USA > Minnesota > Stearns County > History of Stearns County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 96
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Organization of Districts. The school taught by Mr. Noel was located in what had been designated District Number 3 in the township of St. Cloud. Other dis- tricts, as its number would indicate, had been set aside previous to this one, but this district was the first to provide a school-a comparatively easy matter, since the Everett building afforded a suit- able place.
The first district established was Dis- trict Number 1 in the township of St. Cloud, which, in all probability, was called into being by the County Commissioners in 1855, for, on January 10, 1856, the board ordered "That the school fund - be paid according to the requirements of the stat- ute"; and on July 7 of the same year an order was made placing the tax rate for Stearns county at one percent, one-fourth
of which was appropriated for school pur- poses.
The area of this somewhat suppositi- tious district (for there is no record of its organization, though it is several times mentioned in the proceedings) comprised approximately what is at present the Third and Fourth wards of the City of St. Cloud and Sections 15 and 22 of St. Cloud township. The boundaries were sev- eral times changed, so that, in an item published in the St. Cloud Democrat ten years later, the shape of it was said to resemble "the hind leg of a horse, several times broken and poorly set!"
Although this district was very prob- ably established as early as 1855, it no- where appears that public school was ever taught within its bounds. It is likely that its creation was either a matter of pre- caution or else of speculation. It seems, in fact, to have been the prevailing cus- tom to refrain from perfecting the organ- ization of new districts by the election of officers and the building of school houses. For instance, the proceedings of the County Commissioners show that in 1859 twenty districts were established, making the total then existing about thirty or thirty-two. Yet the record of organization shows that in 1860 only ten schools, in as many districts, were in operation. These were the school at St. Cloud; the one on the St. Cloud-St. Jo- seph road near the Sauk river bridge; the Clearwater school; the Perry school in the Township of Brockway; the school in the village of St. Joseph; the one at Rich- mond; the Paynesville school; the Fair Haven school, and the schools in the pres- ent districts Numbers 28 and 29 in the township of Maine Prairie.
It may also be mentioned here that the boundaries of some of the early districts were not always clearly defined, as wit-
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ness the following order, made at a meet- ing of the County Commissioners held Jan- uary 5th, 1857:
"Ordered that we organize District Num- ber Two, to be bounded as follows, to- wit: Commencing at the mouth of Sauk river; thence running west or nearly west, to include the residence of Nathan Lamb; thence in a southerly direction to the residence of John Sniderjohn; thence easterly to the Mississippi river to the point between the claims of Kellion and Bond."
There are also many strong indications that in the early days the school taxes were a most uncertain asset. Sometimes these tithes were paid, more frequently not, for none were much concerned if they became delinquent. Money was a rare commodity in those days, and the officer whose duty it was to collect the taxes by making the rounds among the settlers frequently came before the county board with a bill for his services which considerably exceeded the amount of actual cash collected. And there is a lin- gering suspicion that, even when paid, the various funds were not invariably turned into their proper channels, for the records of the county commissioners of those days repeatedly show orders to the effect that "The county treasurer do not pay out any moneys belonging to the school fund un- less authorized by the board."
This seemingly careless attitude toward the schools was not such in fact, and must not be misconstrued by us of a later day, who are conscious of a state-wide educa- tional activity, an ever-increasing school fund already well within the millions, and the existence of public schools within con- venient access of every child in the county. Sixty years ago there was no ample state fund available at a low rate of interest, and no private individuals who were will- ing to advance the funds for an undertak- ing which might or might not prove a safe investment. It stands very much to the credit of the early settlers, therefore, that among the first things they did was to petition the board of commissioners to give legal status to certain districts, though the erection of school buildings would lie for many months in the future. Then, too, the interest in public schools had not yet attained the present general
ardor. Their strong advocates were woe- fully in the minority.
On the same day on which District Num- ber 2 was established (Jan. 5, 1857) an- other embracing nine sections in the north- west corner of the township of St. Cloud came into being. It was designated Dis- trict Number 4, though rather singularly District Number 3 was not established until over a year later (February 24, 1858). The brick school house near the Sauk river bridge about three miles west of St. Cloud, with its tributary area of a little over seven sections, is the remainder of this organization. The people of Clear- water were next to petition the board of commissioners for a school district, and on September 24, 1857, their petition was granted, twenty-four sections being em- braced.
Meanwhile the rich lands of the Sauk river valley had attracted settlers, who had pushed farther and farther up the stream, locating in the vicinity of the pres- ent villages of Rockville, Cold Spring and Richmond. Those who came were no un- married adventurers, but men with fam- ilies who had come to stay. The larger percentage were of the good, old German stock, who had attended excellent schools in the Fatherland, and who in consequence desired the same advantages for their chil- dren. On February 14, 1858, fourteen sec- tions in the southern and eastern part of the township of St. Joseph were set apart as a common school district. One year later it was enlarged, so as to embrace, with the original area, a total of sixty-four sections, no doubt the largest district ever estab- lished in Stearns county. It embraced the south half of the township of St. Joseph, three-fourths of the township of Rock- ville, twelve sections in the township of Wakefield, and seven in the townships of Collegeville and Farming. In shape it re- sembled a huge "L" and embraced the greater part of nine of our present dis- tricts. District Number 10, about half way between St. Cloud and Rockville (the Hengel school) is the remnant of this or- ganization.
At the same meeting of the county board, Districts Number 1 and 2 of the township of Brockway were established, the former embracing the southeast ten sections of the township, and the latter
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comprising the entire township of Le Sauk, which was then a part of Brockway.
The pioneers of Maine Prairie, who had settled about the beautiful Pearl lake, peti- tioned for a school district one month later (February 8, 1859) and the organiza- tion which resulted embraced fourteen sections south and west of this sheet of water. Fair Haven District Number 1, with fifteen sections, was established at the same meeting of the board, while an undefined district at Cold Spring, whose boundaries must have conflicted with those of two others already established to the east and west, came into being on March 14, being followed by another dis- trict centering about Richmond two weeks later. This last embraced thirty-one sec- tions. On the same day another district was set aside in the northwestern part of the township of St. Augusta (then called Berlin), the school being located at what later became known as Luxemburg (or St. Wendel) about nine miles southwest of St. Cloud.
It is pertinent to note here that, in the early days, the districts were not num- bered consecutively over the county, but a series beginning with Number 1 existed in each township. It was not until a con- siderable number had been established that a law was passed providing for con- secutive numbering, by the provisions of which the county auditor was left to use his own judgment in assigning the num- bers. The numerical designation of a dis- trict, therefore, does not indicate its place in the order of organization. The present District Number 1 (the Schroeder school between St. Joseph and Jacob's Prairie) was not the first organized. District Num- ber 48 (the McGowan school in the town- ship of St. Martin) is seventeen years "younger" than District Number 125 which joins it on the south; and District Num- ber 33 (the Friedrich school, south of Freeport) was not established until three years after District Number 102, the Free- port village school.
In several instances districts, as such, went out of existence, either by annexa- tion, consolidation or by becoming inde- pendent organizations, and the vacated numbers were then assigned to new dis- tricts, established perhaps years later. For instance, before the Clearwater dis-
trict became independent it was known as District Number 33. After the change it was no longer known by this number and the designation was applied to the dis- trict south of Freeport which was organ- ized June 19, 1877, almost twenty years after the Clearwater district. The inde- pendent district at Melrose was formerly known as Number 48, which number at the present writing (and by the same proc- ess) applies to the McGowan school in the township of St. Martin, which was established July 13, 1896.
Early School Buildings. The first school houses, like the homes of the settlers, were mostly built of logs. In nearly all cases the interior was unplastered, the wooden floors were not always to be found. Not infrequently the rain and the snow found their way through the defec- tive clapboard roof and the spaces be- tween the logs.
In the way of equipments there was little to boast of. Ordinarily there was an old box stove, and as many long benches, rudely fashioned, as were needed to accommodate the small enrollment of children. The benches were made of rough, unplaned boards or planks, eight or ten feet long. In some of the school houses, as already stated, there were no wooden floors, and in such cases the ends of the desks were secured by posts driven into the ground. By this simplification of the joiner's art rigidity was obtained, but this advantage was more than offset by the highly unsanitary condition which re- sulted. The benches provided a rude desk top with a receptacle for books under- neath, though few volumes ever burdened these gloomy shelves.
The teacher fared but little better. A desk or table of equally humble construc- tion was placed at his disposal, together with a stool or chair that had already out- lived its usefulness and much of its orig- inal shape in other quarters. There was little material at hand wherewith the teacher might perform the work. Globes, maps, charts and the like were almost un- known, while a few stained planks served as blackboards. Slates and pencils were used in place of tablets and crayon-points, while very few children boasted pen and ink. Books were few in number, and the teacher's program confined itself to read-
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ing, writing and arithmetic, with an oc- casional mention of grammar, the great hobby of those versed in the branch at that time being diagramming.
At the present writing only two of the early log school houses remain. One may be seen at St. Augusta where the erst- while school house, after undergoing a few alterations in the way of doors and windows, has been turned into a barn for the use of the parish priest. The other is being used for similar purposes on the northwest quarter of Section 25 in the township of Brockway, half a mile west of the school house in District Number 4. Another old and abandoned school house, spectral and gloomy, crumbles to ruin in a pasture two and a half miles west of Padua in the township of Raymond. How- ever, this is of a later date, though none remain who remember when the first in- struction was given in the little shanty now falling apart.
Early School Supervision. During the first three years, from 1856 to 1859, there was no school supervision of any kind. It seems that anybody willing to undertake the task was employed to teach, no cer- tificate being required. Private or "se- lect" schools were frequently met with, whose teachers were paid either by sub- scription or by a small tuition, which latter obligation was often discharged in a va- riety of ways. Many of these teachers were of fine accomplishments, and it stands everlastingly to their credit that by their work they stimulated activity to- ward the maintenance of common schools. In a number of instances the teachers were men who had taken homesteads in the vicinity, and who embraced the op- portunity thus offered to earn a few dol- lars at a time when dollars were a much needed commodity. At heart these men were farmers, and as soon as a sufficient area had been brought under cultivation they abandoned the school room and worked on their land. Fortunately the re- quirements were few, else many of the children of that time would have had no instruction whatever.
In perfect accord with the conditions, therefore, supervision of the work done was next to nothing. The statutes then in force provided, in a lax sort of a way, for something like superintendence, but
where there is little work to supervise, there is no occasion for the appointment of a supervisor. The first pretense of a move in this direction was made by the county commissioners at a meeting held January 5, 1859, when it was "Ordered that a suitable person shall be appointed by the county board of supervisors in each township, as a superintending school com- mittee." The following were honored with the appointment: A. C. McClure, banker, for the township of St. Cloud; A. H. Staples, farmer, for the township of Maine Prairie; 1. P. Peas, farmer, for the town- ship of Verdale (now Paynesville); J. P. Richardson, real estate agent, for the township of Munson.
In such lean regard, however, did Mr. McClure hold his newly-acquired honors that immediately upon learning of his ap- pointment, and while the commissioners were yet in session, he came before the board and very pointedly informed them that he would refuse to serve. After con- siderable deliberation and discussion on the part of the board-an unsuspecting victim being presumably their object-a choice was made of John A. Miller, of St. Joseph, who, it seems, was at a sufficient distance to prevent his refusal from reach- ing the board before they had adjourned!
It will be seen from these appointments that each commissioner district, as they then existed, had its own superintendent of schools, an arrangement whereby there could have been most successful super- vision, particularly when we bear in mind that at this time only ten schools were in operation. However, administration and supervision were not a part of the educa- tional plan then.
Just what was expected of this "super- intending school committee" is difficult to determine, since the records of the county commissioners are silent, alike as to their duties-and their activity! It is possible that some of them visited schools occa- sionally or examined candidates for cer- tificates, but there are no indications that, during the first year, any of them were compensated for services rendered.
Additional interest in school affairs be- came manifest at the May, 1859, meeting of the county commissioners, when a com- mittee on schools from among the mem-
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bers of the board, was appointed by the chairman. This committee consisted of William Bosworth, John Lear and the Rev. D. Lowry, perhaps the only minister who ever served as a member of the Stearns county board of commissioners. As may be surmised, it was upon motion of the Rev. Mr. Lowry that such a committee was appointed, but in spite of its forceful origin this committee was never heard of more.
School supervision took on a more definite character in 1862 when, in accord- ance with the statute, regularly paid exam- iners were appointed in the several com- missioner districts. By this time the num- ber of schools in the county had increased to twenty-two, and during the year two additional districts perfected their organi- zation by the election of officers. The duties of these men, as set forth in the law, consisted in examining the candidates for teachers' certificates-the last two Saturdays in April and October being des- ignated for this purpose-and in visiting the schools, the applicants paying for the examination and the county for the visit- ing.
As to the fees for certificates the statute legalized a charge of fifty cents; how- ever, there is good reason for believing that the charges varied with the moods of the examiners and the means of the applicants. It is stated on good authority that one applicant secured his certificate for half a dozen links of country sausage, a remuneration which, even at the present time, is a most alluring one! Still the vast preference for the good, hard coin is evi- dent in the old law, long since repealed, which, though specifying the dates for teachers' examinations, wistfully provided that no candidate should be denied an examination at any other time if he ap- peared with the required fee!
The requirements for certificates in the early days were that, in addition to evi- dence of a good moral character, the can- didate must show his fitness by passing an examination in reading, writing, arithme- tic, grammar, orthography, geography and history. However, the following item taken from the St. Cloud Democrat of January 7th, 1864, may serve as an illus- tration of the rigidity with which the re- quirements were enforced.
A Model School Examiner!
"When the delegation from this place to the Teachers' Institute at Monticello were on the route, they stopped at the house of the school examiner for one of the dis- tricts in this county, for one of their num- ber wished to secure a certificate to teach. After seeing the functionary they made application, in a spirit of fun, for certifi- cates for the entire delegation, some half dozen. He proceeded to examine the real applicant, and, taking down a Bible, asked her to read. Complying with the request the young lady read several verses, when the examiner closed the book and said 'that would do.' The others suggested that he had better ask some questions in geog- raphy, grammar and arithmetic; but he utterly refused, declaring that 'she knew more than he did,' and proceeded to make out certificates FOR THE ENTIRE PARTY, ON THE STRENGTH OF THE YOUNG LADY'S SUPERIOR KNOWL- EDGE! This is a fact, though a not very creditable one. More care should be taken in appointing examiners."
But, notwithstanding this seeming trav- esty-though it characterizes a general situation-let no one belittle the efforts of the pioneer men and women who devoted their time to the welfare of the schools, however crude and primitive their work may seem at this time. Those were the days of the "Three R's," and if a boy or girl could read and write to a fair degree and solve problems in long division, it was all that was needed; in fact it was all that could be imparted, for the parents needed the help of their children far more than the children needed the education, however sacrilegious such an utterance may sound at the present time. Ground had to be cleared so that crops could be grown, for it has become an unassailable fact that schools can only thrive and en- dure where industry has established a firm foundation. Even at the time of this writ- ing it is still within the memory of men when the finest logs, which in these days of veneer and varnish would bring almost fabulous prices, were rolled together in huge piles and burned so that the country might be the more rapidly developed.
. It is ever thus. Development must al- ways be attended by more or less waste. There are many useless chips and charred
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stumps between the axeman in the woods and the polisher in the factory. The hatch- ing of a chick demands the destruction of an egg. And so it was with the schools. What today seems to have been waste and negligence was then the direst necessity. Viewed in this light, what need was there of highly accomplished teachers, or, for that matter, of equally qualified exam- iners?
The first school examiners, appointed September 16, 1862, were as follows: Jo- seph Edelbrock, merchant, St. Cloud; An- drew J. Schroeder, farmer, St. Joseph; John Schneider, farmer, Avon; Henry Fietsam, farmer, St. Augusta; Anton Vogt. farmer, Paynesville. Mr. Edelbrock re- signed on May 12 of the following year and the vacancy was filled by the appoint- ment of H. Z. Mitchell, merchant, of St. Cloud.
These men could examine candidates and license them for their respective dis- tricts only. If a teacher was employed near Clearwater in the fall and wished to continue in the township of Avon in the spring, or any of the other districts, she was obliged to undergo another examina- tion. However it would appear that the ordeal was not a very trying one. Still, there was one extremely disagreeable fea- ture about the law: the examiner could, on the slightest provocation, call upon the candidate and demand that the latter sub- mit to a re-examination!
By the provisions of the statute these officials were obliged to visit the schools in their respective districts, for which services they received the sum of two dollars per day, provided they made a proper report of school affairs in their realm to the county anditor. During the first year of their incumbency very little visiting was done, since it was not until September 3, 1863, that a bill of four dol- lars, presented by Mr. Fietsam, was paid. On January 8, 1864, a like amount was paid to Mr. Schroeder.
On September 2, 1863 the following ap- pointments were made by the county com- missioners: H. Z. Mitchell, merchant, St. Cloud; Andrew J. Schroeder, farmer, St. Joseph; P. M. Richardson, merchant and postmaster, Richmond; Henry Fietsam, farmer, St. Augusta; Hubert Meyer, farmer, Zion. Mr. Mitchell declined to
serve, and on January 8, 1864, the commis- sioners appointed H. C. Waite in his place.
The effects of the Civil War and threat- ening Indian hostilities began to tell at this time, and until 1866 there was but little activity along educational lines be- yond what was already in operation. As already stated two districts were organ- ized (i. e., officers were elected) in 1862, and only one in 1863. This last was the present district Number 10 which, as will be remembered, was set aside by the county commissioners in 1858, being the largest district ever established in Stearns county.
On September 7, 1864, the following examiners were appointed: P. C. Ransom, real estate agent, St. Cloud (succeeding Mr. Waite) ; Thomas Schoffen, farmer, St. Joseph; Henry Broker, merchant, College- ville; Hubert Meyer, farmer, Zion; Henry Fietsam, farmer, St. Augusta.
During the year three new districts were organized, making a total of twenty-eight schools then in operation. In 1864 the school population of Stearns county (i. e., children and young people between the ages of five and twenty-one) was 2,045, but, it is needless to say that the actual enrollment fell far short of that number.
On September 2, 1865, the following were appointed to serve as examiners: L. A. Evans, clerk of court, St. Cloud; Thomas Schoffen, farmer, St. Joseph; Henry Broker, merchant, Collegeville; James Thresher, farmer, Fair Haven; J. J. Gib- son, merchant, Cold Spring.
During the year 1865, the darkest in the history of the United States, one lone dis- trict was organized. However, imme- diately upon the close of the Civil War and the subjugation of the Indians, there came a large influx of settlers, and dis- tricts were organized with great rapidity. In 1866 twelve, and in 1867 ten new dis- tricts came into being, making a total of fifty-one.
The records do not show how long the last named quintet of examiners held of- fice. Some time after they assumed their duties the legislature made provision for the appointment, by the board of county commissioners, of a county superinten- dent, and on May 8, 1867, the official duties of the last school examiners then in of-
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fice-whoever they may have been-ter- minated with the appointment of the Hon. Nathan F. Barnes as the first superinten- dent of schools for Stearns county. The salary was fixed at $400 per annum, which was increased to $600 in June following. The law provided for an appointment each year.
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