USA > Wisconsin > Milwaukee County > Memoirs of Milwaukee County : from the earliest historical times down to the present, including a genealogical and biographical record of representative families in Milwaukee County, Volume I > Part 41
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During the summer of 1847 there was a spirited discussion over the proposal to borrow $15,000 for the purpose of erecting new school- houses. In 1848 the state authorized the city to borrow the money, though the municipal debt was nearly $2,000,000. Arrangements for the new buildings were not completed until 1849, and they were not ready for occupancy until 1852. Mayor Upham seems to have grown somewhat impatient at the delay, as in an address delivered in April, 1849, he expressed his surprise that "in such a city as Milwaukee, settled by people from New York and New England and adorned with so many fine churches and residences, the common schools have been so long neglected." But there was reason for the delay. The report of the school board for 1867 says: "The records of the school board extend no farther back than 1851, and we can find 110 printed report of the board of school commissioners of an earlier date than 1860. We think we are justified in denominating the following as the seventh annual report of the board of school commissioners."
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The writer, however, found printed reports for the years 1848 and 1849, and in the report for 1849 the loan question is dealt with at considerable length. The report says : "We cannot refer with much satisfaction to the condition of the public schools in Milwaukee, as they now exist, and as they have existed since the organization of the city government; although they are undoubtedly as well con- ducted as could be under existing circumstances." Then, after show- ing that the trouble resulted because there was not sufficient room nor sufficient revenue to provide new school buildings, and after review- ing the several remedies proposed, the report continues : "There only remained, therefore, one other expedient, to-wit: to authorize a loan to be made to the city, payable at the end of ten years, for the purpose of accomplishing this all important object. In this way the burden would be divided and shared by persons who will hereafter enjoy the benefits of the expenditure, as well as the present inhabitants. To this proposition the legislature promptly gave its authority, and the people as promptly assented, by a vote taken in accordance with the law, on this question. But unfortunately for the cause of education in our city, only a small portion ($4,000) of the loan so authorized has yet been secured, although a very liberal rate of interest is offered by the city. Holders of capital have other and still more lucrative methods of using it, and will not, therefore, take up the bonds offered by the city. It was hoped by the board that persons could be found who would, through motives of patriotism and city pride, take up the bonds offered, in as much as they would at the same time be making a per- manent and safe investment.
"This attempt having in a great degree failed, it now becomes the duty of the citizens, through the constituted authorities, to devise some other method of providing the necessary funds for the construc- tion of schoolhouses. To allow the present state of things to continue any longer than is absolutely necessary, would be a reproach upon the city that would have a blighting effect upon its future prosperity; for nothing tends more to give character to a place than the condition of its schools. If these are neglected and bad, it argues a wrong state of feeling in the citizens, and the better class of emigrants will be very apt to seek elsewhere for their future homes. To the question so often asked by persons upon their first visit to our city 'What is the state of education among you?' a much more satisfactory answer must be given than can now be done, if we wish our city to prosper and flourish.
* * By reference to the detailed statement of the expen- ditures of the board, it will be seen that the sum of $366 has been
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applied during the past year for rent of school rooms. This sum of course would be saved, and add so much to the means of instruction, if the proposed schoolhouses were constructed. *
* %% Should the means appropriated for this purpose be too limited to warrant anything better, it is believed that temporary wooden buildings, one story high, constructed in a cheap manner, and with a view to their removal at some future time, ought to be constructed without delay. Better buildings could be substituted from time to time, hereafter, as means are provided for that purpose. In those places where the streets are not yet reduced to their proper grade, especially, is this suggestion deemed worthy of consideration. The money on hand now lying idle in the treasury should, in the opinion of the board, be so applied without delay.
"On this subject, the erection of schoolhouses, the commissioners feel that they cannot too strongly urge upon the attention of our citizens the importance of immediate and efficient action; and to assert that it is the duty of Milwaukee to move in this matter, even if it requires the postponement of other improvements. The importance of a good education to a free people cannot be overestimated. The future safety of life and property may depend upon the means now adopted for laying the foundation of an education that will render those who are soon to occupy prominent places in Wisconsin a moral, intelligent and virtuous people."
This report was signed by S. L. Rood, president, and Rufus King, secretary. It has been quoted at length to show that the board was fully alive to the existing conditions, and if the necessary funds for the erection of new school buildings were not provided it was cer- tainly not the fault of the commissioners. With regard to receipts and expenditures the report showed the total expenses of the schools in 1849 to have been $3.512.96, the principal item of which was $2.787.66 for teachers' salaries. The receipts amounted to $4,903.82, leaving a balance in the treasury of $1,390.86. With this balance and the $4,000 resulting from the bond issue, the board went ahead and made arrangements for the erection of a two-story brick school- house, with basement, in each of the five wards. Each of these build- ings was designed for the accommodation of 350 pupils, and by a little crowding 400 could be accommodated. They cost about $3,000 each and were completed in 1852. The new buildings served to arouse interest in the work of the public schols. The attendance improved ; public-spirited citizens made donations of maps, globes, etc., to the schools; additions were made to the school library, which in the spring of 1853 contained 940 volumes ; the old Fifth ward schoolhouse
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was rented out and from the proceeds books were furnished to chil- dren whose parents were not able to buy them. During the next five years the schools made satisfactory progress and the salaries of the teachers were increased. In 1853 the principals of the several schools each received $450 for the school year, and as no janitors were em- ployed each principal was allowed $10 per quarter for taking care of the buildings and grounds. This allowance was subsequently increased to $18. In 1854 the principal's salary was raised to $650; in 1855 to $750, and in 1856 to $850. At that time the assistant teachers each received $350 per annum.
Then came the panic of 1857 and the Milwaukee schools, along with everything else, suffered from the financial depression. In 1858 the orders or warrants issued by the school board were so much depreciated that they were accepted only when discounted from 20 to 25 per cent. The executive committee of the school board recom- mended that the schools be closed, but, says Conard, "The matter was referred to a special committee, who recommended that the report of the executive committee be rejected, that the board ask the council for the amount necessary to continue the schools, and that all school orders draw ten per cent. after presentation. The report was adopted by the board and the schools were permitted to continue without interruption." In November of this year John P. Smith obtained, through the circuit court of Milwaukee county, an execution against John Rycraft and the city, and the sheriff was directed to sell the Second ward school house and the lands belonging thereto to satisfy the judgment. But the money was raised by other means and the school house was saved.
In 1859 there was again a deficit in the school fund and orders on presentation were endorsed with the discouraging statement "Not paid for want of funds." The question of closing the schools was again se- riously considered, but nothing definite was donc until the spring of 1860, when a committee was appointed to investigate the expenditures of the board during the preceding three years. The investigation de- veloped the fact that the expenses of 1859 had been more than double those of 1857, which was accounted for in the committee's report as follows : "During a part of the first period, 1857-58, the school orders were nearly at par, but in the spring of 1858 they had become so much depreciated that the board of school commissioners thought fit to raise the salaries of the teachers about 15 per cent., to make good the dis- count. In consequence, however, of the omission of the common coun- cil for two successive years to levy the amount certified by this board to be necessary for the maintenance of the public schools, the orders continued to fall in value until, during the past two or three months,
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teachers have found it difficult to realize over 75 per cent. on the face thereof. The orders issued for fuel and contingent expenses have been at a still heavier discount, the result being that the board have been obliged to pay for all necessary supplies, from 25 to 40 per cent. more in orders than the same articles could have been purchased for in cash. In short, had the common council provided the necessary means to re- deem the school orders at par the expenditures for the past two years would have been less, by some eight or ten thousand dollars. That the number of teachers employed by the board is not too large will be read- ily admitted when the fact is borne in mind that there are sixty-one scholars in regular attendance upon the public schools for every teacher employed therein."
The committee stated that, "by rigid economy, the expenses may be reduced to $45,000, and if school orders can be made to come up to par the reduction in expenses will be still more." On May 4, 1860, a special meeting of the board was held to consider the situation. After a preamble setting forth that "there are no funds appropriated by the city to sustain the public schools for the next term; and the situation of the city treasury absolutely demands a reduction of expenses in the management of the same," the following resolution was adopted : "That the public schools be kept closed for the term of two weeks from Mon- day next, to enable this board to confer with the common council and agree upon a general system of management and expenditures." At the same time it was ordered that "all persons now in the employ of this board as janitors, or in any other capacity, be, and they are hereby dis- charged from said employment."
The closing of the schools spurred the council to action and during the enforced vacation that body voted $25,000, which with the state fund of $7,000 gave the board the sum of $32,000 to defray the ex- penses for the ensuing year. In order to run the schools with this amount strict economy was necessary and retrenchments were at once begun. The two high schools were discontinued; principals' salaries were reduced to $800 and assistants' salaries were fixed at from $250 to $350 ; and only such supplies were purchased as were absolutely in- dispensable. As there were a number of outstanding orders, the va- lidity of which it was difficult to determine, they were ordered canceled, and new evidence was required to sustain the claims on which these orders-some of which were almost two years old-were issued. It was further ordered that no more orders should draw interest and that all orders should be made payable to "order" instead of "bearer."
An act of the state legislature, approved March 18, 1859. abridged the authority of the Milwaukee school board so that it no longer had
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the power to contract debts, purchase sites for school houses, erect buildings, make repairs, etc. By the same act the number of commis- sioners from each ward was reduced to two, as under the old regime of three members from each ward the board was getting to be unwieldy. When the first board was organized in 1846 there were but five wards in the city. The addition of the Sixth and Seventh wards in 1856 in- creased the number of commissioners to twenty-one, and the creation of the Eighth and Ninth wards in 1857 added six more members to the . board. Under the act of 1859 the commissioners were elected for two years instead of three. They were required to take the oath of office, and were subject to all the liabilities of members of the common council. Another provision of the act was that the board was required to adopt a uniform series of text-books, and to provide for a regular system of instruction, which would apply to all the schools as far as practicable. In order to secure this end the board was authorized to appoint a super- intendent of schools, who was to act as secretary of the board, and who was to receive a salary of not more than $2,000 per annum.
Prior to 1851 no formal examination of teachers had been re- quired. In that year the school board appointed an examinating com- mittee, consisting of I. A. Lapham, George Day and Rufus King, whose duty it was to test the qualifications and fitness of all applicants for positions as teachers in the public schools. The first examinations were conducted orally, though written examinations followed. Under the law of 1859 it became part of the duty of the superintendent to examine and certify teachers and the committee, like Othello, found its occupa- tion gone.
Rufus King, who had been connected with the school board from the date of its first organization in 1846, was elected superintendent. He was a man of liberal education, broad-minded and progressive, and the schools under his brief administration showed a marked improvement. He remained in office but one year, however, much to the regret of many of the teachers and patrons of the schools. Donnelly says: "The salary then paid, although it was considered liberal for the time, was not sufficient pay for the entire services of such a man as General King. His editorial management of the Sentinel probably demanded too much of his time to permit his giving the full scope of his splendid powers to the work of the schools." But his son, Col. Charles King, who was fifteen years of age when his father retired from the super- intendency, has suggested that the spoils system in the school board was in some degree responsible for General King's retirement.
On May 4, 1860, Jonathan Ford was elected to the superintendency. Mr. Ford had been a teacher in the Milwaukee schools, and was well
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fitted by training and experience for the duties of the position, though he did not possess the high order of executive ability that had distin- guished his predecessor. Moreover, he came into office just at the time the board was in financial distress, the same meeting which elected him superintendent passing the resolution to close the schools because of a lack of funds. His administration was further handicapped by the fire of Dec. 30, 1860, which destroyed the Cross block, in which the offices of the board were located, all the records, etc., being burned ex- cept what was in the safe. The indebtedness of the school board in 1861 was over $50,000, the orders were at a heavy discount, and it was not until 1864 that the orders reached par. Under Mr. Ford the teach- ers were required to make monthly reports to the superintendent, show- ing the number of pupils enrolled, the average daily attendance, the number studying each branch, the number of visitors to the school dur- ing the month, etc.
In 1861 the custom of giving prizes in the Milwaukee public schools was introduced by E. D. Holton who left with each school principal two silver medals to be given to the boy and girl who acquitted them- selves most creditably during the year. This was followed by Alexan- der Mitchell's offer of cash and book prizes for the pupils who attained the highest standing in their classes, and R. C. Spencer placed at the disposal of the board nine life scholarships-one for each grammar school-in his business college, the scholarships to be awarded for im- provement in penmanship and general good conduct.
In 1862 Mr. Ford was succeeded by J. R. Sharpstein, one of the editors of the Milwaukee Daily News. He was a good man, but his newspaper work required so much of his time and attention that after a few months he resigned and Edwin DeWolf, a member of the school board, was elected, assuming the duties of the office on Jan. 6, 1863. Donnelly says: "The selecting of such a person was the weakest act ever performed by the Milwaukee school board. It showed only what queer things deliberative bodies sometimes do. There was an able corps of principals and teachers then in the schools, and to them is due whatever of merit or success they then attained With the active work of the schools in such hands, the deficiencies of the superin- tending power hardly reached to the work of the class teacher."
In 1864, while Mr. DeWolf was superintendent, the question of more school houses again came up. The act of March 18, 1859, "for the management of the public schools of the city of Milwaukee," made it the duty of the school commissioners to report annually to the city council, making such recommendations as they might deem advisable for the promotion of the welfare of the schools. After the power to
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locate and erect school buildings had been taken from the school board and vested in the common council, the character of the Milwaukee school buildings was very much improved, and the equipments were generally of an expensive kind. In their report for 1864 the commis- sioners said: "Our primary schools are overcrowded, our teachers overworked, and the result is unsatisfactory. The city has, we fear, spent money injudiciously, one-half the sum spent upon our costly schoolhouses, expended in erecting plain primary school buildings, would have accomplished more for the cause of education. The evil is not past remedy. Our school houses are all needed for our grammar and intermediate departments. If the city will now expend one-fourth as much for the children of the primary schools, then Milwaukee may hope to claim pre-eminence in its public schools as it now does in the matter of its school architecture." It was probably in response to this plea that new buildings were erected on Washington street and Sher- man street, the former of which was opened in January, 1866, and the latter a year later.
The act of the legislature, approved April 7, 1865, provided that the superintendent of the Milwaukee schools should be a graduate of some college or normal school in the United States, or should hold a certificate from the state superintendent of public instruction, showing his qualifications for the office. Under this act Fennimore C. Pomeroy was elected superintendent.
Fennimore Cooper Pomeroy was born at Cooperstown, N. Y., Nov. 4, 1818. He was a son of Dr. George Pomeroy, and his mother was a sister of James Fennimore Cooper, after whom he was named. He was graduated at Dartmouth college and in 1837 became a resident of Milwaukee, where for some time he was engaged in the drug business. In 1840 he married Stella M. Woolson, of Claremont, N. H., and soon after his marriage removed to Green Lake county, Wis., where he lived for about ten years. He then returned to Milwaukee and was appointed to the position of principal of the Third ward school. He held the office of superintendent from the time of his election in May, 1865, until his death on Aug. 25, 1870, his superintendency having been distinguished by a great improvement in all departments of the public schools.
Up to the time that Mr. Pomeroy became superintendent teachers had been required to pass examinations annually. Having been re- peatedly called upon to undergo this annual test, he knew the useless- ness of it and soon induced the board to adopt the rule requiring the teacher to secure a certificate but once. In 1868 the old department system-primary, intermediate and grammar-was dropped and the
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graded system substituted for it. The question was then raised as to whether he had jurisdiction, under the laws then existing, to grade and promote pupils, but the city attorney decided that he had such legal right. It was during the administration of Mr. Pomeroy that the German language was made a part of the course of study in the public schools, but it remained optional with the pupil whether he would study German. In April, 1857, Ferdinand Kuehn, at that time a member of the board from the Sixth ward, offered a resolution pro- viding for a teacher of German in his own school district. The re- quest was modified so that the executive committee was authorized "to appoint a teacher whose duty it shall be to teach the German lan- guage in the Sixth ward school, and such other schools as may be directed." No school except that in the Sixth ward derived any bene- fit from this arrangement, and in 1861 it was discontinued. In 1867 Alexander Mitchell offered twenty-two prizes, three of which were for translating English into German. This revived interest in the sub- ject and in 1869, at the request of a large number of German citi- zens, the board incorporated German in the regular course of study with a teacher of German as one of the regular staff in each full graded school in the city. Although the study of German was made optional, in 1907 about 70 per cent. of the pupils were studying it, there being at that time nearly 700 German classes in the various schools, and over 100 German teachers were employed. The study of the lan- guage begins in the class immediately above the kindergarten and continues through the eight grades, about three hours each week being devoted to it.
In June, 1868, the board adopted the following text-books, which under the law were required to be used exclusively in the schools for a period of five years : McGuffey's readers, first to fifth, inclusive; McGuffey's speller; Ray's series of arithmetics; Kerl's common school grammar; Mitchel's geographies; Goodrich's history of the United States ; Alden's manual of civil government; the Spencerian copy books; Raffler's German readers, first to fourth, inclusive; Ahn's German course, two books: Hey's small German Grammar, and Oel- schlager's German dictionary.
Upon Mr. Pomeroy's death George H. Paul was elected to fill out the unexpired term. Nothing out of the ordinary occurred during the time he held the office, and on May 2, 1871, he was succeeded by Fred- erick C. Lau, who was born at Mecklenburg, Germany, April 10, 1835, and was educated in his native land at the gymnasium of New Brand- enburg. In 1854 he came to the United States and for the next ten years taught school in Washington and Ozaukee counties, Wis. In
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January, 1865, he enlisted as orderly sergeant in Company E, Forty- fifth Wisconsin infantry, which was stationed at Nashville, Tenn., most of the time until it was mustered out later in the same year. Prior to his enlistment he had been principal of the Sixth ward school in Milwaukee, and upon his return from the army he resumed his teach- ing in the city. In the fall of 1866 he was appointed principal of the Second ward school, and the following spring was elected superin- tendent as stated. He held the office of superintendent for three years, after which he took charge of the Thirteenth district school, and for many years thereafter was connected with the city schools.
By the act of April 7, 1865, the school board was authorized to appoint some suitable person as clerk to the superintendent at a salary of not more than $800 per annum, "in order to permit the superinten- dent to devote his time more to the inspection and supervision of the schools." Thomas Desmond was appointed in November, 1866, and held the office until 1872, when, under a new law, he was appointed secretary of the school board, with a salary of $1,200 a year and $600 additional for taking the school census. In 1872 the salary of each principal was increased to $1,375; assistants to $600, and the teachers of German to $920. The following year the principal's salary was in- creased to $1,400; the assistants to $700, and the German teachers to $1,000. In 1874 the principal's salary was increased to $1,500.
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