USA > Iowa > Humboldt County > History of Kossuth and Humbolt counties, Iowa : together with sketches of their cities, villages, and townships, educational, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 40
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109
From the time of the first organization of the county into school districts,the num- ber of schools have increased quite rap- idly,and educational facilities have become more and more efficient. Each cycle has shown a marked difference in this respect. Much difficulty has been found in getting any reliable information in regard to the carly schools, as it seems, that in those pioneer days not much care was ex- ercised in the preservation of the records, and but few of them have survived the lapse of years, even if they have been comparatively few. In 1864, however, it is found there were in the county, 150 scholars between the ages of five and twenty-one years, of which eighty-two were males, and sixty-eight females. There were at the same time, some eleven schools in the county, with an enrollment of 147 scholars and thirteen teachers. The av- erage attendance of pupils was set down for that year at seventy-six, and the aver- age weekly compensation to the teachers in the county is recorded to have been $5.62 for males, and $3.58 for females.
By 1880 the educational work had made a giant stride from this primitive showing. In the statistics of that year the follow- ing items will probably be of interest, in this connection.
Number of district townships. 9
Number of independent districts. 1
Number of sub districts. 76
Number of ungraded schools. 88
Number of rooms in graded schools .. 5
Number of children in the county between the ages of 5 and 21 years. 2,565
Of which are males. 1,286
Females.
1,279
Total number of pupils enrolled.
1,909
Average attendance.
1,177
Digliand by Google
308 HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
Number of school houses, frame 78
Total value of school houses.
$32, 201
Value of apparatus. ..
1,854
Number volumes in library
1,300
PRESENT CONDITION.
From the last statistical report availa- ble, a number of items are herewith pre- sented, which will show the present con- dition of educational matters, in Kossuth county, better than a long, labored article would:
Number of district townships. 12
Number of independent districts. 1
Number of sub-districts. 81
Number of ungraded schools.
95
Number of rooms in graded schools 9
Number of teachers employed. 9
Male teachers.
2
Female teachers.
7
Average compensation to males
.$60 00
Average compensation to female.
$35 71
On band
2, 198 98
Number of children between the ages of 5 and 21 years 3,062
Of which are males.
1,537
Of which are females.
1,525
Enrollment in public schools.
2,486
Number of school houses in county. 88
Of which are frame.
88
Total value of school houses
$46,348
Total value of apparatus.
$1,870
Number of volumes in libraries 1,620
Number of certificates granted in Oct. 1882, up to Oct. 1883. 192
Of which are males .. 40
Females .. .
152
Average age of male teachers
24
Females. .
20
Number of applicants rejected.
14
In this connection a few items are pre- sented, taken from the official records, showing the financial condition of the educational department of Kossuth county for the year 1883 :
SCHOOL HOUSE FUND.
Dr.
Amount on hand per last report .... $1,882 00
Received from district tax .. 8,173 10
Received from other sources. 809 95
Total. $10.865 15
Cr.
Paid for school houses and sites
$5,945 41
Paid for apparatus.
68 88
Paid on bonds and interests
441 18
Paid for other purposes
1,245 93
On hand.
3, 162 75
Total
$10, 865 15
CONTINGENT FUND.
Dr.
On hand per last report.
$3, 155 45
Received from district tax
6, 817 04
Received from other sources
36129
Total
$10,833 78
Paid for rent and repairs on school
Cr.
houses.
$1, 743 39
Paid for fuel.
2,379 50
Paid secretaries and treasurers.
786 61
Paid for records, etc.
202 08
Paid for insurance and janitor
325 00
Paid for supplies
592 15
Paid for other purposes.
1,930 37
Total.
$10,333 78
TEACHERS' FUND.
Dr.
On hand, last report.
$12.041 26
Received from district tax
22,121 07
Received from semi-annual appoint-
ment
2,749 96
Received from other sou ces
255 77
Total
$37, 168 06
Cr.
Paid teachers
$23,815 78
Paid for other purposes.
2930
On hand.
13, 323 98
Total
$37,168 06
NORMAL INSTITUTES.
The State superintendent of public in- struction, in a report made in 1873, used the following, in regard to these insti- tutes:
"The subject of normal schools deserves special attention from the legislators and school authorities in the State. The time
Ingazedby Google
309
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
has evidently gone by when intelligent parents arc willing to entrust the educa- tion of their children to the novices and quacks with which the profession is everywhere crowded. If parents are not sufficiently intelligent to perceive the lasting damage resulting to their chil- dren from the crude methods of ignorant and incompetent teachers, the State, at least, is supposed to be informed on this point, and is in duty bound to exert its resources to the utmost that the evil may be removed. The intellectual and moral training of the youth of the land is a public trust, guarded with constitutional sanctions, and lying nearest the great heart of our republican institutions. The strength and permanency of a popular government are invested in the intelli- gence and refinement of the people, and therefore our common schools are the hope of the Nation. Now, if these are neglected, or through defective super- vision are suffered to fall into incompe- tent hands, the State thereby commits the two-fold error of squandering the public funds, and what is infinitely worse, of allowing meantime her occasions for strengthening the very foundations of government to go by unimproved. It is asserted that ninety-four per cent. of the 200,000 teachers of the United States have entered the school room without any professional training for the work; and forty per cent. of them without any de- sign whatever of making it a profession.
"Perhaps it is because the primary and district schools of this country are so largely given over to charlatanry on the one hand and the probationary blundering of novices on the other, that the state-
ment has gone out upon the endorsement of the bureau of education, that ‘poor schools and poor teachers are in a ma- jority throughout the country,' and that 'multitudes of schools are so poor that it would be as well for the country if they were closed.
"But we have failed fully to comprehend the office of professional training for the teacher, until the subject of method has been taken into the account. Teaching is an art, and as such has been undergoing progressive improvement through many ages of research and discovery. It has assumed new shapes, invented new facili- ties, and adopted successively a great va- riety of methods by which the young mind may be aroused to action, and all the spiritual faculties may be put in the way of an ordinary and healthful devel- opment. As the human mind has been more and more profoundly studied, and its laws and capabilities, its social and material relations have been drawn out, the methods of imparting instruction and the whole art of school organization and management have undergone changes corresponding to these new directions of thought. Theory and practice have thus mutually kept pace with each other. It is pre-eminently the province of the nor- mal school to drill in method, and enforce the underlying principles which commend recent and improved methods to the ac- ceptance of its pupils.
"In every particular case, excepting, of course, when an actual and manifest in- capacity is developed, the young man or woman submitting to a thorough normal drill, gains in a brief time what the ex- perience of years would fail to supply
Dios4ed by Google
310
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
and is enabled in this way to bring to the schools of the country a fund of skill and resources which otherwise the country would not have. It can be asserted with confidence that such results are always more than an equivalent for the money expended, both by the student and the State, and the time and toil and sacrifice attending these preparatory years. It is returned as a moral force in our public school system immeasurably more power- ful, and far-reaching and enriching to the life of the Nation, than can be contrib- uted from any other agenny immediately within the embrace of the State. The teacher enters the school room already a practiced hand in the detail of manage- ment, and with lofty and just conceptions of the dignity and worth of his profession, and it is inevitable that the air of confi- dence he exhibits, and the calm devotion he manifests, in the work he loves, will be caught by the children, and the schools will gain an advantage in this way which money cannot purchase.
"Under the hand of the patient, intelli- gent teacher, our Nation is reduced to homogenity in the school room.
"It is deemed feasible, therefore, to in- angurate a system of graded normal schools. The subject has been broached by the National Teachers' Association of 1870, and is a scheme upon which there is pretty general unanimity among all the leading educators of the land. Two very strong papers urging the necessity, and detailing the advantages of such a plan, were submitted at the National Teacher's Association, and were deemed so timely and suggestive with reference to this most pressing problem, that the commis-
sioner of education has incorporated them entire in his report for 1870. So thor- onghly has the subject been canvassed in these two papers, and the advantages and practicability of the plan so clearly and judiciously set forth, that I cannot do bet- ter than commend the careful reading of them to all those who are in any way in- terested in the movement. Meantime it is proper in this connection to state briefly the considerations favoring the plan.
"First, theu, if the plan were consum- mated, all the normal schools that would be established in the State, with the ex- ception of some central normal schools, would possess the character and curricu- lum of primary normal schools. These would be preparatory and tributary to the central normal school, the grade of the latter answering to the higher department of our graded school system, and prepar- ing teachers more expressly for these; whereas the organization and course of studies in the former would prepare teach- ers for the mixed schools of our rural districts and the lower department of our graded school system.
The article is too long to quote entire, but the above extract has been given sim- ply to show the purposes for which the normal institute was created. The act of Legislature which instituted them was passed in the fall of 1873, and in the spring of 1874 the first of them was held at Algona, in Kossuth county. This com- menced the 30th day of March, and lasted for several days. The following is a re- port of this meeting, taken from the newspapers of the county published at the time:
DKiedy Google
311
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
At 9 A. M. Prof. Eldridge and about forty teachers met at the high school de- partment in Algona. The Professor, af- ter exchanging salutations with some of his numerous friends, ascended the plat- form and called the school to order, then read an appropriate lesson from the Bible and opened the session by prayer. Ile than addressed a few words of greeting to the school, and stated that the princi- pal business of the day would consist in organization and classification. While the teachers were handing in their names and postoffice address, Superintendent Brunson put in an appearance and intro- duced to the school Prof. P. Ritner, of Columbus, Lonisa county, stating that he would assist Prof. Eldridge in instructing the school, and that he "trusted we should get our money's worth from both gentle- men."
Prof. Elbridge then stated that the or- der of exercises in the afternoon would be a classification of the sciences and ex- ercises in grammar, physiology and arith- metic.
In the afternoon the number in attend- ance was increased to forty-eight.' * *
The programme as announced in the morning was carried ont, and at 4 P. M. the session closed. The indications are all favorable for a large, profitable and in- teresting school.
Tuesday, March 31.
The number of pupils arrived since yesterday is twelve, making sixty now present, and more are expected. . Among the arrivals from other counties I notice Jolin Bennett and Mr. Prouty, from Em- metsburg; Miss O'Brien, from Hancock,
and Mr. Hudson, from Minnesota. The school is classified in three divisions, and as our superintendent conducts some of the classes, there are three teachers. The school is already an assured success, and I hear the highest terms of gratification expressed by those in attendance. One teacher said, and the language found a cordial response from all, "This is just the opportunity I have long wished for."
Since this time an institute has been held each year, with increasing interest and success, demonstrating beyond a doubt the usefulness of the system. Each year they have grown in attendance, and the effect is plainly visible in the in- creased efficiency of the teachers of the county.
TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION.
This association was organized in the latter days of the year 1875. In a report of the first meeting of the society held on Thursday and Friday evenings, December 30 and 31, it is said that there was no dif- ficulty in carrying out the programme which was arranged several weeks previ- ous to the meeting. Several questions of great interest to both teacher and parents, were brought before the association for discussion. The discussion of each ques- tion was opened by some one, previously appointed, after which each one present was invited to present his views on the subject. The following are the questions: "Should corporal punishment be re- sorted to in governing a school?"-dis- cussion opened by Prof. Bushnell.
"Should vocal music be taught in our public schools?"-Emma Heckart.
"Should we have compulsory educa- tion?"-John Reed.
.
6
Dignzed by Google
312
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
"What can be done to secure more per- manent employment, better pay and longer engagements for teachers?"-Super- intendent Brunson.
"Should we give rewards and prizes for excellence in scholarship and deport- ment?"-Eunice Knapp.
"How can we secure the co-operation of the parents?"-B. F. Reed, Esq.
"When and in what order shall the branches tanght in our common schools be taken up?"-Prof. Saunders.
Great interest was manifested in the discussion of each of these questions, but more especially in those of "corporal punishment" and "compulsory education."
Thursday evening President Barclay delivered a very entertaining and instruc- tive lecture on "The art of securingatten- tion," which was listened to with attention and marked appreciation. Mrs. Colton
read an excellent essay entitled "Gather up the fragments." The audience was favored with several pieces of good music rendered by some of the best musical tal- ent of the city. The music was under the direction of Prof. Saunders, assisted by F. M. Taylor and wife, Cora Setchel, Mrs. J. R. Jones, Mrs. Buffum and Leroy Setchel, with Minnie Billington at the organ. On Friday evening the exercises consisted of music, a discussion, a question-box, a socia- ble and several toasts.
The following officers were elected for the ensuing year : A. A. Brunson, presi- deut; Emma Heckart, secretary; Prof. Saunders, treasurer; John Reed, President Barclay and Francis Moore executive com- mittee.
This meeting was held at the college chapel, and was largely attended by teachers and others interested in educa- tional progress.
CHAPTER XI.
THE WAR FOR THE UNION.
The institution of slavery was always a source of trouble between the free and slave-holding States. The latter were al- ways troubled with the thought that the former would encroach on their rights, and nothing could be done to shake this belief. Compromise measures were adopted from time to time to settle the vexed ques- tion of slavery, but the fears of the slave-
holders were only allayed for a short time. Threats of secession were o ten made by the slave-holding States, but as some measures of a conciliatory charac- ter were passed, no attempts were made to carry their threats into execution. Fi- nally came the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the adoption of a meas- ure known as the Kansas-Nebraska bill.
Digi zed by Google
313
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
This bill opened certain territory to sla- very, which, under the former act, was forever to be free. About the time of the passage of this act, the whig party was in a state of dissolution, and the great body of that party, together with certain democrats who were opposed to the Kan- sas-Nebraska bill, united, thus forming a new party, to which was given the name of republican, having for its object the prevention of the further extension of slavery. The people of the South imag- ined they saw in this new party, not only an organized effort to prevent the exten- sion of slavery, but one that would event- ually be used to destroy slavery in those States in which it already existed.
In 1860 four Presidential tickets were in the field. Abraham Lincoln was the candidate of the republicans, Stephen A. Douglas of the national democrats, John C. Breckenridge of the pro-slavery inter- ests, and John Bell of the Union. The Union party was composed principally o: those who had previously affiliated with the American or know-nothing party. Early in the campaign there were threats of secession and disunion in case of the election of Abraham Lincoln, but the people were so accustomed to Southern bravado that little heed was given to the bluster.
On the 20th of December, 1860, Sonth Carolina, by a convention of delegates, declared, "That the Union now existing between Sonth Carolina and the other States of North America is dissolved, and that the State of South Carolina has re- sumed her position among the Nations of the earth, as a free, sovereign and inde- pendent State, with full power to levy war
and conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and do all other acts and things which independent States may of right, do."
On the 24th, Gov. Pickens issned a proc- lamation declaring that "South Carolina is, and has a right to be a free and inde- pendent State, and as such has a right to levy war, conclude peace, and do all acts whatever that rightfully appertain to a free and independent State."
On the 26th, Major Anderson evacuated Fort Moultrie and occupied Fort Sumter. Two days previously he wrote President Buchanan's Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, as follows:
" When I inform you that my garrison consists of only sixty effective men, and that we are in very indifferent works, the walls of which are only foutreen feet high; and that we have, within 160 yards of our walls, sand hills which command our works, and which afford admirable sites for batteries and the finest coverts for sharp-shooters; and that besides this there are numerous houses, some of them within pistol shot, and you will at once see that, if attacked in force, headed by any one but a simpleton, there is scarcely a posti- bility of our being able to hold out long enough for our friends to come to our suc_ cor."
His appeal for re-inforcements were seconded by Gen. Scott, but unheeded by President Buchanan, and entirely ignored by John B. Floyd, Secretary of War.
On the 28th, South Carolina troops oc- cupied Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinck- ney, and hoisted the pahnetto flag on the ramparts. On the 20th John B. Floyd re- signed his place in Buchanan's cabinet,
Dig zed by Google
314 HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
charging that the President, in refusing to remove Major Anderson from Charles- ton Harbor, designed to plunge the coun- try into civil war, and added: "I cannot consent to be the agent of such a calam- ity." On the same day the South Caro- lina commissioners presented their official credentials at Washington, which, on the next day, were declined.
On the second day of Jannary, 1861, Georgia declared for secession, and Geor- gia troops took possession of the United States arsenal in Augusta, and Forts Pul- laski and Jackson.
Gov. Ellis, of North Carolina, seized the forts at Beanfort and Wilmington and the arsenal at Fayetteville. On the even- ing of the 4th, the Alabama and Missis- sippi delegations in Congress telegraphied the conventions of their respective States to wecede, telling them there was no pros- pect of a satisfactory adjustment. On the 7th, the conventions of Alabama, Missis- sippi and Tennessee met in secret con- clave. On the 9th, Secretary Thompson resigned his seat in the Cabinet ou the ground that, contrary to promises, troops had been sent to Major Anderson. On the 9th, the Star of the West, carrying supplies and reinforcements to Major Anderson, was fired into from Morris Island, and turned homeward, leaving Fort Sumter and its gallant little band, to the mercy of the rebels. On the same day, the ordinance of secession passed the Mississippi Convention. Florida adopted an ordinance of secession on the 10th, and Alabama on the 11th. The same day (the 11th) Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, resigned, and the rebels seized the arsenal at Baton Rouge, and Forts
Jackson and St. Philip, at the mouth of the Mississippi river, and Fort Pike at the entrance of Lake Pontchartrain. Pensacola navy yard and Fort Barrancas were surrendered to rebel troops by Col. Armstrong on the 13th. Lient. Slemmer, who had withdrawn 'his com- mand from Fort McRae to Fort Pick- ens, defied Armstrong's orders, and an- nounced his intention to "hold the fort" at all hazards. The Georgia Convention adopted an ordinance of secession on the 19th. On the 20th, Lieut. Slemmer was besieged by a thousand "allied troops" at Fort Pickens. Louisiana adopted an ordinance of secession on the 25th. On the 1st of February the rebels seized the United States Mint and custom house at New Orleans. The Peace Convention as- sentbled at Washington on the 4th, but adjourned without doing anything to quiet the disturbed elements. On the 9th, a provisional constitution was adopted at Montgomery, Ala., it being the Con- stitution of the United States "re-con- structed" to suit their purpose. Jeffer- son Davis, of Mississippi, was chosen President, and Alexander H. Stevens, of Georgia, Vice-President of the "Confed- erate States of North America " Jeff. Davis was inaugurated on the 18th, and on the 25th it was learned that General Twiggs, commanding the Department of Texas, had basely betrayed his trust, and that he had surrendered all the military posts, munitions and arms to the authorities of Texas.
Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861, in front of the capitol, the inaugu- ration ceremonies being witnessed by a vast concourse of people. Before taking
Lg zed by Google
815
HISTORY OF KOSSUTH COUNTY.
the oath, Mr. Lincoln pronounced in a clear, ringing voice, his inaugural address, to hear which, there was an almost pain- ful solicitude, to read which the whole American people and the civilized world awaited with irrepressible anxiety. With that address, and the administration of the oath of office, the people were assured. All doubt, if any had previously existed, was removed. In the hands of Abraham . Lincoln, the people's President, and him- self of the people the government was safe.
Traitors were still busy, plotting and planning. Troops were mustering in all the seceded States. On Friday, April 12, the surrender of Fort Sumter, with its garrison of sixty effective men, was de- manded and bravely refused by the gal- lant Major Anderson. Fire was at once opened on the helpless garrison by the rebel forces, numbered by thousands. Ro- sistance was useless, and at last the Na- tional colors wers hauled down, and by traitor hands were trailed in the dust. Ou Sunday morning, the 14th, the news of the surrender was received in all the principal cities of the Union. That was all, but that was enough. A day later, when the news was confirmed and spread through the country, the patriotic people of the North were startled from their dreams of the future-from undertakings half completed-and made to realize that behind that mob there was a dark, deep, and well organized purpose to destroy the government, rend the Union in twain, and out of its ruins erect a slave oligarchy, wherein no one would dare question their right to hold in bondage the sons and daughters of men whose skins were black.
Their dreams of the future-their plans for the establishment of an independent confederacy-were doomed from their in- ception to sad and bitter disappointment. Everywhere north of Mason and Dixon's line, the voice of Providence was heard:
"Draw forth your million biades as one; Complete the battle now begun; God fights with ye, and overhead Floats the doar banner of your dead. They, and the giories of the past, The future, dawning dim and vast, And all tho holiest hopes of man, Are beaming triumphant in your yan."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.