USA > Iowa > Kossuth County > History of Kossuth County, Iowa > Part 58
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THE NORTHERN IOWA NORMM. SCHOOL
An account of the career of The Northern Iowa Normal School takes its appro- priate place in this chapter because the enterprise was originally designed to be developed into one of college rank. In the summer of 1886 Mayor D. A. Haggard. of Algona, received a letter from Prof. J. C. Gilchrist, of Cedar Falls, stating that after serving for many years at the head of the state normal school he had been deposed from the presidency and was then searching for a new location where he could found another normal school of high order. He further stated that in his visits to Algona in previous years he had been so favorably impressed with its
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location and the intelligence of its citizens that he would start the enterprise there if satisfactory inducements were offered. Further correspondence had the effect of bringing him to Algona on the evening of July 14th, where he addressed an audi- ence of enthusiastic citizens. He outlined the plan of the school he desired to found, and named the probable amount of funds that would have to be raised to put it on a paying basis. His proposition met with hearty approval and the meet- ing acted accordingly. J. J. Wilkinson, W. H. Ingham, H. S. Vaughn, J. M. Com- stock. Theodore Chrischilles, J. J. Wilson, A. A. Call, Geo. E. Clarke and B. F. Reed were appointed to solicit funds and hire a temporary building for the school until a better one could be procured. This committee a few days later engaged the old college building which had been moved up town and then used as a hotel and boarding house. A. F. Call in the meantime had been appointed to draft the articles of incorporation.
On the evening of July 26th, numerous friends of the enterprise centered at Hotel Le Grand ( Kossuth Hotel) to perfect an organization, Dr. L. K. Garfield presiding. The articles of incorporation were read and adopted. It named the trustees who were to serve for the first year and it provided that "Every person, who has subscribed or paid or who shall hereafter subscribe or pay in any one year a sum of not less than ten dollars for the support of the school, shall be a member of the association and shall have the right to vote." The document was signed by M. B. Dalton, I .. M. B. Smith, Geo. E. Clarke, F. M. Taylor, L. K. Gar- field. J. H. Saunders, B. F. Reed, Ambrose A. Call, M. Starr, William Ward, Gardner Cowles, H. S. Vaughn, J. M. Comstock and C. C. Chubb. Of this num- ber Cowles, Ward, Chubb, Vaughn and Comstock had been named as trustees, the others being J. J. Wilkinson, Dan Rice, D. D. Townsend, Geo. C. Call. C. L. Lund, R. H. Spencer and H. S. Langdon. The board soon met and elected its officers : Wilkinson for president ; Rice, vice-president ; Comstock, secretary, and Townsend, treasurer. Prof. J. C. Gilchrist was named as president of the faculty ; Geo. E. Reed, of Vinton, mathematics; Kate Keith, of Fort Dodge, gymnastics and draw- ing ; Kate Burnard, vocal and instrumental music, and Mrs. K. L. Wolfe, elocution.
With this teaching force the fall term opened September 8. 1886, in the very heart of the city in the old college building. The attendance was good from the start and the services of the instructors satisfactory. The inauguration ceremony occurred on the evening of September 14th, with J. R. Jones presiding. The court chamber and gallery were packed with interested spectators. J. R. Jones and Mrs. Lizzie B. Read were the principal speakers. They prophesied a glorious future for the school and congratulated the citizens for their liberality in supporting the cause, and for being so successful in securing such an able faculty with Professor Gilchrist at its head. They were followed in turn with speeches by Trustees Com- stock Vaughn and Ward. The occasion was enlivened by a variety of vocal music by several ladies and gentlemen and the cornet band in the gallery added life to the event.
During the winter Professor Gilchrist delivered a series of educational lectures of a high order that are vividly remembered for their worth, The Reign of Terror in France being one of them. The students also gave a gymnastic entertainment. During the summer vacation of 1887 a better home for the school was constructed on Normal Hill. The new brick central school building being in process of con- struction, the district donated the use of the two frame wings to the Normal school
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and the main building it presented to the G. A. R. Post. These wings were moved to Normal Hill and a central structure erected between them, making a very com- modious school building. It was gradually fitted up until it answered the purpose fairly well. The school was prosperous during the second year of its existence in its new quarters, and Professor Gilchrist became popular as an educator. He was always ready for an off-hand speech on every occasion when the program for any cause was not filled. In the whole history of the county seat no other man has been able to be such a success in this regard. He seemed to be just the right kind of a citizen to fill a long-felt want. His services as speaker were in constant de- mand and that had a tendency to make the school all the more popular. The Nor- mal Herald, edited by the students, also contributed in keeping the public posted in what was going on in the school. In its early existence among the editors were Jessamine Jones, Cornie Ingham and Delia Reed. The Normal Literary and The Shakespearian were the names given to the two societies which the students main- tained from the beginning with much success.
For many years there had been a growing sentiment in various parts of Iowa that there ought to be more than one state normal school. Each of these localities of course had influential citizens who were urging that such a school. be located in their midst. Citizens of this vicinity entertaining the feeling also decided to make a strong effort to have the state locate and mantain such a school at Algona. Judge Call having offered to donate a site of ten acres, a mass meeting was held on the evening of December 16, 1887, to take steps to present the proposition to the coming Legislature in the form of a bill. It was decided to ask for an appro- priation of $40,000.00 for a building and $15,000.00 for the running expenses for two years. The plan was to have the bill urged for passage in the house by Repre- sentative A. D. Clarke and to be supported by an advisory board as lobbyists at Des Moines. Those delegated for that service were Comstock, Haggard, Brun- son and Cowles.
The bill in the house simply got a recommendation from the committee on schools and that was about all the favors it received. The claims of Storm Lake and LeMars for the location so confused matters that no state school was estab- lished. The advisory board and Professor Gilchrist returned disgusted but deter- mined to carry on the strife for another two years, until the next Legislature con- vened. Professor Gilchrist said on his return: "The Legislature caring more for many other matters than for education finally decided not to adopt this little child away out here in the northern part of the state."
Two days after the Legislature adjourned another mass meeting was held to consider the conditions and to agree upon a line of action. The meeting was full of interest and the remarks made must have caused the ears of the far-away mem- bers of the Legislature to burn. But few, if any, more spirited meetings have been held for any purpose than was the one that night. The refusal of the lawmakers to take favorable action made every man in this vicinity an outspoken champion of the cause. The sentiment of the people may be judged from the following reso- lutions that were passed that evening :
Whereas, The Northern Towa Normal School, under the very efficient man- agement of Prof. J. C. Gilchrist, has, during the two years of its existence, attained to the first rank among the training schools of Iowa; and the citizens of Algona having by their contributions very liberally aided in organizing and maintaining
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THE OLD NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING
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the school, thereby making it one of the necessary institutions of northwestern Iowa; and, whereas, the Legislature has failed to adopt the school, or even to give aid when there wassuch evident demand and necessity for state assistance, therefore
"Resolved. That we pledge to our friends throughout the state that the school will be continued for the coming two years and that its facilities and efficiency will be increased and its rank maintained; and further that the board of directors be instructed to take all necessary steps to continue Prof. J. C. Gilchrist as manager of the school for the ensuing two years."
At the time the school had an able force of instructors and was maintaining de- partments in English, science, mathematics, language, didactics, typewriting, short- hand, music and commercial. The faculty during the two years had been strength- ened by the addition of Helen V. Ingham, Latin, and Will Spencer, shorthand and typewriting. The officers of the board had also changed, Vaughn being president, Langdon, vice-president, Cowles, secretary, and D. A. Haggard, treasurer. The work was carried forward with no friction and the school had increased until there were 119 names on the roll. The fall of 1889 came on as also did the renewed agi- tation of the people to raid the coming Legislature in the interests of the school.
When the Legislature met in January, 1890, A. B. Funk was the senator from this district and C. L. Lund the representative, and both were strong advocates for making Algona school a state institution. A deadlock in the house prevented its organization until about the middle of February. Among other bills, Senator Mack, of Storm Lake, had introduced a bill to establish a normal school in the northwest part of the state, the location of which should be selected by a committee of five to be appointed by the executive committee, three of whom should be prac- tical educators and all having no interest in the proposed location. The bill fur- ther provided that no bonus except the site should be taken into consideration and that the sum of $25,000.00 should be appropriated for buildings and $5,000.00 for expenses for the biennial period.
Senator Funk's bill asked for $50,000.00 all told for the Algona institution. Red Oak, Oskaloosa, Cherokee, Grinnell, Humeston, Storm Lake and LeMars were clamoring also for the location. To simplify matters the normal school com- mittee of both houses decided to hold a joint session at the Savery House and listen to the arguments in favor of all the competing localities. When it became known in this vicinity that on the evening of March 12th, the matter would come on for hear- ing before the joint committee, Algona sent down a boosting delegation consisting of J. W. Hinchon, J. W. Robinson, Geo. C. Call, C. C. Chubb, L. A. Sheetz, G. L. Galbraith, J. R. Jones, John G. Smith, S. S Sessions, J. B. Jones, P. C. Bailey, G. R. Woodworth, M. L. Clarke, Jas. Taylor, W. H. Ingham, Geo. E. Clarke, Harvey Ingham, J. J. Wilson and Gardner Cowles to be present before the joint committee and work for the interest of our local school.
The meeting was one of intense interest. The joint committee heard all the arguments from the various towns from those chosen to represent them. The claims for Algona were first presented by Editor Hinchon, then by J. B. Jones and next by Representative Coyle. About a week later both committees reported fav- orably on the Algona bill to their respective houses. When the matter came on for hearing in the senate, about the first of April, the vote at first was a tie, then the opposition to Algona succeeded in receiving a change of one vote, after which Senator Ben McCoy offered an amendment to substitute the "three-school bill"
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for the Algona bill; then Senator Taylor offered to amend that proposition by in- creasing the number of schools to be established to seven, Algona being one of them. The effect of these offers made the senate legislation on the whole normal school project seem so much like boys' play that no bill on the subject was passed. This was a hard blow to Algona, but it received another a few days later which it felt with even greater pain. At a night session of the house, after the bill had been engrossed, a motion to reconsider the engrossment was filed. This motion came up for hearing the next morning before Representative Lund arrived and was car- ried by a vote of 44 to 43. Algona was immediately notified of the situation by a telegram from Geo. E. Clarke saying, "We are busted." Had Lund been in the house chamber twenty minutes earlier he at least could have made the vote a tie. Algona never forgave the representative for his failure to be present when the vote was taken. His explanation for his tardiness on that occasion was to the effect that the mover of the motion the night before assured him that the matter would not be called up until the afternoon of the next day. The last hope entertained by the friends of the Algona normal school to have it come under state control expired when they realized that the prize was lost which had seemed so close at hand.
The disappointment in not getting the Legislature to adopt the Algona institu- tion as a state school, or to give it material aid. so discouraged Professor Gilchrist that he began making arrangements to sever his connection with the school. He remained until the close of the spring term when he resigned to accept a position in the faculty of Morningside College. His loss to this county was keenly felt for it started the school on the decline. He had been for four years trying to build up a permanent school that would be a credit to the county, but felt that fate was against him. He was much missed by his numerous friends after he had moved his family away. His annual graduation exercises were of such a high character that they were looked forward to with pleasing anticipation. They were truly noteworthy educational events of that period. Many of the young people received a thirst for higher learning from him which they satisfied later by taking thorough college courses. Moreover, there are now men and women holding positions of trust in the county who owe their success to the training they received during his administration.
About a month before the 1800 fall term began it was publicly announced that the board had secured as Professor Gilchrist's successor, Prof. P. D. Dodge, who had been connected with a college at Berea, Kentucky. The other members of the faculty named were H. B. McCollum, of the same place. Miss Fahnestock, of Galesburg, Miss Emily Reeve. of Hampton, and Mrs. K. L. Wolfe, of Algona. Evidently not liking the situation Professor Dodge resigned his position on a pre- text of ill health within less than four months. A man by the name of Olmsted was chosen to fill the vacancy, but as he balked before getting started another man was employed to try his hand at the head of the school. He too failing to begin the work, McCollum went on with the school as best he could until the close of that school year in the spring. As might have been expected from such a changing of the heads of the faculty, the school degenerated and was in a very feeble condition. The attendance had so diminished that the few pupils present at the spring term appropriately inscribed over one of the doors in chalk letters, "We are Seven." There had been during the year a total enrollment of eighty-five, but the spring
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term had been attended by only thirteen and the last week of that had still a less number.
Prof. F. M. Chaffee, a graduate of Cornell college, took charge of the school at the beginning of the 1891 term and continued his service for three years doing ex- cellent work. He was assisted by Professor Carlton, Miss Grace Adams, Miss Waters and Miss Agnes Randall. The latter had charge of the music and Profes- sor Carlton the commercial department. During the three years Professor Chaffee built up the school to a respectable standing. The attendance increased and confi- dence was restored. He was an energetic worker and having high ideals as to what the institution ought to be, proceeded to make the institution worthy of its name. The enrollment for the first year was 155, for the second year 275 and for the third 225, a decrease occurring on account of the world's fair. His resignation was much regretted at the time.
Johnson and Lilly became the proprietors of the school by purchase from Pro- fessor Chaffee in the spring of 1894. By that time the board of trustees was cut- ting but little figure in the control and management, leaving the head of the faculty to take in all the tuition fees and pay off all the expense bills. Prof. D. E. Johnson took charge of the commercial department and Prof. A. J. Lilly the normal. They were assisted in the instruction by Mrs. Lilly, Miss Waters, Caroline Zellhoefer and Cella Johnson. They got out two thousand catalogues announcing the change in the school faculty and sent them broadcast. The name of the institution was published as the Northern Iowa Normal and Commercial School to more clearly indicate its general character. The advertising was productive of good results, as was evidenced by the growing attendance. The school was a scene of activity and manifest work. In Johnson's department the busy young men wore pens above their ears and an expression of a page of double entry bookkeeping on their coun- tenances. Professor Lilly had worked up such a reputation for his proficiency in mathematics that the young ladies in particular flocked around him like bevies of birds in order to get some light on the solution of the "A and B examples."
The boys delighted in hard study but no more so than they did at times in making mischief. One morning when the two leading professors entered "Chapel Hall" Johnson nearly tumbled over when he saw standing on top of the desks a lumber wagon with top box and spring seat. He was furious and wanted to arrest the guilty parties but alas ! he couldn't find out who they were. He started to find the sheriff to have somebody arrested. While he was gone on his mission Lilly assumed the attitude of a commanding general: "Fay, get up there and take off that spring seat." "I don't know how." "Yes you do, you put it there." The seat went off. "Tom, take off those whiffletrees." "I don't know how." "Yes you do, that looks like your work." They were taken off. "Dick, you and Harry and those other two chums of yours, lift off the wagon box top and all." "It is too heavy for us to handle." "No it isn't, you fellows would have put it on just the same last night if it had weighed a ton." The order was cheerfully obeyed. In this way the wagon was taken apart, carried out doors and put together again before Johnson returned.
At the close of the school year Johnson left to start a school at Mason City. D. H. Samuels, of Des Moines, was procured by Professor Lilly as business man- ager to begin with the 1895 fall term, and Anna Hamilton and Laura Taylor to be- come a part of the teaching force. Provisions were also made to have a series of
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lectures given by prominent educators. During the year 1896 several changes oc- curred in the school. In January, Professor Lilly took charge of the bookkeeping instruction himself and Will H. Reed the penmanship; besides this Samuels left to accept another position, and Louise McCoy became instructor in German and Ther- esa Korman in letter writing and other subjects. The school was continued for several months in 1897 by Professor Lilly who then abandoned the work to engage in engineering. Hundreds of teachers had attended his school from time to time to become better qualified for their duties. For their benefit he conducted summer schools, which were always well attended.
The Northern Iowa Normal School passed quietly out of existence after a checkered career. The events pertaining to it are a part of the county's history occurring during the 80's and 90's.
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CHAPTER XXV OVERFLOW HISTORICAL TOPICS
DEATHS FROM FREEZING
So far as known only seven deaths have resulted from freezing in the county, notwithstanding the innumerable times the early settlers were caught in raging blizzards when there was nothing to obstruct the drifting snow, or to modify the intensity of the cold. A couple of others had their legs so badly frozen that amputation became necessary. Henry Hauzerman lost one leg in this way and Solomon Hand lost both of his. These two met that fate during the cold winter of 1856-7. The latter at that time lived in the Humboldt por- tion of this county. The first fatal loss by freezing that occurred was at a date prior to any settlement in the county. Robert Downing, in the winter of 1852-3 or 1853-4, while up from Webster City on a hunting expedition to the northern part of this county, with William Frakes and another man, became separated from the others in a blinding storm and was never seen again. A more detailed account of this incident has been presented in the chapter "Long Ago Journeys Across Kossuth," under the sub-head "Other Presettlement Visi- tors," to which the reader is referred.
The furious storm which began in the afternoon of Thursday, January 24, 1867 resulted in the death of Thos. Dawson, father of O. T. Dawson the well- known Algona tailor, and of James Baldwin, the latter's step-brother. Thurs- day morning as the sun was shining bright and the weather pleasant, Dawson and the boy drove up to the Dawson homestead in Lotts Creek with a load of rails on a sled which was drawn by two yoke of oxen. One of the objects in going was to bring back a load of hay. A raging storm came on from the northwest in the afternoon and increased in violence throughout the following night. Fri- clay morning the mercury was down in the region of the thirties and the storm had become a blizzard. The timber only a short distance away could not be seen, and the snow drifts had become the deepest of the winter. The storm still raged all that night and had not fully abated when Saturday morning came.
During all this time nothing had been heard from Dawson and the boy. The first evidence the family received, that indicated the coming of bad news, was the return home on Saturday of one yoke of oxen in such a condition that showed they had not been cared for for some time. Later in the day the terrible fate of the two snowbound prisoners during the storm became fully known from one of the parties. That winter there were several families living in little hillside shanties along the bluffs of the river bottom, southwest of
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town. Some of them had moved in from their prairie homesteads for the winter, and others were woodchoppers and logging men. Among the number were the Mckay and Woodcock families who first learned how cruelly the storm had treated the missing parties.
During the afternoon of Saturday William McKay was startled when he heard the wailing voice of someone calling for help. Going in the direction whence came the sound, he was horrified with the scene that appeared before him. There was the lost Thos. Dawson crawling in from the prairie through the snow on his knees and elbows. His feet were entirely bare except a sock on one foot. He was without hat or mittens, and his coat and shirt in front were unbuttoned. MeKay upon seeing his condition hurried back to Woodcock's, got a team and sled and brought the suffering man to his own shanty for treatment. While there he lived long enough to tell the story of his sad experience.
The storm overtook them on their way back from the homestead Thursday afternoon. When about a mile and a quarter from the timber the drifts became so deep that the oxen floundered and refused to draw the load of hay any longer. The blinding snow caused them to lose their way and finally the load became stalled. Then Dawson and the boy, who was about fourteen years old. prepared to camp for the night under the most trying circumstances. They had no food and no chance for a fire, and no bedding except the hay which had been blown full of the flying snow. Furthermore, the weather was intensely cold and the timber, though but a short distance away, could not be seen. AAfter unhitching the oxen and letting them go, they crawled into the hay and managed to live through the night. All day Friday while the blizzard was raging the two had to remain buried in the hay while they were gradually freezing. Their feet got so cold that they pulled off their boots and socks and rubbed them with their hands to keep death away as long as possible. The snow covered up the boots and the wind blew away most of their socks. As it was dark. Dawson searched for the missing articles in the snow until his hands were frozen. That night James Baldwin froze to death. The step-father remained by the dead body through the night and until about ten o'clock the next morning. After burying the body in the snow he headed northeasterly for the timber, which was over a mile away. His feet were so badly frozen that he could not stand and his hands were so stiff that he could not button his shirt or coat after they had been blown open. He could not advance except by crawling on his elbows and knees, but he fortunately had a voice strong enough to be heard by Mckay after he had crawled in that way quite a distance into the timber.
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