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 and 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.