USA > Minnesota > Otter Tail County > History of Otter Tail County, Minnesota: Its People, Industries and Institutions, Volume I > Part 46
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76
This unanimity regarding the establishment of schools is remarkable, for this was a county of many nationalities and diverse religions. The early settlers' veneration for education was a matter of past training. All had come from countries where schooling was the right of every man. Everyone demanded that right for the succeeding generation and made sacrifices to secure it.
It is just possible that the time of great sacrifice being past we, as a people. appreciate an education less than the early settlers. Let us give them
Digitized by Google
424
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
the honor their due. School petitions were received by the county com- missioners as soon as that body was organized. The first drawn up bears the date of March 8, 1869. It is of sufficient importance to be preserved and is therefore printed here in full, without change in spelling, punctuation or capitalization.
To the County Commissioners of the County of Ottertail, Minn.
The Undersigned a Majority of the Legal Voters of the territory to Be Affected thereby Do Hereby petition your Honorable Body to organize a New School District to be Comprised of the following Described territory, Namely Sections No. 1-2-3-4- & 9-10-11-12 Situated in township 131 Range 41, Name Oxford [now the township of St. Olaf], Ottertail Co including numbers
Dated this 8th Day of March 1869.
Names
Names
Andrew Swenson Richard Gordon Andrew R. Roberts
Francis Demars
Joseph E. Lacy
thomas olson
Ole H. Hernes halver m. berge
For some reason unknown to me the county commissioners acted first upon a petition from Clitherall, although it was drawn up eleven days later. It may be the means of communication were so poor that the Oxford petition did not reach the commissioners until after the Clitherall petition was received, or it may be that local pride made the commissioners take up the petition of March the 19th first. Thus St. Olaf narrowly missed the honor of having the first school district in the county. The petition for district one (now known as Old Clitherall) reads as follow :
To the County Commissioners of the County of Otter Tail State of Minnesota.
The undersigned a majority of the legal voters of the territory to be affected thereby do hereby petition your honorable body to organize a new school district to be comprised of the following described territory, to wit:
Being Township 132 North in Range 40 West. Dated at Clitherall this 19th day of March, 1869.
Names Marcus Shaw
Chancey Whiting S. J. Whiting C. G. Fletcher Reuben Oak
Names F. L. Whiting Hyram Murdock .Jesse Burdick
T. Mason Charles Sperry
School districts were formed rapidly during this early period. Condi- tions were such as to push organization to the extreme. Indeed, we will find later that the county superintendent was paid in proportion to the dis- tricts he could organize. Under such conditions it is small wonder that
Digitized by Google
425
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
some districts were so organized as to actually block school development later.
A petition bearing the date of December 23, 1871, asked that a school district be formed out of "Sections 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 37, of township 136, range 39, and sections 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35. 36 of township 136, range 40 and all of township 135, range 40."
It was not expected that children from all of this enormous territory would attend school, but at that time railroad land was not subject to taxa- tion and in order to support a school all the settlers for miles around must be included. The school house itself might be placed in one corner of this territory and it would be sheer good luck if this district could be subdivided later so as to accommodate future settlers. In some respects Iowa was fortunate in requiring a school house every two miles. Our haphazard manner of locating school buildings is often selfish and unjust. But the people of pioneer days met the conditions of the time with but little con- sideration of the possible future, just as we are doing now.
Minnesota was among the states that were trying the innovation of a county official who should foster its educational interests, so when Otter Tail began to organize school districts it appointed a county superintendent. The first appointment is recorded in the commissioners' minutes as follow :
Clitherall, Otter Tail Co. May 20, 1869.
State of Minn.
By order of Board of Coms Wm. Corlis was appointed County Superintendent of common schools of Otter Tail County Minn.
done this 20t day of May, 1869.
"Resolved that we the Board of County commissioners do appoint Wm Corliss as county examiner for Otter Tail county State of Minnesota."
Resolution adopted by said Board of County Commissioners.
That Mr. Corliss performed his duties in a manner satisfactory to the county commissioners is evidenced by two resolutions I find among the commissioners' proceedings for the years 1869 and 1870. It is interesting to note the official's salary and the method of payment.
Nov. 13, 1869.
Resolved that Wm. M. Corliss be allowed one hundred dollars for service rendered as county superintendent up to date. (The resolution also allowed bim four dollars as judge of election. )
Sylvester Whiting Clerk
Chancey Whiting E. J. Lacy
January 7. A. D. 1870
1st -- A note of instruction read pertaining to selecting a suitable person for a County Superintendent of public schools, the Board then Selected Wm. M. Corliss who
Digitized by Google
426
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
accepted the station and was duly qualified to the office of Co. Superintendent of Otter Tail County for two years.
2nd-Resolved that the county superintendent Shall receive ten dollars pr annum for each and every school District organized in the County of Otter Tail during his term of Office and this shall be his salary.
done this 7 day of January, 1870.
Space will not permit me to give the complete history of any district of the county, much less the history of the county's two hundred and eighty- four districts. But I give at this time two sketches, so the reader may appreciate the early conditions before other phases of our educational history are taken up, and realize how strong schools develop from unpromising conditions. The first sketch is of a school in the township of Maine.
Our school (district 22) was first held in the unfinished chamber of R. F. Adley's house. It was. I believe, a building fourteen by twenty-two feet, with a roof so low that only the primary class could stand upright near the eaves.
There were two rather serious drawbacks to this room. This chamber had to be used each night as the family's sleeping apartment, and the beds and bedding (and sometimes more embarrassing chamber equipment > occupied too much of the school room space during the day. The second drawback was an unrailed stairway down which some of the over excited children tumbled during recess.
To this school room was brought Miss "Willie" Phinney of Pomme de Terre to organize the first school in the township of Maine. The term "organize" is a misnomer. There could be no organization under the conditions Miss Phinney found. There were eleven children ranging from four to sixteen years of age; no books to speak of and no two books alike; no blackboard, no crayon and no desks. As I look back on it there seemed to have been nothing but rich red blood and abnormal animal energy.
The next year the old settlers ( those who had been there a year), assisted by the new settlers, in some way secured enough rough lumber to build the rudest kind of a school building. This was a building boarded up on the outside and as high as the enves on the inside. the spaces between the studdings being filled with saw dust. The building was abominably cold in winter and in summer reeked with odors of the horse stable which one of the patrons attached to the rear of the building.
Our teachers were poor and presented us with nothing of interest. Pranks and mischief was ever in evidence. Nature did her best to supply the school with interesting subjects of study. had the teachers but improved the opportunities she presented. The building was placed in the heart of one of the thickest poplar groves I ever saw. Only thirty rods away was a lake and oft in the occasional fits of studious silence the shriek of the loom stabbed the silence. while the partridge's booming roar as he drummed in the wood, and the prairie cock's boom-do seemed ever to beat upon our ears in the spring time.
The saucy red squirrel scampered across the school room floor, seized a coveted bread crust and rushed to its perch upon the sawdust. Daintily holding its prize in its paws, it would devour it, eyes sparkling and chuckling. as if it thought it had perpe- trated a fine joke. Ah yes! Nature school was fine but the man-made affair was but little short of a failure.
Then the school house burned and school was held in the summer kitchen of one of the old settlers. But now there came a woman who could teach and under her inspira- tion better things came about. The next year another school house was built and the first phase of the pioneer school closed.
The development of a school from very humble beginnings may be traced in the
Digitized by Google
---
427
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
history of district 103 (the Vining school). a brief sketch by Olga Stene, a student of the Vining school :
"On February 7, 1879. a special meeting was held at the house of John Gysler, Sr .. to elect a director. clerk and treasurer to serve until the annual school meeting. The following officers were elected : Ole J. Hoff. director; John Gysler. clerk : Ole Christo- pherson. treasurer.
It was also decided to choose a place to build a school house. Ole Christopherson offered a piece of land for the purpose in the southwest corner of the southwest forty of northwest quarter of section twelve. or where the Effington road connects with the main road about nine hundred feet from where the new school house now stands. This offer was accepted and it was further decided that the school house should be built of logs, each citizen of the district to furnish four logs and haul them to the place of building."
Nothing further seems to have been done for a year, when another special meeting was held. Now it was decided to begin building the first part of March. 1850, and to buy four hundred and fifty feet of second class. rough Inmber. four planks, sixteen feet long, two by six. and one plank twenty feet, two by six. As there was no money in the treasury at this time. it was decided that each citizen should give forty cents for the purpose of buying doors, windows, locks, nails and hinges. In March. 1880, the farmers hauled the logs to the school ground and helped build the school house. One of them made the seats, which were backed benches made of common boards.
.
The first term began in the spring of 1880. From twenty-five to thirty children were enrolled. The teacher. Thomas Hilden, received twenty dollars per month. But many of the patrons favored another location. so in 1882 it was voted to move the building. A Mr. Albert moved this primitive school building and charged the district twenty dollars for his services. As there was no money in the treasury (a common state of affairs in the early days) it was also decided that each citizen should pay one dollar and five cents into the treasury to pay different expenses.
When the village of Vining was organized. A. T. Lund offered the school district two lots within the village if the school house should be moved to town. In 1885 a new building was erected upon these lots, followed in 1897 by a one-room addition. Only a few years later both rooms were so crowded that satisfactory work could not be done and the health of the children was endangered.
It seemed best to the patrons of the district to take advantage of a recently passed consolidation law and organize district 103 as a consolidated district. This was done in 1914. The district now has a model school building. perfectly ventilated. perfectly lighted and well equipped. A city ten times the size of this little village might well he proud of a school as well equipped for its needs.
Now that I have illustrated my second point, let us take up the develop- ment of the educational work of the county as a whole. Speaking of condi- tions in 1871 Hon. E. F. Corliss has the following to say in his address to the Old Settlers Association in 1915 :
"Although the county had been partially organized two years and a start toward organizing the first districts. the few log houses had been built wholly by subscription and a few short terms of schools kept, also by subscription from the scanty means of the early pioneers. The children of school age were scattered over this vast county. connected at most by trails over the prairies, around the slough and groves, with blazed trails over the prairies, around the slough and groves, with blazed tracks through the woods, with here and there a little of the underbrush cut out for a trail. With no school officers of any experience and very few teachers with any experience or fitness. we were all. as it were, working in the dark under the most discouraging conditions.
Digitized by Google
428
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
The above are only a few of the little inconveniences we had to meet trying to lay the foundation on which you of later years have built the best schools of the state."
Superintendent William Corliss's first annual report shows that there were at that time two hundred and ten children between the ages of five and twenty-one, that nine school districts had been organized, one term of school held and the monthly wages for that two-month's term was sixteen dollars. Mrs. Zernah Sherman has the honor of teaching this first term and the satisfaction of spending this princely salary. In his report Mr. Corliss said that the county was being rapidly settled up by intelligent people, alive to school interests. Such people devise ways and means for securing an education for their children.
The report of Mr. Corliss for 1870 showed that the county had doubled the number of organized districts and almost doubled its school population. There was then one public school building (of the value of $50) there and had been one term of winter school which eighty-four pupils attended. The total expense for the county schools for the year was two hundred and fifty- eight dollars, amount of state school fund received, seventy-nine dollars and eighty cents, a sum less than the state aid for a single class B school of today. Certainly E. E. Corliss spoke the truth when he said in his address to the old settlers in 1915:
I dare say that no one now connected with the present magnificent schools of this county can fully realize what the work of those formative years was, with no precedents, no books or blanks, no school houses, absolutely no school fund, and with settlers with- out means or experience. Yet he (William Corliss) seemed to realize that those poor settlers were hungry for education for themselves and their children, so he hopefully commenced to build a foundation upon which later patriotic settlers have nobly and wisely constructed a great system of education.
The report of E. E. Corliss to the state superintendent for 1871 shows twenty-seven districts organized, fourteen school houses erected (five frame, nine log), one thousand forty-eight children of school age, two hundred and seventy-eight had attended winter school, three hundred and fifty-one had attended summer school, eleven teachers employed (seven male and four female), average wages for the winter term of twenty-eight dollars and fifty-seven cents for the male teachers and fifteen dollars and fifty cents for the female teachers, and average wages for the summer term of twenty-nine dollars and seventy-nine cents for the men and twenty-one dol- lars and eighty-eight cents for the women. On November 15, 1871, William M. Corliss died and his brother, F. E. Corliss, was appointed county super- intendent of schools three days later. He says of himself, "I presume the county auditor informed you of my appointment, which position I can only fill in law, not in fact, until the commissioners are able to elect one."
The statement of "Inadequate pay, poor school houses and a lack of school apparatus" is reiterated again and again in the annual superintendent's
Digitized by Google
429
OTTER TAIL COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
reports of these early days; indeed it appears through all the county's edu- cational history. It is not a complaint, it is a prayer. The prayer from the hearts of earnest men and women who had visions of the wonderful heritage that could be offered the boys and girls of the county when prosperity came if the people could be led to see the true value of education.
Upon the completion of E. E. Corliss's term of office the county com- missioners appointed his successor. The record, as taken from the minutes of the meeting, reads as follow :
Otter Tail City.
Jan. 24, 1872.
A common school Superintendent for Otter Tail County was chosen by ballot and resulted in the election of N. H. Chittenden of Fergus Falls and salary established at $300 a year.
Resolved we appoint N. H. Chittenden for the office of Co. Superintendent for the next ensuing two years from the first Tuesday of April, 1872. and we affix bis salary at 300 doll pr. year to be paid him in quarterly payments for which purpose we authorize the Co. Auditor to issue Co. orders at the end of each quarter to the amount above noted. H. JUELSON. Chairman.
Three hundred dollars is no doubt a small salary, but the volume of business is indicated by Mr. Chittenden's portage and express bill from April, 1872, to July 1, 1873. It was five dollars and was allowed.
Mr. Chittenden was succeeded by Alonzo Preston, who resigned before the end of the term. We cannot say that the county superintendents who had thus far filled the office could lay any special claim to leadership in educational affairs, earnest men though they were. Two were lawyers, two were farmers, and only two had had experience in teaching-none had any professional training. The superintendency was a side line. One superin- tendent was appointed "to assess all the inhabitants north of township 133 north and he shall be allowed three dollars per day for himself and horse." (Commissioners' proceedings, August 7, 1869). Another managed his farm, while two others practiced their professions.
The schools had not been organized into a system. There was no one yet capable of securing the co-operation of children. teachers, parents and school officers. Perhaps there never will be, but the next appointee, George F. Cowing, succeeded in a remarkable degree. Mr. Cowing was without training for his work. It is possible that at another period he would not have made a success of it, but he was a man of the period, emphatic, shrewd, capable, with kindly sympathy and keen sense of humor. He was gifted with the ability to organize and inspire and he hated sham.
The county could now pay a reasonable salary. Mr. Cowing had no other business and was retained in office from April. 1876, to January. 1889, thus giving him time to carry out his plan of educational work. To him more than any one other person must be given the credit of laying a
Digitized by Google
430
OTTER TAIL. COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
firm, if rugged, foundation for the county's educational structure. He advocated longer terms of school, compulsory attendance, apportionment upon the basis of actual attendance, trained teachers, uniform text books and obligatory closure of schools to allow teachers to attend institutes. All these measures have become laws; the last, thirty years after his appeal and six years after his death.
Mr. Cowing was the first supervisor to think of the school work as a unit and not at so many separate unrelated schools. He was the last untrained supervisor to be elected by the people. Subsequent superintendents have been graduates of normal schools or universities, and have been, with the exception of some appointed by the commissioners, men and women trained for the work. In a sense George F. Cowing may be considered the last of the pioneer superintendents.
It is not to be supposed that during this formative period the state was not aiding. It is true that the state department of education gave the rural school people little direct aid or encouragement until about 1907, but the Legislature passed some laws that stimulated school work.
In 1877 women were allowed to vote on all school matters and a little later they were permitted to vote for the county superintendent. The women are more directly interested in education than the men. Woman has ever been the teacher of childhood and has a keener appreciation of the work than man. Hence the general result of the 1877 law has been for better schools.
In 1887 there crept into the laws a requirement that all schools must teach the "study of physiology and hygiene, with special reference to the effect of stimulants and narcotics upon the human system." I could never understand how the liquor interests permitted it to go on the statute book or why no attempt was ever made to remove it after it was on. It prob- ably was thought harmless. The teachers were and have been faithful to the spirit of the law and the anti-saloon sentiment of the county today is more largely due to their teachings than the temperance workers themselves appreciate.
Some time in the eighties the state agreed to pay one-half of the cost of a school library. Gradually the schools took advantage of this offer so, at this writing. all are equipped with libraries. It has taken us quite a while to appreciate that the best books are those we can use daily. Most of the books selected now, therefore, are for use and not show. The library aid from the state was one thousand fifteen dollars and forty-three cents for the school year ending July, 1915.
About a decade later the Legislature conferred the right to grant certi- ficates upon the state department of education. Heretofore, that right had rested with the county superintendent, but there was a general feeling that
Digitized by Google
--
.
431
OTTER TAIL. COUNTY, MINNESOTA.
the results of the teachers' examinations were not always impartial. It was sometimes claimed that politics got mixed with education. Whether such charges were true or not. it is certain that state uniformity was desirable and that it stimulated better educational qualifications for teaching.
But the best piece of legislation was the act which gave special state aid to those schools that would meet certain state standards of equipment and length of term. Besides the actual money aid, it stimulated local pride. Patrons like to feel that their school has reached the standard set forth for equipment and educational results. At present all the high schools. con- solidated schools, graded schools and two hundred and four rural schools in Otter Tail county receive special state aid. For the year ending July, 1915, the county received aid to the amount of thirty-two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. Of this amount twenty-one thousand six hundred and forty dollars was for rural schools or thereabout. This was about eighty per cent. of the amount promised by the state. The Legislature of 1915 tried to manufacture a reputation for economy, hence the state aid fell below the aid for 1913-1914.
The years between 1809 and 1907 were spent in strengthening class- rom work and securing better qualified teachers and longer terms. Those were the days of large and enthusiastic summer schools. So wisely and vigorously was this teacher training pushed that Otter Tail county teachers were known among the most progressive in the state. During most of these years no permits were given to teachers. They had to pass the examinations or step aside for those better qualified.
Today the school work of the county is what it is because of its high- minded, energetic, ambitious and progressive band of teachers who are ever loyal to the work. They are building upon the past, but hope to set the pace for the future. Our schools are also built upon the past in another sense. The Chinese do not excel us in matters of conservatism in educa- tional affairs. We never fill our saddle bags and climb upon "Old Dobbin" for a journey. The stage coach is a thing of the past. We take the train or automobile. Letters are too slow. We telephone, we telegraph or send a wireless message. We no longer hold plow handles. We ride the gang plow or steer the tractor. In material things we have a new world and no sane person would go back to the world of forty years ago, much less to the day without matches, without stoves, without railroads, self-binders or tractor plows.
Yet our schools are to a large degree untouched by this remarkable advance in all lines of human endeavor. There are two reasons for this. One is because we cannot get over the traditions of the past. We are work- ing practically along the same line as did the schools of the early republic.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.