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Chaska
Bicentennial
Committee
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Although they got as far as Winona,
they had been brought back home within
two days. The boys had taken the train
out of town, and their trail had been an
easy one to follow.
Philip was kept at home, but the
fifteen year old Mattie was promptly de-
livered to St. Joseph's Academy, where he
was a student.
While events at home were the prin-
cipal concern to Chaskans, important
changes were happening elsewhere in the
world too.
In England, Edward Butler was busy
perfecting his new invention - a motor-
cycle. The year was 1885.
The decade started with a national
tragedy with the assassination of Pres-
ident James A. Garfield. Garfield had
only served in the presidency four months
when a disappointed and disgruntled office
seeker shot him. Two and a half months
later, on September 19, 1881, he died.
Later in the 1880's, the American
Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was or-
ganized with Samuel Gompers as its first
president.
In the world of literature, Robert
Louis Stevenson was busy writing Treasure
Island (1883) and The Strange Case of Dr.
Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886). Thomas Hardy
had come into his own as a writer~ and the
pen of Emile Zola was still producing
major works.
Elsewhere on the arts scene, Edouard
Manet died at the age of fifty-two. His
death came before the world had accepted
and learned to appreciate his impression-
ist paintings.
Modern warfare was given a forward
thrust by the invention of the machine
gun in 1884, and the invention of the
automobile one year later.
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That was the decade of the 1880's.
Public School
It was not until 1857 that school
districts were established in the
county. At that time the county was
divided into five districts: Chaska,
Chanhassen, Carver, Benton and Groveland.
That first year the five districts
shared a county school appropriation
of $788, or $4.28 for each of the
184 potential students in the county.
Two years earlier, in 1855, Miss
Susan Hazeltine had started the first
school in Carver County. Classes were
held in the Arba Cleveland home, just
west of Lake ,Hazeltine (the lake
was named after Susan Hazeltine).
Susan Hazeltine was
the first teacher in
Carver County. She
taught in what later
became School District
No. 12. One of the
district's later
buildings still stands
near Highway 41.
216
Classes were held in the Cleveland
home for only a few weeks until
a new log school house was completed.
The new building was located about one
mile north of the Cleveland homestead.
One of its later replacements is not
far from the original site. The school
served the then as yet uhdesignated
District No. 12.
Three years later, in 1858, Chaska
began its first public school.
Emmeline S. Noble, Chaska's first
teacher, was only seventeen when
she began teaching. In the early days
of her career she was said to have
boarded among the families of students.
Perhaps that was before her parents
arrived in Chaska.
At one time during those first years
she earned twenty-five dollars a month
as a teacher. Whether that was her
starting salary, or a later one,
is unknown.
In 1862 she married Linus J. Lee,
the son of another early settler,
John Lee. For a brief time after
their marriage Mrs. Lee lived with her
husband at Ft. Ridgely. Then she returned
to Chaska and began teaching school
again. Mrs. Lee was an assistant to
Frank W. Hanscombe in 1863. That
probably was the first year more than
one teacher was employed in the district.
During the previous year the Chaska
school had been taught by R.S. Chittenden.
Chittenden, a Chaska lawyer, was a
captain in the army at the time. He was
stationed in Chaska as a recruiter for
the !'Indian fighters" and probably
took the teaching job as a sideline.
Other teachers during tile l860s
included Maria Howe, the daughter of
Lucius Howe; Mr. Carlisle, a clerk-~at
Charles Warner's store, and Lucy Day,
from Excelsior. Charles E. Griswold and
Constance DuToit also taught in the
public school during the l860s.
In the early years, public -school
sessions were both erratic and short.
Some years no terms were held, and
when there were terms, they were
only three months long. Starting a
new life, particularly on a farm,
was difficult and parents often
expected full participation from
their children. Underlying that problem,however, was the belief of many
early settlers that education was
unimportant.
To accomodate the farm settlers'
needs. school terms (when they were
three months long) were usually
held during the winter months, beginning
about the first of December. Though
three months was the normal length
of the school year, an attempt
was made as early as 1863 to hold a
second session during the summer.
Valley Herald publisher Charles
Warner began to call for. longer school
terms and better education for the
township's children in 1863. Not only
did Warner want a nine month school
term, he wanted two teachers on the
staff. Though the school district respon-ded and hired two teachers, it later went
back to having one teacher for the entire
enrollment.
Throughout the early 1860's enroll-
ment ayeraged about eighty students. It
went from a low of fifty-three to a
high of one hundred and thirteen. During
those years students were eligible
for school any time between the ages
of five and twenty-one. The number
of eligible students in a district
was more important than the number of
enrolled students. Public funds for
education were apportioned by the
county on the basis of eligible students,
no~ actual enrollment. During the 1863-64
term, when there were one hundred
and thirteen children in school, school
officials agreed that many older
eligible children were not enrolled.
Yet according to the clerk of the
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