Fletcher, D. A.

FLETCHER

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 11/11/2007 at 19:37:44

Maquoketa Excelsior
June 13, 1867

It is already understood in this part of the State that Mr. D. A. Fletcher – at present County Superintendent of this County – has been urged by his friends to become a candidate for the State office, and in urging this we can do so not alone from the ability and fitness throughout of the man, but from other claims due to the county in the representation of officers of State.

Mr. Fletcher graduated in 1852 from the University of Vermont, at Burlington, with the degree of Batchelor of Arts. From the fact of being the highest third in his class, at the final examination, he was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa literary society, for which there was a great strife among the members of the class. In 1855 he received the degree of Master of Arts from the same University, and by diligent labor and economical calculation in teaching during the winter months in common schools and private schools, during the first six months after graduation, he was enabled to pay and meet nearly the whole expenses of his college course. During the years 1854 and 1855 he was at the head of a Male and Female Institute located in Middle Tennessee, the institution becoming from a small beginning, a flourishing institute of learning, under the administration of Mr. Fletcher. He had given careful attention to the study of law, and in 1856 was admitted to the Supreme Court of New York, and in the spring of the same year came to this State, casting his first veto in the State for John G. Fremont. The practice of law was made his special business in this county until 1861, when at the call of the School Board of the city of Maquoketa he was placed at the head of the city schools, filling that position with great credit to himself and advantage to attendants. With a full appreciation of his abilities, and without a solicitation on his part, the “abolition” conversion which converted in this county in the fall of 1864, gave him the nomination of County Superintendent. Since that time Mr. Fletcher has been nominated and elected twice to the same office, filling the position with marked ability. We believe it would be the decision of all parties that from a rather low standard of interest in public schools throughout the county the same are now rapidly improving, if not equal to the best. – The Board of Supervisors, justly recognizing the necessity of a reform, made arrangements with Mr. Fletcher to visit every school in the county, and since the 1st of May, 1866, he has spent the working days of nearly forty weeks in the school rooms of the county – riding in the saddle from district to district, encouraging teachers and children with a laudable pride in the duties of their profession and occupation in the school room. A practical teacher – earning by diligent labor the means with which to educate himself – a more fit lecturer could not have been chosen, and could not now for the honorable office of State Superintendent. Furthermore, ever since the organization of the Republican party, D. A. Fletcher has been strictly identified with its working, casting his vote and his influence in that direction. A Superintendent of Public Instruction should be not only an educator, but a good lawyer for he is the last resort in all cases of appeal in school matters.