History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/C. C. Nestlerode

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C. C. NESTLERODE, pioneer educator, was born in Center County, Pennsylvania, March 27, 1824, where his early education was acquired. He taught school several years in Ohio, and while visiting at Galena, Illinois, in December, 1854, learned that a meeting of the State Teachers' Association of Iowa was soon to be held at Iowa City. He walked the entire distance to be present at that gathering of the teachers of Iowa, and was so deeply interested in the enthusiasm of the pioneer teachers of the new State that he resolved to remain in Iowa. In 1856 he was chosen principal of the Union School of Tipton in Cedar County, the first school of the kind established in the State. He was an enthusiastic advocate of the free school system and in connection with George B. Dennison of Muscatine succeeded in inducing the Iowa Legislature to abolish the rate bills and provide by tax for the support of the public schools. Mr. Nestlerode held one of the first teachers' institutes at Tipton, in 1856; and served as president of the State Teachers' Association in 1857-8 and again in 1862. In 1858 he was chosen by the State Association, Institute lecturer for the State and public school worker, representing the Association before the State Board of Education. During that year of educational labor, Mr. Nestlerode held twelve institutes, attended the sessions of the State Board of Education for twenty days, traveled 3,700 miles, much of the way on foot, and delivered seven hundred twelve free school talks. He died at Fostoria, Ohio, December 29, 1900.