Jasper County, Missouri - Chapter 10: Carthage History, 1912

Cabthage as a City - Public Schools Organized - County Teachers Better than Schoolhouses - ^**The Carthage Patriot" - County Celebrates July 4, 1869, at Carthage - The Masonic Fraternity - The Independent Order of Odd Fellows.

Carthage praying that body to incorporate that place as a town, and accordingly a decree was granted erecting the town of Carthage into a municipality, the original limits of the town being as follows: Commencing at the northwest comer of Parson & Case's addition to said town of Carthage, running thence north 800 feet; thence east 6,110 feet; thence north 2,120 feet, to the place of beginning, with the same narrations as the original survejrs, being 2,920 feet north and south by 6,110 feet east and west.

election in April, 1869, when the following were chosen: Alfred Caldwell, G. A. Cassell, Thomas E. Gray, William T. Cloud and Abraham Ray. The vote was very close, Mr. Ray and A. H. Caflfee being tied for fifth place. Ijots were drawn and Mr. Ray drew the longest straw and was declared elected. The board was organized by the election of Abraham Ray as president of the board and H. A. Terpenning, clerk.

The School District of Carthage was organized in April, 1868, by the election of the following board of education: J. W. Young, president; D. S. Thomas, treasurer and M. C. McGregor, secretary.

School was opened in a double building on the south side of the public square with the following teachers: Principal, W. J. Sieber; assistant principal, A. P. French - and these gentlemen began the foundation of the splendid public school system of the county seat.

In 1867 the schools of the county were reorganized by the election of J. C. Willoughby as county school commissioner and the several school districts that had been organized before the war again opened. The sale of the school lands was carried on and by 1868 most of them had been disposed of. On January 1, 1868, the County School fund resulting from the sale of the swamp lands had grown to almost $150,000, which was loaned out at ten per cent interest netting the county $15,000 annually, beside the taxes raised for school purposes.

This sum readily enabled the county districts to pay fairly good wages, and some of the best talent of that day entered the ranks of the pedagogues, so that the county although poorly supplied with schoolhouses (the school fund cannot be touched for building purposes) had a fairly good school system.

From the close of the war to December, 1869, not quite five years, the school system had grown from 23 districts to 79, and the teaching force consisted of 104, the greater portion of whom were men. The average salary paid was $42.75 per month. The number of children of school age was 4,898 and seventy-three per cent of these were enrolled in the schools.

For the most part the schoolhouses which were built during the 'sixties were one-room frame houses and the furnishings scant for the reason mentioned above.

saperintendent in 1869 and during his term of office the Jasper County Teachers' Institute was organized which, by its convention, greatly increased the worth of the teaching force of the county.

In March, 1869, the Carthage Patriot was established by S. D. Carpenter. The Patriot was a Democratic paper and locally opposed the issuance of railway bonds. It also boldly called attention to any delinquency on the part of the county officers and built up a large circulation, being generally taken by both Democrats and Liberal Republicans on account of its advocacy of reform.

The ninety-third anniversary of the birth of American Independence was duly observed at Carthage on July 4, 1869, by a celebration which was largely attended by the people of the county.

The following were the officers of the day: President, R. A. Cameron; vice president, Patrick Murphy; chaplain. Rev. C. J. Blood, and marshal of the day, J. C. Gaston.

At 10 o'clock in the morning a parade was formed, headed by the Carthage band and participated in by the veterans of the War of 1812 and of the Civil war, and the citizens of Carthage and Jasper county. The procession marched to La Force's grove where the oration of the day was delivered, after which every one partook of the good dinner and ate the lunch which had been brought by the thoughtful housewives, sweethearts and sisters. The afternoon was spent in games and social amusements.

Patriotic celebrations always fill men's hearts with noble thoughts and prompt them to do great and noble deeds, and the day was closed with a meeting of the leading citizens of Carthage to talk over plans to organize a volunteer fire department.

The first lodge to organize in the county after the war was Carthage Lodge No. 197, A. F. and A. M., which was instituted March 27, 1867, with tjie following officers in the chairs (under dispensation) : Griffith Robinson, Master ; Joseph C. Gaston, S. W. ; 0. D. Stinson, J. W. ; Norris C. Hood, Treasurer; Josiah Lane, Secretary; D. K. Hood, S. D. ; John S. Reynolds, J. D. ; A. M. Drake, Tyler.

The Masonic lodge differs from most other fraternal societies in this, that the custom of the olden time are carried out and the order has no written rituals, but the work is ** passed from mouth to ear" and can only be learned by the strictest attention.

For this reason before a lodge is chartered the principal officers of the lodge must commit the work thoroughly and be able to exemplify the several degrees.

The Master and Wardens-elect therefore repaired to the nearest lodge, Greenfield in Dade county, and, after being instructed for two days by the brethren at that place, were placed in the chairs and went through the forms and ceremonies so well that the lodge gave them a recommendation, and at the meeting of the Orand Lodge of Missouri on October 19th the charter was formally granted. The membership at the date of the granting of the charter was seventeen. J. C. Gaston succeeded Griffith Robertson as Master in 1868. During the same year he was appointed D. D. G. M. for this Masonic district and during his incumbency of that important office instituting a great number of lodges - among which were those at Medoc, Fidelity and Avilla, Peter K. Peard succeeded Mr. Gaston as Master in 1869, and served the craft so faithfully that he was reelected for three successive terms.

The second great society to be established in the country was the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, which was organized at Carthage, May 20, 1868. Lyman J. Burch was the fijrst Noble Grand.

Odd Fellowship was also established at Avilla, the same year that Avilla Lodge No. 188 was instituted. Among the charter members were, H. G. McGown, Joel T.' Belk, John W. Belk, S. W. Damon, Benjamin Binney, John Tarter, Jacob Strieker, K. H. Brackman, N. H. Roberts, B. F. SKUen, A. C. Houser, E. Eader, J. A. Spencer, Calvin Westerman and Henry Homer. H. J. McGown was the first Noble Grand.