USA > Illinois > Williamson County > Historical souvenir of Williamson County, Illinois : being a brief review of the county from date of founding to the present > Part 4
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Our American institutions came into the world in the name of free- dom. They have been seized upon by the capitalist class as the means of rooting out the idea of freedom from among the people. Our state and national legislatures have be-
propertied interests. These inter- ests control the appointments and decisions of the judges of our courts. They have come into what is practically a private ownership of all the functions and forces of gov- ernment. They are using these to betray and conquer foreign and weaker peoples, in order to estab- lish new markets for the surplus goods which the people make, but are too poor to buy. They are gradually so invading and restrict- ing the right of suffrage as to take away unawares the right of the worker to a vote or voice in public affairs. By enacting new and mis- interpreting old laws, they are pre-
A
MARION PRESSED BRICK WORKS,
Griggs Brothers, Proprietors. East College St., near the Fair Grounds.
35
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
REV. WM. T. MATHIS, Pastor of the M. E. Church South.
MRS. SALLY S. BINKLEY, Pioneer, aged Số.
paring to attack the liberty of the individual even to speak or think for himself, or for the common good.
By controlling all the sources of social revenue, the possessing class is able to silence what might be the
voice of protest against the passing of liberty and the coming of tyranny. It completely controls the university and public school, the pulpit and the press, and the arts and literatures. By making these economically dependent upon itself,
M. E. CHURCH SOUTH.
it has brought all the forms of pub- lic teaching into servile submission to its own interests.
Our political institutions are also all being used as the destroyers of that individual property upon which all liberty and opportunity depend. The promise of economic independ- ence to each man was one of the faiths upon which our institutions were founded. But, under the guise of defending private property, capitalism is using our political in- stitutions to make it impossible for the vast majority of human beings ever to become possessors of pri- vate property in the means of life.
Capitalism is the enemy and de- stroyer of essential private prop- erty. Its development is through the legalized confiscation of all that the labor of the working class pro- duces, above its subsistence-wage. The private ownership of the means of employment grounds society in an economic slavery which renders intellectual and political tyranny inevitable.
Socialism comes so to organize industry and society that every in- dividual shall be secure in that pri- vate property in the means of life upon which his liberty of being, thought and action depends. It comes to rescue the people from the fast increasing and successful as- sault of capitalism upon the liberty of the individual.
II.
As an American socialist party, we pledge our fidelity to the prin- ciples of international socialism, as embodied in the united thought and
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SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
FRANK THROGMARTIN. Deputy Sheriff.
action of the socialists of all na- tions. In the industrial develop- ment already accomplished, the in- terests of the world's workers are separated by no national bound-
aries. The condition of the most exploited and oppresse workers, in the most remote places of the earth, inevitably tends to drag down all the workers of the world to the same level. The tendency of the competitive wage system is to make labor's lowest condition the meas- ure of rule of its universal condi- tion. Industry and finance are no longer national but international, in both organization and results. The chief significance of national boundaries, and of the so-called patriotisms which the ruling class of each nation is seeking to revive, is the power which these give to capitalism to keep the workers of the world from uniting. and to throw them against each other in the struggles of contending capital- ist interests for the control of the vet unexplored markets of the
world, or the remaining sources of profit.
The socialist movement, there-
fore, is a world-movement. It knows of no conflicts of interests between the workers of one nation and the workers of another. It stands for the freedom of the workers of all nations: and, in so standing, it makes for the full free- dom of all humanity.
GERMAN EVANGELICAL ZION CHURCH. Rev. C. E. Miche, Pastor.
REV. C. E. MICHE,
Pastor of the German Evangelical Zion's Church.
III.
The socialist movement owes its birth and growth to that economic development or world-process which is rapidly separating a working or prodneing class from a possessing or capitalist class. The class that produces nothing possesses labor's fruits, and the opportunities and enjoyments these fruits afford, while the class that does the world's real work has increasing economic uncertainty, and physical and intel- lectual misery, for its portion.
The fact that these two classes have not yet become fully conscions of their distinction from each other, the fact that the lines of division and interest may not yet be clearly drawn, does not change the fact of the class conflict.
This class struggle is due to the private ownership of the means of employment, or the tools of pro- duction. Wherever and whenever man owned his own land and tools, and by them produced only the things which he used, economic in- dependence was possible. But pro- duction, or the making of goods, has long ceased to be individual. The labor of scores, or even thous- ands, enters into almost every arti- cle produced. Production is now
social or collective. Practically everything is made or done by many men-sometimes separated by seas or continents-working together for the same end. But this co-op- eration in production is not for the direct use of the things made by the workers who make them, but for the profit of the owners of the tools and means of production: and to this is due the present division of society into two classes; and from it have sprung all the miseries, in-
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY. ILLINOIS.
37
CANDEAL G
H. S. HARRIS, Sheriff.
E. E. DENNISON, Attorney-at-Law.
JUDGE O. A. HARKER.
harmonies and contradictions of our civilization.
Between these two classes there can be no possible compromise or identity of interests, any more than there can be peace in the midst of war, or light in the midst of dark- ness. A society based upon this class division carries in itself the seeds of its own destruction. Such
a society is founded in fundamental injustice. There can be no possible basis for social peace, for individual freedom, for mental and moral har- mony, except in the conscious and complete triumph of the working class as the only class that has the right or power to be.
IV. The socialist program is not a
theory imposed upon society for its acceptance or rejection. It is but the interpretation of what is, sooner or later, inevitable. Capitalism is already struggling to its destruc- tion. It is no longer competent to organize or administer the work of the world, or even to preserve it- self. The captains of industry are appalled at their own inability to
Home of the oldest living couple in the County, Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Newton Atwood, x3 and 87 years old. The jog house was built in 1845 and still does service as kitchen and dining room.
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SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
AN IMPROMPTU GROUP AT MARION, ILL.
1st Row-Mrs Dr. Thomson, Mrs. H. N. Boles, Mrs. Shannon Holland, Mrs. Mattie Bortree, Wetzel Bortree, Mrs. Minnie Hall, Mrs. Geo. Goodall, Mrs. Gus Brown, Mrs. Dr. Theo. Hudson, Mrs. R. D. Hol- Jand. 2nd Row-Mrs. Charles Gent, Mrs. Eph. E. Snyder, Mrs. W. H. Warder, Mrs. L. D. Hartwell. 3rd Row-Mrs. A. F. White, Mrs. Wiley Cochran, rMs. W. J. Aikman, Mrs. W. P. Moore.
Babies-Miss Sarah Angusta Snyder, Mary Louisa Gent, Charlie Hay, Miss Harriet Goodall.
control or direct the rapidly social- izing forces of industry. The so- called trust is but a sign and form of the developing socialism of the world's work. The universal in- crease of the uncertainty of employ- ment, the universal capitalist de- termination to break down the unity of labor in the trades unions, the widespread apprehensions of impending change, reveal that the institutions of capitalist society are passing under the power of inher- ing forces that will soon destroy them.
Into the midst of the strain and crises of civilization, the socialist movement comes as the only con- servative force. If the world is to be saved from chaos, from univer- sal disorder and misery, it must be by the union of the workers of all nations in the socialist movement. The socialist party comes with the only proposition or program for in- telligently and deliberately organ- izing the nation for the common good of all its citizens. It is the first time that the mind of man has
ever been directed toward the con- scious organization of society.
Socialism means that all those things upon which the people in common depend shall by the people in common be owned and adminis- tered. It means that the tools of employment shall belong to their creators and users; that all pro- duction shall be for the direct use of the producers; that the making of goods for profit shall come to an end; that we shall all be work- ers together; and that all oppor- tunities shall be open and equal to all men.
V.
To the end that the workers may seize every possible advantage that may strengthen them to gain com- plete control of the powers of gov- ernment, and thereby the sooner establish the co-operative common- wealth, the Socialist Party pledges itself to watch and work, in both the economic and the political struggle, for each successive im- mediate interest of the working class; for shortened days of labor
and increase of wages; for the in- surance of the workers against ac- cident, sickness and lack of em- ployment; for pensions for aged and exhausted workers: for the graduated taxation of incomes, in- heritances, franchises and land val- ues, the proceeds to be applied to the public employment and improve- ment of the conditions of the work- ers; for the complete education of children, and their freedom from the workshop; for the prevention of the use of the military against la- bor in the settlement of strikes; for the free administration of justice; for popular government, including initiative, referendum, proportional representation, equal suffrage of men and women, municipal home rule, and the recall of officers by their constituents: and for every gain or advantage for the workers that may be wrested from the cap- italist system, and that may relieve the suffering and strengthen the hands of labor. We lay upon every man elected to any executive or legislative office the first duty of
39
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS
ELDER A. M. KIRKLAND, Pastor of the Primitive
Baptist Church.
G. W. CHESLEY MCCOY, California Pioneer.
striving to procure whatever is for the workers' most immediate inter- est, and for whatever will lessen the economic and political powers of the capitalist, and increase the like powers of the worker.
But, in so doing, we are using these remedial measures as means to the one great end of the co-op- erative commonwealth. Such meas- ures of relief as we may be able to force from capitalism are but a preparation of the workers to seize the whole powers of government, in order that they may thereby las hold of the whole system of indus-
try, and thus come into their right- ful inheritance.
To this end we pledge ourselves, as the party of the working class, to use all political power as fast as it shall be entrusted to us by our fellow-workers, both for their im- mediate interests and for their ul- timate and complete emancipation. To this end we appeal to all the workers of America, and to all who will lend their lives to the service of the workers in their struggle to gain their own, and to all who will nobly and disinterestelly give their days and energies unto the work-
LEON SENTER, With his Billy Goat.
Leon Senter, who appears beside his goat "Billie" in the half-tone illustration, is the son of G. F. Senter, of Marion, and is now at- tending school in the third grade, under Byrd Spiller at Marion. He was born August 9, 1892. His fa- vorite, handsome "Billie" was ob- tained last year at Paducah, at a cost of one dollar and fifty cents. He is three years old and well- trained and kind and tractable. Leon has a wagon in which he and his sister Christina ride after
"Billie" all over town. "Billie" never needs tying, but will stand quietly anywhere on the street until his master returns.
ers' canse, to cast in their lot and faith with the socialist party. Our appeal for the trust and suffrages of our fellow-workers is at once an appeal for their common good and freedom, and for the freedom and blossoming of our common human- ity. In pledging ourselves, and those we represent, to be faithful to the appeal which we make. we believe that we are hut preparing the soil of that economic freedom from which will spring the freedom of the whole man.
The Internationality of Socialism.
The Socialist Party is the only political organization which repre- sents the interests of the working class in all countries, as against the interests of the capitalist class now ruling under every form of gov- ernment, whether Republican, as in the United States, or monarchical as in England and Germany, or despotic as in Russia.
The following report of the So- cialist vote wherever the workers have an opportunity to vote, ex- presses the growing power of the
PRIMITIVE BAPTIST CHURCH. A. M. Kirkland, Pastor.
40
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
HON. JOHN H. DUNCAN, States Prison Commissioner.
MRS. JOHN H. DUNCAN.
movement having for its mission the emancipation of Lahor from the world-wide rule of capitalism; Aus- tria, 600,000; Belgium, 463,000; Denmark, 55,479; France, 880,000; Great Britian, 100,000; Holland,
39.000; Italy, 170,841: Norway, Spain,
24,779; Servia, 50,000;
25,000; Switzerland, 36,000, and in the United States in 1902, 225,- 903, making a total of 5,678,002 votes.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF WILLIAMSON CO.
By Prof. R. O. Clarida, Sup't., and Prof. Jas. W. Turner.
A " and prior to the year, 1839, when Williamson County was formed ont of a part of Franklin County, the number of schools were few, and these continued hut a few months in the fall and early win- ter. Settlements, where there were any, were far apart, and only the most thickly populated of these were able to support a "suhscrip- tion" school for a few months in the year. Like all frontier schools of that date, the school curriculum was the three "R's." As the county became more thickly populated and its agricultural advantages became more developed, a few Eastern, (Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York) teachers came in, on their way "westward," and gave the schools a new start by teaching other branch- es in addition to reading, writing
and arithmetic. The advantages for the few subscription schools at this time were the most meager, in fact, nothing but the four walls of a log house and a clapboard roof; no stove-much less steam heat-no blackboard; no apparatus; a big, wide-open fire place and stick and clay chimney. The distance trav- eled by some of the pupils was three and four miles.
Strange to think that some of our most distinguished men and women
RESIDENCE OF HON. JOHN H. DUNCAN. West Main Street, Northwest Corner of Vicksburg.
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SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
MARION C. CAMPBELL, Deceased.
MRS. M. C. CAMPBELL, Of Greenville, Miss.
CAPT. J. M. CUNNINGHAM, Deceased.
had only these school advantages, if such could be called advantages.
The first official record pertaining to the public schools of Williamson County dates from the year A. D, 1840, when Mr. William T. Tanner, School Commissioner of the new county of Williamson, receipts Sion H. Mitchell, then School Commis- sioner of Franklin County, for Wil- liamson County's share of the school funds. The records in the County Superintendent's office at present show that Mr. Tanner served as School Commissioner for one year. He was succeeded by Henry W. Per- ry, who also served one year. J. H. Mulkey served from 1842 to 1848; N. B. Calvert from 1813 to 1855; J. H. Swindell from 1855 to 1859; John N. Calvert from 1859 to 1860;
W. H. Scobey from 1860 to 1862; Wm. R. Scurlock from 1862 to 1866; David G. Young from 1866 to 1869. It might be well to give here a part of Mr. Young's annual report to the State Superintendent, in or- der to show Mr. Youngs rather modern idea of school work, as well as to show that some teachers ex- isted then as now. He says:
"The matter of examination of teachers has generally been re- garded as a matter of little im- portance, and the effect of such a course has been bad, indeed. I can not be as strict in the examination of teachers as I would like to be, for the number of applicants is not large, and if 1 should not give cer- tificates to some, who do not really deserve them, many districts would
-
--
RESIDENCE OF L. P. YANDELL.
be without schools. We have few teachers who make teaching a pro- fession; numbers have been in the habit of teaching, or rather tortur- ing school, not because they like teaching, but to secure the two hun- dred dollars."
The files of the office of the County Superintendent show that the first written report was made to the State Superintendent of Schools by William R. Scurlock, in 1863. The contrast is so striking compared with the reports made in the last few years, that it deserves to be given herein. Some statistics of the report follow:
"Number of teachers, 39; number first grade, 14; number second grade, 15; number third grade, 10. No expenditures for school furni- ture and apparatus; amount re- ported as expended for repairs, $1.67; amount expended for teach- ing $7,387.94; for all school pur- poses for the year ( 1863) $9,194.59. At this time Marion School District had five months' school; other schools of the county ranged in term from one to five months."
David G. Young, above mentioned and now called "County School Superintendent" instead of "County School Commissioner," was suc- ceeded by A. N. Lodge, who served from 1869 to 1877. The County had by this time became greatly de- veloped in the way of agriculture and population compared to former years, and thereby demanded better teaching and better qualified teach- ers. To help meet this demand, Superintendent Lodge reports in 1870, the first attempt at a Teach- ers' Institute. Quoting from the re- port of that year to the State Super- intendent, it says:
"Institute continued for five days, beginning Dec. 27th. Number en-
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SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
F. M. WESTBROOK.
MRS. F. M. WESTBROOK.
rolled, 55; paid instructors, $4.00; total expenses of Institute, $12.00. Instructors were: E. H. Andrews, Dr. F. M. Stratton, Dr. J. D. F. Jen- nings, J. H. Patrick, Theodore James, Clark Braden, Dr. S. H. Bundy and J. M. Clemenston.
At the expiration of A. M. Lodge's last term, 1877, Dr. J. M. Fowler was elected and served till 1882. It was not until the expiration of Dr. Fowler's term that the County Superintendent of Schools was al- lowed by law any stated or specified salary for services, their emolu-
ments being two per cent for money distributed and loaned, and such pay as the County Commissioners saw fit to allow them for actual of- ficial services rendered.
During Dr. Fowler's term special efforts were made to awaken a bet- ter professional interest among the teachers, and this by the Teachers' Institute. For some several years past it seems what efforts had been made were lost as regarded the in- terest of the institute. His report. to the State Department in 1878 says in part:
RESIDENCE OF F. M. WESTBROOK.
"Held ten days' Institute. A grand success. I am persnaded it has accomplished much good. No provisions were made by the County Commissioners to help pay expenses of the Institute, and we had to charge a tuition fee sufficient to de- fray expenses. D. G. Ray, In- strucor."
It will be seen that the County Superintendent and the school inter- ests generally were completely handicapped by the absence of any provision to pay Institute In- structors and bear other expenses necessary to make the Institute the best success. It was probably these efforts of school officers which later caused a law to be passed by our State Legislature, making provi- sions for the adequate maintenance of an aunual Institute.
John H. Duncan succeeded Mr. Fowler as County Superintendent, and served until 1890. During all this time, since the organization of the county, the old log school houses had been gradually giving place to frame buildings, with some preten- sions to comfort, and slight tenden- cies to convenience. The close of Mr. Duncan's term. 1890, left only one log school house-an old moss covered land-mark of the early school days of Williamson County. This district, in 1893, replaced the log house with a frame building, to- gether with good board furniture and some apparatus. The county, in the meantime, had been making progress in other ways. The Teach- ers' Institute had become an estab- lished fact, provisions having been
43
SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
REV. W. W. WEEDON.
MIRS. M. W. ROBERTSON.
M. W. ROBERTSON.
1
made by the Legislature for pay- ment of Instructors and other ne- cessary expenses, by requiring the applicants for certificates to pay a fee of $1. During the term of Mr. Duncan as County Superintendent, the first step looking to the grading of the County, or common schools, was made by suggesting the use of the Manual and Guide, a rudi- mentary Course of Study. Under this law the first Township or Cen-
tral and Final Examinations were held. Also during the last term of Mr. Duncan, the first volumes of a Teachers' County Library were hought, the County Superintendent heing made Librarian.
Mr. Duncan's successor was T. J. Youngblood, who served until 1898. By this time the County contained several good high schools, which in- cluded Marion, Carterville, Creal Springs, and Crab Orchard Academy
-
CHRISTIAN CHURCH. W. W. Weedon, Pastor.
and the Creal Springs College and Conservatory of Music. In addition to the support of the annual Insti- tute by law, the good of the schools demanded more meetings, and reg- ular monthly Teachers' Meetings were held during the school term at Marion or some other convenient point in the County. At these meet- ings questions and problems were discussed which directly touched up- on the duties of the hour; a course of professional reading for the teacher, recommended hy a State Committee, was also discussed. The State Course (old Manual and Guide of Study) came in for some discus- sion at almost every meeting, and like every other innovation that is worth anything, was opposed hy not a few good teachers. The results of these meetings and an ambition by some of the teachers of the county to see what other teachers in ad- joining counties were using, re- sulted in the organization at Stone- fort, in February, 1893, of the Tri- County or Union Teachers' Meet- ing, composed of the counties of Williamson, Saline and Johnson, (since joined by Pope County. )
The meetings of this organization are held annually at one of the County Seat towns, during the two days following Thanksgiving. Be- sides an address at this annual meeting by some prominent edu- cator, one of the leading features was a discussion of the adaptation of the State Course of Study to our common schools.
M. N. Swan was elected in the Fall of 1898 to succeed T. J. Young- blood. Mr. Swan served until December, 1902.
The academic work done in the early Institute of the County now has given place to almost exclusive professional training, the theory be-
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SOUVENIR OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
WILLIAM AIKMAN, Deceased.
ing that in a five days' Institute the time cannot be devoted to learning Arithmetic, Geography, etc., things that can be learned at school or at home. Mr. Swan emphasized the importance of professional prepara- tion, maintaining that qualifications of teachers should and must keep pace with the expenditures for school purposes. The attendance at the annual Institutes and the monthly Teachers' Meetings show how well the teachers fell in with this idea of professional improve- ment. While the academic instruc- tion of the teacher was urged to be sought at other times than at the annual Institute, a strong and ef- fective demand was made that it be obtained, and that the teacher pos- sess equal moral fitness. Normal Schools, Colleges and Select Schools
MRS. MARY AIKMAN, (nee Cox.)
were well attended by teachers and those expecting to teach. Mr. Swan, at the conclusion of his term, left a strong, healthy school sentiment, the patrons, as well as the teacher, seeing the importance of more thau ordinary knowledge of the teacher.
R. O. Clarida, the present incum- bent, succeeded Mr. Swan as County Superintendent in 1902. Mr. Clar- ida enters upon his duties in the 63rd year of the life of the schools of Williamson County. In view of the first report made by the School Commissioner in 1863, it is well to give a few figures of the report made by Mr. Clarida in the fall of 1903, forty years after the first re- port. These items of the report follow:
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