Before the bell rang: Education takes root in Marshfield

When Article X of the Wisconsin Constitution was instituted in 1848, Wisconsin became a forerunner in providing free education.

Article X provided for free public schools for all children ages 4 to 18, and local taxes went to school support.

It was not until 1865 that free education was available throughout the United States.

The goals of early schools included building skills for work and introducing acceptable life habits like good health, moral conduct and citizenship.

As immigrants made their way into the vast woodlands of Wisconsin, they would establish one-room schools in their infantile communities.

Schools were often crude structures pieced together by a giving community.
Finances and labor were often donated and the result of a community’s will to provide.

The early 1870s were formative years for Marshfield as residents began filling the expanded village.

Seeing the need for local education for the small band of youth that now populated the town, a group of parents joined together to collect enough financing to hire a teacher.

After employing Clara Davis, the group set up a schoolroom on the upper floor of a grocery store owned by Chris LaMere.

The fledgling school operated at random over the next four years.

During this period, the number of children grew in tandem with the city population.

As residents of various ethnicities began to populate the area, the need for a uniform education system compounded.

Still years from being incorporated as a city, according to some accounts, the settlers took action by organizing their own educational system.

Assembling on their own, city leaders organized the first school board, which held its first meeting in August 1877.

After its organization, the board secured money from the state, and Marshfield’s first public school building was constructed.

“In 1878, when Public School No. 1 was built on the northeast corner of Third and Chestnut streets — later the site of Dr. Hayward’s home, (and then) the News-Herald parking lot — the enrollment was 40,” the Highlights of History 1872-1972 commemorative guide stated.

“St. John’s Parochial School was constructed in 1882 and four years later was remodeled for a convent and a new four-room St. John’s replaced it. The Lutherans built their school in 1884.”

But, others recall things slightly different.

“There is a difference of opinion among several of the surviving pioneers of Marshfield as to when the first school was started and who was the first teacher,” the History of Wood County, Wisconsin stated.

“The ‘History of Northern Wisconsin,’ published in 1881, says that a school was started in the summer of 1873 with Miss Clara Davis as teacher, and Miss Fanny Baker has also been mentioned as one of the earliest teachers, probably the second; while another authority says that Miss Ella Kelly (a sister of the first Mrs. W. H. Upham) was the first.

“There is no question, however, but that all three of these ladies taught school in the village at a very early date, though for several years there was no regular school building and the sessions were held at any convenient place.

“The firm of Stillman, Brunson & Pettingill, who in the early [1870s] built a stave and spoke factory here, also put up a little building for a store and office, and for some time let the village use the front room for a school, which was taught by Ella Kelly. The same room was also used occasionally for entertainment.

“Miss Kelly later kept school on the site of the present residence of Dr. J. C. Hayward. The next school was on the site of Dr. Budge’s house…”

As the population grew in the Marshfield area, so did the school district.