History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 25

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964

USA > Kansas > Nemaha County > History of Nemaha County, Kansas > Part 25

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Clerks (1915-1918)-District 4NB, J. A. Bockenstette, Fairview; district 5NB, John Hannah, Netawaka; district INJP, A. H. Brenner, Soldier ; district 6NP, George Shields, Corning ; district 8NP, J. J. Lefe- bvre, Onaga.

Treasurers (1914-1917)-District 4NB, Hugh O'Grady, Sabetha ; district 5NB, Frank Reeves, Netawaka; district INJP, J. S. Armstrong, America City ; district 6NP, J. K. Shields, Havensville; district 8NP, Elmer Noble, Onaga.

Directors (1913-1916)-District 4NB, Michael Banks, Fairview ; district 5NB, Lewis Lynn, Netawaka ; district INJP, Roy Tolin, Ameri-

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ca City ; district 6NP, H. H. Hunt, Corning; district 8NP, O. J. Ward, Havensville.

It is interesting to note that the records in the county superintend- ent's office show, in a number of cases, that many of the men who took part in the organization of the district and served as first officers are still members of the school board.

While the rural schools of Nemaha county have not reached an ideal standard, they have advanced with the progress of the times and rank well with the schools of other parts of the State. Many of our prosperous and loyal citizens value very highly the training they re-

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A SCHOOL BLOG CENTRALIA KANS

HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING, CENTRALIA, KANS.

ceived even in the small rural school. As a rule, the teachers have been well qualified and the schools have been of great value to the children of the county, many of whom had no opportunity of further education.

As soon as practical, each of the city or village schools began to increase the course of study to include some high school work and to employ the necessary teachers to conduct the classes in the higher sub- jects. Today there are ten city high schools in Nemaha county, six of them doing accredited work and two others doing work approved by the State board.

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Both Seneca and Sabetha are cities of the second class, and carry, in addition to the regular college preparatory course of study, a normal training, domestic science and commercial course. These schools have a very efficient corps of teachers, under the supervision of experienced superintendents, R. G. Mueller, of Seneca, in his ninth year, and George A. Allen, Jr., of Sabetha, in his fifth year, and are fully accredited.

The schools of Wetmore and Centralia are fully accredited and rank next to Seneca and Sabetha. The work done is equal to that of any of our best schools, and the building and equipment are very good. Supt. Albert A. Dreier enters upon his fourth year at Wetmore in September, 1916, and Supt. George O. Kean has just closed his sixth year, four consecutive, at Centralia.

The schools of Goff and Corning are smaller, but both do good work and are accredited high schools. Goff has an excellent building, of which the citizens of the town have just cause for being proud, and the equipment of the school is being increased as fast as the funds of the district will admit. Corning needs a new building, and the district is making provision for a building fund. These districts are so small that it requires a heavy tax rate to raise adequate funds for carrying on the schools. Both need some adjoining territory, either by consolida- tion or by the establishment of a rural high school in each city, as pro- vided in recent legislation. Supt. George O. Kean has been elected Lo the superintendency of the Goff schools for 1916, and Supt. J. F. Whitaker is entering upon his third year at Corning.

Bern, while not accredited, is rapidly coming to the front. A new modern building has just been completed and equipped and an excellent quota of teachers employed. The course of study for the present will cover three years of high school work. With the new building and equipment, Bern is the logical point for a splendid rural high school for Washington township, and with the co-operation of the surrounding community, the standard of the school will no doubt soon be raised to a four years' fully accredited high school. The value of a movement of this kind to the young people of the Bern community is beyond esti- mation.

The little city of Oneida has a splendid school, doing four years' high school work. Many of her graduates have been very successful teachers in the schools of the county and others are filling with credit places of importance in other lines of business. The people of the little city are very loyal in their support of schools, but, like other small towns, Oneida needs the co-operation of the surrounding districts. If consolidation is not desirable, the provisions of the rural high school law might make it possible for a new building and better school equipment to be obtained without the tax becoming a burden to the community.

Bancroft has a good village school of three teachers, whose work is very praiseworthy. Some high school work is done, but the equipment and teaching force do not warrant approval by the State board.

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Baileyville has a two-room school and excellent work is done. Only one year of high school is attempted.

These ten schools, doing more or less high school work, have proven of inestimable value to the young people of the county, and each year classes graduate from them, thus laying the foundation for a better qualification for the duties of life.

Nemaha county rejected, by vote, both the Barnes high school law and the county high school plan; but the excellent city high schools maintained throughout the county seem to provide adequately for the young people who complete the grades to enter and finish high school, in many cases the district paying the high school tuition of its gradu- ates. Every year a large class finishes the eghth grade of both the rural and graded schools, and many of these enter some convenient high school. It is gratifying to note that Nemaha couty is well repre- sented in the higher institutions of learning by these young people who have finished our high schools. Since recent legislation has given us a rural high school law, providing for the establishment of high schools in rural communities, no doubt the people will promptly avail themselves of the privileges and advantages of this law.

The State department, under the supervision of State Superin- tendent W. D. Ross, is endeavoring to strengthen and enlarge the use- fulness of the rural schools by a system of sandardization whereby the equipment and conveniences of rural schools may be made more uni- form and complete. The rural school inspectors are visiting and classi- fying the schools of the State as rapidly as possible, checking them up on the requirements of standardization. One of the inspectors, J. A. Shoemaker, was in Nemaha county a few days last April, and while it was too late in the year to find all our schools in session, he visited about twenty schools, in company with the county superintendent, and reported his findings to the boards of the various districts visited. None of them were complete enough in all requirements for standard schools, but it is hoped that the people will respond readily to the demand for better equipment, whether in apparatus, seating, or buildings, and that several of our best schools may be labeled ""Standard School" before the close of the present school year.

The subject of consolidation of schools as provided by law has re- ceived some attention in Nemaha county, but in almost every case has met with decided opposition. So well has the rural school filled its mission that the people are slow to give up the "tried and true" for a system with which they are not familiar. However, owing to changing conditions in communities, brought about mainly by the tendency of land owners to leave the farm and move to town, often placing a tenant or hired man on the farm, many of our rural schools have become al- most depopulated, just a few pupils left to go to school, often not over one or two to a class. Where these conditions exist, interest in the school wanes and appropriations for equipment, teachers' wages, length

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of term, etc., drop to the minimum. For such communities as these, the consolidated school seems to be the only rational solution of the school problem.

Consolidation means the uniting of several weak, one-teacher, poorly graded schools into a strong, efficient, graded school, housed in a comfortable building, with several teachers, who can give sufficient time to each recitation to make the work fruitful. Consolidation in nearly every instance means the transportation of a portion of the pupils. This transportation is accomplished by conveying the children in safe and comfortable vehicles, holding from fifteen to twenty-five children, and driven by competent and reliable men under contract and bonds to perform their duties in a satisfactory way. It is oftentimes cheaper to transport a few children to a school than to establish a school for them. This is because a wagon is cheaper than a school house, horses cheaper than fuel, and because drivers cost less than school teachers.

SCHOOL CENTRALIZATION.

Centralization of the public schools probably had its origin in the Western Reserve section of Ohio several years ago, and the system as applied to the rural schools has been tried to such an extent that it is deemed an unqualified success. There are many points in favor of the system of centralizing or "consolidating" the rural schools in order that the pupils in the country or rural districts might have the advan- tages of a graded and high school training without the necessity of leaving home and going to the nearest town or county seat in order to attend the graded and high school-a plan requiring that they be away from home and placing considerable extra expense upon their parents.

School "centralization," as it is called in Ohio and other Eastern States, provides the abandonment of all rural schools in the township and the building of a central high school in the center of the township. It provides for transportation of all pupils of every age to this central school building each morning and for their return to their homes at night.

One of the centralized or consolidated systems was placed in opera- tion at Mantua, Ohio, in the year 1903, and time has proven that it has many merits far ahead of the old plan of having small district schools and many teachers. Nine districts in the township were abandoned. Nine teachers were dispensed with, and the work done at the township center by five teachers, including the superintendent and principal. Previous to the centralization, the township had maintained a high school and township supervision, which was fairly satisfactory. A number of the more ambitious and forward citizens desired to go a step further and centralize or consolidate the entire township. Bitter opposition developed, some of it sentimental, but the greater part of the opposition came from those who had no children to educate and were

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afraid of higher taxation. Two elections were necessary to carry the township for the new system. It was inaugurated the following year in buildings at the township center, and every district school abandoned except one. Six wagons transport the pupils from their homes to the school comfortable and happy each morning. Almost from the start there was a distinct change in the personality of the pupils and marked increase in their progress, made possible by the fact that they were placed in grades and a longer period given for study and recitation. So pleased were the people with the outcome of the first year that they readily voted a higher tax to add additional teachers to the force and increase the high school facilities. The one lone district which had ob- jected to the centralization plan so forcibly that they were permitted to maintain their rural school, petitioned to have the rural school aban- doned and the pupils of the district given free transportation to the central school. Land values in the township have increased because of the fact that a better class of tenants were moving to the tenant farms, and buyers were more in evidence for the land. This centralized school has been in existence for thirteen years and is looked upon as a model of its kind in Ohio and elsewhere. The action of Mantua township, in Portage county, Ohio, was followed in succeeding years by other town- ships, and it is only a question of years when the rural school in Ohio and Indiana and parts of Illinois will be a thing of the past.

The argument of the opponents of centralization or consolidation of rural schools that the system "costs more" and makes taxes higher is just. Better schools do cost more money. But the advantages and benefits received by the neighborhood far outweigh and overbalance the cost. The extra cost of a consolidated school will not equal the present cost which citizens who are ambitious to give their children a high school education in some town in the county, are compelled to pay. There is not a township in Nemaha county but could have a consoli- dated school. The movement is gaining ground in Iowa and in parts of Nebraska, Wisconsin and Michigan, and is destined to be taken up in Kansas at no late day.

Wherever intelligent consolidations have been made, the results are always the same-an increased attendance, a better average, and more interest. In short, a first-class, well-taught school takes the place of the "kept" one-teacher school we have at present in so many communities.

The parent who wants to educate his child, who wants him to have the faculties of the mind expanded and the attributes of the soul fully developed, cannot afford to fail to aid in this great movement. Surely, the little ones, who are reaching up with their silent, isolated appeal for a better chance in life, will have a hearty and ready response from every thoughtful, loving parent.

Let us reason together over these propositions. Let us place the good of the child above all else. Let us educate them so that they shall walk upon mountain tops of exalted, progressive, glorified American citizenship.

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If you who read this have been so unfortunate as not to have ac- quired an education, ponder on the opportunities you have lost, on the embarrassment which has been yours, on the ideals you have failed to re- alize, and then, when you have done this, I am sure you will lay your hands on the heads of your little ones and exclaim: "Please God, these shall have the opportunities I have missed."

There are also in Nemaha county several parochial schools that de- serve notice in this comment on "Schools and Education." The St. Peter and Paul's school at Seneca with nine sisters as teachers, under the direction of Father Joseph, O. S. B., has an enrollment of about three hundred pupils. The curriculum covers ten grades and the school has an excellent reputation. Father Joseph has taken the necessary steps for the approval for high school credits by the State board of the two years' high school work done by the school. This will strengthen the school for the young people of like faith, who must have high school credits to obtain certificates as teachers in the public schools of the county.

St. Mary's school at St Benedict has an excellent building, well ' equipped. Father Gregory, assisted by an able corps of sisters, con- ducts the school, which has an enrollment of more than one hundred. Only graded work is taken up in this school, in connection with religious instruction.

St. Bede's school at Kelly, under the supervision of Father Edwin, is a splendid school, with an enrollment of about one hundred pupils. He has three teachers, who are experienced instructors, and the course of study covers eight grades.

Sacred Heart school at Baileyville, Father Hohe, O. S. B., in charge, is a growing institution, well patronized by the surrounding homes of the Catholic faith. This school is new and has a good building. The enrollment last year was eighty pupils.

Some statistics from the superintendent's annual report :

The two second class cities, Seneca and Sabetha, with a school census of 1,172 pupils, paid their thirty-three teachers $20,129, almost $20 to the pupil.

The eight third class cities, Wetmore, Centralia, Goff, Corning, Bern, Oneida, Bancroft and Baileyville, with a school census of 1,129 pupils paid their thirty-eight teachers $22,650, a little more than $20 to the pupil.

The Io rural schools, with a school census of 3,698 pupils, paid their IIO teachers $42,172, just a little more than $10 a pupil.

NOTABLE TEACHERS.

C. C. Starr, assistant State superintendent, was appointed to his position from superintendent of the Seneca schools. He is now head of the schools in Fresno, Cal. I. B. Morgan, head of the schools of Kansas

mathe Trees.

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City, was one of the brilliant teachers in Sabetha, having been superin- tendent of the schools in Sabetha previous to his Kansas City appoint- ments.

Miss Mattie Trees, now a member of the Sabetha school board, has a record as a teacher of Nemaha county and Sabetha of which to be proud. It is doubtful if a teacher in the State can equal it. Miss Trees taught school in Sabetha for twenty-nine years without ever losing a day from her work. Hundreds of men, women and children owe allegiance to her. Miss Trees, herself, never had a high school education. She at- tended the country schools near her home, south of Sabetha, from the time she was five years until she was nearly fourteen. Every summer she attended normal school, either at home in Sabetha or in Seneca, Emporia or Holton. There has hardly been a month since she was a tiny girl that Miss Trees has not been in a school in one capacity or another, until her resignation to care for her mother a few years ago. She was fortunate in her teachers at the country school. She studied under Henry Isely, Mr. Carothers and Mr. Mellenbrush. These three men owned farms in the vicinity, but were graduates of Eastern colleges. They took pleasure in teaching their apt pupil the higher branches. She consequently received instruction in many studies that do not come even in the regular high school curriculum. All three teachers are now dead. Prof. E. G. Hoffman, a principal of Hiawatha schools, once told a number of Miss Trees' pupils that when she was his pupil at Holton she took the entire first year's course in Latin in ten weeks.

Miss Trees received her first certificate entitling her to teach when she was fourteen years old. The first school she taught was the Victory school, six miles southwest of Sabetha. Mrs. Hattie West Benson was teaching the school at the time. She got a chance to take a higher school and asked Miss Trees if she would take the Victory school. Needless to say, Miss Trees did not let the grass grow under her feet in putting in an application. James Belyea was the president of the school board, and he was shocked at the applicant's youthfulness. He claimed no little girl like that could teach school. Miss Trees finally persuaded him to let her try it for a month. The name of the school, Victory, was suggestive of the girl teacher's success. For Mr. Belyea was so satisfied with her that she was retained in the position for six years.

'Later, she taught in the Spring Grove, Franklin, Harmony and Summit schools, all in this vicinity.

Then she was engaged to teach in the Sabetha schools. She started with the sixth and seventh grades. When they divided these grades, she retained the seventh. Then she was given the seventh and eighth. When these grades in their turn were divided she was given the ninth grade. Later the ninth grade was abolished and Miss Trees was given her position in the high school, which she held for eight years, and which she has recently resigned.

Miss Trees started Dr. Orville Brown, who is now in Europe taking

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a special course in medicine, on his educational career. Fred Faragher, who is professor of chemistry at the Kansas State University, is an- other of her pupils. Of the teachers in the Sabetha schools and other schools in the vicinity, Misses Jennie Douglass, Minnie Meisner, Daisy Buck, Florence Fagan, Emma Cashman, Birdie Masheter and Charles Smith went to school to Miss Trees. Stanley Ford, a teacher in the Kansas City schools, is another of Miss Trees' pupils who is prospering because of her instructions.

She has always been immensely popular as a teacher and dearly loved as a friend by her pupils. And upon their learning of her decision to retire, there were not only protestations, but tears.

A school teacher who has made more than good in the big world following pedagogical ministrations in Nemaha county is Dr. Maurice King, now of New York City, a Centralia boy. Dr. King attained the position of chief medical examiner of the New York Life Insurance Company in New York. To guess his salary at $10,000 is probably put- ting it mildly. While Dr. King was studying medicine he taught school near Centralia and lived with his sister, Mrs. Durland. A. C. Durland, who died a few years ago, was responsible for bringing the King family to Nemaha county. He lived near the Kings in New York before com- ing to Kansas. After settling near Centralia, he went back and married one of the daughters. The father of this fine family was a Swiss-Ger- man. He made a fortune in New York in the manufacture of Switzer cheese. The other children came to visit Mrs. Durland, and most of them married here. Price King is a son-in-law of Dr. A. S. Best. Al- bert King married a daughter of A. Oberndorf, the Centralia banker, and now lives in Kansas City. Another sister, Mrs. I. Mapes, also lives in Kansas City. The father never lived in Centralia, having died many years ago. The mother lived there with her children for many years. She, too, is now dead. Their children' have made some of the finest citizens of which Nemaha county boasts.

THE ALBANY SCHOOL.

The most antiquated and venerable looking building in this part of the county is the Albany stone school house. The walls are weather beaten, and the building has a silent and mysterious atmosphere, as if there might be a strange, and romantic tale hidden in some remote and dark closet inside the heavy pile of masonry.

As a matter of fact, the old building had its hopes and ambitions at one time, but in an evil hour a vulgar railroad crept up and chilled it. When the Grand Island was being built, Albany was a better town than Sabetha, but the grade into Albany was too steep, and the road swung around into Sabetha, and the old stone school house has been sullen and silent ever since.

The school house was erected in 1866. The stone for it was quar-

ST. MARY'S PAROCHIAL SCHOOL, ST. BENEDICT, KANSAS.

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ried somewhere near the old Fox place. The building is a heavy affair, two stories high. Originally it was hoped to have the school developed into a college, and it was believed that the two rooms would grow into a hundred and that the small beginning would be the nucleus of a nota- ble seat of learning.

Pupils came from far and wide to attend the school, which was the most important school for twenty miles around. It was found neces- sary to build a boarding house next to it, and the boarding house was always filled with pupils who lived too far away to go home daily.

The first teacher was I. D. Sammons, now of Pennsylvania, father of C. E. Sammons. He taught the school in 1867. Another early teacher was the late Samuel Slosson. Mrs. Jennie S. Landrum, now deceased, also taught the school in the early days. Mrs. W. B. Law- rence taught the school longer than any other person. She taught the school fifteen years, resigning many years ago to better attend to household duties. Some of Mrs. Lawrence's first pupils grew up and were married and she taught their children.

The removal of Albany to Sabetha caused a rapid decline in at- tendance at the Albany school, and now only one room, the one on the first floor, is used. The room on the second floor is closed. When the decline in Albany began, even the buildings left, some of them being moved two miles to Sabetha.

A BELOVED TEACHER.

"The report of the county Normal institutes held in the year 1877 shows that they were held in sixty counties. The first was held in Nemaha county, opening June 5. It held for twenty days. I attended this institute. The highest salary paid a conductor was $185, to J. M. Greenwood, in Elk; while Nemaha paid $140. In average attendance, Nemaha stands thirtieth. During the sessions of the institute, lectures were given on educational topics. State Superintendent Lemmon and S. A. Felter, who was conductor, gave lectures in Seneca. Abijah Wells was county superintendent at the time," writes Mrs. Emily Col- lins.

Mrs. Emily Collins, a beloved citizen of Nemaha county, has been faithfully attending institutes ever since, for this year she completes her thirty-eighth year as teacher of the primary grade in the Seneca · schools. In that period, she has lost no time. In hundreds of cases, Mrs. Collins has taught the second generation, and in one case at least, has taught the grandson, having started in school the mother and grandmother of the little lad. Her hair has grown to the softest white, but her eyes retain the fire of her youth, and her sympathy and under- standing of childhood has only increased with each year spent in their midst. Mrs. Collins never looks forward to the first of June as a re- lease from her labors, but anxiously awaits the summer's end, when

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History of Nemaha County, Kansas, Part 25

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company Number of Pages: 964

Author: Tennal, Ralph 1872-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Lawrence, Kan., Standard Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 964