USA > Indiana > An illustrated history of the state of Indiana: being a full and authentic civil and political history of the state from its first exploration down to 1879 > Part 19
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63
275
ADMINISTRATION OF GOVERNOR WILLIAMS.
The following proclamation was issued by Governor Wil- liams in relation to the disturbance in this State :
A PROCLAMATION.
To the People of Indiana :
Many disaffected employes of railroad companies doing business in this State have renounced their employment because of alleged grievances and have conspired to enforce their demands by detaining trains of their late employers, seizing and controlling their property, intimidating their managers, prohibiting by violence their attempts to conduct their business, and driving away passengers and freight offered for transportation. The peace of the community is seriously disturbed by these lawless acts. Every class of society is made to suffer. The comfort and happiness of many families not parties to the grievances are sacrificed. A controversy which belongs to our courts, or to the province of peaceful arbitration or negotiation, is made the excuse for an obstruction of trade and travel over the chartered commercial high- ways of our State. The commerce of the entire country is interfered with, and the reputation of our community is threatened with dishonor among our neighbors. This disregard of law and the rights and priv- ileges of our citizens and those of sister States can not be tolerated. The machinery provided by law for the adjustment of private griev- ances must be used as the only resort against debtors, individual or corporate. The process of the courts is deemed sufficient for the enforcement of civil remedies as well as the penalties of the criminal code, and must be executed equally in each case. To the end that the existing combination be dissolved and destroyed in its lawless form, I invoke the aid of all the law-abiding citizens of our State. I ask that they denounce and condemn this infraction of public order, and endeavor to dissuade these offenders against the peace and dignity of our State from further acts of lawlessness.
To the Judiciary : I appeal for the prompt and rigid administration of justice in proceedings of this nature.
To the Sheriff's of the several counties I commend a careful study of the duties imposed upon them by statute, which they have sworn to discharge. I admonish each to use the full power of his county in the preservation of order and the suppression of breaches of the peace, assuring them of my hearty co-operation with the power of the State at my command when satisfied that occasion requires its exercise.
To those who have arrayed themselves against government and are subverting law and order and the best interests of society by the waste and destruction of property, the derangement of trade, and the ruin of all classes of labor, I appeal for an immediate abandonment of their
276
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
unwise and unlawful confederation. I convey to them the voice of the law, which they can not afford to disregard. I trust that its admonition may be so promptly heeded that a resort to extreme measures will be unnecessary, and that the authority of the law and the dignity of the State, against which they have so grievously offended, may be restored and duly respected hereafter.
Given at Indianapolis the twenty-sixth day of July, 1877.
Witness the seal of the State and signature of the Governor.
JAMES D. WILLIAMS,
Governor of Indiana. ·
By the Governor :
JOHN E. NEFF, Secretary of State.
This closes the important events that have transpired during Governor Williams' administration to this time. The people of Indiana, as well as those of her sister States, have expe- rienced some adversity and loss from the effects of the finan- cial panic of 1873, whose shadow now seems to be passing away, but the excellent crops of the past years are dispelling the gloom that has so long hung over the country, and the indications of renewed vigor and prosperity in the common- wealth are unmistakable.
MARION COUNTY COURT HOUSE.
THE NEW STATE HOUSE.
DIMENSIONS .- Side and north fronts, one hundred and eighty-five feet ; east and west fronts, four hundred and ninety-two feet. Center-east to west, two hundred and eighty-two feet by one hundred and eighteen f-et in width. Hight of dome two hundred and thirty-four feet ; diameter of dome, seventy-two feet. Hight of east and west fronts, one hundred feet ; north and south fronts, ninety- two feet. First story, eighteen and one-half feet. Second story, nineteen feet. Representatives Hall, forty-eight feet. Senate Chamber, forty- eight feet. Supreme Court Room, forty feet. Third story, sixteen and one-half feet.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
EDUCATIONAL - GENERAL FEATURES.
T HE schools and school laws of Indiana existing previous to 1853 are sufficiently noticed in the local history of each county in another part of this volume. It will be expedient
278
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
in this place to treat only of the law to provide for a uniform system of common schools, adopted in 1852; its several amendments and the beneficient results that have been attained through its successful operation. These are, justly, the pride and, boast of the people.
Although this law was passed in 1852, it did not becom practically operative until the first Monday of April, 1853, when the township trustees for school purposes were elected in the several townships of the State. This law committed to the township trustees the charge of all the educational affairs of the township. It gave them the control and disbursement of all the school funds; it left with them to determine the number and location of all the school-houses necessary for the accommodation of the children of the township; it left to them the making of all contracts for building, repairing and . furnishing school-houses; the purchasing of fuel; the employ- ment of teachers, and, lastly, they were to determine the time of commencing and the period of the continnance of the schools.
Immediately upon the passage of the law, it met with con- siderable opposition in all parts of the State. It was claimed that it would not be possible to select men in all the town- ships of the State capable of discharging properly the various duties required of township trustees; and, that in many in- stances, the summary and discretionary powers with which they were to be clothed, would be injudiciously exercised. This opposition, however, resulted only in the complete suc- cess of the law, for through it the people of the State were awakened to the great importance of electing the ablest and best men to the office - a commendable practice to which they still earnestly adhere. With hardly a single exception during the past twenty years, they have placed in these positions of usefulness and power of their township their most intelligent and efficient men. Hardly a single year elapsed when the friends of the new system saw that there was no canse longer to fear for its success through the want of capacity or of interest on the part of the trustees.
The trustees, on entering on the duties of their office, were
279
EDUCATIONAL-GENERAL FEATURES.
in nearly all cases, greatly embarrassed by the general want of correct information among the people concerning this new system of public instruction. The law, in all points, was radically new, providing for a system wholly different from any to which the people had ever been accustomed. Fow of the trustees, and still fewer of the people, had ever read, much less studied the law, hence they were unable to operate prop- erly under it. To remove these difficulties a pamphlet of upwards of sixty pages, embracing the law, with its amend- ments and copious notes, explanations, instructions and forms of proceedings, was issued from the office of the Superintend- ent of Public Instruction. A large edition was printed and distributed to the several townships of the State, so that any person, by simply calling on any of the county officials, would receive a copy without charge. By this means all soon became acquainted with the whole system.
The first duty of the Board of Trustees was to establish and conveniently locate a sufficient number of schools for the education of all the children of their township. In referring to this matter in his annual report of 1853, HIon. W. C. Lar- rabee, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, made these remarks: " But the school-houses, where are they? and what are they? In some townships there is not a single school- house of any kind to be found. In other townships there are a few old, leaky, dilapidated log cabins, wholly unfit for use even in summer, and in winter worse than nothing. * * * Before the people can be tolerably accommodated with schools there must be erected in this State at least three thousand five hundred school houses."
Previous to the enactment of the township system, school houses were erected by single districts, but under this law districts were abolished, district lines obliterated, and houses previously built by districts became the property of the town- ship, and all new houses were to be built at the expense of the township, by an appropriation of township funds, by the trustees.
By a general law, enacted in conformity to the constitution of 1852, each and every township in the State was made a
280
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
municipal corporation, with such powers and liabilities as, by common usage, belong to such corporations. Every voter in the township was made a member of the corporation. The business of the corporation was managed directly by the whole body of the voters, in regular or special township meetings, or by persons chosen by the people, as directors of the corpora- tion, called township trustees. Among the inherent and necessary powers of such corporations, stood first and most important, that of raising, by taxation on the property and polls of the township, an amount of funds sufficient to defray all the legitimate expenses of the corporation.
The most important interest of the township was that of educating the children -common schools. Under the new township system, as guaranteed by the constitution of 1852, the authority to levy taxes, to build school houses and to carry on all parts of the system of public instruction, might have been constitutionally exercised either by the majority of the members of the corporation, that is, by the voters of the township, or by officers elected by the voters, but no power was given to the township trustees to levy this tax without the consent of the voters of the township. This phase of the law, authorizing the vote of the township on a special tax was questioned, and gave rise, at first, to some impediment to the success of the system. Tax-payers who were opposed to the special township tax, refused to pay the assessment, thereby not only retarding the progress of schools, but causing an unusual delinquency in the collection of taxes for general purposes. Contracts for building school houses were thrown up, houses half finished were abandoned, and all operations were sus- pended in several townships.
In some townships a rumor was circulated by the enemies of the law, that the entire school law, from beginning to end, had been declared by the Supreme Court unconstitutional and void. Believing this, the township trustees actually dismissed all their schools, and even considered themselves summarily deposed from office. In reference to this state of things, IIon. W. C. Larrabee, Superintendent of Public Instruction, spoke as follows in his report to the Governor, in 1853: "As soon
281
EDUCATIONAL - GENERAL FEATURES.
as information of these facts was received at this office, efforts were made, by private correspondence and by circulars, to correct public opinion and to arrest the downward tendency of the whole system. It is hoped that the real facts are now
CROSSCUP & WEST.PHILA.
B. C. HOBBS, ESQ. See page 21.
known and appreciated, and before any more serious evil shall arise, we hope for a decision to settle the whole question."
While the voting of special taxes was doubted on a consti- tutional point, it became apparent that it was weak in a prac- ticable point. The existence of this provision in the law
282
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
greatly retarded the organization and impaired the efficiency of the schools. In many townships the trustees, on exploring their territory, found few or no school houses fit to be occu- pied. They proposed a township tax for the erection of houses, but the proposition was voted down. They renewed the proposition at subsequent meetings, but it was again and again voted down. Under these circumstances, the first year of the existence of the township system was not a very suc. cessful one.
Another impediment to popular education, in 1853-4, was the great deficiency in number and qualifications of teachers. In some townships teachers of no grade could be obtained in sufficient numbers to supply the schools. But few of the persons offering themselves for examination could pass accord- ing to law.
The scarcity of well qualified teachers was well understood by those who framed the School Law of 1852. By that law the Superintendent was required to appoint deputies in cach county to examine all applicants for license to teach, and to license them, if found qualified, for one or two years. The law, however, erected no specific standard of qualification. It left to the examiner the right of determining, at his discretion, the amount and variety of knowledge the applicant should exhibit in order to entitle him to a license. The examiner in each case took into consideration any peculiar circumstances that might exist in the county or township in which the teacher was to be employed. In some counties and in some townships, where schools were few and teachers scarce, and the children few, young and backward, it was found expedient to employ persons to teach who were by no means qualified to take charge of schools in advanced towns.
But in this respect the School Law was changed in 1853. The authority to appoint examiners, by the amendment, was transferred from the Superintendent to the County Commis- sioners, and a standard of qualification was crected. The committee on education who prepared the amendatory law, while erecting a standard of qualification for teachers, at which all persons proposing to teach should aim, at the same time
283
EDUCATIONAL-GENERAL FEATURES.
made provision to meet the emergencies existing at that time, and anthorized a temporary license, at the discretion of the examiners, to persons who might not be able to pass a rigid examination in all the branches constituting the standard.
The common school fund available in 1854, consisted of the Congressional Township fund, the surplus Revenue fund, the Saline fund, the Bank tax fund, and miscellaneous funds, amounting in all to two million four hundred and sixty thousand six hundred dollars. This amount was subse- quently increased to a very great extent from many sources. The common school fund was intrusted to the several counties of the State, which were held responsible for the preservation thereof, and for the payment of the annual interest thercon. . The fund was managed by the Auditors and Treasurers of the several counties, for which these officers were allowed one- tenth the income. It was loaned out to citizens of the county, in sums not exceeding three hundred dollars, on real estate security.
Under this phase of the school law the common school fund was consolidated and the proceeds equally distributed cach year to all the townships, citics and towns of the State, in proportion to the number of children therein. This part of the law met with great opposition in 1854.
In reference to the township libraries, which were organized in 1855, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, in 1854, says: " Much time and labor, and thought, have been devoted to the selection of books to form the libraries. * * * We have made copions selections of historical works, decming the reading of such books both interesting and useful."
Caleb Mills entered upon his term of office as Superinten- aent of Public Instruction at the close of the year 1854. In his report, presented to the legislature in January, 1855, he says: " It is distressing to know that many localities can have no schools, because instructors cannot be obtained; and it is but little mitigation of our grief to be assured by county examiners, that more than half the license could not be legally authorized to teach if a rigid construction of the stat- ate on this point should be pressed." The Superintendent, in
284
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
this report, called loudly for some means by which teachers could be qualified for the important duties of conducting the schools.
In regard to the township libraries, which had previously been established under the new law, Mr. Mills remarked: "There is a peculiar felicity in this provision of the system inasmuch as it will prove, in no slight degree, especially in the rural portions of the commonwealth, an important substi- tute for the living teacher, and answer the purpose of a school of uninterrupted session. These volumes will be like gushing fountains to minds thirsting for knowledge. They will furnish to our youth, and adults of every age and pursuit, intellectual nutriment and mental stimulus. The wearied apprentice, the tired ploughboy, the exhausted clerk, and the secluded domes- tic, will find in them encouragement and solace under all their toils, privations and discouragements." And again, in the same report, in relation to school buildings, he says: " Among the pleasing signs of progress in educational mat- ters, may be named the tasteful and commodious school struc- tures that have been erected, or are now in the process of erection in various parts of the commonwealth. They have risen in all their beauty and symmetry of proportion, not only in the towns, but they have gone up in some of the rural por- tions of the State.
During Mr. Mills' term the public schools were blessed with singular progress; attempts were made to establish graded schools, but these met with much legal opposition, but were, as we shall see, eventually successful. The State Teach- ers' Association was organized with promises of success, and the number and efficiency of teachers were on the increase.
W. C. Larrabee succeeded Mr. Mills as Superintendent, and during his term the school law was subjected to severe legal criticism, but some general progress was made. IIe was suc- ceeded by Samuel L. Rugg, who, in his report to the legisla- ture of 1860, informs us that there were, at that time, 7,233 school districts within the State; 6,475 primary schools and 73 high schools. The average number of pupils to each school was forty-one. During the same year there were 6,766 teach-
285
EDUCATIONAL-GENERAL FEATURES.
ers employed in the primary schools, of which number 5,294 were males and 1,359 females; sixty-two male and fifty-one female teachers were employed in the high schools. The average compensation of male teachers was one dollar and thirteen cents per day, and of female teachers eighty-six cents per day.
SCHOOL STATISTICS OF 1860.
Whole No. of children between 5 and 21 years of age, 512,47S
Increase since previous enumeration 17,449
Males . 268,394
Females. 244,074
Number of school districts in the State 7,309
Increase within the year. 463
No. primary schools taught within the year 6,93S
Increase within the year 463
No. of high schools.
5
Increase within the year.
No. pupils attending primary schools within the year, 297,882
Increase within the year 71,509
No. attending high schools 5,991
Increase within the year 849
Average attendance at each primary school
31
Average attendance at each high school
102
Male teachers employed in primary schools
5,614
Increase within the year .
320
Female teachers employed in primary schools
1,611
Increase within the year.
252
Male teachers employed in high school
77
Increase within the year .
15
Female teachers employed in high school
55
Increase within the year
4
School houses erected within the year
750
Increase over the previous year .
Value of school houses erected within the year $324,276
No. of volumes in township libraries 221,523 No. of select schools. 694
No. of pupils attending select schools 11,805
1
286
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
Mr. Barnabas C. Hobbs, Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion, in his report in 1868, said :
"The General Assembly, in 1865, incorporated into our school law a provision requiring that 'The Bible shall not be excluded from the public schools of the State.' They spoke ·nobly for their heads and hearts. A sovereign State has given its insignia for the Divine Law. It marks the progress of Christian civilization, and indicates that toleration and mutual confidence have taken the place of jealousy and suspicion. It shows that the teachers of the common schools of our State have reached that standard which indicates large and liberal views; that they are guarded by prudence, and guided by that Christian patriotism which seeks to inculcate those cardinal and catholic principles which teach obedience to God and duty to man. The Bible is the universal law-book of the world, and was given by inspiration of God, with the injunction that it should be taught diligently to the children."
And, in 1870, the same gentleman truthfully said: "Our State has a great future before it. * * *
Industry and thrift are rapidly advancing the happiness and material wealth of the State. But for lasting success the interest of the capitalist and laborer must be blended. The laborer is contented only when he sees a pleasing future for his children. The free schools of the State afford this guarantee. They are alike the friends to both capital and labor."
CHAPTER XXXIII.
EDUCATIONAL - PRESENT FACILITIES.
TN the previous chapter we have traced the common school system of Indiana from its first organization down to 1870. By the statistics and suggestions contained in that . chapter it may be seen that the system has been a complete success. It shall be the pleasure of the reader of this chapter
287
EDUCATIONAL -- GENERAL FEATURES.
to contemplate the present advanced condition of the schools and colleges of the State. In speaking of the history of the common schools of Indiana, the late lamented Milton B. Hop- kins, then Superintendent of Public Instruction, in his report of 1872, said: "The fountain of knowledge and learning has
CROSSCUP& WEST. PHILA.
JOHN BROWNFIELD, ESQ. See page 21.
been unsealed alike for all. The children of the poor and the opulent have sat down together at this fountain. The contest in reference to the fundamental principles that lie at the basis of the system has ceased. The enemies of free schools have
288
HISTORY OF INDIANA.
either been converted or have sunk away in sullen silence. The friends of this precious cause can now afford to seize upon a moment's leisure, and review as a matter of history, the origin, conflicts, struggles, reverses and triumphs of the great cause of popular schools." IIe continued: *
ORIGIN OF FREE SCHOOLS.
" In the year 1526 Martin Luther propounded to the Elector of Saxony the following proposition: 'Government as the natural guardian of all the young has the right to compel the people to support schools.' This proposition he argued thus: ' What is necessary to the well-being of a State, (and he might have added to its existence,) should be supported by those who enjoy the privileges of the State. Now nothing is more necessary than the training of those who are to come after us and bear rule.' Luther's proposition struck the mind of the Elector with all the force of an axiom, and just one year thereafter he invited the great reformer to draw up a plan for free schools, adapted to the exigencies of little Saxony. This Luther did, and in the year 1527 he produced with his own hand what is known as the Saxon Free School System.
"This inaugurated the era of public free schools supported by the State. Hitherto the work of education had been car- ried on exclusively by the church and educational corporations. These educated the few, but left the many untouched. The result was the few did the thinking; the many the serving. Luther's plan opened the door alike to all. The contest thus begun in Germany continued there for several centuries with varied fortune. After Luther's death other friends of popular schools bore the ark of the sacred cause on their shoulders. One by one the German States adopted, in substance, Saxony's system. The light of their example shot across the sea and feil upon Scotland, and the eloquent John Knox was heard in successful advocacy of popular schools in his own country.
" It is the part of candor, however, to confess that there was
* As the State has lost an efficient laborer in the cause of education in the death of Mr. Hopkins, we make a liberal extract from his able report of 1872, which our readers will not fail to appreciate.
.
289
EDUCATIONAL -PRESENT FACILITIES.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.