USA > Indiana > Elkhart County > A twentieth century history and biographical record of Elkhart County, Indiana > Part 30
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From (841 to 1857 a number of private schools were started. The general plan was to go from house to house, secure the promise of pupils, then locate quarters and begin work. Among them George W. Wey- burn, who came to Goshen in 1853 and opened the Empire School in the basement of the then First Methodist church, is prominent. He was unusually successful and counted among his pupils, during his four years of work in that school, many of the older citizens of Goshen. He had associated with him at different times Miss Martha Stancliff. Miss Valen- cia Watrous and others. In March, 1858, the school was closed because of the completion of the new public school building.
The real development of the schools began with the erection of the building above referred to. The lot was purchased at a cost of $1,000 of John S. Freeman, who took, as part payment, the school property on Sixth street : the building, begun in the fall of 1856, was a four-room brick structure and cost without furnishings $11.000.
The growth of the city from 1860 to 1870 necessitated building larger quarters. In 1862 a frame building on West Pike street was rented for a period of three years, and in 1865 was rented for three years more. In 1868 the Pike street school was built at a cost of $2.500. It was a one-room brick structure 25 x 40 feet, and, after being used for sixteen years. was replaced by the present building at a cost of $9.000. The first building on the North Fifth street school site was a four-room frame structure erected in 1862. It was replaced by a brick building in 1882, which contains six rooms. An additional four-room buikling on the same site was built in 1895.
In 1809 it was found necessary to provide school room in the south part of town. The board purchased the site and built the main portion of the South Fifth street building at a cost of $5,000. About ten years later two additions, containing four rooms, were built, so that the build- ing had altogether seven school rooms. In 1905 the entire heating and
283
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
ventilating system of the building was reconstructed and a fan system of ventilation and steam heating installed.
During the summer of 1874 a four-room addition was made to the high school building at a cost of $4,500. On the evening of January 18. 1875, the entire building with its contents was burned to the ground. Temporary provision was made in churches and halls for the pupils, and steps were at once taken for rebuilding. The new building was an eight- room structure, containing in addition to the eight school rooms, the superintendent's office and two recitation rooms. It was completed and occupied in the fall of 1875, and cost without furnishing $20,000.
When the limits of the city were extended to include what is now known as East Goshen and West Goshen, the township schools located therein became a part of the city school system. The West Goshen building thus received is a neat one-story brick, contains one school room and the usual hall and cloak rooms. The old East Goshen building was built of wood and was in rather poor condition. In 1898 the board of education erected the present building, and one may safely say that there is not a more convenient or better arranged one-room building in the state of Indiana. Its cost was about $4.000.
In 1895 the demand for more school room for the grades and better quarters for the rapidly growing high school became so urgent that plans were laid for the erection of an up-to-date high school building. The splendidly equipped building that resulted joins the old high school build- ing on the front so that the two buildings are to all intents and purposes one.
Educational progress in Goshen has been rapid within the past ten years. The accommodations which were thought ample at the time the remodeled high school was completed soon proved inadequate to meet the demands. This was mainly due to the phenomenal growth of the high school. the enrollment here in 1903 reaching 325. Under the remarkable guidance of the principal, Miss Lillian E. Michael, of Ohio University, the high school had not only experienced this growth from an enrollment of 150, but was recognized by the leading universities of the country as being a model and efficient school. Indeed, so well and favorably known had this department become that the school authorities were enabled to take a long step in advance and afford to the youth of the city an educational institution which in every way should be a model of effectiveness. In the fall of 1902 the movement for a new building began, plans were matured and in the following spring building began
284
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
The formal occupation of the various apartments for school work took place in the fall of 1904. The school board having direction of affairs at this time consisted of Frank Kelly, president; George B. Slate, secre- tary; Haines Egbert, treasurer.
Goshen, in thus furnishing its boys and girls the opportunities of a " poor man's college," has taken rank among cities as the pioneer in furnishing this most advanced ground in practical and theoretical educa- tion. The Goshen high school is the first embodiment of what is known as the " six year high school plan," whereby the pupils, after completing the work which has so long constituted the regular high school curricu- lum, may, further, without leaving home environments, enjoy training of college grade for two years. This extra work does not increase the expense to the general public. State Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion F. A. Cotton says in his report for 1904: " This type of school at Goshen, where one of the very best buildings in the state has been con- structed and equipped, provides two years of post-graduate work and has arrangements with some of the strongest colleges and universities in the country whereby students who have completed the work are given junior standing. In addition to the regular high school work the Go- shen school is relating itself to community interests through the study of science, including biology, chemistry, physics and agriculture. The buildings are well equipped with shops where pupils of the seventh and eighth grades and high school work with their hands. This school is a splendid example of what an industrial school should attempt to accom- plish." The eyes of educators all over the country are turned to this institution begun under such auspicious circumstances and attended so far with such success.
" The six years' work offered is the result of a real demand rather than an experiment. During the past years a considerable number of students returned, the year following graduation, to do work in the undergraduate courses. These pupils felt the need of a more extended schooling, but many of them were unable to meet the expense necessary to a course in college. Also a number of parents kept their children at home the year following graduation because they thought them too young to be sent away from home. During the year out of school the boys usually found work whose immediate rewards in dollars and cents seemed greater than the remoter rewards of learning; and the girls de- veloped other ambitions. The plan of extending the course was projected
ELKHART CITY SCHOOLS
2S5
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
to satisfy the cravings of the first class of boys and girls, and to correct the mistaken tendencies of the second.
" The ways and means for meeting the extra expense incurred in the addition of two years' work to the curriculum is obtained partly by charging an individual tuition fee of $30. This is large enough to avoid extra taxes."
The plans of Superintendent Hedgepeth, covering the fields of manual training, domestic science, departmental instruction and co-ordi- nate development of the mental, moral and physical sides of the child life, have received the commendation not only of the educators of the state, county and city, but of the practical men of affairs who are most directly interested in the city's educational facilities.
The Goslien school board, in 1905, consists of W. O. Vallette, presi- dent : Geo. B. Slate, secretary and Joseph H. Lesh, treasurer.
The following tables give an interesting comparison between the city schools of to-day and twenty years ago:
1905.
No. Pupils. No. Teachers.
High school
315
12
Madison street school.
585
14
North Fifth street school.
324
8
South Fifth street school
199
6
Pike street school.
123
1
West Side school
40
I
East Side school
42
I
-
Total
1608
45
Average attendance, 1350.
There are also three supply teachers, making 48 in all.
In the high school faculty are graduates from nine colleges and universities.
Statistics for 1885 :
Total enrollment 1025
Average attendance SII
Number of teachers 26
Number enrolled in high school
62
Average attendance
435
ELKHART SCHOOLS.
We come now to the two largest centers, each of whose educational data would more than make a chapter. In Elkhart there seems to be
286
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
no definite and reliable information as to when the first school was taught. or where or by whom. It has been stated that E. M. Chamberlain taught the first school in 1836. This seems hardly credible when we think that the town had then been in existence some five or six years and that al- ready a considerable afflux of settlers had reached the village. No doubt the school children of that intervening period had some amount of in- struction at a definite place and with more or less regular sessions. At the same time it is true that the great educational progress so marked in the city had its practical inception during the later thirties, and at that time the pioneer period was largely passed and those in charge began laying the foundations of the system which we may view with admira- tion at the present.
Several years ago Mr. D. W. Thomas, now beginning his twentieth year as superintendent of the Elkhart schools, wrote for publication in the Elkhart Daily Truth a comprehensive article on the history of the public schools of his city, and as, coming from such an authority, its statements must stand as authentic, we herewith quote, with the author's permission, the principal portion of that historical survey as affording the best insight into the development of the Elkhart city schools.
" The first schoolhouse, a one-room, one-story frame building, was erected in 1838 on the east side of Second street, between Jackson and Washington. In 1844 this building burned and a three-story structure at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets-then known as . Tammany Hall.' afterwards the ' Beehive,' now demolished-was used for school purposes antil 1848, when another one-story, frame building was erected on the original site on Second street.
" This building in 1851 was converted into a dwelling house, and 37 years afterward was removed to a part of the city where its environments are more congenial, but it is still used as a home.
" Among those who, in this early day, wielded the birchen scepter may be named E. M. Chamberlain, Sabrina Burbank, N. F. Broderick, Roland Devor. Guy Johnson, Mr. Wales, Mr. Bearupp, R. T. Bozgess, A. C. Case and R. MeIllrath. It is now impossible to determine the order or length of time which these persons served as teachers, but it is reasonably certain that E. M. Chamberlain ( afterwards judge and mem- ber of congress ) taught the first . pay school ' in what is now the city of Elkhart, and that N. F. Broderick (a man noted for his goodness of both head and heart ). taught the first district school in the first schoolhouse, in 1838.
2.87
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
" In 1841. a four-room frame building was erected at the corner of High and Second streets, on the site of the present Central school build- ing, and this in turn was destroyed by fire in 1867.
" Mr. Chas. J. Conn, though not teaching continuously during this time, was the leading educational genius. He was a man of wonderfully quick perception and magnetic power, and his methods of instruction were original and peculiar. He conducted his school on the * high- pressure system,' taking the pupil in his school who had the greatest ability as his standard and judging all others by it. He imitated no one and no one could imitate him-methods fairly successful with him, with any one else would have proved a dismal failure-he never got in any ruts nor permitted his pupils to do so. He would stop the clock, turn it backward or forward, change the order of the program, the time and methods of recitation, anything to keep his pupils on the qui vive.
" As an illustration, one of his recitations in grammar which has been thus described may be given. The pupils in three or four different grades are arranged about the room, who, facing inward, form a square, the teacher in the center. The pupils are divided into sections of nine (more or less according to convenience ), and each in turn is given some- thing to recite, a definition, a rule, the analysis of a sentence, or the pars- ing of a word, and so on to the end of the class. At a given signal all began. Amid this ' confusion worse confounded ' Mr. Conn stands un- moved, making a correction here, a suggestion there, or assigning a new part yonder, with a celerity and accuracy that to the uninitiated is truly astonishing. Mr. Conn's school labors closed in 1867.
" In 1855. the Bodley brothers, who then had charge of the schools. having found a lady in the person of Mrs. A. E. Babb who could teach algebra, literature and French, threw the town into a state of agitation by offering her a position as a teacher at a salary of $30 per month. The idea of giving a woman any kind of a position by which she could make $1.50 a day was a piece of extravagance scarcely to be tolerated-but then it is the unexpected that happens, and the world moves neverthe- less. Thus popularized, Mrs. Babb taught with success for a time in the public schools, and afterward for several years conducted a private school of her own.
" Mrs. Margaret Stevens, one of the four who composed the corps of teachers in 1861, taught in the first primary department of the public schools from that date until 1884. except the four years from 1876 to 1880. Although for the most part she was required to make 'brick
288
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
without straw.' and although her room was always crowded, sometimes numbering 125 pupils, she filled this important and arduous position faithfully and well. Perhaps no one has ever taught in Elkhart who is remembered more kindly than she. Many of her pupils, now grown to manhood and womanhood, and who yet bear the impress of her kind heart and gentle manners, say, . Well done, good and faithful teacher."
" After the destruction of the old schoolhouse in 1867, it was deter- mined to erect a building worthy of the name and commensurate with the needs of the enterprising little town. Accordingly in 1868 was com- pleted a four-story brick building at a cost of $45,000. School opened in this building September 5, with the following corps of instructors : Valois Butler, Miss Nellie Smith, Mrs. A. M. Clark, Miss M. 1. Bonnell, Miss Rainy, Miss Ostrander and Miss Mary Hawley. Of these, Miss Bonnell began teaching under Mr. Conn in 1866 and taught consecutively for 16 years. Miss Hawley commenced teaching in 1868 and is now ( 1900) completing her thirty-second year of continuous service in the school room.
" The people were justly proud of their new building, but some be- wailed such extravagance and claimed with much assurance that the time would never come when there would be children enough in Elkhart to fill the rooms thmus provided. However, in 1873, only five years later, it was found necessary to provide more room, and a four-room, two-story brick building was erected in the fourth ward at a cost of $10,000. In 1875 a similar structure was erected in the fifth ward. In 1877 John Weston deeded to the city eight lots in northwest Elkhart, with the pro- viso that a certain described schoolhouse should be erected thereon within a year. In compliance with this agreement a two-story brick (known as the Weston building ), containing two school rooms and a recitation room, was erected in 1878 at a cost of $5,000. In the following year ( 1879) a similar building ( the Beardsley) was constructed in northeast Elkhart. In 1875 lots were purchased and a one-story frame was put up in East Elkhart, but the accommodations were soon found to be in- adequate and in 1883 a two-story brick building was erected at a cost of $5.500, the two lower rooms only being completed. In the same year the Christian church on Middlebury street was bought for $1,400 and a school opened.
" With all these additions there was a demand for more room and better accommodations, especially for the high school. To meet this need, in 1884 the school board erected an eight-room high school building
289
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
on High street, adjoining the Central building on the west ; and then the fourth story, in the now old building which included the high school room, was abandoned. In the then new building the high school and recitation rooms were on the first floor, the upper grammar grades on the second, and the library, museum and superintendent's office in the room connecting the old and the new building. The entire cost of this structure, including the furniture and the steam-heating apparatus for both buildings, amounted to about $25,000.
" In the years 1886 and 1887 two rooms were added to the fourth ward building and two to the fifth ward. Two rooms in East Elkhart were finished and furnished and the Middlebury street schoolhouse re- modeled and one room added, the aggregate cost of these improvements being about $12,000. From a sanitary point of view the improvements in 1887 and 1888 are of the greatest importance.
" It having come to the knowledge of the school authorities that there was an abundance of pure, fresh air and sunshine going to waste in Elkhart, it was determined to utilize a portion of it for the benefit of the school children. Accordingly arrangements were made and carried into effect for the proper heating, lighting and ventilating of the ward buildings. In the accomplishment of this object, the rooms were re- seated. new heaters purchased, direct radiation from stoves cut off, and fresh and foul air flues provided; the blackboards were repaired and new ones made where needed, the schools were furnished with number- tables, form-models and beads, reading charts, maps and globes, supple- mentary readers, dictionaries and other books for teachers' desks : some chemical and physical apparatus, quite a number of specimens for the museum, about $500 worth of books for the library, and a very fine tele- scope purchased from Prof. H. L. Smith, of Hobart College, Geneva, New York, were added. The cost of these much needed improvements and supplies for the time indicated aggregated about $3,000.
"In 1890 two rooms were added to the Beardsley building, at a cost of $3,500, and in 1891 a two-room building was erected at the corner of Cleveland avenue and Southi Seventh street, at a cost of $5.000.
" The dark and poorly ventilated rooms in the Central school build- ing. the crowded condition of all the rooms and especially that of the high school, rendered it imperative that more and better facilities be sup- plied. To meet this demand, in January, 1893. the new high school building was completed at a cost of.$36,000. This is a two-story stone structure, located at the corner of Pigeon and Vistula streets. The high
290
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
school assembly room, with a seating capacity of 200, and four commo- dious recitation rooms, furnished with single desks, occupy the second floor. On the first floor are four recitation rooms, the superintendent's office and a library room, containing more than 5,000 volumes, selected with especial reference to the needs of students in the high school and the grammar grades.
" Besides, a chemical laboratory and biological and physical science rooms have been fitted up with all the modern improvements and the necessary appliances for the teaching of chemistry, physics, physiology, zoology and botany, according to the latest and most approved methods of teaching these subjects.
"During 1894 four rooms were added to the Weston building. and the others thoroughly renovated, thus making a good six-room building, practically new. It is supplied with water, wire hat-racks, flush closets, and the Hess system of heating and ventilating, the whole constituting for the money expended the most convenient and the best arranged school building in the city. It cost, completed and furnished, $10,000. Five years later the over-crowded condition of the schools rendered it impera- tive that more room should be provided. Accordingly at the request of the school board and by the unanimous vote of the city council bonds were issued and extensive additions to the fourth and fifth ward buildings were made, and improvements in way of closets, heating and ventilating apparatus in the other buildings amounting in the aggregate to more than $20.000."
The most recent addition to the school architecture of Elkhart is the new Middlebury school, replacing the old frame building shown in the illustration. This school, which was to be ready for occupancy by the opening of the fall term of 1905, contains four rooms, is built of brick at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, and in equipment and general plan is the most perfect of the graded schools of the city.
Some statistics quoted by Professor Thomas indicate graphically the growth and progress of the schools :
1886. 1 809.
School enumeration
2,050 3,660
School enrollment
1,082 2,669
Average number belonging 1.500 2.371
Per cent of attendance 94.3 96
Number of pupils belonging at close of year . . 1.428
2,254
Number of school rooms
31
03
Number of teachers 35 65
291
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
Number of school teachers in high school. . . 4 8 Number of pupils in high school 96 299
Number in graduating class II
37
The condition of the schools in 1905 is a matter for congratulation on the part of all concerned. While the only important change made in recent years in the school curriculum has been the addition of a commer- cial course to the high school, every department of the educational work has felt the stimulus of present-day progress, and in the personnel of instructors, in the character of work accomplished, and the general at- mnosphere of intelligence, there has been constant improvement. The high school, with its four years' course, its faculty of ten regular in- structors, under Principal S. B. McCracken, is doing work of such character as to obtain affiliation with the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan and Northwestern University.
The total value of the school property of Elkhart in 1904 is placed at $204,000, and the amount devoted to education is: from tuition, $39,613.41 ; from special school revente, $25,892.24, making a total of $05.505.65. The average cost upon the city to furnish a pupil the bene- fits of the high school course is $31. 1.4.
The following table shows the names of the city schools and the enrollment of pupils in each for the year ending in 1905 :
Name of School.
Enrollment. 285
High school
Central school
805
Fourth Ward school. 368
Fifth Ward school
379
Weston school 300
South Side school.
278
Beardsley school
178
East Elkhart school
117
Middlebury school
127
Total enrollment
2,837
Average attendance
2,253
Number teachers, 68, and one supply and one music teacher.
\ Goshen educational institution whose order of merit is high and whose influence has been directed not alone to training the mind but also to fitting men and women for the higher ideals of life is Goshen College, which is situated in a very desirable neighborhood in the southern part of the city. The college is the outgrowth of the Elkhart Institute. The
29%
HISTORY OF ELKHART COUNTY
latter, founded in 1895, was opened in the G. A. R. hall in the city of Elkhart. Before the end of the first year the Elkhart Institute Associa- tion was organized and at once began to solicit funds to erect a suitable building on Prairie street, Elkhart. The building was completed and formally dedicated in February, 1895. In 1898 the Association was in- corporated under the laws of the state of Indiana. At that time the man- agement was under the control of a board of nine directors. As the school grew and its interests expanded it was found that a wider repre- sentation was needed, and accordingly, at the annual meeting in 1901, the constitution was amended and the number of members on the board of directors increased to twenty-five. At this annual meeting a commit- tee was appointed to receive propositions from different localities to pro- vide larger grounds and more buildings, as it was evident that the growth of the school would soon make it necessary to increase the accommoda- tions. It was the aim of this committee to decide on such a location as would not only supply present needs, but which would provide for the future growth of the institution.
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