Chapter XXIII
To start on there were only three townships. The
congressional township running east and west across the county,
numbered 100, was called Horton Township; the same running east
and west across the county, numbered 98, was called Holman
Township, and the same numbered 98 called Goewey Township. These
remained in that way until October 7, 1872, when the board
divided Horton Township into three townships, making section 100,
range 42, Fenton, section 100, range 41, Wilson and section 100,
range 40 and section 100, range 39, Horton. Afterwards, by a
demand of the people in that township, Fenton was changed to
Viola. Fairview was set off September 7, 1874. Holman Township
remained as established until at the September 27, 1873, meeting
the board made two townships out of the four, making the east,
being section 99, range 39, and section 99, range 40, one
township, and giving the name Ocheyedan. These townships,
remaining the same as Holman, comprise two congressional
townships, and Ocheyedan two, which for convenience sake are
called East and West Ocheyedan. At the January 1, 1884 meeting,
Gilman Township was set off by itself. June 7, 1875,the board
passed a resolution that township 98, range 40, be set off and
called Baker, except sections 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, and
sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 28, 19, and
30, in township 98, range 39. Harrison was set off September 3,
1888, and that fall had its first election.
EDUCATIONAL
If there is any one thing that is distinctly American,
it is our educational system, which offers to each rising
generation the grandest facilities for scholarship that can be
found in the world.
The American boy knows no barrier to distinction in the line of
education save in himself. Iowa is not behind any other state in
the Union in its legislative provisions concerning schools, and
Osceola County, as a part of the great state, is ever active in
the organization of its school districts and their effective
management.
If any boy or girl lives in Osceola County during their school
days, and grows to manhood or womanhood here without a good
common school education, the fault must be charged to the parent
or the child and not to lack of opportunity.
Immediately upon the formation of the civil townships, as made by
the Woodbury County Board, the same townships by operation of law
became school districts, and the school townships now are the
same in size and name as the civil townships.
F.W. Hahn is the present County Superintendent of Schools, and
his official management in that department is efficient and
highly satisfactory.
There are at present in the county eighty-one school houses, as
follows:
3 |
Fairview |
6 |
Horton |
6 |
Wilson |
6 |
Viola |
12 |
Ocheyedan |
7 |
Harrison |
7 |
Baker |
7 |
Goewey |
8 |
Gilman |
15 |
Holman |
2 |
Sibley, town |
1 |
Ocheyedan, town |
1 |
Ashton, town |
The value of Osceola County school houses is estimated at $44,000; the value of school house apparatus at $2,000.
The present school officers are as follows:
FAIRVIEW
J.C.Ward |
President |
M.B.Smith |
Secretary |
Wm.Mowthorpe |
Treasurer |
Geo.Hamilton, B.F.Webster |
Directors |
HORTON
Dick Wassmann |
President |
John Robertson |
Secretary |
N.W. Emery |
Treasurer |
I.B. Titus, August Bremer |
Directors |
WILSON
W.A.Cloud |
President |
A.B.Evarts |
Secretary |
Will Thomas |
Treasurer |
W.C.Connor, Mons.Soren, C.E.Yates, F.A.Klampe, Joseph Zweck |
Directors |
VIOLA
Joseph Raine |
President |
George Downend |
Secretary |
J.P.Wallran |
Treasurer |
S. Newman, Pat Piesley |
Directors |
HOLMAN
W.L. Taylor |
President |
M. Harvey |
Secretary |
P.A.Cajacob |
Treasurer |
T. Ling, John Gallagher, Thomas Reycraft,D.W.Whitney,John Karpen, James Hunter, O.C.Staplin, John Schroeder, Will Morse, J.B. Jenny, John Wagner, John Melcher |
Directors |
OCHEYEDAN
W.E. Ely |
President |
E.N. Moore |
Secretary |
L.B. Boyd |
Treasurer |
G.W.Thomas, Joseph Smith |
Directors |
HARRISON
J.W.Wardrip |
President |
T.Hemming |
Secretary |
F.H.Newkirk |
Treasurer |
George Krukenberg, Daniel Tzards |
Directors |
BAKER
Hans Graves |
President |
C.W. Bryan |
Secretary |
W.H. Lean |
Treasurer |
J.L. McAnnich, Fred Kuester |
Directors |
GOEWEY
H.C. Allen |
President |
Henry Huffman |
Secretary |
Alex Gilkinson |
Treasurer |
O.B.Harding, A. Brunson, Charles Bangert, Jacob Brandt, George Spaulding, Eugene Girton |
Directors |
GILMAN
B.T. Pettingell |
President |
J.C. Wilmarth |
Secretary |
W.C. Craig |
Treasurer |
A.Schent, R. Lensen, H.H.Nolte, R.J. Stemm, E.Beckwith, Nels Porter |
Directors |
INDEPENDENT DISTRICT OF ASHTON
H. Neill |
President |
W.P.Webster |
Secretary |
Levi Shell |
Treasurer |
A. Romey, M.J. Campbell, J.B. Lent, Geo. Learned, W.H. Chambers |
Directors |
INDEPENDENT DISTRICT OF ASHTON
I.B. Lucas |
President |
J.W.Reagan |
Secretary |
W.L.Benjamin |
Treasurer |
N. Boor, H.S.Grant |
Directors |
The school sections, so-called,
are numbered sixteen in each township, which were donated by the
general government, to the State, for the benefit of the schools.
These sections are sold, and the proceeds constitute a fund which
remains and not disposed of, but it is loaned out upon good real
estate security, and the income from it byway of interest, is
distributed over the State to each township according to its
number of scholars. Osceola County has now of this fund, and as
proceeds from the sale of land in this county, about $100,000.
The first sale made of school lands in Osceola, was in July,
1881, and the first quarter sold was bought by Close Bros. In
Gilman Township. These school lands have all been disposed of
except one quarter, and this will go to sale soon.
There are in Osceola County at the present time, about twenty-one
hundred persons of school age, and the best of teachers are
secured, so that our schools are of a high order and the means of
much advancement. Several school buildings have been erected this
present season. Prof. Trainer, mentioned elsewhere, did much for
Osceola County in the line of education. He constantly
contributed to the public press articles intended to stimulate
the young in the line of their studies. The following is one of
his contributions:
"A PLEA FOR
THE CHILDREN"
"Children hunger
perpetually for new ideas. They will learn with pleasure from the
lips of others what they deem drudgery to study in books; and
even if they have the misfortune to be deprived of many
educational advantages, they grow up intelligent people.
"We sometimes see people who are the life of every company
which they enter, dull, silent and uninteresting among children;
such cannot teach. The teacher must be the life of the school.
How can we expect life and energy to come from dry, cold, silent
books! The use of books is a detriment rather than an aid to the
younger pupils. When the pupil enters school at the age of five
years he already has learned more than any teacher on earth can
teach him in a long life time. Teachers, did you ever think that
the child at that age has learned two of the most difficult
things mortals have to learn-walking and talking? How many works
in philosophy has he heard to be able to make known his thoughts
by talking. We know that these and a thousand other attainments
have been reached by doing for himself. Yet without a knowledge
of these things, from the first hour the child enters school many
teachers attempt to change the whole course of nature by forcing
upon him that which is as foreign to his nature as day is from
night. What we need is the teacher who will give the children a
chance to observe, experiment and to think for themselves, and
let us remember that language is the instrument of thought, and
that without language there can be no thought."