USA > Illinois > Henderson County > History of Mercer County : together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., gathered from mattter furnished by the Mercer County Historical Society, interviews with old settlers, county, township and other records, and extracts from files of papers, pamphlets, and such other sources as have been available : containing also a short history of Henderson County > Part 34
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apparatus in the common schools of our county, and although not always successful in convincing the patrons of their utility, he was enabled to scatter here and there a goodly number of these helps to study, giving an impulse to their use by explaining to teacher and pupil, in the school-room, the manner in which they should be employed.
Mr. Harroun was succeeded by Rev. James S. Poage, a prominent and deservedly popular Presbyterian minister, who was elected Novem- ber 8, 1859, and who served for two years. Mr. Poage was a highly educated gentleman, a fluent speaker and a most exemplary gentleman, but he was not a practical teacher, and while he made a creditable superintendent he did not succeed in advancing the character of the schools to that extent for which his learning and high character gave promise at the time he was elected.
Amos T. Waterman was elected November 5, 1861, as the suc- cessor of Mr. Poage, and served for two years. Mr. Waterman had formerly been engaged in teaching, but was at the time of his service a young practicing attorney of more than ordinary brilliancy. His administration of the office was creditable to himself and serviceable to the educational interests of the people. His examinations were conducted with more than ordinary care, thus securing a better grade of teachers, and giving a new impetus toward a higher excellence in teaching.
Washington L. Campbell, the successor of Mr. Waterman, was elected November 6, 1863, and served for one term of two years, and was followed by Sylvenus B. Atwater, who was chosen at the election held November 7, 1865, being one of the first of a long line of county officials who have claimed the suffrages of the people of Mercer on account of their services in the late war. Mr. Atwater was a practical teacher of fair reputation before he entered the military service, and returning a few months before the election from his three years' service in the 27th reg. Ill. Vol. Inf., after participating in all the battles, marches and victories in which that gallant regiment was engaged, he was promptly elected as county superintendent of schools for the term of four years, the term of the office having just been extended from two to four years. To Mr. Atwater the people of Mercer county owe a debt of gratitude for his heroic, but then most unpopular treatment of all school matters. He introduced a strict and searching system of examination of teachers, and insisted so strongly that his standard of fitness should be met that a large number of half-qualified teachers were either driven from the schools, or induced to re-enter school as students themselves for the purpose of improving their education, and
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their places were filled by a higher and better grade of teachers. He was the first to attempt the task of expurging from the school-room the antiquated text-books of the grandfathers, and introducing in their stead a uniform system of books so graded as to meet the wants of the several pupils, thus enabling the teacher to separate his pupils into classes by grades of proficiency ; in fact, establishing grades in many district schools, going so far in this direction that in several instances where the patrons refused to buy or order the purchase of new books, he furnished them out of his own private funds. Although partially successful in his efforts to secure a uniformity of text-books. there remained much to be done in this direction after his four years' struggle was ended by the expiration of his office. He labored assiduously to secure a black-board in every school-house, going so far as to carry his brush and slating into the remoter districts and painting the desired board with his own hands where the directors could not, or would not, get it done themselves. While Mr. Atwater won the hearty ill will of some would-be teachers and their friends by refusing certifi- cates to persons who had taught under other superintendents, and refusing like favors to new candidates who failed to pass his examina- tion, and while much discontent was engendered among the people in some localities on account of the increased expenses caused by his unceasing efforts to secure new books and apparatus, and advancement of wages consequent upon the weeding out of poor and cheap teachers, yet impartial history will compel the admission that Mr. Atwater did more to advance the educational interest, and to place the common schools upon a higher plane of excellence than any person who had preceded him in that office.
The successor of Mr. Atwater was Frederick Livingston, a graduate of Lombard college, of Galesburg, Illinois, and a teacher of some years' experience, who was elected November 2, 1869, and served for four years. His acknowledged learning, with a fair experience as a teacher, and courteous address, gave promise that in his election the schools of the county would be greatly benefited; but his four years' service was a great disappointment to his friends and a misfortune to himself. Lacking in administrative ability, he soon lost his hold upon the affections of the older teachers of the county, and the freedom with which he granted certificates to any and all applicants soon flooded the county with a new crop of teachers, many of whom were in no wise qualified for the duties of the school-room, thereby greatly imparing the standard of the schools generally throughout the county. During his administration many of the books and vouchers belonging to the office were lost or destroyed, including all the records of the school
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lands, and nearly all books and papers pertaining to county school funds. His bondsmen made good such loss of the public funds as was proven to have been lost or misused while in his charge. Mr. Living- ston was the first and only defaulter in this office in the history of the county. Mr. Livingston was the possessor of many qualities and graces calculated to win the confidence of the people and endear him to his friends, and we do not pen this sketch without a regret that one so liberally educated, so courteous and kind, and withal so well quali- ' fied for a useful life, should exhibit that lack of balance which caused the unfortunate miscarriage in his official acts.
[The following sketch of Miss Frazier's career as a teacher and county superintendent, is furnished us by a gentleman who is interested in education, and who has been long familar with her work .- ED. ]
During the administration of Mr. Livingston, our legislature en- acted a law making women eligible for all school offices, and at the first election held after the passage of this law, to-wit, in November, 1873, Miss Amanda E. Frazier, of Mercer county, was one of the eleven ladies who were elected to the position of county superintendent of schools in Illinois. Miss Frazier was re-elected in November, 1877, and at the expiration of her second term of office, was unanimously appointed by the board of supervisors in December, 1881, to fill the vacancy then existing by reason of the recent amendment to the stat- utes changing the time of election for this and certain other county offices, from 1881 to 1882, and quadrenially thereafter. She is there- fore filling the ninth year of her incumbency of that office, a fact which speaks in no uncertain terms of the confidence and trust which the people of the county continue to repose in her capacity and official integrity.
Miss Frazier has long been identified with the schools and school work of Mercer county, and deserves no small measure of praise for the earnest and well directed efforts she has expended to elevate the standard of public instruction in the county. Entering upon her career as a teacher, in 1862, after completing the academie course in Mon- mouth college, and while yet a mere girl, she developed a remarkable capacity for the government of pupils and for imparting instruction, and so complete' was her success as teacher thus early in life, that dur- ing all the after years she gave to teaching she never was under the necessity of applying for a position, inasmuch as applications for her services came to her unsought. After teaching a few terms Miss Frazier concluded to more fully qualify herself for the profession which she had determined to follow, and with this view spent two years at the State Normal University at Bloomington, Illinois, and another
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year at Lombard University. Galesburg, Illinois, when she resumed her professional career as teacher in the capacity of assistant to the principal of the graded schools of Aledo, where she remained four years, and was tendered the position for another year, but an unsolic- ited call from a larger constituency constrained her to decline the posi- tion of teacher for that of county superintendent, to which she was chosen, as before stated, in November, 1873.
Miss Frazier entered upon her new work with a determination to labor for the interest and advancement of the schools thus placed under her charge, and her first steps in this direction consisted in the adop- tion of a rigid system of examination of her teachers. It at once became apparent that to obtain a certificate to teach it was necessary for the candidate to be well qualified in all the branches which the law requires to be taught. No half-way work would fill the standard she had fixed upon, and as a consequence many incompetent teachers were dropped off the roll. To show something of her work in this department, the records show that in a single year out of 388 applicants examined for certificates, 219 were rejected, and but 154 accepted. To assist such as were willing to work for the position of teacher, she re-organized the Teachers' Institute of the county, whose sessions were held during the school year at various points in the county, and early in her official career organized a normal drill, holding the sessions annually during the summer vacation and continuing four weeks. Securing two or three prominent educators from abroad to co-operate with her in these nor- mal schools, the large classes annually in attendance were submitted to a thorough drill in all the branches required to be taught, and the best modes of teaching and government, with pronounced advantages to both the teachers and the schools. These teachers' meetings and drills have been marked features in her administration, and of their utility there can be no question.
Miss Frazier is a woman possessed of many qualities which are peculiarly fitting for one in the position she occupied. Thoroughly qualified for her duties by a liberal education and experience in teach- ing, earnest, conscientious, and careful in her work, courteous and patient in her intercourse with the young and inexperienced candidates for teachers, though firm and unyielding when occasion required, and withal possessed with a strong personal magnetism which attracts while it does not repel, she has succeeded in impressing upon the schools of the county during these eight and a half years of her official life, much of her strong individuality of character, and secured many changes in the manner of examining and employing teachers, in the methods of teaching and governing schools, and, in general, a marked
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advancement toward a higher standard of education and instruction throughout the county.
The school lands of Mercer county came through two general acts of congress ; the first setting aside section 16 for school purposes in each congressional township in all the states and territories containing public lands, and the second turning over certain low, wet, and par- tially submerged lands for a like purpose. By the original act there were fifteen sections, being one section in each of the fifteen townships, in all about 10,600 acres of very good lands available for school pur- poses. Some of these lands were among the best in the county for agricultural purposes, and the entire body of them were equal in native richness and availability for all agricultural and grazing purposes with the average lands in the county ; and if it had been kept out of the market and held a few years longer, until the "congress lands" were disposed of, when the price of all wild lands advanced from $5 to $10 an acre, the several townships in the county might have realized suffi- cient from the sales of their several school sections to have assured them each a large and remunerative permanent fund. This, however, was not done, and the consequence is that these township funds are a mere skeleton of what they should and might have been, had a more far- seeing policy been adopted by the people and those having charge of these trusts. In those days the people were poor; there was then no adequate state fund as now ; railroads, with their vitalizing influence, had not yet approached our borders; new settlers were dropping in but slowly, thus leaving the country but thinly populated, and making it a difficult matter, with the low price of all farm products, for those scattered neighbors to raise the means (as they were then compelled to do mainly from their own pockets) to defray the expense of a three- months' school in winter and two or three months in summer. To ligliten their school expenses, and to secure for themselves some of the benefits from the lands donated by congress, the settlers of thirty years ago determined to dispose of these lands, and, in order to succeed, they were compelled to fix the schedule of prices at, or below, the price of congress land, and in some instances the price was very much below that of the government land. At these give-away prices, about twelve sections of this magnificent donation were disposed of during Mr. McWhorter's administration of the office of school commissioner from 1849 to 1851. To us of the present day the policy then pursued regarding the school lands appears short-sighted and wasteful, and while no school officer is justly chargeable with blame for the part he took in disposing of these lands at such low prices, it is a matter of sincere regret that the public sentiment of that day compelled the
GEORGE MC PHERREN.
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sacrifice of such a magnificent public trust. in order to secure for them- selves the small proceeds obtained for that immediate present, when we realize that the paltry sums were obtained at the expense of a magnificent fund for their descendants in all time to come, had they but waited in patience a few years longer.
The swamp lands belonging to Mercer county are situated in the immediate vicinity of the Mississippi river, and embrace several thou- sand acres. This land is loaded with great abundance in all the elements of plant food, but being subject to overflow, is valuable mainly for grazing and meadows, and in seasons of very high waters much of it is not even valuable for these purposes. We have been unable to ascertain, even approximately, the acreage of these lands, as the reports of surveys were not in the proper office when we were there, but we find the people were in some hurry to get rid of these lands also, and that as early as 1857 the swamp land commissioner reported sales to the amount of $8.194.75, and that up to 1865 the sum total of $9,098.65 had been realized from the sales of these lands, and properly distributed to the several townships of the county, since which time there have been no further sales. There remain of these swamp lands 480 acres, situated in Eliza township, which have not been sold, and which are not situated far enough above low-water mark to make a promising investment.
The township funds vary in amount in the different townships, the maximum being 82,910.90 in Keithsburg, and the minimum $1.186.26 in Green .. The total permanent township funds for the fifteen town- ships is 829,918.70. The interest of these funds only is to be used for the annual expenditure for schools in the townships where the funds belong. The permanent county fund is $2,168, which can never be diminished, the interest being annually distributed to the township treasurers together with the state fund.
From the one small pioneer log cabin of 1833, with its ten or twelve pupils and barefooted teacher, the school system of Mercer county has grown until the last log cabin has been abandoned, and four brick and 115 frame buildings, many of them stately and imposing structures, are required to accommodate the wants of our schools. During the last year 2,795 males and 2,587 females, in all 5,382 pupils, were enrolled, while 71 males and 161 females. a total of 232, were employed as teachers. Of the 119 school-houses nine are graded schools, with a total of thirty-five teachers.
When all the schools of the county are in session the least number of teachers required to carry on the work is 145; but the system, still too much in vogue in the country, of employing one teacher for the
21
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winter and another for the summer, increases the number of teachers from 145 actually required to 232 actually employed. During the past fiscal year there was collected from all sources for school purposes in the county, $53,698.43, and during the same period there was ex- pended in payment of teachers $34,219.11. Three new school-houses were erected during the past year, at a total cost for buildings and grounds of $5,179.04.
In point of excellence the schools of Mercer county will compare favorably with those of the most favored counties in the state. In a large number of the ungraded schools all the branches required for a first grade certificate are taught with such a degree of thoroughness as to enable many of our young men and women to step at once from the condition of pupil to the position of teacher. Our graded schools are in a prosperous condition, and are gradually, but surely, improving in all that pertains to a thorough instruction in the common school branches, while a few of these schools give instruction in some of the higher branches belonging to an academical course. At the graded schools of Aledo and Viola, a well-chosen course of study has been adopted, and upon the completion of this course a certificate or diploma is conferred upon such pupils as pass examination with sufficiently high grade in all the studies prescribed. At the recent close of these schools, Aledo and Viola each conferred diplomas upon eight gradu- ates.
In addition to our public schools the people of Mercer county have not been unmindful of a higher order of educational advantages, and hence from time to time during the earlier portion of our history attempts were made, most unsuccessful, to establish within our borders a collegiate institute. We find that as early as the year 1839 a charter was procured from the legislature for the "Millersburg Seminary of Learning." Millersburg was at that time the county seat, and we pre- sume that the attempt to secure a college at that point was intended to be a means of retaining the seat of justice at that place. Adequate means for so large an undertaking were not within the reach of the projectors of this enterprize at so early a day, and the undertaking was a failure .. Later, in 1857, coincident with the establishment of Aledo as the county seat, two colleges were projected, and a charter for the "Aledo Collegiate Institute" was procured February 16, 1857. One of these colleges never rose above the foundation of the proposed build- ing. The other, acting under its charter, erected a rather imposing building which, though enclosed, was never finished throughout. Rev. Mr. Williams opened the first high school in the old court-house build- ing in 1862, and after rooms were finished in the new college he trans- .
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ferred his classes to that building in the fall of 1863. After a struggle for existence against many difficulties he was succeeded by Prof. McKee in 1868. Prof. McKee after continuing the school for a couple of years abandoned the undertaking, as the building was at that time considered unsafe, and the Aledo collegiate building was torn down and the building material sold.
After Prof. McKee left, Prof. Henderson took up the work for some years, occupying the second story of the building known as Richey's store, and in this building Prof. Henderson was succeeded, in 1873, by Prof. J. R. Wylie, assisted by his brother, J. M. Wylie. After teach- ing one year in this building the Wylie brothers determined to procure better accommodations, and by the sale of scholarships they were ena- bled to purchase block 132 on Maple street, where they erected a two- story academy building, 22×44 feet, exclusive of hall and stairway. This beautiful site and neat little building with the two young ener- getic teachers, attracted 102 students the first year. In 1879, J. R. Wylie became sole proprietor, J. M. Wylie having gone into the ministry of the R. G. church. At the present time, June, 1882, the academy under J. R. Wylie is quite prosperous. It contains a valu- able cabinet of geological and mineralogical specimens, many of which would do honor to any college, besides a good library and an abund- ance of school apparatus. The course of study in this academy embraces all the mathematics, including arithmetic, through plain and spherical trigonometry ; an English course of one and a half years; drawing, book-keeping, physical geography, United States and ancient history, physiology; two terms in zoology, natural philosophy and astronomy ; two years in latin or two years in German, elective. The above course requires three years for its completion. Over 500 students, mostly from Mercer county, have received more or less instruction in this institution. Some seventy teachers have been sent out, and twenty diplomas have been granted since 1877.
In closing this sketch it seems appropriate to make mention of a few of the old and tried teachers of the county, and such others as have, after teaching for a time, been elevated to positions of honor, profit or trust. Geo. W. Julian, who taught here in 1835-6, has since served long and faithfully as a member of congress. Harvey S. Sen- ter, who was a teacher as far back as 1843, was afterward successively clerk of the circuit court, member of the state board of equalization and state senator. Warren Shed was a colonel commanding the 30th reg. Geo. P. Graham was a member of the legislature after serving suc- cessfully as teacher. Prof. Joseph McChesney, a teacher thirty-five · years ago, was for some time assistant state geologist, and was twice
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appointed, under Abraham Lincoln, as consul to Glasgow, Scotland, and was afterward chosen professor of national sciences in the Chicago university. B. F. Brock, subsequently district attorney, is now one of the leading lawyers of the county. J. K. Herbert, a teacher over twenty-five years ago, is a prominent lawyer in Washington, District of Columbia. N. P. Brown, J. E. Harroun, S. B. Atwater, and F. W. Livingston, were each chosen to the office of county superintendent of schools. C. S. Richey was for many years, and is at present, county surveyor. Rev. Mr. Jamieson, long a teacher, was afterward mis- sionary to India. T. C. Swaford, a teacher of great success, was after- ward elected city superintendent of the schools of Monmouth. A. U. Barler, E. H. Jamieson, J. A. Goding, J. T. Johnston, and Alex. Stevens were old and successful principals of graded schools. Besides these, Simeon Smith, David Felton, Resin Kile, Cyrus A. Ballard, William N. Graham, G. L. F. Robinson, William Miller, and Warren Biggart may be mentioned as old and successful teachers of a long and continued service in the county.
From the long list of lady teachers who have served in the county, it is a task of no small difficulty to select names for honorable mention without making the list too long for the purpose of this history. There are, however, a few who are pre-eminent, by reason of their long ser- vice, excellent methods of instruction, and unquestioned fitness and success.
Among those we will name Miss Hattie and Miss Emma Hunting- ton, Miss Libbie Perkins, Miss Parney Harroun, Miss Mollie Walker, Miss Emma Stevens, Mrs. A. M. B. Young, Mrs. Melissa Flemming, Miss M. Jennie Marquis, Miss M. M. Burbank, Miss Maggie Clarke, Miss Tillie S. Frazier, Miss Mantie Henry, Miss Mary E. Wolfe, Miss Jo. H. Willits, Miss Abbie M. Burr, Miss Mattie M. Sloan, Miss Jen- nie Henderson, and Mrs. Irene Willits. Besides these there are a host of lady teachers of shorter experience, but abundantly qualified for their work and deserving the warmest commendation were this chapter not already extended beyond the limits at first designed by the author.
SIMEON P. SMITH .- Politically Mr. Smith was identified with the old whig party, but was a radical abolitionist in sentiment. When Fremont and Buchanan were the opposing candidates he was asked on election day "to go and vote for Fremont electors," but declined, saying, "No; I think I shall not vote to-day, but if I do it will be for Buchanan," giving as a reason that he was "opposed to any compro- mise with slavery," a thing the republican party seemed at that time
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