USA > Iowa > Fremont County > History of Fremont County, Iowa : containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of many of its leading citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion, general and local statistic, portraits of early settlers and prominent men, history of Iowa and the Northwest, map of Fremont County, constitution of the state of Iowa, reminiscences, miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 53
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It is the essence of christianity that it be aggressive. It wars upon vice in all its forms, and brooks not the very appearance of evil. Checked, and for the time being thwarted in one direction, it only gathers energy for a greater onset in another, prepares and plumes itself for a more sub- lime flight. If men will not embrace its offered salvation, it goes to them with invitation and warning. This missionary element of christianity alone enabled its propagation under circumstances so trying; and the men who were its ambassadors were thoroughly imbued with the same spirit that sent Paul into Asia and Luke to the Gentiles. It was the same spirit that prompted those noble men of God to hie them away to the jungles of Asia, or brave the wilds of Africa-men whose names make bright the pages of the church militant, and will add a brighter lustre to the church triumphant. What though its story lacks somewhat of the tragic brilliancy of political intrigue and plotting; what though it has not startled the world by those grand discoveries that make science so great a power in the land-discoveries that enable us to tell the myriad stars that people space, that impress us with wonder at the power and greatness of the In- finite! What though it partakes of the nature of none of them? Has it not reached down into hundreds of hearts, and made happier hundreds of homes? Has it not moulded character and rescued the fallen? Has it not brought to bear on man's intelligence the highest motives to virtue? Let the records of the past years testify to its power. Let the hallowed memories that stretch aback down the years of the past answer. This, too, was done when gilded churches were not; when the elect of God in the common school room listened to the life-giving word from the lips of men sent of God. And who were these men? Were they not morally brave to dare the scoffs of an untried and untempered west? Were they not men whose love for the fallen outweighed every personal consideration so that they gave all for Christ? Where was their power? Was it not in that element of a truly noble character that men prize above all else- sympathy? Aye, and that was the principle which made the Son of God so welcome a visitant in the lowly homes of Palestine. It was a principle which bound their own hearts, as it did Christ's, to those in suffering or distress. Here in these scenes of toil and strife, afar from the busy life of great cities, that mysterious power gave these holy men access to hearts and homes; an access that paved the way to conquests greater than an
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Alexander or a Napoleon ever achieved-conquests that marked their track, not with fire and blood and sword, but with tears, and vows, and resolutions which have culminated in many glorious lives. What was done stands before the reader to-day. What to do, the line of duty plainly indicates. How well their trust has been executed, how nobly their mis- sion accomplished, none so well as the residents of this county know. In view of the grand work so well done, under the guidance of Providence, we may exclaim, in the language of the great apostle Paul, " O, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How un- searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. "
TEMPERANCE.
There is a suggestion of the completest misery in the bare mention of this word. That not only men but women, in an advanced period of civilization-men and women who not only profess but very frequently act upon a high code of morals-should indulge in fostering a love for strong drink, with scarcely a protest, is one of the most startling facts in moral history. It is, however, perfectly normal and in no degree incon- sistent with the doctrine of natural moral perceptions, while it opens out fields of ethical inquiry of very deep, though painful interest. It is here proper, perhaps, to explain more fully the meaning of this last sentence, but in its explanation is involved, in not a few cases, the cause of a life made unhappy by drink. By natural moral perceptions is meant heredi- tary proclivities, hereditary likes and dislikes. If, in the modern pscy- chology there is any one fact thoroughly substantiated it is that mental habits and individual tastes not only may be but actually are transmitted through several or long lines of generations. And among these may be included diseases and the germs of disease, aberrant mental peculiarities and tastes for enjoyments or sensual indulgences that are in themselves demoralizing and damning. From time immemorial men have indulged in the fruit of the vine or its product, have sedulously employed intoxicat- ing beverages, first as stimulants, then for the mental pleasure or exhilira- tion they confer, and why? Oftentimes through hereditary desires and then again from sheer determination to cultivate a taste for these beverages on the recommendation or example of others. And so the tide has ever increased, and with it has increased the amount of human woe, wrong and crime. Vain have been all attempts to stay the tide; vain have been protestations and entreaties; vain has been prohibitory legislation; in the natural order of things the disease-for it is nothing else-has fastened itself upon the human race, and there is no outside power that can stay it.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Locked in the heart of the victim of strong drink is the only safeguard, the only potent agency to stay the tide, and that agency is self-will. We may hedge the sufferer round with the arm of the law, may bring to his aid all the moral forces we can muster, may present the incentive of virtue or the example of pure living, all of these would be in vain until the man rises in his might and asserts his manhood, his power over himself. The mightiest barrier a man can oppose to the sway of passion or to the bent of inbred desire is self-knowledge. The old Greek proverb of "know thyself," meant more than a mere index to a true philosphy of the mind; it pointed to the only sure safeguard within the possession of man against crime and against self-abuse in any direction.
Sad, indeed, has been the temperance history of the human race. Who could tell the myriads of brave hearts and noble minds which have fallen as victims to its absence, lives untold have been wrecked, possibilities unmeasurable have been defeated, promises without number brought to nought, hopes on which rested the joys of millions have been wrested away, claims which pure hearts only could meet have gone unsatisfied, and homes without number have been depleted of all that is bright or holy in life. There was little exaggeration after all in the beautiful hyper- bole of Hume, when writing of this same topic, who said: "To tell the savages of this curse it would require the heavens for a canvass, the oceans for color, the forests for a pencil and a Job for the artist."
To measure the value of an opinion or a system it is not alone sufficient to examine the ideas of its origination, it requires rather a knowledge of how far that ideal has been realized among the people. Its value as a savior must bereckoned by the work done, ratherthan the good intentions or hopes of the founders. Measured by this criterion little has been done in Fremont county. From almost its earliest formation there have been organizations-church and special-and what has been accomplished? Nothing! The Washingtonian movement swept over the county and many, for the time being, were gathered in its folds; it was gone, and the safe. guards went with it. The creeds have been tried, but are powerless to stay the cravings of the unholy thirst, or take away the inborn desire. The Good Templars have had their day,-but refusing the priviliges of their order to those who most needed their help-forming themselves into a kind of righteous aristocracy-aside from ostentatious bluster-and blunder-they accomplished nothing, The strong arm of the law has been appealed to, only to be overwhelmingly defeated by both grand and petit juries; the interest and religion of men have alike been sought with a cor- responding result. Temperance congresses and conferences have met, talked, prayed, passed resolutions-some of which never found the light- and were forgotten. Namesinnummerable have been presented to legislative bodies in the form of petitions, and when the opportunity came to vote
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
for rum it was eagerly seized, and their record on the petition forgotten. Away with these ideas! They have resulted in more hypocrites and made more pseudo-reformers than all the cloisters of Europe ever sent forth. What is needed is action like that of the woman of Ohio-who, when her recreant brother trembled and excused himself, went forth axe in hand to do valiant battle. Out of the heart of Ohio came the impetus that has saved more men than all the temperance organizations-and woman led the van. If some of her sex lead men to ruin, there are thosands more who may lead them to virtue and sobriety. They are the only bright feature in the temperance history of this county, and to them must be given the praise for all that has been wrought.
EDUCATIONAL.
The citizens of the county may look with just pride upon the progress of education and educational appliances since Major Wm. R. English taught the first school in the cabin near Lovelady's until the present day. And yet there has been reproduced on a much smaller scale, what has actually occurred everywhere in the history of the race. Indeed, there is nothing more remarkable in our time than the great advance in the matter and methods of education. This has necessitated new modes of mental culture, 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 philosophical facts 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 educational cur- riculum of the common school. Time was, and not far back, when the " three R's" were deemed the only essentials of an education; when to be merely a fair reader and mediocre writer was the ultima thule of the educational possibilities of the day. This has changed, and the history of the change is one of that long struggle against the prejudices of the old- est methods of old-fangled New England, a struggle in which we were interested; a struggle that comes to us laden with the accumulated facts of ages, heavy with years yet beneficent in influence; a struggle in which opinions covered with honors have been marched off the stage of action and supplanted by facts and principles which it has cost years of toil to discover, and more years to establsh.
The result of all these is that it is now not only conceded, but very gen- erally demanded that the teacher should be subjected to a thorough course of training before commencing to discipline other minds. To meet this
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
end not only have normal schools been established and normal courses added to the curriculum of the colleges, but summer normals, at the ex- pense and under the auspices of the several counties, have been established to meet a demand ever growing greater. The raison d'etat 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 occu- pies but partly the high place of an apostle of complete civilization -- for noth- ing 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 demand for this highest type of teachers, arises not only from an unconsciousness of the immeasurable value they are of to mankind, but also from the imperfect style of teachers that now stand before the public.
There is probably no question in which the citizens of a county are so directly interested as this same one of teachers of known and tried ability. The time has long since passed when any person could teach school. The claims of to-day can no longer be met by the appliances of even a decade ago, for experience is beginning to show that teaching, like every other department of human thought and activity, must change with the changing conditions of society, or it will fall in the rear of civilization, and become an obstacle to improvement. The educational problem of the day is how to get more meaning into the training of the schools; as meaning that shall excite the growthful mind to the highest type of intel- lectual activity and vigor that shall educate for lasting national life. A nation's safty lies wrapped up in the intelligence of its people. And as the scope of human activity and thought are ever widening, so the claims of culture are ever increasing, and the state has the right to expect due attention to them from its constituency. By the general diffusion of knowl- edge only is it possible to put wisdom at the helm of state; keep medioc- rity out of responsible offices; remove corruption from places of trust; banish vice and peculance and so sweeten the fountains of public morality that justice 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 interests of indi- viduals." Nothing is more foreign to a true spirit of culture and progress, or more fruitful of invidious results, than that the matter and aim of edu- cation 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 improvement or correction.
An illustration from that kind of labor to which our country owes its institutions and its perpetuity-husbandry-may be in point. In early ages the products of agriculture were thought to be the gifts of various divinities, who gave or withheld according to their caprice. The golden
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
grain was the special bounty of Ceres-just as Minerva bestowed the olive and Bacchus the wine. The seed grains did not quicken except by favor of the rural god, who kept watch and ward over this process; their sheep and their bees were under the guardianship of Pan, and a troop of frolic fauns 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 untold miasm and death, are con- stantly eliminated from the air he breathes-taken up by the lungs of the vegetable system, and transmitted into valuable and useful forms. Now, his culture comes to temper the austere sky, his enterprise rolls back the forests like a scroll, and there appears a more genial sun, until the frozen circle itself seems pushed northward, and abundance smiles where unas- sisted nature was stern, and niggard, and unfruitful. The field of improvement is yet boundless, 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 ceasless change, how restless atoms pass From life to life, a transmigrating mass,"
to that of to-day when men's thoughts are turned outward toward Nature seeking the cause and explanation of its phenomena, not in the "influence of the gods who haunt the lurid interspace of world on world, where never creeps a cloud nor moves a wind, nor ever falls the least white star of snow, nor ever lowest roll of thunder moans, nor sound of human sor- row mounts to mar their sacred everlasting calm,"-but in Nature itself. Men are bound to question Nature, and where shall that questioning better begin than in the common school room, surrounded by proper and appro- priate influence, and under the guidance of skilled and trained teachers. The work of such a teacher will be more than a mere perfunctory dis- charge of mechanical duties; such a teacher will never be content with the orderly management and systematic communication of other people's results. The great Agassiz recognized 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 or district school, otherwise learn to read the truths that lie like diamonds on every hand, or nod smilingly out from every flower? Said
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Louis Agassiz: "The time seems to have come when to the received methods and approved topics of popular education, such branches of physical and natural science should be added as have acquired real import- ance 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 introduce 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 organize a special normal school for the training of scientific 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 eventful periods of intel- lectual and moral history, when this oft-closed gate of discovery and reform stand open at their widest. How long these good days may last none can tell. It may be that the increasing power and range of the scientific method, with its stringency of argument and constant check of fact, may start the world on a more steady and continuous course of progress than it has moved on heretofore. 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 opportunities, that even when in future years progress is arrested, or checked it may be, it may be arrested at 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 or is over-looked-that of the superintendency. It is now a recognized fact that a system, the workings of which are as complicated as is our common-school system, needs some responsible head to which the teacher in trouble or in doubt may appeal. This is found in the high- est school office 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 indespensable to the working of the system as now constituted, and is more effective, and most effective when fitness is consid- ered as the sole recommendation. It is not only a notorious, but a disgrace- ful fact that the aims of the office are defeated by party ends, and its use- fulness abridged by unwise partisan selections. 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 flagrant error. To insure the efficiency of the office, men of sterling worth, tried in school methods and able to direct, should be elected, and the choice ought to be unanimous, and made with a view to the high- est interest of the patrons of the school.
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
A comparison of statistics of 1856 with those of to-day will serve to illustrate the progress made in educational matters and evince the care which has been bestowed on them.
There were, by the census of that year, but three professional teachers in the county. They were distributed as follows: one each in Sidney, Fisher and Franklin townships. To these professional teachers the edu- cational interests of the county were entrusted. It should be remembered, however, that there were others who taught-or rather kept-school dur- ing either the summer or winter months, but aside from the few paltry dollars they saw in it, had no interest in their occupation, and were con- stantly leaving the teacher's ranks for other and perhaps more remunera- tive employment. Greater permanency in the vocation of teaching must obtain, or talent and culture cannot be induced to enter, nor to 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 possess the requisite qualification, let them allow no moneyed nor any other con- sideration 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 philoso- phy.
A feature in this county that aids in furthering its educational interest is the normal or teacher's institute, now held annually in the county under the guidance of experienced directors. The county superintendent, Miss Alice Williams, has vigorously co-operated in the matter of teacher's institutes, and her intelligent enthusiasm has infused new life into the attend- ing teachers.
The educational statistics for 1880, ending with October, are here given. They are a summary of the standing of the county; the particulars of each township are given under its proper subdivision.
TABLE OF STATISTICS FOR 1880.
Number of district townships 13
independent district3 17
sub-districts . 96
graded schools. 7
6: ungraded schools 112
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
EXAMINATION OF TEACHERS.
Certificates issued (first grade) males
19
66
females 28
66
(second grade) males 16
66
females 41
Total number issued to males
35
females 69
Grand total 104
Number of visitations to schools. 145
Compensation from January to October $681.00
NORMAL INSTITUTES.
The last institute was the most successful one' held in the county. It convened July 5, 1880, at the county seat, and continued in session during the following three weeks. The total number of student-teachers enrolled was 104, of which number 25 were males, and 79 females. The receipts for the institute fund were $719.25, and the total expenses $372.50, leav- ing a balance of $346.75. This fund has since been increased until it has reached something more than $400.00. It would be hard to over-estimate the permanent value of these annual gatherings; but one thing is yet needed to add to their usefulness; it is that more extended and better sys- tematized course, of study be insisted upon. The work is yet too desul- tory, with too much aimlessness, and needs to be directed to more specific ends. There should be instutited a graded course of study -- extending through two or even four years, and the student should be held closely to sole work and be expected to complete the same. Teachers are needed, and there is ever a place for those who are competent to fill the place with honor and usefulness. Away with the pretenders, with those whose motives are mercenary, who are not alive to the grand opportunities of the school room, and who do not appreciate their power.
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN LOCUST.
The earliest account of the ravages of locusts, descriptive of the ter- rible calamities they have caused to mankind, appears in the Bible in the Book of Joel, chapter II. Judging from the account there given, which is doubtless somewhat exaggerated, it was the first visitation known to the semi-civilized Jews. The first account after the statement of Joel is that of Ororius, who says that in the year 3800 certain regions in North
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HISTORY OF FREMONT COUNTY.
Africa were visited by monstrous swarms; the wind blew them into the sea, and the bodies washed ashore "stank more than the corpses of a hun- dred thousand men." St. Augustine later mentions a locust plague which occurred in the Kingdom of Masinissa, and resulting in a famine and pestilence, caused the death of about 800,000 men. According to Mouffet, in 1478 the region about Venice was subjected to an invasion and a result- ing famine caused the death of 30,000 people.
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