OUR SCHOOL SYSTEM BEGINS
Historical Sketches of Neodesha
2nd article
(By Mrs. Kate Winter Pingrey)
The common school system of Wilson county was organized early in 1856. Dr. T. B. Woodard, one of the early physicians of Wilson county, was the first county superintendent and his first annual report in 1867 lists 11 districts and an enrollment of 50 pupils. A year later he reported an increase to 14 districts and a total of 725 pupils in the county. He states that four of the schoolhouses were log houses. By 1870 when S. W. Burke succeeded Dr. Woodard there were 53 districts with 9 log schoolhouses and 8 frame buildings and a school population of 2,205.
The first record we have of the Neodesha city schools comes from an item in the Neodesha Citizen, Vol. 1, No. 1, under date of Nov. 18, 1870, which was Neodesha's first newspaper. That year district 47 was organized giving Neodesha first place in Wilson County's educational system. Our first schoolhouse was a frame structure erected that year on Main Street at Eighth, a little northwest of where Dr. Frank Moorhead's office stands. The money to finance it was raised by subscription. The first teacher was James A. McHenry and at the opening of the second term, Miss Libby Halstead became his assistant. In Mr. McHenry's report submitted to the Citizen under date Dec. 21, 1870, he refers to the difficulties of teaching at that time. He wrote as follows: "The pupils come from all parts of the United States, and are subject to different parental discipline. The many different kinds of textbooks require a great deal of adjustment in preparation of lessons." He further says, "Owing to the loose condition of the school building, the attendance was small during foul weather." He must have been pretty much disgusted for he goes on to say, "Fifteen little fellows had to be taught their ABC's. This is decidedly wrong. No child should be sent to school before it can read or at least before it knows the alphabet." He urges parents to take the time to teach the rudiments to their children – a far cry from today, when many parents expect the school to do everything for their children. This probably was a subscript school, the parents paying tuition for each pupil. The Citizen in it's issue of February 6, 1871 (See footnote 1), sets the opening of the winter term for February 6 and says further, "The present vacation has been much longer than intended owing to the need of a second building and some repairs on the old one." Evidently it paid that Mr. McHenry register complaints. By this time it had become a graded school with Mr. McHenry in charge of the advanced department and Miss Halstead teaching the primary.
It may interest some of our older readers to note that a report of March 10, 1871, lists among those neither absent or tardy some families names, among them two who continued to reside here until their deaths, Lizzie Cramer who became Mrs. Adolph Bauman and Nora Holbert, who married John Allen, a brother of Dr. F. T. Allen, an old time physician.
During that year a teacher's institute was held here, among the attendants was Garrett M. Walrad, who was engaged to succeed Mr. McHenry. Evidently the growing young city gave Mr. McHenry opportunity for a better law practice so he gave up the teaching profession.
The pupils as well as teachers in our well-equipped modern schools have no idea of the handicaps of those pioneer days. In the Citizen of August 16, 1872, there is an open letter of indignation on the subject which I quote in part as follows: "We protest against the poor, small schoolhouse, the pitiful wages paid to teachers, deficiency and lack of conformity in text books – without charts, maps, globes or other necessary equipment. Even under these pitiful and humiliating conditions the teachers energetically labor and patiently wait for improvements."
By September 1871 the need for an adequate building had become so acute that an election was held to vote school bonds to the amount of $10,000 which was to mature as follows: $2,000 due in 5 years, $4,000 due in 10 years, $4,000 due in 15 years, interest to be paid annually.
A later issue of the paper states that the new brick school building house cost $15,000 but I have no information as to how the deficit was met. The Citizen of December 1, 1871, published a notice to contractors about the proposed school building, stating that "plans may be seen at the office of J. W. Sutherland or at the office of J. G. Haskall at Lawrence, Kan." Signed J. W. Demoss, district clerk. Early in October of 1872 an election was held to determine the location for the new school house. E. D. Huntley had offered to donate three acres of land as a site south of town on his claim, which Moses Kimball bought later, and most of which some of the Kimball family still own (See footnote 2). The other site offered was at the extreme north end and was offered free by Captain Ford. Even at that early date women had the right to vote at school elections, so a large number of women, anxious to exercise their right as voters were present and had to stand for much "kidding" on the part of the men, as the woman voter was something of a joke at that time. A novel way of voting was devised: those who favored the north site wrote "for Ford" on their ballets, likewise those who favored the other wrote in "for Huntley." The north siders won, tow to one and a hot fight ended peacefully.
At this time the new building was still a dream but on its way to being realized. John S. Gilmore, editor of the Neodesha Citizen, always was a booster for good schools and in his October 4, 1872 issue he says, "Our citizens are sufficiently wise to know that all success in any laudable enterprise depends exclusively on mental development and this school will be a grand monument to our City." A prophetic statement, for Neodesha has been famous for the excellence of her schools since that date.
Only a few of our present day Neodesha citizens may remember that the site where the old brick schoolhouse stood was once a burying ground. I remember when my brother and I started to school the older pupils would frighten the youngsters by telling stories of ghosts who hovered around the ground and occasionally would exhibit a bone which they claimed to have dug up. This old memory was brought to mind when I read this notice in the Citizen of Sept. 13, 1872 as follows: "Mayor Smith requests those having friends or relations buried in the grave yard now laid off for school grounds, to have the remains disinterred and removed by the last day of November, or they will be removed by the city authorities." Owing to the fact that in November of that year, Mr. Gilmore ceased publication of his paper in Neodesha and moved to Fredonia, there is no information as to just when the new building was ready for use.
The original building contained four rooms but it was not long until increased population called for an addition so a north wing with two rooms was added. Still the city grew and two years later the south wing took shape. Neodesha was justly proud of this fine building and there are still a number of our older citizens who remember it with tender memories. They will also recall the picket fence, which enclosed it and the turnstiles at the east and south. The building was struck by lightning one stormy night the summer of 1909 and burned to the ground. It was replaced by our fine Central school in 1912 which served as our high school for some years until the present high school building was completed. We now have five fine buildings and still maintain the high standards of education, which the pioneers dreamed of over seventy years ago.
Probably very few of the present generation ever heard of a writing school but they were a regular institution of the seventies. The Citizen of December 2, 1870, tells of the first term of Mr. Thompson's school, which closed on that date when prizes were awarded to the best penmen. Those were the days when it was considered a great accomplishment to sign ones name with a great flourish, embellishing the letters with curly cues, also drawing elaborate birds with one continuous stroke of the pen, so a writing school fitted in very well into the scheme of things. We moderns seem to have the idea that adult education is something new but even in those early days there was an idea that one's education need not stop even after one had passed school age, for in the Citizen of Sept. 27, 1872, the following local advertisement appears: "J. W. Stillwell proposes to teach an English grammar school in our town, commencing one night next week and continuing fifteen nights of about two hours each. All who do not understand English grammar should embrace this opportunity to acquire it. His charges are very moderate." Perhaps a modern educator would think this was acquiring knowledge at lightening speed, yet Mr. Stillwell may have been a fast worker in imparting knowledge.
Neodesha also went modern in the matter of pre-school education. Bert Hill tells me that Mrs. James Cooper, wife of an early day preacher and teacher and her daughter, Lizzie, who later became a member of Neodesha's teaching staff and will be recognized by the name of Mrs. Lizzie Stocking, established a kindergarten in their home located where Mrs. Lina Jones now lives, about the year 1878. Bert Hill tells me that after his mother passed away, among her effects her children found little paper mats and other things, which the small fingers of the Hill children had made, in this school.
It is not my purpose to bring this history down to the present. I'll leave that to others, but as many people seem to be interested in the early days, I have compiled these facts hoping they will be of interest.
(These articles are compiled from items in the Neodesha newspapers on file at the Kansas Historical Society at Topeka, from clippings from our local papers and from personal reminiscences of pioneers. There will be a series of articles on Neodesha history published in subsequent issues of the Register, written by Mrs. Kate Winter Pingrey. They will cover our schools, churches, business, cultural development and other phases of Neodesha life. Better clip them for future reference. This is the second installment.)
Footnotes by Kerry Elkins:
- I am not sure if the date she cited was the 5th or some other single figure date.
- Her article lists Kamball, but I assume it should also be Kimball, as in the first reference.
Many people cut these articles out and saved them as they appeared in the local newspaper. The museum has excellent original copies and I have copies my mother saved. No claim is made as to the accuracy of my transcriptions or to the accuracy of Mrs. Pingrey's articles. Without the efforts of her, Joe W. Allen, and a few dedicated others all history of Neodesha would be lost.
This article was written about 1946 and published then in the local newspaper and later in the 1960's or 70's.
Transcribed by Kerry Elkins August 5, 2004
