| g |
|
|
href="../../new.htm">What's New | Bios | Birth/Marr/Death | Cemeteries | Census | Courts | Directories/Lists | History | Land & Property | Military | Photos & Postcards | Resources | Schools
| About
fifty years ago a little blacksmith shop stood across the road from
where the Samuel Flory residence now stands in the western part of the
township. I can see in my imagination a group of sturdy farmers
standing about the dingy little building. They are talking excitedly;
important news has come. Two of their number have just returned from
the little town of Iowa City where they had taken a herd of cattle to
sell. They have brought back with them the news of the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise and the passage by Congress of the Kansas-Nebraska
Bill. Someone has just proposed that they get up a crowd of “squatters”
to go across the country to help “Bleeding Kansas” and to save it from
the southern slave holders. They have other matters also to talk about. I can see the brawny blacksmith finish the rude plow share he is making. It is his turn to talk now. All eyes are toward him. He has been their leader in many discussions. He now makes the suggestion they have very important business nearer home. He has been counting up during his leisure moments and he now tells them that there are enough people living in the neighborhood and they must soon have a meeting to organize a township and they must surely have a schoolhouse built and have a school for the boys and girls of the neighborhood, by the next winter. The people just a little way west of them have their township already organized and he tells the farmers that they must not drop behind. So, amid such stirring times as the border war in “Bleeding Kansas” and the passage of the ”Personal Liberty Bills” in many of the northern states, the township was organized. I do not wonder that it was called Liberty and that its first school should go by the same name. I think the first schoolhouse in the township was built in 1854. It was a small frame building with desks made of broad, rough boards. The seats were made of rough slabs and the blackboard was a couple of painted planks. It stood in the southwest part of the section, a little east of where the Dunkard church now stands and was used for a number of years by them as a meetinghouse. As the country was settled more thickly, another school was organized and placed about two miles east directly in the center of the township. It was given the title No. 1 or Hawkeye. Although Liberty was organized first. I think the first term of school at Liberty was taught in the winter of 1854-55 by David Brower. Among the other early teachers in this school were: F.B. Flory, Mr. Frego, Mr. Baker, and Mr. Thomas Seerley, father of H.H. Serley, who is now president of State Normal School. In later years some of the teachers have been: Miss Ollie Morman, James Hilderbrand, Homer Seerley. Mr. Bailey, Cap E. Miller, our present county superintendent and Milo C. Miller. Under the leadership of these teachers our school has made a great advancement from the rude school which it was in 1854. Among the pupils who attended the early terms of school at Liberty the names Westfall, Stoner, Wolf, Rhodes, Flory, Wine, and Brower are familiar. Among the girls and boys who have made their mark in life may be mentioned: Mark Brower, who writes an M.D., he is now practicing medicine near Salem. Oregon; D.N. Coffman, formerly county treasurer, now a successful merchant in our hometown; David Wolf who has become quite a mechanic and is manufacturing gasoline engines; David Rhodes, school teacher and druggist; George Flory, druggist; Ollie Morman and Hope Marinan are school teachers; Charles Morman, chief salesman for mining tool company; William Huxford, formerly school teacher, now a veterinary doctor; Alosco Moore, principal of schools in Norway, Iowa. About the year 1879, the western part of the district having become more thickly settled, it was decided to move the school building nearer the center of the district. George Huxford undertook the job of moving it. Placing it upon two bobsled he started. After getting it within about one quarter of a mile of its destination, the snow went off the ground. It looked as though our school would have to stand in the center of a field but after several weeks, they secured some trucks and finished the moving. The building was placed on the lot about twenty feet north of where the preset schoolhouse stands. In 1881 the old building had become too small to accommodate the pupils, of whom there were sometimes as many as seventy-five enrolled, so a new schoolhouse was built and the old one was tore down. Today we are still using the house built in 1881. It is 23 by 28 feet and faces the south. It is in the southwestern part of the schoolground. It is in fair condition and in the days in which it was built was considered a fine schoolhouse. As one person says, “That was last century; now we’ve grown wiser”. Measured by the school building of the present, we cannot boast of our Liberty schoolhouse. It is neatly painted inside and out. It is fairly well equipped. We have good slate blackboards, a good chart, and a good library of about fifty volumes. The room is neatly decorated with festooning, flags and Perry pictures which were put up by our present and former teachers. The seats are poor, having done duty for at least two generations. The room is well lighted and has good window blinds. It is well ventilated. There are several cracks in the floor where you can drop a knife through (of course I mean a small knife). Then, near the door there are three of four passage ways for mice so they can get out quickly if they should happen to get in. Bad boys like to chase mice, you know. The schoolground is well sodded. Has nice maple shade trees, neat outbuildings, but unpainted, a small school garden and a good stable in one corner of the ground for the use of persons who drive to school. The school yard slopes slightly to the east and is in a pleasant location. The fence is neither neat nor substantial; in fact, there is no fence on the side next to the road. The yard contains three-fourths of an acre but we do not think it is near large enough. In our school at present, we have an enrollment of 31, although we have had an enrollment of 36 during the term. The attendance is regular and punctuality is fair. The grades are from the first to the eighth. The school has recitations daily. We have debates and declamations about once in three weeks. I can see nothing but a better future for Liberty school. During the last few years, the people in our district have roused up wonderfully along educational lines and our district has had the honor of paying the highest salary and of having the largest number of months of school in the year of any school in this part of the county. Our schoolground would be greatly improved by a neat fence, a good walk from the road to the house and from the house to the various outbuildings. It would be a good plan if at least 20 more square rods were added to the schoolground. Some plants, shade trees, flowering vines and shrubs planted about our schoolhouse would help to take the barn-like look. Our school ground would also be greatly improved by having a good well on it. It has none at present. I would like to see a row of shade trees between the house and road. In regard to improving our schoolhouse in the future, it might be replaced by a new one. But at a small outlay it could be made to do duty for twenty years more and at the same time be made a more pleasant place. A hall or lobby and some furniture are needed. In a great many rural school’s basement heating is in use, thus saving time, patience, fuel, and last but not least, money for the taxpayer. They also have workshops and gardens, where the boys and girls learn to observe things accurately and to work with their hands. I see no reason why Liberty should not have these things in the near future. Liberty, first organized largest school and finest people in all the township, will have them. “Our public schools, our country’s pride, |
|
|
