History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 28

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547

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A. J. Edgerton, of Kasson, was appointed by the Governor to fill the vacancy. President Gar- field having been assassinated, and Mr. Edgerton having been appointed Chief Justice of Dakota territory, Mr. Windom, at & special session of the Legislature in October, 1881, was re-elected United States Senator.

S. J. R. McMillan, of St. Paul, on the 19th of February, 1875, was elected United States Sen- ator for the term expiring March 4th, 1881, and has since been re-elected for a second term, which, in March, 1887, will expire.

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SKETCHES OF PUBLIC MEN.

REPRESENTATIVES IN THE U. S. HOUSE OF REPRE- SENTATIVES.

William W. Phelps was one of the first mem- bers of the United States House of Representatives from Minnesota. Born in Michigan in 1826, he graduated in 1846, at its State University. In 1854, he came to Minnesota as Register of the Land Office at Red Wing, and in 1857, was elected a representative to Congress.

James M. Cavanaugh was of Irish parentage, and came from Massachusetts. He was elected to the same Congress as Mr. Phelps, and subsequently removed to Colorado, where he died.

William Windom was born on May 10th, 1827,in Belmont, county, Ohio. He was admitted to the bar in 1850, and was, in 1853, elected Prosecuting At- torney for Knox county, Ohio. The next year he came to Minnesota, and has represented the State in Congress ever since.

Cyrus Aldrich, of Minneapolis, Hennepin county, was elected a member of the Thirty-sixth Con- gress, which convened December 5th, 1859, and was re-elected to the Thirty-seventh Congress.

Ignatius Donnelly was born in Philadelphia in 1831. Graduated at the High School of that city, and in 1853 was admitted to the bar. In 1857, he came to Minnesota, and in 1859 was elected Lt. Governor, and re-elected in 1861. He be- came a representative of Minnesota in the United States Congress which convened on December 7th, 1863, and was re-elected to the Thirty-ninth Con- gress which convened on December 4th, 1865. He was also elected to the Fortieth congress, which convened in December, 1867. Since 1873 he has been an active State Senator from Dakota county, in which he has been a resident, and Harper Brothers have recently published a book from his pen of wide research called "Atlantis."

Eugene M. Wilson, of Minneapolis, was elected to the the Forty-first Congress, which assembled in December, 1869. He was born December 25th, 1833, at Morgantown, Virginia, and graduated at Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. From 1857 to 1861, he was United States District Attorney for Minnesota. During the civil war he was cap- tain in the First Minnesota Cavalry.

Mr. Wilson's father, grandfather, and maternal grandfather were members of Congress.

M. S. Wilkinson, of whom mention has been made as U. S. Senator, was elected in 1868 a rep-

resentative to the congress which convened in De- cember, 1869, and served one term.

Mark H. Dunnell of Owatonna, in the fall of 1870, was elected from the First District to fill the seat in the House of Representatives so long occupied by Wm. Windom.

Mr. Dunnell, in July, 1823, was born at Bux- ton, Maine. He graduated at the college estab- lished at Waterville, in that State, in 1849. From 1855 to 1859 he was State Superintendent of schools, and in 1860 commenced the practice of law. For a short period he was Colonel of the 5th Maine regiment but resigned in 1862, and was appointed U. S. Consul at Vera Cruz, Mexi- co. In 1865, he came to Minnesota, and was State Superintendent of Public Instruction from April, 1867 to August, 1870. Mr. Dunnell still represents his district.

John T. Averill was elected in November, 1870, from the Second District, to succeed Eugene M. Wilson.

Mr. Averill was born at Alma, Maine, and com- pleted his studies at the Maine Wesleyan Univer- sity. He was a member of the Minnesota Senate in 1858 and 1859, and during the rebellion was Lieut. Colonel of the 6th Minnesota regiment. He is a member of the enterprising firm of paper manufacturers, Averill, Russell and Carpenter. In the fall of 1872 he was re-elected as a member of the Forty-second Congress, which convened in December, 1873.

Horace B. Strait was elected to Forty-third and. Forty-fourth Congress, and is still a representative.

William S. King, of Minneapolis, was born De- cember 16, 1828, at Malone, New York. He has been one of the most active citizens of Minnesota in developing its commercial and agriculutral in- terests. For several years he was Postmaster of the United States House of Representatives, and was elected to the Forty-fourth Congress, which convened in 1875.

Jacob H. Stewart, M. D., was elected to the Forty-fifth Congress. which convened in Decem- ber, 1877. He was born January 15th, 1829, in Columbia county, New York, and in 1851, grad- uated at the University of New York. For sev- eral years he practiced medicine at Peekskill, New York, and in 1855, removed to St. Paul. In 1859, he was elected to the State Senate, and was Chair- man of the Railroad Committee. In 1864, he was Mayor of St. Paul. He was Surgeon of the First

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OUTLINE HISTORY OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Minnesota, and taken prisoner at the first battle of Bull Run. From 1869 to 1873, he was again Mayor of St. Paul, and is at the present time United States Surveyor General of the Minnesota land office.

Henry Poehler was the successor of Horace B. Strait for the term ending March 4, 1881, when Mr. Strait was again elected.

William Drew Washburn on the 14th of Jan- uary, 1831, was born at Livermore, Maine, and in 1854, graduated at Bowdoin College. In 1857, he came to Minnesota, and in 1861, was appointed by the President, Surveyor General of U. S. Lands, for this region. He has been one of the most active among the business men of Minneapolis. In November, 1878, he was elected to represent the 3d district in the U. S. House of Representa- tives, and in 1880, re-elected. He is a brother of C. C., late Governor of Wisconsin, and of E. B., the Minister Plenipotentiary of U. S. of America, to France, and resident in Paris during the late Franco-German war.

BECAPITULATION - TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS OF

MINNESOTA.

Alexander Ramsey 1849-1853

Willis A. Gorman 1853-1857

Samuel Medary 1857

STATE GOVERNORS.

Henry H. Sibley 1858-1860

Alexander Ramsey 1860-1863

H. A. Swift, Acting Gov 1863-1864

Stephen Miller 1864-1866

W. R. Marshall 1866-1870

Horace Austin 1870-1874

C. K. Davis.

1874-1876

John S. Pillsbury 1876-1882

L. F. Hubbard.

1882

TERRITORIAL DELEGATES TO CONGRESS.

Henry H. Sibley 1849-1853

Henry M. Rice.

1853-1857

W. W. Kingsbury

1857-1858

UNITED STATES SENATORS.

Henry M. Rice. 1857-1863

James Shields. 1857-1859

M. S. Wilkinson 1859-1865

Alexander Ramsey

1863-1875

Daniel S. Norton

1865-1870

O. P. Stearns 1871

William Windom

1871

A. J. Edgerton.

1881

S. J. R. McMillan

1875

MEMBERS UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTA-

TIVES.

W. W. Phelps 1857-1859

J. M. Cavanaugh 1857-1859

William Windom. 1859-1871

Cyrus Aldrich

1859-1863

Ignatius Donnelly

1863-1869

Eugene M. Wilson

1869-1871

M. S. Wilkinson 1869-1771

M. H. Dunnell. 1871

J. T. Averill

1871-1875

H. B. Strait.

1875-1879

1881

Henry Poehle 1879-1881

W. S. King.

1875-1877

J. H. Stewart.

1877-1879

W. D. Washburn.

1879

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STATE EDUCATION.

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STATE EDUCATION.

BY CHARLES S. BRYANT, A. M.

CHAPTER XXV.

EDUCATION-DEFINITION OF THE WORD-STATE EDUCATION-CHURCH AND STATE SEPARATED SEPARATION BENEFICIAL- STUDIES NOT LIMITED -RIVALRY FRIENDLY.

As a word, education is of wide application and may convey but an indefinite idea. Broadly, it means to draw out, to lead forth, to train up, to foster, to enable the individual to properly use the faculties, mental or corporal, with which he is endowed; and to use them in a way that will ac- complish the desired result in all relations and in any department of industry, whether in the domain of intellectual research, or confined to the fields of physical labor.

State Education points at once to a definite field of investigation; an organization which is to have extensive direction and control of the subject matter embraced in the terms chosen. It at once excludes the conclusion that any other species of education than secular education is intended. It excludes all other kinds of education not included in this term, without ihe slightest reflection upon parochial, sectarian, denominational, or individual schools; independent or corporate educational or- ganizations. State Education, then, may embrace whatever is required by the State in the due exe- cution of its mission in the protection of individ- ual rights, and the proper advancement of the citizen in material prosperity; in short, whatever may contribute in any way to the honor, dignity, and fair fame of a State; whose sovereign will directs, and, to a very great extent; controls the destiny of its subjects.

A reason may be given for this special depart-

ment of education, without ignoring any others arising from the necessity of civil government, and its necessary separation from ecclesiastical control. It must be observed by every reasoning mind, that in the advancement and growth of social elements from savagery, through families and tribes to civilization, and the better forms of government, that in the increasing growth, multi- plied industries continually lead fo a resistless demand for division of labor, both intellectual and physical. This division must eventually lead, in every form of government, to a separation of what may be termed Church and State; and, of course, in such division, every separate organization must control the elements necessary to sustain its own perpetuity; for otherwise its identity would be lost, and it would cease to have any recognized existence.

In these divisions of labor, severally organized for different and entirely distinct objects, mutual benefits must result, not from any invasion of the separate rights of the one or the other, by hostile aggression, but by reason of the greatest harmony of elements, and hence greater perfec- tion in the labors of each, when limited to the promotion of each separate and peculiar work. In the division, one would be directed towards the temporal, the other toward the spiritual advance- ment of man, in any and all relations which he sustains, not only to his fellow-men, but to the material or immaterial universe. These depart- ments of labor are sufficiently broad, although intimately related, to require the best directed energies of each, to properly cultivate their sepa- rate fields. And an evidence of the real harmony

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STATE EDUCATION.

existing between these organizations, the Church and State, relative to the present investigation, is found in the admitted fact, that education, both temporal and spiritual, secular and sectarian, was a principal element of the original organization, and not in conflict with its highest duty, or its most vigorous growth. In the division of the original organization, that department of educa- tion, which was only spiritual, was retained with its necessrry adjuncts, while that which was only temporal was relegated to a new organization, the temporal organization, the State. The separate elements are still of the same quality, although wielded by two instead of one organization. In this respect, education may be compared to the diamond, which, when broken and subdivided into most minute particles, each separate particle retains not only the form and number of facets, but the brilliancy of the original diamond. So in the case before us, though education has suffered division, and has been appropriated by different organisms, it is nevertheless the same in nature, and retains the same quality and luster of the parent original.

The laws of growth in these separate organiza- tions, the Church composed of every creed, and the State in every form of government, mast deter- mine the extent to which their special education shall be carried. If it shall be determined by the Church, that her teachers, leaders, and followers in any stage of its growth, shall be limited in their acquisitions to the simple elements of knowl- edge, reading, writing, and arithmetic, it may be determined that the State should limit education to the same simple elements. But as the Church, conscious of its immature growth, has never restricted her leaders, teachers, or followers, to these simple elements of knowledge; neither has the State seen fit to limit, nor can it ever limit education to any standard short of the extreme limits of its growth, the fullest development of its resources, and the demands of its citizens. State Education and Church Education are alike in their infancy, and no one is able to prescribe limits to the one or the other. The separation of Church and State, in matters of government only, is yet of very narrow limits, and of very recent origin. And the separation of Church and State, in mat- ters of education, has not yet clearly dawned upon the minds of the accredited leaders of these clearly distinct organizations.

It is rational, however, to conclude, that among

reasonable men, it would be quite as easy to deter- mine the final triumph of State Education, as to determine the final success of the Cristian faith over Buddhism, or the final triumph of man, in the subjugation of the earth to his control. The decree has gone forth, that man shall subdue the earth; so that, guided by the higher law, Educa- tion, under the direction or protection of the State, must prove a final success, for only by organic, scientific, and human instrumentality can the pur- pose of the Creator be possibly accomplished on earth.

If we have found greater perfection in quality, and better adaptation of methods in the work done by these organizations since the separation, we must conclude that the triumphs of each will be in proportion to the completeness of the separa- tion; and that the countries the least shackled by entangling alliances in this regard, must, other things being equal, lead the van, both in the ad- vancement of science and in the triumphs of an enlightened faith. And we can by a very slight comparison of the present with the past, deter- mine for ourselves, that the scientific curriculum of State schools has been greatly widened and en- riched, and its methods better adapted to proposed ends. We can as easily ascertain the important fact that those countries are in advance, where the two great organizations, Church and State, are least in conflict. We know also, that from the nature of the human movement westward, that the best defined conditions of these organizations should be found in the van of this movement. On this continent, then, the highest development of these organizations should be found, at least, when time shall have matured his natural results in the growth and polish of our institutions. Even now, in our infancy, what country on earth can show equal results in either the growth of general knowl- edge, the advance of education, or the triumphs of Christian labor at home and abroad? These are the legitimate fruits of the wonderful energy given to the mind of man in the separate labors of these organizations, on the principle of the division of labor, and consequently better directed energies in every department of industry. This movement is onward, across the continent, and thence around the globe. Its force is irresistable, and all efforts to reunite these happily divided powers, and to return to the culture of past times, and the governments and laws of past ages, must be as unavailing as an attempt to reverse the laws

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COLONIAL PERIOD.

of nature. In their separation and friendly rivalry, exists the hope of man's temporal and spiritual elevation.

CHAPTER XXVI.

COLONIAL PERIOD-EDUCATION AT MASSACHUSETTS BAY IN 1836-HARVARD COLLEGE-PROVISION FOR COMMON SCHOOLS IN NEW AMSTERDAM-IN PENNSLVANIA-WILLIAM PENN'S GREAT LAW- WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE.

State Education is natural in its application. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and every organism after its own kind. Now, in pursuance of this well known law of na- ture, that everything created is made after its own order, and its own likeness, it follows that the new comers on this continent brought with them the germ of national and spiritual life. If we are right in this interpretation of the laws of life re- lating to living organisms, we shall expect to find its proper manifestation in the early institutions they created for their own especial purposes imme- diately after their arrival here. We look into their history, and we find that by authority of the General Court of Massachusetts, in 1836, sixteen years after the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers, Harvard College was established, as an existing identity; that in 1638, it was endowed by John Harvard, and named after him. But the Common School was not overlooked. At a public meeting in Boston, April 13th, 1636, it was "generally agreed that one Philemon Pormont be entreated to become school master for teaching and nourter- ing children."

After the date above, matters of education ran through the civil authority, and is forcibly ex- pressed in the acts of 1642 and 1647, passed by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Col- ony. By the act of 1642, the select men of every town are required to have vigilant eye over their brothers and neighbors, to see, first, that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families, as not to endeavor to teach by them- selves or others, their children and apprentices so much learning as shall enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and knowledge of the Capital laws, under penalty of twenty shillings for each offense. By the act of 1647, support of schools was made compulsory, and their blessings

universal. By this law "every town containing fifty house-holders was required to appoint a teach- er to teach all children as shall resort to him to write and read;" and every town containing one hundred families or house-holders was required to "set up grammar schools, the master thereof being able to instruct youths so far as they may be fitted for the University."

In New Amsterdam, among the Reformed Prot- estant Dutch, the conception of a school system guaranteed and protected by the State, seems to have been entertained by the colonists from Hol- land, although circumstances hindered its practi- cal development. The same general statement is true of the mixed settlements along the Deleware; Menonites, Catholics, Dutch, and Swedes, in con- nection with their churches, established little · schools in their early settlements. In 1682, the legislative assembly met at Chester. William Penn made provision for the education of youth of the province, and enacted, that the Governor and pro- vincial Council should erect and order all public schools. One section of Penn's Great law," is in the words following:

"Be it enacted by authority aforesaid, that all persons within the province and territories thereof, having children, and all the guardians and trustees of orphans, shall cause such to be instructed in reading and writing, so that they may be able to read the scriptures and to write by the time that they attain the age of 12 years, and that they then be taught some useful trade or skill, that the poor may work to live, and the rich, if they become poor may not want; of which every county shall take care. And in case such parents, guardians, or overseers shall be found deficient in this respect, every such parent, guardian, or overseer, shall pay for every such child five pounds, except there should appear incapacity of body or understanding to hinder it."

And this "Great law" of William Penn, of 1682, will not suffer in comparison with the English stat- ute on State Education, passed in 1870, and amend- ed in 1877, one hundred and ninety-five years later. In this respect America is two hundred years in advance of Great Britain in State education. But our present limits will not allow us to compare American and English State school systems.

In 1693, the assembly of Pennsylvania passed a second school law providing for the education of youth in every county. These elementary schools were free for boys and girls. In 1755, Pennsyl-

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STATE EDUCATION.

vania College was endowed, and became a Univer- Bity in 1779.

In Virginia, William and Mary College was fa- mous even in colonial times. It was supported by direct State aid. In 1726, a tax was levied on liquors for its benefit by the House of Burgesses; in 1759, a tax on peddlers was given this college by law, and from various revenues it was, in 1776, the richest college in North America.

These extracts from the early history of State Education in pre-Colonial and Colonial times give abundant evidence of the nature of the organisms planted in American soil by the Pilgrim Fathers and their successors, as well as other early settlers on our Atlantic coast. The inner life has kept pace with the requirements of the external organi- zations, as the body assumes still greater and more national proportions. The inner life grew with the exterior demands.

CHAPTER XXVII.

STATE EDUCATION UNDER THE CONFEDERATION- ORDINANCE OF 1787-PROVISION FOR EDUCATION -AID GIVEN TO STATES IN THE NOTTHWEST TER- RITORY-OHIO-INDIANA-ILLINOIS - MICHIGAN -WISCONSIN - MINNESOTA - SECTIONS OF LAND SIXTEEN AND THIRTY-SIX GRANTED IN AID OF ED- UCATION.

On the 9th of July, 1787, it was proclaimed to the world, that on the 15th of November, 1778, in the second year of the independence of America, the several colonies of New Hampshire, Massa- chusetts Bay, Rhode Island, Providence Planta- tions, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia had entered into a Confederate Union.

This Confederate Union, thus organized as a Government, was able to receive grants of land and to hold the same for such purposes as it saw proper. To the new government cessions were made by several of the States, from 1781 to 1802, of which the Virginia grant was the most im- portant.

The Confederate Government, on the 13th of July, 1787, and within less than four years after the reception of the Virginia Land Grant, known as the Northwest Territory, passed the ever mem- orable ordinance of 1787. This was the first real

estate to which the Confederation had acquired the absolute title in its own right. The legal Government had its origin September 17th, 1787, while the ordinance for the government of the Northwest Territory was passed two months and four days before. Article Third of the renowned ordinance reads as follows:

"Religion, morality, and knowledge being nec- essary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged."

What is the territory embraced by this author- itative enunciation of the Confederate govern- ment? The extent of the land embraced is almost if not quite equal to the area of the original thir- teen colonies. Out of this munificent possession added to the infant American Union, have since been carved, by the authority of the United States government, the princely states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and in part, Min- nesota. In this vast region at least, the govern- ment has said that education "shall be forever encouraged." Encouraged how and by whom? Encouraged by the Government, by the legal State, by the supreme power of the land. This announcement of governmental aid to State schools was no idle boast, made for the encour- agement of a delusive hope, but the enunciation of a great truth, inspired by the spirit of a higher life, now kindled in this new American temple, in which the Creator intended man should worship him according to the dictates of an enlightened conscience, "where none should molest or make him afraid."

The early Confederation passed away, but the spirit that animated the organism was immortal, and immediately manifested itself in the new Gov- ernment, under our present constitution. On the 17th of September, 1787, two months and four days from the date of the ordinance erecting the Northwest 'Territory was adopted, the new Con- stitution was inaugurated. The first State gov- ernment erected in the new territory was the State of Ohio, in 1802. The enabling act, passed by Congress on this accession of the first new State, a part of the new acquisition, contains this substantial evidence that State aid was faithfully remembered and readily offered to the cause of education :

Sec. 3: "That the following proposition be and the same is hereby offered to the convention of the eastern States of said territory, when formed, for

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AID TO STATES IN THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY.

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their free acceptance or rejection, which, if ac- cepted by the convention, shall be obligatory upon the United States:

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History of Houston County, Including Explorers and Pioneers of Minnesota, Part 28

Author: Edward D. Neill Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Number of Pages: 547

Author: Edward D. Neill
Publication date: 1882
Publisher:
Number of Pages: 547