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Chapter 42: Public Education in Butler County, Part Three |
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After the founding of Butler County in 1840, the first step in school organization was an enumeration of school age children in the county. During the first session of the County Court, at the house of Thomas Scott, June 19,1849, Thomas R. Davis was appointed "to take the number of school children in Black River Township," and Gabriel Davis was appointed to do the same for Otter Creek Township. These townships had been organized by the County Court of Wayne County before1849. The enumeration was to be Congressional Townships and was to be reported to the County Clerk before September 1 next. The court record does not show the number of children enumerated. Thomas R. Davis was paid $7.50 and Gabriel Davis $5.00 for the work. We assume that all of Butler County was in the two townships named.
The first Congressional Township to organize as a school district after the formation of Butler County was Township 26, Range 4 East, the area on upper Cane Creek originally settled in 1840 by the Tennessee families of Eudaley, Cox, Wisecarver, King, Walton and others. The organization meeting was ordered for the third Saturday in September 1849, at the house of John Eudaley. The district officers appointed were John Eudaley, Commissioner, John Walton and William Johnson, Jr., Inspectors. These officers did not have the same duties as a present day school board. This district was not necessarily the first school district in the area to become Butler County. Other districts may have been organized while a part of Wayne County, but on this point we do not have any information.
It would be fine if the zeal shows in ordering a school enumeration and in organizing school districts indicated a burning desire by the settler to get schools organized, but such does not seem to be the case. The chief reason seems to have been to secure the school monies, the state apportionment, the proceeds of the sale of sixteenth sections and fines and penalties, for investment. Money was very scarce, but much was needed for capital improvements in the undeveloped lands of this frontier county. These school monies were loaned, usually at eight percent interest, sometimes more. Frequently these loans did not work out very well for the schools. The cash income of many of the borrowers was so low that many of them could not pay the interest, let alone the principal. Sometimes the school lands were sold without a down payment, the entire purchase price being treated as a loan.
The County Court records are well sprinkled with foreclosure orders on school fund loans. Congress had required that school lands be sold for at least $1.25 per acre. With many millions of acres of public lands available for settlement and the generally low cash income of the times the Ozark lands were not worth $1.25 per acre. Since the foreclosed lands could not be resold for $1.25, per acre the school fund was the loser. Then during the Civil War and for twenty or more years thereafter the economic conditions were so low that the lands could hardly be sold at any price. Also during the war some of the principals on the notes and some of the sureties were killed or died or fled the county, never to return. Consequently much of the early permanent school funds were entirely lost.
The reports of the State of Missouri on education give some information on early day schools in Butler County but only on the county level. Information on school districts is not given so it is impossible to establish the date and place of the first public school in the county. Probably that can never be determined. The last state apportionment made to Wayne County before the organization of Butler County was in January 1849. Black River Township had 368 children and received $143.52 and Otter Creek had 183 children and received $71.37, an apportionment of 39 cents per child. Butler County is first mentioned in a state report in January 1850. Black River Township had 343 children and received $54.85 and Otter Creek had 125 children and received $224, or 40 cents per child. The above statistics show that the amount of public monies available for education in Butler County in the early 1850's was very small. The most populous township in the county, Epps, had only about forty children per Congressional Township, bringing a state apportionment of only $16 per school district in Epps Township.
The first state report on teachers and schools in Butler County was in1854. The county reported six school houses, six teachers, 576 children of which 260 were taught and average salary of teachers $21.66. In 1856 Butler County reported 27 school districts, nine schoolhouses, ten teachers, 990 children of which 280 were taught and total wages for year paid to teachers $640. In 1857 the report shows $7.50 was raised to build schoolhouses and for repairs.
In 1861, last report before the Civil War, Butler County reported 29 districts, 10 schoolhouses and 9 teachers, paid a total of $580.58. There were 928 children of which 310 attended school. The income for schools was $510.32 from state fund, $65.35 from township fund and $4.30 from fines and penalties, total $577.97.
In 1867 Butler County reported seven public schools and five private subscription schools. In 1868 the county had 1265 children with 103 males and 64 females in public schools. In private schools were 70 males and 60 females. There were eight male and three female teachers. The average salary for the male teachers was $28 per month and for female teachers $22 per month. The expenditure for teachers' wages was $934 and for fuel $10.
In the 1871 report the county had 17 districts, 16 schoolhouses, 13 schools and 13 teachers. The average length of term was two and one-half months and the average daily attendance was 139. There were 1044 children enumerated. This is the first year we find a school tax mentioned, the amount collected being $198.72. In 1875 the average days attended per pupil was 36. There were nineteen male and three female teachers. The average salary of male teachers was $29 per month, female teachers $20 per month. The revenue from district taxes was $431.76.
In these three chapters we have attempted to give the legal basis for schools in Missouri and the slow and halting steps of the people in a pioneer county to establish schools without much money.
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