When members of Beloit’s Upsilon chapter of Delta Kappa
Gamma Society of International Women Educators wanted a one-room
school in which modern children could experience early rural
education, they preferred a Beloit area historic school. In March
of 1971 a committee of members, chaired by Dora Hartenberger,
and including a current docent, Irene Davis, sat in the kitchen
of Mr. Ronald Dougan and discussed the possibility of his donating
the former schoolhouse that was on his property.
At the time Mr. Dougan was approached, the old one-room school
was being used for seed storage. It was built in 1850 and was
in use until the district was consolidated in 1920. Mr. Dougan
attended there as a youth, and even taught there for six months
when he was 17. In later years he acquired the old building and
moved it to his farm to use as a storage shed, keeping it in
good repair. He agreed to donate it if the Society would pay
for the moving and a new foundation.
The
Chapter committee worked closely with Walter Dundore, Bartlett
Museum curator, and Larry Raymer, executive secretary of the
Beloit Area Chamber of Commerce, in planning the move and restoration.
On September 27, 1971, E. R. Kessler & Sons towed the trailered
building from the Dougan farm, through downtown Beloit, and to
its new home at the Bartlett Museum. Over the next three years
Upsilon members raised money and worked on the school’s
restoration with the help of many volunteers. In August of 1974
a volunteer crew of Elementary principals (Richard Kinkade, Merlin
Nundahl, Ralph Crow, Merlin Kenitzer, Dale Durnford, Robert Harris,
and George Kolak) painted the outside of the school. Joseph Rhodes,
assistant superintendent, authorized the gift of old desks from
Beloit Schools.
Then on September 3, 1974, the 124-year-old pioneer schoolhouse
was dedicated in ceremonies at the Bartlett Museum. In dedicating
the schoolhouse Dora Hartenberger declared that “this school
building, and everything for which it stands, [is] dedicated
to the honor of a very great educator, a fine historian and a
very good and kind friend to us all - Miss Daisy W. Chapin.”
Daisy attended the event which capped off a memorable career.
Daisy Chapin was born in Wayne Township, Wisconsin, in 1889,
her parents’ eleventh child. After graduation from grade
school in 1903 she attended the Oshkosh Normal School for 2 ½
years, and began teaching in rural schools in southern Wisconsin
in 1906. Her salary was $40 a month.
Daisy continued her education at Whitewater Normal School and
completed her teaching degree in 1911 before she came to Beloit
to teach at Wright School. She taught there for four years, and
then at the prompting of a friend who had moved to Montana, Daisy
decided to seek her fortune out West. In 1915 she moved to Montana
and taught in Kalispell and Missoula, until she returned home
to Winslow to help when her mother broke her hip. Daisy took
a teaching job at the Winslow village school for a year, spent
another year teaching in Freeport, and then finally returned
to Beloit in 1920, where she worked the rest of her life.
When she returned to Beloit she taught at Parker School for two
years, and then moved to Lincoln Junior High School to teach
geography and history. For a time Daisy taught English at the
Vocational School to Beloit’s booming immigrant population,
in their preparing for U. S. citizenship, but had to discontinue
these classes because she wanted to complete her college degree.
She continued her education at UW-Madison, and in 1926 received
her Bachelor of Philosophy Degree.
In the 1920s Beloit’s school population was growing, and
when Todd and Cunningham Schools were being built in 1926, the
Superintendent of Schools Frank Converse offered Daisy the job
of principal at Cunningham, beginning in 1927. She continued
as Cunningham’s principal until her retirement in 1954.
A very active woman, Daisy was involved in many organizations
over the years. She was a member of the Delta Kappa Gamma society,
an organization of outstanding women in education, and was president
of the local chapter from 1946-66. She also served as that society’s
state publications and publicity chairman for Sigma State from
1967-69. During World War II she was an air raid warden and supervised
sugar rationing in the Cunningham school district. She was a
member of Second Congregational Church where she served in many
capacities, belonged to the YWCA, the D.A.R., Business and Professional
Women, Friends of the Library, PTA, and other educational associations.
She was also the first president of the Beloit School District’s
Quarter Century Club. She was included in the 1970-71 edition
of Who’s Who of American Women.
After her retirement from the school system, Miss Chapin worked
for 15 years as secretary, then curator of the Beloit Historical
Museum when it was housed in the Municipal Center, and then later
at the Bartlett Museum. Since she was familiar with the school
curriculum of local history, she could show visiting students
objects from the past that they had studied about.
Daisy Chapin died in 1985 at the age of 96. Despite her busy
life and many honors, she was a principal who called all the
pupils by their first names, even after they were adults. She
understood and respected them and helped to solve their problems.
The following from the 1974 schoolhouse dedication ceremony best
sums up Miss Chapin’s life:
This schoolhouse in dedicated to be a place of living history
for future generations of all school children . . . and it is
dedicated to honor a great citizen of Beloit, a generous and
kind lady, a thoughtful and considerate teacher and educator,
a very fine historian, and truly a great person.
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