of
Muscatine County Iowa
1879
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1879 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Historical Section, 1879, pages 498-500
EDUCATIONAL. While the question of how to get a living was the foremost one in the minds of the pioneers, the less direct, though none the less important, one of how to educate their children was not overlooked. Almost contemporaneous with their own dwellings, they began the building of such schoolhouses as they could, crude and primitive in the extreme, for such only would their appliances admit, and put together without regard to externals.
These same pioneer schoolhouses will, in the future, be a theme for the artist--quite equal in every way to those supplied by the peasantry in the Old World, with their quaint, simple fashions and unperverted lives. The eye of the connoisseur delights in those realistic representations of still life--the white-haired old grandfather, whose toil of years has only brought him his cottage and bit of land; the still hard-working "gude wife,' with bent body and withered but cheerful old face; the next generation, just in the prime of labor, rough, uncouth, and content to have for recreation a pipe and a mug of ale; and the children with rosy cheeks and stout limbs, dressed in veritable costumes their grandmothers wore before them, And no wonder such a picture pleases and charms the jaded senses of the worn-out worldling. But even that is not more fresh and unaccustomed than his log shanty, with its one small room, a window of but few panes of glass, and possibly a dirt floor; and with rough-hewn benches ranged round the walls for seats, over which the pupil made a fine gymnastic flourish whenever he felt it necessary to reach his teacher, with his forefinger firmly planted on the knotty word or sum that puzzled him.
These are the picturesque features of the artist's pencil. And what "learning" there was must have been a "dangerous thing," for it was certainly "little;" the grading was far from exact; the system was a kind of hit-or-miss affair; but, nevertheless, it was "school," and from the first there was a deeply-rooted prejudice among the Iowa settlers in favor of schools. School for week-days and a meeting-house for Sunday! this same little pen of a house served two purposes. And could anything exeept the groves themselves-- "God's first temples"--be nearer to nature as a tabernacle than was this, where some chance circuit preacher would have for his congregation every man, woman and child in the entire settlement? None of those hypercritical listeners there, you may be sure, who gauge the preacher by his "intellectuality," his "magnetism" or his "culture." It was the Word preached-- welcome, pure and life-giving always--and not the preacher, which these listeners crowded to hear. If he but had the good Methodist zeal, then he was sure of devout hearers. He did not need to have "traveled," except upon his lone circuit over the prairie; nor did he feel it necessary to use his pulpit in the interest of politics--if he knew his Bible, he was qualified; nor did his flock feel called upon to put their hands into their pockets and contribute toward sending their Pastor on a summer vacation to the sea-side or to Europe. All these improvements have come in with better churches and more advanced ways of thinking. That was the old way, and a direct contrast to the new.
Now, nothing which the architect's taste can devise is too good for school- house or for church. Look at the plenitude of tidy, commodious buildings in every county, and not designed for double service, either, but dedicated solely to the use of the schoolma'am, who hereabouts is thoroughly skilled in her profession. She has had, aside from such education as her means have enabled her to obtain, good practical drill in the normal institutes. She not only knows her text-books, but she knows how to teach. And then the ingeniously-devised school-book, in which every point of information is adjusted to such a nicety that they are rather works of art and books of entertainment than but the dull means to a desired end.
The little flocks of children who run along the country road in their bare feet and sun-bonnets and chip hats, do not have to squirm and twist their uneasy legs all day over a page in the English reader which they cannot understand. They begin their morning's work with a chorus, which puts them all in good humor to start with. Then they come to timed classes, at the tinkle of the bell; they are entertained and diverted as well as instructed at every step. Before there is any possibility of restlessness, they go through a five-minutes round of calisthenics, which put a wholesome quietus upon their muscles and their mischief. Wise play is so mixed with teaching that they never really discover which is which until they find themselves ready to teach school themselves in turn.
This is the case of the present compared with the labor of the past. And in this way is the generality of education secured. The ways are smoothed, the tediousness beguiled and the deprivation supplanted by an affluence of aids.
In 1854, Gov. Grimes, in his inaugural message said: "The safety and perpetuity of our republican institutions depend upon the diffusion of intelligence among the masses of the people. The statistics of the penitentiaries and alms-houses throughout the country show that education is the best preventive of crime. They show, also, that the prevention of these evils is much less expensive than than the punishment of the one and the relief of the other."
So, with all our new-fangled methods, our ornamental, well-ventilated and well-furnished schoolhouses, our accomplished instructors with modern notions, we are not extravagant. We are simply taking from the expenses of crime and pauperism and putting it into enduring and beautiful shape. We are helping to sustain the Government by rearing up in every town and in every country neighborhood a generation of enlightened and intelligent people, cosmopolitan in the sense of schools, if not in that wider cosmopolitanism which comes alone from actual contact with the great world.
The following statement is compiled from last general report of the County Superintendent of Schools:
Number of district townships-------------------------------------- 10 Number of independent districts----------------------------------- 27 Number of subdistricts-------------------------------------------- 66 Number of ungraded schools---------------------------------------- 86 Number of graded schools------------------------------------------ 6 Total number of teachers employed--------------------------------- 205 Total number of persons between the ages of 6 and 21 years-------- 7,845 Total enrollment-------------------------------------------------- 5,540 Average attendance------------------------------------------------ 3,355 Number of schoolhouses-------------------------------------------- 85 Valuation of schoolhouses and property---------------------------- $128,255
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS. Previous to the passage of the revised school law in 1858, the office of County Superintendent had no existence in Iowa. A part of the duties devolving on the County Superintendent were performed by the County School Fund Commissioner.
The revised school law of 1858 created the office of County superintendent. Previous to that date, the county school officer was known as the School Fund Commissioner. His duties were in part the same as that of the County Superintendent, such as distributing blanks and making reports to the State Superintendent; but his principal duties were that of taking charge of the school funds of the county, arising from the sale of the school lands; that is, his duties were more that of a financial agent than of Superintendent of Schools.
The first election of County Superintendent was in April, 1858. William F. Brannan, a lawyer, was the first County Superintendent, and held the office until January 1, 1860. His successor was Rev. Charles Woodhouse, Universalist, whose term expired on January 1, 1862. D. H. Goodno, teacher, succeeded Mr. Woodhouse, and, on the 1st of October, 1862, Mr. Goodno resigned to accept the position of Major in the Gray-Beard Regiment, as it was called, under Col. Kincade, and the Board of County Supervisors appointed George B. Denison, teacher, as Mr. Goodno's successor, who held the office during the remainder of Mr. Goodno's term, and, in October, 1863, was elected for the full term, and was succeeded, January 1, 1866, by R. H. McCampbell, teacher. Mr. McCampbell was re-elected in l867, and, on the 1st of January, 1869, resigned, to accept the office of County Auditor; and the Board of Supervisors appointed Frank Gilbert, teacher, to fill out the unexpired term. In October, 1869, Charles Hamilton, teacher, was elected, and held the office from January 1, 1870, to January 1, 1872, when he was succeeded by Thomas Brown, teacher, who was re-elected and held the office till January 1, 1876. The present incumbent, R. W. Leverich, teacher, was elected in October, 1875, and re-elected in 1877. His term of office will expire January 1, 1880.
POST OFFICES. The post offices in the county are as follows: Adams, Atalissa, Conesville, Fairport, Melpine, Moscow, Muscatine, Nichol Station, Pine Mills, Pleasant Prairie, Stockton, Summit Ridge, Sweetland Centre, West Liberty and Wilton Junction.
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