Goodspeed's History of Benton County, pp. 121-130
Education and Literature
For many years after the formation of the State of Arkansas her educational facilities were of the most meager kind, and although many improvements have been made in the past, it may truthfully be said that in this respect she is still far behind many of her sister States, though perhaps fully on a par with those having had the same opportunities. But few of the children of the early settlers of Benton County enjoyed the benefit of schools, even of the poorest class, while the great majority of them were, on account of the very few schools and the great distance to them, almost entirely deprived of educational facilities. The only schools taught in those days were subscription schools, and those were taught only in neighborhoods sufficiently settled to maintain them. With but few exceptions the early teachers were very illiterate, being able only to read, write and "cipher." And frequently they would contract to teach "rithmetic" only to the "rule of three." Subsequently, when villages became established, or neighborhoods became thickly settled, a few select schools or academies were established therein by men well qualified to teach, but, on account of the tuition necessarily charged, none but the more wealthy classes could avail themselves of these privileges, so upon the whole the children of the poor had to be reared with but little education farther than what could be imparted to them by their parents.The pioneer schools were always taught in the old-fashioned log cabin school-house, with its puncheon floor and stone fire-place, with stick and mud chimney, and with seats made of split logs, the flat side being hewed smooth with an ax or broad-ax. The early school-teachers who taught in the War Eagle neighborhood were James Martin, Moses Dutton, Alfred Laws, Holland Hines and Thomas Macon. The latter is said to have been well educated, while the education of the others was not up to the standard required of teachers at the present. In 1840 a school was taught in a log school-house in the neighborhood of the settlement of Walter Thornberry, in the southern part of the county, by a young man who also professed to be a Christian minister. W. W. Burgess, now of Springtown, was one of his pupils, and he relates the following rather ridiculous incident. He did not like his teacher, and did not believe that he was what he professed to be, a Christian man, and while he (Burgess) behaved at school, and respected the young man as a teacher, he did not feel constrained to respect him as a preacher. So, on one Sunday when the young man was to preach in the school-house, young Burgess saddled an ox and rode it to church, at the same time wearing upon his head a raw coon-skin for a cap. After service he again mounted the ox and escorted a young lady to her home -- she having attended the service on horseback -- and took dinner with her. Mr. Burgess delights to relate this incident, but declines to give the lady's name for publication.
About the year 1842 a Mr. Holsten, or Holstein, taught the first school in the vicinity of the present town of Siloam Springs. He taught in "a little cabin," and some white children from the Indian Territory attended his school. Among these may be mentioned Mrs. Cal. D. Gunter, of Hico. In 1844 or 1845 a school and church combined was built in Maysville, that being then the largest town in the county. This house is not standing now. The Shelton Academy, at Pea Ridge, was erected about the year 1851, and Prof. Lockhart taught the first school therein. He was succeeded by other teachers, and the academy was kept up until about the year 1858, when it was abandoned, and the building turned into a store-room. In 1853 and 1854 J. Wade Sikes, now one of the proprietors of Rogers, taught school near Bentonville. His patrons boarded him and paid him $15 per month for his services. After this he taught the Shelton Academy at Pea Ridge for two years, where he had about forty pupils in attendance. Upon the approach of the Civil War the few schools that were being taught in Benton County were closed, and none were opened again until some time after the war.
The Free School System. -- In the constitution of 1836, under which the State of Arkansas was admitted into the Union, under Article VII, is found the following general provision pertaining to education, viz.:
"Knowledge and learning, generally diffused through a community being essential to the preservation of a free government, and diffusing the opportunities and advantages of education through the various parts of the State being highly conducive to this end, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to provide by law for the improvement of such lands as are or hereafter may be granted by the United States to this State for the use of schools, and to apply any funds which may be raised from such lands, or from any other source, to the establishment of the object for which they are or may be intended. The General Assembly shall from time to time pass such laws as shall be calculated to encourage intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, by allowing rewards and immunities for the promotion and improvement of arts, science, commerce, manufactures and natural history, countenance and encourage the principles of humanity, industry and morality."
This reads well, but it makes no provision for a system of free schools wherein the children of the poor can be educated along with those of the rich. It was the ruling opinion in Arkansas, as it was in all slave States, that every man should educate his own children, and that no man should be taxed to educate another's children; consequently the framers of the first constitution of the State did not provide for the inauguration of a system of free schools, and following it the General Assembly did not "from time to time pass such laws as should be calculated to encourage intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement," etc. But with the abolition of slavery the way was opened for the subsequent inauguration of a method or system whereby "knowledge and learning, * * * being essential to the preservation of a free government," might be generally diffused throughout the State.
The constitution of Arkansas, made in 1864, during the continuance of the late war, contains under Article VIII an exact copy of the aforesaid provision pertaining to education found in the constitution of 1836. It also contains a few other general provisions which may be considered to be in the general line of education, but says not a word about "free schools." Passing on to the constitution of Arkansas made and adopted in 1868, under Article IX is found nine sections pertaining to education, the first and seventh of which reads as follows, to-wit:
Section 1. A general diffusion of knowledge and intelligence among all classes being essential to the preservation of the rights and liberties of the people, the general assembly shall establish and maintain a system of free schools for the gratuitous instruction of all persons in this State between the ages of five and twenty-one years, and the funds appropriated for the support of common schools shall be distributed to the several counties, in proportion to the number of children and youths therein between the ages of five and twenty-one years, in such manner as shall be prescribed by law, but no religious or other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of this State. * * *
Section
7. In case the public school fund shall be insufficient to sustain a
free school at least three months in every year in each school district
in this State, the general assembly shall provide by law for raising
such deficiency by levying such tax upon all taxable property in each
county, township or school district, as may be deemed proper.
The
other seven sections of the ninth article of this constitution defined
what should constitute the common-school fund, and how the income
therefrom should be distributed, and how taxes should be levied and
collected for the building of school-houses, etc., etc. Here, then is
found, under the constitution of 1868, the first provisions for the
inauguration of the free school system of the State of Arkansas. In
accordance therewith laws were subsequently passed creating the system.
Much prejudice existed throughout the State against this constitution
and the party in power that adopted it. Education for the masses,
however, having obtained a foothold, will itself in the course of time
remove all prejudice from it, at least all that can be of injury to it.
In evidence of the removal of this prejudice the XIVth article of the
present constitution of the State of Arkansas, made and adopted in 1874
by the political party that was then and has ever since been in power,
is here inserted in full:
Section 1. Intelligence and virtue being
the safeguards of liberty and the bulwark of a free and good
gvernment, the State shall ever maintain a general, suitable
and efficient system of free schools whereby all persons in the State
between the ages of six and twenty-one years may receive gratuitous
instruction.
Section
2. No money or property belonging to the public school fund, or this
State for the benefit of schools or universities shall ever be used for
any other than for the respective purposes to which it belongs.
Section
3. The general assembly shall provide by general laws for the support
of common schools by taxes, which shall never exceed, in any one year,
two mills on the dollar, on the taxable property of the State. and by
an annual per capita tax of one dollar, to be assessed on every male
inhabitant of this State, over the age of twenty-one years. Provided,
the general assembly may, by general law, authorize school districts to
levy, by a vote of the qualified electors of such district, a tax not
to exceed five mills on the dollar in any one year for school purposes.
Provided, further, that no such tax shall be appropriated to any other
purpose, nor to any other district than that for which it was levied.
Section
4, The supervision of public schools, and the execution of the laws
regulating the same, shall be vested in an confided to such officers as
may be provided for by the general assembly.
Two mills on the
dollar, the authorized State levy, equals 20 cents on the hundred
dollars, and five mills on the dollar, the authorized school district
levy, equals 50 cents on each $100; consequently the maximum authorized
levy for school purposes is 70 cents on each $100 of taxable property.
It must be conceded that this is a liberal provision for the support of
the schools, and under the wise and liberal provisions of the
constitution, laws have been passed fully providing for the operation
and enforcement of a system of free schools for the masses, both white
and black.
In the county of Benton the territory has been
subdivided into 126 common and four special school districts, making
130 in all. Under the law, schools have to be maintained, where
maintained at all, not less than three months in the year, and as much
longer as the funds arising from the amount of tax levied will sustain
them. In some districts in Benton County the people levy only a
two-mill tax, in others more, and in some the full amount allowed, five
mills; consequently the school terms vary in length, many of them being
more than three months, especially in the towns and villages.
The following, from the last biennial report of the State
superintendent of public instruction, is a "statement of the public
school funds of Benton County for the year ending June 30, 1886."
Amount Received | |
---|---|
From common school fund (State | $10,029.18 |
From district tax | 7,888.51 |
From poll tax | 4,023.84 |
From sale of lease of sixteenth sections | 4,122.00 |
From other sources | 105.97 |
Total | $25,619.50 |
Amount Expended | |
For teachers' salaries | $10,967.80 |
For building a repairing | 2,463.02 |
For treasurer's commission | 311.80 |
For other purposes | 407.40 |
Total | $14,150.02 |
Balance in County Treasury Unexpended | |
In litigation | $7,589.18 |
Of district fund | 3,880.30 |
Total | $11,469.48 |
According to the late circular report of the State
superintendent of public instruction, showing the amount of school
funds in the State treasury ready for distribution on the 13th of
August of the present year (1888), there were for the whole State the
amount of $287,714.10, and of this amount Benton County gets as her
distributive share the sum of $8,380.51. Now to this amount must be
added the aggregate amount derived from the local levies made in each
separate school district within the county.
The Sixteenth
Sections. -- When the State of Arkansas was organized
Congress donated to it the sixteenth section of land in each
Congressional township for the support of common schools, providing
that these lands should be sold or leased, and that the annual income
from the leased lands of from the amount of principal for which such
lands were sold should accrue to and belong to the inhabitants of the
township in which the lands were located. Afterward the State enacted
laws to carry out the provisions of the donation. The county court was
authorized to lease these lands, when in its judgment it was best to do
so, and to collect the annual income. Provision was also made for the
sale of the school lands. Under these provisions the most of these
lands in Benton County were sold, and the money received for them was
loaned in small sums to individual borrowers. But from the public
records of Benton County it cannot be ascertained how much money was
received from the sale of these lands, nor what has become of the
amount of money that was received. It is known that much of the school
funds belonging to and controlled by the several counties of the State
was lost during and on account of the Civil War. A subsequent law
required the balance not lost in each county to be paid over to a State
board of school fund commissioners, by whom it is now controlled. The
county of Benton has no school funds under its control at interest. It,
however, gets it share of the annual income derived from the permanent
school funds managed by the State officers. There is only one colored
school in Benton County, and that is located at Bentonville, the
colored population being insufficient in number to compose a school at
any other place in the county.
Pea Ridge
Academy. -- This institution of learning was established
in 1874 by Prof. J. R. Roberts. Its first session was opened in
Buttram's Chapel, two and one-half miles east of the present academy
buildings, and there the school was continued five years. Then, after a
cessation of one year, the school was reopened at its present location,
where the first academy building was erected in 1880. This building was
24x40 feet in size and two stories in height, with a school room and
cloak room in each story. The school was chartered as an academy with a
full course of instruction in 1884. In 1887 and 1888 an additional
building, 50x60 feet in size and two stories in height, was added to
the former, making the whole building as it now stands contain seven
school rooms and a sufficient number of cloak rooms, the whole having a
capacity for the comfortable seating of 250 students. The building is
constructed of brick, and in its construction convenience, safety and
ventilation were studied, rather than showy architecture. The academy
is located on Pea Ridge, an elevated plateau of country nine miles
northeast from Bentonville, in Benton County, Ark., and five miles
northwest from Avoca, a station on the St. Louis & San
Francisco Railroad. From the latter place it has a daily mail, and a
tri-weekly one from Neosho, Mo. The healthfulness of the location is
unexcelled, while the morals of the community are proverbial. There are
in close proximity two dry goods stores and one drug store; five
churches within two miles of the school, and two Sunday-schools within
100 yards of it. Eleven graduates have gone out into the world to
testify of the character of the school since it was chartered as an
academy. A good library of valuable books is connected with it.
Board of Trustees: J. R. Roberts, president; J. A. Steward,
secretary; S. B. Smith, Dr. H. H. Patterson, John Hall and P. W.
Roberts, of Pea Ridge, Ark.; also George T. Lincoln and R. J. Laughlin,
of Bentonville, Ark.; J. D. James, of Alma, Ark., and W. B. Dean, of
Wills Point, Tex.
Faculty: J. R. Roberts, A.M., principal; J. A. Steward,
principal intermediate department; Miss Nannie Roberts, principal
primary department; J. W. Osborn and P. S. Jones, assistants; Miss
Lillie Dale, instruction in instrumental music; T. A. Coffelt, M. D.,
lectures on anatomy, etc.
Benton County may well be proud of this institution, with its
successful operation, and eminent satisfaction given.
Bentonville
Public and High School. -- The public school building of
Bentonville is located in a beautiful grove of natural forest trees,
about one-half mile southwest of the court-house. It is a large
two-story brick building, containing seven school-rooms, besides the
necessary halls and cloak-rooms. It was constructed in 1872, but was
afterward burned down, and was rebuilt in 1881. The first session of
the present school year commenced September 3, and at this writing,
September 10, 1888, 326 pupils have been enrolled in attendance, and
more are yet expected to come in. The faculty consists of Prof. William
Stephens, principal; Prof. J. D. Partelow, Miss Laura Schwab, Miss Lou
Taliaferro, Miss Flora Cotton, Miss Georgia Nesbit and Miss Ida
Trotter. The number of pupils already enrolled is exceedingly large for
such a small corps of teachers.
The Rogers
Academy. -- This is a handsome structure, three stories
high, built of brick, and would be a credit to any country. It was
erected in 1884-85 by the American Home Missionary Scoiety and the
people of Rogers, and has generally been and is now under the control
of the Congregational Church and the citizens of Rogers, the former
having five trustees and the latter four on the school board. The
public free school is taught in connection with the academy. The first
session of the present school year began September 5. Following is the
faculty: Principal, J. W. Scroggs, academic department; grammar school
department, Miss Mary G. Webb; intermediate department, Mr. J. R.
Williams; primary department, Miss Ella W. Scroggs; music and drawing,
Mrs. F. W. Hormon.
The Arkansas Traveler. -- Who has not read and been greatly amused with the account of the "Arkansas Travelers?" Perhaps but few people are aware that some one in Benton County was connected with the authorship and preparation of that funny and interesting article. The reputed author of the "Arkansas Traveler" was Col. Sandy Faulkner, of Little Rock, and the individual who drew the illustrations which accompanied and formed a part of the article was Edward Washburn, a son of Rev. Ceaphas Washburn, a Presbyterian minister, who lived in Benton County, about six miles southwest of Bentonville, on the farm now occupied by L. B. Mallory. It is related by good authority that the author of that article in his travels actually met with and saw such a scene as he therein describes, the old backwoodsman with his fiddle, the rude log cabin, the wife and untutored children, etc. That article has been read throughout America, and perhaps in foreign countries, and many people believe that it has been a great injury to the State of Arkansas by creating the impression abroad that the family therein described was a fair sample of the people generally, which of course was not the case.