CHAPTER VI.
CASS TOWNSHIP (CONT'D).

SCHOOL HISTORY OF LEWIS.

Brief reference has been made to the first school in Lewis taught by George M. Elsey, its pioneer merchant. The next school of which there is any record was taught in the old court house, during the following winter, that of 1856-7. The teachers were Mrs. E. W. Davenport, wife of the surveyor and mill owner; William Waddell, who had charge of the school after it was organized as a regular public institution; and Belle L. Macomber, whose father was formerly a silk manufacturer of Massachusetts and at that time assessor of Cass county. At different periods prior to the building of the first regular school house these three taught the children of the Lewis pioneers, and it is certain that their duties were not wearing, as their pupils were dismissed during the sessions of court. The pupils themselves are said to have looked anxiously forward to the time that 'court set," as that meant a vacation.

The first school house in Lewis was built in 1859. It was constructed of brick made at the kiln recently started by James F. Deavers and located just north of the town limits. The new school house was one block west and south of the old court house, and was torn down in 1903. The teachers who were in this school were Messrs. Waddell, Wooster and Montgomery Smith. In a few years the pupils had become so numerous that the smaller ones were transferred to an old office building of Keyes & Burnham and were organized into the first primary school of Lewis. This building is now a livery stable.

In the early 'sixties several terms of school were held in the then Methodist church, and that structure is now used as a hay barn on the farm of O. Mills, south of the town limits. The building at present occupied by the grammar grades was built in 1868, is fifty by fifty feet and two stories high.

The first principal in the new building was S. R. Manning, who afterward continued his good work as a teacher in Wisconsin. S. D. Cook, his successor, severed his connection in 1873, and became a Dakota journalist, Mr. Manning assuming his old position for a short time. A. W. Clancy, the principal for 1874, was progressive, radical and successful, and became interested in the school book business, in connection with the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Company, of Chicago.

A Mr. McReynolds succeeded Mr. Clancy in 1875, and in the following year Frank J. Macomber, son of K. W. Macomber, and whose sister had been connected with the earlier schools of Lewis, assumed the principalship. He had been educated in the high school of the town and in the Agricultural College at Ames, having graduated from the latter in 1875, and was therefore well equipped for his work. He made a most excellent principal for two years, after which he took a course in the Iowa City law school and returned to Lewis to engage both in the practice of his profession and the real estate business.

J. W. James and John K. Andrews followed Mr. Macomber as principals of the Lewis school, the latter being the first to introduce what were then considered the new normal methods of teaching. He left the school in 1878, and died two years afterward, as he was about the [sic to] enter the practice of law.

S. L. Wilson, of Champaign, Ill., Mr. Andrews' successor, was a strong and versatile educator, was principal for 1879-80, and subsequently was a traveling insurance agent with headquarters in Des Moines.

BAPTISTS ORGANIZE A CHURCH.

In 1859 the Baptists of Lewis organized a church with fourteen members, among whom were: Samuel Disbrow and wife, Perry Disbrow and wife, J. W. Brown and wife, James Dyer and wife and Mrs. Wells. Rev. William Golden was the first pastor, and continued as such until the spring of 1861, when Rev. E. W. Hall was installed and served about two years. At first services were held in the old court house, afterward occupied as a dwelling by Samuel Disbrow and family. In 1863 a church building was erected at a cost of $2,500. In old and long settled communities the 'sixties seem like comparatively recent years, but that they still were included in the pioneer period of Lewis is illustrated by the fact that the material for the Baptist church of 1863 was hauled from Nevada, Story county, a distance of 125 miles, with ox and horse teams. This was then the nearest railroad point. The edifice was dedicated by Rev. J. C. Otis, of Glenwood, long since deceased, in the winter of 1863-4. The first deacon of the old Baptist Church was Perry Disbrow, and the first clerk, J. W. Brown.

"Compendium and History of Cass County, Iowa." Chicago: Henry and Taylor & Co., 1906, pg. 100-101.
Transcribed by Cheryl Siebrass, August, 2018.