of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 346-347
RENAMED BUILDINGS. When the No. 2 building was ready to occupy, the board of education, after considerable deliberation, decided to rechristen the main school buildings and name those that were yet without names. No. 2 was very appropriately named the First Ward, No. 1 was changed to Third Ward, South Muscatine to Fourth Ward and the high school building for many years stood for the Second Ward. West Hill, a substantial four-room brick, built from the same plans as the four rooms in the Fourth Ward and at the same cost, East Hill, Butlerville and Musserville, the latter a one-room frame not far from the Musserville Methodist Episcopal church used now as a place of worship by the Society of Friends.
It became necessary to enlarge the school facilities in the central part of the city, East Hill, Fourth Ward and Musserville. Bonds were voted by the electors of this independent district about 1888 and the Fourth Ward was enlarged into an eight-room house and a neat four-room brick was erected in Musserville. Later the East Hill one-room frame was changed to four rooms and the Cedar street eight-room brick was erected. When this latter was completed all the grades in the high school below the ninth were transferred to the new building. In 1896 the Fourth Ward building was raised several feet to make room in the basement for a modern heating plant. The system of heating this building requires a fan. The First and Third Ward buildings are heated by steam, Cedar street, West Hill and Musserville by ordinary hot air furnaces, the high school by steam, both direct and indirect radiation with the gravity system of ventilation.
The value of school houses in this independent district, September 15, 1902, was estimated to be $150,000. The enrollment in the schools at this time was 2,823, and the number between five and twenty-one years of age 4,510, the number of teachers employed, 69, and the current expenses for the year ending September 15, 1902, were $45,612.46.
The writer was superintendent of the city schools and principal of the high school from the fall of 1864 till the spring of 1881, with the exception of a few months, when a Rev. Reed was superintendent. He resigned for a much needed rest from school work, to engage in the business of mining coal at What Cheer, Iowa.
In June, 1881, R. B. Huff was chosen to fill the vacancy. Mr. Huff served as superintendent of the city schools and principal of the high school till the close of the school year in 1884. 0. F. Emerson succeeded Mr. Huff. In the summer of 1885 Mr. Emerson resigned. At this time the board thought it wise to separate the two positions. E. F. Schall, who had served as assistant in the high school, was appointed to its principalship, which position he held till the close of the school year 1901, when he resigned and accepted the superintendency of the schools at West Liberty, Iowa.
At the same time, 1885, that Mr. Schall was elected to the high school principalship, the writer was elected superintendent of the city schools and continued in this position till the close of the year 1901.
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