CHAPTER XVII

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COMMON SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY

    Iowa's educational methods and influences place her in the first rank. One state alone—Massachusetts—shows a higher percentage of attendance of children in the public schools. 67.2 per cent of the total number of children between the ages of five and nine years, and 91 per cent of those between the ages of six and ten years, attended school last year (1904). One-fifth of the population of the United States—a number equal to the total population of Spain—attends the public schools, and, according to the report of the Commissioner of Education, June 30th, 1904, this cost $251,000,000.00 for the year. Of this vast number enrolled in the public schools, Iowa has 565,000 pupils, or nearly 88 per cent of her people of the proper school age. For their education there has been provided nearly 14,000 school buildings at a cost of almost $19,000,000.00 and a force of 30,000 teachers. That there is no wish to economize is shown by the fact that last year's expense exceeded by a large amount, those of any preceding year.

    Passing from Iowa to one of its sub-divisions, Montgomery County, we find a very creditable showing. Pupils in attendance in the public schools of the county number 5,318—2,730 males and 2,588 females—presided over by 165 teachers, of whom 140 are women. We have one teacher for ever 32 pupils—the average in the state being one for every 21 pupils. There are 103 rural and 10 city school buildings in the county. Only 15 boys and 16 girls from seven to fourteen years of age, failed to attend school last year (1904).

    The amount paid out in the county from September, 1903, to September, 1904, was as follows: Teachers' salaries, $55,-

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319.76; contingent expenses, $19,778.55; general supplies, $1,194.25; other expenses, $1,957.17; making a grand total of $78,249.73.

    A schoolhouse is located upon the corner of every four sections (or four square miles), making nine of them in each of the twelve townships in the county. Besides these, the ten city school buildings, with their instructors and facilities, afford to the youth of the county the opportunity for at least an academic education.

    In our formative period as a county, the first act of the pioneers, after providing shelter for their families, was to build a schoolhouse and start a school. These schoolhouses were constructed like the dwellings of the settlers—usually of logs. A fireplace at one end served for heating the single room. The desks were arranged with rough boards extending around the sides of the room and across the end opposite the fireplace, and were supported by wooden pieces fastened to the logs. The seats were made of heave slabs, sawed or split from logs, through which holes were bored with a two inch auger to receive the supporting legs. The benches were all the same height from the floor, affording no resting place for the feet of the small pupil who occupied the front seat, his legs swinging like a pendulum a few inches from the floor. The backs of the older pupils were toward the teacher when they were writing or carving rude images on the desks in front of them. The studies were made up principally of the three "R's," with penmanship in addition. In the instruction of the latter, the copybook, made by binding sheets of foolscap within a cover of coarse manila, was considered a necessity. Usually the teacher wrote on the head line of each page, some quotation or moral precept for the pupils to copy, so that while being instructed in the art of writing, his mind was filled with wholesome sentiment. Shakespeare, Cervantes and Mother Goose were levied upon to furnish suitable sentences.

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    The first schoolhouse built in Montgomery County was erected by John Ross under a contract, for eighty dollars, and was of the true backwoods style. It was located a short distance southeast of Villisca on Section 26, Jackson Township. The first schoolhouses were invariably used for religious services, and Rev. W. C. Means, a clergyman of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, held the first service. The first teacher was Judge Samuel Baker, though there is no record of the number of names of his pupils or the salary he received. The Rev. James Rand, a Methodist circuit rider, also preached a few nights at this place at about the same time. James Ross, from Ohio, a young man with a well furnished mind, taught in this schoolhouse in the winter of 1865. His compensation was $18.00 per month and he had about twenty-five pupils. The names of some of them were: A. J. Baker, H. G. McMillen, B. F. Means, Sarah M. Means, Lydia Martha Carlisle, Wm. Findley, Robert George, Susan and Celestus Harlow, John James, Joseph, Peter and Lydia Moore and Henry and James Penwell. Another schoolhouse was built on Section 9, Douglas Township, about the same time, by Wm. Stipe and A. M. P. Whittier. This institution of learning cost $35.00 or $40.00; was built of logs and was 14x16 feet, with puncheon floor and clap-board roof. Mrs. Henry Shank, now living in Red Oak, taught the first school in the county of which there is any record. This was in the summer of 1856. The house was log cabin once used for a residence and situated near Climax in West Township.

    Some years afterward, a small, unplastered, frame building was built by L. N. Harding, Z. M. P. Shank, G. A. Gordon and others, before public money was available for that purpose. This schoolhouse was located on First Street, near the present freight depot of Red Oak. Miss Pluma S. Johnson was one of the teachers of this school. As the population increased,

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there was a demand for a larger room; consequently, a one-story brick building was erected on Corning street, near the present high school building. The following named teachers were employed at this school: Miss Morgan—subsequently Mrs. C. H. Lane—Phil Good, a Red Oak attorney, and George C. Clark, now a distinguished lawyer and ex-judge, of Webster City, Iowa. The schoolhouse was used for all public meetings such as religious services, Sunday schools, lectures, political meetings and celebrations. It became a residence when the present schoolhouse on East Coolbaugh street was built—the first graded school established in Red Oak. Prof. Wood of Clarinda was the first superintendent of this school and his able assistants were Mrs. L. Graybil, Miss Mary L. Mills—now Mrs. C. E. Richards—and Angie Cook, who became the wife of Gov. Lewelling of Kansas.

    The obsolete town of Frankfort contributed much to the early educational enterprise of Montgomery County. Miss Lawrence taught a subscription school of ten pupils there for a few months. W. H. M. Fishback opened a school there in the then new court house—a building with one room. He was followed by David Ellison, a young attorney from Des Moines and now a prominent citizen and attorney of Kansas City. On the 14th day November, 1853, the writer commenced the first school in the first schoolhouse of Frankfort and taught there two winter terms for $33 1-3 per month, his salary being paid out of the first public funds provided for that purpose. He was followed by Elihu Davis, a young man from Ohio, Mrs. Emily U. Barnard and others, until the county seat was removed to Red Oak.

    For a proper understanding of the educational affairs of that time, it is necessary to take into consideration its environments. We must view the situation in the light of time. Common wants and common interests tended to tone down the individual characteristics of the community and to weld them together in

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fraternal bonds. Acquaintance softens prejudice. The people worked together for the common good; the process of assimilation was rapid and the heterogeneous became the homogeneous. A school was provided for the children and youth of the town, a score or more of whom, living in remote parts of the county, availed themselves of this, the only opportunity for an education within their reach. Some of them enlisted in the army and never returned. Some removed farther west, while others still reside in the county and are among our most worthy citizens. That school situated out on the bleak prairie was an inspiration to many of the sixty pupils who assembled there for instruction. There were almost as many dialects spoken there as there were pupils. Some "guessed;" others "reckoned." Some, in the pronunciation of words, dropped the consonant "r," and others habitually used "heap" or "right smart" to express size or number. The school taught by the writer was without uniformity in text books, although McGuffey's Speller and Ray's Arithmetic predominated. As a general rule, there were as many different kinds of text books in the early schools as there were families to use them. School was opened daily according to the New York and New England form, by reading a few verses from the Bible. Then the real work of the school commenced by eclectic methods, combining the old with the new, the teacher utilizing his knowledge obtained in the State Normal School at Albany, N. Y.

    Wholesome discipline was enforced, though there was a large number of pupils confined within the walls of a small room. King Solomon's suggestion that sparing the rod would spoil the child was followed, though with a mental reservation that other and better methods would finally prevail as an antidote to the innate depravity of the unruly urchin. This method of curbing reckless spirits and of making an impression by leaving a mark, has now fallen into harmless disuse, never again to be revived. At the close of each school day, the advanced

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pupils were arranged on each side of the room and then made to recite the multiplication table in concert or to spend a few minutes in spelling or defining Latin phrases. In stormy weather, some patron of the school would be ready at the schoolhouse door with ox-team and sled, to convey the smaller children to their homes. The winters were usually severe and long, with deep drifting snows. The children were poorly clad, but they were care-free and happy.

    There clusters around the early schools of the county much of interest, and it is gratifying to note the progress that has been made in our educational enterprises. In obedience to the universal law of progress from lower to higher, the primitive hut is supplanted by comfortable frame buildings, well lighted and heated, and supplied with necessary furniture. In our cities and towns, the school buildings are often models of architecture, equipped with every apparatus beneficial to the bodily comfort and mental growth of the student.

    All the intervening years have been marked by progress, sometimes slow, but always forward—a promise and a prophecy of still greater progress in the future.