The Vidette-Messenger Centennial EditionThe 1936 special edition celebrating Porter County's centennial year . . . .
The following article has been transcribed from the August 18, 1936, issue of The Vidette-Messenger, published in Valparaiso, Indiana. This particular special edition focuses on Porter County's centennial celebration and contains a 94-page compendium of Porter County history up to that time.
Return to the index of articles from The Vidette-Messenger's Porter County Centennial special edition.
Source: The Vidette-Messenger, Valparaiso,
Porter County, Indiana; August 18, 1936; Volume 10, Section 2, Page 14.
MORGAN HOME IN WESTCHESTER, COUNTY'S FIRST SCHOOL
Morgan, Center and Boone Quickly Followed and 1838 Brought Construction Boom
The story of
education in Valparaiso and Porter county reads like some fantastic chapter from
the "Arabian Knights."
Over a century ago the dwelling of Jesse Morgan in Westchester township was the
scene of the first school in the winter of 1833-34. The name of the teacher
cannot be ascertained. About that time there were a number of adventurers
wandering through the frontier region, and some of these men possessed a fair
education they were in the habit of stopping at some place upon the approach of
winter and organizing a school. When spring came they would continue their
journey, and in time their names would be forgotten. More than likely it was one
of these migratory pedagogues who taught the school at Mr. Morgan's.
Today the public school system in Valparaiso and Porter county is second to
none, a university of world-wide reputation, and exceptional standing, two radio
institutes, a boys' school, two parochial schools, not to mention various other
educational enterprises, serve the county, annually training thousands of boys
and girls, young men and young women with the latest approved academic and
vocational equipment.
A century ago the public school equipment of city and county was worth less than
$100. Today it is worth upwards of $2,000,000, (buildings, grounds, equipment,
etc. of all schools). A century ago the enrollment of all public schools in the
county, including Valparaiso, was but a handful. Today the number is in excess
of 6,000.
One hundred years ago there were only a few persons engaged in teaching. Today
the number surpasses two hundred.
A century ago where several hundred dollars would finance a full year's term,
today the outlay runs into hundreds of thousands of dollars maintaining all
branches of education (public, college and parochial schools).
All of which indicates, briefly, the tremendous changes that the years have
wrought since schools had their inception in the county.
With the influx of families into the fertile regions of the county then the need
for some method of schooling was felt. A wise community leadership decree that a
school should be established.
In 1834 a subscription school was taught in what is now Morgan township by Miss
Orilla Stoddard, but the exact location of the school house -- a log structure
12 by 14 feet -- is a matter of some dispute. It was located on the Morgan
Prairie, convenient to the homes of Morris Witham, Henry Adams, William Billings
and John Keller, who were patrons of the school.
The first school in Center township was taught in the summer of 1835 by Miss
Mary Hammond. The school was located about a mile north of the present Porter
county fair grounds, not far from State Road 49.
The following winter a school was taught by the same teacher in Washington
township, in a log house erected for the purpose by A. V. Bartholomew. Four
families were represented and the term lasted for three months.
In 1837, about a year after the organization of the county was completed, Ruel
Starr, school commissioner, made his report on the condition of the school fund.
It showed receipts of $973.13 and disbursements of $858.94. The report contained
no mention of money expended for erection or repair of school houses, or for the
payment of teacher's salaries, a plain indication that up to this time no public
schools had been established.
Some of the public school records relating to the public schools cannot be
found, and from those that can be obtained it is practically impossible to form
any definite idea as to when and where the first school districts in the county
were established, or who were the first teachers.
At about the time Mr. Starr made his first report the first school in Liberty
township was opened in a little log school house in the Zane settlement, Mrs.
Sophia Dye being the teacher. She had fifteen pupils enrolled and received a
salary of two dollars a week, raised by subscription. There is a tradition that
a school was taught in Union township in 1836, in a log cabin near the place
known as "Hoosier Nest," but some say the school was not taught there until the
following year.
In Boone township a log school house was built in 1837 and school was taught
there that year. About the same time the first school was taught in Valparaiso
by a man named Masters. It was in a small building which Dr. Seneca Ball had
erected in the rear of his residence, and which was subsequently used by him for
a wood house. It was located on the present Presbyterian church property, and
the spot is marked by a stone by the Porter County Historical Society. A Miss
Eldred, who was a sister of Mrs. Ruel Starr. Harry E. Ball and Sylvester W.
Smith also taught in the building before it was abandoned for school purposes.
The year 1838 was one of considerable activity in the educational affairs of
Porter county. Schools were maintained in all the neighborhoods where they had
previously been established. A log school house, about 16 x 18 feet, was built
in Jackson township, a mile and a half east of Jackson Center, and Jane Jones
taught the first term there, receiving a salary of one dollar a week. Prior to
this, however, a subscription school had been taught in the township in a
private dwelling about a mile and a half southeast of Clear lake. In Pleasant
township a log school was erected a mile and a half east of the present town of
Kouts. The school was built by the co-operative labor of citizens and the first
term in the fall of 1838 eleven scholars were enrolled.
Two school houses were built in Portage township in 1840, one on Section 20,
Township 36, Range 6, and the other in the southwestern part of the township.
About this time or a little later, Rev. James C. Brown opened a private school
for young ladies on Jefferson street between Michigan and Franklin streets. The
school was successively taught by Mr. Brown, Rev. H. M. Blackburn and S. L.
Bartholomew, when it was discontinued for lack of support.
During the decade from 1840 to 1850 a number of new schools were established in
various parts of the county; the public school fund became available, and the
beginning of a public school system was inaugurated.
The first school houses were nearly all log building along the sides of which
one log was left out and the openings thus formed were covered with oiled paper
in lieu of window glass to admit light. Window glass in those days was a luxury
too great to be considered in the construction of the district school houses. A
huge fireplace at one end furnished heat to the school room, the seats were
usually formed of split saplings in which holes were bored with a large auger
and plug inserted into the logs and ran along the sides of the room. Here the
pupils went at "writing time" to follow the copy written by the teacher at the
head of a sheet of foolscap paper, and goose quills were frequently used. The
three R's -- "Reading' Ritin' and Rithmetic" -- constituted the usual course of
study, and the pupil who reached the "Rule of Three" in the last named branch
was considered a fine mathematician.
In February, 1838, the Indiana legislature passed an act providing for the
establishment and maintenance of county seminaries throughout the state, such
institutions to receive their support through the appropriations of certain
fines and penalties for violation of law. The law made it the duty of the county
commissioners to appoint trustees, who were to have general powers in the
founding and control of such seminaries.
Trustees were appointed in Porter county in the fall of 1838 "to receive and
care for the county seminary fund until a sufficient amount had been accumulated
to found a seminary. More than ten years passed before the trustees felt
justified in the attempt to found a seminary in the county.
By 1849 the fund amounted to a little over $2,000 and the first steps were taken
toward building a seminary, but a change in the board of trustees and some other
causes delayed the matter until 1851, when a lot was purchased at the corner of
Jefferson and Monroe streets, and a building costing $2,000 was erected. The
seminary was a frame structure, two stories in height, with three rooms above,
and two rooms on the ground floor. School was opened in the building in 1851,
with Ashley M. Pierce as principal and Miss Eliza J. Forsyth as assistant.
The upper story was used, the rooms on the first floor not having been finished
in time at opening of the school. The enrollment was 120. By enactment of a new
school law in 1849 the county seminary law was repealed and the county
commissioners were required to sell the county seminary.
Pursuant to the law the commissioners of Porter county advertised the buildings
and grounds for sale on the fourth Monday of July, 1853, one tenth of the
purchase price to be paid down and the balance in nine equal installments, the
proceeds to go into the public school fund. On day of the sale the trustees of
Valparaiso purchased the building for $1,200, and the name of the school was
changed to the "Union School of Valparaiso."
The first term under the new regime opened on October 31, 1853. A short time
before the opening of the school the trustees announced that repairs on the
building had absorbed all public funds, but that "as soon as sufficient funds
shall have been accumulated, a three months' school will be supported entirely
by those funds and made entirely free of charge to all."
The school was divided into three grades. Miss Field was teacher of the first
grade; Miss Marietta Skinner, the second grade, and Ashley L. Pierce, the third
grade and principal. School was taught in the building for three terms, but on
March 17, 1857, the institution was totally destroyed by fire.
Within a twelve month after the burning of the Union school building, the
Methodist church started a movement for the establishment of a school, and in
the spring of 1859, work was commenced on the Valparaiso Male and Female
college. The building was completed in time for the school to open on September
21, 1859, under the presidency of Rev. C. N. Sims, with 157 students in
attendance.
Associated with Mr. Sims were F. D. Carley, Mrs. Loomis, Mrs. Hall and Miss
Moore as instructors. During the Civil war the institution experienced some hard
times, but after the close of hostilities there was revival of interest and in
1867 the east wing was added to the building. Then, after four years of
fluctuating fortunes, the college was abandoned in 1871.
Not long after Valparaiso Male and Female college was projected, the
Presbyterians bought a lot and organized the Valparaiso Collegiate Institute,
the first term of which opened on April 16, 1861, with Rev. S. C. Logan as
principal and H. A. Newell as assistant. This institution continued in existence
until shortly after the Civil war, when the buildings were sold to the City of
Valparaiso. The site of the Collegiate Institute is now occupied by the Cen....
In 1873, Professor Henry Baker Brown, of Republic, Ohio, came to Valparaiso and
purchased the building formerly occupied by the Methodist Male and Female
college. He opened the school on September 16, 1873, with thirty-five students.
From this small beginning in 1873, the school grew to an attendance of 6,000 and
faculty personnel of 200 members. In 1925 when the school faced the threat of,
it was taken over by the Lutheran church and rejuvenated.
In 1871 the graded school system was organized in Valparaiso and in that year
the Central school building, since razed, was erected.
The first parochial school was built by German Lutherans at the corner of
Chestnut and Academy streets in 1865. It was abandoned after a number of years.
In 1872, Father Michael O'Reilly established St. Paul's parochial school, which
still survives. A German Lutheran parochial school was built on the site of the
present Lutheran parish hall next to the present church building and was used
for many years until it was razed for the new parish building. A Parochial
school has also been maintained at Chesterton by the Catholic church for a
number of years.
Dodge's Telegraph and Radio Institute was founded in Valparaiso in 1874 by the
late George A. Dodge. At one time it was connected with Valparaiso university as
a department of that institution. In 1891, George M. Dodge, president of the
institution, assumed control and is still at the helm. Its students come from
all parts of the United States.
At the time the graded school was introduced in the county, the teachers'
institute also became a factor in the educational development of Indiana. Under
the law teachers who attended were given credit upon license certificates.
At the county institute of 1881, the late Porter County Teachers' association
was organized with Prof. M. L. Phares as president; Miss Kate Cronacan,
secretary, and Miss Lizzie O'Reilly, secretary.
At the next session held August 24, 1882, Professor Phares and Miss Cronacan
were re-elected, and S. E. Brayton was chosen treasurer. A committee of three --
Professor W. H. Banta, Superintendent appointed to draft a constitution H. A.
Porter and Miss Hewitt -- was and by-laws. There the history of the organization
ended as far as records are concerned.
In the nineties and later the city's elementary school buildings were
constructed. The Columbia was built in 1892; the Gardner in 1890; the Central in
1904; the Banta in 1924; the Valparaiso high school in 1927, and the Boucher
gymnasium in 1928.
Development of the public schools has gone on apace of recent years and the
value of the system as a community asset has grown to immeasurable proportions.
There have been other factors in the educational upbuilding of Porter county.
There are innumerable study clubs, literary societies, the radio, the newspaper,
the moving picture -- all contributing a portion to the common cause of
educating the masses.
Truly, education in Porter county has developed from a humble log cabin
beginning to a complex institution of exceptional attainments.
Article transcribed by Steven R. Shook