Nodaway County, Missouri - Chapter 32: Public Schools, Early Churches and Ministers, 1882

Chapter 32: Public Schools, Early Churches and Ministers

The following chapter is one which we have found most difficult to write, owing to the difficulty in obtaining full and accurate information. It should be the most interesting of all the chapters of the book. We have endeavored to remain in the realm of the real, and deal as little as possible in the ideal and imaginative. Comparatively little has been made a matter of record relating to the early schools and churches of the county. What has been made a matter of record and what has been remembered by the old settlers whom we have seen is here given.

The schools of the county are sharing with the contents of the newsboy's bundle, the title of the universities of the poor. The close observation of the working of the public schools shows that if the induction of facts be complete, it could be demonstrated that the public schools turn out more men and women better fitted for business and usefulness than most of our colleges. The freedom and liberty of our public schools afford less room for the growth of effeminacy and pedantry; it educates the youth among the people and not among a caste or class, and since the man or woman is called upon to do with a nation in which people are the only factor, the education which the public schools afford, especially where they are of the superior standard reached in this county, do fit their recipients for a sphere of usefulness nearer the public heart than can be attained by private schools and academies.

The crowning glory of American institutions is the public school system ; nothing else among American institutions is so intensely American. They are the colleges of Democracy, and if this government is to remain a republic, governed by statesmen, it must be from the public schools they must be graduated. The amount of practical knowledge that the masses here receive is important beyond measure, and forms the chief factor in the problem of material prosperity ; but it is not so much the practical knowledge, which it is the ostensible mission of the public schools to impart, that makes this system the sheet anchor of our hopes. It is rather the silent, social influence which the common schools incidentally exert.

It is claimed for our country that it is a land of social equality, where all have an equal chance in the race for life ; and yet there are many things which give the lie to this boasted claim of an aristocracy of manhood. Our churches are open to all, but it is clear that the best pews are occupied by the men of wealth and influence. The sightless goddess extends the scales of justice to all, but it will usually appear that there is money in the descending scale. It requires money to run for office, or, a't least, it takes money to get office.

The first experience of the American citizen of to-day, however, is in the public school. If he is a rich man's son, his class-mate is the son of poverty. The seat which the one occupies is no better than that occupied by the other, and when the two are called to the blackboard, the fine clothes of the. rich man's son do not keep him from going down, provided he be a drone, neither do the patches on the clothes of the poor man's son keep him down, provided he has the genius and application to make him rise. The pampered child of fortune may purchase a diploma at many of the select schools of the land, but at the public schools it is genius and application which win. That state or nation which reaches out this helping hand to the children of want will not lack for defenders in time of danger, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars annually expended for the common education of children is but money loaned to the children, which they will pay back with compound interest when grown to manhood.

In a modest, unassuming way, our schools inculcate lessons of common honesty. The boy hears his father make promises, and sees him break them. Mr. Jones is promised twenty dollars on Monday. He calls on Monday and again on Tuesday, and finally gets the twenty dollars on Saturday. The boy goes with his father to church, and frequently gets there after the first prayer. In vain does that father teach his boy lessons of common honesty, when the boy knows that the father disappointed Jones, and never reaches the church in time. The boy soon learns at the public schools that punctuality and promptness are cardinal virtues ; that to be tardy is to get a little black mark, and to be abseftt a day is to get a big black mark. A public school in which punctuality and promptness are impartially and fearlessly enforced is a most potent conservator of public morals.

It has been often said that the State of Missouri has not only been indifferent to the subject of education, but that she has been hostile to the cause of common schools. To prove that these are gross misrepresentations and that her attitude toward an interest so vital and popular does not admit of any question, it is only necessary to say that the constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875, make this subject of primary importance and guard the public school funds with a zealous care.

The fact is, the constitution of no state contains more liberal and enlightened provisions relative to popular education, than the Constitution of Missouri, adopted in 1875. During the past sixty years of her existence, not a solitary line can be found upon her statute books inimical to the cause. No political party in all her history has ever arrayed itself against free schools, and her governors, each and all, from 1824 to the present time (188 1), have been earnest advocates of a broad and liberal system of education. As early as 1839, the state established a general school law and system, and in 1853, one-fourth of her annual revenue was dedicated to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely for this cause as the people of any state. With the single exception of Indiana, she surpasses every other state in the Union in the amount of her available and productive permanent school funds, the productive school fund of Indiana being $9,065,254.73, while that of Missouri is $8,950,805.71, the State of North Carolina ranking third. The State of Indiana levies a tax for school purposes of sixteen cents on the hundred dollars of taxable values, and does not permit a local tax exceeding twenty-five cents on that amount. The State of Missouri levies a tax of five cents, and permits a local tax of forty cents, without a vote of the people, or sixty-five cents in the country districts, and one dollar in cities and towns, by a majority vote of the taxpayers voting.

For the year ending in April, 1880, only two counties in the state reported a less rate of local taxation than the maximum allowed in Indiana, only one the amount of that maximum, and the average rate of all the counties reported, was about thirty-nine cents, or fourteen cents more than the possible rate of that state.

It may not be known that Missouri has a greater number of school houses to the population than Massachusetts, yet such is the fact. The amount she expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate, on the amount of her assessed valuation, that the amount expended by the latter state is on her valuation, while the public school funds of Missouri exceed those of Massachusetts $5,405,127.09.

The Missouri system of education is, perhaps, as good as that of any other state, and is becoming more effectively enforced each succeeding year. The one great fault, or lack in the laws, in reference to common schools, is the want of adequate executive agency within the county. The state department should have positive and unequivocal supervision over the county superintendent, and the county superintendent should have control over the school interests of the county, under direction of the state superintendent. When this is done, the people of the state will reap the full benefits that should accrue to them from the already admirable system of free schools, which are now in successful operation throughout the state.

Enumeration

There are but four counties in the state having a greater number of children between the ages of six and twenty years (school age) than Nodaway County. These counties are as follows : (Report of 1880.)

Annual Distribution

There are but three counties in the state whose total receipts from the various funds for school purposes are greater in amount than Nodaway:

While Nodaway County ranks the fourth, in its receipts, it is the third in the amount expended in behalf of the cause of education. The counties expending the largest sums were :

During the year 1881, there were 1 1,659 teachers employed in the the public schools of the state, 6,068 males and 4,379 females. Only , three counties employed more teachers than Nodaway, these being

School Houses

In the number and completeness of her school houses, Nodaway County stands first in the list, and the number is rapidly increasing each year. These buildings are now estimated to be worth about $100,000.

Nodaway County expended more money for a library in 1881 than any other county in the state, excepting Crawford and the City of St. Louis, the figures being as follows :

The comparisons above made, have been instituted with no invidious motives towards other counties of our noble state, but simply to show the true status of Nodaway County so far as her public schools are concerned. Taking the above figures then as facts, it will be seen that Nodaway County is the fifth in the number of school children, fourth in the amount of her total receipts, third in expenditures for the maintenance of her public schools, fourth in the number of teachers employed, first in the number of school houses, and third in the expenditure of money for a library. Each of the counties named were not only organized, some of them many years before Nodaway County had an existence, but each has a greater population.

If the number of school houses, as we have always been taught to believe, indicate the interest the people have in the cause of education, then Nodaway County ranks first in the state, as she exceeds all other counties in this respect, having twenty-eight school buildings more than any other county. She has altogether one hundred and eighty-five schools in operation.

Principal Of The Various School Funds

The number of children of school age in the county in 1870 was 5,496. This number has nearly doubled during the decade which has followed. In 1870 there were about no school houses, the number having increased some six or seven per year since that period.

Nodaway County educational affairs are in a flourishing condition. The county has now become well supplied with comfortable, commodious school houses, and good schools are taught in all the townships and towns, sufficiently numerous and convenient for the accommodation of .ill parts of the county. Educational interests are considered of the highest importance, and means have not been spared to make the public schools a success, and under the efficient management of those who have held the office of superintendent, the schools are attaining a high standard.

The county teachers believe in the interchange of thought, also in the community of effort, and are making the profession of teaching a study as well as a practice. Teachers' institutes are now becoming of regular and frequent occurrence, and are well attended by those who take special interest in the work. The superintendent's examination grades are now of such a standard, that all applicants do not attain them, and for those who are successful, after diligent stud)- and preparation, it shows a more creditable standing, besides furnishing a much more efficient class of teachers.

There has been as great a change in the character and qualifications of the teacher, as there has been in the architecture and arrangements of the school houses. Formerly, schools were held at the residences of the old settlers, or else in cabins whose external appearance and internal arrangements closely resembled the pioneer cabin. The teacher also, very closely resembled the early settler, or, as a rule, he was a settler, devoting a great portion of his time to making rails, grubbing hazel brush, and attending to his stock and crops, while teaching was simply incidental. Teaching has now become a profession, and the teacher devotes his entire time to it.

The following is a list of County Superintendents since 1852, which will embrace all, perhaps, who officiated in that capacity since the organization of the county :

The settlement of the county and the organization of the first churches were almost contemporaneous. The plow had scarcely begun to turn the sod, when the pioneer preachers commenced to labor in the new field. In the Western country, as well as in the Orient and the isles of the sea, marched the representatives of the Christian religion in the front ranks of civilization. Throughout the centuries which comprise this era, have the Christian missionaries been taught and trained to accompany the first advance of civilization, and such was their advent in Nodaway County. In the rude cabins and huts of the pioneers they proclaimed the same gospel that is preached in the gorgeous palaces that, under the name of churches, decorate the great cities.

It was the same gospel, but the surroundings made it appear different, in the effect it produced at least. The Christian religion had its rise, and the days of its purest practice, among an humble minded people, and it is among similar surroundings in modern times, that it seems to approach the purity of its source. This is best shown in the days of pioneer life. It is true, indeed, that in succeeding times, the church has attained greater wealth and practices a wider benevolence. Further, it may be admitted, that it has gained a firmer discipline, and wields a more general influence on society, but it remains true, in pioneer times, we find a manifestation of Christianity that we seek in vain at a later period and under contrasted circumstances. The meek and the lowly spirit of the Christian faith - the placing of spiritual things above vain pomp and show - appear more earnest amid the simple life and toil of a pioneer people, than it can when surrounded with the splendors of wealth and fashion.

But we may take a comparison less wide, and instead of contrasting the Christian appearances of a great city with that of the pioneers, we may compare that of forty years ago here in the West with that in the present time of moderately developed wealth and taste for display and we find much of the same result.

The comparison is perhaps superficial to some extent, and does not fully weigh the elements involved, nor analyze them properly. We simply take the broad fact not to decry the present, but to illustrate the past. So looking back to the early religious meetings in the log cabins we may say: " Here was a faith, earnest and simple, like that of the early Christians."

It is not our purpose, at this place, to give a full account of the organization of all the churches of the county. Such matters of detail have been given in connection with the history of the towns and townships. It is our purpose here to speak only of the early churches and ministers, of those Christian ministers who first proclaimed the gospel of our Savior in Nodaway County, and of some of the organizations effected by them, and of the trials and privations which they suffered in common with the old sttlers among whom they labored.

The representatives of the M. E. Church were the first to bear aloft the banner of the Christian religion in Nodaway County. The first church was organized in Hughes Township, in 1840, with the following members : Mr. and Mrs. James Finch, Mr. and Mrs. Joel Hedgepeth, and Ruth Hedgepeth. The two first ministers in charge were Rev. Reuben Aldridge, in 1840, and Rev. Benjamin R. Baxter, in 1842. They were succeeded by Rev. Alexander Spencer, in 1844.

One among the first ministers, to officiate as such, among the pioneers of the county, was Bishop Marvin, who spent the early years of his ministry in Northwest Missouri. The Bishop was then a young man, with headquarters at Oregon, Holt County, and laboring in behalf of the M. E. Church. He held services about the years 1842 and 1843, at the house (a log cabin) of Mr. Oester, father of John Oester, now of Mount Tabor. Mr. Oester then resided in what is now known as Lincoln Township. Here the Bishop organized a class, and finally a church, which is still in existence. But we will let the Bishop tell of those days when he labored in this section of the country. In 1874, the old settlers of the Platte Purchase, held a reunion at St. Joseph.

Bishop Marvin had been invited to be present upon that occasion, but owing to his ministerial duties, which called him elsewhere at that time, he could not attend. He, however, wrote the following letter to Col. James N. Burnes, the President of the Old Settlers Reunion, which will doubtless be read with great interest by all who knew the Bishop and who are familiar with the incidents of that early day:

Dear Sir and Brother : I have just returned from a tour, and find yours of August 27th, inviting me to participate in the reunion of the "old settlers" of the Platte Purchase. I regret that I did not know of the reunion a month earlier. In that case I could have arranged my appointments so as to enable me to be present. As it is, I have an engagement in Dent County, which, for special reasons, it is necessary to meet. You may assure your board that no circumstances of a trivial character would prevent my acceptance of their invitation.

The early years of my ministry were spent in that part of the state. In 1842, I passed the present site of St. Joseph, on my way to a field of labor quite on the frontier. It embraced all the country west of Nodaway River. You will remember at that time there was no St. Joseph. In subsequent years I labored in Clay, Platte and Buchanan Counties. I shall never forget the uncalculating, unbounded hospitality of the "old settlers." Many of them were in their first rude cabins, but those cabins had the rarest capacity for entertaining both friend and stranger of any houses of their size I ever saw. I often saw them crowded, but to the best of my recollection I never saw one of them full ; there was always room for a fresh comer. I recollect once in the Platte Purchase, I was wedging myself into a bed already occupied by five children, when one of them waked sufficiently to exclaim, " Mamma, mamma, he's a scrougin me ! "

You will yourself remember that I was more than once a guest at the house of your honored father. Bear with me while I say I can never forget the model Christian mother, mistress and hostess, who presided over the domestic scene there.

At that time I knew many men who did not know me, for I was a mere youth. I knew they were great as compared with other men I knew, but I had a fancy that the great men were in the east. But after many years of extended observation I have come to the conclusion that I heard as fine a specimen of political speaking in Liberty, in 1844, by Colonel Doniphan, as I have ever heard since, and that the country would be happy if the balances were everywhere held by hands as intelligent and firm as those of the pioneer jurist, David R. Atchison.

Among my own class there was the laborious Redman, the scholarly Tutt, the impetuous and saintly Roberts, and many others, now dead. Nor can I omit the name of the incorruptible and courageous Roberson. Some are. still living: Holmes, Perry, Ruble, Jordan, Rush, Spencer, Barker and others.

There was a man, a minister of Christ, a large portion of whose public career belongs to the Platte Purchase, of whom I must say, he was in some respects the most remarkable man I ever saw. I refer to W. G. Caples. He was another "Agamemnon, King of men." He was a firstclass wit, a man of the finest social feelings, having positive ideas, and a great end to accomplish. That end was the extension of the kingdom of Christ and the salvation of men. In his view, a high standard of popular education would contribute to this. He did much for Northwest Missouri in establishing schools under Christian auspices, and although they did not survive the war, they did much to elevate public sentiment, and have left an influence behind them that must be permanent.

Now I proceed to say that the old settlers of Platte have heard as great preaching as any other people on the American continent, and from the lips of the man, Caples. I have heard more scholarly men, men whose sermons evinced higher cultivation and a better classical finish ; but for power of argumentation, for philosophical breadth and sweep, for grandeur of conception, for greatness of imagination, for force and pungency of popular appeal, for originality, variety and opulence of thought, and for pathos, my conviction is his superior has not appeared in the American pulpit.

I make no doubt that the ministry and church have done more to quicken thought and create a thirst for knowledge in the west, than is generally understood. Ministers of the gospel in the new communities, being above the average of people in culture, and dealing in truths of a character to elevate the mind and provoke inquiry, have, as an incident of their calling, toned up the popular mind, encouraged a taste for reading and created a demand for schools. Such a man as Caples cannot mingle with people without elevating them.

But pardon me. I had no thought of becoming so garrulous. I am getting to be almost an old man, and thoughts of the old times have awakened the talking mood in me, until it seems a real hardship and self-denial not to be with you at the reunion. It is thirty years since I heard Doniphan. How I would like to listen to his utterances on this occasion, when old memories will mellow his voice, and since, as I doubt not, Christian sentiments will exalt and irradiate his conception.

Will you have the goodness to present to the "old settlers" my profound regard, and express to them my deep regret that I cannot greet them on this pleasant occasion, for there are many whom I shall never meet again. As ever,

E. M. Marvin

During his pastorate in one of the St. Louis churches, he delivered his famous lectures on Catholicism, which have ever since been accepted as a standard defense of the Protestant faith. In 1876, he sailed as one of the missionaries of his church to visit the missions in foreign fields, and returned in 1877. While on his death-bed he finished his book, the most important of his writings, entitled "To the East by Way of the West," which gives an account of his voyage around the world, and describing the field of labor in heathen lands. About the same time that Bishop Marvin came to Nodaway County, or soon after, another minister of the gospel, the Rev. W. G. Caples, of the M. E. Church, did missionary work in Northwest Missouri, extending the field of his labor to Nodaway County. Mr. Caples was an earnest, sincere and eloquent preacher, and did much for the cause of Christianity. Bishop Marvin speaks of him in laudatory terms in the above letter. Mr. Caples went to St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1852, and took charge of the M. E. Church South, where he remained for several years.

The Rev. E. A. Carson was the first Presbyterian clergyman to conduct services in the county. The place where he held meetings was known as the Saunders' school house, located about three miles west of Arkoe, in White Cloud Township. Mr. Carson is a Virginian by birth, and now resides at Savannah., Andrew County, Missouri, at the advanced age of eighty years.