USA > Minnesota > Renville County > The history of Renville County, Minnesota, Volume II > Part 11
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Total of all public schools in the county :
Pupils : Number of pupils entitled to apportionment. 5,171 ; number of pupils not entitled to apportionment, 655: total enroll- ment, 5,826; average number of days each pupil has attended. 124.38; mumber of pupils from 5 to 8 years of age. 1.154; number of pupils from 8 to 16 years of age, 4,162; number of pupils from 16 to 21 years of age, 500; total number of pupils from 5 to 21 years of age, 5,816; number from 8 to 16 years of age attending school during the entire term, 297.3.
Teachers: Number of men teachers in the year. 27: number of women teachers in the year, 209; average monthly wages of men teachers, $98.60; average monthly wages of women teachers, $54.40: number of teachers graduates of a high school, 144; mim- ber of teachers graduates of a normal school, 57 ; number of teach- ers graduates of a college (not a business college), 37; number of teachers not graduates who have attended a high school, 54: number of teachers, not graduates, who have attended a normal sehool, 31 : number of teachers, not graduates, who have attended a college. 9. Number of teachers teaching continuously in one district for three years. 38: for two years, 58: for one year, 140.
Text-Books: Number of districts loaning text-books free, 119; number of districts selling text-books at cost, 22: average cost of text-books in distriets loaning, $1.18; average cost of text-books in districts selling, $0.68.
Libraries and Arbor Day: Number of books taken from the libraries, 20,441 ; number of districts planting trees on Arbor day, 31 ; number of trees planted. 312.
Aggregate indebtedness of all districts, $130,229.29; number of districts included, 22; average length of school in months, 7.8;
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average length of school in months voted for the coming year, 7.8; average number of voters present at annual school meeting, 12.
Receipts: Cash on hand at the beginning of the year, $51,- 417.76; received from apportionment. $30,486.50; received from special tax, $92,470.65; received from local one-mill tax, $15,- 161.94; received from special state aid, $39,465,50; received from bonds and other sources, $18,532.00; total. $247,394.35.
Disbursements : Paid for teachers' wages and board, $119,- 851.92; paid for fuel and school supplies, $17,641.80; paid for re- pairs and improving grounds, $10,506.81 ; paid for new school- houses and sites, $13,308.42 ; paid for bonds and interest, $4,952.69; paid for library books, $2,364.16; paid for text-books, $4.530.99; paid for apparatus, $2,177.06; paid for transportation of pupils, $1,194.91 ; paid for all other purposes, $17,111.49; eash on hand at end of year, $53,754.10: total, $247,394.35.
SOME MODEL SCHOOL DISTRICTS.
An effort has been made to gather the history of the various school districts of the county. Below will be found a few typical distriets.
District No. 1. The present schoolhouse is a building 20 by 30 feet with a small addition on the south for an entry and cloak room. It has six windows, three on each of two sides. The first school was held in John Kleisner's claim shanty which was near Franklin. The first teacher was Clements Tretbar. Among the first pupils were Anne Anderson (Mrs. I. Thompson) ; Julia Anderson (Mrs. E. S. Johnson), Andrew Anderson, A. J. Ander- son, Louisa Haack (Mrs. J. B. Johnson), Otto llaack, Amelia Haack (Mrs. A. J. Anderson), Mary Johnson (Mrs. Bloom). John Johnson, Peter Peterson, Jacob Peterson. The first school board were : Halleck Peterson, John Anderson and Henry Graff. The next school was held in the valley. A log schoolhouse was built later a little southwest of the present site and the old state road passed it on the north. School was held during the winter and when the log building was too cold they met at the home of Mrs. Haack.
District No. 4. The schoolhouse is located in the northwest quarter of section 10 and has a bell tower and heating plant. The school yard is fenced and contains a few trees. It also has a barn and fuel shed. The present building was erected in 1901. The first school was opened in 1868 in the west quarter of section 2 with Irena Swift, now Mrs. Marsh of Redwood Falls, as teacher. Henry Ahrens and L. E. Morse were members of the first board. Some of the early teachers were Maggie Garritty, Nathaniel Swift, Lizzie Garritty, Maggie Powers, L. D. Barnard, Win. Kelly and Kate Rourke. During the term of 1915 there were 32 children
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enrolled. It was a first-grade school this last year, having been a third grade in other years. It has a library of 155 books. The present sehool board are Chas. Ahrens, director; Wm. Zumwinkle, treasurer, and Adolph Breitkreutz, elerk.
District No. 10. The present schoolhouse is located in the southeast corner of section 10, township 112, range 33. It is a building 22 by 32 feet with a bell tower and bell and was built in the summer of 1905 to replace the one which had burned. The school district was organized March 28, 1870, the meeting being held in the house of Andrew Nelson, who was chosen moderator of the meeting. The following were elected as officers: Ilans Pederson, director ; John Zahn, elerk, and Henry Knof, treasurer. It was voted that a tax be levied for school purposes during the eoming year as follows: teacher's wages, $20.00; for building schoolhonse, $25.00. The schoolhouse was erected in the spring of 1870, made of logs, 16 by 18 feet and 8 feet high, and school was opened June 13, 1870, for a term of three months with Sara Galahara as teacher. She was to receive $16.00 per month. Other early teachers have been as follows: 1871, Sara Galahara, at $16.00 per month: 1872, Eva Griffen, at $20.00 per month: 1873. Eva Griffen, $22.00 per month; 1874, Eva Griffen, $25.00 per month ; 1875, Marito Sands : 1876-78, Clara Phelps : 1879, Edward K. Pillet ; 1880, Mary E. Abbott. In 1881 the old schoolhouse was sold and a new house built on the same place; in 1902 the sehoolhonse was rebuilt and made larger. In 1905 the school- house burned and the district suffered a loss of $1,400.00. The present schoolhouse was built in 1905. The present directors are as follows : Director, Andrew E. Larson ; treasurer, John O. Hage- stad, and clerk, J. II. Elstad, who had been clerk for the last thirty years.
District No. 19. The schoolhouse is located on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of seetion 9, and is a frame. building with a furnace and bell tower. It was ereeted in 1900. The first school was opened in this distriet in 1872 with Kate Me- Laughlin as teacher. Jim Carr was one of the first officers. The first building was on section 16 in the northwest corner of the northwest quarter. A building was erected on the present site abont 1882.
District No. 30. The schoolhouse is located on the southeast corner of section 12 and is equipped with a Waterbury furnace. The present frame building was erected in 1888 and is on the same site as the old building. The first school was opened in 1873 with Ada L. Phelps as teacher. The first school board were Thomas Horan, clerk: John Gammon and James Maxwell. The building was made of logs and built by Wm. Carson. Some of the early teachers were A. L. Phelps, A. F. Chase and Johanma A. Brice. In 1912 the district put in all the necessary requirements for a
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Class A rural school and received state aid for same. The present teacher is Myrtle M. Sell.
District No. 36. The schoolhouse is pleasantly situated on the northwest corner of section 16 in Norfolk township. The present building was ereeted in 1885 and is equipped with a heating plant. Before the present schoolhouse was built a few terms of school were held in Mr. Frank Ederer's dwelling house, Mary O'Neill being the teacher. The first board were: Frank Ederer, Mike Maloney and Jas. MeNealey. The first teacher was Kate Kirwan. Some of the early teachers were Alice Kirwan, Lizzie MeHean, Sarah Heaney and Mamie Carr. The present school board are Frank Weyer, director: Joseph Ziller, elerk, and D. G. Avery, treasurer; the latter having been clerk for the past twenty years. The present teacher is Johanna E. Moran.
District No. 39. The schoolhouse is located on section 12 on the west line near the center of the section of Cairo township and has one-half aere of land. It was erected in 1882 and the district was organized several years before this. However this building was the first one erected. School was opened March. 1882, the first teacher being Anne Clark. The first officers were :
Thane, elerk ; Charles Dieter, treasurer, and James Drake, direc- tor. The early teachers inelude the following : Mrs. Jane Hanna Maxwell, Zoella Bird, Elizabeth O'Hara. The present teacher is Winnie Nelson. The present officers are Otto Dahlgren, clerk; Alfred Diekmeyer, treasurer, and Theodore Reinke, director.
District No. 41. Hawk Creek is one of the old school districts of the county. The first meeting was held at the home of Haaken O. Agre, Oet. 7, 1871, and it was voted to have school three months commeneing May 16, 1872. The following officers were elected : Director, Ole Hendrikson : clerk, Haaken O. Agre : treasurer, Ole O. Fugleskjel.
District No. 47. Distriet No. 47 is located in section 26, south- west quarter, township 114, range 34. The first schoolhouse was eight rods west of the present building and was a small wooden building erected in the year, 1873. The first teacher was Cath- erine MeLaughlin. Other early teachers included Margaret A. MeCoffrey. The present schoolhouse was built in the year 1877. James Brown, Sr .. hauled the lumber for the present building. It is a wooden building of medium size with three windows on the east and west sides. The building faees the south. It has no bell tower but has a heating plant. The first school officers were Mac MeLaughlin, Patrick Williams and Paul Revier, Sr.
District No. 54. The school is located on section 10 in Well- ington township and is a frame building 20 by 30 feet with a lean-to on the north for the eloak rooms and entrance. The lighting of the school is from the south and east sides. A large bell tower is built up above the entrance. The grounds contain
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one aere of land, the building being near the north, and contain a few trees. The present schoolhouse was built about ten years ago and is built about fifteen rods north of the site of the old one. The first school opened in the district in 1881 with Lucy Mackenzie as teacher. The first directors were Julius Kiecker, William Schoenfelden and Carl Hillmann. Other early teachers were Paulina Greene and Agnes Trainer. The school is a one- room building facing east and is said to be the largest rural schoolhouse in the county. The present teacher is Anna Echerman.
District No. 56. The schoolhouse is on the southeast side of Wellington and was erected in 1882 by William Carson across the road from the old site. The first directors were William Borth, Charles Bleidk and William Carson. The first teachers were Ella MeKenzie, Saul Demming and J. K. Demming. The school will receive state aid for the first time this year, it now being a first- grade school.
District No. 66. The schoolhouse is located on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section 25, range 33. It has a bell tower and a very large school ground with many boxelder trees. The schoolhouse was built in the 1895. School opened in the fall of 1895 with Henrietta Lunde, now Mrs. Holt of Crooks- ton, Minn., as teacher. The first directors were: John Nestande. director ; Ole Anderson, clerk, and John Mundahl, treasurer. Some of the early teachers were Ole Mundahl, Torval Pederson, Lillian Faust and Ole Kjeldergaord.
District No. 84. The school building is located on the south- east corner of section 3, township 114, Norfolk, on the state road about five miles south of Bird Island. The school building is equipped with a heating plant and has a well on the grounds. The present building was erected about 1880 and prior to that a school was held in one room of Anthony Tiller's home. The first building stood in the middle of the section but later was moved to the present location on account of the numerous storms. Once a teacher and several of the pupils were kept prisoners in the school house for three days while a terrible blizzard was raging. Among the early teachers were Matilda Meguyre and Mary Smith.
District No. 124. The schoolhouse is located on the southeast quarter of section 28 and is a frame building. It was erected in the spring of 1895. The first director was Tollof Pederson and the first teacher was Henrietta Lunde who taught four months. Other early teachers were Blanche Ericson and Anna Volen. The present clerk is Christ Sather.
District No. 135. The schoolhouse is located on the northeast corner of the southeast quarter of section 12, Beaver Falls town- ship. The grounds slope to the south with no improvements be- yond schoolhouse and outbuildings. The building was ereeted in
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1901 when the distriet was organized and school was opened in 1901 with Kate O'Toole as teacher. The first school board were Louis Zinnie, clerk ; G. A. Robertson, treasurer, and Julius Schef- fler, director. Some of the early teachers were Kate Ryan, Annie Keaveny, Julia Reineke and Kate O'Toole. There were twenty- five pupils when school opened, now there are thirteen. Agnes Peterson is the present teacher.
CHAPTER XXXII.
SWINE INDUSTRY IN RENVILLE COUNTY.
Pioneer Breeders and Their Experiences-The Four Great Out- breaks of Cholera in Renville County-Swine Breeders' Asso- ciation Organized at Bird Island to Fill a Vital Need-Scar- city of Serum-Government Cooperation Secured-Swine Census-Government Veterinarians Arrive and Begin Work- Their Success-Results and Advice-Prepared by Ralph Loomis with the Cooperation of H. W. Leindecker and the Renville County Swine Breeders' Association.
The development of the swine industry in Renville county has been largely dependent upon two factors : markets and amount of eorn grown. Priees were uncertain in the early days. While generally low, they sometimes became quite high. The building of the Milwaukee Railway through the county in 1878 and the St. Louis Railway in 1881 helped to steady the market. Selling by weight instead of by guess beeame general after the coming of the railroads. It is not long since stockbuyers would pay one farmer a dollar a hundred more for his hogs than they would offer another farmer in an adjoining township. As communica- tion has become better by road and by telephone, this praetier is gradually eeasing.
In the early days, flint corn was raised, but the grain used for fattening hogs was more likely to be barley or oats, or even wheat. As dent eorn was adapted to Minnesota, and the acreage increased, more hogs were kept and fed for market with profit. Before the railroads were built, pork was sent to market dressed. After the coming of the railroads this practice was gradually discon- tinued as the packing industry at South St. Paul developed.
Win. H. Jewell, now a resident of the village of Bird Island, saw good fat hogs sell in Beaver Falls for fifty dollars each before he had been in Renville county three years. Mr. Jewell came to Renville eounty in 1867, residing in Birch Cooley township thirty years. He was an early sheriff of Renville county. Mr. Jewell says that few hogs were raised in the early days because of the laek of corn. Apparently, eorn was not grown successfully when
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the country was new. He testifies as to the difficulty of growing corn in Wisconsin when that state was first settled. Mr. JJewell's old home in Wisconsin was ten miles west of Appleton. On ac- count of the lack of corn and markets cattle were kept on a more extensive seale than hogs, finding a more ready sale.
Ole Anderson, a resident of Bird Island, settled one and one- half miles east of the present site of Franklin in 1866. Mr. Anderson's testimony is that more cattle than hogs were kept at first. After 1875 more corn and hogs were gradually intro- duced on his place. Ilogs were worth about two cents per pound live weight in 1878. They were worth around three cents per pound most of the time. One fall, the fall of 1886 or 1887, hogs went to six cents per pound live weight. In two weeks the price dropped back to three and one-half cents.
D. J. Hanlon homesteaded a quarter section of land in section 1. Birch Cooley township in 1868. Mr. Hanlon used to haul his wheat to New Ulin. While in New Uhn delivering wheat he got his first start in hogs, paying ten dollars for two six-weeks' old pigs. This was considered a very reasonable price at that time. Mr. Hanlon and his brother, Wm. Hanlon, hauled two loads of hogs, 16 head in all, to Redwood Falls in 1881. A buyer there paid five cents a pound for them, shipping to South St. Paul. The Hanlons were ferried across the river at North Redwood on the old Wilcox Ferry. The ferryman was having a hard time to keep the ferry open on account of iee. On the return trip they drove across the river on the ice.
Andrew Danielson, now a resident of Palmyra, settled in Birch Cooley in 1870. That year Mr. Danielson paid nine dollars for three hundred pounds of dressed pork for his own nse. Chas. Zupke came to Melville township in 1880 from Jefferson county. Wisconsin. The first year only enough hogs were kept by Mr. Zupke to produce pork for home nse. By 1890 he was raising enough hogs to have a load or two to spare each year. Mr. Zupke sold one load of seven hogs to a local buyer for fifty-two dollars. He thought they would weigh 300 pounds each. He was paid on the basis of 221 pounds. This was before the days of scale testing.
Mrs. Jos. Haggett, one of the early settlers of Melville town- ship, states that two and one-half cents was a big price for hogs in the early nineties-the time of the panie. Farmers were acens- tomed to butcher and haul their pork to town for $2.75 per hun- dred weight. Mrs. Haggett sold lard for from ten cents to a shill- ing a pound to private parties. At the J. Richardson Company store in Bird Island, lard was worth nine cents in trade. Eight or nine dollars was a common price for a fat hog in those days. In 1896 the Haggetts paid Ed Keenan of Melville Stock Farm $28.00 for a purebred Poland China sow.
FIRST SALE OF HOGS AT THE COUNTY FAIR
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THE NEW . K PUBLIC LIDAARY
ASTOR LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS
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Mr. and Mrs. E. B. Wolff settled in section 32, Melville town- ship, in 1879. They shipped some dressed pork to Minneapolis where friends disposed of it for them at four cents per pound. These people, as did many others, found it hard to dispose of pork except in the fall of the year when the butchers wanted it. They fattened their hogs on barley. Mrs. Wolff says that the hogs got many a pail of wheat when wheat was worth less than fifty cents per bushel.
Patrick O'Brien, now a well-to-do resident of Renville. settled in Flora township in the early seventies. To the O'Briens proba- bly belongs the honor of bringing the first pure-bred hogs into Renville county. In 1869, while Mr. O'Brien still lived in Dakota county, he purchased two pure-bred Chester Whites of John S. Waite, Empire township, Dakota county. These were sent to his brother, John O'Brien, in Renville county. This stock gave satis- faction in every way to the purchasers. It was not bred pure and finally disapeared. Patrick O'Brien sold pork for three cents a pound dressed, making a business of turning three-eent pork into five-dollar land. As Mr. O'Brien expresses his sentiment in regard to this good business: "I thought I was raising IIell in those days. Guess I was, too." Mr. O'Brien retired from the farm in 1904.
But the pork produeing business was not to be the simple process of feeding cheap corn to healthy hogs and loading the finished product on the cars for South St. Paul. With the in- erease in the munber of hogs kept hog cholera became one of the determining factors of profitable hog raising. There was a serious outbreak of hog cholera in Minnesota in the years 1894- 1896. During this period cholera came into Renville county, probably for the first time, and since then the infection has proba- bly always been in the county. The disease appears to come and go in eyeles. Cholera prevails in a community for two or three years. Disappears and then seems to come to life again in four or five years. In this county it seems that the disease has generally become epidemie first in the north and west townships of the county. gradually spreading to the east and finally to the south- east.
L. J. Kuske, now an officer of the Farmers' State Bank of Olivia, had cholera on his farm in Troy township in 1897. Cholera was general throughout the west end of the county that year. Mr. Kuske says that in 1897 and 1898 there was great loss in Winfield and Emmet townships, many farmers losing all their hogs. Farmers in the vicinity of Fairfax prided themselves on the care of their hogs. They were inclined to boast, upon being told of the losses north of Olivia and Renville, that their hogs being better taken care of were immme to cholera. They even dared to haul eorn from the infected areas of the county. Knowl-
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edge of the infectiousness of the disease was not general in those days. Cholera was in full swing about Fairfax in 1899. In the epidemie of 1912-1915, cholera losses were not large in 1912 ex- cept in the north and west townships; in 1913 cholera prevailed in all the townships of the county except those of the extreme south and east: in 1914 the townships about Fairfax were the hardest hit of all, while the townships about Renville were recovering.
Probably cholera infection has existed in this county continu- ously since 1894. There seems to have been four principal ont- breaks occurring in the following periods of years: 1894-1899, 1901-1903. 1907-1909 and 1912-1915.
The First Cholera Outbreak in Renville County. Probably cholera first broke out among the hogs of Renville county in 1894. Information as to this outbreak comes from Michael Holden, at that time chairman of the town board of Henryville township, and now a stockbuyer at Morton. Two farmers from Flora township went to New Ulm for a visit. Cholera prevailed in the country about New Uh. Not long after the visitors return home cholera broke out in Flora township. The first year the disease was confined to five or six farms. Mr. Holden, as chair- man of his town board, wrote to Dr. M. Il. Reynolds, then as now with the Veterinary Division of the Minnesota Agricultural Col- lege, asking for quarantine blanks. These blanks were posted on infected premises in Henryville township.
A meeting to spread the knowledge of hog cholera prevention was held in Redwood Falls abont 1895. Mr. Holden attended this meeting. It was addressed by Dr. Reynolds and by Dr. Bracken, the latter of the State Board of Health.
An incident occurred in Henryville township which shows that some men acted then as now when their premises were under quarantine. Mr. Holden had quarantined the Schultz farm on account of cholera and had warned Mr. Schultz to keep away from the premises of his neighbors. Mr. Ilolden was traveling on the road one day when a shower forced him to take shelter at the Herman Goose farm. There he found Schultz, who had come in ahead of him, also to escape the rain. His horse was already in the barn. Goose had twelve head of hogs in the barn, which he had come within five cents a head of selling to Tom Leary. Holden gave Schultz a deserved scolding for thus exposing his neighbor's hogs to cholera. Goose made no objection to the risk he was running, saying that the prevention of cholera was merely a matter of feeding. In about ten days Holden was called to quarantine the Goose farm. It was too late to aeeept Leary's offer. Goose lost all of his twelve fat hogs. Mr. Holden testi- fies as to the great difficulty of getting people to observe quaran- tine regulations at that early date.
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In many cases hogs have been sick and the diagnosis as to the disease has been very uncertain. Trouble from worms and other causes has been called cholera and trouble from cholera has often been laid to some other ailment. One instance of this is furnished by the first cholera epidemic. Emil Brentkreutz had a sickness among his hogs that was popularly called lumbago and rheuma- tism. The symptoms shown we now know to be those of cholera.
The initial outbreak of cholera did not seem to be serious the first year or two. From 1896 to 1899 it was doing its worst. Win. O'Connor of Sacred Heart says that O'Connor Bros. lost 300 hogs in those years. Most of these hogs were pure-bred Poland Chinas. What few hogs that were spared in the epidemie were shipped. The O'Connor Bros. started breeding Poland Chinas in 1892, ship- ping in their foundation stock from Illinois, where as much as seventy-dollars per head was paid for some hogs.
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