of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, page 344
NO MALE TEACHERS. From October 1, 1862, to January, 1863, the schools had no male teacher or principal. At this time the board elected Mr. Denison to take the place of Dr. Goodno, but at the close of the school year Mr. Denison asked the board to appoint a male principal for each school to relieve him of the joint principalship. The board received this suggestion favorably and elected Mr. Denison principal of No. 1 and T. Brown principal of NO. 2. At this time Joseph Bridgman was president; F. Thurston, secretary; and J. Carskaddan, treasurer.
At the close of the fall term of 1863 Mr. Brown resigned the principalship of No. 2 and soon after the writer was elected to fill the vacancy at a salary of $600. On the resignation of Dr. Goodno as county superintendent, the board of supervisors appointed Mr. Denison to fill the unexpired term and in October, 1863, he was elected for the ensuing term and retired January 1, 1866. At the close of the spring term of 1864 Mr. Denison retired from the principalship of No. 1.
The election of directors in the spring of 1864 was attended by considerable spirit, due to excitement over the Civil war. The entire personnel of the board was changed. H. W. Moore, president; John H. Wallace, secretary; Marx Block, treasurer; and John Chambers, Shep. Smalley and A. G. Garrettson, directors.
The schools of the city in the spring of 1864 were the old No. 1 and No. 2, a one-room brick known as the Fletcher school, located on Lucas Grove road about eighty rods northwest of the residence of General Fletcher, now the home of John Kemble, and a one-room frame owned by S. 0. Butler, located near John M. Appel's corner, and the African school in the African Methodist Episcopal church building on East Seventh street. There appeared to be about 700 children on the roll. This may have been the census. It was difficult to get anything very accurate concerning the enrollment or census. The writer was informed by one who had for several years taken the census, that he went to a few leading business men from different parts of the city and inquired about the probable number of persons between five and twenty-one years of age in the neighborhood. It took part of a day to do this and this was the school census.
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