of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, page 27
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS. School teachers here were among the first immigrants to Iowa. This gives point to the fact that the people of Iowa have ever taken a deep interest in education and in this direction no state in the Union has a better record. The system of free public schools was planted by the early settlers and it has expanded and improved until now it is one of the most complete, comprehensive and liberal in the country. The lead mining regions of the state were the first to be settled by the whites and the hardy pioneers provided the means for the education of their children even before they had comfortable dwellings for themselves. Wherever a little settlement was made, the schoolhouse was the first thing undertaken by the settlers in a body, and the rude, primitive structures of the early times only disappeared when the communities increased in population and wealth and were able to replace them with more commodious and comfortable buildings. Perhaps in no single instance has the magnificent progress of the state of Iowa been more marked and rapid than in her common-school system and in her schoolhouses. Today the schoolhouses which everywhere dot the broad and fertile prairies of Iowa are unsurpassed by those of any other state in this great Union. More especially is this true in all her cities and villages, where liberal and lavish appropriations have been voted by a generous people for the erection of large, commodious and elegant buildings, furnished with all the modern improvements, and costing from $10,000 to $60,000 each. The people of the state have expended more than $25,000,000 for the erection of public school buildings, which stand as monuments of magnificence.
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