This is the sixth in a Series of Reminiscences by E. R. Brown. Brown was born in Pulaski County on August 9, 1845. His writings are abstracted from the Pulaski County Democrat on microfilm housed in the Pulaski County Public Library, Winamac, Indiana. Earlier entries can be found on our website, https://pulaskihistory.net/newsletters/.
- Part one was in the October 2018 newsletter.
- Part two was published in June 2019.
- Part three was in the November 2019 issue.
- Part four was in the February 2020 edition.
Later editions are carried as separate posts.
- Find Part five here.
Schools
In 1848 an election was held in Indiana to decide whether or not the people were willing to be taxed for public schools. I had not then reached the age when I would understand its importance or remember it personally afterwards. But I knew early that my parents and neighbors, plain people with limited schooling themselves, had been much pleased with the result in this county. It was, indeed, a record that should never be forgotten. Pulaski county voted almost unanimously for the tax. In some counties the vote was the other way. Monroe county, then, as now, having the state university, has been derided in recent years for its pronounced negative vote at that time.
*Photo, above: In 1850 an octagon frame school was built on the NW 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 29 in Indian Creek Township. It was used for school purposes until about 1878 when students began to attend a substantial frame school house known as the Stump or Cross Road School. This wasn’t the only “round” school building built around the 1850s. There was an even earlier one called the Decker School erected in Indian Creek Township in 1849, and two more in Van Buren Township. They were erected with a hip roof, heated with a cast iron box stove placed in the center of the room, with benches around the walls. The photo shown here was possibly taken by John G. Reidelbach around 1930 while Frank Gilsinger owned the land. [Source: A Century of Achievement, by John G. Reidelbach, published on Facebook by Pulaski County Public Library]
Still the schools were slow in coming and according to present standards, decidedly so in other respects. There had been a few short terms of school previously, always in the cabins of the settlers or in those which happened to be vacant and always supported by private subscription. But the first of those resulting from the tax opened in 1850. Two school houses had been built in Indian Creek township by public funds, at least in part. One, a small frame, was on land owned by M. L. Washburn, called Washburn’s school house, though it was nearer John Senn’s being only a short distance west of his house. The other was west of the river on land owned by Mr. Weaver, now owned I think, by Daniel Meyer. It was a still smaller house of hewed logs but having a sawed board floor and later a similar ceiling. It was on a road since abandoned, passing the Meyer house and the one on the old Jacob Ruff farm, later owned by Mr. Bader. Here it was that a so-called public school was taught by William Poole in 1850 and its greatest distinction to me is that I attended it and there learned my A-B-C’s, if nothing more.
On the opening day, our home being on the opposite side of the river, my father took his three oldest boys across in a canoe or dugout (not much resembling the fancy light canoes now to be seen on the Tippecanoe) and accompanied us to the school house. Most of the way being through a trackless forest he took an ax along and blazed the trees, carefully explaining how that would enable us to find out way back in the evening. When we reached the school house, we found Mr. Poole already there, so he and father cleaned the house of the litter left by the builders and proceeded to put legs in some sawed slabs which had been provided, thus making benches for the pupils to sit on. When it was found that room for all on the slab benches might be lacking, one or two flat rails were selected from a nearby fence and legs were put in them. The teacher had either brought a cheap chair with him or brought one later and that was the total equipment of that school room for some time. Later wide boards were placed next to the wall along one side and the two ends of the room and served as a writing place. In order to use them the pupils had to turn their backs to the teacher, so it was only permitted during writing periods.
My recollection is that the house had been chinked, that is that the cracks between the logs had been filled by smaller pieces of wood, but I am sure it had not been ‘daubed’. which meant that the cracks were not further filled with mortar. This was done before the winter term was opened and a box stove was added. That, with a wooden water bucket and tin cup constituted the equipment of that school room as long as I knew anything about it. During that term, and others following, my sole equipment as a pupil was one book-Webster’s Elementary Spelling Book. Out of that I not only learned the alphabet but spelling and reading and the more elemental rules of grammar, syntax and elocution. When one advanced into the first reader he still retained his spelling book and when he began the study of arithmetic that too was added, together with slate and pencil. About the same time also the study of penmanship began and one then proudly carried a spelling book, reader, an arithmetic slate, copy book, slate pencil, pen (always made out of goose quill) and ink, back & forth with him to school. All walked, many as far as three and even four miles.
We afterwards changed to a school house better built on our side of the river, good two and one-half miles away. This house and equipment were precisely like the other. I recall a few things in my youth more pleasant than those prankish, often hilarious, but seldom ill-humored jaunts in company with neighbor boys and girls.
Did we learn anything? If you think we did not, you sure have another think coming. It has long been settled that buildings or equipment alone do not insure learning. Garfield said that a boy sitting on a log with Mark Hopkins was a college. Still, I yield to none in my delight over the superior advantages now provided for our splendid young people.