USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Jacksonville > Historic Morgan and classic Jacksonville > Part 12
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There is still in existence the original subscription paper containing the names of those who first contributed to this object and the respective amounts contributed by them. The heading is printed and embodies the preamble and resolution previously adopted by the board and already referred to. *
* * Dr Ero Chandler leads with $150, and others follow in smaller amounts, but with marked liberality for the times and circumstances when the effort was undertaken. The wing went slowly up, for the necessary funds came slowly. But there was an unflagging zeal in the work. As might he supposed, the women of Jacksonville heartily shared in it. At length, after much struggling, that part of the building was ready for use, probably during the year 1835. Meantime the school was kept in rooms elsewhere, rented for the pur- pose. It was not until 1843 that the original plan was carried out and the entire build- ing completed. Since then, various changes have been made and but few features remain by which one who only remembers it as it was twenty or thirty years ago could recognize it now. The chapel is much as it was and the columns at its front are just as they were, but a pupil of the early time would not be able without help to find the old east wing which was all there was of the Academy for several years.
The Academy was not opened to the reception of pupils until two years and a half after the organization of the board A private school for young ladies, however, had for several years been kept by Mrs. Ellis, wife of Rev. John M. Ellis, which measurably sup- plied the needs of the community, and though never having any organic connection with the Academy. may properly be regarded as a precursor of it, and as having had not a lit- tle to do with stimulating the enterprise and moulding public sentiment in its favor. Mrs. Ellis was a woman of high character and culture, zealously devoted, as was her husband, to the cause of education, and eminently qualified to give instruction and in other respects to manage a boarding school. Some who were under her care still survive and they uni-
72
FIRST TEACHERS AND PUPILS IN THE ACADEMY.
formly speak with enthusiasm of her as a teacher, a friend, and a christian woman, nor can they forget the sorrow by which they and the whole community were stricken when she fell a victim to the cholera in 1833, the year of its first visitation in this country when few places escaped and Jacksonville lost sixty of its six hundred inhabitants. Among these were Mrs Ellis and her two children, all three being laid in the grave at the same time.
On the 22d of May, 1833, the board made arrangements for the formal opening of the Academy. A room was procured and fitted up with suitable furniture and apparatus for school purposes, with a view of accommodating day pupils, such as might come from abroad, securing board in private families The location during the first year was on the lot now (1880) occupied by the First Presbyterian Church; then it was removed to West Court Street, just east of Church Street, in a house then owned by Mr. Ebenezer T. Miller, afterwards and for a long time a trustee of the institution, and . till living among us at an advanced age since deceased.
The first teacher and principal of the Academy was Miss Sarah C. Crocker, from New Hampshire She had been preceptress of the Academy at Boseawen, in that state, and was recommended by the celebrated Miss Lyon, of South Hadley, as a suitable per- son to take charge of this institution Fortunately, the roll of the school during her term of service and during part of that of her successor is preserved, with the amount of tuition received for each pupil. The scholars enrolled for the first term of about ten weeks, beginning May 22d, 1833, were thirty-one in number, and for a manifold reason, their names are worthy of a place in this historical discourse. I therefore give them just as they are preserved in the hand writing of Miss Crocker. as follows: E. C. Bill. Jane E, Clark, F. E. Dulaney, Mary Haskins, A. E. Johnston, M. Leeper, Cordelia Parkinson. Laura Parkinson. H. M. Ross, H. Spencer, S. Spencer, R Spencer, M. Spencer, M. Street, L Street, P. Scott. M Collins, S. Graves, J. Graves. H. Alears, J. Symms, E. White, S. J. Israel, M. S. Stites, E. A. Conn, S. Conwell, M. McConnel. Minerva MeCon- nel, Louisa Taylor, H. P. Melendy, M. E. Melendy. With these the fountain started,;and it has been flowing ever since with a widening, deepening current, quietly refreshing in its course. Miss Crocker proved a very successful teacher and manager, the school con- tinuing to increase under her care, so much so that during her last term, ending in April, 1835 forty nine pupils enrolled Her services would no doubt have been gladly retained, but they were required in another relation and she was married to Mr. E ihu Wolcott, one of the trustees of the Academy, and who as special superintendent of the school, had opportunity for observing her good qualities, and was so favorably impressed by them that he deemed it a pleasure to call her up higher, and she became his wife, performing the duties of that position well until her death. August 4th, 1844.
The next preceptress was Miss Emily P. Price, of Boscawen, New Hampshire, who was recommended for the position by Miss Z. P. Grant, (afterwards Mrs. Bannister), herself a distinguished educator, and at that time in charge of the Female Seminary at Ipswich, Mass. During her first term, commencing May 25th, 1835, twenty-two pupils were enrolled and no further record of the kind has reached us while the school was under her care. We know, however, that her services were satisfactory to the patrons of the institution and much appreciated by the trustees, who upou receiving her resignation recorded a vote of thanks "for the fidelity with which she had discharged her duties." Having completed two years as preceptress, she retired and was subsequently married to Rey. Z. K. Hawley, a Congregational mirister, to whom she was a helper indeed in the various offices of christian work as well as in those of wife and mother. Her death oc- curred in 1878.
During Miss Price's administration the school was brought into the Academy build- ing, the old east wing, and a boarding department was organized. Then first appeared the domestic feature of the institution. and pupils who were beginning to come from abroad found there a home, and it is worthy of remark that the school room and dormi- tory rooms were to a considerable extent provided with needed furniture, desks, tables, bedsteads, &c., from the workshops of Illinois College, and we have a bill for the same amounting to $112 25, and receipted January 26, 1836, by Joel Catlin, then college agent. Those workshops are things of the past, but they established friendly relations between the two seminaries which have ever since been cultivated, and were never more demon- strative than in our day; may they never be less sincere and timid than they now are.
The record of the assistant teachers is rich in goodly names and characters, and yet the record is so largely traditional and unwritten it would be impossible to produce it in full, and so to characterize any part as not to run the risk of doing injustice to the rest. The earliest item in regard to helping in the school room is dated August 15th, 1835, and is a receipt in full of Miss Sarah Camp, "for services as assistant teacher in the Acade- my." This was in the time of the second preceptress, Miss Price
The subject of female education as illustrated in the history of the Academy, brings us naturally to another organization of Jacksonville identified from its inception with this and other schools. A recently published annual report of the Secretary, Mrs.
78
THE LADIES' EDUCATION SOCIETY.
Joseph II. Bancroft, daughter of one of the earliest principals of the Academy, contains the following record :
In 1832, a few ladies, who had come from various parts of the country to reside, with hearts full of love, and wishing to be helpers in the cause of truth and knowl- edge, held preliminary meetings for the purpose of organizing in some benevolent en- terprise. They were oppressed with thoughts of the future destiny of this Western Valley, and of the millions of souls to occupy it, and of the future influence of pres- ent exertion; also that upon the moral and intellectual character of the rising genera- tion, depended the decision of the momentous question: Shall our civil and religious liberty be perpetuated, or shall this Land of Promise become the stronghold of error?
The first year, five were aided, receiving tuition and books, assisting in some fam- ily as part compensation for board. The third year, forty-five were assisted in differ- ent parts of the State. The association met with favor wherever known. It was a common object, the emancipation of the female mind, which ignorance had too long bound. Friends and means were raised up, not bounded by rivers, or hemmed in by mountains. Auxiliaries were formed in New York City, Rochester, New York; Mad- ison, Wisconsin; Davenport, Iowa; Chicago, Galesburg, Springfield, Canton, Peoria and Waverly, Illinois. Sewing circles in New Haven, Connecticut; Brooklyn, New York, and in various other places, contributed to the treasury.
Feeble and insignificant the effort they might put forth, yet they rejoiced in add- ing to the influences which would decide the future destiny of this country. With these thoughts burning in their souls, they assembled October 4th, 1833, in the school room occupied by Miss Crocker, afterwards Mrs. Wolcott, on the spot where the First Presbyterian Church now stands in ruins. Mrs. Ellis who taught the first school for girls, and was deeply interested in anything pertaining to their welfare, had fallen a victim to the cholera, which swept over this prairie during the summer.
At this meeting a constitution was adopted. Article 1st reads thus: This Asso- ciation shall be called, "The Ladies' Association for Educating Females," the princi- pal object of which shall be to encourage and assist young ladies to qualify themselves for teaching, and to aid in supporting teachers in those places, where they cannot otherwise be sustained.
These young women after receiving instruction, were to return to their homes, gather the children together, teaching them to read, for in some homes not one could read. Often in a settlement, parents were found unable to read and indifferent to the improvement of their children.
The first money received by the society was October 1833, being a donation from Mrs. Duncan of. 5 00
Total receipts the first year.
246 40
fiftieth year. 280 00
Expended in the education of five young ladies the first year .. 29 58
16 six " fiftieth year. 138 00 * *
* In 1853 the name was changed, and now bears the title "Ladies' Educa- tion Society of Jacksonville, Illinois."
In July, 1872, it was incorporated, thereby enabling it to hold bequests in a legal manner. Several legacies have since been given, which, with all financial matters will be presented by the treasurer. The business is transacted by twelve managers who meet each month.
Passing from educational chronicles to the history of the churches of Jacksonville from 1830 to '36 inclusive, we find that in 1831 the Presbyterians erected a frame build- ing, in place of the famous log cabin, their pastor, the Rev. John M. Ellis, laboring earnestly to accomplish this desirable end.
The following is the pastoral call given to Mr. Ellis and the subscription list of his supporters in the year 1830:
"The congregation of the Jacksonville church being on sufficient grounds well sat- isfied of the qualifications of you-John M. Ellis-and having good lessons from our experience of your labors, that your ministrations in the Gospel will be justifiable to our spiritual interests do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in said congregation, promising you in the discharge of your duty all proper support, encouragement and obedience in the Lord. And that you may be free from worklly cares and avocations, we hereby promise and oblige ourselves to pay to you the sum of four hundred dollars, and rely upon the Home Missionary Society to pay one hundred and fifty of the same, promising to relieve the said society in whole or in part as soon as our circumstances will admit, in yearly payments, during the time of your being and continuing the regular pastor of this church. In testimony whereof we have respec- tively subscribed our names this 15th day of March, 1830."
74
OLD TIME SUBSCRIPTION LISTS.
SUBSCRIPTION.
Cash.
Wheat.
Pork.
Corn.
Wood.
Flour.
Potatoes.
Chickens.
Total.
William C. Stevenson
10 00
10
00
J. G. Edwards
10 00
00
Bedford Brown
5 00
5 00
James Kerr
5
2
3
12 00
John Leeper
10 00
20 00
James Mears
4
3
1
8 00
Edwin A. Mears
8 00
8 00
Robert Smith
8
8 00
John Serogin.
5 00
5 00
Elliot Stevenson
5 00
5 00
Hlervey McClung
5 00
5 00
Thomas White.
5 00
5
10 00
To rent of house and lot.
60 00
W. C. Posey
2 00
9
1 12 00
Thomas Prentice
5 00
10 00
Joseph M. Fairfield.
5 00
5 00
Waller Jones.
2 50
2.50
S. T. Matthews
50
2 50
Dennis Rockwell
5 00
5 00
John Ayers
2 50
2 50
Henry Blanford
2 50
2 50
J. P. Wilkinson ...
5 00
5 00
J. R. Broming.
2 50
2 50
C Ilook.
2 50
2 50
Miller & Thomas
5 00
5 00
Samuel D. Lockwood
12 00
12 00
Bazaleel Gillett (in store goods).
5 00
5 00
Ero Chandler ...
10 00
10 00
Making a total in rent, cash and produce of $250.00.
"And here is another subscription list dated 1831."
We, the undersigned, being desirous that the worship of God should be maintained in this town, and placing implicit confidence in the Rev. J. M. Ellis, as a faithful min ister of the Gospel, do agree to pay the sum set opposite our respective names, towards his support, for the year commencing March 15th, 1831 :
James Kerr, $12.00; Jas. G. Edwards, $12.00; David B. Ayers, $20.00; Edwin A. Mears, 5.00; Alex. Robertson, $10.00; John Leeper, $20.00; Wm. Sewall, $10.00; James Mears, $8.00; Elihu Wolcott, $25.00; Hervey McClung, $5.00; B. Brown, $8.00; Maro M. L. Reed, $5.00; Elliot Stevenson, $5.00; Ero Chandler, $10.00; H. C. Wis- wall, $2.00; Thos. White, $5.00; C. H. Perry, $2.00; C. Hook, $2.50; L. W. Graham, $3.00; A. M. Clark, $5.00; Jacob Barton, $3.00; Wm. C. Posey, $12.00; J. M. Sturte- vant, $3.00; W. C. Stevenson, $10.00; Lancelot Clark, $5.00; John Hill, $3.00; Jno. J. Hardin, $5.00; Thos. B. Prentice, $10.00; B. Gillett, $8.00; Jos. Duncan, $15.00; Jer. Graves, $5.00; S. D. Lockwood, $12.00.
And to show that this congregation were not unmindful of those less able to pro- vide for regular Gospel ministration, we append a home mission collection taken up in 1832.
J. P. Wilkinson, $10.00; J. M. Sturtevant, $10.00; Elihu Wolcott, $15.00; M. A. Wilkinson, $10.00; Jas. G. Edwards, $12.00; M. M. L. Reed, $6.00; C. H. Leonard, $5.00; L. Hardin, $5.00; Joel Catlin, $5.00; Bedford Brown, $5.00; Mary B. January, $1.00; Joseph S. Graves, $1.00; R. McCormick, $1.00; P. W. January, $1.00; M. Tur- ner, $1.00; E. Sewall, $1.00; Eliza Town, $1.00; Annie Ellis, $2.00; Alvin M. Dickson, $3.25; Edward Beecher, $13.00; Ero and E. Chandler, $16.00; David B. Ayers, $10.00; Mary Lockwood, $10.00; Tim. Chamberlain, $10.00; Coleman Gibson, $6.50; James Mears, $5.00; B. Gillett, $5.00; T. Beecher, $5.00; Salem Town, $2.00; H. C. Wiswall, $2.50; Martha Hackett, $2.50; Allen Hitchcock, $2.00; Ralph Perry, $2.00; Steplien Nash, $2.00; C. E. Blood, $2.50; Lancelot Clark, $2.00; Eleanor Edwards, $2.00; total $195.75 all in cash ; also Wm. Sewall one-third part of the production of three acres in wheat.
Rev. Alfred H. Dashiel was installed as pastor in December 1835.
10
FOUNDING THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH.
The Congregationalists of Jacksonville, like others of their faith in the west, wor- shipped with the Presbyterians up to the last of the year 1833, under the arrangement entered into by the highest judicatories of the two denominations in 1801 -known as "The Plan of Union."
The Jacksonville Congregational Church was organized in the Methodist Episcopal Church, then located on East Morgan Street, on Sunday, December 15, 1833. "The ser- mon was preached by Rev. Wm. Carter, a young licentiate, who was already engaged to be their pastor, but who was not yet ordained" says Rev. J. M. Sturtevant, in his his- torical discourse delivered December 15, 1883, on the fiftieth anniversary of the church. Prof. Sturtevant propounded the creed and covenant to the members of the new church and now gives their names as follows :
Timothy Chamberlain, Abraham Clark, Melicent Clark, Elihu Wolcott, Jeremiah Graves, Mary Ann Graves Benjamin Allyn, Cynthia M. Allyn, Edwin A. Mears, Sarah Mears, Maro M. L. Reed, Elizabeth L. Reed, Daniel Mann. Benjamin B. Chamberlain, Asa Talcott, Maria Talcott, Salem Town, Joseph Town, Eliza Town, Jesse B. Clark. Ralph Perry, Robert B. Lord, James K. Morse, Edwin Scofield, George B. Hitchcock, Elizabeth Scott, Mary Chamberlain, Abigail Chenery, Eliza Hart, Lucy Town, Frances J. Wolcott, Abigail Graves; three days afterwards the following names were added: George T. Purkitt, Calvin S. Beach.
In September 1835, less than two years after the organization, its first house for worship-the first Congregational church in Illinois-was dedicated. At the request of the beloved pastor, Rev. William Carter, Prof. Sturtevant preached the sermon, and he says, forty-eight years later-"It was then much the most commodious religious edi- fice in the place. It was on the east side of the square, a few doors south of East State Street." Previous to building this wooden structure, the society occupied for a time a house where the Athenaeum now stands, and then one on West State Street, where Williamson's store now is.
In 1883 at the "Golden" anniversary of the church, the venerable Dr. Post, of St. Louis, is his sermon referred to the organization as follows:
"The year 1833, the birth year of this church, calls up the landscape under the skies of the far-away morning; the morning of this land and its people, of its settlements, its institutions, its churches, its schools, its colleges and of my own life also. It was morn- ing with the freshness and hope, the ideals and possibilities that hover over it like the many hued cloud around the sunrise; the morning that comes but once to a land or to a human life, and then drifts away into the Eternal past to return no more. The per- sonages of that far off morning have most of them drifted with it into climes beyond our mortal horizon. Of the few that remain, the faces remembered as once so smooth and fair, are written over now with the legend of life's history, and the prophecies of the transfiguration; themselves changed and in a changed world, and with look toward the setting sun. The hour calls up my own first coming to this place, then a frontier settle-
ment, toward the great northwestern wilderness. My coming from St. Louis here, most of the way by a walk through a lone blazed or bridle path, through solitary wilds, where the red man had gone and the pale face had not yet entered. It calls up my first entrance and early career here, my first public solemn confession of Christ, with visible union and communion with His people, in the presence of a little band of disciples gathered in the upper chamber of a small printing office not far from the place where we are now as- sembled. So far had I come from the cities and churches of the east and from the com- panionship of my early lite, to make my first formal public christian confession in these wilds in the ends of the earth, and with a little band of believers far away from the knowledge of the great world and with postal communication with it measured by moons rather than days, separate from its thought and care, and to the extent that they were known in their purpose to establish a Congregational Church, largely regarded with coldness and positive disapproval rather than sympathy, by the eastern churches, to whose principles of church order they adhered. * * * * *
The little band which gathered in that upper chamber contained elements of strong character for the enterprise it had undertaken. It numbered among its members, earnest, intelligent, true hearted, devoted, stalwart men, some bringing much of the granite of the Old Rock, some with something of the metal of the Cromwellian Ironsides in their veins, to blend with the charm of gentle, cultivated, brave and saintly womanhood, in the composition of the infant church. Their names are this moment on iny lips, as their memory is in my heart, but ti.ne forbids my beginning with names, when I shall not know where to stop, only let me record my grateful remembrance as due from me to the
76
THE FIRST EPISCOPALIAN CHURCH.
Rev. William Carter, to whose christian intelligence and good sense I owe it that I was able to unite with the church with no false commitments in the form and terms of my acceptance of its creed."
According to a copy of a memorandum made by the Rev. John Batchelder in 1834, and by him deposited in the corner stone of the church, laid the same year. "The parish of Trinity Church, Jacksonville, was organized by a few individuals, on the 11th of August, 1832." This was the first parish belonging to the Protestant Episcopal church, that was organized in the state of Illinois. Previous to the organization of this parish, no Episcopal clergyman had labored within the limits of the state, and so far as can be ascertained, but few sermons had ever been preached by Episcopal clergymen in the state. As it may be a matter of interest to know something more of the early history of a parish which, in this land of yesterday, has already become venerable for antiquity, we venture to make a few extracts from the record, carefully preserved, of those feeble beginnings.
"Trinity Church was destitute of a minister, till the summer of the year 1833, when the Rev. John Batchelder, from Providence, R. I., took charge of it. In the autumn of this year, 1833, the .wardens and vestry of the parish determined to take immediate meas- ures for the erection of a house of public worship. The following spring. the erection of the church was commenced, Ebenezer T. Miller being the architect. On the 7th of June the corner stone was laid with suitable religious exercises by the Rt. Rev. Bishop Smith, of Kentucky, he being then on a visit to Illinois. At the time of laying the corner stone of this church Andrew Jackson was president of the United States, and John Reynolds was governor of the state of Illinois. Jeremiah Barker and Bazaleel Gillett were the wardens of Trinity Church, and Joseph Coddington. Ebenezer T. Miller, Samuel M. Prosser, Dennis Rockwell, Ignatus R. Simms, Richard W. Dummer, Aylet H. Buckner, and Austin Brockenbrough were the vestry. At the time when this parish was organized the number of families of which it was composed was about twelve. The year after the rector commenced his labors among them, more than one-halt of this membership was separated from the parish by death or removals.
The number of the families now (August 1834) attached to the society is fourteen. In addition to this, the English settlement at Lynnville is included within the rector's charge. The number of communicants has never exceeded five; that is the present num- ber. During the first year of the present (then) rector's labors the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered but once. Two children were baptized by him. There were four burials and one marriage.
January 9th, 1836, the church being completed, it was consecrated to the worship and service of Almighty God, by the Rt. Rev. Jackson Kemper, D. D., missionary bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the states of Indiana and Missouri, and having in charge the diocese of Illinois, in absence of its bishop, the Rt. Rev. Philander Chase, D. D."
It ought to be added to the foregoing statement of the Rev. John Batchelder, that the church was erected on land donated by Dennis Rockwell, Esq. Revs. Messrs. Batchelder, Hyer, Darken, Worthington, and Morrison, were successively in charge of the parish in its earlier years. The last named gentleman, now of Chicago, remained true to his charge during fifteen years of patient, unobtrusive usefulness, and it must be exceedingly gratifying to him to contemplate the elegant and tasteful result of his long and faithful labor in the now flourishing parish, worshiping (1884) regularly in a neat and commodious church, under the care of the Rev. Dr. Easter.
When the city was platted, in 1825, the Methodists were holding meetings in a cabin, and continued to occupy it until the completion of the log school house in which Judge Thomas taught the first school in Jacksonville. They worshiped in this log structure when not occupied by other denominations, until about 1830, when they erected a brick church, which stood on East Morgan Street, near East Street. This was the first brick church in the county.
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