Cooperstown Public School District (N.D.) Records

Collection

Identifier: Mss 3052

Staff Only

Scope and Content

The Cooperstown School District Records consists of records accumulated by Myrtle Porterville who took an early interest in the history of Griggs County. She did extensive research and collecting while teaching in Cooperstown. Organization and file folder label is based in large part upon her original folder labeling and organization. Most of the records date from 1883 to 1919. There is only a single document from 1931 and 1959. These records originally were a portion of her donation which became Mss 296 titled “Myrtle (Bemis) Porterville Collection”.

The Meeting Minutes Series consists of various meeting minutes from January 1883 to July 19, 1890. The original folder label was ‘Record of Meeting.’ There is also a one-page listing from June 1897 of various listing related to teacher Z.A. Clough.

The Financial Records Series consists of files organized and labeled from Porterville’s original file folders with dates 1888 to 1919. They relate to many financial issues of the school district. There are quite a number related to requests and purchase of school supplies and receipts of income and payments. Other purchase issues include books, insurance, labor. There are a number of ‘Treasurer’s Reports’ with details on receipts and expenditures.

The Correspondence Series consist of a single file of letters from various companies to school board and officials of Griggs County. Dates include 1899 to 1913 and a single one from 1959. Example of senders include Gull River Lumber Company, Prentiss Clock Improvement Co., American Book Company, Fargo Plumbing & Heating Co., N.D. Department of Public Instruction, Standard Oil Company, Excelsior Slate Co., Charles Scribner’s Sons, Griggs County Court Judge.

The Teachers Series consists of correspondence dated from 1888 to 1910 and a single document from 1931. They are related to many subjects of the teachers including teacher and job applications, ‘Notice of Election and Official Oath of Member of Board of Education’, several teacher certificates, completed teacher contracts forms, and several ‘Teacher’s Monthly Report of Attendance’ of students.

The Elections Series has many poll books of elections entitled ‘Poll Book, Tally List and Official Returns’. They date 1893, 1898-1908. Other publication topics include petitions to vote bonds, notice of elections and voter’s affidavit.

The Subject Files Series consists of a variety of education related issues and date from 1897 to 1908. There are quite a number of ‘Clerk’s Report’ that have quite a number of details related to schools and covers from 1897 to 1908. The Griggs County School District file has several historical listings of early school officers and maps of Griggs County showing individual school districts. There are several copies of ‘Manual of The Public Schools of the City of Cooperstown’ publication with title “Course of Study and the Rules and Regulations” that were approved and adopted in 1897. The Newspaper clippings file are a great variety of photocopy clippings related to Steele County on various topics mailed to Mrs. Porterville from the State Historical Society of North Dakota. ‘Pioneer Data’ is title on 40 pages of ‘Letters, Biographies and Couriers’. Among the many topic titles include ‘Accidents’, ‘Blizzards’, ‘Coming to Griggs County’, ‘Elections’, ‘Floods-Fires’, ‘Fuel and Other Items’, ‘Houses and Other Buildings’ ‘Hunting and Wilde Animals’, ‘Early Machinery’, ‘Prairie Fire’, ‘Schools’, ‘Storms’, ‘Getting Supplies’, ‘Pioneer Teams, etc.’, ‘Weather and Crops’, ‘Work by the Pioneers’. Almost all are then arranged with people names. The School Reports are for Cooperstown with various statistics, all of 1898.

Dates

Majority of material found within 1883-1919, 1931, 1959.

Creator

Cooperstown Public School District (N.D.) (Organization)

Access

The collection is open under the rules and regulations of the Institute.

Copyrights

Copyrights to this collection are not held by the Institute for Regional Studies.

History

The Cooperstown School District was established in 1883 and the school initially located on the south half of block 18. The first teacher in Cooperstown was Z.A. Clough, a graduate of Albion College in Michigan who came to Cooperstown in 1883. The first graduating class was in 1903. In March 1904 the large schoolhouse burned down. The new Central School was built in 1914. The high school orchestra was organized in 1913. The first schoolboard of Cooperstown Special School District was M.W. Buck, E.W. Blackwell who was president, David Bartlett, P.A. Melgaard, A.H. Berg, F.J. Stone and Mrs. R.M. Cowen. Myrtle Porterville taught in the Cooperstown schools from 1923 to 1933.