USA > Missouri > Nodaway County > The history of Nodaway county, Missouri, containing a history of the county, its cities, towns, etc., biographical sketches of its citizens > Part 47
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On the 25th of September, 1871, the following peremptory writ of mandamus was issued by the Supreme Court of the State, requiring the County Court of Nodaway County to issue the bonds :
The State of Missouri to the County Court of Nodaway County, in the State of Missouri :
WHEREAS, The Kansas City, Saint Joseph and Council Bluffs Rail- road Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Missouri, did lately petition your court, to issue forty thousand dollars in the bonds of the County of Nodaway, in payment of so much of subscription of said county to the capital stock of the Missouri Valley Railroad Com- pany, to all the powers, rights and privileges of which last mentioned company, the said Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad Company claims to be entitled, and whereas, heretofore, to wit, at a session of the Supreme Court of Missouri, held at the city of St. Joseph, the third Monday of February, 1871, it appeared upon the petition of the said Kansas City, Saint Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad Company among other things, that at a session of said County Court, lately before holden according to law, that said application was rejected, and said county court refused to issue said bonds.
Wherefore, the said Supreme Court, at the instance of said peti- tioner, granted a rule, requiring the justices of said County Court, to show cause, if any they had, why a writ of mandamus from said Supreme Court, should not be awarded and issued to said County Court commanding it to issue said bonds ; and, whereas, at said session of said Supreme Court, held at said City of St. Joseph, on the third Mon- day of August, 1871, said justices certified and filed a return to said rule, showing the reasons why said bonds had not been issued ; and, whereas, afterwards, to wit, at the term last aforesaid of said Supreme Court, upon consideration of said returns of the causes shown therein, against the said rule being made absolute, and against the awarding and issu- ing of said writ of mandamus, and upon the consideration of the argu- ments of counsel, it was considered by said Supreme Court, that said returns set forth an insufficient cause for having refused to issue said bonds, and against the awarding and issuing of the said writ of mandamus; and it was also then and there considered by the said Supreme Court, that the peremptory writ of the State of Missouri issue, requiring and commanding you, the said County Court, to issue said bonds. Therefore, you are hereby commanded and enjoined immediately after the receipt of this writ, and without delay, you proceed to issue said forty thousand dollars of the bonds of said County of Nodaway, in payment of so much of the subscription of said county to the capital stock of the Missouri Valley Railroad Company, that said bonds be issued and deliv- ered to the said Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad Company ; said bonds to bear date the first day of January, 1871, at the rate of seven per centum per annum from date, said interest to be paid
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HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
annually, so that complaint be not again made to the said Supreme Court, by the said last mentioned railroad company, and that you certify certain obedience and due execution of this writ to said Supreme Court, to be held in said City of Joseph, on the third Monday of Feb- ruary next. Hereof fail not at your peril, and have you then and there this writ.
In testimony whereof, I, Litt. R. Lancaster, Clerk of said Supreme Court, have hereunto set my hand and affixed my official seal at office, this 25th day of September, 1871.
[SEAL.]
LITT. R. LANCASTER, Clerk of the Sup. Court.
The Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad was com- pleted to Maryville in the fall of 1869, and to the Iowa line in the win- ter of 1870.
The Missouri River Air Line Railroad was never built.
THE WABASH, ST. LOUIS AND PACIFIC.
This railroad was called, at the time of its construction, the Council Bluffs and St. Louis, and was built entirely by private subscription.
In the fall of 1878, the citizens of Maryville met at Union Hall in mass convention, for the purpose of raising a cash subscription of fifty thousand dollars. These meetings continued for the space of about one week, and embraced among those in attendance a large number of ladies, who manifested great interest in the success of the railroad pro- ject, which was then being considered.
The Council Bluffs and St. Louis Railroad Company required of Maryville the amount above mentioned (fifty thousand dollars), in money, and required from the county, outside of Maryville, the sum of seventy-five thousand dollars, or one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars from the city and county, the subscription from the county to be paid in produce. Altogether, in cash and produce, there was raised about one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, fifty thousand of which was cash.
This amount secured the railroad, whose company began work immediately, and so rapidly was the enterprise pushed forward that the railroad now known as the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific, was completed by the 24th day of October, 1879, with its cars running upon the road.
The depot of this road is located in the northwest part of Mary- ville, about a half a mile from the court house. The depot of the Kan- sas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs Railroad is located one mile east of the court house.
470
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
Since the completion of the first railroad, in 1869, to Maryville, the population of the city has almost doubled. The town has now assumed something of the appearance of a city, and is regarded as one of the best business centers in Northwest Missouri. Its rapid increase in wealth, business and population being largely, if not altogether, attributable to the influence of its two railroads-the Kansas City, St. Joseph and Council Bluffs and the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific.
CHAPTER XXXII.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS, EARLY CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.
The following chapter is one which we have found most difficult to write, owing to the difficulty in obtaining full and accurate information. It should be the most interesting of all the chapters of the book. We have endeavored to remain in the realm of the real, and deal as little as possible in the ideal and imaginative. Comparatively little has been made a matter of record relating to the early schools and churches of the county. What has been made a matter of record and what has been remembered by the old settlers whom we have seen is here given.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The schools of the county are sharing with the contents of the news- boy's bundle, the title of the universities of the poor. The close observa- tion of the working of the public schools shows that if the induction of facts be complete, it could be demonstrated that the public schools turn out more men and women better fitted for business and usefulness than most of our colleges. The freedom and liberty of our public schools afford less room for the growth of effeminacy and pedantry ; it educates the youth among the people and not among a caste or class, and since the man or woman is called upon to do with a nation in which people are the only factor, the education which the public schools afford, espe- cially where they are of the superior standard reached in this county, do fit their recipients for a sphere of usefulness nearer the public heart than can be attained by private schools and academies.
The crowning glory of American institutions is the public school system ; nothing else among American institutions is so intensely American. They are the colleges of Democracy, and if this govern- ment is to remain a republic, governed by statesmen, it must be from the public schools they must be graduated. The amount of practical knowledge that the masses here receive is important beyond measure, and forms the chief factor in the problem of material prosperity ; but it is not so much the practical knowledge, which it is the ostensible mission of the public schools to impart, that makes this system the sheet anchor of our hopes. It is rather the silent, social influence which the common schools incidentally exert.
472
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
It is claimed for our country that it is a land of social equality, where all have an equal chance in the race for life ; and yet there are many things which give the lie to this boasted claim of an aristocracy of manhood. Our churches are open to all, but it is clear that the best pews are occupied by the men of wealth and influence. The sightless goddess extends the scales of justice to all, but it will usually appear that there is money in the descending scale. It requires money to run for office, or, at least, it takes money to get office.
The first experience of the American citizen of to-day, however, is in the public school. If he is a rich man's son, his class-mate is the son of poverty. The seat which the one occupies is no better than that occupied by the other, and when the two are called to the blackboard, the fine clothes of the rich man's son do not keep him from going down, provided he be a drone, neither do the patches on the clothes of the poor man's son keep him down, provided he has the genius and application to make him rise. The pampered child of fortune may pur- chase a diploma at many of the select schools of the land, but at the public schools it is genius and application which win. That state or nation which reaches out this helping hand to the children of want will not lack for defenders in time of danger, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually expended for the common education of children is but money loaned to the children, which they will pay back with com- pound interest when grown to manhood.
In a modest, unassuming way, our schools inculcate lessons of com- mon honesty. The boy hears his father make promises, and sees him break them. Mr. Jones is promised twenty dollars on Monday. He calls on Monday and again on Tuesday, and finally gets the twenty dol- lars on Saturday. The boy goes with his father to church, and frequently gets there after the first prayer. In vain does that father teach his boy lessons of common honesty, when the boy knows that the father disap- pointed Jones, and never reaches the church in time. The boy soon learns at the public schools that punctuality and promptness are cardinal virtues ; that to be tardy is to get a little black mark, and to be absent a day is to get a big black mark. A public school in which punctuality and promptness are impartially and fearlessly enforced is a most potent conservator of public morals.
It has been often said that the State of Missouri has not only been indifferent to the subject of education, but that she has been hostile to the cause of common schools. To prove that these are gross misrepre- sentations and that her attitude toward an interest so vital and popular does not admit of any question, it is only necessary to say that the con- stitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875, make this subject of primary import- ance and guard the public school funds with a zealous care.
473
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
The fact is, the constitution of no state contains more liberal and enlightened provisions relative to popular education, than the Constitu- tion of Missouri, adopted in 1875. During the past sixty years of her existence, not a solitary line can be found upon her statute books inimi- cal to the cause. No political party in all her history has ever arrayed itself against free schools, and her governors, each and all, from 1824 to the present time (1881), have been earnest advocates of a broad and liberal system of education. As early as 1839, the state established a general school law and system, and in 1853, one-fourth of her annual revenue was dedicated to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely for this cause as the people of any state. With the single exception of Indiana, she surpasses every other state in the Union in the amount of her available and productive permanent school funds, the productive school fund of Indiana being $9,065,254.73, while that of Missouri is $8,950,805.71, the State of North Carolina rank- ing third. The State of Indiana levies a tax for school purposes of six- teen cents on the hundred dollars of taxable values, and does not permit a local tax exceeding twenty-five cents on that amount. The State of Missouri levies a tax of five cents, and permits a local tax of forty cents, without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the country districts, and one dollar in cities and towns, by a majority vote of the taxpayers voting.
For the year ending in April, 1880, only two counties in the state reported a less rate of local taxation than the maximum allowed in Indi- ana, only one the amount of that maximum, and the average rate of all the counties reported, was about thirty-nine cents, or fourteen cents more than the possible rate of that state.
It may not be known that Missouri has a greater number of school houses to the population than Massachusetts, yet such is the fact. The amount she expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate, on the amount of her assessed valuation, that the amount expended by the latter state is on her valuation, while the public school funds of Missouri exceed those of Massachusetts $5,405, 127.09.
The Missouri system of education is, perhaps, as good as that of any other state, and is becoming more effectively enforced each succeeding year. The one great fault, or lack in the laws, in reference to common schools, is the want of adequate executive agency within the county. The state department should have positive and unequivocal supervision over the county superintendent, and the county superintendent should have control over the school interests of the county, under direction of the state superintendent. When this is done, the people of the state will reap the full benefits that should accrue to them from the already admirable system of free schools, which are now in successful operation throughout the state.
.
474
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
ENUMERATION.
There are but four counties in the state having a greater number of children between the ages of six and twenty years (school age) than Nodaway County. These counties are as follows : (Report of 1880.) Buchanan 14,662
Jackson 23,836
Jasper 11,152
St. Louis City 106,372
Nodaway
10,747
ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION.
There are but three counties in the state whose total receipts from the various funds for school purposes are greater in amount than Nodaway:
Buchanan $ 81,092 16
Jackson
176,591 80
St. Louis. . 82,792 20
Nodaway
75,237 05
EXPENDITURES.
While Nodaway County ranks the fourth, in its receipts, it is the third in the amount expended in behalf of the cause of education. The counties expending the largest sums were :
Jackson .
$129,227 13
St. Louis City
820,925 48
Nodaway
55,474 94
TEACHERS.
During the year 1881, there were 11,659 teachers employed in the the public schools of the state, 6,068 males and 4,379 females. Only , three counties employed more teachers than Nodaway, these being
Jackson 238
Johnson 219
St. Louis City .953
Nodaway 216
SCHOOL HOUSES.
In the number and completeness of her school houses, Nodaway County stands first in the list, and the number is rapidly increasing each year. These buildings are now estimated to be worth about $100,000.
475
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
Nodaway County contains
165
Bates County 66
137
Johnson County
131
LIBRARIES.
Nodaway County expended more money for a library in 1881 than any other county in the state, excepting Crawford and the City of St. Louis, the figures being as follows :
St. Louis City
$13,508 00
Crawford 451 25
Nodaway 360 14
The comparisons above made, have been instituted with no invidi- ous motives towards other counties of our noble state, but simply to show the true status of Nodaway County so far as her public schools are con- cerned. Taking the above figures then as facts, it will be seen that Nodaway County is the fifth in the number of school children, fourth in the amount of her total receipts, third in expenditures for the mainten- ance of her public schools, fourth in the number of teachers employed, first in the number of school houses, and third in the expenditure of money for a library. Each of the counties named were not only organ- ized, some of them many years before Nodaway County had an existence, but each has a greater population.
If the number of school houses, as we have always been taught to believe, indicate the interest the people have in the cause of education, then Nodaway County ranks first in the state, as she exceeds all other counties in this respect, having twenty-eight school buildings more than any other county. She has altogether one hundred and eighty-five schools in operation.
Below we give the county clerk's report for 1880, concerning the enumeration, annual distribution and the various school funds :
ENUMERATION.
Male. Female. Total.
Number of white persons in the county between six and twenty years of age. 5,592 5,125 10,717
Number of colored persons in the county between
six and twenty years of age 16 14 30
ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION.
Cash on hand at settlement with county treasurer, in April, 1880 $15,931 42 Amount of revenue received from state fund by auditor's war-
rant of 1880 6,973 20
476
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
Amount of revenue received from county funds in 1880 (in interest on notes and bonds). 7,446 28 Amount received from district tax in 1880, as per settlement with collector, in March, 1880 38,678 48 Amount of revenue received from township fund in 1880 (inter- est notes and bonds) 3,157 43
Amount received from all other sources 3,150 24
Total amount $75,237 05 Total amount expended, as shown by settlement with county treasurer, in April, 1881. 55,474 94
Cash on hand. $19,762 1I
PRINCIPAL OF THE VARIOUS SCHOOL FUNDS.
Amount of township school funds $23,527 40
Amount of county public school funds 70,529 29
Total $94,056 69
Amount received during the year for fines and penalties, which
was loaned at 10 per cent. interest. $237 00
The number of children of school age in the county in 1870 was 5,496. This number has nearly doubled during the decade which has followed. In 1870 there were about 110 school houses, the number hav- ing increased some six or seven per year since that period.
Nodaway County educational affairs are in a flourishing condition. The county has now become well supplied with comfortable, commodi- ous school houses, and good schools are taught in all the townships and towns, sufficiently numerous and convenient for the accommodation of all parts of the county. Educational interests are considered of the highest importance, and means have not been spared to make the public schools a success, and under the efficient management of those who have held the office of superintendent, the schools are attaining a high standard.
The county teachers believe in the interchange of thought, also in the community of effort, and are making the profession of teaching a study as well as a practice. Teachers' institutes are now becoming of regular and frequent occurrence, and are well attended by those who take special interest in the work. The superintendent's examination grades are now of such a standard, that all applicants do not attain them, and for those who are successful, after diligent study and prepara- tion, it shows a more creditable standing, besides furnishing a much more efficient class of teachers.
477
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
There has been as great a change in the character and qualifications of the teacher, as there has been in the architecture and arrangements of the school houses. Formerly, schools were held at the residences of the old settlers, or else in cabins whose external appearance and internal arrangements closely resembled the pioneer cabin. The teacher also, very closely resembled the early settler, or, as a rule, he was a settler, devoting a great portion of his time to making rails, grubbing hazel brush, and attending to his stock and crops, while teaching was simply incidental. Teaching has now become a profession, and the teacher devotes his entire time to it.
The following is a list of County Superintendents since 1852, which will embrace all, perhaps, who officiated in that capacity since the organization of the county :
James Saunders, 1852.
M. G. Roseberry, 1863.
C. S. Burns, 1855.
A. C. Votaw, 1864.
C. S. Burns, 1857.
I. N. Albin, 1867.
C. S. Burns, 1859.
S. C. Mccluskey, 1868.
L. T. Ellis, 1862.
D. L. Chaney, 1881.
B. G. Ford, 1863.
EARLY CHURCHES AND MINISTERS.
" You raised these h ullowed walls, the desert smiled, And Paradise was opened in the wild. "
The settlement of the county and the organization of the first churches were almost contemporaneous. The plow had scarcely begun to turn the sod, when the pioneer preachers commenced to labor in the new field. In the Western country, as well as in the Orient and the isles of the sea, marched the representatives of the Christian religion in the front ranks of civilization. Throughout the centuries which com- prise this era, have the Christian missionaries been taught and trained to accompany the first advance of civilization, and such was their advent in Nodaway County. In the rude cabins and huts of the pio- neers they proclaimed the same gospel that is preached in the gorgeous palaces that, under the name of churches, decorate the great cities.
It was the same gospel, but the surroundings made it appear differ- ent, in the effect it produced at least. The Christian religion had its rise, and the days of its purest practice, among an humble minded peo- ple, and it is among similar surroundings in modern times, that it seems to approach the purity of its source. This is best shown in the days of pioneer life. It is true, indeed, that in succeeding times, the church has attained greater wealth and practices a wider benevolence. Fur- ther, it may be admitted, that it has gained a firmer discipline, and
478
HISTORY OF NODAWAY COUNTY.
wields a more general influence on society, but it remains true, in pio- neer times, we find a manifestation of Christianity that we seek in vain at a later period and under contrasted circumstances. The meek and the lowly spirit of the Christian faith-the placing of spiritual things above vain pomp and show-appear more earnest amid the simple life and toil of a pioneer people, than it can when surrounded with the splendors of wealth and fashion.
But we may take a comparison less wide, and instead of contrast- ing the Christian appearances of a great city with that of the pioneers, we may compare that of forty years ago here in the West with that in the present time of moderately developed wealth and taste for display and we find much of the same result.
The comparison is perhaps superficial to some extent, and does not fully weigh the elements involved, nor analyze them properly. We sim- ply take the broad fact not to decry the present, but to illustrate the past. So looking back to the early religious meetings in the log cabins we may say: "Here was a faith, earnest and simple, like that of the early Christians."
It is not our purpose, at this place, to give a full account of the organization of all the churches of the county. Such matters of detail have been given in connection with the history of the towns and town- ships. It is our purpose here to speak only of the early churches and ministers, of those Christian ministers who first proclaimed the gospel of our Savior in Nodaway County, and of some of the organizations effected by them, and of the trials and privations which they suffered in common with the old sttlers among whom they labored.
The representatives of the M. E. Church were the first to bear aloft the banner of the Christian religion in Nodaway County. The first church was organized in Hughes Township, in 1840, with the following members : Mr. and Mrs. James Finch, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Hedgepeth, and Ruth Hedgepeth. The two first ministers in charge were Rev. Reuben Aldridge, in 1840, and Rev. Benjamin R. Baxter, in 1842. They were succeeded by Rev. Alexander Spencer, in 1844.
One among the first ministers, to officiate as such, among the pioneers of the county, was Bishop Marvin, who spent the early years of his ministry in Northwest Missouri. The Bishop was then a young man, with headquarters at Oregon, Holt County, and laboring in behalf of the M. E. Church. He held services about the years 1842 and 1843, at the house (a log cabin) of Mr. Oester, father of John Oester, now of Mount Tabor. Mr. Oester then resided in what is now known as Lincoln Township. Here the Bishop organized a class, and finally a church, which is still in existence. But we will let the Bishop tell of those days when he labored in this section of the country. In 1874, the old settlers of the Platte Purchase, held a reunion at St. Joseph.
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