History of
Schools in Linn County
Source:
History of Linn County Iowa; from it's earliest Settlement to the
Present Time. Vol.1. 1911. By Luther A. Brewer & Barthinius L. Wick.
Pub. Chicago: The Pioneer Pub. Co.
Please keep in mind that as with all transcribed data errors are
possible.
Information is provided here for personal research only.
CHAPTER XXII
The Schools of the County
Schools in Linn county came into existence almost as early as
the first settlers arrived here. Most of the pioneers came from homes
of culture and refinement and hence appreciated the value of an
education. There were no public schools at first. Teachers were
employed by private subscription. Lessons were taught in the settler’s
cabin, fitted up with rough boards or puncheons, and of course the
attendance was small.
The organic law which provided for the division of Wisconsin
and Iowa makes no provision for education, and no reference to it. On
January 15, 1889, an act was passed by the Council and House of
Representatives of the Territory of Iowa, providing for “grants of
property made for the encouragement of education.” This act has no
bearing whatever on our present school system. It deals expressly with
donations and gifts for educational purposes.
The real beginning of our present school system is embodied
in "An Act to Establish a System of Common Schools,” approved by the
Council and house of Representatives of the Territory of Iowa, January
16, 1840. There are many surprises in this bill when one compares it
to our present school laws; in fact, many of our school laws have not
been materially changed since the enactments of 1840. It is
interesting to note that according to the provisions of this bill, the
school library is not a new idea, but it was provided for. In Section
thirteen, paragraph five, the qualified voters in each district were
given power to “impose a tax sufficient for the purchase of a suitable
library case, also a sum not exceeding ten dollars annually, for the
purchase of books to be selected by a vote of the district, by the
district board, when so directed.” Paragraph six of the same section
designates “the place where the library shall be kept, and the person
by whom it shall be kept;” and states that “the superintendent of
public instruction shall establish the necessary rules for the
regulation of the library.” Section fifteen provides that “every
person elected to any one of the above offices who, without sufficient
cause, shall neglect or refuse to serve shall forfeit to the district
for the use of the library the sum of ten dollars, to be recovered in
an action of debt by the assessor before any court of competent
jurisdiction.”
Another interesting item is the fact that school inspectors
instead of school directors at that time had charge of the schools. In
Section twenty-three, these inspectors are provided for in the
following words: “There shall be chosen at each annual township
meeting, three school inspectors in the same manner as other township
officers are chosen, who shall hold their office until others are
chosen.”
It was the duty of these inspectors, according to Section
twenty-nine of this Act, to examine closely all persons presenting
themselves as candidates for teaching in their township, and although
a certificate may have been issued to a teacher, if the inspectors
became dissatisfied, under Section thirty, they might again require
the teacher to be re-examined, and if in their opinion the teacher was
found wanting the requisite qualifications, their certificates might
be annulled by giving the teacher ten days’ notice, and filing the
same with the clerk of the township.
Judge Milo P. Smith when entering upon the duties of his
school at Wire’s Corners, just east of Springville, was examined by
this method, and it is quite interesting to hear him tell his early
experiences in the schools of Linn county. Quite vividly does he bring
to one’s mind the sparsely settled condition of the neighborhood
around Springville and Viola, when relating an incident regarding his
trip from this, school house to a party where he had been invited to
spend the evening. After arranging his records and outlining the
lessons. for the next day, the Judge states that be started for his
destination, and about ten o’clock at night realized that he was
completely lost. Evidently he must have traveled in a circle, for he
states that about two or three o’clock the next morning he saw a gleam
of light flash out of a door. Starting immediately in that direction,
he arrived at the place where the party was held, just in time to ride
home with the, young folks.
At the same session, a law was passed regarding the sale of
the school lands, and this law was approved January 17, 1840.
On February 17, 1842, a bill was passed creating the office
of Superintendent of Public Instruction. The duties of this officer at
this time was very limited; they being of a clerical nature instead of
those of a supervisor. Of course there could be no school districts or
anything of that nature organized in the county until alter some
county organization. The bill calling for the organization of Linn
county was not passed until 1840. It is quite interesting to know that
it was at this time that the Commissioner or rather what is known
today as the Supervisor Districts were laid out. The bill reads as
follows:
“Section 1. Be it enacted by the Council and House of
Representatives of the Territory of Iowa, That the board of county
commissioners in and for the county of Linn, be and they are hereby
authorized and required to lay off the
county aforesaid into three county commissioners’ districts, prior to
the first day of August, A. D eighteen hundred and forty-one, making
the division as nearly as possible in proportion to the population of
said county; and the districts shall be classified by said
commissioners as districts number one, number two, and number three.
“Sic. 2. That at the next general election there shall be
elected from district number one one county commissioner; and
alternately thereafter there shall be elected from each district one
county commissioner annually, in accordance with the provisions of an
act organizing a board of county commissioners in each county in this
Territory, approved December 14th, A. D. eighteen hundred and
thirty-eight, in like manner as though the county had been divided
under the provisions of said act.
“Approved, December 31, 1840.”
This is especially interesting, inasmuch as there has been a
great deal of discussion of late regarding the number of supervisors
in Linn county. The districts as laid out at that time remain today.
By an act of the same Assembly, approved June 13, 1841,
Marion was established as a seat of justice of Linn county, and the
commissioners of Linn county were authorized to employ agents to sell
lots.
The office of the superintendent of public instruction seemed
to have been short-Lived, for on February 17, 1842, an act was passed
by the territorial legislature which repealed the act of creating the
office of superintendent of public instruction.
In 1846 an act was passed January 15th, which in some
respects amended an act “To Establish a System of Common Schools,”
which was passed in 1840. This bill (the one of 1845) really made what
is now known as the county auditor, the educational head of the
schools, and provided a tax for their support.
In chapter 99, page 127, of the Territorial Statutes of 1847, there
is an act relating to the common schools. In section 36, page 134. it
provides that at the next annual township election (which evidently
must have been held in the spring) there was to be elected a school
fund commissioner. This commissioner is what is now known as the
county superintendent of schools, and his duties were many and varied.
In the election book it is shown that in April, 1852, out of
the six hundred and ninety-one votes cast, Alpheus Brown received five
hundred and seventy-three, and was declared elected. In the formation
and alteration of school districts, the records of the county go back
as far as 1849, in which records Mr. Brown signed as school fund
commissioner. However, this may be attributed to the fact that
previous to 1852, Mr. Brown was clerk of the county board of
commissioners, and the duties of the school fund commissioner devolved
upon that office at that time; consequently the presumption is that
when he entered upon his duties a~ school fund commissioner, and began
to make up his records, he naturally took from the records of the
clerk of the board of county commissioners the things which belonged
to the office.
Mr. Brown held this office for three full terms, also about
six or eight months additional time, although Albert A. Mason was
elected and qualified as county superintendent of schools in the
election of April, 1858. Mr. Brown served until January, 1859, as
school fund commissioner. This came from the fact that the county
superintendent was provided for by the Statute of ‘58, the election
taking place on the first Monday in April, but at this time some of
the duties devolved upon the county superintendent. By chapter 36 of
the Statutes of 1858, section 1, the office of the school fund
commissioner was continued until the county treasurer was elected. The
presumption is, therefore, that for about six months we had both a
school fund commissioner and a county superintendent of schools in
this county.
It is possible, also, that Mr. Brown served as a sort of
triumvirate, as he was school fund commissioner by election, for the
simple reason that Mr. Mason may not have qualified until three or
four days after the time set; he was also school fund commissioner by
the extension Statute, and county superintendent of schools from the
fact that his successor had not qualified; in fact in some of the
school reports, he signed as both school fund commissioner and county
superintendent. However, Mr. Mason entered upon his duties and served
as superintendent of schools for one term, when Ira G. Fairbanks (who
by the way, still lives in Mount Vernon) was elected as his successor.
It is a difficult matter to state who was the first school
teacher in the county. In 1839 several schools were in operation. In
July of that year Elizabeth Bennett taught in Linn Grove, and later
that same year Judge Greene taught at Ivanhoe. One of the noted
schools of the early day was the one known as the “Buckskin School,”
in Linn Grove, so named because teacher and scholars alike attended
clad in buckskin suits.
The first school district was formed in 1840 with Marion as
its center. After that school houses sprang up in every direction. The
buildings were constructed out of logs; the seats were benches hewn
from slabs or logs, and so were the desks. Colleges early sprung up in
the county. Of the three that flourished here more or less at one
time, the history of two — Cornell and Coe — are given at length.
These institutions are now in splendid condition.
The third institution that in its day was a power for excellence in
educational lines was Western, founded in 1856 on the borders of
Johnson county at the little town of Western, in College township. Of
this institution the late Jesse A. Runkle, some years ago, wrote as
follows:
“In January, 1856, Iowa City became the western terminus of the only
railroad in the state, and no other was built within a couple of
years. The fine country surrounding Western, would easily lead one to
believe that the early plan was feasible, to make the school an
industrial one, where deserving young men could make their way through
school by devoting some of their time to agricultural work. But
Western was unfortunate in two things: First, none of the railroads
that were built in Iowa, ever came near the town. It seems as if a
Nemesis had brooded over the place, for even the interurban now being
built between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City swerves from a direct line,
and misses both Western and Shueyville by about a mile. Second, the
surrounding country began to be possessed by a population that in the
main had little or no sympathy with religious education, and the older
generations were alien in thought and temper to our American
institutions. These things made the task of maintaining the college at
that point a most heroic and arduous work.”
After some years of struggle, the college was removed to
Toledo, where it now wields an influence second to none in the state.
One of the early educational centers in Linn county was the
private school established in 1850 in the Greene Bros. block, which
stood on the corner of First street and First avenue, Cedar Rapids,
where now stands the building owned by Sunshine Mission. It was
founded by Miss Elizabeth Calder, a native of New York, and who in
1855 married R. C. Rock, the first hardware dealer in the city, who
came here from Burlington and whose place of business was located on
First street a few doors south of the corner of First avenue. This
school prospered and was conducted by Miss Calder for four years when
it was discontinued.
One of the first, if not the very first, teacher in Cedar
Rapids was Miss Susan Abbe, daughter of the old pioneer. She taught in
this city in 1846, the superintendent being Alexander Ely. Miss Emma
J. Fordyce, at present a teacher in the Cedar Rapids high school,
contributes to this work the following sketch of early schools in the
county, and more particularly in the city of Cedar Rapids:
“It is not often in this changing country that a person lives
a lifetime in one community and sees the schools grow from their
beginning. This has happened to me. Of the early country schools but
two memories remain: a visit
in the summer, and one in the winter. There remains an impression of
very homely school houses, equally homely surroundings, and very
little comfort without or within. It is a standing wonder that even
now an Iowa farmer is
much more likely to provide an up-to-date fine building for his cattle
than a beautiful, well-ordered school-house for the education of his
children. A little has been done, but by far too little.
“Early Cedar Rapids was a little village surrounded by groves
of oaks, crabapple, plum, and everywhere the climbing wild grape.
Between these groves were the sand hills on which grew vast quantities
of sand-burs. Where the Methodist church now stands was a bill which
sloped toward the railroad. Where the old Presbyterian church was, the
children coasted down “Pepper Grass Hill ;“and where Mr. Crozer‘s
florist establishment is, was a deep and wide pond which, on occasions
of heavy rain, furnished water for rafts made from bits of sidewalk.
“The earliest school was on the, sits of the present Granby
building, but of that school I have no personal knowledge. The first
school building in my memory was the three-story one which was erected
in 1856. It had a white cupalo, white trimmings to the windows, with a
high, solid board fence, painted red, surrounding it. An iron pump at
the side furnished refreshment to the spirit and ammunition for the
wetting of people. On the lower floor on the side next the railroad,
Miss Elizabeth Shearer taught the children. She was a woman of fine
family, fine attainments, and of great patience of spirit.
Superintendent Ingalls was in charge of the school at that
time. C. W. Burton followed him the next year. His school board
was A. C. Churchill, president; Benjamin Harrison,
treasurer; J. W. Henderson, vice-president; D. A. Bradley,
secretary. These were assisted by three directors, J. F. Charles,
W. W. Smith, E. E. Leach. Mr. Harrison had a
unique way of collecting taxes from the delinquent foreign citizens to
whom our system of collecting them was a dark puzzle; when they
refused to pay, he notified them that on a certain day if the taxes
were not forthcoming, he would sell everything they had and apply the
proceeds to tax payment. The auction was often begun, but never
finished, as the taxes were always forthcoming.
“Mrs. F. J. Lund was one of the earliest of Cedar
Rapids teachers. For many years her inspiring example and her patient
work developed good children out of bad, and she finished her life’s
work by taking care of all the poor and unfortunate of the county. The
Cedar Rapids superintendents were Professor Humphrey, 1861-4,
Professor Ingalls, 1864-5, C. W. Burton, 1865-70, J.
F. Harlan, now president of Cornell, 1870-5, F. H. Smith,
the latter part of 1875. J. W. Akers, 1875-81, W. M.
Friesner, 1881-5, L. T. Weld, 1885-6, J. P. Hendricks,
1886-90, J. T. Merrill, 1890-1901, J. J. McConnell,
1901-, twelve men in thirty-four years. The list shows plainly the
growing tendency to keep a superintendent for long periods at a time.
“The high school principals show the same tendency; A.
Wetherby, from 1870-1, E. C. Ebersole, 1872-73, W. A.
Olmsted, 1871-2, Miss Mary A. Robinson, 1873-86, Miss A.
S. Abbott, 1886 —.
“The original high school building contained four rooms. In
1876 it had a corps of three teachers: Miss M. A. Robinson,
Miss F. J. Meade, Miss Estella Verden, and had an
attendance of 106 pupils; it now has twenty teachers with an
attendance of 838 pupils. In 1876 there were five buildings in the
city; there are now sixteen. Of the teachers thirty-one in number in
1876, there are two left: Miss Emma Forsythe and Miss Emma J. Fordyce.
In 1876 the total number of pupils handled by thirty-one teachers was
1,752. In 1911, with 181 teachers, there are 6,122 pupils, not quite
six times as many teachers, but showing a smaller average number to
each teacher. Evidently the school-houses have always been crowded,
since the superintendent’s report of 1876 says: ‘We have in the school
district five school buildings, and these are taxed to their utmost to
accommodate the pupils already enrolled.’ He also remarks pensively:
‘In your wisdom for the coming year, you have reduced the salaries of
your teachers, and in some cases the reduction has been such that some
of your best teachers have been compelled to seek employment
elsewhere.’ Since no following superintendent makes the same
complaint, it is evident that school boards do improve. As to
salaries, the salary of the superintendent in 1883 is given as $1,000;
in 1911 as $3,000, which means the magnificent increase of $42 a year;
not a great
temptation. The salaries of the teachers increase in the same period
about $25 a year. Comment is unnecessary.
“As to the high school, the graduates of 1873 to 1885 were
hut eleven pupils, with nine times as many in 1908. Amongst the older
and pioneer high school teachers were Mr. Wetherbee, Miss
Ella Meade, and Miss Ada Sherman, who afterward decided to
doctor bodies instead of minds, as it paid much better. Mr. Olmsted,
the principal of 1872, who left Cedar Rapids in 1873 to found a
business in Chicago, died a hero. He lost his life in his burning
building trying to save his bookkeeper.
“The tendencies in school work are shown by the fact that the
reports of the early superintendents are largely lists of members of
the school board, while the later reports give large tabulations of
expense. It is to be regretted that Iowa has not adopted a series of
uniform reports, giving items almost impossible to discover as
these reports are at present made out. The older schools report
seventy-two pupils to a primary teacher. The newer reports are silent
on the subject. Since efficiency comes in handling the right number of
pupils, it would
certainly be wise to keep a careful account of this item.
“The courses of the schools show the growth in public
service. The courses of the high school in 1876 are twenty; those of
the high school in 1910, eightythree. All of the older and more
prominent citizens served as school directors at one time or another.
In 1858 J. L. Enos was president of the board, Freeman
Smith, secretary, W. W. Smith, vice-president. J. T.
Walker, treasurer, W. W. Walker, director. In 1859 the
names of R. C. Rock, E. H. Stedman, J. P. Coulter,
and J. M. Chambers appear. In 1860, S. C. Koontz.
Henry Church, William Stewart, J. H. Camburn, and
William Richmond served. In 1861, W. W. Smith, George M.
Howlett, Henry Church, William H. Merritt. A. C.
Churchill, and S. L. Pollock directed affairs. In 1862
E. G. Brown, A. C. Churchill, J. F. Ely, George
M. Howlett elected Mr. Humphrey superintendent of schools.
His reputation seems to have been that of a man of great strength and
the bad big boys stood in awe of him accordingly. C. W. Burton, the
superintendent of 1865, was noted for his cleverness in mathematics,
and his deep interest in horticulture.
“All of these early directors, superintendents, and teachers
were hard workers and great optimists. History has confirmed that
optimism, and from the services of these men developed a race of
ambitious, energetic, moral citizens to whom the present Cedar Rapids
owes a great debt of gratitude.”
Through the courtesy of County Superintendent
Alderman we are enabled to give below some interesting data
regarding our schools:
In 1873 the number of school corporations in the county was
42, increased to 87 in 1909. The number of ungraded schools in the
former year was 178. and 166 in the latter year. The average number of
months the schools were in session has increased from 6.6 in 1873 to
8.9 in 1909, and the average compensation from $39.78 to $73.50 for
males, and from $26.33 to $50.85 for females. The number of female
teachers employed in 1873 was 244. and in 1909, 503. The number of
male teachers was 90 and 40 respectively.
In the matter of attendance there has been a vast betterment.
In 1873 there were 460 boys and 544 girls between the ages of seven
and fourteen not in school. In 1909 these numbers were 29 and 17. The
value of school property in 1873 was $240,105; in 1909, $814,300. The
value of school apparatus was $2,309.50 in 1873, and in 1909,
$20,035.25. There were in 1873 in the school libraries 482 volumes,
which was increased to 17,079 in 1909.
There are now between twenty-five and thirty fine school
buildings in the country districts. They are modern in all respects.
being supplied with slate blackboards, hardwood floors, ventilators,
cloak rooms, bookcases and cupboards. Several have furnaces and cloak
rooms in the basements. Some of the buildings are supplied with
telephones. making it possible for the county superintendent and
patrons to communicate direct with the school.
The plans and specifications for these buildings are owned by
the county, and are furnished gratis to the school districts wishing
to build. All of these schoolhouses except two or three are not only
proyided with libraries, cloak rooms, etc., but are also provided with
a good organ.
This year there is being installed a hot air ventilating
system which keeps the warm air pure. the cold air being taken
directly from the outside and passed through the hot air radiators
before being allowed to enter the school room.
Source:
History of Linn County Iowa; from it's earliest Settlement to the
Present Time. 1911. By Luther A. Brewer & Barthinius L. Wick.
Pub. Chicago: The Pioneer Pub. Co.
|
