USA > Minnesota > Wabasha County > History of Wabasha County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. : gathered from matter furnished by interviews with old settlers, county, township, and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources > Part 36
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At the annual meeting in 1870 Gen. C. H. Berry, at present the senior member of the Winona county bar, was elected president of the city school board, and held that position by successive re- elections until he retired from the board in 1878. During these years the beautiful ward schoolhouses in the east and west ends of the city were constructed at an aggregate cost of $60,000, and the educational work of the city advanced at every point.
June 20, 1871, Prof. F. M. Dodge was elected city superintend- ent of schools, and his salary fixed at $1,500 per annum. December 15, 1871, Mr. M. Maverick was elected to the clerkship of the board of education, made vacant by the resignation of J. M. Sheardown, and held that office until the election of Dr. J. M. Cole, at the annual meeting in 1875. December 18, 1871, the board adopted
419
WINONA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
resolutions recommending the erection of a good three-story brick building in the first ward, and memorializing the city council to procure such legislation as would authorize the issue of $15,000 of school bonds.
The report of the clerk, made October 1, 1872, showed an increase in the number of schools, census enumeration, enrollment in schools, expenditures, etc., the figures being as follows: One high school, four grammar schools, seven secondary schools, nine primary ; 2,427 children of school age, an actual enrollment of 1,414 on the school registers. The total receipts from all sources were shown by the financial statement in August to aggregate $25,336.68. The schools were maintained during a school year of ten months, and 22 teachers employed ; average wages of teachers, gentlemen, $100 per month ; ladies, $55 per month.
The reports made in 1874 show receipts for the year ending August 31, $42,987 ; disbursements, $28,987 ; children of school age in the city, 3,098 ; children enrolled in the schools, 1,339.
The annual election in 1875 placed Dr. Cole, as before said, at the clerk's desk, a position held by him for six years, during which he rendered valuable aid to the educational work of the city. During this school year the Madison school building was completed at a cost of about $32,000, and in the annual report of the clerk, made August, 1876, the following exhibit appears :
Houses owned by the board, four (two brick and two frame); values of school sites, $25,000; values of buildings, $106,060 ; value of buildings erected during the year, $31,306 ; seating capacity of buildings, 1,478 ; receipts for the year, $60,891.28 ; disbursements for the year, $44,926.40 ; teachers' wages, $15,420 ; average wages, gentlemen, $120 per month ; average wages, ladies, $50 per month.
The Washington school building a facsimile of the Madison building, was accepted at the hands of the contractor November 17, 1876, and the schools in the eastern part of the city transferred to their new quarters January 1, 1877. The purchase of block 15, Hamilton's addition, upon which the Washington building was erected, has already been noted. This block on which the Madison school building stands is the one adjoining that on which the old Jefferson schoolhouse was built in 1863. This new block, No. 118, was purchased by the board December 21, 1869, as the site of the prospective school building for the first ward. A description of the Madison building will answer for both, as one is almost the perfect
420
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
facsimile of the other. The building is a fine three-story brick, stone basement and trimmings, with mansard roof. The extreme length from east to west is 80 feet ; from north to south, 77 feet. The main walls rise 30 feet above the water-table, and the gables 45 feet. The tower is 80 feet high, and height of the several stories as follows : Basement, containing furnaces, fuel and storage room, 83 feet to joists overhead ; first and second stories, each 13 feet ; third story, 12 feet. Each floor is divided into four recitation rooms, each 25×30 feet, provided with cloakrooms, all the modern appli- - ances for comfort and convenience, and each room seated to accom- modate from 40 to 56 pupils, according to grade. The several floors have each a main hall running the extreme length of the building from east to west, with a cross hall. The main halls are 8 feet wide, and the cross halls 6 feet 8 inches in the clear. The building fronts north on Wabasha street, upon which is the main entrance, with side entrances on Dakota and Olmsted streets. Free. exit is afforded from the halls on the main floor, in three directions, by spacious doors and stairways, and there are two staircases, each four feet in the clear, leading from the upper stories. The Madison school building is provided with four wood-furnaces, and the Wash- ington school with five. These buildings, with their twelve school- rooms each, and the high-school building with its nine school (and three recitation) rooms, make comfortable provision for thirty-three schools, thirty-two of them now running and, under the able man- agement of superintendent McNaughton, doing efficient work. These three school buildings, each occupying a full block in well- chosen locations, with their ample walks, growing shade-trees, taste- ful architectural appearance, and thoroughly furnished rooms, are a just occasion of city pride, the value of sites. buildings and improvements falling little short of $175,000.
Early in 1877 the board of education recorded its emphatic dis- approval of the attempt made in the state legislature to create a "state text-book committee," and dispatched one of their members, Dr. J. B. McGaughey, to St. Paul to express to the legislature the sentiments of the Winona board of education. The obnoxious measure became a law, but Winona schools were exempted from its provisions. The annual meeting in 1877 made no changes in the officers of the board. The reports of the clerk not only showed encouraging progress in school matters, but also a growing liberality on the part of the board in fixing teachers' wages, which were estab-
421
WINONA PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
lished as follows : Principal of high school per month, $130 ; assistant, $60; grammar school teachers, $60 ; secondary school teachers, $55 ; primary school teachers, $50. The enrollment for the year was 1,820, and the average attendance 1,260. The total receipts of the board for the year were 860,243.69, and the year closed with $15,968 in the treasury.
In the spring of 1878 Dr. J. B. MeGaughey became president of the board ; Prof. Dodge was followed by Prof. Irwin Shepard as city superintendent of schools ; the financial exhibit showed receipts in excess of $60,000, expenditures a little over $45,000. There was a hitch in the city council over the authorization of the tax levy required by law, and clerk Cole reported his ability to carry the schools through the school year with the aid of a temporary loan, which was accordingly done, no school tax being levied for that year. In 1879 Dr. T. A. Pierce was elected president of the board, Prof. Shepard was followed by Prof. W. F. Phelps as city superintendent of schools, and the enrollment for the year showed a decrease of about 150 over the enrollment of 1877. This fact was due to the opening of several parochial schools in the city.
Matters were in statu quo during 1880, but in 1881 Dr. Cole retired from the clerkship of the board, after six years' consecutive service, and was followed by W. J. Whipple, who held that office two years. Dr. Pierce continned at the head of the board, and in the fall Prof. J. W. McNaughton, the present superintendent of schools, assnmed educational control.
The annual meeting in 1882 was principally noted for the pro- tracted contest for president, in which an adjournment was had to the following evening, after 130 ballots were cast. At the adjourned meeting Dr. J. B. McGaughey was elected president of the board upon the 187th ballot.
The election held the evening of April 20, 1883, continued Dr. McGaughey in the chair, and elected Arthur Beyerstedt clerk of the board.
A summary of the schools as now existing and controlled by city superintendent McNaughton is in brief as follows :
High School Building .- One high school, of which Thomas L. Heaton, graduate of Michigan State University, class of 1880, is principal. His assistants are Mr. J. J. Helmer, Misses J. Mitchell and Frances Elmer. One grammar school ; three secondary schools, A, B, C; four primary schools. Total schools in high school build-
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
ing, 9 ; total enrollment, 564 ; number of regular teachers, 12. The curriculum of the high school is appended :
Class.
Term.
Time.
Required for all Courses.
Required for all Courses.
Third
Third
Study for Scientific
Third Study for Business Course.
D A
1
2
3
3 mo.
Geometry Geometry
English Composition Latin Zoology Latin Latin Botany
German German German
Com. Arithmetic Essentials of Eng.Gram. Civil Government
C
2
4 mo. 3 mo.
Geometry
Physiology
Cæsar
Bookkeeping Lessing |Industrial Drawing Lessing
3
3 mo.
Physical Geography Physics
Lessing
1
4 mo.
Chemistry
B
2 3 mo.
Chemistry
General History General History Geology
Virgil Schiller Virgil Schiller
3
mo.
Virgil
Schiller
-
1
4 mo. 3 mo.
Rhetoric
Geology
A |2
English Literature
13 3 mo. |English Literature
Mental Science Political Economy
Cicero Gothe Cicero Gæthe Cicero Goethe
Madison School .- One grammar department, in charge of Miss Mary Youmans ; three secondary schools ; eight primary schools. Total enrollment, 623 ; total schools, 12.
Washington School .- One grammar department, under care of Alvin Braley ; three secondary schools ; seven primary schools. Total schools, 11 ; total enrollment, 636.
The entire educational force of the city comprises, for its public schools, 1 superintendent, 35 regular and 2 special teachers, the schools under their charge having a total enrollment of 1,823 scholars. This enrollment is about the same as that of 1877, to which is to be added the 700 pupils enrolled in the parochial schools. There has, however, been a most gratifying improvement in the average daily attendance, the reports showing an increase of 300 in the average attendance of to-day over that of 1877, under the same nominal enrollment. There is no longer a school census taken, and the number of children between the ages of 5 and 21 in the city cannot be given. The estimate is made of about 4,000 ; but if the proportion of enrollment to total number of school age was main- tained now as in years past, the number would be considerably in excess of 5,000.
The work of the parochial school appears in connection with the history of the various parishes by which they are maintained.
4 mo. 3 mo.
Algebra Com.
1
|Physical Geography Physics
Cæsar Cæsar
Study for Classical.
CHAPTER XLI.
HISTORY OF WINONA CITY.
WHEN the county of Fillmore was created out of Wabasha county by special act of territorial legislature, approved March 5, 1853, the new county thus created was organized for judicial purposes and divided into electoral precincts. One of these precincts was called the Winona precinct, and included within its limits the territory embraced in the level bottom lands on the west side of the Missis- sippi river in latitude 44 degrees north, longitude 14 degrees and 30 minutes west from Washington, and known as Wabasha prairie. The life of Winona precinct as thus constituted was of short dura- tion. By special act of territorial legislature, approved February 23, 1854, Fillmore county was in turn divided and the present county of Winona formed, its boundaries fixed as now existing, and Winona designated ' as the county seat. Under the provisions of this act, a special election was held April 4, 1854, within the several precincts as then designated by the county commissioners of Fill- more county, for the purpose of choosing county and precinct officers. These commissioners were Henry C. Gere, Myron Toms and Wm. T. Luark. The precinct officers to be elected were, two justices of the peace, two constables and one road supervisor. Under the Fillmore county administration the precinct officers were appointed by the governor of the territory, and for Winona precinct were, John Burns and John M. Gere, justices of the peace ; Frank W. Curtis, constable ; and Geo. W. Clark, road supervisor. These officers held their seats until the regular territorial election, on the second Tuesday in October, when Geo. W. Gere and Wm. H. Stevens were elected justices of the peace and F. W. Curtis, con- stable. The terms of office for which these gentlemen were elected expired by operation of the special act of February 23, 1854, order- ing a special election to be held April + ensuing. The judges of election were appointed by the Fillmore county commissioners, the election held as ordered, and Winona precinct, besides casting her vote for the regular county officers, elected for herself as justices of the peace Wm. II. Stevens and Geo. H. Sanborn, and for constable,
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HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
Frank W. Curtis. No official record of this election is on file in the office in this county, as the returns were made to Fillmore county. The Winona county commissioners, elected April 4, 1854, met at Winona, the seat of government for the new county, April 28, of that same year, and the following day, April 29, 1854, redistricted the county. By this partition Winona county was divided into six electoral precincts ; one of these was named Winona and described as township No. 107 north, range 7, west of the fifth principal meridian. As will be noted by the description, the precinct of Winona, as then formed, was identical in its boundaries with the present township of Winona, including the corporate limits of the city of Winona. The official term for which these offices were filled in April expired when the regular election for the territory was held the ensuing October. The official returns of this election-the very existence of which seemed unknown until they were unearthed for us by ex-county auditor Basford from among the musty archives of the county records - give the following as the result : justices of the peace, S. K. Thompson, A. C. Jones ; constables, F. W. Curtis, A. C. Smith; road supervisor, Enoch Hamilton. It does not appear from any records in the office of register of deeds, or from any acknowledgment upon any instrument extant, or from the memory of any one familiar with those times, that A. C. Jones ever qualified as justice of the peace or exercised the functions of that office. There is abundance of parole evidence to show that G. H. Sanborn continued to exercise the authority of justice for months after the October election, and in connection with S. K. Thompson "preserved the peace " in Winona precinct.
The election of 1855 returned Henry Day and John Keyes, justices ; Harvey S. Terry and W. H. Peck, constables ; and Wm. Doolittle, road supervisor.
The officers elected in 1856 were: justices of the peace, G. R. Tucker, I. B. Andrews ; constables, Harvey S. Terry, C. C. Bart- lett ; road supervisor, Asa Hedge. This was the last precinct election in which the residents within the city limits took part. The term of office for which the above election was held expired with the charter election held Monday, April 6, 1857.
From the formation of Fillmore county, March 5, 1853, until the charter election for the newly incorporated city was held, four years and one month later, the settlers on Wabasha prairie were subject only to such general laws and regulations as had been enacted
425
WINONA CITY.
by territorial authority for the government of such communities as were uninvested with corporate rights and privileges. This day had passed by for Winona and she was now to enter upon the larger and more responsible work of creating a city government, and adminis- tering its affairs, answerable only to herself within the limits of her corporate franchises. Before entering upon this phase of the history of Winona, it is necessary that some idea should be given of the growth in population and the material progress made by the little community from the date of its planting to the eve of its incorpo-, ration, and for this purpose a brief reference to these matters will be all that is necessary.
The population of Winona county at the date of its organization is generally placed a little below 800 - a slow growth, and one not destined to be much accelerated during the year and a half that fol- lowed. The attractions of southern Minnesota, to which Winona has ever been the chief gateway, seemed generally disregarded, and the rush of settlement was farther north along the Minnesota river ; the St. Paul press growing so eloquent in its descriptions of the beauty and fertility of that valley as to attract the attention of pro- spective settlers to that region. The protracted occupation of this section of Minnesota by the Indians, their final removal not having been effected until the autumn of 1853, had much to do in prevent- ing the early settlement of southeastern Minnesota. But when the vast territory lying west of Winona was opened to settlement in the summer of 1855, and the government land office established here in November of that year, the change from the dull inactivity of the previous year was almost marvelous. The influx of population, the rapid increase in the number of business houses of all kinds, the activity manifest in every department of trade, the impetus given to all speculative movements, the number of buildings in course of erection, all testified to the fact that a new day and a better one had dawned upon the prospective metropolis of southern Minnesota. The condition of affairs at the close of the year 1856 may be summed up as follows : The population had increased from abont 800 in Decem- ber, 1855, to 3,000 in December, 1856. There had been erected during the year 290 buildings of all kinds, among them three good churches, a large four-story warehouse, a commodious hotel (the Huff House, now standing), a steam flouring-mill with five run of stones, a large three-story banking building, besides scores of others of less note, yet decidedly creditable to the young city. An idea of
426
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
the value of real property may be had from these specimen quota- tions of sales of real estate, taken from the columns of the "Winona Republican " of that date : " A lot on Second street, between Center and Lafayette, 40×100 feet, $1,600 cash ; two corner lots on Walnut street, $1,800 ; a lot, 80 × 140 feet, corner of Second and Center streets, $6,000." The manufacturing establishments were two steam saw-mills, one steam planing-mill, one steam flouring-mill, one cabinet manufactory with steam power. The river was open to navigation from April 8 to November 17, and during that time there were 1,300 arrivals and departures of boats. A tri-weekly line of steamers was maintained for greater part of the season between Winona and Du- buque, and the forwarding and commission business for that season aggregated $182,731.96. There were fourteen attorneys-at-law and nine physicians waging war against crime and death, and about 150 business houses, stores, shops, etc., distributed as follows: Dry goods, 14 ; groceries and provisions, 16 ; clothing. 7 ; hardware and tin, 6; drugs, 5 ; boots and shoes, 4 ; furniture, 4 ; books, 2 ; hat and fur store, 2; wholesale liquors, 2 ; hotels and taverns, 13 ; eating-houses and saloons, 10 ; lumber yards, 5 ; blacksmith shops, 3 ; warehouses, 4 ; brickyards, 2 ; livery stables, 2; sign painters, 3 ; watchmakers, 3 ; butchers, 2 ; wagon and carriage shop, 2 ; fanning-mill maker, 1 ; gunsmith shop, 2; bakeries, 2 ; dentists, 3; gaugenean artist, 1 ; banking-offices, 6 ; real estate and insurance, 10; printing-offices, 2; harness shop, 2; barber shop, 3. To these may be added five churches and two schools, and you have a fair summary of Winona business at the close of the year 1856. The original plat of Winona, surveyed June 19, 1852, by John Ball, for Erwin H. Johnson and Orrin Smith, was so set apart and recorded under the revised terri- torial statutes of 1851, in accordance with the town site act passed by congress May 23, 1844. This original plat was bounded on the north by the Mississippi river, on the east by Market street, on the south by Wabasha street, and on the west by Washington street. It comprised a square, each side of which was six full blocks. This plat was enlarged from time to time by " additions," until at the close of 1856 the platted area on Wabasha prairie covered a tract of ground fully two miles in extent from east to west and nearly half that distance from north to south. The principal of these additions was never recorded as such, and is generally known as Huff's survey of the city of Winona. This survey and dedication was made in 1854, and extended from the original town plat on the east to Chute's
427
WINONA CITY.
addition on the west, a total length of seven blocks and a fraction, and covering an area considerably larger than the original plat itself. This addition does not now appear on the maps as such, and for years has been included and its blocks numbered as a part of the original town plat. The more important of the subsequent additions were Laird's addition and subdivision, immediately east of the original plat. These covered an area of about 80 acres in extent, fronting north on the river and extending some half-dozen blocks to the south. Hamilton's addition, lying east of Laird's, was the largest of any of the plats, original or additional. It comprised an area of 160 acres, extending westward beyond the macadamized road leading to Sugar-loaf Bluff, and running backward eight or ten blocks from the river. Within its limits are some of the most populous sections of the city. These, with Taylor & Co's addition, and Sanborn's and Hubbard's, all on the south, and Chute's addition on the west, were platted and dedicated before the close of the year 1856. Beyond the limits of these additions but little building has been done, save in the Polish quarter just east of Hamilton's addition, and in the vicinity of the wagon-works just west of Chute's addition. The latter of these settlements, in what is known as Evans' addition, is rapidly building up, and will some day be a populous portion of the city, lying, as it does, in the immediate vicinity of the manufactur- ing establishments recently located in west Winona.
That the county seat of Winona county was destined at no distant day to become a city of no mean proportions was very early accepted as a fact by her citizens, and preparations for investing her with corporate rights and privileges were not long delayed. As early as November 11, 1856, the " Winona Republican," in a brief editorial, called attention to the matter of securing a city charter, and suggested the necessity of taking definite action, alleging that the movement would be heartily supported by all the members of the territorial legislature from the southern Minnesota districts. A meeting of the citizens was accordingly called for Saturday evening, January 3, 1857. The response to the call was quite general. The meeting was held in Central Hall, and organized with Edward Ely, better known as Elder Ely, in the chair. W. C. Dodge was elected secretary, the business of the hour stated, the measure of incorpora- tion approved. and after considerable discussion as to corporate boundaries, etc., a committee was appointed to draft a charter, and report the same at an adjourned meeting to be held on the following
428
HISTORY OF WINONA COUNTY.
Saturday evening. The members of that committee, three only of whom are now residents of Winona, were: G. W. Curtis, W. Newman, C. H. Berry, William Windom, M. Wheeler Sargent, John Keyes and Edward Ely. On Saturday evening, the 10th inst., the citizens met, pursuant to adjournment of previous week, to hear the report of their committee. Hon. C. H. Berry, on behalf of the committee, presented the report, which at their instance he had drafted, together with an abstract of charter. The only question upon which differences of opinion arose was as to the proper limits for the proposed incorporation. Some were in favor of quite extended corporation boundaries, others advocated a comparatively limited boundary. The report favored extending the boundaries of the city to include the causeways over the slough at the east and west ends of town, the following reasons being adduced : That, as the maintenance of good approaches to the city more nearly con- cerned the citizens of the corporation than those outside its limits, the control and repair of the roads over the sloughs, by which access to town was only possible, should be under the care of the city ; that the vote of the county outside the city limits being in excess of that polled within the city, it would not be wise to allow the county vote, which might or might not approve the expenditures for main- taining these canseways in good repair, to control a matter so essential to the interests of the city ; that as the city would certainly reap the most benefit, it was only just that she should incur the responsibility of the increased outlay ; that it was a question whether the county had any right to appropriate moneys for a work so nearly sectional in its character ; and that in any event the more liberal policy would be for the city to assume the burden, leaving the county authorities free to assist in bearing it if at any time they saw fit. It was also represented that by extending the corporate limits a larger proportion of property-holders whose lands would be increased in value by their nearness to a large city would be taxed to defray the city expenses. The reasons of which the above is a brief summary were approved, the report adopted, the abstract of charter commended and returned to the committee with instructions to complete the draft and submit it as a completed charter for the adoption of the citizens at a meeting to be held the following Saturday evening, January 17, 1857. This was accordingly done, and the accepted charter was forwarded to St. Paul, where it came before the
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