Notables
Jackson County Notables
Events, locations, and industries important
to Jackson County history.
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FRONTIER EDUCATION
When enough pioneers settled in an area about 3-4 miles square, some settler
would suggest the necessity of a school. The adults of the neighborhood would
gather by common consent to a place convenient to wood and water, and with ax
and from in hand, the community created the school, log by log.
Frontier education could not be taken for granted. Where it existed it had to be
scrimped for - wrung, so to speak, out of lives which to begin with were not the
most comfortable.
An early day school near the home of ex-governor L. W. BOGGS on South Spring
Street was described by FANNIE (FRISTOE) TWYMAN: "It was a log house with
wooden chimney well daubed with mud. A log was left out of the south side for a
window which extended across the side of the building. Underneath the window a
plank rested on wooden pegs. This was our writing desk where we stood and
worked." She could have continued the description by saying that the seats
were rough benches without backs; the children sat with their legs dangling or
folded beneath the seats, depending on their height. Always visible as evidence
of discipline was the flat ferrule or hickory switch, hung on the wall. Early
severe discipline was partly due to the popularity of the well-known "spare
the rod and spoil the child" philosophy and partly to necessity.
Frontier lads, however, incapable they might be of spellin' or cipherin', were a
husky lot and many a frontier teacher was "ducked" or "locked
out" if he aroused their wrath in some manner.
When pioneer children learned to "cipher" and spell, "carry"
and "borrow" in subtraction and long division, and were able to read
and write, that was considered sufficient. Educational opportunities for boys
were obtained only between corn-shucking and ground-breaking time. If the girls
knew how to attend to domestic duties, spinning, and could read the simple
characters of the Bible, they were adequately educated.
The first schools on the frontier were known as subscription schools, where the
parent paid accordingly to the number of students sent. The early schoolmaster
often accepted his wages in coonskins, bear meat, venison, and similar frontier
commodities.
Life was not easy for the schoolmaster. Books were scare, paper high, slates a
luxury. It was the day of quill pens and homemade ink. The teacher taught from
an hour after sunrise until an hour before sunset. The student learned the
rudiments of grammar, spelling, readin' and 'rithmetic, and though the
frontiersmen was seldom "well-educated" he learned the
"necessities" in those early subscription schools.
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This page was last updated August 2, 2006.