Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 21.djvu/110



100 JOHN C. ALMACK

Similar reports from other counties provoked Superinten- dent Sylvester C. Simpson to make this summary in his an- nual report to the legislature in 1874 :

'The school-houses are inferior in construction and in pro- visions for the comfort of their inmates to the barns of some of the farmers who live near them, and it is no uncommon thing to find the school-house built upon the most barren and un- sightly spot in the neighborhood. Some of our school-houses are so dilapidated and befouled with obscene pictures and words that they are hardly fit for decent people to enter."

However, if the architectural type of the school buildings was not such as meets with popular approval today, at least there were fewer of them. In 1878 there were only 750 5 organized school districts in the state, and there were but 26,000 pupils enrolled in the public schools. Indeed it was gravely questioned whether education should be fostered at public expense. Free high schools would not have been tol- erated, and college preparatory work devolved upon the acad- emies, of which there were 28. The university, established at Eugene in 1876, and the agricultural college at Corvallis both did work of a preparatory grade. About four thousand students were attending the academies at this time.

The reports of the state superintendents from 1873 to 1916 give the following statistics of school conditions:

Months

Dis- of Salaries School School

tricts School Male Female Fund Property

1873 642 4.5 $37.54 $43.70 $ 184,010 $ 322,440

1880 1007 4.5 44.19 33.38 339,080 567,863

1885 1336 4.7 48.22 36.96 578,340 1,160,433

1893 1915 5.3 51.11 41.74 1,449,614 2,649,081

1909 2243 6.4 69.25 51.97 3,392,162 7,696,444

1916 2519 7.5 87.14 63.61 9,313,502 10,258,313

5 In 1874 there were only 680 districts; the census showed 21,519 males and 19,379 females between the ages of four and twenty, with an enrollment of 11,138 males and 9,542 females. The average attendance was only 15,169, and there were 10,711 children not in school. The same year 579 county certificates were issued: 190 first grade, 355 second, and 34 third. The state fund contributed $33,367.28. Contrasted with this are the figures from 1918-19, with 205,684 census children, an enrollment of 145,891, aj state fund of 388,873, and a total amount of approxi- mately $8,000,000 spent for school purposes.