of
Muscatine County Iowa
1911
| History of Muscatine County Iowa 1911 | |
Source: History of Muscatine County Iowa, Volume I, 1911, pages 32-37
STATE INSTITUTIONS.
SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF. The legislature established the institution for the deaf and dumb, January 24, 1855, and located it at Iowa City. A great effort was made for its removal to Des Moines but it was finally located at Council Bluffs. In 1868 an appropriation was made by the legislature of $125,000 for the erection of new buildings, and ninety acres of land were selected south of the city. October, 1870, the main building and one wing were completed and occupied. In February, 1877, fire destroyed the main building and east wing. About one hundred and fifty students were in attendance at the time. There is a regular appropriation for this institution of twenty-two dollars per capita per month for nine months of each year, for the payment of officers and teachers' salaries and for a support fund. The institution is free to all of school age, too deaf to be educated in the common schools, sound in mind and free from immoral habits and from contagious and offensive diseases. No charge is made for board or tuition. The session of the school begins the first day of October and ends the last day of June of each year.
COLLEGE FOR THE BLIND. In 1852 Professor Samuel Bacon, himself blind, established a school for the instruction of the blind at Keokuk. He was the first person in the state to agitate a public institution for the blind, and in 1853 the institute was adopted by the legislature, by statute, approved January 18, 1853, and removed to Iowa City. During his first term twenty-three pupils were admitted. Professor Bacon was a fine scholar, an economical manager and in every way adapted to his position. During his administration the institution was in a great measure self-supporting by the sale of articles of manufacture by the blind pupils. There was also a charge of twenty-five dollars as an admission fee for each pupil. In 1858 the citizens of Vinton, Benton county, donated a quarter section of land and $5,000 for the establishment of the asylum at that place. May 8th of the same year the trustees met at Vinton and made arrangements for securing the donation and adopted a plan for the erection of a suitable building. In 1860 the contract for the building was let for $10,420, and in August, 1862, the goods and furniture were removed from Iowa City to Vinton, and in the fall of the same year the school was opened with twenty-four pupils. There is a regular appropriation of twenty-two dollars per capita per month for nine months of each year to cover support and maintenance. The school term begins on the first Wednesday in September and usually ends about the first of June. They may be admitted at any time and are at liberty to go home at any time their parents may send for them. The department of music is supplied with a large number of pianos, one pipe organ, several cabinet organs, and a sufficient number of violins, guitars, bass viols and brass instruments. Every pupil capable of receiving it is given a complete course in this department. In the industrial department the girls are required to learn knitting, crocheting, fancy work, hand and machine sewing; the boys, netting, broom making, mattress making and cane seating. Those of either sex who desire may learn carpet weaving.
HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. The hospital for the insane was established by an act of the legislature, January 24, 1855. The location for the institution was selected at Mt. Pleasant, Henry county, and $500,000 appropriated for the buildings, which were commenced in October of that year. One hundred patients were admitted within three months after it was opened. The legislature of 1867-68 provided measures for an additional hospital for the insane, and an appropriation of $125,000 was made for the purpose. Independence was selected by the commissioners as the most desirable location and 320 acres were secured one mile from the town on the west side of the Wapsipinicon river and about a mile from its banks. The hospital was opened May 1, 1873. The amount allowed for the support of these institutions is twelve dollars per month for each patient. All expenses of the hospital except for special purposes are paid from the sum so named, and the amount is charged to the counties from which the patients are sent.
SOLDIERS' ORPHANS' HOME. The Soldiers' Orphans' Home is located at Davenport and was originated by Mrs. Anne Whittenmeyer, during the late rebellion of the states. This noble hearted woman called a convention at Muscatine, September 7, 1863, for the purpose of devising means for the education and support of the orphan children of Iowa whose fathers had lost their lives in the defense of their country's honor. The public interest in the movement was so great that all parts of the state were largely represented and an association was organized called the Iowa State Orphan Asylum. The first meeting of the trustees was held February 14, 1864, at Des Moines, when Governor Kirkwood suggested that a home for disabled soldiers should be connected with the asylum, and arrangements were made for collecting funds. At the next meeting in Davenport the following month, a committee was appointed to lease a suitable building, solicit donations and procure suitable furniture. This committee obtained a large brick building in Lawrence, Van Buren county, and engaged Mr. Fuller at Mt. Pleasant as steward. The work of preparation was conducted so vigorously that July 13th following, the executive committee announced it was ready to receive children. Within three weeks twenty-one were admitted and in a little more than six months seventy were in the home. The home was sustained by voluntary contributions until 1866, when it was taken charge of by the state. The legislature appropriated ten dollars per month for each orphan actually supported and provided for the establishment of three homes. The one in Cedar Falls was organized in 1865. An old hotel building was fitted up for it and by the following January there were ninety-six inmates. In October, 1869, the home was removed to a large brick building about two miles west of Cedar Falls and was very prosperous for several years but in 1876 the legislature devoted this building to the State Normal School. The same year the legislature also devoted the buildings and grounds of the Soldier's Orphans' Home, at Glenwood, Mills county, to an institution for the support of feeble minded children. It also provided for the removal of the soldier's orphans at Glenwood and Cedar Falls homes to the one located at Davenport. There is in connection with this institution a school building, pleasant, commodious and well lighted, and it is the policy of the board to have the course of instruction of a high standard. A kindergarten is operated for the very young pupils. The age limit to which children are kept in the home is sixteen years. Fewer than twenty per cent remain to the age limit. A library of well selected juvenile literature is a source of pleasure and profitable entertainment to the children, as from necessity their pleasures and pastimes are somewhat limited. It is the aim to provide the children with plenty of good, comfortable clothing, and to teach them to take good care of the same. Their clothing is all manufactured at the home, the large girls assisting in the work. The table is well supplied with a good variety of plain, wholesome food and a reasonable amount of luxuries. The home is now supported by a regular appropriation of twelve dollars per month for each inmate, and the actual transportation charges of the inmates to and from the institution. Each county is liable to the state for the support of its children to the extent of six dollars per month, except soldiers' orphans, who are cared for at the expense of the state.
FEEBLE MINDED CHILDREN. An act of the general assembly, approved March 17, 1878, provided for the establishment of an asylum for feeble minded children at Glenwood, Mills county, and the buildings and grounds of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home were taken for that purpose. The asylum was placed under the management of three trustees, one of whom should be a resident of Mills county. The institution was opened September 1, 1876. By November, 1877, the number of pupils was eighty-seven. The purpose of this institution is to provide special methods of training for that class of children deficient in mind or marked with such peculiarities as to deprive them of the benefits and privileges provided for children with normal faculties. The object is to make the child as nearly self supporting as practicable and to approach as nearly as possible the movements and actions of normal people. It further aims to provide a home for those who are not susceptible of mental culture, relying wholly on others to supply their simple wants.
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. The industrial school for boys is established at Eldora. By act, approved March 31, 1868, the general assembly established a reform school at Salem, Henry county, and provided for a board of trustees from each congressional district. The trustees immediately leased the property of the Iowa Manual Labor Institute, and October 7th following, the school received its first inmate. The law at first provided for the admission of both sexes under eighteen years of age. The trustees were directed to organize a separate school for girls. In 1872 the school for boys was permanently located at Eldora, Hardin county, and some time later the one for girls was established at Mitchellville. There is appropriated for these schools and their support the sum of thirteen dollars monthly for each boy, and sixteen dollars monthly for each girl inmate. The object of the institution is the reformation of juvenile delinquents. It is not a prison. It is a compulsory educational institution. It is a school where wayward and criminal boys and girls are brought under the influence of Christian instructors and taught by example as well as precept the better ways of life. It is a training school, where the moral, intellectual and industrial education of the child is carried on at one and the same time.
PENAL INSTITUTIONS. The governor, by an act approved January 25, 1839, was authorized to draw the sum of twenty thousand dollars, appropriated by an act of congress in 1838, for public buildings in the territory of Iowa and establish a state penal institution. The act provided for a board of directors, consisting of three persons, to be elected by the legislature, who should superintend the building of a penitentiary to be located within a mile of the public square in the town of Fort Madison, Lee county, provided that the latter deeded a suitable tract of land for the purpose, also a spring or stream of water for the use of the peniten- tiary. The citizens of Fort Madison executed a deed of ten acres of land for the building. The work was soon entered upon and the main building and the warden's house were completed in the fall of 1841. It continued to meet with additions and improvements until the arrangements were all completed according to the designs of the directors. The labor of the convicts is let out to contractors, who pay the state a stipulated sum for services rendered, the state furnishing shops and necessary supervision in preserving order. The Iowa Farming Tool Company and the Fort Madison Chair Company are the present contractors.
PENITENTIARY AT ANAMOSA. The first steps toward the erection of a penitentiary at Anamosa, Jones county, were taken in 1872, and by an act of the general assembly, approved April 23, 1884, three commissioners were selected to construct and control prison buildings. They met on the 4th of June, following, and chose a site donated by the citizens of Anamosa. Work on the building was commenced September 28, 1872. In 1873 a number of prisoners were transferred from the Fort Madison prison to Anamosa. The labor of the convicts at this penitentiary is employed in the erection and completion of the buildings. The labor of a small number is let to the American Cooperage Company. This institution has a well equipped department for female prisoners, also a department for the care of the criminal insane.
STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. A state historical society in connection with the university was provided for by act of the general assembly, January 25, 1857. At the commencement an appropriation of two hundred and fifty dollars was made, to be expended in collecting and preserving a library of books, pamphlets, papers, paintings and other materials illustrative of the history of Iowa. There was appropriated five hundred dollars per annum to maintain this society. Since its organization the society has published three different quarterly magazines. From 1863 to 1874 it published the Annals of Iowa, twelve volumes, now called the first series. From 1885 to 1902, it published the Iowa Historical Record, eighteen volumes. From 1903 to 1907, the society has published the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, now in its fifth volume. Numerous special publications have been issued by the society, the most important of which are the Messages and Proclamations of the Governors of Iowa, in seven volumes, the Executive Journal of Iowa, 1838-1843, and the Lucas Journal of the War of 1812.
IOWA SOLDIERS' HOME. The Iowa Soldiers' Home was built and occupied in 1888, at Marshalltown. The first year it had one hundred and forty inmates. In 1907 there were seven hundred and ninety-four inmates, including one hundred and twelve women. The United States government pays to the state of Iowa the sum of one hundred dollars per year for each inmate of the soldiers' home who served in any war in which the United States was engaged, which amount is used as part of the support fund of the institution. Persons who have property or means for their support, or who drew a pension sufficient therefor, will not be admitted to the home, and if after admission an inmate of the home shall receive a pension or other means sufficient for his support, or shall recover his health so as to enable him to support himself, he will be discharged from the home. Regular appropriation by the state is fourteen dollars per month for each member and ten dollars per month for each employe not a member of the home.
OTHER STATE INSTITUTIONS. There are at Clarinda and Cherokee state hospitals for the insane and one at Knoxville for the inebriate.
It is strange but true, that in the great state of Iowa, with more than sixty per cent of her population engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock-raising, it was not until the year 1900 that a department of the state government was created in the interests of, and for the promotion of agriculture, animal industry, horticulture, manufactures, etc. The Iowa department of agriculture was created by an act of the twenty-eighth general assembly. In 1892 the Iowa Geological Survey was established and the law which provided therefor outlined its work to be that of making "a complete survey of the natural resources of the state in the natural and scientific aspects, including the determination of the characteristics of the various formations and the investigation of the different ores, coal, clays, building stones and other useful materials." It is intended to cooperate with the United States Geological Survey in the making of topographical maps and those parts of the state whose coal resources make such maps particularly desirable and useful. The State Agricultural Society is one of the great promoters of the welfare of the people. The society holds an annual fair which has occurred at Des Moines since 1878. At its meetings subjects of the highest interest and value are discussed, and these proceedings are published at the expense of the state.
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