The educational feature was one of the
earliest, as it is likewise one of
the chief and
present, thoughts of the people of O'Brien county. They
adapted themselves to what they were able to do. Though they could not
build a
sixty-thousand-dollar brick school building, they insisted on the
school nevertheless and built the shack school
house, even as they themselves
lived in the shack
shanty. They even held school in the old log court house.
But the
primal fact remained that they kept school. In the simple town plat
of Old O'Brien, the old county seat in i860, on the first fly leaf of record deed
book "A," the first deed record book of the county, a block is set apart for a
school site. Clark Green and
James Roberts did the same for Primghar
when the town was
surveyed out with a four-foot lath, which was the fact.
Indeed the school block has been
among the first blocks platted in every town
in the
county.
The schools of the
county are under the immediate supervision of the
county superintendent. Prof. J.J. Billingsly is the present incumbent of
that office. This has been the one sacred office in the
county, so considered
and so dealt with in fact, and has been kept largely out of and free of politics. The elections to this office have resulted
meritoriously. Its school
superintendents have mainly been persons of ripe experience along the lines
of educational work. For instance. Miss Ella Seckerson filled the office for
ten
years from January 1, 1892, to January 1, 1902. and prior to which time
she had held a
position as one of the corps of teachers in the Sheldon high
schools for
many years. Miss Nellie Jones was superintendent of schools
for seven
years, from January 1, 1902, to January 1, 1909, with a well
equipped experience of fourteen years as teacher and a large portion of the
time as
lady principal of the same Sheldon high school. Prof. J.J. Billingsly,
now completing his sixth year as county superintendent, had served Primghar
six
years, Sanborn six years and Paullina three years, as superintendent of
their high schools. David Algyer, superintendent six years, was school principal in Sanborn. Here is one period alone of twenty-nine years wherein
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 195
the office has been presided over and had the ripest experience of four veteran educators of the county.
Educators who can and did
supervise large bodies of children, dealing
with
parents and boards and school subjects, were the ideal candidates for
the still larger powers of organization necessary to manage the machinery
needed to educate five thousand five hundred and
ninety-nine children, according" to the last official report from this office; with supervisory business
connected with
twenty-two boards; with about two hundred teachers; with
about one hundred and
thirty-three rural school buildings; with about two
hundred school
officials, including school treasurers and secretaries, the various functions being like companies, regiments, divisions and brigades, moving systematically with military precision and with one common aim. We
also note the fact that in each case of the four
superintendents above named,
as likewise the earlier
superintendents mentioned below, their years of experience were in O'Brien
county schools, which gave to them the peculiar local
knowledge of facts and conditions within the county.
The
high schools in the six main towns are now accredited schools,
entitling the high school graduates to enter the several colleges of the state
without further preparatory work.
Three of the
high schools of the county, Sheldon, Hartley and Sutherland, have met the requirements and have been appointed as normal training schools for the rural school teachers, entitling those three high schools
to receive an annual
appropriation of about seven hundred and fifty dollars
each, or about sufficient, or a little more, to pay a qualified instructor. These
normal
training schools are intended to fill the same place for the rural
school teacher that the State Normal
Training School at Cedar Falls furnishes
to the
aspirants for high school positions. The Primghar high school was
also so designated in 1914.
Among the earlier county superintendents, Harley Day was superintendent of the Primghar schools four years, Stephen Harris three years, Miss Bell Cowan two
years and C.H. Crawford two years. Thus we see that in all
eight of its county superintendents had had a large experience in
O'Brien county public schools.
We mention these four first because
they are the last and recent superintendents, and have each had long terms in which to fully organize and carry
out the
policies of our present magnificent school system under its modern
equipments. We should not, however, forget the very great service rendered
by the early and pioneer school superintendents from 1870, when the settlers
196 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
arrived, in the persons of Stephen Harris, D.A.W. Perkins, Jesse A. Smith,
A.B.
Chrysler, Harley Day, David Algyer, C.H. Crawford and Miss Isabella
Cowan. These
superintendents were each highly educated persons, and in
each case had had
experience in the several schools of the county. Their
terms were shorter
(except Mr. Algyer, who served six years) and were
handicapped by the pioneer conditions, buildings and equipments. We also
note the fact that in
every case of all this large number their experience as
teachers and educators was had in our own O'Brien
county schools.
The writer hereof saw in the early days of this county school houses built with
only a one-side slant roof. But, mark the fact, they kept school.
The writer, in the seventies, attended sundry lyceums, school programs and
debates in some of those primitive school buildings that would do credit to
some of the later contests for oratorical championships. An item elsewhere
in this history refers to the Baker Library Association, maintained for so
long a period, organized as it was in the very earliest day of the homesteader,
and which is even
yet maintained at Sutherland as one of the definite educational features. Relating to libraries, we might also add that each high
school in the county is equipped with a working library of reference works
and volumes
covering the usual list of subjects found in most libraries. Even
many of the rural schools have libraries conforming to their measure, ranging from twenty to three hundred volumes in the several country school
buildings. The office of the county superintendent, at the court house in
Primghar, sets the example of six hundred volumes of a well selected teacher's
library, covering the desirable subjects.
We have spoken elsewhere of the laudable and appreciated work during
now sixteen
years of George W. Schee, in his encouragement and large financial aids in the various
public schools of the county, of his prizes given in the
way of trips to Washington, the Buffalo Exposition, to Pike's Peak and the
West, of groups of the champion scholars in the public schools, as educational features, and of his efforts in the education of loyalty and patriotism to the
country, in the furnishing of a flag, the Stars and Stripes, to be displayed on every school house in the county, as an educational aid, as well as a high ideal in moral uplift.
Indeed, all information, communication, moral uplift or training on any
goodly line, whether proceeding from the home, the church, the school, the
press, the courts or other sources, is educational. These desirable conditions
are everywhere to be seen, felt and enjoyed by our citizens.
The school buildings and equipments throughout the county have grown
in size, in value, in quality, and facilities proportionately as the county has
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 197
increased on other lines. In these
very conditions we observe an education
within itself. This is
especially notable in the construction of the twenty to
sixty-thousand-dollar brick school buildings in the several towns. No better
comparison of the relative conditions of, say, three periods in the school
development of one of our towns can be made than hrst a reference to the
small
one-story frame school building, about the size of the usual rural
school
building in the country, first erected in Sheldon in 1873, immediately
as it became a town; then the second
building, still a wooden frame, but two
stories
high, with still the stove heat and other items corresponding, and
then the final
three-story brick structure, with a heating plant alone whose
cost would have built at least three school
buildings like the first named, with
all modern features that
go with it. Perhaps at this point we should make
note of the one
great calamity to Sheldon's first modern brick building,
which was burned in the
year 1904, it being indeed the only large school
building ever burned or destroyed in the county. We must also note how,
like Chicago, before the embers and ashes were cold, its more than duplicate
was planned and carried at once to completion. The school buildings and
equipments and public developments, in which we take a pride and which
become all but sacred,
may meet with disaster and be destroyed, but the ideal
sentiments back of them, and the determination to rehabilitate and even
again enlarge upon them, cannot be consumed or blotted out.
One item is noticeable in the construction of all our school
buildings in
the several towns, namely, that they are all built not for a day, but, in size
and
proportions in the different rooms and departments, for the growing
future of the
years to come. For instance, the assembly rooms in the several
buildings, that now perhaps have from sixty to one hundred seats, are in
fact built to hold from one hundred and
twenty to one hundred and fifty,
with all other details and offices and accommodations to
correspond. Also,
for instance, while all the towns in the county do not at this date conduct
classes for the
girls in domestic science or the art of cooking, or a manual
training in the trades for the boys, yet the rooms are provided for this work
and the idea of growth held out, which will all come as a certainty in due
time.
The
high school buildings in the county are now also equipped with
gymnasiums, thus taking into account the benefits of athletics, basket and
base ball and other
games and, indeed, all those features belonging to recreation and
building up of the body. To these may be added the sundry connections of each school
through its several teams for physical and mental
198 O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA.
contest, in their relations with the district, state and interstate leagues representing those fields.
The schools of the county have also made much headway in meeting the
requirements of the sanitary laws and rules of the state board of health. At
this date there are about
fifty modern heating and ventilating systems in the
rural school buildings and many are equipped with sanitary drinking jars
and individual
drinking cups.
Our
high schools have not only libraries of books, but are provided with
desirable daily newspapers, county papers and magazines. There are now
ten newspapers published in the county, which contribute much to general
educational advantages.
In addition to these direct school equipments, are numerous private
libraries in the homes, as well as the daily papers found there, with other
magazines and periodicals finding their way to the school rooms. It is probably a safe estimate to say that close to three thousand copies of daily papers
are taken in the homes and offices of the
county.
O'Brien
county has its full share of telephones and rural free deliveries,
all furnishing information and educational advantages not merely to the
children, but their parents, and even to the transient within the county.
The lecture courses and
chautauquas have a good showing in this
county. Indeed it is not merely a showing, but continual courses from year
to year and for now about fourteen to sixteen years have been held in the
larger towns, and lesser and corresponding efforts in the smaller towns.
Practically all the leading educators, ministers, politicians and men of note
on all lines have been heard in one or other of the towns of the
county.
We must not omit the
large force of the church as an educator. This
feature has received its full notice in the
sundry items of church history
herein
given. The local press, consisting at this date of ten papers in the
county, may well be considered a part of the educational features. The press
will be noticed in a special article.
The several
county superintendents since 1870 have held annual teachers' institutes, of from one to two weeks. This is in the nature of a normal
training school, covering all those general questions found in the high and
rural schools, the subjects and classes being conducted by the county superintendent and
special educators employed, for which a fund is appropriated
from the revenues of the
county. This institute also keeps well in hand all
those
proper organizations throughout the county connected with school affairs, including their relations with school officers, and other general questions and bodies.
O'BRIEN AND OSCEOLA COUNTIES, IOWA. 199
There are also several
parochial and church schools. The German
Lutheran church at Germantown, in Caledonia township, has for about
thirty years conducted a parochial school in connection with their large
church. This school is
methodically arranged in grades and has all the
facilities equal to a full high school course. Indeed many of the branches
taught, including the languages, the higher mathematics, the classics and
other
higher studies, lift it well up to the academic or even the collegiate
standard. The
township being practically all German, that language is
given precedence. The St. John's Lutheran Evangelical church in Center
township, as likewise the German Lutheran churches at Calumet and Hartley, hold courses of study and regular school instruction in connection with
their churches. The Catholic church, as will be seen elsewhere, does likewise for its
people in its various churches in the county. The Friends
church in Highland township does a similar work along the lines of that
society.
The
following is a complete list of the county superintendents since
1860, with the inclusive calendar years during which they served: Hannibal H. Waterman, i860; John J. Jenkins, 1861; George Hoffman, 1862;
Moses Lewis, 1863-1868; Chester W. Inman, 1869; Stephen Harris, 1870-
1872; D.A.W. Perkins, 1873; Jesse A. Smith, 1874-1875; A.B. Chrysler,
1876-1877: Harley Day, 1878-1881; David Algyer, 1882-1887; C.H. Crawford, 1888-1889; Isabella Cowan, 1890-1891; Ella Seckerson, 1892-1901; Nellie Jones, 1902-1908; J. J. Billingsly, 1909, and still serving.