Franklin County, Nebraska

For Another Day

Written January 20, 1882

This Week’s column is from an article in the Franklin County Guard that was published in Bloomington.

“The first district organized in the county was that of Bloomington, the second was Franklin and the third was Riverton.

“The first school was taught by Mrs. Jessie Davis in the spring and summer of 1871 in a dugout on Little Cottonwood, some one-half mile west of the present town site of Bloomington. Mr. Gus Martin was the first superintendent.

“The record does not go back beyond January 1, 1876, the beginning of the administration of Mrs. M. S. DeClerg as superintendent. (The DeClerg’s lived in Ash Grove Township). Since that time, there have been 349 certificates granted in the county, these of the first grade, 188 of the second grade, and 188 of the third grade. Forty-seven percent of the number of certificates granted in the years 1876-77 were from the third grade, and fifty-three percent were of the four years succeeding.

“The records show the average scholarship of those granted certificates to be 86 (overall grade) and to be four percent lower in the last three years than in the three years previous. The oldest teacher having taught in the county is Mrs. C. A. Shiner 57-years-old. The youngest, Miss Della Deary, 14 years of age (The Deary’s lived west of Bloomington where James Haussermann currently lives). The highest salary ever paid in the county was by Riverton ($60.00 per month). The lowest $8.33 1/3 by District No. 29. (This was the Sunny Hill District in Oak Grove Township near the state line.)”

Franklin County was only 12-years-old when this school history was written. If I could find out the name of Mrs. Jessie Davis’ husband and then go to the courthouse and look up his name in the alphabetical listing of the people who owned land in Franklin County in 1871, I would probably find the location of the very first school of our county. This is because in the first few years of the county, school was often taught in the homes of the teachers. Franklin county was just one-year-old in 1871 and that is about as far back as we can go. Thank goodness someone took the time to write this information down in 1882. Even though the Franklin County Guard Newspaper was printed in 1872, we are only in possession of the very first print of that newspaper. After that, until 1874, 1875, and 1876, we only have a few copies of the first newspaper of our county. I guess you know how much I would like to find the 1872-72 editions of the Franklin County Guard. I have wished for rarer discoveries, and they have fallen into my lap. You just never know where the answer will be.

This information about our county’s early school history was taken from the writings of Jerry Tanquary’s Big Chief Tablet.

No one means all he says, and yet very few say all they mean,
For words are slippery and thought is viscous. Henry Brooks Adams

Rena Donovan, For Another Day.

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