Manitowoc County WI Archives History - Schools .....Manitowoc Rapids No. 3 - Rapids 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, 9:40 pm MANITOWOC RAPIDS NO. 3 - RAPIDS Prin. Quirin Lensmire With, the coming of settlers into Manitowoc county, the county school commissioners began planning for the educational system of the county. Accordingly on September 28, 1844, three school districts were formed, the boundaries being the same as the assessor districts. School district No. 1 was to be known as the Two Rivers school district; school district No .2 was to be known as the Mill school district; and school district No. 3 was to be known as the Union school district. The last named district was the beginning of the present Manitowoc Rapids school district No. 3. Notice was given by the school commissioners to the three districts on October 5, 1844 to elect school officers. Thus it can be seen that the original Rapids No. 3 included all of the present towns of Maple Grove, Franklin, Kossuth, Rockland, Cato, Manitowoc Rapids, and the northern two thirds of the towns of Eaton, Liberty, and Newton. Before the organization of these public school districts, private schools were established. The second private school in Manitowoc county was established at Rapids in 1839 by Mrs. L. M. Potter who had been teaching for some years before this in the government school at Green Bay. This private school was located near the second bridge according to Falge's "History of Manitowoc County." On January 3, 1842, a petition signed by several inhabitants of Manitowoc Rapids was presented "praying that the county commissioners allow the use of the Town House (County House) for a schoohouse when it is not needed for county business". The petition was granted "provided no avoidable injury shall be done to said House". The commissioners wanted to show no favoritism to the Rapids residents so they further stated that "by guaranteeing of said liberty (to Rapids), the inhabitants of Manitowoc and Two Rivers will be entitled the privilege of building schoolhouses in their respective districts, if wanted, before one is built at Manitowoc Rapids". The County House then was the first public school for the people of Rapids for on July 12, 1842, the county commissioners ordered the school committee be allowed to use the front room in the County House for school purposes for the sum of $1.50 per month. The first teacher was a Mr. Beardsley who had as some of his pupils P. P. Smith, D. Sackett, Giles and Ervin Hubbard, and Jos. LaCounte. On March 4, 1851, the sheriff was directed to collect arrearage of rent of the County House from school district No. 3 of Manitowoc Rapids, and to re-let the building whenever it was not rented. This County House, constructed in 1840 at a total cost of $650, was destroyed by fire April 30, 1852, and left the district without a school building. There are no written school records of the district prior to 1897. Historical facts had to be obtained from older residents and from county records. It is said that after the destruction of the County House a frame school was erected on the present school-yard. It is said that the first part built was of frame construction about 24x30 feet. In 1885, an addition of about 14 feet was added to the north end and the whole building brick veneered at a cost of $565. The school was located about 50 feet west of the present structure. Before the yard was graveled, the foundation stones were still in evidence. Th [sic] entrance faced the south with a good-sized stone platform for a porch. Double doors opened into a small hallway with the boys' cloakroom at the southeast corner and the girls' room at the southwest corner. Later on just the girls' room was used for a cloakroom and the boys' room was used to store a week's supply of wood. Two doors - one from each cloakroom, opened into a large classroom with four or five windows on each side. The teacher's platform was located between the two entrance doors, so the pupils faced to the south as they sat in four rows of home-made desks and seats made of planks. Wooden blackboards were replaced by slate ones about 1890. The usual wood stove heated the schoolroom. The old schoolhouse was sold to Walter Kugler for $113 and the woodshed to John Heinrichs for $26. What use they made of the building is not recorded. A special meeting to consider the matter of a new school was called on February 23, 1906, upon petition. At that meeting and many subsequent special meetings, the voters authorized a 2 story brick building with a basement at a maximum cost of $3,700. The vote to build was 27 to 9. The money necessary was borrowed from Thos. Stehole at 4% for 6 years, with a specified amount to be repaid each year. C. H. Tegen was hired as the architect, a Mr. Bartke did the masonry, and Albert C. Tomcheck the carpenter work. J. F. Woerfel furnished the 65,000 bricks. The basement was dug by Ed Braunel, and. the basement masonry laid by Holdorf and Gehrig of St. Nazianz for $485. The second story of the building remained unfinished until 1909 when a graded school was organized. The basement was constructed of stone with the building being 38 x 40 feet. The two classrooms were each 27 x 36 feet, well-lighted by windows from the left and rear. Double entrance doors located at the southeast corner lead to halls and partitioned cloakrooms along the eastern part of the building on both floors. Stairs from the entrance also lead into a partitioned basement. The large basement room was used as a fuel, furnace, manual training, and playroom. The smaller part, directly below the upper cloakrooms and halls, was used as a storage and washroom. Water from an artesian well, high in iron content, bubbled into a wash basin the year around. The building was equipped with modern furniture and teaching and learning aids. A second-floor stairway leads to a spacious attic used for a storage space. By 1944, the two room school became over-crowded with children of war workers at the shipyards. A special meeting was called to decide on an addition to the school. After a thorough discussion, the vote was in favor of building a two story addition on the east at a cost of $28,000 of which $14,000 was to be paid by the federal government. The addition was completed in 1945 with modern indoor lavatories, playroom, Uni-vent heating-ventilating system, stoker, hot water boiler, and modern construction throughout. The enrollment in the Rapids public school at first was never high in proportion to the number of children of school age. Even in the later 1800's, when there were about 200 school children in the district, there were only between 50 and 100 pupils attending the public school. A Catholic parochial school, one block west of the district school, enrolled many of the Rapids children until it was discontinued about 1900. It was not until 1909, that the enrollment of over 70 pupils forced the district to provide a graded school with two teachers. In 1940, the enrollment had gone above 75 and the state required a third teacher. The third teacher held classes in the first floor cloakroom with the primary classroom used as the assembly room for all children in the first five grades. This arrangement prevailed until the new addition was built. Today the enrollment in the Rapids school averages above 125 pupils yearly and a fourth teacher is recommended. The fact that there are over 300 children of school age residing in the district indicates that the Manitowoc parochial schools are enrolling many of the Rapids grade children. The following residents served as school clerks before 1906: Herman Braunel 1872-5, Wm. Hein 1875-80, Edw. Schafland 1890-5, and Ed. Bedell 1896-1906. Others serving on the board before 1906 as listed in record books were Arthur Klingholz, John Heinrichs, Sr., Herman Kugler and C. Dobbert. County records show that winter and summer sessions of school were held. The winter sessions were for five months and the summer for four months. Manitowoc Rapids No. 3 was one of the first to have a ten month term as early as 1879. The salary paid the teachers was usually the highest. Teachers' names on record prior to 1906 were Mary Hubbard 1872 S., Henry Gerpheide 1872 W., Wm. Ross 1873 S., J. W. Lizer 1874 W., Selma Klingholz 1875 and 1876 S, G. V. Nash 1875 W., T. W. Burke 1876, B. L. Oakley 1877, W. H. Andrews 1878-80, Simon Wehrwein 1894-5, Otto Drews 1896-1900, Dave Fitzgerald 1901-03, H. E. Mason 1904, and E. C. Brick 1905-1908. Others reported as E. C. Brick's teachers in the 1880's were P. Carrigan, Fred Meisnest, Jos. Popisiel, and Henry Groth. Several Rapids teachers became leaders in the educational field. Among them we find E. C. Brick, Co. Supt. of Schools, Grant County; Jos. Voboril and Jos. Rappel, Co. Supt. of Schools, Manitowoc County; and R. R. Guse, county supervising teacher. Rapids district No. 3 is the historical spot of Manitowoc county. The first county seat is properly marked with a stone and flag pole on County Hill. Manitowoc county's first Catholic church was located a block northwest Of the public school and was established in 1850 by Father Josef Brunner. A historical monument for Chief Mexico, a Chippewa Indian Chief who camped frequently at Rapids, is located in the village. Hubbard's mill was located below Bedell's hill along the river on the present Wernecke farm. The remains of the dam for this mill remain. The land in this vicinity was owned by Hubbard and the area near the mill was laid out in lots. Before 1870, this area had several houses, many stables and barns, and a boarding house, now the Wernecke home. The other dams - The Klingholz dam located about at the former Wienke home, and a dam below the present Ourada Mill, were also power sites at one time but are now no longer in existence. Transportation to Manitowoc in the early times was by boat. At that time the river was much deeper than it is today. Potter's field is located at the top of the hill near Horseshoe Bend. Today, the village of Rapids and the public-school are affected greatly by the growth of the city of Manitowoc towards the west as more and more of the old district No. 3 is being attached to the city. The time may come soon when the Rapids school will be incorporated into the Manitowoc city school system. 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/manitowo178gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/wifiles/ File size: 11.0 Kb