The number of students attending schools in Daviess County increased by 1879-1880, prompting the need for larger facilities. There were over 6,540 students of school age, and the number attending these schools was 5,300.
There were 103 school houses in the county, and three school houses were rented, making 104 white and two colored schools in operation for the winter of 1879-80. Sixty-two of the number given above as attending school were colored, and there were 133 children in the county less than half attending school. Expenses were:
- Paid teachers — $18,119
- Paid for fuel — $916
- Paid for rent and repairs — $843
- Paid for incidental expenses — $905
- Paid for new school houses — $1,941
- Paid for indebtedness — $6,029
- Cash on hand as of April 1, 1880, totaled $9,933.64.
There were 94 male and 57 female teachers employed and their wages were $38 and $28 per month, respectively, making an average of $31 per month. Daviess County for the same year furnished four scholars for the Normal School at Kirksville.
The expenditures for school purposes in 1879 amounted to $29,841.06 and those of 1880 to $34, 839.79. The fines and the penalties for the two years, and added to the permanent fund was $983.93.
The property of the county for school purposes was assesses and its value returned January 1, 1880, at the sum of $68,413.
— researched and presented by Wilbur Bush, Gallatin, MO (2004)
Official records dated Sept. 5, 1842, describe the donation of land from Tobias Miller to School District #1. The year is not known when the first school building was built at Gallatin, but the first of note was a 2-story frame building with a belfry which heralded the school day for three generations. A 2-story brick building was erected in 1872 at a cost of $12,500 without furniture. This building housed four departments: elementary and primary, high school and grammar under the direction of a principal and three other teachers. (photo date unknown)
This is the second schoolhouse erected in Jameson, MO., built in 1883. It was located two blocks west of the northwest corner of the city park. It was frame building of four rooms and had an enrollment of 100 pupils. The first school established in Jameson was in the fall of 1872 in a two frame building located a block west and one-half block north of the present school building. It was a three-month subscription school taught by Mrs. John Martin with 12 pupils. The first regular district school began in the fall of 1873 with Mr. and Mrs. Heath Swisher as teachers. The first graduation class of 12 grades was 1892. From 1892 to 1915, there were 80 graduates from the Jameson City School.
Pattonsburg’s oldest school building. The last class to graduate from this building was 1922. The building was then used as a grade school for a number of years. (courtesy Earnest Dickerson, Pattonsburg)
An early public school building at Jamesport, MO (date unknown)
