In a county such
as Burnett where large areas have but recently been settled a brief history
of the schools may serve to indicate not merely educational conditions
but the past and current progress of the county as a whole, for Burnett,
a young and growing factor of the commonwealth of Wisconsin has not attained
that state of placid and satisfied inertia that may characterize a region
whose resources are fully developed and whose reasonable possibilities
have been fulfilled.
The interested delver in
old records is usually rewarded by the discovery of data that lends significance
to the facts of more recent years and here and here a still familiar name
makes personal and vivid the association of the present with the past.
The earliest written county
record of the schools of Burnett County is the annual report of County
Superintendent Malcolm McMillan for the year ending August 31, 1872.
Shortly after 1865 however, a public school had been maintained on what
is now the Andrew Skog farm south and west of Grantsburg in a hunting shanty
in the wilderness on land then owned by J. A. Hickerson, an early and highly
esteemed pioneer. About the same time another school was maintained
on what is now the Peter Mathison farm near Branstad. In these improvised
school houses there were no desks, rude benches held the faithful learner
and the teacher followed a forest trail to dispense knowledge from a dry-goods
box. In 1868-9 a school house was built near the site of the present
village of Grantsburg. (Superintendent's Note - Most of the material in
this paragraph and the preceding one was secured by interview. I
depended largely on information given by Ole Anderson, though Simon Thoreson
and others contributed clues. Rev. P. E. Swanstrom also says that
the school building formerly near the fair grounds was the first school
house erected in Burnett County.)
Burnett in 1872 included
what is now Washburn County, yet it contained but one town Grantsburg,
of magnificent proportions. There were three school districts in
the town and three school houses, one in what is now the town of Trade
Lake on the shore of the lake, the site of the present John Davidson farm
house, one on the "quarter Line" three miles south of the village where
now is situated the St. Olaf's church and the third also on the "quarter
line" which was then visible only to a surveyer, about ½ mile south
of Grantsburg on the lot adjoining the present fair grounds on the south.
Of these three school houses this was first erected. It was built
of logs but was afterwards sided and painted a reddish brown to conform
with the proverbial poetic ideal of the "little red school house."
This relic of pioneer days remained standing for many years but about ten
years ago it was sold and moved to the farm of Sever Hanson where it served
as a barn till overshadowed by the presumptuous buildings that recent years
demand. To such base uses did this first hall of learning of Burnett
County descend.
Before 1872 this school was
taught by Charles Nelson, now Rev. Charles Nelson of Evanston, Illinois,
by Annie Peck and Tena Thompson afterwards Mrs. Thomas Peck, one of the
earliest teachers recorded in the annals of Burnett County. Tobias
Thoreson, supervisor of the Town of Grantsburg for a dozen years and present
chairman of the county board of supervisors, Simon Thoreson chairman of
the county board for more than a decade, member of assembly for the 9th
District, 1903, Ole Anderson one of the firm of "Hickerson Roller Mill
Company" and President of the "First Bank of Grantsburg," Andrew Ahlstrom,
deceased, for thirteen years County Clerk and eighteen years Postmaster
of Grantsburg, were among the older pupils and since continuous residents
of the county, who sought at this early period to relinquish further their
native Norwegian and Swedish under the influence of American institutions.
The school at Trade Lake
was taught by Tena Nelson. Among the pupils who attended here were
Maggie and Rika Nylander, two of "King Karl" Anderson's sons, Hannah Davidson,
Pete Wedin, and Joseph Ekberg, farmers in the prosperous town of Trade
Lake, and G. R. Wedin, a practically continuous resident of Burnett since
1869 and now a merchant of Grantsburg. County Judge F. G. Dalberg
and his brother Aaron Dalberg, a supervisor of Trade Lake, both pioneers
of Burnett, at this time attended school in Polk County from which Burnett
had recently been set off.
The school house at St. Olaf's
was a spacious frame building, of which that active and ardent pioneer,
Knute Anderson, was justly proud. This building was afterwards moved
north to the present location of the Branstad graded school, and was used
until 1899, when a stiff breeze scattered it to the four winds of heaven.
In this building in 1872 Christian Sangstad taught school. Among
the present residents of Burnett who were enrolled here are Nicolai Hanson,
Christian Olson, Hans Jensen, Ed. Estenson, progressive farmers of Grantsburg
and Wood River, Mrs. Christine Mathison Monroe and Lydian Olson of the
village and James H. Jensen, county clerk for six years, president of the
village of Grantsburg and at this time a real estate dealer in that village.
Mr. Sangstad received for
his services $40 per month, the wages of the two women averaged $32.50.
School was maintained for five months in each of the three school houses
and 202 children were enrolled in all. For his services of supervision,
Supt. McMillan received $3 a day.
The next year, 1872-3, four
schools were maintained in the county and Malcolm McMillan, I. Grettum
and J. Tharaldsen wielded the birch and rule for the average monthly remuneration
of $45.66 while Ella Green and Hortense Peterson taught the young idea
how to shoot for $35.
The possibilities of cranberry
culture in Burnett attracted, among others, John G. Fleming of Oshkosh.
This popular and kindly gentleman, with his wife, kept a "stopping place"
known later as "Smith's" northeast of Grantsburg. In 1874 Mr. Fleming
succeeded Mr. McMillan as county superintendent of schools. That
year the women held full sway over the prospective merchants, farmers and
legislators of Burnett and Mrs. Belle Fleming, Almina Nelson, Caroline
Ahlstrom and Hortense Peterson are recorded as teachers.
Mr. Fleming continued as
superintendent for six years, during which time the schools grew from six
to twelve. In 1876 the perdiem of the county superintendent was $4,
yet the aggregate must have been small for Mr. Fleming's successor, E.
M. Wilson, reports the emoluments of the office $100 for salary and $15
for postage.
In 1882 Martin Satterlee,
now Rev. Satterlee of Minneapolis, who serves St. Olaf's Lutheran church
near Grantsburg, became county superintendent. Mr. Satterlee resigned
in the fall of 1882 and E. M. Wilson was appointed to fill the vacancy
and afterwards elected. After 1877, teachers' wages diminish.
From that time till 1887 the wages of women teachers vary from $27 to $29,
of men from $28 to $32.
In 1884, Tena Nelson one
of the first teachers of the county, the daughter of Judge Magnus Nelson,
a respected and influential pioneer of Burnett, was elected superintendent.
During the decade that Miss Nelson served the schools of Burnett the school
districts increased in number from 16 to 32, the number of children who
attended school from 821 to 1300. The salary of the county superintendent
ranged from $175 to $300. In 1897 the salary was $500, in 1904 it
became by the operation of the law $900, in 1908 it was fixed at $1000.
In 1895 Mrs. Fay S. Williams,
who resided on a farm east of the village of Grantsburg and had taught
in the district schools of Burnett, succeeded Mrs. Tena Nelson Davidson
and held the office for two terms.
Before this time the men
had ceased to be an appreciable factor in the teaching force of Burnett
County and we see the prediction of the next decade when they almost entirely
disappear from view. The average teachers' wages for women in the
rural schools of Burnett were in 1895 $30 a month, in 1900 $28, in 1905
$34.50, and in 1907-8, the average wages had increased over this amount
as but seven teachers in the rural schools taught at $30 and wages otherwise
ranged from $35 to $50.
In 1898, Mrs. Tena Nelson
Davidson was again elected and served a term after which she was succeeded
by Mrs. Fay Williams, who also served a term and was followed in 1903 by
the present superintendent, Mabel Ahlstrom, daughter of Andrew Ahlstrom.
The period from 1900 to 1905
was one of growth in the resources and population of Burnett, numerous
homesteads were taken, new towns were organized, the number of school districts
increased from 35 to 61 and the schools from 46 to 76. In 1900, 1758
children had attended the public schools of the county. In 1905,
2499 were enrolled. This is almost identically the enrollment for
1908, tough somewhat better school facilities are provided as there are
now 74 districts and 86 schools.
Of these 86 nearly all are
rural schools. Grantsburg contains the only High School and large
graded school in the county. A one-room school was first maintained
in the heart of the village in 1882. This grew to be a two-department
school, where the grades were designated by "upstairs" and "downstairs"
in 1886. In 1890 the first common school diplomas in the county were
issued to Herbert Ahlstrom and Elizabeth Burns of the village schools.
In the early nineties the grades became more definitely organized and in
1894 took possession of the new building which, with its subsequent addition,
comprises the present quarters of the village schools. From 1880
for a period of eighteen years, F. O. Olson, the first supervisor of the
village of Grantsburg, and the holder of various public offices, was elected
clerk of the village schools, and was closely associated with their growth
and development. In 1898, District Attorney A. J. Myrland was elected
clerk.
The Grantsburg Village Schools
enrolled in the fall of 1908 nearly 300 pupils. The High School employs
a principal and two assistants, one of whom has also charge of the eighth
grade. Four additional grade teachers are employed. The High
School offers a German and an English course. Although high school
work had been done previous to that time, it was not till 1899 that Grantsburg
definitely organized a three-year high school. In 1906 a fourth year's
course was added.
The Grantsburg High School
naturally draws on much surrounding territory for its pupils. The
enrollment is seventy-five, of whom more than a third come from rural schools.
Attendant with the growth and prosperity of the farming districts, and
through favorable state legislations has come an impetus to rural education
and fifty common school diplomas were issued to rural pupils in 1908, for
Burnett a comparatively large number.
Though Grantsburg has the
only large graded school in the county, there are in the rich farming regions
south and east of there, four two-department State Graded Schools.
Because of the perceptibly increased efficiency of these schools, they
have won the active approval of rural patrons. Situated in the heart
of farming communities these schools are distinctly rural and lose none
of their characteristic advantages of rural environment by being graded.
The organization of such schools is a new movement in Burnett. In
1906, Wood River, the first State Graded School was organized, Branstad
took the same progressive action in 1907, and Bass Lake, Falun and Freya
followed in 1908. The last, however, being under the township system
of school government will not be in operation before 1909. In this
district, to avoid disintegration and the building of additional school
houses, pupils will be transported from remote parts of the district.
In the county at large, transportation is only occasionally resorted to,
nor would consolidation and transportation to any extent be at present
feasible in Burnett. There are, however, opportunities for further
State Graded schools, as several one-room rural schools are becoming too
unwieldy in size.
Seventy-two, one-room rural
schools are maintained in Burnett. Of these fifty-five are furnished with
heating and ventilating plants, card catalog cases, supplementary readers
and other equipment which designates them as "First Class" rural schools.
Before the close of another year, it is probably that practically every
school in the county will rank as well.
The Burnett County Teachers
Association was organized in 1905, of which O. H. Casper, Jean Smith and
Huldah Dahlberg, resident teachers of the county, have been the respective
presidents. A teachers' institute is held annually at Grantsburg,
and teachers' meetings are held during the year at various points in the
county.
The attendance of the annual
institute ranges from forty to fifty. More than half of the eighty-six
teachers of Burnett are imported from other counties, it being necessary
to do this to maintain a reasonably efficient teaching standard.
Outside of the Grantsburg schools there are at present employed in the
county ten first-grade teachers, seven County Training School graduates,
thirty second- and thirty-two third-grade teachers.
Chronology and statistics
are doubtless tedious to the disinterested eye, yet through them may be
read the evolution of Burnett from pioneer infancy to vigorous youth.
Spacious, well-furnished farm houses, ample barns, and broad fields have
replaced the meagre clearing and cabin of the early home-steader.
Removed from railroad facilities, except a twelve-mile spur into Grantsburg,
the development of much good land is of course retarded, though the hope
of a railroad springs eternal in the breast of Burnett. Material
prosperity and progress, have, nevertheless, furthered educational development.
While conditions may appear crude to an observer of older counties, yet
a live and interested attitude toward school matters is manifested alike
by school officers, patrons, and teachers, and whatever hand may be at
the helm that attitude bodes well for the future of Burnett County Schools.
