Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

Early Schools

Extracted from the 1915 History of Harrison County, Iowa, by Hon. Charles W. Hunt, Logan;  Published by B. F. Bowen & Co., Inc. Extracted from Chapter IV, pages 74-75.

Transcribed and submitted by Alvin Poole

     The first term of school (private subscription) was taught in the winter of 1849-50, in a log building, made for that purpose, on the bluff overlooking the old village plat of Calhoun, the first town of the county.  Ten scholars were usually in attendance.  The Browns and Allens furnished most of the pupils.  Mrs. James Cummings, wife of a Morman missionary, who at the time was in England, was the teacher.

Dr. Robert McGavern taught in the winter of 1850-51, on section 35, in “Tennessee Hollow.”

Judge Stephen King taught in Cass township in 1852-53, in an old forsaken Morman Cabin, at Six Mile Grove.

James McCurley taught in the old Mormon cabin, on section 6, of Union township, in the winter of 1851-52.

The first district school was taught at Elk Grove, in the autumn of 1853, by Miss Silva Harris, who became the wife of B.F. LaPorte, of Logan.

The first district school building in the county, was erected by John Thompson, in 1853.  It stood near the residence of C.I. Cutler in Magnolia Township.  Hon. T.B. Neeley taught the first school in that building.  It was a hewed-log structure.  What little lumber it contained was drawn from Reel’s mill on the Pigeon, over in Pottawattamie county, by ox teams.