USA > Indiana > Boone County > History of Boone County, Indiana : With biographical sketches of representative citizens and genealogical records of old families, Volume I > Part 25
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After providing for the election by the people of each congressional township, of three persons to act as school trustees, to whom the control of the school lands and schools generally was to be given, the law made the following provision for building school houses: "Every able-bodied male person of the age of twenty-one years and upward residing within the bounds of such school district, shall be liable to work one day in each week until such building may be completed, or pay the sum of thirty-seven and one-half cents for every day he may fail to work." The same act described a school house as follows: "In all cases such school house shall be eight feet
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between the floors, and at least one foot from the surface of the ground to the first floor, and be furnished in a manner calculated to render comfort- able the teacher and pupils." The trustees were required to receive lumber, nails, glass, or other necessary materials at the current prices, in lieu of work. No funds were provided for the pay of teachers, so the schools were not free, but they were made open to all, black as well as white. It was not until about 1830 that colored children were excluded from the schools, and then the exclusion arose from a prejudice excited by the slavery agitation. Under the law of 1824 the schools were kept open just as long each year as the patrons could or would pay for their maintenance.
At nearly every succeeding session of the General Assembly some law was enacted on the subject of education, but still no general system was adopted. There was always an opposition that would find some way to get the laws before the courts, and thus hamper the attempts to establish schools. Private citizens did much for the cause, however, and public meetings of citizens did more, but little could be accomplished in a public way. School officers had no fund with which to erect houses, or to pay teachers. They could not levy a tax, except by special permission of the district, and even then the expenditure was limited to $50 by the act of 1834. The friends of public schools worked on and hoped on, striving to overcome every ob- stacle and put down all opposition. At last their day of triumph came, but even in their triumph they came near being defeated, and their noble efforts 4 were for some years neutralized by the stupidity of a supreme court. The friends of education planned and worked until at last they found a way to provide for one of the most magnificent public school funds in the Union. It has already been noted that the General Government gave to the State the sixteenth section of every township, for school purposes. This was made the beginning of the grand school fund to be built up by the State.
The three "R's", "Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic", were the basis of all early schools. It was the privilege of the children to study any or all of these subjects as long as they desired.
Spelling was the fundamental and the first thing taught all children. No child was expected to read until he was able to spell all the words of Dillworth's, Webster's, or a little later, McGuffy's. It made no difference whether he knew the meaning of any of the words, or had the remotest idea of their application, he must spell it, anyhow. Spelling was frequently
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taught by having the children sing as they spelled and many an old lady today can sing "b-a ba, b-i, bi, b-o, bic a bo". To be a good reader meant that he must be able to pronounce rapidly all the words found in the book being read, which was frequently "Life of Washington", "Life of Frank- lin", the Bible, or any book that could be found in the home.
Poetry was always read in a sing-song tone with special attention paid to the emphasis and inflection at the end of each line, in imitation of the way in which hymns were "lined" by the minister.
Along with the reading went the "speaking a piece" on Friday after- noons, or the last day of school, being a great occasion for each and every district.
Arithmetic was, however, considered the most important of all subjects because of its being regarded as the most practical. The fundamental proc- esses were taught to all children, many, however, never advancing beyond the attainment of being able to add, subtract, multiply and divide. If a pupil shows special inclination towards mathematics he might be able to get to the single rule of three, or even so far as the double rule of three, or if he was extremely ambitious he would be shown into the mysteries of "vulgar fractions".
The clapboard and charcoal in time gave way to the slate and pencil, which was considered an enormous improvement. The single slate was later supplanted by the double one, thus enabling the child to "do the sunis" and have it protected from erasure. Blackboards were unknown in the early schools. The first of these to be used were made by painting some smooth surface and wall black, later on these were coated with a prepared slating which in a few days' time wore "slick" which made it almost impos- sible to make a mark or to see it after it was made.
Grammar was introduced into the schools many years after the other subjects. No one was expected to study grammar unless they expected to be a Latin or Greek student. Many of the early pedagogues, however, were from Ireland and Scotland or from the classic halls of some New England college and were Latin and Greek students. If a boy could be induced by these men to study grammar they had high hopes of later making a teacher of him.
History was introduced into the course at a later period than grammar. An old text were simple tables of facts, and dealt little or nothing with great
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National or State movements, which are of course the underlined principals of all history.
Geography had but little attention given to it in the early schools, and when it was studied was regarded as being extremely foolish and full of statements wholly out of harmony with the thoughts of the backwoods peo- ple of the time.
Barnabas C. Hobbs, LL.D., a very distinguished educator of Indiana, and one of its State Superintendents of Public Instruction, who was really a great man, in speaking of the early teaching of geography, said :
"I can well remember when Morse's geography came into the State. It was about the year 1825, and it created a great sensation. It was a period in school history, before this but few had a clear idea of the earth's rotundity, many could not understand the subject well enough to reason upon it, and many were emphatic and persisted in repudiating the absurd idea that the world is round and turns over. Debating clubs discussed the subject, and to the opposition it was perfectly clear, that if the world turned over we would all fall off, and the water in the ocean would be spilled out. Morse's geography cleared away the fog, and when Comstock's Philosophy, with its brief outlining of astronomy, was introduced, the schoolboy could under- stand the subject well."
In this early day geography was very much opposed because of the rea- sons above cited. Men would put a bucket of water on a stump to find the water there the next morning, which to them was ample proof that the bucket had not been standing wrong end up over night. They further argued that if the world turned over that we would go so fast that no one could stick to it. As an evidence that we did not turn they would cite the fact that the same side of the tree was always north and never in any other position, more than that, if the earth was round the Mississippi river would have to flow uphill to empty its water into the Gulf and "any fool knew that water would not run uphill."
The feeling became so great that in some communities the "heresy" was preached upon from the pulpit, many an early minister taking the view that it was against the teaching of the Bible, for indeed did the Bible not say in Isaiah: "And he shall set an ensign for the nations and shall as- semble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from four corners of the earth," in Revelations when John said: "I saw
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four angels standing on the four corners of the earth," and how indeed could the earth be round and have four corners? The apple, was a physical proof that such teachings were absurd and out of harmony with divine reve- lations, therefore the earth must be flat.
The last of the common school subjects to be added to the curriculum was physiology. The first science to be developed by man was astronomy, and the nearest object he could study in that was the moon, thousands of miles away. Later his attention was given to botany and physics, studies of objects about him. It seems strange that his last subject to be studied and investi- gated, would be the one to him the most important and the greatest of all crea- tions-himself. The storm of opposition that arose to the study of grammar, history, or geography, was mild, indeed, to the tempest that broke forth when it was suggested that physiology be taught in the schools. It seems almost impossible that people should ever object to this study, but they did. It was thought that physiology should be studied alone by doctors, and that the child should know nothing about his "inards." Many people looked upon it as un- wise, indiscreet and even immoral to study the composition of one's own tem- ple. But, like all other objections made to modern thought, the objection to the study of the human body had to give way. Later the study of physiology and anatomy gave way largely in the schools to the study of hygiene and san- itation, perhaps of the greatest benefit of any subject now taught in our schools.
As has been before noted, the writing of the early day was a very labor- ious task. No lead pencils were to be had and the writing must be done with the pen. No teacher could get along without a sharp knife, which, from its size and purpose to which it was put was known as the pen knife, for it was with this knife that the teacher made the pens for the children to use. The child would perhaps pick up a goose quill or turkey feather on the way to school and from it the teacher would form the pen to be used that day. The typical master of that period is always pictured as having the pen stuck behind his ear. The juice of the pokeberry served as ink for schools. Commercial ink, of course, could be purchased. Ink purchased at that time was usually of splendid quality, as is shown by the early records. The first record made in this county is as clear today is on the day on which it was made (due, of course, to the quality of the ink and the paper).
It has long since been said that "as the teacher so is the school." This
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saying is largely true, but it is no wonder that the schools of that period were crude if they were to have the same state of culture as the teacher. As we have said before, the teachers were often people who had come west through the spirit of adventure and were, Micawber like, "waiting for something to turn up," and in the meantime teaching school. This naturally brought peo- ple of all conditions.
Judge Banta, in his early "Schools of Indiana," printed in the Indian- apolis News, in 1892, says: "A few years ago I had occasion to look into the standing and qualifications of the early teachers of my own county, and in looking over my notes I find this statement : All sorts of teachers were em- ployed in Johnson county ; there was the 'one-eyed teacher,' the 'one-legged teacher,' the 'lame teacher,' the 'teacher who had fits,' the 'teacher who had been educated for the ministry, but, owing to his habits of hard drink, had turned pedagogue,' and the 'teacher who got drunk on Saturday and whipped the entire school on Monday.'"
A paragraph something like this might be truthfully written of every county south of the National road and doubtless every one north of it. The lesson this paragraph teaclies is that whenever a man was rendered unfit for making his living any other way he took to teaching.
Owen Davis, of Spencer county, teacher, took to the fiddle. He taught what was known as a "loud school," and while his school roared at the top of their voices, the gentle pedagogue drew forth his fiddle and played "Old Zip Coon," "Devil's Dream" and other inspiring profane airs with all the might and main that was in him.
Thomas Ayres, a Revolutionary veteran, who taught in Switzerland county, regularly took his afternoon nap during school hours while his pupils, says the historian, were supposed to be preparing their lessons, but in reality were amusing themselves by catching flies.
One of Orange county's schoolmasters was an old sailor, who had wan- dered out to the Indiana woods, and under his encouragement his pupils spent a large part of their time, it is said, roasting potatoes.
What is true of the school of which Judge Banta speaks was true of all the schools, Boone county being no exception.
Laughable, indeed, were some of the attempts at school-keeping in those old-time "wood colleges." In many cases, "readin' and spellin'" were the limits of what the schoolmaster dared to undertake. And the books and the
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classes-they were wonderful in their variety. Whatever a pupil brought, that he used; and no high-fangled teacher nor nosing school committee inter- fered to "shut down" on the pleasure of parents or of pupils; but, as in the days of Israel of old, "every one did that which was right in his own eyes." It might chance, indeed, that a presuming youth, fresh from the schools of "Yankee land" (though such an event was almost never known) would ven- ture, with his armful of books, to enter the schoolroom door, thinking that his "Yankee books" would surely "pass muster out west." But, no; the teacher would examine briefly, and bluntly say, "Them ar books ain't no use --- take 'em home and keep 'em thar."
One of the prominent men of the county gives an amusing experience in this respect. His parents had just come to the West from "Old Massachu- setts." The boy, perhaps ten or twelve years old, marched proudly to the sylvan temple of wisdom with his armful of New England books-Colburn's mental arithmetic and Adams' new arithmetic, those mathematical gems of olden time; Greenleaf's grammar, Goodrich's reader (perhaps), Smith's geo- graphy, etc. The teacher, a long, lank, gaunt, ungainly fellow, rapped on the window. The children suddenly ceased playing, and crying, "It's books! it's books!" ran pell-mell into the log schoolhouse. School began. The teacher came along, eyeing askance the formidable pile of books; and fingering the one that lay on top-"Old Zerah Colburn," he opened the volume, and, leafing it over a while, broke out, "Boy, take that ar book home and tell your 'pap' to burn it up. The man what made it did not know what he was about and couldn't do the sums." (The work has no answers.) Taking up the gram- mar, he said, "That seems like it mought be a good enough book, but gram- mar ain't teached here, and you kin take that home, too." Next came Adams' new arithmetic, at that time one of the best textbooks on arithmetic in exist- ence. Turning the leaves over one by one, he drawled out, at length, "This is some better, the man knows how to do about half his sums. But, see here; take that ar book home, too, and tell your 'pap' to send Pike's- or Talbot's 'rethmetic. Them's the kind we use." And so with the rest. He made a clean sweep of the books, and the poor, crestfallen boy, chagrined beyond measure that his "Yankee books" had thus summarily passed utter condemna- tion, went home at night (or perhaps at noon) and made report to his aston- ished father of the reception which had been accorded to the books he had so proudly lugged to school in the morning.
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We are told of one early teacher in Boone county whose greatest diversion was in seeing how far from the wall he could stand and spit through a crack in it.
Another, whose farm adjoined the schoolhouse, punished the boys (and they did not have to do much to be punished) by sending them into his nearby clearing and compelling them to pile brush.
Of another teacher it is said that he brought yarn to school, out of which, for certain minor offenses, he would compel the grown-up girls to knit his socks.
No doubt many of these stories told are exaggerated, but the fact re- mains that the teachers as well as the schools were very crude affairs, but the old schoolmaster with his iron will, his hickory rods and "repressive teach- ing," soon gave way to the more refined spirit brought about by the introduc- tion of lady teachers in the school, but with all that many a man owed his strength of character to habits formed in those primitive schools. The teacher had to have but little qualifications so far as law was concerned to teach school. If he was able to satisfy the three "good district fathers," whose duty it was to "run the school," that he was able to manage the big boys, he was almost sure of a job. Frequently no examinations were held at all by them, and if any at all were held they were of little, if any, conse- quence.
In time the state organized the school systems in such a way as to ascer- tain the qualifications of applicants to teach. The township trustees con- ducted the examination. Mr. Hobbs, before referred to, tells this amusing experience of his first examination for a teacher's certificate :
"The only question asked me at my first examination was, 'What is the product of 25 cents by 25 cents?' We had then no teachers' institutes, normal schools, nor 'best methods' by which nice matters were determined and precise definitions given. We were not as exact then as people are now. We had only Pike's arithmetic, which gave the sums and the rules. These were con- sidered enough at that day. How could I tell the product of 25 cents by 25 cents, when such a problem could not be found in the book? The examiner thought it was 614 cents, but was not sure. I thought just as he did, but this looked too small to both of us. We discussed its merits for an hour or more, when he decided that he was sure I was qualified to teach schools, and a first-
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class certificate was given me. How others fared, I can not tell. I only know that teachers rarely taught twice in the same place."
Later on the state provided for a county examiner, whose duty it was to ascertain the qualifications of teachers. Frequently they were but little bet- ter for this purpose than the trustees had been, for they were appointed by the county commissioners, who had a habit of appointing lawyers, doctors, and more commonly preachers. As to the character of these examinations see pages 160. 161 and 162.
The northwest territory embraced all the territory in the United States lying between the Ohio river and the Mississippi river. The ordinance of 1787 provided an educational foundation for this section of country. The sixteenth section in each congressional township was to be devoted to educa- tional interests. The proceeds of this section, when sold, were to go into a perpetual fund, the interest of which was to be used for the education of the children of the state. The funds derived from the sale of these lands were not to be used for any other purpose. The fifteenth section of the charter of the State Bank, in the year 1834, provided that twelve and one-half cents on each share not held by the state be placed to the permanent school fund of the state. This yielded the sum of $80,000 which is now bearing interest in favor of education. It was called the bank tax fund. The same act, estab- fishing the State Bank in 1834 provided for the state borrowing $1,300,000 for twenty years at five per cent., $800,000 appropriated to the purchasing of bank stock, and the remaining $500,000 was designed to be loaned to in- dividuals on long time at six per cent. interest to aid them in paying for their portion of the bank stock. The same act provided that the interest received on these loans, and the dividends paid on the state stocks, together with any part of the state loan not required for paying the state stock in bank should constitute a sinking fund, reserved and set apart, principal and interest, for the purpose of paying off the loan negotiated on the part of the state, and the interest thereof. The residue of the fund after paying off the loan, in- terest and expenses was ordered to form a permanent fund appropriated to the cause of common school education. This provision has yielded to the common school fund of the state five and one-half million dollars and is known as the sinking fund.
When Andrew Jackson was president of the United States, the national debt contracted by the Revolutionary war and the purchase of Louisiana, was entirely discharged, and a surplus remained in the treasury. Congress,
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in June, 1836, passed an act distributing this surplus among the states at the rate of their representation in congress. This gave to Indiana as her share the sum of $860,254.
The Legislature of Indiana, in its session of 1837, on February 6th, set aside $573,502.96 as a permanent part of the school fund and it is known as the surplus revenue fund.
In 1832 Congress authorized the Legislature of Indiana to sell the Salt Spring lands that had been donated or given to the state by Congress in 1816, and appropriate the proceeds to the permanent fund of the common schools. This yielded a fund of $85,000 and is known as the Saline fund.
CONGRESSIONAL FUND.
The United States government, in the ordinance of 1787, pledged itself to the encouragement of "schools and the means of education." In accord- ance with that policy the enabling act submitted to the Indiana territorial convention in 1816, required that the sixteenth section of each congressional township throughout the state be reserved "to the inhabitants for the use of schools." The aggregate fund derived from the sale of these lands is $2,476,297.44.
Distribution of Congressional Interest .- The constitution of Indiana for 1852 provided for the consolidation of all school funds into one "Common School Fund." The school laws enacted in June, 1852, in accordance with that provision were framed so as to enable counties to turn all of their school moneys into one fund producing a common revenue to be distributed in pro- portion to the school enumeration of the various corporations. Serious com- plaints were made against this law for the reason that the fund arising from the sale of the sixteenth section varied greatly in amount in different town- ships. The contention was made that the Legislature had no right to divert these funds from the inhabitants of the townships where they belonged. Test cases were brought and among them the case of The State vs. Jefferson town- ship, Franklin county. In this case the Supreme Court handed down the fol- lowing opinion :
"The sixteenth section in the several congressional townships in the state, was granted by Congress to the inhabitants of such townships respectively,
(18)
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for the use of the schools therein and not elsewhere; and the grant was ac- cepted by the state on the terms on which it was made.
"By the sale of the sixteenth section in the several congressional town- ships of the state, under the act of Congress of 1828, the proceeds became trust funds, to be applied to the use of schools in such townships, respectively, and not elsewhere. A repeal by the Legislature of the act creat- ing Congressional townships could not affect the validity of the grant by Con- gress of the sixteenth section in those townships, to the inhabitants for the use of the schools therein, nor give the state any better right than it other- wise would have to divert the funds derived from the sale of such sections. The grant in question was a contract executed, and incapable of revocation by the Legislature. * The school law, so far as it diverts the pro- ceeds of the sale of section sixteen in the several Congressional townships from the use of the schools in such township, respectively, to the use of the school system of the state-at-large, is in contravention of section seven of article VII of the constitution."
In order to secure an equal distribution of the funds, the law now re- quires county auditors, after having distributed the Congressional fund to the various civil school corporations composing the respective Congressional townships, to so distribute the common school fund as to bring about an equalization. This practically places the distribution upon a per capita basis and substantially carries out the purpose of the 1852 school law.
This necessity for the county auditor to keep a separate account of the funds belonging to the various Congressional townships and parts of Con- gressional townships composing his county, as well as with the various school corporations included in the same territory, entails a complicated system of bookkeeping, much confusion of accounts and loss. For these reasons it is recommended that our Legislature adopt a resolution requesting that our senators and representatives endeavor to secure legislation giving the grant to the state as a whole, rather than to the inhabitants of the various con- gressional townships. In Indiana and Illinois only of the states of the north- west is the fund under local control.
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