USA > Missouri > Pettis County > The History of Pettis County, Missouri, including an authentic history of Sedalia, other towns and townships, together with biographical sketches > Part 35
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The Church of Christ in Pettis county was first started in Georgetown about 1836, which was then the county seat. The first meetings were held in the court house, where an organization was soon effected. Several very successful meetings were held there by Dr. W. H. Hopson, and also by Allen Wright and others. Besides these preachers, Moses Faris, John Dejarnett, Geo. W. Langan, Jacob Creath, and Elder Donan, were among the more prominent preachers who labored to start the church in the county.
At an early day Elder J. W. McGarvey held a debate at Georgetown with a prominent Universalist, which well nigh destroyed that doctrine in
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the county. The next congregation organized after the one at George- town was Old Union, on Heath's creek, which soon became a strong and influential church. The house in which it worshipped still stands, but is dilapidated and deserted of its worshippers, who still " have a name to live but are dead;" internal dissension having destroyed their peace and prosperity.
The next congregation organized in the county was about six miles west of where Sedalia now stands, in Hampton P. Gray's neighborhood. It, too, has ceased to exist, but many of its members have united with the congregations which have since been organized. Prominent among the families which were connected with the church in the county in the early days of its establishment, were those of Gen. G. R. Smith, Mentor Tomson, Geo. Heard, A. McVey, Mrs. Clifton Wood, Abner Clopton, Amos Fris- toe, John S. Jones, Chas. A. Jones, Ben. R. Majors and Mrs. J. W. Gentry. The church now has congregations in the county at the follow- ing points: Sedalia, Smithton, Hughesville, Houstonia, Dresden, Lamonte, Greenridge; also, one near the last, called Eldorado, and the remnant of one called Old Union, on Heath's creek, and also another weak remnant called Liberty, south of Sedalia about six miles. These congregations have an aggregate membership of seven hundred and fifty. They own seven and a half houses of worship; most of them meet every Lord's day for Sunday school and worship. The following preachers are now labor- ing in the county: J. H. Duncan, at Sedalia; Geo. Plattenburg, at Dres- den and Houstonia; W. P. Dorsey, at Smithton; S. K. Hallam, at Green- ridge, and Elder Mathews, at Eldorado. R. W. Gentry, who resides near Sedalia, is also a prominent preacher of this church.
The churches of the county are engaged in co-operative missionary work in the county, under the direction of a county board, of which J. H. Duncan, is chairman, and J. N. Dalby is secretary, and W. W. Herold is treasurer. The church at Green Ridge has been established through the co-operation of the other churches in the county, and the next annual meeting will be held there in August.
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is indigenous to this soil. Her ministers were among the first to cross the Father of Waters and cause the wilderness and the solitary place to be glad for them, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose.
One of the three men, Rev. Finis Ewing, who organized the Cumber- land Presbyterian Church in Dickson county, Tennessee, February 4, 1810, moved to Missouri in a very early day and settled in an adjoining county. Subsequently to this he operated very largely in Pettis county. 8
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That our readers may clearly understand what this church is we give some of her leading theological positions and some points wherein she differs from other Presbyterians.
Her theology is commonly known as medium theology-is so called because it occupies a medium ground between Calvinism and Armenian- ism, as the following brief summary will show:
1. Election-Calvinism teaches that election is unconditional. Armen- ianism that there is no election. Medium theology that election is condi- tional.
2. Salvation-Calvinism teaches that salvation is unconditional to sin- ners, but certain to Christians. Armenianism that it is conditional to sin- ners, but uncertain to Christians. Medium theology that it is conditional to sinners, but certain to Christians.
3. Date of Election-Calvinism teaches that election was before man was created. Armenianism that it is not prior to death, if then. Medium theology at the moment of regeneration.
4. Extent of the Atonement. Calvinism teaches that the atonement is for the elect only. Armenianism that it is for all, but certain to none. Medium theology that it is for all and certain to the regenerated.
5. Perseverance of the Saints-Calvinism teaches that it depends principally upon the immutability of the decree of unconditional election. Armenianism that it depends principally upon good works. Medium theology that it depends upon the love of God, the merits of Christ, the abiding of the Spirit and the covenant of grace. These are some of the leading differences between the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and other Presbyterians. The data is not at hand from which to compile a full and complete history in the earliest settling of the county.
Many of the emigrants to this county were from Kentucky and Ten- nessee, and when they came to their new homes they left behind them strong petitions for preachers of their own faith. These petitions were not unheeded, but in due time a number of God-fearing men came to this new empire to plant the standard of the Cross under the auspices of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Rev. Green P. Rice came to St. Louis in 1817 and preached in the then small French village. His course was westward. Revs. R. D. Morrow and Robert Sloan were also among the first ministers who oper- ated in Pettis county.
In 1827 and 1828 Rev. J. T. A. Henderson, now residing in Sedalia, preached at the house of Reuben Gentry, the father of the older members of that family.
The present Cumberland Presbyterian churches of Pettis county are the following: The First Church of the City of Sedalia, of which Rev. A. H. Stephens is pastor; Prairie Chapel, four miles north of Dresden,
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Rev. G. W. Mathis, pastor; Greenridge, Rev. Caleb Weedin, pastor; Stony Point, near Smithton; Heath's Creek, Rev. James Martin, pastor.
This church has been aggressive from the first, and is well qualified to occupy a territory made up of a cosmopolitan element like this.
She stands a unit on the subject of politics, and has always been so. At no time during the war did political prejudice wound her ecclesiastical body. Her churches are found from Pennsylvania to Texas and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Her medium ground on the subject of theology places her in a favorable position to command the approbation of the unprejudiced mind.
Her corner stone lies in the doctrine of the Bible that Christ died for all men, and that the regenerated will finally be saved.
The zeal that characterized the fathers has been transmitted to the sons, and thus the work continues.
She was among the first to join hands with her sister denominations and go into the highways and hedges and the lanes and streets and com- pel them to come in. Among the first to come into this new country and " mash down the weeds and pull up the stumps." One of the immediate works that the church has under way now is raising an endowment of $100,000 for a college to be situated somewhere in Central Missouri. Sedalia seems the natural location for such an institution of learning, and should she arouse to a proper appreciation of her opportunities her pros- pects for securing the location are most flattering in every way.
CHAPTER IX .- EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.
Introduction-Early Schools in Pettis County-Methods of Different Ages-Interest in Schools-The State School Fund-First Teachers-Georgetown Schools-School Commissioners-Law of 1865-1875-Reform Period 1875-1882 -- Superintendency --- Teachers' Institutes -- Normal School-History of Institutes and Proceedings -- County School Officers from 1868-1882-The Future Outlook of Pettis County.
Bacon said, "Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtile; natural philosophy, deep; morals, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend." Education in its most comprehensive sense, includes the devel- opment of the physical, mental and moral faculties of the individual. Hosea Ballou has said, "Education commences at the mother's knee, and every word spoken within the hearsay of little children, tends towards the formation of character."
The people of Pettis county should feel proud of their progress in edu- cation. The pride they have taken in the cause of common schools, from the time they were taught in log cabins, in 1833, to the present day of handsome school buildings and other educational advantages, has been on
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the increase. The progress of education here is only a minature produc- tion of what has actually taken place among civilized nations. Of recent years new modes of mental culture have placed within the reach of the teacher, new and better materials which have aided him in securing bet- ter results.
The primary object of educating children is not that they may escape labor thereby, but that they may labor more intelligently. Children should be taught that employment leads to happiness; indolence to misery; and that all trades and professions, whereby an honest livelihood is maintained, are honorable. Right living is the end to be achieved, and it is the workers that do the most good in the world. The man who con- stantly and intelligently thinks is above temptation. The women who honorably labor in the different trades are to be preferred and honored above those who sit with folded hands. It is education that makes duty more apparent, lessens toil, and sweetens life. It is by true education that the moral responsibilities of the human family are better understood. The more education the better the Christian.
Methods are now pursued in the school room. The child's capacity is better understood now than in pioneer days. The rod is laid aside. Children no longer are forced under the lash or gag to order or erudition. Fretful and cruel teachers will soon give place for those who love chil- dren, and again will mankind draw nearer to God through the influence of the law of love. In this age due attention is paid to hygiene of the school room. Houses are better ventilated than formerly. Since the introduction of the "automatic" school desks there need be no more disa- greeable seating in our school houses. The inventor of this new desk will have a reward in the numbers of healthy men and women, who in' this generation, as children, are comfortably seated in many of our best schools.
New and better studies have been added to the course of study in our common schools within the last decade. Now the child is taught to apply what he learns, directing his course of study in the line of his men- tal activity, cultivating the good, and restraining the evil propensities. The time was, not far back, when only a limited knowledge of reading, writing and arithmetic were taught in the common schools. The highest aim of the youth of the common schools in the pioneer days of Pettis county, was to write a fair hand, spell orally, and solve mathematical puz- zles. This age is moving in a better educational sphere. The change came gradually. It was a long struggle of ignorance against education, in which the latter is crowned the victor. But few teachers cling to the old theory. Little by little they are growing away from the old system. A few teachers, those who do not improve, are yet votaries at the shrine of their idols.
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"Too weak the sacred shrine to guard,"
they must soon yield to the new education and enter the conflict against error and for a better intellectual life.
In this struggle for better methods, opinions covered with honors have been marched off the stage of human action and supplanted by facts and principles, which have cost years of toil to discover, and more years to establish. To the close student and observer this theory is only new in its application of our schools. It is the normal or natural method. This is the theory of education that antedates all others. The ancients taught by objects, when but few of the most wealthy men of that day could afford books. In fact, text-book theory is a new thing to the world. The first teachers of the world taught orally; they were independent of text-books. To this excellent method has been added the written method. Then it was principally by the observation of objects that pupils received instruc- tion. By placing the object before the pupils the teacher could easily reach their mind by his lectures. In this age blackboards, spelling tablets, slates, charts, and other school apparatus is in general use in our best schools. In schools of to-day, it is from the printed page through the eye a mental picture is formed, which children draw upon paper or boards from the ends of their fingers. Well qualified teachers do not think of tak- ing a text-book to their recitations-imitating the ancient normal methods. In order to meet the demand for better qualified teachers, normal training schools have been established in this and other states. The teachers' institute is also an outgrowth of the demand for better qualified teachers. Now true education is found to be the drawing and developing of that which the child already possesses, instead of the old crowding theory of pioneer days. The educated teacher of this age has complete living in view as the end to be attained in this life and a happy eternity in the unseen world.
In a county there is probably no question which so directly interests the people as that of teachers-of teachers of known and tried ability. In the early settlement of Pettis county almost anyone could teach. That time, with all of its rude school appliances, has rolled away. The claims of to-day can no longer be met by appliances of even a decade ago, for experience is beginning to show that teaching, like every other depart- ment of human thought and activity, must change with the onward move- ments of society, or fall in the rear of civilization and become an obstacle to improvement. The educational problem of to-day is to obtain useful knowledge -- to secure the practical part of education before the orna- mental, and that in the shortest time. An intellectual life of the highest culture is what is called for in a free country like ours. An intelligent man is better qualified for any of the duties of life than an uneducated person. This is an admitted fact. In truth, a free nation's safety is
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wrapped in the intelligence of its people. Only an educated people can long sustain a free republic; therefore it is the duty of the state to educate, that her free institutions may stand through all ages as sacred and endeared institutions of the people.
As education made strides westward, the wild man, the savage ruffian, their common weapons, the scalping knife of the Indian, and the bowie- knife and pistols of the ruffians, gave way to the peaceful influence of cul- ture and refinement.
Education sweetens and hedges in the family circle, and drives away frivolity and gossip from a community, protecting the members from the inroads of vice and immorality. It is the strong bulwark of education that binds this nation of upwards of 50,000,000 of people together for advancement that she may shine, in the near future, the brightest star in the constellation of governments. Rapid strides have been made in educa- tion within the last half century. However, the field of improvement is yet boundless, and the work of education must still go on and make perhaps greater changes than those from the time when,-
"The sacred seer with scientific truth, In Grecian temples taught the attentive youth, With ceaseless change, how restless atoms pass From life to life, a transmigrating mass,"
to that of to-day, when men's thoughts are directed to the investigation of what they see around them.
Missouri is one of the leading states of the American Union in the cause of popular education. No state has taken deeper interest in the educa- tion of her youth than the State of Missouri. The constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875, all make this subject one of the first importance, and guard the public school funds with zealous care, while the constitution of no state contains more liberal provisions for popular education than the con- stitution of Missouri, adopted in 1875. Not a sentiment inimical to schools can be found in any of her statute books for more than threescore years of her existence. No political party has been in the ascendency in all her history which has arrayed itself against free schools, and her governors, from 1824 to the present time (1882), have been earnest advocates of a broad and liberal school system. In 1839 she established a general school law, and in 1853 she dedicated one-fourth of her revenue annually to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely as the people of any state, and much more liberally than the people of a majority of the states. The State of Missouri levies a tax of five cents on the $100.00, and permits a local tax of forty cents without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the country districts and $1.00 in cities and towns by a majority vote of the tax payers voting. Missouri has more school houses to her population than Massachusetts. The amount she
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expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate on the assessed valuation of that expended by the latter state on her valuation; while the public school funds of Missouri exceed those of Massachusetts $5,405,127.09. It must be remembered that Massachusetts is classed as one of the leading states in all reforms, being the only one of the original thirteen that did not tolerate negro slavery.
The following, as taken from the 31st annual report of the state super- intendent of public schools of Missouri, shows the amount of the perma- nent productive public school funds of the state:
State school funds, $3,031,887.74; township school funds, $1,950,732.89; county school funds, $3,968,185.08; total amount school funds, $8,950,- 805.71, being ahead of any state in the Union. State fund to be increased by "net proceeds of all sales of lands and other property and effects that may accrue to the state by escheat from unclaimed dividends and distri- butive shares of the estates of deceased persons," etc .; township funds, by sales of school lands, county funds, by net proceeds of sales of estrays; clear proceeds of penalties and forfeitures and fines collected for breaches of penal and military laws; also moneys paid for exemption from military duty. "State fund," in the above, includes university fund, except value of agricultural college lands; unsold school lands not estimated.
Pettis county has taken a deep interest in education. The very first teachers of this county were men of ability. George Heard, Esq., taught the first school in the county, and Mr. Milton Thompson was the next teacher. The first schools were taught in log cabins and such other rude structures as those times could afford. The poet has said:
"God sends his teachers unto every age, To every clime and every race of men, With revelations fitted to their growth, And shape of mind, nor gives the realm of truth, Into the selfish rule of one sole race."
The cause of education is coeval with the county's settlement, and con- tinuous with its growth and development. The duty to educate was a germ planted in the hearts of the pioneer settlers, and was so nurtured and fostered, that it grew from its embryonic state, at first orphan-like, with- out any house of its own, to what we see around us in the form of more than one hundred and twenty buildings where children receive learning. The early education of Pettis county was very limited indeed. At first a few private schools were started in the settlements by subscription, which grew, as the demand for schools increased to what we see around us to-day in magnificent costly public school buildings with well paid and skilled teachers. The pioneer teacher lived upon a meager salary and taught his school in a log cabin, without windows, except the chink
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holes. In such rude school houses many of the parents and grand-par- ents of the present generation took their first lessons of school life.
In the year 1833, (January 26th) the governor was authorized by the senate and house of representatives to appoint three suitable persons to form a system of common school instruction, as nearly uniform as pos- sible, throughout the state, and to report at the next meeting of the leg- islature. The reader is reminded that this is the date of the organization of Pettis county. She certainly came in under a happy star. Only a few other sections of Missouri had at this time breathed the spirit of public schools. It is true that St. Louis had organized a board of trustees according to an act of the territorial legislature, which was approved January 30, 1816, but was not incorporated by law under the title of "St. Louis Public Schools," till February 13, 1833.
As will be noticed elsewhere, the office of school trustees and school commissioners was filled by appointments from the county court. Some of the first school officers of Pettis county took deep interest in the wel- fare of the public schools.
At a session of the county court, November 7, 1853, A. A. Glasscock, Esq., was appointed commissioner of common schools and required to give a bond of $1,500, with good security, for the faithful performance of the duties of his office. Mr. Samuel. A. Lowe was commissioner of the school lands at an early day in the history of common schools of Pettis county.
The first school districts contained a whole congressional township, and it was common for boys and girls to walk three or more miles through the woods or wild grasses, in the pioneer days of this county. Washing- ton district (November 6, 1838), was the first organized school district of the county. W. I. Westerfield, Oswald Kidd and Willis P. Ellis were the trustees. The following year (1839) Christian district was organized, and Thomas Brooks, Jesse Pemberton, and Geo. W. Glass were the trustees. These school districts are more elaborately noticed under the head of organization.
In 1841 an academy was established, under the statute, at Georgetown, which was quite successful. In 1847 Campbell College was incorporated in the same town, and this was followed by establishing, in 1860, George- town Female School by Anthony Haynes, now of Boonville. Good schools were maintained here for several years.
Prof. A. N. Neal established the Georgetown Academy for both sexes in 1865, and continued at its head till 1870, when he was elected county superintendent. This was one of the best private schools in Pettis county. About 150 students were in attendance. Many of our prominent young citizens and business men were students under Prof. Neal.
October 3, 1865, Thos. E. Bassett, clerk of the county court, was ap-
HISTORY OF PETTIS COUNTY.
PRESIDENT'S DWELLING. UNIVERSITY HALL.
OBSERVATORY. SCIENCE HALL.
STATE UNIVERSITY, AT COLUMBIA, BOONE COUNTY, MISSOURI.
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pointed county school commissioner, and was continued in office till, under the new constitution, a county superintendent was elected.
From 1865 to 1875 may be counted a decade of unprecedented prosperi- ty for popular education and public schools in Pettis county. At the close of this decade began an era of retrenchment, cutting down salaries and discontinuing the office of not a few officials of that period. With reform in view men are liable to go on extremes. With all the good the new school law of 1865 had done for the people, there were instances in which it was administered by knaves and men whose hearts were guilty of em- bezzlement of the school moneys from the children of the county. The strikers for reform at the session of the General Assembly of Missouri, in 1874, destroyed the office of county superintendent of public schools, sub- stituting a nominal office, filled very often by incompetent men, styled county school commissioners. This was not aimed as a blow against the schools; however, much injury has been the result of this experience of so- called reform.
Strictly speaking of the efficient work of the county superintendency during the years 1866-1874, which was what the times demanded to arouse a deeper interest in the cause of education, it had its enemies as well as its friends. The schools in the country and a few towns, have not done so well in porportion as under a superintendent. School boards and teachers are embarrassed and lukewarm without some one to lead. In fact the great army of teachers and schools officers of any county should have a captain, whose business it is to look after the drill of those under him. It is now well recognized that a system of public schools needs some responsible head to direct its course. This is found in the highest school officer-the county superintendent of public schools- a name dear to every lover of education. The very nature of his task and the duties of his office imply that he is a man of large experience in the school room. It is an office indispensable to the successful operations of the free school system. Experience has taught that the people of the west should select school officers for their fitness, regardless of political ties or church relations. Here prejudice has often run high, even to the over-shadowing of an office-seeker's qualities. To insure efficiency in the office, men of sterling worth, tried in school room methods and able to direct, should be elected, the choice being unanimous, and made with a view to the highest good of the patrons of the schools, and future welfare of the children. Indeed, the candidate should be a scholar, a christian of the hightest type, who loves the free schools and the children's interests as he loves himself.
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