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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
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Shelby County |
Home 1915 History Index |
CHAPTER XVIII -- EDUCATION (CONT'D)COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS.Fortunate, too, has the county been in the personnel and practical native ability of the persons who have held the office of county superintendent of schools. Most of the persons who have held the office were equipped with much practical experience in life and were successful, either before assuming the superintendency, or subsequently, in other vocations. Viewed in the strictness of present standards of education, this might be interpreted as an element of weakness, but this author is inclined to view it in connection with the demands of the times as a decided element of strength. Without exception, so far as the author now recalls, incumbents of the office in Shelby county had experience in teaching several terms or years before entering upon the discharge of the duties of county superintendent and were persons of a practical turn of mind. P. C. Truman was one of the earliest bee keepers in Shelby county and carried on the industry very successfully. One of the early county papers contains a series of articles written by him, treating fully of the care of bees. Caleb Smith, formerly of Fairview township, who was appointed county superintendent in the spring of 1871, and elected to the office in the fall of that year for a term of two years, was a native of Snyder county, Pennsylvania, and received his education at the Freebury Academy of that county and at the Union Seminary of Union county, Pennsylvania. He began teaching school at the age of seventeen years. Mr. Smith was subsequently a very successful farmer and stock feeder of Fairview township. At present he is a resident of Avoca and is mayor of that town. A. N. Buckman, who served as county superintendent of schools from 1873 to 1877, was a native of Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, receiving his education at the Friends School at Wrightstown and at the State Normal School at Millersville, which he entered at the age of eighteen. Subsequently he took a course at Bryant & Stratton’s Business College, Philadelphia. He subsequently taught school. In 1861 he enlisted in Company C of the Third Pennsylvania Reserves in the Civil War, fighting in a number of important battles. He became captain of his company and was finally breveted major of volunteers by President Lincoln for “gallant and meritorious service in the field.” At the close of the war he was in business in Philadelphia for two years. He then came west, spending one year in Nebraska, and in 1869 he located in section 18, Douglas township, Shelby county. He experimented largely in fruit growing and planted one of the first large apple orchards of the county, and also five acres of artificial timber. He was active in the organization of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company and of the Shelby County Agricultural Society, serving both of these organizations as an officer. Of M. D. Bridgeman, who followed A. N. Buckman as county superintendent, the author knows nothing except that he had previously taught country schools in Shelby county. W. W. Girton, who followed Bridgeman, was one of the joint editors of the Hub, a Harlan newspaper, which was finally merged with the Harlan Herald, subsequently coming to be known as the Shelby County Republican. Mr. Girton was a graduate of a Wisconsin normal school, I am informed. He was followed in the superintendency by Mrs. M. E. Downey, and in 1883 W. K. Colburn, son of a well-known pioneer of Washington township, succeeded Mrs. Downey as superintendent. Mr. Colburn had had extensive experience in teaching, several years of which were in the Harlan schools. Mr. Colburn has shown business ability as secretary of the Farmers Mutual Insurance Company of the county for many years, and, besides, is extensively interested in the management of farms in the county. In 1885 C. F. Swift succeeded Mr. Colburn. He was born in Davis county, Iowa, where he resided on his father’s farm until sixteen years of age, at which time he entered the Southern Iowa Normal and Commercial Institute at Bloomfield. Here he completed the teachers’ course and also a scientific course, immediately after which he began teaching in Davis county. In March, 1882, he came to Shelby county and began teaching in the country schools, which profession he filled with high success and with the approbation of patrons. The author of this work will, he trusts, be pardoned for saying that one of the best and most inspirational instructors he had in the country schools was C. F. Swift. J. D. Dunlavy was another Davis county boy, educated in the Southern Iowa Normal School at Bloomfield, who served one term as county superintendent of schools, after many years of successful work as a country school teacher in Shelby county. He was succeeded by Paul Peterson, who had previously been an instructor in Elk Horn College in Clay township. Mr. Peterson was a graduate of the State Normal School at Cedar Falls. John B. Shorett, who served two terms as county superintendent, had attended the Woodbine Normal School, had taught school and had also spent several years in the State University at Iowa City, where he had especially distinguished himself in debating contests. Mr. Shorett is now a very able and successful attorney of Seattle, Washington, where he has been in the practice of law for nearly fifteen years. Mr. Shorett was succeeded by George A. Luxford, a Defiance boy, who had spent several years in teaching and had had several years of college work before assuming the duties of the office. M. C. Peterson, a son of Peter I. Peterson, was a graduate of the Harlan high school and had had several terms of experience as a teacher. Mrs. Rose Parker, the present incumbent of the office, is one of the best known experts in Iowa on the subject of primary teaching and methods. She has been employed in possibly a dozen different teachers’ institutes in Iowa, to take charge of the instruction of teachers along these lines.
Click on image to enlarge  Above, top left, Harlan High School. Above, top right, Park School, Harlan. Above, lower left, On the Way to the Rural Township School Picnic. Above, lower right, Pupils and Conveyances of Kirkman Consolidated School.
It is interesting to learn from an old record of school visitation kept by County Superintendent W. W. Girton from November 10, 1880, to June 17, 1881, the character of his observations. He, of course, named the individual teachers, but it would not serve any useful purpose now to give the names. Here is his record for this period of time: (Would his remarks apply to any teachers of this day?) “Record of School Visitation, from November 10, 1880, to June 17, 1881. Teacher No. 1—Teacher engergetic, active. Disposition on part of some pupils to dispute teacher’s methods and be contrary. Rooms clean and orderly. Teacher No. 2—Teacher not as active as I would wish to have him. Teacher No. 3—Teacher active, alive. Discipline good. Teacher No. 4—Teacher industrious and discipline fair. Building new and in good condition, except that of being very, very dirty. Teacher No. 5—School not industrious enough. Small pupils not interested. Teacher devotes too much time to large pupils. Teacher No. 6—School room in good condition. New stove. Everything neat. Pupils actively employed, not time for mischief. Teacher doing her part well. A success. Teacher No. 7—School quiet, studious. Teacher follows books too closely. Work too mechanical. Not life enough. Teacher No. 8—Teacher active, industrious and doing good work. Should not make his questions leading. Teacher No. 9—Teacher lacks vim and energy. Should do more teaching and less hearing classes. Teacher No. 10—Teacher not careful enough in personal appearance; hears recitations instead of teaches. Teacher No. 11—Teacher doing his work thoroughly—knows what to do and does it—takes care of health of pupils—water on stove with syphon to cause steam. Teacher No. 12—School a hard one to govern and teacher rather irritable, inclined to scold and threaten—needs more persuasive power. Teacher No. 13—School room untidy; scholars orderly, but given to bad practices—smoking permitted in the room by the teacher. Teacher No. 14—Slovenly in dress, but enthusiastic enough. Teacher No. 15—(One of the author’s teachers)—School house new, frame, in good condition; ornamented with winter bouquets, pictures, etc.; no apparatus, except dictionary; teacher doing her work quietly but faithfully.”
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