USA > Missouri > Johnson County > The history of Johnson County, Missouri : including a reliable history of the townships, cities, and towns, together with a map of the county; a condensed history of Missouri; the state constitution; an abstract of the most important laws etc > Part 34
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Prior to the war, the eclectic series of school books were generally adopted, viz .: McGuffey's readers, McGuffey's spellers, Ray's arithmetic, Pinneo's grammars, and Quackinbos' history, and Smith's geography and atlas. The last named two books did not belong to the "eclectic series." But few schools had a uniformity of series.
The school buildings of the county are neat frame structures, outside the towns. There are four town boards of education in the county, viz .: Kingsville, Holden, Knob Noster, and Warrensburg. Each of these towns have good substantial brick school houses, except Kingsville. War- rensburg contains three ward schools, besides the state normal school.
The Warrensburg female seminary was opened here by Rev. Wm. G. Bell, in the fall of 1865, but failed.
But few of the pioneer teachers of the county are now living. We only have a partial list: W. L. Hornbuckle, J. M. Shepherd, J. N. Fur- guson, J. M. Ward, Jesse Trapp, A. J. Trapp, Jas. Borthick, Mrs. A. Welch, Mrs. D. McCormack, J. P. Harman, Z. T. Davis, J. B, Morrow, . W. W. Sparks, Rob't. D. Morrow, Wm. M. Kincaid.
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The education of the colored children has not been neglected. Ten schools are kept open on an average of seven months in the year. The colored children are making some progress where the parents keep them in school. Most of their school buildings are poor. The law requires where there are fifteen colored children of school age, that a suitable building be erected at the public expense. The colored schools now gen- erally have teachers of their own color, and are generally men and women of educational ability.
After the organization of the school in 1866, a deeper interest was felt on the subject of education.
List of county superintendents since 1866:
1866-Wm. P. Baker. 1868-T. Quick, resigned after election. 1868 -M. Henry Smith, appointed. 1870-G. H. Sack. 1872-W. T. De Witt. At this time school interest had weakened.
List of county school commissioners:
1875-J. W. McGiven. 1877 .- A. Vanausdol. 1879-J. W. McGiven. 1881-W. L. Berry.
The condensed report of the schools of the county for 1880 is as follows: number school houses, 128; white schools, 128; colored schools, 7; cost per day for tuition of each pupil, 7cents; value of school property, $105,936; rate per $100 tax levy, 46 cents, amount on hands at the begin- ning of the school year (April 1), $25,448.93; received from the public funds, $18,759.45; received from taxation, $33,069.20. Three institutes of one day each held. Presidents of the institute for the year, A. J. Sparks; secretary, J. F. Starr; average number of teachers attending each session of institute, 20.
There are at present about 300 persons who teach, many of whom follow some other calling. But few are deeply interested in their work. Higher education is taught in the Normal and Holden college. The War- rensburg normal was established by an act of the general assembly, in April, 1871. The normal closed the year 1871, with 87 students, and 1881 with 390. Geo. P. Beard was the first principal; James Johannot next, and at present Geo. L. Osborn. This school has been gradually growing in popular favor, and will become a fixed institution.
The duties of the clerk of each district are to keep a correct record of the meetings, to contract with teachers, file teachers' certificates, compel teachers to make a complete report of their term of school, giving the time, wages, number of scholars, ages, attendance, and such other statis- tics as the board may require. The commissioner is elected in the spring, at the same time as the directors of the odd years. The certificates are issued by the county commissioner of schools. They are of two classes. The second class embraces, orthography, reading, penmanship, arithmetic:
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
English grammar, modern geography, U. S. history and civil government, and is good for only one year. A certificate of the first class includes all the above and the elements of the natural sciences and physiology, and ยท may be issued for a term of two years.
The county school commisioner does but little under the present law but examine teachers and make an annual report of the schools to the state superintendent. He holds his office two years and receives $1.50 for each applicant for a certificate, and, in this county, about $40 for making and sending statistical report to state superintendent.
Prospects of education in the future, in Johnson county, were never better. This county already ranks high in the intelligence of her citizens. The state normal school of Warrensburg enhances the value of property of the county, and affords ample opportunity to educate every needed teacher in the county. The public schools of Warrensburg and Holden are good. Then follows Montserrat, Centerview, Knob Noster and Kings- ville schools, all of which have a bright prospect for future prosperity. Good school houses are dotted over the county. The lack of school libraries and apparatus retards the schools some, but, nevertheless, the people are making rapid progress in the schools. The average length of the county schools is about seven months. The best schools of the county have adopted the plan of only one term, and that to begin early in the fall. Teachers are getting better, and, at no distant day, this county will rank with the foremost in educational facilities.
Passing from these general considerations to the purely historical phase of this chapter, it may be remarked, that the progress in educational mat- ters and interest has been commensurate with the material growth of the county in other respects. The attention of the reader is now invited to a summary of this growth.
It must not be supposed that while the pioneers, who settled these prai- ries and valleys, were busy redeeming the wilderness and surrounding themselves with domestic comforts, they forgot to plant the seeds of those institutions among which they were reared, in the older states. As soon as a sufficient number of children could be gathered together, the school house made its appearance, rude, at first, like the primitive houses of the settlers, but adapted to the circumstances of the people in those times. Pioneer school houses were usually log structures, warmed in winter by fire places similar to those in pioneer dwelling houses. Slanting shelves were used for desks, and in front of these were benches made of slabs.
The early methods of teaching were then quite different from the pres- ent. The early settlers, as had heen their fathers before them, were reared with full faith in the maxim, "spare the rod and spoil the child." The first teachers were usually anxious that the pupil should not spoil on
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their hands, and many old men retain a vivid remembrance of what school discipline was in their boyhood.
It must be admitted, however, that, notwithstanding the miserable text books then in use, and the many awkward ways of teaching, the schools of that day furnish some excellent scholars. The self-reliance of that day and the determination to get along in the world, had much to do in mak- ing independent thinkers. "Luck is pluck," and by unrelenting toil, these pioneer pupils became worthy citizens.
CHAPTER XII .- WARRENSBURG NORMAL SCHOOL.
Its Past and Present-The Normal School in America-History of the Inception of the Idea in Missouri-Originators of the Movement-The Act of Incorporation-Strug- gle for the Location-Warrensburg Triumphant-Early Difficulties Attending Its Growth -- The Organization-Opening of the School-Laying of the Corner Stone of the New Building-Description-Removal of School-Administration of James Johannot-Causes of Removal-Public Sentiment-Administration of George L. Osborne- The Fight Against Matter-Present Condition-Regents-Graduates- Discipline -- Course of Study-The Outlook Theoretically and Practically.
The history of the growth of an educational institution within the bor- ders of any community is the history of the progress of its civilization. Its status is the status of the peace and dignity of the citizens of that community. As it rises, law and order are uplifted. The fullness of its life marks the depletion of work-house and jail. From the number and kind of schools in a land we may write its record of crime. Ignorance is an ill angel, the brooding shadow of whose wing threatens a government by the people. It writes the Red Letter of our social degradation, and makes the soul, whence should flow the good and beautiful and true, as dry as summer dust. "Education is the temple of liberty and the shrine of law and order." In the nation and in the individual the highest intel- lectuality precedes the highest morality. Given, then, a large school and who can measure its influence? The scholar is a teacher of men, if not professionally, then by his influence. The seeds of learning and cul- ture are scattered wide and sown deep. New systems arise, and so the power broadens to the beyond. But it is upon the immediate community that the effect is most marked. The clash of minds within its walls echoes in the hearts of those around it. Its shadows fall athwart the blinding sunshine of wasted existences beaten out against the bars of misfortune, and tempers the hearts of men. Speech is elevated, thought is induced, ideals are created-an Athens springs up under its walls, and so Johnson county does tribute to her Normal school, located at Warrensburg.
We enjoy to-day, the labors of countless minds in the fields of thought, and the discoveries of all previous ages. The product of a thousand
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years' experience in the modes of intellectual progression is ours. Litera- ture and science and art have broadened until one life can contain but the fundamental, eternal principles of each.
The history of education passes before us in panoramic view, some of the noblest lives the world has ever known. Through them education became a science. Gradually, from the close of the middle ages down to the present, as the horizon of the world grew wider and wider, and the stream of human life swept on, their toil of pen and heart and tongue brought from chaos the order of harmony and form. They are the great beacon lights to which the student turns, while he bows, unasked, to the truths they have demonstrated.
It took centuries of reform ere the youthful mind was admitted to the mysteries of science. So also was it ages before the world saw that the teacher must be taught.
The Normal school may be regarded as the cap-stone of the highest educational system among the nations. It had its origin in Germany, where also the Kindergarten was born, and where the greatest strides have been taken in that long study of self and nature which make the sum of human life.
This wealth of knowledge comes now through the manifold agencies of the hour, into the palace of the rich, into the hovel of the poor.
To-day, no life is born under an evil star.
Let us glance, for a moment, at the history of Normal schools upon this side of the Atlantic. They had their origin in a pressing necessity. They were demanded by the urgent wants of our system of public education. A government by the people cannot be wise in its adminis- tration save the people be wise. Public schools for the masses was the only safety for a republican government. If individual freedom be made a national birth-right, then also is the right to a free and full cultivation, of mental powers under the bond of citizenship, a right inherent in the very principles which shape the mighty fabric under which we live. Good teachers became imperative. To teach how to teach was the neces- sity. And hence the introduction of the Normal school. And it is a strange coincidence, but worthy of note, that the natal Normal was planted upon the historic fields of Lexington. Upon the same hallowed soil where the first spark of our national independence was struck, arose the crowning work of a free educational system. Each had its origin in a common people and a common sentiment. For freedom walks erect and knowledge never stoops. They are the stars that shape the horo- scope of destiny for nations and individuals. The light of liberty only glows with the fires of intellectuality. So that forty years ago when the Normal school was introduced into American soil, the epoch was to be
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remembered because it marked the elevation of the people and forged another link in the chain that binds us to the eternal principles upon which we base our laws.
In all our states, normal schools have had to struggle for existence. Slander, born of sectional animosity, has been heaped upon them. Jeal- ously, begotten of pure greed, has ever stung their early efforts. But, as we have said, created to meet a necessity, they have everywhere risen. Massachusetts was the first state to nurse these schools into effectual work, as she was the first to gather the record so long held of general intelligence and enterprise. The debt she owes to normal schools is thus expressed by one of her own citizens: " I believe normal schools to be a new instrumentality in the advancement of the race. I believe that with- out them free schools themselves would be shorn of their strength and their healing power. Neither the art of printing, nor the trial by jury, nor a free press, nor free suffrage, can long exist, to any beneficial or salutary purpose, without schools for the training of teachers." And he but uttered the conviction of every student of their workings. On Wednesday, July 3, 1839, at Lexington, Mass., the first school was opened, upon a joint proposition of the state and a "merchant prince, " Timothy Dwight, Esq., to donate $10,000 each toward the erection of suitable buildings. By the year 1854, the state had endowed and was supporting four. New York next followed, establishing her first school in 1844. She added the training school, and has now eight normals. Maine and Vermont then followed. And keeping pace with high culture normal schools gradually moved westward. Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, established them. And in 1869, buildings were in process of construction in Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Kansas. What then is the history of Missouri in this great movement previous to this time?
It began about 1845, under the administration of Governor Edwards. In writing upon the affairs of the state, he says: " It is a fact, which it is needless to attempt to disguise, that, with our rich soil and genial climate, and all our industry, care and economy, we are not a prosperous and thriving people. The great mass of us are not growing in wealth, nor accumulating many of the comforts, nor even the necessaries of life. " This remarkable state of fact was attributed by him to the ignorance of the people as applied to their various avocations. How then was the evil to be remedied ?
The paramount idea with Governor Edwards was in the upbuilding of the common school. At that time in the history of the state common schools were few and poorly organized. Taxes were but scanty for their support. They were given into the charge of "public hackneys in the 19
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HISTORY OF JOHNSON COUNTY.
schooling trade." Collectively there was no system-individually they were without form.
This advice tending to the elevation of the district school was little heeded. Still the attention of the state's law makers was called to the issue.
It was at once seen that no enterprise, no effort, could succeed without direction. The question of financial embarrassment was only a side issue. . The great want was, the live, earnest, efficient teacher. There must be knowledge, there must be tact. And it was plain that the necessity was in the education of the teacher.
So important was the matter that at the beginning of the session of the legislature in 1847, the governor was asked to communicate his views upon. the subject to the members.
The scheme proposed was too utilitarian to be practical. In substance it was as follows: "The pupil teachers were to have a variety of improved machinery, with which to make experiments upon a farm (to belong to the school,) to be supported at public expense, lectured to and drilled daily in the school room, and then were pledged to teach in the common schools of the respective townships in which they lived for two or three years. "
The educational committee offered a better plan upon the recommenda- tion of James S. Rollins, which was to create a professorship of the theory and practice of teaching in the state university to be maintained by appro- priation by the state. At the same time the advantages of education were thus set forth: "If we adopt a system of universal education, by means of common schools, we will have better citizens, better laws, and more purity in the administration of public affairs, our liberties would rest on a secure foundation, and commerce, manufactures, agriculture, arts, mechanics and the resources of the country would be improved, and placed in a more prosperous situation. "
These were premonitions of life. It seemed that the words of Chann- ing that, "one of the surest signs of the regeneration of society will be in the elevation of teaching to the highest rank in the community, " were becoming felt. But, "the growth of great ideas is slow." And two decades succeeding, did not witness the foundation of the first school for teachers, and for teachers exclusively.
Notwithstanding this, new vigor was infused into the common school, and great minds began to probe deeply into the means by which the vast evils could be remedied, and the state ennobled.
From 1861 to 1865, the system of education in Missouri received a severe shock from the " stamp of red battle," in her midst. The storm of war howled furiously across her gentle prairies. Her geographical
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STIQUIS DEMOCRAT LITHO & PRINTING CO
WARRENSBURG NORMAL SCHOOL BUILDING ..
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position made her the "border-land " during the struggle. The hot breath of the fight beat full in her face, and amid the burning and pillage and universal desolation, there was little thought of the schools.
But when the hush of peace spread over the land, there was wondrous reaction. Immigration poured into the state. The song of labor was heard in every valley, and soon the prairies waved with the green and golden grain. Prosperity beamed and commerce ran high. Amid this grand reawakening, normal schools had their birth.
In 1869, T. A. Parker, state superintendent of schools, urged in his annual report to the legislature, the creation of normal schools as separate, independent institutions for the training of teachers, as before stated, they were in all the surrounding states. In 1870, when a bill was pending in the general assembly, he says:
It is good statesmanship to refuse no policy, no institution, no law, which strengthen the security of communities and the public faith. On this ground, also, the need of a normal school may be based. It ministers to the stability of the state by increasing and improving the means of enlightenment. The best evidences of the means are those which have survived the period of their exper- iment, and having been tried by the tests which determine the public utility of every plan, become historic truths, and as such, are safe counselors, for they are better than a theory developed from present experiment and observation.
Able observers of the American system of public education dwell upon incom- plete results, frequently attained, compared with the magnificence of the plan and the vast expense it involves. There is, somewhere, a deficiency-a barrier to the application of the funds to their best advantage. The inference is, that there may be a great machinery of schools, and yet numbers of youth imperfectly educated. The cause of the imperfection is generally attributed to the want of qualifications in teachers. There cannot be a good school without a good teacher. There must then be provision against the employment of ill-qualified teachers, and for supplying those well qualified. *
The distinctive feature of the schools sought to be established by the bill now pending in your honorable body, is their graded character. It is proposed to have but little attention given to preparatory instruction in the branches of study taught in the public schools, but thorough training in the methods of the knowl- edge previously attained; in a word, schools for teachers, not for scholars. It seems to be best for the condition of schools in this state, that the course of study and training should be short as well as thorough, and directly applicable to the work as now found in the school-room.
To the bill as drawn up, there seemed to be but two objections, viz: that the number of schools proposed was too great, and that the financial condition of the state was not such as would allow the expenditure of the appropriation asked for their maintenance. Amendments to meet the emergency were adopted and the bill passed.
The following extracts, taken from the acts of the assembly of March 19, 1870, will show the original plan of the organization of normal schools in this state:
For the purpose of establishing normal schools, the state is hereby divided into two districts, viz: The counties north of the Missouri river shall constitute
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the first district; and the counties south of the Missouri river, except St. Louis county, shall constitute the second normal school district. * *. In each of the districts aforesaid, one normal school shall be established, in the county which may offer the greatest inducement by way of buildings and grounds.
The act here grants to cities and counties in which schools are located, the power to subscribe such sums as two-thirds of the qualified voters may direct, and for the payment of said sums, by the issuance of bonds running twenty years, and bearing interest not exceeding ten per cent.
A board of regents, consisting of seven persons, is hereby instituted, to con- sist of the state board of education, and four additional persons, two from each normal school district, to be appointed by the governor. One regent shall be appointed for two years, one for four, from each district-all appointments there- after for four years. Said board of regents shall have general control and man- agement of the normal school-have authority to appoint and dismiss all officers and teachers-direct the course of instruction, designate text-books, etc.
The act further provides an appropriation of five thousand dollars annually, "to be expended for teachers' salaries," and further nominates the minor powers and duties of the regents.
Soon after the passage of the bill as above, we find these words in the Western Educational Review:
The die is cast, Missouri is to have two normal schools. * Teachers of Missouri, after long and patient waiting, this great work has been accomplished. Not without toil; not without sacrifice; not without weariness of heart. Let us rejoice in the victory, and when the schools are opened, show our appreciation of their blessings, by filling them to their utmost capacity."
The teachers themselves seemed to need them and the outlook was indeed auspicious. There now arose a rivalry among the thriving coun- ties north and south of the river to obtain the schools. While the state at large was to be benefitted by their action, the counties in which they were located, must reap from the students transient increase of wealth also.
In the Warrensburg Standard, of June 9, 1870, we find the first editorial mention of the matter in Johnson county. The article sets forth very earn- estly the propriety of the county bidding for the school of the second dis- trict. An extremely liberal donation is advocated. It is shown conclu- sively that the financial condition of the county is most excellent. More railroads through it, are being agitated with good promise of success.
The city of Warrensburg, it is stated, is almost free from debt, while other towns along the Missouri Pacific R. R. are much encumbered. Bounteous harvests are being reaped each year. It is the height of wis- dom to make a strong effort to secure the location. Labor and liberality only are needed. Unity of purpose will do the work.
The people are aroused.
The enterprising citizens of Warrensburg at once begin to agitate the question, and the best history of the location of the school in the southern
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district is to be gathered from the minutes of the board of regents. The following facts which we shall detail briefly are from this source. The names of the prime movers will appear as we proceed. Upon their unti- ring labors no other eulogy need be pronounced than is contained in the ultimate success achieved.
Pursuant to the act of the assembly the first board of regents was as follows: State board, T. A. Parker; supt. public schools, H. B. Johnson, F. Rodman; first district, J. Baldwin and E. B. Neely; second district, J. R. Milner and G. R. Smith.
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