USA > Iowa > Davis County > History of Davis County, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. > Part 52
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494
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
dneted, and wield an influence on the literary, moral, social, commercial and business interests of the country, that can be known only in the growth, prosperity and happiness of our children who, in the coming years, will meet as we have to-day, to review the history of the past.
From another source we learn the names of every newspaper ever pub- lished in the county, with the several owners of each, as follows: The Weekly Gazette, the first newspaper in the county, the first issue dated Saturday morning, May 13, 1854, owned and edited by Geo. W. Johnson; The True Flay, edited by Chamb. Ober; The Radiutor, edited by Rev. J. B. Bowen; The Bloomfield Union and The Davis County Democrat, edi- ted by Rev. J. B. Bowen; " Ward's Own," by W. G. Ward; The Iowa Flag, by W. G. Ward; The Davis County Index, by Hosea B. Horn; The Democratic Clarion, by A. P. Bentley and Amos Steckel, succeeded by W. G. Ward, then by Barr & Hamlin; The Union Guard, by Andy Karns, succeeded by Jones & Young; DAVIS COUNTY REPUBLICAN, by Edw. White. succeeded by J. A. T. Hull, then Hull & Fortune, then Ilamilton & Fortune; THE BLOOMFIELD DEMOCRAT, by T. O. Walker; The Granger's Advocate, by J. B. King; The Commonwealth, by F. W. Moore, Henry Ethel and Will Van Benthusen; THE LEGAL TENDER GREENBACK, by C. F. Davis; The Mercury, by Henry Ethel; The Odd Fellows' Banner, by J. B. King, then Glenn & King; The People's Journal, by Mitchell Bros .; The Vindicator, by S. H. Horn; and the Drakeville Sun, started at Drake- ville, in March, 1875, by R. B. B. Wood, and suspended in February, 1876. The papers above given in SMALL CAPS are the only ones of this long list now in existence.
The Daris County Republican is the oldest living newspaper in Davis county, having been started as the Union Guard, in August, 1863. It was first owned and operated by a joint stock company. At a conference of re- publicans held in Bloomfield that year. for the purpose of devising ways and means of starting a paper favorable to President Lincoln's administration,. it was decided to issne 100 shares of $5.00 each, and to limit all stockhold- ers to one share each. Subsequently, owing to a desire to hasten the inangu- ration of the plan, several members were permitted to purchase three or more shares each. Col. S. A. Moore and Mr. John Drake, now of Albia, were appointed a committee to purchase material. They purchased a stock of second-hand material of Ottway Cutler, at Ft. Madison, and with this the first number of the Union Guard was printed, A. M. Karns being the publisher, and Col. S. A. Moore and Mr. M. H. Jones, editors. Mr. Karns soon became owner of all or most of the stock by purchase and donation; and under his management the foundation of the subsequent splendid pros-
495
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
perity of the paper was laid. In May, 1864, Col. Moore re-enlisted, and Mr. Jones also entered the army, Col. J. B. Weaver succeeding to the edi- torship. In 1868 Henry H. Jones and Cyrus H. Young became owners of the paper. In 1868 Mr. E. T. White purchased the office, and changed the name of the paper to the Daris County Republican, which has been its name ever since. Mr. White added a magnificent Taylor power press and much new material, and greatly improved the paper in every way. In Feb- ruary, 1873, Mr. White died. Mrs. White edited and controlled the paper until May of the same year, when it was purchased by Captain J. A. T. Hull. At one time Mr. A. M. Karns was associated with Capt. Hull in the ownership of the office, but soon disposed of his interest, Capt. Hull again becoming sole proprietor. Mr. C. B. Whitford became for some time as- sociate editor in 1876, and Mr. R. L. Rowe had editorial control from Janu- ary to March, 1879. In May, 1877, Mr. A. II. Fortune, a practical printer, entered the firm as a partner, the style of the firm being changed to Hull & Fortune. Under the editorial and business management of Hull & For- tune, the paper has grown and prospered as never before. In 1880 steam power was introduced, and large additions of stock purchased. Hull & For- tune are still proprietors, but the paper is published by Fortune & Hamilton, Mr. John J. Hamilton having leased Capt. Hull's interest in the spring of 1879. Mr. Hamilton took editorial charge of the paper March 31, 1879, and is still its editor.
The Legal Tender Greenback, was established in June, 1878, by C. F. Davis; stepping into the shoes of the Commonwealth, deceased. In six months he had the county printing, and did effectnal work in the Con- gressional campaign of 1878. This paper started with about 300 subscrib- ers, and when there were only 800 Greenback votes in the county. It has now reached a bona fide circulation of over 2,000, the largest ever attained by any paper ever published in the county; and the vote of the party has increased until at the last election, they elected every candidate on the .county ticket. This paper is officially indorsed as the Greenbrek organ of Davis county, and the central organ of the national Greenback party. Their business and circulation have so increased that it became necessary to put in a steam power press.
The Bloomfield Democrat .- The publication of this journal was begun September 15, 1869, by T. O. Walker, its present proprietor, and has con- tinued ever since under the same ownership. Assistance in placing the paper upon a permanent pecuniary basis was given by JJ. W. Ellis; William Hill and W. T. Leech. The Democrat was at first a seven column paper, but as business increased, it enlarged, in 1871, to eight columns, and to nine
496
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
columns in 1872; entting off one column a year later, and has thus re- mained ever since. Politieally it is in complete accord with the Deno- eratie party. It was for Horace Greeley, as the best means to harmonize- the North and South; and for Anti Monopoly in 1873, believing that the- State has the right to regulate the corporations she has ereated. The Dem- ocrat has given sturdy support to every worthy publie improvement pro- jeeted in Davis county. It has proceeded upon the principle that a local newspaper must be, not only the reflex of publie sentiment, but the director as well; and that a consistent, manly advocacy of local interests will in the- end benefit paper and people alike.
EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS.
There is nothing more remarkable in our time than the great progress in the matter and methods of edneation. This has necessitated new modes of mental enlture, and placed in the hand of the educator new material to aid him in reaching broader and grander results. Among the changes which the new education has wrought is the recognition of certain philosophical faets in the training of youth, the importance of due attention to the hygiene. of school-room life and study, and the place of new studies in the ednea- tional curriculum of the common school. Time was, and not far baek, when "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetie " were deemed the only essentials of an edneation. But this has changed, and the history of the change is one of that long struggle against the prejudices in favor of the oldest methods. of the old schools in which the early settlers had been educated, and to which they had become attached; a struggle in which the county is still in- terested; one that comes to it laden with the acenmulated faets of ages, hoary with years, yet beneficent in influence; a struggle in which opinions and theories covered with honors have been marched off the stage of action and supplanted by facts and principles which it has eost years of toil to dis- cover, and more years still to establish.
The result of all these is, that it is now not only conceded, but very gen- enerally demanded, that the teacher should be subjected to a thorough course of training before commeneing to discipline other minds. To meet this end, not only have normal schools been established and normal courses. added to the curricula of the colleges, but normal institutes, at the expense- and under the auspiees of the county, have been established to meet a de- mand ever growing greater. The reason is, that there is a need in popular education that may only be met by first meeting a like need felt by those- who have that work in charge. The teacher oeenpies but partly, the high.
497
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
place of an apostle of complete 'civilization-for nothing less is his task and that is his place-a preacher of complete manhood and womanhood. Instead of drilling boys and girls upon the multiplication table, he is to. profoundly affect human destiny for good. That there is but a feeble de- mand for this highest type of teachers, arises not only from an unconscions- ness of the immeasurable valne they are to mankind, but also from the im- perfect style of teachers that now stand before the public.
There is probably no question in which the citizens of a county are so di- rectly interested as this one of teachers of known and tried ability. The time has long since passed when any person conld teach school. The claims of to-day can no longer be met by the appliance of even a decade ago, for experience is beginning to show that teaching, like every other de- partment of human thought and activity, must change with the changing condition of society, or it will fall in the rear of civilization and become an obstaele to improvement. The educational problem of the day, is how to. get more meaning into the training of the schools; a meaning that shall ex- cite the youthful mind to the highest type of intellectual activity and vigor; that shall educate for lasting national life. A nation's safety lies wrapped up in the intelligence of its people. And as the scope of human activity and thonght is ever widening, so the claims of culture are ever increasing, and the State has the right to expect dne attention to thein from its con- stitueney. By the general diffusion of knowledge only. is it possible to put wisdom at the hehn of State; keep mediocrity ont of responsible offices; re- move corruption from places of trust; banish vice and peculation, and so sweeten the fountain of public morality, that justness and fairness shall be the condition between all classes of men in all the relations of life. To this is opposed, oftentimes, the foolish objection that " too much book learning is not to the best interest of individuals." Nothing is more foreign to a true spirit of culture and progress, or more fruitful of invidions results, than that the matter and aim of education are not akin to the most common- place affairs of life. Education is intensely utilitarian, directly so; there is not an avocation to which it has not brought its benison by way of improve- ment or correction.
An illustration from that kind of labor to which our country owes its in- stitutions and its perpetuity-husbandry-may be in point. In early ages the produets of agriculture were thonghit to be the gifts of various divini- ties, who gave or withheld according to their caprice. Thegolden grain was the special bounty of Ceres-just as Minerva bestowed the olive, and Bac- chus the wine. The seed grain did not quicken except by favor of the ru- ral god, who kept watch and ward over this process; their sheep and their bees
498
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
were under the guardianship of Pan, and a troop of froliesom fanns brought back life to the fields, and opened with their busy fingers the buds of spring. Over all the operations of nature was some presiding divinity, and, as they were prosperous or adverse, they inferred that the divinity was kindly or malignant. But since that time the physical sciences and chemistry have given to the farmer a new heaven and a new earth. The lightnings are no longer the manifestations of an angry divinity, but an indispensable agent in the scheme of vegetable growth and production. Noxious elements, once the source of nutold miasm and death, are constantly eliminated from the air he breathes-taken up by the lungs of the vegetable system, and transmuted into valuable and useful forms. Now, his culture comes to temper the austere sky, his enterprise rolls back to the forest like a scroll, and there appears a more genial sun, until the frozen circle itself seems pushed northward, and abundance smiles where nnassisted Nature was stern, and niggard, and unfruitful. The field of improvement is yet bound- less, though the most beautiful of the sciences are his handmaids. A vast change in the direction and tendency of thought is that from the time when-
The sacred seer with scientific truth In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth; With ceaseless change, how restless atoms pass From life to life a transmigrating mass,
to that of to-day when men's thought are turned outward toward Nature, seeking the cause and explanation of its phenomena, not in the " influence of the gods who hannt the Inrid interspace of world on world, where never creeps a cloud or moves a wind, nor ever falls the least white star of snow, nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, nor sound of human sorrow mounts to mar their sacred everlasting calm-but in Nature itself. Men may question Nature, and where shall that questioning better begin than in the common school room, surrounded by proper and appropriate influences, and under the guidance of skilled and trained teachers. The work of such a teacher will be more than a mere perfunetory discharge of mechanical du- ties; such a teacher will never be content with the orderly management and systematic communication of other people's results. Agassiz recog- nized in 1871, the need of teachers, trained not alone in the common branches, but in science, for how else shall the attention of hundreds of thousands whose alma mater is the common school, otherwise learn to read the truths that lie like diamonds on every hand, or nod smilingly out from every flower? Said Prof. Louis Agassiz: " The time seems to have come when to the received methods and approved topice of popular edneation,
499
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
sneh branches of physical and natural science should be added as have ae- quired real importance for the business of life during the last fifty years. There is only one difficulty in the way of this most desirable result. There are no teachers to be had, whatever efforts might be made to introdnee these studies at present, and the demand is likely to become more pressing every day. It would seem, therefore, to be the part of wisdom to consider what may be done to prepare the way, and I hold it will be best to organ- ize a special normal school for the training of seientific teachers. The world will require them everywhere before many years are past." It is the happy lot of the teacher of to-day, to live in one of those most eventful periods of intellectual and moral history, when these oft-closed gates of discovery and reform stand open at their widest. Ilow long these good days may last, none ean tell. It may be that the increasing power and range of the scientific method, with its stringeney of argument and eon- stant cheek of faet, may start the world on a more steady and continuons course of progress than it has moved on hertofore. It is for those among the teachers of this county, whose minds are set on the advancement of education and educational methods, to make the most of present opportu- nities, that even when in future years progress is arrested, as checked it inay be, it shall be arrested at the the higher level.
Aside from the qualifications that should be required in teachers, there is another important feature of the common school system that should by no means be overlooked-that of the superintendency. It is now a recognized faet that a system, the workings of which are as complicated as is our com- mon school system, needs some responsible head to which the teacher, in trouble or in donbt, may appeal. This is found in the highest sehool ofli- cer in the county-the superintendent of schools. The very nature of his task and the duties of his office, make it imperative that he should be a man of large experience and broad views, able both to advise and correct. It is an office indispensable to the workings of the system as now constitu- ted, and is more effective, and most effective, when fitness is considered as the sole recommendation. It is not only a notorious, but a disgraceful faet, that the aims of the office are defeated by party ends, and its usefulness abridged by unwise partisan selection. From the school and its direction. its teaching and its teacher, all questions of a political nature should be banished. The school-room is not the proper place for their discussion, and the selection of a superintendent on a political basis alone, is a most fla- grant error. To insure the efficiency of the office, men of sterling worth, tried in school methods and able to direet, should be selected, and the
-
500
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
choice ought to be unanimous, and made with a view to the highest interest of the patrons of the school.
Another feature of equal, if not greater importance, is the retention of good teachers. The educational interests of a county can usually be safely intrusted to the care of professional teachers. Their avocation makes them necessarily jealous of their reputation, and jealousy of this kind almost in- variably leads to greater and more enduring snecesses. The earlier teachers, and this is not meant altogeter disparagingly, kept school rather than taught, and even then, their duties were confined to a few months' task in winter or summer. Aside from the few paltry dollars they saw in it, they had no interest in their occupation, and were constantly leaving the teachers' ranks for other and more remunerative employment. It is a sad fact that this same evil prevails to-day, and the necessities of education demand that it should be remedied. Greater permanency in the vocation of teaching must be guaranteed, or talent and culture will be induced neither to enter or remain in the work. So long as this remains a prevailing neglect, the schools will be shorn of their greatest efficiency, and the development of youth into a nobler manhood prove a failure. After city and township districts select suitable men and women to take charge of schools, and find that they pos- sess the requisite qualifications. let them allow no moneyed nor any other consideration to influence these successful teachers to withdraw from their tested positions. Unless this principle more commonly obtain, continual experiment must necessarily take the place of a true educational philosophy.
There is another feature rapidly becoming a part of the common school system which promises the greatest results. That feature is the normal in- stitnte work, now being annually inaugurated and conducted through a term of weeks in this county. The system has been tested in other connties, and with the most flattering success. The amount of work com- pressed into a short month's study in one of these normal trainings is truly astonishing. The county superindendent vigorously co-operates in this matter, and thus new life and enthusiasm is infused in the teachers present. To foster this new adjunct of popular education should now become one of the main self-imposed duties of school officials throughout the county, for thus will be given them the better classes of teachers- classes ever becom- ing stronger in their avocation from both study and experience. While a certain per cent of new teachers must continually be presented, it is not necessary that employment be given them because they are cheaper. The country districts especially suffer from this inimical policy, a policy which while it annually saves a few dollars, ruins cery often the educational capa- bilities of a child. The school-room blunders of experienced teachers are
501
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
often grievous and many; it is hence the hight of folly to subject a school to the immeasurably more disastrous ones of totally inexperienced teachers.
Passing from these general considerations to the purely historical phase of this chapter, it may be remarked that the progress in educational mat- ters and interest has been commensurate with the material growth of the county in other respects. The attention of the reader is now invited to a summary of this growth.
It must not be supposed that while the pioneers, who settled these prai- ries, were busy redeeming their wildness and surrounding themselves with domestic comforts, they forgot to plant the seeds of those institutions among which they were reared. As soon as a sufficient number of children could be gathered together, the school-house made its appearance, rude at first, like the primitive houses of the settlers, but adapted to the circumstances of the people in those times. Pioneer school-houses were usually log struc- tures, warmed in winter by fire-places similar to those in the pioneer houses. Slanting shelves were used for desks, along the walls, and in front of these were benches made of slabs. These were for the " big scholars." A row of similar benches stood in front of these, upon which the smaller pupils sat. The buildings were sometimes without doors, and paper was made to subserve the purpose of window glass. The books then in use were such as would not be tolerated now. They were well adapted to the capacities of those who had mastered the branches of which they treated, but not to those of beginners. The methods of teaching were then quite different from the present. The early settlers, as had been their fathers before them, were reared with full faith in the maxim, "spare the rod and spoil the child." The first teachers were usually anxious that pupils should not spoil on their hands, and many old men retain a vivid remembrance of what school disci- pline was in their boyhood.
An account of the exercises during half a day of school in the olden time would be amusing, though, in some respects, it is an open question whether modern customs are all great improvements. Many can remember that when word was passed around, "the master's comin'!" a grand scramble for seats occurred, so that every one was found in his seat, and a suspicious kind of order prevailed when the august dispenser of wisdom entered. It must be admitted, however, that notwithstanding the miserable text-books then in use, and in many respects, the awkward methods of teaching which prevailed, the schools of that period furnished some excellent scholars; per- haps, almost, a larger proportion than those of the present time. It is not meant that people then knew more; indeed, if the truth must be told, they knew far less. But ability to conquer intricate problems, and without aid,
.
502
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
is almost a thing of the past in the country school. More than is really necessary to, and applicable in. life, is now tanght, to be sure, and herein lies the great superiority of the common schools of to-day.
The chapter covering the history of "townships, towns and their growth," farther on in this work, will contain, in detail, so far as facts and tradition allow, much interesting matter in relation to the schools of the county in its early days -- the first ones established, the first school buildings and how they were provided, the early teachers, etc. The experience of carly day teachers is often interesting, and illustrate the progress which our ednea- tional system of to-day has made over that of years ago.
The following table shows the condition of the schools, in 1862. No records of the schools have been preserved, further back than that year, and some of the township reports of that year cannot be found.
AVERAGE MONTHLY SALARY.
SCHOLARS.
SCHOOL HOUSES.
TOWNSHIPS.
Number of schools.
Male teachers.
Male teachers.
Female teachers.
Male.
Female.
Enrolled,
Average attend-
Frame.
Log.
Value of school houses.
Salt Oreok
7
2
51
2|$20.00| $14.00 209|
195
3551
175 $
1
5|$ 1
505
Soap Creek
216
5
3
22.00
12.80
210
221
417
189
4
775
Marion
10
3
2
3
515
Fox River
13
7
7
15.00
14.00
2631
279
415
198
.84
1
4
574
Drakeville
6
4
4
24.00
10.00
99
123
277
162
.56
3
550
Bloomfield.
9
23
4
5
20.00
12.00
188
168
291
193
1.10
3
900
Prairie.
3
3
3
3
27.00
10.00
134
112
174
124
.76
3
1,100
Roscoe
5
21%
3
2
19.33
13.80
89
82
151
85
.88
5
1,240
Grove
8
21/2
6
4
20.00
14.00
222
210
306
135
1.00
5
1
800
Fabius
9
21/2
8
]
18.09
12.00
253
247
471
245
.52
5
710
Bloomfield City
1
2
2
48.00.
20 00
196
204
264
192
1.12
3,200
Total
79
50 38
2064 2025 3548 1814
28
19 $10,869
Average
3
$23.84 $13.26
$ .82|
181
181
427
116
Cost per pupil per month.
Average length in months.
7 9-2 00 15 Female teachers. 5
Between! 5 and
21.
ance.
.84 .60
Bloomfield city had two brick school buildings.
503:
HISTORY OF DAVIS COUNTY.
The following table shows the condition of the schools in 1879:
TOWNSHIPS.
Number of schools.
Average length in months.
Msle teachers.
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