USA > Illinois > Kane County > History of Kane County, Ill. Volume I > Part 16
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Virgil, Kane County-St. Peter's church. Rev. F. G. Hartmann. School. I lay teacher ; pupils, 50.
KANE COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY.
In 1833, while Kane county was yet a part of LaSalle county, a Bible society was formed at Bailey's Grove, lying south of the Vermillion river, near Tonica. Two directors were afterward chosen to represent the Big Woods district, viz .: E. S. Town, of Batavia, and a Mr. Strong, late of Aurora. Calvin Ward, of St. Charles. was chosen for the Little Woods district, and J. H. Mason, of Big Grove. Kendall county, for that district. The earlier records of the Kane County Bible Society have been lost, but the first officers were Solomon Hamilton, Esq., of Elgin, president; E. Bucking- ham, a young lawyer, of Geneva, secretary ; E. S. Town, of Batavia, treasurer. The secretary died about 1841. The county society accomplished but little during the first year of its existence, as the several local societies had not become auxiliary to it. These latter were located at Aurora, Sandusky Precinct (embracing Batavia and Geneva), St. Charles. Elgin, and Dundee, and each did some work. In 1847, Rev. Amasa Lord was put in charge of the work in northern Illinois. An agent was employed the same year to canvass the county, and auxiliary societies were organized in each precinct. In February, 1848, the collection of $654.38 in cash was reported, of which about half had been expended in the work. In the succeeding years this society did a great amount of work.
EDUCATIONAL.
Schools were opened in a somewhat primitive fashion in Kane county as early, perhaps, as 1834; it is thought a school was taught in that year in a little log cabin at Batavia, although 1835 may be the correct date.
In 1835 the first school in St. Charles was taught, and we hear of them soon after in Aurora, Geneva. Elgin. Dundee and elsewhere. There was
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
little system in the manner of maintaining these early schools, there being then no effective laws in the state to govern them. They were usually of a rather select nature, although occasionally they might also be termed free schools ; but in the latter case the expenses were necessarily borne by a very few individuals. At one time the pioneer inhabitants of Aurora elected three school trustees, not, however, in pursuance of any statute, who were to superintend the interests of education. Their honors were duly bought, it seems, for Burr Winton, who was one of the first board, once stated that he had to pay the bill for one quarter, amounting to nearly $30, out of his own pocket, and he never collected $5 in return.
Edward W. Brewster, a native of Orange county, New York, came west in 1839 and settled upon a large tract of land in the northeastern portion of St. Charles township. He built a schoolhouse in the Little Woods and gave instruction gratis, this being the first absolutely free school in the state of Illinois. "Father Brewster," as he was called, was an enthusiast in the cause of education, and under the new constitution was elected superintendent of schools for Kane county in 1850. He inaugurated the plan of holding teachers' institutes, and continued the friend of free schools until his death, which occurred in May, 1886, when the venerable man had nearly reached the age of ninety years.
Both male and female teachers found employment in the schools of pioneer days, the former usually holding forth in the winter and the latter in summer. The school-teacher's position, while full of honor, was not one of great emoluments, and there is no instance of any of the early wielders of the rule becoming wealthy off his or her salary. The quarters in which the young idea was taught the rudiments of an education were generally in some small log structure; but this did not interfere with their opportunities for acquiring such knowledge as could be imparted to them. And be it understood that among the schoolmasters and schoolma'ams of the '30s and '4os there were many wise heads, whose stores of educational fruit had been carefully laid up in eastern institutions, and furnished a seemingly exhaustless fountain of information from which to draw for the benefit of their western pupils. Such opportunities to learn as were presented were quickly taken advantage of, and the classes that issued forth from the log buildings of old were anything but numbskulls.
The first free school district in Illinois was organized on the east side of the river at Aurora, in 1851, under a special act of the legislature, the general free school law not being passed until two years later. The progress of the schools of the county since then has been wonderfully rapid, and no better schools can be found today in the Union than Kane county possesses.
Alfred Churchill, school commissioner of Kane county in 1846, wrote as follows to the Prairie Messenger, published at St. Charles: "Generally, I would say that the schools are in a bad state, with some few exceptions. at the head of which is placed Sugar Grove precinct; one school in Pigeon Woods; one or two in the northeast corner of section 32, range 7. These exceptions I do not make on account of the high character of the schools, but on account of the determination of the inhabitants to do the best they can.
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
In the villages on Fox river I have found that common schools were in a worse state than in the country townships. This fact I attribute to two main causes- first, an aristocratic feeling, which is manifested by the number of select schools, which are partially sustained ( I say partially. for there are so many that none could be well sustained ) ; and secondly, a miserable sectarian spirit. which destroys all union of effort.
"Dundee has a very comfortable schoolhouse, and, I think, from the energetic character of the directors, they will have a good common school this winter. They expressed a determination to make their common school superior to the select schools.
"At Elgin. I found three or four elegant houses for as many different sects to worship (I hope not their creeds, but their creator ) in, and not one public schoolhouse ; but I have hopes of that place, as they have a few indi- viduals there, redeeming spirits, at work for the benefit of all.
"St. Charles has undoubtedly paid too much attention to erecting the walls of intended places of worship and select schools to show well at the common schools; though I saw a lot of boys throwing stones through the windows of a tolerable building, and concluded from the circumstances that it was the common schoolhouse, as the boys were well dressed and apparently just out of the high school-young aristocracy thus venting its spleen against plebeianism.
"Geneva commenced late in the season a house for common schools, and was progressing rapidly when the extreme cold weather set in, which has temporarily suspended operations.
"Batavia has two houses for worship, which are generally occupied by a few scholars in each-the people there not being sufficiently agreed about the road to heaven to let their children associate in one school on earth, under one good and efficient teacher.
"Aurora has two public schools in houses belonging to the town, which, from appearances, were built before their meeting houses, which argues well for their good sense, showing that they were more desirous of buildings for utility than show; and, from the literary societies, libraries, and desire for reading and literary conversation manifest in one class ( in Aurora I could distinguish but one class, and that included the whole population of the place), I am satisfied that Aurora is destined to take a high stand among the inland towns of the West."
Mr. Churchill believed the select school directly opposed to the common school interests, and urged the people to establish common schools, and live up to the school law then in force in the state. He was hostile, not to the teachers of the select schools, but to the schools themselves, as dangerous to society, and for other well-grounded reasons. He urged directors to use every effort to make the common schools superior to all others in their districts. His hopes and desires for the common schools were realized in a few years, and although select schools still continue to solicit patronage. the prestige which the new free school law gave to the common schools placed the latter in the position they should long before have occupied. With the ascendency of the district schools, those of a select nature began to wane, and they
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
were soon lost sight of, with the exception of such institutions as Jennings (Clark) Seminary and the Elgin Academy, and the many business colleges since arisen, which were and still are valuable preparatory schools, and do not interfere with the public places of learning.
In 1848 there existed what was known as the Kane County Educational Association, which held its meetings at various places in the county. Prominent individuals delivered addresses before it, and the people generally were invited to attend its meetings. Andrew Pingree was secretary, and S. S. Jones was elected president at a meeting held at St. Charles, October 4. 1848. The following vice-presidents were elected at the same time: Dr. Hale, Dundee; J. Scott, Franklin; Andrew Akin, Hampshire; Dr. Sanford, Elgin; Stewart Christie, Jackson; N. E. Daggett, Washington; J. W. Hapgood, Burlington; Spalding Eddy. Fairfield; Rev. G. S. F. Savage, St. Charles; A. W. Glass, Geneva ; J. C. Waldron, Batavia; W. R. Parker, Fox River: Mr. Hall, Big and Little Rock; Thomas Judd, Sugar Grove; David Wheeler. Blackberry. The association then voted to petition the legislature for free schools.
Some of the early pedagogues were characters in their way, and James Bancroft, who held forth in St. Charles, was a notable example. F. G. Garfield, of Campton, in calling up memories of the olden days, wrote as follows con- cerning Mr. Bancroft, in the spring of 1885 :
"Asa Haseltine, Fanny Bancroft and Horace Bancroft were born in the same neighborhood and were schoolmates of my father; and when, on May 23, 1841. a boy, I had arrived in St. Charles and put up with Wheelock about noon. I was considerably astonished two hours afterwards by having all of those old schoolmates of my father, whom, of course, I knew nothing about, getting around me, making inquiries of my father, and when he would arrive, etc. But I was more than astonished when James Bancroft, the father of Horace and Fanny, introduced himself by telling me he had taught my father his letters, and was a school-teacher then, which was the fact. He was a natural born school-teacher-good for that and little else. For years he occupied the upper story of his son Horace's stone building, on the corner west of the old hotel, and ran a school upon the pay-by-the-scholar principle. From the parents of some he would collect tuition, and from some he would not ; but it was all the same to him if he was only imparting knowledge to the young. He got money enough from his patrons to pay for his clothes, his whiskey and provisions. all of which, at that time, were cheap. Bark from the saw logs in the mill yard furnished him fuel, and he would always have from one to three cords of it packed up in a large room which was alike his kitchen, parlor. bedroom and schoolroom; and there, amidst piles of bark, accumulation of old clothes, dishes, dirt and fleas, he taught the male children of St. Charles the first rudiments of an education. He used to surrender his schoolroom to Judges Moody and Howard when they desired to hold court, and Sam Flint used to tell a story, how once when his room was crowded, with Moody upon the bench and Fridley and Farnsworth as opposing counsel, the large audience, crowding back against one of his piles of bark, tipped it over, whereupon the fleas rushed out in such force as to tip the benches over, loaded with the crowd, and break up the court. But James Bancroft
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
performed well the part for which it seemed that Providence designed him. Commencing school teaching at the age of sixteen, he taught for over a half century, and probably no man in St. Charles ever taught a greater number of scholars in the aggregate; and no man upon this continent ever exceeded him in the pleasing art of imparting knowledge to the young."
The first of the fine public school buildings in the county were erected in St. Charles. that on the west side, in 1854, and that on the east side. in 1856, costing, respectively. $6,000 and $15,000. These were considered in their day remarkably fine buildings, but, while still in use, they have been over- shadowed by the splendid buildings erected at Dundee, Elgin, Geneva, Batavia and Aurora, the latter city especially being supplied with the very best of structures. The rural districts have mostly frame buildings of a simple style architecture, though in places brick has been the material used.
In March, 1860, according to the report of Rev. David Higgins, county superintendent of schools, there were in Kane county 186 schools, with a total attendance of 9,074 (males 4,827 and females 4,247). In 1887 the state- ment of the county superintendent, Marvin Quackenbush, whose death in 1904 was lamented by all, showed the following facts :
Ungraded schools I20
Graded schools
30
Male teachers
51
Female teachers
287
Pupils attending
10,42I
Males
5,370
Females
5,15I
Schoolhouses
150
VALUE OF PROPERTY.
Aurora
$200,665
Batavia and Geneva
77,350
St. Charles
33,825
Elgin I32,850
Dundee
27,000
Sugar Grove.
7,750
Campton
5,700
Blackberry
7,300
Plato
7.000
Rutland
5,300
Kaneville
3,000
Virgil
8,400
Burlington
7,560
Hampshire
9,800
Big Rock
7,100
Pupils between ages of 6 and 21 years :
Males
8,117
Females
8,24I
Total
16,358
OLD BAPTIST SCHOOLHOUSE.
"OLD BRICK SCHOOL," DEDICATED JANUARY, 1848.
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
The report of Prof. H. A. Dean, present county superintendent, shows the following condition in 1907 :
Interesting data regarding the condition of the public schools of Kane county is given in the annual report of County Superintendent of Schools Dean. The report includes the entire work of the school system from June 30, 1900, to July 1, 1907.
NOW 32,941 CHILDREN IN KANE.
It is estimated in the report that there are 32,941 children in the county under 21 years of age. Of this number 23.345 are between the ages of 6 and 21 years. There are 51 graded schools and 107 ungraded schools throughout the county. The total enrollment for the year was 12,259, in the graded schools and 2,332 in the ungraded districts.
Four hundred and fifty-six teachers are employed in the county and the average pay is $120 for men and $52 for women, monthly. The total value of Kane county school property is placed at the high figure of $1.336,245. School apparatus is valued at $21,664 and the libraries at $19.169.50. The total amount of district tax levy for schools was $391.776. The total expendi- tures for the year were $520.507.17.
INTERESTING COMPARISONS.
Comparisons in the report show that approximately the same number of boys and girls attended the graded schools. In the ungraded districts the boys outnumbered the girls by about 200. In the high schools, however, there were approximately 400 more girls than boys. There were 247 graduates from high schools during the year. Of this number 151 were girls and 96 boys.
The year appears to have been a poor one in the line of school improve- ments. The report shows that but three school buildings were erected during the season. Two of these were to replace burned buildings, the G. P. Lord, of this city, and the Oak street school, at Aurora.
That the educational standard of the county as a whole is fast becoming better is shown by the statistics that there are throughout the county only three persons between the ages of 12 and 21 years who are unable to read and write.
The total amount of bonded school debt of the county is $262.100.
SOME SCHOOL STATISTICS.
Other interesting figures are :
Number of boys under 21 years of age, 16,427 ; number of girls under 21 years of age, 16.514; number of boys between the ages of 6 and 21, [1.544; number of girls between the ages of 6 and 21, 11.801.
Number of graded schools, 51 : number of ungraded schools, 107 ; number of public high schools, 13; number of boys enrolled in graded schools, 6.128;
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
number of girls enrolled in graded schools, 6,131 ; number of boys enrolled in ungraded schools, 1,256; number of girls enrolled in ungraded schools, 1,076.
Number of men teachers in graded schools. 32 ; number of women teachers in graded schools, 319; number of men teachers in ungraded schools, 4; num- ber of women teachers in ungraded schools, IOI.
Highest monthly wages paid any man, S280; highest monthly wages paid any woman, $120; lowest monthly wages paid any man for full time. $35; lowest monthly wages paid any woman for full time, $25; average monthly wages for men. $120.96; average monthly wages for women, $52.81.
Number of boys enrolled in high schools. 784; number of girls enrolled in high schools, 1.006; number of boys graduated from high schools, 96; num- ber of girls graduated from high schools, 151.
Number of beginners employed as teachers, 37 ; number of men examined for teachers' certificates. 16; number of women examined for teachers' cer- tificates, 183; number of men rejected, 2; number of women rejected, 19.
The above facts and figures indicate that the schools of the county have grown in many ways over 100 per cent in the past twenty years. The value of the school property has increased nearly threefold.
CHAPTER XVII.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR.
Kane county has the honor of being the resting place of at least one Revolutionary soldier who died and is buried at Canada Corners near Lily Lake, in 1852. In 1901 a committee was appointed to consider the erection of a monument to his memory. The committee comprised John Stewart, J. J. Read. L. M. Gross. John Winterhaller and the superintendent of DeKalb county schools. Kane county supervisors appropriated $200, the Daughters of the Revolution contributed $25, and $475 additional was raised. On July 4, 1902, the monument was dedicated in the presence of a large assembly of people. Mr. Frank W. Joslyn made a talk. following whom Mr. Miller, president of the Hamilton Club, of Chicago, gave the address of the occasion. The monument contains the following inscription :
-
ABNER POWERS-1760-1852
BENNINGTON-SARATOGA-VALLEY FORGE- YORKTOWN
The veteran of the Revolution was the father of Manly Powers, of Virgil. Kane county.
MEXICAN WAR.
The first real service in the field which men from this county experi- enced, was during the Mexican war, 1846-48. A few scattering individuals
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
enlisted in the regular army, and only a portion of them returned to the county ; the others died or became residents of the West.
Early in the spring of 1847, Governor French, of Illinois, issued a call for volunteers to go to Mexico, and under this call Edward E. Harvey, of Elgin, and William G. Conklin and Lewis A. Norton, of St. Charles, raised a company of infantry, reporting to the governor for duty about the 15th of June. The company was promptly accepted, and about the 5th of July received marching orders, and proceeded to Alton, Illinois, where it was mustered into service on the 20th of the same month. The company was assigned to the Sixth Regiment Illinois Infantry, commanded by Colonel Collins, of Jo Daviess county. Lieutenant Colonel Hicks and Major Livingston were both from Jefferson county. The regiment mustered 1,139 men, and consisted of twelve companies, of which one ( Company I) was from Kane county, the others being one each from Jefferson, Fayette, Greene, Boone, Monroe, Wash- ington, Franklin, Warren, Madison, and two from Jo Daviess.
From Alton the command proceeded on board a Mississippi transport to New Orleans, thence on the steamship "Ohio" to Vera Cruz, Mexico. At that point the regiment was divided; the first battalion, consisting of Com- panies A, D, E, F. and H, under Colonel Collins, was for a time stationed at the San Juan bridge, on the national road, where there was some skirmishing, in which one man was killed and two were wounded. The second battalion, consisting of Companies B, C. G, I, and K, under Lieutenant Colonel Hicks, was sent to Tampico, where it did garrison duty until relieved by a Louisiana regiment, when it proceeded to Vera Cruz and marched inland toward the City of Mexico. Company I lost. from sickness, thirty-four men, including Captain Harvey. Lieutenant Norton was on detached service during most of his term, acting as quartermaster and commissary. The regiment remained until the close of the war, when it returned to Alton, and was there mustered out of service. Lieutenant William G. Conklin afterward, during the war of the Rebellion, served as battalion major in the Eighth Illinois Cavalry.
The recruiting headquarters of the above company, which saw hard serv- ice during its period of enlistment in Mexico, were at St. Charles. Its roster was as follows: E. E. Harvey, captain ; Lewis A. Norton, Hugh Fullerton, and William G. Conklin, lieutenants; Nelson Warner, first sergeant; Benja- min F. Garfield, second sergeant: Smith M. Berry, third sergeant; S. D. Padelford, first corporal; Jonathan Ellis, second corporal; Andrew J. Hill, fourth corporal: James Welch, first musician; Charles E. Merrifield, second musician. Privates-Warren Bulson, George Boss, Jacob Brewer. Thomas Bennett, David Brow, Eleazer Button. A. Corman. William Courtner, Free- dom Chase, John Crap, William H. S. Carlisle, Thomas Christie, Frederick Dorchester, Perry Dunfield, Philip Effner, Henry Foote, George Fribert, Asa M. Friend. Jacob Fouts, William Freeman, Stephen Finch. Stephen Ferguson, James Gange, George Hicks, Benjamin B. Thatcher, Paul Hoff- man, Edward Herrick, Harry Henries, Edward H. Johnson. Charles J. Gush, George Kleeburgh. Charles Kleeburgh, Silas Klesalar, Lesser Lebenstein, William H. Lawson, Isaac Lewis, Spaulding Lewis, John Siliger, Samuel
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KANE COUNTY HISTORY
McDonald, Matthew Moran. David Mooney, Alexander McMillen, Peter Matthews, Robert D. Massey, Nicholas More. Henry Marshall. John Mead, Malcolm McCallum, John S. Norris, David Newton, Michael Phelps, James Price, Orange H. Phelps, Stephen B. Portwood. Jacob Pauley, Thomas Pride- more. John Phelps, Jedediah Phillips. George D. Roberts. Alfred Romain, George W. Rintew, Timothy Ryan, Philip H. Sargent. Thomas Sirben, Henry Stickler, William Sloss. John Spencer. Sewell W. Smith, Henry W. Smith. George A. Thompson, James Thompson. David Tubbs, John M. Walker, Fred Wilger, John D. Scomaker, Harvey Wakeman, Charles P. Brown. John Norton.
During its term of service the regiment lost three hundred and thirty- two men, who died of disease, four killed in battle, one hundred and thirty- five discharged by surgeon, thirteen transferred or resigned, eighteen by de- sertion, and received seventy-two recruits. At the final muster-out at Alton, in the latter part of July. 1848. there remained but three hundred and sixty- seven of the one thousand, one hundred and thirty-nine who had gone bravely out but a year before, and this handful of survivors returned in such a state of physical prostration and general ill health that a number died after reach- ing Alton. Lieutenant Conklin, the only one of the commissioned officers of Company I living in 1888, removed some years before that from St. Charles to De Soto. Wisconsin.
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
The alacrity with which the President's call for seventy-five thousand volunteers in April. 1861, immediately after the firing upon Fort Sumter. was responded to was an evidence of the deep feeling among the Northern people. In Kane county there was almost no need for the call, for men came flocking from all directions and from all pursuits to the recruiting headquar- ters, ready to take their places in the rapidly filling ranks. During the week or ten days immediately succeeding the call the bustle and activity were won- derful. Men volunteered as fast as their names could be received, and thousands of dollars were raised by private subscription for the support of the families of the volunteers. In Aurora alone, during that time, nearly six thousand dollars were thus raised, and four military companies were wholly or partially filled in the same period. The same spirit was observed throughout the county. For one volunteer company sixty names were obtained on the roll in three hours. Captain Nicholas Greusel, who commanded a company from Michigan in the Mexican war. raised a company at Aurora, and Captain Edward S. Joslyn another at Elgin. These were the first bodies of Kane county troops to depart for the field. Captain Greusel's men were mostly enlisted on the 18th and Captain Joslyn's on the 22d of April. The company from the south end of the county left Aurora on Sunday. the 21st day of April, 1861, and was accompanied to the train by six thousand people. All the physicians left in the city volunteered their services during the war free to the families of the men who had enlisted. Moving to Springfield. this company was assigned to the Seventh Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry
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