USA > Illinois > Champaign County > A Standard history of Champaign County Illinois : an authentic narrative of the past, with particular attention to the modern era in the commercial, industrial, civic and social development : a chronicle of the people, with family lineage and memoirs, Volume I > Part 23
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In 1831, when the territory of Champaign County was part of Vermilion County, the late James S. Wright of Champaign-twice elected a member of the General Assembly, once to each house-helped
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in the organization of the first Sunday School in the county. It must have been near where the first day school was taught. The next year the same neighborhood organized and maintained a singing school.
The first school taught in Sidney was by Andrew Stevenson (prob- ably the same who was the second sheriff of the county), in the winter of 1833, at the home of William Nox. George Acres and George Nox were also early teachers in the neighborhood.
UNION OF CHURCH AND SCHOOL
Some three miles sontheast of Urbana was the home of John Brown- field and a school was established in the early '30s for the children of settlers on the Salt Fork in that vicinity. Rev. James Holmes, a Methodist missionary and a millwright, came to the neighborhood in 1835, chiefly to build a gristmill for Mr. Brownfield. He built the mill and then looked around to consider the feasibility of organizing a Methodist class. The schoolhouse, which took his eye, is described by Martin Rhinehart, one of the interested settlers, as follows: "Built of split logs, with puncheon floors, basswood bark loft, greased paper windows, half-log benches (flat side up), and cost, furniture and all, not to exceed $25." In this schoolhouse Elder Holmes organized the first class in Methodism in Champaign County, probably in the winter of 1836.
FIRST SCHOOL ON THE SANGAMON RIVER
Charles Cooper taught the first school on the Sangamon River in Champaign County, in 1835. The scene of his labors was a log cabin, sixteen by eighteen feet, located about a mile south of the village of Mahomet, and his scholars included the children of the Robertson, Max- well, Scott, Osborn and Lindsay families.
Levi Asher taught a school at Lewis Kuders' house, in Kerr Town- ship, during the fall and winter of 1837. Another school was opened on the other side of the Middle Fork at Sugar Grove. C. W. Gnlick, afterward of Champaign, was a pioneer teacher in that part of the county.
In 1838 Henry Sadorus employed James F. Outten, afterward county clerk of Piatt County, to teach a school in his own house for the benefit of his own children and those of the neighborhood. The Piatt children attended that school. Not long afterward a daughter of Dr. Lyon, who laid out the village of Sidney, taught in a log schoolhouse north of the village of Sadorus. Thomas Hunter and
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Miss Julia Coil, afterward Mrs. Dr. Leal, were similarly employed in that neighborhood. About 1843 Miss Margaret Patterson taught in a log schoolhouse built by William Rock, about four miles south of Sadorns.
Jeptha Truman, who became a citizen of Kansas, but who came to Champaign County with the family (his father was John Truman), in 1830, about 1837 attended a school at the town of Byron taught by Billy Phillips, which he often described in his mature years. The schoolhouse had been used for a country store. The classes were made up mainly of the young members of the Jacob Heater, Lewis Adkins and Charles Heptonstall families and were drawn from the Big Grove region.
Besides those already named as teachers in Urbana, may be men- tioned Messrs. Parmenter, Standish and Samuel C. Crane, and Moses Argo, John B. Swearingen and Mrs. Joseph Peters were early teachers in St. Joseph.
OLD COURTHOUSE AS A SCHOOLHOUSE
The first exclusive schoolhouse to be occupied in Urbana was the old courthouse of 1841. In 1848, to make room for a new courthouse, it was moved to the lot subsequently occupied by the First M. E. Church. In it, for several years, the juveniles of Urbana had the advantage of instruction from such men as John Wilson, R. P. Carson, John Camp- bell, Samuel C. Crane, Noah Levering, William Sim and Joseph W. Sim.
John B. Thomas was one of the pioneer schoolteachers in the eastern part of the county. He entered land in Ogden and South Homer as early as 1834 and taught about that time. Afterward he served as probate justice, county judge and school commissioner. At the time of his death in 1861 he was a practicing lawyer at Homer.
PIONEER SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS OF THE TOWNSHIPS
The townships of the county have always taken a laudable pride in the fact that the pioneers established schools for their children as soon as their means would allow, and supported them to the limit of their purses. So that although everything connected with the old-time sub- scription school was crude, "they did what they could." A chronological record of other early schools established in the different townships would read in this wise, some of the facts perhaps overlapping those furnished by the old superintendent of schools, Thomas R. Leal.
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ST. JOSEPH TOWNSHIP
The first school in this township was conducted on the farm of Squire William Peters, the father of John M. Peters, and was opened by John Laird, who continued through its first term in 1833. The class was mustered in the Squire's kitchen.
The next school at Hickory Grove had as its teacher Moses Argo, and was held in a log hut, also on the William Peters place in Section 26. The school continued at that locality for three years, when the building was moved to the Rankin place, Section 23.
MAHOMET TOWNSHIP
George Cooper taught the first school in Mahomet Township, although a house for that special purpose was not built until 1837. It was erected that year on Section 14 and called District No. 1. The district named was formed by Jonathan Maxwell, T. S. Scott and John G. Robertson.
SOUTH HOMER TOWNSHIP
Moses Thomas was the leader in having the first schoolhouse of the township erected on his farm. The next building solely for school purposes was completed in Old Homer during 1838 and R. C. Wright opened it as such.
KERR TOWNSHIP
In 1838 Levi Asher had charge of the first school in Kerr Town- ship; but the pioneer schoolhouse was built on James Skinner's farm, Section 21. William Y. Courtney, Samuel Tarves and Richard Bryan also taught in this first exclusive schoolhouse. About 1845 an old barn at Sugar Grove was transformed into a schoolhouse, and it is known that Stephen Ireland taught in it.
SADORUS TOWNSHIP
The first school in this section of the county was opened by James Outen in a log cabin during 1838. In 1842 William Rock, Mr. Beaver and others built a log schoolhouse, with greased paper for window glass, and hired Margaret Patterson as a teacher, at the rate of one dollar per week and "board 'round." Besides the children of the subscribers named, the Earlys and Munns attended the school. The cabin thus
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erected for educational purposes stood near Mr. Rock's house, and was not abandoned until more than forty years had passed.
COLFAX TOWNSHIP
The first school in the township was taught in a log building erected for the purpose in 1848. It is said that most of its subscribers lived in Tolono and Sadorus townships. Religious meetings were also held there. Jane Lyon, of Sidney, was the first teacher, and the Millers, Hamiltons, Sadoruses and Cooks subscribed twelve dollars per month for her benefit and the future of their children.
CONDIT TOWNSHIP
The first school in Condit Township was taught by C. Taylor in an old log house near what was afterward the residence of John Phillips in 1848.
CRITTENDEN TOWNSHIP
As soon as there was a sufficient number of children to justify them in so doing, a teacher was engaged and a subscription school opened in a cabin in Bouse Grove, Obadiah Johnson being the teacher. The first term was taught in 1852-53. A man by the name of Tompkins and a Miss Merry were also among the pioneer teachers. A schoolhouse was erected in 1857 by Alfred Bocock on Section 14 and Martha Chapin (subsequently Mrs. Cristy) was employed to teach.
NEWCOMB TOWNSHIP
The first schoolhouse built in Newcomb Township was located on Section 27 and was opened in the fall of 1852. It was a log cabin sixteen by eighteen feet, and its presiding genius, R. Banes, taught two terms. But a sort of a school had preceded it in Jesse Pancake's old log house, which he had abandoned for a better residence; for in 1851 Miss Martha Newel taught a term therein.
HENSLEY TOWNSHIP
In the winter of 1853 the first schoolhouse was built in this town- ship, the class which gathered there being conducted by John Thrasher at twelve dollars per month. The second school was taught in 1854 by Diey Ann Newel (afterward Mrs. Ragin).
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CHAMPAIGN TOWNSHIP
Dr. Shumacher (Shoemaker) taught the first school in the township during the winter of 1854 in a small one-story frame building. It was a subscription school of about a dozen pupils. During the Civil War Dr. Shumacher held a commission in the Confederate service and died in the South.
In the summer of 1855 a young man named Howard Pixley taught a private school west of the Illinois Central tracks, in a little one- story frame between Hickory and Tremont streets, Champaign.
The first public, or free school in the township, was taught by Mrs. M. A. Fletcher, assisted by her son, in the winter of 1855-56. It was held in the old Goose Pond Church.
OGDEN TOWNSHIP
The children of Ogden Township, in the earlier days, attended school in St. Joseph and Homer townships, adjoining Ogden. Eleazer Free- man once stated that the first school in the township was taught in his kitchen, in the immediate vicinity of Ogden, by Tiffin Donaldson, in 1855.
PHILO TOWNSHIP
The first schoolhouse credited to Philo Township was built on Sec- tion 9 in 1857 near the residence of L. Eaton, and was called Yankee Ridge schoolhouse. The pioneer school was opened in February of that year by Miss Emeline Keeble (afterward Mrs. Collor).
PESOTUM TOWNSHIP
The first schoolhouse erected in Pesotum Township was what was long known as the Nelson School, erected in 1857. Mr. Brown was its teacher. About this time Miss Sarah Pennington taught a class in the freighthouse at Pesotum, and Misses Carrie Kelly and Mary Walling also conducted pioneer enterprises of the same nature.
SCOTT TOWNSHIP
The first schoolhouse was erected in 1857 near Samuel Koogler's place, the children of the locality, previous to that year, having been sent to a school in the Harris district, Mahomet Township.
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RANTOUL TOWNSHIP
The first teacher in the township was J. A. Benedict, who taught four months in the winter of 1857-58. In the fall of 1859 the first public schoolhouse was built by Archa Campbell, a few rods west of his log cabin at the Grove. John Penfield, John A. Benedict and John Roughton were the first school directors of the township.
RAYMOND TOWNSHIP
Perhaps the pioneer school in this township was taught by Addie Kuble in 1857, and the house was an old log cabin which stood near what became the homestead of William Martinie. Miss Annie South- worth was also a pioneer schoolma'am. In 1859 J. R. Southworth erected the first schoolhouse in the township. It was considered quite imposing-octagonal in shape, with the roof terminating in a central point, from which arose the chimney, and containing three windows. Miss Sarah Mulligan had the honor of being the first teacher in this temple of education.
IIARWOOD TOWNSHIP
Augustus Crawford taught the first school in the township on Sec- tion 11, opening it in 1860. The building was a log cabin about ten by twelve feet and stood on John S. Webber's place. It appears that the log building was first erected for a house on Solomon Kuder's place in Kerr Township, and was moved by Jacob Huffman to the locality where he settled, on Section 1, Harwood Township. William Hughes then changed the location of the building to the Webber place on Section 11, in order to preempt the land there. As a structure, in fact, previous to its occupancy as a schoolhouse, it became quite noted as a wanderer.
TOLONO TOWNSHIP
A young man named Christian taught the first school in this town- ship, holding forth in a small frame house which long stood in the southern part of the village, The first schoolhouse was built in 1863.
ASAHEL SMOKING OUT THE BOYS
Asahel Bruer (or Brewer), who reached a venerable age as a resident of Urbana, has been mentioned as having taught school two miles east
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of Urbana as early as 1832. There were few in Champaign County who taught earlier than he, and the clap-board roofed log house in which he gathered his classes was one of the first schoolhouses to be erected. His service as a teacher was quite long for those times, covering fully eighteen months. Mr. Bruer was a Kentuckian, as will become evident further along in this story, and was said to be nicely adaptable to the rough ways of the Illinois country in which he had settled rather late in life.
The tale runs, as told both by the heroes of it and some of the victims, that on the first Christmas he taught Schoolmaster Bruer treated the scholars, according to custom, to one gallon of whiskey and a bushel of apples, and everything passed off harmoniously. When the next Christmas came around, he found the door of the schoolhouse barred against him and, in answer to his request for admittance, a note was handed him through a crack between the logs asking not only that he treat to a bushel of apples and a gallon of whiskey, but that he give the scholars a vacation of one week. He answered that he could not and would not, and then mounted the roof of the house. The clapboards being held on the roof by weight poles, he had no difficulty in taking out enough to cover the top of the chimney. As there was a large fire made from green wood in the fireplace below, the room was soon filled with smoke. James Kirby, one of the older scholars, took the poker, a piece of a pole, and by throwing it up the chimney knocked the boards off. They were soon replaced by Mr. Bruer and on a second attempt to knock them off Mr. Bruer caught the poker, threw it on the outside and re-covered the chimney. The house was soon filled with smoke, almost to suffocation. The smaller children began to cry and everyone seemed to wish there was an end to the matter. About this time William Trickle crawled into the garret, pulled aside the boards and jumped out and down to the ground, with Mr. Bruer after him. The boys, seeing Mr. Bruer after Trickle, threw open the door and everyone piled out, smoke and all.
The boys soon caught Mr. Bruer and began rolling him in the snow, and he said, pulled his hair. He protested that they had no right to do this, when the boys submitted the matter to Stephen Boyd and Mr. Bromley, who decided that they had a right to bar him out of the schoolhouse, but not to pull his hair or roll him in the snow.
As soon as Mr. Bruer was released, he made a run for the school- house, closely followed by James Kirby and the rest, but the old gentle- man was first in the schoolhouse, where he was master of the situation for a short time. But the boys finally surrounded him and he sur-
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rendered, saying : "I just wanted to see whether you had any Kentucky blood in yon.". He then told the boys where to find a gallon of whiskey and a bushel of apples, hidden a short distance from the schoolhouse, which were soon produced and the afternoon spent in roasting apples and drinking apply toddy. James Kirby, William and Ashford Trickle, James W. Boyd, Moses Deer, Mrs. Mary Ann Moore (of Danville), Fount Busey, Sol Nox, James Roland, Susan Trickle (afterward Mr. Kirby's wife) were present, and, as men and women, often described the circumstance with gusto. It remained especially vivid in the mind of James Kirby, who always insisted that he was the hero of the tale, rather than Mr. Bruer.
But gradually order, under the control of the constituted authorities, got the upper hand, although a consistent county system of schools was not developed until the passage of the legislative acts of 1854 and 1855, the former creating a state superintendent of public instruction and the latter a uniform state system, including a more compact county organ- ization.
INADEQUATE REVENUES
Under the previous law no township could sell its sixteenth, or school section, until it had fifty inhabitants, which provision for many years barred out many townships in Champaign County from taking advantage of even that small revenue. Again, the law permitted the people of any school district, by the affirmative vote of two-thirds of the legal voters, to levy a tax equal to 15 cents on each $100 of taxable property for the support of the public schools. In view of the comparative pov- erty of the people in the early times, when considered as owners of taxable property, this also was an insignificant source of revenue. Each county was also entitled to a certain quota, based on population, of the State interest on the school, college and seminary funds. But how small the public revenues of the county were previous to the '50s is well illus- trated by the figures for the decade ending 1851, as compiled by Mr. Leal. The total for that decade was $2.064, or a yearly average of $206.40.
Under the old law the secretary of state was ex-officio state superin- tendent of common schools, and each county elected a commissioner, to whom was committed the care and sale of the school lands and the examination of teachers, but he was in nowise authorized to superintend the schools. There was therefore neither a public system or public support, each locality depending on the intelligence and generosity of resident subscribers for the quality of the education supplied to the com-
1-15
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munity. When a young man or woman became especially anxious to secure a higher grade of education than the locality afforded, the nearest centers where such ambition could be partially gratified were Danville and Georgetown, Vermilion County, both seats of seminaries.
PRESENT COUNTY SYSTEM
But, commencing with the movement inaugurated by Prof. Jonathan B. Turner of Jacksonville, which eventuated in the founding of the University of Illinois, and culminated in the passage of the 1854-55 laws, which, in turn, laid the foundation of a solid system of free schools headed by the State which threw out tentacles into all the counties and townships of the commonwealth, the present-day era of popular educa- tion was born. Now each county elects a superintendent of schools, whose duty it is to visit the schools not controlled by city or village boards, conduct teachers' institutes, advise with teachers and school officers and instruct them in their respective duties, conduct teachers' examinations, and exercise general supervision over the public educa- tional affairs of the county. The subordinate officers are township trustees, a township treasurer, a board of district directors, or (in cities and villages) boards of education. The superintendent of schools is responsible to the county board of education, of which he is an ex-officio member; that body is to consist of not less than five nor more than eight persons, of whom the chairman of the county board is also an ex-officio member. A compulsory educational law is in force and women are eligible to any office created by the general or special school laws of the State.
Under the old dispensation of county education, the following served as school commissioners : John Meade, elected in 1838; Moses Thomas, 1840; John B. Thomas, 1846 and 1848; William Peters, 1850 to 1853; Paris Shepherd, 1853, resigned, and John B. Thomas served until 1857.
SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS AND SUPERINTENDENTS
Under the old dispensation of county education, in March, 1836, John Meade was appointed school commissioner by the County Commis- sioners' Court and served seven years. Moses Thomas was appointed in March, 1843, and served three years ; John B. Thomas, April 20, 1846, four years; William Peters, elected in March, 1850, and served until December, 1853; Paris Shepherd, elected at date mentioned and resigned in March, 1854; J. W. Jaquith appointed at the latter time and
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resigned in the following month; John B. Thomas, appointed in April, 1854, and served until the November election of 1857. Mr. Thomas, therefore, was in office during the period of transformation from the old to the new system. His successor, Thomas R. Leal, was elected county school commissioner in November, 1857, and served until December 3, 1873, or a period of sixteen years and one month.
THOMAS R. LEAL
No individual ever did so much for the Champaign County system of education as Commissioner Leal; and he was faithful, thorough and prominent in whatever he undertook. He was of New York nativity and in his youth a schoolmate of the noted Jay Gould, but, unlike his comrade of the early days, never acquired wealth. As he quaintly expressed it, "I was poor then and I have held my own with wonderful success." Mr. Leal came to Champaign County in 1852, when twenty- three years of age, and settled in Urbana, and after teaching in this and adjoining counties for several years was elected school commissioner, as noted. He not only served in that capacity for sixteen years, but was a member of the State Board of Education for six years of that period. He organized the first teachers' institutes in Champaign, Macon, Coles, Douglas, Effingham, Ford, Piatt, Vermilion and Iroquois counties, and took a prominent part in the educational affairs of the entire State.
COUNTY TEACHERS' INSTITUTES
The first teachers' institute in Champaign County met in the spring of 1857 with seventeen teachers in attendance; Dr. L. M. Cutcheon, Dr. Hunt, Judge J. O. Cunningham and others assisted in organizing and conducting the exercises. For several years after its organization the Champaign County Teachers' Institute held only two sessions annually of one week each. The meetings gradually increased in length, interest and instructive value until they covered three weeks, and even more, with fine programs and unflagging zeal on the part of both lec- turers and teachers. Originally, also, the expenses of the institute were paid by the teachers and their entertainment undertaken by the people of the localities where the meetings were held, but of late years, under the provisions of the constitution of 1870, the county institute and the normal schools have been under the supervision of the county board of education and supported by it as an integral part of the county system.
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PROGRESS DURING MR. LEAL'S ADMINISTRATION
The foundation of the present system had only fairly been laid when Superintendent Leal went out of office in 1873, and, as stated, he more than any other individual is credited with founding it on an enduring and yet an elastic basis. In 1857, when he assumed the commissioner- ship, there were forty-six schools in the county, twenty-six of which were kept in log schoolhouses and the remainder in small frame schools or dwelling-houses, with the exception of those occupied in Homer, Urbana and Champaign. These places contained comfortable brick buildings for the accommodation of the regular grades. Estimating the value of the forty-three houses outside these population centers at $200 each-which is pronounced a liberal estimate-and the graded school buildings at $20,000, the total value of the schoolhouses in the county in 1857 was $28,600. The houses, for the most part, were low, open and unsightly ; seats usually made of slabs, or of boards or puncheons, with long sticks thrust in them for legs. The desks were so high that an average-sized pupil could not more than reach the top with his chin when seated on the bench, or touch his toes on the floor. Not a school- yard in the entire county was fenced, unless it happened to be in the same enclosure with the field in which it was located. The schoolhouses were heated with cook stoves, often so broken that they seemed to stick together simply from force of habit. Within the following two decades, largely covered by Mr. Leal's incumbency, there was a marked improve- ment in the buildings occupied for school purposes throughout the county. The old log houses, with their puncheon and slab seats, entirely disap- peared, and only one of the old ramshackle frame schoolhouses remained. Buildings, furniture, apparatus and outbuildings had virtually reached the grade adopted by the advanced communities of the old Middle West or the East, and an estimate made by the authorities of the early "70s placed the value of the county school buildings at $310,000, of which sum the graded buildings were placed at $150,000.
The conclusion of Superintendent Leal's last term in December, 1873, marked the end of a noteworthy educational career. When he com- menced visiting the county schools in 1857, there were only two bridges in the county, and, as noted, forty-six schoolhouses; when he retired there were over 200 good houses. When he assumed the commissioner- ship there were no maps, globes or other apparatus except at Urbana. He had hard work even to introduce blackboards into the schools, fre- quently putting them in at his own expense in order to induce the boards of directors to try them as "experimental frills."
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