USA > Iowa > Crawford County > History of Crawford County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 34
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A Sunday school was organized in 1866 which was first superintended by T. C. Dobson. This auxiliary society has continued to the present time. The Zion's Religio-Literary Society, an organization for the youth of the church for the study of the Book of Mormon, American archaeology, church history an- cient and modern, was effected in 1899 and has been and is still a factor for good.
In June, 1867, the Latter Day Saints living at Dow City were organized into a branch of twenty-two members with Elder George Montague pastor, John R. Rudd priest, George W. Bird teacher, and Frank Rudd clerk. The other char- ter members were Serelda Rudd, Hiram Rudd, Elvira L. Rudd, Sarah E. Rudd,
293
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
James Ballantyne, Abagail E. Ballantyne, John O. Ballantyne, Margaret Mon- tague, A. E. Montague, N. Andrew, Eliza Bird, J. A. Jenkins, Mary C. Hawley, Albert R. Hawley, Margaret Thompson, Carmelona Wight, S. Wight, and John W. Wight.
This society of earnest Christian workers flourished, soon enrolling other strong and faithful followers. This branch has had local pastors besides Elder George Montague, A. Kuykendall, E. C. Benedict, Charles E. Butterworth, Thomas W. Chatburn, James M. Baker, James L. Butterworth and Alfred Jack- son. In early years regular Sunday school and church services were held in country school houses, but later a chapel was provided at Dow City which is still occupied by them.
The Sunday school was organized in 1872 with George Montague as its first superintendent, and which has continued to the present time. A Gospel Research Society (afterwards called Zion's Religio-Literary Society) was organ- ized in 1886 with Elder Frank Rudd as its first presiding officer. This society has enlisted in its ranks several young men who have become missionaries and eminent church workers.
The Latter Day Saints in Crawford County have helped liberally to support every financial enterprise of the general church, a corporation having its head quarters and publishing houses at Lamoni, Iowa, and Independence, Missouri. The local congregations at Deloit and Dow City have qualified for service sev- eral prominent and efficient church workers, among whom may be named Charles E. Butterworth, patriarch and evangelical minister, John W. Wight and Cor- nelius A. Butterworth, apostles, Charles J. Hunt, local bishop, also men who have faithfully filled the offices of high priest or pastor, seventy, elder, priest, teacher, and deacon.
Z. T. HAWK
CHAPTER XXIV.
CRAWFORD COUNTY SCHOOLS.
By Mr. Z. T. Hawk.
The westward tide of migration in the latitude of the Middle and New England states bore ever on its crest the schoolhouse. The isolated settlers' cabin on the bank of some pleasant stream, or in some sheltering grove, was the sign of advancing civilization. For mutual protection other pioneers took claims and built their primitive homes in the vicinity. If there were children in the community there was no delay in providing for their education. The settlers contributed their labor to prepare material and a "raising bee" placed it in position in some sheltered spot, easy of access summer and winter.
Such were the conditions in Crawford county in 1856 when the settlers in and about Mason's grove built their little log schoolhouse in the shelter of the woods, a few rods east of the Boyer river and made Morris McHenry the teacher of their children. The beginning was auspicious. A good man, honest and true, was the first teacher of the first school in the county. It was an earnest of the future of the great system of schools of Crawford county then beginning in the remote little settlement. The next year there was a school in the new town of Denison at the forks of the Boyer. Other settle- ments, Coon Grove, Dunham's Grove and Bee Tree Grove, quickly followed the example of these two, but which may lay claim to the third school cannot now be determined.
The first, and probably the second, school at Mason's Grove, paid the teacher by subscription, for there were, as yet, no public funds. The same plan was no doubt followed at Denison in 1857.
At the first county election, 1855, Isaac Goodrich was chosen school fund commissioner. The first levy of school tax by the board of supervision was in July, 1857, at which time 1/2 mill was assessed against the taxable property of the county. The next year the levy was one mill. In 1859 the levy was, school one mill, teachers fund district township of Denison 21/2 mills, contingent 1/2 mill. The valuation of non-resident prairie lands in Milford township was $3.00 per acre while resident lands were listed at $2.50. At that time the county had only three townships. The south tier of congressional townships composed Union township. Denison township lay north of Union and was 24 miles long, east
295
296
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
and west, and eight miles wide. Milford comprised the remainder of the county. January 1, 1861, the treasurer's report showed $5,061.30 due on contracts for school lands ; $2367.20 paid in to school fund from sales of land, $99.64 received from the state-a very good showing for the permanent school fund of the new county.
The first official mention of county superintendent is found in the board minutes for August 12, 1858, when Thomas Dobson was allowed $25.00 for six months salary as superintendent. In 1860 H. C. Laub became superintendent and held the office for ten years. The settlement of the country evidently pro- gressed slowly for in 1866 there were only 15 schools and 19 licensed teachers. That year the superintendent devoted 8 days to the service of the schools for which he received $3.00 per day, a total of $24.00.
April 1, 1861, S. E. Dow, county treasurer, reported school money col- lected, $577.81 ; received from the state, $156.18; total $733.99. Of this sum Denison township received $330.28; Milford, $256.89; Union, $146.82. Six years later, 1867, the apportionment was as follows: Denison, $298.10; Union, $155.60; Boyer, $70.45; Milford, $263.71.
In the early days of the county there were several log schoolhouses. The one near Deloit was abandoned as early as 1859; one located in the heavy timber about a mile west of Cornelius Dunham's pioneer cabin of 1849, in East Boyer township, was standing late in the '6os and one in Boyer town- ship, also known as the "Dunham schoolhouse," because of its being located near Corneliun Dunham's second place of settlement, mud-chinked and sod- roofed, was doing duty as a schoolhouse in 1867, and perhaps later. In 1870 the county superintendent reported I log, 8 brick, and 24 frame schoolhouses, and in 1871, 9 brick and 34 frame houses. The log schoolhouse, the symbol of pioneer civilization, had vanished from Crawford county forever. Many of the so-called frame schoolhouses were merely temporary little shacks, to be abandoned as soon as the district could raise money enough to build better houses. One old settler says of the one first built in his district, " It was about 7x9 feet and when there was a fire in the stove the teacher and scholars had to stay outside." In the rural districts the number of schools was greater than the number of schoolhouses until as late as 1880, school being held in some farmer's kitchen or spare bedroom until the district could build a house.
In such cases the teacher was quite sure to be the farmer himself or some member of his family. The superintendents were accommodating, and, in order to aid some struggling settler to winter his family or to build his house, would, regardless of qualifications, grant some member of the family permission to teach. These "permits," at first almost a necessity, became, after a few years, a common currency with which to pay political debts and to purchase political support. Having once yielded to the pernicious custom it was almost im- possible for a superintendent to regain his independence. Many experienced and well qualified teachers were crowded out of the schools and educational progress was materially retarded by the custom.
From 1870 to 1880 and later was a period of great activity in settlement and the number of schools increased with great rapidity. Good schoolhouses were built but the rapidly changing settlement centers often made it necessary
297
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
to move the house to a new location. It was a common remark that a new schoolhouse must be built on trucks to save expense and time. One house in east Boyer was moved three times and finally came to rest about four miles from where it originally stood.
But the schoolhouses of that period, whether stationary or peripatetic, were the center of great social and intellectual activity. Spelling schools, lyceums, or literary societies, debates and exhibitions occupied many of the winter evenings. If the Chapman school at Dunham's Grove couldn't "spell down" the Pleasant Hill school over in the Swan district in East Boyer, it surely would be found trying, and all the country side, from Denison to Vail, would go to see the fun. And the weekly debate sharpened the wits of the country lads and taught them how to think while on their feet and gave them broader views of public questions as well as greater respect for those who differed from them in opinion. There was scarcely a citizen of any prominence in the county who did not take an active and prominent part in these subsidiary lines of educational work. It is to be noted, too, that in the period mentioned there were many more older boys and girls in school than there are now. It was no uncommon thing to find a country school with from half a dozen to a dozen young people of from sixteen to twenty years of age in daily attendance. Now the young lad or miss of fourteen drops out of school the moment the compulsory age limit is reached. In 1878 the county superintendent visited the Hope school, north of West Side, one winter afternoon. He was late and on his arrival met the teacher, Wm. M. Graham, and his pupils, just leaving the schoolhouse. They had quit work early in order to get ready for a spelling match that evening. With the greatest cheerfulness they returned to work to show the superintend- ent what they could do, and for more than an hour the work done by those young men and women in algebra, arithmetic, grammar and history was nothing short of brilliant. To satisfy himself that the lessons had not been mapped out for the occasion the superintendent took charge of the quiz but could find nothing wrong. One of the young men in the class was the late George W. Catt, who, a year or two later, entered college at Ames, graduated with high honors from the civil engineering department, and made for himself fame and fortune in his profession. This was undoubtedly one of the very best schools in the county but it may be fairly taken as a type of many others scattered throughout the different townships and doing work that was almost as good.
It has been said that older boys and girls were found in the schools twenty- five and thirty years ago because there were more male teachers at work then, especially in the rural districts, in the winter. This is probably true, in a
measure. In 1881 there were 67 male and 135 female teachers, a ratio of one to two. In 1910 there were 34 male and 306 female teachers, a ratio of one to nine. At the earlier date four of the male teachers were engaged in the graded schools; at the later date sixteen of the male teachers were employed in the towns and villages. It is suggested that consolidation of small rural schools would increase the interest and attendance and at the same time reduce the ex- pense of operation. There are eight such consolidated schools in Crawford county but they have not been in operation long enough to prove the feasibility of the plan.
298
HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
TABLE A County Superintendents
Thomas Dobson, 1858 to 1860; I term.
H. C. Laub, 1860 to 1870; 5 terms.
N. J. Wheeler, 1870 to 1874; 2 terms.
J. O. Stanton, 1874, 7 months ; died in office.
E. W. Sargent, Nov., 1874, 3 months. Appointed to fill vacancy.
N. F. Smith, 1874 to 1878; 3 years, 2 months.
Z. T. Hawk. 1878 to 1880; I term.
N. F. Smith, 1880 to 1882; I term.
E. M. Ainsworth, 1882 to 1886, 2 terms.
M. M. McAlpin, 1886 to 1892; 3 terms.
Henry Kelly, 1892 to 1896; 2 terms.
W. T. Wright, 1896 to 1898; I term.
A. G. Myers, 1898 to 1902; 2 terms.
C. W. Van Coelln, 1902 to 1904; I term.
F. L. Hoffman, 1904 to 1911; 31/2 terms.
F. N. Olry, 191I.
The county superintendents have for the most part been elected from the ranks of teachers. But if Thomas Dobson and Dr. J. O. Stanton were teachers it was prior to the time of their settlement in Crawford county. The first two incumbents gave but little of their time to the duties of the office, there being but little to do. N. J. Wheeler was the first who gave any considerable portion of his time to the examination of teachers or visiting of schools. The oldest rec- ords to be found in the superintendent's office were made by Wheeler and dated October 8, 1870. On that date certificates were issued by Sylvester M. Thew and Edwin Ainsworth. Thew was given a second grade certificate and the record states that he never taught. Ainsworth received a first grade. Wheeler engaged in business in 1873 and Dr. J. O. Stanton, a very popular young physi- cian who had been in the county but a short time, was elected to succeed him. Stanton was a man of high ideals and much was expected of his administration. He had been in office barely five months when failing health compelled him to relinquish work. His last record was made in the superintendent's book May 28, 1875. He died a month or two later, mourned by the entire county. His deputy, N. F. Smith, managed the affairs of the office until the September ses- sion of the board of supervisors, when E. W. Sargent was appointed to fill the vacancy.
At the fall election N. F. Smith was elected to fill the unexpired term and immediately assumed the duties of the office. He was reelected in 1875, serving one term.
Z. T. Hawk was nominated in 1877 for his well known hostility to permits and was elected by a small majority. There was a very general desire through- out the county that stricter methods of examination be adopted and the more inefficient teachers be dropped from the list. The new superintendent at once set to work to carry out the provisions of the platform on which he had been elected but soon found that he had stirred up a hornet's nest. The trim- ming process went on, however, and at the end of his second year every
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
teacher at work in the county could pass a fairly good examination. It took no prophet to foretell the result of the next election. He was buried beneath an adverse majority of nearly 300, but public sentiment had been awakened and the abuses were gradually reduced to the minimum. In 1879 a circular con- taining a carefully prepared synopsis of the duties of school officers and powers of the electors at the March meetings went far toward preventing the usual spring entanglements ; and a course of study for the rural schools, with general directions and sample programs, was placed in the hands of all the teachers. This course was the forerunner of the one placed in the schools by McAlpin some years later. The state department of public instruction later enlarged upon the idea and sent out a very elaborate manual of methods and course of study in an effort to secure, as far as possible, uniformity in the work of the rural schools.
On the basis of this work many pupils are each year graduated from the rural schools of Crawford county and granted diplomas at the annual institute. In 1911 the rural graduates numbered 38.
Without exception the county superintendents of Crawford county have been men who earnestly desired the success and welfare of the schools and devoted their time and energies to the improvement of every detail of the educational system. Hawk, Ainsworth, Hoffman and Olry were chosen on account of their successful administration of affairs in the graded schools of Denison, Vail, West Side and Schleswig; Smith, McAlpin, Kelly and Myers because of their admirable work in the rural schools. Dr. Wright because of his activity and high standing as a director on the Denison school board and his deep interest in all matters pertaining to education ; von Coelln because of his wide reputation as an educator of the highest rank. Few of them were free to carry out their own ideas in school administration and the most of them were victims eventually of the relentless party machine that knows only expediency. The action of the 3Ist General Assembly in relieving him of the responsibility of issuing teachers' certificates gave freedom to the county superintendent and goes far toward lifting him from the plain of petty politics.
.At an early date Crawford county turned her attention to the founding of libraries. As early as 1869 or 1870 the Wheeler brothers, Orr and Nelson, both teachers then residing in East Boyer, were instrumental in securing the purchase of a library for that township. It consisted of some 200 volumes. It was kept undivided at the residence of some farmer who acted as librarian by appoint- ment of the board of directors. This was undoubtedly the first public library in the county, though several others were founded soon after. The East Boyer library became the source of much bickering and ill feeling in the township and was finally sold at auction and dispersed about 1883. In 1875 Denison town- ship levied a tax of $500.00 to found a library and from that time the move- ment became general thoughout the county. In 1879 the county superintendent reported 1180 volumes in district libraries, Crawford county leading the state. The 28th General Assembly, in 1899, made the establishment of district libraries mandatory and every school in the county is now supplied with a case of well selected books. The total number of volumes reported in the county in 1910 was 11,707.
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
In the early part of A. G. Myers term of office Mr. George W. Schee, a wealthy philanthropist of Plymouth county, offered to donate $50.00 annually for ten years to those counties that would raise a like amount for the purpose of founding and maintaining a teachers' professional library. The offer was promptly accepted by Crawford county and by means of an annual fee of twenty-five cents paid by teachers desiring to use the books, a splendid library has been built up. $1100 has been thus expended. The book of the state teachers' reading circle was also added each year. For the greater convenience of the teachers the library is divided and a case of books maintained in every town in the county. Two hundred teachers patronize the library.
F. L. Hoffman, during the seven years of his incumbency, devoted much attention to the grading of the rural schools. By a very complete system of reports from the teacher to the parents, to the subdirector and to the super- intendent, much interest was awakened and the number of rural graduates largely increased, one graduating class numbering 49.
Supt. F. N. Olry is planning a campaign for better and more sanitary school- houses. Efforts will be made to secure better heating and lighting and to ban- ish the old-fashioned water pail for more sanitary drinking vessels. Seasonable work in agriculture will be presented through the medium of circulars and personal visits of the superintendent to the rural schools.
From the earliest period of its history Crawford county has given its teachers the full benefit of such training as is to be had in normal institutes. The first institute of which we have any record was held in January, 1870, with Prof. J. L. Enos, of Cedar Rapids, as conductor. Prof. Enos was also conductor of the session the next year in November when 50 teachers were enrolled. In 1872 Prof. J. C. Gilchrist, of Mason City, was conductor, and in 1873 Prof. E. Baker of Oskaloosa, a most successful teacher of teachers, con- ducted an enthusiastic institute. Up to this time the law authorized only one week. In August, 1873, Z. T. Hawk organized and taught a normal institute of four weeks, anticipating the normal institute by a year. The tuition was $5.00 for the term. 18 teachers enrolled, mainly for the purpose of fitting them- selves to teach physiology, the new branch that had recently been placed on the list of common school studies. He was also conductor of the next four county normals in succession, Ed. M. Ainsworth being assistant instructor two years. The sessions of 1878 and 1879 were conducted by Prof. J. D. Hornby, of Har- rison county. He was an expert in the use of the slate and the methods he introduced almost worked a revolution in teaching in Crawford county.
The earlier normal institutes were usually in session four weeks; a little later the time was reduced to three weeks; then for a number of years the length of session was two weeks, until, finally, in 1910, the session was con- cluded in six days. It was the original intent of the normal institute law to give the teachers thorough reviews of the common school branches as well as to teach them school methods and management. But as educational facilities for teachers have greatly increased in late years there is less need of text- book instruction in these annual gatherings and more time is devoted to pro- fessional training through the medium of lectures by prominent educators and the local conductors. A normal institute of today is an interesting example of
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
educational atavism for it differs in no respect from the institute of forty years ago.
In 1900, 241 teachers were enrolled in the Crawford county normal institute. W. C. VanNess was conductor. Instructors, J. L. Rose, C. F. Garrett, H. H. Hahn, P. M. Hersom, Ida Craft and C. W. von Coelln. Lecturer, Rev. M. J. Farrelly. Cost of instruction $612.00 ; incidentals, $46.00; total $658.00. Length of session two weeks. A. G. Myers, county superintendent.
In 1910, 167 teachers enrolled; county superintendent F. L. Hoffman was conductor. Instructors,. W. C. VanNess, E. W. Fellows, G. E. Weaver, Blanche Gandy, Bertha Caldwell and F. E. Bolton. Five lecturers delivered 12 lectures. Cost of instruction, $552.41 ; incidentals, $88.89 ; total, $641.30. Length of ses- sion, six days.
TABLE B From Reports of the County Superintendents
Showing the number of persons in the county between the ages of 5 and 21 years, the number enrolled in the schools, the average attendance, the number of schools and the number of teachers.
Enrolled
Average No. of No. of in School Attendance Schools Teachers
Year
Enumeration
1861
168
...
...
.
1865
223
...
...
..
.
1866
461
344
I33
15
19
1867
486
35I
264
17
19
1868
682
504
320
. .
32
1869
736
482
358
25
34
1870
817
740
472
32
48
1871
1263
1007
508
43
57
1873
1 570
I140
599
86
95
1879
. 3727
2866
1467
II7
159
1881
4406
2340
I592
I31
204
1890
6653
5617
3210
189
268
1895
7249
5804
3372
201
356
1900
7735
5762
3642
214
359
1905
7546
5616
3686
221
368
1910
6500
4934
3319
216
340
In counting the number of schools each room in a graded school is counted as a separate school.
TABLE C From Reports of the County Superintendents Schoolhouse Fund.
1900
1905
1910
Paid for schoolhouses and sites
$ 26,032.63
$ 1,291.06
$ 4,650.00
Paid on bonds and interest
3,263.72
6,229.69
2,002.25
Paid for library books
128.65
1,001.00
67.16
Paid for other purposes
506.43
1,333-43
943.45
Total
$ 29,931.43
$ 8,954.18
$ 7,662.86
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HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY
Contingent Fund.
1900
1905
1910
Paid for fuel, rent, repairs
$ 17,736.14
$ 20,440.72
$ 19,919.65
Paid secretaries and treasurers
1,889.74
2,1 338.80
2,297.08
Paid for records and apparatus
2,921.26
243.91
683.76
Pd. for library books and dictionaries
25.00
311.22
195.46
Paid for general supplies
2,478.91
3,465.74
3,636.90
Paid for other purposes
3,028.39
6,844.22
2,495.60
Paid for free text books
Total
$ 28,079.44
$ 34,418.27
$ 29,228.45
Teachers' Fund.
1900
1905
Paid teachers
$ 61,669.00
$ 74,291.84
1910 $ 93,176.41
Paid for library books
267.67
189.22
Paid for other purposes
1,622.34
IOO.II
Total
$ 61,669.00
$ 76,181.85
$ 93,465.74
Total of the three funds
$119,679.87
$119,554.30
$130,357.05
In Table C the expenditures in each of the three years given may be taken as normal with the exception of that in 1900 Denison paid $21,569.67 from the schoolhouse fund for the new high school building, and in 1910 the same cor- poration paid $4,000 from the same fund for the Familton property. In view of the fact that the total average attendance in all the schools of the county was but 3,319 pupils in 1910 it would seem that an expenditure of $130,000 in one year indicates that our school system is unreasonably expensive.
It is interesting to note how many of the early teachers later became im- portant factors in the building of the new commonwealth. Morris McHenry, E. S. Plimpton, H. C. Laub, J. D. Seagrave, J. H. Woodruff, George L. Wright, and George Rae are names familiar to all. True G. Daniels, one of the founders of the Bulletin, Nels H. Wheeler, Orr Wheeler, George H. Lyon, William Graham, Julia King, Archie McMartin, Robert Montgomery, N. Richards, H. E. Talcott, Chas. Morris, Wm. Goodrich, Kate McKim, E. R. Snell, Clarence Wilder, Kate McAndrews, Mary DeWolf-Strong, J. H. DeWolf and E. W. Sargent all held certificates in 1870 and 1871. Cyrus and Seba Greek and J. C. Robinson were teachers during the same years. N. L. Hunt and Eli T. Dobson in 1878-9. Mary A. Pett, John T. and Leanard Archerd, John Robinson, Mag- gie Kevan-Harding, E. W. Pierce, Albert Helsley, Mary Molony-Phelan, Pat Keeney, Maggie Gibson-McHenry, Lydia Gibson-Pierce, E. D. Haskin-Pearson, Aggie Patridge-Muir and Louise Walker-Morris, gave long and faithful service to the schools. Hon. W. A. Davie and Hon. Theo. C. Blume each made brilliant records in the school-room. A. G. Myers and John Ainsworth, still in active service, are probably the senior teachers of the county, the former having taught almost continuously since 1877 and the latter since 1881.
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