Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....Manitowoc Jt. 3 - Goodwin 1948 ************************************************ 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 November 3, 2007, 6:35 pm MANITOWOC JT. 3 - GOODWIN Gladys Bernhardt Notice of first school meeting, Manitowoc, June 28, 1859. To Mathias Leist a taxable inhabitant of the so-called District No. 3 in said town. You are hereby directed to notify every legal voter residing in Sections Six (6), Seven (7), & the west half of Section Five (5), & Section Eight (8) in the so-called District No. 3 to appear at the house of B. F. Goodwin in said district on Tuesday, July 5th at 2 o'clock P.M. for the purpose of organizing said district by electing the proper officers, etc. You will read this notice to every legal voter, or in case of absence from home of such voter, leave a written notice of the time and place of meeting. A. W. Preston Town Superintendent of Schools for the Town of Manitowoc By B. F. Goodwin, Clerk The preceding record was copied from the first book of minutes and orders recorded by the early clerks of the present Joint District No. 3 of the towns of Manitowoc and Manitowoc Rapids. District No. 3 Manitowoc was the third school set up in the township. Districts 1 and 2, now in the city of Manitowoc, preceded the establishment of this district. At the July district meeting of 1919, it was decided to name the school GOODWIN in memory of Benjamin F. Goodwin, who promulgated the idea of setting up a school district in this community. The first officers elected were: Moritz Kiel, director; John Hall, treasurer, and B. F. Goodwin, clerk. In the year 1885, Section 1 and the N 1/2 of Section 12 of the town of Manitowoc Rapids were added to District No. 3 creating a joint district. In 1904 at a combined meeting of the Manitowoc Common Council of the City and the Town Boards of Manitowoc and Manitowoc Rapids, the W 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Section 18 of the Town of Manitowoc and the N 1/2 of the NW 1/4 of Section 17 of the town of Manitowoc were severed from Joint School District 1 of the city and added to Jt. District 3 of Manitowoc and Manitowoc Rapids. At a special meeting of the district held at the home of J. H. Jerome on October 11, 1859, the schoolboard was instructed to purchase the site for the schoolhouse. Plans were made to construct a building of twelve-foot posts, with a building width of twenty-four feet and a length of thirty-six feet, to be sided with clapboards. Specifications as to the size and building of an entry were left to the Board. Fifty dollars was to be raised for the construction of the school building. J. B. Leist, J. H. Jerome, H. W. Brown, Moritz Kiel and B. F. Goodwin each volunteered to donate labor for a designated number of days, in that way lowering the cost of construction. The power to choose the desks, benches, texts and other necessary equipment was vested in the school board. The district members voted to raise five dollars for a library, and one hundred dollars for the teacher's wages in addition to the fifty dollars necessary for building purposes. The one hundred fifty-five dollars raised by taxes the first year was sufficient to build, equip, and maintain a school system at that time. At a meeting on September 24, 1860, the district decided to have the schoolhouse lathed and plastered. A chimney was to be constructed before November 1, 1860 by Thomas Olcott for 34 dollars. J. H. Jerome received the bid for building a fence and gate at a cost of 4 dollars. John Hall was hired to build a toilet for 4 dollars. The schoolhouse was to be open for meetings "by day or by night", but no dancing was allowed in the building. In 1865 three long tables and twenty chairs were added to the school equipment, possibly due to an increased enrollment. In 1873 a clock and a map of Manitowoc county were purchased. Fifteen years after the school opened, the first mention of installing a blackboard is made. Insurance on the building in 1875 cost $6.50. After the addition of Section 1 and the N 1/2 of Section 12 of Manitowoc Rapids had increased the enrollment in 1885, a special meeting was called in July for the purpose of discussing the construction, of a new schoolhouse. Evidently, so few members were present that it was not feasible to do business and the meeting was adjourned after John Hall was chosen chairman. The district board consisting of Moritz Kiel, Christian Rohrbach, and William Gentgen called another meeting to convene December 28, 1885, John Jarr, a pioneer resident of Manitowoc Rapids, presided as chairman. The following resolutions were accepted: To build a brick schoolhouse, 24 feet wide and 40, feet long; 12 feet high with foot-thick walls. That the contractor shall buy all materials except the brick and foundation stones, and that the district shall do all the hauling. That the members of the building committee - John Kleman, John Jarr, and Henry Kiel - shall each have five dollars for their services. On the 26th day of May, 1886, another special district meeting transacted the following business: The old schoolhouse and furniture were sold to Nicholas Gentgen, the highest bidder, for fifteen dollars on condition that he have it off the premises by the following June. The school board was authorized to borrow nine hundred dollars for building purposes, payable in three terms of three hundred dollars each plus interest. (The debt was liquidated in three years.) Ninety dollars was allowed for furniture and forty-four dollars for the eaves and heating system of the new building. Very little information is available regarding who and how many attended Goodwin School during the first fifty-five or more years of its existence. Old school registers which would yield that information have unfortunately been destroyed or removed from the district. One annual report for the school year 1881-1882 which is written out in full in the clerk's book of records lists the number of children of school age in the district as 71 and the number of children enrolled in the school as 37. Just before World War I, the enrollment stood at thirty-nine, rising to forty-one in 1914 and to forty-four in 1915. During the past five years the number enrolled has fluctuated between ten and twenty. In 1944-45 it reached twenty; at the present time it has dropped to twelve. The reasons for decreased enrollment are two: nearness of parochial schools and the small size of the families. In 1859 the legal voters of the district were H. W. Brown, William O'Camb, John and Samuel Hall, John Bracker, Moritz Kiel, Nicholas Gentgen, J. H. Jerome, B. F. Goodwin, J. B. Leist, Mathias Leist, Nicholas Meirs, John Lindow, Joseph Lindow, John Krueger, John Freman, a Mr. Gesler, a Mr. Genser, and another resident whose name is undecipherable in the records. In Falge's "History of Manitowoc County" John B. Leist is credited with being the first Manitowoc County settler to locate on the Townline Road, settling there in 1846. Charles Hall settled on the Townline Road in 1850. His brothers Samuel and John located close by. Charles Hall traveled to California with three covered wagons for the Gold Rush in 1849. After losing his oxen which he replaced with horses bartered from the Indians, and losing his wagons which broke down slightly short of his destination, he finally arrived at San Francisco on foot. He and the other members of his party returned to their home in the district on a vessel by way of Cape Horn, rich in experience but not in gold. John Hall, his brother, whose home was also built on the Townline Road was the first school treasurer and the first Town Chairman of Manitowoc after the town of Conroe was divided. He seldom held office as a board member, but his interest in school affairs is evident from the numerous times he was named chairman at the early annual meetings. Moritz Kiel settled on the land where the school now stands in 1855. Five years later the school was built next door to his home on the half-acre of land which he contributed for the school site. Nickolas Gentgen was the first treasurer of the town of Manitowoc. His name and his brother William's appear frequently in the school records as district officers. Nick returned to his homeland Germany for a visit, and later came back to continue his farming in the community. In the part of the district which belongs to the town of Manitowoc Rapids, John Jarr was a pioneer farmer who played an important part in school affairs after 1886. The A. W. Preston who signed the document quoted at the beginning of this article was one of the best known and most distinguished early settlers of the county. In addition to being the first graduate doctor to practice medicine in Manitowoc, Mr. Preston also served as Register of Deeds, Town Chairman of Manitowoc, and Town Superintendent of Schools of that town. He participated in the Civil War and was defeated in his campaigns for offices in the State Assembly and Senate. After 1864 he returned to his native New Hampshire where he died of tuberculosis. From 1859 to 1895 the school year was divided into winter and summer terms by choice of the district members. The winter term would start any time between October and Christmas and the summer term usually began in late May or June. It was usually determined at the school meeting whether the board was to hire a male or female teacher. Some trouble arose over Mary's right to her salary according to this resolution adopted at the meeting of 1861: "Resolved that the treasurer is instructed not to pay the orders drawn for teaching last summer school by Miss Mary Winters without she was a qualified teacher when she commenced to teach school in our District." In 1862 there was only a short winter term during which Amanda Hughes taught for fifteen dollars a month. Another district member who served as officer and instructor was William Gentgen who taught the school in 1871. He was hired at the district meeting and authorized to teach German and English. His wages were thirty-five dollars per month, but he had to furnish his own wood. Later records show he taught but one month and two other teachers completed his term. John Lantry taught the school for eight years between 1867 and 1877. He received between forty and forty-five dollars a month. Ida Eberhardt, now deceased, a sister of William Eberhardt, a former district treasurer, taught in the district in 1893. She walked to school from her home at Four Corners, a distance of about three miles, almost daily. In 1895 the school was taught by Harry Kelly, now postmaster of Manitowoc. His wages were thirty-three dollars per month. Arthur Bleser, a retired farmer in the county, taught the Goodwin School in 1899. His monthly wages were thirty-seven dollars. Over fifty different teachers have left their marks upon the community during its eighty-six years as a district. Of the first three board members only Moritz Kiel served over an extensive period of years. He retained his position as director from 1859 to 1888, twenty-nine consecutive years. B. F. Goodwin and John Hall both kept the clerk's records between 1859 and 1863. In 1863 Nicholas Gentgen was elected clerk and remained in office for nine years. He was succeeded by William Gentgen, who proved capable and was reelected every three years until 1895. In 1898 he was again elected clerk but completed only one year of that term. Other officers who figured in the administration of school affairs for a decade or more were Michael Kleman, treasurer, from 1873 to 1883; John Kleman, treasurer, from 1896 to 1906; John Jarr, clerk, from 1899 to 1909; Freddie Kiel, director, 1899 to 1911; August Ahrens, treasurer, 1906 to 1919, and Charles Markwardt, director, from 1911 to 1923. One of the more recent board members to have a distinguishing record of service is the late Albert Rohrbach, Sr. who served as clerk from 1918 to 1940, a period of twenty-two years. William Eberhardt has been district treasurer since 1919. Fred J. Bernhardt has held the office of director since 1923. Albert Rohrbach, Jr. has succeeded his father as clerk since 1941. The subjects taught in the early days of the school were probably the standard ones for those days - reading, writing, arithmetic with a smattering of geography and history. The Board chose the first texts, and the meager sums voted for the library could not have been sufficient to purchase a large variety of books. The pupils of the school have been buying their own texts since the school opened. It is definitely established that the school was used often for community get-to-gethers. Money was appropriated for school fairs. Some of the descendants of the early settlers reported that their parents often mentioned the "good times" at the school house gatherings as the best they'd ever had. The first crude homes of the very first settlers have been replaced by modern buildings although even now many of the houses are over a half century old. Much of the land in this area was originally owned by a New York company who sold it to the European immigrants who decided to make their homes here. Only a very few of the farms are in the hands of the descendants of the early settlers. The most outstanding feature from a scenic point of view is the Little Manitowoc River which winds its way through the farms of the district, and is a source of food and fun in spring when the suckers come upstream to spawn. It is probably the only medium of entertainment which the children of 1948 hold in-common with those who walked these ways eighty-six years ago. 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/manitowo173gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/ File size: 14.3 Kb