USA > Minnesota > Fillmore County > History of Fillmore County, Minnesota (Volume 1) > Part 41
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Early Settlement. The occupation of this town was com- menced in 1853. John and Joseph Maine came in the spring of that year from New England. John found a place that suited him in section thirty-two, and cultivated it for five years, afterward going to Iowa. Joseph secured some land in section twenty-eight and thirty-three, but soon sold out. Thomas Mawer, an English-
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URIAH WILLIAMS
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man, came from Michigan and secured a home in section twenty, and lived there for ten years when he died. Mathew Mawer, a brother of Thomas, took a claim in section thirty-three, but went to California, and in 1859 died there. George W. Hare, from New York State, who had made a transient stay in Illinois, ar- rived in November and planted himself in section thirty-one. Thomas Tabor, a native of England, came from Canada and lo- cated in section thirty-two. Later he sold and went to Fillmore, locating still later in Pembina, Dakota.
Among other early settlers were the following:
1854-George Bawer and son, B. Winans, F. P. Bowers.
1855-John Tabor, A. Finley, William Finlay, A. Palmer, Jacob Oakey, Joseph Marshall, T. C. Linton, Isaac Green, G. Doty, S. Wilson, W. P. Odell, A. Finley, Jr., Thomas Brooks, William Carpenter, Edwin Pettis, Peter Loughrey, Charles W. Tabor, David Greiner, John D. Biggs, G. W. Biggs, Ned Tindall, William Cordell, Daniel M. Collum, Richard Malone.
1856 John Murphy, E. Pettis, Henry McConville.
1857-William Greiner.
1858-C. Farrington and sons, E. V. and G. M.
Early Events of Interest. A Mr. Keck and two daughters died in November, 1855, and were buried the same week in the Jordan cemetery. These must have been the first deaths in the township after the arrival of white settlers. Thomas Mann and Elizabeth Finley were united in marriage in March, 1855. John Tabor and Ann Mawer were married in August, 1855. Wil- liam Clark and Susanna McCollum contracted wedlock in August, 1855. Mathew Mawer and Nancy Finley were married in Janu- ary, 1856. Mathew Tabor, son of James and Annie Tabor, was born March 4, 1855. Ira Hare, son of G. W. and Amanda Hare, was born March 24, 1855.
Land Office Records. The first titles to land in Jordan town- ship were issued by the government in 1854. Those who obtained land that year were as follows, the date of the issuance of the warrant being given first, then the name of the owner and then the section in which the land was largely located: January 29, Salem Town, 10; September 9, Andrew J. Bolsinger, 11; Septem- ber 9, Isaac Day, 2; September 9, Isaac Decow, 2; September 9, John R. Jones, 2; September 9, Finley V. Miller, 12; September 9, Refine W. Twitchell, 3; September 9, Henry C. Wheeler, 1; September 20, Marvin Harwood, 6; September 21, Asher H. Pal- mer, 33; September 23, Samuel M. Herrick, 2; September 28, David N. Morse, 10; October 4, William H. Peck, 11-12; October 12, Andy Gold, 1; October 18, Charles Wilian, 14-15; October 18, Samuel A. Sturges, 13; October 27, Enoch Winslow, 35; November 1, William Bly, 10; November 1, David Jaggers, 3; November 1,
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Albert A. Ripley, 1; November 25, Joseph Ripley, 1; December 12, Edward H. Coffin, 15; December 12, Erastus J. Way, 15.
Political. May 11, 1858, the town of Jordan was organized with the following officers in charge: Supervisors, J. M. Gillis (chairman), John D. Biggs and John Murphy; clerk, John Mawer; assessor, Jacob Oakey; justices of the peace, George W. Biggs and J. M. Gillis; constables, C. B. Beverstock and Ned Tindall; collector, G. W. Biggs; overseer of the poor, William Cordell. At this first meeting the judges of election were : Jacob Oakey, Dan McCallum and James Tabor; clerks of election, J. M. Gillis and C. M. Tindall. For about twenty years town meetings were held in schoolhouses, but in 1877 a town hall was con- structed at a cost of $1,000. The name of the town was derived from Jordan Creek, which was given this designation by John Maine, one of the first settlers in town. The neighborhood of the stream is known as Jordan Valley.
Postoffices-Jordan. This was established as early as 1854, with Asher Palmer in charge, and the office was at his house on the southwest quarter of section twenty-eight. In about one year the office went to the store of J. M. Gillis. In 1856 it was removed to the town of Fillmore. Another office was established a few years afterwards on section sixteen, and I. Day was post- master. It was at first called Bear Creek. Afterwards the name was changed to "Iday" in honor of its first postmaster. Mr. Saunders was the last one to handle the mails, in 1863.
Jordan Village. This was laid out in 1855, on the northeast quarter of section thirty-two and the southeast half of the south- east of section twenty-nine. J. M. Gillis opened a store there, and kept it going for about a year. At the same time there was a blacksmith shop put up, but the fire in its forge was never kindled, because the village never materialized.
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MR. AND MRS. W. W. PARKINSON
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CHAPTER XXXIII.
EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
Beginning of State System-Summary of Present Schools School Progress-First Districts Created-The First Schools Start- ing of the Various Districts-City and Village Schools-Early Spelling Schools-Prepared with the Assistance of Professor Oscar Carlson-Edited by Mrs. John C. Mills.
In the story of American civilization, the establishment of the school and the church has been coincident with the building of home. However, at the formation of the Union, and later, when the federal government was established, there was no definite line of action as to public education, although at the same time that the constitution was adopted the last session of the continental congress was being held in the city of New York, and the ordinance of 1787 was passed, regulating the affairs pertaining to the Northwest territory, including that portion of Minnesota lying east of the Mississippi river. In this ordinance much attention was given to the question of providing a means of public education, by giving one section in each congressional township for educational purposes. Later, when the purchase of Louisiana was effected, and Minnesota sought admission into the Union, still further provision was made for education by giving two sections in each congressional district for such purposes. This gave impetus to the natural tendency toward educational matters, and we find that one of the first efforts in the new settlements was to prepare to educate the children. The church and the school building, when not one and the same, were prac- tically always found side by side. The hardy pioneers of the Great Northwest-of which Minnesota was a part-did not wait even for a territorial government, but set to work at once to establish schools. The first one in Minnesota, for the education of white children, was organized by Dr. T. S. Williamson, at the present site of the city of St. Paul. We are told that investigation demonstrated that there were about thirty-six children in the settlement who might attend a school. A log house, 10x12 feet, covered with bark and chinked with mud, previously used as a blacksmith shop, was secured and converted into a schoolhouse, and taught by Harriet E. Bishop. Here, then, while the United
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States troops were gaining such signal success in the war with Mexico was begun the system of education which has become one of the best in this great nation. In this same little schoolhouse, in November, 1849, was held a meeting for the purpose of estab- lishing a system of public education, based upon the congressional act of March, 1849, establishing Minnesota territory. Alexander Ramsey, of Pennsylvania, when appointed governor, proceeded at once to assume the duties of his office. In his first message to the territorial legislature, in the fall of 1849, he emphasized the need of wise measures looking to the establishment of a system of public education in these words: "The subject of education, which has ever been esteemed of first importance in all new American communities, deserves, and I doubt not, will receive your earliest and most devoted care. From the pressure of other and more immediate wants it is not to be expected that your school system should be very ample, yet it is desirable that what- ever is done should be of a character that will readily adapt itself to the growth and increase of the country, and not in future years require a violent change of system."
In response to this appeal for legislation in school matters, we find that a committee on education was appointed, and a very able report was made by the chairman, Hon. Martin McLeod. This report was formulated into an act relating to public schools in Minnesota, which act was passed in the last day of the session, November 1, 1849. Tax levy was provided, and a system of man- agement arranged. The first superintendent of common schools for the territory was Rev. E. D. Neill, who served till 1853. His salary was $100 a year.
The first school instruction in Freeborn county was given in the pioneer homes by mothers, who, though they had come to a new country, did not wish their children to grow up in ignorance.
The early comers never lost sight of the idea upon which the possibility of founding and supporting a popular government rests-the education of the children-and as fast as the children appeared and became of school age, the best possible provision, at the command of the people, was made for their schooling.
An account of the various expedients resorted to, that would meet the requirements of the circumstances, would, while some- times laughable, reveal the struggling efforts of a determination to bestow knowledge upon the rising generation in spite of all difficulties. Schools were often kept in a log dwelling, where the school room would be partitioned off from that occupied by the family by an imaginary line. Sometimes an open shed as an annex to the house would serve the purpose in summer. The usual method was for the neighbors to get together and organize a district, and select a lot for a building. Of course each one
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would want it near, but not too near, and generally there was little trouble in establishing the location, which would be with a view of accommodating the greatest number. And then to build a schoolhouse, a "bee" was the easiest way, and so plans and estimates were improvised, and each one would subscribe, one, two, three or more logs so many feet long, so many shingles, so many rafters, a door or a window, and at the appointed time the men would assemble with the material, bringing their dinner pails, and by night, if there had not been too much hilarity during the day, the building would be covered and practically completed. The benches would be benches indeed, often without backs, and sitting on one of them was about as comfortable as sitting in the stocks, that now unfashionable mode of punishment.
Schools were thus multiplied all over the country, until in the winter of 1859, the legislature passed an act making each organized township a school district, to be subdivided ac- cording to local necessities. But this plan was soon repealed and the present method adopted. The districts were numbered con- secutively, beginning at a certain point, and new districts, as they have been created, have followed the order of time in numbering.
The last log schoolhouse in the county was in the Goldsmith district, south of Chatfield. That gave place about 1896 to a frame one, and this ended the use of log schoolhouses in the county.
The Present Schools. The schools in the common districts are under the immediate supervision of a board of trustees in each district, consisting of three members, the special and in- dependent districts having a board of education, consisting of six members.
The county superintendent has general supervision of the schools in the county. It is his duty to visit the schools, advise teachers and officers as to the best method of instruction, the most improved plans for improving and ventilating schoolhouses and ornamenting school grounds; conduct teachers' and officers' meetings and make reports to the state superintendent of public instruction.
The state grants special aid to schools coming up to certain standards of requirements : $1,750 to high schools, $600 to graded schools, $300 to semi-graded schools, and $150 to first-class rural schools. Second-class rural schools open seven months receive $75 and those open eight months receive $100.
Fillmore county, at present, receives special aid for seven high schools, four graded schools, four semi-graded schools, thirty-two first-class and thirty-three second-class rural schools.
Progressive educators hopefully look forward to the time when the country girls and boys will be afforded facilities equal to the
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best in the cities-when as a result of consolidation and the establishment of local agricultural, high and graded schools, no teacher will be required to teach more grades than she can handle to the best advantage, and the pupils be enabled to secure a good elementary education without leaving home. With the new law granting special aid to seven months schools, the num- ber of schools on the state aid list is rapidly increasing.
There are 185 organized districts in the county. Of these, seven, at Rushford, Lanesboro, Preston, Harmony, Mabel, Chat- field, and Spring Valley, are city schools with first-class high schools. The Spring Valley school has in connection an agri- cultural department, established under the "Putnam Act" and the special state aid for this department is $2,500. The Chatfield school has an agricultural department, established under the "Benson-Lee Act," and the state aid is $1,000. At Spring Valley, Preston, and IIarmony are normal departments, for the training of teachers and the special aid is $750.
There are four graded schools; located at Peterson, Fountain, Wycoff, and Canton, each with four departments. There are four semi-graded schools, at Whalan, Prosper, Granger and Os- trander, each with two departments. The others are one-room schools, fourteen of which have an enrollment of less than ten pupils, fifty-three with from ten to twenty pupils.
The largest enrollment is 51 pupils, in district 94, Fillmore township, and the smallest is 2, in district 113, Spring Valley town- ship. The average length of school in months, for 1910-11, was eight and one half months. Eighteen schools had nine months of school. During the year 1911, 88 pupils, of the common school districts, received diplomas certifying that they had completed eighth grade studies with credit and the graduating exercises were held in Preston. During the same year, local, township, and county spelling contests were held.
Many of the schools are well equipped with those things which are required for efficient work. Many of the schoolhouses are new and the old ones are in good state of repair. Nearly all the schools have libraries and free textbooks.
The teachers' training schools and institutes which are con- ducted in the county do much to increase the efficiency of the teachers. These schools are paid for by the state and are conducted under the direction of the county superintendent and a conductor appointed by the superintendent of public instruction. Instruction is given in methods of teaching and in the subjects required for teachers' certificates.
School Progress. Up to 1875, Fillmore was the most populous county in the state. The next year, Hennepin county forged ahead. From the settlement of the county up to 1877 there was a
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constant growth in school population. In 1877 the high-water mark was reached with 8,836 pupils in school attendance. The present attendance is 6,492.
In 1881 the state began to encourage education in the common schools with a system of state aid, which has been a wonderful boon to education throughout the state.
Thirty years ago there were practically no books for the children to read-no books of any kind furnished by the school districts. Now there are many libraries of over 150 books in the schools of the county. In the graded and high schools the average is between twelve and fifteen hundred volumes, and in the rural schools the average is between seventy-five and one hun- dred volumes. All the graded and high schools furnish free books to all grades of pupils, and the system of free textbooks in the rural districts is almost as complete. Twenty-five years ago only one school in the county had any system of ventilation in it. Now all the high schools, graded schools and semi-graded schools as well as several others have an excellent system of ventilation.
The rural schools are forging to the head. Basement furnaces and other approved methods of heating and ventilation are fast taking the place of the old stove in the center of the room.
Some change may also be noted in the form and style of school architecture. There are three graded or high school buildings and several rural school buildings of recent construction, carrying out the idea of light on one side of the building, and following other modern ideas of construction.
The log structure was the earliest type of a rural schoolhouse. Following this primitive structure came the conventional form of frame buildings. It was always an oblong building with windows on each side, and sometimes on one or both ends. The stove was always in the center of the room, with a raised platform on one end of the room for the teacher and her desk. This is the general form that has prevailed everywhere since the building of rural schoolhouses began.
In 1896, district No. 2, in Newburg township, voted to build a new schoolhouse, and the school board asked the assistance of K. W. Buell, county superintendent, in the drawing of plans. They had voted but $600.00 and this naturally entailed some limi- tations. But the board were young men and they wanted a modern building. Their desire resulted in the first "side light" school in the county. The windows are all on the north side, there is no platform to add to the number of steps a teacher must take, and the house is warmed and ventilated by a suitable furnace in the basement. The house cost, when finished, about $650.00 and the school board which had the courage at that time to break away from the traditional type of a country school-
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house consisted of N. S. Nelson, A. G. Austin and P. P. Thompson.
While the officers in district 2 have the credit of being the first in the county to adopt the more modern ideas and plans, there have been several other rural schools built in the county following the same idea of side lighting, but enlarging and improving on that plan in other particulars.
The recent buildings are at Rushford, Spring Valley and Har- mony, and Lanesboro is now building an addition to the main building. In the following rural districts new schoolhouses have been built in recent years: District 11, Preble; 27, Amherst; 58, Pilot Mound; 124, Sumner ; 129, Preston, and 180, Bloomfield.
The best types of the more modernized schoolhouses are found in district 136, Preston; district 131, Bristol; in the two-room building north of Prosper; in districts 124, Sumner; 180, Bloom- field; 27, Amherst ; 11, Preble, and 58, Pilot Mound. These build- ings are side lighted and warmed and ventilated with a furnace system.
To the village of Mabel belongs the credit of erecting the first modern styled graded school building in the county. The mod- ern, single lighted graded schools in the county are at Peterson, Preston, Prosper, Mabel, Harmony and Rushford.
A marked evolution in the school work of the county is seen in the efforts now made to give the teachers some special training for their work. At the time of retiring from office, twenty-five years ago, Superintendent John Brady spoke of the teachers' associations and teachers' institutes and how inadequate they were to accomplish the work of the teachers' special preparation. Up to the year 1889, the only special training the rural school teachers obtained, with a very few exceptions, came through such associations. The state provided for each county a five days' institute once a year; all other means of improvement must come through the teachers' own unaided efforts. When Emma Allen, now Mrs. John C. Mills, became county superintendent of the schools of Fillmore county she observed, as Superintendent Brady had, the great need in the rural schools of a better preparation of teachers than was then afforded. In July, 1889, Mrs. Mills organized the first training school for teachers ever held in the county. The school was held in Spring Valley and was in session four weeks. J. T. McCleary, later congressman, and Mrs. Almira S. Beede assisted in conducting the school. It was so largely attended and the results were so thoroughly appreciated and beneficial that another school of the same nature was held in Preston the following year.
In the year 1891, the summer school idea had grown so throughout the state that the legislature of that year was pre- vailed upon to establish as a part of the educational system of the state, the state county summer training schools for teachers. It will
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Postiº332 PRESTON. HILL
FRED YOUNG
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be remembered that the first two schools of this kind the county ever had were paid for wholly by the teachers attending. Since that time the expenses of the schools are paid by county and state.
First Districts Created. The first school district established in Fillmore county was on July 9, 1853, when the Minnesota City School District was created. This was outside of the present limits of the county.
The first school district established within the present limits of Fillmore county was district 2, as it was then known. This was created on April 7, 1854. Four districts were created on that day in the order named below :
Second District-This district, created at the request of W. E. Picket, embraced sections 4, 5, 8, 9, 16 and 17, in what is now Carimona township (102-11).
Third District-This district was created at the request of James M. Sumner and R. M. Foster, and embraced sections 6, 7 and 18 in what is now Carimona (102-11) and sections 1, 12 and 13 in what is now Forestville (102-12).
Fourth District-This district was created at the request of J. W. Elliot and consisted of all the present township of Harmony and the western half of what is now the township of Canton.
First District-This district was created at the request of James McClelland, Jr., and consisted of what are now Jordan (104-12) and Chatfield (104-11) and the two townships north of this in what is now Olmsted county (105-11 and 105-12).
School lands consisted of sections 16 and 36 in each township. On November 7, 1854, the commissioners passed an act that all persons then living on school lands should give a bond in the penal sum of $500.00 as an evidence of their intention to purchase the land when it came on the market, and the county clerk was in- structed to bring suit against anyone cutting wood on school land or in any way impairing the value of such land.
The school districts were rearranged January 2, 1855.
District 1. This district, established at the request of Joseph Bisby and others, contained sections 6, 7, 8, 17 and 18 in Carimona (102-11) and sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Forest- ville (102-12). The district was altered later in the day to contain the west halves of sections 5, 8 and 17, and all of 6, 7 and 18 in Carimona and sections 1, 2, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in Forestville.
District 2 consisted of sections 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 33, 34 and 35 in Spring Valley (103-13).
District 3 took in sections 3 and 4, the east half of 5 and the east half of 8, and the east half of 17, and all of 9, 10, 15 and 16 in Carimona (102-11).
District 4 took in sections 6 and 7 in Newburg (101-8), sec-
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tions 30 and 31 and the west halves of sections 29 and 32 in Preble (102-8), sections 1 and 12, Canton (101-9) and sections 25 and 36 in Amherst (102-9).
District 5 consisted of territory in township 105, ranges 11 and 12, outside the present limits of Fillmore county.
District 6 took in the east halves of sections 5, 8 and 17, and all of sections 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15 and 16 in Chatfield (104-11).
Chatfield district took in the west halves of 5 and 8 and all of 6 and 7 in Chatfield (104-11) and sections 1 and 12 in Jordan (104-12) as well as a few sections to the north in what is now Olmsted county.
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