USA > Missouri > Buchanan County > The history of Buchanan County, Missouri > Part 52
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SEC. 9. Whenever any vacancy shall occur among the members of the Board from any cause whatever, the same shall be filled by an elec- tion in the proper ward ; or in case the office of President shall become vacant, such vacancy shall be filled by an election in the district at large, and such election or elections shall be held at such time and place or places, and shall be conducted in such manner as the Board may direct : Provided, That all elections for President or Directors shall be by ballot, and no person shall be eligible to the office of Director unless he shall be at the time of his election a bona fide resident of the ward which he may
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be elected to represent ; and in case any Director shall remove from the ward in which he was elected, during his term of office, his office shall be declared vacant by the Board, and an election ordered as soon there- after as may be to fill such vacancy.
SEC. 10. The Board of President and Directors shall appoint Inspectors and Clerks of all elections held under the provisions of this act, subsequent to the election provided for in section three of this act ; and the votes cast at such election shall be properly canvassed and returned to the Board in such form and manner as the Board shall direct. The Trustees of said district in office at the time when this act takes effect shall prescribe the manner of canvassing the votes and making returns thereof, at the election held under the provisions of section three of this act, and shall give notice in writing to the persons chosen at said election.
SEC. II. The Board shall have power to appoint one of its members to act as President pro tempore in case of the absence of the President elect, or in case the office of President shall become vacant.
SEC. 12. The Board of President and Directors shall appoint a Sec- retary, Treasurer and Superintendent, and such other agents as to them shall seem necessary to accomplish the objects of the corporation and prescribe their powers, duties, obligations and compensation. They shall cause a faithful record to be kept of all the acts and proceedings of the Board, and shall lay the same before the General Assembly, or either house thereof, whenever required, and shall lay the same before a general meeting of the inhabitants of the district, whenever one hundred qualified electors of said district shall, by written application to the Board, require the same to be done, and for that purpose the Board shall have power to call a general meeting of the inhabitants of the district. And the said Board of President and Directors shall, at least once in every year, cause to be printed and published a true statement of the condition of the public schools under their charge, and a true and fair account of all the money concerns of the corporation.
SEC. 13. It shall be the duty of the Board, as soon as conveniently may be, to take possession, charge and control of all lands, lots and other property which has been or may be received by or granted to the inhab- itants of said city or district, for the purposes of public education, and to that end the title to all such lands, lots and other property, so far as this General Assembly can control the same, is hereby vested in the corpor- ation created by this act, and the District Trustees in office at the time this act takes effect shall, upon being informed by notice in writing, signed by the President and Secretary of the Board, forthwith deliver to said Board all books, papers and records in their hands belonging to said district, and pay over to the order of said Board all the money in their hands belonging to the district, and deliver the possession of all other property in their charge and belonging to said district to said Board.
SEC. 14. The Board shall cause an estimate of the amount of money necessary to be raised for the purpose of building and repairing school houses and furnishing the same, together with the amount necessary to meet the other expenses of the corporation, to be made out and certified under the seal of the Board annually ; and a copy of such estimate, duly authenticated, shall be filed with the Clerk of the County Court of Buchanan County, on or before the first Monday in August of each year ;
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and the County Court shall cause the amount so certified to be levied upon all the taxable property, real and personal, in said district ; and the amount so levied shall be collected in the manner prescribed by law for the collection of state and county taxes : Provided, That the tax mentioned in this section shall not exceed one-fifth of one per centum in any one year.
SEC. 15. The Collector of Buchanan County shall have authority, and it is hereby made his duty, to collect the tax mentioned in the next preceding section of this act, in the same manner, and under the same rules, regulations and restrictions, penalties, liabilities and responsibili- ties, and with the same powers, as shall be provided by law for the col- lection of the state and county revenue in said county.
SEC. 16. The Collector of said county shall at least once in every month, and oftener if required in writing by the Treasurer of the Board, pay over to said Board all moneys collected and received by him to which said Board may be lawfully entitled. And the said Collector, for his services under this act, shall be entitled to the same compensation as shall be allowed by law for similar services in relation to the collection of the state and county taxes in said county.
SEC. 17. The Collector of Buchanan County shall, within ninety days after his election or appointment, and before entering upon his duties under this act, enter into a bond, payable to said corporation, in such sum as the Board may require, with good and sufficient sureties, to be approved by said Board, conditioned that he will faithfully and punc- tually collect, account for, and pay over to said corporation all money received and collected by him under the provisions of this act ; and in case the said Collector shall not within ninety days after his election or appointment as aforesaid enter into a bond as provided in this section, his office of Collector of said County of Buchanan shall be deemed vacant, and such vacancy shall be filled in the same manner as if he had resigned, and he shall not be eligible or re-appointed to said office for one year thereafter.
SEC. 18. The Collector of Buchanan County shall perform such other duties under this act, not herein specified, as he shall be required by law to perform in relation to the collection of the state and county taxes in said county.
SEC. 19. The same assessment within the district which shall be made upon property from time to time for state and county purposes shall be deemed and used as the lawful and proper assessment in levying and collecting the taxes authorized by this act ; and the payment of the taxes authorized by this act shall be enforced in the same manner and under the same rules and regulations as shall be provided by law for the enforcement of the payment of the state and county taxes in said county.
SEC. 20. The Clerk of the County Court of Buchanan County shall perform the same duties under this act he shall be required by law to perform in relation to the state, county and other taxes in said county ; and for his services under this act he shall be allowed and paid by the Board such compensation as the Board of President and Directors shall deem reasonable, just and proper.
SEC. 21. The President and other members of the Board, and the Secretary, Treasurer and Superintendent shall, before entering upon the
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duties of their respective offices, take and subscribe an oath before some Judge or Justice of the Peace, well and faithfully to perform the same.
SEC. 22. The corporation hereby established shall be vested with the powers, charged with the duties, and entitled to the privileges and immunities of a corporation organized under the provisions of "an act relating to school corporations in towns and villages," approved Decem- ber 12, 1855, so far as the same are consistent with the provisions of this act.
SEC. 23. All regulations, ordinances, resolutions and other corpor- ate acts of the corporation hereby established may be proven in all courts and places, either by a sworn copy thereof or by a copy certified by the President and Secretary and authenticated by the seal of the corpora- tion. And the General Assembly reserves to itself the power to change, alter or repeal this act whenever it shall appear to have failed in accom- plishing the objects for which it is passed ; but no law hereafter passed shall be construed as changing, altering or repealing the whole or part of this act, unless this act be expressly mentioned in such law.
SEC. 24. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage, and the Secretary of State shall cause one hundred copies of the same to be printed as soon as may be and forwarded to the trustees of the school district incorporated by this act, for the use of said corpora- tion. And all acts or parts of acts contravening the provisions of this act are hereby made inoperative so far as regards said corporation.
Approved January 4, 1860.
This charter has been twice amended by the Legislature, at the request of the Board of Public Schools ; once in 1866, and once in 1872. It is interesting to note how some of these amendments indicate the progress of Missouri in free thought and free government, from 1860 to 1866. The war proved a greater educator than the schools had been.
The first section was amended by striking out the words, " all free white persons residing within the limits of School District No. I," and inserting in lieu thereof, "the residents of School District No. 1." The second section was in like manner amended by striking out the words, " free white males," and inserting the words, "resident tax payers."
Section 4 was amended so as to read as follows :
All persons who are residents of the district, and who are qualified electors for state or county officers for the time being, shall be entitled to vote in their respective wards at any election for President and Directors.
Section 7 was amended to read as follows :
The directors shall be elected for the term of two years, and until their successors are elected and qualified, and one-half of the number shall go out of office at the expiration of every school year, which shall be on the 31st day of July.
The present Directors shall be considered the lawful Directors until the termination of their office, as herein provided, and until their suc- cessors are elected and qualified, and one of said Directors from each ward, to be decided by lot, shall go out of office on the 31st day of July,
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1866, and the other at the expiration of the next school year, so that hereafter one director shall be elected from each ward every year, and whenever the establishment of new wards shall require the election of new directors, they shall be classed accordingly.
Section nine was amended to read as follows :
Whenever, by removal from the district or otherwise, a vacancy shall occur in the office of either President or Directors, it shall be filled by appointment of the Board.
Section fourteen was amended to read as follows :
The Board shall cause an estimate of the amount of money neces- sary to be raised for the purpose of building and repairing school houses, and furnishing the same, paying the salaries of teachers and officers, together with the amount necessary to meet the other expenses of the corporation, to be made out and certified under the seal of the Board, annually, and a copy of such estimate, duly authenticated, shall be filed with the clerk of the County Court of Buchanan County, on or before the first Monday in August of each year; and the County Court shall cause the amount so certified to be levied upon all the taxable property, real and personal, in said district, including merchants' state- ments, doing business within said district; and the amount so levied shall be collected in the manner prescribed by law for the collection of state and county taxes : Provided, That the tax mentioned in this sec- tion shall not exceed seven mills on the dollar in any one year.
Section twenty-two was amended by adding to it the following clause :
The County Superintendent of Buchanan County shall not, by vir- tue of his office as such, have any power or control over that part of the county now under the jurisdiction of the St. Joseph Board of Public Schools.
The words "by virtue of his office as such" were inserted because the County Superintendent of Buchanan County, in office at the time, was Superintendent also of the St. Joseph Public Schools.
The above are the only features in which the charter has been amended. In all other respects it remains the same as when first granted, except that the Constitution of Missouri, adopted since the charter was amended, restricts the annual rate of taxation for general purposes to four mills instead of seven.
By referring to section three of the charter, it will be seen that the President of the Board was to be elected by the district at large, which comprises the city of St. Joseph and certain contiguous territory outside of the city limits on the north, east and south, while the members were to be elected by the voters of each ward. It was an excellent provision of the charter that the President should be thus elected by the district rather than by the Directors, as it makes him independent of the Board, and gives him a freedom of action that he might not otherwise have.
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HISTORY OF ST. JOSEPH.
In accordance with the provisions of this same section of the char- ter, an election was held on the first Monday in February, 1860, for a President of the Board of Public Schools, and two Directors from each of the wards of the city of St. Joseph. At that time the city was divided into three wards, instead of five as at present.
Dr. J. H. Crane, then an eminent physician of St. Joseph, now a res- ident of California, was elected President. He has, therefore, the honor of being the first President of the St. Joseph Board of Public Schools. The following gentlemen were elected Directors : From the First Ward-com- prising, at that time, the southern portion of the city-Louis Hax, John Shehan ; from the Second Ward, James A. Millan, John J. Abell; from the Third Ward-comprising then the northern portion of the city- Wm. M. Albin, Erasmus F. Dixon. Of the above gentlemen compris- ing the first "Board of President and Directors of St. Joseph Public Schools" the following still reside in St. Joseph : Louis Hax, John J. Abell, James A. Millan, and William M. Albin.
The first meeting of the Board was held in the office of Dr. Crane, the President, on the 7th day of February, 1860, when the oath of office was administered to the newly elected members by Willis M. Sherwood, Esq., a Justice of the Peace. It does not appear from the records that Mr. Abell ever attended any of the meetings of the Board. At that meeting, the Board completed its organization by electing James A. Millan, Secretary, and Joseph C. Hull, Treasurer. It is presumable that one of the first acts of the Board was to submit to the County Court an estimate for the levy of a tax for the erection of school houses, as three small school houses were built in 1860, one in each ward of the city. But there is nothing to show that such an estimate was made or any tax levied, nothing to show that the houses were ordered to be built, or that any bids or proposals for their erection were ever invited or received. The school house, in what was then the First ward, was built on the southeast corner of Third and Charles Streets. Mr. Joseph Robidoux, the founder of St. Joseph, in laying off and platting the city, set apart and dedicated three lots on that corner for a city school, and the First ward school house was built on that ground. In 1865, these lots had become valuable for business purposes, and were very unsuitable for a school. In that year Mr. John P. Fink offered the Board twelve thousand dollars for the three lots, but as Mr. Robidoux had dedicated the ground to the city for a school, it was not clear that the Board had a right to sell, and after some negotiations, Mr. Robidoux, in considera- tion of the sum of three hundred dollars paid him, made a warrantee deed to the Board. The Board then sold the property to Mr. Fink, who built an extension to the house and used it for his shoe factory.
The school house, in what was then the Second ward, was built on the east side of Twelfth Street, between Francis and Jule. There is
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nothing on the records or among the archives of the Board to show how this ground became the property of the public schools. The house built in 1860 is still standing, and in use, and is known as the Franklin School.
The school house in what was then the Third, but now the First ward, was built on Second Street, near Cherry, on a part of the ground which had been dedicated by Joseph Davis, in 1846, to the town of St. Joseph, for a public cemetery. In 1867, the City' of St. Joseph, through its Mayor, deeded the ground to the Board of Public Schools. The build- ing, named for many years the Madison School, is still occupied, and is known as the First Colored School.
The three houses were built on the same plan. They were built of brick, were 34 by 25 feet in size, and two stories high. They were small, uninviting in appearance, and unprovided with cloak rooms and other conveniences. They had two school rooms, one on each floor, with a narrow stairway in front. Each house could seat from 100 to 120 pupils. They were furnished with common pine double desks, made by a mechanic of the city.
The schools were duly opened for the reception of pupils on the 23d of April, 1860, with the following corps of teachers :
In the First Ward School-William H. Marmion, principal; Miss- Webster, assistant.
In the Second Ward School-Sidney P. Cunningham, principal; Miss Annie Banes, now Mrs. John Townsend, assistant.
In the Third Ward School-J. W. H. Griffin, principal ; Miss Lizzie Brand, now Mrs. Carder, assistant. It is interesting to note, as showing the liberal ideas prevailing in St. Joseph at that time in regard to popu- lar education, the salaries paid the first teachers in the public schools, which were for the male principals, fifty dollars per month, and for the female assistants, twenty-five dollars per month. It was a fortunate thing for the ladies that they lived at home, and had no board bills to pay.
As already mentioned, the schools were opened on the 23d day of April, 1860, and in the winter of 1861 it was found that there were in each of the ward schools quite a number of pupils who had mastered more or less thoroughly the branches of study prescribed for these schools, and who were prepared to take up more advanced studies. It was accordingly proposed to open a school of a higher order for their accommodation. Mr. Edward B. Neely had been conducting a classical school in St. Joseph for six years, and had recently erected a school building on Tenth Street, between Felix and Francis, for his own school, The Board made a proposition to Mr. Neely to take charge of the new school proposed to be established for the pupils too advanced for the ward schools, and to receive them in his building. Mr. Neely decided
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to accept the proposition, and opened the school on the first Monday of March, 1861, with about forty young ladies and gentlemen, who brought certificates from the principals of the ward schools that they had suc- cessfully completed the course of study prescribed for those schools.
This was the initial step towards the establishment of a public high school in the City of St. Joseph.
About the same time, Hon. George H. Hall was elected by the Board Superintendent of Public Schools, a position which he held for only the brief period of four months.
In consequence of the disturbed state of society, resulting from the impending civil war, the Board, at a meeting held May 21, 1861, by resolution summarily closed all the grammar and primary schools, but continued the advanced school, taught by Mr. Neely, till the close of the term, in June, when it, too, ceased to be a public school.
From this time till 1864, there were no public schools in the City of St. Joseph, although the Board held occasional meetings and maintained a partial organization, by ordering elections now and then to fill vacan- cies as they occurred in the directorship. The school houses were some- times rented for private schools, and sometimes occupied by the mili- tary. Here on the border, amidst the clangor of arms and the fury of civil combat, there was but little time or opportunity for the fostering or development of a system of public instruction.
There are no records showing the enrollment and attendance of pupils in the schools from the time of their opening in April, 1860, till their suspension in May, 1861. But the writer, from observation, would infer that there was an attendance of about three hundred in the ward schools, and fifty in the advanced school.
In 1864, the Board of Public Schools was constituted as follows : President Louis Hax ; members, David Pinger, William M. Wyeth, R. F. Maxwell, John Colhoun, J. P. Adolph, Bernard Patton. At a meeting held August 12th, 1864, the President and all the members being pres- ent, it was resolved to re-open the public schools of the city.
Mr. E. B. Neely, who had resumed his private school, was elected at that meeting by a unanimous vote, Superintendent of Public Schools, a position to which he has since been elected every successive year, entering in August, 1881, upon his eighteenth year of service. Mr. Neely, has also, during that whole period, discharged the duties of Sec- retary of the Board.
At that meeting a committee was appointed to confer with the Superintendent and arrange a plan for the reorganization of the schools. At a meeting of the Board, held August 13th, 1864, the Committee sub- mitted a plan in substance as follows :
The schools to be opened at as early a day as possible, and for the present to comprise three general grades-primary, intermediate and high.
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One male principal and one female assistant to be employed in each of the three ward schools ; the principals to receive a salary of $80 per month, and the assistants $50.
The Superintendent to be authorized to employ, as speedily as pos- sible, as competent teachers as could be procured for the salaries offered. The Board to establish at once a High School for the city, with the Superintendent of Schools as principal, and one male assistant, at a sal- ary of $80 per month.
The school year to consist of ten months, of four weeks each, to be divided into three terms, the first term to comprise sixteen weeks, and the second and third twelve weeks each; the salaries of the teachers to be paid at the expiration of each term.
The matriculation fee of each pupil in the primary and intermediate grades to be fifty cents per month, and in the High School one dollar per month, payable each term in advance.
Any one of good character and suitable age, residing outside the limits of the district, to be admitted as a pupil in any of the schools by paying in advance such tuition fee as is usually charged in private schools, provided this can be done without excluding residents of the district.
The plan thus outlined met the approval of the Board, and was adopted by a unanimous vote.
It will be noticed that the schools were not to be entirely free, a small tuition fee being charged each pupil. This fee had also been charged when the schools were first organized in 1860. The rate of tax- ation allowed by the charter was so small that the schools could not have been run on full time without the aid of that small tuition fee. It was abolished by the Board on the 3d day of February, 1872, since which time the schools have been entirely free.
The schools were opened to the public, under their new organization, on the 3d day of October, 1864, with the following corps of teachers :
High School-Superintendent, principal, with Nelson Wilbur, a graduate of Dartmouth College, assistant.
First Ward School-Nathan Somerville, principal ; Miss Jennie Parsons, assistant.
Third Ward School-B. R. Vineyard, principal ; Miss Alice Bruner, assistant. Miss Bruner was married at the close of the first term, and Mrs. Annie R. Townsend was appointed in her place.
Fourth Ward School-H. C. Mclaughlin, principal ; Miss India Cowden, now Mrs. Evan W. Ray, assistant.
The schools were immediately crowded to their utmost capacity. and many who applied were unable to gain admission for want of room. The reports of the principals at the close of the first term of sixteen weeks, showed that 478 pupils had been enrolled during the term.
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