Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 30

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724

USA > Illinois > Winnebago County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I > Part 30

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EDINBURG, a village of Christian County, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, 18 miles southeast of Springfield; has two banks and one newspaper. The region is agricultural, though some coal is mined here. Population (1880), 551; (1890), 806; (1900), 1,071; (1910), 918.

EDSALL, James Kirtland, former Attorney - General, was born at Windham, Greene County, N. Y., May 10, 1831. After passing through the common-schools, he attended an academy at Prattsville, N.Y., supporting himself, meanwhile, by working upon a farm. He read law at Pratts- ville and Catskill, and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1852. The next two years he spent in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and, in 1854, removed to Leavenworth, Kan. He was elected to the Legislature of that State in 1855, being a member of the Topeka (free-soil) body when it was broken up by United States troops in 1856. In August, 1856, he settled at Dixon, Ill., and at once engaged in practice. In 1863 he was elected Mayor of that city, and, in 1870, was chosen State Senator, serving on the Committees on Munic- ipalities and Judiciary in the Twenty-seventh

General Assembly. In 1872 he was elected Attorney-General on the Republican ticket and re-elected in 1876. At the expiration of his second term he took up his residence in Chicago, where he afterwards devoted himself to the prac- tice of his profession, until his death, which occurred, June 20, 1892.

EDUCATION.

The first step in the direction of the establish- ment of a system of free schools for the region now comprised within the State of Illinois was taken in the enactment by Congress, on May 20, 1785, of "An Ordinance for Ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Terri- tory." This applied specifically to the region northwest of the Ohio River, which had been acquired through the conquest of the "Illinois Country" by Col. George Rogers Clark, acting under the auspices of the State of Virginia and by authority received from its Governor, the patriotic Patrick Henry. This act for the first time established the present system of township (or as it was then called, "rectangular") surveys, devised by Capt. Thomas Hutchins, who became the first Surveyor-General (or "Geographer, " as the office was styled) of the United States under the same act. Its important feature, in this con- nection, was the provision "that there shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the town- ship." The same reservation (the term "section" being substituted for "lot" in the act of May 18, 1796) was made in all subsequent acts for the sale of public lands-the acts of July 23, 1787, and June 20, 1788, declaring that "the lot No. 16 in each township, or fractional part of a township," shall be "given perpetually for the purpose con- tained in said ordinance" (i. e., the act of 1785). The next step was taken in the Ordinance of 1787 (Art. III.), in the declaration that, "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary for the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The reservation referred to in the act of 1785 (and subsequent acts) was reiterated in the "enabling act" passed by Congress, April 18, 1818, authoriz- ing the people of Illinois Territory to organize a State Government, and was formally accepted by the Convention which formed the first State Constitution. The enabling act also set apart one entire township (in addition to one previously donated for the same purpose by act of Congress in 1804) for the use of a seminary of learning,

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together with three per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands within the State, "to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the encouragement of learning, of which one- sixth part" (or one-half of one per cent) "shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or univer- sity." Thus, the plan for the establishment of a system of free public education in Illinois had its inception in the first steps for the organization of the Northwest Territory, was recognized in the Ordinance of 1787 which reserved that Territory forever to freedom, and was again reiterated in the preliminary steps for the organization of the State Government. These several acts became the basis of that permanent provision for the encouragement of education known as the "town- ship," "seminary" and "college or university" funds.

EARLY SCHOOLS .- Previous to this, however, a beginning had been made in the attempt to estab- lish schools for the benefit of the children of the pioneers. One John Seeley is said to have taught the first American school within the territory of Illinois, in a log-cabin in Monroe County, in 1783, followed by others in the next twenty years in Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair and Madison Coun- ties. Seeley's earliest successor was Francis Clark, who, in turn, was followed by a man named Halfpenny, who afterwards built a mill near the present town of Waterloo in Monroe County. Among the teachers of a still later period were John Boyle, a soldier in Col. George Rogers Clark's army, who taught in Randolph County between 1790 and 1800; John Atwater, near Edwardsville, in 1807, and John Messinger, a sur- veyor, who was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818 and Speaker of the first House of Representatives. The latter taught in the vicinity of Shiloh in St. Clair County, afterwards the site of Rev. John M. Peck's Rock Spring Seminary. The schools which existed during this period, and for many years after the organi- zation of the State Government, were necessarily few, widely scattered and of a very primitive character, receiving their support entirely by subscription from their patrons.

FIRST FREE SCHOOL LAW AND SALES OF SCHOOL LANDS .- It has been stated that the first free school in the State was established at Upper Alton, in 1821, but there is good reason for believ- ing this claim was based upon the power granted by the Legislature, in an act passed that year, to establish such schools there, which power was never carried into effect. The first attempt to establish a free-school system for the whole State

was made in January, 1825, in the passage of a bill introduced by Joseph Duncan, afterwards a Congressman and Governor of the State. It nominally appropriated two dollars out of each one hundred dollars received in the State Treasury, to be distributed to those who had paid taxes or subscriptions for the support of schools. So small was the aggregate revenue of the State at that time (only a little over $60,000), that the sum realized from this law would have been but little more than $1,000 per year. It remained practically a dead letter and was repealed in 1829, when the State inaugurated the policy of selling the seminary lands and borrowing the proceeds for the payment of current expenses. In this way 43,200 acres (or all but four and a half sec- tions) of the seminary lands were disposed of, realizing less than $60,000. The first sale of township school lands took place in Greene County in 1831, and, two years later, the greater part of the school section in the heart of the present city of Chicago was sold, producing about $39,000. The average rate at which these sales were made, up to 1882, was $3.78 per acre, and the minimum, 70 cents per acre. That these lands have, in very few instances, produced the results expected of them, was not so much the fault of the system as of those selected to administer it-whose bad judgment in premature sales, or whose complicity with the schemes of speculators, were the means, in many cases, of squandering what might otherwise have furnished a liberal provision for the support of public schools in many sections of the State. Mr. W. L. Pillsbury, at present Secretary of the University of Illinois, in a paper printed in the report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1885-86-to which the writer is indebted for many of the facts presented in this article-gives to Chicago the credit of establishing the first free schools in the State in 1834, while Alton followed in 1837, and Springfield and Jacksonville in 1840.

EARLY HIGHER INSTITUTIONS .- A movement looking to the establishment of a higher institu- tion of learning in Indiana Territory (of which Illinois then formed a part), was inaugurated by the passage, through the Territorial Legislature at Vincennes, in November, 1806, of an act incorpo- rating the University of Indiana Territory to be located at Vincennes. One provision of the act authorized the raising of $20,000 for the institu- tion by means of a lottery. A Board of Trustees was promptly organized, with Gen. William Henry Harrison, then the Territorial Governor, at its head; but, beyond the erection of a building,

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little progress was made. Twenty-one years later (1827) the first successful attempt to found an advanced school was made by the indomitable Rev. John M. Peck, resulting in the establish- ment of his Theological Seminary and High School at Rock Springs, St. Clair County, which, in 1831, became the nucleus of Shurtleff College at Upper Alton. In like manner, Lebanon Semi- nary, established in 1828, two years later expanded into McKendree College, while instruc- tion began to be given at Illinois College, Jack- sonville, in December, 1829, as the outcome of a movement started by a band of young men at Yale College in 1827-these several institutions being formally incorporated by the same act of the Legislature, passed in 1835. (See sketches of these Institutions.)

EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS .- In 1833 there was held at Vandalia (then the State capital) the first of a series of educational conventions, which were continued somewhat irregularly for twenty years, and whose history is remarkable for the number of those participating in them who after- wards gained distinction in State and National history. At first these conventions were held at the State capital during the sessions of the Gen- eral Assembly, when the chief actors in them were members of that body and State officers, with a few other friends of education from the ranks of professional or business men. At the convention of 1833, we find, among those partici- pating, the names of Sidney Breese, afterwards a United States Senator and Justice of the Supreme Court ; Judge S. D. Lockwood, then of the Supreme Court; W. L. D. Ewing, afterwards acting Gov- ernor and United States Senator; O. H. Browning, afterwards United States Senator and Secretary of the Interior; James Hall and John Russell, the most notable writers in the State in their day, besides Dr. J. M. Peck, Archibald Williams, Benjamin Mills, Jesse B. Thomas, Henry Eddy and others, all prominent in their several depart- ments. In a second convention at the same place, nearly two years later, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and Col. John J. Hardin were participants. At Springfield, in 1840, pro- fessional and literary men began to take a more prominent part, although the members of the Legislature were present in considerable force. A convention held at Peoria, in 1844, was made up largely of professional teachers and school officers, with a few citizens of local prominence; and the same may be said of those held at Jack- sonville in 1845, and later at Chicago and other points. Various attempts were made to form

permanent educational societies, finally result- ing, in December, 1854, in the organization of the "State Teachers' Institute," which, three years later, took the name of the "State Teachers' Association"-though an association of the same name was organized in 1836 and continued in existence several years.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT AND SCHOOL JOUR- NALS .- The appointment of a State Superintend- ent of Public Instruction began to be agitated as early as 1837, and was urged from time to time in memorials and resolutions by educational conven- tions, by the educational press, and in the State Legislature; but it was not until February, 1854, that an act was passed creating the office, when the Hon. Ninian W. Edwards was appointed by Gov. Joel A. Matteson, continuing in office until his successor was elected in 1856. "The Common School Advocate" was published for a year at Jacksonville, beginning with January, 1837; in 1841 "The Illinois Cominon School Advocate" began publication at Springfield, but was discon- tinued after the issue of a few numbers. In 1855 was established "The Illinois Teacher." This was merged, in 1873, in "The Illinois School- master," which became the organ of the State Teachers' Association, so remaining several years. The State Teachers' Association has no official organ now, but the "Public School Journal" is the chief educational publication of the State.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION .- In 1851 was insti- tuted a movement which, although obstructed for some time by partisan opposition, has been followed by more far-reaching results, for the country at large, than any single measure in the history of education since the act of 1785 setting apart one section in each township for the support of public schools. This was the scheme formu- lated by the late Prof. Jonathan B. Turner, of Jacksonville, for a system of practical scientific education for the agricultural, mechanical and other industrial classes, at a Farmers' Convention held under the auspices of the Buel Institute (an Agricultural Society), at Granville, Putnam County, Nov. 18, 1851. While proposing a plan for a "State University" for Illinois, it also advo- cated, from the outset, a "University for the industrial classes in each of the States," by way of supplementing the work which a "National Institute of Science," such as the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, was expected to accom- plish. The proposition attracted the attention of persons interested in the cause of industrial education in other States, especially in New York and some of the New England States, and

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received their hearty endorsement and cooper- ation. The Granville meeting was followed by a series of similar conventions held at Springfield, June 8, 1852; Chicago, Nov. 24, 1852; Springfield, Jan. 4, 1853, and Springfield, Jan. 1, 1855, at which the scheme was still further elaborated. At the Springfield meeting of January, 1852, an organization was formed under the title of the "Industrial League of the State of Illinois," with a view to disseminating information, securing more thorough organization on the part of friends of the measure, and the employment of lecturers to address the people of the State on the subject. At the same time, it was resolved that "this Con- vention memorialize Congress for the purpose of obtaining a grant of public lands to establish and endow industrial institutions in each and every State in the Union." It is worthy of note that this resolution contains the central idea of the act passed by Congress nearly ten years after- ward, making appropriations of public lands for the establishment and support of industrial colleges in the several States, which act received the approval of President Lincoln, July 2, 1862- a similar measure having been vetoed by Presi- dent Buchanan in February, 1859. The State was extensively canvassed by Professor Turner, Mr. Bronson Murray (now of New York), the late Dr. R. C. Rutherford and others, in behalf of the objects of the League, and the Legislature, at its session of 1853, by unanimous vote in both houses, adopted the resolutions commending the measure and instructing the United States Senators from Illinois, and requesting its Representatives, to give it their support. Though not specifically contemplated at the outset of the movement, the Convention at Springfield, in January, 1855, pro- posed, as a part of the scheme, the establishment of a "Teachers' Seminary or Normal School Department," which took form in the act passed at the session of 1857, for the establishment of the State Normal School at Normal. Although delayed, as already stated, the advocates of indus- trial education in Illinois, aided by those of other States, finally triumphed in 1862. The lands received by the State as the result of this act amounted to 480,000 acres, besides subsequent do- nations. (See University of Illinois; 'also Turner, Jonathan Baldwin.) On the foundation thus furnished was established, by act of the Legisla- ture in 1867, the "Illinois Industrial University" -now the University of Illinois-at Champaign, to say nothing of more than forty similar insti- tutions in as many States and Territories, based upon the same general act of Congress.

FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM .- While there may be said to have been a sort of free-school system in existence in Illinois previous to 1855, it was limited to a few fortunate districts possessing funds derived from the sale of school-lands situ- ated within their respective limits. The system of free schools, as it now exists, based upon general taxation for the creation of a permanent school fund, had its origin in the act of that year. As already shown, the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction had been created by act of the Legislature in February, 1854, and the act of 1855 was but a natural corol- lary of the previous measure, giving to the people a uniform system, as the earlier one had provided an official for its administration. Since then there have been many amendments of the school law, but these have been generally in the direc- tion of securing greater efficiency, but with- ont departure from the principle of securing to all the children of the State the equal privileges of a common-school education. The development of the system began practically about 1857, and, in the next quarter of a century, the laws on the subject had grown into a considerable volume, while the number- less decisions, emanating from the office of the State Superintendent in construction of these laws, made up a volume of still larger proportions.

The following comparative table of school statistics, for 1860 and 1896, compiled from the Reports of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will illustrate the growth of the system in some of its more important features:

1860.

1896

Population

1,711,951 (est.) 4,250,000

No. of Persons of School Age (be- tween 6 and 21)

*549.604

1,384,367

No. of Pupils enrolled.

*472.247

898,619

School Districts

8,956

11,615

Public Schools

9,162

12,623

= Graded

294

1.887

= Public High Schools

272

.. School Houses built during

557

267

Whole No. of School Houses

8,221

12,632

No. of Male Teachers ..

8,223

7,057

Female Teachers. .

6,485

18,359

Whole No. of Teachers in Public Schools

14,708

25,416

Highest Monthly Wages paid Male

$180.00

$300.00

Highest Monthly Wages paid

75.00

280.00

Lowest Monthly Wages paid Male Teachers

8.00

14.00

Lowest

Monthly Wages

paid

4.00

10.00

A verage Monthly Wages paid Male Teacbers

28.92

67.76

Average Monthly Wages paid

18.80

50.63

No. of Private Schools

500

2,619

No. of Pupils in Private Schools ...

29,264

139,969

Interest on State and County Funds received.

$73,450.38

$65,583.63

Amount of Income from Township

Funda

322,852.00

889,614.20

the year .

Teachers.

Female Teachers.

* Only white children were included iu these statistics for 1860.'

UNIVERSITY HALL, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

NATURAL HISTORY HALL. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS.

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

1860.

1896.

Amount received from State Tax ..

$ 690,000.00

$ 1,000,000.00

trict Taxes .

1,265,137.00

13,133,809.61

Amount received from Bonds dur- ing the year .

517,960.93

Total Amount received during the year by School Districts.

2,193,455.00

15,607,172.50

Amount paid Male Teachers " " Female

7,186,105.67

Whole amount paid Teachers

1,542,211.00

9,958,934.99

Amount paid for new School

Houses ..

348,728.00

1,873,757.25

Amount paid for repairs and im- provements

1,070,755.09

Amount paid for School Furniture.

24,837.00

154,836.64

Apparatus

8,563.00

164,298.92

trict Libraries

30,124 00

13,664.97

Total Expenditures.

2.259,868.00

14,614,627.31

Estimated value of School Property Libraries ..

13,304,892.00

42,780,267.00

377,819.00 607,389.00

Apparatus

The sums annually disbursed for incidental expenses on account of superintendence and the cost of maintaining the higher institutions estab- lished, and partially or wholly supported by the State, increase the total expenditures by some $600,000 per annum. These higher institutions include the Illinois State Normal University at Normal, the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbon- dale and the University of Illinois at Urbana; to which were added by the Legislature, at its ses- sion of 1895, the Eastern Illinois Normal School, afterwards established at Charleston, and the Northern Illinois Normal at De Kalb. These institutions, although under supervision of the State, are partly supported by tuition fees. (See description of these institutions under their several titles.) The normal schools-as their names indicate-are primarily designed for the training of teachers, although other classes of pupils are admitted under certain conditions, including the payment of tuition. At the Uni- versity of Illinois instruction is given in the clas- sics, the sciences, agriculture and the mechanic arts. In addition to these the State supports four other institutions of an educational rather than a custodial character-viz. : the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Insti- tution for the Blind, at Jacksonville; the Asylum for the Feeble-Minded at Lincoln, and the Sol- diers' Orphans' Home at Normal. The estimated value of the property connected with these several institutions, in addition to the value of school property given in the preceding table, will increase the total (exclusive of permanent funds) to $47,155,374.95, of which $4,375,107.95 repre- sents property belonging to the institutions above mentioned.

POWERS AND DUTIES OF SUPERINTENDENTS AND OTHER SCHOOL OFFICERS .- Each county elects a County Superintendent of Schools, whose duty it is to visit schools, conduct teachers' insti- tutes, advise with teachers and school officers and

instruct them in their respective duties, conduct examinations of persons desiring to become teachers, and exercise general supervision over school affairs within his county. The subordi- nate officers are Township Trustees, a Township Treasurer, and a Board of District Directors or- in place of the latter in cities and villages-Boards of Education. The two last named Boards have power to employ teachers and, generally, to super- vise the management of schools in districts. The State Superintendent is entrusted with general supervision of the common-school system of the State, and it is his duty to advise and assist County Superintendents, to visit State Charitable institutions, to issue official circulars to teachers, school officers and others in regard to their rights and duties under the general school code; to decide controverted questions of school law, com- ing to him by appeal from County Superintend- ents and others, and to make full and detailed reports of the operations of his office to the Governor, biennially. He is also made ex-officio a member of the Board of Trustees of the Univer- sity of Illinois and of the several Normal Schools, and is empowered to grant certificates of two different grades to teachers-the higher grade to be valid during the lifetime of the holder, and the lower for two years. Certificates granted by County Superintendents are also of two grades and have a tenure of one and two years, respec- tively, in the county where given. The conditions for securing a certificate of the first (or two- years') grade, require that the candidate shall be of good moral character and qualified to teach orthography, reading in English, penmanship, arithmetic, modern geography, English grammar, the elements of the natural sciences, the history of the United States, physiology and the laws of health. The second grade (or one-year) certifi- cate calls for examination in the branches just enumerated, except the natural sciences, physi- ology and laws of health; but teachers employed exclusively in giving instruction in music, draw- ing, penmanship or other special branches, may take examinations in these branches alone, but are restricted, in teaching, to those in which they have been examined. - County Boards are empowered to establish County Normal Schools for the education of teachers for the common schools, and the management of such normal schools is placed in the hands of a County Board of Education, to consist of not less than five nor more than eight persons, of whom the Chairman of the County Board and the County Superin- tendent of Schools shall be ex-officio members.

Special Dis-

Books for Dis-

2,772,829.32

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

Boards of Education and Directors may establish kindergartens (when authorized to do so by vote of a majority of the voters of their districts), for children between the ages of four and six years, but the cost of supporting the same must be defrayed by a special tax .- A compulsory pro- vision of the School Law requires that each child, between the ages of seven and fourteen years, shall be sent to school at least sixteen weeks of each year, unless otherwise instructed in the elementary branches, or disqualified by physical or mental disability .- Under the provisions of an act, passed in 1891, women are made eligible to any office created by the general or special school laws of the State, when twenty-one years of age or upwards, and otherwise possessing the same qualifications for the office as are prescribed for men. (For list of incumbents in the office of State Superintendent, see Superintendents of Public Instruction. )

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 30

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 724

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724