USA > Indiana > Delaware County > A twentieth century history of Delaware County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 27
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Richarl Halstead, George IT. Harlan, John M. Russey, Wallace Hibbits,
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
James M. Davis,
Henry Wachtell,
Thomas J. Brady,
William Slover,
Elihn H. Swain,
James W. Sansbury,
John A. Klein.
John T. Walling,
Evender C. Kennedy,
Mark Anthony Stewart,
William A. Maddy,
William A. Jewell,
Golesberry S. Maddy, Martin V. B. Comerford,
Robert Irwin, Jr.,
William R. W. Irwin,
Othnich Gilbert,
Thomas B. Jewell,
Orlando Swain,
Jolin Heal,
Horace Williams, Thomas Gilbert,
David R. Armitage,
Peter Saunders,
Charles D. Sayro,
James Shipley.
School Supervision.
For many years there was lack of uniformity among the various town- ships in school affairs, resulting from the absence of anything like a central county supervision. It was not until 1873 that an important step was taken toward unity in school management, by the creation, in that year, of the office of county superintendent. a county board of education and of township institutes. Previous to that time the county examiner had exercised such general supervision as was permitted, and his reports show that he seldom interfered with the local school bodies.
Until 1837 the trustees of each congressional township had examined applicants for teaching positions. From 1837 to 1853 the circuit court ap- pointed three persons as examiners; this appointing power was transferred to the county commissioners in 1853. In 1861 the number of examiners was reduced to one, with service term of three years. Those who held this position after the law of 1861 were E. J. Rice, William Richardson, Fred E. Putnam, Thomas J. Brady, Arthur C. Mellette, Ralph S. Gregory and O. M. Todd. Mr. Todd was in the office when the county examiner was abolished and his duties assumed by the county superintendent. Mr. Todd was the first to hold the office of county superintendent.
With the law of 1873 the county board of education was made to con- sist of the township trustees, the presidents of school boards of towns and cities and the county superintendent. The county superintendent was elected by the township trustees, for a term of two years, and the trustees and the superintendent have complete oversight of the schools of the county. By the same law the township institute became an effective instrument for securing unity in school work and raising the standards of the teaching body.
O. M. Todd served as county superintendent under the new law for six years. Albert W. Clancy was elected by the trustees in June, 1879, and held the office two terms. June 4, 1883, J. O. Lewellen was elected to the office, and by re-elections served until 1897. Since 1897 Mr. Chas. A. Van Matre has held the office of superintendent. In 1899 the term was lengthened to four years.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
Early Schools in the Various Townships.
Since the first schools in Delaware county were subscription schools, organized and maintained by voluntary association and contribution of the settlers, it seldom happened that formal record of the schools was kept, and their history was usually preserved only in tradition and the memory of those who had been connected with them as pupils or parents of pupils. Quite often the formation of a school was not effected in strict accordance with the rules of the state, and owing to the fact that during the first ten years of this country's history no income was derived from the state fund, there was little incentive to follow the prescribed formalities. Doubtless some voluntary efforts resulting in the holding of school terms have escaped the attention of the annalists who have recorded the facts concerning the first schools, and now, since even the pupils of these schools have passed away. it would be impossible to determine and to honor with mention all those early schools.
The building of the first schoolhouse in the county has already been mentioned. This was built on land owned by Aaron Richardson, one of the first settlers of Perry township, and was only a short distance east of the site now covered by New Burlington. The Van Arsdoll, Reese and many other pioneer children attended this school, and among the first teachers was Aaron Richardson. Another schoolhouse is said to have been erected about 1829, and several other schools are mentioned in the years that fol- lowed. Nothing more than the fact, however, is recorded, and in some instances the name of a teacher.
"The first school in Muncietown," according to the local historian, John S. Ellis, "was taught in a log cabin that stood at or near the southwest corner of Main and Walnut streets, during the winter of 1829-30 by Henry Tomlinson, a native of North Carolina, who had come here a short time previously from Preble county, Ohio. The families represented in this school were about eight in number, sending some twenty pupils. It was maintained by subscription, the patrons agreeing to pay and paying so much for each and every scholar. Such was the custom of those days. As a consequence the schools were not continuous, occupying about three months during the winter. with an occasional summer term." The subsequent history of Mancie schools belongs in a separate article.
Mt. Pleasant township having been among the first settled, it is natural to look there for early schools. Yet, so far as known, the first school was taught there in 1831. In this case the teacher became in later years one of the county's best known men. His rise to prominence had already begun, in fact. and the year following his work as teacher for the pioneer families then gathered in Mt. Pleasant he went to the legislature, and a few years later was elected judge of the circuit court. David Kilgore had only
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
recently come to the county, fresh from his law studies, and during the summer of 1831 he gathered some of the pioncer children in a deserted cabin and gave them, so far as can be ascertained, the first formal in- struction imparted in this township. In 1832 a hewn-log building was erected for school purposes, which was long known as the Reed schoolhouse, being near No. 6 or Liberty schoolhouse. During the '40s several schools were formed and buildings erected, among them the Antioch school, Nebo school, Mt. Pleasant school, Shepherd school and a school in Yorktown.
In Salem township, in section 21, where David Van Matre had made settlement as early as 1826, the first school of the township was taught in 1828-29. The teacher was Elza Watkins, who did not become permanently identified with the county, but who was long remembered as having been a man of unusual culture and intellectual ability, and cquipped beyond the average for the task of directing the young minds of pioneer children. Be- fore the next winter a schoolhouse was erected on the farm of John Van Matre, and as successor of Mr. Watkins James Perdieu taught the second term of school. Rev. Abner Perdieu was also one of the early teachers of the township. A school was taught in 1833-34 on the site where afterward was located school No. 7, three miles east of Daleville, the lot having been donated by Henry Miller.
Of the carly schools in Delaware township, Mr. Ellis has given a very interesting account in his history of the county. Joseph Godlove, one of the original settlers in section 4, taught the first school in his kitchen. "As to whether he had any other rooms in his house than the kitchen we are left to guess," remarked Mr. Ellis, who then continues with the following description of school custom. "It was a common practice in those carly times for the school teachers to board by turns with the patrons, and in order to equalize matters he was supposed to. board the most where the greatest number of pupils were sent from. While this arrangement was just, it was not always pleasant, as the teacher had some choice as to his board- ing house The week the teacher was to board at our house was always looked forward to with much interest. Mince pies were baked, 'crulls' were fried, the best applebury was opened, and a general talk had between the mother and children as to proper conduct in the presence of the teacher. And, oh! how proudly the mother would sit, the bright knitting needles flashing in the firelight as they were dexterously plied by her nimble fingers, while she listened to Mary and John rehearse their lessons to the teacher. . . .
"In the year 1836 the cabin which William Venard first settled, near the center of what is now the town of Albany, was converted into a school- house, and a three months term of school taught by a man whose name has been forgotten. In the following year ( 1837) the first building erected ex- pressly for school purposes was built on the farm of Adam Keever, some two
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
des south of Albany. This was a hewn-log building, much superior :, the buildings in which the schools had been held formerly. This house Wecame noted as being the first representative of the free school system in Delaware township, for in the winter of that year the term began and the ; ablic money, or 'congressional fund,' belonging to the township, was ap- propriated to pay the teacher. But unfortunately this fund proved sufficient only to meet the expenses of one-third of the term (one month) and the remaining two months' salary was made up pro rata by subscription, as was usual in such cases."
In Liberty township, because the settlers had not been able to main- tain a school up to the year 1831, John Moore, who lived in the western edge of the township, sent his son down to Wayne county to receive in- struction from one of the many excellent schools there. A short time later Mr. Moore converted a deserted cabin on his farm into a schoolhouse, and the parents of the neighborhood children having subscribed for a teacher's pay a two months' term of school was taught by Samuel Collier from Muncie. Near the old settlement of Smithfield a cabin was made into a schoolhouse and Anderson R. East taught there during the winter of 1832-33. In the northeast part of the township a school was taught by Amos Meeks in 1839.
In Monroe township a cabin on the land of Robert Gibson served as the first schoolhouse, where the Gibson children and others of the neighborhood gathered during the winter of 1830-31 to receive instruction from William Abrams. Deserted cabins were used for schoolhouses until 1838, when the first schoolhouse was erected in this township.
A cabin on the farm of Thomas Reeves in Hamilton township was the first schoolhouse, so far as known, and of the man who posed as teacher and exemplar to the few children who came to him during the winter of 1838-39, nothing is left to record except his name-Joseph Custer.
It seems that the majority of the pioneer teachers were men. Un- ruliness was characteristic of early 'schools, and it was thought necessary that a strong man should sit at the teacher's desk to subdue the restive spirits of the "big boys." However, in the earliest school known in Union township, taught in 1836, the teacher was Miss Susan Hanley. She taught in a cabin on the farm of Junius McMillen, in the east part of the town- ship, and besides the MeMillen children her scholars came from the homes of Wilson Martin, William Essley, Philip Stoner, Aaron Mote and Francis Harris, the teacher's salary being estimated at one dollar and a half a scholar. In the following year a log schoolhouse was built on the farm of Aaron Mote, and during that winter a man, William Campbell, was em- ployed as teacher. Over in the western part of the township, in section 18, the first term of school was being conducted in the Green schoolhouse, on land owned by Havilla Green, Robert Wharton being the teacher.
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
As the first settlers of Niles township were grouped in the southwest corner. so, naturally, the first term of school was taught there, in a cabin on section 32, erected by John Sutton several years previously. This term was held in 1837. A year or so later, schools were taught on sections z8 and 19. The first building erected for special use as a school was on the farm of Walter Mann in section 36, in 1839. About this time school dis- tricts were formed, and a schoolhouse erected in each one.
In Harrison township it is thought that the first school was tatight in a building erected for that purpose, on the southeast quarter of section 29, during the winter of 1834-35.
Washington township, as will be remembered, was early settled, but mainly by traders, so that it is not surprising that nearly ten years elapsed before the first effort was made to maintain a school. It was in the house of the pioncer William Heal, in section II, that Mrs. Olive Heal, his wife, taught the first school for the benefit of her own and her neighbors' children in the winter of 1833-34. No schoolhouse was built until 1839, and Ezra- Maynard was the name of the first teacher who occupied it. In the meantime, besides Mrs. IIcal, school had been held in the Methodist church by William Wharton in 1838. In 1840 the second schoolhouse in the township was built at Wheeling, and as settlement proceeded other schools came into existence.
All these early schools, it will be understood, were subscription schools, and the history of each and of all was very similar. Of co-ordination and systematic methods of instruction there was nothing until long after the pioneer period had passed, and, as already indicated, little was done in this direction until the general law of 1873. To add anything of importance to the carly history of education in Delaware county, further than what has been given, seems impossible. The pioneer schools seldom varied from the type that has been described. But to the men and women whose memory goes back to those old schools, there is an imxlividuality of association, a distinctness of details, and a fondness for their recollection that no words of description would satisfy.
Consolidated Schools.
Until within the past decade half the school population of Delaware county was dependent on the ungraded district school for all the educa- tional advantages offered them during childhood. Outside of Muncie, iew. schools had passed beyond the one-room one-teacher stage. So far as edu- cational efficiency is concerned, the old district school merits little praise. It has a place of affection in the minds of all who attended one in youth, many associations dear to Americans cling about this institution in its primitive forms, and the "little red schoolhouse" has produced men and women of such sterling character, high-minded ability, and lofty patriotism,
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HISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
that their names and deeds will always exist as ready arguments for those who desire a defense of the old-fashioned education. But while the district school may not have failed in its essential purposes, it never measured up to the educational standards of the present day. Grading and classification, und specialization in teaching, which were never possible in the district school. are fundamental in the modern system of education. In towns and cities, where population is relatively dense, the grade principle is easily introduced, but in the country the advantages of classification were seldom obtained until a means was discovered for bringing the children of several districts, or a whole township, to one central school.
For a number of years some of the Delaware county towns have main- tained schools ranking above the ordinary district school. Selma had, in 1868, erected a two-story brick building, containing four rooms, and costing $6,000, and in two of the rooms had established a school for the children of the town and district, employing two teachers. With the in- crease of prosperity and population brought about by the gas boom, Albany and Eaton each developed the district school into the graded system, with two or more teachers dividing the responsibilities of instruction between them.
Jacob II. Koontz and David Kilgore were most actively concerned with the establishment of a free public school in Yorktown. After the law of 1852 enabling the people to vote taxes for public schools, the people of the township voted a small levy for that purpose, and then, a few weeks later, re- considered their action and voted against the levy. Determined that York- town should have a school, these two citizens secured about six hundred dollars by popular subscription, and, a lot having been donated by O. H. Smith, a one-story frame building, containing two rooms, was erected, and a public school for six months each year conducted. The subscribers to the school fund were afterward reimbursed for their contributions. In March, 1884, Yorktown completed and dedicated a new school building, H. W. Zuckle being principal at the time.
In ISSo there were, outside of Muncie, graded schools in Selma, York- town, Daleville, Albany. In 1895 the graded schools of the county, outside of Muncie, were at the following points: Daleville, Cross Roads, York- town, Cammack, Gaston, Cowan, Congerville, Whitely, West Side, Roger- ton, Shideler, Eaton, Selma, Albany. At the present writing, in the fall vi 1907, there are, in the county, outside of Mancie. Eaton and Albany, twenty-one graded schools, a number of them housed in handsome, modern buildings, with the best of educational facilities and the teachers in many cases are university graduates.
Such remarkable developments in education are not the result of in- crease in population nor in material wealth, but have been produced by an
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IHISTORY OF DELAWARE COUNTY
entirely new movement in education. Marvelous as have been the changes wrought by the rural free delivery and the interurban traction service, they are not greater in permanent benefit to the rural communities than the new system of education that now prevails over half of Delaware county.
The experimental stages of the movement and a forecasting of results that has since been more than verified, were described in an editorial in the Muncie News, Dec. 24, 1897, at which date, as is evident, nothing had yet been accomplished in this county, outside of the towns, toward grading schools. The article reads as follows:
In these columns a few days ago reference was made to a suggestion of county superintendent of public instruction as to the advisability of consolidating the district schools of townships, partly because some of the schools, being sparsely attended. cost more than is required per capita ior larger schools. This consolidation of the district schools in the center of the township has been tried in one or two instances and found to work ad- mirably. In Webster township, Wayne county, there were formerly three school buildings, at this time there is but one, and it is answering every pur- pose of the three and it has been fully demonstrated that much better work is being done at a less expense. The school is located in the village of Webster, which is about the center of the township. Children who live a considerable distance away are carried to and fro in hacks, which are main- tained by the trustees. Superintendent Wineberg says that the new system is working admirably and it is being gradually adopted in several other townships. A number of schools have been abolished in Perry, Dalton and Jefferson townships, same county, and it will not be long until there is but one in each. It was first thought the new scheme would be productive of no good and would only result in great inconvenience to children and greater expense to the townships. The experiment was made, and as it has proved a success it is thought its adoption will take place all over the state within a few years at the furthest.
The Wabash Plain Dealer says that the superintendent in that county has been investigating the subject and found to his surprise that some of the district schools had not more than ten pupils enrolled. As the teacher of these ten pupils receives $35 or $40 a month, it makes tuition come high. This superintendent thinks that many of the districts could be consolidated and graded schools be built up without discommoding pupils, and resulting in better schools at less cost. It is possible that in some localities or under some conditions the consolidation plan would not work well, but it is he- licved that in most localities it could be applied advantageously. Cer- tainly one centrally located, well conducted graded school in a' township is better than several feeble and sparsely attended ones.
Only a few weeks after the appearance of this editorial, Superintendent Van Matre, with Trustees Thornburg and Hollinger, investigated the Wayne county consolidation, and were so far convinced of the feasibility of the system as applied to conditions in Delaware county, that consolidation of schools has since been a fixed policy with the county superintendent and
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with many of the trustees, and as a principle has consistently gained ground since that time, only two or three individual cases showing reversion to the old system.
Practically, Perry township has the honor of having the first consoli- dated school, though all the requirements of such a school were not met. In the fall of ISOS the pupils of district 7, numbering seven in all, were con- veyed by wagon to school No. 8. No grading was attempted, and the dis- triets were not formally consolidated. But the experiment demonstrated the practicability of transporting pupils at the expense of the district, show- ing that the results were better when two small schools were combined and the expense less. The trial in Perry township was all that was done in 1898, but since that year consolidation has made rapid headway and has long since proved its value and passed beyond experimental stages.
The arguments for consolidated and graded schools were generally expressed in two categories, as follows :- Defects of small district schools-
Some inexperienced teachers must be placed in small district schools. Too many grades under one teacher.
Classes too small to create enthusiasm.
Proper classification impossibie.
No advanced work.
Cost per pupil above average.
Advantages of graded schools- High school work in reach of all.
Better classification.
Ready and frequent promotions.
Teachers prepared in special lines.
Discipline easier. More life and enthusiasm.
Economy in equipment. -
Social life of child extended.
The first thorough consolidation of districts was accomplished in Ham- ilton township, while William Campbell was trustee. In the fall of 1899 districts Nos. I and 4 were abandoned, two one-horse wagons were used to transport the ten or twelve children from each district to the school at Royerton (No. S). It is of interest to note that schoolhouse No. 4 had been built only two years before this consolidation took place. At that time Roy- erton had a new two-room building, and when the new pupils came the old school building was used to accommodate the primary grades. Three teach- ers were employed. This was the first school in this county to adopt the principle of consolidation with graduation and centralization.
The next school consolidation was effected in Salem township, Super- intendent Van Matre's own district. The Cross Roads school (No. 10) was
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already graded, having been made so in 1891, had two teachers and a two- room building. In 1900 the seven pupils in district No. 11 were hauled to Cross Roads and distributed among the grades, the most distant pupil living not more than five miles. This accession to Cross Roads did not necessitate another teacher nor did it increase to an appreciable extent the burden of instruction or extension of facilities in the school ; yet the advantages accru- ing to the No. 10 pupils from the consolidation were all that the advocates of the new system had claimed. In 1901 another district in Salem was dis- solved, when the seven pupils of Pike's Peak school (No. 2) were conveyed. some to the Daleville school (a four-room school) and some to a neighbor- ing district school.
In 1901 Hamilton township made another great advance in consolida- tion. Districts Nos. 2, 5, 7 and 10 were all abandoned and the children con- veyed to Royerton (No. S), this making six schools that were merged with No. S. The Royerton school, which by this time had four rooms and iour teachers, drew its patronage from an area of twenty square miles. Seven wagons were used for conveyance of the 129 pupils, transportation costing $8.75 a day or about seven cents per pupil.
Liberty township was the third township to try consolidation. District No. 4 had been abandoned some time previously and the pupils had gone to Selma, the pupils providing their own conveyance, but in 1901 the 24 pupils of Nos. 10 and 4 were conveyed to Selma (which had a four-room school).
Consolidation in Center township also dates from 1901. District No. IO of Hamilton, mentioned above, was a joint district, and when it was abandoned those pupils living in Center were given to No. 7 in Center (Riverside school). At the same time a partial consolidation of districts Nos. 3 and 9 was made with the Riverside school, a few of the pupils of No. 9 being hauled in order to give them the benefit of gradation. This was discontinued after two years.
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