USA > Iowa > Harrison County > History of Harrison County, Iowa, including a condensed history of the state, the early settlement of the county together with sketches of its pioneers > Part 32
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Druggists-Charles Adair, Harris Giddings and Gilbert Pey- ton.
Merchants-Sammy Berkley, Homer Crane, Mortimer Dal- ley, Eli Houghton, George Kellogg, Edmond Maule, David Maule, Chas. Roberts and Herbert Taylor.
Loan Agents and Abstracters-Almor Stern, David Main and Leslie Sherman, and forty-one farmers of the following names: Blackmans, DeCou, Merchant, Mahoney, Ovaitt, Rice, Ray- monds, Schwertly, etc. It must not be understood that all these finished their studies preparatory to taking up that of the dif- ferent professions and varied vocations in life, but that at this place the germ was engrafted into the warp and woof of each, which in time at such other places as Cornell, Iowa City, Tabor, etc., was made to blossom and bear the fruit at last indicated.
During the time this school was in being from 1870 to 1877,
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
there attended this school 266 different scholars, the greater por- tion of whom went out into the varied stations of life, some as professional men, others as bankers, teachers, county officers, and loan agents, though the greater part as farmers. All have succeeded well in life, and to the knowledge of the author hereof, not one of all the pupils who have attended this schoo ·has ever committed an act by which a reproach has been brought upon his or her character, here or elsewhere.
The first building of any superior pretensions, after that at Magnolia, was the one erected in Missouri Valley, about the year 1874, which was constructed of brick at a cost of quite $14,000. This building at the time the same was in process of con- struction, was by many of the people in that little city, and by men of reasonable judgment, deemed quite too large and expen- sive for the wants of the place; but the unexpected growth of this location soon convinced these of their error in judgment and by 1885, the Board let a contract for another building at the west end of the town at a cost of $9,000, which was completed by the spring term of 1887; this, though costing the taxpayers and patrons of this vicinity the sum last named, drew from the bondsmen of the contractor $3,000 more, which by reasonable equity should be paid by the Independent School District. The Independent School District of Missouri Valley has buildings costing the sum of $26,000, and are of that tasty and substan- tial character which recommends the judgment and foresight of those to whom was intrusted the business of providing for the wants of the locality in the way of school buildings.
At the present time the following named persons constitute the School Board, viz .: J. S. Wattles, President; J. S. Dewell, Secretary; M. Holbrook, Treasurer; and E. Edgcomb, S. S. Boner, E. J. Chapman, C. P. Brandruff and C. J. Carlisle.
The principal and teachers are as follows, viz .: E. M. Cole- man, Superintendent; Ida A. Mosher, teacher High School; Nellie Bell, Grammar Department; Ella Bell, Intermediate; Mrs.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
Sniff, Third Primary; Nellie Powers, same as last named; Rachael Bunning Second Primary; Jennie Carpenter, primary.
In these buildings there are ten rooms, with ten teachers and the one Superintendent, for which the patrons pay the sum of $7,500 per year, viz .: Superintendent $1,200, each teacher $510. The number of scholars enrolled therein is 575.
This is one of the best schools in the county, and is highly prized by the residents of the place.
DUNLAP,
Within the past decade experimented on a normal school, but for some reason, whether because of the want of ability and conditions of those who attempted the experiment, the undertaking failed, is not recorded, nevertheless, after a trial of over one year there was a failure, and the normal school col- lapsed. Yet, from this undertaking a good resulted to the town in the way of calling the attention of the business men of the locality to the real wants of the case in the way of commodious, tasty and comfortable buildings. It can be truthfully said that Dunlap has the handsomest, most commodious and best arranged school building of any locality in the county at the present writ- ing.
This building was erected in the year of 1880, and at the cost of, or is now valued at $20,000; is brick, two stories, centrally located, and in the way of teachers, Superintendent and other expenses, costs the Independent District per year, the sum of $6,000. There are at the present time 419 pupils on the rolls of the school, and governed and taught by the following persons: M. A. Reed, Superintendent; Miss Jennie M. Clement, High School; Miss Lillie Christie, Grammar Department; Miss Mary Devitt, Second Intermediate; Miss Nellie Gilchrist, First Inter- mediate; Miss Grace Cowdry, Second Primary; Mrs. R. L. Childs, First Primary.
The Board of Directors are as follows, viz .: G. P. Morehead,
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
President; M. C. Dalley, Treasurer; R. Ballard, Secretary; B. J. Moore, J. B. Patterson, L. A. Sherman and E. Barrett.
This building, as well as the school, is an especial pride of the residents of this thrifty village, and if handsome school build- ings and good talent in the school rooms mark the taste and intelligence of a people, this locality, without doubt, has the evi- dence always at hand to prove beyond successful contradiction that no community in the county can surpass them.
LOGAN.
This Independent School District is as well to the front in the matter of school buildings, tastily laid out grounds and general conveniences as any of the other places in the county. In fact those who have taken upon themselves the burden of the school . interests of the place have neither spared time or money to prop- erly, and I might say, lavishly provide for all the wants of the patrons of the school in the way of first class privileges. The school building is centrally located, has large spacious grounds in the very best place in the town, and has been beautified and adorned with fences, shubbery, sidewalks, etc., to the full capac- ity thereof. Ninety per cent of the pupils attending the school need not step from a good, clean sidewalk on the way to or from the school building. There is one thing that the people of the town take a deep and abiding interest in, and that is in the appearance of their school rooms and the sidewalks leading thereto. The school building at Logan was erected in the Cen- tennial year, and cost the taxpayers of the locality the sum of $10,870. It is a substantial brick building, built by Mr. John Hammer, of Council Bluffs, is of the latest style and possessed of all the latest appliances and conveniences extant, and heated by furnaces. This school has been carefully superintended by some of the best minds which this State afforded, in the person of Professor S. G. Rogers, now of Washington, D. C. Professor Rogers gave directions to this school for an unbroken period of
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
nine years and had a love for the same bordering on adoration, and as a result he entered into all the minutia of the entire charge with a zeal very commendable, and which during all the time of his employment gave such evidences of his superior skill that all are now compelled to admit that the subject of these remarks could scarcely be excelled for ability in both the matter of governing and teaching. The people of Logan have a great pride in their schools, and are so ambitious in respect thereto, that they are determined that while there may be some that are equal, none shall be superior to this. The cost of maintaining this school for the present year is $5,763.10, giving employment to one Superintendent and the following teachers:
Professor C. S. Page, Principal; Mrs. Adele Card, Grammar Department; Mrs. E. L. Page, Intermediate; Mrs. Mary Mike- sell, Second Primary; Miss Allie McCoid, First Primary; Miss Belle Wylie, Assistant First Primary; Mr. Stephen King, Inter- mediate and Primary.
The number of pupils on the roll is 290.
The present Board of Directors are as follows:
Hon. P. Cadwell, President; George W. Wilson, Secretary; John W. Read, Treasurer; P. R. Crosswait, D. M. Hardy, W. B. Copeland, George Penney and W. W. Milliman.
WOODBINE NORMAL SCHOOL.
The Woodbine Normal School at Woodbine is an institution for the preparation of teachers and for furnishing young men and women a business education. The establishing of this school grew out of the necessity for more extended and more thorough work in the common branches than are furnished in the common and graded schools.
In Jannary, 1887, the plan for such a school was presented to the people of Woodbine by Messrs. Kinney, Matter and Riddell, then the school principals of this county, who proposed to estab- lish the school if the town would furnish a suitable building.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
The proposition was accepted and a substantial brick building with seven departments, heated by steam, was ready for use by September, costing $13,754. The curriculum embraces three departments, namely, a normal department, for the professional training of teachers; an academic department for those who desire to prepare to enter the higher classes in college or the university, and a business department where young men may qualify themselves for any branch of mercantile business in which they may wish to engage. The school has the superior advantage of being connected with the public schools of Wood- bine, in which the normal students have the privilege of teaching under direction of experienced instructors. The enrollment in these three departments has already reached 100, and with the encourage- ment and patronage the school merits the number will soon be doubled. The cost of tutition is seven dollars per term which is the only charge of any kind made. The instructors are, C. C. Matter, mathematics and book-keeping; H. A. Kinney, natural sciences and science of teaching; W. O. Riddell, history, literature and rhe- torical studies; Marie Waldt Riddell, French and German, voice culture and superintendent of Kindergarten department; Causine Kern, instructor in instrumental music; Anna Kern, teacher of painting and art drawing. The location is not excelled by any in the state for healthfulness, purity of atmosphere and water, morals of the inhabitants and facilities of railroad trayel.
This should meet the encouragement which the merits of the faculty suggest from the fact that the ability and experience of those who have undertaken this enterprise are of the first order. The Board of Directors of this Independent District have done all in their power in the way of furnishing the best and most im- proved buildings and under the supervision of the faculty and pres- ent board failure seems impossible. As before stated, not one year has passed since the undertaking first originated, and up to the present the success of the same has more than met the expectation of those who matured and carried into being, the plan. Those
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
who are contemplating the education of their children are watch- ing this undertaking as it is struggling into existence, and should the success be such as is contemplated, the wants of the place will soon demand other and greater buildings than now at hand. This should meet the approval of every parent in the county, for here there is furnished a means of education at the very threshold of every home, and advantages equal to that of any at a distance.
Faculty-H. A. Kinney, natural science; W. O. Riddell, liter- ature and rhetoric; C. C. Matter, mathematics and book keeping; Miss Ella Minturn, principal of practice school; Marie Waldt Rid- dell, French, German and voice culture; Miss Causine Kern, instrumental music; Miss Anna Kern, painting and art drawing.
Board of Education-Geo. H. Kibler, President; T. L. Can- field, Secretary; H. M. Bostwick, Treasurer; George A. Mathews, J. S. Vanscoy, D. T. Lyon, Matthew Hall, Geo. H. Rathbun.
LITTLE SIOUX,
In 1878, built a large school house, and furnished the same with the latest and most approved furniture which could be had, so that when the same was completed and furnished, no locality in the county was better supplied with good, tasty, comfortable school rooms than this place. This building cost the sum of $3,000, to which add the cost of the furniture, would give an amount of $4,000. There is not in the entire county a more beautiful location for a school building than that at the village of Little Sioux, from the fact of the near proximity of the same to the Little Sioux River. Near the school house, the high, grassy and shady banks of the above-named river keep the waters thereof prisoner as the deep current sweeps along in silent grandeur, the handsomely planned, growing and thrifty artifical groves, together with the presence of such a volume of water so moistens, and cools, and softens the atmosphere that the burning, biting and blistering rays of the summer's hottest sun is scarcely perceptible.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
This village, like all others in the county, guards the school interests with watchful and jealous care, and selects none but the best teachers for training its youth. At the present time there are four teachers employed and hard at work in this lauda- ble vocation, viz .:
C. W. Hargens, Principal; Miss Agnes Bonney, Miss Anna Arthur and Miss L. M. Gamet, Assistants. The cost of maintain- ing this school for the present year is $2,375. Number of pupils on the rolls 167.
MONDAMIN.
This place, being situated in the very center of the banner corn-growing part of all the West, and backed by such a farm- ing community, and having a trade that rivals many other places of greater population, has not been unmindful of the importance of the benefits resulting from a well-regulated school. In this place the school buildings have not kept pace with the importance and growth of the locality, but having at a time in the past furnished a house, it was thought that the same would answer the purposes for the present, and thus at a near day in the future shall dispose of and substitute a new one which would far surpass that of any other place of like size in the county. The character of the patrons of the schools in this place is such that this opinion is not without foundation, for in the near future there will be such a school building in Mondamin as will surpass any in towns of like size in the county. This place, though not having the best school buildings in the county, has a class of teachers which is not second to any in the county. The progress of this school, as I am credibly informed, leads many others where there are greater amounts expended year by year in the furtherance of the cause of common school education. At this place they employ two teachers, and the schools cost the tax-payers $1,000 per year, and at the present there are two teachers, viz .: Miss S. L. Logan and Miss Maggie Ellis. Number of scholars enrolled, 125.
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
The School Board, viz .: R. S. Walker, President; Thos. MacFarlane, Secretary; S. H. Noyes, Treasurer, and H. P. Kidder.
PERSIA,
Scarcely a ten-year-old, is ambitious and has made rapid prog- ress in the way of schools and school facilities, from the fact that scarcely had the village been named and a half a score of residents settled there, until the subject of " schools " was upper- most in the minds of her people.
In 1884 the school building was erected, and is a large, well- planned, commodious and comfortable structure, costing the sum of $2,000. The people of this beautifully located village have exhibited much enterprise in the establishment and main- tenance of their schools, and have selected and employed as teachers only those of excellent qualifications and ripe experience, who, in return for the expenditure, have given to the patrons of the school a good consideration in the way of rapidly advancing the pupils who have been intrusted to their care. The people of Persia think, and have good cause upon which to found their conclusions, that they have as good a school as this county pos- sesses, barring those that teach the higher studies.
In this school there are employed the following teachers, viz .: C. L. Crow, Principal; Miss Vernia Irving, Intermediate; Miss Hattie Hatch, Primary; Miss Laura Brick, Music, and Miss Hattie Hatch, Drawing and Painting.
Those on the school rolls number 120, and the cost of support- ing this school for the present year is $1,360.
The School Board at present is composed of the following per- sons, viz .: C. A Brace, President; M. Matson, Secretary; David Chambers, Treasurer, and W. D. Bullard.
There is a great difference between the schools of the present day and those taught at the time Mr. J. B. McCurley, Thos. B. Neeley, Judge King and others, began teaching in the county. However, in regard to the progress of schools, if the same has
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
kept step with all other conditions, it is as much as could be rea- sonably expected of any people. The country was then a sea of flowers and prairie, nearly uninhabited, with a promising future, but far from civilization; no railroads within 500 miles, the mar- kets only those of domestic demand. At the present no locality is better supplied with railroad facilities, rushing, energetic, goaheada tive and moral inhabitants, a place where every pros- pect pleases, and all join in the furtherance of every undertaking which has for its object the advancement of educational inter- ests. With these conditions, who could wonder at the present transformation? Then not a dollar of public money by which to maintain the schools, the county then being unorganized; now with $5,514,229 to tax for the support of the educational necessi- ties of the youth of the county, is certainly in happy contrast with the conditions of the beginning. This thought is learned, that wherever two, three or four or more families of American origin of the North settle, the secondary thought is how to edu- cate the children. If there are public funds, then so much the better; but in case of the absence of this, then they readily tax themselves, and the common school goes on as regularly as if all things were furnished by the public. I have thought that, with the present condition of our schools, and the manner in which they are prized by the parent, these privileges are not appreci- ated by the pupils, because there is so much of this injected into the life of the young, unmixed with the rough, hard toil, which so often drives the student to double energy in the obtainment of an education, that the school room or place of study becomes distasteful and insipid, and hence there is a drag, and but little is accomplished.
In 1875, the people of the county paid $9,810.66, as county school tax, and the further sum of $59,712.93 district school tax, making a total for the schools and buildings of the county, the sum of $69,523. At this time the total tax of the county, for all purposes, was $139,470.09, so that nearly one-half of all the
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
taxes paid for this year were for the purposes of supporting and providing for the schools therein.
In 1876, there were in this county fifteen district townships; twenty-nine independent districts, seventy-three suh-districts, ninety-seven ungraded and seven graded schools, employing 85 male and 128 female teachers, during which year there were 5,052; 2,549 males, and 2,503 females of school age in the county, of which only 3,052 were enrolled as scholars in these schools. At the same time there were ninety-eight frame, six brick, and one log school houses, the values of all added, made the total of values $80,610, and value of apparatus in use at these, $2,844. By adding to the above the sum of $69,523, the amount that was paid to this county for the year of 1876, as per quota of the per- manent school fund, coming from the State, viz .: $2,435.35, tells the amount which the people of the county expended dur- ing that year for the support of her schools, viz .: $71,958.35, which for a new county is proof positive that the common school interest was very near the heart of the people.
In 1885 the number of district townships was 15, and inde- pendent districts 41, with 87 sub-districts in the 15 district townships, in all of which there were 123 ungraded and 31 graded schools. During this year there were 67 males and 224 females employed at teaching in the county. At this time the persons of school age in the county were, 3,558 males and 3,516 females; total 7,084; of whom 5,613 were enrolled in the schools, leaving more than one in six that never entered the school room as scholars. Then there were 124 frame and 7 brick school build- ings of the value of $105,410, and apparatus to the value of $4,743, to which add 747 volumes in the different libraries.
In 1887 there were 15 district townships, 35 independent dis- tricts, 123 ungraded and 10 graded schools employing 48 male and 219 female teachers. At the same time there were 3,751 males and 3,567 females of school age in the county, amounting to 7,318, of which 5,585 were enrolled as pupils, leav- 27
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
ing one in every eight that did not enter the school room. At the same year there were 132 frame and 7 brick school buildings used and owned by the public, of the total value of $126,480, and school apparatus of the value of $3,355; and during the year there was of the public funds expended in the way of building school houses the sum of $13,312.44; and paid to teachers as their salaries $45,494.44, and as contingent expenses in main- taining schools the sum of $16,792.10, making the sum of $58,806.88 expended alone for schools, to which add the amount expended for building houses for the same time; the people of the county paid out as cash obtained by taxation during the past year the sum of $75,598.98. To the reader I submit the propo- sition: Has the income from this expenditure equalled the expec- tation? Not waiting for an answer, I will give it myself, by saying that our boys and girls of the present age so far as a knowledge of the elementary branches are concerned, at fifteen are much riper than a vast majority of voters formerly were at twenty- five and thirty; and historically are well advanced. In some other page of this book I have stated that a professional gentleman in Harrison county, in 1857, did not know the difference between the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of In- dependence, but to-day there is not a school boy in this county but can tell the difference as soon as two lines of either are read in his hearing. The War of the Rebellion was a great incentive toward the education of the masses, and this was accomplished through the great educator, the Public Press, so that the intelli- gence of the present age should not be measured by that of the past. The conditions have been unequalled: i. e., incentives as well as opportunities. The parents have had a largeness of intelli- gence to hew out and build up a new country, provide for all tem- poral and religious and educational wants of the children, but the sequel remains to be written. Will our girls and boys be proportionately better than their parents?
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HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY.
TEACHERS' INSTITUTES
have had an existence in the county for the last twenty years, but up to 1871 but little record is found on which to found a beginning. At this date the full force of the pedagogue element was in line, which in a manner indicated the strength and abil- ity of this important fraction of the future, and since that date has convened year by year until the proportions of this element of society have given the index finger as to the future of the county and fraction of country. Since 1875 these yearly con- ventions of those who had selected the business of teaching as a vocation in life have increased in volume until there assembles in these yearly meetings 125 to 150 persons who interchange thought as to the best modes of teaching, as well as give to the County Superintendent an opportunity of measuring the depth of qualification of those who are candidates for this all-import- ant position.
Since the repeal of the law making it obligatory on all teach- ers to attend these institutes, there has not been that attendance and ability of teachers that preceded this, from the fact that all the older teachers in the county could scarcely donate three or four weeks of time as well as the expense consequent, when the wages of the teacher at the end of the year scarcely equaled that of the common farm hand whose only knowledge consisted in the guidance of the plow and the best manner of squander- ing his time so as best consume the same and hurry up the day of payment. During the last two preceding institutes, the per- sons enrolled have been young candidates starting out to win their spurs in the teaching tournament, and many of the older ones have only taught so as to procure a wedding outfit or so replenish their finances as to pull through a collegiate educa- tion. The younger teachers are the ones benefited by these meetings. What the seniors throw off the juniors absorb. During these institutes much could be learned, and some do accept the opportunity, while many others take this as an oppor-
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