Early History of Cerro Gordo County Schools
It’s back to school time throughout the North IA area. From the excitement of the 5-year old who is being exposed with his first school experience, through all the busy years to graduation, our youth are not only being educated but are building school memories that will be a part of them always. Human nature doesn’t change much really. People have the same basic needs today, they had 50 years ago or 70 or back in 1855 when the first school opened in Cerro Gordo County. We need to be loved and accepted and to know about the world around us, to become self sufficient and to believe in something beyond ourselves. It’s only how we arrive and the extent to which those basic needs are fulfilled that’s changed through the years.
The first white settlers arrived in Clear Lake in 1851 and by the summer of 1855 had enough children here to feel that a school was necessary. It was held in the log cabin home of James Dickirson and Miss Elizabeth Gardner was the teacher. She had come from the East with her family; the Roland Gardner’s who settled along the east shore of the lake in 1853. Her engagement to teach the Clear Lake School may well have saved her life because the rest of the family moved on without her to Spirit Lake where they were victims of the terrible Spirit Lake Massacre in 1856. Only Elizabeth and her sister, Abby survived and Abby was kidnapped by the Indians in the raid but lived to escape and tell the story of the massacre and her captivity. I remember the youngsters hearing the recorded voice of Abby Gardner Sharpe telling that heart rendering story in that little log cabin museum still in existence at Okoboji.
We know very little about that first school. Presumably each family had brought a few books with them when they moved West and these were shared among the families and used in teaching the children to read, write, spell and figure. Miss Gardner was paid $1 for each scholar and reportedly her board expenses were shared.
Among the first log cabins built in Mason City was one designated as the school. It opened in 1856 only 3 years after the first settlers arrived and Mrs. Lizzy Thompson served as file teacher. However already by 1857 the citizens joined together to buy a lot at the present comer of 1st and Georgia SE and a 2-story 30×44 feet native stone building was erected. Pioneers were willing to spend $3,000 to build and equip it for the education of their children. And by 1859 the school had 40 pupils. The building was not only used as a school but became the center of community life. Early church groups met there. City government and voting were both carried on there.
Meantime over at Clear Lake a Mr. Baumgartner had built a 26’ square schoolhouse in 1857 also. An early history of the old school taken from a story in the Clear Lake “Observer” of 1856 had this to say.
“In this building our school was kept for many years. Here all religious gatherings were held and the people of all the country around gathered therein. Although the house was only but 26’ square, there was room for all. For we were but few in number, all equal. All denominations could listen to the same preacher in the open handed of friendship and equality was extended to all within its walls. Here the teachers assembled in institutes; here the politicians made promises to its constituents, here the boys met for debates in good temper and lodge, the young folks for singing school and here for 19 years the annual election has been held and ballot box contests decided. On its floors stood 16 of Clear Lake’s finest boys who raised their hands to heaven and took upon themselves the oath to serve their country as soldiers in the Civil War and to protect their country’s flag. Here they met for a last farewell and but few of them ever returned to its walls.”
The first teacher in that schoolhouse was Reuben Humphreyville and his wages were $30 per month for 3 1/2 months.
As Mason City’s population increased with the coming of the railroad, they soon needed larger school facilities. In June 1870 there was a proposition to build a county high school midway between Mason City and Clear Lake. It was defeated 464 -269 so it became obvious that each district would have to supply their own needs.
In 1873, Clear Lake organized as an independent district and Mason City’s forward looking pioneers contracted for a 3 story stone building that many thought was so large it would never be fully occupied. The imposing looking native stone building complete with large bell tower stood for almost half a century before it was destroyed by fire in 1926.
There were some special concerns and financial problems in getting the $30,000 that it cost. An ingenious plan by the school board enlarged the Mason City school district to allow more county property owners to help pay for and maintain the school. The district became a zigzag 1/2 mile wide corridor leading 3 1/2 miles west, then south 8 1/4 miles where it became a mile wide strip again going west 5 miles and south 3 miles to a large area of what is now Grimes Township, where some wealthy eastern investors owned land.
This strange shaped district was not created without some pangs of conscience by people in the community. In the Feb 13, 1879 issue of the Cerro Gordo Republican, Publisher Noyes had this to say,
“It is a fact that every citizen of the town has been ashamed to look at the map of the independent school district for the city of Mason City for the past 2 or 3 years. The notoriety of the crooked zigzag lines of the district is not only local but has become statewide. It is high time that a change should be made. We know that a special plea will be made that owing to the heavy debt that now hangs over the district, we will need every cent of revenue we can get. The plea is granted as far as our wants are concerned but we cannot afford to advertise ourselves as “sharpers and naves” in order to secure a few dollars. Therefore, we hope if the territory embraced in the serpentine lines of our district desires to be shut off that it will be done at once.”
Soon after this a new township was created and the Mason City Independent School District became the area in and immediately surrounding the city. But by that time much of the building costs had been raised. There was a larger population to support the school and the first class had been graduated. There were 7 graduates, 5 girls and 2 boys.
The dedication of the building had taken place Oct. 9,1874 with J.C. Gilchrist serving as Mason City’s first superintendent of schools. He went on to become the first president of Iowa State Teachers College in Cedar Falls in 1875. Another early day Mason City administrator who went on to prominence was Carrie Chapman Catt, who became world famous in the women’s suffrage movement. And the writer, Herbert Quick, once a Mason City principal and he wrote ‘in actual good I don’t believe I ever accomplished more than in those 4 years as the principal of Mason City’s Garfield School.”
The Mason City school population grew by leaps and bounds during the final decades of the 1800s and during the first decades of the 1900s. As immigrants with large families moved in to work at the prosperous and growing Mason City industries. At both Mason City and Clear Lake and all the adjoining towns, citizens have always been conscientious about keeping up with the facilities and offerings to help educate their youth.
There is nothing so constant as change from the great growth of the years we have been discussing through the almost zero population growth of the 30s followed by the baby booms of the 40s and 50s, we come once again to declining enrollment in our area. One wonders what the story of education in Cerro Gordo county will read like in another decade or two
School Days by Arlene Lashier
School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Reading Writing Arithmetic
Taught to the tune of a hickory stick
You were my queen in calico
I was your blushing barefoot beau
And you wrote on your slate, “I love you Joe”
When they were a couple of kids.
School days, school days
Dear ole golden rule days
Home economics, algebra, geometry too
Typing, PE, we had to do
We rattled to school in old Model As
Money was scarce in those depression days
We passed notes back & forth across old Assembly Hall
And on the floor, one happened to fall.
An eagle eyed teacher said, “that note I will take”
And I in my scuffed saddle shoes did quake.
Then she read in a voice soft and low
The note said, “I love you Joe”
When we were a couple of kids.
School days, school days
Dear old golden rule days
Humanities, calculus, family living is now the right look
Taught to the advice from a psychology book
Between you and me there is no personality clash
So together to extra curricular activities we dash
You were mine in acrylic and denim too
I am yours in $40 Adidas shoes
With a $50 in my pocket and Dad’s Oldsmobile
We’re off to a show, a concert or other big deal.
But coming how when the moon hangs low
She still whispers, ‘I love you, Joe.”
And that’s today’s youth as a couple of kids.
I often remind you on the program that the personal remembrances I share are in no means unique. The only purpose is to jog memories of how it was for you in similar situations.