Butte County CA Archives History - Books .....History Of Butte County Schools 1882 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ca/cafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 28, 2006, 7:58 pm Book Title: History Of Butte County HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY SCHOOLS. BY JESSE WOOD, SUPERINTENDENT. In November, 1851, when Butte county embraced all the territory now included in Butte and Plumas, and a portion of Lassen, Tehama, Colusa and Sutter, Warren T. Sexton, being then the county clerk and ex officio superintendent of schools, wrote to State Superintendent Moulder as follows: "In answer to your communication, I can only say there is not one school in the county. It being almost entirely a mining county, the number of children between the ages of four and eighteen is comparatively small. From the means I have of judging, I should think there were not more than fifty." In the state superintendent's report, in 1853, we find a report, which seems to have been furnished by the county assessor. It is dated November 30, 1852, and says: "I have failed to divide the county into school districts, for the reason that at the time I was assessing the county, there were not children enough to form a school. The number at this time is about 120. These are scattered over so large a portion of the territory it is doubtful whether a sufficient number could be assembled to form a school." By the assessor, as we presume from the foregoing report, during the year 1853, the county was divided into districts, named as follows: Bidwell, Ophir, Mt. Spring, Oro, Oregon, Chico and Hamilton. Wyandotte was afterwards set off from Ophir and Oro; Kimshew and Concow from Oregon; Dayton from Chico, and Gridley from Hamilton. The townships were each declared to be a school district. During the year 1853, three schools were organized, named respectively Bidwell, Ophir and Oro, but which of these has the best claim to be here named as the first, we are not able to determine with certainty. The honor is claimed for each. The claim of Bidwell rests securely on the following recorded document:— "Nov. 15, 1853. Bidwell Township District No. 1. Report of Commissioners of common schools to County Superintendent:— "Number of children between the age of five and eighteen, forty-five. No. of boys, thirty-four. No. of girls, twenty-one. Amount raised by subscription, twenty-five dollars per month. Mrs. E. A. Brook, teacher; primary grade: time of service, three months. Salary paid teacher per month, fifty dollars. No. of pupils taught, thirty-two; daily average attendance, thirteen. Nothing expended for school library; nothing for building or repairing school-house. Total amount expended on account of schools, one hundred and fifty dollars. "N. M. MEADOR, "County Superintendent." Another good authority writes us as follows:— "In the summer of 1853, John Casad, H. B. Shepherd and W. T. Bliss were appointed commissioners to organize Ophir township into school districts. (Ophir township then included the present township of Wyandotte.) The commissioners reported that they found children enough to justify a school at only one place, to-wit, at Wyandotte; and that they had organized one school district, embracing the whole of Ophir township, under the name and title of Wyandotte school district. The same persons were appointed trustees of the district. The board appointed one of their own number, W. T. Bliss, school marshal. The number of children between five and eighteen, reported by the marshal for 1853, is believed to be 78. The first term of school was taught by W. T. Bliss, in 1853." In a letter to Superintendent McDermott, in 1877, Mr. Bliss says: "I taught in 1853, '4, and '5. I was the first teacher employed by a board of trustees. I had taught six years before coming to California." In an article on the history of our schools, published in Butte County Illustrations, and written by Mr. S. S. Boynton, it is stated that "Miss S. A. Lord, from Benicia, taught the first school in the county." In an address delivered before the county institute in Chico, during the fall of 1877, Superintendent McDermott refers to the early history of the schools, and says: "The first districts reported to the state superintendent were Bidwell, Eureka, Ophir and Oro. The first teachers were Tuyfield Farrar, Almira Davidson (sister of Mr. Jack Bean) and W. T. Bliss." We can find no teacher mentioned for Oro district for 1853. It is probable that the district was organized but no school kept that year. We must therefore accord to W. T. Bliss and Mrs. E. A. Brooks, the former at Wyandotte, and the latter at Bidwell's bar, the honor of having been the first teachers of public schools in Butte county. But which was the very first cannot now be decided. As the former is a veteran bachelor, as well as the veteran schoolmaster, we suppose he will courteously yield to the lady. In addition to these public schools there were probably several private schools. Concerning one of these, Mr. O. E. Swain, now principal of the school at Cherokee, writes us: "The first school organized in the southeastern part of Butte county was at a point about half a mile east of where J. M. Wilson now lives, towards what was then called the Lincoln house. It was held in a cabin about ten by twelve feet square, three sides of which were of logs, while the other was made of sluice-boxes piled upon one another. The cabin was without windows, unless you choose to so call a couple of holes eighteen inches square, cut in the sides. It had a dirt floor, had but one door, and had not the least article of school furniture or apparatus. An old greasy table in the middle of the room for the teacher, and a few benches for the scholars, constituted furniture. The school, numbering some ten or twelve, was taught by a tall, lank, one-eyed man, by the name of Steele, whose only redeeming qualification was his ability to chastise the erring juveniles." Miles Chapin became superintendent of schools in 1854, and his entries are distinct and businesslike. He records ninety-five census children in Ophir township, with a three-months' school taught by John Gates: forty-three in Bidwell, with Miss Susan A. Lord teacher for two months, and R. T. Buell for two months, at the end of which the school-house burned down; sixty-seven in Oro township, with a three months' school by Thomas H. Steele. We find also an entry of the appointment of J. L. Henshaw, John D. Chester and M. Davis as common-school commissioners for Hamilton township, in October, 1854; and these are the entire record for that year. The report to the state superintendent named these three districts; and, in the following January, from the state school fund came an apportionment of moneys to Butte county, naming those three districts as follows: Bidwell district, $96; Ophir district, $194.04: Oro, 136.85. The first assessment for a county-school fund was also made in 1854, being placed at three cents on the hundred dollars of taxable property. The entries in the records for the year 1855 are all made by Miles Chapin as superintendent. At the general election in September, A. E. Griffiths was elected to the office; but he seems to have declined the honor. November 10, shortly after the election, we find J. J. Kleine appointed superintendent by the board of supervisors. He served during the next year and was re-appointed. Mr. Chapin's records are first his acceptance of the resignation of W. Henshaw as commissioner for Chico township. He drew five warrants on the treasurer during the year. They were in favor of S. E. Hedges, for $150, for teaching in Oro township, March 16, 1855; John F. Gates for $150, for teaching in Ophir township, at Wyandotte, dated February 14, 1855, and unquestionably for teaching the three month's term already reported during 1854; W. T. Bliss, for teaching in Ophir township, dated June 4, 1855; S. E. Hammond for $100, in Oro township, for the year prior to October; Miss Tryphena Farrar for $225. in Bidwell township, from May 7, 1855, for three months. On the second of April of this year, L. R. French, F. C. Thomas and Wm. Anderson were appointed commissioners for Eureka township, and at once proceeded to open a school in the village of New Philadelphia, known at the present day as Thompson's flat. The district, however, and the school took the name of the township, and were called Eureka. November 15, 1855, these faithful first trustees were able to make, to their honor, a formal report in writing, signed by all three, showing the following condition: Children between five and eighteen, nine; boys, five; girls, four. Amount raised by subscription and paid to teacher, $125; name of teacher, Miss Almira Davidson; grade of school, primary. Time of service of teacher, from April 30, 1855, to July 30, 1855; daily average attendance, seven: total amount of all expenses, $295. August 13, 1858, the board of supervisors divided Ophir township into three school districts, the first being Wyandotte township, as it is now and was soon after called; the second, or No. 2, as the districts were then named, being what is now the Oroville district, and all the southern end of the township called district No. 3. In his report, dated November 4, 1856, superintendent Kleine states financial matters as follows: "Apportioned during the year to first district Oro township, $500; warrants drawn, $500; first district Bidwell township, $485.28; warrants drawn, $485.28; first district Eureka township, $70.36; warrants, none; first district Ophir, at Wyandotte, $1,173.21 1/3; warrants drawn, $723.50." In the same report Mr. Kleine mentions the new school districts formed, namely: District No. 1 of Hamilton township; No. 2 of Ophir, and No. 1 of Oregon. The first of these was for the purpose of a school near the town of Hamilton, the former county-seat, now embraced in the territory of the River district. The second was Oroville as it now stands, but afterwards formed into two districts, known as Oroville and Lynchburg. The third was the school near the present Messila valley. The house stood some distance in the rear of the present Pence's-ranch hotel. On the sixth of May, 1857, the board of supervisors set off in Wyandotte township school districts No. 2 and No. 3, forming what are now Bangor and Salem districts, leaving Wyandotte as No. 1. During the summer of 1857, the people of Wyandotte built what was probably the first school-house in the county. The building was 20x26 feet. The walls were of dressed boards set on ends and painted on the outside; the inside was lined with cloth; the furniture consisted of long benches. To R. McC. Bills, who was rearing a large family of children, and who gave much attention to the school, the prosperity of the Wyandotte school in those early days is especially due. At the general election in September, 1857, Mr. A. C. Morse was elected school superintendent, but declined to take the office, and accordingly on the fourth of November following the board of supervisors supplied the vacancy by appointing Rev. B. N. Seymour to the position. On the twenty-fifth of November, 1857, the board appropriated $1,500 out of the county general fund for the benefit of the Oroville school to pay the salary of teachers, at the close of the first year of its existence. J. B. Chinn was the principal. February 2, 1858, the supervisors set off what was called District No. 2 of Oro township, being the district afterwards called Evansville. February 16, 1858. Hamilton township was divided into two school districts. No school was organized. May 8, 1858, District No. 2 of Oregon township was set off, thereby forming what is now Oregon City district. November 3, 1858, District No. 3 of Oregon township was set off, being all of what is now Concow township. Hamilton township was reunited into one school district. November 23, 1858, District No. 3 of Ophir township was set off, comprising what afterwards was called Central house district. During this year (1858), the first public school was opened at Bangor. During the winter of 1856, a Mr. Cole had taught a private school in a very small cabin, about 12x14 feet in size, with but two small windows for the admission of light, without apparatus, and with furniture of the plainest kind. This school was followed by two three-months' terms taught by a Mr. Selby, after which the first public school was organized. The writer is indebted to Mr. O. E. Swain, who was at the time a pupil of the school at Bangor, for these facts. Mr. Swain further adds: "The trustees built a new school-house, and employed W. A. Jones to teach a three-months' term of school in the spring of 1858. Mr. Jones was a good scholar and a fine penman, though having a badly crippled right hand, and was well liked by all. However, he, like many other early Californians, had a fondness for alcoholic drinks that soon proved his ruin in the school-room. One day when we went to school we found Mr. Jones asleep, as we supposed, on one of the benches. We therefore continued our play until the trustees, hearing an unusual amount of noise at school, came down, and finding our teacher was dead drunk, dismissed the school and the teacher for the balance of the term. The dismissal so unsettled Mr. Jones that he determined to suicide, and repairing to the school-house for that purpose, opened an artery in his arm and bled profusely over the floor, the benches and the desks. After losing a considerable quantity of blood, he thought better of his course, staunched the flow and left the house alive, though much weakened physically. He remained in town a few days, then left for parts unknown. After that time school was maintained regularly, and, as a rule, good teachers were employed." February 3, 1859, District No. 3 of Oro township was set off. It was afterwards called Hansonville district, and continued in being only a short term. The territory now lies principally in Yuba county. October 14, 1859, the board of supervisors set off in Chico township three school districts, named respectively Pine Creek, Rock Creek and Mud Creek, and they were the first to receive names at the time of their establishment by the board. All the territory south and east of Mud creek was still left in Chico district, No. 1. December 31, 1859, Kimshew township was made a school district, called No. 1. Since then eight districts have been cut out of the territory then embraced in said No. 1, leaving the original at Dogtown, now Magalia, bearing the original name of Kimshew. November 15, 1859, the supervisors formed Rio Seco district, embracing all that part of Hamilton township lying north of a line east and west through the point where Cottonwood creek flows into Rio Seco. November 30, 1860, Hamilton township was again divided into four school districts, with definite boundaries and names, given as follows: Hamilton, Live Oak, West Liberty and Rio Seco. At the general election in September, 1859, J. B. Thomas was elected school superintendent, and held the office during 1860 and '61. At the election in September, 1861, S. B. Osbourn was elected. Mr. Osbourn's first official act seems to have been to hold a teacher's examination. Certificates were issued to Susan Morris, T. D. Eggleston, Elisha Brooks, W. T. Bliss, and William Young. The examining board consisted of Judge Wells, A. McChesney, S. W. W. Coughey, and the superintendent "ex offcio," as he called it. Ten other examinations were held in 1862, and J. B. McChesney, now the leading educator of Oakland, and president of the State Teachers' Association; Isaac Upham, afterwards county superintendent here, and now of the firm of Payot, Upham & Co., of San Francisco; and C. S. Denson, now the distinguished judge in Sacramento, served together on the board and taught in the schools. At the general election in 1863, the successful candidate for school superintendent was Isaac Upham. February 10, 1863, the board of supervisors created an examining board of three, with an annual salary of $40 each. At the same time the census marshal was allowed four dollars per day, which was reduced to three dollars August 5, 1864. The rate of school-tax for the various years is given in the table at the end of the article on finance. In 1861, the total number of children reported in the twenty-five districts that then existed was 1,475. February 14, 1866, the supervisors fixed the salary of school superintendent at $400 per annum, but, in accordance with the new school law, they fixed it the fourteenth of the following May at $20 per district, the minimum rate allowed. For the thirty districts then existing it made $600 in the total. On the ninth of May, 1868, they increased the salary to $1,000. In 1865, B. H. Allen was elected superintendent, and was succeeded in 1867 by C. G. Warren. In 1866, the schools were graded for the first time, making fourteen first, fourteen second, and five third grade. In September, 1869, J. B. Thomas was elected superintendent. Mr. Thomas died February 2, 1870, whereupon the board of supervisors declared that there was a vacancy in the office, and appointed Louis Burnham. The books in the office indicate that he took an interest in the office, and put its records in better condition than they had been before him. He was a plain farmer; but the records were well kept during his term. He died soon after leaving the office. At the general election in September, 1871, H. T. Batchelder was elected superintendent. In September, 1873, Mr. Batchelder was re-elected. Five months before the close of his second term of office, having been elected principal of the Chico school, Mr. Batchelder sent to the board of supervisors his resignation, to take effect on the first of November. The board appointed Samuel F. Black to fill the vacancy. At the September election, 1875, A. McDermott was elected. At the general election in September, 1877, Jesse Wood was elected school superintendent. Seeing the imperfectly defined boundary-lines of the districts, and the supervisors having now adopted an official map of the county, full and complete in its details, which map afforded opportunity for the better description of the boundaries, superintendent Wood undertook, during the summer of 1878, to readjust and accurately describe, according to the survey lines and natural features laid down on the official map, the boundary-lines of all the school districts. He found many of them conflicting, and much territory in the county not before attributed to any district. His work was reported to the supervisors September 10, 1878, and was by them approved, and the boundaries as amended were declared to be the established lines of all the districts. At the general election in September, 1879, Jesse Wood was re-elected superintendent. The new constitution having extended the term of the office to the same time as that of governor, Mr. Wood continues in office to the present time. Previous to Mr. Wood's first term the school superintendent had not kept an office in the court-house. There being room for such an office in the new building which had just been added, he was assigned a room at the first of his term, which was partially fitted up with plain furniture. Upon the coming in of the new constitution, which vacated the office of county judge, the elegantly furnished office formerly occupied by Judge Safford was assigned to the school superintendent. We presume there is not a county in the state where the school office is so comfortably domiciled. The changes in the school system made by the new Constitution have made the history of the county school office a matter of more interest during the past two years than ever before. It has fallen to the lot of the present county superintendent to take part in the organization of the new system inaugurated by the new Constitution—the adoption of a county series of text-books, the work of teachers' examinations, and many other matters different now from what were under the old state system. The first board of education, appointed in May, 1880, were H. T. Batchelder, F. A. Peachy, V. P. Richards, Wm. H. Williams and Jesse Wood, ex officio. In May, 1881, the term of Batchelder and Williams expired. Mr. Batchelder was re-appointed. Mr. Williams declined to serve again, as he was not a teacher, and O. E. Swain was appointed in his place. The census reports and the teachers' reports show children between five and fifteen years of age, and those attending school as follows: Census Children. Number of Schools. School Children. In 1865 2,117 41 1,429 In 1869 2,099 40 1,473 In 1877 3,824 58 3,134 In 1881 4,150 91 3,320 Additional Comments: Extracted from: HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, IN TWO VOLUMES. I. HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA FROM 1513 TO 1850. BY FRANK T. GILBERT. The Great Fur Companies and their Trapping Expeditions to California. Settlement of the Sacramento Valley. The Discovery of Gold in California. BY HARRY L. WELLS. II. HISTORY OF BUTTE COUNTY, From its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time. BY HARRY L. WELLS AND W. L. CHAMBERS. BOTH VOLUMES ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS AND PORTRAITS. HARRY L. WELLS, 517 CLAY STREET, SAN FRANCISCO 1882. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1882, by HARRY L. WELLS, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 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