School buildings in the Second and Fifth wards were erected and the public schools thoroughly graded; the high school was organized; no other public school house had been constructed until the years 1856–1857.

The evidence

• “About 1856, the present buildings of the Second and Fifth Wards were erected, and the public schools were more perfectly graded, the old Academy becoming the central and high school of the system. With its several departments, in each of which such studies were pursued as are usually taught in our best academies and higher seminaries — with its ability to graduate pupils with a thorough English and classical education, the old Academy constituted an educational magnet of superior force, lifting to a higher plane the schools about it.”

  1879-history-of-rock-county/14-rock-county-ch08-janesville.md, PDF p. 546 / book p. 550

  Butterfield, C. W., et al. The History of Rock County, Wisconsin: its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc. Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1879. Cornell University Library via the Internet Archive, archive.org/details/cu31924028871585.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources

  

• “In 1856 commodious buildings were erected in the Second and Fifth wards, and the schools were graded into high school, grammar, intermediate and primary departments, the old academy becoming the central or high school of the system. With its several departments in which were pursued studies taught in our best academies, with its ability to graduate pupils with a thorough English and classical education, the old academy became a magnet of superior force and an important factor in municipal affairs.”

  1908-brown-rock-county/12-janesville-schools.md, Vol. 1, PDF p. 284 / book p. 260

  Brown, William Fiske, editor. Rock County, Wisconsin: A New History of Its Cities, Villages, Towns, Citizens and Varied Interests, from the Earliest Times, Up to Date. Chicago: C. F. Cooper & Co., 1908. 2 vols. archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon01brow, archive.org/details/rockcountywiscon02brow.

  Grade A: Found on a page of one of our sources · may repeat 1879-history-of-rock-county, so not counted as independent