USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 36
USA > Illinois > Bond County > History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois > Part 36
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The following year, the grammar school was closed and two teachers were placed in each of the three ward schools. Among these were Blanche Keating, now Mrs. D. Davis; Mrs. Elizabeth Burton, now Mrs. G. P. Hanks; Miss Kate Hyde, and Julia P. Palmer, now Mrs. George Stevens, of Jacksonville. The expenditure amounted to $1,547.97; the liabilities were $14.35 and the balance on hand, $591.60. When the average man buys a piano, another farm, or goes to the White Mountains, he finds it necessary to " retrench" by having school only half the time and cut- ting down teachers' wages.
By the summer of 1865, the population of the city had, from temporary causes, risen to 4,300, money was abundant and the city had no debt. The time had arrived to place the schools on a higher plane. The School Board informally decided to erect a house for a graded school large enough for the present and prospective wants of the district. By several purchases from B. H. Hargraves, / Wilder W. Davis and Ahart Pierce, an en- tire block was obtained on the west slope of Pierce's mound, on which to built the school- house, at a contemplated cost of $15,000, though a proper house should be built even if
it cost a third more. In July of this year. Messrs D. R. Sparks, Thomas G. Kessinger and W. S. Palmer, of the School Board, were appointed a committee to select a plan and estimate of the cost of the desired house, for the consideration of the Board and definite action. The committee chose the design pro- pared by George P. Randall, of Chicago; the board confirmed their selection and the con- tract was given to W. F. Bushnell, of Men- dota, for the building above the stone base- ment, at the outside figure of $28,000. His contract was $5,500 higher than the architect's estimate, yet did not include seating or heating apparatus.
In September, 1865, six teachers were em- ployed for the three ward schools, half of them at $35 per month and half at $30. The grammar school building did fairly well for the Second Ward, but the other houses were tolerated only for the reason that no better ones could be leased. Not much was expect. ed, and the public expectation was not disap- pointed.
The expenditures for this fiscal year were $4,526.90, and $1,992.02 were, in effect. loaned to defray the expenses of the city gov- ernment. Nearly half the disbursements for school objects was applied on the new school- house. The increase of taxation was to meet the demands of the contractor.
In March, 1867, Mr. Bushnell was at his request released from his contract, as it was evident that he could not fulfill it. An expert was employed to examine the work up to date, and his report confirmed the opinion that in all respects it was satisfactory. During the spring and summer, the house was completed and furnished under the direct orders of the board, the price of labor and material being something frightful; the cost of the property was swelled to $48,000; a large debt was in- curred, bearing usurious interest.
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The School Board containing such men as D. C. Amsden, D. R. Sparks, John L. Hink- ley and S. M. Keithly and David Davis, pro- posed that a new era should dawn on the city with the opening of the graded school. Much anxiety was manifested to secure an accomplished and efficient Principal. Confi- dential inquiries were made, and Mr. A. J. Blanchard, of the Sycamore Graded School was unanimously selected, at a salary of $1,- 500 for a term of forty weeks, and he was re- quested to select his assistants, with a view of securing harmony in the corps of instruc- tion and a fair trial of his system in school. Mr. Blanchard, a man tall, well proportioned, muscular, in the meridian of life and of great intensity of character, began his preparation of re-organizing the school, by approving the selection of such teachers as Misses Fanny E. Tower, Kimberly, Dustin, Lauder, Lyon and Mrs. Abby Paden and Hull. The house he was about to enter was a three-story brick edifice, heated by furnaces and seated in the best manner. The twelve rooms had a seat- ing capacity for 800 pupils. New text-books had been adopted. Six of his eleven assist- ants were from abroad. and, at the close of the winter session, no more than two home teachers remained in the school. New rules of government and new modes of instruction were introduced, and the teachers had good wages and they earned them. There was a tremendous amount of application to study, and, for the first time in our school history the capacity of the pupil was not underesti- mated, nor his comprehension of former stud- ies exaggerated. The Principal put double energy and industry into the school, and sought only the educational welfare of his pupils. He made it his chief business to see that each teacher did her utmost for the true benefit of those under her charge. He be- lieved in good teaching; he believed equally
well in good study. He handled young men as other teachers handle children: he subju- gated the vicious and willful; stimulated the languid and idle; punished the insubordi- nate and controlled the mischievous.
Of course, this could not be done without raising issues, which, though not forgotten, it is not wise to revive. Mr. Blanchard thought to maintain himself by success in the schoolroom alone. He failed just as others have who relied on the same merit. Outside dissatisfaction, by the close of the winter term, had grown until it was in doubt whether the school must not be closed. At the decisive moment, a county teachers' institute was held in the house, and several of the teachers consented to illustrate the methods of study and teach- ing pursued in the school by having their classes recite in the presence of the institute. The examples exemplified how lessons were learned and how recited, and the result of the double process, as shown by the rapid ad - vancement of their pupils. The spectators, and among them were not a few of the opin- ion-makers of the town, were amazed and de- lighted. They saw what could be done in school with competent teachers and correct methods, and the fate of the Litchfield school, which had been in fearful jeopardy was set- tled at once and for many years. The entire term was completed and Mr. Blanchard de- clining a re-engagement, Mr. P. R. Rider, now of the Missouri Normal School, of Cape Girardeau, became his successor. Wages and salary were reduced, and seven home teachers were engaged. Then began the policy of employing teachers because they lived here instead of on account of their success in the schoolroom.
The next year, B. F. Hedges, proposing to take sole charge of the high school, was em- ployed as Principal, but when elected, earnest-
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CITY OF LITCHFIELD.
ly solicited an assistant. Mrs. Lockwood, of Alton, was selected. A German department was added. The total enrollment exceeded a thousand. Mr. Hedges remained two years.
In 1871-73, W. C. Catherwood, from Jackson- ville, was the Principal-a thorough teacher and hardly an apology for a Superintendent. The tax bills for those years are conclusive as to the existence of a public school. Early in April, 1872, the schoolhouse caught fire in the roof, and, in the presence of thousands, burned like a candle down to the basement. A portion of the seats and the library were saved. The insurance covered two-thirds the loss. This misfortune closed the public school, and private schools were speedily opened in different parts of the city.
Contracts for rebuilding the house were made with John D. Carson, with no avoidable delay, on a modification of the original de- sign. Pending its completion, public schools were resumed in the fall in the several build- ings around the public square.
The second schoolhouse was occupied in the fall of 1873. under the superintendency of L. M. Hastings, from Iowa, at a yearly salary of $1,650, for a term of thirty-six weeks. The five assistants who accompanied him from that State were a valuable addition. One of them, Miss Mary Fredericks, is fondly remembered as a teacher of wonderful quali- fication, aptitude and success. By the fail- ure of her voice near the end of her fifth ses- sion, she was compelled to retire for a season from the schoolroom. On her return to her profession in Iowa, the deplorable fret and wear of teaching, lessened her usefulness by inducing a nervous condition of irritability and peevishness. The harmony of the school was sadly violated by the controversy with Mrs. Johnson. The affair is too recent for description, though the district records are voluminous on one side of the trouble. Mr.
Hastings' management of the school and the character of the teaching, were in brilliant contrast with the previous five years and the succeeding ones.
J. N. Dewell, of Pike County, was the Principal for 1875-77, and, under his care, there were no complaints of over study or rigid school duties. The first year, a Board of School Inspectors were appointed, but their powers and duties not being clearly settled by usage, the Council soon supplanted them. The Inspectors retired. Thus ingloriously ended this honest attempt to take the school out of politics and favoritism. It was, per- haps, significant, that our Council usually begins its reformatory measures just as a majority are going out of office, and thus leave them to be carried out by their succes- sors.
The school year was reduced to eight months, or thirty-six weeks, and George C. Ross, of Jackson County, remained at the head of the school for a year at a salary of $1,000. An unseemly struggle in the School Board over the election of teachers, during which the value of the applicants in school work was subordinated to personal feeling, was followed by the inevitable result. The school was a general and profound disap- pointment.
For the last three years, Thomas J. Charles has been the Principal.
The Press .- At the solicitation of E. B. Litchfield, the proprietor of the town site, and on his assurance of a large and profitable line of work-an assurance which was wholly il- lusory. H. A. Coolidge, in February, 1857, removed his printing office from Cazenovia, N. Y., to Litchfield. Mr. Litchfield, in antici- pation of his arrival, erected him an office, on Jackson street, better known as the grammar school building. Here he issued the first number of the Litchfield Journal, in April
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
though dated in May. The paper was a four- page, six-column sheet, set in long primer and minion, and, as there were then no "pat- ent insides," the editor and his assistants were busy in the mechanical department. The circulation did not exceed 200, and. during the six years of his control, never rose to 400. The paper was welcomed, but the town was too small and the neighborhood too scanty in population to afford the venture an adequate support. Those were the days of credit, and the payment of subscriptions was frequently omitted. The county was Democratic and intensely pro-slavery and the political views of the Journal not altogether satisfactory to the arbiters of local opinion. The attitude of men on the "Kansas Ques- tion," where the doctrine of popular sov- ereignty was exemplified by open war and the mockery of political rights, was the crucial test of his party fealty. The Journal dared, in May, to announce the views held by Doug- las in the following December in the Senate, and, for its temerity in disseminating opin- ions in advance of an utterance by a party leader, it fell under a suspicion of unsound- ness, and there is no forgiveness in politics. Success alone condones offenses, and the Journal received late toleration. It sup- ported Douglas for Senator in 1858, and for President two years later.
The panic of 1857 nearly caused its sus- pension. For sixteen consecutive days in the February following, its total receipts were half a dollar. Somehow the paper lived, and in mechanical appearance has not been excelled in the county. The editor was a Yankee with an odor of books, and to be a Yankee here was to lead no popular life.
Lincoln entered the White House, and in April the war of the rebellion began at Charles- ton. The evening after the heavy news was received, a public meeting was held at
Empire Hall, and the editor briefly urged that the integrity of the Union must be pre- served and force be repelled by force. The Journal, foreseeing the influence of the war on parties, continued to advocate and sustain the policy of military coercion. Arms had been selected by the South as the arbiter of its pretensions, and the Journal accepted the arbitrament. By degrees a large section of the local Democracy first deprecated this policy, and then actively connived to thwart the Union arms and openly "sympathized " with the South. The patrons of the office fell away, income dwindled, and at one time a rush was made to wreck it for alleged " copperheadism." The attempt was de- feated by the Union men of the city.
In 1863, the office was leased to a Mr. Cook, and then to John Harris, now of Clyde, and Thomas B. Fuller, of Calhoun. The publishers changed the name to Litchfield Democrat, and placed its editorial manage- ment in the hands of B. F. Burnett, Esq., who well understood the art of writing with- out saying anything, but week by week in the thick coming news of Union victories, prated dolefully of the horrors of war and the woe of desolated families, and the beau- ties of peace. He was the perpetual Chair- man of the standing committee of dissent. He had principles, but would have been a better citizen if he had not.
The next year Mr. Coolidge sold the office, which for four years had been located in the Journal building on State street, to E. J. Ellis, a refugee from Troy, Mo., whose cli- mate had become pernicious to his health since bushwhacking ceased to pay in that re- gion. He called his paper the Prairie City Advocate. He toiled assiduously and was repaid for his labor. The war being over, he desired to retire to the congenial wilds of Missouri, and sold, October, 1865, his office
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CITY OF LITCHFIELD.
to E. J. C. Alexander, from Greenville, who changed the name again to the Litchfield News, and declared it a Republican journal. He did not meet with distinguished success.
In April of the following year, the ma- terial of the Union Monitor, of Hillsboro, was, to evade a seizure by the Sheriff, con- veyed to him and the publication of a news- paper in Litchfield was discontinued until the last of 1867. The New's office was kept open for job work and advertisements, which were sent in type to Hillsboro. The Monitor was regularly dated at Hillsboro, T. J. Rus- sell, editor, on the first page, while the third page was headed Litchfield News. dated at Litchfield, E. J. C. Alexander, editor.
In a short time the second head disap- peared from the third page, but when the Hillsboro editor of the Monitor was struck off, the head and date line were changed to Litchfield News, and half a dozen quires were printed for the Litchfield folks.
From April. 1866, to December, 1867, no newspaper was printed in the town, with a population four thousand. This was not satisfactory-Alexander was " not the man for Galway." Steps were taken in 1867 to re- establish a home paper, and it became cer- tain that B. S. Hood would be the editor. Money was furnished, and Alexander learn- ing what had been done, and what was con- templated, changed his politics one day while crossing the street, and sold out to Mr. Hood, who began in the basement of Masonic Block the publication of the Republican Monitor, which in four months became the Litchfield Union Monitor. From these sub- terranean quarters he removed the office to Ferguson's Hall, enlarged to eight pages with "patent insides," and late in 1870, with more experience than profit from his venture, transferred the office to Messrs. C. L. Bangs and Ed. Gray, of Carlinville, both excel-
lent printers. In the spring of 1871, J. H. C. Irwin was selected as editor and the Monitor had in addition C. L. Bangs and Emma Bangs as editorial writers, and B. S. Hood as local editor. Irwin excelled in " memories of the future." Bangs para- graphed on woman's rights, and Hood did the city locals. The paper was too rich for common blood, and in October, 1871, Bangs & Gray disposed of the Monitor to Kimball & Taylor, of Belleville. William Fithian, a graduate of the Carlinville Democrat office, was put in the office as editor and manager. In a year, the proprietors sunk a couple of thou- sand dollars and sold out at heavy loss to H. A. Coolidge, who thus found himself again in the editorial chair with the press and much of the printing material he had brought West fifteen years earlier. His absence for eight years from the newspaper world had taught him the value of a journal to the community where it is published. He was now to learn that this value was quite dis- tinct from any value to its publisher.
He admitted G. B. Litchfield as a partner. The office was removed to Empire Hall until the fall of 1874 when it again began its wanderings. Litchfield withdrew, 1874, to begin the Montgomery County Democrat, and Coolidge for a year managed to conduct the Monitor without the handicap of a partner. In 1876, F. O. Martin became his pa tner-a good printer-and remained until 1878, when the paper was sold to Charles Walker and B. S. Hood. Walker went out of the concern in three months, and Mr. Hood in the spring of 1881 put in a Campbell press and took in J. G. Campbell as a partner. The circula- tion under his management rose to 1,100 or nearly double what any predecessor had been able to obtain.
In the fall of 1861, a Union ticket for county officers was presented as a rallying
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
point for such as cared most for the country. To aid the design involved in the ticket, the Campaigner was founded by J. P. Bayless, with whom Dr. H. H. Hood was associated. It was intended to maintain it only until the fall election, and was issued from the Jour- nal office. Not a copy of it is known to exist.
About May, 1862, the Illinois Free Press was removed here from Hillsboro, J. B. Hutchinson, editor. It found a home in the Cummings Building, and after languishing a few weeks, ceased to exist. In June, 1871. Messrs. Kimball & Taylor bought G. B. Litchfield's printing material in the Elliott Building and began the publication of the Independent, an eight column quarto sheet, three pages of which came ready printed. H. A. Coolidge was the salaried editor. The paper went up like a rocket. No such prosperity had attended a paper in this re- gion. It began without a subscriber, and on its consolidation, by purchase, with the Moni- tor. had two-thirds its circulation. Only fifteen numbers were issued until it was lost in its ancient neighbor.
Mr. Fithian having ceased to be editor of the Monitor, in the late summer of 1872. pur- chased a newspaper outfit and began the publication of the Review, George B. Litch- field, printer. The 5th of the following December, Mr. Litchfield retired from the Review, which thereupon suspended, and subsequently, the material was sold to Messrs. Coolidge & Litchfield of the Monitor.
In November, 1874, Mr. Litchfield and Robert S. Young issued the first number of the Montgomery County Democrat in a room over Beach, Davis & Co.'s Bank. Mr. Young, the editor, owning none of the ma- terial, was in a few months out of the edi- torial chair, and Mr. Litchfield assumed the sole management. For a year, embracing a
portion of 1879-80, Col. Ben. E. Johnson, of Hillsboro, was associated with Mr. Litch- field as editor and business manager of the Democrat. On his retirement, Mr. Litchfield again became editor and proprietor until Au- gust, 1SS1, when he sold to Charles Tobin, late of the Hillsboro News. Mr. Tobin, in March following, enlarged the paper which he renamed the Litchfield Advocate, to a six- column folio, and is doing a prosperous busi- ness, increasing his list of readers and hur- ried by job work.
Quite a thousand copies of the Monitor and Advocate are taken at the home post office. Both attend chiefly to local matters and leave editorials proper to the imagination of their subscribers. The papers are con- ducted on business principles, and like news- papers generally are more valuable to the town than to their proprietors.
Banking .- In 1862, Haskell, Davis & Co., of Hillsboro, opened a private bank in a wood building, whose site is now occupied by Updike's hardware store, Thomas F. Sey- mour being clerk or manager. Five years later, the name of the firm was Haskell, Seymour & Co., Mr. Davis being succeeded by Mr. Seymour. Mr. Haskell had removed to Alton, and in December, 1869, his interest appears to have been purchased by Judge Brewer, of Hillsboro, and the firm became Brewer, Seymour & Co., and S. M. Grubbs entered the bank as Teller. The following year the present banking house was built, and for ten years the firm remained unchanged. Then Mr. Seymour's sight failing, he was forced to retire from business, and the firm became Brewer & Grubbs. The house passed through the panic of 1873 with unimpaired credit and resources, as whatever its nominal capital, its virtual capital was twenty times greater. Its solvency was not for a moment in doubt. Its present officers are: S. M.
J. le Sinclair
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY of ILLINOIS
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CITY OF LITCHFIELD.
Grubbs, Manager, and T. F. Davis, Book- keeper. The volume of business transacted over its counter must be left to conjecture, as all information on this point is refused.
In 1860-61, John W. Haggart opened a bank in Beardsley's jewelry store, and dealt in exchange and occasional loans. He was not believed to control sufficient capital, and did but a meager business. His " bank" soon ceased, and its funds were easily transferred to a vest pocket, and the "banker" departed to another State.
Under a special charter, the Litchfield Bank, Nathan Kenyon, President, and N. P. B. Wells, Cashier, opened in July, 1870, with a paid-up capital of $20,000. The officers were from Brockport, N. Y., and held half the stock; the balance was held here. Fi- nancially, the institution was not fortunate, and ere the first year was over, Kenyon sold his stock and retired from the house. Thir- teen of the original stockholders formed a partnership under the name of Beach, Davis & Co., and, dissolving the corporation, con- tinned the business with D. Davis, Manager, and D. Van Deusen, Cashier. The bank was located in Hoog's Building, where Mr. Smith, now is. The new firm began business in their proper name in May, 1871. Two years later, the articles of partnership were revised, three new partners admitted, and the paid-up capital increased quite fourfold. The bus- iness had been remarkably prosperous, and the stock was held firmly.
When the panic came, and the balances held in foreign banks became unavailable by reason of closing their doors, a meeting of the partners was held in the bank parlor, and the situation was rapidly considered. A rush on the bank was anticipated, but in a few hours the current funds had been increased threefold. and all paper was met, and no en- gagement was delayed or abandoned. The bank pays regular dividends.
The Coal Mine. - From 1817 to 1855, wood was the only fuel in use in this county for household and heating purposes. Until 1858, the nearest coal mine was thirty miles to the southwest, and not until the railway was opened for traffic was it expedient to change to coal for shops or mechanical uses. In 1858, there was not a coal-burning locomotive on the railroad. Fitful attempts to find coal in this neighborhood were prosecuted in the mid "50's," and to no purpose.
As early as 1856-57, coal from the Wood River Mine was bought at a cost of $17 freight for a car load, and closed out from the car at 15 cents a bushel, the buyer pay- ing for draying and weighing. Gradually the price fell to eight bushels for the dollar, though if, as not unfrequently happened, the supply ran short, the price leaped up to 18 and 22 cents a bushel. The flouring mills and car shops were large consumers, the annual consumption being estimated at 300,000 bushels per year. If the supply at any time failed, the writer is afraid to recol- lect the fabulous sum he gladly paid for wood.
In the first part of 1867, Andrew Howard, of Bunker Hill, a practical coal-miner, pro- posed to Messrs. Beach & Amsden and Best & Sparks, that for a bonus of $2,000 he would sink a coal-shaft 350 feet, and these firms guaranteed its acceptance. Howard's capi- tal consisted chiefly in his skill, energy, hope- fulness and a high-shouldered mule. A few acres of land were bought on Rocky Branch, just outside the corporation, and in March, 1867, he began work. Mr. Howard's purse was soon exhausted, but he persevered. being effectually aided by the late M. C. Manly. The bonus was expended and Mr. Manly was unable to defray the expenses of the work. A few citizens deeply in- terested in discovering coal here, and
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