USA > Missouri > Bates County > The old settlers' history of Bates County, Missouri : from its first settlement to the first day of January, 1900 > Part 6
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This freighting grew to be an important industry in which a large number of men and teams were employed. In the ten years from 1870 to les0, thousands of loads of games. representing a monetary value of millions of dollars, were freighted over the long and hilly roads between Appleton City and Butler.
Yet. in the face of all disadvantages. Butler continued to prosper and grow. The surrounding country was rapidly filled up with industrious farmers and her trade increased correspondingly. Her most direct mail route was from Har- risonville, but she also received mails from Appleton City. and from La Cygne, Kansas. Substantial church buildings were erected by the Methodist. Baptist and Presbyterian de- nominations, the two former brick and the latter frame. A row of business houses surrounded the public square, and the town made good and substantial progress during the seventies.
In 1880 came the railway. and then in '81 electric lights. which at that time were considered strictly cosmopolitan. But the railway which they had striven for so long a time. also brought competitors for Butler. Towns sprung up which encroached on her territory. There is always the thorn as well as the rose to be dealt with. But her enter- prise was not the sort to be satisfied with a few good things. A few years later she obtained a complete system of water-
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OF BAIES COUNTY
works. a plentiful and pure supply being obtained from the Miami River, four miles west of town. She built a second school building and a large academy, and later on, the first large school house was torn down and replaced by one of the finest and most completely equipped school buildings in the West. She also has a building for her colored pupils, and is building a fourth large building in order to supply the ever- increasing demand for school room. She has, since 1880, erected five fine churches, having ight such buildings at present. Nearly all her business houses have been replaced by modern brick and stone buildings. She has three banks. five weekly and one daily newspapers, several of the largest and most substantial business firms in the Southwest, and many handsome and costly residences, and an estimated pop- ulation of 5000 people.
RICH HILL. The original town now known as Old Rich Hill was founded in 1867. and had grown into a place of con- siderable importance by 1850, when the building of the Lex- ington branch of the Missouri Pacific through the county caused the removal of the greater part of the town to the present site of Rich Hill, which has since grown to be the largest city in the county-originally deriving its prosperity from the enormous coal deposits. it has widened its resources and branched out into numerous other enterprises and is still growing with every prospect of no immediate cessation. It has a population of about 690). fine public schools, one col- lege, numerons churches and excellent railroad facilities.
Its smelters are also a source of great revenue to the city and from its coal supply, we predict that at no far distant day it will rank high as a manufacturing city.
ADRIAN. Adrian is situated on the L. & S. railway, in Deer Creek township. the corporation extending to the north line of Mound township. It was founded in 1880, the year the railroad commenced operations, by a company composed principally of Butler men. Situated in a fine agricultural section it has enjoyed a steady and substantial growth. The census of 1890 showed a population of 613: it now has up- ward of 1000 inhabitants. It has a splendid new school building. employs six teachers and has school nine months
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OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
in the year. Its post-office was advanced to the Presidential class in 1896. It has substantial business houses, a bank, a mill, a weekly newspaper, several church buildings, and many handsome residences. In size and basiness done, it ranks third in the county.
HUME. The town of Hume was started in 1850. and is situated in the west part of Howard towaship, in the south- west corner of the county, on the Memphis branch railway. It is surrounded by a rolling prairie country, which is all un- der cultivation and very productive. It also has quite an ex- tensive coal interest. It now has two railroads, the K. C. P. & G. having been built through the town ten years after its founding. It has as good shipping facilities as any town in the county. It had in 1890 a population of 456, which has been very considerably increased since that time. It has numerons stores, a bank, a creamery. an excellent weekly newspaper. a good two-story brick school building. good schools. churches, etc.
ROCKVILLE. Rockville is a thriving little village of some 600 souls. situate in the south-east part of the county on the M. K. & T. R. R .. in Rockville township. It was founded in 1868, and now has an elegant now and conmo- dious brick school building, and a fine school, employing four teachers, several churches, many fine business houses well stocked with merchandise, and situated as it is in a fine agricultural and stock raising part of the county has a bright future before it.
FOSTER. Foster was born on a boom. First called Wal- nut. it was re-christened in honor of Gov. Foster, of Ohio, who was at the head of the company which laid out the town in 1884. Lots were sold rapidly and at a high price. Many buildings were erected, and Foster was to rival. if not sur- pass, the mining town of Rich Hill. But the company failed to carry through its original plans, and her coal fields have not been extensively developed. After the collapse of the boom Foster did not make much progress for some years, but she is now enjoying a healthy growth, and awaits the devel- opment of her coal fields which will place her again to the
W. F. HEMSTREET.
W. F. Hemstreet was born in Syracuse, N. Y., Dec. 7, 1833, and removed to La Salle County, Ill., in 1859, and in 1861, to McLean County, Ill. He lived there until the fall of 1871, and came to Cass County, Mo., in IS72, and settled on a farm near where Drexel is now. In 1887 he came to Butler where he has since resided.
He has been engaged in the grocery business; and in the Elevator with Bryant & McDaniel; and in the spring of 1893 was elected Justice of the Peace and member of the township board for Mt. Pleasant, which offices he still fills to the general satisfaction of the people. In 1892 he was elected Police Judge of the City of Butler.
Judge Hemstreet is an active member of the Christian church, and has been one of the elders for many years. He lost his first wife in 1888, leaving three children, two sons and one daughter, all of whom are married and reside in this vicinity. His mother is still living in Chicago, now 92 years of age, but enjoying good health. She lives with her daughter, Mrs. Gardner.
Judge Hemstreet married his present wife about a year ago, a most estimable woman, and they live in a commodious home on South High street in the enjoyment of the confidence and esteem of a large circle of acquaintances.
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OF BATES COUNTY.
front. She has a dozen stores, a bank, four churches and a large school building and excellent schools. Foster had a population of 513 in 1893, and has probably a little more than held her own in that respect.
AMORET. Amoret was located in the western part of Homer township in 1859. by the company which obtained control of the Kansas City. Pittsburg & Gulf railway project, and was extensively advertised and pushed to the front by the same agency. The company made it division headquar- ters for a time. until the road was pushed further south. It has a fine location, enjoys a good local trade and is making a substantial growth. The railway company owns a large tract of land adjacent to the town. which they have set to fruit trees. The town has several mercantile firms, a mill, a creamery and a number of other industries. It also has a weekly newspaper, a two-roomed frame school building and one church building.
AMSTERDAM. This town was laid out by the Amster- dam Town Co .. C. A. Emerson manager, in the west part of West Point township. on the K. C. P. & G. R. R. in 1891. The post-office was at first called Burrows, after the first post- master, and the station sported another cognomen. The railroad company had no interest in the land, and it was not started with a boom. Its growth has been slow, but steady. It is one of the best shipping points on the road. It is sur- rounded by a fine farm and stock raising country, and coal is mined on three sides of the town. It has over a dozen business firms, a bank, a weekly newspaper, a substantial two story brick school building and two churches.
MERWIN. Also on the K. C. P. & G. railway, in West Boone township, near the Kansas line, was located at the time of the building of the road on the land owned by L. S. Richardson. The town has enjoyed a substantial growth and. lively trade. It has a number of good brick business houses and good stores, a two-story frame school building, two church buildings, a bank, a creamery and a weekly news- paper. It also has a fine college building, the school being under the successful management of Professors Bunyard, Smith and Reynolds.
OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
JOHNSTOWN. Johnstown. the metropolis of Spruce township. is one of the oldlest towns in the county, and has been treated as such heretofore. Once the metropolis of the county. it has long since fallen from that high position. and is now only a little inland villige, with only the memoriesof its former greatness, but vet controls a large amount of local trade, notwithstanding its many misfortunes. Surrounded as it is by a noble, generous and enterprising people. it will ever live, at least in the memory of the writer as that spot around which cluster the remembrance of the hopes. aspira- tions and disappointments of his youth and early manhood.
OTHER TOWNS AND POST-OFFICES. Spruce is an inland village of Deepwater township: was founded in 1885. It now has three general stores. drug store. blacksmith shop. school house and two churches. Pleasantgap. in Pleasant Gap township. now transacts considerable local business. Papinsville has survived many hardships and is now a lively village. Aaron, founded four of five years since near the west line of Mingo township, has a po-t-office and general . store. Maysburg. also in Mingo township, started in 1878, now has several business firms. Prairie City. in Prairie township. in early days an aspirant for railway advantages, is now composed of post-office and several stores. Virginia, located in Charlotte towaship. has a post office, two churches and several stores. Lone Oak is a post-office and trading point in Pleasant Gap township. Ballard, a small village, with post-office, in north western part of Spruce township. Altona. in Grand River township, established just before the war. Sprague. in the cast part of Howard township, has two hundred citizens and several business firms. Burdett, in East Boone township. is an old town of considerable local importance. Dana occupies the site of old West Point. Vin- ton. also in West Point township. Elkhart is the local trad- ing point of Elkhart township. Mulberry, in Homer, still transacts considerable business. Worland isa village in Wal- nut township. New Home. Cornland and Nyhart are in New Home township: Peru. in Lone Oak: Reynard, in Hudson, and Shobe. in New Home township. Passaic, railway sta. tion in Mound, and Culver. on line between Shawnee, and Spruce. The above named places all have post-offices.
L. B. ALLISON
was born in Holland. Erie County. N. Y., in the year 1835, and spent his early life largely in the private and public schools where he resided. At the age of seventeen he studied two years under a normal instructor and then began teaching in the rural schools of Western New York. He after- wards took a full course in the celebrated Fredonia Academy, graduating in 1857, and resumed teaching. Taught village schools as principal till com- ing to Missouri in 1867, when he began teaching in public schools. Was elected County School Superintendent in 1868, and engaged largely in or- ganizing new school districts, some sixty in number. during his term of office. Was Principal of the Butler Public Schools for three years, insti- tuting the first gradcd system of the same. Resigning on account of ill health, he spent several months in Colorado. On his return, he entered the Butler Academy then in its infancy. where he taught twelve consecutive years with Rev. Powelson and Prof. J. W. Naylor. Those prosperous days of the school will long be remembered by both teachers and pupils. Was elected superintendent of the Appleton City Schools in 1889 and taught a successful term of one year and began his second term under favorable con- ditions save that of health, which failed, forcing him to resign. For a time his recovery was deemed impossible, but what was regarded at the time as a great calamity has proved a great physical benefit, for his recovery gave him a new lease of life, and the present time finds him still engaged in his chosen profession, with the same earnestness, zeal and vigor of twenty years ago, and has probably taught more years in Southwest Missouri than any other person. Has kept up with the times, nor has years of faithful work in the school room lessened his ardor in the cause of education. He is strong and vigorous both in body and mind, and as capable of efficient service as a man of twenty-five. Ile is a close student, and a scholarly gentleman. and no teacher with whom we are acquainted stands closer to the army of young men and women who have sat at his feet in the class room than he does. This fact alone is a monument to his fidelity and enduring work.
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65
OF BATES COUNTY.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF BATES COUNTY.
(Prepared by Professor L. B. Allison.)
Bates County in 1-65 was in a state of desolation. But four* school hoases survived the ravages of the war; one at Pleasant Gap and is now their district school house, one on South Deepwater, known as the Radford School House, aud is now in a dilapidated condition: one near Johnstown; and one on the head of Elk Fork on the Evans' farm. The two last were used for school houses a short time only. School houses were rendezvous for bushwhackers and scouts dur- ing the war and when they were forced to abandon them they usually set fire to them, and in that way they were burned up. There were only five of the old teachers who returned to the county after the war, viz: A. E. Page, R. J. Reed. William Requa. Mrs. Sarah Rogna and Miss Josephine Bartlett. David MeGanghoy was appointed county super- intendent of public school, for the county at the May term of the county court. in 1866. and the next day after his ap- pointment George Lampkin and Mrs. E. Burkleo, his sister, were granted certificates to teach. Mr. Lampkin commenced teaching at Pleasant Gap the next Monday and taught there for one year. Miss Requa taught school in the Radford school house that summer and fall and George Hill at Johns- town. A temporary school house was built at Batler in the sammer of 1-66, and the first school was taught by Proffess- or Cavendish. a graduate of Ashbury University, Kansas, in the fall and winter of 1-66 and 1867. At that time there wore but five or six schools in the county. The first new school house built in the county after the war was the Els- wick school house and the next was in the Parks neighbor- hood. all in Charlotte township.
David MeGanghey was elected superintendent of public schools November, 1866, for two years. The fall of that year and the following winter most of the county was reor- ganized into school districts. The former boundaries of
OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
school districts were totally obliterated and lost, and in the hurry to have schools started as soon as two or three fami- lies settled in a township they organized it into a school dis- triet and built a school house. Soon these districts had to be divided and subdivided. In mauy townships the first school house had to be moved to accomodate the districts. In some townships the teachers fund had increased euor- mously which give a great impeins to our schools and indue- ed many good teachers to come to the county. The teachers' salary was good. During 1:67 and 1565 some forty or fifty new school houses were built and had good schools in them. During these two years the superintendent introduced the system of visiting the district schools, holding examinations and lectaring upon educational tapies which was appreciated by scholars and parcats and was very successfully carried out by his successor. In November. 1555 Proffessor L. B. Allison was cheated county superintendent for two years. The capital school faad survived the war in the best state of preservation of anything in the county. The principal had mostly all beea loaard out and secured by deeds of trust. The notes and deeds were all saved and accumulated interest for four or five Years, only a few notes for $5.) and under were worthless. The sale of the school lands before the war amounted to about $5,000 which has been augmented to about $100.000 from the sale of lands. The rapid rise in the value of lands had a good effect upou our school fund. mak- ing the school fund of Bates County the second best of any county in the state.
The number of school districts increased rapidly during the superintendency of Prof. L. B. Allison, as his annual report to the state superintendent for the year 1870 will abundantly prore-
In the year 1-19 Bates County ranked fourth in the amount expended for the building of school houses, and in 1870 she stood second, expending that year the sum of $14.170.71.
The first teachers' institute ever held in the county was or- . ganized in Butler at the First Presbyterian Church ou the 24th day of Max. 1-69. Nearly fifty teachers were in at- tendance, and a remarkably interesting session of five days was held under the leadership of the county superintendent, - who had devoted much time in the East to institute work.
CF BATES COUNTY
The result of this teachers' meeting was immediate in its ef- fect upon the schools, for the teachers, with hardly an ex- ception. endeavored to put in practice the methods of in- struction presented to them, and a marked change for the better was plainly visible.
A second session of three days, beginning on the 1st day of September following. was held in the same place as the first. and the institute was favored with the aid of the state superintendent of public instruction and his assistants, Profs. 'T. A. Parker and Edwin Clark: also Prof. Jasper A. Smith. Nearly every teacher in the county was present and mani- fosted a lively interest in the proceedings.
A rapid advancement iu the status of the common schools of the county and the awakening of the people in their be- half. induced the superintendent to call the third meeting of the Bates County Teachers Institute, in April 1870, to Pap- insville, then the second town in the county. The teachers were warmly welcomed by the citizens of the town and were invited to share their hospitalities. About forty teachers were enrolled during the session, and several of the citizens took part in the proceedings, making the session both an interesting and profitable one.
A change in the school law made by the state legislature during the winter of 1870, making more liberal provisions in the increase of the number of days for official work. enabled the superintendent to visit and examine into the condition of every school in the county, also to consult with school of- iicers and secure uniformity, both in the schools and the proper school district reports.
The first brick school house in the county was erected in Butler. Work began on the same in the fall of 1869, though not completed till the latter part of the next year. Located at the head of Ohio Street, on the west side of town, where the present enlarged building now stands. Its original cost was about $8,000, and was among the first school buildings that were furnished with the patent seat and desk.
Many fine school buildings were erected in various parts of the county during the year of 1870, and the two years fol- lowing and most of them were furnished with patent school furniture.
In the fall of 1870. Mr. Charles Wilson was elected as
OLD SETTLERS HISTORY
county superintendent. Under his administration. several new districts were organized to meet the wants of the people in their newly formed settlements. Two teachers institutes were held, both in Butler, which were well attended and profitably conducted. James Harper succeeded Mr. Wilson in January. 1873, and was the last among the superintendents who visited among the schools, by reason of a change in the school law.
Educational matters in Bates County are at present in a highly prosperous condition. The great majority of districts having commodious and comfortable buildings seated and furnished with modern appliances, yards fonced. and many of them set to trees, the latter having been largely secured through the more general observance of Arbor Day, and the greater interest taken in beautifying our school surround- ings. Parents are awakening to the fact that the place where their children must spend nearly half of their early life, and that during the formative period. should be made as attract- ive as possible to secure the best results. We have not yet attained all that is needed in this direction. but some prog- ress has been made and it will continue to sweep onward. always gathering impetus as it moves. until in the not far distant future, we shall have reached our goal.
Under the present school law of Missouri. Bates County's school interests are in the hands of a County School Com- missioner, whose principal duties are the issuing of special certificates when the Institute is not in session, acting with Institute Board as ex-officio member of that body, and the hearing of cases under the school law coming under his jur- isdietion. He is usually employed as an instructor in our Institutes also, but this is not an official duty as Counis- sioner.
The standard of our schools is rapidly advancing. asmany of our teachers are more fully awakened to the responsibilities of their position. Every teacher in the county now attends the institute. The number of first grade teachers has in- creased more largely than those of the lower grades, which is partly due to the fact that many of our school officers are looking more to the qualifications of teachers, and are be- coming convinced that "cheap teachers. are dear at any price." .
OF BATES COUNTY
The indebtedness of most districts having been liquidated, school taxes are not so burdensome as formerly, consequent- ly a large number of districts are now able to have from sev- en to eight months of school each year, thereby saving teach- ers the trouble of "hunting a new school" at the end of each four months term. This is mutually beneficial to both school and teacher, for the too frequent change of teachers is a ser- ious hindrance to the prosperity of our schools.
In the last fifteen years many advances, both legislative and pedagogical, have been made toward the betterment of our schools, and we have undoubtedly received some benefit from each of them. The Institute law, while we believe it open to improvement, has been the instrument of bringing the teachers together in greater numbers and elevating their professional pride and increasing, in a marked degree, their proficiency as a class, since in these institutes the inexper- ienced are able to gather much beneficial assistance from the more experienced.
And the Text-Book law, while yet in a very crude state, perhaps, and subject to much criticism whether deserved or not. has been of invaluable aid to our schools by at least se- curing uniformity in our texts, aud with this help any teach- er should be far enough beyond mere text book knowledge to expand as necessary, when the text book shall be ex- hausted.
These things, together with the recognized standing of the teacher as a professional mau, have broadened his horizon, caused him to push upward and onward toward the, as yet, unattained summits of the mountains of universal knowledge, and so working untold benefits to our children for, "As the Teacher, so is the School."
The province of the historian being a truthful and unbiased . rendering of facts rather than an indulgence in rhetorical figures, we here give a few statistics which will the better show the progress made from 1870 to 1898 in Bates County's schools.
OLD SETTLERS' HISTORY
COMPARATIVE TABLE.
1870.
1895.
Number of school children. 5,749
10,027
Number of children attending 3,574
10,075
Number of public schools. 91 200
Number of school houses. 78.
105*
Number teachers attending institute. . 60 201
Number volumes in school libraries 2,500
Value of school libraries
$2,250
Number of trees planted Arbor day
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