Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 29

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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EASTERN ILLINOIS NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution designed to qualify teachers for giving instruction in the public schools, located at Charleston, Coles County, under an act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1895. The act appropriated $50,000 for the erection of build- ings, to which additional appropriations were added in 1897 and 1898, of $25,000 and $50,000, respectively, with $56,216.72 contributed by the city of Charleston, making a total of $181,216.72. The building was begun in 1896, the corner-stone being laid on May 27 of that year. There was delay in the progress of the work in consequence of the failure of the contractors in December, 1896, but the work was resumed in 1897 and practically completed early in 1899, with the expectation that the institution would be opened for the reception of students in September fol- lowing.

EASTMAN, Zebina, anti-slavery journalist, was born at North Amherst, Mass., Sept. 8, 1815; became a printer's apprentice at 14, but later spent a short time in an academy at Hadley. Then, after a brief experience as an employé in the office of "The Hartford Pearl," at the age of 18 he invested his patrimony of some $2,000 in the establishment of "The Free Press" at Fayette- ville, Vt. This venture proving unsuccessful, in 1837 he came west, stopping a year or two at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1839 he visited Peoria by way of Chicago, working for a time on "The

Peoria Register," but soon after joined Benjamin Lundy, who was preparing to revive his paper, "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," at Lowell, La Salle County. This scheme was partially defeated by Lundy's early death, but, after a few months' delay, Eastman, in conjunc- tion with Hooper Warren, began the publication of "The Genius of Liberty" as the successor of Lundy's paper, using the printing press which Warren had used in the office of "The Commer- cial Advertiser," in Chicago, a year or so before. In 1842, at the invitation of prominent Abolitionists, the paper was removed to Chicago, where it was issued under the name of "The Western Citizen," in 1853 becoming "The Free West," and finally, in 1856, being merged in "The Chicago Tribune." After the suspension of "The Free West," Mr. Eastman began the publication of "The Chicago Magazine," a literary and historical monthly, but it reached only its fifth number, when it was discontinued for want of financial support. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln United States Consul at Bristol, England, where he remained eight years. On his return from Europe, he took up his residence at Elgin, later removing to Maywood, a suburb of Chicago, where he died, June 14, 1883. During the latter years of his life Mr. Eastman contributed many articles of great historical interest to the Chi- cago press. (See Lundy, Benjamin, and Warren, Hooper.)

EBERHART, John Frederick, educator and real-estate operator, was born in Mercer County, Pa., Jan. 21, 1829; commenced teaching at 16 years of age, and, in 1853, graduated from Alle- gheny College, at Meadville, soon after becoming Principal of Albright Seminary at Berlin, in the same State; in 1855 came west by way of Chicago, locating at Dixon and engaging in editorial work ; a year later established "The Northwestern Home and School Journal," which he published three years, in the meantime establishing and conducting teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1859 he was elected School Commissioner of Cook County-a position which was afterwards changed to County Superintend- ent of Schools, and which he held ten years. Mr. Eberhart was largely instrumental in the estab- lishment of the Cook County Normal School. Since retiring from office he has been engaged in the real-estate business in Chicago.

ECKHART, Bernard A., manufacturer and President of the Chicago Drainage Board, was born in Alsace, France (now Germany), brought to America in infancy and reared on a farm in

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Vernon County, Wis. ; was educated at Milwau- kee, and, in 1868, became clerk in the office of the Eagle Milling Company of that city, afterwards serving as its Eastern agent in various seaboard cities. He finally established an extensive mill- ing business in Chicago, in which he is now engaged. In 1884 he served as a delegate to the National Waterway Convention at St. Paul and, in 1886, was elected to the State Senate, serving four years and taking a prominent part in draft- ing the Sanitary Drainage Bill passed by the Thirty-sixth General Assembly. He has also been prominent in connection with various financial institutions, and, in 1891, was elected one of the Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, was re-elected in 1895 and chosen President of the Board for the following year, and re-elected Pres- ident in December, 1898.

EDBROOKE, Willoughby J., Supervising Architect, was born at Deerfield, Lake County, Ill., Sept. 3, 1843; brought up to the architectural profession by his father and under the instruc- tion of Chicago architects. During Mayor Roche's administration he held the position of Commissioner of Public Works, and, in April, 1891, was appointed Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department at Washington, in that capacity supervising the construction of Govern- ment buildings at the World's Columbian Exposi- tion. Died, in Chicago, March 26, 1896.

EDDY, Henry, pioneer lawyer and editor, was born in Vermont, in 1798, reared in New York, learned the printer's trade at Pittsburg, served in the War of 1812, and was wounded in the battle of Black Rock, near Buffalo; came to Shawneetown, Ill., in 1818, where he edited "The Illinois Emigrant," the earliest paper in that part of the State; was a Presidential Elector in 1824, a Representative in the Second and Fif- teenth General Assemblies, and elected a Circuit Judge in 1835, but resigned a few weeks later. He was a Whig in politics. Usher F. Linder, in his "Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois," says of Mr. Eddy: "When he addressed the court, he elicited the most profound attention. He was a sort of walking law library. He never forgot anything that he ever knew, whether law, poetry or belles lettres." Died, June 29, 1849.

EDDY, Thomas Mears, clergyman and author, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1823; educated at Greensborough, Ind., and, from 1842 to 1853, was a Methodist circuit preacher in that State, becoming Agent of the American Bible Society the latter year, and Presiding

Elder of the Indianapolis district until 1856, when he was appointed editor of "The Northwestern Christian Advocate," in Chicago, retiring from that position in 1868. Later, he held pastorates in Baltimore and Washington, and was chosen one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Mis- sionary Society by the General Conference of 1872. Dr. Eddy was a copious writer for the press, and, besides occasional sermons, published two volumes of reminiscences and personal sketches of prominent Illinoisans in the War of the Rebellion under the title of "Patriotism of Illinois" (1865). Died, in New York City, Oct. 7,1874.

EDGAR, John, early settler at Kaskaskia, was born in Ireland and, during the American Revo- lution, served as an officer in the British navy, but married an American woman of great force of character who sympathized strongly with the patriot cause. Having become involved in the desertion of three British soldiers whom his wife had promised to assist in reaching the American camp, he was compelled to flee. After remaining for a while in the American army, during which he became the friend of General La Fayette, he sought safety by coming west, arriving at Kas- kaskia in 1784. His property was confiscated, but his wife succeeded in saving some $12,000 from the wreck, with which she joined him two years later. He engaged in business and became an extensive land-owner, being credited, during Territorial days, with the ownership of nearly 50,000 acres situated in Randolph, Monroe, St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Washington, Perry and Jackson Counties, and long known as the "Edgar lands." He also purchased and rebuilt a mill near Kaskaskia which had belonged to a French- man named Paget, and became a large shipper of flour at an early day to the Southern markets. When St. Clair County was organized, in 1790, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Common Pleas Court, and so appears to have continued for more than a quarter of a century. On the establishment of a Territorial Legislature for the Northwest Territory, he was chosen, in 1799, one of the members for St. Clair County-the Legis- lature holding its session at Chillicothe, in the present State of Ohio, under the administration of Governor St. Clair. He was also appointed a Major-General of militia, retaining the office for many years. General and Mrs. Edgar were leaders of society at the old Territorial capital, and, on the visit of La Fayette to Kaskaskia in 1825, a reception was given at their house to the distinguished Frenchman, whose acquaintance

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they had made more than forty years before. He died at Kaskaskia, in 1832. Edgar County, in the eastern part of the State, was named in honor of General Edgar. He was Worshipful Master of the first Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Illinois, constituted at Kaskaskia in 1806.

EDGAR COUNTY, one of the middle tier of counties from north to south, lying on the east- ern border of the State; was organized in 1823, and named for General Edgar, an early citizen of Kaskaskia. It contains 630 square miles, with a population (1890) of 26,787. The county is nearly square, well watered and wooded. Most of the acreage is under cultivation, grain-growing and stock-raising being the principal industries. Generally, the soil is black to a considerable depth, though at some points -- especially adjoin- ing the timber lands in the east-the soft, brown clay of the subsoil comes to the surface. Beds of the drift period, one hundred feet deep, are found in the northern portion, and some twenty-five years ago a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon was exhumed. A bed of limestone, twenty-five feet thick, crops out near Baldwinsville and runs along Brouillet's creek to the State line. Paris, the county-seat, is a railroad center, and has a popu- lation of some 5,000. Vermilion and Dudley are prominent shipping points, while Chrisman, which was an unbroken prairie in 1872, was credited with a population of 830 in 1890.

EDINBURG, a village of Christian County, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, 18 miles southeast of Springfield; has one or two banks and one newspaper. The region is agri- cultural, though some coal is mined here. Popu- lation (1880), 551; (1890), 806.

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) hody 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 estah- 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 had 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) thie 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 themn 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 inemorials 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 Common 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.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 29

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388