Carroll County, Indiana - Chapter 14: Early School System, 1882

Chapter 14: Early School System

EARLY SCHOOL SYSTEM. Original School Funds - Their Source and How Used - First schoolhouses and how they were built - primitive Schools and School-Teachers - How Supported - Review OF School Economy in the County from 1824 to 1852 - Evidences OF Progress- School Funds Past and Present - The School System of To-Day, Etc.

UNDER the laws in force at the time of the first settlement of Carroll County, and subsequently, at the date of its organization, the school funds were derived cheifly from the sale of the sixteenth section, or " school section," as it was usually designated, in the several Congressional townships in the county. This, indeed, was the nucleus around which has accumulated tLe magnificent school fund that now provides, by the interest therefrom, for the education of the more than seven hundi-ed thousand children entitled to attend school in the State of Indiana. For the purpose of utilizing the proceeds of the sales of these sections by converting them into school revenue, by the provisions of an act of the Legislature, approved January 31, 1824, "the inhabitants of each Congressional township, being either freeholders or householders, at the noti<!e given by any three such inhabitants, set up for twenty days, at three of the most public places in such township, shall meet at the section reserved by Congi-ess for the use of schools, or at some place convenient thereto; and if there be present, at such time and place, twenty inhabitants of such township, as aforesaid, they shall proceed to elect, by ballot, three persons of their township, as Trustees, who shall be freeholders; and upon filing a certificate in the Clerk's ofiice that such election was held in conformity to the provisions of this act, * * * » the inhabitants shall be a body corporate and politic, under the name and style of Township School, No. - , Range - , as designated in the United States survey," etc.

By Section 3 of that act, it was provided " that the lands reserved by Congress for the use of schools, in each Congressional township, shall be vested in the corporation thereof, and such corporation, through and by their said Trustees, may dispose of all such lands, gifts or donations, made or reserved for the use of township schools, in such manner as may seem most conducive to the best interests thereof; except that no sale of the fee-simple of any such reserved lands shall be made, nor shall any lease thereof be given or granted upon any other condition than that of forfeiture by the lessee, upon his failing, for one whole year, to perform the conditions of such lease, or any part thereof." It was provided, also, by Section 5, that the Trustees should, within one month after their election, proceed to divide all the ten-itory of such township into as many school districts as might be necessary for the convenience of the inhabitants thereof , particularly describing the bounds of each; and in each of such districts appoint three Directors, who should, within ten days after their appointment, call a meeting of the inhabitants of their respective districts, and ascertain whether it was desirable to have a school in such district. In case it was determined to have such school, the next step was to select a site for and build a schoolhouse for the purpose. These schoolhouses were built by the united labor of the legal members of the disti-ict, and put in suitable condition for the puqioses of the school and the comfort of pupils and teacher by the same process - as near the center of the district as possible. Upon the erection, completion and furnishing of the house, in conformity with provisions prescribed, as soon as it had been determined to have a school, and " whether they would suffer any portion of the tax for the support of such school to be raised in money, and if so, what proportion," and the term of time they wished to employ a teacher - a teacher was employed on the most advantageous terms. Such employment, however, depended upon his abi lity to produce a certificate fi-om the Township Trustees that they had examined him touching his qiialiiications, and particularly as to his knowledge of the English language, writing and arithmetic, with the additional opinion expressed by them that he would be a useful person to be so employed. As compensation for his services, tlie teacher was entitled to receive of the Congressional township fund, per capita, according to the number of days each pupil was present during the term of school. If this amoimt was insufficient, the residue was liable to be paid by the inhabitants in the same proportion. It was frequently the case that the money arising from the sale of the school section in the township was wholly insufficient to meet the wants of the people for tuition pui-poses. In that case, in order to secure the benefits of the school, a special contract was made with the teacher at so much per head for each pupil sent, according to the time actually in attendance. Usuallyi the employer agreed to send a given number of scholars, at a given rate each, per term, and make up the number of scholars subscribed for by sending the number proposed the entire term, or a much larger number as long a time as was necessary to make up the whole time agreed upon. This plan, indeed, was the rule, rather than the exception, and in many instances worked well, and to the advantage of all parties concerned.

The law in reference to the examination of teachers and the certificate issued to them by the District Trustees was slightly modified by the act of the Legislature, approved February 2, 1833. Under the latter provision, the teacher was required to sustain a satisfactory examination " touching his ability to teach reading, writing and arithmetic." This fully expressed the extent of qualifications required by law to authorize any teacher who might present himself to engage to instruct the children of any district in the State in the branches prescribed as forming the basis of a practical English education. And, while the course of study was far less pretentious than that now required, it is true, nevertheless, that many of oui- best practical business men and women of to-day enjoyed no better or as great facilities for acquiring an education than was supplied by that meager programme.

Not much change was made in the forms or in the practice of the methods recognized by the laws in force for the utilization of the facilides for acquiring school knowledge, imtil the inauguration of the present system, under the laws passed and approved in 1852.

In 1837, the school fund of the State, at first consisting of the Congressional township fund, was augmented by an act of the Legislature directing that one-halt of the surplus revenue of the United States deposited in the State Treasury be distributed among the several counties of the State in amounts proportionable to the taxable polls in each county, to be loaned out by officers appointed for the purpose, for the benefit of the common schools of the county. Afterward, in 1845, by further legislative enactment, it was directed that all the funds which had accumulated, or might be received from the sale of the saline lands of the State, should be likewise distributed among the several counties of the State, and loaned in the same manner and for the same object prescribed by the siu'plus revenue, previously distributed. During the same year, the bank tax fund was appropriated to and became a part of the common school fund of the State, and was distributed among the several counties like those previously appropriated. These constituted the productive branch of the school funds, from which, since those several dates, the public schools of the different counties have been in a great measure siipported. Besides the different funds above enumerated, there were other funds, an account of which is elsewhere given, known as prospective and unproductive - all of which, by estimate and otherwise, were set forth in the aggregate as follows, in the report of the first Superintendent of Public Instruction: Productive, $2,- 278,588; unproductive, $1,560,400; and prospective, 11,150,000^ aggi-egate, $4,988,088.

By the estimated amount for distribution among the several counties of the State for 1854, the fii-st made under the law of 1852, the proportion to Carroll County, on the estimated basis of 80 cents per capita, on the enumeration for that year-, would be about $3,715. The apportionment of 1855, on the basis'of 4,781 children in 1854, was $3,098.00. In 1856, the amount was $3,- 462.75, the enumeration showing 4,793 children in the county, between the ages of five and twenty-one years; and the total amount expended for education, $4,683.72, the average length of school being 2.8 months. In the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the following exhibit, being a summary of the County Auditor's reports for the same year, shows the amount of school funds, special and common, in Carroll County. Of the special school funds, there was $30,751.50 of Congressional township funds; amount refunded dui-ing the year, $3,472.99; interest collected, «1,668.36. Of common funds, there were $6,241.23 of the common school funds; amount refunded within the year, $260; amount unsafe or lost, $351.68; amount of interest collected, $416.26. Total amountof school funds, $36,992.73; total amount of interest collected, $2,084.62; with school lauds unsold of the value of 15,880.

The Superintendent's report for the year 1860 makes the following showing as to Carroll County: Total enumeration, 4,949, of whom 2,623 were males, and 2,326 females; expended for tuition during the year, $2,721.02, for an average length of term of 57 days ; apportionment for that year, $5,322,90. Amount of Congressional township fundsat the close of last year, $32,151.50; amount added from sale of lands within the year, $1,080 ; 320 acres unsold, of the value of $3,240. Total amount at the date of Auditor's report, $37,471.50; amount then safely invested, $32,- 717.42; amount for distribution for that year, $1,456.72. Amount of common school funds at the end of the previous year, $6,411.29; amount added within the year, $5,414.31; total amoimt June 1, 1860, $11,825.60; amount lost since 1842, $554.75; amount now safely invested, $11,734.25 Total amount for distribution, $1,- 117.10.

The report for 1880 makes the following showing: Total number of children enumerated in 1879, between six and twentyone years of age, 6,504; total number admitted into the schools

Originally, the country schools were in a condition corresponding with the ideas of school work in the backwoods settlements. While it is no doubt true that many of those early teachers were zealous and energetic in their callings, much the larger portion of them were selected not because of their known, but of their supposed, qualifications, and for the further reason that, during the winter season, when those schools were generally in operation, these candidates for pedagogic honors had notbing else to do. As a natural consequence, therefore, the schools, in the main, were wholly without system or discipline, and allowed to move forward in the channels in which, fi'om force of circumstances, they involuntarily drifted. Among teachers, no consultations were had, and hence no concert of action, and few appliances for successful work. Blackboards were things unknown ; wall maps were not in use ; text- books were few, varied and imsuitable; houses and seats- - for little else was provided - were unifoi-mly inconvenient, and generally uncomfortable. Indeed, when we recall the opportunities and experiences of the past, and what came of them, it is a source of wonder that so many and such valuable results have been attained, for true it is that, from these same log-cabin country schools have come many of our most active business men and women. Some of them, possibly many, have enjoyed a slight " polish," in a term or two at tiie " Seminary," but much the larger portion were never so favored. With the meager opportunities enjoyed at home, or at the old-time country school, their own native energies have made them what they axe.

At first, for many years, there were, in most districts, only subscription schools, the advantageous privileges of the free or public school system being then in an undeveloped state. But a change has been wrought, however, by the onward march of im provement that has marked the progress of time during the last fourth of a century of our local and State history. The average length of a district subscription school, before the advent of this new era, was less than sixty days, while the average length of the district schools, supported by the magni ficent tuition fund of the State, during the school year of 1879 -80, was 1 33 days. The character of the schools has improved, also, through the developing media of our improved educational system. Schoolhouses, school furniture, school-teachers and school discipline, have all advanced in unison, as by a common impulse. The means whereby those great results have been accomplished are attributable to the County Superintendoncy, normal schools. State and county; to the work of institutes in the township and in the county; to a more rigid examination, and higher standard of scholarship and teaching capacity; whence a class of instructors has been brought into the field who able to accomplish immensely higher and more excellent And, of com-se, with the change from the pole-cabin dwellings, with no windows but a greased paper, or none except a hole between two of the logs next the big fire-place, and with only a single door - to the modern residence, costing thousands of dollars, has come also, yet with less rapidity than we could wish, a similar change in the construction and the cost of public school edifices."

County Examinee

By the law in force previous to 1851, and subsequently, up to 1873, a County Examiner was provided for, whose duty it was. perhaps, among other things, to examine applicants and to give certificates to such as he adjudged qualified to teach a common school. In early times, this duty was performed with not too much care. The popular standard was very low, and the Examiner did not care to rise above the standard. A teacher might, perchance, possess superior qualifications, but the Examiner usually did not discover that fact, nor did he require any such recjuisites. But the standard, in this respect, has been slowly but surely rising, especially in Carroll County, so that now, in order to be able to " pass muster," an applicant must be, in the language of Scripture, " not a novice." This is well, and it might do no harm to make the examinations even more strict than at present. The Examiners have been E. W. Wright, John A. Cartwright, John W. Fawcett and La Fayette E. McReynolds.

County Superintendent

In 1873, the name of the office was changed from County Ex aminer to County Superintendent, and the sphere of the duties was somewhat enlarged, requiring, among other things, the visitation of schools more fully than before. In this county, Thomas H. Britton has occupied the position of County Superintendent, from December, 1874, until the present tima