USA > Iowa > Calhoun County > Past and present of Calhoun County, Iowa, a record of settlement, organization, progress, and achievement, Volume I > Part 22
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In the summer of 1898 Frank Campbell, formerly a member of the Iowa Railroad Commission, became one of the active promoters for the Minnesota, Iowa & Gulf Railroad, to run from New Ulm.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CALHOUN COUNTY
Minn., through Rockwell City to New Conception, Mo., a distance of 310 miles. In the fall of 1901 the project was revived as the Mani- toba & Gulf, to run from the great wheat fields of the Northwest to some point on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Such a road had for years been the dream of railroad promoters. Later in the year the name of the company was changed to the Continental Railway Com- pany and the terminals were to be Manitoba and Galveston, 1,500 miles apart. Capital could not be found to carry out such a gigantie undertaking and the road was finally abandoned.
About the 1st of September, 1901, the Marshalltown & Dakota Railroad Company, which had been organized sometime before, was reincorporated as the Boone, Rockwell City & Northwestern, which had a line already completed between Fraser and Gowrie. The capi- tal stock of the new company was authorized as $1,500,000 and plans were made to begin work in the spring of 1902. Before that time arrived the Newton & Northwestern had entered the field and the line from Fraser to Gowrie now forms a part of the Fort Dodge, Des Moines & Southern.
DRAINAGE
Although not an internal improvement in the sense of being a public utility, there has been no single agency that has accomplished so much for the development and utilization of Calhoun County's natural resources as the drainage system, whereby thousands of acres of swamp land have been reclaimed and brought under cultivation. For many years after the first settlements were made in the county, a large part of the surface was covered by marshes and old lake beds, connected with each other by sloughs, the water channels being irregu- larly defined. No provision had yet been made for draining these marshes, but the Sixteenth General Assembly passed an act authoriz- ing boards of county supervisors to "locate and cause to be constructed levees, ditches or drains" necessary for the reclamation of swamp lands. Under the act of 1882 the property holders were given the right of petition to the board of supervisors for the construction of ditches or drains, and the board was given enlarged powers in the way of assessments against the property benefited and damages in favor of the property injured by the construction of such ditch or drain.
At the time this law was passed there were over twenty thousand aeres in the northwestern part of Calhoun County unfit for cultivation on account of the marshy condition of the soil. This marshy seetion
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was divided into two tracts known as Hell Slough and Shipman Slough, the natural outlet of which was through a low, marshy strip some four hundred feet in width to the head of Camp Creek. In the spring of 1885 a petition signed by L. W. Moody and 112 others- a majority of the land owners in the district-was presented to the board of supervisors, asking for the construction of a diteh to reclaim the land affected by these two slonghs.
James McClure was appointed by the board to make a preliminary survey, prepare a plan and furnish an approximate estimate of the cost. This was done during the summer and fall of 1885. Upon the presentation of Mr. McClure's report the board appointed com- missioners to fix the amount of benefits and damages. In January, 1888, the board ordered the construction of the ditches necessary to drain Hell Slough, which was designated as District No. 1, and Ship- man Slough, District No. 2. The commissioners appointed to deter- mine the amount of benefits and damages to be assessed against or in favor of each piece of land within the districts made their final report on June 14, 1888, and on April 4, 1889, Mr. McClure was directed to prepare detailed plans for the work so that a contraet could be let.
Drainage bonds to the amount of $17,000 were authorized, but at the April session the auditor and treasurer reported that they had been unable to negotiate them on the terms prescribed by the board. These bonds were then canceled and on May 18, 1889, seventeen bonds for $1,000 each were.authorized. These bonds were made payable semi-annually, beginning on October 1, 1889, and were to bear 7 per cent interest. Bids were advertised for and the contraet was awarded to W. H. Wheeler & Company, of Sciotoville, Ohio, for 121% eents per cubic yard. Beginning at the head of the ditch, the contractors put two steam dredges, each 18 feet wide and 70 feet long, at work, the ditch filling with water sufficient to float the dredges as the work proceeded.
When the supervisors met in November they found that the esti- mate as to the amount of earth to be removed was entirely too low, and that the money realized from the sale of the bonds was practically exhausted. It was therefore ordered that drainage bonds to the amount of $30,000, in addition to the $17,000 authorized in May, and on the same terms. The last of these bonds fell due in 1909.
By the terms of the contract the Hell Slough diteh was to be com- pleted by November 1, 1890, and the Shipman Slough ditch by No- vember 1, 1890. The contractors pushed their work with such energy that on September 5, 1890, Mr. McClure reported that both ditches
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were completed. Mr. MeClure read a paper on these ditches before the Iowa Civil Engineers' and Surveyors' Society at the annual meet- ing, held in Des Moines on January 15-16, 1896, from which the fol- lowing description and comment are taken:
"The top width of ditch ranges from twenty to thirty-two feet, with side slopes of 11/2 to 1. The depth of cutting was from 4 to 1315 feet. The total amount on the 131/5 miles of diteh No. 1 was 190,899 cubic yards, and in the 121/5 miles of No. 2 it was 167,180 eubie yards. The work was completed in the fall of 1890 and eost about $51,000. The two districts were bonded for a term of years to meet the expense. The question next asked is, Did the benefit derived from the work pay for the outlay?
"Previous to the construction of the ditehes the greater part of this land was necessarily uninhabited, the home of countless numbers of water-fowl, lizards and snakes, but as soon as the drainage works were completed the lands became dry, farms were opened, dwellings built, the soil, before worthless. proved to be the richest in the county, and although very little tile draining has been so far done, yet the lands have produced good erops and now command good prices. The general health of the inhabitants of that part of the county has been greatly improved by the removal of those large bodies of stagnant water and fields of decaying vegetation, and the county and state regularly colleet a proper share of tax from the lands that formerly paid little or nothing."
Such was the beginning of the drainage system that has added millions of dollars to the wealth of Calhoun County. As soon as the benefits resulting from the draining of the two great sloughs in But- ler. Williams and Garfield townships were seen, other petitions were filed with the board of supervisors. In June, 1915, the board had approved the report of the engineer on Drainage Distriet No. 202, for the reclamation of a traet of swamp land in Sherman Township.
It is worthy of note that the first drainage bonds authorized by the supervisors of Calhoun County in 1889 were looked upon. with some distrust and had to be caneeled. The new issue, bearing a higher rate of interest, were sold with some difficulty, but when it was seen that the county was redeeming them promptly and in good faith, such bonds no longer proved to be a drug in the market. Sinee 1890 drainage bonds aggregating many thousands of dollars have been sold by Calhoun County and the rate of interest now is much lower than when the first bonds were issued. At the beginning of the year 1915 the amount of drainage bonds outstanding was $235,409.26.
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It has cost much money to excavate these ditches, yes, but in every instance the returns have been far greater than the outlay. Land that could not be sold for any price was sometimes assessed as high as $20 per acre for the purpose of reclamation. Owners grumbled occasionally at what they considered excessive taxes, but when their worthless land increased in value from $1 to $200 per acre, and in productiveness more than a hundredfold, the grumbling ceased.
Of all the counties in the state that received swamp lands under the grant of 1850, nonc has given a better account of stewardship than Calhoun. The highway of progress is never free from obstacles and the burden of civilization is often oncrous. But with the courage of conviction, with a hope for the future, the people of Calhoun County boldly removed the obstructions from the highway, carried the burden through the heat of the day, reclaimed the marshes, and established for themselves a reputation second to no county in the Union for industry, foresight and progress.
CHAPTER XIV EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CHARACTER OF THE EARLY SCHOOLS-THE FRONTIER SCHOOLHOUSE- TEXT BOOKS OF EARLY DAYS-SPELLING SCHOOLS-THE THREE R'S- EVOLUTION OF IOWA'S SCHOOLS-THE PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND -SCHOOL FUNDS OF CALHOUN COUNTY-TOWN SCHOOLS-RURAL SCHOOLS-VALUE OF SCHOOL PROPERTY-COUNTY HIGH SCHOOL- PUBLIC LIBRARIES-THE PRESS-BRIEF SKETCHES OF THE CALHOUN COUNTY NEWSPAPERS.
While the people of Calhoun County have accomplished almost marvelous results in draining the swamp lands, breaking the raw prairie and bringing it under cultivation, they have not neglected the education of their children. Compared with the schools of the pres- ent day, those of half a century or more ago, when the first settle- ments were made in the county, were "poor excuses," as one old resi- dent recently expressed it in the presence of the writer. Then there was little or no public funds with which to build schoolhouses or pay teachers. When a few families located in a neighborhood they would co-operate in building a schoolhouse, sometimes of logs and sometimes of rough lumber. If money enough could be raised in the settlement to purchase sash and glass, a "sure enough" window would be placed in each side of the building. If a glass window could not be afforded an aperture left on each side would be covered with oiled paper, which would admit some light and keep out the cold. Stoves were a luxury and the schoolroom was heated by a huge fireplace at one end. On cold days those near the fire would get too warm, while those farther away would be suffering with the eold, consequently there was a con- stant changing of scats among the pupils.
The furniture was of the "home-made" type, usually consisting of a few long benches made of boards or split saplings, supported on legs driven into holes bored with a large auger in the half-round sides and the split sides smoothed with a draw-knife. Under the window
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a long, wide board, supported on pins or brackets, formed the writing desk, where each pupil would take his or her turn at the "copy book."
And the copy books of that day generally consisted of a few sheets of foolscap, covered with a sheet of heavy wrapping paper. At the top of the page the teacher would write a line, which served the double purpose of furnishing a specimen of penmanship to be imitated and conveying a moral lesson; such as "Whatever is worth doing is worth doing well," "Evil communications corrupt good manners," etc. When one pauses to consider that the term of school was rarely over three months, that the same teacher hardly ever taught two terms in the same place, and that each teacher had a different style of pen- manship, it is a wonder that the young people of that period learned to write as well as many of them did.
Other books were Webster's spelling book, McGuffey's readers, Pike's, Daboll's or Ray's arithmetics. and in some sehools Olney's or Mitchell's geography and Kirkham's or Butler's grammar. The teacher of that day was seldom a graduate of a higher institution of learning and probably never heard of a normal school. If he could spell and read, write well enough to "set copies," and "do all the sums" in the arithmetic, up to and including the "Rule of Three," he was qualified to teach. His physical qualifications were not over- looked. Ile must be a man able to hold the unruly and boisterous boys in subjection and preserve order. To this end, in many a frontier schoolhouse, a bundle of tough switches would be displayed to the best advantage as a sort of prophylactic. The pioneer peda- gogue proceeded on the theory that "to spare the rod was to spoil the child." Not many children were spoiled.
To be a good speller was considered the basis of an education. More attention was therefore given to orthography than to any other branch of study. Beginning with the "A B C's," as soon as the child learned to know all the letters by sight he was taught to spell simple and then more difficult words. Spelling schools of evenings were of frequent oceurrence, and in these matches the parents nearly always participated. Two "captains" would be selected to "choose up" and the one who won the first choice would choose the person he degmed the best speller present, and so on until all who eared to take part were arranged on the two sides. Then the teacher "gave out" the words alternately from side to side. When one misspelled a word he took his seat, his defeat being rendered the more poignant by the whispers and giggles that ran around the room. The one who stood longest
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was deeided to be the victor, and to "spell down" a whole distriet was regarded as a great achievement.
After the child could read fairly well he was taught to write. Then came the arithmetic. In the pronunciation of this word the sound of the first letter was often dropped. Readin', 'Ritin' and 'Rithmetic were considered the essentials of a practical education and this gave rise to the expression "the three R's." If one understood the three R's he was equipped for the great battle of life, so far as ordinary business transactions were concerned.
But conditions in educational matters have kept pace with eivie and industrial progress. The old frontier schoolhouse has disap- peared, and in its place has come the modern brick or stone edifiee with improved systems of heating and ventilation. The bundle of "gads" is no longer exhibited as a warning to evil-doers, for corporal punishment has been eliminated from the "course of study." Nature studies, manual training, drawing and music occupy places equally as important as "the three R's." Yet, under the old system, chief jus- tices, senators, professional men who have achieved world-wide repu- tations, and even presidents of the United States acquired their ele- mentary education in the old-time schoolhouse, where "lickin' and larnin' " went together.
EVOLUTION OF IOWA'S SCHOOLS
The first school in the State of Iowa was taught in 1830 by Berry- man Jennings, on the bank of the Mississippi River, about eight miles above Keokuk. Jesse Creighton taught a subseription school at Keo- kuk about two years later, and in 1833 George Cubbage taught a term at Dubuque. The first woman to teach school in what is now the State of Iowa was Mrs. Rebecea Palmer, who taught at Fort Madison in 1834. The first schoolhouse was built at Burlington in the fall of 1833, the schools prior to that time having been taught in buildings that had been ereeted for private use. The Territorial Legislature of 1839 passed the first act relating to education. lt provided that :
"There shall be established a common school or schools in each of the counties of the territory which shall be open and free for every elass of white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one years. The county board is directed to organize districts in their respective Vol. 1-15
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counties whenever a petition may be presented for the purpose by a majority of the voters resident within such contemplated district."
The act further provided that trustees should keep the schools open for at least three months each year. This was the beginning of a school system that at the beginning of the present century placed Iowa in the proud position of having the lowest percentage of illit- eracy of any state in the Union. The constitution of 1857 made ample provision for the establishment and maintenance of a perma- nent school fund by the declaration that:
"The General Assembly shall encourage, by all suitable means, the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral and agricultural im- provement. The proceeds of all lands that have been, or hereafter may be, granted by the United States to this state for the support of schools, which may have been or shall hereafter be sold or disposed of, and the 500,000 acres of land granted to the new states, under an act of Congress, distributing the proceeds of the public lands among the several states of the Union, approved in the year of our Lord 1841, and all estates of deceased persons who may have died without leaving a will or heir, and also such per cent as has been or may hereafter be granted by Congress, on the sale of lands in this state, shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which, together with all rents of the unsold lands, and such other means as the General Assembly may provide, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of the common schools throughout the state."
Other constitutional provisions set forth that the money received from fines collected for breaches of the penal laws, and the money paid by persons for exemption from military duty, "shall be exclu- sively applied to the support of the common schools, or the establish- ment of libraries, as the board of education shall from time to time provide," and another provision of the organic law is that "the money subject to the support and maintenance of common schools shall be distributed to the districts in proportion to the number of youths between the ages of five and twenty-one years, in such manner as may be provided by the General Assembly."
According to the statement of the county auditor, the total amount raised for educational purposes in 1914 by taxes levied upon the prop- erty of the county was $158,070.38. In the following table the first five items constitute what is known as the "district tax;" the sixth is raised by a tax upon the property of the entire county; the seventh
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, LAKE CITY
CENTRAL SCHOOL BUILDING, LAKE CITY
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is the county's apportionment of the income from the permanent school fund, and the last came chiefly from fines:
Teachers' fund $103,352.82
Contingent fund
35,440.25
Schoolhouse fund 2,666.84
School bonds 5,651.72
School bond interest
1,467.66
County school fund.
9,491.09
School fund interest
1,630.48
All other sources
6,172.38
Total available for the year $165,873.24
The county superintendent's report for 1914 shows 5,096 persons between the ages of five and twenty-one years entitled to share in the public school funds. These figures show that the people of the county spend annually the sum of $32.56 for each pupil of school age in the county-the best evidence in the world that they believe in education.
The first school in Calhoun County was taught by David Reed in the fall of 1856, near Lake City. The second teacher was Mrs. Moses Sherman, who taught in the Village of Lake City when it consisted of only three or four houses. Mrs. Sherman was a step- daughter of Charles Amy, who was also one of the early teachers. The first schoolhouse in Lake City stood on the corner now occupied by the United Brethren Church. The Central Building, which is still in use, was the first modern school building to be erected in the city. Lake City now has three buildings, valued by the county super- intendent at $40,000, employs nineteen teachers, owns apparatus val- ued at $2,000, has 500 volumes in the school library, and enrolls 593 pupils.
Lincoln Township, in which is situated the Town of Manson, was organized in 1866. The first school in the neighborhood of Manson was taught by Amelia Smith at the dwelling of James Van Horne, a short distance southeast of the present town limits. The first school in Manson was taught in a room over a hardware store by a man named Catlin. On March 31, 1915, the Manson school board let a contract for a new high school building to Carl Schlacter, of Rock- well City, for $29,599.97. This did not inelude the plumbing, heat- ing and furniture, which, when added, brings the cost of the building close to forty thousand dollars. Before the erection of the new house
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Manson had two good school buildings, valued at $20,000, employed fourteen teachers, enrolled nearly four hundred pupils, and had 945 volumes in the school library. With the completion of the new high school building Manson will be better provided with educational facili- ties than most Iowa cities of its size.
Rockwell City was made the county seat in 1876. A courthouse was built the next year and soon after it was completed Mrs. O. J. Jolley opened a school in one room. A schoolhouse was built in 1878 and Annie Callaghan was the first to teach in the new building. That schoolhouse is still standing, but it has had its "ups and downs." Originally it stood on the northwest corner of Main and Fifth streets, on the lot afterward occupied by the county jail. It was sold to Joseph G. Palmer, who removed to another location and converted it into an opera house. Again it was moved, after which it was sold to the Baptist Church and taken to its present site on the east side of Sixth Street, between Main and Court.
In 1901 a contract for a new school building, two stories in height with one large room on each floor, was let to J. W. Detwiler, of Des Moines. This building is loeated at the corner of Eighth and Rieh- mond streets and is known as the West Sehool.
The Rockwell City High School Building was built in 1909 by George Neteott, of Independence, whose bid was $28,122. The Fort Dodge Heating and Plumbing Company was paid $8,681 more for the heating plant and toilets, making the total cost $36,803. This building is 78 by 136 feet, two stories high with basement. In the basement are two manual training rooms, a room for domestic science, a gymnasium and a janitor's room. On the main floor are eight sehool rooms. The second floor has three large school rooms, three reeitation rooms, a laboratory, the superintendent's office and a room for meetings of the school board. Size and quality considered, this is the cheapest school building in the county.
The two school buildings of Rockwell City are valued at $50,000. nineteen teachers are employed, there are 700 volumes in the school library, and over five hundred pupils were enrolled during the last school year. The apparatus used in the city schools is valued at $4,000.
In Lohrville the first school was taught by T. W. Andrus. It was taught in what was known as Safley Hall. Mr. Andrus began his three months' term in January, 1882, but before it was completed he beeame demented and the school was closed. The following sum- mer Miss Rosa Hughes taught a term in a small wooden building
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AN OFFICE
PUBLIC LIBRARY, ROCKWELL CITY
HIGH SCHOOL, ROCKWELL CITY
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owned by S. II. Brown. The contract for the first schoolhouse was let on September 22, 1883, to E. W. Sorber, of Gowrie, for $2,275. This is the old frame building still standing on the southeast corner of the old school grounds. In 1914 a new high school building was ereeted and furnished at a cost of $40,000, including the furniture, etc. Lohrville employs eight teachers, enrolls about two hundred pupils, has 275 volumes in the school library and apparatus worth $600.
The first school building erected in Pomeroy was destroyed by the tornado of July 6. 1893, and the second by fire on Mareh 4, 1899. The fire started in the basement about midnight and the building and contents were soon consumed, except a few books that were carried out by those who arrived first on the seene. The origin of the fire is something of a mystery. It was thought by some to have started from the furnace, but the faet that the building burned on Saturday night would hardly bear out that theory, as there had been no fire in the furnace-at least not enough to eause it to become overheated -for more than twenty-four hours. The loss was $8,500, with $6,000 insurance. The present building was erected the following year and is valued at $14,000. Ten teachers are employed in the Pomeroy schools, about two hundred and fifty pupils enrolled, the school library numbers 1,861 volumes, the largest in the county, and the apparatus is valued at $2,970.
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