Grant Township

Grant Township

Organization: East half was a part of school townshij) twenty-four, range eight west, describ(;(l in history of Oak Grove, All in the civil township of Parish Grove from 1840 to 1858, when a part was placed in West Pine until replaced in Parish Grove in 1865, where it remained until formed into Grant in December, 1808. Boundaries completed in 1876. Under the trustees of Parish Grove, West Pine and Parish Grove, and Parish Grove until the Grant succession which has been as follows : 1868, James Kirtley ; 1872, A. R. Gilger ; 1878, John T. Lawson; 1882, William H. McKnight; 1886, George W. Cones; 1890, George Liptrap; 1894, J. C. Simpkins, resigned in 1899, W. D. Simpkins appointed; 1900, W. D. Simpkins; January 1, 1905, John W. Cooper.

The active imaginations of the red men of the forest sometimes led them to believe that the sounds made by rustling leaves and rippling waters were the voices of spirits speaking to them from forest and stream. Interesting indeed would bo the storv of the pioneer schools of Benton countv if told bv voices speaking from the winding branches of the picturesque Pine, or the groves along their banks. In the evening of an October day in 1837 a man of about thirty was standing on the bank of the west fork of Pine about one and a half miles from where it crosses the south line of the county. Away toward the west he saw the dim outlines of the Grand Prairie, seemingly as boundless as the ocean itself. Around him to the south and east and north were forests of hickory, oak and maple, crowned with the regal beauty of the glorious tints of autumn. Dropping his eyes he saw at his feet a very essential thing in the life of a pioneer - a stream of living water. Fascinated with the beauty of the scene around him. he resolved to secure it as his future home. His name was Thomas Martin and on October 21, 1837, he purchased his chosen site from the United States government. The land he received is described

July 31, 1841, Thomas Martin. Josei.h Ward, William Smith. Thomas Smith, James Smith. William McConnell. Samuel McConnell, Perigon Garland and William Garland petitioned the county school commissioner to sell the school section

Trustee Grant 1S9'J-1'.105

(16) in township twenty-four, range eight. The petition was granted and the west half of the section ^^-as sold to Abner Evans on November 12, 1841, for |400, one-fourth cash and the balance in ten years, with interest at seven per cent. The day following the sale Thomas Martin applied for the loan of the flOO received and became the first borrower from the Congres- sioiial school riiiui in iiciitoii ((jiiiil v. Mr. M;nliii wiis a man of more than ordiuary intelligence, was well e<lucat<'<l for his time, und was the support of a wife and three children. lie used the money borrowed to improve his home and in it, in the fall of 1842, he opened the first school taught in what is now Grant township, and the second school opened in Benton county. He taught spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic from such books as could be had in the community. He was a man of genial and kindly nature and possessed none of the stern characteristics so common to ]»i(meer teachers. Lewis Jones of Boswell was a pupil in the school of 1842 and says that Mr. Martin was always trying to help his pupils and did not know what it was to be cross. Speaking of the pioneer schools, Mr. Jones says that the great events of those days were the spelling matches. He declares that one of the saddest moments of his life was when he, the pride of his teacher and schoolmates and the only one left standing against a rival school, went down on the word ''cachexy."

The first school district in Benton county was created on February 1, 1845, and was composed of the east half of the Grant of today. Forty-nine children between the ages of five and twenty-one were then living in the district. The patrons were Joshua Howell. Isaiah Perigo, John Rose, Mary Mcllvain. John McConnell, Hezekiah Rogers, Jamis Smith, Thomas Smith, Perigon Garland, William Smith, John Whitaker. Josiah Smith, Joseph Ward, William Board, Abraham Howery. Joseph Smith, Jacob Cassel and Thomas Martin. On April 14, 1849, this district was divided into three districts, having a total enumeration of eighty-six.

A little more than a half mile south of Chase is the old Isaiah Perigo homestead. Here in the summer of 1848 was built a log smoke-house. At the request of his neighbors Mr. Perigo permitted the building to be used for a schoolhouse the winter following, Luther B. Hawley having charge of the school. Some of Mr. Hawley's pupils were Jonathan Howell. Allen and WMfliam Gillespie, George Perigo and John M. Stan ley. Mr. Stanlev savs that this house was seated with rough puncheon seats without backs. The pupils had to sit upright facing the center of the room. Many of them could not touch the floor with their fc^t and sometimes grew tired beyond enxlurance. The only desk in the room was a shelf placed on two slanting pegs in the wall. But one person could use the desk at a time, and the pupils were coming and going all of the time, glad to get a chance to use the rough board shelf.

On June 7, 1840, the east half of the school section in Grant was sold to William T. Rowe for $400. One acre of that land would now sell for what one hundred acres brought then, and six per cent, interest on the present value of o«e acre would anuuall}' amount to the price then paid for six acres. In the summer of 1849 two schoolhouses were built, one near the Perigo and the other near the Martin home. It is not known who taught the Martin school in 1849-50, but the teacher's report (which he forgot to sign) says the schoolhouse was "n( w and comloilitblc." Tlio ('inollmciil \v;is fort \ live uiid tlie avftraj?o daily attciidaiu-o fifteen. Sijellin}^, leading, writing and arithmetic wove tauglit, and ''McMnfry's Headers," "The Way of Holiness/ ''Signers of the Dec lai-ation of Independence," and "Pike's Arithmetic" were amon^ tlie lext-books usied in the school. The term was sixty-fiv(? days and the teacher's salary was fifty dollars for the term. At the Perigo school Mr. Hawley's enrollment was thirty-five, his daily average twentytwo, term three months, and salary eighteen dollars a month. Hulda Ilolcher taught the school in district one (Martin) in the summer of 1S.~)0 ami William Hubbard in the winter of 1851-2. Mr. Hubbard recalls Susan Roberts, Hannah Kellev, William Smith, H. (J. Cassel and Ilenrv McUaniel as some of his pupils who are still living. Who taught this school in 1852-3 is not known to the Avriter, but a scrap of paper, yellow with age, has come into his possession which says: "This District with what now constitutes District No. 6 had a 65 days publick school taught by a Male teacher. The branches taught were Spelling, Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. Books used - Elementary and Cobs Spelling books, McGuflSes 1st. 2nd 3rd and 4th Readers, Smiths and Davies Arithmetics, Signers of Dec. of Independence, Murders & daring outrages committed in the Country, English Reader, an Introduction, Life of Andrew Jackson, U. S. Speaker, American preceptor. Porters Rhetorical Reader Premium hist. U. S. Universal hist. U. S. &c.&c." The report is given as it is written, without any corrections of any kind. Two kinds of spellers and two kinds of arithmetics were used. As reading was the only other subject taught in Avhich a text could be used, it will be noticed that fourteen different kinds of books, besides those included in the and-so-forths, were used in teaching reading. The program of the daily work of this teacher and his school would be a valuable educational relic.

In 1852 a school was opened in a private house in district three. Five pupils were enrolled with A. W. Boltinghouse as teacher. In 1852 district one Avas divided, all west of Pine Creek remaining in that district. All east of the creek was placed in a district numbered six and a schoolhouse was built on the corner east of the old Cassel (now Dewey) homestead. The schoolhouse built in 1819 was moved to a ])oint Just west of the old Cl'.arles McDaniel home where it stood until recently torn down.

Morning Recess In Grant

In 1852 the school affairs of the west half of range eight passed to the control of the trustees of Parish Grove township. Soon afterward the districts were renumbered, Cassel's becoming district one, Perigo's two, McDaniel's three, and a strip two miles wide, off the northern part of the township as it now is, became district four. In 1858 West Pine was created, leaving district four in Parish Grove. Asa H. Vanover was the first trustee of West Pine. His successors were John T. Stokes in 1859 and James M. Harris in 1861. In 1800 Henry Robertson, then trustee of Parish Grove, built a schoolhouse in district four (north of Chase), and Jesse Curl taught the first term in it. His patrons were John Henderson, William Lindsey, John Gillespie, Frederick Besser and Joseph Hixon, Another school (probably the Dimmick) was built in 18G1, and John J. Ripple, William Marvin, Charles Ford, Elizabeth Scott and C. M. Scott taught in the various schools in 1861-2. B. Freeman, Mary Town, Samuel Cheney, J. G. McNeil, Stephen Adsit, Henrietta Freeman, Spencer Shanklin and H. Edwards were among the teachers of Grant in 1862-3-4.

Grant township received its name in December, 1868, and then included all of what is now Grant and Hickory Grove. By this time eight school districts had been formed in what now constitutes Grant. James Kirtley became the first trustee of the new township and employed Earl Sherwood, J. G. Mc- Neil, C. J. Parker, James H. Neal, Albert Kolb, Maggie Young, Samuel Dinwiddie and James W. Hash as his first teachers, paying them a total of |93o.98 for their services. Mr. Kirtley was a strong advocate of free schools and is entitled to the honor of levying the first local tuition tax paid in Benton county. The first lew was made in 1869 and was five cents on each one hundred dollars valuation of property. The total tax valuation in Grant at that time was 1166,816. There were many delinquents, so the receipts from the first levy amounted to but 1195.86. The next year the levy was raised and the local tuition receipts advanced to |501 in ISTl. William Hash, B. F. Heaton, Charles Menefee, J. M. Cassel and Charles Moore taught in 1871-2, and Marion Menefee, J. H. Freemau, George Vail and Alice Hash taught in 1875-6. In 1883 Charles Johnson, Perry Kirtley and Flora Wattles had the honor of becoming the first common school graduates in Grant. Clara McNeil,

Lilly D. Wattles, Annie Wliinery, Ratia O'Dowd, Charles Johnson and Luther Perigo were among the teachers in the eighties. There are 8G0 books in the school libraries of Grant. Nearly all of the common school graduates enter the Boswell high school, where many of them remain to complete the four years' course. The school spirit is so good in Grant that the township took first place in regularity of attendance in 1904-5, and Mr. Cooper hopes to maintain this interest and generally improve the schools.