History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 55

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879

USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 55

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

"The little world in which I found myself seemed to revolve about our lib- erty pole, as we then called the flag staff which stood high in the center of our public square. Those were intensely patriotic days just after the war, and I yet recall the thrill that went through me, an imaginative child of only a few years, when on special days I awoke in the morning to find the stars an stripes float- ing proudly from our liberty pole. The patriotism seemed to be in the very air we breathed, and no one was too young or too old to ignore it or to withstand its force.

"Another liberty pole which excited my childish imagination and which seemed almost a living thing, stood in Cresco township, 'near the lone tree.' Here, my father told me, Cresco people held a celebration, in 1856, when the flag staff was erected. For over thirty years it stood alone on the prairie, at first proudly erect, a solemn monument of the intensity of feeling of our people in the North, which in 1856 was crystalizing and concentrating for the impend- ing struggle. With the weight of years the old liberty pole bent lower and lower, and when in the 'gos it fell crumbling on the prairie, with no eye to wit- ness its dissolution, it seemed a fitting symbol of the passing of that sectional bitterness which it seemed so difficult for us to give up, but which we realize must go, if we are to exist as one great family with common interests and a common future.

"The choice spot for our Fourth of July celebrations was in Rice's grove, "at Uncle Daniel's,' as we children familiarly put it, for the expressions 'Uncle Thomas,' 'Uncle Frank,' 'Uncle John,' 'Uncle Daniel' or 'Uncle Sylvester' came as readily to one child's lips as to another and were as readily understood.

"As a child, however, from a patriotic standpoint, the celebrations seemed to have made but a feeble impression upon me. I have a confused impression of a hot dusty crowd in the grove, hard seats of plank, a platform upon which men and women sat by a table with a pitcher of water and a glass, from which my thirsty young self saw them take frequent drinks; some shrill voice repeat- ing, 'When in the course of human events'-and the rest drowned in a con- fused hubbub of horses neigliing. fire crackers popping and babies crying, and then a long, dusty ride home, seated in a high, hard seat of a wagon, with tired little legs dangling disconsolately in the hot air. Yes, there were other occa- sions which I preferred to Fourth of July celebrations.

"In winter time, instead of dreading the cold. we loved the fierce storms that built drifts so one could walk for weeks over gates and fences on the hard crust, and nothing was so musical to our ears as the sharp crunch of the snow under our feet when the thermometer was ten or twenty degrees below zero. On the long winter evenings we cracked nuts around the fire and listened to the stories our fathers and mothers told of earlier days of danger and hardships, making them seem as heroes in our eyes.

"Perhaps the child of the real pioneer inherits more of the love of nature

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and appreciates the grandeur of God's great prairies and forests in a different degree from those who are born nearer the haunts of men. For myself, I would not exchange my childhood memories if I could, nor have them different in the slightest particular.

"My first study of the great economic question of supply and demand was commenced at the tender age of three. As a prelude to my study, a somewhat spirited discussion was participated in by my father and mother as to whether I had reached sufficient years of discretion to permit of my going to Mr. Paine's store alone to buy some tea. This was finally decided in the affirmative, and I followed the cow path to the public square and across to the store, meeting with no mishap, although I imagine my pink shaker was watched all the way by my mother's anxious eye.

"Mr. Paine was out of tea and, although I repeated my request for that com- modity in a loud and louder voice, thinking his failure to give me the tea was due perhaps to deafness on his part, I at length understood that he would have no tea until the next load of goods from Fort Dodge would arrive, and I de- parted, weeping loudly inside my pink shaker.

"Mr. Watson also kept a store at that time but all the recollection I have of it, except in a general way, is that when he closed out his mercantile business he found he had invested too heavily in lemon drops, which fact suddenly de- veloped in young Algona a remarkable friendship for Uncle and Auntie Watson and their three children. Gunther gets up some very delicious concoctions, but to my mind none of them ever approached in delectability those memorable lemon drops.

"And still speaking of stores, when I was extremely youthful I remember being taken with my parents to Irvington to do some trading at the store owned by Dr. Armstrong. If my memory fails me not, we bought a bolt of deep pink calico, with which the entire family was fitted out in new growns. This fashion was a prevalent one at that time, and made family ties more marked and the members more harmonious.

"But I am drifting away from our public square. At the west side was our courthouse, which was a two-story frame building, painted white. My only experience here was at our annual fair time, for there we held our county fairs Upstairs on long tables were exhibited the immense pumpkins and squashes which our virgin soil produced, and on other tables were the bed quilts of myriads of pieces, the stockings and tatting that our mothers made with such infinite pains.

"The county fair, I remember hearing my father say, was instituted in 1858 and either he or Mr. L. H. Smith was usually secretary, with the assistance of Mrs. Stacy, whose part it was to read the awards aloud at the close of the fair. In those days premiums were offered for the best farms, best field of corn, best gardens, houses, etc., and the committee would travel around the county making careful examination of each entry of this character. My father said the prem- ium for the best dooryard was invariably received by Mrs. Watson. The mod- ern methods of the various village improvement societies and women's clubs are not so original after all. They might find some new ideas by looking up our local history of forty years ago.

"And on the public square, on the long summer afternoons when business

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was not rushing, lest their blood should become too lethargic, our pioneer fathers and brothers indulged in spirited contests in the national game.

"Many an evening when supper time drew near and we looked in vain for the return of the head of the household, have I taken down the family 'spy-glass,' as it was called, and focusing it upon the public square, reported the progress of the game from my stand upon the front gate-post. The Smith brothers and my father were always prominent figures, also Mr. A. D. Clarke. Henry Dur- ant was catcher for one side, and being endowed by nature with special gifts, none could make more home-runs than he. Marc Robbins, the lawyer, Rufus Walston and Sam Plumley seemed to be always present. Elder Snyder, who died recently at Spirit Lake, played first base and was as forcible on the dia- mond as in the pulpit. He who could throw a ball over the Elder's head was considered an exceptional player, but C. B. Hutchins could do it. He was young and athletic and was a desirable addition to either side, as was also D. T. Smith.

"Among the many brave men who were with Grant at Vicksburg was one by the name of Miles, who, with his wife, came to Algona at the close of the war. A little later Mr. Miles opened a school in the town hall, where he received pupils of every age except the very youngest. These Mrs. Miles taught at her home, which was a little frame building located where the' Kain residence now stands, and it was there that I, with my youthful contemporaries, laid the foundation of my education. Here occurred many incidents in the way of both tragedy and comedy, but these had best be mostly buried in oblivion. One day was especially memorable. On the last day of the first term, after eating our noon lunch, which we always carried with us, Mrs. Miles removed the debris from our sticky little faces with unusual care, brushed out our hair, which had been tightly braided over night in order to produce the proper fluffi- ness, smoothly plastered down each little man's locks and marched us in proud procession to Mr. Miles' schools in the town hall. Here we were expected to listen respectfully to the brave eloquence of our seniors, and also to exhibit our own little budding talents. Two of tomorrow afternoon's orators appeared on the platform that afternoon and their eloquence that day was a faint prophecy of what the next generation might expect to enjoy and has enjoyed from the Demosthenes and Cicero of Mr. Miles' school.

"The next step in our education was at Miss Leonard's school, also in the town hall. Miss Leonard was a highly educated, cultured lady from the East, and her western visit was fortunate for the youth of Algona.

"One little incident in my own moral training during her regime is still a painful landmark in my memory. Miss Leonard had adopted in her school the perhaps questionable method of putting us all upon our honor, and at night call- ing the roll and allowing us to answer 'perfect,' or 'whispered,' as the case might be. For weeks I listened, at first with surprise and pained sorrow, and then with the slowly growing admiration at the audacity of some of the responses at roll- call. My own veracity so far had permitted of nothing but black marks, but I resolved my records should improve. As it was impossible to refrain from whis- pering, there was only one alternative. After my decision had been reached it took me several days to screw my courage up to the sticking place, but I was a child of resolution. One night after an unusually reckless day, when my name was called I sat erect in my seat as I had seen the others do, gazed unblinkingly Vol 1-27

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at Miss Leonard and plainly answered 'perfect.' Immediately every child in school, large and small, turned and looked at me, while a low, deeply aspirated chorus of protests caused my face to crimson. Burned in my memory to this day are the grieved expressions which I saw upon the faces of the little Stacys, Inghams, Smiths, Rists, Mackays, Calls, Hutchins, Blackfords and Hendersons who surrounded me. My punishment was complete and merited but just why my only offense should have been singled out, and their many acts of audacity go unpunished, has been one of the mysteries of my life.

"Just at this time the fashionable method among the big girls of expressing an undying friendship for each other was an exchange of buttons for a memory- string. Any style would do, from the smallest shirt button to the brass one from a soldier brother's uniform, the only requisite, being that it should be dif- ferent from any other button on the string. None of the girls in my class had memory strings to be proud of-our buttons always got lost, or borrowed or swallowed, but Emma Paine's and Ellen Durant's and Lizzie Reed's and Stella Hudson's and Ella Blackford's and Hattie Wilson's were memory strings worth possessing.

"Speaking of our schools seriously I have often wondered if the little crowd of young people who were growing up together at that particular epoch were not more especially favored in the way of gifted teachers than is usual in so small a town in a new country. Miss Leonard and her successor, Miss Wooster, who were our ideals and teachers for a number of years, were ladies of the highest type of eastern culture and education, and this together with their person- ality and strength of character made our contact with them in our early years beneficial to a high degree. Before Miss Wooster closed her private school the Algona Seminary, afterwards known as the Algona College, was opened and Miss Wooster soon became a member of the faculty, her old pupils going with her to the seminary.

"Among the many strong men at the head of the college at different periods was Prof. O. H. Baker, now American Consul in New Zealand, I believe. Pro- fessor Baker was a man of striking individuality and strong will and determina- tion, a splendid man for the position. Latin and Greek were his particular hobbies, and no child's age was considered too tender during his dynasty to stand in the way of his commencing these studies.

"During Professor Baker's presidency of the college there were over 125 students who came from all over northwest Iowa, and Algona gave promise of soon becoming one of the first educational centers of the state, but. the grass- hopper days were disastrous to other things besides vegetation and the school which had been the hope and pride and sacrifice of so many gradually suc- cumbed. Woodard, Barclay, Bushnell, Day, Miss Ray, Professors Ford and Neff, a second Ford, and other names I do not recall were connected with the institution during its decline. These were all excellent men, but even a college professor cannot live on absolutely nothing, and the struggle to keep the school alive was finally abandoned. However, a small portion of Algona's many young people were fortunate enough to grow up during the college days, and will always feel that the college life, although brief, gave an educational atmosphere to Algona and an impetus along educational lines to her youth which has been to them of inestimable value.

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"And were our Sunday schools better then than today, or is it the enchant- ment that seems to veil our youth which makes me imagine it? How many verses and chapters we 'learned by heart' in those days when we studied the bible at first hand, and when there were no International lesson leaves to make it too easy. And with what vigor we used to sing those good old songs: 'Shall we gather at the River?' 'I Want to be an Angel' and 'Water, pure Water! yes, water is free, is free.'

"My first recollections of Sunday school and church date over into the sixties. Both services were held in the old town hall, that cradle of both protection and culture which meant as much to our village as did the old Faneuil Hall to the Bostonians. Sabbath school was held first, and I still picture the little girls with their white dresses, stiffly starched pantalettes, white stockings and substantial shoes, little flat hats and flowing hair, while the little boys were equally pictur- esque in their long trousers and coats, which their thrifty mothers had made with much forethought as to future growth. Were we in doubt at our house as to the time to start to Sunday school, we had one infallible rule. If at the hitching post behind the town hall we could see a light spring wagon with two horses, one we children called 'cream-colored' and one dark, we knew Deacon Zahlten was there with his family and that the hour had come for the rest of us to gather. And for years, until the growth of the town obstructed our view, never once in summer or winter, did the cream and the dark horse fail us.

"This afternoon, as Mr. Ingham spoke of the Zahlten and Hackman cabin, when he first heard the two men singing their songs of the Fatherland together, I imagined Deacon Zahlten as I first saw him in church so many years ago. His hymn book was held high in one hand, his elbow supported by the other, his head thrown back, and his voice running like a distinct thread through it all, re- minding one of a quaint, old-fashioned musical instrument-musical, yet different from anything else. And Father Taylor in the pulpit! that earnest, zealous, silvery haired man whom all the children loved and revered. It is now over thirty years since he retired from active service, but some here today will for- ever associate religion and the church and even Heaven itself with that plain but beautiful wrinkled face with its halo of silvery white."

It is to be regretted that the addresses delivered by Governor Cummins, Colonel Comstock, Alice Seeley and Harvey Ingham on this great jubilee occasion are not available for use in this chapter.

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CHAPTER XXIII EVOLUTION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The first schools in the county were taught in 1857, at a time when the school laws were very different from what they are at the present time. Three men- a president, a secretary and a treasurer-constituted the board of directors of every district and they had full control of the schools. That was at a time when there was no such officer as the county superintendent. The board examined, or caused to be examined, any applicant desiring to teach, but no formal certi- ficates were generally issued. The branches in which the teachers had to be examined were much less in number than at present. These were orthography, reading, writing. arithmetic, geography and history of the United States. The schools were to be visited monthly by some member of the board, and the teach- ers were paid from the teachers' fund. but if there was not a sufficient amount to make such payment in full, the parents had to make up the deficiency in such manner as could be agreed upon by the teachers and the board. In those days it was the duty of the secretary to collect the school tax which had been voted by the district. When any one neglected or refused to pay the amount set opposite his name, the law authorized the secretary to collect the same "by distress and sale of goods and chattels found within the district." If this could not be done the real estate could be sold for the taxes. The state superintendent was required to visit every county at least once during his term of office and consult with the school officers about matters relative to the schools. One such officer, Wm. Reynolds, was appointed while Iowa Territory was in existence. Then under the state government, James Harlan and Thos. H. Benton, Jr., served before there were any settlers in this county. In 1854 when the first cabins were built here, J. D. Eads was serving, and while the first schools were being taught in 1857, M. L. Fisher was filling that position.

The School Fund Commissioner was the name of another officer in each county in the early days whose line of work pertained also to the welfare of the schools. He had some of the powers of the present county superintendent, board of supervisors and board of directors. It was his business to loan out the prin- cipal of the permanent school fund at ten per cent interest, and to apportion among the school districts the county school tax and the interest of the permanent school fund to which the county was entitled. This official also had the legal power to divide the school districts and number them. Those in this county who filled that old-time office were Geo. W. Hand, elected in the spring of 1856, and W. B. Moore, who was chosen in August of the following year. The former resided in the Humboldt portion of the county and the latter on the Black Cat. A change occurring in the school laws the office passed out of existence.

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The first county superintendents were elected in Iowa in the spring of 1858. Prior to that time five or six schools had been taught in the county. During the summer of 1857, one was taught in Algona by Flavia Flemming, one at Irvington by Andalusia Cogley and one in the Jones log cabin in Cresco (Riverdale) by Mary Steele. That winter one Dunlap taught in Algona and about that time L. S. Martin taught in Cresco and Jonathan Callender was president of "Gopher College," that dug-out on the hill-side by the Black Cat, near the old Robt. Moore cabin. These five taught without any form of certificates and were examined, if at all, by the board of directors.

Rev. Chauncey Taylor, better known in later years as Father Taylor, was the first county superintendent. He was elected in April, 1858, and his first bill was presented to the board in October for his six months' services. All he asked was $25.00. That office was held by him until the close of 1859. During that period he issued ten certificates, the first one to W. P. Davidson. The others in order were to Jennie Brown, Mary Cornish, J. E. Stacy, Corydon Craw, Har- riette E. Taylor, Martha Mathews, J. R. Armstrong, Mary Mathews and Dr. M. C. Lathrop. Of this number Miss Brown (Mrs. Altwegg) and Miss Taylor (Mrs. Stacy) are the only ones now living in the county, and the others, with the exception of Mary Mathews, are known to be dead. Mr. Stacy and Miss Taylor taught at Algona, Davidson, Armstrong and Lathrop at or near Irving- ton, Miss Brown, Craw and Miss Mathews in Cresco, and Mary Cornish in what is now Riverdale. Rev. Taylor gave oral examinations of a general nature and was mild and considerate. He frequently helped to qualify those who showed themselves deficient in learning.

Dr. J. R. Armstrong filled the office during the year 1860-61 and in the meantime issued certificates to fifteen teachers, the new ones being Mrs. Garfelia Blanchard, Mrs. E. S. Lathrop, Helen Rice, O. W. Robinson, M. D. Blanchard, D. W. Sample, Wm. Moore, Jane Minkler, Chauncey Taylor, James Taylor, A. B. Mason and J. W. Moore. All these teachers, with the possible exception of A. B. Mason, have passed away. These names call to memory the scenes of long ago, among them being stirring events of the war period

Superintendent Armstrong, who was always noted for doing the unexpected, proceeded one evening to give a young lady, Eleanor Mason, an oral examination. The first question was "In what direction does the earth revolve?" She answered, "From east to west." "That will do," said he, "that's all that is necessary." After a few moments of silence she asked, "Do you mean that you intend to give me a certificate just on that answer?" "I mean that you will never get any certificate from me on account of that answer until you have done a lot more of studying. You would have a sweet old time trying to teach longitude and time while think. ing the earth turned backward. Good-night."

Rev. Chauncey Taylor in his second administration, during the period of 1862-63, licensed thirteen new teachers. They were Emma Heckart, John Reed. M. D. Collins, Mary Steele, A. H. Burbeck, Ordelia Plum, Edwin Crockett, Julia Foster, Ann S. Tillson. Abram Crose, Mary Caulkins, Jason Dunton and Sarah Gordon.

At that time there were only three townships-Algona with two sub-districts, Irvington with four and Cresco with one. During the school year closing October, 1862, there were eighty-seven pupils attending school in Algona township, seventy

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in Irvington and none in Cresco. The average attendance was the same in both townships, thirty-eighth. Algona paid her four male teachers $5.81 per week, and Irvington her six male teachers $5.43 and her lady teachers $3.58. The average cost per week per pupil for maintaining the schools was much less in Algona than in Irv- ington. In Algona during the summer term the average cost was $0.17 and in win- ter $0.18, while in Irvington in summer it cost $0.47 and in winter $0.53. Cresco, like the other two, was a large township, but as it only contained two persons that were between five and twenty-one years of age, it had no schools at that time.

The next school year closing in October, 1863, showed but little change. Algona was sending an average of thirty-one children to school, was paying her male teachers $5.91 per week and her two lady teachers $3.56, while Irvington was send- ing an average of thirty-three children, paying her three male teachers $4.42 per week and her four lady teachers $4.07. Cresco by that time had come on deck with one sub-district, one school, one teacher and three children attending it. She set the other townships a pattern on the wages for lady teachers by paying $4.75 per week. In those days the directors discriminated in favor of the male teachers as will be observed from what has already been stated. The principal schools were taught during the winter terms when all the big boys could attend. Lady teachers were then not considered as having strength to "drive things" like the men. Their scholarly attainments were never questioned, but as they were not natural drivers they had to do their teaching mostly in the warm weather when only little chil- dren attended. That word "drive" was a favorite expression with directors, par- ents and the male teachers. In many of the schools there was no coaxing by the teachers or evasive answers by the children. It was simply drive in the strictest sense of the term.

The schoolhouses of that period were mostly log cabins or claim shanties. They were not plastered or otherwise made warm. The roofs were so poor that the rain came through them frequently in torrents. Benches were used for seats and the back of the door or the floor was used in lieu of a blackboard, while rough oak boards planed on one side answered the purpose of desks. Strange as it may seem to some, in spite of these unfavorable conditions many of these schools were as effective for advancing the pupils as those of the present time. The teachers had one great advantage over those of today-they were much better supported by the parents. These parents kept their children in school whether they wanted to go or not; and better still they did not investigate charges made against the teachers by their children. The few branches that were taught were taught well and with terrific force. Some of these wielders of the hickory rod belonged to the "old school" style and taught in old-fashioned ways; but they produced good results, thoroughness being their principal aim.

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History of Kossuth County, Iowa, Part 55

Author: Reed, Benjamin F Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 879

Author: Reed, Benjamin F
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 879