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Garden
County Schools Report
1913
Oshkosh
is the county seat of Garden
County and a new superintendent,
Miss Nellie Olson, had just been appointed by the commissioners.
California is very proud
of her native sons. Garden
County has some native
daughters of whom it may well be proud. Miss Olson is one of them.
She was born
and brought up on a ranch south of Oshkosh,
and knows conditions in that county thoroughly. She has both teams and a car
at her command so will have no difficulty in getting around to make her visits.
I spent the morning until recess time in Miss Olson's office and in the Oshkosh schools.
Oshkosh needs a new schoolhouse badly and is now discussing
building projects. Four teachers are employed now, two in the school house and
two in the building which has been secured as an addition. The school is in
good shape and deserves better quarters.
At
ten thirty Miss Olson and I started with a fine team of bays for a school
fifteen miles north of town, which receives state aid.
The sheriff said we
could make that fifteen miles, sand hills and all in an hour and a half. It
seemed like asking a good deal of any team, to roe, but we made it.
At
District 23 we found an exceedingly poor schoolhouse. Repairs were needed in
every place where repairs could be made, from the broken door step to the
broken window panes. The furniture was good but the room was very dirty.
The
teacher was very much embarrassed and we heard no recitations. Fourteen pupils
were present. The worst thing that the Garden county schools have to face is
debt.
Most of the districts are carrying anywhere from one to seven hundred
dollars. We asked how this was incurred in the first place and were told that
school officers often said :
"Oh, we won't be here long, we'll buy what we
want. The next fellow can pay for it."
The
people who are living there now are trying earnestly to run their school
economically and well, but they are carrying a
heavy load.
With
the aid of the money which the state can allow them we hope to see a
substantial decrease in the indebtedness this year.
At
District 51 we found Miss Swindle with nine pupils doing good work.
At
District 7 we found a good sod schoolhouse and nineteen pupils.
There
was an opportunity for good work here but the school atmosphere left a good
deal to be desired.
Methods
of discipline were such that they left the pupils in a resentful mood.
It
was interesting to see those youngsters climb onto their horses and start for
home as fast as the horses could run, when school was dismissed.
From
the district it was an easy drive back to Oshkosh,
down the beautiful valley of the Platte. The sun
was just setting as we reached the top of the hill leading down into the
valley, and the view was beautiful with the purple hills in the distance, the
river as their foot and the valley with its brown field on either side.
Like
Miss Thompson, Miss Olson is keeping house for a brother, and is most
hospitable to visiting strangers. She
and Miss McCusker took the best of care of me while I was in Oshkosh.
When
I took the train that night I found it filled with the delegates to the
Irrigation Congress, on their way home from Bridgeport.
It is at best a long tedious trip from Oshkosh
to North Platte,
the train is usually late, it is poorly lighted and passengers are few.
The
delegates, however, made reading unnecessary, they furnished plenty of
amusement on this trip.
Garden County was the last visited on this trip.
November,
1913
23rd
Biennial Report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction to the
Governor of the State of Nebraska
James
E. Delzell – State Superintendent of Public Instruction - 1914
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