From History of Clarion Co., Pennsylvania, edited
by A. J. Davis, 1887.
Public Schools
The early schools of the county
have been adverted to in other parts of this volume, and we shall endeavor
to avoid repetitions.
The first settlers were sturdy and industrious pioneers,
but they brought with them from their former homes ideas of progress
and culture, and within a year from the time the first community was
fairly settled in the new forest home, a school-house was erected, and
in 1803 Gabriel Glenn was duly installed therein as
teacher.
This was within the territory now embraced in Clarion
township. Other settlements followed, and with equal promptitude
school-house and place of worship were provided, sometimes in the same
building, though not unfrequently the school was held in the house of
some settler, where the children of the community could learn the rudiments
of an English education.
Schools were established in the territory now included
in the townships of Beaver, Elk, Farmington, Licking, Limestone, Madison,
Monroe, Paint, and Toby between 1805 and 1815. The first school-house
in Richland township was erected about 1817 or 1818. The Shields
school, near Smithland, and the Ardery school, near the
head of Leatherwood Creek, Porter township, were built about 1818 or 1820.
Among the teachers during these early years were William
Kelly, William Hopkins, John Cochran,
Henry Black, William McGinnis, James
Stuart, Matthew Philips, Daniel Delo,
Hugh Kilgore, Robert N. Craig, Peter
B. Simpson, John Gilleland, David Hays,
Mr. McElwaine, Daniel Boyd, Thomas
Thompson, David Conver, Miss King,
and J. J. Livingston. Some of these belong to a somewhat
later period, and Mr. Livingston is the only one still
alive.
The early schools were supported by voluntary subscription,
but practically all the children in each community enjoyed the benefits
of school wherever one was established. All the people were almost
equally poor, and the class distinctions and sectarian prejudices which
affected older settlements had gained no foothold here up to the time
of the enactment of the common school law in 1834. There was in
consequence less marked opposition to the law in this new section of the
State than in the southern and eastern counties; however, several townships,
either through indifference, or, in rare cases, through active opposition,
failed to accept the provisions of the act for some years.
Richland township accepted the provisions of the school
law at the first election after its passage. Captain Henry Neely,
Benjamin Junkin, John Alsbach, James
Ritchey, Henry Gilger, and James Say
were the first directors. Charles H. Haas, John
Cochran, John F. Conver, and William
McGinnis were among the first teachers under the new system in
that township.
In Toby township, David Lawson and
George Means were ardent advocates of the public school
system and were members of the first board of directors. Mr. Lawson
had been one of the earliest supporters of schools in his neighborhood,
and contributed both time and of his means to support them.
Redbank township, then including Porter, accepted
the new law in March, 1836, while Beaver tardily waited until 1839, before
falling into line.
Although Clarion county was erected
in 1839, yet the reports made to the State department, up to and including
1842, still embraced the several townships of this county with those of
Armstrong and Venango. The reports from these counties for 1842
exhibit all the districts as having accepted the provisions of the public
school law, or "free school law," as it was then usually termed, and as
being in operation under the law; but in 1844 Beaver, Paint, and Pine
Grove [sic] townships and Clarion borough were reported as non-accepting
districts. The average length of the term in the county, in 1844,
was four months; the average salary of male teachers was $14.39, and of
female teachers, $7.30. The number of schools was seventy-four.
In 1850 the number of schools had increased to 119, but a decrease
in length of term to three and one-half months was reported, while the
teachers' salaries had risen to $16.90 and $8.26 for males and females
respectively. "Boarding round" was universal in those days, and
when we consider the scarcity of money and the low wages paid in other
occupations, the teachers' salaries of that period do not compare unfavorably
with the amount paid them at the present time.
In some districts teachers were paid in grain, and
the miller was made collector, taking from the cereals brought to the
mill by farmers, in addition to the customary toll, an amount equal in
value to the tax levied for school purposes on the property of each citizen.
The State appropriated $200,000 for the support of
the schools in 1836, and in 1837 the appropriation was increased to $700,000
only $300,000 less than was appropriated fifty years later, although the
population of our Commonwealth has increased more than threefold, and
its material wealth many fold, since that year. In 1838 the appropriation
was less than the preceding year, though it still amounted to one dollar
for each taxable, while for 1885 and 1886 it was only eighty-four and
a half cents per taxable.
Progress was slow, in fact almost imperceptible, until
1854, when the act establishing the county superintendency was passed
by the Legislature. Unfortunately, few records remain to show the
growth of the school system of our county, until the county superintendency
made it possible to obtain full and more accurate reports from the several
districts.
The office of county superintendent
was unpopular over the entire State; and while the people of Clarion County
were less obtrusive in their opposition than those of other counties,
yet there was a strong undercurrent of feeling hostile toward the new
office, which found vent in unreasonable complaints against the person
who filled it, and manifested itself in the beggarly salary voted the
first officials by the conventions electing them. This feeling continued
until a comparatively recent period.
Rev. Robert W. Orr
was elected the first county superintendent of Clarion County on the first
Monday of June, 1854. Mr. Orr was born January 18, 1808, near Greenville,
Clarion County, and lived on a farm until he was twenty years of age.
He entered Jefferson College in 1829, and graduated in 1833, taking
the first honor. He united with the Presbyterian Church the year
before he graduated, and determined to devote himself to the ministry.
He took the usual three years' course at the Western Theological
Seminary, in Allegheny, and spent one session in Princeton Seminary. In
1837 he was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of Bedford, and
the same year set sail with his young wife (whom he had married three
months before) for Singapore. For over three and one-half years
he remained in this mission field, when failing health compelled him to
return to his native land, which he reached in July, 1841.
He was principal of Clarion Academy from the spring
of 1842 to 1844. The latter year he became a member of the faculty
in Jefferson College and continued a member until 1852, when, his health
again failing, he resigned.
When elected county superintendent, a salary of $300
a year was voted him. Although the salaries of county superintendents
were paid directly out of the State treasury, and were not an added burden
to the tax-payers, yet the convention voted a mere pittance to this excellent
man, to administer our school affairs, while the directors of Lancaster
County, more wise, voted their superintendent a salary of $1,500 a year.
In his first report (1854) Mr. Orr
states that "in the greater part of the county, schools of one kind or
other are enjoyed from four to eight months in the year." The statistical
reports for several years show an average of only three months' public
school. He also mentions as the greatest obstacle, in the way of
carrying out efficiently the common school system, a want of qualified
teachers. He reiterates this assertion in succeeding reports.
In the superintendent's report for 1855 he mentions
as obstacles, in the way of progress in the schools, lack of interest
on the part of the people, and too low an appreciation of the value of
education; want of uniformity of textbooks; wretched condition of school-houses;
no school apparatus (some houses had not even a black-board); want of
well-qualified teachers. "The most hopeful sign of all is that the
idea is beginning to prevail .... that the common schools ought to be
greatly improved, and that the qualifications of the teachers must be
elevated."
Only sixty teachers attended the public examinations
to supply one hundred and fifty schools. Others afterwards visited
the superintendent's house for private examination, and detained him until
near Christmas from visiting schools.
The first teachers' institute
held in Clarion County met in the Clarion Academy on Wednesday, the 25th
of December, 1855. D. R. Craig was called to the
chair, and R. P. Reyner was appointed secretary. We
find such names as David Kirk, B. J. Reid,
James Craig, James Speer, L.
Guthrie, and R. Sutton among the active members.
Hon. J. S. McCalmont, Amos Myers,
esq., and Rev. John McAuley gave evening addresses. A
constitution was adopted; officers for the ensuing year were elected and
installed: president, Superintendent Orr; recording
secretary, B. J. Reid, esq.; corresponding secretary,
Robert Sutton, esq.; treasurer, Samuel C. Allison.
The institute was in session two days and one evening.
Other citizens beside teachers were active participants in the exercises
of these institutes. It was resolved that the next meeting be held
on the third Tuesday of the following October, and continue in session
three days. On some account the organization failed to meet its
appointment, and we have no account of another institute until January
26, 1857. During the early part of the winter of 1856 the superintendent
held educational meetings throughout the county, lectured on the art of
teaching and invited the teachers to give their experience. These
meetings were instrumental in awakening a strong educational sentiment.
Among the members of the institute held in 1857, we
note in addition to those who attended the first institute, such familiar
names as J. W. Porter, M. L. Boyer,
J. T. Maffet, S. K. Travis, J.
H. Mehrten, James S. McGarrah, Thomas
E. Thomas, Miss H. J. Wilson, Miss M.
A. Guthrie, Miss M. J. Clover, and Miss
H. A. Keatley. Rev. Mr. Boyle delivered
an evening address. The exercises of the institute were conducted
with spirit, mostly by members of the institute.
J. G. Magonagle,
who had been acting as deputy during the illness of Superintendent Orr,
presided at this meeting.
Superintendent Orr died in Mechanicsville,
Clarion County, near the place of his birth, March 30, 1857, of consumption.
J. G. Magonagle was commissioned county superintendent
on the 6th of the following April. He was elected to serve during
the ensuing term of three years, at the triennial convention which met
on the 4th of May, 1857. The new superintendent, while
acting as deputy, held meetings throughout the county, and endeavored
to organize educational associations in the several districts; few, however,
outlived the presence of the deputy. One at Clarion and one at Strattanville
were kept in successful operation during the session of the winter schools.
On the first Monday of September, a convention of
directors met in Clarion for the purpose of recommending a uniform series
of text-books to be used throughout the county. J. R. Strattan
was chairman of this convention. Osgood's Readers, Clark's
Grammars, Ray's Arithmetics and Algebras, and Monteith's
and McNalley's Geographies were recommended "to such boards of directors
as have not adopted a regular series, and to such as have another series,
the adoption of this one as soon as practicable." Wright's Analytical
Orthography was especially recommended to the consideration of teachers.
Osgood's Readers and Spellers and Ray's Arithmetics
were used in most of the districts throughout the county for many years,
and our county has never since those years enjoyed so nearly a uniformity
of text-books.
At the call of Superintendent Magonagle,
about thirty teachers assembled at Strattanville on the 14th
of October, 1857, for a drill of two weeks. This was carried on
harmoniously and successfully. The school was closed on the 26th,
and the county institute opened on the 27th of October. Near fifty
teachers attended the institute, and the sessions were continued until
the close of the week. The exercises throughout were spirited and
interesting. R. Sutton, of Clarion, addressed the association
on Wednesday evening. Miss H. A. Keatley read an
essay on Physical Culture the following evening. The day sessions
were devoted chiefly to lectures on the branches taught in the schools.
Mr. Meredith and a committee of ladies, on behalf the
Normal class, presented to the county superintendent a Webster's Unabridged
Dictionary.
During the last days of the following January a teacher's
institute held a session for three days at Callensburg. Hon. R.
Laughlin moved a resolution to call "a county convention of teachers,
directors, friends and enemies of the common school system to take into
consideration the necessity and utility of establishing a county normal
school." Twenty-nine years later this idea materialized in the form
of a State Normal School located in the county. Superintendent Magonagle,
like his predecessor in the office, held that the pressing need of our
schools was well-qualified teachers, and, with commendable zeal and energy,
he set about to supply the need. We find him again at Callensburg
the 5th of the following October, conducting a normal institute
for a period of five weeks. State Superintendent Henry C.
Hickok visited this institute, and addressed the public on several
occasions, infusing new life into the school system of the county.
About fifty teachers were in attendance. Professor
Thickstun, of Meadville, A. Myers, Rev.
J. E. Chapin, and R. Sutton were among
the helpers. During the last week of the Normal, the Educational
Association held a session of five days. A third convention for
the year met at Shippenville, and held a session of four days.
The annual institute of 1859 met at Strattanville
on October 24. The exercises were varied and did not differ in any
essential particular from those of the institutes of the present day,
except that the teachers participated more largely. William
P. Jenks, of Brookville, was one of the evening lecturers.
This was the year of the June frosts, and some hesitation
was manifested on the part of a number of school boards as to the propriety
of opening the schools at all during the year. Finally, all but
four, viz: Curllsville, Highland, Knox, and Washington, opened the schools
for at least four months. The principal of the Clarion borough schools
received fifty dollars per month salary during this year of general scarcity
and hardship, and the teacher of the advanced room in the Rimersburg schools
received thirty dollars per month, while these two districts, together
with Licking and Piney each had a six months' term. It occurs to
one that not much progress has been made since then in the matter of teachers'
wages and length of term, when we consider the increase of wages in other
vocations.
In October, 1860, the county institute was held at
Clarion. About forty teachers were in attendance. Deputy Superintendent
Bates and ex-Superintendent Hickok rendered
efficient aid as instructors at this institute.
Superintendent Magonagle was re-elected
in May of this year, and his salary was fixed at $500 a year. He
continued to display the same energy and efficiency that had characterized
his labors during his first term. But we come now to a period in
the history of our schools when the war-cloud is darkening the horizon,
and they must inevitably suffer from the impending storm. Our county
superintendent is a patriot as well as a zealous educator, and now when
his country needs men to go forth and do battle for her cause, he is one
of the first to offer his services. On the 3d of September,
1861, he is mustered into her service as first lieutenant of Company F,
Sixty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. The regiment joins
the Army of the Potomac, participates in the Peninsular campaign, and
on the 21st day of June, 1862, Lieutenant John G. Magonagle
dies from disease engendered in the miasmatic swamps of Virginia, after
having participated in the battle of Fair Oaks a few weeks before.
For a short time after Superintendent
Magonagle entered the army, David Latshaw,
of Perry township, acted as deputy superintendent, but C. S. Walker,
A. M., of Shippenville, was appointed to succeed Superintendent Magonagle
from November 1, 1861, until June, 1863.
The civil war bore heavily upon the people, and the
schools suffered in consequence from short terms and low teachers' salaries.
Hitherto a majority of the teachers were males, but many young men
enlisted as soldiers, and for the first time in the history of our schools
the female teachers outnumbered the males, and they have held a majority
ever since.
During the winter of 1862-3, fourteen district institutes
were held regularly (semi-monthly) throughout the county. In many
cases two districts would unite for this purpose, and the whole number
of teachers in attendance was one hundred and thirty out of a total of
one hundred and seventy engaged in the schools.
Most of the institutes were regularly
attended by directors, who took part in the exercises. The secretaries
of the school boards of Madison, Piney, and Washington townships acted
as district superintendents with good results. The following year
eighteen secretaries acted as district superintendents, and received one
dollar a day for their services in visiting the schools. Superintendent
G. S. Kelly, who was commissioned August 1, 1863, commends
this feature of school management, and states that he noted marked improvement
in the schools that were regularly visited by the district superintendents.
Twenty districts organized district associations,
and two county institutes of nearly a week's duration each, were held
during the year. Mill Creek township and Mount Pleasant, Ind., district
did not open schools this year.
Several school boards appropriated portions of their
school funds to the payment of bounties to volunteers, to be credited
to those districts, in order to fill their quota for troops required by
the government in prosecuting the war. In this way conscription
was avoided for a time, but low wages of teachers and poor schools resulted.
Money was borrowed to pay bounties and the school funds were pledged
to repay the debts thus contracted. Several years elapsed before
these debts were liquidated, and a much longer period was required to
remedy the injury done the schools.
In 1867, an act became a law requiring the county
superintendent to hold an institute of at least five days annually, and
providing for expenses for instructors, lecturers, apparatus, books, and
stationery for carrying on the work of the institute. From this
time the annual institute has been planted on a firm basis, and much good
has resulted to the schools through the instruction gained by the teachers
in attendance upon its sessions.
Superintendent J. E. Wood
was commissioned in June, 1869. During his term, the schools partially
recovered from the effects of the Civil War, the institutes grew in interest
and were attended by nearly all the teachers in the county. Hon.
J. P. Wickersham, State superintendent, was present one
day at the institute held in 1871. All the institutes held by Superintendent
Wood were well managed and were productive of much enthusiasm
in the ranks of the teachers.
The six years' administration of Superintendent Wood
was an era, first, of recovery, and later, of marked educational growth.
When Mr. Wood assumed the duties of the office,
there were 171 schools in the county, ten of which were graded; when he
retired, in 1865, the schools numbered 194, twenty-one being graded. During
this period the oil industry was developed in the county, and the population
was largely increased. In the eager pursuit of wealth, the interests of
the schools were somewhat neglected, and education scarcely kept pace
with the material growth of the county. A faithful superintendent,
sustained by a few earnest teachers and directors, did much to mitigate
adverse influences. New and more commodious school buildings were
erected, the qualifications of teachers were advanced, and frequent visits
of the schools by the superintendent had the effect to inspire a more
friendly feeling toward the superintendency.
In June, 1875, A. J.
Davis was commissioned county superintendent. He was twice
recommissioned, serving eight years, or all but the last year of his third
term. The year 1876 brought the International Centennial Exhibition,
held in Philadelphia. The State superintendent of public instruction,
J. P. Wickersham, issued a call to the schools to prepare
manuscript and other school work for exhibition. The Clarion Collegiate
Institute at Rimersburg and the Foxburg public schools forwarded some
work, which was placed in the Pennsylvania building for educational exhibits.
Few other districts in the State, outside the large cities, had
any school work on exhibition.
A county teachers' association
was organized at Rimersburg on September 14, 1876, and P. S.
Dunkle,
principal of West Freedom Academy, was elected first president [note:
Dunkle's memoirs are available on this Web site]. This
association has been maintained, with some modifications as to the organization,
to the present time. Meetings have been held almost every month
when the schools were in session, and occasionally during vacation,
in
different parts of the county. Public sentiment has been enlisted
in favor of the schools, and principles and methods of teaching have
been
discussed at the meetings of the association.
A teachers' reading circle was recommended by the
county institute, which met in 1878, and a course of professional reading
was adopted. Page's Theory and Practice of Teaching was
adopted as a text-book for the first year's course. The following
year a new book was selected, and the plan has been followed in a general
way during all the years that have followed to the present time. The
examinations in Theory of Teaching have been based each year
on the course of professional reading, pursued by the teachers during
that year. The results have been satisfactory. A better knowledge
of principles, and better methods of teaching, together with a more adequate
conception of the dignity and responsibility of the teacher's position,
are among the benefits that have followed. Before this course was
adopted, scarcely twenty works on teaching could be found in the libraries
of the teachers in the entire county. Five years after, more than
one thousand volumes of professional works were known to have been purchased
by our teachers, and more gratifying still to the mind of the educator,
these books were studiously read by a majority of the purchasers.
This was probably the first county organization of
teachers for professional reading ever formed in the United States. A
graded course of study for pupils was outlined the same year.
The first exposition of school work at the county
fair in Clarion county was held in 1879. "Children's day" occurred
on the second day of the fair, on September 24th, and on that
day several hundred school children, representing almost every district
in the county, formed in line on the main street of Clarion and filed
into the fair grounds, where they spent the afternoon pleasantly. In
the main building on the grounds were the manuscripts collected from a
number of schools, also botanical and geological collections made by pupils,
together with maps, charts, and apparatus devised by teachers and pupils
in the county.
In 1881 a system of graduation for pupils in the elementary
schools of our county was adopted. Fourteen examinations were held
that year from March to June; 175 pupils were examined, of whom 106 obtained
a satisfactory grade and received a diploma. On most occasions,
after each examination, occupying the whole day, there were evening exercises,
and an address by the superintendent; at the close the diplomas were conferred.
These meetings were largely attended by teachers, directors, and
others.
Five courses of reading and study beyond the elementary
branches were subsequently outlined and published, with the object of
affording opportunities for the young graduates to press beyond the common
school course. It was thought that by thus directing the energies
of these young people into right channels of self-advancement, they might
be prevented from falling into habits of idleness and indifference, or
into such reading as would lead to vice and ruin. Several have since
taken one of these courses and passed successful examinations in the same.
Following out the plan, eleven examinations were held in March and April,
1882. Deputy State Superintendent Henry Houck was
present at six of these, and Hon. E. E. Higbee, Superintendent
of Public Instruction, attended the other five. One hundred and
twenty-four candidates were examined this year, of whom sixty-six were
found qualified to pass. Some who failed the preceding year were
examined again this year and were rewarded for their perseverance. The
graduates held a meeting at the county institute in 1881, and formed an
organization by electing officers. They listened to an address by
A. L. Wade, of West Virginia, the originator of the graduating
system for elementary schools. No general meeting of graduates has
taken place since the first one.
The two years ending June, 1883, were spent by the
superintendent in conducting written examinations in all the schools visited
by him, and the manuscripts have been preserved for tabulation of the
work done by the pupils, as well as for comparison with similar papers,
which may at some future time be gathered from our schools.
Superintendent Davis's
third term was terminated unexpectedly at the end of the second year by
his appointment to a position in the Department of Public Instruction
at Harrisburg, and J. G. Anderson was appointed superintendent
for the unexpired term.
Superintendent Anderson continued
the graduating system substantially on the plan that had been introduced
two years before, and the system is still in successful operation.
At the triennial convention
of school directors in May, 1884, C. F. McNutt, a graduate
of Edinboro State Normal School, was chosen to the superintendency, and
is the present incumbent. Under his efficient administration the schools
are advancing steadily. Superintendent McNutt is
methodical and painstaking. He will leave the impress of his own
personality upon the schools. His is the work of erecting a fitting
superstructure upon the foundation laid by his predecessors, and he is
performing that work with fidelity.
Arbor Day was established during Superintendent McNutt's
first term, and trees have been planted by teachers and pupils in Rimersburg,
East Brady, Brady, Antwerp, St. Petersburg, Foxburg, Salem, Monroe, and
other districts.
Parochial Schools
There are four parochial schools, under the auspices
of the Roman Catholic Church, in Clarion County; one at Clarion, in charge
of Sisters of St. Benedict, with about eighty-two children in attendance;
one at Vogelbacher, Knox township, Benedictine nuns in charge; ninety-five
children; one at St. Nicholas, Limestone township, Sisters of Mercy; eighty
children; and one at St. Mary's, Farmington township, Benedictine Sisters;
seventy children.
Academies
The history of the academies of the county is given
in the local history of the townships and boroughs, and will not be repeated
here. [This sentence refers to the individual local histories
in the printed volume.] |
About Clarion County 
