USA > Indiana > LaPorte County > History of La Porte County, Indiana > Part 53
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6
7
1 50
1 38
Union
139
115
254
4
5
9
2
05
1 73
Scipio.
129
123
252
3
8
11
1 84
1 38
New Durham
163
125
288
3
11
14
1 75
1 50
Clinton.
124
108
232
4
6
10
1 80
1 68
Dewey
29
24
53
1
1
2
1 90
1 50
Hanna
65
40.
105
2
3
5
, 40
1 44
Cass.
203
145
348
3
6
9
2 80
1 90
Lincoln
89
71
160
2
6
8
1 35
1 35
Johnson
36
41
77
2
2
2 00
Westville
82
99
181
1
3
4
3 50
1 75
Michigan City
479
474
953
1
15
16
8 00
2 20
La Porte City.
574
650
1224
4
19
23
4 75
2 40
Totals and Averages.
3128
2859
5987
59
135
194
2 18
1 78
84
163
1
9
10
1 62
1 62
Noble.
...
This year there were 15 male and 24 female colored children admitted to the schools, making the whole number 6,026; the aver- age attendance was 3,983 daily; the average length of the schools was 163 days; the total number of districts was 112; the whole number of houses was,-brick 32, frame 88, -- 120; the whole num- ber of township institutes held was 123. There were three private schools taught with an enrollment of 92, and an average attendance of 71.
TOWN AND CITY SCHOOLS.
What we have been saying applies more particularly to the country and village schools of the county. In giving the present status of the schools it becomes necessary to refer more particularly to the schools in the incorporated towns and cities. This can be done only very briefly. The law provides that incorporated towns and
577
Pupils Admitted.
|Teachers Hired.|Compensat'n
578
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
cities may have a special management concerning their schools. In the county, there are three schools of this kind, the Westville, Michigan City, and La Porte schools. These schools, by their spe- cial advantages, are enabled to keep open longer during the year than the village and country schools, and to be more thoroughly and systematically graded. These are very great advantages.
Their courses of study, for all practical purposes, are the same in the lower grades as that given above, as the course of study in the country schools; and for the purposes of this chapter, it must suf- fice as the curriculum for these schools, as well as the course for those for which it was prepared; and yet it is right to say that in many important points their courses differ from this. These programmes are not quoted here, for want of space. Below are given the courses of study for each of the high schools.
COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE WESTVILLE HIGH SCHOOL.
FIRST YEAR .- First Term .- Arithmetic, Book-keeping, Gram- mar, Penmanship, Reading.
Second Term .- Arithmetic, Grammar, Book-keeping, Penman- ship, Reading.
Third Term .- Arithmetic, Grammar, Penmanship, Reading.
JUNIOR YEAR .- First Term .- Algebra, Physical Geography, United States History, Physiology, Drawing.
Second Term .- Algebra, Physical Geography, United States History, Physiology, Drawing.
Third Term .- Algebra, Physical Geography, Civil Government, Botany.
SENIOR YEAR .- First Term .- Analysis of Arithmetic, Geology, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Literature.
Second Term .- Geometry, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Geology, Lit- erature ..
Third Term .- Geometry, Philosophy, Rhetoric, Botany.
COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE MICHIGAN CITY HIGH SCHOOL.
JUNIOR CLASS .- First Term .- Physical Geography, Grammar, Algebra.
Second Term .-- Physical Geography, Grammar, Algebra.
Third Term .- Book-keeping, Analysis, Algebra.
MIDDLE CLASS .- First Term .- Rhetoric, United States History, Algebra.
Second Term .- Physiology, Civil Government, Geometry.
Third Term .- Physiology, Botany, Geometry.
SENIOR CLASS .- First Term .-- Natural Philosophy, General History, Geometry.
Second Term .-- Chemistry, English Literature, Arithmetic and Grammar.
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HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
Third Term .- Chemistry, English Literature, Astronomy.
Reading, Writing, Composition, and Declamation will receive appropriate attention throughout the whole course. There will be daily written exercises in spelling.
The German language is optional.
COURSE OF STUDY FOR THE LA PORTE HIGH SCHOOL.
FIRST YEAR .- First Term-Arithmetic, Physical Geography, Book-keeping,* Latin .*
Second Term-Algebra, Physiology, German," Latin .*
Third Term-Algebra, Botany, German,* Latin .*
SECOND YEAR .- First Term-Algebra, Rhetoric, German,* Latin .*
Second Term-Algebra six weeks, Geometry six weeks, General History, German,“ Latin .*
Third Term-Geometry, General History, German, * Latin .*
JUNIOR YEAR .- First Term-Geometry, Modern History, Ger- man,* Latin .*
Second Term .- Civil Government, Natural Philosophy, Ger- man,* Latin .*
Third Term-Civil Government, Natural Philosophy, German,* Latin .*
SENIOR YEAR .- First Term-Chemistry, U. S. History, Ger- man,* Latin .*
Second Term .- English Literature, Principles of Geology, Astron- omy,* German, Latin .*
Third Term-Zoology, English Literature.
Composition work for all classes throughout the year.
CONCLUDING STATEMENTS.
In this chapter there are elements for a great deal of thought and reflection. It will be remembered that whatever will develop the power of thought is an agent which will have a great deal to do in determining the future history of any people, as it has had to do in determining the history of the past. This is one of the agencies of power which the wise statesman will not overlook who desires to prognosticate the future correctly, and to make wise provision for that future. The history of an educated people will be entirely different from that of an illiterate and uneducated one. La Porte county, with her schools in the condition in which they have been shown to be, having passed through many successive stages of prog- ress, may go on and work out many more and greater achieve- ments. She may not be able to isolate herself from the rest of the world; but, in conjunction with the rest of the world around her, may be able to assist in the evolution of a grander civilization and enlightenment than the world has yet ever seen, through her schools, the foundation of which is just now laid, and through her other educational leverages and powers.
*These studies are elective.
CHAPTER XV.
LITERARY RECORD.
THE LITERATURE AND LITERATI.
While it may be true that the county has not yet produced, in the literary field, any one, either male or female, whose towering genius has attracted the attention and admiration of the world, yet it is true that it has made a fair degree of success, and may with pride point to its ministry, its editorial staff, its Bench, its Bar, its political speech-makers, etc., as the peer of other localities. Hon. Jasper Packard and Hon. William H. Calkins, and Honorable C. W. Catheart and Hon. Mulford K. Farrand have each been the standard bearer of his party for Congress, and have been instru- mental in shaping the political sentiment of the country. They were each eloquent on the stump.
In the line of the Press, it will be no disparagement to the other members of the editorial staff to specially mention the name of Wilber F. Storey, the present editor of the Chicago Times, a paper, perhaps unexcelled in its character of a " news " paper. Mr. Storey was at one time connected with the La Porte papers, and may be regarded, at least, as one of its former literati.
It will be impracticable in this connection to name all who have contributed to the literature of the county. There are many ser- mons, speeches, orations, essays and poems, whose authors must remain nameless at present which are well worthy of preservation. From among these we have selected the following, feeling that our readers will be grateful to us for giving these to them in this per- manent form. In making the selection, regard has been had to the sentiment expressed as much as to the literary merit they contain. It is thought that the sentiments expressed will find a response in the feelings and thoughts of all who may read, whatever the distance in time. The first of these is an extract of a speech made by Hon. John B. Niles in the Constitutional Convention, in 1851.
JOHN B. NILES.
John B. Niles was one of the early settlers of the county, being addmitted to its Bar on December 16, 1833. He took an active interest in public affairs, and hence we find him at one time a mem- ber of the Board of School Trustees of the city of La Porte, and at another as the Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of La Porte Uni- versity, afterward changed to the " Indiana Medical College." In this university he was the Professor of Chemistry.
(580)
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HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
Mr. Niles was a scholar, having graduated and attained the degree of Master of Arts.
In the August election of 1850, he was elected as a delegate to the Convention which was to prepare a new Constitution for the State. The Convention convened in January of 1851, and began the work of devising the supreme legal instrument for the govern- ment of the State. Mr. Niles was an active member of that body. The Convention had underconsideration the propriety of exempting the family homestead from execution. Mr. Niles arose in his place and made the following speech (only an extract is given however), which was very largely copied by the papers of the country at the time, and with the most favorable comment:
HOMESTEAD EXEMPTION.
"Gentlemen have talked eloquently of the protection thrown around the homes of England. It is the boast of the common law, that every man's home is his castle, within which neither the prince nor his vassal is permitted to intrude. It is a principle dear to the American heart as life or liberty itself. It is the ground element of our civilization. Destroy the sacredness of home, and the world is thrown backward toward barbarism. Now, sir, tell me when the public interests can require that the sheriff, with his posse, should be compelled to intrude upon an American home, and drive a family from that sacred spot, thrown bankrupt upon the charities of the world, because, forsooth, the husband or the father had become a profligate or a drunkard. Give me the example and the reasons, and I will tell you in the same words why an unfortunate debtor ought to rot in jail. The arguments for the one sustain the other, and with equal, but no greater, force.
" If it be said that the cases in which such protection would be necessary are few, I answer that though comparatively few, they are often heart-rending in their character, and enough to enlist the sympathies of every benevolent man. How often does it happen that a young husband and wife, by self-sacrificing industry, secure a comfortable, though humble home; the husband and father, in a too hopeful moment, becomes involved in debts, which, had his life been spared, he might have been able to pay; but, in the inscrut- able ways of Providence, he is taken from his family, and in due course of law their little home is sold and parted among the creditors as if it were the spoils of victory. The mother, driven from the shelter which her industry had helped to provide, with no spot on earth which she can call home, is compelled to tear in sunder the ties of nature and part her children to distant strangers, or to support them by the unaided labor of her hands; and that, too, under the laws of a civilized and Christian land. Sir, such scenes are a disgrace to the legislation of the State, and a burning shame to the age in which we live.
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HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
"But it is argued that it is necessary that the home be subject to be sold on execution in order to secure credit to its owner. I grant you, sir, that, when he or his wife or children visit the neighboring town, traders and sharpers, of a certain class, may be more likely to induce them to purchase on credit what they are not able to buy, and what they do not really need, than if the little home were beyond their reach. The fact that a judgment could be had at any moment, before a Justice of the Peace, that a transcript could be filed in the Circuit Court, becoming at once a lien on land, that at the next term of court a judgment upon scire facias could be obtained, execution issued, the homestead sold, would give some assurance to a heartless creditor. But let it be remembered that economy is wealth, and that industry, integrity and honor are the true bases of eredit. Credit will exist wherever these are found, and where these are wanting it is nothing worth. It is strange benevo- lence to the debtor, that, because he may have been unfortunate, or to his family, that because he may have been dishonest, his and their home shall be sold by the sheriff, under the relentless process of the law. Such scenes can never be an honor to the legislation or history of any country in the world.
" But, sir, if there were no great principle of benevolence and humanity involved in this measure, I would favor it for the very reason upon which others found their opposition,-because it will place a wholesome check upon hasty and indiscriminate credit, one of the vices of our time. Have gentlemen forgotten that golden rule in private economy, so often called the true philosopher's stone, turning everything into gold,-the time-honored maxim,- ' Pay as you go?' If, by adopting this measure, we help to carry that maxim into practice, however long and tedious and expensive the sitting of this convention may be, the people will receive back a thousand fold of all it will have cost them.
"That credit which is based only upon the homestead of the debtor is worse than none. If credit and commerce can rest only on such a foundation, and can be sustained only by driving families from their homes; if such is the alternative, then I say, emphatic- ally, let them perish. The home exemption would be a fearful check upon credit indeed. Were Baron Rothschild to come among us and locate himself in Indianapolis, to loan out his money upon bond and mortgage, that he might double and treble or quadruple his uncounted millions by usurious gains, the men whose little homes were protected would, indeed, not become the borrowers. But without such protection they might in unguarded moments mortgage to him their homes, and always to their injury, if not their ruin. With such protection, so many of the ardent-minded and too hopeful citizens of this State could never have made loans from our odious and oppressive sinking fund, a 'sinking fund,' indeed (applause), sinking our fellow-citizens by scores and hun- dreds into hopeless bankruptcy, and throwing them homeless upon the world. Under that beautiful, Jew-like policy of loaning money
583
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
by the State to her citizens, on long times and at heavy rates of interest, we see, every year, pages of advertisements in the news- papers of this city, offering for sale the farms of the people, on mortgages to that fund. With a system of protected homes it is true that many of those mortgages could never have been received, but it is no less true that many a worthy citizen would have escaped a load of accumulated evils which have followed in their train.
" But gentlemen say, 'Adopt such a measure as this and you will tempt men to resort to all manner of subterfuges to avoid the pay- ment of their debts.' Now, sir, I would ask any member on this floor to reflect and answer me, who are the men, unless they be knaves at heart, whose property is covered over with mortgages to shield it from executions? Who are the men who have most often been charged with covering up their property, but the men who have been mercilessly driven from their homes, because of their mis- fortunes, and the necessities of whose wives and children appeal to them with a force which they are poorly able to resist? Who, but these, are most often found attempting to shield what little prop- erty they have remaining, from the reach of executions issued from your courts of justice? Who, but such men, are most often charged with subterfuges? And who, but these, of all others upon earth, can you least condemn ?
" And gentlemen not only say that in this measure we strike at the foundations of the credit system, but they call it hard names; they talk of radicalism and agrarianism, as if we would overturn the foundations of society. Indeed, sir, notwithstanding the court- esy which is due from one gentleman to another upon this floor, I could but feel my blood tingle in my veins when I heard such lan- guage. Agrarianism indeed! because we would protect a home to every family and to the widow and her infant children against the relentless mission of the officers of the law. Away with such language and such reasoning. Tell us that you despise and defy the principles of benevolence and of progress, and we will give you credit for consistency at least; but do not come with professions of sympathy for the poor upon your lips. There is no other such great conservative principle now agitating the public mind. The wealthy do not need its protection, but it will help to raise the middling classes and the poor to a condition of conscious independence and self-respect. Who feels humiliated by retaining for the use of his family the hundred and twenty dollars worth of personal property now exempt from execution ? And what unfortunate debtor, because his family is left in comfort, will be less likely to put forth every effort to discharge all the obligations of honor and of conscience, than if his family had been beggared and his spirits crushed? Talk of it as we may, there is no such picture on earth as the homes of the people, rude and homely though they be.
" Those will love their country who love their homes. Protect them in their homes and they will defend their country, her laws and institutions. Make home a very fact, what the common law
584
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
has dimly seen that it should be, and you will help to build up a condition of society, a state of external and internal peace and beauty, such as the sun has never looked upon in all his course. It is a policy, not for a day, but for all time. Its benign influences will not be fully seen in your day or mine, but it will shed its sun- light upon the homes of our children. It is in harmony with that long-hoped-for and better state, when every family shall sit peace- fully under its own vine and fig tree, with none to molest or to make it afraid. It will go hand in hand with Christian civilization whenever and wherever its influence is extended, and it will never be abandoned till that light goes down in darkness.
" It may be thought unsuited to the place and the occasion to refer to the recollections and associations which make up the crown- ing felicities of life. But I respond with all my heart, to the touch- ing and beautiful appeal of the gentleman from St. Joseph (Mr. Colfax). I am not ashamed to own that my feelings are enlisted no less than my understanding is convinced. I go for the measure because it is right in itself, right against all forms of sophistry, right against all appeals to prejudice and passion, and the love of gain, right against the world. The home where the ivy and the wood- bine have been taught to twine by tender hands and loving hearts, where the children were born, and some of them have died, where the aged parents still remain, and whither the sons and daughters return from their distant emigrations to pay their tribute of filial homage-the home where all that is sacred in life, in death, and in religion centers-that home I would protect, not by unsta- ble laws enacted to-day and repealed to-morrow, but by constitu- tional provisions immutable as truth and justice, and enduring as the everlasting hills." (Applause.)
We now lay before our readers the following poem written by Mrs. Emma F. Malloy, a lady who has made herself noted and famous in her work of temperance and prison reform.
MRS. EMMA F. MALLOY.
Mrs. Malloy has shown herself to be an indefatigable worker, both in the temperance and prison reformatory movements of the age, and so successful has she been that there is scarcely a locality which does not know of her. She began a literary career quite early in life, writing articles for the papers at the early age of 13. But it is mostly on the rostrum and in the field that she has at- tained her distinction. The following testimonial, signed by such distinguished gentlemen and ladies as it is, will give a proper esti- mate of her work. This testimonial to Mrs. Malloy, it is said, was set on foot by that noted gentleman and humanitarian, Wendell Phillips.
585
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
"TESTIMONIAL TO MRS. EMMA F. MALLOY.
" DEAR MADAM AND SISTER: We, the undersigned, have witnessed with pleasure the success you have attained in your work as a tem- perance missionary in the old Bay State, and desire to thus express onr appreciation of the valuable services you have rendered this reform.
" We recognize in you an old advocate of our cause, one whose zeal and sincerity are manifest in the permanent results of your personal efforts and public appeals. The many associations estab- lished, and the thousands reformed through your instrumentality, attest the fidelity with which you have carried out your mission, and bespeak for you the cordial co-operation of all friends of the temperance cause in every State and country in which you may labor. From every section where your efforts have been directed the most cheering reports have been presented, and in this testi- monial we but express the sentiments of numerous organizations, and of individuals who hold you in the highest esteem.
" Trusting that your efforts may be continued with the same pros- perity, and that your eloquent voice may often be heard in our State, pleading for God and humanity, and assuring you of our hearty sympathy with and in the work to which you have conse- crated your life, we remain your
" FRIENDS IN THE CAUSE,
" Thomas Talbot, ex-Gov., Mass., Robert C. Pitman, Judge,
Rev. A. A. Miner,
Rev. George H. Vibbert,
Wendell Phillips, H. D. Cushing,
Mary F.Elliot, G. W.S. of I.O.G.T., H. B. Peirce,
James H. Roberts,
Charles A. Hovey,
Henry B. Blackwell,
Lucy Stone,
W. F. Spaulding,
John G. Whittier, Poet,
Henry H. Faxon,
Allen G. Shepherd, Supt. Mass. Reform School,
Benjamin R. Jewell,
Mary A. Livermore,
Thomas J. Tucker,
Jennie Collins,
Samuel W. Hodges,
John D. Long, Gov. Mass ..
R.B. Graham, Supt. Little Wan- derers' Home,
L.B. Barrett, Sec. W.C.T.U.Mass., Annie J. Brown."
The above is copied from the script and autograph copy of the testimonial which Mrs. Malloy has framed and hanging in her par- lor, of which she may justly feel proud.
The following poem from her was read at the First Annual Reunion of the 87th Regiment of Indiana Volunteers, held in Huntsman Hall, La Porte, on Friday, September 24, 1869, and was written expressly for the occasion.
Henry A. Cook, Pastor Seaman's Bethel,
Albert Day, M. D., Supt. Wash- ingtonian Home,
William Wells Brown, M. D.,
586
HISTORY OF LA PORTE COUNTY.
WELCOME TO THE SITH .
What words can I summon, by what magic art Can I breathe to you, brothers, the throbs of my heart ? How tell you to-day how my heart swells with pride, To see these old warriors again side by side ? O, I think that a Washington's heart feels a thrill As he looks from his home on some glory-clad hill, And viewing the old Eighty-seventh to-day, Recalls their brave deeds in the terrible fray. They are written, my brothers, in broad gory stains,
And in little green hillocks upon Southern plains ; Aye, written upon the mother-hearts, too, Who so tenderly loved you, our brave boys in blue. We have never forgotten those dark dreary days, Your long, weary marches o'er dusty highways, Or how eager we watched for the letters you'd write As you sat by the camp-fire's flickering light. How we tearfully read each page o'er and o'er And wished you had written a few lines more; Then after each battle, with heartsick, with dread, We searched for the names of the wounded and dead. And God knows how fervent, how thankful the prayer That welled from our hearts when no loved name was there. O, we nobler grew for our heritage of suffering, blood, and tears, Purer our gold, from dross refined, by the fire of those four years, Greater, that 'neath the chastening hand of the Loving we bent low, Stronger, that thro' affliction's waves, we never refused to go. O, may we never forget the arm that lead us thro' the sea ; That bent the foeman at our feet, and gave us victory.
Memory recalls now one October day When the cannon's loud voice proclaimed the wild fray- The Perryville battle. Thro' all the bright hours The blood of our braves stained the sod in red showers; And the battle still raged. "Fighting Rosseau's " brave men Held firmly their ground for hours; and when The afternoon sun kissed the hill-tops good-night, The old Fourth Battery went into the fight.
Fierce and hot raged the contest ; the showers of shell And of shot ploughed deep furrows. Oh, the brave men that fell In that fierce leaden rain! Oh, the hearts that have bled For their loved who were numbered with Perryville's dead ! Then, when the pale moon climbed the Heaven's blue stair, And the groans of the dying were filling the air, The old Eighty-seventh was placed in array To witness the end of the desperate fray. Full an hour the storm raged ere the firing ceased,- Then o'er the field wandered the still faithful priest To comfort the dying. Now and then a stray shot, Spiteful and hasty, and burning and hot, Whizzed into the bushes, or fell with a thud On the sod that was gory and dripping with blood.
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