History of Lake, Porter, and LaPorte, 1927County history published by the Historians' Association . . . .
Source Citation:
Cannon, Thomas H., H. H. Loring, and Charles J. Robb. 1927.
History of
the Lake and Calumet Region of Indiana, Embracing the Counties of Lake,
Porter and LaPorte: An Historical Account of Its People and Its Progress
from the Earliest Times to the Present.
Volume I. Indianapolis, Indiana: Historians' Association. 840 p.
HISTORY OF THE LAKE AND CALUMET REGION OF INDIANA
CHAPTER XX.
SCHOOLS.
FOUNDATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM -- LAPORTE COUNTY PIONEER SCHOOLS --
TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS -- LAPORTE CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- MICHIGAN CITY PUBLIC
SCHOOLS -- PORTER COUNTY PIONEER SCHOOLS -- TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS -- VALPARAISO
PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY -- LAKE COUNTY PIONEER SCHOOLS --
CROWN POINT PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- HOBART PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- LOWELL PUBLIC SCHOOLS
-- EAST CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- WHITING PUBLIC SCHOOLS -- HAMMOND PUBLIC
SCHOOLS -- GARY PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
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FOUNDATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM — Providing educational facilities was among the earliest thoughts of the settlers and the Legislature passed many measures to aid in the creation of a public school system. In 1838 an act was passed providing for the establishment and maintenance of county seminaries which would receive their support from fines and penalties for violation of law. The county commissioners were authorized to appoint trustees with general powers to establish and control the seminaries and receive and administer the seminary fund until it was sufficient to establish the seminary. In 1841 the matter of building a county seminary was agitated in LaPorte County as the county fund for this purpose amounted to $2,000, but it was not deemed advisable to proceed until a larger sum was on hand and it was years before the subject again became a matter of discussion. In Porter County in 1849, the seminary trustees having $2,000 on hand decided to erect a seminary which was completed in 1851 at a cost including site of $2,300. The building had two stories with two lower and three upper rooms. School opened in the fall of 1851 with Ashley M. Pierce as principal and an enrollment of 120. The passage of a new law caused the sale of the property, the proceeds becoming a part of the public school fund. The seminary was purchased by the school trustees of Valparaiso for $1,200 and was renamed the “Union School” and it was destroyed by fire in 1857. During the period prior to 1850 there was much complaint throughout Indiana against district schools and particularly because of the employment of incompetent teachers, which had much to do in the general support given in the election of 1848 to the levying of a tax to support county schools and employ well trained competent teachers. By 1850 Union schools, so called, had been established through several school districts uniting their funds and forces
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and establishing a school at some central point easy of access to the united school districts. By an act approved January 17, 1849, the treasurer of the state was constituted the state superintendent of common schools, but this was changed in the Constitution of 1852, and the office of state superintendent was made a separate elective office. In the period from 1850 to 1855, various acts passed by the Legislature laid the foundation of a great era of school progress and may be said to be the real beginning of the public school system. An act passed in 1853 transferred the appointment of school examiners from the circuit judges to the county commissioners and the applicants for teachers positions were required to take a rigid examination in reading, writing, arithmetic, geology, English grammar, orthography, physiology and United States history. In 1855, each civil township was made a school township and the township trustees were constituted school trustees. Incorporated towns and cities were authorized to establish public and graded schools and provision was made for township libraries. The power thus provided by law to elevate the standard, enlarge the scope, and intensify the usefulness of the public schools was not neglected in the counties of the Lake Region and township trustees everywhere sought to improve the opportunity and provide properly equipped school buildings, and teachers with the highest qualifications and most beneficent results accrued within a few years. About this time parochial schools were established throughout, the Lake Region conducted by the Roman Catholic, Lutheran and some other churches. Where lay teachers were employed they were well educated and competent and great care was taken in their selection. In the Roman Catholic parochial schools when lay teachers were not employed, the sisters who conducted the institution were especially trained for their vocations and the schools attained a high rank.
PIONEER SCHOOLS.
LAPORTE COUNTY — The first school in LaPorte County may be safely credited to the Carey Baptist Mission at Hudson Lake in 1829, and the first school through the initiative of the settlers was conducted by Emily Leming in 1832, in a log cabin built for school purposes by the first settlers in what later became Springfield Township. Closely following was the school taught by Rachael Carter in 1833 in one side of a double log cabin owned by William Eahart in New Durham Township. Settlers in Kankakee Township gave early attention to the necessity existing for a school and in 1834 built a log cabin for school purposes on the Michigan Road and school was taught by a man named Emerson, who was probably one of the migratory teachers of that period, who moved from settlement to settlement and taught school during the winter months. It was customary for the teacher to live for a certain period at each scholar's home and in
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addition he received a small sum per week, usually on the basis of the number of scholars taught and which was paid by the parents of the scholars or from available county or state funds. While the log cabin school structures of this period varied in some particulars they were generally buildings with one log sawed out on two sides and the openings covered with oil paper or cloth in lieu of window glass to admit light. A mud and stick chimney in one end of the building with earthen hearth and large fireplace furnished log fire in winter, and when the building was used at night the old tallow dips were in service. The equipment was of the rudest character, the desks being wide boards on the sides of the room supported by pins, and the seats were usually formed of slabs with pins to serve as legs.
As the counties in the Lake Region grew in population and wealth the rude structures of the early pioneer period gave way to frame and brick buildings with accommodations and equipment in harmony with the later and more advanced knowledge of school requirements, and this progressive attitude has always been maintained. Literary institutes with advanced studies for that period were early established in LaPorte County. The Michigan City institute, which was said to have been started in 1838 and lasted five years, had for its principal Rev. James Towner, and he was assisted by Miss Clarissa Ward and Miss Abigail Colt. Male students were furnished with room and board in the building which was three stories in height and the young ladies found board and rooms with private families near the school. The institute was largely attended for several years and many of the early teachers in LaPorte County received their advanced education there. For some reason the institute was discontinued in 1843 and the building converted into a hotel afterwards known as the Lake House. The first public school in Michigan City was taught by Gallatin Ashton in a small wooden building on the lot where the Elston School now stands and later a select school was held in the old chapel and maintained for many years. From 1848 to 1850 Miss Mary Brown, a graduate of St. Mary’s Academy, Canada, maintained a very select school for young ladies and at a later period other select schools were held by Miss Baldwin, Miss Folsom, Miss Clemens, Mrs. Lydia Evarts and others. It is said that the first school house in the city of LaPorte was built in 1833. In 1837 John C. Reed taught a very select school in LaPorte, many advanced branches of study being included. The success of Mr. Reed brought about the establishment of other schools for advanced pupils, among them being a female seminary, which was opened by the Misses Brumm of New York City in 1841 and was largely attended. In 1843 the Lancasterian Academy, a high school for both sexes, was in operation and in the fall of 1849 Miss E. J. Forsyth opened a school exclusively for ladies where advanced studies were taught. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer O. Dyer
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conducted a select school in 1854 at LaPorte and in 1856 Mrs. Scott and Miss Terry had a school for advanced pupils. Others were conducted by. R. M. Johnson, Mrs. C. B. Sisson and Miss Marion Harvey. In the early ’60s Parson’s Male and Female College occupied quarters in Allen’s Block but later it became a commercial school. Two famous select schools in this period in LaPorte was one conducted by Mrs. Mary M. Holmes, afterwards recognized throughout the Middle West as a very superior teacher and the young ladies seminary taught by Miss Julia Howell. In 1863, the last year in which Miss Howell conducted her school, she had one hundred scholars, and there was general regret when on her marriage she decided to close the institution.
TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS — The state common and high school courses of study as outlined by the State Department of Education are generally followed in LaPorte County, although in a large county with a wide range of school conditions it is nearly impossible to carry on the work with exact uniformity and any variations necessary due to local conditions are in order that the greatest possible benefit may come to each boy and girl of the county. Township schools are maintained at a high order of excellence and schools of Michigan City and LaPorte have long been recognized as of advanced standard. Many of the school buildings are modern structures and with a high order of equipment and great care is exercised in providing the most competent teaching force. Outside of Michigan City and LaPorte the total number of township school buildings is fifty-five, enumeration 5,113, enrollment 3,622, and a teaching force of 137. Cass, Clinton, Dewey, Hanna, Kankakee, Lincoln, New Durham, Noble, Pleasant, Springfield, Union and Washington townships have high schools. A report issued by the county superintendent’s office shows a wide variation in the cost per pupil due to special conditions, the lowest cost per pupil in the elementary grades being $43.38 in Johnson Township and $117.44 in Prairie Township. The lowest high school cost per pupil was $135.25 in Noble Township and $276.74 in Lincoln Township. C. L. Rhoade is the present county superintendent of schools and enjoys a high standing among Indiana educators.
LAPORTE CITY SCHOOLS — At a meeting held in the courthouse in 1856 it was decided to adopt the public school system for LaPorte and Gilbert Hathaway, Amzi Clark and Benjamin P. Walker were appointed a board of trustees to establish the public school system. At first small schools were established in each ward but later by vote of the city, a central school building was established and the schools consolidated and the graded system established. By 1875 the schools had attained a high standard for that period and special efforts were made to employ only thoroughly equipped teachers and retaining only the efficient ones. In the late
'80s,
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Dr. W. W. Hailman instituted a complete reorganization of the course of study and the new system proved such a complete success that in 1893 a certificate was issued by the exposition judges of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago awarding a medal to the public schools of LaPorte for completeness of system from kindergarten to graduation, good training and excellent results in all grades. The studies in the high school were reorganized also and a department of drawing was instituted in 1890 and a commercial department was organized two years later. A new high school building was erected in 1894 on the site of the old Indiana Medical College, which had a brief existence in LaPorte, and for many years the LaPorte High School has been on the list of Indiana commissioned high schools and its graduates are accepted by many leading universities without examination. At present there are six elementary schools and one high school with modern equipment, with a school city enumeration of 4,098. The enrollment in the kindergarten is 274, in the elementary grades 1,966, and in the high school 701, with a teaching force of 108. The outstanding items in the course of study at the present time are, first: Improvement in progress in music; second, special attention to teaching of physical training; third, the teaching of citizenship; and fourth, early kindergarten for all pupils who are five years of age. There are two playgrounds for pupils, the E Street playground, which will be known as the Kiwanis Field, will be used during the school year for high school athletics and during the summer for playground activities. Scott Field, which was given to the school city by Emmet Scott and his sister, Mrs. Fannie Rumley as a memorial to their father, is a playground which is used for summer activities. The city has been generous in the support of the schools and no request from the board of education or from E. B. Weatherow, superintendent, for funds to improve the standing and efficiency of the schools but has met with a favorable response from the citizens. The LaPorte schools have been efficiently conducted at a moderate cost, showing the care and attention given the schools by a forward, progressive board of education. The school city is fortunate in having an exceptionally competent teaching force and such an able and talented educator as E. B. Weatherow for superintendent. H. H. Keller is president of the board of education, Emmet Scott, secretary, and Mrs. Mary J. Walker, treasurer. The per capita cost of the elementary schools in the school year of 1925-1926 was $74.40 and in the high school $113.54. The parochial schools in LaPorte enjoy a very high standing and are attended by several hundred children.
LAPORTE BUSINESS COLLEGE — A private institution of excellent merit is the LaPorte Business College, founded in September, 1912, to prepare young men and women for business careers. It occupies quarters in the
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LaPorte Savings Bank Building and offers a complete business course to the pupils. It is under the management of Mr. J. J. Moore.
MICHIGAN CITY SCHOOLS — From 1853, when the uniform educational system became operative, there has been a consistent advance in the plan of public instruction and the city schools have kept pace generally with improved methods of education and in school conveniences and equipment. In 1867, a reorganization of the schools was effected with S. E. Miller as superintendent and from that time maintaining the schools at a high standard has been the consistent thought of each succeeding board of school trustees. Michigan City schools are housed in modern fireproof buildings, of which the Isaac C. Elston High School is a conspicuous example and the standard attained is recognized as very high by all colleges and universities. There is a senior high school, a junior high school and eight public schools to care for the grammar grades and an addition to the present high school was recently completed with every convenience and accessory to be found in the most modern school structures. In addition to the public schools, there are three parochial schools complying with state and diocesan regulations and all of which are of high rank. Large play grounds lie adjacent to the various school buildings and a fine athletic field comprising nine acres is owned by the school board and within its inclosure football, baseball and other outdoor pastimes are participated in under most favorable conditions by the boys and girls in Michigan City. The enrollment in the senior high school is 818 and the per capita cost per year is $109.60 and in the junior high school there is an enrollment of 514 with a per capita cost of $122.17 per year. The elementary schools have an enrollment of 2,298, with a per capita cost of $72.12 per year. The school enumeration for 1926 was 7,394. The president of the Michigan City Board of School Trustees is Fred H. Phlgrin; secretary, Gladys M: Carstens; treasurer, Denton M. Hutton, and superintendent of schools, Nilo C. Murray.
SCHOOL OF FINE ARTS— A private institution worthy of special mention is the Michigan City School of Fine Arts, located in the Warren Building and under the general direction of Sara Sherman Maxon. This school holds both summer and all the year round classes, giving instructions in dramatic art and a thorough course in vocal and instrumental music. Sara Sherman Maxon is head of the vocal department, Edwin Stanley is director of the dramatic art department, Henry Sopkin of the violin department and Earl Blair of the piano department. The curriculum of Michigan City School of Fine Arts follows the established rules of the most noted conservatories and is recognized as an institution of high standard.
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PORTER COUNTY SCHOOLS.
PORTER COUNTY SCHOOLS— It seems certain that the first school in Porter County was conducted at the home of Jesse Morgan in the winter of 1833 and 1834, in what is now Westchester, and in 1835 a second school was taught near the present site of Chesterton. In 1835 Mary Hammond conducted a school in Washington Township territory and a log school house was built there in 1836. Mrs. Sophia Dye taught school in Liberty Township territory in 1836 and it is claimed that a school was conducted in Jackson Township the same year, although the first school house was not erected there until 1838. A log school house was erected in 1837 and school held the same year in Boone Township and in 1838 schools were taught in Pleasant and Porter townships, the latter school being conducted at her home by Mrs. Humphrey. Harvey E. Ball and Sylvester W. Smith taught school in Valparaiso in the early ‘40s in a small school building erected by Dr. Seneca Ball on the rear end of his lot. Later the Rev. James C. Brown opened a school for young ladies which was taught by himself and by Rev. W. M. Blackburn, the last teacher of the school being S. L. Bartholomew. In 1859 the Methodist Church built the Valparaiso Male and Female College and its further history will be found under the head of Valparaiso University. The Presbyterians opened the Valparaiso Collegiate Institute in 1861, with Rev. S. C. Logan as principal and H. A. Newell as assistant, which was continued for several years.
TOWNSHIP SCHOOLS — Since the establishment of the modern system of schools, Porter County has been generous in providing funds and the county schools have been maintained at a high standard. The total school enumeration outside of Valparaiso City is 4,222, and the enrollment is 3,151. The total number of county school buildings is 46 and 122 teachers are employed. All the townships with the exception of Pine and Jackson have high schools as well as elementary schools. As reported by the county superintendent’s office the cost per pupil varies, due to special conditions, in the elementary schools from $62.74 in Boone Township to $101.47 the past year in Morgan Township. The cost per pupil in the high school varied from $108.25 in Boone Township the past year to $212.32 in Union Township. Most of the school buildings are in first class condition and the equipment is maintained at a high point of excellence. The present efficient county superintendent is Fred H. Cole.
VALPARAISO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Since the graded schools were first established in 1871 the Valparaiso city schools have attained a very high standard. The course of study is arranged to comply with the state requirements as far as possible and
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the teachers are of a high order of efficiency. From the kindergarten through the elementary and high schools the most modern methods of instruction are employed and the arrangement of study provides elasticity to meet the needs of individual pupils. Those pupils desiring a college or university education have their courses shaped and organized accordingly, while special emphasis is placed on studies in the commercial department for those pupils who desire to lay the foundation for a business career. Language is strongly emphasized and as the teaching of French is now considered of great importance to one’s education its study is ardently encouraged. The ideas of the best educators today are followed in the Valparaiso public schools, which recognizes character building as an important phase of education, and the pupil is prepared for good citizenship and right living, so he may fill the best position in life that his natural powers will permit. For a number of years great attention has been given to vocational work and a course in home economics gives the girls a broad conception of the major part of this field of work.
The schools are housed in excellent buildings — the Center School, the Garden School, the Columbia School, Banta School and the Old Library — and the equipment is the very best to be had. A new modern high school building is now under construction. The school enumeration the past year was 1,885 and the enrollment 1,516. Sixty-one teachers are employed in the five school buildings. The cost per pupil in the elementary schools was $77.22 the past year and in the high school $98.97. The board of education consists of A. A. Hughart, president; who for years has been identified with the Valparaiso schools; William Morris, secretary; George Sheeks, treasurer; and C. W. Boucher, superintendent. Mr. Boucher is recognized as one of Indiana’s outstanding educational leaders. The schools are well managed and their high standing shows the advanced modern thought and effort which has been given to them by the board of education.
STORY OF VALPARAISO UNIVERSITY.
But few educational institutions in this country have made such a contribution to character, a high order of citizenship and the well being of our national life as Valparaiso University. Thousands have enjoyed its educational privileges and advantages and acquired a higher education which through lack of financial means would have been difficult to obtain in other institutions, and the solidity of its instruction and the thoroughness of its preparation in the various departments of study is shown in the notable success in life which has been achieved by so many of its students, and who now rejoice that a new career of great promise has opened for the university and that it seems destined to again assume a high position among the leading educational institutions in this country.
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Through the courtesy of the new president of Valparaiso University, W. H. T. Dau, D. D., from whom the information was obtained, the following historical sketch of the development of Valparaiso University is presented. It covers four distinct phases — first, the humble beginning; second, the remarkable growth and expansion; third, the decline; fourth, the reconstruction.
The present complex of schools forming the Valparaiso University is the achievement of patient and wisely directed efforts on the part of the two men who will forever be connected with the history of the University, Henry Baker Brown and Oliver Perry Kinsey. The real history of the university starts, indeed, with the advent to Valparaiso of Henry Baker Brown in 1873. But educational history had been made as early as 1859 for the institution that he shaped. In the antebellum decade the Methodist Church had conceived the plan of founding in every congressional district a college under the control of the Methodist Church. Higher education in Northern Indiana, and for that matter in nearly every part of the United States, was a rare accomplishment, but for that very reason was highly prized by the people. Most of the earlier settlers in the western commonwealths of the North American Republic reflected the lack of higher education which is an attendant feature of the pioneer life. They felt their lack and determined to have their sons and daughters start on a higher educational level than their own had been in their younger days. Accordingly, the Methodist plan met with much favor and in its execution there was a good deal of friendly rivalry among neighboring communities.
Porter County is one of the farming counties in Indiana. Its thrifty, forward-looking population caught the enthusiasm for higher education and under the leadership of John N. Skinner, many times mayor of Valparaiso, the county seat, launched upon the project fostered by the Northwestern Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, to start a coeducational college in the wooded hill southeast of the public square. At a meeting in the courthouse the people of Valparaiso in 1859 donated $6,000 to the board of trustees of Valparaiso Male and Female College. This -\Vas the name chosen for the educational enterprise of the Methodist Conference. From the old Freeman estate a plot of fifteen acres was purchased. It ran north from the Pennsylvania Railroad tracks and took in the top of ‘‘The Hill,” being bordered by Locust, Union and Garfield streets. In this section rough, unpaved streets were laid out as the building of the college' progressed, and the streets were connected with the town by a path leading through woods and fields. A wooden building was temporarily put up to house the school, and this was promptly replaced by a substantial brick structure.
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With varying fortunes the school was started on September 21, 1859, and developed under the acting presidency of Francis D. Carley, and the presidency successively of Rev. C. N. Sims, Rev. E. H. Staley, B. Wilson Smith, Thomas B. Wood and Aaron Guerney. The enrollment leaped from 157 in the first to 327 in the second year. Literary societies, college papers and other phenomena of academic life made their appearance. Some of the most successful and popular teachers of the school were Miss Delia Carley and Professors Allen, Utter, Banta, Ruggles and Hewitt. However, the outbreak of the Civil war in 1860 checked, and its long continuance together with the disturbed conditions which usually follow in the wake of great political upheavals, ultimately wrecked the educational enterprise at Valparaiso. The administration was confronted with ever growing financial difficulties. In 1870 the college stood vacant and the trustees were face to face with the sad problem of disposing of the college property.
II.
The school was fast going to ruin, also physically, when Henry Baker Brown, then a young professor, twenty-six years of age, at the Northwestern Normal School of Republic, Ohio, learned of it, through a former student of Valparaiso by the name of Ira Hoops. After a personal inspection of the property and a conference with Mr. Azariah Freeman, who wished the defunct school revived in the interest of the community, Mr. Brown decided to start a normal school at Valparaiso. He was given the use of the old college property, and promised that the most necessary repairs would be made, to make the ramshackle building inhabitable. Several friends of Mr. Brown who had decided to accompany him from Republic, Ohio, to Valparaiso, came over in August, 1873, and started preparations for the opening of the school. The next month Mr. Brown himself came. He had induced Miss Mantie E. Baldwin, Martin E. Bogarte, B. F. Perrine and Miss Ida Hutchinson to become the first members of his faculty. After some judicious advertising which roused considerable interest in the renewed effort for higher education that was being made at Valparaiso, this school opened its door to thirty students on Tuesday, September 16, 1873. It was planned to have three departments, the normal, music and the commercial, but these had not been definitely separated. Each one of the faculty members worked at anything at which he could make himself useful. Mr. Brown traveled considerably attending teachers’ conferences in the interest of the school. The enrollment at the beginning of the second term rose to 90, at the beginning of the third to 173. In the winter term of 1877 the enrollment reached the number of 1,360 students. New departments were constantly being added, and new courses of study arranged to suit the needs or conveniences of appli-
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cants. The teaching force was increased almost as rapidly as the enrollment of students. Prof. C. W. Boucher became head of the commercial department, Prof. Martin E. Bogarte started the department of public speaking and oratory, Prof. Harrison N. Carver built up the classic class, and organized a class in common law which afterwards became the law school, the real founder of which was Mr. DeMotte. Under Doctor Yohn the first steps were taken towards the establishment of a medical school, and a school of telegraphy was started. Debating societies, literary and dramatic clubs, a normal congress, a moot court, public recitals, concerts, lectures by prominent men and performance of leading artists enlivened the academic life on “The Hill.” The complex of buildings in which these various activities were housed was being added to continually as the revenues of the school increased. As in former times, the generosity of the citizens of Valparaiso and of Porter County was displayed in a splendid manner by financial aid which they gave to the university.
The enterprise started by Mr. Brown had assumed a magnitude far beyond the dreams of the most sanguine enthusiast, which by the way, Mr. Brown was not, if I read his character aright. He was an indefatigable worker, who never spared himself, giving lavishly of his time day and night to the school, its teachers and its individual students, with all of whom he strove to establish and maintain individual contact. The sense of duty was a very active principle in his life. He would travel all night in the most inclement weather to meet his grammar class at 6:30 in the morning. The gentle but firm touch of this extraordinary man was felt by all who came under his genial influence, and to many of them he seemed like a father because of the close and specializing interest he took in them. In the winter of 1880 the work had grown to such proportions that Mr. Brown feared he would sink under it. The Hill was a bee-hive, humming with activity. Great numbers of students were swarming over it all day long, and the coming of each one of them, together with the care of all the property of the school which Mr. Brown owned, laid an ever more exacting hand on his physical and mental resources.
Under these conditions Mr. Brown appealed to a friend of his, Prof. Oliver Perry Kinsey, at that time a member of the faculty of a college at Lebanon, Ohio, to become associated with him as part owner and responsible administrator of the phenomenal educational undertakings at Valparaiso. Mr. Kinsey came to Valparaiso, saw and was conquered by the evident proofs of the meritoriousness and the vastness of what his friend had begun. He bought a share in the school from Mr. Brown, but before entering upon active duties at the institution took a leave of absence for nearly a year, which he devoted to travels in Europe and studies of the educational systems of other countries. His real activity at Valparaiso commenced March 25, 1881.
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Mr. Kinsey appears to have been a genius in economy and resourcefulness. He took charge of the boarding and rooming facilities of the institution, and devoted his talent to the solution of the problems which confront' the student of slender means. It was chiefly due to his skill as manager and food expert that Valparaiso University became “The poor man’s Harvard.” Like his friend Brown, Kinsey, too, was an incessant worker, who believed that the application of elbow grease is the most essential element of success. He also shared the genial traits of character, which endeared both these men to teachers and students, and accounts for the affection and reverence with which old alumni and alumnae of the institution still speak of these men.
Valparaiso University, under the administration of Brown and Kinsey, actually became an educational wonder. Newspapers and magazine editors sent reporters to Valparaiso to study and write up the situation. Educators came to examine the system which made the school so attractive to thousands of students, and gathered for it such prestige and fame that the patrons of the school were even found in foreign lands. In these palmy days of the school it ranked with the foremost institutions of the country, and its graduates were found in all walks of life, and in all the leading professions. Some of them have achieved marked distinction in their chosen professions as lawyers, statesmen, artists, engineers, and scientists.
What is the cause of this success? It can be expressed briefly in three terms: 1, the low cost of tuition, board and lodging, which was so low that some eastern papers indulged in a good deal of good-natured humor about it, and some seemed inclined to treat it as a fake; 2, the fine democratic spirit that ruled at Valparaiso, and created the social level on which all life in university circles moved. Faculty and students were more plainly here than at any other great school a social unit. There was no snobbishness, no silly claims of prerogative and superiority, and the curse of the idle and profligate rich is the one evil that has never been visited to any appreciable extent on Valparaiso University. For this reason, too, the formation of college fraternities and sororities with their secretism, spirit of exclusiveness, and partiality, which they naturally beget and foster, was never favored by Mr. Brown and Mr. Kinsey. And this, together with the reason first given, may have had a good deal to do with their opposition to promiscuous dancing. 3. The fact that Valparaiso University concentrated all its energies on undergraduate work and strove to do that well, in my judgment, has been its most valuable educational asset. Thorough work in the procuring of basic knowledge in every department and the acquisition of skill and efficiency in practical pursuits rather than research work such as is done by post-graduate schools, has been the aim of the school. It tried to fit men for useful
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work in the quickest way and to prepare them to fill their positions with credit to themselves, rather than to produce famous scientists, artists, and authors.
III.
Until about 1914 the Brown-Kinsey educational enterprise kept growing. The school numbered its students by the thousands, and these went forth to all parts of the world after their graduation with a spirit of affection and loyalty to their alma mater and their beloved leaders that is rare even in educational circles. Whenever one of them would pass through Valparaiso or come close to it in his or her travels he would stop to make a visit and refresh cherished memories. The Chicago alumni — and there were many of them — used to make annual pilgrimages to Valparaiso, and were given a fatherly welcome by the aging President Brown. New departments, like the school of pharmacy and the high school for mature students, were added, and able teachers were brought into the faculty.
Then, in quick succession, came blow after blow, under which the thriving university soon began to suffer severely. In November, 1911, Professor Bogarte, one of the most efficient teachers of the school, was stricken dead while conversing with his family after having returned from evening service at his church. His death was pronounced an irreparable and irretrievable loss to Valparaiso University. A year later, in the fall of 1912, Mr. Brown, while visiting in the city of Boston, suffered a stroke of paralysis from which he never recovered, though he still lingered for five years. Mr. Kinsey became acting president after Mr. Brown’s illness, and the latter’s eldest son, Henry Kinsey Brown, came from a broker’s office in California, where he had been employed for a number of years, to assist in the management of the university. The dual ownership of the institution with its attendant division of executive authority, which had not proved a handicap to the school in the previous years, did not immediately affect the progress of the institution, but soon became an element of weakness and a check upon the school’s prosperity. For a while the school was carried forward upon the great momentum of past efforts and achievements, and new departments were even added to it, notably that of domestic science, for which a special building was erected, and a school of agriculture, which, however, was a short-lived experiment, although at the time it promised to become one of the best agricultural schools in the United States. The enrollment of students for 1914-15, according to Mr. Kinsey’s account, was the largest in the entire history of the institution. Then came the World war, and the effect which this tragic event had upon Valparaiso University is thus described by a witness: “Many students were compelled to leave school because their expenses were being
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paid by friends or relatives in foreign countries, and upon the outburst of the war they were unable to get money from home. Many others withdrew from the university to enter the armies and navies of their respective governments. Mr. Kinsey spent several hundred dollars for which he got and did not expect any return, in helping foreign students, who were severed from their usual course of support to find employment, or in paying their transportation to their homes or to a place where they might maintain themselves during the war. But all this weakened the university, and as the decrease of students grew larger each term, it was obviously necessary to resort to some plan which would put the institution in way of supporting itself, and at the same time assure its perpetuity upon its original principles and purposes.”
It had been the plan of Mr. Brown and Mr. Kinsey to bequeath the university, which had become a self-supporting institution, to a self-perpetuating board of trustees, but this plan was not carried out. On May 1, 1919, the firm of Brown and Kinsey, proprietors of the Valparaiso University, was formally dissolved, Mr. Kinsey retiring at the age of seventy, and Mr. Henry Kinsey Brown, the son of the originator of the educational enterprise at Valparaiso, assuming charge of the business of the university. Under him and a number of heads of the school who succeeded him, attempts were made to raise a large endowment for the school and thereby secure its continuance. But none of these efforts proved successful. The enrollment grew smaller and smaller, teachers remained unpaid and had to leave the institution, buildings fell into decay because there was not the necessary care-taking and repair work. Soon the once prosperous university seemed hopelessly on financial rocks, and the end was in sight. IV.
IV.
Mr. H. K. Brown, on assuming the management of the school in 1919, had begun to work with a board of trustees, which had been appointed to meet requirements of the state. The business of the university was officially transacted through this board, which henceforth appointed the presidents of the school. Various attempts were made to transfer the school to a new owner. At one time it was even offered to the State of Indiana. But all these efforts came to naught. Finally, members of the Lutheran Church of the Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other states, resident in the State of Indiana, had their attention drawn to the school and after inspecting the property and examining the legal status of the property rights, decided that the school might be reorganized as a university, and serve the needs of their church body. Accordingly the Lutheran University Association was organized, membership in which was restricted to members of the Synodical Conference of the Evangelical Lutheran Church
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of America, which is a confederation of Lutheran synods, with the aforementioned Synod of Missouri as the largest and most influential component part. Nearly all the members of the Lutheran University Association are from the Synod of Missouri. This association was incorporated under the laws of Indiana, and is the holding company of all the property of the university. Its executive office is located at 1120 Barr Street, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Its president is Dr. H. Duemling, its secretary, Rev. Paul Miller, its treasurer, Mr. W. C. Dickmeyer, and its business manager, Rev. John C. Baur. This association conducts the university through an interlocking body, called the Valparaiso University Association, which is the operating body of the university. The officers of the former are also in the same capacity officers of the latter association.
The Lutheran University Association, in order to obtain the funds necessary for purchasing and operating the university, launched a financial drive among the members of their church in the fall of 1925. From the proceeds of this drive, which are slowly coming into the treasury, they are paying the purchase price for the various buildings belonging to the university complex, and are helping to defray the running expenses of the institution. The greater portion of the proceeds of the drive, however, is to be devoted to the creation of an endowment fund of $500,000, which is to be invested in productive securities. More than $125,000 have so far been spent by the association in repairs on the various buildings, and out of the practical ruins of the old university there is gradually arising a new school that aims at achieving the best standards in education in every way, and at the same time adhere to the principles of the Christian religion and the Lutheran Church. There are changes taking place in its various departments to meet the requirements of educational boards, and the present indications are that the school is gradually coming back to something like its former importance in the field of higher education. Since the beginning of 1926 Prof. W. H. T. Dau, D. D., formerly of Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary at St. Louis, Missouri, is the president of the university.
LAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS.
Mrs. Harriet Holton taught school in Crown Point in the winter of 1835, having three scholars, and was Lake County’s first teacher. She was a widow with three children who arrived in Crown Point in the spring of 1835, and for years was a leader in social and church activities. She died in 1879, nearly ninety-seven years old. The second school was conducted at Pleasant Grove in the home of E. Wayne Bryant in 1836 and the third Lake County school was opened on the west side of Cedar Lake in 1838. The teachers in the latter school were Mr. and Mrs. Hervey Ball and the school attained a high standing and was considered the most select
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educational institution in Lake County for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Ball were the parents of Timothy H. Ball, who attended the school taught by his parents and who in later years wrote a History of Lake County, which is a recognized authority on the pioneer period. As the population increased other schools were opened and Timothy Ball became a teacher in 1844. The high standard of education and the resulting popularity of the school conducted by Mr. and Mrs. Hervey Ball created a demand for advanced courses of study, and Rev. William Townley opened an academy and boarding school in 1848 which he conducted until .1856. This school enjoyed a high reputation and included instrumental music among its studies. At one time it had nearly five hundred scholars and many teachers in the public schools were graduates of this institution. When Mr. Townley closed his school and left the county in 1856, Miss Mary E. Parsons, who was a graduate of the Mount Holyoke Seminary, opened a similar institution with advanced studies which she conducted successfully until her death in 1860. Another select institution was the Knight School for Girls, which opened in 1865, and was conducted by the Misses Martha and Kate Knight. In the same year the Crown Point Institute was started and furnished a preparatory and collegiate course of study. The institution was purchased by the town of Crown Point in 1871 for $3,600. Another private institution was the Tolleston Technical School, which was opened in 1866, and in which civil engineering was taught. This school was closed in 1869.
CROWN POINT SCHOOLS — At the present time there are two school buildings in use in Crown Point, the North Ward Building and the new Crown Point High School Building. The North Ward Building was erected in 1880 and is still in good repair. The large grounds surrounding' it furnish ample play grounds and play ground equipment is being constantly added. The finishing, material and workmanship of the new high school building are of the most modern type and the plans embody the very latest and most approved ideas in school house construction. The course of study is made as practical as possible considering the size of the school and the funds available. A start has been made along vocational lines and it is planned to make further vocational advancement the coming year. A three year course in wood or bench work is taught and this department is largely self-supporting. Three years of sewing are taught in the graded and a year of agricultural botany includes trips into the fields to study growing crops, methods of cultivation, pruning of fruit and shade trees, grafting and budding and berry cultivation. Seed selection, testing, spraying, etc., are also taught. In the department of chemistry study and experiments emphasize the facts that all need to know and use in daily life, such as food adulteration, testing drinking water, “doctored” meats,
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milk, sanitation and other kindred subjects. A new gymnasium affords an excellent place for physical training and exercise under a capable instructor. The high school maintains a literary society and carefully prepared programs are presented at the meetings which are held every two weeks. These consist of debates on live subjects, readings, dramatic work, extemporaneous speeches, music, etc.
HOBART SCHOOLS — Aunique feature of the Hobart Township school system is that there is not a country school remaining. Consolidation was begun more than fifteen years ago and results of that movement were so satisfactory that now the school children within a territory of seventeen square miles are brought to the central township school in Hobart. In this centralized school there are sixteen teachers, besides the superintendent, having charge of some 450 children. Eleven teachers are required in the grade work and five in the high' school. Fifteen years ago the high school was commissioned, since then the school has not only kept pace with the changing standard, but has gone far beyond the requirements of the State Board of Education. Some of the elective studies maintained are: a year and a half of phonography, a year of typewriting, four years of German, two years each of manual training, freehand drawing and mechanical drawing, four years of vocal music. There are classes in bookkeeping, civics, physical geography, commercial arithmetic, American history and physiology. The required subjects are three years of mathematics, four years of English, three years of science, two years of history and four years of Latin or German. The science department is especially strong and the equipment for botany, chemistry and physics is scarcely equaled by any other school having twice the number of pupils. Nothing is lacking in apparatus, convenience or supplies. One feature is a powerful projectoscope which is used both in the auditorium and laboratory. In the upper grades and in the high school the work is arranged on the departmental plan. For a number of years the school has been interested in dramatic work and has made great progress in this direction. Within the past twenty years the high school has sent out 200 graduates, 143 of these belong to the last ten years, the banner class being that of 1912, which numbered twenty-one. A glance at the list reveals the fact that one-fourth of the alumni hold responsible positions which their high school training placed within their reach. Twenty-five are teachers, eleven are in business, seven are practicing law or medicine, six are farmers and four hold Government positions. Thirty graduates of Hobart High School have entered higher institutions of learning, ten of these are now in college and fifteen of the number hold degrees from the universities. The records of the graduates speak well for the efficiency of their high school training.
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LOWELL SCHOOLS — The course of study in the Lowell High School has been arranged largely to meet local conditions and needs, although those desiring to attend college are prepared accordingly. Emphasis is laid on industrial education, courses in sewing, household economics and agriculture. The three year agricultural course covers the study of agricultural botany the first year; the study of soils, field crops, fruit growing and vegetable gardening the second year, and the third year is devoted to the study of livestock, dairying, poultry and the principles of feeding. The agricultural course is comparable in extent and thoroughness with the courses in physics, botany, history, literature and other subjects.
EAST CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
Through the courtesy of A. C. Senour, general supervisor, the publishers are indebted for the following historical and descriptive discussion of the East Chicago Public Schools, which came into material existence in 1888 with the erection at the corner of One Hundred and Forty-fifth Street and Northcote Avenue of a two-room structure, which was donated to the town by the land company. Because of the inability of giving adequate financial support, the town abandoned its control of the schools in favor of the township in 1890. From 1890 until the summer of 1897 the schools remained under township administration. The first meeting of the board of education was held October 19, 1896, but the financing was done by the township until the expiration of that school year.
School opened in September, 1897, with a corps of nine teaching in an eight-room building on the site of the present McKinley Building and in a one-room schoolhouse at Berry Lake, where the elevators now are.
High school instruction was begun the following year in the Tod Opera House, site of the present Calumet Building, and continued there until February, 1900, when the present Harrison Building was occupied.
In the twenty-nine years of city school operation, from 1897 to 1926, the school facilities have been expanded in an attempt to parallel the growth of the city. The present public school population, of a few less than eight thousand in October, 1926, is now housed on eight sites and instructed by a staff of 262 teachers. It is noteworthy that for this period of years there have been but four superintendents. I. F. Mather served from 1899 to 1901; W. C. Smith, 1901-1905; E. N. Canine, 1905-1925; and J. W. Asbury, 1925 to the present. Many of the characteristic features of the organization are a tribute to the superintendency for two decades of E. N. Canine. The board of education consists of W. A. Fuzy, president; Mrs. B. E. McQuaid, treasurer, and G. C. Hansen, secretary. J. W. Asbury is superintendent and A. C. Senour general supervisor.
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SOME CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES — To many people any one public school is just a public school and essentially like unto all public schools. There may be a few manifest differences, such as in architecture, in landscaping, in playground area, in size, or in the nature of the children in attendance. But to those who give thought to the matter, there are recognizable more significant differences than those just enumerated. It is these significant differences that really distinguish one school from another and entitle one school to be considered modern and progressive in contrast to others that may be traditional and conservative.
The East Chicago Public Schools have attained recognition as modern and progressive because of several really characteristic features:
1. Free kindergartens, established in 1901, that are now operating on a graded basis as introductory and pre-primer. Many urban, as well as rural, communities do not have kindergartens.
2. Industrial and commercial training in several lines of work that will admit the student to regular skilled industrial and commercial labor.
3. Supervising principals. The policy, since 1913, has been to construct reasonably large buildings with enrollment capacities of 900 to 1,600. Principals have been employed with special professional training, whose tasks have been administrative and supervisory, not instructional.
4. A real junior high organization. Many so-called junior high schools are merely departmentalized seventh and eighth grades. The junior high school as instituted in East Chicago in 1914 was a reorganization of the seventh, eighth and ninth grade studies in an endeavor to meet the needs of adolescent youth.
5. Platoon programs. In 1915 a platoon type of organization was inaugurated by which a more complete use of the school plant and an increase in the efficiency of the instruction in the different subjects was made possible.
6. Evening school for immigrants and other adults seeking to increase their academic, industrial, or physical education. Evening school was first opened in 1908.
7. Summer school, begun in 1909, with the intent of assisting retarded children to make up deficiencies and now operated, in addition, to permit high school students obtaining advance credit.
8. Ungraded classes. There are some pupils in every community who do not progress satisfactorily in the regular graded classroom. Language handicaps, speech defects and slow-developing mentality are frequent causes. In East Chicago, the advent to the city of numerous children, from other sections of the United States or other countries, that have had very inadequate opportunity for getting an education is also a cause. Ungraded classes extend to such pupils a chance that would be denied them otherwise. The first ungraded class was established in 1908.
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9. Organized systematic use of visual aids to instruction. In 1922, the public schools made provision to insure the use of the movie, lantern slides, pictures and field trips to museums, industries, farms, etc., by the employment of a director of visual education.
10. A directed physical education and health program for every child. In 1909 the first gymnasium in an elementary school building was completed. Specially trained teachers supervise and direct the physical recreation of the pupils for a minimum of one hundred fifty minutes weekly. The after-school and summer time play is under the direction of the department of community recreation financed by the civil city but administered by the board of education.
11. Multiple-track organization. In 1922, classification of children according to their ability was started. This is accomplished by the systematic use of standard tests of mentality and achievement in the different school subjects, supplemented by information from other sources. Failure has been reduced in the five years of its operation to such an extent that less than five out of every hundred pupils failed in June, 1926, whereas in June, 1922, practically ten out of every hundred failed. An especially satisfactory condition accompanying this reduction in failure is the fact that each of the three distinct types of students — the pupils of average, of advanced, and of retarded ability — are doing a better quality of work now than they did then.
12. A modern curriculum recognizing the present day demands of living and providing for adjustments to meet the peeds of the many different students enrolled.
13. An efficient corps of teachers. For years, as a general policy, the East Chicago Public Schools have been requiring a minimum of two years of professional study and one year of experience as a condition to employment to teach in East Chicago. In the United States a very large number of the teachers have had not more than one year of professional preparation.
COSTS — The modern school organization as indicated in the preceding has been given to and operated for the pupils of the city at the low cost per pupil for 1924-25 of $80.16; for 1925-26 of $82.93. Study of the reports on file in the State Department of Public Instruction will show that the cost per pupil is lower than in all but two of the first and second class cities of the state. These do not attempt as complete a modern program as does East Chicago.
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SOME FACTS AND FIGURES —
Enumeration, April, 1926 13,859
Enrollment, October 1, 1926:
Senior, grades 10-12 488
Junior, grades 7-9 1,785
Elementary, grades 1-6 5,164
Kindergarten 494
Total 7,931
Employees, October 1, 1926:
Instructional and supervisory 262
Board, medical, clerical, janitorial, etc. 62
Total 324
Erection and School
Buildings Remodeling Dates Rooms Acres in Site
Harrison 1898; 1923 9 2.075
Lincoln 1903; 1923 18 1.113
McKinley 1905; 1910; 1914 24 1.763
Washington Elementary 1908; 1923 19 *6.933
Riley 1912; 1914 27 1.390
Garfield 1912; 1914; 1919 26 .952
Washington High 1918; 1920; 1924 55 *6.933
Roosevelt 1924 24 15.638
Mark 1920; 1922 4 **3.074
Number of different nationalities represented by pupils in 1925 36
Expenditures:
Total expenditures for current operation, 1925-26 $708,467.98
Total expenditures for current operation and for capital
outlay, 1925-26 752,094.49
Per capita expenditure, regular day school, elementary
grades, 1925-26 66.10
Per capita expenditure, regular day school, junior high
grades, 1925-26 96.85
Per capita expenditure, regular day school, senior high
grades, 1925-26 134.48
PAROCIAL SCHOOLS — The parochial schools maintained by the Roman Catholic churches in East Chicago have an attendance of approximately
pupils under trained teaching sisters.
* In conjunction. ** Not the property of school city.
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WHITING PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The city of Whiting has good reason to feel proud of its modern school system, which has been largely developed under Superintendent J. H. Hoskinson during the past twelve years. The course of study is standard for the state with much emphasis on industrial work, home economics, health and physical education. The school employs a school nurse and a school physician and have school banking weekly throughout the schools. During the past twelve years the system has nearly doubled in size. A junior high school has been organized and put into operation. New buildings have been built, the-most modern methods of instruction introduced and the qualification for teachers raised. Two thousand pupils are enrolled in the grades and high school in addition to one thousand pupils in the evening school, which includes industrial work, classes in English and citizenship for foreigners and various high school subjects. The evening school, which was started largely as a part of the Americanization program, has been developed until this phase is one of the most important in the entire system. The outstanding features of the Whiting schools are the excellent plant and equipment. The buildings are all centrally located in one block excepting one eight room elementary school. The Junior High School Building is new and is one of the finest buildings to be found in any school city and with the equipment is worth a half million dollars. A twelve room elementary school building is now in course of construction in connection with the central plant, which will cost about $125,000. There are at present in service one senior high school building, a junior high school building, three elementary school buildings and one central heating plant. The Whiting schools have a large industrial equipment, including printing, wood work, forge, sheet metal, drafting and machine shop. Seventy teachers are employed at an annual cost of approximately $140,000. The school census for 1926 was 3,257. The total enrollment for 1925 and 1926 was 2,097, and several parochial schools care for about 800 children. The per capita cost for 1925 and 1926 for the senior high school was $171.46; junior high school $147.86, and elementary schools $72.26. The members of the Whiting Board of Education are J. W. Burton, president; T. S. Boyle, treasurer; and John Salapski, secretary, and the board of education and the citizens generally have strongly supported Superintendent Hoskinson in developing the Whiting school system, which is recognized as one of the leading systems in modern educational methods in the state.
HAMMOND PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
The first school in Hammond was erected in 1863, and six years later, in 1869, there were sixty-eight pupils attending the school. The first
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high school was established in 1884, from which the first class of three girls was graduated in 1887. From these small beginnings a rapid change took place in the development of the public school system in the next few years until in 1892 W. C. Belman, the well known Hammond banker, who was then superintendent of the North Township schools, was in charge of the only schools in the State of Indiana whose limits included one city of 10,000 people, one incorporated village of 1,500 people and one community not incorporated with 2,500 people, which had a complete system of graded schools under a single township trustee and with a superintendent and a corps of thirty-one teachers. Since that time the public schools of Hammond have grown into a highly organized and efficient system of fifteen elementary schools, one technical-vocational school and one academic high school. The annual public school enrollment has grown to over 11,000 and the schools have an average annual growth of over
pupils. The high standard of the Hammond public schools is clearly shown in the following interesting story of the schools published through the courtesy of Superintendent L. L. Caldwell.
ORGANIZATION — The Hammond public schools are organized in five closely integrated departments: kindergarten, elementary, junior high school, senior high school and technical-vocational school.
THE KINDERGARTEN SCHOOLS — Each school district in the city has a free public kindergarten as a part of its regular elementary school organization. This plan has been in effect for thirty-seven years, Hammond being one of the pioneers in the establishment of kindergartens. Each kindergarten is especially equipped for its work and is directed by a trained, experienced teacher. Whenever enrollment justifies it, two trained teachers are supplied. Children are admitted at the age of four years. The kindergarten teachers keep in close touch with the homes and are doing much to aid parents in the pre-school training of their children. Special attention is given to health and desirable habits in child life, and to the development of intelligent interests in home, school and community life. Kindergartens and primary grades are under the same supervision and a unified type of work maintained. The Hammond kindergarten-primary department has a national reputation for excellence.
THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS — The elementary schools of the city are being gradually developed into six-year schools, including the first six years of the child’s regular school course. For a number of years the Hammond elementary schools were unique in having seven years above the kindergarten. The traditional eighth grade of the school was dropped from the course and the work reorganized on a seven-year basis of ten months in each year. The seven-year plan aimed at the elimination of
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non-essentials and unproductive repeated work in the old curriculum, and the intensification of the essentials of elementary education. It had as one of its objectives the saving of a year in the education of the child in an industrial center where it is necessary for many children to go to work at the age of sixteen. With the founding of the technical-vocational school and its continuation part time department to care for such needs, the development is now toward the six-year type of school merging into closely integrated junior high schools which provide seventh, eighth and ninth year work.
THE JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS — The junior high school has been found by actual practice to provide the best kind of school training for pupils of seventh, eighth and ninth grade age. It provides for their common and particular interests and abilities of that age in child life. It makes possible a greater variety of experience than the conventional grade school furnishes. Here children are able to follow the lines of their individual interests and to learn more of the possibilities of advanced training beyond the junior high school years. Group and co-operative interests are also cultivated. The fundamentals of effective education are advanced and merged more successfully into the higher grades of public school training.
THE high school — For a number of years the Hammond High School has been one of the outstanding schools in the Calumet Region and in the State of Indiana. It offers the usual variety of courses found in a modern city high school. Standards of scholarship and conduct are unexcelled anywhere. Special attention is given to a smooth union with the lower schools and to the welfare of its students. It maintains a personnel and student advisory department which endeavors to serve the needs of the individual pupil, to co-ordinate the student activities of the school, and to supervise pupil progress in general. One of the notable features of the school is its Student Association, which was organized in May, 1923, by the students and faculty — “to promote a more democratic spirit, maintain good discipline in the school, train for citizenship, and aid in the direction of school activities by the students.” All members of the student body and faculty are members of the association and are governed by the rules of the association. The jurisdiction of the association in no way includes matters of administrative school policy, or of classroom management, or of professional technique. All action of the association is subject to final veto of the principal and superintendent of schools. The organization of the association is modeled after the Government of the United States.
The high school maintains several excellent features in modern education such as bands, orchestras, dramatics, choral societies, swimming classes, art classes, health education, a school book and supply store, and
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a school bank. These features will be presented in more detail in the discussion of special features.
THE TECHINCAL-VOCATIONAL SCHOOL — One of the many unique features found in the Hammond public schools is the technical-vocational school. This school maintains three departments or divisions: The technical high school with emphasis on training for higher schools of engineering and technology. Science, mathematics, English, citizenship and shop experience are the basic courses. The vocational school, which trains for a wide variety of trades, with emphasis on mastery of the common branches of learning, citizenship and shop practice. Vocational training is provided for girls as well as boys. The continuation-part time school,
which provides further training for the boys and girls who find it necessary to go to work before they have finished their schooling.
One outstanding feature of this school is its plan of individual instruction. A boy or girl may enter at any time, begin exactly where they need to start, and progress as rapidly as they are capable of doing the work. Pupils are assigned definite units of work, both in classroom and shop, which must be completed to the best of the individual pupil’s ability before the next unit is assigned. An exact record is kept of all progress made. It is possible and practicable to finish one subject and enter another at any time. The pupil who may fall behind other pupils in his work for any cause does not fail at the end of a term and have to repeat all his work. He goes on from where he has completed his work satisfactorily. Pupils may enter the school or transfer to another class at any time without
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interference to the class in any way. Pupils who have been absent for any cause return to their work and continue from their last completed lesson. Pupils who can attend only part time have no handicap on their individual learning.
Shop work is on a production basis. For example, the forge shop makes tools and other things for actual school use. The woodworking department makes furniture for the schools. The other shops are likewise productive. All work is made as actual and real as possible. Much construction and repair work is done for the schools. Boys work in their respective shops a half-day and then change to academic classrooms for
the other half-day. The common elements of education are emphasized in all classroom work.
Shop courses are offered for boys in auto mechanics, auto* ignition, battery repair and construction, general electrical work, motor and generator work, radio repair and construction, forge shop, machine shop, woodworking, drafting, plumbing.
For girls, vocational courses are offered in shorthand, typewriting, office training, filing, bookkeeping, comptometer operating, food and clothing and home nursing.
The school is organized to help the pupil find the work for which he is best suited and advance him in that trade. It emphasizes the dignity of labor and the pleasure in work well done. The standards of the school are high. Playfulness or carelessness is not tolerated in shop or classroom. Every instructor and every pupil must cooperate for the good of
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the whole school. Only that class of instructors is employed and only that class of pupils are allowed to continue with the work.
SPECIAL FEATURES.
There are many commendable features in the Hammond schools:
ATTENTIONAL TO INDIVIDUAL NEEDS — One of the notable features is the attention given to the individual needs of children in all schools. The work and activities of each grade and department are arranged so that each child finds an opportunity for expression of his or her type of interest, ability and personality. The fundamental principle is opportunity for every one to find something of real interest, to work productively, to work cooperatively, and withal to feel that life and school are richly worth while. Special attention is given to individual physical needs and to mental hygiene. Opportunity classes and special schools for defective and seriously handicapped children are maintained so that such unfortunate children are given an opportunity to grow in the best way possible for them.
The attendance department works efficiently, in close cooperation with the home and school to find the real needs of special cases and to help promote remedial care in both school and home. This department is recognized as one of the most efficient in Indiana schools.
HEALTH EDUCATION — Health education is considered as of primary importance. A competent staff of trained nurses and teachers of health and hygiene is maintained. Every pupil is given physical examination, and the results furnished in detail to parents and teachers. Close, cooperative contact is kept with the home. Splendid assistance is given by the physicians and dentists of the city and by the several civic clubs in cases of needy children where the home is unable to provide the necessary corrective work or treatment. The City Board of Health likewise lends all possible assistance. The aim is “a sound body and a healthy mind for every child in Hammond.”
THRIFT AND SCHOOL BANKING — The teaching of thrift and the school savings bank is a notable feature in Hammond education. On February 15, 1927, there were 5,879 pupil savings accounts in the school savings bank. The number is increasing each month. Tuesday is bank day in the schools. The weekly deposits range from $1,600 to $2,000. The accounts draw interest at the rate of 3 per cent. The school savings bank is operated as a department of the clearing house banks of the city. Special instruction is given in earning and wise saving.
SAFETY EDUCATION — The numerous railroad, street car and traction lines and heavy automobile and truck traffic passing through Hammond
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to and from Chicago make safety education of primary importance. Instruction in safety is a regular part of school work. To aid in this instruction, to train and protect younger children and to assist the efficient traffic officers of the city, safety school patrols are maintained in all schools. These patrols are made up of boys above the fifth grade whose standing in studies and character warrant appointment to the safety patrol.
Before and after school, and at intermission periods, the patrols station their officers about the schools at dangerous places to protect children and direct traffic. Officers of the patrol take their positions as detailed by the captain of the patrol on the sidewalk directly in front of the school and at dangerous street crossings in order to keep the pupils from the street and to assist the smaller children across dangerous street intersections when traffic conditions permit. The patrol officers when on duty at street intersections are posted at the curb; not on the street. They direct the movement of children across the street when it is safe for them to cross, and endeavor to prevent jaywalking and other foolish practices.
Every patrol officer on duty wears a white Sam Brown belt and a silver shield, thereby identifying him to passing motorists. These emblems of authority remain the property of the board of education and must be returned upon demand or in case any officers shall leave the service.
CIVIC EDUCATION — Civic education is interwoven in all school work and activities, not as an isolated extra, but as a practical application of everyday service and education. The schools are closely affiliated with the Hammond Chamber of Commerce, the several civic and city clubs and the city civil administration. The pupil’s report card to parents carries not only a record of progress in studies and the like, but also a report on traits of character desirable for good citizenship. The traits of courtesy, self-control, respect for law and order, courage, trustworthiness, cooperation, industry, initiative, thrift and personal care are given special attention.
FINE ARTS — The attention given to the fine arts is worthy of special note. Music is a prominent part of school work. Over 750 pupils in the school are studying band and orchestra instruments. The high school maintains a boys’ band and a girls’ band of over sixty pieces each, and two splendid orchestras. There are twelve elementary school bands of from twenty to fifty pieces each. Besides these bands are training classes for beginners. Instruction is free and a part of school work.
In addition to these bands and orchestras there are several choral societies and glee clubs. Dramatics and art work are likewise emphasized.
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For a number of years Hammond High School has been noted for the excellence of its dramatic and handicraft work.
ATHLETICS — Athletics are also a prominent feature of school activities, with special emphasis on class teams and games. Each school maintains its athletic teams and an effort is made to get as many boys and girls to participate as possible. Strict attention is given to physical fitness and the pleasure which comes from athletic sports. The athletics are organized into a variety of games, recreations and sports to provide satisfactory possibilities for every child — to suit his age, temperament and physical condition. The athletic spirit and ideals of the school are high. Cooperation, self-control, spirit of fairness, courtesy, a modest winner and a good loser, are all made of first importance. The athletic program is made a part of the health education of the schools.
THE HAMMOND SCHOOL PRESS — One of the efficient parts of the Hammond school system is the school printing department. All the report forms and record forms used in the schools are set up and printed in the school print shop. Two school newspapers are printed, and many booklets for school use. The department is equipped with two typesetting machines, job presses and a power press capable of newspaper and book printing. A number of pupils are trained each year for the printing trade. The quality of work done is widely commended for its excellence.
GROWTH OF THE SCHOOLS — The chief problem of education in Hammond is that of keeping up with the growth of the city. With an annual increase of 1,500 pupils on the average, the building needs of the city are tremendous. New schools are being built as rapidly as funds are available. The Parent-Teacher Associations of the schools are doing much to aid the board of education in working out school plans and policies. No school city anywhere enjoys finer loyalty and co-operation from parents and teachers. The problems of growth are enormous; but the spirit and will to solve them are equally great. Hammond proposes to be as productive in education as she is in industry.
PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS — Beginning with the early growth of the churches, both the Lutherans and Roman Catholics have maintained parochial schools. At the present time there are several thousand children attending the Catholic parochial schools, which are conducted in accordance with state and diocesan regulations and have a very high standard. In addition, the Roman Catholics maintain the Central High School in Hammond with a very high rank and which has scholars in attendance from the various cities in Lake County. A story on this institution follows:
CATHOLIC CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOL — The Catholic Central High School of Lake County, at White Oak Avenue and Hoffman Street, Hammond,
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Indiana, is a coeducational institution offering classical-academic, scientific-academic, and commercial-academic courses leading to a high school diploma which is recognized alike by private and public colleges and universities because of the affiliation of the school with the Catholic University of Washington, D. C. Its curriculum, like that of all Catholic schools, is based on the conviction that intellectual, physical and moral training must be combined in the development of character.
The school is conducted by the community of sisters known as the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ, with the Venerable Sister M. Gonzaga, Ph. D., as local superior and principal of the school. The director of the school is the Rev. Paul J. Schmid, M. A.; he is assisted by the Rev. Andrew J. Sucek, A. B. At present the teaching staff consists of the two reverend fathers and nine sisters.
The school was opened September 16, 1921, with a class roll of forty. At present there are 190 pupils from Hammond, East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, Whiting, and Gary. The students have the advantage of a campus of about twenty acres, the left wing of the main building which contains five classrooms, the offices, one science laboratory, domestic science kitchen, typewriting room, locker rooms and lavatories, and a spacious gymnasium building which contains a biology laboratory, two classrooms, cafeteria, lockers and showers, and the gymnasium. There are also two dwellings on the grounds, one for the reverend fathers and a convent for the sisters.
GARY PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
By Superintendent William A. Wirt.
In Gary the schools try to appropriate the street and alley time of the child by providing opportunities for work and play as well as opportunities for study.
In cities and towns the home no longer provides the opportunities for the wholesome work and play of children. Character is formed while the child is active. The acquisition of good character consists largely in the forming of habits of doing the right thing at the right time. In the customary exclusive study school the child is passive, sitting in a school seat. The physical habits formed in such an environment are habits of inactivity acquired from sitting quiet during the school life of twelve years. Only a few children are so book-minded that they are able to form habits of mental activity from the study of books alone. The mental habits formed by the average child in a straight jacket school seat are largely those of day dreaming. In the cities of the United States the child averages about 2 1/2 hours per day for the 365 days of the year in a straight jacket school seat. The habits of activity are formed in. the
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streets and alleys, and for the forming of such activities the child has about five hours per day for the 365 days in the year, or double his school time.
The home lost the opportunity for character building when it gave up the industrial training of its children and failed to provide for the child’s play. Society seems to be so organized in cities and towns that the civic care of the child must now take over industrial training and play. But this additional burden need not be assumed by the established school. The child may live a part of his life in the home, may study in school for 2 1/2 hours a day, and may learn to work in a separate trade school and play in a playground park for the five hours of the street and alley time. The character forming influence of the street and alley time will be removed and wholesome activities substituted without any additional burden on the established school. In some cities the schools have in a very limited way attempted to provide opportunities for industrial training by manual training courses, and in a limited degree some opportunities for play have been provided by physical training supervisors. But the manual training equipment and teachers, the play facilities and supervisors have added to the annual per capita cost of the established schools. Further progress in this direction seems out of the question unless a much larger financial expenditure is made possible by higher school tax levies. Unfortunately the time for industrial training and play now given by the established schools comes out of the short 2 1/2 hours’ school time and does not encroach on the harmful street and alley time. To eliminate the street and alley time of the child by industrial schools and playground parks provided by other civic bodies than the schools relieves the schools of the burden, but increases the expenditures for the civic care of the child by raising the taxes of the civic bodies providing these facilities. It is the conviction of the Gary school management that not only is the wholesome character building of the child inseparably linked with his work and his play, but that for the great majority of children the mastery of the academic school subjects can not be separated from work and play. The child must want to know and must be willing to put forth effort to learn the things the established school has to teach. The child himself is the greatest factor in the learning process. He must educate himself. No teacher can do this for him. Adults often say that if they had their school days to live over again they would improve their opportunities better than they did. What a pity that when we now as adults want to educate ourselves we do not have the opportunity. When we had the opportunity to educate ourselves we did not want to. Can not something be done to prevent the recurrence of this tragedy in the lives of the children today? Is it not possible for children to want to educate themselves right now while they have the opportunity? Talking to them
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about the importance of an education will not have much more influence with them than it had with us. No one questions the fact that as children we were talked to enough about the value of an education. The reason why we are willing to educate ourselves now as adults is not because some one has talked to us about the matter, nor because we have read about it in a book. It is because every day of our lives we are disappointed in that we can not do the things we would like to do or get the things we would like to have because of our inability and lack of training. We have discovered that we need a well trained, capable mind and well trained, capable hands for success in life. If the child is to appreciate the opportunities of the school he must feel the need right now for the things the school is teaching or should teach. To tell him that he will find out and realize in twenty years hence will not do. In the child's play and in his work all sorts of needs for the academic school studies can be created. The child can not do the things that he would like to do or get the things that he would like to have, because he has not mastered the academic school subjects. The child can be bitterly disappointed every day because of his inability and lack of training and can be sent to his teacher of the academic subjects with a vivid, real appreciation of the importance to him of the things the school has to teach. When the child wants to know and is willing to put forth an effort to learn the things the school should teach, then the teaching process becomes a simple matter. The Gary schools include the work shop and playground along with the study room, not because they wish to sugar coat the study with sentimental play and work. The study room schools need the workshop and playground to motivize the school studies. We do not wish to remove the difficulties from the school, but we do wish to increase the child’s power so that he can put forth sufficient effort to master the difficulties and find great joy in so doing.
The school can not crowd into the study room time of 2 1/2 hours a day the workshop and the playground time. The five hours of the street and alley time are sorely needed for the workshop and playground activities. Besides, the street and alley time is undoing the good work of the home and school and must by all means be eliminated. The school day in Gary is, therefore, three hours for study, three hours for work and constructive play, and two hours for voluntary sport. The schools in Gary have only half as many study rooms, only half as many school desks as there are children enrolled. While one set of children are in the school seats in the study room learning to read, write and figure from formal drill and textbooks, another set of children are on the playgrounds, in the gymnasiums, swimming pools, auditoriums, gardens, science laboratories and workshops. All of the school facilities are occupied all of the time. The pupil capacity of the study room is doubled. The per capita cost of the study room is much higher than the per capita cost of the workshops
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and playgrounds that are substituted for study rooms. Therefore the total per capita cost of the combined study room, workshop and playground school is less than the per capita cost of the established exclusive study room school. Many school plants have auditoriums, workshops and playgrounds added as extras. When the study room teachers are occupied the auditorium, playground and workshop and their several teachers are idle. And just to the extent that these special features of the school plant are used the regular study rooms and regular teachers are idle. The Gary schools eliminate the providing of two or more places and sometimes teachers for each child with only one in use at any time. The child has the study room with the specially trained teacher in charge for the formal drill work with the textbooks in reading, writing and arithmetic. He also has the workshop and playground with specially trained teachers in charge. But when any one group of children is using any one school facility, other groups of children are using the remaining facilities. Thus the combined study room, workshop and playground schools are provided at a much lower per capita cost for investment in plant, annual maintenance of the plant and cost for instruction than the usual established exclusive study school. The extra cost to the community of providing separate playground parks and industrial schools is eliminated altogether.
The school plants are open from 8 a. m. to 5 p. m., and from 7 p. m. to 9:30 p. m. The enrollment for adults for evening activities almost equals the enrollment of children for day school activities. The school plant designed for the study, work and play of children in the day school is also admirably adapted for adult use at night. The unit school plant in Gary accommodates the day nursery, the kindergarten, the common school grades and the high school in each building. The facilities provided for the older children during the day are designed for use of adults at night. These facilities include gymnasiums, swimming pools, science laboratories, auditoriums and large corridors and rooms for receptions, dances and parties, entertainments and clubrooms. The following workshops are provided: Carpentry, cabinetmaking, steam and gas fitting, plumbing, printing, machine fitting, electrical work, foundry, forging, painting, sheet metal work, domestic science and art, laundry, mechanical and architectural drawing, industrial mathematics, etc.
The unit school plant will accommodate approximately 2,700 children in day school, and the same number at night.
Any two school plant units provide a sufficient amount of sheet metal work, machine fitting, foundry work, forging, cabinet work, carpentry, plumbing, steam and gas fitting, printing, painting, electrical work, care of grounds, lunchroom business, laundry, bacteriological work, coal and other testing, to maintain these departments with master workmen as instructors employed for full time in each. The number of students work-
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ing at one time as apprentices with each master need not exceed six. The productive work of each department more than balances the cost of material and the master’s salary. Any trade department that can not produce enough to pay the salary of the instructor and cost of materials used is not worth much for industrial education. Some economic pressure must be placed on the department to secure anything like real industrial conditions. The school in doing its own work does not take anything away from workmen. On the contrary, more desirable positions are created for workmen and they receive a larger share of the product than they would under commercial conditions. The employers gain by securing from the school better trained workmen, which is worth much more to them than the profit on the school work.
The Gary schools try to give the children an opportunity to do many kinds of work and find out the things for which they are best fitted. We believe that it is just as important for a boy to have a chance to try painting, for instance, and learn that it is not the work for which he is fitted, as it is for other boys who should be painters to have a chance to learn the trade. We do not wish to assume the responsibility of vocational guidance, but try to provide an opportunity for intelligent vocational selection.
Since groups of pupils of all ages are playing, working and studying all of the time during the school hours, special provision can be made for exceptional children. A child who is weak physically and not able to play can give the entire school time to the playground, gymnasium, garden and workshops. A child who is weak in arithmetic or any other subject can be given extra time in other classes in arithmetic or the particular subjects needing such extra time. Each child can have just the amount of work in each department and the kind of work that he individually needs.
It is also possible to make any combination of classes in any subjects. Fourth and eighth grade pupils, for instance, may be combined in science and shop work and separated in other subjects. When the work in any subject is of such a character that younger children can learn better by working with older children, they have the opportunity. The direct teaching of the instructor is supplemented by the unconscious education of living, in a world of wholesome play, work and study. The indirect teaching of the older children is of great value to the younger, and the responsibility thus assumed has the highest educational value for the older children. We try to give the children not a playground, not a shop, not a study room, but a life. The foregoing is from the Educational Report, Lake County Schools, Frank F. Heighway, superintendent. The history of the Gary schools follows:
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GARY’S FIRST SCHOOL — The first school within the limits of the present City of Gary was located in the Tolleston section, first known as Bradford and later as East Tolleston. Mrs. William Brown, 1939 West Eleventh Street, Gary, was the first teacher. The schoolhouse was a neat little building having one room and an entry, heat being furnished by a big box stove. Mrs. Brown boarded with C. C. Gibson, a son of Mrs. Marie Gibson, owner of the famous Gibson Inn, which is described in another chapter of this history. The first school in Gary as originally incorporated was established in the winter of 1906-1907, and was taught by Judge Ora L. Wildermuth, one of the pioneers of Gary, and more fully described in his recollections of the early days of Gary, found in another chapter. In 1908 William A. Wirt was engaged as superintendent, and under his direction began the wonderful development of unquestionably the best public school system in America. Superintendent Wirt came to Gary from Bluffton, Indiana, where he had been superintendent for some years. He had very definite convictions concerning the dignity of work, the significance and the character-forming possibilities of play, and the value of wise provision for study. In an article by John G. Rossman, assistant superintendent of the Gary schools, published in the Teachers College Record, in speaking of Superintendent Wirt, Mr. Rossman says: “He examined the then existing schools of this country and abroad and found that our American schools had become almost exclusively study schools. He also found that possibly twenty-five years before, or fifty years ago, boys and girls lived largely in rural centers and had better balanced experiences involving work, study, and play. The home duties offered opportunities for work activities in almost all lines of endeavor. The journey to and from school offered the child contact with the natural life about him. The school itself presented many opportunities for play and also provided in a meager way for study. Rather rapidly the tendency has been toward concentration of the population in cities. Going hand in hand with this concentration have been several factors which have made the problem of rearing children in cities even more serious. The school day and the school term have been shortened. Curtis and Caldwell tell us, for example, that in Boston in 1845 ‘schools were in session all the year round’ and ‘that the length of the daily session was apparently six clock hours.’ Little by little modern conveniences have entered our home-life so that no longer are there chores and the attending responsibilities and experiences for the child. The home life of the family has changed. In many cases both father and mother are away from home during most of the child’s active day. In short, it is the exceptional home in which the child of today finds worthy, constructive work and play experiences in a social setting.”
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When William A. Wirt endeavored to put into practice his conception of work-study-play, he found that it was impractical from the standpoint of the school organization as it was at that time in Bluffton, and as it is to this day in many school centers. His great aim was to make the city a good place for the rearing of children, and to give boys and girls worthwhile experiences in work-study-play. To do this he had to modify and materially enrich the curriculum. When he endeavored to inaugurate his program, he found that the curriculum was already overcrowded, and that the short school day made the realization of his ideals impossible. He found that on all sides teachers considered themselves overworked, and that, in general, taxpayers felt that they were overburdened.
In the new and growing City of Gary he found opportunity to put his program into effect, with the result that the Wirt Work-Study-Play System became known all over America and even abroad. The Gary child received a better and broader education, the curriculum was enriched, teachers specializing in certain subjects were more efficient, and these and many other advantages were obtained without any additional cost to the taxpayers. Wise use of the school buildings, proper use of the teachers’ time and resources and good scheduling made the above situation possible. Using the plant more hours a day and more days in the year adds but little to the cost of the initial investment of the cost per pupil, which is materially reduced by increasing the enrollment in the plant. The results achieved in Gary were obtained through a new organization in which the length of the teaching day for the teacher was one thing, the length of the pupil’s day another, and the length of the day for the use of the building entirely independent of the other two factors. Quoting Mr. Rossman further: “The program further provided for one unit in the plant for each group of pupils housed and one teacher for each group. This difference is brought out more concretely if the housing needs of 640 pupils are considered under the conventional program and under the reorganization. In a modern conventional school we should have sixteen groups of forty pupils each. This would require sixteen academic rooms, one manual training room, one home-making unit, one gymnasium, and one sixteen-unit auditorium, or a total capacity of thirty-five units. There would be from eighteen to twenty teachers employed if we include the time of those teachers of special subjects who travel from building to building. William Wirt’s program calls for but six academic rooms. Each one of these sixteen groups have three sixty-minute periods of academic work each day. That means that we must provide rooms for forty-eight academic room periods. We can use each room eight periods per day. Therefore but six academic rooms are required. Additional units are, one for nature study and drawing, one for expression, one for music, one three-unit auditorium where 80 to 120 pupils will be accomodated at any
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one time, two units for shops, and one two-unit gymnasium where we will have eighty pupils with two teachers in charge. Thus we have sixteen units which would be in charge of sixteen teachers; at the same time we have a program operating in a more highly enriched environment.
By utilizing all of the plant all of the time more hours in the day, it has become possible to offer almost any subject desired in the public schools with no additional cost, and it is also entirely possible to do this on the basis of averaging but one teacher for each group of pupils.
MAKING THE CITY A SAFE PLACE — A century ago only 10 per cent of our population lived in the cities. Today more than 50 per cent live there. As the city has developed, adult needs have been considered, but during the interval little or nothing has been done toward making the city a
safe place for the rearing of children. Our transportation lines, our libraries, our art galleries, and our recreational centers are accompaniments of this urban growth, but practically all of these have been for the adult. Such exceptional advantages have been made possible for the adult community through a scheme of organization known as the distributed load. There is no attempt, for example, to afford a seat in our libraries for all of the patrons in a community at one time, nor do our transportation companies endeavor to have sufficient cars to seat all of their patrons at any one time. William A. Wirt, profiting by this example, applied it to the organization of the child world. Realizing the impossibility of providing an adequate program for children so long as a seat had to be provided for each child in the school classrooms, he has taken over the pro-
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gram known to engineers as the balanced load or multiple use of the plant. This has placed the child, so far as school opportunities are concerned, on a par with the adult and his varied environment in the cities.
It is in this way that it has been possible for Gary to offer to its boys and girls a longer school day for more school days in the year than practically any other city in the United States. Thus it is that a curriculum bounded only by the limits of one's imaginations of the practical is offered to its pupils. It is in this way that the boys and girls of the community are kept away from the crime school of the street and alley. A rather extraordinary substantiation of this claim is that in the criminal court records of both the city and the county less than 5 per cent of the Gary entries are names of Gary boys and girls under twenty-one years of age. This is a remarkable record when compared with the statements of many authorities concerning the large percentage of criminals under twenty-one years of age. It is through such a program that almost 93 per cent of the entire school enumeration between the ages of six and twenty-one are enrolled in the public or parochial schools, and that although the community is one in which we should expect to find a large percentage of pupils attending private schools the percentage is relatively small. It is following out this same line of organization that the taxpayer in Gary today, at a very low per capita tax, offers all these advantages and is paying to the teachers an average salary of $2,052.50 for the regular ten months’ session, with proportionate increases for services in the Saturday school, the night school, and the other extension activities. And it is by means of such an organization that Gary is able to offer, day in and day out, a well balanced program of work, study and play to its boys and girls, its young men and young women, and its adults.”
THE SCHOOL SYSTEM — The city school system at present consists of nineteen school centers, enrolling about 18,000 pupils, and practically all centers are in development stage. Two more centers will be opened shortly. Two of them house pupils from the kindergarten through the high school with enrollments of 2,500 and 3,000 respectively. Two centers are assigned exclusively to colored pupils, although insufficient to care for all. Most of the centers accommodate kindergartens and the first eight grades. There are at present about 525 teachers, and the growth of the city makes necessary an additional forty new teachers each year. With the exception of a few small outlying schools which have the conventional type of organization the school centers are operated on the program known as the work-study-play program. In these work-study-play schools an effort is made to give the pupil constructive exercises in wholesome environment made up of life situations. The pupil enjoys the privilege of making contacts which develop him on all sides in a normal way— he
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works, he studies, he plays. Such an organization affords to the pupil as much time for the academic subjects as is afforded to him in the conventional school. He finds plenty of time for work in nature study, art, drawing, handwork and the many different shops. Large, well equipped gymnasium and adequate playgrounds afford him many advantages which the city street and alley deny him, and the auditorium is used as a center for presenting such things as are not as readily presented in the ordinary classroom. It is also in the auditorium that community singing, music appreciation and the finer arts are given expression in addition to that in the special classrooms and studies assigned for such work. The achievements of the Gary boys and girls in college and university work, on the athletic field, in interschool contests and in their social relations to their fellows testify highly to the effectiveness of such an organization. There is possibly no school organization in the United States which utilizes more nearly all of its plants and all of the time or which meets the needs of all of the individuals in its school city than does Gary. The pupil attending the regular session in the larger centers is given a seven-hour day in addition to his luncheon period. In the program generally followed for the day he has three sixty-minute periods given over to academic work; one or two sixty-minute periods, depending upon his grade level and program, to physical education and play; one sixty-minute period to auditorium, and one or two sixty-minute periods to special activities which include nature study, art, handwork, drawing, music of various types and shop work, in which field there are many offerings. In addition to this he may be permitted upon the request of his parents to attend church school or other social organized activities one or two hours per week, and he is afforded the opportunity of going to some branch of the public library. Children are encouraged to make the schools the center of their activities almost every Saturday in the entire year and a varied program is provided for the Saturday school. About 65 per cent of the regular day school enrollment voluntarily attends the Saturday school. The playgrounds are open during the entire day, in charge of competent supervisors. During the past few years a summer school has been maintained, open to pupils of all grades and in practically all departments. More than 60 per cent of the regular school enrollment is enrolled in this summer school.
ECONOMIC ADVANTAGES OF THE WIRT SYSTEM — Gary has enriched the program by lengthening the day and using the plant intensively, and this intensive plant use has resulted in the need of only about half the cubical contents of the plant used by the traditional organization. In addition to providing better educational opportunities, it is obvious that great savings have been made in investment and, while this economy was not the object,
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costs are becoming more important clay by day until, at this time, the matter of saving in investment is one of the major advantages of the work-study-play plan. Auditor A. H. Bell, of the Gary school city, whose courtesy is on a par with his great ability as an accountant, has made some interesting comparisons of cost in investment and maintenance of the Gary school city with other cities throughout the country with the most startling results. Space does not permit of but a few illustrations of the results obtained by these comparisons, and a striking example of the economy obtained through the use of the system in the Gary schools is shown by an analysis of ninety high school plants in eighty-nine cities in twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia. These ninety plants have a content of 182,530,690 cubic feet and a pupil capacity of 119,046. Dividing the total cubical contents by the pupil capacity, the average cubic feet of building per pupil is 1,533. The Emerson school building of Gary on a high school basis has a cubiture of 831 feet. This is 702 cubic feet (45.8 per cent) less than the average of the other ninety buildings. It is easy and practical to resolve the cubiture into money. Construction costs of modern fire resisting school buildings at the present time averages around 40 cents per cubic foot. By assuming this to be the cost unit for the ninety-one plants used in this analysis, the cubic feet building costs per pupil capacity in the average of ninety plants would be 1,533 times 40 cents, or a total of $613.20. The cubic feet cost per pupil in the Emerson building, Gary, is 831 times 40 cents, or $332.40, a saving in building costs per pupil of $280.80. Inasmuch as the amount invested in the plant is less in Gary than in the other ninety plants above mentioned, it is apparent that the depreciation loss is materially less and the interest on the investment an important item of saving. The total cubical contents in all school buildings in the City of South Bend in 1925 was 16,961,832 feet, and the capacity per pupil was 1,142.7 feet. The total cubical contents in all school buildings in Gary in 1925 was 8,651,012, and the capacity per pupil was 496.5 feet. The total cubical contents in the school buildings in South Bend exceed Gary 7,310,820 feet, and the capacity per pupil exceeds Gary 646.2 feet. Had Gary required the same amount of space per pupil as that shown for South Bend and had created a debt at the same ratio as has been created, the Gary debt per pupil would be $205.66 instead of $132.78, and the annual interest charges per pupil would be $10.82 instead of $4.70. This additional annual interest requirement would be equivalent to an additional tax of 7.4 cents for each $100 assessed valuation. With this tax it would have been impossible for Gary to carry on its enriched program, as the cost would have been prohibitive. Emphasizing further the economy in costs in the Gary schools through the use of the work-study-play system and using the Emerson school, Gary,
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for comparison, it has been noted that the cost per pupil capacity in cubic feet at 40 cents per cubic foot in the Emerson school was $332.40; in the Eastern High School at Washington, D. C., it was $1,073.20; in the Ottumwa, Iowa, High School, $1,000.80; in the East Side Junior High School, Terre Haute, Indiana, $1,051.20; in the high school at Lebanon, Pennsylvania, $1,052.40; in the Harris High School, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, $1,066.40. The high investment cost per pupil in the cities above mentioned seem extreme cases, but so far as investigated throughout the country, the Gary saving is most pronounced and with a richer program for the pupil, and show conclusively that Gary’s claim of giving more education for less money because of a longer day, a longer term and a richer program, largely because of a more efficient plant use, is incontrovertible. A comparison made between the Joliet Township High School and the Emerson High School of Gary shows the remarkable superiority of the Wirt work-study-play plan over the traditional program both from educational opportunities and economy of operation, but must not be considered as reflecting in any sense on the school city of Joliet or its management, because Joliet has the traditional organization while Gary has the work-study-play plan. Although Joliet and Gary are only fifty miles apart, the methods of school operation invoked in the two cities are widely dissimilar and there are more points of difference than there are of similarity. Joliet has approximately a five-hour day both in their high and elementary schools, while Gary has a full seven-hour day, with the plant in continuous use eight hours, one hour of which is taken out for lunch. The Gary school day is therefore 40 per cent longer than that of Joliet. In addition, the Gary term is 194 days, while the Joliet term averages 182.3 days, an excess of two hours per day, or 446.5 hours per term, in Gary schools, or 49 per cent more hours’ instruction in Gary than in Joliet. The above excess instruction hours plus a richer program and a higher average pay for school teachers would indicate a much greater cost for Gary. But an analysis shows the annual per pupil cost in Joliet to be $137.62, and in Gary $86.17, the Joliet cost being 59.7 per cent higher than Gary. The great saving in cost shown in favor of Gary is almost entirely due to a more efficient use of plant. The total number of square feet devoted to instruction purposes in the Joliet Township school building is 186,132, and in the Emerson school building, Gary, 72,444. The number of square feet per enrolled pupil in Joliet is 89.93, and in Gary 26.55. The per cent of total square feet in Joliet for instruction purposes is 57.68, and in Gary 73.21. The number of square feet in the Joliet Township High School building, which includes entrances, stairways, corridors, offices, etc., and not used for instruction purposes, is 136,936, and in Gary 26,514. The total enrollment in the Joliet Township High School in 1925 was 2,075, and in the Emerson High School, Gary,
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the total enrollment was 2,729. It will be noted that the total number of square feet for all purposes in the Joliet Township school building is 323,567 square feet, and in the Emerson school building, Gary, 98,158 square feet. Although Gary had approximately 650 more enrolled pupils, it has abundant floor space, although its building floor area is only 30.6 per cent of that of Joliet. While Gary was using 73.21 per cent of its floor area for instruction purposes, Joliet was using only 57.68 per cent. Again, while Gary, as above stated, had about 650 more pupils, they were accommodated in sixty-two schoolrooms, while Joliet used 107. The number of pupils under instruction per room in the Joliet Township school was 19.4, while in the Emerson school, Gary, the number was forty-four. Further, the auditorium in the Emerson school, with a seating capacity of 750, is used throughout the day for organized classes. Joliet uses her expensive auditorium, with a seating capacity of 2,100, only for occasional assemblies. In this one item alone the Gary saving amounts to several dollars per pupil annually. The cafeteria in the Joliet Township school has an area of 9,193 square feet, which is practically being used for no other purpose than to feed the students and faculty. For exclusive cafeteria purposes Gary ties up no equipment. Gary feeds a much larger student body with a floor area of 2,352 square feet, and in addition uses this space for instruction purposes when it is not being used as a cafeteria, as the cafeteria in Gary is an integral part of the home economics section. The traditional school organization is not organized for utilization of its playgrounds and turns all pupils onto the playgrounds for a short period of fifteen minutes in the forenoon and for the same period in the afternoon. The Gary playgrounds are in use every hour of the day, weather permitting, and are an integral part of the physical training section.
SOLVING PUBLIC SCHOOL PROBLEMS — The more the Wirt plan is studied and the more it is compared in educational opportunities and economy of operation with the traditional program, the more it is appreciated as coming near to solving the many problems of present day public school demands. Through the adoption of the Wirt plan the American people should receive from 30 to 50 per cent more education and community service than they are receiving without increasing the present outlay. Buildings are being constructed all over the country at a cost range of $400 to $1,500 per pupil accommodated. Some cities pay much more. Hibbing, Minnesota, has constructed a school plant at a cost of $5,000,000 said to accommodate approximately 2,000 pupils, which is on the basis of $2,500 per pupil. Plant depreciation and interest per pupil alone in this plant amounts to double the cost of educating a pupil in the Gary schools. Extravagant investment in school property if retrenchment becomes necessary means a lower teacher’s salary and a lesser number of teachers, with
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a vital curtailment of the educational program, as the maintenance charges of the property must be met, interest and insurance payments must be made, and there is no possibility of reducing the consumption of fuel, light or power and the janitorial force can not be materially reduced because the floor area must be kept clean. In Gary the great saving made in janitor service, fuel, light, power, interest, insurance and depreciation is put largely into education, but a considerable portion remains with the taxpayers. In this age of high construction costs and obsolete overcrowded buildings, saving in plant costs becomes very important, and by operating the plants intensively many cities could discard their old obsolete buildings for modern fire-resisting structures, while at the same time more pupils could be given a greatly enriched program. There would be a tremendous saving in bonded indebtedness, as fewer school buildings would be required, with the resulting saving in interest and maintenance charges, which are a constant drain on the taxpayers, and as shown in the experience of Gary, through the lower operating costs of the school city, higher salaries could be paid to deserving efficient teachers. It is gratifying to know that since the introduction of the Wirt system, first in Bluffton, but more particularly in Gary, the Wirt idea is being widely used in many places, being known as the platoon plan or duplicate plan. The present enrollment of the Gary school is approximately 18,000, and the city at present has the following school buildings:
Emerson, Jefferson, East Horace Mann, West Horace Mann, Ambridge, Froebel, East Pulaski, West Pulaski, Virginia, Theodore Roosevelt, East Roosevelt Annex, West Roosevelt Annex, Tolleston, Beveridge, Wallace, Glen Park, Franklin, Miller, West Gary, Clarke, West Fifth Avenue and Riley.
The investment in Gary school buildings, property and equipment at the present time is approaching $4,000,000. There are more than 525 teachers, with salaries between $2,000 and $2,500 each. All books and equipment are supplied by the school city at a nominal rental. The playground space per pupil is nearly 600 feet. The investment in modern playground, gymnasium apparatus and other outdoor and indoor physical training equipment represents an investment of nearly $50,000. The school city has a medical inspection department, with a competent staff of nine, including two doctors of medicine and five nurses who make regular physical examinations of students, care for the sanitary condition of school properties, administer free vaccination against smallpox, diphtheria and scarlet fever, and perform other duties of the department. Through the courtesy of a number of Gary dentists free dental examinations are made of all students requiring such service. The Gary School Band of 750 pieces, and the Gary School Orchestra of 180 pieces, are com-
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pletely equipped and uniformed. There are also three companies of junior R. O. T. C., in command of United States captain of infantry, with several assistants.
PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS — There are nine parochial schools in Gary, with
approximately 3,000 students, which offer excellent academic elementary
instruction. In addition, the Holy Angels Catholic school offers two years
of high school instruction.
NAVIGATION OF
HISTORY OF THE LAKE AND CALUMET REGION OF INDIANA
FOREWARD
AN APPRECIATION
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I - Geology and Topography
CHAPTER II - The Mound Builders
CHAPTER III - Days of Indian Occupancy
CHAPTER IV - Early Explorations
CHAPTER V - Border Warfare
CHAPTER VI - Lake and Calumet Region Becomes Part of United States
CHAPTER VII - After Wayne and Greenville - Tecumseh and the Prophet
CHAPTER VIII - Indian Peace
CHAPTER IX - Early Settlements and Pioneers - County Organization
CHAPTER X - Townships - Towns - Villages
CHAPTER XI - Pioneer Life
CHAPTER XII - The Lake Michigan Marshes
CHAPTER XIII - Agriculture and Livestock
CHAPTER XIV - Military Annals
CHAPTER XV - The Lake and Calumet Region in the World War
CHAPTER XVI - The Newspapers
CHAPTER XVII - The Medical Profession
CHAPTER XVIII - The Bench and Bar in the Lake and Calumet Region
CHAPTER XIX - Churches
CHAPTER XX - Schools
CHAPTER XXI - Libraries
CHAPTER XXII - Social Life
CHAPTER XXIII - The Dunes of Northwestern Indiana
CHAPTER XXIV - Banks and Banking
CHAPTER XXV - Transportation and Waterways
CHAPTER XXVI - Cities
CHAPTER XXVII - Industrial Development
CHAPTER XXVIII - Chambers of Commerce
Transcribed by Steven R. Shook, December 2022