Reading, Ritin', and Rithmetic

The settlers of the Old Northwest did not neglect education.  Settlers from the South were mostly illiterate.  Any respectable pioneer, even those with a pretense of respectability wanted to give their children an opportunity to learn to read and write.  Wherever a half a dozen families lived reasonably close together, a log schoolhouse was built as soon as possible.

In the days before public funds existed for support of education, teachers were paid usually by crops grown by the students' parents.  A bushel of corn, tomatoes, cabbage...or even a couple of squirrels fresh from the woods were accepted. 

Sometimes a wandering schoolmaster would be hired for two or three months during the winter. Teachers would "board around" among the residents and in a prosperous town even received a small amount of additional wage.

More often one of the settlers who was fortunate enough to possess enough basic learning would teach in the months between the autumn corn-gathering and the spring plowing and planting.  Basic learning included basic reading, ciphering and writing.  A fortunate community had someone who could speak German or French, even algebra, Latin or astronomy.

Schoolbooks were few and costly, slates were homemade from pieces of shale and pencils were crafted from soapstone found in nearby stream beds.  Penmanship was important and practiced on long winter nights by candlelight.  Ciphering was mostly by rote memory and math games were played by the whole family.

It was in such a school under such learning that America's 16th president, Abraham Lincoln was educated.  Many of those in the early 20th century still attended one room schoolhouses.
For a look at the duties of a schoolmaster see our earlier post: Rules for 1872 Teachers

Next time...Tecumseh
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On April 29, 1854, Ashmun Institute, the first college found entirely for African-Americans is chartered in southern Chester County, Pennsylvania.  The college was named after Jehudi Ashmun, the U.S, agent who helped reorganize and preserve the struggling black colony in Africa that later grew into the independent nation of Liberia. 

The Schoolmarm and the Schoolroom

By the time the West was opening for settlement, the schoolmarm was already an icon in American education, moving from east to west as the American frontier grew.  For almost a century, the schoolmarm ruled the one room schoolhouse like education dictators. 

Whether their name was Grace, Prudence or Hortense, they had a style, a look that was passed down in journals and diaries.  They were usually thought of as "plain, bony, hardened, with angular features".  Their eyes were gray, "like the sky on a bleak morning."  They were "brisk in manner, prim and even fidgety".  Schoolmarms were careful about their clothes, their money and their reputation.  The men who courted them needed to do so in a sober, serious and regulated spirit.  Of, course if the schoolmarm married, her career was over.

In that one room, all ages were taught.  The schoolmarm was also responsible for building fires, and cleaning the school. There were no janitors.  Many families close to the school would board students (along with the teacher) during the school term so that no child had to walk more than three miles to school (a bit less than the stories we heard!).

So what did the schoolmarm teach? Surprisingly in the late 1800s, the Plains states had one of the highest literacy rates in the country.  Farmer ordered books from mail order catalogs, larger towns started libraries, and if lucky subscribed to big city newspapers.  School resources included a blackboard, a Bible, a hymnal, dictionary, almanac.  If money was available they added a McGuffy's
reader, then a grammar, geography, and arithmetic book.  In the early days, there was only one copy for the entire schoolroom.  Children advanced when they could read the next most difficult book.

So as education got established (along with churches), the community could attract more professionals and families with permanent settlement plans, growing the West into civilized communities...thus America grew.

Next time...Frontier Medicine
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On September 27, 1869,  Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter’s Beer Saloon in Hays City, Kansas.