USA > Iowa > Johnson County > Leading Events in Johnson County, Iowa, History > Part 23
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"Low down in a valley," so it is written, "near a hill," a school house was built in Washington township in 1869, and it was given a nickname, expressive if not beautiful, since "Flea Shed" would hardly be characterized by the latter term. Here for twelve years "number seven" had a school building, then in 1881 it was rebuilt, made larger and named "Prairie Dale. " 270
The educational sentiment of Sharon township led in 1898, to the formation of a company to furnish a high school, with a three years' course of study, to which pupils who had sufficient preparatory work might be admitted, on the payment of cer- tain amounts in tuition. The proposition seemed to meet with approval, and in the year referred to a trial term was con- ducted, under the direction of H. O. Pratt, who was employed by the board to manage the school as conducted at this time in
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THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS
the Memler Hall. The trial proving successful, the company was incorporated as a stock company, "to establish and main-
GRAMMAR SCHOOL, IOWA CITY
tain a high school." A two story building was erected, dedi- cated and occupied the following year, 1899. This centralizing of the school interests has become quite prominent in the town- ship schools in many counties in Iowa.
As mentioned before, Jerry Stover, in 1842, kept a school near the line of what is now Fremont township, where he had
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the unlucky number of thirteen in attendance, who were sup- posed to pay him for the service one dollar and a half and to furnish fuel for a period of three months. It appears that the location was over the line in the present limits of Pleasant Valley, but was probably located to accommodate the greatest number of pupils then desirous of school privileges, which was the custom of the time. The house was log, sixteen feet square, and with the customary furnishings, described often enough to be known by most of the present generation, if they have had interest in the schools of their grandfathers. This one had a floor, which was not always true of other houses of the kind, and it was made of split logs; it is also said to have been with- out any window, the light coming in wherever it could, which to us is rather a peculiar condition for a school house. Not far from this point, but in Fremont township, was the "King" school, one of the first in the county, and named for an early settler.
The Jefferson township high school has an interesting his- tory. In the beginning it was purely experimental, but its reputation was soon established, and so much so that when the principal for 1894-5, Geo. C. Fracker, who has since attained a reputation in a much larger field, reported on this school at the State Teachers' Association, it aroused much inquiry. The year 1888 marks the founding of this school, which grew out of the demand for more room in the higher school at Shueyville, and the increased demand for more help to instruct the youth of the same school. During this year Mr. Frank Sulek, en- couraged by other progressive men of that progressive town- ship, read a paper before a gathering to discuss educational topics, and this caused continued agitation until it was decided to make a trial of a central high school for the township, which should offer an advanced course of study for those who wished to take advantage of it at home.
The result of the discussion and the paper referred to, was the adoption of the following resolution by the district board of Jefferson township: "That a township high school for this township be established, located in district number two, and that the following committee be appointed to procure a teacher, provide a course of study, and have general supervision of the
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school during a trial term of five months: F. M. Laughery, President of the Board; F. J. Pudil; and J. H. Kephart."
This trial term proved so satisfactory that at the expiration of it, the electors at the March meeting of the school district, that is the township, in 1889, decided by vote to add three months to the school year and also voted to continue the high school under the management of the committee for a period of five years. When the end of the five years came they voted
IOWA CITY ACADEMY.
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again to continue the high school indefinitely under the man- agement of the entire board. The advantages of the school located so conveniently near soon began to draw pupils from beyond the township borders, and on the payment of a tuition fee, which was fixed at one dollar and a half at first, and two dollars later, they were admitted. The attendance increased steadily until 1895, when an assistant teacher was employed on part time, and in 1897 on full time. The aim of the town- ship high school has been, as stated here, "to offer to the pu- pils of the country a chance to prepare themselves for the work of the higher schools; second, to furnish a practical education suitable to the needs of those who cannot take advantage of
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the higher opportunities; and third, to influence public senti- ment toward higher culture and make the community felt as one of educational influences." 271
Probably the first school taught in Jefferson township was in the house of Wilson Blain, by Miss Elizabeth Winterstein. Another was located in the vicinity of the present village of Shueyville, in the house of James Smith. The dates appear to be indefinite.
In 1900 two old landmarks of the county schools were dis- posed of to the highest bidder. These were the "Oakes school house," on the east line of the city, and the "Oak Grove school house," east of the Purdy place. The first of these was built in 1850, or about that time, and the second in 1858. At the latter house many famous lyceums and debates were held, along with now and then a "spelling bee" or "match," and this old house became a center of great interest in its time.
The "Oakes" property consisted of a flatiron "piece of land" between the Muscatine road and East Court street, con- taining about one acre and the brick building. This was sold to the highest bidder for $830. The "Oak Grove" house did not include the land, as in the original agreement the land was given for "school purposes while used, as such," hence the "acre" reverted to the original farm, owned then by one God- frey, where the house was built. The old building brought the respectable sum of $38, and is said to have become the first . house in East Iowa City, which is surely a dignified career for an old school house, after serving its time in sheltering the youth of two generations.
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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AS OR. LENOX FILD V FOUNDATIONS
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First meeting of Board, May 15. 1858
Prsent you. The Callon Ist
8.V. Dennis Vice Prest. S. Robinson See q AH, Me Crony Fradurer, Directors from Web tricks From As 3. 4. Kirkwood A:58 AMe Crony At 6. bynes Lawyers 12 7. Abel Stevens, No 8. Lyman Allen
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WE.J. Crousens On motion Stt. du Cromy xCyrus Landerd were of pointe a Committee on Credential, who reporter all of the above neperatively qualified and Entitled to Seaten
On motion the chair ofpirates as a committee to report on Experiency of ndistracting the township - the following . I Mirkwood & g. Mendenhel, To fix Bonde of treasurer and Secreting 9 V. Dennis & Gyus Smolek To furnish plat of Existing Districts
Or mation voted that the Director of Each Sub District be alone of one- to report how much money it is needing to reise to keep of Schools the requinte time in Hunrespective Districts- andfor 22~ baixo - and incidental expensive,
Votest that the director of Each Sul District be Empowered to hide & contract with teachers in their respective Districts for a time not to Exceed four months
Osmostim: Maks Allen. Men- duchal and Dennis, we're appoints a Com- to Select Site for school house.
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CHAPTER XIV
College and University Beginnings
"O F ALL the early teachers Dr. William Reynolds was the longest in service. He was a native of Bristol, Eng- land, and on coming to this country he was for a time engaged in the schools of Boston. Coming to Iowa in 1840, he was appointed as the first superintendent of schools for Iowa in 1841. In that year he began his first school in the city and he continued teaching until about 1860. For a long time his pupils exceeded one hundred and fifty, and as the teaching was almost wholly performed by himself it will be seen that his labors were very great. He was a strict disciplinarian and a deep scholar."
An entry in the diary of T. S. Parvin for June 1, 1842, reads : "Took tea at Mr. Murray's and called at Dr. Reynolds' school." In referring to this private school and what it did, allow a pupil of the "good doctor" to tell of his own expe- riences. A pupil may rejoice in his opportunity to commend a teacher of his youth after long years have come and gone. In the case of Dr. William Reynolds and Orestes A. Brownson, and their pupil, John P. Irish, the latter writes of his former instructors: "Iowa City had two great teachers of the old school, not connected with the University, the first of these being Dr. William Reynolds, who taught the first generation of the frontier. He was a native of England and had travelled much, during which experience he was captured by the pirates of Tripoli along with his English ship, and was held for some time as a slave. Being ransomed, he made his way westward and adopted teaching as his profession, which he followed nearly his entire life.
"The successor of Dr. Reynolds was O. A. Brownson, who when this was written, had taught his last class. He had also been a friend of the sea in his early life and become a sailor,
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but he quit the sea early to bury himself in a Missouri forest, while trying to forget some trying sorrow of his young man- hood. When the war broke out in 1861 he found himsef in a wrong neighborhood and 'yoking his oxen to his cart which contained his family and slender store of goods he went into exile for the sake of freedom of opinion.' One stormy day he turned out his cattle and took modest quarters in one of the houses of the 'Fourteen Row' which occupied the south side of that eastward projection of Market street called the 'Rochester Road.' He was a man utterly without ostentation and it is remembered of him that 'coarsely clad, putting his hand to any labor that would win honest bread, he was patient- ly leaving to others to find out by contact that he was a man of the most complete culture, a linguist, rhetorician, and math- ematician of the first order'."
His first employment professionally was as principal of St. Joseph's Academy, not only principal but the whole faculty, and the Academy was sheltered in an old wooden building that stood on the southeast corner of Linn and Market streets. As Mr. Irish says: "It was my last school. There Stephen Bradley, Gilmore F. Fletcher, my brother Thomas, Carl Vogt, and others now widely separated sat at the feet of the old philosopher."
From the Academy he was transferred to the head of the high school and then to the head of the city schools. "He was one of the manliest and gentlest of men. He had the first requisite of a teacher, absolute cleanness of mind and of mouth." And the last pathetic record is: "To the last he was a teacher. Pushed aside, as the great and gentle are in a self-seeking age, he left the more pretentious schools of the city and the last time I saw him he stood in front of a country school house near Dubuque with the children from his classes just dismissed flocking around him for a kindly good-bye at the day's close. The buffetings of fortune had left no scars upon his placid spirit." 272
Private schools were so numerous that one is at a loss to understand how they succeeded in finding pupils enough to make a "school" for each one. It is probably true, however, that they did not all flourish at the same time. Jesse Berry has been referred to as the beginner. I. M. Choate followed
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CAMPUS, STATE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA, TAKEN AT AN EARLY DATE
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him, and Choate's house is now on Market street just west of the English Lutheran church. Mrs. Hulin's school was opened in September, 1841, and up to the year 1847, when the law of 1840, was amended, there were no free schools.278
An advertisement in 1841 indicates the purpose and place of Mrs. Hulin's (found also Huelin) school. There were three departments. In the first were found orthography, reading, writing, mental arithmetic, and the rudiments of such of sci- ences as are well adapted to the capacities of children. The second department continued the list mentioned and added English grammar and composition, written arithmetic, geogra- phy-ancient and modern-history of the United States, and easy lessons in geometry ; the third department, "history, sa- cred, profane, ecclesiastical and natural, Watts on the mind, natural, moral, and intellectual philosophy, geometry, astron- omy, botany, drawing of maps, etc." It was further announc- ed that subjects would be assigned with reference to the age, previous acquirements, and future usefulness in life. The lessons of the week would be reviewed on Friday when parents and friends were invited to hear them. The price per quarter in each course varied as follows: $4.50 for the first quarter, $6.00 for the second, and $8.00 for the third, and payments were due at the half quarter period.
Another institution under private direction, yet incorporat- ed under the laws of the territory, was called by the name of College in its charter and was under the direction of the church, as the act establishing it will show. "Iowa City Col- lege" was the name as it was incorporated under an act of the territorial legislature during the session of 1842 and 1843. It was to be under the management and control of the Methodist Episcopal conference of the territory.27+
The legislative body granted in the act one entire block in the city to the institution on condition of certain improve- ment. The society at once took active measures to comply with the conditions fixed in the charter, and to secure the ac- tive assistance and patronage of the membership.
A meeting was held in Iowa City in July, 1843, for the pur- poses of organizing the board of trustees who are named in the charter. There were twenty-five of these, among them the well known names of Anson Hart, Jesse Bowen, Robert Lucas,
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ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, STATE UNIVERSITY (OLD STATE CAPITOL)
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John M. Coleman, Stephen B. Gardner, John A. Parvin, Cur- tis Bates, R. H. Spencer, and A. E. McArthur. At the first meeting of this body about one thousand dollars was sub- scribed for the improvement of the property.
Evidently the trustees of this institution did not wait for a building but organized the college in the fall of 1843 in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal church. The officials failed to secure the services of Professor Nutt, of Asbury University, Indiana, and were content to take Rev. Joseph T. Lewis, of the faculty of Woodward college, Cincinnati, who, as the announcement read, "will on next Monday [Nov. 13, 1843] take charge." The Rock River conference then extend- ed over the territory of Iowa and for that reason had charge of the new institution. The building for the new college was planned to be erected the following summer, 1844. The selec- tion of a site was a great problem owing to so many suitable ones in the vicinity of the capitol.275
Frequent commendation of Iowa City college comes in the form of published programs of exhibitions, such as "the pieces spoken were mostly original and subjects well selected; the composition good, and well delivered, evincing an improvement both creditable to the students and honorable to the instruc- tors." The reporter almost exhausts the vocabulary in find- ing terms to describe his feelings on the subject. "A very large audience was present to witness the exhibition, showing an interest in the cause of education for which our city is so justly celebrated. May that spirit ever characterize the citi- zens, not only of this city, but throughout the whole of our beautiful and flourishing state, and may it become the foun- tain from whence shall issue the streams that shall fertilize the mental fields of this great valley, the inhabitants of which, at no distant day, will wield the destinies of this great and wide-spread republic."
In the latter part of 1843 three schools of the city enrolled about two hundred pupils: Dr. Reynolds's thirty-five, Mrs. Hart's forty, and the Mechanics Academy one hundred and twenty. It has been related that the Academy was conducted in two departments, male and female, but their building was yet unfinished in August, 1843, and for that reason work was suspended for a period. An event that indicates the favor
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ALONG THE IOWA RIVER
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shown these various educational forces may be mentioned here, and such an occasion may also suggest other social or- ganizations that cannot be discussed in detail in this connec- tion. July 4, 1843, a barbecue was announced by order of the committee on arrangements. The procession formed in front of the capitol and proceeded in the following order: "Music, officers of the day two abreast, Mechanics' Mutual Aid Asso- ciation, Masonic Fraternity, Ladies and Gentlemen, Schools, Citizens generally." The line of march could be easily fol- lowed at any time from that day to the present. It was down Clinton to Court street, down Court to Dubuque, up Dubuque to the avenue, down the avenue to Linn street, up Linn to Jef- ferson, then to Clinton, the avenue, and ending at the Meth- odist Protestant church, where the program was finished. Af- ter the formal ceremonies the citizens were invited to the park where the barbecue was spread. Then a balloon ascension was promised by Mr. Murdock. He was not to go up himself -the balloon only. The Mechanics in this procession num- bered about eighty. They were "handsomely equipped with badges, and were preceded by a beautiful banner." One part of the procession is mentioned with considerable enthusiasm. "More than two hundred scholars from the various schools were in line. They were headed by the venerable Dr. Rey- nolds, one of the pioneers in education." 276
The three schools in active work in Iowa City in the spring of 1845 exhibited their work in accordance with the customs by giving programs of literary character. It was said then, that all the schools produced "essays, original articles of merit, and orations in the Greek, Latin, French, and German tongues." The policy of public exhibitions of this kind was fully approved by the critic.277
"After the Rev. Mr. Talbot had contracted for the Me- chanics Academy in Iowa City for a common school depart- ment, as well as a department to qualify youth to enter upon their collegiate course of study the quarterly conference in the M. P. church in Iowa City, in order to afford to young men the facility of completing their whole course of study without removal, resolved to establish a Collegiate and Theo- logical Department in their meeting house, both stories of which were to be fitted up for the purpose and occupied until
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COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY BEGINNINGS 279
other necessary buildings could be obtained. It was also re- solved to throw the Seminary thus organized under the con- trol of the Annual Conference who have now established it on the principles described in the following resolutions:" Then follows the "Resolutions of the North Illinois Annual Confer- ence M. P. C., establishing an Institution of Learning adopted September 27th, 1844."
The first paragraph of these resolutions provides for "a Literary and Theological Institution, at Iowa City, I. T., to be called the 'Snethen Seminary'." Nine sections were required to outline the duties of officers and to describe the courses of study, and the final paragraph urges "the presentation of the subscription books at every quarterly meeting."
The trustees appointed by the conference included William Patterson, John N. Coleman, Wm. B. Snyder, Thomas Snyder, E. Metcalf, L. S. Swafford, and John Conn.
The "professors" were Nicholas Snethen, president, Wm. K. Talbot, J. N. Coleman, Ward D. Talbot, W. B. Snyder, "of sacred music." All these "professors" were also made agents for collecting funds.
Just at this time the "Convention of 1844" to make a con- stitution for Iowa, assembled here, and the seminary journal, The Colporteur, remarks: "The first sitting of the conven- tion was opened with an appropriate prayer by the Rev. Nich- olas Snethen of this place." The seminary journal was to be issued monthly at fifty cents per year, and the privilege was reserved of issuing it weekly and the "profits should then be devoted to the interests of Snethen Seminary." The journal stated its object as "the promotion of religion." It says: "The politics of the Territory occupy eight or ten papers, each of greater size than this in the same extent of country in which hitherto there has been no religious periodical." The paper was edited by Wm. B. Snyder.278
The second year following the first issue of the Colporteur, the Iowa Medley appeared in June, 1846, this "journal" rep- resenting the Iowa City University which was established or provided for by an act of the territorial legislature, approved June 2, 1845.27ยบ It was to be governed by a board of thirty regents who were to hold their first meeting at the capital the first Monday in June, 1845; the stock of this University should
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be issued in shares at twenty-five dollars each. The Governor of Iowa should be president, ex-officio, of the "Board of Re- gents." These officials were empowered to establish in con- nection with this university a law school and a medical school, and charity students might be admitted. This was to be a non-sectarian institution, although it did not prohibit the rec- ommendation of religious principles. James Robinson was the president of the institution, and in the absence of the Gov- ernor served as president of the board of regents. George
ADMINISTRATION BUILDING OF UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
S. Hampton was the secretary, and in order to secure funds, donations were asked for from persons interested in educa- tion. The committee to select the faculty reported the em- ployment of the following for the preparatory department that was to commence operations at once : Rev. W. K. Talbot, Rev. W. D. Talbot, and Rev. Charles R. Fisk. It will be noticed that this was drawing on the faculty of Snethen Seminary.
This institution must have commenced its work since the Medley has the following regarding the University : "A pub- lic examination of this institution was held in the latter part of march [March] and an exhibition given on the 1st and 2nd of
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April, which the crowded state of our columns has prevented us from noticeing." It will be remembered that this is the first issue of this paper, and it goes farther in mentioning the exhibition in a small way as "highly creditable" and again the disputations were given partly in "Greek and Latin. " 280
The Iowa Standard, a local paper, commenting on the col- lege journal said: "We wish the young gentlemen success in their enterprise and they need a paper of this kind to excite a laudable ambition, to excell in composition. We suggest to them the propriety of filling the paper entirely with such original matter. If a young man ever expects to attain emin- ence as a spirited writer, he must commence early and use reams of foolscap."
In the winter of 1847, just before the adjournment of the state assembly, an act was passed establishing the State Uni- versity in Iowa City.291 When this had actually been done satisfaction was expressed by the press of the day, since they had been, judging from the comments made, anxious to make the change and the "real estate of the city would immediately appreciate in value because of this permanent institution." The seat of government was in nowise to be preferred to such an institution of learning. The buildings then used for the state officials and assembly were to be granted to the state for educational purposes provided such buildings were available for the use of the officers and meetings of the assembly until others could be provided. It was then considered that the rooms as used, if properly furnished, would answer for the needs of the students of the preparatory department for many years to come, without in the least interfering with the legislature or state officers. A "high grammar school" was urged at once and a meeting of the first trustees "should be called promptly for organization." It would not have been a difficult matter since a number of them were local residents. Correspond- ence should be begun at once "to secure a president and pro- fessor," and a time fixed upon for the permanent installation of a faculty. Moreover, since the institution was amply en- dowed the best of talent could be employed in the faculty. Ten years later, approximately, the new board of trustees of the University met in May, 1858, and the transactions of that meeting are literally reported. The reasons for certain ac-
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