtful, benevolent, and conscientious and willing to lose all that he possesses rather than defraud anyone a single cent.”
By the time Lennartz reached the position of auditor, education for the deaf or hard of hearing had continued to improve. The Ohio State School for the Deaf had officially been recognized by the Ohio Department of Education. After expanding in numbers, it purchased a derelict golf course on the north side of Columbus and added the Ohio State School for the Blind and student housing onto its new campus of over 200 acres.
On a local level, another facility was in the process of blooming – the Betty Jane Memorial Center (named in honor of Betty Jane Friedman), which served not just deaf or hard of hearing children, but both children and adults with physical, speech, hearing and emotional “handicaps.” It’s main premise was to provide these services regardless of the patients’ ability to pay.
At its height, the Betty Jane Center, originally operating out of Friedman’s parents’ house, served patients throughout Northwest Ohio at several locations, with a building on St. Francis Avenue serving as headquarters. These services included the Betty Jane Rehab Center, Betty Jane Oral School for the Deaf, the Seneca County Society for Crippled Children & Adults, a preschool, speech therapy, vocational services and much more.
The center, however, was not a replacement for school. After completing a survey in 1972, the League of Women Voters of Tiffin specified that “deaf and blind children are sent to (the Ohio State Schools for the Deaf and Blind) if they cannot function in the ‘regular’ classroom.” By this point, the state schools were already being funded by state taxes, rather than being tuition-based. Those with hearing loss were eligible if their range of limited hearing exceeded 60 decibels. (For reference, “significant hearing loss due to loud noise” begins at 85 decibels).
It wasn’t until the late 1980s and early 1990s that deaf or hard of hearing children became more integrated into the local classroom. Harmony Tate was the first hard of hearing student to graduate from Columbian in 1995. Tate was provided an interpreter and, much like Auditor Lennartz 100 years before, was able to do “everything that other students do.” She even talked during class – all be it in the form of sign language.
And it was sign language that spurred Deaf Awareness Month in the immediate years following Tate’s high school graduation. Two deaf employees at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington D.C. taught colleagues to sign in March 1996. One year later, the first Deaf Awareness Week was held. By 2006, the American Library Association and the National Association of the Deaf effectively lobbied for a federal proclamation of Deaf Awareness Month from mid-March through mid-April.
Works cited:
Baughman, A.J. Seneca County History Volume 2. 1911. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/17559
Betty Jane Center Work Connections. Insights. Winter 1997. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/43094
Centennial Committee of Tiffin, Ohio. Tiffin-Seneca Sesquicentennial 1817-1967. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/25130
“History of National Deaf History Month. National Today. https://nationaltoday.com/national-deaf-history-month/
Jay, Michelle. “History of American Sign Language.” July 14, 2023. Start ASL. https://www.startasl.com/history-of-american-sign-language/
League of Women Voters of Tiffin. “A Survey of Local Government Tiffin, Ohio”. May 1972. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/63667
Official Souvenir Program Tiffin Glass Festival 1965. July 1965. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/36379
https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/35960
Ohio School for the Deaf. https://osd.ohio.gov/about/history
Seneca County Genealogical Society. “Seneca County, Ohio History & Families. 1998”. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/28803
Seneca County Digital Library. https://www.ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/search
Sherick, Deb. “Betty Jane Memorial Rehabilitation Center 40th Anniversary Issue”. 1997.
“The Fascinating History of Sign Language.” Nov. 16, 2016. Academy Hearing Centres. https://www.academyhearing.ca/blog/news/News/2016/11/16/50:the-fascinating-history-of-si%20gn-language
Yearbook Columbian Blue and Gold 1995. Seneca County Digital Library. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/collection/p15005coll27/id/12820