In America the introduction of schools is not far behind the settlement of the country. The first constitution of Indiana, adopted in 1816, provided for education. Vet in an early day the cause advanced slowly. The first constitution made provision for the appointment of superintendent of school sections to take charge of and lease the school lands in the townships. In 1824 the general assembly passed an act to incorporate congressional townships and provide for public schools therein. The act provided for the election in each congressional township of three persons of the township to act as school trustees, to whom the control of the school lands and schools generally was given; and for the building of schoolhouses. Every able-bodied person in each school district who was over twenty-one years of age must work one day in each week, or else pay thirty-seven and one-half cents in lieu of a day's work, until the schoolhouse was built. Almost every session of the legislature witnessed some addition to or modification of the school law. Provision was made for the appointment of school examiners, but the examinations might be private, and the examiners were quite irresponsible. Under such circumstances it could not be expected that competent teachers be employed. Often the most trivial questions were asked a teacher,' and this was called an examination. In many instances there was no examination at all—the teacher was simply asked to teach. However, it must be said that there was generally an endeavor on the part of the trustees to do the right thing; the fact is that, generally, competent teachers were not to be had. The original scheme of education embraced the district schools, the state university, and the county academy as intermediate between the two and as a preparatory school to the latter. In some instances county academies were built and a few became famous and gave to the state some of her strongest men. But those institutions were sold and the proceeds added to the permanent school fund of the state. In the records of the board of justices and commissioners during the early years of this county there are frequent references to the " seminary fund " and to the trustees of that fund, but no disposition of these moneys was ever made for the purpose originally intended, and they were doubtless later turned into the general school fund.

From the days when schools were dependent upon local taxation to the present the Indiana school system presents a story of wonderful progress. In 1840 one-seventh of the adult population of Indiana could not read nor write, and many of those who could were densely ignorant. In education Indiana stood sixteenth among twenty-three states; in 1850 she was twenty-third among twenty-six states. Now, though twenty- fourth in area, she is first in her invested school fund, fifth in population and number of schools, sixth in churches, seventh in wealth, and the most typically American state of the Union. Her population and development furnish data which form an index to the history which the country has already written. Nowhere else in the United States, except in West Virginia and Missouri, which in other respects are less characteristic of the nation, is so large a percentage of the population native born. More than ninety per cent of the inhabitants of Indiana are American by birth, while in the states north of it more than ten per cent are foreign, and in the states to the south the same proportion of the Negro race obtains.

By 1850 union schools had been established in a number of counties; that is, several school districts would unite and combine their funds and forces and establish a union school at some center convenient to all, this type being a forerunner of the present township high school. But just about this time a new state constitution was formed, and under it the legislature of 1852 enacted a liberal school law which embodied principles of practical excellence: and from that time, notwithstanding the selfishness of a few retro-actionists, and the stupidity of certain courts, the educational affairs of the state have progressed wonderfully.

The present generation has no conception of the state of education in general and the conditions of schoolhouses and methods of instruction which prevailed in the pioneer epoch of this county. It is the boast, indeed, of the American people that the church and the school have been almost coexistent with settlement itself. And yet it seems true that education has not formed a part of the vanguard of our civilization; its institutions have always lagged behind the general level of culture and improvement. To illustrate: The schoolhouses and their general surrounding, of the present as also in the past, with certain most notable exceptions in every county, have never shown the same evidences of taste, refinement and physical comfort that the average of homes in the same community have displayed. The average country schoolhouse of to-day is at best a drear and uncouth sort of place, lacking in those exterior surroundings which elevate the character, and the interior having nothing of the homelike charm to which most of the children are accustomed. Should the child pass five hours of the day, for at least half the days of the year and for a large part of the formative years of his life, in an atmosphere less congenial, in surroundings less inviting than his or her own home should lie? After all, have we so much to boast of in our" " temples of learning "  But our forefathers, as well as the present generation, built no doubt according to the best wisdom given them, and those who would seek flaws in their work should remember that criticism is easier than action.

For the benefit of those who have always attended schools conducted along comparatively modern lines and equipped with the ordinary comforts and conveniences of the present, this history should afford some brief and more or less complete picture of the places of learning such as our fathers attended, during what we have so often referred to as the pioneer epoch. It is surprising, on studying the records, to find how many districts and townships in this county and this part of the state built schoolhouses at almost identically the same time, without any communication with each other or purpose of concerted action. There was great unanimity of spirit in this respect. The schoolhouses were rude structures. The accommodations were not good. Stoves and such heating apparatus as are now used were unknown. A mud-and-stick chimney in one end of the building with earthen hearth and fireplace wide and deep to receive a six-foot back log and smaller wood to match, served for warming purposes in winter and a sort of conservatory in summer. For windows a part of a log was sawed out in two sides of the building and the space filled with a light of glass; or, if that was not to be had, with greased paper or cloth. If a spelling match or other meeting was held in the schoolroom in the evening, the old tallow dips were brought into requisition. Everything was rude and plain.
Yet out of just such schoolhouses came some of the greatest men of America and of the world, a long list of whose names might be given. The teachers were put to great inconvenience in " boarding around." They had to " bunk with the children "; or, where a spare room was afforded, the teacher was cheerfully informed how many and what members of the family had " died in that lied "; and when in winter he got into a bed that perhaps had not been slept in for six months, he thought, as his teeth chattered and his frame shook for a few moments, he was in a fair way to add to the number. Yet from just such experiences came some of the ablest educators of the state and nation. Environment is something; but if it is true that the individual mind is from the environment, it is a larger, stronger and deeper truth that the environment is from the collective or social mind, of which the individual forms a part. All told, one age is much like another, and it is neither wise nor safe to decry the past.

. Among the excellent papers which have been read before the Elk- hart County Historical Society was one written by Mrs. Chauncey Has- call, describing the schools of sixty years ago.

" In the winters of 1839-40 and 1840-41," in the words of Mrs. Hascall, " I taught school in the next district west from Goshen. I received twelve dollars a month, which was considered at that time a high salary for a woman. Of course it was the typical log schoolhouse, which the young people of the present day have ' read of,' and the older ones hold in affectionate remembrance. The writing desks were shelves attached to the logs on the sides of the room, and the seats were long benches without backs, with a second row of the same kind, but lower, for the smaller scholars. A fire in a big box stove in the center of the room was kept in a roaring condition by the boys, who were glad of the opportunity of getting a change of position and a breath of fresh air. The patrons of the school were mostly Pennsylvania Dutch and spoke their own language in home and neighborhood intercourses; consequently English was almost a foreign language to many of the scholars.

" The Stouders, Studebakers, Cripes. Ulerys and Mannings I remember most distinctly among the scholars, as I boarded with each of their families a month, instead of taking, as was the custom, the rounds of the district. It was an experiment having the winter school taught by a ' school ma'am,' and the trustees thought I might have some trouble governing it, but I had very little. The girls and boys were model children, and must have been well trained at home. Those who are living now are gray-haired grandparents, and many have passed to the other life.

" John and David Studebaker, Levi Ulery and Jacob Cline were the oldest pupils and were nearly grown men. All the older residents will remember Dave Studebaker, whose residence was in Goshen many years and who died here esteemed and regretted. I think there were almost thirty scholars in the school, among- them the Bartness boys.

"The small scholars of that day, with their home-made garments, home-made from the shearing of the sheep to the last stitch in the clothes, made after the same pattern as their fathers' and mothers' apparel, would make a striking contrast to the little people of to-day, with their large collars and knee pants of the boys, and the furbelows and fancy dress ' fixings ' of the girls.

" The three R's were the principal branches taught, in fact the only ones. Grammar was an unknown study in the backwoods. One or two little ' Mannings ' may have studied geography. There were different classes in reading and spelling, and the monotonous round was only varied by an occasional call to help solve some problem in subtraction or long division. In arithmetic each studied by himself and could ' go ahead ' as fast as he pleased without being kept back by slower ones in the class.

" Of course not one of the scholars could have passed a ' high school' examination, but the young farmers could ' reckon up' the value of their farm produce, read the Bible and weekly newspaper, properly sign all legal documents and spell better than half the high school graduates.

" There were none of the modern aids to teachers; even blackboards were not in use in the country schools of that clay. There were no normal schools for instruction in the art of teaching, no county or township institutes where teachers could meet and discuss the new ideas advanced in educational lines."

To widen our conception of the contrast between educational opportunities as they were in the pioneer epoch and are now in the year 190=5, we quote another Elkhart county educator, Professor E. B. Myers, who, in a paper read before the Historical Society in January, 1900. says: " My first admission to one of the ' log seminaries ' of Elkhart county was in December, 1846. This spacious, well furnished seat of learning stood in York township, about two miles west of the village of Vistula. It was built of logs hewn on both sides, the cracks chinked and daubed with clay (there was no lime for schoolhouses at that time), a horizontal window on each of the four sides and a stove in the center. This was an aristocratic schoolhouse: it had a floor made of hoards, not your rough puncheons so common elsewhere, but nice inch-boards laid loosely on the rough-hewn sleepers. The boards were not nailed down, I suppose for two reasons: first, because in those days nails were scarce and cost money; second, anything that fell on the floor was pretty apt to go through one of the many wide cracks and could be recovered only by taking up one or more of the boards.

" The desks of this schoolhouse were marvels of mechanical skill. Two-inch auger holes were bored in the log walls, and large oak or hickory pins driven in, and upon these were laid boards, which were then called ' writing desks.' The seats were made of slabs, two legs in each and one in the middle to keep them from sagging when overcrowded. During writing time the pupils all sat with their faces to the wall and the teacher marched around looking over their shoulder, criticizing or commanding as the occasion required. There were no shelves under these desks for books, but what few we had were piled up on the writing desks and around the corners, wherever convenient.

" When not writing or ciphering we were expected to sit facing the center of the room, and could then rest our weary backs against the edge of the board that was called the desk. In front of this and nearer the stove on each side of the room was placed a slab seat for the little folks who did not write. On these benches the little ones were compelled to sit by the hour, swinging their feet and waiting for their turn to be called up by the teacher to ' say their letters ' or spell their ' a, b, ab's.' Books or busy work for beginners were not thought of.

" If a child learned his letters the first term he was supposed to be making satisfactory progress. Especially was this true if it was a winter term when the larger pupils were supposed to lie entitled to the greater part of the time and attention of the teacher. The range of studies was not very wide. A grammar was not seen in that school till some years afterward. ' It wasn't worth nothing but to learn folks to talk proper,' and so was summarily discarded. A year later I took to the school a copy of Olney's geography and atlas which my oldest sister had used in Chicago. This atlas was very instructive to me in the way of local geography. All that the northern part of the map of Indiana contained was the word ' Pottawatomie's,' printed in large letters diagonally across the page. The took undoubtedly saw the light long before I did. As I was the only pupil in the class I was always at the head. The recitations of those days were unique. The first class in the morning was the reading, the highest first and so on to the a, b, c's. Then followed the writing and the recess. After recess came more work for the little folks, the lowest first, and closing the forenoon session with the ' first class in spelling,' which was always an important event in the each half-day session.

" There were no recitations in arithmetic. As the work consisted wholly in ' doing sums,' and as there was no such thing as conformity of text books, especially in arithmetic, each person worked away at his own sweet will. Such a thing as an explanation of a subject or principle was not thought of, much less considered necessary. If we couldn't do the sums we asked the teacher to show us how, but the showing how answered for that case only and gave us but little or no strength to cope with future similar difficulties.

" In those days blackboards and dictionaries were unknown in the ordinary country school. The teacher was supposed to know everything and freely gave of his or her knowledge. The teachers of those days never hesitated at the pronunciation of a long word, but spelled it through and gave us the pronunciation, which was law and gospel to us."

Joel P. Hawks thus described some of his early experiences in gaining an education:

" The first school I attended in Indiana was at Waterford in the winter of 1838. The schoolhouse was a new frame affair and had been painted a gorgeous red. William Baker was the teacher. He was a man of superior education for those days, but lacked the adaptability for a teacher. Attention was principally given to the primary classes; to spelling and arithmetic, neither grammar nor reading being taught. I suggested to the teacher the advisability of a class in reading, but he could not see the use of it; then stated that if I desired to read he would hear me. Accordingly I stood up alone and read from my old English reader, while the scholars listened. At the conclusion, the teacher remarked that he did not think he could teach me anything in reading, and that was the last that I heard of the matter. This omission w-as quite general in the schools of that day, and it has shown in later years as the scholars of those days are very poor readers, but fine spellers."

Among the early special institutions of learning in the county was one at Middlebury. An advertisement in the Goshen Democrat in November, 1847. informs the public that the " Middlebury Seminary," under the direction of the Misses Casey, would be opened for young ladies and gentlemen on November 18, and offered a thorough course of English instruction at reasonable rates. Such private institutions no doubt furnished educational opportunities to many boys and girls of this county, from that early day to the present time, and public education, which in the last century was so materially supplemented by private, enterprise, is not yet so complete and comprehensive as to entirely displace a school conducted by individuals or certain societies.

The school system of Elkhart county has for many years been under the general direction of Superintendent George W. Ellis, who is a practical educator of broad experience and has the confidence of the people and the teaching force alike. The schools of both town and country have been maintained at the high standards everywhere prevailing in Indiana, and, although there is room for unlimited progress in the future, the present excellence of Elkhart county educational facilities must be a matter of satisfaction to all her citizens.

The county superintendent, who is general supervisor of the county system of education, is responsible for the condition of the county schools, directs their finances, selects sites and superintends construction of buildings, conducts teachers' institutes and the teachers' examinations, and issues certificates, and discharges numerous other functions connected with the administration of the county's schools.

The officer next in importance to the county superintendent is the township trustee, whose duties in each township make his power practically co-ordinate with the city boards of education. Indeed, the township trustee is one of the most important officers in the educational system. His duties and responsibilities are such as to require a man of foremost ability and influence, one who is honest, intelligent, well educated, possessed of good judgment and broad sympathies, progressive. It is the general opinion that, on the whole, men of such prominence and worth in community affairs have been entrusted with this office in the several townships of Elkhart county.

Unfortunately the statistics of education in this county have not been fully preserved during the past, and certain interesting comparisons between different periods cannot, on this account, be made. We reserve the account of the schools of Elkhart and Goshen for later consideration, and the schools of the smaller centers receive mention in the chapter devoted to that subject, and conclude this general survey by giving the school enumeration of Elkhart county by townships and towns, as ascertained in the census taken in the spring of 1905.

Townships.	Males.	Females.
Baugo	80	87
Benton	154	146
Concord	217	231
Clinton	233	228
Cleveland	73	63
Elkhart	262	264
Harrison	339	334
Jackson	225	181
Jefferson	166	164
Locke	139	173
Middlebury	183	164
Olive	165	162
Osolo	108	100
Union	252	239
Washington	174	14
York	108	71
Towns and Cities.
Middlebury	74	95
Millersburg	51	56
Nappanee	320	336
Wakarusa	124	129
Elkhart	1919	1855
Goshen	1097	1141

There are six colored females and one colored male enumerated in the city of Elkhart. These are the only colored pupils in the county.


Goshen and Elkhart prairie have been so closely identified throughout their history that a description of the life and affairs of one naturally merges into that of the other. The rudiments of education were taught on Elkhart prairie almost coincident with the first settlements. The first schoolhouse in the county is said to have stood on Wilkenson's Lane, on the prairie, and the school was held by a Mr. Potts. Among the families represented in that school were the Friers. Sparklins, Blairs, Thompsons. The second schoolhouse was on the school section that lies a mile south of Goshen. It was a log house, with greased paper for windows, and was heated by a large open fire-place. Captain Beane taught in a log schoolhouse on the prairie during the early thirties.

Some of the scholars at that time were John, Robert and Elisha Irwin; William and Joseph Weddel; John and David Weybright; Daniel, David and John Durr; Ira and Amos Jackson; Daniel Steward and others. T. G. Harris, a well known pioneer, taught school, in 1836, in a building that had neither a nail nor a pane of glass.

In the years immediately succeeding the platting of the county seat at Goshen the children of many of its residents no doubt attended one or the other of the schools already established on the prairie, but at a very early year school began to be regularly held in Goshen.

In 1832 Samuel T. Young began teaching the first school in a log house at the corner of Washington and Sixth streets, on the site of the present First Baptist church. After teaching there for several years he left for another log building located on the corner of Fifth and Jefferson streets. Here he was followed by several men, among whom were John Sevey, a Mr. Massey and Thomas G. Harris. In 1834 the first Methodist church was built in Goshen, on a lot adjoining the present Episcopal church property. It is still in existence and forms a part of the residence occupied by Mrs. T. B. Starr. In 1837 this church was used for school purposes, and thereafter during a number of years. Messrs. Green, Campbell, Lane and others taught there for longer or shorter periods. In 1837 Mr. H. W. Bissell came to Goshen and taught in this same church. Mr. Bissell was for twelve years, beginning with 1838, one of the school examiners of Elkhart county. In 1840 Nelson Prentiss began teaching in a building on Clinton street, opposite court square; the building was afterward moved to Pike street and used for a Mission Sunday school. A log house on Wrest Washington street and another on Fifth street, where the residence of J. M. Dale now stands, were used by different persons for conducting schools. Among the teachers in those buildings were Mr. Gray, Mr. Weed, Abner Stilson and George Taylor, who afterwards was elected to congress from Brooklyn, N. Y.

The first schoolhouse was built by subscription in 1841, on lot No. 54, where the Episcopal rectory now stands. It was a frame structure 20 x 30 feet, and was used for school purposes until the corporation built its first schoolhouse in 1857 on Madison street, on what had been the county fair grounds. This building was sold in 1857 to John S. Freeman, and thereafter resold to the Swedenborgian Society. After use as a church for a number of years, it was purchased by the late Jesse Fuson and converted into a residence.

In this first schoolhouse Abram C. Carpenter, Amasa N. Hascall, Melvin B. Hascall and others wielded the birch. In writing to the Daily Times in 1891, M. B. Hascall said: "In October, 1842, I commenced teaching, having been called from my home in western New York for that purpose. Forty to fifty pupils was about the average number enrolled. The books used were not uniform, but every scholar brought what he happened to have; if he had none, he came without, but Webster's Elementary Spelling Book. Daboll's Arithmetic, English Reader and Kirkham's Grammar were in the lead."

From 1841 to 1857 a number of private schools were started. The general plan was to go from house to house, secure the promise of pupils, then locate quarters and begin work. Among them George W. Weyburn, who came to Goshen in 1853 and opened the Empire School in the basement of the then First Methodist church, is prominent. He was unusually successful and counted among his pupils, during his four years of work in that school, many of the older citizens of Goshen. He had associated with him at different times Miss Martha Stancliff, Miss Valencia Watrous and others. In March, 1858, the school was closed because of the completion of the new public school building.

The real development of the schools began with the erection of the building above referred to. The lot was purchased at a cost of $1,000 of John S. Freeman, who took, as part payment, the school property on Sixth street; the building, begun in the fall of 1856, was a four-room brick structure and cost without furnishings $i 1,000.

The growth of the city from 1860 to 1870 necessitated building larger quarters. In 1862 a frame building on West Pike street was rented for a period of three years, and in 1865 was rented for three years more. In 1868 the Pike street school was built at a cost of $2,500. It was a one-room brick structure '25 x 40 feet, and, after being used for sixteen years. \was replaced by the present building at a cost of $9,000. The first building on the North Fifth street school site was a four-room frame structure erected in 1862. It was replaced by a brick building in 1882, which contains six rooms. An additional four-room building on the same site was built in 1895.

In 1869 it was found necessary to provide school room in the south part of town. The board purchased the site and built the main portion of the South Fifth street building at a cost of $5,000. About ten years later two additions, containing four rooms, were built, so that the building had altogether seven school rooms. In 1905 the entire heating and ventilating system of the building was reconstructed and a fan system of ventilation and steam heating installed.

During the. summer of 1874 a four-room addition was made to the high school building at a cost of $4,500. On the evening of January 18, 1875, the entire building with its contents was burned to the ground. Temporary provision was made in churches and halls for the pupils, and steps were at once taken for rebuilding. The new building was an eight- room structure, containing in addition to the eight school rooms, the superintendent's office and two recitation rooms. It was completed and occupied in the fall of 1875, and cost without furnishing $20,000.

When the limits of the city were extended to include what is now known as East Goshen and West Goshen, the township schools located therein became a part of the city school system. The West Goshen building thus received is a neat one-story brick, contains one school room and the usual hall and cloak rooms. The old East Goshen building was built of wood and was in rather poor condition. In 1898 the board of education erected the present building, and one may safely say that there is not a more convenient or better arranged one-room building in the state of Indiana. Its cost was about $4,000.

In 1895 the demand for more school room for the grades and better quarters for the rapidly growing high school became so urgent that plans were laid for the erection of an up-to-date high school building. The splendidly equipped building that resulted joins the old high school building on the front so that the two buildings are to all intents and purposes one.

Educational progress in Goshen has been rapid within the past ten years. The accommodations which were thought ample at the time the remodeled high school was completed soon proved inadequate to meet the demands. This was mainly due to the phenomenal growth of the high school, the enrollment here in 1903 reaching 325. Under the remarkable guidance of the principal, Miss Lillian E. Michael, of Ohio University, the high school had not only experienced this growth from an enrollment of 150, but was recognized by the leading universities of the country as being a model and efficient school. Indeed, so well and favorably known had this department become that the school authorities were enabled to take a long step in advance and afford to the youth of the city an educational institution which in every way should be a model of effectiveness. In the fall of 1902 the movement for a new building began, plans were matured and in the following spring building began The formal occupation of the various apartments for school work took place in the fall of 1904. The school board having direction of affairs at this time consisted of Frank Kelly, president; George B. Slate, secretary; Haines Egbert, treasurer.

Goshen, in thus furnishing its boys and girls the opportunities of a " poor man's college," has taken rank among cities as the pioneer in furnishing this most advanced ground in practical and theoretical education. The Goshen high school is the first embodiment of what is known as the " six year high school plan," whereby the pupils, after completing the work which has so long constituted the regular high school curriculum, may, further, without leaving home environments, enjoy training of college grade for two years. This extra work does not increase the expense to the general public. State Superintendent of Public Instruction F. A. Cotton says in his report for 1904: " This type of school at Goshen, where one of the very best buildings in the state has been constructed and equipped, provides two years of post-graduate work and has arrangements with some of the strongest colleges and universities in the country whereby students who have completed the work are given junior standing. In addition to the regular high school work the Goshen school is relating itself to community interests through the study of science, including biology, chemistry, physics and agriculture. The buildings are well equipped with shops where pupils of the seventh and eighth grades and high school work with their hands. This school is a splendid example of what an industrial school should attempt to accomplish." The eyes of educators all over the country are turned to this institution begun under such auspicious circumstances and attended so far with such success.

' The six years' work offered is the result of a real demand rather than an experiment. During the past years a considerable number of students returned, the year following graduation, to do work in the undergraduate courses. These pupils felt the need of a more extended schooling, but many of them were unable to meet the expense necessary to a course in college. Also a number of parents kept their children at home the year following graduation because they thought them too young to be sent away from home. During the year out of school the boys usually found work whose immediate rewards in dollars and cents seemed greater than the remoter rewards of learning; and the girls developed other ambitions. The plan of extending the course was projected to satisfy the cravings of the first class of boys and girls, and to correct the mistaken tendencies of the second.

" The ways and means for meeting the extra expense incurred in the addition of two years' work to the curriculum is obtained partly by charging an individual tuition fee of $30. This is large enough to avoid extra taxes."

The plans of Superintendent Hedgepeth, covering the fields of manual training, domestic science, departmental instruction and co-ordinate development of the mental, moral and physical sides of the child life, have received the commendation not only of the educators of the state, county and city, but of the practical men of affairs who are most directly interested in the city's educational facilities.

The Goshen school board, in 1905, consists of W. O. Vallette, president; Geo. B. Slate, secretary and Joseph H. Lesh, treasurer.

The following tables give an interesting comparison between the city schools of today and twenty years ago:

1905	No. Pupils.	No. Teachers.
High school	315	12
Madison street school	585	14
North Fifth street school	324	8
South Fifth street school	199	6
Pike street school	123	4
West Side school	40	1
East Side school	42	1
Total	1608	45
Average attendance, 1350.
There are also three supply teachers, making 48 in all. In the high school faculty are graduates from nine colleges and universities.
Statistics for 1885
Total enrollment	1025
Average attendance	811
Number of teachers	26
Number enrolled in high school	62
Average attendance	435

We come now to the two largest centers, each of whose educational data would more than make a chapter. In Elkhart there seems to be no definite and reliable information as to when the first school was taught, or where or by whom. It has been stated that E. M. Chamberlain taught the first school in 1836. This seems hardly credible when we think that the town had then been in existence some five or six years and that already a considerable atilux of settlers had reached the village. No doubt the school children of that intervening period had some amount of instruction at a definite place and with more or less regular sessions. At the same time it is true that the great educational progress so marked in the city had its practical inception during the later thirties, and at that tin\e the pioneer period was largely passed and those in charge began laying the foundations of the system which we may view with admiration at the present.

Several years ago Mr. D. W. Thomas, now beginning his twentieth year as superintendent of the Elkhart schools, wrote for publication in the Elkhart Daily Truth a comprehensive article on the history of the public schools of his city, and as, coming from such an authority, its statements must stand as authentic, we herewith quote, with the author's permission, the principal portion of that historical survey as affording the best insight into the development of the Elkhart city schools.

" The first schoolhouse, a one-room, one-story frame building, was erected in 1838 on the east side of Second street, between Jackson and Washington. In 1844 this building burned and a three-story structure at the corner of Main and Jefferson streets—then known as ' Tammany Hall.' afterwards the ' Beehive,' now demolished—was used for school purposes until 1848, when another one-story, frame building was erected on the original site on Second street.

" This building in 1851 was converted into a dwelling house, and 37 years afterward was removed to a part of the city where its environments are more congenial, but it is still used as a home.

" Among those who, in this early day, wielded the birchen scepter may be named E. M. Chamberlain, Sabrina Burbank, N. F. Broderick, Roland Devor, Guy Johnson, Mr. Wales, Mr. Bearupp, R. T. Bozgess. A. C. Case and R. McIllrath. It is now impossible to determine the order or length of time which these persons served as teachers, but it is reasonably certain that E. M. Chamberlain (afterwards judge and member of congress) taught the first ' pay school' in what is now the city of Elkhart. and that N. F. Broderick (a man noted for his goodness of the head and heart), taught the first district school in the first schoolhouse, in 1838.

" In 1841. a four-room frame building was erected at the corner of High and Second streets, on the site of the present Central school building, and this in turn was destroyed by fire in 1867.

" Mr. Chas. J. Conn, though not teaching continuously during this time, was the leading educational genius. He was a man of wonderfully quick perception and magnetic power, and his methods of instruction were original and peculiar. He conducted his school on the ' high- pressure system,' taking the pupil in his school who had the greatest ability as his standard and judging all others by it. He imitated no one and no one could imitate him—methods fairly successful with him, with any one else would have proved a dismal failure—he never got in any ruts nor permitted his pupils to do so. He would stop the clock, turn it backward or forward, change the order of the program, the time and methods of recitation, anything to keep his pupils on the qui vive.

" As an illustration, one of his recitations in grammar which has been thus described may be given. The pupils in three or four different grades are arranged about the room, who, facing inward, form a square, the teacher in the center. The pupils are divided into sections of nine (more or less according to convenience), and each in turn is given something to recite, a definition, a rule, the analysis of a sentence, or the parsing of a word, and so on to the end of the class. At a given signal all began. Amid this confusion worse confounded ' Mr. Conn stands unmoved, making a correction here, a suggestion there, or assigning a new part yonder, with a celerity and accuracy that to the uninitiated is truly astonishing. Mr. Conn's school labors closed in 1867.

" In 1855, the Bodley brothers, who then had charge of the schools. having found a lady in the person of Mrs. A. E. Babb who could teach algebra, literature and French, threw the town into a state of agitation by offering her a position as a teacher at a salary of $30 per month. The idea of giving a woman any kind of a position by which she could make $1.50 a day was a piece of extravagance scarcely to be tolerated—but then it is the unexpected that happens, and the world moves nevertheless. Thus popularized. Airs. Babb taught with success for a time in the public schools, and afterward for several years conducted a private school of her own.

" Mrs. Margaret Stevens, one of the four who composed the corps of teachers in 1861, taught in the first primary department of the public schools from that date until 1884. except the four years from 1876 to 1880. Although for the most part she was required to make ' brick without straw,' and although her room was always crowded, sometimes numbering 125 pupils, she filled this important and arduous position faithfully and well. Perhaps no one has ever taught in Elkhart who is remembered more kindly than she. Many of her pupils, now grown to manhood and womanhood, and who yet bear the impress of her kind heart and gentle manners, say, ' Well done, good and faithful teacher.'

" After the destruction of the old schoolhouse in 1867, it was determined to erect a building worthy of the name and commensurate with the needs of the enterprising little town. Accordingly in 1868 was completed a four-story brick building at a cost of $45,000. School opened in this building September 5. with the following corps of instructors: Valois Butler, Miss Nellie Smith, Mrs. A. M. Clark, Miss M. A. Bonnell, Miss Rainy, Miss Ostrander and Miss Mary Hawley. Of these, Miss Bonnell began teaching under Mr. Conn in 1866 and taught consecutively for 16 years. Miss Hawley commenced teaching in 1868 and is now (1900) completing her thirty-second year of continuous service in the school room.

" The people were justly proud of their new building, but some bewailed such extravagance and claimed with much assurance that the time would never come when there would be children enough in Elkhart to fill the rooms thus provided. However, in 1873, only five years later, it was found necessary to provide more room, and a four-room, two-story brick building was erected in the fourth ward at a cost of $10,000. In 1875 a similar structure was erected in the fifth ward. In 1877 John Weston deeded to the city eight lots in northwest Elkhart, with the proviso that a certain described schoolhouse should be erected thereon within a year. In compliance with this agreement a two-story brick (known as the Weston building), containing two school rooms and a recitation room, was erected in 1878 at a cost of $5.000. In the following year (1879) a similar building (the Beardsley) was constructed in northeast Elkhart. In 1875 lots were purchased and a one-story frame was put up in East Elkhart, but the accommodations were soon found to be inadequate and in 1883 a two-story brick building was erected at a cost of $5.500, the two lower rooms only being completed. In the same year the Christian church on Middlebury street was bought for $1,400 and a school opened.

" With all these additions there was a demand for more room and better accommodations, especially for the high school. To meet this need, in 1884 the school board erected an eight-room high school building on High street, adjoining the Central building on the west; and then the fourth story, in the now old building which included the high school room, was abandoned. In the then new building the high school and recitation rooms were on the first floor, the upper grammar grades on the second, and the library, museum and superintendent's office in the room connecting the old and the new building. The entire cost of this structure, including the furniture and the steam-heating apparatus for both buildings, amounted to about $25,000.

" In the years 1886 and 1887 two rooms were added to the fourth ward building and two to the fifth ward. Two rooms in East Elkhart were finished and furnished and the Middlebury street schoolhouse remodeled and one room added, the aggregate cost of these improvements being about $12,000. From a sanitary point of view the improvements in 1887 and 1888 are of the greatest importance.

" It having come to the knowledge of the school authorities that there was an abundance of pure, fresh air and sunshine going to waste in Elkhart, it was determined to utilize a portion of it for the benefit of the school children. Accordingly arrangements were made and carried into effect for the proper heating, lighting and ventilating of the ward buildings. In the accomplishment of this object, the rooms were reseated, new heaters purchased, direct radiation from stoves cut off, and fresh and foul air flues provided; the blackboards were repaired and new ones made where needed, the schools were furnished with number- tables, form-models and beads, reading charts, maps and globes, supplementary readers, dictionaries and other books for teachers' desks; some chemical and physical apparatus, quite a number of specimens for the museum, about $500 worth of books for the library, and a very fine telescope purchased from Prof. H. L. Smith, of Hobart College, Geneva, New York, were added. The cost of these much needed improvements and supplies for the time indicated aggregated about $3,000.

" In 1890 two rooms were added to the Beardsley building, at a cost of $3,500, and in 1891 a two-room building was erected at the corner of Cleveland avenue and South Seventh street, at a cost of $5,000.

" The dark and poorly ventilated rooms in the Central school building, the crowded condition of all the rooms and especially that of the high school, rendered it imperative that more and better facilities be supplied. To meet this demand, in January, 1893, the new high school building was completed at a cost of $36,000. This is a two-story stone structure, located at the corner of Pigeon and Vistula streets. The high school assembly room, with a seating capacity of 200, and four commodious recitation rooms, furnished with single desks, occupy the second floor. On the first floor are four recitation rooms, the superintendent's office and a library room, containing more than 5,000 volumes, selected with especial reference to the needs of students in the high school and the grammar grades.

" Besides, a chemical laboratory and biological and physical science rooms have been fitted up with all the modern improvements and the necessary appliances for the teaching of chemistry, physics, physiology, zoology and botany, according to the latest and most approved methods of teaching these subjects.

" During 1894 four rooms were added to the Weston building, and the others thoroughly renovated, thus making a good six-room building, practically new. It is supplied with water, wire hat-racks, flush closets, and the Hess system of heating and ventilating, the whole constituting for the money expended the most convenient and the best arranged school building in the city. It cost, completed a;id furnished. $10,000. Five years later the over-crowded condition of the schools rendered it imperative that more room should be provided. Accordingly at the request of the school board and by the unanimous vote of the city council bonds were issued and extensive additions to the fourth and fifth ward buildings were made, and improvements in way of closets, heating and ventilating apparatus in the other buildings amounting in the aggregate to more than $20.000."

The most recent addition to the school architecture of Elkhart is the new Middlebury school, replacing the old frame building shown in the illustration. This school, which was to be ready for occupancy by the opening of the fall term of 1905. contains four rooms, is built of brick at a cost of fifteen thousand dollars, and in equipment and general plan is the most perfect of the graded schools of the city.

Some statistics quoted by Professor Thomas indicate graphically the growth and progress of the schools:

	1886.	1,899
School enumeration	2,650	3,669
School enrollment	1,982	2,669
Average number belonging	1,509	2,371
Per cent of attendance	94-3	96
Number of pupils belonging at close of year. .	1,428	2,254
Number of school rooms	31	63
Number of teachers	35	65
Number of school teachers in high school...	4	8
Number of pupils in high school	96	299
Number in graduating class	11	37

The condition of the schools in 1905 is a matter for congratulation on the pare of all concerned. While the only important change made in recent years in the school curriculum has been the addition of a commercial course to the high school, every department of the educational work has felt, the stimulus of present-day progress, and in the personnel of instructors, in the character of work accomplished, and the general atmosphere of intelligence, there has been constant improvement. The high school, with its four years' course, its faculty of ten regular instructors, under Principal S. B. McCracken, is doing work of such character as to obtain affiliation with the University of Chicago, the University of Michigan and Northwestern University.

The total value of the school property of Elkhart in 1904 is placed at $204,000, and the amount devoted to.education is: from tuition, $39,613.41 ; from special school revenue, $25,892.24, making a total of $65,505.65. The average cost upon the city to furnish a pupil the benefits of the high school course is $31.14.

The following' table shows the names of the city schools and the enrollment of pupils in each for the year ending in 1905:

Name of School.	Enrollment.
High school	285
Central school .	805
Fourth Ward school	368
Fifth Ward school	379
Weston school	300
South Side school	278
Beardsley school	178
East Elkhart school	117
Middlebury school	127
Total enrollment	2,837
Average attendance	2,253
Number teachers.	68
one supply and	one music teacher.

A Goshen educational institution whose order of merit is high and whose influence has been directed not alone to training the mind but also to fitting men and women for the higher ideals of life is Goshen College, which is situated in a very desirable neighborhood in the southern part of the city. The college is the outgrowth of the Elkhart Institute. The latter, founded in 1895, was opened in the G. A. R. hall in the city of Elkhart. Before the end of the first year the Elkhart Institute Association was organized and at once began to solicit funds to erect a suitable building on Prairie street, Elkhart. The building was completed and formally dedicated in February, 1895. In 1898 the Association was incorporated under the laws of the state of Indiana. At that time the management was under the control of a board of nine directors. As the school grew and its interests expanded it was found that a wider representation was needed, and accordingly, at the annual meeting in 1901, the constitution was amended and the number of members on the board of directors increased to twenty-five. At this annual meeting a committee was appointed to receive propositions from different localities to provide larger grounds and more buildings, as it was evident that the growth of the school would soon make it necessary to increase the accommodations. It was the aim of this committee to decide on such a location as would not only supply present needs, but which would provide for the future growth of the institution.

Such a location was found just south of the city limits of the city of Goshen, Indiana. Suitable grounds were purchased and a college building and a ladies' dormitory were erected. The school was opened in the rooms of the dormitory September 29, 1903. The college building was dedicated January 8, 1904.

The campus of Goshen College consists of ten acres beautifully located in Parkside.

The main building is a commodious four-story structure, built of brick, at a cost of $25,000. It contains modern recitation rooms, a chapel hall with a seating capacity of seven hundred, gymnasium, bath room, dressing rooms, laboratories, offices, library, reading room, commercial rooms and model school. All rooms are well lighted and supplied with modern conveniences.

The ladies' dormitory is a three-story building with kitchen, dining hall and laundry on the first floor; matron's room, music room and students' rooms on the second floor, and students' rooms on the third floor. It provides a home for the girls where they find comfortable rooms and quiet surroundings. Both buildings are heated with steam from one plant and lighted with gas.