USA > California > Merced County > A history of Merced County, California : with a biographical review of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 31
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We find Supt. T. O. Ellis, Sr., appointing a board of exami- ners in 1865 consisting of Judge J. W. Robertson, Rev. J. C. Pender- gast, S. K. Spears, and J. C. Breen. This is said to have been the county's first board of examiners, and the board of education which met at the court house at Snelling on December 29 of the same year is also said to have been the first board of education of the county. These "first" statements are statements which are easy and tempting to make and hard to disprove-we have found, for example, three different "first" flour mills on the Merced River. Whether this was or was not the first board of education, it examined and granted certi- ficates to three applicants: "Mr. Everett of Merced Falls, Mr. Monroe of Forlorn Hope, and Mr. Folwell, of the mouth of the Merced River." Note that all the teachers who have been mentioned so far are men. This item about the first board of education is evi-
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dently from J. W. Robertson's Herald, which was the one paper in the county at that time. The item closes with the following: "The subject of common schools in our county is one of much interest, and one which has heretofore been comparatively neglected. We shall allude to the subject hereafter." At this period just after the Civil War the people of Merced County, like people everywhere else in the country, were beginning to resume normal activities which had been to a considerable extent suspended by the war. The quotation may be true ; it is pretty clearly true so far as the statement that schools had been neglected is concerned.
In the issue of Steele's Herald for July 3, 1869, we find :
"School Census Returns .- Mr. J. C. Breen, census marshal of the Snelling [Jackson] School District, reports the following as the number of children in the district: Number of white children between five and fifteen .. . 86. . . . Boys, 47; girls, 39. . . . Under 5, 55. ... Negro children, 13. Though this district has been recently divided, the report shows a large addition to the number of children entitled to school money as shown by the last annual report. None of the families of the children embraced in the report live more than two miles from the schoolhouse, and only three or four a greater dis- tance than a mile and a half."
On December 4 of the same year is the following : "School Tax .- The Trustees of the Bear Creek School District give notice in another column of an election to raise a tax for the building of a schoolhouse, to come off on the 27th. . . . We hope the ... citizens will vote the tax, and thereby add to their present facilities for educating their children."
On January 1, 1870: "School Bell .- We have been shown a sub- scription list containing the names of many of our citizens as con- tributors to a fund to purchase a bell for the schoolhouse. Of course the amount required will be raised, and in a short time we will hear the merry tones of the school bell as it calls the happy children of our prosperous little town each day to their studies."
We have run a few months ahead of the chronological order in the last two, for during the summer of 1869 there appeared items about the Jackson and the Merced Falls districts voting taxes to build schoolhouses. On July 10 we read that the contract for the new Jackson schoolhouse has been let to C. S. Peck and Jamison & Meany, and that it is to be "brick, thirty by forty-eight feet, and two stories high, of approved modern design."
On February 19, 1870, appeared the following instructive item :
"Increasing .- If one thing more than another will show the in- crease of population and prosperity of Merced County, it is the fact that, at nearly every session of the board of supervisors, new school
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districts are created. Four new districts were set off at the February session, and the May term will create several more. If the season be not a disastrous one to farmers, Merced can be numbered among the most prosperous counties of the State, and there is nothing to hinder her from being so. The diversity of the soil and her salubrious climate are in her favor, and her citizens are not lacking in vitality and enter- prise. Let the immigrants come ; there is plenty of room and a hearty welcome for all."
In the summer of 1872 the Argus published for several successive issues a legal description of the boundaries of the eighteen school dis- tricts which the county then contained. It was more than a column of six-point type. Without copying it here, we may show the names and approximate locations of the districts. There was Anderson in the extreme northeastern part of the county. South of it was Merced Falls, on both sides of the Merced River and running clear over to Bear Creek, next to the Mariposa line. Below Merced Falls on the north side of the river were successively Snelling, Hopeton, Madison and Fairview, the latter running to the San Joaquin. On the West Side were Clay, reaching from about two miles north of Volta to the Stanislaus line, Monroe, and Los Banos. Mariposa District embraced the territory from Bear Creek to the Fresno line lying east of a north and south line drawn about through Planada. West of this, two miles and a half wide, and also reaching from Bear Creek to the Fresno line, was Plainsburg, and west of that again, reaching from the Chow- chilla to a mile south of Childs Avenue, and about six miles wide east and west, was Pioneer. West of Pioneer, extending to the San Joa- quin, was Lone Tree. Eden, Washington, and Jefferson came in suc- cession from east to west, going down the Merced on its south side from Merced Falls to the San Joaquin; and straddling Bear Creek between the three just named and the southern tier of districts, ex- tending from about the Bonner Fig Orchards on the east to as far west as the road which runs north from the old Hartley ranch house, and a township wide from north to south, was Bear Creek. Below that was McSwain.
With the definition of the district boundaries thus effected, which seems to have been necessary on account of the rapid settling up of the country with the wheat-growers and a new law providing for substantial State help to schools, the real pioneer stage of the county's schools may be said to have come to an end. It is interesting to note that along shortly before this time B. F. Fowler was the teacher in the Hopeton school. Miss Fanny Ward was the teacher in the Eden school, and the Argus publishes several different months the roll of honor of her pupils. In the new Bear Creek school, the schoolhouse of which was located about six miles up the creek from where Merced was afterwards to be, just south of the creek and to the left on the
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road which now leads north from Tuttle, Miss Felicia Hemans Gould was the teacher before the school was moved to Merced, and like- wise afterwards. Miss Gould afterwards became the wife of H. W. French and the mother of C. M. French.
Reports now existing in the office of the county superintendent of schools go back only to the school year 1900-1901. In that year we find the number of school districts has increased to 43, with 56 teachers, 5 men and 51 women. The average number of pupils en- rolled in the whole county, exclusive of high schools, was 1251; aver- age daily attendance, 1171. There were only two schools with over 100 pupils ; Merced's average number enrolled was 292; its average daily attendance, 278; Los Banos' figures were 131 and 126, re- spectively. The total enrollment for the grammar schools of the county was 1567, 826 boys and 741 girls. For 56 teachers in 43 schools the monthly bill for salaries was $3912.50. The year's bill for teachers' salaries was $32,194.75 ; the total expenditures, $52,642.04; the total valuation of school property, $77,720.
The year 1901-1902 showed 2381 children between 5 and 17, and a total enrollment of 1723. There were 50 districts and 64 teachers. The year's bill for teachers' salaries was $38,941.10; and the total expenditures, $54,360.63.
The following year showed the same number of schools and teachers ; the enrollment was only 9 more, salaries totaled $36,471.60, and total expenditures were $57,808.28. The next two years are missing.
In 1905-1906 there were 56 districts keeping school and 76 teach- ers, 7 men and 69 women. The total enrollment was 2126; total teachers' salaries, $43,393.14 ; total expenditures, $60,613.83.
One teacher was added the next year; the enrollment increased 91; salaries totaled $49,108.31, and total expenditures, $63,887.69.
The number of teachers was two more the next year, and the total enrollment three less. They spent $52,509.25 for salaries and a total of $69,491.08.
In 1908-1909 there were 55 districts, 85 teachers, 7 men and 78 women, and an enrollment of 2357. Teachers' salaries for the year were $55,467.40, and total expenditures, $99,926.20. The valuation of school property had increased $100,000 since eight years earlier and was $177,275.
The next year there were three more teachers, 88 in all, 6 men and 82 women. The enrollment had increased to 2485. Teachers' salaries were $59,773.65, and total expenditures, $88,428.89.
In 1910-1911 there were 93 teachers in 56 districts, 8 men and 85 women ; the enrollment was 2644; salaries were $63,909 ; total ex- penditures, $111,482.26; and valuation of school property, $206,165.
10
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The number of districts from this time on increased up to nearly or quite 70, but by reason of the uniting of districts in such cases as the Elim Union, Merquin Union, and Merced Union, was in 1923- 1924 down again to 63.
In 1911-1912 there were 98 teachers, 8 men and 90 women. They received $72,390 in salaries ; the total expenditures were $146,895.39; and the total valuation, $247,714.19.
The next year, 1912-1913, the number of teachers had increased to 108, 11 men and 97 women. The total enrollment was 3063 against 2951 for the year previous. Salaries amounted to $76,586.81; total expenditures, to $127,143.58; total valuation, to $266,683.
Eight teachers were added the next year; total, 116, 11 men and 105 women. Enrollment, 3289; salaries, $84,734.67; total expendi- tures, $151,236.42; total valuation, $291,808.
In 1914-1915 two men and two women teachers were added, mak- ing the total 120. The enrollment was 3511; salaries were $86,- 301.95 ; total expenditures, $155,634.10; total valuation, $313,370. In 1915-1916 there were 128 teachers, 14 men and 114 women; 3673, enrollment; $94,995.34, salaries; $145,701.59, total expenditures ; $326,658, total valuation.
The number of teachers was the same the next year, 13 men and 115 women. Enrollment, 3828; salaries, $99,070.87; total expendi- tures, $165,101.40 ; total valuation, $403, 851.
In 1917-1918 there were 136 teachers, 12 men and 124 women. Salaries passed the $100,000 mark, $103,850.81; total expenditures were $234,312.89; total valuation was $417,415.
In 1918-1919 there were 137 teachers, 8 men and 129 women. The enrollment, an emergency figure on account of the flu epidemic, was 4080. Salaries amounted to $117,052.25 ; total expenditures, to $167,792.48 ; and valuations reached $426,305.
The year 1919-1920, closing the decade, shows 149 teachers, 11 men and 138 women, and an enrollment of 4429. Salaries amounted to $145,021.20; total expenditures, to $228,248.10. School property was valued at $461,401.
There were 151 teachers in 1920-1921, 9 men and 142 women. We note the smaller number of men during the last few years, due of course to the war. Enrollment was 4935; salaries, $188,609.12; total expenditures, $332,656.11 ; valuation, $507,572.
The next year there were 164 teachers, 10 men and 154 women. Enrollment was 5400; salaries, $232,354.78; total expenditures, $530,819.62; total valuation, $785,981.
In 1922-1923 there were 182 teachers, 13 men and 169 women. The enrollment was 5656; salaries, $253,110,79; total expenditures, $452,249.59; total valuation, $847,983.
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In the last year completed, 1923-1924, there were 184 teachers, 12 men and 172 women. The enrollment was 5863; salaries were $264,620.49; total expenditures, $453,852.58; total valuation of school property, $864,685.
There were two high schools in existence in 1900: the Merced County High School, organized in 1895, and the West Side Union High School at Los Banos, organized in 1897. In 1900-1901 the former had 5 teachers, 4 men and one woman; and there were 37 boys and 51 girls enrolled. The average daily attendance was 73, and the number of graduates, 13. Salaries cost $6250, and total expendi- tures were $8998.17 The West Side Union High School had two teachers, both men, with 13 boys and 10 girls enrolled and an average daily attendance of 20; and it graduated 9 students. Salaries cost $2350, and total expenditures were $9587.74, of which $6875.94 was for building.
Two years later there were five teachers, four men and one woman, in the Merced County High School; and three teachers, two men and one woman, in the West Side High School.
In 1905-1906 the two high schools showed 137, average number enrolled; 130, average daily attendance. They employed respectively five and four teachers, and graduated respectively 19 and 5 students. For teachers' salaries they spent $10,174.55 ; for total expenditures, $14,512.42; and the total valuation of their property was $44,950. These figures had not changed materially the next year.
The next year, 1907-1908, a third high school comes in, the Dos Palos Joint Union High School, joint with Fresno County. This year the high schools had an average daily attendance of 150, employed 12 teachers, and graduated 26 students.
In 1908-1909 the three high schools had a combined average daily attendance of 144, employed 14 teachers, and graduated 29 students. They spent for teachers' salaries $15,713.05, their total expenditures were $25,514.30, and the valuation of all their property was $56,150.
Le Grand Union High School, established in 1909, comes in the next year's reports. The four schools employed 17 teachers, had a combined average daily attendance of 162, paid $19,810 in salaries, and made total expenditures of $29,542.39.
In 1910-1911 the four high schools employed 19 teachers, had a combined average daily attendance of 167, graduated 33 students, and spent $23,618 in salaries and $37,366.33 in total expenditures; and the combined valuation of their property was $60,350.
Hilmar Colony Union High School, established in 1911, comes in the next year's report. The five high schools employed 22 teachers, had a combined average daily attendance of 195, graduated 25 stu-
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dents, paid $27,610 in salaries, and had property valued at a total of $137,335.
The next year showed 25 teachers, 257 average daily attendance, 39 graduates, $31,662.75 salaries, and $151,713 total valuation.
In 1913-1914 the sixth high school, established in 1913 at Gustine, was added. The six schools employed in this year 31 teachers, had a combined average daily attendance of 301, graduated 44 students, paid $40,477.75 in salaries and $62,743.71 in total expenditures, and had property valued at $162,025.
The figures the next year had grown to 34 teachers, 323 average daily attendance, 69 graduates, $44,415 salaries, $106,151.82 total expenditures, and $212,444 valuation.
In 1915-1916 there were 38 teachers, an enrollment of 440 and an average daily attendance of 372, 52 graduates, $46,308.75 sala- ries, $76,222.04 total expenditures, and $215,775 valuation.
The next year there were 40 teachers, 436 enrollment and 377 average daily attendance, 59 graduates, $51,727.50 in salaries, $95,- 199.94 total expenditures, and a valuation of $217,600.
In 1917-1918 there were 39 teachers, an enrollment of 469 and an average daily attendance of 398,73 graduates, $50,113.67 in sala- ries, $85,196.16 total expenditures, and a property valuation of $227,550.
The next year there were 40 teachers, 528 enrollment, 67 gradu- ates, $59,219.30 in salaries, $115,604.73 total expenditures, and $268,677 total valuation.
The year 1919-1920 showed 47 teachers, 560 enrollment, 71 graduates, $64,197.05 salaries, $210,137.35 total expenditures, and $403,300 valuation.
There were 46 high school teachers employed in 1920-1921, an enrollment of 712, and 93 graduates. Salaries amounted to $89,- 082.76, total expenditures to $193,903, and valuations to $480,115.
The next year there were 50 teachers, 839 enrollment, 91 gradu- ates, $101,804.86 in salaries, $214,161.26 total expenditures, and $464,378 valuation.
In 1922-1923 the six high schools employed 59 teachers, enrolled 933 students, and graduated 106. They paid $124,432.35 in salar- ies and $311,513.98 in total expenditures, and had property valued at $661,914.
The next year they employed 70 teachers, enrolled 1030 students, paid $149,267.05 in salaries and $430,974.57 in total expenditures, and had property valued at $722,761.
For the school year now drawing to a close, 1924-1925, there is an additional high school to be added, the new one at Livingston, which is just completing its first year ; but it will be seen that the high
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schools before this current year enrolled over 1000 and graduated over 100 students a year, and that the total number of teachers in the high schools is approaching 100, the total expenditures annually $500,000, and the valuation of high school property $1,000,000. This is the record of growth from two high schools, 7 teachers, 121 students, 22 graduates, $8600 salaries, about $18,000 total expendi- tures, and school property of only a few thousands of dollars' value in 1901.
Besides the grammar and high schools there are now four kinder- gartens in the county, at Merced, Los Banos, Dos Palos, and Living- ston, besides evening classes which last year enrolled nearly 400 stu- dents. In round numbers, the schools of the county at the end of this year employ about 300 teachers to teach over 7000 pupils, pay over $400,000 teachers' salaries annually, and over $900,000 total expenditures, and have property valued at over $1,500,000. It is a large growth since sixty-three years ago, when Superintendent Huey reported that there would be available $1000 for the instruction of 267 children.
CHAPTER XX NEWSPAPERS
The first newspaper of Merced County was the Merced Banner, established by Robert J. Steele and his wife, Rowena Granice Steele, at Snelling, in the summer of 1862. The press and material were purchased from the Stanislaus Index, at Knight's Ferry, Stanislaus County ; and as we have seen before, they were hauled from Knight's Ferry to Snelling by Peter Fee with his ox team. Mrs. Steele is presumably the author of the account in the 1881 Elliott & Moore history, and she says there that it was on the 25th of June when Fee arrived with the press and type. Fee's diary shows that this was an error and that it was on July 2 when he arrived. Mrs. Steele says the first issue came out on July 5. Mrs. Steele's two sons, Steele's stepsons, Harry and George Granice, Mrs. Steele tells us, were then aged respectively nine and twelve years; we shall find the family figur- ing in the newspaper history of the county for nearly thirty years. So far as we have been able to learn, there are no files, nor even copies, of the Banner now in existence.
In the 1881 history Mrs. Steele has this paragraph: "The Ban- ner was a Democratic paper, but not disloyal. It was not Democratic enough for some. Things were getting so unpleasant that Mrs. Steele withdrew her name from the paper as editress; she still continued to write domestic stories and pleasant locals." We have seen that the editorials in Wigginton and Robertson's Herald after the war was over were what we should consider now very strong and partisan; just how strong and partisan those in the Banner were we have no samples to show us. At any rate a party of Union soldiers in Febru- ary, 1864, came to Snelling and threw the press and type out of the window. Mrs. Steele styles them ruffians and naturally enough takes the stand that the Banner and its owners were made martyrs. An article entitled "History of Snelling" in the Argus of June 18, 1870, says this occurred on February 1. Mrs. Steele tells us that when the men came in she was busy preparing breakfast in a back room, and that she caught up her infant son and made her escape; this infant son was presumably Lee J. Steele, who was later to edit the Argus. According to Mrs. Steele's account the soldiers were twenty-eight in number, and stated that they were "a band of brothers on our own hook." She has the following foot-note: "It was afterwards ascer- tained that this ruthless set of fellows were a company of United States Cavalry, who had been sent from Benicia to Visalia under
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Captain Starr, but had become so unruly that the Captain had sent a request to headquarters to have them exchanged for a company of Infantry, and they were on their way back to Benicia and had reached Hill's Ferry, when they proposed to cross over to Snelling and 'bust up the Banner office.' Captain Starr refused to accompany them, and being defenseless with twenty-eight armed men on a desert, he could not detain them. The excuse of the ruffians was that certain articles reflecting upon them as soldiers had appeared in the Banner, and they would have their revenge."
In J. W. Robertson's Herald of February 10, 1866, we get the following light upon the end of the Banner and upon its immediate successors : " 'Some of our exchanges are yet quoting news items from the Merced Banner, which has been dead two years.'-Colusa Sun. You are nearly right, Mr. Sun, as to the Banner. That sheet expired in June, 1864, after a lingering illness-brought on by some of Uncle Sam's soldiers. They 'pied' the concern in February, after which it never came fully to life again. It was succeeded by the Merced Democrat, edited by one Hall, who was sent to Alcatraz for 'treason'-and the Democrat succumbed. Then followed the Demo- cratic Record, which lived till after the Presidential election. Now the Herald is on the boards, and is bound to live. We are neither afraid of the soldiers or Alcatraz, and as long as the Herald is as well supported as at present, neither Principalities nor Powers shall hold us down. So, gentlemen of the Press, if you see anything in our little sheet worth copying, why copy it-but be sure and give the Herald credit therefor."
In the Argus of June 18, 1870, in the article already referred to on the History of Snelling, we read that the Banner was "busted up" by the Union soldiers on February 1, 1864, and that it continued in a smaller form until June 18 of the same year. Then three issues of the Merced Democrat were published by "Wm. Pierce, alias Wm. Hall," who then went to Alcatraz. Then in September, 1864, F. C. Lawrence started the Democratic Record, which continued three months. Then follows the history of the Herald, which was estab- lished by J. W. Robertson and P. D. Wigginton on May 13, 1865. Wigginton severed his connection with the paper on September 30, 1865, and Robertson continued it; he had the aid of a man named Kennedy for a few weeks, after which he continued it alone until November 10, 1866, when W. G. Collier became associated with him until July 10, 1867. On May 11, 1867, the paper was enlarged to six columns. On October 12, 1867, Robertson sold out to L. W. Tal- bott, under whom the paper languished for thirteen weeks, and then expired; the editor's illness appears to have been the reason. Talbott had a man named Wickham associated with him in the enterprise.
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Robert J. Steele revived the Herald on August 22, 1868, after an interval extending from January. 11, when Talbott's last number appeared. Steele's last issue of the Herald appeared on August 14, 1869. He had apparently been operating under a contract with the former owners for this year. After skipping one week, he brought out the first issue of the San Joaquin Valley Argus on August 28, 1869.
The Argus continued to be the only paper in the county until after the new town of Merced had been established. Less than two months after the sale of lots in the new town, L. F. Beckwith established the Merced Tribune. We find in the Argus along shortly before this, when the rumor first circulated that someone was coming to Merced to start a paper, a rather scorching article from Steele's pen by way of welcome. And the Steele family had forestalled Beckwith's move, for on March 24, 1872, Harry H. Granice, Steele's stepson, estab- lished the Merced People, which was therefore the first paper in Mer- ced. The Merced People ran for only fourteen issues; and then on June 22, 1872, Harry Granice, in a "Valedictory" editorial, bows him- self off the newspaper stage-for the time being. He was to come back, about two years and a half later, in the most tragic incident in Merced County newspaper history.
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