San Bernardino County
was segregated from Los Angeles County, of which it originally formed a part, by
an act of the, Legislature, passed April 26, 1853; and the earliest history
recorded of a concerted systematic effort to establish public schools in the
territory comprised in San Bernardino County are of that year. T. 1. Herring was
the first County Superintendent of common schools, and from the report of the
school commissioners signed by him, and bearing date of November 17, 1853, the
following is extracted:
Report Of School Commissioners, San Bernardino, November 17, 1853
Theodore Turley, David Seeley, James H. Rollins, School Commissioners, report as
follows: Whole number of children between four and eighteen years in districts
No. 1 and 2, 263; number of boys, 142; number of girls, 121.
"Amount raised by subscription and paid teachers, $1,438.
Names of teachers employed:
District No. 1
William Stout, eight months, $60 per month;
William N. Cook (grade No. 2), six months, $60 per month;
Q. S. Sharks, three months, $76 per month;
Sarah Pratt, three months and ten days, $50 per month.
District No. 2
Ellen S. Pratt, four months, $35 per month;
Louis Pratt, assistant (primary school), one month, $27.50 per month;
W. S. Mathes, one month, $27.50 per month.
Number of pupils taught in first and second districts, 206; daily average
attendance, 160; amount expended for schools, libraries and apparatus, $300;
amount expended for building or renting and furnishing school-house, $291.50.
Total amount of all expenditures on account of schools, $2,029.50. The whole of
the above was raised by subscription.
"T. I. HERRING,
"County Superintendent of Common Schools."
In the decade following the date of this record the number of children of school
age multiplied more than fourfold, the number of census children in 1863, as
shown by the record, being 1,072.
and D streets, in San Bernardino, and dedicated
with imposing ceremonies. It is a two-story structure of rooms, and is still in
use for educational purposes. Previous to this the schoolhouses were either
adobe or wooden buildings, with inferior lighting and ventilation and primitive
in style of architecture. This was the initiative step in a new era which has
provided this county with the finest class of schoolhouses of all counties in
the State. Until the adoption of the new constitution of California in 1880, the
public school system of the State was under the supervision of the State Board
of Education, and was uniform in the different counties; but with the adoption
of the new constitution the control of the school passed from the State Board to
the local County Board.
Henry Campbell Brooke, Superintendent of Schools of
San Bernardino County, and one of the most devoted and successful workers in the
cause of public school education on the Pacific coast, was born in Pennsylvania
in 1834. His ancestors on both sides immigrated to America and settled in that
State in the closing year of the seventeenth century. His maternal grandmother,
Mrs. Phillips (Mary Lewis), was intimately acquainted with General George
Washington, and often entertained the Father of his Country at the Phillips home
near Valley Forge. The Brookes settled in the mineral regions of Pennsylvania,
and were among the first to mine anthracite coal and to discover and demonstrate
its value as fuel. His father's family for generations has been and still is
heavily interested in coal mining and iron-manufacturing in the vicinity of
Reading. The family are either manufacturers, coal operators or farmers.
The subject of this memoir was educated in the schools of Philadelphia. During
the gold-mining excitement at Pike's Peak, in 1859, Mr. Brooke caught the fever
and started from his Pennsylvania home for the new El Dorado; but before he
reached his destination that bubble of questionable promise had been exploded
and the reactionary wave had set in. So by the way of compromise he continued
his journey across the plains to California, and he has never regretted the
decision that brought him here. He began his schoolwork in this State in the
fall of 1860, as a teacher in Humboldt County, under the old Swett law, and from
the most reliable information obtainable Professor Brooke received the first
certificate issued in the State under that law. In 1867 he came to San
Bernardino and for twenty-three years has been a most zealous and efficient
worker in the schools of the county. In 1869 he was first elected county
superintendent of schools and served two years, 1870-'71. After an interval of
ten years spent in active teaching he was again elected county superintendent,
in 1882, and has continued to fill the office by successive elections ever
since. "Onward to perfection " has been his motto, and for the past eight years
his time, mind and energies have been consecrated to the bringing of the public
schools of this county up to his ideal standard. The following comparative
official figures show the progress of the public schools of the county under
Prof. Brooke's administration. In 1882 San Bernardino, of the fifty-two counties
in California, ranked No. 25, in number of children of school age; No. 32 in
total value of school property and No. 43 in value of school property in
proportion to the number of census children. In 1888 the county ranked No. 9 in
number of census children; No. 12 in value of all property; No. 5 in value of
school property; No. 1 in value of school property in proportion to the value of
all property in the county. This splendid ratio of increase in the value of
school property is due in a large degree to the wise method inaugurated years
ago by Superintendent Brooke, to raise money for the building of schoolhouses,
namely, the issuing of school bonds in the respective school districts where
houses were needed. Having drawn a form of bond submitted to and improved by the
highest legal authorities, the question of voting bonds sufficient to cover the
cost of the building to be erected is submitted to the voters of the district,
and upon receiving the requisite two-thirds vote the bonds are executed and
sold, usually by Mr. Brooke himself, thus saving broker's commission. Some
fifty-six issues of these bonds have been made in the county, and there has
never been one returned for any irregularity, and they have always readily sold
at-a premium, ranging from six to fourteen per centum, the premium obtained
generally being sufficient to seat and furnish the schoolhouses after they are
finished. By this judicious and business like mode of procedure the value of
school property in San Bernardino County has been increased from $45,198 in 1882
to $456,693 in 1889, a growth of over tenfold in seven years.
During this period the number of census children have increased from 2,661 to
5,990; and the number of teachers from 44 to 118. By the end of the present year
every one of the sixty-one school districts in the county will be provided with
a comfortable, commodious house, some of them costing as much as $75,000, modern
in style of architecture, and each supplied with the necessary apparatus for the
most effective educational work. Professor Brooke's aim has been to furnish all
the facilities needed, and to employ the most efficient teachers and then allow
them to work in their own way, and through their own individual methods as far
as is consistent with the highest interests of the schools, holding them
responsible for results. Thus the teacher is not subjected to any inflexible
process of machine cramming, but left free to use his or her own judgment in the
use of means to attain the desired end in the school-room work. Successive years
of experience have demonstrated the wisdom of treating the teacher as an
independent thinking individuality rather than an automaton propelled and
controlled by rules as in-flexible as the laws of mechanics, with the county
superintendent and the board of education as the motive power. The public
schools of San Bernardino County compare favorably with those of any other
county in California or the Union, and this proud achievement is due in a large
measure to the intelligent and unremitting labors of County Superintendent Henry
Campbell Brooke.
County Superintendents
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