Keokuk County Iowa IAGenWeb - 1904 School Essay Contest - South English Township, School No. 1

Long years ago, it seems ages to the girls and boys of today when there were no landmarks upon the broad rolling prairies of Iowa, a little band of settlers crossed the Mississippi River, and travelled westward until they reached the present site of South English. They built a few log cabins and for convenience’s sake called their new home Houston’s Point. Here in one of these primitive dwellings originated our first school which was taught by Mr. Orr in the fall of 1853. The teacher not being of very polished manners, the school was short-lived and soon succeeded by another which was taught by Sophronia Matthews in the log cabin of Mercy Fasold. “Aunt Mercy” would take her babe to stay with a neighbor during school hours, and she received for the use of her home her fuel, and tuition for her three children. In 1855 the town of South English was surveyed; lumber was hauled from Iowa City and Burlington and dwellings and business houses erected. As the population increased the people decided that they must have a school building in which to educate their children. A generous land owner named Rodman donated the land on which Dr. Newsome’s house now stands, but Thomas Seerley persuaded them to exchange it for a plat of ground located two blocks south of the old town well. The schoolhouse was a one-story building with wooden slabs for seats, and desks along the sides which were used in writing. Here our grandparents learned their A, B, C’s and how to write with quill pens. Then came Reading, Arithmetic, Grammar, Geography and Spelling.

How near I came forgetting that good old study which our grandparents tell of today with kindling eyes! The “spelling school” was to them the life of their school days. On every Tuesday night the best spellers from neighboring schools would assemble in the little schoolhouse for an old-fashioned spelling match. Good order was generally preserved and no second trial allowed on a word. Many pupils had whole pages of their spelling books memorized and in the contests our school would nearly always come out victorious. They also had “jography schools” noted for their exhibitions of vocal talent for the shrillest treble and the deepest bass would join in singing the states and capitals to the tune of “Go tell Aunt Rhoda her old gray goose is dead”. The schoolhouse was also used for church services, political speaking, and during the winter months the boys and girls would come here to sing Do, Re, and Mi under the instruction of John Wallace, a singing master of considerable reputation.

The first school teacher was Manasses Flory, a young man of pleasing countenance and kindly eye, who received a $20 per month and taught from two to three months during the winter. The next teacher was Thomas Seerley, father of the President of our State Normal School. He taught for $35 a month and his duties were to quote his own words, “To make and mend quill pens, to set copies for writing lessons and to hear the pupils read and spell. One term I had eighty-six (86) enrolled and eighteen (18) classes that expected to have four recitations a day. We had no adopted class books and some had none at all”. Mr. Seerley was one of those quick-tempered school masters who believed in the practice of that old maxim “Spare the rod and spoil the child”. Among his scholars we find Homer and John Seerley who have gained great fame and honor in the educational and political worlds. Homer Seerly ranks first among all educators of Iowa and we may justly be proud that he received his start in life in the South English schools. His brother John has distinguished himself as lawyer and statesman having been Representative to Congress from the First Congressional District. Their father Thomas is at present residing in Iowa City having attained a good old age of eighty-three (83) years, but when he comes home, we listen with delight to his reminiscences of those days that he spent in the little schoolhouse the witness of so many scenes of pleasure in which the young folks participated. Here they would laugh, talk, and have a good time just as we do today. Here the bright-colored threads of romance were woven by the lads and lassies and the foundation laid for many a good character. But by-and-by they grew tired of the old schoolhouse, they began to despise it homely walls and it was finally sold to August Kleinschmidt who turned it into a machine shop; later it was used as a free Methodist meetinghouse, and lastly made an ignominious exit as a saloon and was destroyed by fire. The new schoolhouse was completed in 1869, an attractive building painted white with pretty green shutters and wonder of wonders a school bell! The first principal was John A. Benson an ambitious fellow who was book-crazy. He proved himself one of the best instructors our school as ever had, but avarice led him from paths of integrity and he became involved in one of the greatest land fraud conspiracies the western states have ever known.

In 1879, the Burlington railroad was built through the town and it cut off a corner of the school grounds. This led the school board to believe that it was not a suitable place for a schoolhouse and they started to move it. They got it into the highway when they were stopped by an injunction issued by the citizens. The building was left in the highway until the road supervisor served a notice upon them to remove it. After this the county superintendent was called up to settle affairs and the building was taken back to its old site but was by this time totally unfit for service, so the school board rented Hattie Israel’s brick building and school was held here during the winter of 1882-83 taught by Lulu Jackson of Sigourney. In the spring a special meeting of the board was called by the superintendent who proposed calling an election to decide whether to build a new schoolhouse or not. Two locations were also to be voted on; one and one half (1 ½) acres of Rodman’s Park, and two (2) acres of Noffsinger’s meadow.

The election resulted in favor of a new schoolhouse to be situated on Rodman’s Park. The sum of four hundred and fifty (450) dollars was paid for the grounds and the district was bonded for three thousand (3000) dollars to build the schoolhouse, a two-story, four-roomed building, the ground plan of which was 40 x 44 ft. Three rooms were furnished with school apparatus and were ready for school work by fall with Arnold McCay as Principal, Maude Roberts and Ida McWilliams as assistants.

Among students and instructors who have been associated with our school during its past life are: Alice Heald Mendenhall once a member of the State Board of Education, Prin. Of the Fairfield High School for six (6) years, Co. Sup’t of Jefferson Co. For six (6) years; Frank Shinabarger, one of the best postal clerks in Iowa; three doctors: C.L. Heald, Wm Fitzwater, and the late T.B. McWilliams; Ida White Robb, daughter of Hon. Fred E. White, and her brother Virgil, now a rising lawyer of Des Moines, also lawyers Earl Smith of Mason City, Seth Hall of Cal., and Samuel West Jr., State Senator in Ohio and also an eminent attorney; Kale McWilliams Ex-Co. Recorder, D.N. Coffman Ex-Co. Treasurer and lastly our three County Superintendents: S.A. Potts, W.H. Gemmil, and Cap E. Miller. Mr. Gemmil is at present the Sup’t of Schools at Dallas Center and we all know that “Our Cap” is one of the best Superintendents Keokuk County has ever had and also the youngest member of the Education Council of the State Teachers’ Association. The South English schools are at present under the able supervision of G.D. Horras and although the number of pupils is not as large as formerly the school is bettering itself day by day. Last summer our enterprising school board gave the school building a much-needed coat of paint and placed a sidewalk in front of the schoolground. A few years before a wire fence had been added, and the slate blackboards placed in the schoolrooms. On the walls of our schoolrooms, we have several good pictures and among them is one that we prize most highly, a portrait of Homer Seerley which he presented to us last year. We have a library of 450 volumes including fiction, history, poetry, encyclopedias, and a good Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary, and the High School through its own efforts possesses an organ. The schoolground are well located and afford an ideal place for our game of basketball. With the parliamentary rules as its basis the Orio Literary Society hold semi-monthly sessions while the President with a broad smile has his first lesson in calling to order the unruly ones among his schoolmates. But alas as Pope says “Man never is but always to be blest” and with all these past favors we still pleased for better educational advantages. We want the schools of English River township centralized and in the center of the township a beautiful building recognized for miles around, not for its beauty of architecture alone but for its inner life. We will have this wish gratified just as soon as the taxpayers realize the advantages of the consolidated school not only to their children but to their pocketbooks. The day is inevitably drawing near when the little red schoolhouse with its half-dozen urchins and its “school-marm” will be a thing of the past. The boys and girls and perhaps their instructor will be students in the centralized school and will enjoy the privilege of preparing themselves at home not only for the Freshman but for the Junior year of the State University. Successful graduation from college or university is one of the greatest events in the life of any name or woman, and it is time that the school patrons realize the fact that education is the key that will open the doors
of success for their children. Come with me and I will show you that ideal school which we cherish in our hearts only as a bright dream that will fade away. We shall find this academic domain situated in the most healthful and picturesque portions of the township. The college buildings, poems in architecture are clustered around a fine campus rendered attractive by trees and sparking fountains and glimpses of lake and lawns. The main building, the center of the institutional life, is truly a temple of knowledge.

In it we find the vast assembly hall capable of seating all of the pupils of the township; we also visit the various recitation rooms. A Greek Room with its friezes, its columns, its statuary in an inspiration to Greek Students, and while it dazzles our eyes it carries us back to those ages of long ago. Listen! See strains of music draw us irresistibly toward the music room and adjoining it is a sunshiny room with well-filled book shelves and long tables. This is our library, a gift from Andrew Carnegie that kind Scotchman who has gladdened the hearts of so many you Americans by his munificent gifts. We visit the gymnasium, the museum, and the drawing room, a delightful apartment, where the students entertain their friends and the college societies hold their social gatherings, in other departments are instructors in manual training and domestic science. We are highly pleased with this for what is better that to educate these boys and girls, the homemakers of the future, to lead happy useful lives in the work that God has planed for them to do. As we pass into the hall, the clock sounds forth the summons of departing day and before we go, let us visit the chapel. The last rays of sun shining through the art windows cast a halo of glory about the room. We feel his divine presence and know that the institution is blessed by him who is the wisest of all, his wisdom is infinite.