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 36
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Since the commencement of the world war military matters have been greatly stimulated in Champaign County, especially at the University of Illinois, the head-center of all such movements, which, even before the culmination of European clashes, had given more attention to such matters than any other educational institution in the country. The military instruction therein is in charge of Maj. Robert W. Mearns, a graduate of West Point, who saw twenty-four years of service in the United States army, including three years as major of Philippine scouts. Major Mearns was appointed professor of military science and tactics of the State university in 1916, and the four assistant professors have all been connected with the regular army. The teaching and administrative force under the major comprises fifteen members.
The course at the university has special reference to the duties of officers of the line, and the supply of arms and ammunition is fur- nished by the war department. Every male student under twenty-five
THE ARMORY AND AVIATION CORPS
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years of age is required to drill twice a week, and also to earn a certain number of credits in study. A committee appointed by the president of the university examines candidates for nomination to the governor of the State for commissions as brevet captains in the State militia. Only seniors are eligible. Since the outbreak of hostilities against Germany student volunteers must pass their physical examinations both at the university and before the authorities of the regular recruiting offices.
The Cadet Brigade of the University of Illinois consists of two regiments of infantry, comprising two headquarters companies, two machine gun companies, two supply companies and twenty-four com- panies ; a signal company, an engineer company and a hospital company. There are 2,127 cadets enrolled in the military department, including the band of 167 men and 113 commissioned officers.
Under the act of Congress of June 3, 1916, there have also been established at the university three units of the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. All male students of the university, except in the professional departments, who are citizens and physically able, are enrolled in the corps during their freshman and sophomore years, and are required during these two years to devote three periods a week of not less than one hour each to military science and training. At the end of the sophomore year a student, who is recommended by the president of the university and the professor of military science and tactics, may sign a form of written agreement prescribed by the secretary of war and thus enroll himself for two more years of service in the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. For such the hours devoted to study and training are materially increased. A student who thus completes the elective advanced course is eligible for appointment by the President of the United States as a reserve officer of the United States army for a period of ten years; and is also eligible for appointment as a temporary second lieutenant of the regular army in time of peace for purposes of instruc- tion, with the allowances provided by law for that grade, and pay at the rate of $100 a month for six months. On the expiration of this period of service with the regular army, he reverts to the status of a reserve officer.
The military status of the University of Illinois has been described somewhat at length because it so far overshadows everything else of that nature in Champaign County. It is a feature in which its citizens take an excusable pride, and one which has done as much as any one thing, during the past two or three years, to bring the university into National prominence as a builder of virile and patriotic young manhood.
PIONEER RESIDENTS OF CHAMPAIGN
CHAPTER XI
TOWNSHIP AND CITY OF CHAMPAIGN
PIONEER SETTLERS AT AND' NEAR CHAMPAIGN-HOME FRUIT FARM AND THE DUNLAPS-FIRST ADDITIONS TO THE RAILROAD TOWN- FIRST BUILDINGS ERECTED-FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ORGAN- IZED THE FAMOUS "GOOSE POND" CHURCH-"LITTLE BRICK" SCHOOLHOUSE-ADDITIONAL IMPORTANCE (1855)-BANK FOUNDED IN WEST URBANA-VILLAGE AND CITY ORGANIZATIONS VOTED PROGRESS AND SETBACKS-COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERNMENT ADOPTED-MAYORS OF CHAMPAIGN-THE CHAMPAIGN PUBLIC SCHOOLS-HISTORICAL ACCOUNT-PERSONNEL OF THE BOARDS OF EDUCATION-THE TEACHING FORCE-THE BURNHAM ATHAENEUM -- CITY HALL-PROTECTION AGAINST FIRE-WATER SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION-SANITARY SEWERAGE SYSTEM-PARKS AND BREATH- ING PLACES-CEMETERIES- THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH- FIRST CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH-THE FIRST METHODIST EPISCO- PAL CHURCH-EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH-ST. PETER'S EVANGELICAL CHURCH-ST. MARY'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH- FATHER A. J. WAGNER-ST. JOHN'S PARISH-HOLY CROSS PARISH- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH-EMMANUEL EPISCOPAL CHURCH-BENEV- OLENT AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS-UNITED CHARITIES ASSOCIA- TION OF CHAMPAIGN AND URBANA-JULIA F. BURNHAM HOSPITAL- GARWOOD HOME FOR OLD LADIES-YOUNG WOMEN'S CHRISTIAN LEAGUE-THE DORCAS SOCIETY-WOMEN'S CLUBS-THE ART AND THIRTY CLUBS-SOCIAL SCIENCE CLUB OF THE TWIN CITIES-THE CHAMPAIGN SOCIAL SCIENCE CLUB-WOMAN'S CLUB OF CHAMPAIGN AND URBANA-CHAMPAIGN COUNTY COUNTRY CLUB-THE GRAND ARMY POST-CHAMPAIGN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-LOCAL BANKS -CHAMPAIGN NEWSPAPERS-SECRET AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.
The township of Champaign is southwest of the center of Champaign County, and as it is not in the Timber Belt had to await development until the settlers of the new country had been educated to the idea of improving prairie lands. In the early '40s appeared a brave man, who ventured across the range line away from the Big Grove to make his home in Township 19, Range 8 east.
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PIONEER SETTLERS AT AND NEAR CHAMPAIGN
In 1843 William Phillips, a Methodist preacher, familiarly called "Billy Phillips," located on the southwest quarter of the northeast quar- ter of Section 12, now not far from First Street, Champaign. John S. Beasley had made some large land investments in the township, but it remained for Elder Phillips actually to plant a home on the prairie soil. He had no neighbor for about five years, but in 1848 James Myers entered forty acres in Section 1, adjoining the Phillips home to the north, and both tracts are now within the limits of the city of Cham- paign, as well as the pieces entered about the same time as the Myers farm by Moses Moraine, Robert Logan, Thomas Magee and Joseph Evans, in Sections 1, 12 and 13. Col. M. W. Busey's purchases of 1849 were in Sections 12 and 14, some of the latter lying without the city limits. In 1852 Barney Kelley entered the whole of Sec- tion 25, about a mile south of Champaign, which remained his home- stead until his death. In the spring of that year Col. W. N. Coler entered about 1,500 acres of land in the vicinity of what is now the city. Elias Chester of Ohio, the father of E. O. and E. E. Chester, in 1854 patented lands in Sections 21 and 29, three or four miles southwest. East of the Chester tracts was the farm opened and improved by J. B. Phinney. His homestead was a model in the early days, its proprietor became an influential citizen and died at his home in Cham- paign Township.
HOME FRUIT FARM AND THE DUNLAPS
In 1856 Mathias L. Dunlap purchased a large tract in the southwest quarter of Section 36, just north of the Tolono Township line, and two years afterward opened the first nursery and fruit farm operated on scientific principles in the county. He protected his tree nurseries and his orchards with belts of forest trees, and finally demonstrated that such enterprises could be made profitable in what was naturally an open prairie country. Mr. Dunlap had had a business training in young Chicago; had surveyed much of Cook and DuPage counties, and for years before coming to Champaign had been prominent in the politics of Cook County and the State. For a decade he had also been engaged in the nursery business on the prairies in the Chicago neighborhood and was well known as a writer for the agricultural press. For twenty-two years he was the agricultural editor of the Chicago Tribune; was editor of the Illinois Farmer from 1860 to 1865 and declined the position of commissioner of agriculture tendered by Lincoln. The location of the
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Illinois Industrial University (now the University of Illinois) was due as much to his influence and labor as to those of any other man, and he always insisted that it should remain purely an agricultural college. He was a member of the first board of trustees of the university. He raised a large family, like a wise father, and died at his home near Savoy, February 14, 1875. Rural Home Fruit Farm, his creation, since so wonderfully developed by his son, Hon. HI. M. Dunlap, has become noted throughout the United States for its wonderful apples. II. J. Dunlap, another son, has become unusually prominent as an editor and promoter of horticultural interests.
SCENE IN THE DUNLAP ORCHARDS, SAVOY
About the time that M. L. Dunlap located in the township, Frederick Beiser opened the first truck farm of any importance and for years supplied the neighboring territory with vegetables.
FIRST ADDITIONS TO THE RAILROAD TOWN
With the opening of the Illinois Central Railroad from Chicago in 1854, and the building of its depot two miles west of the courthouse, the least prophetic could not but foresee that business and population were bound to gravitate to that locality. Soon afterward, as has already been stated, T. R. Webber, under a decrce of the Circuit Court, platted
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
and sold that portion of the Busey estate between First and Wright streets, north of Springfield Avenue, while the Illinois Central platted what is now the main business portion of Champaign in the vicinity of Neil and First streets, on what is now West University Avenue, known as Farnam, Clark & White's Addition.
In what is now the west side of the city, Farnam, Clark & White made an addition and donated fifteen acres for a public park, the first in the county. The addition was platted in April, 1855, in the name of John P. White, who owned a third interest in it. His partners, Jeffrey A. Farnam and Nathan M. Clark, who were owners of the other two-thirds, were Illinois Central engineers, who perhaps did not wish to be prominently known in the matter. This may also account for the fact that a monument erected in what has since been developed into the City Park, or White Park, on West University Avenue, gives the credit of the gift to Mr. White alone.
FIRST BUILDINGS ERECTED
In the early spring of 1854, shortly before the first train over the Central pulled in from Chicago, Mark Carley erected the first dwelling upon the new town site, and moved his family into it from Urbana. It is reported that he moved in something which caused more excitement than his family-a piano, grand or otherwise, but the pioneer of its kind in the county and sole possessor of the glory for some time. A rough wooden building, or shed, had been erected at First South and Market streets, and on October 10, 1854, John C. Baddeley opened the first general store on North Neil Street. He was appointed postmaster in the following year and combined his light official duties with the heavier responsibilities of business.
FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH ORGANIZED
The religious bodies of the young town had obtained a foothold earlier, if anything, than any other of its institutions. In the fall of 1850 Rev. John A. Steele, under authority of the Presbytery of Pales- tine (which then had jurisdiction over this county), organized a church, the membership of which was largely drawn from settlers in the western sections of the Sangamon Timber. Soon after the building of the Illinois Central and the founding of West Urbana, to better accommo- date its scattered members, services were held in the new depot building. Sunday trains were not then running. A church building was erected in 1855 upon the present site of the Presbyterian Church.
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THE FAMOUS "GOOSE POND" CHURCH
The First Congregational Church was organized mostly by those living in the town of Urbana in the fall of 1853. Rev. W. W. Blanchard was its first pastor. This church likewise changed its location to West Urbana, and was for years known and loved as the Goose Pond Church. In 1855-56 the house of worship, which was the scene of many notable meetings, was erected at the northwest corner of University Avenue and First. While Lincoln was coming into notice as a circuit lawyer and an Illinois politician, especially while he was bearding the Little Giant in the open, he often spoke in the Goose Pond Church. It is of record, for instance, that he addressed the citizens of West Urbana in June, 1856, and September, 1858. An emergency meeting was held in the little church in October, 1856, to provide for Dr. Blanchard's salary, and the proud report of the committee was that "$350 and a yoke of oxen were raised, and this, too, within the membership of the church." In the spring of 1858 meetings were held to organize the Young Men's Literary Association and the school commissioners of the township dis- cussed the advisability of establishing public schools for "both sides of the track." In December, 1859, a largely attended gathering was held in the Goose Pond Church in memory of John Brown.
"LITTLE BRICK" SCHOOLHOUSE
Sharing the honors with the Goose Pond Church in these early days was the "Little Brick," or the public school of District No. 1, corner of Hill and Randolph, the site of the present Central School. Dr. R. W. Shoemaker and his wife had taught a private school in the little frame building just west of First Street, on University Avenue, but the Little Brick was the first public school. The site was given by J. P. White for the purpose, and the structure was completed in 1855. It was west of the Illinois Central tracks, which, for several years, consti- . tuted the base line by which every landmark was located. It was in the Little Brick that the caucus was held in May, 1858, which decided "No License" for West Urbana by a majority of forty-eight. There, also, in January, 1860, the charter members of the Urbana Street Rail- way met to organize. In the following month a rousing mass meeting was held in the Little Brick to decide upon the name for the proposed city. Dr. J. W. Scroggs moved the old name of the Illinois Central station, West Urbana, be retained, but Dr. J. P. Gauch's amendment that it be changed to Champaign was adopted by a vote of 36 to 21. And so it has remained to this day. Other momentous occasions con-
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
nected with local history, too numerous to enumerate, had their settings in the Little Brick.
ADDITIONAL IMPORTANCE (1855)
The year 1855 was filled with events, aside from the building of No. 1 schoolhouse. Robert B. Smith & Brother opened the first drug store, McLaurie & Leal the first stove and tin store, Dr. H. C. Howard erected a steam flouring mill at Main and Walnut streets, Mark Carley built a warehouse, L. S. and W. E. Smith established a lumber yard, Henry C. Whitney moved from Urbana as the pioneer resident lawyer, and John Mills superseded Mr. Baddeley as postmaster, who moved the office to the east side of the Illinois Central tracks. In August of that year, less than eighteen months after the building of the first residence at the station, a census was taken by the State authorities of the people occupying the platted sections and it was found that there was a popula- tion of 416 at West Urbana.
BANK FOUNDED IN WEST URBANA
For some time after West Urbana was started the east side of the track had the postoffice and business honors, as well as the Grand Prairie Bank. But in June, 1856, a branch of that concern was opened at the northeast corner of Main and Oak streets. Until the bank build- ing was completed at University Avenue and First Street, the cash of the bank was carried daily to the main bank at Urbana. At the com- pletion of the new building, the business at West Urbana was continued as the Cattle Bank.
VILLAGE AND CITY ORGANIZATIONS VOTED
In January, 1857, the school census indicated 357 children of school age, and a total population of 1,202, and on the following 27th of April a village organization was voted, under the name of West Urbana. The members of the first board of trustees were: E. T. McCann (presi- dent), John W. Baddeley, A. M. Whitney, J. J. Sutton and J. P. Gauch.
In April, 1860, the people of Champaign (the new name having been adopted in February) voted in favor of municipal government, and the city was organized, under a special charter, under the name of Cham- paign. As the postoffice and railroad station had been changed accord- ingly, the transformation from West Urbana was made quite secure.
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
PROGRESS AND SETBACKS
As has been made plain in the preceding chapter, Champaign bore herself with honor during the trying times of the Civil War, being first in the county to make a practical response to the call for troops, and sending forth for more than four years the best of her men both into the ranks of the soldiery and as able and brave leaders at the very front. During that period, in the fall of 1863, a crude street car line was built between Champaign and Urbana, but it was, on the whole, no proper time for the consideration of local advantages, and such develop- ments therefore languished. The city had barely recovered from the drain upon its best citizenship and financial resources before a destructive fire destroyed some of the most valuable property within its limits. On July 4, 1868, almost the entire square bounded by Main and Taylor streets on the north and south, and by Market and Walnut on the east and west, was burned over. As the first volunteer fire company had been organized but the year before, little was accomplished to stay the destruc- tion.
As the years went by, however, the scars were healed, as well as those caused by destructive fires of later years, and even a better class of buildings followed. The interurban system between Champaign and Urbana was built and connections made with the sections of the Illinois Traction System to the east and to the west, as has been fully detailed in the chapter on transportation. Systems for both the drawing and distribution of water and for the sanitary drainage of the city were founded and perfected, the latter being especially indebted to Prof. A. N. Talbot, sanitary engineer of the University of Illinois.
In the development of the city of Champaign much credit is also freely given to the manifold influences emanating from the great uni- versity at its doors, and which, in turn, looks for so many necessities and pleasures to the western member of the Twin Cities.
COMMISSION FORM OF GOVERNMENT ADOPTED
For a period of fifty-seven years the city of Champaign was con- ducted under an aldermanic form of government, but on February 20, 1917, the people took a referendum vote on the proposition to change it to the commission system. It carried by a majority of 285. The vote for the change was 719 men and 589 women, a total of 1,308; against, 786 men and 237 women, or a total of 1,023. On April 17th, the first city election was held under the changed, or commission, form of gov- ernment, with the result that S. C. Tucker was chosen mayor, and H. B.
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GROCERIES
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VIEWS ON NEIL AND GREEN STREETS. CITY HALL
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HISTORY OF CHAMPAIGN COUNTY
Ramey, George J. Babb, George B. Franks and J. T. Boland the first board of commissioners.
MAYORS OF CHAMPAIGN
The successive mayors of Champaign have been as follows: E. T. McCann, 1860; D. Gardner, 1861; J. S. Wright, 1862-63; E. L. Sweet, 1864-65; C. E. Larned, 1866-68; C. B. Smith, 1869-70; J. Dickerson, 1873-75, 1879; Henry Trevett, 1876-79; B. C. Beach, 1880, 1885, 1886; L. S. Wilcox, 1881, 1882, 1887, 1888; J. B. McKinley, 1883; W. A. Day, 1883, 1884; Levi Dodson, 1872; Sandford Richards, 1874; P. W. Woody, 1889, 1890; J. B. Harris, 1891-94; C. J. Sabin, 1899, 1900; E. E. Chester, 1895, 1896; C. J. Mullikin, 1901, 1902; J. R. Scott, 1897, 1898; E. S. Swigart, 1903, 1904; S. C. Tucker, 1909; William Coughlin, 1911-13; Shields A. Blain, 1905-08; O. B. Dobbins, 1914, 1915: E. S. Swigart, 1916, 1917; S. C. Tucker, 1917 -.
The term of office of the newly-elected officials commenced on the 1st of May and will conclude two years from that date. While under the commission form of government the candidates are elected ordinarily for a period of four years, at Champaign the election occurred at the close of two years of a quadrennial period, leaving two years as a hold- over. The next candidates will be elected for the full term of four years.
THE CHAMPAIGN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
These are not city but district schools. School District No. 71, Champaign County, Illinois, is a corporate body independent of the city government, managed under the school laws of the State by a board of six members elected two each year for three-year terms, with a presi- dent elected annually who has the usual powers of a presiding officer and a vote in case of a tie.
The territory of the district includes parts of Townships 19-8 and 19-9, nine and seven-eighths sections, about 6,320 acres. This takes in all of the territory of the city of Champaign and considerable tracts lying outside of the city.
This Champaign school district had in operation during the school year 1916-17 a high school enrolling 690 students, with 28 high school instructors, and 58 elementary schools enrolling 2,141 pupils, housed in nine buildings, with 58 regular teachers and five teachers in charge of special work. An attendance officer, a school nurse, a superintendent of buildings and grounds, a clerk, a librarian, an engineer, a dozen janitors, a cafeteria manager, with the superintendent of schools in gen-
SOUTH AND EAST SIDES OF PRESENT HIGH SCHOOL
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eral charge of all educational plans and activities, also belong to the list of employes. The schools employ a great many more workers and requires in the most of them a much higher grade of preparation and personal fitness for the work than does any other governmental agency affecting the same population. They also render direct personal service to a much larger number.
In administering this system there is never any cessation of the effort to improve in every way possible the excellence of the instructors, of the facilities for instruction, of the courses of study and of the general plans and purposes of school management. Progress is sought in every direction in which progress has been proved to be safe and beneficial, so far as the limitations imposed by revenue conditions and by the forces of tradition in the community permit. It is the purpose to make both the elementary and the high school education such as will be most useful to the pupils and to the State in their future activities as citizens. While no superlative excellence is claimed, it is the endeavor to keep the schools up to the standard proper for this educational center of Illi- nois. The high school is accredited to the University of Illinois, to all colleges of the North Central Association and to Smith, Wellesley and Mount Holyoke.
Every high school should, first of all, serve its own community, as well as the state at large, by giving to its pupils what they are likely really to need in life. The special plans of each high school should be shaped by its environment. The fact that the University of Illinois is so large a part of the local environment in Champaign that about two- thirds of our high school graduates enter that institution makes prepara- tion for college of greater importance here than in most high schools; but the needs of the other third are not neglected, commercial, agricul- tural, domestic, mechanical and scientific courses adapted to their prac- tical needs being maintained, as well as those in language, literature, history and government, which are also useful in a broad sense to all intelligent citizens.
The annual official reports sent back each year to all high schools give the gratifying information, in the case of the Champaign High School, that, though it is plain that graduates of this school of a general average of ability come into competition with a small percentage of chosen graduates, they not only keep their university scholarship records up to the general average of their university classes but raise it noticeably above that average. This can be the result only of greater native ability in Champaign youth or of better preparation. The reader may draw one or the other conclusion.
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The schools plan, in general, to serve the needs of the children of the present generation and of the state in the near future by preparing those children for the demands of that future, so far as the foresight of instructors makes this possible and the choices of courses made by pupils and their parents are wisely made with respect to the particular abilities and purposes of the individual pupils. In the elementary schools, a general training is given in the fundamental knowledge and skills believed to be serviceable in life to all citizens. In the high school, a considerable variety of work leading to different vocational ends is offered, the various curricula providing, as already suggested, so far as time of preparation and the age of pupils makes possible, either for early entrance into occupations or for taking up higher education.
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