"The Incident" and a "Bad Rap"

Algoma Public School, Postmarked 1910

In late winter 1916, nine Algoma teachers complained that high school principal George Bassford had insulted their moral character as well as that of others in the community. Bassford was alleged to say teachers could do whatever they wanted to do outside the city, but had to behave in the city. Whatever “behaving” was, its definition was not in Attorney Joshua John’s files in the ARC at UW-Green Bay, or in newspapers of the time.

It seems that ten* of the District’s teachers who were boarding with Mrs. Herbert Sibilsky felt one of their number had to be reporting behavior to the principal. Reading accounts nearly 100 years later, it would appear that single women – many young – and a 60 year old man in authority gave a story legs.

Students went on strike against Bassford after he fired a female teacher without a hearing. The firing was attributed to insubordination. Things escalated. Citizens believed the teachers. When other teachers were asked to “testify,” they refused to do so without benefit of counsel. Some teachers left town, returning to their own homes and thus necessitating the board hire new teachers, including a replacement for the woman fired. By then there were those who said the woman was fired for resisting Bassford’s caresses. Bassford had gone to bat for his teachers as early as 1914 when the Thanksgiving issue of the Record took note and said he took over the students so teachers could catch the train during the school day to be home for Thanksgiving

News of “the incident” spread, and an “incident” makes for delicious gossip. On February 29, 1916 the State Journal reported the school fight was all over town, on the streets and in the homes. What made the story especially juicy was that Bassford was a 60 year old married man. The State Journal reported the following day saying Bassford called teachers to the office, locked the door and alleged both immoral character of citizens and lax teacher morals. According to the Journal, 600-700 people attended a meeting at the Opera House to discuss the astounding charges. Such news even made the March 2^nd edition of small town Amery, Wisconsin in an article telling readers about shocking character charges against Principal Bassford. It reported that in a school of 125 students, only 20 showed up on the day that paper acquired its news. On the 3^rd of March, the Record commented when its headline screamed that Mr. Bassford was “Meat For Yellow Journalists.” It noted choice bits of scandal. The Record didn’t comment earlier because of the “delicate” matter.

Attorney Joshua Johns – later 8^th District Congressman - was engaged as attorney for the teacher discharged and those who resigned. When the Board attempted to pay the discharged teacher, she said she didn’t want the money, though sometime later she wanted her salary for the entire year. Following one mass meeting at Opera House, businessman Sam Perry said a “small town is excited by charges affecting women and girls” and that excitement carried them away. Perry, who was interviewed by Milwaukee Journal, also said the school board was made up of seven respected business men of all political parties. Perry felt the agitation was due to the disappointment of the resigned teachers and felt the incident was closed. But it was not.

The State Journal  informed readership on March 16, 1916 that the matter was taken up by Wisconsin Board of Education as the fired teacher wanted to be heard, though the Board refused her twice. A teacher who returned to Oshkosh, Miss Gansen, said in an interview that principal intervened in a quarrel between two teachers. Gansen said the issue had nothing to do with schoolwork, however  she declined to say more, other than that the teachers didn’t get a fair deal. Algoma’s board did ask those teachers who left to appear and air their grievances. The teachers did not and, according to the paper, handed in threatening resignations instead. That involved reinstatement of the dismissed teacher.

It was reported that the teachers hastily resigned, and when they found out how much that would cost them, they (in effect) went after the principal. The court said the teachers took their troubles to the public and that newspaper accounts were highly exaggerated. After investigations, the Board exonerated Bassford though asked him to resign saying the papers had been flooded with such embarrassing stories that his leadership was questioned and that, essentially, the District looked bad. The Record called the incident “nauseauting.” Bassford filed suit in September for what he felt was a breach of contract as he had two years yet to fulfill.

On May 31, 1918 the presiding judge found for Mr. Bassford, against the school district, and awarded him $400. It was found that Mr. Bassford was trying to iron out the issues. He had told one teacher to apologize and “make things right,” or she would have to step down from the faculty. Bassford said nobody was “tattling” on anybody and while the term “liar” was never brought forward, there were those who thought he was one.

Milwaukee Journal carried an article reporting that things were cooling down, and both weekly papers – The Record and The Herald -  supported the principal and the board. There were new teachers and school was running smoothly. As the Record said, a small incident cost the District over $1,200 in legal fees, caused turmoil, confusion and passion to sweep the city.

The incident undermined the city, the credibility of the Board of Education and its choice of teachers. A “small incident” affected reputations in a big way. In 2014, it could be said that Bassford got a “bad rap.” In a subsequent Algoma Herald* F.J. Walters and Harry Heidmann said the Board had the facts and others did not. They went on to say the Board was sincere in its handling of the “disgraceful occurrence.”

*One account has Mrs. Sibilsky renting to 10 teachers. The number seems high because the high school had 8 teachers in total according to the 1917 Crescent Beach Echoes, the school's yearbook.  If the number included the grade school teachers, Mrs. Sibilsky would have been renting to most of the city's teachers. Ten single women working at the same kind of job,  living in the same home, eating meals together and so on, would seem like a scenario for conflict. 

Mrs. Sibilsky was operating the hotel remodeled in 1903 from the bar and dance hall built by her husband in the mid-1890s. The Mill St. building, once the site of the Sheridan Hotel, was torn down in the mid-1990s.

**Algoma Record and The Herald merged a short time later.

Sources: Joshua Johns' files at ARC-UW-Green Bay; Algoma Herald; Algoma Record; History of Commercial Development in Youngs and Steele Plat and Other Significant Properties in Algoma, Wisconsin, Vol. 1; Cox-Nell House Histories. Postcards from the blogger's collection.