USA > Iowa > Muscatine County > The History of Muscatine county, Iowa, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, &c. > Part 65
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The German Congregational Church was organized in 1854. Its first officers were Conrad Schaefer and Henry Blumer, Deacons. Its first Pastor was Christian Veitz. The congregation erected a house of worship in 1855. The Church supports a Sunday school, and is connected with the German Minor Congregational Association of Iowa, and that again with the General Association of Iowa. Deacons Jacob Schafluetzell and William Hine are the present officers, while Rev. Henry Hetzler fills the pulpit. The present mem- bership is forty-nine, and the church property is valued at $1.000.
Trinity (Protestant Episcopal) Church was organized in 1839, and, in 1841, built a house of worship in connection with the Masonic fraternity, which used the upper story of it for a lodge-room. The society now worship in a stone church, built in Gothic style, in 1852, and enlarged into a cruciform building in 1855, located on Second, between Walnut and Mulberry streets. April 13, 1844, the congregation was incorporated according to the laws of the State for religious societies. The first officers under the incorporation were J. S. Larkin, Senior Warden ; Ansel Humphreys, Junior Warden ; Hiram Mathews, J. S. Richman and Charles Mattoon, Vestrymen. The present officers are H. W. Moore, J. Carskadden, Thomas Brown, William H. Van Nostrand, Thomas N. Brown, George R. White and F. R. Lewis, Vestrymen ; G. R. White, Senior
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Warden ; F. R. Lewis, Junior Warden. The present Rector is Rev. W. A. Gallagher, and the membership numbers seventy-eight. The first church edifice, built by this society, was furnished with black-walnut seats ; but that variety of lumber was not deemed suitable for such purposes, and in order to make the wood-work look as much like pine as possible, the seats and chancel were painted white.
St. Mathias Roman Catholic Church .- The first edifice in which the Cath- olics of Muscatine County worshiped was a frame house, 20x30 feet, made in Prairie du Chien, Wis., by order of Bishop Mathias Loras, of Dubuque, and rafted down the Mississippi River to Bloomington, Iowa, where it was erected in 1842, on the corner of Second and Cedar streets. This church soon became too small, and was added to at different periods, but the number of members increasing more and more, and the place proving inadequate, it was sold, build- ing and lot, in 1856, for $650, and out of the proceeds of the sale a block was bought of Reece Hooper, on Eighth, between Pine and Chestnut streets, and a building erected 80x40 feet, and 72 feet high in the clear. Up to 1851, the congregation was under the charge of missionary priests, who visited it occa- sionally from Dubuque, Davenport and Iowa City. In 1851, the first resident priest, Rev. P. T. McCormick was sent here, but remained only a few months. In November, of the same year, the Rev. P. Laurent took charge of the con- gregation, and is yet at the same post. The school attached to the church was founded in 1862, and is under the charge of nine Sisters of Charity, of the Order of the Blessed Virgin. The average number of scholars is 300, divided into four class-rooms, including the select school. All branches of a common English education are taught in this school, together with the German language and the higher branches in the select school. The congregation of Mathias was an assemblage of people of many nations and languages, the English pre- dominating. The Germans were to the Irish as one is to three. In 1854, the church of St. Malachy, in Township 76, was built by this congregation; in 1857, the first Catholic Church at Wilton was built by the same means ; and finally, in 1875, the church at Nichols was built by the people of that place. In 1876, St. Mary's Church was erected by the people of St. Mathias congre- gation, and given to the Germans. Notwithstanding these different branches, the Church of St. Mathias still numbers 200 families of Irish, Americans, French and Germans. The language of the church is English. St. Mathias Church, though rather unprepossessing outwardly, is a gem inside, and reminds one of the Annunciado of Genoa. Its situation on one of Muscatine's most romantic hills is unsurpassed, save, perhaps, by that of St. Mary's, in this city. St. Mathias stands unrivaled for its paintings, its fine organ and music, and its general arrangement and taste.
St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church. During the spring of 1875, Rev. Father P. Laurent purchased of G. Schultz, of St. Louis, Mo., five acres of land, for the sum of $2,000, which he deeded to the German-American Bene- ficial Society of Muscatine, with the understanding that in case of the sale of a portion of the ground, they make a deed to the purchaser according to the for- mer's directions. Eventually, some two acres of the land were sold to John and George A. Schaefer, of this city for $1,945. The remaining ground was deeded to the Right Rev. Bishop John Hennessey, of Dubuque. During the same year, Father Laurent obtained permission from the Bishop to build a church on the premises referred to. A subscription was subsequently taken up, added to the amount realized on the sale of the two acres, and, in 1876, the erection of the church edifice was commenced, being completed in 1877. The building
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stood idle until January, 1879, when Rev. Father J. I. Greiser was appointed by the Bishop to preside over the Church, and during the same month the con- gregation was regularly organized, with a membership of over one hundred families. The church property is valued at about $15,000.
The German Independent Lutheran Church was organized in 1848. Among the constituent members were John Huber, Friederich Hacker, Henry Molis, Friederich Hofmeyer, Henry Stahl, Henry Funk, Theodore Krehe. Rev. Conrad Rico performed the first ministerial duties, while Henry Molis and Henry Stahl filled the offices of Secretary and Treasurer. As the mem- bership increased yearly, the congregation was enabled to build a brick church in 1860, to take the place of a small frame building formerly occupied. The membership now numbers 100. A Sunday school is connected with the church, which has an average attendance of 140 scholars. The present officers are John Nietzel. President; John Dietrich, Secretary : Adam Ruling, Treasurer ; Juettner and John Hahn, Trustees. Rev. Ulrich Thomas is the present Pastor. The church property is valued at $4.000.
St. Paul's Evangelical Church was organized in 1865. The first minister was Rev. Wm. Kampmeyer, now residing at Pekin, Ill. The original organi- zation consisted of forty members. Rev. Kampmeyer was the first Pastor sent by the Evangelical Synod of North America, to which the Church belongs. The house of worship was purchased of the Baptists. The present membership consists of about forty families, but some sixty families worship here. The present Pastor is Rev. Charles Bonekamper. Connected with the Church is a flourishing Sunday school of about fifty scholars and eight teachers ; also a Ladies' Benevolent Society. The church property is valued at $2,000.
The Church of the United Brethren in Christ was organized in 1850. J. Hershe, S. Frantz, Isaac Neilig, Trustees, were its first officers; Rev. George Miller served as its first Pastor. The church edifice of this congregation was erected in 1851. J. Hershe, W. B. Ament, J. Erb and M. Bitzer serve at present as Trustees, and Rev. R. E. Williams officiates as Pastor. A Sabbath school was organized in 1852, and has been in successful operation to the pres- ent time. Recently a Women's Missionary Society was started, with Mrs. Williams as President. The church property, including the parsonage, is valued at about $5,500.
The Society of Friends .- A branch of the Iowa Yearly Meeting of the Society of Friends was established at Muscatine in 1852. Indulged Meetings had been held through the summer by the families of this Society for some time, and, in September of the year mentioned, the Preparative Meeting was started, which was held in private houses, until 1856, at which time a regular house of worship was erected. Mrs. Emelia Darling was the first minister to the Muscatine Meeting, which, at the present writing, has no recommended minister ; the last ministers were : Sarah Jane Jepson, Mr. and Mrs. Tibbitts. The present membership consists of about one hundred families. The value of property owned by the society is $2,000. The last officers elected are : Mrs. Edith Painter, Mr. and Mrs. Cattell, Elders ; the same ladies and gentleman, with the addition of Levy Reader, act as Overseers. Eli Cook and Miss Amelda Painter are Clerks.
The Evangelical German Association, familiarly known in Muscatine as Albright's Church, has a house of worship, where services are held, but the Church has no resident minister. Rev. John Abrams, of Wilton, visits this congregation.
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The Holland Baptists also have an organization and a church-building here, but no resident minister.
The Y. M. C. A. of Muscatine was organized at a meeting held in the First M. E. Church, March 5, 1877, with L. H. Washburn, Chairman, and E. E. Holmes. Secretary. The first officers, elected at this meeting, were, D. C. Buchman, President ; P. M. Musser, Vice President ; William H. Woodward, Corresponding Secretary ; William E. Betts, Recording Secretary ; A. K. Raff, Treasurer.
The present officers are : L. II. Washburn, President; F. O. Cliner, Record- ing Secretary ; Plinay Fay, General Secretary ; W. Parkins, Treasurer. The Association meets at the corner of Iowa avenue and Second street, has a present membership of eighty-four, and holds Sunday meetings at Butlerville, the Poorhouse, South Muscatine, the County Jail, Adams Station and Kalarama.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The first school taught in this county was under the direction of J. A. Parvin, who rented a small cabin for $8, in May, 1839, and founded the educa- tional interests of Muscatine. Mr. Parvin was a gentleman well suited to professional duties of that character, and he succeeded in doing good work, although the region was an uncultivated one in every sense. The young teacher had no occasion to complain of the spoiling of his territory by former efforts. The soil he broke about the roots of the tree of knowledge was virgin soil, and susceptible to the influences of a skillful hand and mind. The little flock of children who attended this primitive school was no different, probably, from many another class in the Western wilds, and by slow degrees the patient labors of the teacher began to reap reward, and the interest of the rapidly- growing settlement centered more and more decidedly in the unpretentious school. The only compensation received by Mr. Parvin was such as parents paid him directly. The stipend was regulated by the teacher and the parents, whose purse was never so well filled as to warrant extravagant outlays in that direction. The carly settlers in this locality were more intelligent than in many other regions of this State, but, as a general rule, they were poor in worldly goods.
During the eleven years which succeeded the establishment of the first school, there were several private schools, of greater or less importance, a record of which has not been preserved.
The carliest concerted action of the people, in regard to schools, dates from 1848. The writer, in his efforts to secure an accurate history of those first movements, ascertained the prominent part taken in the matter by Mr. G. B. Denison. Upon applying to him for information, Mr. Denison kindly con- sented to furnish all he was possessed of in that direction, stipulating merely that he should " tell his story in his own way." We gladly complied with that provision, although it is a most unusual request for a man to ask that responsi- bility be thrown upon his shoulders. We generally find men anxious to express opinions at the expense of other parties.
Mr. Denison's recital covers the period between 1848 and 1863, and is here given over his own signature :
WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY :
MUSCATINE, IOWA, April 8, 1879.
Gentlemen : In compliance with your request to furnish you with the statistics of the pub- lic schools of Muscatine from 1850 to 1863, I thought it best to do so over my own signature, in the form of a communication. This will relieve you of all responsibility in the matter, and will enable me to express myself in my own language. Muscatine having built the first large
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schoolhouse and established the first graded school in Iowa, and I having been selected as Prin- cipal of said school, and as I also had considerable to do with shaping the school laws of the State during the first ten years of my residence here, I prefer to tell my own story in my own way.
Under the provisions of the school laws of Iowa, up to 1858, the formation of school dis- tricts was left entirely with the School Fund Commissioner; and for some unexplained reason, Muscatine was early divided into two school districts. District No. 1 occupied all that part of the original town east of Sycamore street, and No. 2 all west of said street. Nothing could induce them to unite the two districts until the passage of the revised school law, March 12, 1858, when they were consolidated, nolens volens.
In 1848, District No. 2 commenced the agitation of building a schoolhouse. Up to that time, there were no schoolhouses in either district. While there were, in many of the country districts, schoolhouses that would have been considered creditable to old Massachusetts, yet, in the towns of Iowa, very little had been done toward providing suitable schoolhouses. Dubuque had built two small brick houses, with two rooms each, but no other town of any importance in the State could boast of any public schoolhouse whatever. After much canvassing by about a dozen friends, a public meeting of the electors of District No. 2 was called at the old Methodist Church, standing on the ground now occupied by the Muscatine Journal printing office, and a vote was taken, which was in favor of building a schoolhouse. At this meeting, a tax was voted, and the School Board were instructed to procure a site and build a suitable schoolhouse, sufficient to accommodate the wants of the district. The lots where the First Ward Schoolhouse now stands were selected, and a contract was entered into for building a schoolhouse; but the project soon met with a set-back unlooked for. While the collector was on his route, collect- ing the tax, Mr. John Il. Wallace refused to pay his tax, claiming that the district was not legally organized. So the matter went to the Court, and the decision was against the district. This put a stop to the enterprise. As soon as people recovered from the shock, the necessary steps were taken to re-organize the district, making sure that no flaws could be found in the organization this time. All that they had done up to that time had to be done over again. Another meeting was called, and this time they made sure work of it. Not only that, but they determined to build a much larger house than was at first contemplated; and another tax was voted larger than the first, new plans were drawn up and the work commenced in right good earnest. But they had been set back a full year in their work, and the house was not completed, ready for occupation, until May, 1851.
District No. 1, not relishing the idea of being outdone, in 1850, voted to build a larger house than the one in No. 2. They levied a tax and secured the lots where the present Third Ward Schoolhouse now stands, and, in the spring of 1851, commenced a two-story brick house 46x60 feet, while the house in No. 2 was only 40x45 feet. The house was completed and the school commenced March 7, 1853, with D. Franklin Wells, a graduate of the State Normal School, at Albany, N. Y., as Principal; Miss Margaret M. Lyon, a graduate of the same school, as First Assistant ; Miss Malinda Davidson, Second Assistant, and Miss Emeline Fisher, Third Assistant. At the commencement of the second term, the teachers were as follows : D. F. Wells, Principal, salary, $500; Miss M. M. Lyon, First Assistant, salary, $250; Miss Kate Foster, Second Assist- ant, salary, $200; Miss M. Davidson, Third Assistant, salary, $200; Miss Henriette Mikesell, Fourth Assistant, salary, $150.
In 1850, District No. I elected John A. Parvin, President ; Ansel Humphreys, Secretary, and Absalom Fisher, Treasurer. There was no election of Directors in 1851, so these officers held over, and had the sole charge of building the schoolhouse. At the time of commencing the school in 1853, the district adopted the new school law, and elected Theodore S. Parvin, Presi- dent ; Arthur Washburn, Secretary, and Absalom Fisher, Treasurer. Mr. Wells continued as Principal of the school until the close of the school year in 1856, when he was appointed by the Trustees of the State University as Principal of the State Normal School, at Iowa City, and entered upon the duties at the commencement of the school year in September, 1856. Miss Lyon and Mr. Wells left at the same time. I can't recall Mr. Wells' successor, but he only taught for a few weeks, and was succeeded by Thomas Beaham, and Mr. Beaham by D. Il. Goodno, which takes us up to 1863.
I landed in Muscatine, May 4, 1851, and, on the 12th, opened the school on the hill in the First Ward, known as No. 2. The School Board at that time consisted of N. L. Stout, Presi- dent ; Ilenry O'Connor, Secretary, and Pliny Fay, Treasurer. My salary was to be $500. The Board employed two female assistants, to wit : Miss Lydia E. Denison, First Assistant, at a salary of $250; Miss Mary A. Stiles, Second Assistant, at a salary of $225. The school year consisted of ten months, divided into three terms of fourteen weeks each. As will be seen by the above, the School Board had contracted to pay as teachers' wages, $975, about one-third of which they would receive from the apportionment of the school fund, but the balance was set down as an unknown quantity. Where it was to come from or just how they were to obtain it, were questions they were unable to solve. It was enough, that they had engaged the teachers for a year, and a part of the Board, at least, borrowed no trouble about the question of pay. That question must take care of itself when the time came. As there was no provision in the school law at that time whereby the money could be raised by tax or rate bill, Mr. Fay felt
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troubled in his conscience that he had been a party to a contract of which he did not see clearly how he was going to fulfill his part. So he came to me and asked me if I could not devise a plan to relieve the Board of their embarrassment; in short, he wanted me to act as a "com- mittee of ways and means."
Being largely interested personally, I took the matter under thoughtful consideration. I ascertained what the district would probably receive from the apportionment of the school fund, and the balance I determined to raise by rate bill. Though the law made no provisions for raising anything by rate bill, here was an actual necessity ; the balance of the teachers' wages must be raised, or the school must be closed. So, under my advice, the Board assessed the pupils as follows, to wit : The primary department, $1.50; the intermediate department, $1.75, and the higher department, $2 per term, which was an average of 123 cents per week. And they also adopted a rule not to admit any one to the school whose parents refused to pay this assessment. District No. I adopted the same schedule of tuition, but being less rigid in the enforcement of collecting the tuition than No. 2, they ran behind, while No. 2 accumulated funds.
But I foresaw we would be likely to have trouble in collecting these assessments in the future, so I drew up an amendment to the school law consisting of eight sections, entitled " an act to extend the powers of school districts," which was passed by the Legislature, and approved by the Governor, January 22, 1853. (See edition of the School Laws for 1853, and subsequent years.) This act left it optional with each district to organize under it or not ; it established the legality of the rate-bill system; the Directors were increased from three to six, optional with the electors, and were elected for three years instead of one ; it also made the school dis- triet permanent and not subject to alteration by the School Fund Commissioner. This law was universally adopted by the towns throughout the State, and by many of the county districts, also. It was while I was in Iowa City, during the session of the Legislature of 1853, that I made the acquaintance of Gov. Grimes, who was a member of the lower house, and I intrusted my bill to his care. The Legislature passed the bill as I had drawn it, without any alterations, and it remained unchanged until repealed by the passage of the Revised School Law, March 12, 1858.
District No. 2 adopted it in the spring of 1853, and elected six Directors, as follows : Rev. A. B. Robbins, President; Joseph Bridgman, Secretary ; James S. Hatch, Treasurer ; Jacob Butler, Joseph P. Freeman and Franklin Thurston, Directors. The new Board made a change in the teachers, dismissing Misses Denison and Stiles, and putting in their places Miss Emeline Lincoln and Miss Charity N. Merrill.
This was the first graded school established in the State, and the old No. 2 was the first large and commodious schoolhouse built in Iowa. The State Superintendent, Thomas H. Ben- ton, Jr., in his report for 1850, gives Muscatine credit for taking the lead in public school mat- ters in the State. My private record shows that "the Muscatine School," as it was then known, attracted much attention abroad. We received calls from many eminent persons from all parts of the State as well as elsewhere. Among them are the names of James Grant and Prof. Bullen, of Iowa College, Davenport ; the State Superintendent, Thomas H. Benton ; W. Penn Clark, of Iowa City ; Gov. R. P. Lowe, Glen Wood and Edward Kilbourn, of Keokuk, and many others.
But it was evident soon after the re-organization of the district, and the election of the new School Board under the law which I had prepared, that a revolution was contemplated by the ruling spirit of the Board. The President and I differed in regard to the manner of con- ducting the school, and our difference was of such a nature, there was no room for a compro- mise. He was unyielding, and I was equally stubborn in my opinions, and the result was a collision.
There were at that time, many children of Catholic parents attending the school, as they had a right to do, and the course which he proposed to pursue they looked upon as an infringe- ment of their conscientious religious scruples. In short, they would be compelled to yield their religious convictions or leave the school. I claimed that the public schools, being sup- ported by public funds, should be entirely free from sectarian influences ; that they should be so conducted, that people of all shades of religious opinion could meet on one common platform, where the children of all sects and creeds could study the same text-books and recite in the same classes under the same teachers. That would make them as I believed, what the law contemplated, "public schools, free to all." The matter was submitted to the electors of the district at the annual meeting in 1854, and the voice of the district was against the Board and they all resigned and a new Board was elected, consisting of S. G. Stein, Henry Reece, J. P. Freeman, S. B. Hill, Alexander Dunsmore and Alfred Purcell. Mr. Alva Tuttle was appointed Principal of the school, but he only remained with the school two terms when the Board re-appointed me. At the close of the school year, I resigned to engage in other busi- ness. Mr. Nathan Hoag was appointed my successor, which position he lield but one year, when Samuel MeNutt took his place, and Moses Ingalls succeeded Mr. McNutt. In 1860, the School Board dispensed with all the male teachers except Mr. D. H. Goodno, who acted in the capacity of City Superintendent. Mr. Goodno held this position as well as that of County Superintendent, till the formation of the Gray-Beard Regiment, in October, 1862, when he
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resigned to accept the position of Major in that regiment. This left the schools without a male teacher, and in January, 1863, the School Board requested me to take Mr. Goodno's place at the head of the schools, which I did, but at the close of the school year, I suggested to the Board that the work was not satisfactory to me, and requested them to appoint male Principals for the two large schools. The Board appointed Mr. Thomas Brown, Principal of No. 2, and I took charge of No. 1, which position I held till the close of the school year in 1864. Mr. Brown remained as Principal of No. 2 till January, 1864, when he resigned, and Mr. F. M. Wit- ter, a graduate of the State Normal School, at Iowa City, was appointed as his successor.
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