Iowa Old Press
Sioux County Herald, February 7, 1884
Educational
School Visiting by the County Superintendent
District No. 1. Reading Township - D. A. Dealy,
Teacher. Began December 2; term 3 months. Grade of certificate, 3rd class.
Wages $30 per month. Number enrolled, 13, present 10. Discipline good;
methods fair. Teacher a little abrupt in his addresses.
District No. 6, Reading township - Miss Mary Griffin teacher. Began
November 26; term 4 months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $35.
Number enrolled 13; present 10. Teacher and school going quite good work.
Should criticize the order a little.
District No. 5, Reading township - Miss Fannie Richardson teacher. Began
November 19; term 4 months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages, $35.
Number enrolled, 8; present 4. Miss Richardson is an earnest and
conscientious worker and her efforts bring forth good fruits. Order and
methods good. The present is her third term in this school.
District No. 6, Reading township - D. A. Wheeler Teacher. Grade of
certificate 1st class; wages $35 per month. Number enrolled, 5; present 7.
Began December 3rd; term 4 months. Mrs. Wheeler is in his own peculiar way
doing excellent work. He understand throughout the subjects which he
teaches and covers more ground in presenting the same to his classes than
any other teacher I have yet visited.
Buncombe Township. -- Miss Cora Peebles, Teacher. Began October 15th;
term five months.
Sioux County Herald of February 14, 1884
Educational
School Visiting by the County Superintendent
District No. 6, Holland Township, - Miss Jennie Hunt, teacher. Began October 15th; term five months. Grade of certificate, 1st class; wages $30. Number enrolled, 17; present 13. This school is destitute of apparatus. The seats are rather low for the larger pupils; otherwise the house is quite comfortable. Miss Hunt’s methods are good; discipline and success fair.
District No. 2, Holland township, -- Miss Sarah Byl, teacher. Began November 12; term five months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $35. Number enrolled, 15; present, 13. This house is in good comfortable condition, and has a good blackboard – something but few of our schools have; has neither map nor globe. Miss Byl has good discipline, fair methods, and fair success. Director John van Oordt has visited the school.
District No. 3, Holland Township, -- Miss Anna Byl, Teacher. Began December 5th; term four months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $35. Number enrolled, 34; present, 29. In this school I found a larger number present than in any other rural school I have visited. The school room is crowded. Discipline, a little below the standard; methods, quite good. This school is in need of maps, charts and globe.
District No. 2, East Orange Township, - I. F. Spinden, teacher. Began December 2nd; term four months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages, $33. Number enrolled, 17; present, 16. The good people of East Orange Township deserve and shall have credit for furnishing their school with a few maps and charts. If they will add globes, and few desks and a little more blackboard to each house they will add greatly to the advantages of their schools. Mr. Spinden is doing very good work.
District No. 1, East Orange township, -- Miss Joanna Dunn, teacher. Began October 1st; term five months. Grade of certificate 2nd class; wages $33. Number enrolled, 12; present 12. This is Miss Dunn’s third term in this school and she is doing good work. There are not desks enough in this house to properly accommodate even so limited a number of pupils as are in the school.
District No. 1, Nassau township, -- Miss Mary Corkery, teacher. Began November 26; term seventeen weeks. Grade of certificate 2nd class; wages $25. Number enrolled, 32; present 23. Miss Corkery is finishing the school terms begun by Miss Griffin who was obliged to give up the school on account of sickness in her family. The apparatus of this school is a minus quality. The house is small and quite crowded.
District No. __, Nassau township, -- Miss Mary Fitzpatrick teacher. Began September 24th; term six months. Grade of certificate 3rd class; wages $30. Number enrolled, 19; present, 16. This is Miss Fitzpatrick’s third term in this school and the condition of the school speaks well for her as a teacher. This school possesses a map of the United States which is used to good advantage by the teacher. If patrons well visit the school they will be able to see the advantage of having suitable apparatus.
District No. 4, Sheridan township, -- Jno. Cornforth, teacher. Began November 5th; term five months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $31. This school has three good maps; a map of the hemispheres, a map of Europe, and a map of the United States. If these were added a few more maps, a globe, primary charts, and last, but by no means least, a dictionary, the school would be pretty well equipped. Mr. C. has good order, but fair methods, he has not all the modern improvements. He has fair success.
No district mentioned , (presumed to be Sheridan Township) -- Miss Ifie Espey, teacher. Began October 22nd; term four months. Grade of certificate, 3rd class; wages $29. Number enrolled 18; present 14. This is Miss Espey’s first term and she is doing quite good work for a beginner. She seems much interested in her work. This school has several good maps; also the wreck of a once good globe. A new coal scuttle and fire shovel with a stove to match, would add greatly to the convenience and appearance of the school.
Pattersonville School. – Miss Paulina Rutledge, principal and teacher in ‘A’ room. Began September 19th; Term five months. Grade of certificate, 1st class; wages $50. Number enrolled, 49; present, 17. The prevalence of scarlet fever in the early part of the winter very seriously interfered with the school. The school was closed for four weeks and the attendance since has not been so good, and consequently the interest has not been so great. Miss Rutledge has good discipline and considering the circumstances, appears to have quite good success. The school is poorly furnished with apparatus.
Primary Department, -- Miss Cromer, teacher. Began September 19th; term five months. Grade of certificate, 1st class; wages $35. Number enrolled, 56, present 17. This room is more seriously affected by prevailing sickness than the other. The attendance since the reopening of the school has been quite small. The primary work is new to Miss Cromer and as a natural consequence her methods and success are not quite so good as may reasonably be expected of those who have had much experience. This room is not so well furnished with apparatus as it should be.
Sioux County Herald of February 21, 1884
Educational
School Visiting by the County Superintendent
District No. 8, Lincoln township - Miss Cornelia Chapin, teacher. Began
November 12th; Term four months. Grade of certificate, 1st Class; wages $35.
Number enrolled, 19; present 14. This school has a larger attendance this
term than for the past two or three years. Miss Chapin has good discipline.
Methods are fair. The pupils seem interested in their work. The school
house is comfortable and has a good black board and one map.
District No. 7, Lincoln township, -- Mrs. Lucinda Ray, teacher. Began
January 28th; term nine weeks. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $28.
Number enrolled, 18, present 14. Mrs. Ray is finishing the unexpired term
begun by Mr. Wilber Coffee. The school was closed on account of scarlet
fever, in the early part of the winter. It being uncertain when school
might again begin, Mr. Coffee and director Barth, by mutual consent,
cancelled their contract and Mr. C. took a school in West Branch township.
District No. 7, Sheridan Township, -- Miss Allie Newton, teacher. Began
October 22nd; term four months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $32.
Number enrolled, 37; present 15. Miss Newton has the largest enrollment of
all the rural schools I have so far visited. The school was closed three
weeks, owing to the prevalence of scarlet fever. The attendance at present
is small. Miss Newton has good discipline, quite good methods and very good
success. The school house is in a dilapidated condition; but the director
is, to some extent, excusable as it is the intention of the district to
build a new house in the spring. However, a door-latch and several window
lights would add greatly to the convenience and comfort of the school and
would cost but a trifle.
District No. 1, Sheridan Township, -- M. B. Bennett, teacher. Began
December 15th; term three months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages
$31. Number enrolled, 10; present, 8. Mr. Bennett is doing good work. The
school house is in good, comfortable condition and is pretty well furnished.
They have four good maps.
District No. 2, Sheridan Township, -- Miss Maria Laughlin, Teacher. Began
December 3rd; term three months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages
$31. Number enrolled, 17; present 9. Miss Laughlin has pretty good order;
methods are not quite up to the standard.
District No. 1, Settler Township, - Miss Lilly Paxton, teacher. Began
December 3rd; term three months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages
$35. Number enrolled, 10; present 8. There being no school house in this
district, Mr. Herman Kindly offered a good, comfortable room in his private
residence for school purposes. Miss Paxton has quite good methods and good
success. Director N. C. Shove has not visited the school.
District No. 6, Settler Township, -- There has been no school in this
district this winter. Children are all small so it was decided to have
three months summer school and a three months fall term and no winter
school. Director A. C. Abell has his school house in splendid condition.
District No. 2, Settler Township, -- Miss May Weld, teacher. Began
December 3rd; term four months. Grade of certification, 2nd class; wages
$35. Number enrolled 9; present, 7. Miss Weld has good methods and good
success. The school house is in need of door steps and banking. The coal
house needs some repairs. Mr. Weld, director.
District No. 4, Settler township, -- N. J. Skewer, teacher. Began January
22nd; term two months. Number enrolled 13; present 9. Mr. Skewer is
finishing the term begun by Mr. Alva Hill. Discipline a little below par;
methods pretty good. Director S. O. Groth has visited the school. Coal
house door is broken and should be repaired.
District No. 5, Settler Township, -- Miss Jessie L. Stage, teacher. Began
January 2nd; term three months. Grade of certificate, 2nd class; wages $35.
Number of enrolled, 18; present, 9. Miss Stage has good discipline and
methods. This school has a good, large, old-fashioned wood stove and wood
for fuel. This is the first word stove I have found in the schools, and it
brought fond recollections of early school days in Wisconsin.
District No. 7, Settler township, -- O. H. Avery, teacher. Began September
17th; term five months. Grade of certification, 1st class; wages $40.
Number enrolled, 10; present, 5. Mr. Avery has taught his school seventeen
months and the condition of the school is a good argument in favor of
securing a good teacher paying good wages and retaining the teacher as long
as possible. Mr. Orlando Waldorf, director, has visited the school.
District No. 8, Settler township, -- L. M. Hollingsworth, teacher. Began
September 17th; term seven months. Grade of certificate 1st class; wages
$40. Number enrolled 15; present, 13. This is the first term of school in
this district. Mr. Hollingsworth has good discipline, good methods and good
success. Mr. O. Waldorf, director.
District No. __, Settler township. - Miss Lizzie Robison, teacher. Began
February 4th; term four weeks; wages $35. Number enrolled, 4; present 4.
Miss Robison ha a very small school. She has good methods and her pupils
are doing well.
And now I have a good word for the school officials and patrons of Settler
township. They have the best school house; keep them in better condition;
have more apparatus; and with one exception pay better wages than any other
township I have yet visited. The consequence is, by the exercise of good
judgment on the part of the directors. They experience but little trouble
in securing good teachers, and consequently have good schools. Other
townships can do as well if they try.