History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 56

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340

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It was not until 1816 that a school was regularly taught here, however. In the fall of that year, William

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I .. Cox, a discharged soldier, received John H. Kinzie, his two sisters, his brother, and three or four chiklren from the fort, in a small log building which stood in the back part of Mr. Kinzie's garden, near the present crossing of Pine and Michigan streets. The house was formerly used as a bakery. In that humble manner the systematic instruction of youth began. How long this school was continued cannot now be stated ; nor is there any record of another venture of the kind until

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EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

1820, when, it is said, a school was taught in the fort, by a Sergeant.

An hiatus of nine years occurs before further au- thentic data is obtained. In 1829 the families of J. B. Beaubien, agent of the American Fur Company, and of Mark Beaubien received instructions from Charles H. Beaubien, son of the former, who obtained a room " near the garrison." These undertakings, it will be seen, were partial and private in their character.

Stephen Forbes was employed as a private instructor of J. B. Beaubien's children, and also by Lieutenant Hunter, then stationed at the fort, in a similar capacity.

The first school to assume general proportions was taught by Stephen Forbes, in June, 1830, in a building near what is now the crossing of Randolph Street and Michigan Avenue. The school-house stood on the west bank of the river, which at that time followed its natural course, and emptied into the lake south of the existing Madison Street line. Mr. Wells says : " Mr. Forbes's school numbered about twenty-five pupils, of ages from four to twenty, and embraced the children of those belonging to the fort, and of Mr. J. B. Beaubien and a few others. It was taught in a large, low, gloomy log building, which had five rooms. The walls of the school-room were afterwards enlivened by a tapestry of white cotton sheeting. The house belonged to Mr. Beaubien, and had been previously occupied by the sutler of the fort. Mr. Forbes resided in the same building, and was assisted in school by Mrs. Forbes. After continuing the school about one year, he was suc- ceeded by Mr. Foot." Mr. Forbes was afterwards Sheriff of Cook County, and subsequently removed to Newburg, Ohio.

In October, 1831, Richard J. Hamilton was appointed commissioner of school lands for Cook County. By a wise provision of the general laws, Section 16 in each newly platted congressional township, as shown by the United States surveys, is set apart for the benefit of public instruction. It so chanced that this section, or one square mile, within the township on which Chicago is located, lay in what is now the business center of the city ; being bounded on the north by Madison Street, on the west by State Street, on the south by Twelfth Street, and on the west by Halsted Street. As will hereafter be shown, this vast property was not judiciously dis- posed of, for had it been retained until the present time, the rentals therefrom would afford a revenue which would make the school system of Chicago the wealthiest municipal institution of its kind in the world.

In the fall of 1832, Colonel Hamilton and Colonel Owen employed John Watkins to teach a small school in the North Division, near the old Indian agency- house in which Colonel Hamilton then resided. It is stated in Mr. Wells's .report that these . gentlemen, afterwards built a house on the north bank of the river, just east of Clark Street, in which Mr. Watkins con- tinued his school, and that it was the first house huilt for a school in Chicago. But this does not recur to Mr. Watkins's recollection. Mr. Watkins wrote a letter to the Calumet Club, bearing date Joliet. Ill., June 22, 1879, from which the following extracts are made :

" I arrived in Chicago in May. 1832, and have always had the reputation of being its first school teacher. I never heard my claim disputed. I commenced teaching in the fall after the Black [lawk War, 1832. My first school was situated on the North Side, about half way hetween the lake and the forks of the river, then known as Wolf Point. The building belonged to Colonel Hamilton, was erected for a horse stable and had been used as such. It was twelve feet square. My benches and desks were made of old store-boxes. The school was started by private subscription. Thirty scholars were subscribed for, but many sub-

scribed wbo had no children. So it was a sort of free school. there not being thirty children in town. During my first quarter I had but twelve scholars, only four of them were white : the others were quarter, half, and three-quarters Indians. After the first quarter I moved my school into a double log-house on the West Side. It was owned by Rev. Jesse Walker, a Methodist minister, and was located near the bank of the river, where the North and South branches meet. He resided in one end of the building and I taught in the other. On Sundays, Father Walker preached in the room where I taught. In the winter of 1832-33. Billy Caldwell, a half-breed chief of the Pottawatomie Indians, better known as ' Sauganash,' offered to pay the tuition and buy the books for all Indian children who would attend school, if they would dress like the Americans, and he would also pay for their clothes. But not a single one would accept the proposition, conditioned upon the change of apparel."

Mr. Watkins taught as late as 1835, but the exact date of his retirement is not known. Among the pupils who attended the first of these schools were the three

Elisa Fortes

Owen boys, Thomas, William and George ; the three Beaubiens, Alexander, Philip and Henry ; Richard Hamilton, and Isaac N. Harmon.

The mania for speculation which prevailed in 1833 induced the authorities to sell the school lands of the State, wherever it was possible to do so. A public sale was carried on in Chicago from October 20, for five days, at which one hundred and forty city blocks were dis- posed of, being all but four blocks of the school section. The sum realized was 838,619.47, which was placed at ten per cent interest. The four blocks reserved from the sale were, Block I, hounded by Madison. Halsted and Monroe streets, and by South Union extended, on which were subsequently located the High and Scam- mon school buildings ; Blocks 87 and 88, lying between Fifth Avenue and the river, and between Harrison and

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

Polk streets ; and Block 142, bounded by Madison, State, Monroe and Dearborn streets.

By the school law of 1833 the school commissioner was required to apportion the interest derived from each township school fund among the several teachers in the town, according to the number of their scholars re- siding in the township, and the number of days each scholar was instructed ; on condition, however, that the trustees of the several schools should first present a cer- tificate that the teacher had given gratuitous instruction to all such orphans and children of indigent parents re- siding in the vicinity, as had been presented for that purpose.

In the light of present knowledge, which demon- strates the unwise policy pursued concerning the sale" of the Chicago school lands, and the conversion of what might now be an unparalleled fund, had the title of this section remained vested in the School Board, into a fixed cash sum, it is but just to the memory of a faithful and honorable public servant, Colonel Hamilton, school commissioner in 1833, to state that the sale was not his own work. A petition, signed by ninety-five residents of Chicago, the leading citizens of the place, urged him to that course ; and it was in compliance with that formal demand that the sale was ordered. Those men deemed it advisable to convert unproductive property into a stated sum, drawing ten per cent semi-annual in- terest payable in advance. Acting upon the will of the overwhelining majority, Colonel Hamilton caused the property to be disposed of, as has already been stated, and thereby obtained a productive fund of nearly $39,- ooo. This was the basis of revenue which will here- after be alluded to as the school fund.

MISS ELIZA CHAPPEL is entitled to especial distinction in this work. Born of parents who united Huguenot and I'ilgrim blood (her father being a descendant of La Chappelle and her mother of Elder Brewster, of " Mayflower " fame, ) she possessed strong quali- ties of mind and heart, which fitted her for the life she led. She was born at Geneseo, N. Y., November 5, 1807. Illness interfered with her educational aspirations, but not to such an extent as to debar her from acquiring a liberal store of general knowledge aod especially that which htted her to teach the young. After ascer- taining the method of kindergarten instruction, Miss Chappel was induced by Robert Stuart, agent uf the American Fur Company at Mackinaw, to leave New York and establish a school of that sort on the island, about 1830. She also founded a similar school at St. Ignace, soon afterward.

Miss Chappel came to Chicago, from Mackinaw, with Mrs. Seth Johnson, in June, 1833, with the intention of establishing a school, and upon arriving here became a member of Major Wilcox's family. Her school was opened with about twenty pupils in September, of that year, in a little log house just outside the military reservation, used up to that time by John Wright as a store. While Miss Chappel was waiting for Mr. Wright to vacate the log store, he was erecting a frame store, the fourth one built in the village, into which to move his goods. This removal being ac- complished, Miss Chappel took possession of the log building. with her "infant" scholars, dividing the house into two apart- ments, one for a school-room, the other for a lodging-room for her- self. Many of the scholars furnished seats for themselves, but those who were unable to do so, had primitive seats supplied them. None of the seats had backs, and there were no desks, but there was a table on which the elder pupils did their writing. In one end of the room was a small raised platform, upon which stood a table for the teacher. The apparatus used in teaching consisted of a numeral frame, maps of the United States and of the world, a globe, script- ural texts and hymns, and illustrations of geometry and astronomy. Miss Chappel continued to teach in this log school-house until in January, 1834, when she moved into the First Presbyterian church building, in which soon afterward her infant school gave an exhi- bition which was highly satisfactory to her and to the patrons of the school. Among the twenty pupils who attended in the log school-house were two children of Colonel R. J. Hamilton, Charles Davis, Celia Maxwell, two or three children of Mr. Baxley, Willie Adams and his sister, a child of a Mr. Evarts. Emily Handy, and Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret and Henry Brooks, The Brooks chil- dren " paddled their own canoe " across the Chicago Kiver to and from school. An appropriation was made by the Commissioners

from the public school fund, for the partial maintenance of this school ; by which official act Miss Chappel was recognized on the rolls as the first teacher employed, and to her must be accredited the honor of having taught the first public school in Chicago. Miss Chappel soon conceived the idea of educating the girls who lived on

Elisa

Chappel

the prairie. Her proposition to the parents of these girls was to the effect that if the parents would send in their daughters with provisions upon which to subsist, she would give them a home in a one-and-a-half story frame house, owned by a Sergeant in the fort, which stood on La Salle Street, nearly west of the jail. In re- sponse to this proffer of Miss Chappel, twelve girls were sent to her school, and made their home with her in the Sergeant's house. The school contioued in the church until Miss Chappel gave it up in the fall of 1834. After getting in an older class of pupils, it was determined to fit them for teachers, and thus Miss Chappel's school became the first normal institution in Chicago. Among the pupils in this school were Misses Miriam and Fidelia Cleveland, Miss Goodrich, who afterward married Elder William Osborn ; Frances, Edward and Annie Wright, the latter the widow of Gen- eral J. C. Webster, of the United States Army, and Dr. Temple's children, among the latter Eleanore, who afterwards became Mrs. Thomas Hoyne. During the latter part of 1834, two assistant teach- ers were employed, Mary Barrows and Elizabeth Beach. In the winter of 1834-35, Miss Chappel resigned her school into the charge of Miss Ruth Leavenworth. Miss Chappel married Kev. Jere- miah Porter, on June 15, 1835. Miss Leavenworth married Joseph Hanson.

Grenville T. Sproat, of Boston, opened his " English and Classical School for Boys," December 17, 1833, in a small house of worship belonging to the First Baptist Church Society, on South Water Street, near Franklin. The school was conducted on the subscription, or private, plan ; each patron contributing individually his share toward the necessary sum for its sustenance. When a public fund was sectired hy the sale of land, Mr. Sproat applied for a portion of the money, and by the accept- ance of such aid transformed his school into a public institution. Under the law. if a teacher kept a record

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EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT.

according to the statute, and had it properly certified by certain school officers, he was entitled to his propor- tion of the public fund. Although the school laws were changed from time to time, as the development of a new State demanded, the general plan obtained that interested parties could form a school by subscription, and apply pro rata, upon the subscriptions, whatever money could be secured through official recognition. This was done in order that the union of forces might inure to the advantage of regions requiring a higher grade of educational facilities than could be readily afforded upon either system singly. In 1834, official aid was obtained, and Mr. Sproat's school thereby became the second on the list of public schools ; but

at this date no formal organization into districts had been effected. During this year (1834) Dr. Henry Van der Bogart was engaged in the school, and he in turn was succeeded by Thomas Wright. Miss Warren acted as assistant in this school from March, 1834, to June, 1836, and afterward married Abel E. Carpenter. From a letter written by this lady the following extract is taken :

"I boarded at Elder Freeman's. His house must have been situated some four or five blocks southeast of the school, near Mr. Snow's, with scarce a house between. What few buildings there were then were mostly on Water Street. I used to go across with- out regard to streets. It was not uncommon in going to or from school, to see prairie wolves, and we could hear them howl any time in the day. We were frequently annoyed by Indians; but the great difficulty we had to encounter was mud. No person now can have a just idea of what Chicago mud used to be. Rubbers were of no account. I purchased a pair of gentleman's brogans, and fastened them tight about the ankle, but would still go over them in mud and water, and was obliged to have a pair of men's boots made."

Owing to the loss of the one record kept from 1833 to 1837, the early period can be alluded to but vaguely, and the distinction between public and private work in these primary institutions can be traced with difficulty.

In July, 1834, Miss Bayne kept a boarding and day school for young ladies in a building on Randolph Street, nearly in rear of Presbyterian church, between Randolph and Clark streets.

Miss Wythe announced a school, July 9, 1834, wherein young ladies were instructed in general tuition and music.

The citizens of Chicago took a deep interest in educational affairs from the first. A meeting was held at the Presbyterian church, November 24, 1834, to choose delegates to attend the Educational Convention, which assembled at Vandalia December 25. The meeting designated J. C. Goodhue chairman, and Thomas Wright secretary. The delegation was com- posed of Colonel Hamilton, Colonel Owen and J. T. Temple.

During the winter of 1834-35, George Davis opened a

SEn daris,

school on Lake Street, over a store, between Dearborn and Clark streets. Later, in 1835, Mr. Davis taught in the Presbyterian church.

John Watkins was then teaching what had become

a public school on the North Side, on the river bank just east of Clark Street, in the building erected by Colonels Hamilton and Owen, as has already been stated, in 1833.

In February, 1835, the Legislature passed an act establishing a special school system for Township 39 north, Range 14 east of the third principal meridian, or in other words for Chicago. The incorporation of the city two years later rendered this act void. but it never- theless belongs to the history of the schools here. The substance of the laws was:

Sections 1, 2, and 3 prescribed that the legal voters should elect annually, on the first Monday in June, either five or seven School Inspectors, who were to examine teachers, designate text books, visit schools and perform · a general supervision of the educational interests of the town. They were to recommend to the County Com- missioners the division of the town into districts, in ac- cordance with the Inspectors' decision. Section 4 stipulated that three trustees of common schools should be annually elected in each district, whose duty it was to employ qualified teachers ; to see that the schools were free, and that all white children had an opportun- ity to attend them, under regulations imposed by in- spectors ; to manage the financial and property affairs of their respective districts ; and levy taxes for running the schools, except for paying teachers' salaries, provid- ed the additional tax should never exceed one-half of one per cent per annum on all. taxable property in the district.

By this law the Inspectors had no power to elect teachers or fix their compensation ; nor could they levy tax to pay salaries. A meeting of the electors of the district was required to do that ; and, in fact, the prac- tical operation of the schools rested directly with the people.

In 1835 the school founded by Mr. Sproat was com- mitted to the care of James McClellan, with Miss Warren as assistant.

In 1835 the first building erected specifically for school purposes was built by John S. Wright, at his own expense, on Clark Street, just south of Lake. Miss Ruth Leavenworth was engaged as teacher, the successor of Miss Chappel in the original school. Mr. Wright says, in his work, "Chicago: Past, Present and Future (1867):" "The honor is due to my sainted mother. Having then

plenty of money it was spent very much as she desired. Interested in an infant school, she wanted the building, and it was built." This simple but noble tribute to Mrs. Wright links her name, no less than that of her son, indissolubly with the noblest of Chicago's public insti- tutions. The honor of having erected the first public schcol building, by private means, is one of which the family may justly boast.

The tuition charged at the infant school during 1835 was Se per quarter, unless the parents were unable to pay that sum, in which event no charge was made.

In August, 1835, Charles Hunt proposed the estab- lishment of a high school for young ladies, upon a per- manent basis ; but no record is preserved of the result.

September 19, 1835, the following call was issued. for the purpose of organizing the town into school districts :

- -

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HISTORY OF CHICAGO.

The undersigned residents of Congressinnal Township 39 north, Range 14 east, respectfully request a meeting of the qual- ified voters of said township, at the Presbyterian church, in Chi- cago, on Tuesday, the 29th inst., at 6 P. M. for the purpose of taking into consideration the propriety of organizing said township for school purposes, under the late act of the General Assembly of Illinois.

" JOHN H. KINZIE, . HENRY W. SAVAGE, E. B. WILLIAMS,

R. J. HAMILTON,

BYRAM GUERIN, JOSEPH MEEKER,

GILES S. ISHAM, JOHN WRIGHT,

FREDERICK MYERS,

ERASTUS BOWEN,

HENRY MOORE, S. W. SHERMAN.

H. M. DRAPER,

ISAAC HARMAN,

DAVID STILES, E. E. HUNTER,

PETER PRUYNE, J. C. GOODHUE."

JOHN WATKINS.

The result of this meeting was the division of the town into four districts. No. I embraced the North Side; No. 2 was bounded as follows: Commencing on Chicago River on a line with south side of the river, running south to Madison Street, west to Wells Street, south along Wells to Block 85, Section 16, thence west along South Branch to the junction of the branches, thence east to the place of beginning. No. 3 was bounded: Commencing on Lake Michigan at the boun- dary line of Section 15 to the southeast boundary of the township, west along township line to South Branch, thence down the river to the boundary line of District No. 2, thence east with said line to the place of begin- ning. No. 4 began at LaSalle Street, on the river, ran south to Madison, west to Wells, along Wells to Block 1.94, thence to the South Branch, thence south along the river to the south line of Section 16, thence east along the section line to the lake, thence north along the lake shore to the Reservation line, thence west to the south- east corner of Block 58, thence north to the river, thence west to the place of beginning.

There were at this time three public and four pri- vate schools taught in town.

In the spring of 1836, Miss Leavenworth's school was discontinued ; and in the same building Miss Frances Langdon Willard opened a school for the instruction of young ladies in the higher branches of education. She was a very energetic and laborious teacher. Her private record of her pupils is now in the possession of her nephew, Dr. Samuel Willard, of the Chicago high school, and enrolls the name of many who became matrons of the city. Miss Louisa Gifford (afterward Mrs. Dr. Dyer), was her assistant ; and after a primary department was added and it hecame a public school, in 1837, it passed into Miss Gifford's hands. Miss Willard opened another school on her original plan, which she did not continue longer than about a year. She subsequently married Rev. John Ingersoll.

The following extracts taken from letters written by Miss Willard to friends in the East, are not without interest:

May 25, 1836. I like Chicago much ; the society is first- rate ; that is, a large proportion of it. I did not open the Sem- inary until May 9, as the room was not quite ready. Began with seventeen pupils, increased to twenty-five ; others have applied ; eight came on the Sto terins, five on the $3 terms and the remainder on the $5. The trustees prefer that, for the present, in the unset- tled state of society, I take the responsibility and the perquisites. Mrs. Wright is a superior woman, with a great deal of zeal and energy, pro publico bono. She gave the Soso which has created the Seminary, just to make a beginning for Chicago.

June 8. The school has increased to thirty. I believe all but two bave entered for a year. Mr. Brown told me that five more had spoken [nr admittance. I cannot take another one without assistance. I have ten music pupils, but we must wait until the trustees send to New York for a piano.

June 28. I am refusing young ladies every day. for my thirty are ten more than I ought to instruct without an assistant. It is

impossible to enlarge the school until I obtain one ; and of six who have offered not one is qualified.

July 8. I have this day engaged a lady direct from the Clin- ton Seminary, New York ; an assistant there, two years ; and had previously assisted two years in the Geneseo Seminary under the celebrated Mrs. R. Corde. Ifer name is Miss Clifford.

August 25. Miss Clifford proves an excellent assistant to me. There are thirty-eight pupils, and more are expected next week. f like everything here but the low state of religion.

October 30. The number of pupils has increased to fifty- seven. On Friday, October 28, the public examination was held ia the Presbyterian church. About four hundred spectators were present.

December 20. I have my forty daughters around me this cold season. There is no public boarding house for my pupils, as I ex- pected ; so I was obliged to accept the offer of boarding with a Mr. Prescott and lady, from Sackett's Harbor.

December 25. The great expenses of living here, and the difficulty of getting board for young ladies, have almost discour- aged me. Both my assistants are now engaged in marriage. They have been excellent in their places.

October 9, 1837. I am gradually turning the Seminary into a boarding school ; for it is impossible to get along here without having my pupils from abroad directly within the sphere of my control. Chicago exceeds every place for dissipating girls' minds that I ever knew. An instructress needs the eyes of an Argus, to see all the dangers which surround her charge. I expect to find it difficult to manage all my girls to advantage and have any single gentleman to flatter them. f wish every man on earth married. Is that a wrong wish ?

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History of Chicago. From the earliest period to the present time, Part 56

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore Publication date: 1884 Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas Number of Pages: 1340

Author: Andreas, Alfred Theodore
Publication date: 1884
Publisher: Chicago, A. T. Andreas
Number of Pages: 1340