Gilded Age Reform and Education for Women

The Gilded Age (1865-c. 1900) brought a tremendous amount of change to American culture and society, including issues directly related to women. Based on the popular idea that they were morally superior to men, some women argued they were therefore better qualified to help cure society's ills. Reform in the mid-nineteenth century had allowed more women to venture outside the home. Nearing the end of the century, that trend only grew. Education in general, especially academic opportunities for women, also expanded during this time. In 1870, there were a total of 160 high schools in the entire country. In 1882, that number had grown to eight hundred high schools. By 1900, there were six thousand. Also, the number of female college students grew from "eleven thousand in 1879 to eighty-five thousand in 1900."[1] Without these trends, Meta Chestnutt's academic career in the 1880s is hard to imagine.

Note

[1] Gayle V. Fischer, "Women," in Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century, ed. Paul Finkelman (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2001), 3:402-03.

Religious Aspects of the Post-Civil War Peace Policy

After the war, the powerful reform impulses stemming from the Second Great Awakening were no longer directed against slavery. At least some of the old interest in reshaping American society for the betterment of humanity and the glory of God was now focused on the Indian "problem."[1] In that era, the Protestant establishment and the party of Lincoln saw a good deal of cooperation, and this can be heard in the summary of the Peace Policy by Columbus Delano, Grant's Secretary of the Interior. The policy, said Delano, set out to place Indians on reservations where they could be taught "such pursuits as are incident to civilization, through the aid of the Christian organizations of the country now engaged in this work, cooperating with the Federal Government." A central part of the policy was to 

establish schools, and through the instrumentality of the Christian organizations, acting in harmony with the Government, . . . to build churches and organize Sabbath schools, whereby these savages may be taught a better way of life than they have heretofore pursued, and be made to understand and appreciate the comforts and benefits of Christian civilization, and thus be prepared ultimately to assume the duties and privileges of citizenship.[2]  

Notes

[1] Robert F. Berkhofer, Jr., The White Man's Indian: Images of the American Indian from Columbus to the Present (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), 166. Timothy L. Smith, Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War (New York: Harper & Row. 1957) makes the case that antebellum evangelicals did not disdain reform movements. On the contrary, mid-nineteenth century evangelists were in the vanguard of reformers who railed against slavery and other aspects of American society they deemed ungodly. In fact, they laid the foundation upon which the post-war Social Gospel was built.

[2] Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior, Annual Report, in Executive Documents, 1873-74, vol. 4 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1874), iii-iv, as quoted in Berkhofer, White Man's Indian, 169.

The Growth of Public Education in Deaf Smith County and the Demise of Panhandle Christian College

As early as 1891, 22 citizens of Deaf Smith County, Texas, petitioned for a referendum that might create a new tax. Revenues would support and maintain free public schools.[1] Voters approved the measure with only one vote in opposition. The new ordinance generated a tax of only 0.06% (six cents per $100). But it was a start. Public education began in 1893, when a one-teacher school was established in the Womble community northeast of Hereford.[2]

The years around the turn of the century witnessed some important steps toward greater support for schools in the growing county. In 1898, the year Hereford was established, four leagues of Lamb County land, set aside by the state to benefit Deaf Smith County public schools, were sold for a dollar an acre. The windfall of $17,756 generated the county's permanent school fund. The next year, a local referendum doubled the rate of tax that went to support schools, from 0.06 to 0.12%. In 1902, yet another referendum increased the tax to 0.20%.[3]

Growth in student population closely paralleled growth in tax revenues for county schools. In the spring of 1901, the public school in Hereford had 208 students. In 1906, Hereford held its first graduation ceremonies. And by 1910, the total number of students had grown to 548. That same year, the town began building a three-story school house. Local citizens contributed $2000.[4]

The growth of the public school system in the town of Hereford and in Deaf Smith County was no doubt one reason why Panhandle Christian College, which always taught the primary grades, rapidly declined during its short life.

Notes

[1] Deaf Smith County: The Land and Its People (Hereford, TX: Deaf Smith County Historical Society, 1982), 65.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid., 65-66.