USA > Missouri > Livingston County > Past and present of Livingston County, Missouri : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 15
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From the storeroom of the home a liberal allowance is is- sued weekly to the kitchen and dining room details, a few of the more substantial articles for the past biennial period being 22,880 pounds of navy beans, 1,040 pounds of bacon, 3,640 pounds of butter, 72,800 pounds of butterine, 3,650 pounds of coffee, 2,000 dozen of eggs, 3,000 sacks of flour, 1,360 pounds of hominy, 3,000 pounds of lard, 1,600 pounds of dry salt pork, 850 pounds of dried beef, 1,040 pounds of cheese, 4 barrels of pickels, 1,600 pounds dried peaches, 1,800 pounds of prunes, 1,800 pounds of raisins, 2,080 pounds of rice, 1,875 gallons of syrup, 20,800 pounds of granulated sugar, 250 pounds of tea, 7,600 pounds of canned corn, 7,600 pounds of canned peas, 17,440 pounds of canned peaches, 1,300 gallons of canned tomatoes; also plums, pears, pineapples, apricots, salmon, etc., in abundance.
The home grounds consist of fifty acres; ten or a dozen of these acres are in pasture, while the remainder is utilized for truck farming on which is produced from $800 to $1,200 worth of produce annually.
Twelve or fifteen cows, the property of the home, furnish milk for the institution. The water supply of the home is
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furnished by the water company, while the home electric light plant supplies all the various buildings with electric light.
The value of the real estate, buildings and all personal property is estimated at $153,504.85.
The average length of the time served by the girls is two years and eight months, but those who stay longest grow stronger morally and are usually better qualified to fight the battles of life through the medium of additional schooling and industrial training. In the past two years fifty-nine girls have been paroled. Twenty-eight of this number have made good, while the remainder having violated their parole have been returned to the home. About fifty per cent of the girls marry within one year after leaving the institution.
The nativity of the girls now in the institution at the last biennial report is Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Arkansas, Indiana, Colorado to- gether with twenty per cent whose nativity is unknown. The parentage of the girls is American, German-American, French-American, German, German-French, German-Irish, German-English, Irish, Irish-French, Swiss, French, French- English, Indian, Indian-American and twenty-five per cent unknown. Girls are committed to the home by the respective courts of the state when delinquent, neglected, incorrigible, and for vagrancy, petit larceny, lewdness, disturbing the peace, immorality and stealing.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY PRESS
THE AVALON AURORA. Like many other country papers the Aurora had several "ups and downs" in its somewhat brief years of existence, the publisher playing a chance game for a subsistence out of the proceeds of the paper. W. H. Ran- dolph, a gentleman of the old school and a native of Pennsyl- vania, suspended the publication a few years ago and now makes his home with his children in Chillicothe, Kansas City and Little Rock, Arkansas.
THE MOORESVILLE MENTION did not "mention" many years. During the paper's brief existence the late Doctor Chaffee was editor and publisher. The paper was printed on
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a power press that the Doctor built himself, who was consid- erable of a genius along the lines of inventions. After the Mention suspended the Doctor moved to Breckinridge, where he died several years ago.
THE WHEELING NEWS was another newspaper venture that appeared semi-occasionally under the management of Charles Chaney, Mallory & Moran and Smiley & Smiley. Each of these publishers had faith and hope in the success of their respective ventures. The business, however, of the village and country surrounding was not large enough to de- fray expenses and being too proud to solicit charity, the publi- cation was suspended indefinitely.
THE LUDLOW METEOR appeared in the western horizon some years ago, but the good people of Monroe township did not contribute liberally enough for the publisher to produce much of a "meteoric shower," so the Meteor went down in the golden west and in its place appeared a more healthy and more luminous planet which was christened the Herald. This publication has promise of a longevity due wholly to the excellent hustling qualities of the present publisher, and the people of Ludlow and Monroe townships are supporting it liberally.
THE DAWN CLIPPER was another newspaper experiment. For a time it appeared to live on "Easy Street," but shortly after the building of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway one mile and one-half north of this lively burg, and the building up of Ludlow a few miles west, the hustlers of the town lost courage and the "jaws" of the scissors refused longer to clip for the Clipper.
THE CHULA NEWS. This publication was a "hummer" under the tutorship of the inimitable Ed Smith, whose pen scintillates with a dry but visible humor. His write-up of the fastest and finest train on the Milwaukee road, known as the Southwest Limited, which passed through the village of Chula for the first time at the speed of almost a mile a minute, would produce a seven by eleven grin on the face of a chronic dyspeptic. One of the funny things that he said was that the three colored porters, one on the front platform of each of
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the three Pullman coaches, looked to him like "one big fat nigger." Later Ed sold the News to a Mr. Robinson, who conducted the paper a short time and he was succeeded by Dr. J. Ogan. The paper is now in a fair way to survive.
THE UTICA HERALD, a weekly publication, was originally established in 1873, some of the citizens of the town furnish- ing the capital with which to purchase the printing material. For one year Charles Hoyt was the lessee and editor when it passed into the hands of H. W. Sawyer. The following year Sawyer was succeeded by Frank Green, who was succeeded by a Mr. Risley and Risley by E. D. Green, the latter pub- lisher "throwing up the sponge" after getting out one edition. The material was purchased by D. W. Webster in January, 1877. The following year his son, H. C. Webster, became one of the owners and the paper was regularly published there- after. Later Ed Smith became the publisher, but after a time the publication of the paper ceased, the latter gentle- man establishing the Chula News. October, 1911, Jerry Bos- ley revived the Herald and it is now one of the sprightliest country papers in North Missouri.
THE GRAND RIVER CHRONICLE, first started and published in 1843 by James H. Darlington, was the first paper ever issued in Chillicothe. The subscription price was $2.00 per year in advance. It was a hard fight for the publisher to make both ends meet, as his subscription list was small and advertisers few. To obtain enough money to purchase white paper Mr. Darlington kept a few "pills" and "powders" for sale in his office. Even with this "side issue" he was obliged to suspend publication temporarily several times. The paper was independent in politics.
Darlington remained owner of the Chronicle until 1853, in which year he died in Brunswick, Missouri, of cholera, on his way home by boat from St. Louis. The paper then became the property of his son, the late Ed S. Darlington. Some time later Ed disposed of the property to Easton & White and it was they who changed the name from the Grand River Chronicle to the Chillicothe Chronicle. Colonel Easton had been a soldier in the Mexican war, while his part-
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ner, Mr. White, had formerly published the Trenton Pio- neer, a paper established by the late Elder D. T. Wright. White was a ferocious state rights pro-slavery advocate and when the presidential campaign of 1860 came on the paper was for Breckenridge and Lane. Referring to Lincoln, Doug- las, or Bell and Everett, the paper did not "munch" matters. Easton and White both stood for the South; White joined the regular Confederate army and probably perished in the conflict. Colonel Easton attached himself to a small force that was operating in the south part of Livingston county, and after one engagement he thought better of the matter and came home and resumed the publication of the paper, but eliminated the features that made it objectionable to the Union men. He was a splendid old fellow and had hosts of friends, but he was outspoken in his faith for the Southern cause. He published the Chronicle during the progress of the war with the assistance of his wife and boys. At the close of the Civil war the democratic leaders felt they needed a different man at the head of the party paper. The Constitution, a paper previously established and owned by Howard S. Harbaugh, was a thorn in the flesh of the democrats during the war, but he had the nerve to later undertake the publication of a re- publican paper in the town of Lexington, Missouri. When he learned of the victory of the republican ticket he could hardly contain himself. His joy, however, was of short duration, for the rebels and rebel sympathizers entered his office and tak- ing his press and type dumped it into the Missouri river. His treatment in Lexington drove him back to Chillicothe, where he soon after became the publisher of the Constitution, ac- cepting the overtures of the progressive democrats, together with $2,500 tendered him and he began to "swing around the circle" in the Andy Johnson "biplane."
The wholesale desertion of his friends almost broke Colo- nel Easton's heart and in a brief period the Chronicle was suspended and the plant sold to the republicans on money bor- rowed from the school fund and in its place was established the Spectator, managed by Glassop, Worthington & Co., and
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edited by the late Col. Joel F. Asper, who subsequently be- came a member of Congress from this district.
In 1867 the Spectator became the property of E. J. Marsh, D. B. Dorsey, B. F. Beazell and John DeSha, who changed the name of the paper to Tribune, under which title it is now published by the Tribune Printing and Publishing Company, with John P. Sailor, president and Hal. D. McHolland, secretary and business manager. The Tribune under the pres- ent management is one of the most prosperous daily and weekly papers in North Missouri.
The first daily paper issued in Chillicothe was under the management of the late Col. Jesse Hitt, the title being The Standard Dollar Daily Democrat. Soon after the appear- ance of this publication R. W. Reynolds, the proprietor of the Constitution, launched the Daily News. Then fol- lowed a host of publications, including The Daily Star, Morning Times, The Weekly Crisis and World, and per- haps others, but none of these survived the adverse storms. At the present time the publication of a newspaper in Chilli- cothe has settled down to a business proposition.
After R. W. Reynolds' ownership of the Constitution plant for twenty years, it passed through many hands, including Bouton & Detweiler, Frank Leonard, James G. Wynne, Sherm Smith, Jones & Leeper, Mike Gilchrist, Newland & Watkins, the last named gentleman purchasing his partner's interest and editing the paper until his death on July 6, 1912, at which time it came into possession of his brother, James E. Watkins, the present editor and proprietor.
EDUCATIONAL
The rural schools of Livingston county have had no small part in building its prosperity. Their origin dates back to the pioneers. As soon as a settlement was made, the great question of interest was the organization of a school. The first district organized in every township, usually, unless shut off by streams, had its boundaries coextensive with the town- ship. It was called district No. 1. As population increased,
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other districts were formed out of this district. They were Nos. 2 and 3 successively, as organized in the township. This was the legal description of all districts, until a recent act of the Legislature which required the county court to renumber all the districts in each county, commencing at I in the north- east corner of the county and across the county alternately, the numbers to increase until all districts in the county were num- bered. This act of the Legislature destroyed much local his- tory. District No. I in each township had a peculiar promi- nence, it being the oldest district, was generally the best lo- cated and most widely known. Besides the historic memories that usually clustered about district No. I, many of the dis- tricts were known far and wide by other names. The name of the pioneer most active in the organization of the district was generally the name by which the school district was most widely known. The McCormick district in Rich Hill town- ship, named from Adam F. McCormick, father of Geo. and J. W. McCormick of Chillicothe, who with J. D. Beal, J. W. Allbrittain and Jacob Palmer organized that district and located the schoolhouse on the southeast corner of A. F. Mc- Cormick's farm. The Pond school was called after David W. Pond who was active in its organization and donated the school site. The Cor. Campbell, in Fairview township, the Leaton school in Grand River township, the Burner, in Blue Mound, the Reisley in Monroe, the Musson, in Greene, the Hudgins, in Mooresville, the Brookshier, in Sampsel, the Blackburn, in Jackson and the Manning, in Medicine, are a few instances, where tradition has for a time sought to immor- talize the efforts of the modest pioneer, who in his honest zeal, sought in that early day to advance the cause of education and linked his name for all time to the humble fane his efforts founded. There were other names prominent in local lore of the schools. Southeast of Chillicothe, where abode such sturdy pioneers as Moses McBride, Thomas Allcott, Lafayette Car- lyle and Julian Gilbert, when their little white schoolhouse was completed at the edge of the Wide Bottoms, stretching far to the southeast, it was christened "Jack Snipe," and "Jack Snipe" it is today. North of Wheeling where lived Martin A.
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Spooner, father of our city treasurer, C. A. Spooner, and Larry Kinsella, and John Lawler, when they built, they erected a fairly respectable schoolhouse and as it surpassed all others, it was called the New York school, after the first city of the nation. There was the White Cloud, the Prairie Valley, Green Grove and Oak Grove-names derived from physical or geographical surroundings.
Other names could be mentioned. The most startlingly unique is the "Hog Skin School House," located in a deep hollow hard by Col. Scott J. Miller's famed Poland China hog farm in Jackson township. None of the Colonel's breed had anything to do with the naming of the district. It was historic before the Colonel's day. The name has been a matter of warm debate between Uncle Joe Kirk and Uncle Davy Girdner, the two most accurate antiquarians of Jackson town- ship. According to Kirk, the first teacher employed in the school had the custom of larruping rebellious and unruly pu- pils with a hog skin whip. The contiguous propinquity of the assaulting epidermis of the hog upon the epidermis of the un- ruly student, made a deep impression upon his mind, so the school became known as "Hog Skin."
Uncle Davy Girdner's version is different. He tells us that in an early day a distinguished pioneer had four daughters, who married men and trouble for the old gentleman, except the youngest daughter. She married a man docile and civil- ized, who had the faculty of working the old man for many favors. The other sons-in-law became jealous. Every Thanksgiving day the old man presented this favored son-in- law with a fat hog, corn fed and ripe for the slaughter. To the other daughters, they of the bad, bold "hubbies" came never a porker. This favored daughter lived in the hollow where the schoolhouse now stands. The other sons-in-law conspired to put a crimp in the fresh pork monopoly of their brother in the hollow. On Thanksgiving morning, when this favored brother, his hired man, and doting papa-in-law went out to the pen to do, in proper and legal form, execution upon the shoat, they found nothing in the pen but its skin, all that was edible having disappeared. No tracks on the ground
CENTRAL SCHOOL. CHILLICOTHE
CHILLICOTHE NORMAL SCHOOL
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were seen ; there were no finger prints or tooth picks dropped to furnish a clue to the W. J. Burnes Detective Agency of that day. The hog had moulted and left his skin. The next Thanksgiving day the mystery was repeated. A searching legal investigation was made. A grand jury exhausted its inquisitorial powers. The mystery remained unsolved. The hog disappeared and left its skin in the pen. The deep valley became known as "Hog Skin Hollow." When the district was organized they built the schoolhouse in the hollow. It became known as the "Hog Skin School" and "Hog Skin" it is to this day.
When first organized the revenues provided for the main- tenance of the county schools were meager. The salaries paid teachers were distressingly small. But the teacher got his board and lodging free. He went from house to house alter- nately one day at a time, each family in the district taking its turn. Proud was the boy, when it was his turn to take the teacher home. The late Col. Ed Darlington used to tell in a dramatic way his week's experience as a teacher at this time. On the first day the board of directors gave him the list of families in the district, indicated to him their places and told him in a sort of "Ring Around the Rosie Manner" to take the circuit, staying one night at each place. The first night he was assigned lodging with only four healthy boys as bed fellows. That was good enough. Though somewhat crowded, good nature and healthy sleep waived the inconven- ience. But the next night the population of his bed in addi- tion to himself was five boys, the next six, the next seven, the next eight, a uniform arithmetical progression of healthy boys to sleep with. The Colonel was staggered. He resigned by the absconding method. Fearful of the strong Roosevelt senti- ment that prevailed over that district, he did not dare put his reasons in writing. A search was made for him. He was well liked in the district. When found he was a nervous wreck in the office of the Grand River Chronicle. Colonel Ed al- ways waived with scorn the recital of deeds of bravery on land and sea, and declared them not a circumstance to the stern Vol. I-12
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courage and heroic bravery required of a country school teacher in Livingston county in pioneer days.
The organization of the country schools in the beginning was extremely democratic. Each district was a government to itself. The directors examined the teacher as to his qualifi- cations before employing him. The examination in books never went beyond the three R's and was often superficial as to them, but it was thorough as to government and discipline. The teacher with the largest and severest bill of pains and penalties was usually employed.
The act of the General Assembly approved February 24, 1853, provided for a uniform system of public schools throughout the state and set aside funds for their perpetual maintenance. This act became a law November 1, 1853. The plan of organizing school districts, selecting school boards and employing teachers, as provided by this act, with only slight modifications, is the law today. This act created the office of county school commissioner in each county, whose duty it was to license teachers. His fees were to be $1.00 for every teacher's certificate granted, and $2.00 per day for not to exceed 100 days in any one year to be paid him for visiting the schools in the county. He was appointed by the county court and was to hold office for two years. Under this law David R. Martin was appointed by the county court as school commissioner for Livingston county on November 5, 1853. This law remained in force till amended in 1865, when the Legislature abolished the office of county school commissioner and created the office of school superintendent. The first superintendent was appointed by the county court who held office till the next general election, when he was elected for a term of two years. The county court was required to fix his compensation at so much per diem. This led to widespread complaint, as in many of the counties the superintendent would visit a school when he was engaged in other business, and charge up his per diem and traveling expenses to the county. On that account the Legislature passed the act of March 26, 1874, which abolished the office of county school superintendent and created the office of county school commis-
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sioner. That act provided that the present county school su- perintendents should hold office until the annual school meet- ing on the first Tuesday in April, 1875, when a school com- missioner for each county should be elected for a term of two years.
The following persons have held the office of school com- missioner and superintendent in Livingston county :
D. R. Martin, commissioner from November 5, 1853 to November 5, 1856.
Isaac W. Gibson, commissioner from November 5, 1856 to February 7, 1857.
Amos Bargdoll, commissioner from February 7, 1857 to February 7, 1858.
G. S. Edmonds, commissioner from February 7, 1858 to October 3, 1859.
Amos Bargdoll, commissioner from October 3, 1859 to January 1, 1865.
Wm. Hildreth, commissioner from January 1, 1865 to January 1, 1866.
J. D. Roberts, commissioner from January 1, 1867 to January 1, 1871.
T. C. Hayden, commissioner from January 1, 1871 to April 10, 1875.
A. D. Fulkerson, commissioner from April 10, 1875 to April 10, 1877
Henry O. Neal, commissioner from April 10, 1877 to April 10, 1879.
C. R. J. McInturff, commissioner from April 10, 1879 to April 10, 1883.
W. A. Henderson, commissioner from April 10, 1883 to April 10, 1885.
R. R. Dixon, commissioner from April 10, 1885 to April 10, 1887.
M. P. Gilchrist, commissioner from April 10, 1887 to April 10, 1889.
L. A. Martin, commissioner from April 10, 1889 to April 10, 1891.
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John H. Lowe, commissioner from April 10, 1891 to April 10, 1893.
Annie Stewart, commissioner from April 10, 1893 to April 10, 1895.
Frank H. Sparling, commissioner from April 10, 1895 to April 10, 1899.
J. W. McCormick, commissioner from April 10, 1899 to April 10, 1905.
J. J. Jordan, commissioner from April 10, 1905 to April IO, 1909.
J. W. McCormick, commissioner from April 10, 1909 to April 10, 1915.
From the above list it will be seen that only one woman has been at the head of the schools of the county, Miss Annie Stewart, now Mrs. Ira Williams, who enjoys the distinction also of being the only woman in Livingston county that ever held an elective office.
Before the war and for a decade after the "School marm," or lady school teacher, was a rare person. In the common parlance of the early school director, "She was not as fitten a person to teach schule as a man." Whether this was true or not, men teachers were in a larger majority in those days than they are in a minority today.
Teaching school in the county by most men was regarded as a stepping stone to something better, at least that rule was true of most of the men teachers in this county at an early day. It is remarkable the number of our successful business and professional men who began life by teaching school. They have invariably made good. Their lives exemplify the ster- ling worth and the value of the training for life as a teacher.
Though the school districts of the county, prior to the war, were sparsely populated and the schoolhouse built of logs, yet in these humble places of learning many of our most success- ful men obtained an education. The school teacher of the early days shared the splendid character and sturdy virtues that marked the pioneer. This was the heroic age of construc- tive government, education and politics. In the work in-
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trusted to him the pioneer school teacher heroically performed his part. It is unfortunate that no records are available to give their names, for to their work clings an immortality fade- less as the gold of evening in an autumn sunset. It is only from the memory of a few of our oldest citizens that the his- torian has learned the names of a few of the county teachers before the war; and below the following list is noted :
Nathaniel Matson, a brother of Roderick Matson, the founder of Utica and father of J. H. H. Matson of Chilli- cothe. He taught the first term of school and bestowed his name upon the Matson school district, about two and one- half miles northwest of Mooresville. In 1866 he was elected judge of the county court for the western district, being the only democrat elected in the county that year.
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