USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside County, Illinois, from its earliest settlement to 1908, Vol. I > Part 44
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The following is a list of the improvements in the Twin Cities of Sterling and Rock Falls for the year 1907 :
INDUSTRIAL.
Hydraulic Co., power plant. $250,000
U. S. Government, dam
100,000
1
C. & N. W. Ry., fill
100,000
Avenue G Bridge
50,000
Gail-Borden Co.
100,000
National Manufacturing Company
40,000
Eureka Co.
20,000
Bassett Sled Works
8,000
Sterling Cracker Co.
10,000
Paper Mill
10,000
Novelty Co.
7,000
Black Silk Co.
5,000
Sterling Brewery 3,000
Swartley Green House
1,000
Sterling Floral Co.
1,500
WALLACE SCHOOL.
Alas! regardless of their doom, The little victims play .- Gray.
There is Greater New York, and there is newer Sterling. In every ward
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
the old school houses that the last generation knew are down and out. In the west end, District Eight, as organized, stood for twenty years that brown, dingy frame one-story structure that looked like a temporary railroad station. It was erected in 1856. There were two main rooms, an entry, and battens similar to those on a shed, ran up and down. As the school increased, framc buildings, two stories high, were added.
In 1865 an election was held to vote a tax for the purchase of more ground, and this addition gave the district the entire block where the school low stands. Another election in 1874 for a new building, cost not to exceed $25,000, and the edifice was completed that summer. The building commit- tce were W. A. Sanborn, B. C. Church, and James A. Wallace. In 1889 additional bonds were voted, and the primary building of four rooms erected in the rear of the main structure. In 1884 Wallace school was adopted as the name as a fit tribute to the memories of Hugh and James Wallace, father and son, who had been so long associated with the growth of the town and the development of the district.
Some excellent men and women appear in the catalog of Wallace school principals. The first in the newly organized school of 1856 were R. J. Ross and his sister, Rachel. Grove Wright was very popular with pupils and pat- rons, and his yearly entertainments of music and dialogue were enthusiastic events at Wallace Hall. John Phinney drilled the boys in mental arithmetic and in the diagrams of Clark's grammar. Then followed Buell, Thorp, Davis, Harlan, Coe, Piper, Hursli, Hollister. The last two have gone higher. Hursh is professor at Macomb Normal, and Hollister is state visitor for Illinois University. Helen Hosmer, one of the early primary teachers, knew how to gain the affection of the children. The primary instructor, longest in service, was Miss Saide Patterson, who for twenty-five years drilled the youngsters in marching and singing like so many miniature soldiers. By a poetic fitness on returning to Pennsylvania, she passed her declining days in Mercersburg, the home of her girlhood.
Classes were regularly graduated in the high school department, an Alumni association formed, the last meeting of which was held in 1899. Miss Hannah Mooney was then president, and Miss Minnie Palmer secretary and treasurer. The first graduating class was in 1877, with A. N. Melvin and Elizabeth Crawford the sole star actors. The last class in 1898, consisting of twelve young people, John Ward, Esq., being one of them, closed the educa- tional docket.
For a while as a sort of a manual or practical mechanical training a small paper was issued, "Wallace Life," the cuts, editorial matter, type setting and printing, all done by the pupils.
The board consists of six members: Henry Green, C. C. Johnson, H. C. Ward, Paul T. Galt, V. S. Ferguson; W. J. Bell, president, and A. J. Frank, secretary.
The roll of teachers comprises the following: Miss A. L. Hill, principal; Anna Mooney, 8th grade and supervisor of drawing; Emma Simonds, 7th grade; Mary Whitmore, 6th grade, and supervisor of music; Belle Duffie, 5th; Josephine Elliott, 4th; Anna Conboy, 3d; Jessie Buyers, 2d; Maud
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
:
Edwards, 2d; Christina Dunbar, 1st; Mary Kannally, 1st. Miss Mooney taught several years in Chicago, and is proficient in her department. Jessie Buyers has held her position for many terms. Since the township high school course was established, 227 pupils have finished the grammar school course. At a regular meeting of the board in June, 1907, a ten twenty-day month school year was established. Miss Hill is the first lady principal of Wallace, and her re-election year after year, is prima facie proof of the efficiency of her administration.
Among the early directors of the school, the names of Joshua Mckinney, James L. Crawford, and Gabriel Davis must always be mentioned with gratitude.
At the meeting of the Wallace school board held March 9, 1908, "Home Gardening" was discussed and Tuesday, April 7, 1908, the pupils sent off an order for 1,500 packages of seeds and 125 bulbs at the rate of one cent each. These include eighteen varieties of flowers and eight of vegetables. Each pupil pays for his own seeds.
One morning the school received a case of stuffed birds of N. O. Lawson, taxidermist of Geneva, Ill. The birds prepared by Mr. Lawson are those selected from the many killed during severe storms. The birds will be kept in a glass case with revolving shelves, presented by Mrs. L. K. and Mrs. Lottie Wynn.
The birds whose homes, habits, and economic value will be studied, will furnish material to aid in the development of powers of observation, compari- son, and judgment. Problems in arithmetic based upon quantity and kinds of food eaten by the different birds, show the advisability of protecting our feathered neighbors.
Many of the boys and girls are building bird houses and drinking troughs, and otherwise showing an intense interest in the bird life of Sterling.
Prizes will be given for successful tree-planting, best collection of vege- ables, best collection of flowers, best window boxes, and best collection of seeds.
THE CENTRAL SCHOOL. By H. L. Chaplin, Principal.
"Tis education forms the common mind, Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined .- Pope.
My acquaintance with Sterling school began in the fall of 1894. On the school square stood a three-story brick structure erected in 1867, and a two- story brick veneer building, erected in 1886. On the northeast corner of the square a small frame house used as the janitor's residence. The larger build- ing was devoted to the grades, the smaller, to the High school. All the room in these buildings, excepting the "Old Chapel," was fully occupied prior to the fall of 1894. The year 1894-5 opened with an increased . enrollment, and the task of providing additional room was met by running a partition through the old chapel, on the third floor of the larger building, forming therefrom two rooms, one of which was immediately occupied. The absorp- tion of the Sterling High school by the Sterling-Coloma Township High
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
school in 1898, left the smaller building available for the use of the grades, and when the school opened in the fall of that year the third floor of the larger building was abandoned and the sixth, seventh and eighth grades were housed in the smaller building.
With its twenty-sixth commencement, May 27, 1898, the Sterling High school finished its work, and in the following September its students be- came members of the Sterling-Coloma Township High school. In the twenty-nine years of its existence, two hundred ninety-nine students had been graduated from its courses. It turned over to the Township High school one hundred twenty-five pupils, twenty-one of whom were in the senior class. This High school had done a good work. It had provided a four- years' course of instruction and was on the accredited list of the state univer- sity and a number of colleges. At the completion of its work, Miss Anna Parmelee, the principal, had been with the school eleven years; Miss Kate Stoddard, nine years; Miss Bertha Forbes, seven years; and Miss Mabel Waldo, five years. The character of their work is indicated by the following extract from a letter written to the superintendent in 1897, by Dr. Arnold Tompkins, chairman of the committee on accredited schools for the State University: "Your High school is considered here one of the best in the state, and as accredited, admits to all the colleges of the University."
The advent of the Township High school brought other changes. In the spring of 1898 Lincoln, Sterling, and Wallace districts voted on a propo- sition to unite into one district. It carried in Lincoln and Sterling districts, but was defeated in Wallace district. Lincoln and Sterling districts at once took steps to unite, and at a special election by very large majorities voted to become one district. The consolidated districts took the official name of Dis- trict Number Three. The writer, however, gave to the united schools the . name Union Schools, the one by which they are generally known.
In order to avoid confusion of names with the new Sterling-Coloma Township High School, the Sterling School was, in the fall of 1898, named by the Board of Education "Central School."
In organizing the new district the old school boards went out of office and a new board was elected. In this connection it is fitting to make special mention of three men who were prominent in working for the advancement of their respective schools. Mr. George W. Brewer, of the Lincoln School Board, went out of office after a service of thirty-three and one-half years. His last service to the school was to lead in the movement for consolidation. Rev. E. Brown, of the Sterling School Board, retired after a like service of thirteen years, ten of which were passed as President of the Board. Captain John W. Niles, who had served on the same Board for twenty years, became a member of the new Board.
It became apparent in 1901-02 that Lincoln School building would soon be filled to its capacity. In 1902-03 temporary quarters for the overflow from this school were secured in the building in Lincoln Park. In the spring of 1906 bonds for ten thousand dollars were voted to build an addition to Lincoln School building. A four-room annex was added during the fall of
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
that year, and in January, 1907, the temporary quarters were abandoned and two rooms of the annex were occupied.
The course of study of the Union Schools. comprises the usual eight years' preparatory work for entrance to the high school. In addition, the schools provide special instruction in music, drawing, penmanship, and manual training. The first of these special departments to be established was that of music. In 1882 a special teacher was employed for this branch. It was not, however, until 1889 that regular instruction in music became a feature of the school. In 1895 Miss Ella G. Richards was elected supervisor of music, which position she resigned in 1905. During this period the work became very efficient. Miss Ruth Caughey succeeded Miss Richards and is in charge of this department at the present time.
Special instruction in drawing was first given in 1891. It became a regular feature of the school in 1893. In 1896 Prof. C. A. Wetzell was elected supervisor of drawing and of penmanship, which position he still holds.
Manual training was adopted by the Board of Education in September, 1900. At first the work was in sloyd only, all the pupils of the seventh and eighth grades, both boys and girls, participating. But in December, 1900, the Board of Education approved an outline for a course in sewing, and or- dered it put into immediate operation. Since January, 1901, sewing has been a regular branch of the work. In 1903 the manual-training room was equipped with twelve two-pupil benches and twenty-four sets of tools. As now conducted, four classes each of boys and girls receive regular instruction one hour per week. The boys are instructed in the manipulation and care of tools and the principles of wood-working; the girls in the art of sewing and the structure of textiles. Mr. C. A. Wetzell is the instructor in manual train- ing, and Miss Ivy Phelps directs the work in sewing. For several years man- ual training was supported by money received from public programs, but of late the expense has been paid out of the regular funds. This is a small. item, however, as the pupils pay for the material which they use and take home the products of their skill.
Much activity has characterized the work of the Board of Education since 1894. It has refurnished Central School with modern desks; installed a system of thermostatic regulation of heat; substituted cement floors in the basement for the decaying wooden floors; reconstructed the scwer system, it having been discovered that the original sewer had been laid inside the build- ing with common sewer-pipe; substituted L. W. Wolff individual bowls, syphon range, toilet fixtures for the crude device previously in use; installed toilet rooms on the third floor, thereby removing the necessity of sending pupils down three flights of stairs; erected a substantial fire escape, the same being so connected with the several rooms that pupils leave the building without entering the corridors; installed a fire-alarm system, by means of which a general alarm can be turned in from any part of the building; dis- placed the low-pressure steel boilers (the safe kind which sometimes explodes) with cast boilers; equipped the building with stand-pipe fire protection, the same having a reel of three-inch hose for each floor; placed inside and outside
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
drinking fountains and discontinued the use of the old school well; tinted the walls of the rooms and corridors with cheering colors, done in lead and oil; removed the old-time teachers' platforms; lighted the building throughout with gas; constructed vestibules at each of the three entrances; built lava- tories; remodeled the smaller building; laid inside walks and curbed the school square; besides many minor changes looking to the safety, sanitation and comfort of the school. At Lincoln School it has built a four-room an- nex; removed the old brick building on the northwest corner of the square; graded down the knoll on that corner; laid a large amount of permanent walks; displaced the hot-air system with steam; substituted slate blackboards for the composition boards; redecorated the school rooms; installed drinking fountains; besides a number of minor improvements. Many of the changes mentioned above were expensive, the main question having been, How well, not how cheaply, can this work be done?
Of the present members of the Board of Education, Mr. C. Burkholder, President, has served the District sixteen years; Mr. W. N. Haskell, Secretary, twelve years; Mr. W. W. Davis, fourteen years; Mr. R. S. Philips, ten years; Mr. L. C. Thorne, eight years; Mr. A. J. Platt, six years; Mr. Frank Thomas, five years.
Some of the special features of the Union Schools, besides the depart- ments of special instruction heretofore mentioned, are : A graded library, established in 1894, now containing seven hundred books; semi-annual pro- motions to the high school, in effect since 1903; an annual report, containing, among other things, a financial report of the Board of Education, the school calendar, rules and regulations, list of authorized text-books, a report of the Superintendent on the general and special activities of the schools, including a classification of pupils, statistical reports, library summary, etc .; a salaried , truant officer to enforce the provisions of the amended statutes to compel the regular attendance of those who would otherwise be delinquent pupils. The latest activity of the schools is school gardening, undertaken for the first time in the spring of 1908. By this we hope to make, not alone a city beau- tiful and homes beautiful, but lives and characters more beautiful than they otherwise would be.
Both the original buildings in the present Union district are gone, the brick in the first ward erected in 1860 and the two-story frame in the second ward erected in 1857. In their place are the present substantial and hand- some brick structures. In the long roll of principals in each are Mr. and Mrs. Flagg, Thomas Diller, J. D. Parker, Buell, French, Alfred Bayliss, the latter being longer in service than any of his predecessors. Central School is the largest in the county.
In the spring of 1908 the scholars of Central School received packages of flower seeds to plant at their homes during spring vacation time.
The seeds include six varieties-namely, sweet peas, nasturtiums, mari- golds, sweet alyssum, snap dragon and asters, which they will cultivate dur- ing the spring, and some time during the fall months a floral show at the two schools will be the result.
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
It is expected that the pupils of the two schools will plant about 4,200 packages of flower seeds.
The steel fire escape connected with the two main buildings, erected a few years ago at a cost of nearly $3,000, is considered the finest in the United States, and since the horrible calamity in the school near Cleveland has been advertised in cuts by papers and magazines from New York to California for the example of boards of education to follow.
The enrollment of Central School for the present year is 648. Its corps of teachers, beginning with the first primary, is Mae Wilcox, Grace G. Goebel, Laura M. Wilson, Irene Bassett, Lora Taylor, Daisy Seymour, Pansy Treasher, Ivy Phelps, Bertha Fay, Estella Daveler, Mignon Haskell, Bertha Senneff, Hattie E. Turner, Bertha M. Williams.
The enrollment of Lincoln School is 206. The corps of teachers, begin- ning with the first primary, is Helene Lendman, May Adams, Mary Dutcher, Clara M. Pittiran, Jennie Hoak, Mabel Whitney.
The special teachers are Mr. C. A. Wetzell, writing, drawing, and manual training; Miss Ivy Phelps, sewing; Miss Ida G. Rundlett, primary assistant and general substitute.
[Editorial Note .- This large school was never so flourishing. Prof. Chaplin is untiring in his efforts to increase its efficiency in every depart- ment, and to show their appreciation of his services the Board lately elected him Superintendent for the fifteenth ycar of his usefulness.]
THE STERLING TOWNSHIP HIGH SCHOOL.
By Prof. E. T. Austin, Principal.
The need of a better high school in this community became so impera- tive that after due notice an election was held April 11, 1896. It resulted in a vote in favor of establishing a township high school. The following men were chosen as the Board of Education: C. A. Wetherbee, Rev. E. Brown, James Platt, F. W. Wheeler, and W. A. Sanborn.
These men did their duty admirably. Their first task, the choosing of a site, they did by a special election August 1, 1896. It resulted in the selection of the grounds of the old Catholic church at the corner of Fifth avenue and Fourth street. Their next work was to secure funds. This they . also did by election, May 11, 1897, which resulted in favor of issuing $40,000 worth of bonds. In selecting the-plans for a building they gave the prefer- ence to those drafted by Reeves & Bailey, of Peoria. These plans were a modification or adaptation of an early Elizabethan type of architecture.
School opened in the fall of 1898 with nearly two hundred pupils, and the following corps of teachers: Principal, O. L. Miller, of Michigan; Anna E. Parmelce, Kate M. Stoddard, Bertha M. Forbes, Mabel G. Waldo, Frances G. Hershey, Charles Herrmann, Ida E. Marron. C. A. Wetzell and Ella G. Richards., Henry Werle was appointed janitor, and has ever since kept the building and grounds a model of neatness. Of this first corps of teachers Miss Parmelee was called to the State Normal School at De Kalb, and was succeeded by Alfred K. Jenkins; Mr. Herrmann was also called away; Miss Frances Hershey and Miss Ida Marron were married; and Miss Waldo was
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
summoned by death. Since 1902 E. T. Austin, of Michigan, has been prin- cipal. The new members of the teaching corps are Stella Coney, Helen Hopkins, Ella M. Ellsworth, Marie Hershey, G. A. Schmidt, Marjorie L. Fitch, and Sarah Lindsay. The present Board of Education are Rev. Theo- dore Crowl, D. L. Miller, F. W. Whecler, A. H. Hershey, and W. W. Davis. They have been in office now for many years, and are closely identified with the development of the school and its present prosperous condition.
The equipment of the school is very complete, and is being systemat- ically added to cach year. The physical, chemical, and biological labora- tories are well supplied. The library is discreetly chosen, and contains the latest and best cyclopedias, histories, and scientific works. The pictures and statues that ornament the walls and halls are tastefully chosen and artisti- cally disposed.
Our high school is fully accredited by the following universities and colleges: Amherst, Vassar, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Chicago, North- western and Beloit; and probably most colleges will receive students who have done the work preparatory to entering these universities.
For several years an annual has been issued, containing original sketches, with local hits, illustrated, neatly printed and bound, and edited by pupils chosen from the higher classes.
Few rich men remember churches or schools in their wills. The whole property is left to relatives, and sometimes soon scattered to the winds. Dr. L. S. Pennington, pioneer of Jordan, who died in Sterling, 1906, was not of this type. The Sterling Gazette of April 13, 1908, has this paragraph: "The sum of $8,067, the residuary legacy from the estate of the late Dr. L. S. Pen- nington, has been formally turned over to the trustees of the Township High School, and the trustees have loaned $8,000 on real estate security, and the same is drawing an interest of six per cent, making an annual income of $480. This amount, according to the will of the late Dr. Pennington, will be used in assisting to maintain a manual training school at the Township High School. The sum received from the estate of Dr. Pennington is the first material assistance that the public schools of this city have received. It is hoped that his bequest will serve as an attractive nucleus and that other wealthy men may have their attention attracted to the value of manual training and aid with their wealth in establishing an institution here on an adequate footing."
It may be added there are numerous examples to encourage this educa- tional generosity. Leland Stanford University in California and Johns Hop- kins in Baltimore are not only beneficent institutions of learning, but lasting monuments to the memory of their founders.
STERLING BUSINESS COLLEGE. By Prof. A. T. Scovill.
The Sterling Business College was organized in the summer of 1877 by Mr. Harry A. Aument, who conducted the school with marked success for fifteen years. Mr. Aument was an energetic, progressive school man and at that early date introduced the study of shorthand in the Sterling school, thus
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
making the Sterling Business College the first business college in the world to include shorthand as a part of its curriculum. The same year he pur- chased one of the old style Remington typewriters for school use, thus giving the school the name of being the first school in the West, if not in the world, to install a typewriter as a part of its equipment. This early progressiveness instituted by its first owner has characterized the school throughout the thirty- one years of its existence, and today it stands the best equipped business and shorthand school in the Middle West.
In 1892 Mr. Aument sold the school to Wallace Bros., who conducted the school with varied success for about three years, when it was purchased by Mr. William Lucders in 1895. At the beginning of Mr. Lueders' owner- ship he secured the services of Miss Lula L. Ely as Superintendent of the Shorthand Department, and it is largely through her careful, conscientious work that the Sterling Business College received and maintained its excellent name.
Soon after the purchase of the school by Mr. Lueders he realized the desirability of having a permanent home for the school and set about secur- ing a building designed especially for business college work. He finally accomplished his desire and in the summer of 1899 the school was moved from rooms in the down-town district, where it had been conducted for the last twenty years, to the northwest corner of Second street and Fourth avenue. Here the school was successfully operated by Mr. Lueders until its sale to Mr. G. W. Brown, president of the Brown's Business College Co., in May, 1906.
On July 1, 1906, the school was formally turned over to Brown's Busi- ness College Co., Mr. A. T. Scovill being chosen by President G. W. Brown to be the local manager and principal. During the months of July and August the building was altered and repaired, the course of study revised to meet the demand of the business world, the standard of scholarship raised, and the school equipped with the latest writing machines and office appli- ances. Principal A. T. Scovill took charge of the commercial department, assisted by Miss Lena A. Kemp, an experienced teacher, transferred from the commercial department of Brown's Peoria Business College. Miss Lula L. Ely continued as superintendent of the shorthand department, assisted by Miss Della V. Smith.
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