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Brush College was a phrase in the Midwest used to denote an interant methods of study – the library consisting of books in saddlebags and sessions when older preachers met with younger ones seeking advice. Free public schools had not yet been established in Ohio; but the pioneer families maintained a subscription school for their children, and had built a primitive school edifice of logs, afterward widely known as "Brush College".

First pioneer school in Iowa
Isaac Galland, an Illinois doctor and lawyer who had established a settlement called National (now in Lee County), designed and built the first known pioneer school in the Iowa Territory in 1830. Iowa became a state December 28, 1846.

Brush College names

 * Brush College, Murray, Iowa, founded in 1875.
 * The Brush College schoolhouse, also called Madison Country School No. 5, operated from 1875 to 1952. The one-room schoolhouse, built in 1975, was located five miles north of Murray on Route 15, in Madison Township (contiguous on the north border of the Troy Township). After closing, the building was used as a voting place until the 1990s. On May 2, 1996, the Murray Community Resource Development, a non-profit community service orginization, moved the schoolhouse to Main Street in Murray, restored it, and continue to maintain it as a historical piece. The land on this origional location reverted back to the farm family that had originally owned it.


 * Lillie Thomas (née Lillian M. Thomas; 1869–1955), who married Percival Hall Edmison (1844–1924) January 8, 1908, in Denver, was elected as County Superintendent of Schools for Clarke County, Iowa in 1895. She was re-elected in 1897.
 * Lewis Clyde Smith (1876–1953), Superintent of Schools, Clarke County, Iowa

Schools in Murray
As of July 1, 2020, the (a) East Union (EUCSD) and (b) Murray Community School Districts (MCSD) have shared the Superintendent. As of December 2021, Iowa had 327 public school districts, 104 of which had enrollments of 500 or fewer students, according to the Iowa Department of Education. EUCSD had 480 and MCSD had 269. Tim Kuehl (né Timothy Gary Kuehl; born 1970) is superintendent. Effective August 23, 2024, the Boards of both districts, EUCSD and MCSD, approved a four-day school week with the aim of, among other things, improving teacher recruitment and retention, allowing more time for curricular planning, and improving student attendence.

Rural schools in Clarke County were reorganized in 1958 and became a part of Murray, Osceola, LeRoy, Grand River, Afton, New Virginia and Truro school districts. Four schools were kept open as a part of Clarke Community Schools in Osceola until the new high school was completed in 1961. The old high school then became the Junior High, and West Ward became the four-six grade school.

Iowa, state-wide public education history
In March, 1858, upon the recommendation of Maturin Lewis Fisher (1807–1879) – who, in April 1857, was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction – the seventh General Assembly enacted that "each civil township is declared a school district," and provided that these should be divided into sub-districts. This law went into force March 20, 1858, and reduced the number of school districts from about 3,500 to less than 900. This change of school organization resulted in a very material reduction of the expenditures for the compensation of district secretaries and treasurers. An effort was made for several years, from 1867 to 1872, to abolish the sub-district system. Abraham Simpson Kissell (1829–1888), Superintendent from 1869 to 1872, recommended this in his report of January 1, 1872, and Governor Samuel Merrill forcibly endorsed his views in his annual message. But the Legislature of that year provided for the formation of independent districts from the sub-districts of district townships.

Past, early superintendents

 * Mary A. Osmond (1843–1921). She was the first woman to hold the office in that county and among the first elected in the state.


 * 1896–1899: Lillie Mae Thomas (1869–1955), as a Republican candidate, was elected as County Superintendent of Schools for Clarke County in 1895 – for the term January 1896 to January 1898. She was re-elected in 1897 – for the term January 1898 to January 1900. She married Percival Hall Edmison (1844–1924) in 1908.


 * 1913–1914; 1916–1917: Bessie B. Hart (1883–1968) was elected as County Superintendent of Schools for Clarke County, and served from 1913 to 1914. Hart was re-elected for another term in 1916. In 1921, she married Wid Orval Tillotson (1877–1975) who had been the widow of Emma L. Claver (maiden; 1876–1908), who he married in 1903.

History
The first reference to the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction appears to be in the year of 1840 while Iowa was still a Territory. Soon after the law of 1840 went into operation, the board of school inspectors divided the township into three school districts, known as School Districts Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and notice was given as required by law, for the organization by the voters of said districts into corporate bodies. In 1858 the Free School Act was passed by the Iowa legislature. This act allowed local property taxes to support the local schools. Because schools need money to operate, this act made it possible for schools to develop more quickly. This act also allowed for building one high school in each of Iowa’s 99 counties. A superintendent for each county was hired.

With the adoption of the Constitution and the admission of Iowa into the Union in 1846, the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction was re-established by provisions of the fundamental law. The people were now authorized to elect the head of the school system for a term of three years-while the definition of his powers and duties were left to tbe General Assembly. So, in the General Act of 1847, the school law of 1840 was amended and provided that at the next township election, a superintendent should be chosen whose duties should be the maintenance of an office at the seat of government-the keeping of documents, reports, etc. Also, he was charged with the care and distribution of school funds coming into his hands. In 1847, also, the Superintendent was empowered to appoint a deputy clerk and he was to compensate him out of his own salary, which was $1200. At the Spring Election of 1847, it appears that James Harlan (1820–1899) was elected the first Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Brush College

 * Brush College, one-room school house at 330th Avenue (just north of 190th Street), Fort Madison, Washington Township, Lee County, Iowa. In 1877 land was purchased from Martha and William Richards to build a one-room brick building. At some point after 1935 someone built an enclosed front porch on the large top step that goes into the building.
 * Brush College, Wayne County, Iowa.
 * Brush College, old, single room school, in Murray, Iowa.
 * Brush College, – as early as 1860.
 * Brush College, Jefferson Township, Warren County, Iowa – founded 1855.
 * Brush College, Franklin Township, Appanoose County, Iowa.
 * Brush College, Section 29, Des Moines County, Iowa.
 * Brushwood School #5, Doyle Township, Clarke County, Iowa

Illinois

 * Brush College, Chicago
 * Brush College No. 1, Decatur, Macon County, Illinois..
 * Brush College No. 1, Macon County, Illinois.
 * Brush College, District #49, Griggsville Township, Pike County, Illinois, property of T. S. Dimmitt. Its first term was held February 2, 1857, to April 4, 1857.


 * Brush College, Stonington, Christian County, Illinois.
 * Brush College, Shafter Township, Fayette County, Illinois.
 * Brush College, Maroa, Macon County, Illinois.
 * Brush College, 2 miles north of Murrayville, Morgan County, Illinois.
 * Brush College School No. 107, McLean County, Illinois, Gordon William Lillie (1860–1942) taught there in 1877 and 1878.

Indiana

 * Brush College, Perry Township, Allen County, Indiana.
 * Forest College (1816–1830), Spencer County, Indiana. Denied the opportunity to attend an institution of learning higher than a subscription school, Abe Lincoln opened in the summer of 1827 what he called "Forest College." Soon his Pigeon Creek neighbors renamed it "Abe's Brush College."

Missouri

 * Brush College School, Bates County, Missouri
 * Brush College, LaBelle, Lewis County, Missouri. Located about six miles south of LaBelle at Junction 156 and Route D.
 * Brush College, Grundy County, Missouri.
 * Brush College, Livingston County, Missouri.
 * Brush College, Mercer County, Missouri.

Oregon

 * Brush College Elementary, Salem, Oregon (active).
 * Brush College, Polk County, Oregon, in the southeast part of the Eola Hills.

Ohio

 * Brush College, Plain Township, Stark County, Ohio
 * Brush College #1 – Section 26 SE Quarter – Established 3/14/1990
 * Brush College #2 – Section 26 SE Quarter – Established 2/1/1959

Kansas

 * Brush College, Marshall County, Kansas.

Elsewhere

 * Brush College, Gretna, Louisiana

Brush College School (–1931)

 * The Forme Brush College school in Chillicothe, Missouri.
 * Vernon "Vern" Byron Sherman (1898–1991), a former pupil was interviewed. He lived on the farm where he had lived during his schooldays. His parents were William H. Sherman (1863–1935) and Mary Lillian Osborn (maiden; 1868–1953) who lived 1¼ miles southwest. He started in 1904 and his first teacher was Virgil Davis. Vern's son, Weldon William Sherman (1921–1964), also attended Brush College until it closed in 1931.


 * Vern told an amusing incident about a former pupil, Elmer Hanson, when he went to Chicago seeking a job with some railroad company. He was asked if he had ever attended college and he informed them that he had, having Brush College in mind of course. He was given the job and worked for the company many years. Mr. Cunningham told how the school got its name. First, the brush part came from the fact it was located in a thicket of hazel brush, black and red haw trees. Then, advanced subjects were offered its pupils that were not commonly taught in the surrounding rural schools, such as higher mathematics, algebra, geometry, physics, ancient history, literature, and anatomy, hence the name – Brush College.

Annals of Iowa
Marvin Lavon Bergman, PhD (1953– ), ed.  
 * ; (online);  (print); .

Other


   
 * Retrieved June 12, 1919. (publication);  (publication);  (article) (US Newsstream database).