THE WAUPACA COUNTY REPUBLICAN

January 21, 1880

 

The First Common School

 

            The following is an extract from a sketch written by Samuel Hays, a young boy attending school at district No. 4, town of Ashippun, Dodge county:

            In the fall of 1836 the first common school district in the state was organized at Milwaukee, under the old Michigan school law, about the time the first legislative assembly was held.  The first common school was taught by a man named West, in a frame school house, in the second ward of the city of Milwaukee.  In 1836 there was but one common school in Wisconsin, in 1879 there were 4,341; being an increase of 4,340 schools in 43 years.

            The common schools at the present day are free to every boy and girl, rich or poor, whether their parents own property or not.  The compulsory school law compels the attendance of every scholar between the ages of four and twenty years, for three months in the year.

            The schools in the past were conducted in a very different manner from the present.  The first school house in this town was a log building, with three windows, and the door was hung on leather hinges.  The furniture consisted of seats made of slabs with legs adjusted to the floor; the desks consisted of boards nailed to the wall.

            The “man named West” has for more than a quarter of a century been a resident of Appleton.