People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 27-25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 January 1896 — NEW YEAR'S 1896 [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW YEAR'S 1896

ing up Zion's Hill,” and many others were first taught us within these walls The songs, the Sunday school, the Christmas entertainments; ;he festivals, the harvest homes, the choir practices, the installations, have so engraven themselves that the lapse of years will not eradicate them. “Ail hail to the old church; all hail to its bell and pulpit; and the fact that itis supplanted by a grander edifice does not detract one whit from our honor and reverence for the old building. It is but one way which God has provided that His cause goes marching on tha* we should pull down our old church and build a grander, larger one. “The church began to build in 1886 and is now on a fair footing, spiritually and financially. There is to some extent a feeling of buoyancy within us at the thought' of the new church building.

oak and hickory, the soil upon which it grows is a mixture of clay and gravel, well adapted to the raising of wheat. The timber

unknown because much of our lands were lying idle, too wet to used and thought to be too worthless to be drained. But with the coming of the dredge ditching machine new and fertile fields soon began to spring up from out the moss and the mire, wh >re frogs for centuries had attended sieging schools, where mosquitoes for ages had held moonlight picnics and gallinippers undisturbed had sailed their boats and sung their vesper hymns, there now stretches the wide corn fields, there now we see miles of upturned sod mellowing in the winter frosts, waiting for the coming spring when the good husbandman will sow seed that will yield an hundred told.

ish, thus giving us a variety ol products that can not fail to greatly add to the wealth and population .of the county. Our • mce dispised marshes have really been to us a reserved fund; they are now fast becoming the beauty, the pride and the wealth of the county. While ther'e has been great complaint of hard times, the last few years, in all parts of the country and buisness has been almost at a standstill, yet with us there has been unparalleled growth and activity. We ha vet budded gravel roads, opened up new farms, founded new towns, and for two years a steady stream of newcomers have been pouring within our roomy borders. Where e're we look we see signs of progress and prosperity, especially is this true of the uortl era half of the county, there we see .the wind mill supplanting the an cient sweep, the log cabin giving place to tlie spa-ions and j elegent frame and the unsigh ly | ha.v shed duplicated by the tall red barn. More new houses and barns have been built in Jasper county the last three years than were ever built here in any six years before, .and all I done when implements were' at | a stand still in other places. With four railroads now cross ing the county and more in prospect, with hundreds of acres of rich new lands yearly being reclaimed, with the purest, coldest water that ever slaked human thirst, with a climate free from excessive heat and unbearable cold, with epidemics, pestilence, storms and crop failures as yet uuknown, with the center of the county only 73 miles from one of the greatest' cities of the earth—with, all these unexampled advantages fully known and appreciated by our people, it surely hath not yet appeared what Jasper county shall be.

little to atjd to the subject. As mentioned by Miss Yanatta, a buildirur is already lining considered, so 'treat has been the increase in population since the last excel lent structure was erected, and there is every ‘ reason to believe that the town | will grow even faster in the 1 fut ure. I j “One of the most important factors in the development of society is the public j school. Indiana enjoys the distinetion of 1 having one of the last school systems in the United States, partly due, no doubt, to the fact that she is a portion of What was originally the “Northwest Territory" for which special legislation of the general government was enacted in 1785. which ail an excellent foundation for the school system of the states which later evolved from that territory. “The pioneers of Jasper county were not behind the general sentiment of the state, in regard to educational matters, and long before the State could aid tlu-m they had begun the solution of this gre; t problem for themselves. They built 1< g school houses-and maintained subscription schools. Neighborhoods worked t.o- ---; gcflicr and put up the cabin, and the pa j trons paid the expense of the-teacher's ' salary in proportion to the number of | pupils sent from a family, j “In 1841 (1. W. Spitlcr taught the lirst school in Rensselaer, in the second story of a log cabin which stood where (J. W. I : Goff's restaurant now stands. The next

Til teacher was able generally to advai e > the ] upils to the single rule of three in Arithmetie.and to conjugate tho : verb “io love" in grammar, and the pupils eould.often give a better physical exemplification of this, than intellectual. In ISA! Air. S. ,P. Thompson took charge of j-ho schools of the town. There wav thm three teachers. School was I held in a building which stood on the corner of Van Rensselaer and Washington streets where Ellis A Murray's store now stands. The first t-cliool house in the town was built in 18(53. on the corner of Front ami County road and consisted of three rooms. This was afterwards enlarged to live rooms. When Mr. Thompson cn- ■ fared the schools he found that in the j eyes of his pupils education consisted of ! “Spcllin" and "Cipluu'ing." "Each pupil : had been in tin* habit of following his | own ".bent. If one liked "ciphering,'' he j began at the beginning and "ciphered ! through" and the same with regard to I “spellin," 1 1 is pupils numbered about 110. lS(id Mr. Thompson was superin- . tendent who was followed by Mr. G. W. | Fitzgerald. I "In 18(57 F. A. Robinson took charge of ] the schools as superintendent. I. M. Stackhouse being | resident of the board of trustee. The duration of his term was five months. W. 11. Martin. Miss Ella Spangle, Miss Lydia Dwiggins were his assistants. “Mr. Stephen Yeomen next swayed the J scepter, probably a hickory one, for a

Shop (and home to the left) of Isaac A. Glazebrook. blacksmith, horse shoe r, wagoi - mak-‘r. machinist, local reprcsenNative ( f Milwaukee raowi rs and harvest ii g machines, situated on Front street* on the banks of the Iroquois. See por trait and sketch elsewhei e.

St. Joseph's Indian Normal School and Workshop; located one mile south-west of Rensselaer, near St. Joseph’s Catholic College; founded in 1888; under the supervision of Father Prank, (Rev. Frank J. Schalk:) a training school for Indian boys. The patroness of this inst itution is Miss Kate Drexel, (now Mother Catherine,) a of Philadelphia-. See descriptive article elsewhere.