The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1911-09-14
A PIONEER OF IOWA
Bolivar the
his career by L. F. Andrews.

of the founders of the school system
of the state, and who has always TAX
en- interests in Polk county affairs, II
Theodore Bolivar Perry.
Mr.. Perry was born in Cincinnati
! O., April 1, 1882. His ancestry on thu
paternal side was English. His father
was bricklayer and stonemason
Theodore spent his boyhood days &C
quiring such education as the common
schools then afforded He was boy
of good habits, and dominant will
He aspired 20 acquire a good educa
ton, and to that end worked with q
purpose by every possible means
Early in the spring of 1850 his parents
came to Burlington, Ia, and in the
clio county, near Agency. During the
winter of 1850, though but Is years
old, he taught a school in the Key
wood district. The winter of 1851 he
taught the district school at Linn
Grove, about ten miles from Fort
Des Moines. He continued teaching
in Polk, Warren and Madison coun
| ties, in which he attained enviable
success, doing farm work, or what
ever he could when not teaching, to
provide means for the success of his
aspiration, to become a lawyer, until
1853, when accidentally meeting
Judge John S. Townsend, who resided
in Abba, he was asked if he would
like to read law in the judges office
That was his opportunity. He joyfully
bent to the task and acquired a
knowledge of the law equal to the
best. On April 7, 1854, he was put
through rigid quizical stunt by Geo
G. Wright, H. B. Hendershott and H
! II. Trimble, all of whom later became
| judges, and on the 18th was admitted
to the bar. He afterward formed a
partnership with Judge Townsend
which existed for more than twenty
years. In August, 1854, he was elected
prosecuting attorney for his county
and by his close attention to duties
studious habits, and persistence won
decided success.
In 1857, under the state constitu'
ton then adopted a state board of ed
ucation was created with full power
and authority to legislate and make
all needful rules and regulations in
relation to schools and other educa
! tiOnal institutions; also to levy taxes
and make appropriations OF money
| +, T., In Of off uT0C
| four years. Mr.. Perry was elected for
! the Second judicial district at the DC
tober election in 1858. The board con
vened in the old state house in De
| cember. The session was devote
principally TO The adoption of the
township system instead of the indie
pendent district, in which Mr.. Perry
took an active part by reason of his
practical experience with schools as
scholar and teacher. Prompted by his
democracy, he advocated the indie
pendent district plan-the basic prin
ciple of which is self-gOvernment
During its existence the board modified
its legislation to harmonic with his
ideas and laid the foundation of the
system we now have In 1864 the
legislature abolished the board, sub
stituted a state superintendent of pub
lie instruction and assumed all legisla
ton respecting school affairs.
In 1891, when the political revolu
ton and landslide carried Horace
Boise into the governors office, ant
elected the entire democratic state
ticket, Mr.. Perry, a staunch demo
crat, in a de facto republican district
was elected to the senate of thf
Twenty-fourth general assembly by
good majority. When the general as
sembly convened, Lieutenant Govern
or Bestow, the only democrat to pre-
side over the senate in the preceding
thirty-siX years, appointed Mr.. Perry
on the standing committees on judici
airy, appropriation, suppression OF in
temperance, congressional and judicia
ditricts, charitable institutions schools
and mines and mining (chairman)
The senate and house were politically
equally divided, except an in depend
ent in each. The most important sub
ject for legislation was the specially
favored plan of Governor Boise for
system of local option, or well regu
lated license, to govern the traffic il
spurious liquors, by bill prepared
by Senator Catch from Polk county
Mr.. Perry supported it from his sense
of the right of cities and towns to de
termine how the traffic should be con
Quoted, but all effort to enact it into
law failed.
From the newspaper reporters gal
lery | had opportunity to become
familiar with Mr.. Perry's work. HI
was especially active and efficient il
securing the appropriation to cree
the state historical building; also
the appropriation for the soldier
monument, over which there was
spirited and extended contest as to 1t
location. Mr.. Perry earnestly ant
persistently advocated the present 10
cation for historic reasons. 1t wa
the site of the old state house, NOTABLE
through the war, where Kirkwood, tn
grand old war governor, presided
where all war measures were pre-
vided and executed. 1t was also a.
a