USA > California > Alameda County > Past and present of Alameda County, California, Volume I > Part 39
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
The next vote stood Campbell five, McClymonds six. The latter who was prin- cipal of the Lincoln school was thus elected. For twenty-five years Mr. Campbell had been connected with the Oakland schools and had done more than any other person to make them the pride of the whole state. He was known over the whole country as a brilliant and advanced instructor and originator of better teaching methods and programs. Recently he had served as chairman of the session of the department of superintendence at Washington, D. C. He was president of the National Educational Association in 1888. As such he received glowing praise from eastern educational critics. It was politics that caused his dismissal. The county board of education in 1889 decided to have no examinations in entomology, geography, history and music in any grade during the year.
Early in 1890 Superintendent Fisher notified the teachers throughout the county that they must give a short course on entomology in their schools. He told them to study "Cooke's Insects, Injurious and Beneficial" and to seek practical hints in the neighboring orchards. In town the different pests were to be taken up and studied-codling moth, tent caterpillar, San Jose scale, canker worm, aphides, weevil, phylloxera, bees, etc.
In 1890 the trustees of Rosedale, San Lorenzo and Alviso school districts voted special school taxes in their respective school districts-Rosedale, $300; San Lorenzo, $1,000; Alviso, $900. The county board ordered these levies, together with sufficient amounts additional to pay the interest. Emery, Hays, Lorin, Peralta, Pleasanton, Sunol, Glen, Temescal and Warm Springs also called for special school tax at this date. Improved schoolhouses and facilities were being provided for in all districts of the county. The Oakland school board at this time found grievous fault with the city council for appropriating $11,- 500 for wharf improvements, $18,000 for the Fifteenth street engine house and $3,000 for the improvement of Independence square instead of appropriating a sufficient amount for increased high school rooms and facilities.
In 1890 Alameda county had a total of 22,978 children of school age, of whom 5,114 did not attend any school, public or private. The average daily attendance was 11,964, not including private and parochial schools. The county had three high schools teaching 742 pupils-more than any other county except San Francisco. This county was woefully behind in the matter of school build- ings. It did not have a single brick or stone school structure. Other counties had many. The average number of months per year that school was taught was 9.4. The average salary paid to male teachers was $104 per month and to female teachers, $72.
In 1890-91 the Legislature passed an act for the establishment of union high schools in the state. No sooner had this act become operative then County Superintendent George Frick was besieged with applications from all parts of the county from both taxpayers and teachers who desired to establish high schools under the new law. The residents of East Murray township met and petitioned for such a school and an election to determine the matter was ordered. The law provided that any city or incorporated town having 1,500 or more popu- lation could secure such an institution.
In January, 1891, about 130 resident pupils of Oakland applied for admission to the high school and could not be received owing to lack of room. It was proposed to obviate the difficulty by having their junior classes each to skip a day
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
so that each would lose one day in three. The day thus gained was to be given to the new pupils. There was imperative demand late in 1891 that the school facilities of Oakland should be vastly improved without delay. Mayor Chapman stated publicly that the following needs should be at once supplied by the issu- ance of bonds :
Prescott school
$ 20,000
Grant school
25,000
West Street school
75,000
Cole school
15,000
Lincoln school
10,000
Harrison school
35,000
Swett school
50,000
Franklin school and high school.
165,000
Total
$395,000
By the last of February, 1892, the crowded condition of the Oakland schools had become a veritable blockade. Children were turned away from every school. Superintendent McClymonds said that in January, 1892, the attendance at the schools was much reduced on account of measles, diphtheria and scarlet fever and that in February when they had in a measure recovered the overflow of the schools was as follows:
Lafayette
446
Cole 533
Grove
30
Tompkins
50
Harrison
118
Prescott
220
Garfield
IIO
Lincoln
172
Franklin
128
Clawson
140
Durant
Total 150
2,097
The total meant that there were that many pupils who were unable to get proper school accommodations, many in fact being prevented from attendance at all. At the Swett, High and Grant schools there was no overcrowding. This overflow was true, in spite of the fact that in 1891 additions had been built to the Garfield, Durant and Franklin schools. Five years before 1891 the Harrison schoolhouse was put in condition for one year's service, but was used for five years.
A large mass meeting of the citizens of Alameda met on March 31, 1891, to listen to the discussion concerning the discipline in the public schools, which had been publicly and severely attacked by A. J. Leonard. He charged crowded rooms, and disobedience, violent acts of pupils when at school and such a lack of discipline as to destroy in a large measure the efficiency of the schools. He was supported by C. W. Bronson, D. Tietemann and Mr. Cunningham. Super- intendent Sullivan defended the teachers and schools. He declared that teachers should not be held responsible for the lack of home training; that if the children were bad the cause would be found in the homes, that the schools were not refor-
299
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
matory institutions, that he could say unpleasant things about certain children and that the crowded condition of the rooms partly caused the disorder complained of.
The trustees of the Livermore high school (a township institution) in July, 1891, were F. R. Fassett, Fred Hartman, J. C. Martin, Al. Clark, J. L. Banggs, A. Fuchs and J. G. Young; the latter was chairman. They concluded to open the high school in the public school building at Livermore. The salary of the principal was fixed at $150 per month. E. H. Walker was elected principal of the high and grammar schools. Mr. Frick the new county superintendent in 1891, received a salary of $4,500, out of which he was required to pay his deputy. Principal Markham of Haywards schools was elected to the principalship of the Tompkins school in Oakland.
The county teachers' institute assembled in Hamilton hall on September 16, 1891, and was called to order by County Superintendent George W. Frick. There was a large attendance of teachers from all parts of the county. David Starr Jordan lectured before the institute on the "Passion Play," which he had witnessed a short time before at Oberammergau. This was one of the most interesting and instructive sessions ever held. Mr. Frick reported to the county board on Septem- ber 27, 1891, that the union high school proposal in the southern part of the county would need $1,800 for the balance of the school year. The proposed district embraced Alviso, Centerville, Decoto, Lincoln, Mission San Jose, Mowrys, New- ark, Niles, Rosedale, Sheridan, Warm Springs and Washington.
In 1895 the children of Oakland public schools were taught for the first time to make public recognition of the patriotism embodied in the name and memory of George Washington by parading through the streets under the flag which he established. In all the schools the significance of the February 22d anniversary was fully explained in a degree of prominence never before attempted here. Thousands of children were in the parade and listened to patriotic addresses and teachings.
The high school alumni was organized in 1895 at Oakland. A committee of forty persons was appointed by Principal McChesney to carry the organization into effect. Fred L. Button was elected president of the Alumni Association. In September, 1896, the Union high school at Livermore opened with a total of forty- four students, which number was later increased to nearly sixty. Principal Connel was in charge of the school.
In October the teachers' institute held an important session in the high school building, Oakland. There was a large attendance of teachers from all parts of the county. Professors Greggs of Stanford University and Bailey of the Univer- sity of California delivered strong and instructive addresses.
In January the California Teachers' Association met in the High School building, Oakland. Many women were present. The attendance was large and enthusiastic. Spirited discussions of instruction methods and important papers enlivened the order of exercise.
In 1897 there was started a movement to pension J. C. Pelton, who was one of the fathers of the public school system in California. After many years of self-sacrificing devotion to the cause of education he had become poor and largely helpless, and depended upon the sale of his poetic production by his two little girls for a livelihood. They sold his books on the ferry boats that plied across the bay.
300
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
In 1900 citizens of Berkeley provided for the construction of a new high school building, but the board of education did not feel able to provide the school with books. This fact caused the alumni of the school to give it the nucleus of a library. The sum of $500 was needed with which to accomplish this object. In order to raise this amount the Alumni Association presented two plays, "The First Time" and "The Spy."
The county institute met at Oakland in October, 1900, with Mr. McClymonds presiding. The principal speaker on the first day was President D. S. Jordan of Stanford university, who addressed the teachers on the subject of "China." The session was devoted to the consideration of broad educational subjects.
In 1901 the report of T. O. Crawford, county school superintendent, showed that the total receipts for the fiscal year were $681,475, and the total expenses $569,723. The state census showed 31,940 children of school age in the county, of which number 22,586 were enrolled. There were 302 teachers in the primary and grammar grades. There was a deficit of $17,104 in the Oakland high school. There were 1,731 pupils in private schools.
The Associated Kindergartens of Oakland, during the holidays of 1902, gave a large benefit in Woodman hall and cleared several hundred dollars. The work of this organization was very important at this time. The Oakland Central kindergarten was the second here and was established in the Bible class of Mrs. P. D. Browne of the First Presbyterian church in 1880. Miss Houseman had charge of the school near the foot of Broadway. Miss Anita de Laguna was her assistant. F. M. Smith and wife gave free the use of their beautiful grounds for the annual fête. In 1902 Mrs. F. M. Smith was president of the Associated Kindergartens of Oakland.
In 1906 it became manifest that the board of education, sooner or later would be compelled to furnish separate schools for the Orientals-Chinese, Japanese, Coreans, etc. In October the Harrison Street school in particular was filled with Oriental children, who were in a majority there. The Manual Training and Com- mercial high school was formerly known as the Polytechnic high.
In August, 1906, the school bond proposition carried-but by a remarkably small vote-792 in the whole city. The amount of bonds was $280,000. The report of the Teachers' Annuity and Retirement Fund Association of this county made the following showing in July, 1905: Amount paid in by subscribers, $12,849.50 ; interest on deposits, $845.75 ; amount paid out, $5,505.11. Original number of subscribers was 228; present number 80.
At the close of 1907 every hamlet and settled section in the county was pro- vided with a good school, with capable teachers and all necessary apparatus and equipment. Over $1,500,000 was spent upon the county schools this year and the great increase in population was sufficient proof that still greater expense would be required in coming years. George W. Frick was county superintendent. Haywards had a splendid modern school building; so did San Leandro, Liver- more, Centerville and others. There were eight high schools in the county at this time-one in Berkeley, one in Alameda, two in Oakland, one each at Livermore, Centerville, Haywards and Melrose. The attendance was 2.565. The average daily attendance in the grammar schools in 1906 was 20,386, and in 1907, 22,900; total number of teachers in 1906, 740; in 1907, 814. Total amount received from all sources for the support of public schools-1906, $1,697,-
301
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
195; 1907, $1,798,009. The Alameda county teachers' institute and retirement fund was sustained by voluntary assessment of its members and was intended for the support of retired teachers.
There were few school systems in the country in 1907 that possessed play- grounds for children. Within three years thereafter the playground movement had swept the country and over four hundred cities owned such additions to educational advancement. Oakland and Alameda possessed them in 1910, but not yet Berkeley. Play supervision had accomplished wonders by excluding undesirables and systematizing exercises. The first playground movements in Oakland were experiments at the Prescott and Tompkins schools in 1909. There was an enormous attendance and in October the city council appropriated $10,000 for the use of the playground commission. Soon another playground was estab- lished at Bushrod park and covered 300 square feet. In 1910 the DeFremery grounds at Sixteenth and Poplar streets were opened, and soon afterward another at the Garfield school. Outdoor games and dances were popular. At this time, 1910, the playground tracts were Bay View, Peralta, Bushrod, DeFremery and San Antonio.
Among the most prominent private schools of the county in 1908 were the Horton School, Anderson's Academy at Irvington, Miss Head's School, Notre Dame Academy, St. Joseph's Academy, Miss Randolph's School, St. Mary's College and Berkeley Preparatory School. This year Berkeley had the university, Home of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind, seventeen primary and grammar schools, a high school and seven private schools. At the close of 1910 there were thirty- seven separate public school buildings in Oakland with many more planned for the immediate future. The total investment in these properties was $3,245,000. There were 518 instructors and nearly twenty thousand scholars.
During the year 1913 fourteen new school houses were commenced in Oakland -all on fireproof and earthquake-proof lines. Every modern accessory was involved in the plans, which embraced modern systems of ventilation, sanitation and convenience, assembly halls, moving picture rooms, clubrooms, libraries, kindergartens, hospital rooms with baths, principal's suite, teachers' lunch and rest rooms, toilet rooms, children's lunch rooms, manual training rooms, domestic art and science rooms and kitchens, conservatories, etc. The schoolhouses under way were named Allendale, Cole, Cleveland, Claremont, Dewey, Durant, Emer- son, Lakeview, Lazear, Lockwood, Longfellow, McChesney, Sante Fe, Washing- ton, Fremont High and Manual Training and Commercial High.
This county has ever been one of the most liberal in the state in promoting the highest efficiency of its schools. There are in Alameda county forty-three separate school districts exclusive of those in the cities. All have modern buildings and equipment, competent teachers and patrons who have education and culture and are willing to pay the price for efficient schools. The so-called country schools are governed by boards of trustees and all are under the supervision of the county superintendent. The sum of $1,562,804 was spent on the county schools in 1913. There were employed 1,159 teachers, of whom 210 occupied positions in the high schools and seven in the kindergartens. The enrollment in the high schools was 5,323 and in the grammar schools 35,999.
The convention of the Bay section of the California Teachers' Association assembled in Oakland early in January, 1914. The county teachers' institute
302
, HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
was in session at the same time and the two bodies joined in the discussion of educational problems. All agreed to unite in an effort to secure for 1915 the annual convention of the National Teachers' Association or an International Congress of Education.
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
Three separate movements combined for the establishment of the University of California: (1) Private initiative; (2) State legislation, and (3) Federal action. In 1853 Rev. Henry Durant, a native of Massachusetts and a graduate of Yale College, came west with the purpose of founding a university fully formed in his mind. In that year, under the auspices of the Presbytery of San Francisco and of the Congregational Association of California, Mr. Durant opened the "Contra Costa Academy" in Oakland. The name was shortly afterwards changed to "College School," in order to signify that the undertaking was only preparatory to the projected college. That institution was incorporated in 1855 under the name of the "College of California." A suitable site had already been secured in Oak- land. Rev. Samuel H. Willey, a graduate of Dartmouth College, who had come to California in 1849, and had constantly agitated the subject of founding a college, was appointed vice president. No president was selected for some time. In 1859 three professors, Henry Durant, Martin Kellogg, and I. H. Brayton, together with three instructors, were chosen as the faculty of the college, and in 1860 instruction was formally begun with a freshman class of eight students. Classes were gradu- ated from 1864 to 1869, inclusive.
In 1856 a tract of 160 acres, five miles north of Oakland, was selected as the permanent home of the college. In 1860 this spot was formally dedicated to the purposes of education ; and in 1866, on the suggestion of a member of the board of trustees, Frederick Billings, the name of Berkeley was given to the townsite.
The Constitution of 1849 placed at the disposal of the Legislature: (1) the 500,000 acres of land, which had been granted by Congress for the purposes of internal improvement, and devoted by the Constitution of California to the cause of common school education; (2) all escheated estates; (3) the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of land, granted by Congress, and constituting one-eighteenth portion of all the soil of the state. The Constitution required that these benefac- tions should remain a perpetual fund to be "inviolably appropriated to the sup- port of common schools throughout the state." It furthermore provided (4) that "the Legislature should take measures for the protection, improvement or other disposition" of lands already given, or thereafter to be given, by the United States or by individuals for the use of the university, that the proceeds of such lands, as of all other sources of revenue, should "remain a permanent fund," the income thereof to be "applied to the support of the university, for the promotion of litera- ture, the arts and sciences ;" and that it should be "the duty of the Legislature, as soon as may be, to provide effectual means for the improvement and permanent security of the funds of the university." Previous to 1868 the matter of estab- fishing the University of California in one form or another was constantly agitated. In 1853 Congress gave to the state 46,080 acres of land for a "seminary of learn- ing." In 1862 the Morrill Act granted to the several states a quantity of public land, the interest on the proceeds of which should be "inviolably appropriated, by
CAMPUS SCENES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
303
HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
each state which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment support and maintenance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the several states may respectively prescribe, in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life." The appor- tionment of this grant for California was 150,000 acres. In order to secure the endowment, an act was passed by the Legislature in 1866 to establish an agricul- tural, mining and mechanical arts college, and to provide a board of directors there- for. The directors provisionally selected a site of 160 acres a little to the north of the Berkeley grounds of the College of California.
During the year 1867 a group of men, deeply interested in the intellectual advancement of California, including Rev. Dr. Horatio Stebbins, Prof. Henry Durant, Gov. F. F. Low, John W. Dwinelle and John B. Felton, sought to secure the establishment of an institution of broader scope than the projected State College of Agriculture, Mining and Mechanical Arts. Their efforts resulted in the generous offer to the state on the part of the College of California of its property in Oakland and its grounds in Berkeley on condition that the state should "forthwith organize and put into operation upon the site at Berkeley a University of California, which shall include a college of mines, a college of civil engineering, a college of mechanics, a college of agriculture, an academical col- lege, all of the same grade and with courses of instruction at least equal to those of eastern colleges and universities." The directors of the state college agreed to this proposal and recommended to the Legislature its acceptance. The Legislature accordingly passed an act organizing the University of California, which was signed by Gov. H. H. Haight on March 23, 1868.
The organic act, or charter, declared that the university was "created pursuant to the requirements of the constitution, and in order to devote to the largest pur- pose of education the benefaction" of the Congressional land grant of 1862. It "shall be called the University of California and shall be located on the grounds donated to the state by the College of California." It "shall have for its design to provide instruction and complete education in all the departments of science, literature, art, industrial and professional pursuits, and general education, and also special courses of instruction for the professions of agriculture, the mechanic arts, mining, military science, civil engineering, law, medicine and commerce."
In reference to the Congressional grant, the charter said : "The board of regents shall always bear in mind that the college of agriculture and the college of mechanic arts are an especial object of their care and superintendence, and that they shall be considered and treated as entitled primarily to the use of the funds donated for their establishment and maintenance by the act of Congress." In reference to the conveyance by the College of California, it said: "The board of regents, having in regard the donation already made to the state by the presi- dent and board of trustees of the College of California, and their proposition to surrender all their property to the state for the benefit of the state university, and to become disincorporated and go out of existence as soon as the state shall organize the university by adding a classical course to the college of arts, shall, as soon as they deem it practicable, establish a college of letters. The college of Vol. 1-20
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HISTORY OF ALAMEDA COUNTY
letters shall be coexistent with the college of arts, and shall embrace a liberal course of instruction in languages, literature, and philosophy, together with such courses or parts of courses in the college of arts as the authorities of the univer- sity shall prescribe." The past graduates of the College of California were to rank in all respects as graduates of the university.
In 1869 the College of California discontinued its work of instruction and gave place to the new university, which opened its doors on September 23d. Dur- ing the construction of buildings at Berkeley the university occupied the college halls in Oakland. On July 16, 1873, the commencement exercises were held at Berkeley and the university took formal possession of its new home.
The first appointees to the faculty included Prof. Martin Kellogg, John Le Conte, and Joseph Le Conte. The first appointee to the presidency was Prof. Henry Durant. When in 1872, he resigned, owing to failing health, he was succeeded by President Daniel Coit Gilman. In 1869 the Legislature directed that no admission or tuition fees should be charged, and in 1870 that the univer- sity should be opened to women on terms of equality with men.
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