USA > Indiana > Rush County > Centennial history of Rush County, Indiana, Volume I > Part 31
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
In Rushville township there are three schools, the Webb school, the Circleville school and the Alexander school, the latter in charge of Mary E. MeCov. Webb school-John Geraghty, principal; Gertrude A. Elliott. Henrietta Talbert, Mae Laughlin, Sylvia Mullins, Mary Houchins and Margaret Mahin. Circleville school- John S. Moore, principal : Helen Osborne.
Union township has centralized schools at Glenwood and at Ging. Birney D. Farthing is principal of the Glenwood school, with the following teachers: William Cameron, C. C. Richey, Frank Hinehman, Mary Wetzel and Clara Hiner. Ging school-Blythe Seales, principal ; Paul Royalty, Lois Simpson, Blanche Cramer and Clara Herbst.
RUSHVILLE CITY SCHOOLS
J. H. Scholl, an alumnus of the Indiana State Normal School ('93) and of the Indiana State University ('98), has been superintendent of the Rushville city schools since 1904, in which year he left the superintendency of the Carthage schools to assume this position. He has under his direction five schools, the Graham high school. the Graham annex, the Jackson school, the Havens school and the Washington school, the latter being maintained for colored children, with James E. Bean and Fannie Ramey in charge. A. M. Taylor is principal of the high school and is assisted by the following corps of teachers: Mrs. Mary M. Glessner, Mrs. Edessa Innis, Vivian E. Harris, Grace R. Whitsel, Irvin T. Shultz, Arle H. Sutton, Mrs. Laverne Farthing, Maurice E. Cook, Miriam Retherford, Mabel Cornwell, Henrietta Coleman. Mrs. Ruth S. Ray, Charles Bales, Margaret Casady and Ellen Madden.
389
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
Graham Annex-N. Carolyn Meredith, principal; Mar- garet Fleehart, Ruth Sutton, Lois Fritter, Nellie Tro- baugh and Ethel Flint. Jackson school-Belle Gregg, principal; Elizabeth Waite, Gladys M. Bebout, Mrs, Edna Taylor, Kathryn Petry and Elizabeth Flint. Ha- vens school-Freda Flint, Maye Meredith, Anna Geragh- ty, Georgia Morris and Howard Clawson. Since the or- ganization of the Rushville city schools in 1853 the follow- ing have served as superintendents of same: George A. Chase, 1853-1860; Rev. D. M. Stewart, 1860-64; Roland Haywood, F. D. Davis, 1866-68; David Graham, 1869-83; Cyrus W. Hodgin, 1883-84; James Baldwin, 1884-86; E. H. Butler, 1886-93; Samuel Abercrombie, 1893-1900; A. G. McGregor, 1900-04, since which time Mr. Scholl has been serving. The present school board of the city is as follows: President, Homer W. Cole; L. L. Allen, secre- tary, and Mrs. Allie Aldridge, treasurer. The successive members of this board, in the order in which they served from the beginning, have been Reuben D. Logan, William H. Martin, William B. Flinn, E. H. Barry, John Dixon, John Moffett, John Carmichael, Thomas Poe, Jr., Jacob Oglesby, Harvey D. Dinwiddie, Rev. D. M. Stewart, T. C. Gelpin, R. Poundstone, Virgil B. Bodine, James S. Hibben, John R. Mitchell, R. D. Mauzy, W. C. Mauzy, W. A. Pugh, S. S. Poundstone, Oliver Posey, Theodore Aber- crombie, J. R. Carmichael, Ben L. Smith, W. S. Morris, S. W. McMahin, W. E. Wallace, G. G. Mauzy, John Megee, W. S. Campbell, S. L. Innis, Theodore H. Reed, Gates Sexton, R. F. Scudder, W. M. McBride, A. R. Holden, E. B. Thomas, A. C. Brown, R. G. Budd, J. T. Arbuckle, B. A. Mullen, H. A. Kramer, J. B. Kinsinger, F. M. Sparks, and the present incumbents, Homer W. Cole, H. L. Allen and Mrs. Allie Aldridge.
In an interesting review of the history of the Rush- ville schools compiled in 1907 Superintendent Scholl points out that early in 1853 the town took the necessary steps to organize for school purposes under the new con-
390
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
stitution and to this end elected Reuben D. Logan, Will- iam H. Martin and William B. Flinn as trustees of the independent school corporation of the town of Rushville, this board becoming formally organized on May 14 of that year. The board decided to issue a call for a meeting of the voters of the Rushville school corporation to vote for or against taxation for school purposes, the ballots to be cast at the court house on the following June 6. At this meeting it was stated by the clerk that there were in the limits of the school corporation about 300 children between the ages of five and twenty-one years, that the corporation did not own any school house or lot for school purposes, that there was on hand and due the school cor- poration about $750, and that the amount of taxable property was about $350.000, and a resolution was offered providing for the levy of a tax of 50 cents on the $100 worth of taxable property for building a school house and for school purposes. The conservatism of the taxpayers present was demonstrated by the vote on this resolution, there being but thirty-four votes cast in its favor. Motions to substitute 45, 40, 35 and 30 cents, respectively, were also lost, but a motion for a tax of 25 cents was sus- tained by a large majority. At the same meeting, through motions offered by Pleasant A. Hackleman and Thomas Pugh, a movement was begun to buy the property of the Rush County Seminary for school purposes and a poll tax of 30 cents was assessed upon each poll in the corpora- tion for that purpose. The trustees temporarily rented the seminary and the first public school in Rushville was opened in the same on September 5, 1853, with George A. Chase as principal and Thomas C. Gelpin and Mrs. George A. Chase as assistants. Later in the term it was found necessary to employ two additional assistants and E. A. Ainsworth and Mrs. Mary Looney were engaged. In that same year negotiations toward the purchase of the county seminary building were completed, the price for the property being $2,500 and the next year another
391
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
teacher was added to the force and the school tax was raised to 50 cents and the poll tax for school purposes to 50 cents, and thus the development of the school began. In the fall of 1866 the old seminary building was sold and thereafter for three years school was held in the base- ments of the several churches. In March, 1868, the school board bought the present site of the Graham school on Perkins street and at once set about the erection of a suit- able school building. David Graham, of Columbus, Ind., was secured as superintendent of the new school and on September 9, 1869, he opened the school which now bears his name. The initial staff of teachers under Superin- tendent Graham's direction was as follows: Miss M. L. Thompson, teacher of the high school; Fannie Fisher, seventh and eighth grades; Miss Lou Miller, fifth and sixth grades; Marian Stitt, third and fourth grades, and Emma Williams, first and second grades. The present Graham school and the Graham annex are magnificent memorials to Professor Graham, who earned the respect- ful title of "Grand Old Man of Rushville" and who continued to serve as superintendent of the schools for a period of fourteen years, or until his retirement in 1883.
SOME NOTES ON THE COUNTY SCHOOLS
The present (1921) bonded indebtedness of the sev- eral townships of the county for school purposes, all town- ships save Richland having outstanding school bonds, is as follows: Anderson township, $16,875; Center, $16,125; Jackson, $2,500; Noble, $12,775; Orange, $6.500; Posey, $10,775; Ripley, $16,000; Rushville, $43,400; Union $10,500; Walker, $21,750, and Washington, $4,000. The school city of Rushville is carrying a bonded indebtedness of $42,500 for school purposes.
Many illuminating paragraphs relating to the schools of the county in an earlier day are contained in the old newspaper files. For instance, in the fall of 1857 it was a matter of newspaper note that "Mr. Lux Roy is getting
392
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
along finely with his commercial and writing academy. He has a large number of students and they appear to be improving very fast." In April of that same year it was noted that a "public exhibition will take place at Black's school house in Union township on May 23. Public respectfully invited to attend." Recollections of the old Richland Academy are revived by the publication of an advertisement signed by J. McKee in the fall of 1857 announcing that "the undersigned, in proposing to take charge of the Richland Academy in place of Rev. A. S. Montgomery, resigned, would respectfully solicit in behalf of the institution the patronage of all who, having youth to educate, may find it convenient to send them to Richland. And furthermore would say, that having chosen teaching for his profession, directed his studies with reference to it, and had two years' experience in teaching a similar academy, he hopes and expects to give reasonable satisfaction. . . . Particular care will be taken of the manners and morals of the pupils. The moral and social influence of the community around is of the highest order." In the summer of 1857 there is printed a notice of a meeting to be held in the court house for the purpose of organizing a county teachers' association. It is announced that "Messrs. J. Hurty and others are invited and will probably attend." Evidently there had been a prior organization of the two counties of Rush and Henry, for in August of that year announcement was made that "the Teachers' Association of Rush and Henry counties will hold an institute at Rushville, commencing on Tuesday, the 1st day of September, holding for four days. Lectures will be given each evening during the session of the institute." The organization of the public school at Rushville in 1853 apparently was long regarded as something in the way of an experiment that left a good deal to be desired but of which much was hoped, for as late as in October, 1860, a newspaper story under the head "Our Free School" announced that "the
393
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
school is in a very flourishing condition and is destined to more than fulfill the expectations of those who have taken an interest in its success. Persons feeling an inter- est in the school are invited to visit it at any time." Evidently the call for a meeting to consider the project of organizing a teachers' association in 1857 failed of effec- tive result, for in January, 1861, there is a story of a meeting held for the purpose of organizing such an asso- ciation, at which it was noted that one-third of the teachers of the county were present and at which organ- ization was effected by the election of J. McKee to the office of president, William M. Thrasher, vice-president, and I. N. Porch, secretary. Another note of skepticism regarding the free school system was voiced in February, 1861, the newspaper expressing the "hope that the effort now being made to improve the educational facilities of our county will be eminently successful. It is a lam- entable truth that the free school system of this state exists more in name than in fact. We have had the shadow but not the substance. We hope an honest admin- istration of the school laws as they are or as the wisdom of the present legislature may leave them, will greatly remedy existing evils ; but if not, they must be thoroughly remodeled so as to place in reach of all the youth of the state a practical and sufficient common school education. Rush county pays annually to the state school fund $10,000 and receives back but $6,000. Money ($4,000) little better than squandered and diverted from its proper use." That was in the days of the "select schools," many apparently still being doubtful of the methods of the "free" schools. An announcement in the summer of 1861 stated that Miss Celia Winship would open in the basement of the Presbyterian church on the 1st Monday in September, a "select school," the fall session to con- tinue twenty-one weeks, the terms of tuition being as follows: "Spelling, reading and writing, $3 per quarter; higher studies, $4; highest studies, $5." In the spring of
394
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
1862 it was announced that Professor Dungan's second term of singing school commences on May 31. "We are informed that a large class has been organized." The Misses E. and N. Allen announced in December, 1863, that in the following January they would open a "select school" in the basement of the Christian church, the same to continue for five months : "common English branches, higher mathematics and Latin and Greek taught. No more than forty scholars admitted." About this same time were being carried the advertisements of Dailey's Writing Academy. "open day and evening-bookkeeping and penmanship-lectures on commercial law twice a week. Room, few doors west of Odd Fellow hall." In January, 1868, it was announced that the third teachers' institute, just adjourned had adopted resolutions urging among other things that the state appropriate more money to the common school fund, "as teachers had to get along on small pay." The resolutions also declared that "the use of tobacco in any form is evidence of moral unfitness for teaching and a sufficient reason for exam- iners to withhold license." In the summer of 1869 there was carried the advertisement of the Carthage Normal Institute, a school "for the accommodation of those who wish to review the common branches and to obtain the best methods of teaching them," the school to begin September 6 and to continue six weeks. Early in 1870 the school paper had come into being at Rushville, a little newspaper item in February of that year asking the people to "read the Enterprise, the weekly published in the school and edited by the students." In the spring of this same year notice was given that "the teachers of Rush county and vicinity will hold a picnic at the fair grounds on May 21." On July 29, 1871. a report of a committee of the Rush County Educational Association recommend- ing the adoption of a uniform series of text-books for use in all the schools of the county was adopted. Complaint was made that sometimes in a school there would be two
395
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
or three different texts on the same subject, "making the labor of the teachers much greater." In 1872 it was noted that the teachers of Ripley township had formed a "Lyceum,", the object being "the elevation of the schools." In 1873 Professor David Graham was announced as the director of a county normal school to be held in the public school building at Rushville through July and August "to train teachers for their work." For a number of years the Rushville Weekly Jacksonian carried an "Educational Column" conducted by Elder Jacob B. Blount, ex-county superintendent of schools, in which all public questions were discussed, including religious, political and educational questions. In 1890 the Rushville Republican was conducting a weekly column devoted to the schools of the county, in which matters pertaining to the needs of the schools were set out, errors criticized and much other general information given. The present effective system was gradually being evolved. At the time of the opening of the schools in the fall of 1890 public notice through the newspapers was given that every teacher in the county would be expected to study the "County Manual" and "comply as far as possible with the requirements of the county board." Uniformity of methods was on the way. The advantage of "system" and "team work" was being recognized. And results were being obtained, as witness a newspaper item of September 13, 1892, which stated that "a goodly number of Rush county young ladies and gentlemen will attend the various colleges this winter. This shows that there is a spirit for higher education being cultivated among the young folks." And that spirit is marching grandly on. In 1897 the Indiana state compulsory education law sounded the knell of illiteracy in this state.
CHAPTER XV
THE CHURCHES OF RUSH COUNTY
The church ever is in advance of government, such is the impulse of the missionary spirit. It therefore may be taken for granted that formal religious services had been held in various parts of the territory now comprised within the confines of Rush county some time before this county had been organized as a separate civic unit. As has been pointed ont in previous chapters there were numerous settlers in the eastern and southeastern part of the county prior to the date of organization and it is undoubted that these settlers had been enjoying, at least periodically, the ministrations of the messengers of the gospel. for the local missionary spirit was strong in those days and the "itinerant" preacher occasionally would be found wherever "two or three" could be gathered together to hear the message he had to bring. In mild weather meetings would be held at a convenient point in the woods at the crossing of the trails and in inclement weather some settler would be found who gladly would open his cabin to such of his widely separated neighbors as would come to hear the gospel upon notice that some missioner was due to be heard in that neighborhood. It was these early meetings in the cabins that have created the con- fusion regarding statements with relation to the first church in the county, the claim to this distinction being made by several communities in the county. There is a difference, however, between these neighborhood meet- ings held on the call of the itinerant missioner of the period and a formal church organization with a settled pastor and officers of the church, a definite meeting place and recognized connection with a ruling body, and this difference ought to be taken into account in a consid-
396
397
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
eration of the several claims along this line. However, it is certain that the church was early in evidence. The people would not have had it otherwise. The pioneers of this community were-with an occasional exception to prove the rule-a god-fearing, upright people with proper impulses toward the right and their rules of con- duct were based upon the book of discipline of the church of their fathers. While they differed widely and some- times fiercely in matters of minor interpretation of the Book which was their general guide, the same book guided all and was the foundation rock of the church, whatever the denomination or sect thus represented. And the church was the paramount interest in their lives. As the late John F. Moses wrote concerning the pioneers of Rush county : "That they were a deeply religious people is evidenced by the remarkable fact that they first or- ganized a church before they had set in motion the machinery of their local civil government; and by the further fact that within a year or two after their first settlement they had dotted the country with meeting houses. They were order-loving and law-abiding. Hos- pitality was part of their religion, and the interests of their neighbors largely their own. Mutually dependent, they were mutually helpful. There was no cabin standing in its little clearing which did not bear the marks of the handiwork of all the men within reach at its building, and they stood as monuments to the feeling of neighborly good will that was then the rule. The more formal and far more selfish usages of our own time might with profit borrow something from the free-handed, hearty and gen- erous spirit that animated the men and women of those older days."
Along this same line the late Rev. Jacob B. Blount, of whom it was written in his day that "probably no man in Rush county is more prominently or more favorably known," commented in a review of the work of the churches in this county written by him more than thirty
398
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
years ago, when he said that "the first effort that was made in a new territory usually was to plant the religion which the settlers brought with them. either by the work of some minister who accompanied them or by the citizens themselves. Many times the 'laity' formed themselves into a body and worshiped God according to the doctrine carried with them from their former homes. Many of the old landmarks-the first meeting houses-were the result of this kind of work. erected by the people in the absence of, and without the aid of, the preacher. The primitive houses were of logs planed down or howed before placed in the building, and as was the house so the worship- in the simplicity and devotion of a humbleness that has long since lost itself in the gaudiness and flourish of the modern temples." Continuing in this strain, Mr. Blount declares that "probably no county in the state can record greater achievements in church work than Rush, nor a greater victory for religion. Religions sentiment and conviction have urged and almost compelled morality of her citizens from her settlement up to the present. until she can boast of the very broadest influence possible of the faith contained in the testimony of the Scriptures. It will not be said too strong when the statement is made that Rush county contains a more universal religious in- fluence than any other county in the state, and according to her population has more professors of religion. This is not claimed because of the superior intelligence of her citizens-of this she does not boast-nor because of deep piety, but because of the persistent effort to establish in the hearts of the people the doctrine of respective church orders. Each seemed to vie with each other and Rush became a theological battlefield in which was fought many hard and long continued battles, the end of which was not particularly the establishment of any particular doctrine or especial religious theory, but to impress the hearers with the fullness and profundity of religious facts and truths. By these discussions many truths were
399
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
developed and hundreds of the citizens imbibed them, and at a very early day religious conviction upon one or an- other of the doctrines overshadowed nearly the entire populace."
A REVIEW OF THE CHURCHES OF THE COUNTY
There are at present in Rush county fifty-six "going" churches, that is, churches that continue to inaintain a definite organization. Besides these there are several rural churches that formerly were active bodies but by reason of local influences of one sort and another have been abandoned, the congregation merging with other congregations in contiguous territory or alto- gether giving up the struggle against altered conditions. The automobile and the creation of a general system of excellent highways throughout the county have caused the abandonment of several of the rural churches, it hav- ing been found better to give up the attempt to hold cer- tain rural congregations together in these days of easy and convenient access to stronger churches of the county seat and the several villages of the county. These fifty- six churches are distributed as follows: In the city of Rushville, twelve-Methodist Episcopal, Christian, Bap- tist (two), Presbyterian, United Presbyterian, United Brethren, Church of God, Catholic, African M. E., col- ored Baptist and Salvation Army; Anderson township, three-Methodist Episcopal, Christian and United Pres- byterian at Milroy ; Center, three-Center Christian, Lit- tle Blue River Church of Christ and United Presbyterian at Mays; Jackson, two-Christian at Sexton and United Brethren at Henderson; Noble, three-Little Flat Rock Christian and the Methodist Episcopal and Methodist Protestant at New Salem; Orange, three-Christian at Moscow, Methodist Episcopal at Gowdy and Big Flat Rock Christian; Posey, six-Christian and Methodist Episcopal at Arlington, the Franklin M. E., the Wesleyan M. E., the Blue River Friends and the Hannegan Chris-
400
HISTORY OF RUSH COUNTY
tian: Richland, two-the Methodist Episcopal and the United Brethren; Ripley, seven-the Friends (two), Carthage and Walnut Ridge, the Methodist Episcopal, Christian, United Brethren, African M. E. and colored Baptist at Carthage; Union, seven-Plum Creek Chris- tian, Ben Davis Christian, Fairview Christian, Meth- odist Episcopal at Falmouth and Methodist Episcopal. Christian and United Presbyterian at Glenwood ; Walker, five-Christian and Methodist Episcopal at Manilla, Baptist and Christian Union at Homer and Goddard M. E .; Washington, three-the Christian church at Raleigh, the East Fork Baptist and the Eben- ezer Presbyterian.
Regarding the contention concerning the first church organized in Rush county, perhaps there is no better authority along that line than the statements contained in a review of the churches of the county written by the late John F. Moses in 1907, in which it is stated that "a claim has been made that a little congregation formed in 1820 at John Morris's house in what is now Noble town- ship was afterward transferred to Fayetteville (now Orange) and became the foundation for the present Christian church in that village. But Elijah Hackle- man's diary gives precedence to the Little Flat Rock Baptist church and says that it grew out of a meeting held in Conrad Sailor's store the second week in April. 1821." Happily, the minute book of this early church has been preserved, and is now one of the priceless pos- sessions of the Rushville public library. The book is in an excellent state of preservation, and its faded blue pasteboard cover and 150 time-stained pages hold the record of the church for a period of nearly ten years, the last entry in it being dated August 20, 1831. Unfortu- nately the first four pages of the old minute book have been cut out, the marks of the cut pages showing evidence of care having been taken in the mutilation, the purpose of which at this date can only be conjectured but not sat-
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.