The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 21

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082

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AGITATION FOR FREE SCHOOLS.

Shortly before the admission of the state the subject of free schools began to be quite widely discussed. In February, 1845, Col. M. Frank, of Kenosha, a member of the territorial legislature. introduced a bill, which became a law, authorizing the legal voters of his own town to vote taxes on all the assessed property for the full support of its schools. A provision of the act required its submission to the people of the town before it could take effect. It met with strenuous opposition, but after many public meetings and lectures held in the interests of public enlightenment, the act was ratified by a small majority in the fall of 1845, and thus the first free school in the state was legally organized Subsequently, in the legislature, in the two constitutional con- ventions, and in educational assemblies, the question of a free-school system for the new state soon to be organized provoked much interest and discussion. In the constitution framed by the convention of 1846, was provided the basis of a free-school system similar to that in our present constitution. The question of establishing the office of state superintendent, more than any other feature of the proposed school system, elicited discussion in that body. The necessity of this office, and the advantages of free schools supported by taxation, were ably presented to the convention by Hon. Henry Barnard, of Connecticut, in an evening address. He afterward pre- pared, by request, a draft of a free-school system, with a state superintendent at its head, which was accepted and subsequently embodied in the constitution and the school law. In the second constitutional convention, in 1848, the same questions again received careful attention, and the article on education previously prepared, was, after a few changes, brought into the shape in which we now find it. Immediately after the ratification by the people, of the constitution pre- pared by the second convention, three commissioners were appointed to revise the statutes. To one of these, Col. Frank, the needed revision of the school laws was assigned. The work was acceptably performed, and the new school code of 1849, largely the same as the present one, went into operation May first of that year.

THE SCHOOL SYSTEM UNDER THE STATE GOVERNMENT.

In the state constitution was laid the broad foundation of our present school system. The four corner stones were: (1) The guaranteed freedom of the schools; (2) the school fund created ; (3) the system of supervision; (4) a state university for higher instruction. The school fund has five distinct sources for its creation indicated in the constitution : (1) Proceeds from the sale of lands granted to the state by the United States for educational purposes ; (2)

142

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

all moneys accruing from forfeiture or escheat ; (3) all fines collected in the several counties for breach of the penal laws; (4) all moneys paid for exemption from military duty ; (5) five per cent. of the sale of government lands within the state. In addition to these constitutional sources of the school fund, another and sixth source was open from 1856 to 1870. By an act of the state legislature in the former year, three-fourths of the net proceeds of the sales of the swamp and overflowed lands, granted to the state by congress, Sept. 28, 1850, were added to the common- school fund, the other fourth going into a fund for drainage, under certain circumstances ; but if not paid over to any town for that purpose within two years, to become a part of the school fund. The following year one of these fourths was converted into the normal-school fund, leaving one-half for the common-school fund. In 1858, another fourth was given to the drainage fund, thus providing for the latter one-half the income from the sales, and leaving for the school fund, until the year 1865, only the remaining one-fourth. In the latter year this was transferred to the normal-school fund, with the provision, however, that one-fourth of the income of this fund should be transferred to the common-school fund until the annual income of the latter fund should reach $200,000. In 1870 this provision was repealed, and the whole income of the normal fund left applicable to the support of normal schools and teachers' institutes.

At the first session of the state legislature in 1848, several acts were passed which carried out in some degree the educational provisions of the constitution. A law was enacted to pro- vide for the election, and to define the duties, of a state superintendent of public instruction. A district board was created, consisting of a moderator, director, and treasurer; the office of town superintendent was established, and provision was made for the creation of town libraries, and for the distribution of the school fund. The present school code of Wisconsin is substantially that passed by the legislature of 1848, and which went into operation May 1, 1849. The most important change since made was the abolition of the office of town superintendent, and the substitution therefor of the county superintendency. This change took effect January 1, 1862.

THE SCHOOL-FUND INCOME.

The first annual report of the state superintendent, for the year 1849, gives the income of the school fund for that year as $588, or eight and three-tenth mills per child. Milwaukee county received the largest amount, $69.63, and St. Croix county the smallest, twenty-four cents. The average in the state was forty-seven cents per district. The following table will show at a glance the quinquennial increase in the income of the fund, the corresponding increase in the number of school children, and the apportionment per child, from 1849 to 1875, inclusive ; also, the last published apportionment, that for 1878. It will be seen that since 1855 the increase of the fund has not kept pace with the increase of school population :

YEAR.

NO. CHILDREN INCOME OF OF SCHOOL-AGE. SCHOOL FUND

RATE PER CHILD.

YEAR.

NO. CHILDREN OF SCHOOL-AGE. SCHOOL FUND INCOME OF

RATE PER CHILD.

1849 --

70,457

$588 00

$0.0083

1865 --

335.582

151,816 34

.46

1850- -

92,105

47,716 00

.518

1870 __

412,481

159,271 38

.40

1855- -

186,085

125,906 02

.67

I875 --

450,304

184,624 64

.41

1860 ..

288,984

184,949 76

.64

1878 ..

478,692

185,546 01

.39

The amount of productive school fund reported September 30, 1878, was $2,680,703.27. The portion of the fund not invested at that date, was $58,823. 70.

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EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

THE STATE UNIVERSITY.

In his message to the first territorial legislature, in 1836, Governor Dodge recommended asking from congress aid for the establishment of a state educational institution, to be governed by the legislature. This was the first official action looking to the establishment of a state university. The same legislature passed an act to establish and locate the Wisconsin univer- sity at Belmont, in the county of Iowa. At its second session, the following year, the legislature passed an act, which was approved January 19, 1838, establishing "at or near Madison, the seat of government, a university for the purpose of educating youth, the name whereof shall be 'The University of the Territory of Wisconsin. " A resolution was passed at the same session, direct- ing the territorial delegate in congress to ask of that body an appropriation of $20,000 for the erection of the buildings of said university, and also to appropriate two townships of vacant land for its endowment. Congress accordingly appropriated, in 1838, seventy-two sections, or two townships, for the support of a "seminary of learning in the territory of Wisconsin," and this was afterward confirmed to the state for the use of the university. No effectual provision, how- ever, was made for the establishment of the university until ten years later, when the state was organized. Congress, as has been said, had made a donation of lands to the territory for the support of such an institution. but these lands could not be made available for that purpose until the territory .should become a state. The state constitution, adopted in 1848, declared that pro- vision should be made for the establishment of a state university, and that the proceeds of all lands donated by the United States to the state for the support of a university should remain a perpetual fund, the interest of which should be appropriated to its support

The state legislature, at its first session, passed an act, approved July 26, 1848, establishing the University of Wisconsin, defining its location, its government, and its various departments, and authorizing the regents to purchase a suitable site for the buildings, and to proceed to the erection of the same, after having obtained from the legislature the approval of plans. This act repealed the previous act of 1838. The regents were soon after appointed, and their first annual report was presented to the legislature, January 30, 1849. This report announced the selection of a site, subject to the approval of the legislature, announced the organization of a preparatory department, and the election of a chancellor or president. The university was thus organized, with John H. Lathrop, president of the University of Missouri, as its first chancellor, and John W. Sterling as principal of the preparatory department, which was opened February 5, 1849. Chancellor Lathrop was not formally inaugurated until January 16, 1850.

Owing to the short-sighted policy of the state in locating without due care, and in apprais- ing and selling so low the lands of the original grant, the fund produced was entirely inadequate to the support of the institution. Congress, therefore, made, in 1854, an additional grant of seventy-two sections of land for its use. These, however, were located and sold in the same inconsiderate and unfortunate manner, for so low a price as to be a means of inducing immigra- tion, indeed, but not of producing a fund adequate for the support of a successful state univer- sity. Of the 92,160 acres comprised in the two grants, there had been sold prior to September 30, 1866, 74,178 acres for the sum of $264,570.13, or at an average price of but little more than $3.50 per acre .* Besides this, the state had allowed the university to anticipate its income to the extent of over $100,000 for the erection of buildings. By a law of 1862 the sum of $104,339.43 was taken from its fund (already too small) to pay for these buildings. The resulting embar- rassment made necessary the re-organization of 1866, which added to the slender resources of the institution the agricultural college fund, arising from the sale of lands donated to the state by the congressional act of 1862.

*Compare the price obtained for the lands of the University of Michigan. The first sale of those lands averaged $22.85 per acre, and brought in a single year (1837) $150,447.90. Sales were made in succeeding years at $15, $17, and $19 per acre.

144

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

The first university building erected was the north dormitory, which was completed in 1851. This is 110 feet in length by 40 in breadth, and four stories in height. The south dormitory, of the same size, was completed in 1855. The main central edifice, known as University Hall, was finished in 1859. The Ladies' College was completed in 1872. This latter was built with an appropriation of $50,000, made by the legislature in 1870-the first actual donation the univer- sity had ever received from the state. The legislature of 1875 appropriated $80,000 for the erection of Science Hall, a building to be devoted to instruction in the physical sciences. This was completed and ready for occupancy at the opening of the fall term of 1877.

The growth of this institution during the past fourteen years, and especially since its re- organization in 1866, has been rapid and substantial. Its productive fund on the 30th day of September, 1877, aside from the agricultural college fund, was $223,240 32. The combined uni- versity and agricultural funds amounted, at the same date, to $464,032 22. An act of the legis- lature in 1867 appropriated to the university income for that year, and annually for the next ten years, the sum of $7,303.76, being the interest upon the sum taken from the university fund by the law of 1862 for the erection of buildings, as before mentioned. Chapter 100 of the general laws of 1872 also provided for an annual state tax of $10,000 to increase the income of the uni- versity. Chapter 119 of the laws of 1876 provides for an annual state tax of one-tenth of one mill on the taxable property of the state for the increase of the university fund income, this tax to be "in lieu of all other appropriations before provided for the benefit of said fund income," and to be "deemed a full compensation for all deficiencies in said income arising from the dis- position of the lands donated to the state by congress, in trust, for the benefit of said income." The entire income of the university from all sources, including this tax (which was $42,359.62), was, for the year ending September 30, 1878, $81,442.63. The university has a faculty of over thirty professors and instructors, and during the past year-1877-8-it had in its various depart- ments 388 students. The law department, organized in 1868, has since been in successful opera- ation. Ladies are admitted into all the departments and classes of the university.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE.

The agricultural college fund, granted to the state by the congressional act of 1862, was by a subsequent legislative enactment (1866) applied to the support, not of a separate agricultural college, but of a department of agriculture in the existing university, thus rendering it unneces- sary for the state to erect separate buildings elsewhere. Under the provisions of chapter 114, laws of 1866, the county of Dane issued to the state, for the purpose of purchasing an experi- mental farm, bonds to the amount of $40,000. A farm of about 200 acres, adjoining the univer- sity grounds, was purchased, and a four years' course of study provided, designed to be thorough and extensive in the branches that relate to agriculture, in connection with its practical application upon the experimental farm.

The productive agricultural college fund has increased from $8,061.86, il 1866, to $244, 263, 18, in 1878.

NORMAL. SCHOOLS.

The propriety of making some special provision for the instruction of teachers was acknowledged in the very organization of the state, a provision for normal schools having been embodied in the constitution itself, which ordains that after the support and i: a ntenance of the

145

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

common schools is insured, the residue of the school fund shall be appropriated to academies and normal schools. The state legislature, in its first session in 1848, in the act establishing the Uni- versity of Wisconsin, declared that one of the four departments thereof should be a department of the theory and practice of elementary instruction. The first institution ever chartered in the state as a normal school was incorporated by the legislature at its second session - 1849 - under the title of the " Jefferson County Normal School." This, however, was never organized.

The regents, when organizing the university, at their meeting in 1849, ordained the estab- lishment of a normal professorship, and declared that in organizing the normal department it was their fixed intention " to make the University of Wisconsin subsidiary to the great cause of popular education, by making it, through its normal department, the nursery of the educators of the popular mind, and the central point of union and harmony to the educational interests of the commonwealth." They declared that instruction in the normal department should be free to all suitable candidates. Little was accomplished, however, in this direction during the next ten years. In 1857 an act was passed by the legislature appropriating twenty-five per cent. of the income of the swamp-land fund " to normal institutes and academies under the supervision and direction of a board of regents of normal schools," who were to be appointed in accordance with the provisions of the act. Distribution of this income was made to such colleges, acade- mies, and high schools as maintained a normal class, in proportion to the number of pupils pass- ing a successful examination conducted by an agent of the board. In 1859, Dr. Henry Barnard, who had become chancellor of the university, was made agent of the normal regents. He inaugurated a system of teachers' institutes, and gave fresh vigor to the normal work throughout the state. Resigning. however, on account of ill-health, within two years, Professor Chas. H. Allen, who had been conducting institutes under his direction, succeeded him as agent of the normal regents, and was elected principal of the normal department of the university, entering upon his work as the latter in March, 1864. He managed the department with signal ability and success, but at the end of one or two years resigned. Meantime the educational sentiment of the state had manifested itself for the establishment of separate normal schools.

In 1865, the legislature passed an act repealing that of two years before, and providing instead that one-half of the swamp-land fund should be set apart as a normal-school fund, the income of which should be applied to establishing and supporting normal schools under the direction and management of the board of norinal regents, with a proviso, however, that one. fourth of such income should be annually transferred to the common-school fund income, until the latter should amount annually to $200,000. This proviso was repealed by the legislature of 1870, and the entire income of one-half the swamp-land fund has since been devoted to normal- school purposes. During the same year proposals were invited for aid in the establishment of a normal school, in money, land, or buildings, and propositions from various places were received and considered. In 1866, the board of regents was incorporated by the legislature. In the same year Platteville was conditionally selected as the site of a school, and as there was already a productive fund of about $600,000, with an income of over $30,000, and a prospect of a steady increase as thelands were sold, the board decided upon the policy of establishing several schools, located in different parts of the state. In pursuance of this policy, there have already been completed, and are now in very successful operation, the Platteville Normal School, opened October 9, 1866; the Whitewater Normal School, opened April 21, 1868 ; the Oshkosh Normal School, opened September 19, 1871, and the River Falls Normal School, opened September 2, 1875. Each assembly district in the state- is entitled to eight representatives in the normal schools. These are nominated by county and city superintendents. Tuition is free to all normal students. There are in the normal schools two courses of study - an

146

HISTORY OF WISCONSIN.

elementary course of two years, and an advanced course of four years. The student completing the former, receives a certificate ; the one completing the latter, a diploma. The certificate, when the holder has successfully taught one year after graduation, may be countersigned by the sup- erintendent of public instruction, when it becomes equivalent to a five-years' state certificate. The diploma, when thus countersigned, after a like interval, is equivalent to a permanent state certificate.

It is believed that the normal-school system of Wisconsin rests upon a broader and more secure basis than the corresponding system of any other state. That basis is an independent and permanent fund, which has already reached a million dollars. The precise amount of this securely invested and productive fund, September 30, 1878, was $1,004,907.67, and the sum of $33,290.88 remained uninvested.

TEACHERS' INSTITUTES.

In addition to the work of the normal schools, the board of regents is authorized to expend $5,000 annually to defray the expenses of teachers' institutes. A law of 1871, amended in 1876, provides for normal institutes, which shall be held for not less than two consecutive weeks, and appropriates from the state treasury a sum not exceeding $2,000 per annum for their support. There were held in the State, in 1878, sixty-six institutes, varying in length from one to two weeks. The total number of persons enrolled as attendants was 4,944

GRADED SCHOOLS.

Including those in the cities, the graded schools of the State number about four hundred. The annual report of the State superintendent for IS78 gives the number with two departments as 207, and the number with three or more as 225.

A law of March, 1872, provided that " all graduates of any graded school of the state, who shall have passed an examination at such graded school satisfactory to the faculty of the univer- sity for admission into the sub-freshman class and college classes of the university, shall be at once and at all times entitled to free tuition in all the colleges of the university." A consider- able number of graduates of graded schools entered the university under this law during the next four years, but it being deemed an unwise discrimination in favor of this class of students, in 1876, in the same act which provided for the tax of one tenth of one mill, the legislature pro- vided that from and after the 4th of July of that year no student, except students in law and those taking extra studies, should be required to pay any fees for tuition. Few graded schools of the state are able as yet to fully prepare students for entrance into the regular classes of the classical department of the university. The larger number prepared by them still enter the scientific department or the sub-freshman class.

THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM.

In 1869 the legislature passed a law authorizing towns to adopt by vote the " township sys- tem of school government." Under this system each town becomes one school district, and the several school districts already existing become sub-districts. Each sub-district elects a clerk, and these clerks constitute a body corporate under the name of the " board of school directors," and are invested with the title and custody of all school houses, school-house sites, and other prop- erty belonging to the sub-districts, with power to control them for the best interests of the schools of the town. The law provides for an executive committee to execute the orders of the

formes, Quen FOND DU LAC.

147

EDUCATIONAL HISTORY.

board, employ teachers, etc., and for a secretary to record proceedings of the board, have imme- diate charge and supervision of the schools, and perform other specified duties. But few towns have as yet made trial of this system, although it is in successful operation in Pensylvania, Mas- sachusetts, and some other states, and where fully and fairly tried in our own, has proved entirely satisfactory. It is the general belief of our enlightened educational men that the plan has such merits as ought to secure its voluntary adoption by the people of the state.

FREE HIGH SCHOOLS.

In 1875 the legislature enacted that any town, incorporated village, or city, may establish and maintain not more than two free high schools, and provided for an annual appropriation of not to exceed $25,000, to refund one-half of the actual cost of instruction in such schools, but no school to draw in any one year more than $500. At the session of 1877 the benefits of the act were extended to such high schools already established as shall show by a proper report that they have conformed to the requirements of the law. If towns decline to establish such a school, one or more adjoining districts in the same have the privilege of doing so. The law has met with much favor. For the school year ending Angust 31, 1876 (the first year in which it was in operation), twenty such schools reported, and to these the sum of $7,466.50 was paid, being an average of $373.32 per school. For the year ending August 31, 1878, eighty-five schools reported and received a pro rata division of the maximum appropriation. The high school law was primarily designed to bring to rural neighborhoods the twofold advantages of (1) a higher instruction than the common district schools afford, and (2) a better class of teachers for these schools. It was anticipated, however, from the first that the immediate results of the law would be chiefly the improvement of existing graded schools in the larger villages and in cities.

SCHOOL OFFICERS.

The school officers of Wisconsin are, a state superintendent of public instruction, sixty-four county superintendents, twenty-eight city superintendents, and a school board in each district, consisting of a director, treasurer, and clerk. The state and county superintendents hold office two years, the district officers three years. In each independent city there is a board of educa- tion, and the larger cities have each a city superintendent, who in some cases is also principal of the high school. He is appointed for one year. The county board of supervisors determine, within certain limits, the amount of money to be raised annually in each town and ward of their county for school purposes, levy an additional amount for the salary of the county superintend- ents, may authorize a special school tax, and may under certain circumstances determine that there shall be two superintendents for their county. The town board of supervisors have authority to form and alter school districts, to issue notice for first meeting, to form union districts for high school purposes, and appoint first boards for the same, to locate and establish school-house sites under certain circumstances, to extinguish districts that have neglected to maintain school for two years, and to dispose of the property of the same. The district clerks report annually to the town clerks, the town clerks to the county superintendents, and the county and city superintend- ents to the state superintendent, who in turn makes an annual report to the governor.

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The history of Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, Part 21

Author: Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company Number of Pages: 1082

Author:
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago, Western historical company
Number of Pages: 1082