Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest

District number two originally included all of Sigourney Township, except the town district. It was afterwards divided into two separate districts. District number two was then named Newkirk for its benefactor, Daniel Newkirk, an old and respected citizen of Sigourney Township, who gave the ground on which the old schoolhouse was built.

The first schoolhouse was a log cabin built by the men of the district in 1854. It was heated by a wooden stove. The seats were homemade and both seats and desks were straight. They were movable and were placed on all sides of the room. The first teacher was John Lewis from Boone County, Indiana. He taught three weeks and gave it up. A man from Oskaloosa finished the term. The boys and girls who went to school at that time have grown to manhood and womanhood and they are scattered everywhere, some living on the Pacific coast, some near the Gulf of Mexico, while some are still living in this district and vicinity. One of the boys, Whitney Jacobs married Mr. Newkirk’s daughter and afterwards became sheriff of Keokuk County and was Postmaster at Delta for several years. One of his daughters became one of the many successful teachers of Keokuk County and is now the wife of County Attorney.

During a revival meeting held in the old schoolhouse, a man got so happy that he knocked the stove over when it was full of fire. He soon forgot his happiness in endeavoring to put out the fire.

In 1868, a new schoolhouse was built by Acley Beaman and plastered by William Clubb. It is rectangular in shape and is 20 ft. wide and 24 ft. long. It faces the east. It has a door in the east and three windows on each side. It was painted several years ago on the outside but it is about all off now. On the inside the woodwork is painted a dark blue and the walls are plastered and white-washed. At first the seats from the old house were used but now it is seated with twenty-four modern seats, four of which are small and twenty large.

The inner decorations consist of pictures, strung corn, and evergreen twigs. The corn is several colors and strung on cords. The stringing was done by the 2nd and 3rd grades.

The pictures are a large framed portrait of Washington and many smaller ones on matting. Our apparatus consists of seven maps, a globe, a chart, and a blackboard, which was made by painting a board black, and a library which was started in 1900 and now consists of 5 volumes. These books are books of history, fiction, and mythology. This schoolhouse is located on a hill in the southwestern part of the township about one-half mile from North Skunk River. The location is beautiful and healthful and is surrounded by beautiful farms. The schoolyard contains 80 square rods. The public road is on the north and west and a board fence on the south and east.

In the yard are fifteen trees, three hickory and twelve oak. Other vegetation in the yard consists of grass and gooseberry bushes. There is no well on the schoolground, but the water is carried from a farmhouse nearby.

In the old schoolhouse, my grandfather and grandmother received their education. In the new one my mother and myself received part of ours.

The first teacher in the new schoolhouse was Henry Wright and the last one is Miss Adella Priest. We are having a fine school now. There are forty-two pupils enrolled. They are mostly boys from twelve to fourteen years of age. Most of the pupils are well advanced and are regular and punctual in attendance.

The Methodist people held a very interesting meeting here in the winter of ’71 and ’72. There were received several additions to the church during the meeting. The pastor’s name was Armstrong. He was English by birth and very strict about the manner in which his people dressed. He organized a very large class at that time. Only one of which is now living, Mrs. Cowell of Delta. There was a Sunday School held here twelve years ago by a Sunday School Evangelist by the name of Hart.

In the future I see our schoolhouse built as a modern home with a telephone by which the teacher and scholars may communicate with the parents and the school board as is sometimes necessary. It will be finished with a basement and a furnace. It will consist of two rooms connected by double doors which may be opened into one room and with the windows places to the back and left of the pupils also having better modes of ventilation making it possible to have the school supplied with pure air continually.

In this house we will hold our public meetings and entertainments which will make social life in the community far more pleasant and agreeable than it is today. It may require consolidation of schools to make all of this possible.

I hope that the schoolground will be enlarged, with many nice shade trees, making a large and pleasant playground for the pupils.

I hope that the school will continue to prosper and that the scholars will take more and more interest and strive to be useful men and women and when their school life is finished may they re respected and loved by all and lead good and noble lives.