Schools
The schools were under the
management of town commissioners until 1849 when town superintendents were
elected. Mention will be made of the
first commissioners in connection with the formation of joint districts with the
commissioners of Sun Prairie in a later issue.
Moses Kenyon, Jacob Graft, and John S. Perry constituted the last board.
Each school district was then in charge of two trustees who reported to the
commissioners. The reports made in
1849 show how little was paid to teachers in addition to the board and lodging
obtained by "boarding round". A.
G. Phelps and David Hurd reported for District No. 3, that it contained 13 males
and 15 females between the ages of 4 and 20, and that one qualified female
teacher had been employed during the year for three months and "said
teacher has been paid twelve dollars".
J. Graft and J. O. Smith reported for District No. 1 that there were 11
males and 11 females of school age and "that qualified female teacher has
been employed during the past year for three months and that qualified teacher
has been paid twelve dollars". W.
H. Andrews and James Forrester reported for Joint District No. 2 that "two
qualified teachers have been employed during the past year, one kept 13 weeks
and has been paid thirteen dollars; the other twelve weeks and has been paid
eighteen dollars."
Dearborn Clark was elected Town Superintendent in 1849.
He set to work to form the several school districts and met with
superintendents of adjoining towns. In
1849, he met with Ambrose Jones of Waterloo, and in 1850, he acted with James H.
Ostrander, who was the second Town Superintendent of Waterloo.
Linus Johnson became Town Superintendent in 1851, and in 1852, the choice
devolved upon K. P. Clark. He was
followed in the office by Horace Chapin, whose daughter Orithia Chapin, was the
efficient assistant in the Waterloo Post Office for a dozen years.
His successor was D. W. Rosencrans, who resigned after a few months
service and was followed by James Chalmers.
C. L. Millington filled the office in 1856, and was succeeded by D. L.
Rosencrans.
In 1858, A. G. Allen was elected superintendent, but in 1859 he was
followed by William Drummond, and in 1860, Smith Johnson and B. B. Chadwick
enjoyed the honor. In 1861, Allen
Simons was given charge of schools and enjoyed the distinction of giving way to
the County Superintendents of Schools. A.
G. Allen kept a brief record from which may be learned some of the things that
engaged his attention. His record
shows he met at the house of A. C. Fisher with district boards and made a
division of the Library, and on December 13, 1858, James Ruane refers to this
division of books in his letter. Mr.
Allen entered on his records the following item:
"visited school in Joint School District No. 9 taught by W. L. Hoag;
appears in all respects to be a good teacher".
He also showed the following item: "visited
the school in Joint School District No. 11 taught by W. C. Winship; the scholars
did not appear to be very orderly". On
December 14, 1858, he visited the school in Joint School District No. 6 taught
by Smith Johnson; "appears to be a good teacher".
Marcus Brush in Joint School District 7, Miss Thompson in District 3,
Rebecca Thompson in District No. 5, were each reported "appears to be a
good teacher".
On December 16, he made the following entry:
"visited the school in School District No. 3 taught by John Leahy
who appears to be a very poor teacher in all respects".
(Mr. Leahy is still living and is a resident of Wausau, Wisconsin).
Superintendent Allen's comments were brief but to the point.
It seems he had authority to fill vacancies in school boards for on
January 15, 1859, he appointed Charles White an officer of Joint District 7, and
in February, he named Jacob Johnson as Clerk of District No. 6.
The Town Superintendent was paid $1.50 per day.
Superintendent Allen Simon's account shows items as follows:
Examination of T. R. Tagg, $.75; examination of Hobart Brush, $.75;
visiting Schools District No. 11 and 10, 1 day $1.50; distributing blank reports
and school money, $1.50. Of these
superintendents, Rosencrans, Drummond and Simons appear to have been pretty well
schooled. Their penmanship and
spelling were good. The penmanship
of Mr. Drummond was excellent. No
doubt but that all were interested in advancing the standard of the schools but
their ability to accomplish much was probably limited.
During the past forty years, the people of Portland laid great stress
upon the value of education. Like in
all other towns, a good system of public schools has been supported.
A review of the records of
the several districts will reveal that these schools have largely been in the
hands of teachers resident of the town which suggests that many families sent
their children away to school where they could secure a better education than
the district school afforded. During
the late 50's and the early 60's, the "select" schools of Waterloo
were well patronized by them. Their
registers would disclose among many others the names of Chauncey Sheldon, Ed,
Maria and Sophia Foster, W. R. Rogers, Stephen Leahy and Thomas R. Tagg.
The records of Waterloo High School, beginning with the principalship of
Edwin Marsh, will show that Portland furnished a majority of the non-residents
who frequently numbered fifty at a time. In
the early '70's, on any Sunday afternoon during the winter, there might be seen
sleigh loads of pupils on their way to the village where they rented rooms and
furnished their own board. Among
these were the names of Linderman, Knowlton, Hurd, Ellis, Wickhem, Valeau, Bump,
Torpy, Burnham, Murray, Ruane, Austin, Murphy, Chapin, Storer and Boorman.
Later appeared the names of Bolger, Joice, McCormick, Carty, Byrne,
Powers, Cooper, Stokes, Youker, Mulvaney, Hoffman, Whipple, Griffin, Yerges,
Clark, Sheridan, Beerbaum, Doyle, Foley, Dallman, Sullivan, Hayhurst and many
others.
It was difficult to find teachers among the early settlers.
The reports of school officers in the '40's indicate that as much as a
$1.50 per week was paid to "qualified" teacher, but this included
board. It was the custom for
teachers to "board round".
Each family of the district boarded the teacher its share of the time
free of cost. Mrs. Willet Ryder of
Marshall, a daughter of Silas Johnson, writes that her sister "Effie taught
in 1848 near the Portland line in a new log school house (Andrew District).
She was the first teacher there. Later
she taught in the Sullivan District (District No. 3) and later near Hubbleton in
a district called Oregon. She used
to teach winter and summer and "board round" the district getting at
first $1.50 per week. Afterwards,
she got $2.00 and that was thought to be good wages".
District No. 3 was more considerate at a later date.
Its records show that in 1868, Emma Rice was paid $30.00 per month.
Ed Foster in the same year received the same; in 1869, Nancy Campbell
(now Mrs. N. A. Polifke of Appleton) was paid $25.00 per month; F. A. Seeber in
1874 received $25.00; Lydia Hannifin (Mrs. P. Purcell) in 1871 was given $26.00
for her services; at present Nellie McCormick is paid $30.00 per month for a
period of nine months.
The wages since 1868 have changed but little.
The higher wages are now paid throughout the year; then it was for a
period of three months. When Effie
Johnson taught District No. 3, the ox-team was the sole reliance of her patrons
who were still housed in log cabins and markets for their produce were hard to
reach. Mrs. Ryder further described
then existing conditions: "Those
days the farmers hauled their grain to Milwaukee with ox-teams and it would take
them about a week to go and come and very often not getting more than two
shillings per bushel for wheat. Father
was treasurer one year in Portland and went on foot to some places three or four
times for their taxes, but he got most of it."
Contrasting the farmers' income of those days with that of the present,
we can understand why it was necessary to "board round" in order to
maintain a school at all.