3. West-Side Counties

It will be advantageous to consider the early schools of the various counties under two groups, those west of the Cascade Mountains and those east of that range of mountains. Until the east-west railways crossed the Cascades the two sections of the commonwealth were largely shut off from intercourse with each other. Even with three transcontinental railways and a well-developed highway the barricade between the two sections is a reality. In general the counties on the western side developed schools a little earlier than those on the eastern, although there are some exceptions to be noted. The counties in each group will be considered alphabetically.

Clark County bears the honor of having the very first school in the entire original Oregon country. Due recognition has been given to the school begun by John Ball, a century ago, November 1832. No record has come to light showing the date of establishment of the first public school. It is very certain that it must have been one of the earliest in the Territory. Vancouver was one of the earliest towns to establish a graded school. The town was a contender for almost every public institution established in the Territory. The capital was located there by the legislature (later held invalid), the penitentiary and the State college of agriculture were both located there but later were relocated. At last the institution for the deaf, blind, and feebleminded was located there. A separate school for the feeble-minded was later established at Medical Lake. The first Catholic Mission School for girls was established in Vancouver and still performs a very able service there. St. Luke's parish school, under the auspices of the Protestant Episcopal Church was established there about 1880.5

Cowlitz County was one of the earliest counties to be settled and apparently was a pioneer in establishing schools. It was included in Lewis County until 1854. An early day newspaper contained the following account of the earliest school in what is now Cowlitz County:

One or more schools have been established since 1851. These are now maintained most of the time within five miles, on the lower Cowlitz, and several other neighbor. hoods only want a small accession of families to start schools. The advantages of educa tion are highly prized by the people, and schools are well supported. Many of the young men of the County are at the schools of higher grade in Portland, Salem, and other places in Oregon. One comfortable school has been built near Monticello by the school district."

Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1881, p. 14. •Washington Standard, Feb. 16, 1861.

Island County was settled early because of its location in Puget Sound and because of some open prairies which proved to be very rich agriculturally, especially in the enormous yields of wheat. The first school was taught at Coveland in 1854.7

Jefferson County was strategically located for its numerous Puget Sound ports. Port Townsend at an early day was much more promi nent and promising as a possible metropolis than Seattle. Some of the pretentious business blocks and hotels still bear evidence of early day probabilities. It has retained its important military prestige to this day, but commercially it had to yield to other ports developed later. The following account tells the story of early schools of the county:

The school records of the early period of the development of this country are lamentably meager and uncertain. According to the best recollections of the oldest inhabit ants, the first school taught was a private school taught in a small log hut in Hastings Valley, about one mile from the present site of Port Townsend, by Miss Reed in 1853. The following year a public school building was erected near a fort, on the breakwater about a mile southwest of the present town of Port Townsend. School was open to the public in this building in 1854. In 1855, the number of children in the county, Kitsap County being at that time a part of Jefferson County, was twenty-five. School was maintained that year 59 days, and three months during the following year. From that time to 1860, no records are left from which I can gather any reliable information. In 1859, a new schoolhouse was begun in Port Townsend, which it seems was not completed until 1861. In 1864, a new school district was organized with eleven children, and in 1866, District No. 4 was organized at Chimacum with fourteen children. In 1877 District No. 5, Colseed Bay was laid off.

King County. The first school in King County was started by Mrs. Catherine T. Blaine, wife of the Reverend David T. Blaine, in 1853.

In the Blaine letters, we find under date of December 6, 1853, from Seattle:

I suppose Catherine will take the school here for the next three months, at about $65.00 per mo. A subscription was started yesterday. One man who has only two children to send has signed $100. We have a few generous hearted men here.

Our village contains about 30 houses, and I think 26 of these have been put up during the last 6 mos.

Mrs. Blaine wrote on Jan. 17, 1854:

I worked before school this morning, standing over the tub with a shawl on and my teeth chattering with the cold.

She speaks of the Governor coming to Seattle:

I did not hear them, being occupied with my school.

Lloyd, H. H., county superintendent, in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1879, p. 43. Hufman, A. R., county superintendent, in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1879. D. 45.

March 7, 1854:

If we remain at home I shall finish my school duties week after next.

April 18, 1854:

My school is very pleasant, I rather think I shall continue to teach another term. This was the pioneer school of King County. C. B. Bagley says that this school was held in a building put up by W. G. Latimer on First Avenue, east side, which became known as "Bachelor's Hall" It was continued in this building until the fall of 1861, when the University of Washington building was opened. The Reverend Daniel Bagley taught there as a substitute during that winter.

Judge Hillman Jones points out that a blockhouse was built in 1855 on an acre of ground just north of the present site of the Denny. Renton Clay and Coal Company, near the Duwamish River. This was later used as a school, until a one-room school was built in 1859–60. He also asserts that the first public school in Seattle was taught by E. B. Ward in 1863. The school stood in the triangle made by Third Avenue and James and Jefferson Streets, where the fountain now stands. It was originally owned by King County and later by Seattle. The county built it in 1860 on ground owned by H. L. Yesler. There had been part-public schools before this, but, according to Judge Jones, this was the first public school.

A schoolhouse was built near Renton about the year 1854. This was one of the first schools in the Territory, and has been thought by some to have been the first school erected in the Territory. This building came after the Olympia structure was built.

Kitsap County.-Kitsap County was organized on January 16, 1857. At first it was called Slaughter County in honor of the gallant officer of the United States Army who fell in the Indian War of 1855-56. In July 1857, the name was changed to Kitsap. The first settlement was made by J. J. Felt of San Francisco, in 1853, upon Apple Tree Cove, on the south side of the bay of Port Madison. In 1861 the county was divided into four election precints, each of which constituted a road and school precinct. One school was established by Mr. Meigs at Fort Madison, which had 50 dwellings in 1861, and another one prob ably was at Tee-Ka-let at the entrance of the Port Gamble Bay, which had 30 dwellings. In 1860 there were 545 inhabitants, and 120 families. Three schoolhouses had been erected in the county in 1861.10 In 1860 there were three districts in Kitsap County, Port Gamble, Port Madison, and Seabeck. They elected a county superintendent in 1858.11

Bagley, Clarence, B. The Seattle Times, Jan. 1, 1928.

The Washington Standard, Mar. 16, 1861.

II County Superintendent Charles McDermoth in Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1879, p. 42.

Lewis County was the second county to be formed in the Territory. It was carved from Clark County, December 21, 1845.12 Because of its position on the pioneer highway between the Columbia and Puget Sound many settlers tarried on its fertile prairies and river valleys. We, therefore, suspect that many of the earliest schools were taught in Lewis County near to Chehalis and Centralia. The first United States judge assigned to northern Oregon was John R. Jackson. He held court in his house, which still stands, on Jackson's Prairie, about 15 miles southeast of Chehalis. The accompanying report of H. M. Stearns, superintendent of Lewis County in 1879 gives an account of the early schools:

A school was commenced on Davis' Prairie near where Claquato now is (in a log house built for a schoolhouse) on the first of January, A.D. 1855, and continued three months, which I suppose was the first school taught in Lewis County. I find no report of the school nor of the teacher among the files of this office but determine the dates by my private memorandum. A public school was also taught at the same place (District No. 2) three months during the year, for which Jas. Balch received $150 of the public school fund. In District No. 3 a schoolhouse was built about two miles southeast of where Chehalis Station now is, at a cost of $350, $490 having been raised by tax and a school kept 116 days in 1855. In District No. 6 (including Newaukum Prairie, Jackson's Prairie and Cutting's Prairie) a tax of $200 was levied for building purposes, and a school taught three months by a qualified teacher during the year 1855, but no more definite dates are given.1

Pierce County.-The first issue of the Puget Sound Herald appeared at Steilacoom on March 12, 1858. They published that they had just established a good school in their midst. The school directors "with the willing and munificent contributions of the citizens, have erected a new and elegant schoolhouse, which would be no discredit to any of the older towns of the Atlantic States." The school was taught by Frank S. Balch, and had 30 pupils.

During the fall term, which opened in September of that year, the Reverend George W. Sloan was employed as teacher. At the latter part of the following year, September 1, 1859, the Reverend Mr. Sloan opened a private academy. Thus in 1860, we find the public school under Mrs. A. Veeder and the academy in charge of Mr. Sloan. John F. Damon, editor of The Northwest, Port Townsend, made a tour of Puget Sound in September 1860, to inspect the educational institutions then in existence. He said of his trip to Steilacoom:

"Meany, Edmond S. History of the State of Washington, p. 366. 1 Report of Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1879, p. 35.

Under the escort of W. H. Wood, Esq., and in company with another gentleman friend we visited the select school of the Rev. G. Wm. Sloan, in the vestry of the Methodist Church. This was attended by some fourteen pupils, pretty well advanced, and their recitations evinced a creditable degree of training on the part of all. Mr. Sloan will, no doubt, succeed in having a very fine and we hope well-sustained school as the country becomes more prosperous.

In the public school of Mrs. A. Veeder, among some twenty-odd bright-eyed little ones, we spent a very pleasant hour. It requires no great effort to imagine oneself back in the schools of boyhood, where first position was assumed at the sound of the bell and the little ones sought the alphabet among the rafters of the primitive schoolroom. Some recitations would have done credit to higher-ranked institutions, and the people of Steilacoom may well be proud of teacher and school. 14

Night school.-Possibly the first instance in our history of a night school was started by Jas. P. Stewart, a teacher in the day school at Steilacoom. The tuition was placed so low that it was within the means of all male adults. The school was open 4 nights a week, from Tuesday to Friday, inclusive, and began at 7 o'clock, closing at 10.15 Select school.-In the fall of 1861 another school was started in Steilacoom.

Notice. The undersigned respectfully announces to the citizens of Steilacoom and vicinity that on Monday, Oct. 14, 1861, he will open a Select School in the building owned by E. A. Light in the town of Steilacoom.

Following branches will be taught: Reading, Penmanship, Arithmetic, English Grammar, Geography, History, Natural Philosophy, Algebra, Double-entry Bookkeeping, and the rudiments of vocal music.

A limited number of students accommodated with board. Terms: Tuition, $8 per scholar, 16 weeks. Tuition and board $35 for the term.

J. V. WEEKS. 16

By 1861 schools were well established in Pierce County. William H. Woods, reported as county superintendent in that year: Number school districts, 7; total number scholars, 249; school libraries, none; number schoolhouses, 7; number of months school was kept, 2, 6, and 12; average number of scholars during year, 130; amount paid teachers, $985.25.

Snohomish County.

The county was first districted or more properly speaking, organized into a school district embracing the whole of Snohomish County, and designated "District No. 1" in the year 1866. School was opened the same summer in a building situated in the eastern part of the city, known as the "Blue Eagle" by Miss Ruby Willard. This was the first school in Snohomish County, and the old "Blue Eagle" the first schoolhouse.

This old house had a very checkered history, and was one of the landmarks of the county until 1879, when it stepped down and out, having outlived its usefulness.

The Northwest, Port Townsend, Sept. 27, 1860.

Puget Sound Herald, Jan. 20, 1860.

Ibid., Nov. 14, 1861.