USA > Illinois > Cook County > Chicago > Discovery and conquests of the Northwest, with the history of Chicago, Vol. I > Part 55
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Buildings and Grounds, was elected; he admirably filled the place till his death, some twenty years later. The City Controller had had charge of the funds of the Board; but in 1865 that officer was relieved by the elec- tion of the School Agent, Mr. Charles Carroll Chase, whose courteous ways the older teachers will remember: he, too, held the place till his death.
It was long the custom that all the teachers should go to the Board's Rooms on the monthly pay day, a Saturday: a time was set for the group of teachers of each school: each one signed a roll-receipt and passed along to the School Agent, who handed to each the amount due, in bills and specie. This medieval method, borrowed from the manufactory and the payer of day- wages, was continued long after the gathering throngs had become inconvenient. About 1894 the mercantile method was tried of paying with checks, the principal of each school calling for those belonging to his school and giving them out there. No one thinks now of a re- turn to the old way. But the Board was and still is under the thumb of the City Council in money matters; and owing to the unwillingness of the Council to make a sufficient appropriation and levy, sometimes the teachers were for months paid in "scrip" on which there was generally a discount of from 2 to 10 per cent. This has not happened for many years now; but it is still true that a body which does not know anything of the needs of the schools and has no responsibility for their management or their necessary expenditures never- theless determines the amount of the tax levy for their maintenance, and never has been known to give the amount asked for by the Board, The members of the Board are nominated by the Mayor and confirmed by the Council: and if it should ever happen that a Mayor should have political ends to gain or favorites to reward by nomination, or should dictate to his nominees the policy they must pursue, the schools might suffer in consequence.
An Assistant Superintendent was needed in 1869. There was then no provision of law for such an office: so an extra principal was elected, and Mr. George Dare
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Broomell, Principal of the Haven School, became act- ing assistant Superintendent for one year, when he re- signed and went into the High School, October, 1870; and then Mr. Francis Hanford, Principal of the Frank- lin School, took the place till the great fire deranged the office. In 1872 Mr. Hanford was elected to the new-created office of Assistant Superintendent, which he resigned in 1875. Mr. Leslie Lewis filled the place a few weeks, till the middle of September of that year.
The Chicago Fire of 1871, one of the most remark- able and famous in all history, destroyed ten school houses owned by the city; one (the Jones) on the South Side, and nine in the North Division. The value of these was about $250, 000. That the schools in the unburned part of the city were interrupted for only two weeks, by such an earthquake shock and such a shifting of habitation as attended it, shows how promptly peo- ple recovered their footing, and with what readiness Americans meet new circumstances. School Houses were not needed in the desolate burnt district until dwellings should be rebuilt and inhabitants should re- turn. Some of the lawyers on the Board unnecessarily offered the High School for the use of the courts, as the city and county could easily have obtained even better rooms; but the classes of that institution, diminished sadly in numbers, were soon gathered in to study at hours when the courts did not need the rooms: Teachers were classed for a while thus: first, the burned out and homeless: second, those who had others depending upon them: third, those who depended upon their own exertions and had no other business: and last, those for whom friends or relatives could for a while make homes elsewhere or in the remaining city. This last class generously took leave of absence and gave places to others, their situations being reserved for them. Some were out for the whole year; some of the third class went elsewhere or into other employments: but all were recalled as early as possible. The courts found better quarters in January.
A school for deaf mutes had been formed near Lin- coln Park in 1870: the great fire broke this up, No
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attempt was made to revive the school till 1875, when it was gathered with the Jones School. In 1879 the Legislature made an annual appropriation of $15,000 for Chicago deaf-mutes. The latest report (1898) shows nine schools for these unfortunates, and 150 pupils: as many more are at Jacksonville.
In September, 1875, Mr. Duane Doty was elected Assistant Superintendent under Mr. Pickard; and on the resignation of Mr. Pickard in 1877 he was chosen Superintendent, and held office three years. He was a graduate of Michigan University, and had been Super- intendent of Schools in Detroit ten years. Mr. Edward C. Delano became Assistant Superintendent.
Mr. Doty entered zealously into his work, giving attention to many details that had not been prescribed before. He revised forms of procedure and of reports from teachers: the forms of record of membership, attendance, etc., which he devised for daily use of teachers are so good as to be used unchanged ever since. His annual reports are remarkable for statistics and for collation of facts. But his time is remembered principally as the period of influences and measures for which he was not responsible. The Mayor of his time was John H. Colvin, who owing to a defect in the char- ter, was able to hold his office some time after his term was completed. A majority of the Board appointed by this Mayor held rather reactionary · views, in contrast with and even opposition to those of their predecessors for some years. It is to be noticed that two weeks after electing Mr. Doty this revolutionary Board put out of the schools the reading of the Bible and the morning use of the Lord's Prayer. This made many good peo- ple regard this daring Board as anti-religious: the infer- ence was unfair, since the Rev. Dr. A. W. Patton, of Chicago, a Congregational clergyman of undoubted orthodoxy and zeal, defended their action; and Henry Ward Beecher and hundreds of the clergy were of the same opinion; and public opinion has justified this secularizing rule.
But the stress of Colvin's reactionary Board fell upon the High School. Many regard high schools with
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jealousy, alleging that they absorb funds needed in the lower schools, and that the languages and literature and theoretical mathematics and science there taught are unpractical. "Practical" is their motto.
So many entered the High School courses that there was not room for them in the High School building on Monroe Street near Halsted: hence, in 1869, pupils were sent to the Franklin School on the North Side, to the Haven on the South, and to the Foster on the West, where competent teachers conducted them through the studies of the first year of the course; and in 1871 the Normal department of the High School, occupying a building adjacent to the High School proper, was made an independent school under Mr. E. C. Delano. In 1875 three "Division High Schools" were organized with what were deemed "practical" courses, having a commercial aspect, with book-keeping and continuations of the studies of the grammar grades, such as would enable pupils to enter into business earlier and advantageously, this being the idea known as practical. Latin was not in these courses. The avowed intention of at least some of the Board was to discontinue the classical High School. The Division High Schools had but a two years' course, that being sufficient for the development of the business or practi- cal idea. But at the end of two years the Board felt compelled by popular feeling to admit Latin to the Division Schools alongside of the German previously there, and to make the courses such that those who wished might take two years of the full classical course in the Division Schools and then go to the Central. But the animus of the movement thus initiated appeared in the principal of one of these schools, who took the boys that had been told to take Latin into a recitation room and urged them to take German instead; he afterward told the class that Cæsar wrote poor Latin, in which opinion he differed from Cicero.
. In 1880 there was a complete change. All the two- year courses were abolished: the Division High Schools were raised to the rank of the original or Central High, and classical languages and literature resumed their old
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standing in the four-year courses, though at first there were not pupils enough to form Greek classes. It be- came possible again for a citizen to have his son pre- pared for college or a liberal profession without sending him to a private school. Mr. Howland was taken from the High School, being elected Superintendent: a gen- erous appreciation and management of the new scheme was thus insured. The old Central became the West Division High, under its former senior teacher, George P. Welles. There were at this time 898 teachers and 59, 562 pupils.
Previously, all candidates for the High School had been obliged to go to the Central and spend six hours in an examination, during the last week in June. Often the day was hot, and the test severe. If any were ab- sent or sick or unsuccessful, no other opportunity was given. The High School pupils and teachers were in- terrupted in their work for three days. Mr. Howland thought that as pupils were passed from grade to grade in the grammar schools on the judgment of their teachers, they should take the next step in the same way. He carried his point; and in 1881 and ever since, the certificates of the principals were and have been sufficient for admission to the High Schools. The High Schools of 1881-82 had 1,377 pupils: the total enrollment in the city was 68,614.
In 1884 the mode of teaching English Literature was changed: instead of teaching of authors by biographies and short extracts, fewer authors were taken and longer portions of their works, having some unity, were to be read. The Board had long tried the experiment of Evening Schools for those whose business left them no opportunity for study in the day. The report for 1884 shows that the Evening Schools enrolled 7,447; the Public Schools 76,044, and the Private Schools 25, 487.
In 1886 corporal punishment in all the schools was positively forbidden: it had long been discountenanced, and had become rare. The number of Assistant Super -. intendents was raised to five, two of whom were women: Mrs. Ella F. Young, a teacher from 1862, and some- times principal, was one of the two. In the fall of 1886
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a Manual Training School of seventy-five pupils was opened under Mr. Hermann Handstein, a teacher of mechanical drawing. This experiment was continued with more aid from the Board next year. The report of 1890 shows a Manual Training School of 130 pupils not connected (as before) with a High School. The Evening Schools enroll nearly 10,000 pupils.
About 1888 regular exercises in light gymnastics were introduced into the schools under the name of "Physi- cal Culture," and have been continued ever since. Rooms have been allowed for gymnasiums when practi- cable. Philanthropic people in Chicago and friends of education asked of the Legislature the enactment of bills: (1) to compel attendance of youth at school: (2) to limit child-labor: (3) to deal with truants. The first and second they obtained; and "Compulsory Educa- tion " became a department of service under the Board of Education. At the end of a year, the law was found ineffective, except to secure salaries to several persons. In 1899 at the end of ten years, the Board, in disgust at its inefficiency, abolished its "department"; but on a little outcry of some who still had hopes, it rescinded its action. The law, however, was carefully drawn by politicians who were like the zealous advocate of pro- hibition who was in favor of the Maine Law, but against the execution of it. Until the enactment of a better law in 1897, it did good only as a scarecrow: it can now do more.
In June of 1891 Mr. Howland resigned, and died October 22, 1892. Mr. Albert G. Lane, at that time and for many years before, the County Superintendent of Schools, succeeded him. The Mayor of that time, De Witt C. Cregier, appointed two women as members of the Board, Mrs. Ellen Mitchell, whose term was short, and Miss Mary E. Burt. Women, sometimes one and sometimes three, have been on the Board ever since. Although Mrs. Lucy L. Flower distin- guished herself by zealous service, no one but Mrs. Caroline K. Sherman has been appointed for more than one term of three years.
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We must leave the history of Mr. Lane's time to some future writer to whom it will be less recent. Its latter years have been notable for an increasing number of experiments in the way of additions or annexations to the old standard school course, generally allowed at first experimentally in one or two schools, such as sew- ing, cooking, typewriting, etc., things good to be learned, but which it may or may not be wise to annex to the schools. Their proposers extol their importance: their opponents ridicule them as "fads," stuck upon schools whose courses are already overcrowded. Other experi- ments turn up again and again. Some twenty years or more ago a rule was passed against married women in the schools, but never enforced. It turns up again in 1898. A rule was passed that all teachers in Chicago must live within its boundaries: it was repealed soon after the days of grace it allowed had expired. Teachers' salaries go up or down: "retrenchment" is talked (always at the expense of the teachers, and never in the way of cutting off extravagant expenses)-talked, and sometimes effected.
The last published report, 1898, shows a Superin- tendent, eight Assistant Superintendents, eleven Super- intendents of Studies (drawing, singing, etc.), 231 principals and 5,037 teachers in 318 school houses and 332 rented rooms in charge of a total enrollment of 236, 239 pupils, of which 124 were deaf mutes, 9,615 in the fourteen High Schools, and 440 in the Normal. The latter was transferred to the city system by the county soon after Englewood, in which it is situated was added to the city: Col. Francis W. Parker, formerly of Quincy, Mass., remained in charge of it. The Board of Education has charge of the John Worthy School at the Bridewell, in which were placed the boys under six- teen committed for petty offenses: the average time of attendance there was but thirty days, and the average number in the school was ninety-seven: but 913 differ- ent boys were members: the average for July, 1898, was 121, which shows that the establishment of the school has made the magistrates more willing to send youthful of- fenders to the Bridewell. Manual training is given to all.
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Our history should not close without mention of cer- tain funds. The earliest is the Moseley fund begun by Flavel Moseley in 1855 with a gift of $1,000, to which came $10, 000 more on his death in 1867 by his will. In 1857 Dr. John H. Foster gave $1,000 for a fund which is now $5, 000 for medals or diplomas to the most deserving pupils in each school. In 1858 William Jones, and in 1862 Walter Q. Newberry gave funds for the benefit of the schools named for them. Philo Car- penter in 1868 gave $1,000 for the Carpenter School. Jonathan Burr by will gave a fund now amounting to $19,671 for benefit of indigent children and for purchase of works of reference, etc. In 1879, Michael Reese of San Francisco left $2,000, to buy books for poor chil- dren. Other funds are named from their donors, Shel- don, Holden, W. K. Sullivan, Calhoun, and George Howland. The total amount of these special funds was $30,326.88, in June, 1898.
Another fund of importance is of recent origin. It is not managed by the Board of Education, but by a joint committee of the teachers and other employes and of the representative of the Board. At each payment of salary, I per cent has been deducted to form a fund to pension teachers and employes of twenty to twenty-five years' service in schools, a portion of which has been in Chicago. This scheme has been in operation about four years. The law protects the interests of teachers who may be discharged by the Board after contributing to the fund; and no pension is to exceed $600: under that limit the pension is proportioned to the salary of the pensioned.
In 1898, Dr. E. Benjamin Andrews, then President of Brown University, was elected Superintendent of Chicago Schools, Mr. Lane remaining as an assistant, with forty years of experience in teaching and managing. What Dr. Andrews can do and will do in this field of work, new to him, is to be written by some future his- torian. His scholarship, his earnest desire to do the best things, his zeal and energy to carry out his plans- these are manifest to all men, and may well give us as- surance of further improvement in education in Chicago.
CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY. BY MRS. WILLIAM BARRY.
One of the most solid and noteworthy institutions of the northwest is the Chicago Historical Society. Its existence dates back to 1856, when Chicago, as a city, was yet in her " teens." The plan for its formation had been some time ripening in the minds of its projectors, and when, at length, it was presented at a meeting of some of the active and influential citizens, called together for its discussion, it met with a cordial and prompt response.
The preliminary steps having been adopted, the society took shape at once, and entered upon a career of almost unparalleled success and usefulness, which found a check only in the ravages of that terrible fire, whose iconoclasm spared not even the records, which told the story of the society's labors and achievements.
The first active members who composed the " body politic and corporate " were Messrs. William H. Brown, William B. Ogden, J. Young Scammon, Mason Bray- man, Mark Skinner, George Manierre, John H. Kinzie, J. V. Z. Blaney, E. I. Tinkham, J. D. Webster, W. A. Smallwood, Van H. Higgins, N. S. Davis, Charles H. Ray, S. D. Ward, M. D. Ogden, F. Scammon, E. B. McCagg and William Barry.
The first president was the Hon. William H. Brown. He was one of the early settlers of Illinois, from New England, a man widely known and universally respected. Over fifty years ago he edited a newspaper in Vandalia, Ill., which contributed largely to defeat the project to legalize slavery in the state.
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The first secretary and librarian was the Rev. William Barry, a native of Boston, Mass., whose early archæo- logical and historical pursuits, knowledge of various languages, and familiar acquaintance with the practical workings of similar institutions, peculiarly fitted him for the part assigned him.
The scope of the society's aims, as originally con- ceived by its founders, was very broad, extending back- ward as far as history extends-covering the present as fast as it passed into history, whether as related to the civil, political or ecclesiastical subjects of the day, and limited to no nation or tongue. It was on this broad, intelligent basis the society commenced and pursued its work-a work ever widening out and calling for the broadest range of both intellectual and executive ability.
The history of its labors may be divided into two epochs-the period before the great Chicago fire, and that succeeding it.
During the first period great efforts were made by the secretary, partly by visits and partly by correspondence, to secure from old settlers in different parts of the state, all possible traditions and manuscripts relating to the early settlement of Illinois; and a great deal of very valuable material was thus obtained-now, unfortu- nately, irrevocably lost.
He also at once began in person the inspection of the ancient mounds of Illinois, and urged upon the state authorities to connect with the geological survey of the state, a particular and thorough survey of these very interesting archæological remains, which may yet be destined to throw important light upon the early un- written history of our race.
A very valuable work was accomplished by the society during the civil war. The secretary early comprehend- ing the solemn and vast issues of a struggle so momen- tous in its results to the whole waiting world, solving, as it might, the greatest political question of the ages, felt that, to meet the just adjudication of the future, the facts and materials of its history should be preserved as they arose. He therefore diligently gathered every- thing possible pertaining to it, and succeeded in making,
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probably, the largest collection of material relating to. that important conflict, to be found in the country. It consisted of newspapers, manuscripts and magazines, from all parts of the country, but especially from the south-letters from soldiers in both armies-an original diary of a captured rebel officer, and that also of a spectator at the siege of Vicksburg-a large amount of unpublished manuscript material, numbering over 700 individual papers-and entire files of Richmond news- papers, published during the war, and preserved by Jefferson Davis.
The original emancipation proclamation was con- signed for safe keeping to the custody of the society by the board of managers of the Soldiers' Home.
It was during its first period that the society received a valuable legacy from the Hon. Henry D. Gilpin, Philadelphia, amounting to about $45,000, which, fortu- nately, at the time of the fire had not become available to the special library for which it was intended.
The collections, at the time of the fire, comprising books and pamphlets from all parts of the country and from foreign lands, amounted to not far from 100,000. Besides books, manuscripts, etc., there were numerous oil paintings, Indian relics, and miscellaneous curiosities.
But while engaged in its special work of collecting historic material, it kept a vigilant eye upon all the great interests of the city, and was ready to lend to them its valuable influence and intelligent co-operation. It took an active part in exposing the evils of inter- mural interments-the initiative step which secured to Chicago one of the most attractive pleasure grounds in the country-Lincoln park. It also encouraged the movement made some twenty years ago, to open by the way of the Georgian Bay, the means of unbroken water transportation between Chicago and Europe.
Through its influence, in co-operation with the French consulate in Chicago, effective steps were taken by the French government to open direct trade with Chicago through Canada, the country to avail itself of its large fishing fleet from France, which came over in ballast, to reduce the cost of freight; in addition to which,
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CHICAGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY BUILDING.
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arrangements were contemplated to establish at Chicago a branch of the "French Credit Mobilier," to furnish the needed aid of money in the enlargement of this international commerce. Unfortunately, when the agent of France was sent hither to carry into effect this scheme, the indications of the war of the rebellion were so threatening as to suppress any immediate movement, and since that time the attempt has not been renewed.
Thus, year by year had the society been multiplying its labors-extending its correspondence abroad and its influence at home, until it had come to be recognized as one of the most active and respectable institutions of the kind in the country. Among its honorary members were recorded distinguished and illustrious names in our own and foreign lands, some of which are Jared Sparks, Edward Everett, James Savage, Robert C. Winthrop, William H. Prescott, George Bancroft, Charles Sumner, John Young, John Lathrop Motley, Duke of Newcastle, Richard Cobden, John Bright and Lady Jane Franklin. In the year 1868 the society moved from its overcrowded quarters, on the corner of Kinzie and Wells streets, into a "fireproof" building, erected on its own lot, corner of Ontario and Dearborn streets, intended as a wing to a large and elegant struc- ture to be built at a later period. We come now to the second epoch in the society's history, that succeeding the "Great Fire" of 1871, which laid all its treasures in ashes.
A society that had established for itself such a pres- tige was not to be daunted, even by this overwhelming calamity. Scarcely had the embers of the great confla- gration ceased to glow, when the president, with a few influential members, called upon Mr. Barry to discuss the situation and plan measures for the immediate re- sumption of their work. They requested him to once more take the helm, and enter again with the society upon its new career. In his great solicitude for its wel- fare he consented to take the proposal into considera- tion, and for a few weeks he gave the matter serious thought. But as the work opened before him it became so vast in its proportions, and so exacting in its demands,
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