HISTORY OF MANITOWOC COUNTY


new building was dedicated, J. F. Silsbee having charge. On October 29, i866
the Third Ward school in Manitowoc was started in a brick building 35 by
50
feet on South Tenth street with Miss Minnie McGinley as principal. The con-
dition of the other schools also became so crowded that the buildings were
en-
tirely too small to hold the pupils, so that on the north side the primary
depart-
ment was divided and taught by C. M. Barnes and Miss Mary Shove in two
private houses on North Sixth street and on the south side the intermediate
and primary departments were removed to the corner of South Seventh and
Jay streets. A sub-primary or kindergarten was also established under Miss
Anna Metz at about this time.
The early seventies was also an era of schoolhouse building. In i87I the
First Ward school was constructed on South Eighth and Hamilton streets, the
structure being dedicated on January 29th, of the succeeding year. In 1868,
the
state legislature passed an act enabling the north side district to levy
a tax not
to exceed- $25,000 in order to provide for the erection of a new school,
which
was then found to be a necessity. It was, however, four years before the
residents of the district saw their way clear to build the structure, the
corner-
stone being laid with great ceremony on July 25, I872, orations being delivered
upon the occasion by Judge Anderson, Hubert Falge and others. Principal I.
N.
Stewart, who was then at the head of the school, later became the president
of
the State Teachers' Association, was the author of several educational works
and taught for many years at Janesville. His successor was Hosea Barnes,
who
had charge of the school from I874 to I877, later entering the Baptist ministry
and finally retiring to his home in Kenosha county after a life of usefulness.
By the last year of his incumbency at Manitowoc the new brick building below
the present Union Park was ready for occupancy and the high school was duly
instituted. Two Rivers also erected a school in the seventies, the value
of the
two structures then possessed by her being $I2,000. Many parochial schools
were started by the Catholics and Lutherans throughout the county, including
the Roman Catholic school at Two Rivers in I877, which has always been par-
ticularly well attended, St. Ambrosius Academy at St. Nazianz, and the girl's
school at Alverno.
In I875 W. A. Walker, who had been a teacher in the Third Ward was
elected county superintendent over A. M. Richter and served two terms, being
re-elected without opposition. By the end of his incumbency there were io8
schoolhouses in the county valued at $I04,366; besides nineteen private schools.
The funds received from the state in i88o were $6,528; the average teacher's
wages being $44.I3 for males and $30.15 for females, while out of I5,9I9
chil-
dren of school age 8,428 attended the public schools.
Professor C. E. Patzer soon became the principal of the Third Ward school
and under his guidance it advanced rapidly. On the north side, Professor
Barnes was succeeded by L. W. Briggs and J. P. Briggs, who in i88o gave way
to Professor McMahon. The latter resigned to go abroad for study a year after
he had accepted the position and J. M. Rait, who had been a teacher at Two
Rivers, then assumed charge of the school for two years. In the first ward
the
vacancy caused by the resignation of C. A. Viebahn was filled by the selection
of F. C. Young in i88o. After serving the district only three years he resigned,
took a post-graduate course at Johns Hopkins University and later became
a


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