Marshall County, Indiana - Chapter 16 (2 of 2 so headed), 1881

Retrospective Review

THE PLYMOUTH ScnooLs - First ScHooL, 1837 - FirsT AGITATION OF ScHooL QuUESTION - ELECTION TO LEVY TAXES - FIRST ScHooL, BUILDING - TEXT Books Usep - Tracuers EMPLOYED - CHANGES SrINce 1870 - NeEw Scnoor BuILpING - ScHooLs, HOW GRADED - NAMES OF GRADUATES - St. MIcHarti's ACADEMY - RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.

are considered separately from the general educational interests of the county, as the most important events in connection with our school system centers here. The first school in Plymouth was taught by Oscar F. Norton in the winter of 1837. The next school of which any account is given was taught by Mrs. Erskine, who erected a building, which is now used as a residence, immediately south of the residence of Mr. J. M. Klinger, near the Catholie Church. This school was commenced abont 1840, and was taught for some time between that year and 1845. A schoolhonse was then built on Adams street, on the lot now owned by Mr.

The first genuine agitation of the school question took place in 1853. April 16, a meeting was called to consider the propriety of employing Mr. and Mrs. Etter, of Rochester, who were mentioned as being teachers of a different grade from that with which the citizens had been afflicted thus far. At the same meeting, the advisability of building a schoolhouse was discussed. The population of Plymouth at this time is given as 670.

May 26, an election was held upon the proposition to levy taxes for the support of schools, at which the vote stood five in favor and eight against such tax. June 23, a township election was held for the same purpose, at which the vote stood thirteen opposed tosevenin favor. About this time, Mr. and Mrs. Etter, Mr. Jas. Trawls, Mr. J. M. Wickizer ana others taught private schools.

In March, 1854, the lot donated to the county for seminary grounds, was sold to the town for the nominal sum of $100, and, on the 30th of the same month, contract for building a schoolhouse was entered into with Mr. 8. Morgan. This building was completed in December of the same year. It contained three school rooms and one recitation room, and was a credit to the town. It is now known as the " Eureka Mills." Mr. W. J. Moir was chosen Principal of the schools, and had as assistants the first term, Mrs. E. Crum and Miss E. Adams. The attendance was at first about 150. The text books used were Sander's spellers, Parker's readers, Davies' arithmetic, Mitchell's geography and Clark's grammar. Of all the teachers of former times, Mr. Moir has left behind him the most pleasant recollections. He is uniformly mentioned with great respect by those who were his pupils, and there can be no doubt that he inaugurated a new era in school matters.

Mr. Moir was succeeded by Mr. C. H. Blair, who was Principal bunt a part of one year, when he was followed by Mr. H. C. Burlingame, late Anditor of Marshall County. Mr. Burlingame retired from the management of the schools in 1861, coneluding that he had done his share of missionary work, and that he would seek some less "promising" but more lucrative employment. Mr. Mark Cummings, who was formany years County Examiner, then took charge of the schools. He was followed by Mr. D. D. Luke, who remained as Principal until August, 1870, when he was elected Superintendent of the Goshen schools. In 1868, the building in the Third Ward was erected. Upon the retirement of Mr. Luke, in 1870, Mr. R. A. Chase was chosen as Superintendent, and has continued such to the present time.

Upon the records appear the following names of teachers who were employed either in public or private schools, within the period from 1855 to 1870: Miss Holloway, Miss Ackerman, Miss Fuller, Miss Patterson, Mrs. Locke, Miss Woodbury, Miss Briggs, Mr. and Mrs. Comstock, Miss Howe, Miss French, Miss Westen, Miss Hawley, Miss Borton, Mr. J. A. Rousch, Mr. R. M. Johnson, Miss Van Valkenburgh, Miss Wright, Miss Kidwell, Miss Blair, Miss Thompson, Miss Coffy, Miss Russell, Miss Edwards, Miss Chamberlain, Miss Pierce, Mr. T. J. Goble, Miss Barber, Miss Nichols, Miss Morrill, Mr. R. A. Hume, Miss Ewalt, Miss Mattingly, Mr. J. F. Lentwine.

Since 1870, many important changes have been made in the administration of the schools. A systematic course of study has been adopted and is in use, the schools have been graded, a more exact discipline has been introduced, and from a state of comparative confusion, as regards any settled policy of action, the business of the school is as well and completely systematized as that of any mercantile firm in town. In 1874, a new school building was erected which is at present oceupied by the schools. It is of brick, of two stories, with a basement story available for school rooms. It has nine school rooms, with private and recitation rooms, is supplied with the best quality of school furniture, and in its finish and adaptation has no superior in the State. It has rooms for 500 pupils, and is warmed by four large furnaces of the Ruttan style. It has also the celebrated Ruttan system of ventilation.

The schools are now divided into nine grades, and the high school, with nine teachers besides the Superintendent. The instruction in the grades below the high school embraces the common school branches. The high school gives instruction in mathematics as far as to surveying, in natural science including botany, physical geography, chemistry, physiology, astronomy, natural philosophy; its course in the English language embraces analysis, rhetoric, and English literature, to which is added political economy, general history, and a thorough knowledge of book-keeping. Such classes as may be desired are also formed in Gorman and Latin. The study of the Constitution of the United States is required of pupils entering the high school. Tho exercises in literary work consist of debating, essays, declamations and readings, and are held daily, thus affording an amount of drill which could not be had when the exercises were held monthly. A weekly recitation in the current news of the day is had in the high school and first grade. Written examinations are held when deemed advisable, generally monthly, and at the close of each year an annual examination is had.

The school was honored in 1874, by being enrolled by tho State Board in the lists of schools whose graduates would be received at the State University without examination, and this commission has, within the past month, been renewed. Those who have graduated from the high school are as follows: examination upon the studies of the preceding year. The first honors have been awarded as follows: 1876 - Henry A. Pershing, per cent of cxamination...... 91. 1877 - Etta Harris, per cent of examination.............. 92.2 1873 - Letta J. Poe, per cent of examination........... 93.5 } George H. Thayer, per cent of examination...... 93.5 1879 - William L. McDonald, per cent of examination. .. .98.1 1880 - Burt J. Gilmore, per cent of examination.......... 90,6

Library

The collection of funds for a library for the use of the schools, was begun in April, 1880, by the efforts of several Jadies and gentlemen, who presented the comic opera of H. M. 5S. Pinafore. The amount thus raised was increased by two concerts given by the teachers and pupils of the primary rooms. The amount to the credit of the library fund is now $170.15.

St. Michael'S Academy

This is the name of a Catholic institution of learning established in 1870. The building is of brick, substantially built, well arranged for the purposes for which it is used, and cost about $12,000. The management of the schools is under the immediate supervision of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, from St. Mary's, St. Joseph County, who are sparing no efforts tomake it a firstclass academy of learning, and an honor to the town and the denomination through whose liberality it was erected.

At the commencement exercises of the public high school, in 1878, in response to the toast, " Our City - Retrospective," Hon. Charles H. Reeve, among other things, spoke as follows in relation to the schools:

While I am occupying too much time and may weary you, I ought not to forget to mingle with my retrospective view something connected more immediately with the subject of the present occasion.

The rude cabins far schoolhouses; the ruder slabs for seats; the mud fire-place and mud-plastered stick chimney for heating purposes; the puncheon floor, split from straight logs; the splint-bottom chair for the teacher; the wild goose quill for pens, the home made ink, the homespun garments, the few books, and the writing books cross written, the woods around full of choice whips and the teachers making up in muscle what they lacked in learning; the barefooted boys and girls, the bosomless, collarless shirts, the coarse "linsecy-woolsey'' frocks of the girls, and the bright calicos on the holidays, with slat sun-bonnets, starched and ruled, the home-made straw hats, the dinner baskets with the corn-bread and cold. fried meat; the long walk and the weary work before and after school; the ague-chilled bodies and fevered heads on every other day, and the snatches of study on the "well" days; the hands hardened by toil and the limbs weary with labor; oh, how little the students around me now know the blessings those rude girls and boys have built up for them out of the trackless waste of matter and mind with such surroundings and means as I have so briefly glanced at, and yet failed to convey the faintest idea of compared with the reality. By their pleasant stoves or in the steady warmth from a furnace, with the bright light of the gas and kerosence, the easy chair and soft carpet at home, and the skilled teacher and school apparatus at school; do they appreciate all this, and use it to the utmost? Do they ever think of those who created it little by little, and the sacrifices made, such as we now read of but these scholars have never known? Do they see the humble home and the wife and children by the fire-light in the cabin at night, alone, far from any neighbor, while the husband is gone to meet the other School Trustees in the darkness, and along the blind path through the forest, or along the rough public road at night, to consult about the school for the scattered little ones, and the way to create and maintain and improve it, proud to get even a log schoolhouse, and to save from means already skimped something to pay a teacher, and tidy up a place to furnish a share for the teachers' board? The while, by tallow candle or the fire-light, the advanced boy or girl strives to get a lesson in Cobb, or Daboll, or Kirkham, or Olney; and do they thank, with whole heart, those pioneers, whose toils and saving and energy laid the foundation on which has been built, little by little, the colossal system, with its millions of dollars, giving to them the benefits of a free school and semi-collegiate education?

As T go back in memory to the wild forest and its scattered dwellings, and come down year by year, and decade after decade, through nearly three generations, and realize what has been done, as it has passed under my own eyes, and in which I have taken some little part, I cannot do honor enough to those who have accomplished so much. When'I look around me now, at the wealth of intellect and intelligence, the taste and style in individual, private and public life, I would bring back, if I could, the acquaintances now dead, with whom I have lived and talked and labored, that they might see what great progress has crowned the small beginnings, made by them with efforts as great with their means as any that are made now with our increased advantages.

Our young State early began to provide for and foster the means for education. Congress kindly gave her every sixteenth section of the wild lands, and other resources were provided; but the intelligence of the day had not advanced to a standard of necessary qualification in teachers nor realization that money would hire capable teachers.

From our first little schoolhouse to our 'seminary "' (now Shoemaker's mill), built on the lot donated by the proprietors of Plymouth, was a monstrous stride; und how proud we were when we entered its unfinished rooms, with its great rattling windows and its thousands of wind-whistling crannies, its advanced teachers, its growing number of students, aud had a sort of graded school; but we were as far behind our present condition as we were then in advance of our former one.

To-day, with our little city out of debt, its high school and graded departments, its ward school, its accomplished teachers, its high taxes for school purposes cheerfully paid, and its watchful guardians, we can stand as in strength and say - /reelsior. ry bccn | ee knew here, the few worn books were taken in the around them, reeeive the enduring parchment with the broad seal of the corporation upon it, and amid music and oratory, feasting and laudations, step out into the thoroughfares of life to do, we hope, their duty.

The evidences of wealth, of comfort, of ease, the sight and scent of flowers, the songs of petted birds. the rush of steam cars and hum of busy life, sightly public and private buildings, high-toned newspapers, churches, benevolent societies, crowded halls for shows, lectures and amusements, orderly government and nearly four thousand people, oceupy the place of the wildwood and its denizens of fifty years ago.

Peace to the ashes and honor to the memory of those gone, who, step by step, gave those now living the educational foundation on which to build, and long life and all honor to those living, who have builded so well on that foundation.

May the teachers reap that reward they have so well earned, and may the pupils prove worthy of the efforts in the past that have given them so proud an inheritance.

God speed you all; and in the years to come, when you turn to look back as I have to-night, may the sunshine and shade bring only pleasant views, and the entrance to the final rest be full of hope and peace.