History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 45

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660

USA > California > San Joaquin County > History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 45

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The agitation caused by the Quivers' epi- sode set the taxpayers to thinking, why they should pay out $1,200 a year for the special schooling of the colored children, and in the school board, August,, 1877, M. S. Thresher, one of the directors, made a few pertinent re- marks regarding its abolishment. The subject had been called up previously by the revo- lutionary movement of Wm. W. Baggs. In his resolution of May 30, "Believing it to be the duty of the board of education to econo- mize as much as possible and thereby save to the city $920 a year which it cost for the schooling of about fifteen colored children as they could be schooled with the whites without inconvenience. Resolved, that the special school for colored children be closed at the end of the present term." The board laid the mat- ter over for consideration at a later meeting, to learn what some of the parents of the children might say. A number opposed the drastic in- novation, and they declared July 3, '77, "Your petitioners, D. L. Campbell, A. C. Paulsell, Joseph D. Peters, James W. Smith, Andrew Wolf, Wm. H. Hickman, Rudolph Gnekow, R.

E. Wilhoit, Louis N. Hickman, Henry O. Southworth, Arthur Cornwall, Frank Stewart, George W. Melone, B. Howard Brown, and Wm. L. Dudley earnestly pray that your hon- orable board will indefinitely postpone the consideration of the preamble and resolution heretofore presented by Wm. Baggs." The res- olution was indefinitely postponed for a time. Later in the year the color question was again brought up and two colored girls succeeded in getting into the highest grammar grade, and in 1879 the special colored school was abol- ished. Since 1890 five colored pupils have graduated from the high school, and in 1893 the first Japanese graduated, and several have graduated during the past ten years.

Music in the Schools

"In compliance with the letter of the law," says Mrs. Hollenbeak in her chapter on music, "music has always had its nominal place in the schools of Stockton, although as a matter of fact, systematic and successful instruction in the subject has been introduced only within the past twelve years." From the foundation of the schools the children were taught school songs, provided the teacher could sing, but to my knowledge during the first fifteen years, not a teacher in the public schools, either male or female, could sing a note. They would get some of the oldest girls to lead the song. They sometimes sang the multiplication tables as set to music, ending each table with 5's to. the chorus of Yankee Doodle. Another song was that of the names of the state capital, cities and their location to music. Among the old familiar school songs was "Hazel Dell," "Lily Dale," "The Huntsman's Song," "Pull Away, Brave Boys," and "Catch the Sunshine." In 1860 a fair tenor singer named Wm. Wilson came to Stockton from Knights Ferry, and opening a singing school was engaged by the trustees to instruct the children of the public schools in music. He taught what was known as the Lowell Mason do, ra, me, system, as against the old Italian system of teaching vo- cal music. The system, new then, was not a success, and years ago was rejected by first class teachers. Mr. Wilson visited the gram- mar school afternoons, twice a week, and gave instruction in "musical notation reading and class singing." He continued his work in the schools until 1863 when he returned to the eastern states. During this time he was a choir leader of the Baptist Church. After his depart- ure there was no teacher of music in the schools until 1868. At that time a correspond- ent wrote, "Allow me to call the attention of our school directors to the necessity of having vocal music taught in our schools. The sub- ject is of vital importance. Yes, gentlemen, let our children be taught to sing." Whether

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or not this was a boost for Professor George P. Newell I know not. He had located in Stockton, advertised for vocal pupils, and was engaged by the board to teach music in the schools at the munificent salary of thirty dol- lars a month. He was over seventy years of age, and not at all competent, so that lasted only about a month. In April, 1868, the board employed Louise Carr, a former pupil of M. J. Ryan, to instruct the pupils. She had a sweet soprano voice, was the soprano in the Presby- terian Church but had no experience whatever in teaching. However, she taught for some time before her death. At that time there was living in Stockton an ambitious young man named H. J. Todd. He came to Stockton about 1864 and joined the local militia company and the cornet band and was elected as choir leader of the Presbyterian Church choir. Elected as teacher in public schools, the Jefferson, I be- lieve, and having a good baritone voice he brought the school up in vocal music. After the resignation of Miss. Carr as music teacher Superintendent George Ladd induced Mr. Todd to take charge of the vocal music of the schools. In his instruction of the children in music, he accompanied them in all of their songs on the cornet. He also gave several en- tertainments with the children. The object was to purchase musical instruments, mostly pianos, for use in the schoolroom. The number of the pianos was gradually increased until they now have nineteen. Mr. Todd at this time was studying medicine, and after taking part with the children in the Centennial cele- bration, he removed to Oakland and entered a medical college.

Todd was superseded as music teacher in the schools by a violin player named Emile Dreyfous. He came to Stockton in August, 1869, from Maguire's opera house orchestra to give lessons on the violin. He had no singing voice, so was not a success, resigning before the close of the term in 1878. About this time there was considerable excitement over the question of engaging a special teacher of music, and it became an issue in the election of school trustees. In the city election of May, 1889, the opponents of music elected two or three trustees and those favoring its continu- ance lost their strongest advocate, Superinten- dent George S. Ladd, who had held office for twelve years. He was defeated by S. P. Craw- ford, the Democratic nominee, a physician and an ordained minister. The strongest opponent of the teaching of music by a special teacher was B. F. Bagley. He was a good citizen but he had so little an appreciation of music that he said to me, "George, I don't know one note from another. I would as leave hear a dog howl as a woman sing." Before this time the school trustees had rescinded their order of

no special music teacher and had elected George F. Jackson, a tenor singer of note and an able teacher and musical director. Bagley, however, was still hammering at his pet hobby, no special teacher, and at the end of the school term '81 he charged Jackson with mark- ing the pupils too low in music, and when I. R. Wilbur moved that the matter be post- poned a month, his motion was lost but the trustees aired their views. Wm. Woolsey op- posed the teaching of music by a special teach- er and as the law required instruction in mu- sic, the regular teacher should be compelled to do the work. John Yardley said he saw no benefit to the pupil in studying music, and the vote stood 3 to 3. Ladd had a deciding vote but as he was going out of office he refused to decide the question and called another vote. The second vote was 4 to 3 and music received a set back in the public schools for nearly twenty years. Professor Jackson, when asked how many of the teachers could teach music, replied, that of the twenty-nine only ten could teach it, and in one building three of the teach- ers "cannot even pitch a note." Fortunately for the children and the public in general we have had trustees during the past years who appreciated the fine arts, we now have in the public schools not only one special teacher in music but four of them, two in vocal and two in orchestral and brass band music. They do good work and the public are proud of their accomplishments.

The Stockton Mail opposed not only the teaching of music but the teaching of writing by a special teacher. W. A. Houghton was engaged in the teaching of writing from 1873 until 1892, the time of his death. He was suc- ceeded by Miss Letitia Summerville, a beauti- ful penman and a high school graduate of 1880. Some years later she married the drawing teacher, F. P. Meyers, and they moved to Oak- land. The next teacher of writing was Frank A. Kent, elected in September, 1905. He had been a teacher in one of the county schools. The death of Wm. A. Houghton, April 15, 1892, caused a feeling of sorrow throughout the city, and especially among the school children, who greatly mourned his death. All of the flags on the school building were placed at half mast, and on the day of his funeral the board of education and over 700 children attended, accompanied by their teachers. The funeral took place from the Baptist Church, each child depositing a small bouquet upon the coffin. At the especial request of their beloved teacher each child at the cemetery dropped a steel pen into the grave. Mr. Houghton was fifty-six years of age, and the first and only teacher dying while a member of the public school de- partment.

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

Today the largest, finest and most prominent structures in Stockton are its public school buildings. In every part of the city you will find them, north, south, east and west, eigh- teen primary and grammar schools in which are instructed 6,777 children, with a corps of 261 teachers, and the pioneer of all is the little two-room brick school, now deserted, on Cen- ter Street. From the earliest days of public schools the never ceasing cry has been for more room. The census of 1859 showed 260 boys and 225 girls of school age of whom 413 received instruction during the year, although the average attendance was only 214. Such irregular attendance was due in great parts to the crowded condition of the school. So much greater was the demand for places than the seating capacity could supply that it became necessary to register applicants and establish the rule that any pupil who was absent four days forfeited the right of his seat and place. There was a continual cry for more school room but the council paid no heed to the cry until 1864. At that time some kindly progres- sive citizen set fire to the old shack, the Acad- emy building, and the council were compelled to take some action towards building a new schoolhouse. In the report of the secretary of the schools trustees he suggested that a large building be erected. The trustees petitioned the council for $15,000 for the erection of a school and other expenses. Among these ex- penses was a debt of $3,500 on the Franklin building, drawing interest at 11/2 per cent a month, and the back salary of Dr. Thomas Kirkland, grammar school teacher, of $143. The citizens cheerfully voted a bond issue of $15,000 and the Lafayete, a four-room brick building was erected on the site of the Acad- emy building at a cost of $11,679. The total cost was $17,300, this including the fence, side- walk, grading the play grounds, etc. This building had a large bell, which could be heard all over the city. It rested on a tower in a corner of the school yard, was made of pure copper, the donation of C. T. Meader, then known as the "copper king." The school was opened January 10, 1865, with four teachers in charge. Along in the '90s four more rooms were added to the main building, increasing largely the amount of school room, decreasing at the same time the playground space, none too large at first. Before the dawn of the new century there was talk of removing the schools, as the noise of wagons, the blowing of whis- tles and the continuous smoke from the water works on Hunter Street made it a very disa- greeable location for a school building. Some eight years ago it was sold to a building cor- poration for a commercial building.

In the meantime the babies grew into school age and there was the never ending cry "more

school room." The school trustees rented three outside school rooms. One of these school rooms was the school where Mary Kroh had her private school, and this little room, twenty feet square, was packed with forty children. There was at this time 1,265 children entitled to school privileges, and only nine school rooms to accommodate them. There was another bond issue in 1867 of $15,- 000 and in December, 1869, the original Wash- ington school building was erected. Occupy- ing a quarter of a block two of the lots were donated by Captain Weber and two were pur- chased. The building cost $20,627 and the en- tire cost was $25,724. It was a four-room building, the high school occupying two of the second-story rooms. In 1891 a third story was erected to accommodate the increased attend- ance of the high school students, making it an eight-room building. The removal of the high school pupils to their own high school build- ing gave increased room to the lower grades and a few years ago, the third story was torn off and the building remodeled as we see it today.

It was necessary to provide more school room in 1872 as at that time the suburbs on all four sides of the city were annexed to the municipality, this annexation bringing in the Vineyard, North and South school districts. To provide school rooms for the Vineyard dis- trict the board of education purchased four lots on Weber Avenue and Pilgrim Street at a cost of $1,600. They erected a four-room brick building at a cost of $17,144, the entire cost being $23,044. The trustees thought this a school location better than the site where stood the Vineyard school, but it soon proved to be a very poor location, for it faced the old city burial ground, and two years later the Copperopolis railroad became a continual nui- sance with their bell ringing, whistle blowing, and switching cars up and down the track. The trustees named it the Jefferson in honor of the patriot who wrote the Declaration of Inde- pendence. The building is now known as the pre-vocational school. In one of these depart- ments all of the school printing is done under a competent printer and they turn out good work. The new Jefferson building, located corner Lindsay and Sacramento streets, is a splendid large twenty-room building erected at a cost of $125,000. It is the largest school building in the city, accommodating 603 chil- dren in 1922. In 1873-'75 two four-room brick buildings were erected, both from the same plans, each building .costing about $15,000. The first, named the new Franklin, was erected on the Center Street site. The Weber was built at the corner of Flora and Commerce streets and cost more than the first named, as the trustees purchased four lots of Dr. S. H.

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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY

Fickett at a cost of $1,200 each. The annexed addition on the south known as the Home- ștead, next claimed the attention of the school board, and they erected a frame two-room building at a cost of $7,999. In 1880 a four- room brick was erected and named Grant, and in '88 four additional rooms were built, the building at present seating 186 pupils. An- other military hero's name, John C. Fremont, was given a school building. In 1889, on Aurora and Fremont streets the trustees bought the property, four lots, of the Weber heirs, the generous donator of school property having passed on in 1882. In 1891 the Lincoln school building was erected on the Vineyard district school site, corner Ophir and Market streets, the property having been given to the district trustees by Captain Weber way back in the early '70s. In 1895 the school board erected a big three-story. structure on the corner of El Dorado and Vine, which had come to their possession by the annexation of the North district. The El Dorado was the first building to have a basement furnace, lavator- ies, cloak rooms and assembly room, a thing now considered necessary in every school building. Some fifteen years ago the building was torn down much to the delight of the neighbors, for it was a fire trap for which it was feared it would some day burn down, burning to death hundreds of children. The property was sold to the Presbyterian Church some years ago and they have erected a mag- nificent church edifice. The splendid new El Dorado building, corner of North and Lincoln streets, is one of the largest and handsomest school buildings in the city, and with its addi- tional eight rooms erected this year at a cost of $70,000 will seat 567 pupils. The first up-to- date building in architectural beauty and pres- ent school essential was not built until 1902 at a cost of $15,000. It is of the Spanish Mission style and called the Monroe, was located where stood the colored school.

Could the school trustees of the pioneer days who erected the Franklin, Lafayette and Washington buildings believing them splendid schoolhouses now come to earth and see the present schools of education, their astonish- ment would be unbounded. They were pro- gressive men those trustees, among them V. M. Peyton, Dr. George A. Shurtleff, Henry B. Underhill, H. S. Sargent, Charles Belding, L. M. Hickman, B. W. Owens, George S. Ladd and others, but the city was small, it was diffi- cult to get money sufficient to pay the teacher's salaries so they were compelled to think in hundreds of dollars for school buildings, not thousands of dollars as today. As early as 1856 a school committee, all progressive men, was appointed to inquire into the subject of erecting a school building, but they reported

adversely as the city was heavily in debt, the citizens were heavily taxed, there were streets to improve, bridges to build, and other ex- penses much more necessary than a school building. One of the school trustees of that day was Charles Grunsky, a well-educated German, and his son Ewald and daughter Lot- tie were two of the three first graduates of the high school; another son was a school trustee. Lottie Grunsky as soon as she graduated be- came an assistant teacher in the school, and later she developed as a splendid teacher in the primary grades. She was a patient, gentle, very lovable woman, and for over forty years she was a continuous teacher in the schools. Sad was her death; about to visit a school teacher friend in San Jose, she fell dead as she stepped from the train. In honor of her mem- ory the trustees named the handsome school building erected in the spring of 1919 the Lot- tie Grunsky, at a building cost of $70,000.

Beside the buildings already named there has been erected during the past twelve years, the Fair Oaks building, the Hazelton, named after the pioneer who taught the first school, the Jackson, increased to an eight-room build- ing, the North, the Mckinley, the Victory and the Burkett Acres building, as yet unnamed.

Under the present splendid system of in- struction in the public schools brought up to its present high standard by years of study and experience it is impossible to understand the difficulties under which the first teacher labor- ed. First the general public and the majority of the parents gave no encouragement to any advanced education. They believed that in- struction in reading, writing and arithmetic, was a sufficient education for any boy or girl. Spelling, geography and grammar might be taught, if the pupil desired and the teacher was willing to give instruction in those branches. Second, the assembling together of children of all nations, of various degrees of intelligence was another drawback, and children, twelve and fourteen years of age would be in the same class with children eight years old. Third, the indifference of the parents to education caused a like indifference in the chldren, and they at- tended school when they felt like it. The chil- dren were not always at fault for some teachers were very disagreeable. Irregular attendance was one of the evils of the day, and one super- intendent reported of 474 children enrolled in the schools there was an average attendance of 240 only. Fourth, there was no uniform system of text books. All of the school books were imported from the east by steamer, and there were not two wholesale book stores in the state where books in quantities could be obtained, and often the teacher was compelled to teach one class in arithmetic from one au- thor's work and a second class from another

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author's work. Each county had different text books and a Stockton book seller advertised that he had the school books taught in all of the counties. Then the teachers would change text books according to their own ideas or fancies, and I have known parents to purchase grammars by two different authors during a school year. Under such conditions advance- ment in education was an impossibility, and as Mrs. Hollenbeak says, "The education struc- ture was reared in a somewhat haphazard man- ner, depending greatly upon the text books in the hands of the pupils and the teacher's ability."

In the political change of parties in 1861 the Republican party came into power both in the city and county, and although there was but little improvement in the county schools, the city schools began an upward movement. The common council appointed as the board of edu- cation, Charles Belding, later the mayor of the city, Henry S. Sargent, afterwards a bank president, and George W. Tyler, elected coun- ty judge. They were all educated Massachu- setts men and they resolved to conduct the Stockton schools according to the Boston school model, at that time credited with hav- ing the best public schools in the United States. The trustees demanded that the scholars must attend school regularly or the teachers know why. The doors of some of the school rooms were locked at nine o'clock, the opening school hour, and all tardy pupils or those absent from school the previous day must bring an excuse from their parents. Sometimes the boys wrote their own excuses and signed their parents name. Next the board demanded a uniform set of text books in the primary, intermediate and grammar schools as they were classified. This was a heavy tax on the parents, for school books were high in price and controlled by Eastern book sellers, and the tax was espe- cially heavy if the parents had several chil- dren, some of them in the grammar schools. Now the state furnishes all text books at cost, printing the books. Another complete inno- vation was the instruction of the boys and the girls in one schoolroom, and under the same teacher. Up to this time they had been taught in. separate schools. It was believed and it proved true that the children could be in- structed together in one room at less cost, there would be better deportment, and the sex would emulate each other in their studies. Still another demand was for a better grade of teachers, both physically and mentally. The board believed that the teacher should set a good example for the children in neatness and dress as well as in morality. The state law of 1866 gave the board of education full control over all school affairs and made them a board of examiners to pass upon the qualifications

of all applicants as teachers and issue teacher's certificates. Algebra, rhetoric, geometry and Latin were now taught in the grammar grades, if any pupils wished to take up those studies.

A tall Yankee from Maine, named A. H. Randall, in 1867 was elected as teacher in the grammar school. He was nominated by school trustee George S. Ladd, and although having but a common school education, he was a nat- ural school teacher and proved successful in every department from principal of the high school to the principal of the State Normal school. Mr. Randall introduced a new sys- tem of marking known as the percentage sys- tem. Before this time the teachers had been using various methods for inciting their pupils to study, such as book prizes at the end of the term, spelling matches and shorter hours for those pupils who had perfect lesson. Mr. Randall's method was to grade the pupils in their studies on a basis of 100% in their daily recitations, the estimate to be made at the close of each recitation. The new method of marking was adopted in all of the schools. It worked well for several years, but in 1874 dis- honorable teachers began to cram their pupils so as to make a showing on the final exami- nations, and thus received credit for false teaching. The system was modernized to some extent but was entirely discarded in '09 and the A, B, C, D, E letter system introduced. A denoted a first class standing and E a com- plete failure. An incentive to the pupils to excell in their studies was given in 1893 by Dr. W. P. Hazelton, who at his death be- queathed $1,000 to the public schools to be placed at interest, the interest money to be used in the purchase of medals, for the most deserving scholars. In January 1916 the Jerome Levy scholarship was founded by his parents in memory of the son who died in September, 1915, while a member of the high school freshman class. It provided $100 an- nually for the needy boy or girl graduates of the high school who desired to attend the State University. The first one to receive the scholarship was Wm. B. Faulkner, who sold newspapers that he might obtain an education. He was a notable youth because of his hustle and energy. He entered the university and during vacation came right back, selling pa- pers. He has now graduated as physician. In June, 1919, Mrs. Frank S. Boggs founded a scholarship in memory of her sister, Mrs. Lil- lian Cunningham Confer, a graduate of '86, the eldest daughter of Sheriff Cunningham; Bertil Holmsten was awarded the first medal.

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History of San Joaquin County, California : with biographical sketches of leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 45

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849 Publication date: 1923 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1660

Author: Tinkham, George H. (George Henry), b. 1849
Publication date: 1923
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif. : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1660