CHAPTER XXI.
GROVE TOWNSHIP.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF ATLANTIC.

On the 15th of January, 1870, the school board of Pymosa township, which then had the educational jurisdiction of Atlantic, instructed its secretary, Samuel L. Lorah, to issue notice of election, at which the voters of the town should decide upon an independent district. The election was held on the 31st, and all the eighty-one votes cast in Atlantic were in favor of a separate and independent school organization. Various additions were made to the original territory included in the district until it embraced sections 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, the west half of section 3, the north half of section 7 and the east half of the southeast quarter of this section, all in Atlantic township; also the west half of the southwest quarter and the west half of the northwest quarter of section 33, Pymosa township. In other words, the Independent district of Atlantic now includes all of the town, and the most thickly settled sections of the adjacent territory.

On March 14, 1870, the first Board of School Directors was elected, as follows: W. W. Parker, F. H. Whitney, John R. Reynolds, W. K. Straight, D. F. Hawkes and R. D. McGeehon; they qualified and entered upon the discharge of their duties just a week thereafter, and on March 24 they purchased of the Atlantic Town Company lots 7, 8, 9 and 10, block 56, for a school house site, paying therefor $400.

FIRST SCHOOL BUILDING.

The contract for the erection of this first school building in Atlantic was awarded to Neimeyer Bros., the price being $9,288, and the work was pushed forward so energetically by Messrs. Reynolds and McGeehon, the building committee, that the edifice was completed and accepted by the board on January 1, 1871. The school opened on the 16th, under the principalship of S. R. Manning, who was assisted by his wife and the Misses Lucy E. Terry and C. V. K. Towne. Thus was the public school system of Atlantic fairly placed on its feet.

COVETED REWARD OF MERIT.

The year following the creation of the Independent district and preceding the occupation of the comfortable school on the East hill, was a period of trial long remembered by the early teachers. During the fall of 1870 school was held in the Art Hall of the fair grounds, which occupied the half block north of the Baptist church on Elm street. The three teachers, unaided by apparatus, worked together in this unpartitioned room, through whose thin walls crept the searching winds and the chilling rains. The "judges' stand" was more weather tight than other parts of the building, and a most coveted reward of merit was to be allowed to study in that select portion of the school room.

GRADING OF SCHOOLS.

In October, 1873, George S. Wedgewood became the superintendent, and although he had had three predecessors, it was reserved for him to grade the schools. A small building had been erected on the present High School grounds, and still the rooms were so overcrowded that many of the younger scholars could attend only a quarter of a day. The number of teachers was also quite inadequate, so that Mr. Wedgewood's task was no small one.

In November, 1875, the Third Ward, or West Side building, was completed, at a cost of $6,500, being opened on the 15th of that month with Ada Duncan, Kate M. Tupper, Madge Tupper and Alice Baugh, as teachers. In September, 1877, a building for the exclusive use of the High School was erected on the corner of Sixth and Poplar streets. This is now the Episcopal church. Notwithstanding the "exclusiveness" of the High School, the overcrowded condition of the other schools made it necessary to install the eighth grade here for a time. Large additions were made to the schools in the Third and Fourth wards, during 1879 and 1881 respectively, and in the early 'eighties rooms were also rented (including Temperance hall), in the earnest efforts of the school board to keep pace with the incessant demands of the public for adequate educational accommodations.

With the city's increase in wealth these demands have since been fully met, so that at the present time, as already noted, Atlantic is well supplied with handsome and commodious school buildings, and an abundance of efficient teachers, and its public school system is altogether complete and in line with modern pedagogy.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 238-240.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, July, 2018.