Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....School Buildings, Equipment, and School Terms
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/wi/wifiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com October 26, 2007, 10:47 pm

SCHOOL BUILDINGS, EQUIPMENT, AND SCHOOL TERMS

    When the pioneer settlers came to Manitowoc county, they found the land
forest-covered. It was only natural then that their first schools, like their
first homes, should -be a log house home of the pioneer who took on the job of
teaching, along with his other responsibilities of clearing the land and
constructing the necessary farm buildings.  In such cases the "front" room of
the two room log house was used as a semi-school and living room. The "back"
room was used as living quarters by the teacher's family. The pioneer pupil, in
such schools, got his three "R's" in the midst of squalling babies,, barking
dogs, the smell of cooking potatoes and cabbage,, and swirling steam from the
family wash. These pioneer pupils often had to make themselves useful in school
by chopping and splitting the firewood, bringing the water from a nearby well or
creek, and helping to do the family washing.

    The pioneer log schoolhouses were usually built near the center of a
community of settlers. Usually the land for such school site was donated, for
land was then cheap and then, too, it ensured a settler of a school very close
to his home. As the community became more settled, new homes were established
around the original settlement. Since the log school was located without regard
to future expansion of the district, we find many, school districts today with
the school site not at all centrally located.

    One of the pioneer industries of Manitowoc county was lumbering. Sawmills
were built along the many streams of our county where water power could be
harnessed. These sawmills cut the logs into lumber. Some of this lumber was used
to construct frame houses for the progressive settlers who were becoming
dissatisfied with the pioneer log houses. The growing school population by 1870
crowded the little log schoolhouse so that new quarters were imperative. The
pioneer school was replaced by frame and brick schoolhouses from 1870 to 1900,
many of them still in use today.

    By 1905, county records show that school enrollments of 60 to 100 pupils per
school were quite common. In 1905, the state legislature passed a law requiring
districts with more than 65 pupils enrolled to provide an additional room and
teacher, or forfeit its share of the seven mill tax then in effect. Manitowoc
county, upon passage of this law, experienced a mild boom in erecting two room
buildings or in adding an extra room on the school building then in use. These
two-room schools became known as "graded" schools. Over twenty districts in
Manitowoc county at one time or other maintained a graded school, although today
only ten of such districts, including those in the three cities, remain.

    Many of the schools built in the late 19th century were still in use by
1948. The average age of all the school buildings outside of Manitowoc and Two
Rivers in 1948 was 49 years. Two school buildings in the county are over 90
years old, four are 80 years, eighteen are 70 years, twenty are 60 years,
nineteen are 50 years, nineteen are 40 years, fifteen are 30 years, nine are 20
years, one is 10 years, and three are over 5 years old.

    The first pioneer log school house was scantily furnished with crude,
home-made furniture. The desks and seats were made by someone in the district
and were usually eight to ten feet in length. They were all of one size, with
the result that the young pupils were perched on a high bench with their legs
dangling off the floor. It was not unusual to find them curled up on the bench
fast asleep. The over-grown boy found the seats and desks too small, so his feet
were sprawled out in the aisles. The long benches and desks were separated by an
aisle down the middle of the room. The boys sat on one side of the room and the
girls on the other side. A box stove, long enough to burn three and four foot
cordwood, was placed in the center of the room. This had the effect of toasting
those sitting nearby but having no effect on those sitting near the walls. Two
or three windows along each long side of the schoolroom gave the necessary
lighting. These windows were often equipped with shutters which were closed for
the night. The drinking water was dispensed by a common dipper from an open
water pail. A teacher's desk, with the inevitable switch nearby, was placed on a
small platform across, the front of the room. Boards painted black were the
blackboards. A map or two of the state and nation, a variety of texts brought
from the pioneer homes, and individual slates for the pupils completed the
learning and teaching equipment of the nineteenth century schools in our county.

    The twentieth century witnessed the setting up of school building and
equipment standards by the state and educational leaders. Heating plants had to
have approved ventilating systems. The open water pail was replaced by sanitary
covered jars and bubbler attachments. The hand-made desks and seats were
replaced in the later nineteenth century by double desks and seats. Those in
turn were replaced by single, adjustable ones. The wooden blackboards were
discarded and slate and composition ones installed. Uniform text books,
references, library books, and modern school furniture, as well as visual aids
teaching and learning equipment became common to most rural schools. By 1948,
about thirty rural districts were maintaining modern school buildings with
indoor toilets, running water, electric service, and conveniences found in
modern urban schools. About sixty districts were maintaining semi-modern or
obsolete school buildings.

    The pioneer school term was often limited to three month terms, of
twenty-two days per month. In many schools a five or six month, school term was
maintained but this was divided into a summer and winter term. The winter term
began in November and ended in February or March. The summer term began in April
or May and closed in July or August. The winter session was usually in charge of
a male teacher because the boys and girls from 15 to 21 years attended. The
wages paid teachers for winter sessions were always higher than for the spring
or summer session teachers. Summer and winter or fall and spring, terms were in
vogue until about 1900. It was not until 1905 that the state prescribed at least
an eight months, school term in order, to qualify for state and county aid. A
minimum term of nine monhs [sic] was specified by an act of the legislature in
1937.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

1848 - 1948

CENTENNIAL HISTORY
of the
Manitowoc County School Districts and Public School System

EDITED BY JOS. J. RAPPEL, COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 1948


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/wi/manitowoc/history/schools/introduc49gms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/

File size: 7.2 Kb