Howard County IN Archives History - Books .....Pioneer Life In Howard County Indiana 1909
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Book Title: History Of Howard County Indiana

PIONEER LIFE IN HOWARD COUNTY.

   Pioneer life as it existed in Howard county in the forties has long since
completely ceased to exist. Circumstances and conditions which produced and
called it forth have passed away, and it is difficult now to convey an
intelligible idea of it.

   Conditions have so changed in the past sixty years that we are practically
living in another world.

   The pioneers of that early time in our county history were mostly persons of
limited worldly possessions, who were looking for opportunities to secure homes
for themselves and their families. Many of them were young people, or fathers
and mothers with families of young people for whom they wished to give a start
in life by getting possession of land while it was cheap in price.

   Having heard of excellent lands out in the Indian country that were either on
the market or soon would be, and that by going and taking a claim, making
certain improvements, and paying almost a nominal price each would come into the
ownership of forty acres, eighty acres, or one hundred and sixty acres of land
that he could improve into a good farm home in a few years. Leaving wife to look
after things while he was gone to hunt a new home, the home-seeker went out,
sometimes alone and on foot, sometimes on horseback and sometimes two or more
would go together, providing themselves with wagon and team and a regular
camping outfit. After selecting the site of the future home and taking the
necessary steps to secure it, he returned for his family, blazing the trees on
his way back, to guide him in his moving.

PATHS OF EARLY DAYS.

   There were no traveled highways then. There were a few-Indian traces, or
paths, leading to the principal points on the outside of the Reserve. These led
to Noblesville on the south, to Frankfort on the southwest, to Burlington and
Delphi on the west, to Logansport on the northwest, and Peru on the north: to
Marion and Wabash and other points on the northeast. Many of the early settlers
on the south side came from Hamilton and Boone counties by way of the
Noblesville trace. The settler, with his wagon and team, more frequently an ox
team, must of necessity cut out his own wagon road and so made slow progress. He
carried a limited housekeeping outfit, a stock of provisions, enough to last
until the family could be settled in the new home and he could return for a
fresh supply.

   This new home was a "cabin" in the clearing. The timber was cut away on the
building site so that there would be no danger from trees blowing down or
falling on the cabin. The cabin was built of round logs, not dressed, cut from
the trees round about the future home. The ends of the logs were notched and
saddled so that they would fit upon each other at the house corners; chunks were
placed in the spaces or cracks between the logs and then daubed with mud, the
mud being pressed into place and smoothed down with the bare hand, the finished
job showing the finger prints. The floors were laid on sleepers made out of
round logs hewn off on one side with a broad-axe, and were of puncheons, or
thick slabs split from ash, oak, hickory or elm logs and dressed off with a
broad-axe. They had no ceilings, but lofts instead, supported by round poles for
joists.    The roofs were covered with clapboards held in place with weight
poles kept up by "knees."

CABIN FURNISHINGS.

   The chimney had pounded earth jambs and packed mud hearths, and sticks and
clay upper part. It is said that one of the last things of their evening vigil
before retiring was to go out and inspect the chimney to see that it was not on
fire. The fireplaces of those old-time chimneys were capacious affairs and held
quite a pile of wood. In the evening, after the chores were done, the family sat
about the blazing, crackling fire of logs and smaller pieces of wood in these
huge fireplaces and enjoyed to the full the brightness, the warmth and the
cheerfulness of the open fire in their one-room house. These open fireplaces
were not only the heating plant, but also the cooking range of the home. The
patient wife and mother, with her scant store of cooking utensils, cooked the
meals of the family on the hearth with live coals shoveled from the fireplace.
The blazing fires also furnished much of the light of the house, making a light
far superior to the tallow candle. The door or doors were in keeping with the
rest of the house—made of thin slabs, hewn smooth and hung with wooden hinges
and fastened with a wooden latch. A string was fastened to the latch and was
hung on the outside by passing the end through a small hole above the latch, so
that the end would be suspended on the outside. At night, when all were in, the
string would be pulled in and no one on the outside could lift the latch, and
thus the door was locked to outsiders. When the latch string hung out neighbors
deemed it a useless formality to ring the door bell, but pulled the string,
lifted the latch and walked in. Hence the origin of the hospitable exclamation,
"My latch string hangs out."

   They drew the water from wells with a windlass, a sweep or a pole with a
natural hook to it. A sweep was a pole mounted in the fork of an upright pole
set in the ground, with a bucket fastened to one end of the mounted pole by a
rope long enough to let the bucket to the water when that end of the mounted
pole was drawn down; the outer end of the pole, being heavier, helped to lift
the bucket of water.

CLEARING THE LAND.

   Having erected his cabin and a rude stable the pioneer at once set about
clearing the land for a garden and a patch of corn. This was done by cutting the
smaller trees and the bushes and piling them about the larger trees and burning
them, thus killing the larger trees at once and destroying the shade. Breaking
the ground was done with a jumping shovel, a shovel-plow, with a short, thick
beam and an upright cutter extending to the point of the shovel. The ground was
full of green roots, and it took strength and patience to do what at best was a
poor job of breaking. The corn was planted by hand, covered with a hoe and
cultivated by hand with a single shovel plow and the hoe—mostly with the latter.
Later clearings were made by first deadening the timber, that is, girdling the
trees and allowing them to stand two or three years or longer for the timber to
die and dry out so that it would bum better in the heaps. When it was ready to
clear much of the timber would be cut down and burned, chopped or sawed into
suitable lengths for rolling, and at an appointed day there would be a
log-rolling, to which all the. neighbors would be invited. The men would come,
bringing their neat handspikes, well seasoned and strong. A yoke of oxen was
nearly always present to assist in getting heavy logs into place. Most logs,
however, were rolled or carried by the men with their spikes, and many feats of
strength in lifting were shown.

The men always worked with a will and logs were rapidly piled in heaps. After
the logs were piled the man and his boys, sometimes the girls, piled the trash
and smaller logs on the heaps and burned them. Stooping and picking trash all
day long and burning log-heaps in smoking clearings deserve to have a place in
the class of the hardest and most disagreeable of all work. The early fields had
many standing dead trees and these continued to fall, generally in the crop
season, for several years, and always were very much in the way. All rows were
the proverbial "stumpy row to hoe." The hoe was the indispensable agricultural
tool—a heavy, clumsy tool, not suited to make the boy on the farm enthusiastic
in his calling.

AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS.

   The other cultivating tool was a heavy single shovel plow, sometimes known as
the "bull-tongue," which required three trips to the row to plow out the weeds
between the rows. Planting was done by crossing off the field one way with this
single shovel plow into furrows the width of corn rows and then making furrows
crossing these with the same plow, followed by a person dropping the corn into
the crosses; dropping the corn was often done by a woman, as being light work,
and the corn was covered by men and boys with hoes, generally three persons did
the covering. Thus the planting force was one man to lay off the ground into
rows, one person to drop the com, and three with hoes to cover. Corn was the
first crop grown; soon, however, wheat growing was attempted. This was done by a
person carrying a part of a sack of wheat across the shoulders and sowing it
broadcast with the hand as he walked. He was followed, if in the corn, with a
man with his single shovel plow, pulling down the weeds (the weeds grew
luxuriantly in the new ground) and partially plowing under the wheat; if on
ground that had been broken for wheat, with an A harrow. Because of the
fertility of the fresh new soil this method of farming produced good crops.

   The harvesting of the wheat was done with reap hooks by the men and women,
for the women often helped in the wheat harvest. With one hand they seized a
handful of grain, and with the other they cut it off with the reap hook. Each
bound his or her sheaves. This was a slow, laborious mode of harvesting. The
coming of the grain cradle a few years later was hailed as a great advance. When
one man cut the grain and threw it into swaths, ready for another man to gather
up and bind that was thought up-to-date farming. The threshing was done either
with a flail or by spreading on a threshing floor and tramping with horses until
the kernels were loosened from the chaff. The flail was a short pole or spike,
with a shorter pole or spike fastened to the end of it with a stout withe or
thong, and required an expert to use it without danger to the user's head, for
in the overhead swing of the flail the suspended end, which was intended to hit
the grain with its full length, was liable to make a head-on collision with the
user's head.

   After the separation of the straw from the wheat and chaff by forking, the
wheat and chaff were run through a fanning mill and the chaff blown out. It was
all hand work from start to finish— slow, tedious and laborious, and allowed the
growing of limited crops only.

CORN.

   Corn was the staple crop of the early settlers. It was the food crop of their
stock and largely for themselves. Corn-bread, mush and milk were their principal
articles of diet.

   Mills for the grinding of the grain were not plentiful nor convenient. There
were a few "corn crackers," home-made affairs, manufactured from boulders by
flattening and roughing the surface and fixed to turn one face on the other.
This mill crushed the corn as it passed between the faces of the boulders, the
upper one revolving on the lower. Nathan C. Beals, who lived not far northeast
of Oakford in very early times, had one.

   Mills operated by water power were the main reliance of the early settlers,
both for grinding grain and sawing lumber.

   The clothing of that time was also largely of home manufacture. The farmer
grew flax, which he pulled and rotted and scutched. The good housewife spun the
tow on her wheel and often wove it herself. The linen garments were possibly a
little rough and coarse, but were soon bleached into snowy whiteness. The farmer
also had a flock of sheep and grew the wool that was converted into home-made
woolen goods. The wool was scoured and picked at home, the men and boys helping
on rainy days. Ofttimes there were wool pickings, to which the neighbor women
were invited. These were social occasions and were real red-letter days in the
social life of the community. After the wool was picked it was taken to a woolen
mill and made into rolls, and then brought back home to be spun into yarn. The
yarn was dyed or colored, and some of it was woven into cloth for the clothing
of the men and women and the boys and girls of the home, and the other part was
twisted into yarn for stockings and socks for all, and then would begin a season
of knitting. The women would rise up early in the morning to knit and would sit
up late at night for the same purpose. Woolsey-linsey dresses and jeans coats
and pants were the fashionable clothing of the time. Not only was the cloth for
the clothing home-made, but the various garments were home-made and hand-made
also, for there were no homes into which a sewing machine had come. All the
sewing was done by hand.

THE WOMEN HELPED.

   The wives and mothers and daughters, too, of the pioneer period, were very
industrious, for in addition to the various kinds of work already referred to
which they did, they also attended to the household cares, the rearing of the
families, the milking of the cows and a great number of other things, as they
presented themselves. They were brave, uncomplaining burden bearers, who
cheerfully and well did their full share in transforming the wilderness into a
country of pleasant homes. We shall do well if we always pay loving tribute to
their memory.

   Reference has already been made to the effect that the first settlers sought
homes on the rolling lands along the watercourses. These lands were soon taken,
and the later comers had to go back into the level lands for their homes. These
lands being level and covered with fallen timber held the water so that it did
not flow away readily, and the country was thus rendered swampy and wet for much
of the year.

SEARCHING FOR A BUILDING SITE.

   The settler, after looking about and finding a knoll sufficiently dry for
building purposes, would locate. He had a double work to do in clearing his land
and in making surface drains or ditches to carry off the water. There were
certain natural channels, which, when the logs and other obstructions were
removed, and were deepened and straightened, served as fair drains. At first
open channels were thrown but in the fields to permit the water to flow away.
These were so much in the way that the farmers cut ditch timbers out of the oak
trees, then in the way, and placed them in these drains after deepening them,
covering the stringers or side pieces with slabs or cross headers, and then
filling in with dirt, thus making good underground drains. The benefit was so
marked that the farmers rushed the construction of wooden drains, cutting the
channels or ditches themselves and having the boys to saw the ditch timbers with
the old plain-toothed saws without drags. There never was a man who remembered
the time he spent as a boy in sawing ditch timber except with the utmost aversion.

   These swampy, wet lands when drained were by far the richest and most
productive lands. The soil was black and deep, and when underdrained dried off
quickly and yielded immense crops. After a few years the timber ditches began to
decay and it was necessary to replace them with new ones. Meanwhile a good tile
clay had been found in many places and tile mills and kilns were turning out red
tile in large numbers. Farmers, therefore, turned their attention to putting in
permanent drains of red tile. Tile drainage has been continued since by putting
in regular drainage systems, using large sized tiles, until now the wet lands of
Howard county are no longer wet lands. Because large areas have needed a common
drainage and many farms have needed the same drainage system, the county has
constructed many excellent public drains and drainage systems.

PUBLIC DRAINS.

   The first public drains were large open ditches passing in a meandering way
through farms and rendering not a little land waste, the ditch channels growing
up each year with bushes and weeds, and requiring frequent cleaning out. Many of
these have since had one or more rows of large sized tiles laid in them and
covered up so that farming operations are now carried on over them. There are no
lands in the county so low and wet that they cannot be drained. The county may
be said to be without wet waste land.

   The pioneers of the county had vast forests to contend with. Almost every
acre had one or more large yellow poplar trees upon it. Much of the land had
many large black walnut trees; there were many fine gray ash trees and almost
numberless large oak trees of the different varieties, while the common kinds of
beech, sugar, elm, sycamore, lynn and other kinds were so plentiful it was a
problem how to get them out of the way. In the very early pioneer days there
were no saw-mills and no market whatever for even the choicest of the timber.
Large poplar, walnut, ash and oak trees were made into rails that a few years
later could have been sold for many dollars. Where the early farmer wanted a
field he deadened the large walnuts and poplars to destroy their shade, and
allowed them to waste away, to blow down and then to be burned or worked into
rails. The other timber was cut down and rolled into heaps and burned.

   In this, our time of growing scarcity of timber, the acts of the pioneer
settlers seem to have been wanton waste. They wanted clear fields rather than
timber. A few years later, with the coming of the railroads and the building of
steam saw-mills, quite a traffic in lumber sprang up. An immense amount of
walnut, poplar and ash lumber was shipped to Cincinnati and other points.
Saw-mill men and others bought of the owners of woodland where the timber had
not yet been disturbed either for a lump sum all their poplar and walnut timber
good enough for the saw, or else bought the trees singly, paying as high as five
dollars for a good, straight, sound, yellow poplar thirty inches in diameter and
tall enough for four twelve-foot sticks or logs. Some choice walnuts sold for
eight dollars. Farmers derived quite a revenue from this source, and it was a
time just previous to the Civil war when money was very scarce and hard to get.
Later timber sold for higher prices. It is doubtful if at any time the sale of
timber in Howard county ever met a more needed want than in the few years
preceding and the early years of the Civil war period.

EARLY ROADS.

   The early roads of the county were made by felling the trees along the line
of the proposed highway, cutting off so much of the • tree as remained in the
roadway, rolling or dragging it to the roadside; so that the new road was full
of stumps and it required a careful and skillful driver to miss the stumps; ruts
and roots could not be avoided. Swamps had to be bridged. This was done by
cutting logs of various sizes, long enough for a single track, and placing them
crosswise of the roadway and side by side the width of the swamp and throwing
some dirt upon them to fill up the uneven surface. This dirt .soon wore away and
there remained the corduroy road. How rough and jolty it was to ride over this
kind of a road in a farm wagon with no spring seat is not in the power of
language to tell.

   The pioneers did not, however, have as much use for reads as the modern
inhabitants. They did much of their traveling on foot, a great deal on
horseback, and not so much with wagons. It was no unusual thing for men to make
long journeys on foot. Men who had moved to the vicinity of Kokomo from near
Noblesviile frequently visited the people of their former home, walking both
ways; going one day and returning another. The usual mode of going about in the
settlement, either to the village, to the country-church or to the neighbor,
near or far, was to walk, mostly in paths through the woods.

TRAVELING ON HORSEBACK.

   The farmer usually went to mill on horseback with his grist in a sack swung
across the horse's back. The preacher went from one preaching appointment to
another on horseback; the attorneys and the judges went to the various places of
holding court on horseback and the physicians answered the call of the sick in
the same manner, with his saddle bags swung across the horse's back, before or
behind him. The wagon was used to carry heavy loads and was frequently drawn by
a yoke of oxen. All the methods of getting about were slow and tedious. An
ordinary trip in those days required two days—one going and one coming. If done
in one day it was far into the night when finished.

EDUCATION.

   The pioneers did not neglect the education of their children. They provided
as best they could log school-houses with rude slab seats and scant school
supplies. The early schools were subscription schools and had a three-months'
term in the year. The textbooks were the elementary spelling books, readers and
Talbot's arithmetic. The master taught his system, of writing. The only classes
were the spelling and reading classes. Each worked alone in arithmetic and
writing. When out of copy the master set a new one. When one stalled in
arithmetic, he or she went to the master for help. The old-time schoolhouse had
no blackboard and the lesson could not be illustrated by blackboard exercises.
In fact, there were no arithmetic lessons assigned; each worked on as fast as he
could toward the back of the book.

   Those pioneer schools produced many excellent spellers. The school terms were
short and the range of studies limited to orthography, reading, writing and
arithmetic, yet they produced wideawake, intelligent men and women.

   A spelling school was held in the evening about once a week, at which nearly
everybody in the district would be present and engage in the spelling contests.
Sometimes a neighboring school would be present and there would be quite a
rivalry as to which could excel in correct spelling. The contests took various
forms, but the real test was as to who could spell the most words without
misspelling one. In most cases those present were divided by two persons
selected to "choose up," who alternated with each other in selecting from those
present the ones they wanted on their side, until all were chosen; then each
captain would take his company to the opposite side of the house, and standing
in line, endeavor to spell the other side down first. The teacher or other
person would pronounce the first word to one side, starting with the captain,
and the second word to the captain of the other side, alternating sides and
going down the line to the end, or foot, and beginning again at the captain or
head. Whoever missed a word took his seat and did not spell again until the
contest was finished. Whichever side kept a speller on the floor longest won.

   At first the pioneers had not church houses, but religious services were held
in the homes of the settlers. Preaching service was conducted by a traveling
evangelist who happened along that way and stopped a while to hold meetings.
There were also ministers among these early settlers, who combined the work of
founding a home in the new country with that of preaching, working during the
week and preaching on Sunday. Several religious denominations sent workers into
these new settlements, so that they were soon supplied with religious services.

WILD GAME.

   The woods all about the homes of the early settlers abounded in wild game,
deer, wild turkeys, raccoons and squirrels, and it is said that it was no
unusual thing for the church-going people to carry a rifle along for "emergencies."

   The life of the pioneer was one of privation and endurance. Bravely and
uncomplainingly, even cheerfully, they bore it. They helped each other in the
time of need without the thought of pay or reward. Open-handed hospitality was
on every side. The hardships of their pioneer life seemed to have united them in
a common sympathy. They lived a broader, more sympathetic life than their
present successors. They visited with each other freely and shared their meals
and had all things more in common than now. There was less of envy and jealousy,
less disposition to take an undue advantage of their neighbors than in more
recent times. For the most part they were strong and hardy and the adverse
conditions of their lives only seemed to make them broader and more sympathetic.
Ofttimes in their struggles they would have their money all spent and would be
compelled to go out into the older settled communities to earn some money with
which to buy the few necessities of their lives. Much of the trading with the
local merchants was done with produce of various kinds. Money was exceedingly
scarce. The trade was of necessity largely barter. The local merchants traded
for hides, wild meat, wild honey and anything they could take to other markets
and dispose of. Oxen were largely used as the teams for work, because they were
cheaper in price, could be fed and kept more cheaply than horses and were
supposed to move around in the mud more easily. The pioneers had no fruit except
as they hauled it into the new settlements. However, they early planted orchards
in the new country, and within a very few years there was a plentiful supply of
apples and an abundance of smaller fruits.

MAIL IN PIONEER DAYS.

   Those pioneers did not have free rural delivery of the mail at their cabin
doors each day. Indeed, we are told that in those days they had no stamps nor
envelopes, and that it cost eighteen and three-quarters cents to carry a letter
across the state, and it was paid for when received. There were then no daily
papers containing all the news of the world up to the hour of going to press,
with all the latest market quotations and, delivered to all parts of the
settlement on the day of publication. Instead there was a small weekly folio
published at New London about 1848 and called "The Pioneer." From it we learn
that the pioneers of the early times discussed the public questions of their day
quite as vigorously as public questions are now discussed. The pro-slavery men
and the Free-Soilers were more vigorous and forcible in enforcing their beliefs
than the average modern citizen. The temperance and the anti-temperance forces
did not lie down together in peace.

CHILLS AND FEVER.

   Among the many disagreeable features of the new country, and by no means the
least, was the chills and fever. From midsummer to early winter ague was
well-nigh universal, hardly a person escaped being a victim. There were also
many cases of bilious, malarial, intermittent and other kinds of fever resulting
from the swampy country and stagnant water all about. Quinine was more staple
than flour. The doctors were more than busy administering quinine, Dover's
powders and calomel. In many families there were hardly enough well ones to
nurse the sick ones. It is said that it was as much a custom among the people
then to get ready for the ague and fever as it is for us now to prepare for
winter. Happily, with the draining of the country this condition has been
eradicated. With the passing of the conditions which produced the hardships and
disagreeable features of the pioneer life, the life itself passed away in its
entirety. Would that the virtues could have remained without its disadvantages
and unpleasant parts.

HOWARD COUNTY SCHOOLS.

   The early schools of Howard county were very poorly equipped in every way.
The houses were the primitive log cabins furnished with slab benches with no
backs for seats; for writing desks there was a broad board or boards fastened to
the wall sloping sufficiently high for the larger pupils to write upon; the
smaller ones did not need it. The room was lighted by a narrow window or windows
extending along the entire side. The house warn warmed by wood fires in the huge
fireplace, the teacher and the larger pupils cutting the wood morning and noons.

   Those were the days of subscription schools, that is, the parents or
guardians subscribed a given number of pupils at so much each for the school
term, usually three months. The teacher ordinarily boarded with different
families in the district, spending a •week in one family, the next week in
another, and so on until he had passed around, the board was a part of his
compensation. The teachers as a class were not very learned. Many of them had
not secured any training in grammar, and physiology was an unknown science to
all except the most learned doctors. Arithmetic and spelling were their
specialties. In arithmetic they were especially strong in single and double
rules of three, and yet had they been asked to define proportion it would have
been a dead language to them. Decimal fractions and square and cube roots were
beyond them. As was the custom of the times they were past masters in the use of
the rod or rather the long, green switches cut from the neighboring trees. A big
switch was an indispensable part of their equipment for the day's work. They
were workers and required the pupils to work.

   The contrast, between the school system or want of system of that time, and
the present is very great. It must not be supposed that this difference is
wholly due to the different conditions of a new and older settlement. These did
affect it to a greater or lesser extent, but the school system in Indiana prior
to the taking effect of the revised constitution in 1851 was quite different
from that in force since.

THE OLD SYSTEM.

   Under the old system there were three trustees instead of one as now, yet the
three had less power and latitude in the management of the schools than the one
has now.

   The civil township was required to conform as nearly as possible to the
congressional for the reason that the general government had given to the state
the sixteenth section in each congressional township for school purposes and the
township trustees were given the control and management of the school lands and
the funds arising from the sale of the school lands. The school lands could be
offered for sale, when five residents of the congressional township petitioned
the trustees or trustee to order an election by the voters of the township on
the question of offering them for sale, a township local option proposition. If
a majority voted to sell they were accordingly offered for sale. Within ten
years these lands had been sold realizing about twenty thousand dollars. This
sum constituted the permanent common school fund of the early years; the
interest on this fund was available for tuition purposes and any tuition fund in
excess of this was raised by a direct tuition tax. Under the old system when the
trustees thought it necessary to build a new school-house, it was necessary to
refer the question to the voters of the township, and if the majority voted to
build, the house was built; but if the majority voted no, the house was not
built. It did not matter how great was the need there was no appeal. It
frequently happened under this rule that communities without a school house and
with a large number of children of school age refused to vote for the building
of the much needed school house. In illustration of this, this incident is
vouched for by a reputable citizen. In a township in another county there was no
school house. The better and more progressive citizens asked for the building of
a school house, and the matter was referred to the voters of the township. A
citizen with several children of school age, but none of whom had ever been in
school and whose proportionate part of the cost of the house would probably have
not exceeded seventy-five cents, worked all day at the polls against the
building of the house and he was joined by a sufficiently large number of like
spirits to defeat the school house proposition.

FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM.

   In the matter of erecting school houses, the referendum feature was a failure
and in the revised state constitution it was left out. The progressive
citizenship favored a free public school system, but were opposed by a large
conservative element who contented that the expenses would be burdensome and to
make it practical would necessitate putting too much power in the hands of the
school officers.

   The general government had given the people an example of generosity in
caring for the education of the people and that policy was adopted by the state;
and the constitutional convention of 1850-1 which adopted our present
constitution declared "knowledge and learning generally diffused throughout a
community being essential to the preservation of a free government, it shall be
the duty of the general assembly to encourage, by all suitable means, moral,
intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, and to provide, by law,
for a general and uniform system of common schools, wherein tuition shall be
without charge, and equally open to all."

   That there should be a common school fund, from which there should be an
interest income sufficiently large to almost insure free tuition they followed
the foregoing declaration with this provision:

   "The common school fund shall consist of the congressional township fund and
the lands belonging thereto; the surplus revenue fund; the salime fund, and the
lands belonging thereto; the bank tax fund, and the fund arising from the one
hundred and fourteenth section of the charter of the State Bank of Indiana; the
fund to be derived from the sale of county seminaries and the moneys and
property heretofore held for such seminaries; from the fines assessed for
breeches of the penal laws of the state; and from all forfeitures which may
accrue; all lands and other estate which shall escheat to the state for want of
heirs or kindred entitled to the inheritance; all lands that have been, or may
hereafter be, granted to the state where no special purpose is expressed in the
grant, and the proceeds of the sales thereof, including the proceeds of the
sales of the swamp lands granted to the state of Indiana by the act of congress
of the twenty-eighth of September, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, after
deducting the expense of selecting and draining the same; taxes on the property
of corporations that may be assessed by the general assembly for common school
purposes."

   To perpetuate these provisions for free tuition they provided further that,
"The principal of the common school fund shall remain a perpetual fund, which
may be increased, but never shall be diminished, and the income thereof shall be
inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools, and to no other
purpose whatever."

   In 1865 the legislature divided the common school fund as provided for above,
taking out the congressional township school land and the money derived from the
sale of such lands, making these the "congressional township school fund" and
providing that "it shall never be diministed in amount, the income of which,
together with the taxes mentioned and specified in the first section of this
act, the money and income derived from licenses for the sale of intoxicating
liquors, and unclaimed fees, as provided by law, shall be denominated the
"School revenue for tuition, the whole of which is hereby appropriated, and
shall be applied exclusively to furnishing tuition to the common schools of the
state, without any deduction for the expense of collection or disbursement."

   The first section of the act referred to is "There shall be annually assessed
and collected as state and county revenues are assessed and collected, sixteen
cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, real and personal in the
state, and fifty cents on each taxable poll, for the purpose of supporting a
general system of common schools."

   In 1875 the fees from licenses to retail intoxicating liquors were changed
from this fund to the common school fund of the county where paid.

   The setting apart of one section of land in each congressional township had
its beginning in May, 1785, when congress passed an act for the survey of the
Northwest Territory in which it was provided that this territory be divided into
tracts six miles square called congressional townships, thus making them the
units for future organization: the townships were directed to be subdivided into
tracts one mile square to be called sections.

A SETTLED GOVERNMENT.

   In 1787 congress passed the famous ordinance for the organizing of a settled
government for the Northwest Territory: the most important act of the last
continental congress. It was in fact "the most notable law ever enacted by
representatives of the American people," and to insure its perpetual
enforcement, it was not left as a mere act of congress, which could be repealed
at a subsequent session, but its six main provisions were made articles of
solemn compact between the inhabitants of the territory, present and to come,
and the people of the thirteen states.

   No man was to be restricted of his liberty excepting- as a punishment for
crime; life, property and religious freedom were protected by just and equal
laws. A clause, which several western states have copied in their constitutions,
declared that "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good
government schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." To
this end one section in every township was set apart for the support of common
schools, and two entire townships for the establishment of a university in this
territory.

   County supervision has come to be what it is today through a long process of
development. As early as 1818 the general assembly made it the duty of the
Governor to appoint for each county a seminary trustee. The duty of this officer
was almost entirely connected with the financial problem. In 1824 the law
provided for the election of three trustees in each township and placed the
examining of teachers and granting licenses among- their duties. The examiners
were school men and the meager test covered the subjects of reading, writing and
arithmetic.

   In 1830 the law provided for a school' commissioner for each county who
looked after the funds of the local school corporation and was elected for three
years.

   In 1833 m addition to the school commissioner for the county and the three
trustees for the township, provision was made for the election of three
sub-trustees in each district to hold office for one year. These district
trustees examined applicants and employed teachers. The law of 1836 made it
legal for any householder to employ a teacher in case of failure to elect
district trustees. In 1837 in addition to all these officers and with only a
slight modification of their duties, the circuit court was authorized to appoint
annually three examiners whose duty it should be "to certify the branches of
learning each applicant was qualified to teach."

   During the next ten years no change was made in the county system.

CHANGES IN SCHOOL SYSTEM.

   In 1847 Caleb Mills, state superintendent of schools, urged as an essential
of the schools, efficient supervision, both state and county. The school law of
1849 abolished the office of county school commissioner, retained the three
school examiners in each county and the three township trustees, but substituted
one sub-trustee in each district for the three formerly. This law also
prescribed the minimum length of the school term and made the length of term of
all the schools in the township uniform.

   The constitution of 1851 left the county school machinery practically as the
law of 1849 left it, and so it remained until the sixties. The law of 1861
substituted one county examiner for the three that formerly held office in each
county. The examiners under this was appointed by the county commissioners and
held office for three years. This law made all examinations public and
prohibited the granting of licenses upon private examinations. Prior to this an
applicant for license could have an examination whenever he happened to find one
of the examiners at home. This law further provided that the examiner of each
county shall be the medium of communication between the state superintendent of
public instruction and the subordinate school officers and schools; they shall
also visit the schools of their respective counties as often as they may deem it
necessary during each term, for the purpose of increasing their usefulness and
elevating as far as practicable to the standard of the best; advising and
securing as far as practicable uniformity in their organization and management
and their conformity to the law and the regulations and instructions of the
state board of education and of the state superintendent of public instruction,
and shall encourage teachers' institutes and associations. The law of 1861 was a
great advance in the educational system of our state.

   In 1873 the office of county superintendent was created and that of examiner
was abolished. This law provided that the "township trustees of the several
townships shall meet at the office of the county auditor of their respective
counties on the first Monday of June, 1873, and biennially thereafter and
appoint a county superintendent." This act did not create a new office, it
merely changed the name of an old one and enlarged its powers.

   The term was for two years and carried with it no educational or professional
requirement for eligibility.

   In 1899 the term was extended to four years and required the holding of a
thirty months' teacher's license, or a life or professional license to be eligible.

   Since 1873 supervision of the country schools has meant something in Indiana.
The teachers are required to pass rigid examinations for which the questions are
provided by the state board of education and the examining and grading of the
manuscripts may be done by the county superintendent or the state
superintendent. The county superintendent makes systematic supervision a large
part of his work. The rural schools have been graded; the standard of efficiency
has been constantly raised; and through the good work of the county
superintendent the children are receiving advantages equal to those of the towns
and cities.

   The common school teacher is a teacher in the district schools of the county
or in grades in the towns and cities.

LICENSE TO TEACH.

   The standard of granting licenses to teach in the common schools has been
advanced from orthography, reading, writing and arithmetic with a private
examination to a rigid public examination in orthography, reading, writing,
arithmetic, geography, English grammar, physiology. United States history,
scientific temperance and the literature and science of education.

   A general average of eighty-five per cent, and not falling below seventy-five
per cent, in any one of the ten items nor in success entitles the applicant to a
twelve months' license. A general average of ninety per cent, and not falling
below eighty-five per cent, in any one of the ten items nor in success entitles
the applicant to twenty-four months' license. A general average of ninety-five
per cent, and not falling below ninety per cent, in any one of the ten items nor
in success entitles the applicant to thirty-six months' license.

   Until 1852 there was much local confusion in school matters due to the fact
that the law contemplated that the civil township should conform to the
congressional township which in fact it did not. The civil township really
conformed to local conditions and the convenience of the people so that for the
most part a congressional township was divided among two or more civil townships
and thus the school lands or the money derived from the sale of such lands would
rightfully belong to more than one township. With the reorganization under the
new constitution this difficulty was done away with. The three township trustees
were continued until 1859 when one trustee was substituted for the three. By law
he has charge of the school affairs of the township. His duty is to locate
conveniently a sufficient number of schools for the education of the children
therein; and builds or otherwise provides suitable houses, furniture, apparatus
or other articles and educational appliances necessary for the thorough
organization and efficient management of the schools. When a township has
twenty-five common school graduates, he may establish and maintain in the center
of the township a township graded high school to which all pupils sufficiently
advanced must be admitted. If the township does not maintain a graded high
school, the common school graduates are entitled to transfers at public expense
to a high school in another corporation.

   It is the duty of each township trustee and each city school trustee to
furnish the necessary school books, so far as they have been adopted or may be
adopted by the state, to all such poor and indigent children as may desire to
attend the common schools.

   As a protection to the township against excessive or ill advised expenditures
of public money the legislature passed a law in that in each township there
should be an advisory board of three members elected by the voters of the
township to hold the office for two years. They are to meet annually on the
first Tuesday in September to consider the various estimates of township
expenditure as furnished by the trustee for the ensuing year which they may
accept or reject in part or in whole. These meetings are public and are open to
any tax payer who desires to be heard on any estimate or proposed tax levy.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

   In 1843 the state treasurer was made superintendent of common schools
ex-officio. The treasurer was chosen because his duties were financial rather
than educational; the preservation and management of the school fund being the
chief requirement of the office. He was required to make annual reports to the
general assembly, showing the condition and amount of funds and property devoted
to education; the condition of colleges, academies, county seminaries; common
schools, public and private; estimates and accounts of school expenditures and
plans for the management and improvement of the common school fund and for the
better organization of the common schools, but his chief duty was to look after
the finances.

   The new state constitution created the office of superintendent of public
instruction by popular election. In 1852 the general assembly directed his
election and fixed his salary at one thousand three hundred dollars. There were
no educational or professional requirements "for his eligibility. The people,
however, have been careful and fortunate in electing men who were able and
active in educational work.

   The superintendent has charge of the system of public instruction, and a
general superintendence of the business relating to the common schools of the
state, and of the school funds and school revenues set apart and apportioned for
their support. At the request of the school officials it is his duty to render,
in writing, opinions touching all phases of administration or construction of
the school law.


Additional Comments:
From:

HISTORY OF HOWARD COUNTY INDIANA
BY
JACKSON MORROW, B. A.
ILLUSTRATED
VOL. I
B. F. BOWEN & COMPANY
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

(circa 1909)


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