West Liberty History 1838-1938

Source: One Hundred Years of History
* Commemorating a Century of Progress in the West Liberty Community * WEST LIBERTY, IOWA
LOG CABIN HISTORY

Chapter XIV

THE FIRST SCHOOL HOUSE

Our pioneers brought with them to the wilderness from the widely separated sections from which they came, the spirit of education which pervades our country life and atmosphere. No sooner had a settlement taken on an appearance of stability, than there was action on the part of the people to establish a school. So early in 1840, the men and boys congregated on the southwest quarter of section 2-78-4, near the home of Robert Stuart, for the purpose of selecting a site and erecting a building for school purposes. A suitable site was soon chosen, on the brow of a low hill in the thick woods, at an angle of the road leading from the Clark to the Nyce settlement, about eighty rods to the northwest of the Stuart residence. Each man brought his ax and team. The material for the house and its furnishings were at hand in the standing trees, and the work began. Some cut down the trees and cut them into suitable lengths; others snaked the logs to the chosen spot with their teams. The work went merrily on, and soon was erected the first house for school purposes in Muscatine county west of the Cedar river. It was of meager dimensions, built of unhewn logs, roofed with clapboards, some say floorless and windowless, save for small orifices covered with oiled paper, and warmed by a fireplace at one end. The walls were not well chinked and let in much of cold and other things. A few split logs on wooden legs furnished seats, and split logs, resting on wooden pins driven in the walls, desks. There opened the first school in the settlement. Not a brilliant equipment for the mental training of future statesmen and professors, but it was sowing the seed, that springing up and cultivated, has grown into the magnificent education system of our state.

The first session opened with Valentine Bozarth, a mild spoken, easy going man at the desk, and there were enrolled as pupils, Henry,William and George Bagley; William, John, George and Solomon Phillips; Ed. and Eldridge Gregg; Orvil, Clinton, Perry, Sedgwick,Lucinda and Elizabeth Bozarth; Gilbert, Charles and Franklin Barnes; William, James, George, Mary Ann and Eliza Jane Van Horn; Mac Dustin, James and Granville Stuart. It was no light task the teacher had in controlling that obstreperous lot of boys and girls, fresh from the unrestrained freedom of the woods and prairie, and bring them into subjection to rule and order; and many were the trials and tribulations through which the school passed that first winter.

One custom in practice in schools in those days has long since become obsolete. It was in reference to a pupil passing from the room during school hours. A broad paddle hung by the door, by a string, with the word " out " plainly printed on one side. When a pupil left the room during session time, this paddle was turned with the sign in sight, and so remained until the absentee returned. The usual reply of this teacher to anyone requesting a temporary absence was, " Yes, but close the door softly and please to turn the paddle."

The next term of this school was held in the cabin of W. A. Clark, which he had vacated on building his new one on the prairie, and Vannie Winchester, from the lower Wapsie, was its teacher. Schools then and for many years later were not conducted on their present free system, but were known as " subscription schools," that is, a teacher wishing a school, went to those having children and offered to teach them for a certain fixed price per head per month, and if enough pupils could be thus obtained a school would be held and last as long as agreed upon.

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