USA > California > Monterey County > History and biographical record of Monterey and San Benito Counties : and history of the State of California : containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present. Volume I > Part 47
USA > California > San Benito County > History and biographical record of Monterey and San Benito Counties : and history of the State of California : containing biographies of well-known citizens of the past and present. Volume I > Part 47
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Alvarado, appointed governor in 1836, took great interest in the educational welfare of the children and he caused teachers to be brought from Mexico. Beside the rudimentary branches, he commanded that typesetting and printing be taught. Later Governor Micheltorena ordered a school for both sexes to be opened in every town in the department. He also issued an order that reading, writing, the four rules in arithmetic and the catechism should be taught in every school, and in addition thereto, sewing and needlework for the girls. Every person having children from six to eleven years of age was required to send them to school daily, except Sundays and holi- days, the school hours being from eight to eleven in the morning and from two to five dur- ing the afternoon.
We have a description of an average Mexican school room and some of their customs and pun- ishments and from this record we learn that the school room was in a long, narrow adobe build- ing, dimly lighted by a few small windows. The floor was the hard beaten earth and the walls were dirty and often covered by grease, soot and
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fly-specks. At one end of the room was a plat- form upon which stood a table, covered by a dirty cloth; there sat the teacher, a soldier, dressed in his fantastic uniform, filthy with dirt, with ferule in hand, ready to punish any pupil who violated the rules of the school.
The teacher had two instruments for the pun- ishment of disobedient pupils, a ferule and a scourge. The scourge, which was used only in serious offenses, was a hempen whip of many lashes, iron pointed, and frequently the child was whipped upon his bare back, he lying upon a bench, with a handkerchief stuffed in his mouth to stifle his cries. The child imperfect in his recital of the catechism was the most severely punished, as that was considered the most im- portant of all studies. Such, in brief, was the school life of the Mexican under his native sys- tem of education, and the boy who was ten years of age during Micheltorena's rule, had the oppor- tunity, a few years later, of comparing the two systems, Mexican and American.
Early in the history of the state the legislature gave its attention to the subject of education, and in 1852 passed a law providing for a public school revenue, but each school organized must be maintained three months before it could re- ceive state aid.
Monterey county could not take advantage of this law because of its limited population, 2,724, nearly one-half Indians, and its large land sur- face, 4,370 square miles, two-thirds of it being scarcely inhabited. There were but 322 families in the county, and no efforts were being made to educate the children, who numbered 632, for the census marshal reported no schools in the county. Two years later, 1852, Kooser stated that the only school in Monterey county was a girls' high school taught by the sisters of the convent.
Several years before this time the educational interests of the children of the town had been considered and as early as 1847, three of Mon- terey's most prominent citizens, Thomas O. Lar- kin, Milton Little and Talbot H. Green, engaged Mrs. I. C. Isabell at a salary of $200 a monthi to open a public school. A school room was fitted up with desk and benches, in the second story of the custom house and assisted by Walter Col-
ton, Mrs. Isabell taught a school of 56 scholars for a term of three months. Their only text books were such as they could obtain from the whaling vessels that touched at Monterey, and Thomas O. Larkin provided the writing paper from his store. No school was taught under greater difficulties, for the teachers could not speak the Spanish language, and none of the pupils could speak English, except the Abrego boys, they having been taught English by W. E. P. Hartnell.
At the end of three months Mrs. Isabell de- clined to teach longer, and the youth of Monte- rey had no further schooling until March, 1849. In that year the Rev. Samuel D. Willey arriving in California located at Monterey and opened a public school in Colton Hall. He had about fifty pupils, but speaking no Spanish, he had as much difficulty in teaching as Mrs. Isabell. This school was continued six months and it was then closed as the reverend gentleman concluded to remove to San Francisco.
In 1856 Monterey is credited with a public English school of fifteen children and two private schools taught in the Spanish language. The public school was probably taught in the custom house, but in 1872, the county seat being removed to Salinas, the county supervisors rented Colton Hall to the town trustees for a schoolhouse, at a yearly rental of $5.
The public schools of the town struggled along as best they could until the coming of the rail- road, then the old capital took on a new life. The population rapidly increased with an energetic wide-awake people, an excellent system of schools was established and early in the 'gos they erected a fine school building.
It cannot be assumed that the railroad has any connection with the Monterey public schools, yet they made no material progress until the South- ern Pacific railroad opened up the vast territory and made cheap and rapid transportation pos- sible. It also increased the wealth and revenue of the territory, and the taxes gave revenue suffi- cient to organize new districts, build substantial schoolhouses and employ a better grade of teachers.
Before this time the county could not afford
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to elect as superintendent a man who could give his entire time to school work, and for several years the office of county superintendent of schools and of county clerk were consolidated. This was bad for the clerk, but worse for the schools, for the superintendent could not give them that close attention necessary, especially in a county as large as Monterey, some of the school- houses being sixty miles distant, with no means of communication except by horse and buggy or horseback. Later the two offices were separated, but the superintendent's salary was so small that he was compelled to teach school to make a liv- ing, and the conditions were no better than before. Finally a living salary was given the superintendent, and being elected for a term of four years, he received an annual salary of $1,650 and his traveling expenses. It is now $1,800 a year.
Regarding the number of school children in . examination. The normal schools and the graded the county and those attending school, Superin- tendent J. H. Gleason, in 1854, reported 506 boys and girls and only 70 were attending school. The number in 1864 was increased to 1,599, only one in four at school. Many of these children were born of Mexican and foreign parents and they would not send their children to a Protestant school. The report of Superintendent Job Wood, Jr., in 1874, clearly shows what effect the rail- In 1884 the county schools kept "the even tenor of their way," as Superintendent Smetzler expressed it, and there was more than usual enthusiasm and greater results than ever before, "as we have first-grade and normal teachers." As the number of schools increased only normal teachers were employed, and in 1904, of the 140 teachers, nearly the entire number were normal graduates, over sixty graduates coming from the San Jose Normal School. The present corps of county teachers numbers 150; the least salary paid is $600 per year, and the average salary for ungraded schools is $70 a month for an average term of ten months. road had upon school progress, for he said : "The school conditions are rapidly improving, due to the immigration of eastern people. The schools are greatly benefited and rapidly filling up with intelligent, hard-working children, who appreciate the benefits to be derived from a pub- lic school system." Of the children in the terri- tory, 1,710 were enrolled in the public schools, while 1,832 were not in school. The number of children in 1884 had decreased to 3,353 because of the organization of San Benito county, but the school attendance was much improved, as 2,504 were on the school roll and only 904 out of school.
Six years later, 1890, the native born youth were 3,695 and the foreign born 1,204. The county and city schools had enrolled 3,650 scholars, and 1,152 were non-attendants. There were eighty-five school districts, ninety school
buildings, one of brick, and seventy-eight primary and thirty-one grammar schools. During that year four new districts were organized and Pa- cific Grove, Monterey, Salinas and Santa Rita liad each engaged one new teacher, making a total of 115, an increase of thirty-three teachers in four years.
The progression or retrogression of any school depends much upon the ability and the enthusiasmn of its teachers, and Monterey, limited for many years in funds, could not employ the best teach- ers, and was compelled to take what she could get, thus but little advancement was made in school work. In the early '70s a state normal school was established and the graduating classes sought employment throughout the state. About the same time the legislature passed a law or- ganizing county boards of education and em- powering them to grant county certificates on teachers had a tendency to raise the grade of the Monterey schools, as no teachers could draw a county salary without a certificate to teach. Another law was passed that each county should annually hold a teachers' institute, and early as September, 1872, an institute was held in Mon- terey, the first in the county, fifty teachers re- sponding to the roll call.
Another important feature in school work is the buildings, the furniture and the surroundings. No one understands this better than the teacher educated in school work, and so far as possible the endeavor has been to better the conditions. Many of the buildings were unpainted, cold,
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cheerless, uninviting and unsuitably furnished. When Mrs. J. B. Chope became county super- intendent she endeavored to remedy these con- ditions. Thirty of the schools for the first time employed janitors, the children previously being compelled to sweep out the schoolhouse in turn. In fifty school buildings they bought shades for the windows, nine of the school districts were provided with cabinet organs and I01 districts purchased pictures of an educational value and hung them upon the school room walls.
These improvements were made in 1900 and since then splendid improvements have been made in some districts, notably Spreckels and Soledad. In the former district the Spreckels grammar school is a splendid two-story four- room building with high basement and contain- ing all the modern improvements of school work in the county. The Soledad building, of the Mission style of architecture, built in 1908, is the best arranged and finest school building. It has four large school rooms, class and teach- ers' rooms, library, patent closet and toilet rooms, with basement, furnace and all the modern ap- pliances for heating, lighting and ventilating. In many of the districts the old schoolhouses have been torn down and excellent school build- ings erected, many others have been made over and modernized and their surroundings made attractive and sanitary.
Perhaps something should be said about the school studies which are and have been reg- ulated and enforced by the state. The law prescribes the studies that may be taught and the text-books that must be used. The law passed a few years ago that all text-books must be printed by the state, and sold to the children at actual cost, has been an improvement very beneficial to parents, by reducing the cost of school books to the minimum. The study course now occupies eight years, four years in the pri- mary (first, second, third and fourth) grades, and an equal length of time in the grammar (fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth) grades, with a pro- visional two years post-graduate course which equals the first two years of the high school.
In 1909 the schools were taught by 150 teach- ers, most of the districts employing only one
teacher, and eight employing two teachers. Gon- zales, King City and Soledad each employed three, Castroville four, Monterey ten and Salinas City twelve teachers in the primary and grammar grades. The average attendance of the pupils is 3,000; the census children (five to seventeen years of age) numbering 5,000. From the eighth grade of the county schools 140 children have graduated and many of them will enter high schools. The total revenue for the graded schools was $168,832.43 and only $126,665.81 was expended, this leaving a balance of over $42,000 on hand for the incoming school year to be used for improvements.
Salinas, the growing and prosperous county seat, has always been proud of her public schools, and many of her citizens, some of them holding high official positions, are graduates of the city schools.
The eight lower schools had their inception in a little building on the corner of Front and Alisal streets, the teacher, Miss Harvey, having about a dozen pupils; shortly after this the so-called East End school was erected, a two-story, four- room lath and plaster building, an excellent school building for that day. In a few years the schools were over-crowded, and a two-story, four-room building was erected in the West End, the stairs extending outside of the building. In this build- ing the high school was organized, and the first graduate (1889) was Mr. McCandless, now the cashier in Spreckels Bank. In the following year there were three graduates, two additional rooms were built, forming an L, and there the high school was carried on until 1900, when at a cost of $30,000 the board of education erected, at the corner of Alisal and Church streets, a handsome two-story steel and brick building, the lot having previously been occupied by the primary "baby school."
The county is well supplied with high schools, there being one each in Salinas, Monterey and Pacific Grove with a Union School in Gonzales. These four schools have an enrollment of nearly 300, and a corps of fifteen teachers. They all stand upon the accredited list of the State Uni- versity and this year ( 1909) nearly fifty scholars received certificates of graduation. The Mon-
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terey school in 1905 employed five teachers with thirty-six pupils in attendance. The Pacific Grove school employed four teachers with eighty- three scholars and the Salinas city high school with five instructors and 119 pupils. The total valuation of the high school property in the three towns is $60,000.
An excellent help to a public school pupil is a good library, the first in the state being estab- lished in Monterey in 1849. The founder of this library, Samuel H. Willey, said, "Before I be- came too busy, I proposed the subject of a library to the people and they entered heartily into my plans and $1,500 was subscribed, the soldiers do- nating liberally. Having in my possession some catalogues of a New York house, which I had brought out from the east, I made selections, sent on for the books and in due time they arrived. Various additions were made from time to time from the ships that came into port and soon the library contained some 2,500 volumes. A reading room was connected with the library.
The city now has a neat little library of 2325 volumes in the second story of the Rowe building on Main street. It was established in 1907, the outgrowth of an association organized for the purpose of forming a library, and it was sup- ported by means of entertainments, concerts, lectures, parties, etc. The present librarian is Etta Eckhart.
Pacific Grove now has a public library of 4,250 volumes with a monthly circulation of nearly 3,000 volumes.
Near the Jim Bardin Hospital, Salinas, there stands a handsome building, the pride of the ladies of the city. It is the climax of a little library established several years ago on the cor- ner of Alisal and Salinas streets by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. The library and reading room were in the second story of the building, and they loaned the books at fifty cents a month. The project was not successful in their hands, and the Native Daughters taking hold of the enterprise induced each secret organization in Salinas to subscribe $5 a month, this giving the daughters an income of $100 a month, and the library was fairly successful. In 1907 the
city purchased the library and took full charge, leaving the books free to citizens.
When the Salinas Civic Club was formed for the betterment of the city, the ladies resolved to found a library worthy of the Queen City, by purchasing a lot and then applying to the great library giver, Andrew Carnegie, for money with which to build a library. They obtained $4,000 by lectures and other means, purchased the lot at the corner of San Lucia and Main streets and in due time they asked Carnegie for $10,000 for a library building. The money was received and a very handsome library building was erected. Their largest stock of books at present is a li- brary donated by the I. O. O. F. Association. Jesse D. Carr some years ago gave the Odd Fellows $5,000 for the purchase of books for an Odd Fellows Library, and the order has now donated the books to the Carnegie Library, con- ditionally that they be kept in an alcove set apart with the donor's name inscribed. +
The first newspaper in the state was the Cali- fornian published August 15, 1846, in Monterey by Colton & Semple in the upper story of the Custom House. In less than a year the plant was removed to Yerba Buena, and later the paper was merged into the Alta California. Monterey was then without any paper, until the publishing, in 1855, of the Gazette by John McElroy. In less than a year he removed to Santa Cruz, and June 14, 1856, issued the Pacific Sentinel. I find it on record that a second Gazette was issued by F. W. Casswell in February, 1865.
The Democrat was established in 1866 by an association of business men with Rasey Biven as editor. In 1868 J. W. Leigh became the editor, he having worked for Biven on the Stockton Ga- cette ten years previous. Later, Leigh bought the paper and in 1872, removed it to the rising city of Salinas.
The Republican was in existence in 1868 and continued until 1874. The Herald, another pa- per, was launched in June, 1874, and owned by Manuel Merritt and Ed Curtis, the former hav- ing learned the trade in the Republican office. Another Californian was published in 1876 by William La Rose, and after his death his widow continued the paper until 1880, when it was sold
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to the Monterey Publishing Company. Within the last two years a paper called the Monterey Cypress has been published, and in June, 1909, the Monterey Herald was issued by the Herald Publishing Company.
The Salinas Press was first established by the publication of the Standard issued in 1868 by J. S. Brittain, who sold it two years later to Jesse D. Carr and E. M. Reading, the latter being the editor. Again changing hands in 1871, Harry V. Morehouse became the owner and in 1872 he removed the Standard to Santa Rita and called the paper the New Republican.
The Index was first issued by Melville Byerly in 1871 and published until his death, January 30, 1876. It was then published by his brother- in-law, Samuel M. Shearer, until sold April 5, 1876, to William J. Hill, a newspaper man from Idaho. Mr. Hill was a very successful manager and he retired July 1, 1909, after thirty years' service, having disposed of the Indc.r for $30,000 to a syndicate of Monterey capitalists.
The Democrat, which in 1872 was removed from Monterey to Salinas, still continues its pub- lication, having recently been sold by its pro- prietor, Joseph W. Bell, to a syndicate.
The Monterey Journal also continues publica- tion ; all three papers now issuing daily and weekly editions.
The Castroville Argus was first started in 1869 by Manuel Merritt, who continued its publication until 1878, when he sold it to J. E. Rubell as edi- tor and proprietor.
The New Republican, formerly the Standard, was removed from Salinas in 1872 to Santa Rita by its new owner, Harry V. Morehouse, and published one half in English and the other half in Spanish. Morehouse, becoming a school teacher, sold the paper to Jose M. Soto, with Jose Azago as editor. This paper was the first to advocate a railroad through the valley and the organization of the Grangers' Union.
The Gonzales Tribune was issued in 1884, by Thomas Renison, who published the paper for two years and then sold it.
The Salinas Valley Rustler, published at King City, is a prosperous four-page publication, and
its special issue of July, 1909, is worthy of con- siderable praise.
The Soledad Bee, another four-page paper, made its bow to the public October 22, 1909.
The first Protestant church service south of Drake's Bay was held August 2, 1846, by Walter Colton, a Congregational minister, on board the Congress, he being the chaplain of the man-of- war. He remained in Monterey nearly two years, but there is no record of his having held. service "on shore." On the steamer California in February, 1848, arrived the young Presbyter- ian divine, Samuel H. Willey, who located in Monterey. He preached to a congregation of nearly three hundred, mostly soldiers and ma- rines, and established a Sunday school, David Jacks being one of the teachers. Rev. Mr. Willey remained some eighteen months and then' removed to San Francisco, as a larger field of la- bor.
The Methodist Episcopal Church North held their first services as early as 1847, Eli Anthony, a young local pastor from Santa Cruz, conducting the services. The Rev. Henry Cole, three years later. organized a Methodist Church and serv- ices were held in the old Cuartel building, he- being the pastor. During the Civil war, 1860- 64, the Rev. A. C. McDougall was stationed there and pastors were there supplied until 1872.
The third church organization in the county was that of the Methodist Episcopal Church North, the Rev. W. C. Curry, a pioneer pastor,. organizing the church in Salinas in October, 1870. A church was built and dedicated in Feb- ruary, 1875, by F. F. Jewell of San Francisco. The present edifice in Lincoln avenue was built in 1896. The next Methodist church was organ- ized by the Rev. Spurlock at Gonzales, in Octo- ber, 1882. September 1, 1885, the Rev. J. W. Cheynoweth organized a Methodist church in Pacific Grove. Soon after their organization a lot was given them by the Pacific Improvement Company and a large assembly hall was built at a cost of $25,000. It was built for the Chautau- qua and other national assemblies and seats some 1,600 people ; it was remodeled in 1890 at a total" cost of $35,000.
The oldest Protestant denomination in point of
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time is the Methodist Episcopal South, a camp meeting having been held on the Salinas river, near the James Bardin place, as early as 1861. One of the preachers at that time was the Rev. J. C. Simmons, who for fifty-six years preached the gospel, and who died in Salinas in April, 1909. That camp meeting led to services being held in the Blanco and in the Spring school- houses until 1868, at which time the church was organized in the schoolhouse last named. The church was then removed to Salinas and services held in a little house at the corner of San Luis and Main streets, and later, on Castroville street, where the present building was erected in 1871 and dedicated the following year. It is said that all denominations contributed liberally to the building fund, and for a season, the walls re- sounded to the doctrines of several different de- nominations.
The Methodists have a church in San Lucas, organized in 1882 by the Rev. M. J. Gough in the Long Valley schoolhouse. When San Lucas was laid off in 1886, the members removed to town, and in 1888, conjointly with the Baptists, they built a church. The Methodists sold their half to the Baptists in 1890 and erected a new house of worship for themselves.
The second oldest religious denomination in Monterey is that of the United Presbyterians, organized December 7, 1869. The Rev. M. M. Gibson of San Francisco arrived in November, 1868, and on Sunday morning preached in the 'Santa Rita schoolhouse, and held services that afternoon in the Spring schoolhouse. The con- gregation there resolved to organize a denomina- tion of their creed and in Salinas and Castroville they obtained pledges to the amount of $1,000 for a pastor's support. The Home Mission Board sent the Rev. W. H. Wilson to take charge, he arriving in June, 1869, and the following Decem- 'ber, in a little dwelling on Pajaro street, the church came into existence. Services were held in Myers' Hall, Main street, and everything moved along smoothly until November, 1872. when the members "agreed to disagree," and Wilson, with some fifteen members, started what they called the Central Avenue Presbyterian church.
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