USA > Illinois > Illinois, the story of the prairie state > Part 11
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Winfield Scott, ordered west to take charge of the campaign against Black Hawk, was delayed in Chi- cago by an outbreak of cholera among his troops
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and so took no part in the war. But he returned east with such glowing accounts of the place that general attraction was drawn to it. And on his rec- ommendation Congress appropriated money to im- prove the harbor.3
Then came a period of inflation, when Chicago was the Mecca of speculators. Nothing was dis- cussed but the price of corner lots. Every one was rich, on paper. Men talked in millions who had no cash to pay their board bills. A hundred new citi- zens came in ten days. Half a million dollars' worth of property was sold in six months. The people multiplied by eight in a year. And it must be said for these promoters that everything they prophesied was later carried out. The trouble was, they wanted to go too fast, they were a generation ahead of their time.
The year 1837 and its panic brought stagnation.4 The one thing that kept Chicago alive was the canal project. Even though all work stopped, it was never allowed to die out. Real estate was, to be sure, offered at a twentieth of former prices. But Chicago people had real grit, and gradually industry took the place of speculative idling. During these lean years, two of the city's greatest enterprises be- gan-the packing business, and the exporting of grain, which began in a small venture with thirty- nine bags of wheat.
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A bird's-eye view of Chicago just before extensive railway building began to alter a large town and favorable natural location into a world center of population and economic
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After 1842 came a steady sure growth, with only a temporary check at the panic of '57. During this time the canal was finished, the Illinois Central com- pleted and other roads to east and west. Not the canal, as its friends anticipated, but the dozen roads centering at Chicago, carried its products and made its greatness. Manufacturing developed-locomo- tives and cars, brick, carriages and wagons, furni- ture, stoves, agricultural implements, leather goods, to mention only a few of the many things made in Chicago.
The Civil War gave a remarkable stimulus to the city, for it became immediately an important base of supplies.5 Far enough from the front to be abso- lutely safe, closely connected by rail with every part of the country, supplies and men could be moved easily. Large amounts of corn and pork, of cloth- ing and saddlery, thousands of horses and wagons, were sent from Chicago to the Union armies. Dur- ing the sixties, her population more than kept pace with the increase in the nation. Her growth and prosperity were without precedent. She was the pride of Illinois, the wonder of the world.
And this prosperity continued until a sudden check came in the autumn of 1871. One Sunday night in October, as people were going home from church, the alarm of fire was sounded by the court- house bell.6 A poor woman, living in the poorest
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quarter of the town, had gone out late to milk her cow. The restless cow kicked over the kerosene. lamp, the hay in the shed caught fire, and in a mo- ment the flames had spread. It was a section of one- story houses, stables and sheds, each within a few feet of its neighbor, and all of wood. They burned like so much kindling. There had been no rain for weeks. A high wind was blowing. The nearest alarm box was several blocks away. And the cow, and Mrs. O'Leary, who lived in a little frame shanty without even a street number, won a place in the his- tory of Chicago.
The firemen had been hard at work all Saturday night and most of Sunday, fighting a big down-town fire. But they responded promptly and tried to stay the progress of the flames. Days later the ruins of the engine were found in the street. The wind had become a gale. Directly in its path was a four- mile line of wooden buildings. The intense heat made it impossible for the department to work. By midnight the fire had reached the densely populated section. Wider streets will keep it from spreading, said the onlookers. But the flames jumped across and blazed more fiercely.
Well, the burned district of last night will stop it. But no.
At any rate, the river will limit it. But with a hop, skip and jump, the flames were across the
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bridge, at place after place, sweeping all before them. Flanking columns were sent off to each side, devastating a wide swath of business blocks. Buildings of stone and brick and iron, supposed to be fireproof, crumbled and melted down before the awful heat. They ignited suddenly all over, just as a sheet of paper, held to the fire, is scorched and breaks out in flame.
From ten o'clock till morning, till noon, till night, the fire raged. Miserable hovels, splendid public buildings, beautiful homes, stores, churches, all fell before it, like ripe wheat before the reaper. The pumping engines at the water-works were disabled, set on fire when a burning roof fell on the tower. And with the lake at hand, three hundred and sixty miles long and seven hundred feet deep, the supply of water was cut off and the people were helpless.7 In some places counter-fires were started, and build- ings blown up with gunpowder, but against the gale nothing was accomplished. It was a vast ocean of flame, sweeping over the city in mile-long billows and breakers.
The streets were as light as day, and were crowded with people, first as spectators, later as refugees. Goods piled up in the street to be carted away were frequently carried off. Draymen charged enormous prices for taking loads. Some hackmen, extorting a poor woman's all, threw off her goods at
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the next corner and repeated the process upon an- other customer. Frequently the owner was reas- sessed, half-way to safety. And payment must be in cash.
"What's your check worth?" one driver asked: "The bank's already burned !"
In the confusion and turmoil streets were gorged with crowds of people and passing vehicles. Dazed animals dashed about. There were thrilling rescues, sad separation of families, heroism on every side, baser passions breaking out- insults, robbery, as- sassination. Prisoners, released to save their lives, promptly pillaged a jewelry store.
"The scene was indescribable," said an onlooker the next day. The great, dazzling, mount- ing light, the crash and roar of the conflagration, and the desperate flight of the crowd. They stood transfixed, with a mingled feeling of horror and admiration, and while they often exclaimed at the beauty of the scene, they all devoutly prayed that they might never see such another.
"To the roar which the simple process of com- bustion always makes, magnified here to so grand an extent, was added the crash of falling buildings and the constant explosions of stores of oil. The noise of the crowd was nothing compared with this chaos of sound. .
"I saw men, women, and children, in every vari- ety of dress, with the motley collection of effects
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which they sought to save. Some had silver, some valuable papers, some pictures, carpets, beds, etc. One little child had her doll tenderly pressed in her arms. An old Irish woman was cherishing a grunt- ing pig. There was a singular mixture of the awful, the ludicrous, and the pathetic.
"A torrent of humanity was pouring over the bridge. Drays, express wagons, trucks, and conveyances of every conceivable species and size, crowded across in indiscriminate haste. Collisions happened almost every moment. The same long line of men dragging trunks was here, many of them tugging over the ground with loads which a horse would strain at. Women were there, staggering under weights upon their backs. Now and then a stray schooner came up, and the bridge must be opened. Then arose a howl of indignation along the line, audible above the tumult.
"I saw an undertaker rushing over the bridge with his mournful stock. He had taken a dray, but was unable to load all of his goods into the vehicle. So he employed half a dozen boys, gave each of them a coffin, took a large one himself, and headed the weird procession. The sight of those coffins, upright, and bobbing along just above the heads of the crowd, without any apparent help, was startling, and we laughed quite merrily."8
Crowds collected on the beaches, and were fre- quently driven into the lake for refuge against the scorching flames. People gathered in an old ceme- tery, and on the bleak prairie back of the city. Sick
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and helpless, young and old, rich and poor, the vicious and the good, were huddled together, with- out food.
The Chicago fire had no precedent in history. It is the most overwhelming that ever visited a com- munity. The city had been built up by persistent energy, daring enterprise, and far-reaching plans. Now, a hundred thousand people were homeless and out of employment, twenty thousand buildings were destroyed, and property worth nearly two hundred millions.9
Prostrate as the city was, Monday saw deter- mined efforts to bring order out of the chaos. The mayor had telegraphed to Joliet and Springfield, even to Milwaukee and Detroit, for fire engines. He now asked for carloads of bread. He issued a proc- lamation fixing the price for a loaf and for drayage, telling people where to apply for food, and warning them of the danger of falling walls.
Theft and arson were frequently reported. "Roughs" from all parts of Chicago and neighbor- ing towns invaded the scene, plundering the suffer- ers. Two thousand extra police were sworn in, state troops were called out, and Sheridan, with several companies of the regular army, took charge in the city.
The mayor organized bureaus to give out relief with system and efficiency. Carloads of provisions
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and clothing were received. A wave of sympathy and practical benevolence set in toward Chicago, from every part of the world. Such a going forth of help, instant and mighty, was never known be- fore in human history. While the fire was still burning, cities great and small, in every state, sent messages telling how much they felt for the suffer- ers, in dollars. St. Louis and Cincinnati, Chicago's two competitors in trade, gave generously, their charity forgetting all rivalry.
And while temporary help was being given, plans were making to rebuild. No one said, "The town is gone up. Our capital's wiped out of existence. There will not be an insurance company left. The city's trade must go to St. Louis and Cincinnati. If we had any customers we couldn't do business, for we've no place to transact it. We may as well leave at once." Instead, merchants ordered new stocks of goods from the east, the moment the telegraph wires were repaired. Long before the ruins had cooled one man put up a shingle on the site of his store which read, "All gone but wife, children, and en- ergy"-and he was typical of the others.
Instead of losing heart and being overwhelmed by the loss, Chicago undismayed planned a greater city. For the fire had destroyed the results, not the causes, of her success-the lake, the canal, the rail- roads, the inherent vitality and buoyant spirits of
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her people. The fire could take in a night what had been forty-four years in building. It could par- alyze the city's energy for a day, it could not burn her indomitable pluck and elastic hope. On the con- trary, she gained a great stimulus to activity and resolutely faced the task of rebuilding. With noth- ing but the future greatness of their city as security, her bankers borrowed millions from eastern capital- ists.
Like the phoenix of old, in three short years there rose beside the lake a new Chicago, a monument to the energy and faith of her citizens. And to-day she is the metropolis not only of Illinois, but of the Mis- sissippi Valley and the northwest. With the an- nexation of suburban towns, she is now the fifth city in the world, with a larger area than Berlin or Paris, than New York or London.10 Her market for livestock and grain is the greatest in the land. She is the largest railroad center. Her system of parks and connecting boulevards is the most magnificent in the world.
And only twenty years after the great fire, Con- gress chose Chicago as the site for the "White City," to house the world's fair celebrating the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America.
Currey's History of Chicago and Quaife's Chi- cago and the Old Northwest will tell you more of
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the city by the lake. Chicago and the Great Con- flagration, written by Colbert and Chamberlin, is a detailed story of the fire. with many individual accounts.
XXVI
EDUCATION, YESTERDAY AND TO-DAY
"I THANK God there are in Virginia no free schools nor printing, and I hope we shall not have; for learning hath brought disobedience and heresy into the world," wrote Governor Berkeley in 1670. And a century later this same state of Vir- ginia was surveying the Illinois territory, on the new township system, and reserving every section six- teen for the use of schools !
One of the stipulations in the ordinance of 1787, you remember, was that "schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged," for knowl- edge and religion and morality were declared "nec- essary to the good government and happiness of mankind."1
The far-seeing Nathaniel Pope, who accomplished so much for Illinois in changing the northern bound- ary, did perhaps an equal service in putting through his suggestion that three per cent. of the land office sales should be used for educational purposes, and a sixth of this sum for a college or university. In 1819 the state transferred the school lands to the
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various townships, with power to lease, and later to sell them.2 The money from these sales was kept as a permanent and separate fund and loaned at interest to the state. But if the land had been hus- banded, as was done in Texas, it would be worth many millions to-day, and its income would make the school tax a nominal sum.
The very first schools in Illinois were taught by the French priests, but little is known of them. Among the early American settlers, schools were established soon after their arrival, the first of which we have record in Monroe County in 1783.3 They were not very good schools, it is true, but the best possible under pioneer conditions. The marvel is that with land to be cleared and houses raised, men had a moment to give to education. But early a start was made and the work endured.
The first schools were private. Each teacher worked up his own, by a house-to-house visit, carry- ing his subscription paper and getting pupils signed up. Tuition was a dollar and a half or two dollars for a term of eleven weeks, in rare cases three dol- lars. Often a parent would subscribe for a half- pupil : this meant that his child would go half the time. Where there were several children in one family and a scarcity of money, it was a common custom to pay for two and divide the term among the whole number. "You can imagine the uphill
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work of getting any schooling," says a great-grand- mother, telling of her pioneer childhood.4
The teacher was usually Irish or Scotch; some- times a surveyor or mechanic, who taught in the winter and took up his craft again when spring opened. In most schools it was a sufficient qualifi- cation if he knew the three R's; he must be able to make a quill pen that would not scratch; he must also have the ability to wield the birch well, for "larnin' and lickin' " were inseparable. Some teach- ers whipped every pupil on Friday afternoons, whether it was deserved or not, on the general prin- ciple that it was good for the school. One teacher was described as "a worthy man and an excellent scholar, but so easy with children in regard to dis- cipline that his school was considered as defective."
The schoolhouse was a log cabin, fourteen by six- teen feet, occasionally eighteen by twenty. The space between the logs was "chinked" with clay. Sometimes greased paper was used for window glass ; sometimes one log was left out for the entire length of the building, and a row of small panes of glass inserted. The cabin had a clapboard roof, kept down by "weight poles"; a puncheon floor, seats made of slabs sawed from the sides of logs, without backs of any kind. There was always a great fire- place, but most of the heat went up the chimney. On the opposite side of the room children suffered
The old log school house
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F
A rural community centre with its consolidated school and church
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from the cold. There were two or three shelves for spare books and dinner baskets, a small puncheon table and splint-bottomed chair for the teacher.
Text-books were few in number, and uninterest- ing; always a speller, and reader-often this was gossipy Parson Weems's Life of Washington, which Lincoln shared with many a frontier child. Writing books were made at home, of unruled pa- per, the teacher ruling lines as needed, with a bit of lead. The slates had no frames, and to prevent their being dropped and broken, a hole was made in one side, a string put through it, and the slate hung round the pupil's neck.
What was known as the "loud school" was not uncommon. "Pupils will study spelling," the teacher would announce. And they would all begin aloud, each for himself, without trying to keep to- gether. When a lull came after a while, the teacher would stamp on the floor and say, "Study harder !" The noise, of course, was terrific, but it sounded as if something was being accomplished.
In 1824 Joseph Duncan, who was afterward gov- ernor, introduced into the senate a bill for establish- ing free schools, and this was passed. It provided for a school or schools in every county, for trustees and the examination of teachers, and a school tax, which could be paid in cash or in good merchantable produce at the market price.5 Ford says that the law
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· worked admirably well; but such a storm of disap- proval and clamoring opposition as went up over the school tax !
"Poor people found that their children would be educated and wholly unfitted for work on the farm." The very class it was planned to benefit op- posed it most bitterly, though their wealthier neigh- bors bore the brunt of the expense. At the very next session of the legislature, the law was so amended that its usefulness was gone. Peck complained that its short life was due to designing and selfish poli- ticians who "seized hold of it to raise popular fer- ment."
Duncan's was a good measure, how good you may judge when you learn that to-day's law embodies the very same fundamental principles and many of its details.6 But it was in advance of the age, and the circumstances of the common people; and of the teachers, too! Very few applicants could meet the requirement for history, geography and grammar, in addition to the three R's; and as late as 1847 cer- tificates were given for one or more subjects.
But some people did not lose sight of the Duncan plan, and the question of better schools was agi- tated. This was especially true after the settlers from the eastern states and New England began coming to Illinois in large numbers. In 1840 an association was formed to secure a better system of
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common schools. For years it kept up a persistent campaign of education, through meetings, a mag- azine, local societies and memorials to the legisla- ture.7
They found throughout the state a listless apathy, far worse than fiery opposition ; but slowly they won public opinion to see the need for free schools. Educating popular sentiment to a higher standard is never an easy task-overcoming old and deep- rooted prejudices, opposing false ideas of economy in state affairs, convincing men that it is both a right and a duty to tax every man's property and spend the money to educate every child. For this is a pub- lic benefit, they urged, as necessary as courts or highroads. It is cheaper to sustain schools than poorhouses and prisons !8
The legislature in 1845 voted to have a state superintendent of schools; but for the sake of econ- omy the secretary of state was given this work, in addition to his own. Nine years later it was made a separate office, first held by Ninian W. Edwards. The year 1855 marks the commencement of the wonderful school system which to-day is the state's pride. The average cost for a pupil is now thirteen times the sum spent in the fifties. The permanent school funds provide about a tenth of the amount re- quired each year, and the balance is raised by taxa- tion. Illinois now ranks fourth among the states
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for the money spent each year for public schools.
Immediately after the passage. of the Edwards law providing for this school tax, one county re- ported, "As common sense would teach, it has put life into the system, and shows at once, as the old proverb says, 'Money makes the mare go.' So does it make the schools go, and without it they wouldn't go." But the report continues, "Our teachers are deficient both in literary attainments and practical experience, but even of such as are to be had, the supply is by no means sufficient."? This was the complaint everywhere, and in 1857 a normal school was opened, the first in the middle west; and so great was its success, so great the demand for trained teachers, that Illinois now has five normal schools.
Education in the cities has made steady progress, with improved buildings, more and better trained teachers, better books, and the establishment of high schools. But the improvements in the rural schools have been even more marked. Attractive buildings and grounds, careful grading and regular promo- tion, and consolidated schools, have banished the un- inviting "little red schoolhouse."
The seminary of learning for which Pope made provision did not materialize for nearly half a cen- tury, though thirty-six sections of land were re-
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served for this purpose. Congress in 1862 made a donation of land to the several states, for agricul- tural and industrial colleges. Illinois's share was four hundred eighty thousand acres. When the leg- islature offered the new institution to the highest bidder, Champaign won the prize. And the Uni- versity of Illinois has now six thousand students.
But you must not think that the pioneers were in- terested only in schools for children, and that no plans were made for higher education. John Mason Peck was sent west in 1817, to establish headquar- ters for the frontier work of a missionary society, whose expressed purpose was "to spread the gospel and promote schools." He traveled through the Mississippi Valley, starting a church and a school side by side.10 Visiting Vandalia, he secured the promise of many public men, to help in starting an institution of learning. Their help, however, amounted to little more than a board of trustees. Peck did the work and carried the burdens.
A stranger on horseback came along the road running from St. Louis to Vincennes, where he was chopping logs.
"What are you doing here ?"
"I am building a seminary."
Opened in 1827, with teachers from the east, Rock Spring Seminary was the pioneer of higher education in the west. Later it was moved to Upper
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Alton, and the name changed to Shurtleff College, because of the generous gift of Doctor Shurtleff, of Boston.11 A strong friendship grew up between Peck and the traveler on horseback, who afterward founded Illinois College at Jacksonville. McKen- dree had opened at Lebanon ; and these three pioneer colleges, chartered by the legislature in 1835, are still educating the young people of Illinois.
Meanwhile the number of colleges and universities in the state has increased to thirty-two. Illinois has thus exemplified her belief that the sure founda- tions of the state are laid in knowledge and not in ignorance.
And much of this progress in education is indi- rectly due to the churches of Illinois. From the French priests to the itinerant preachers of the pio- neer period, and on to the highly educated ministers of to-day, the promotion of schools and colleges has been conspicuous among church activities. For re- ligion and learning advance among a people with equal strides. And the churches of Illinois have always recognized that education makes a valuable contribution to the best type of Christian service.
XXVII
GREATNESS OF THE STATE
CT ENTURIES ago nature began a generous pol- icy with Illinois. Waterways and mines and rich, rich soil she provided with unstinted hand. And, thanks to her gifts and to the wise conserva- tion that is now being adopted, she promises to be a great mining and agricultural state for generations to come. In the production of coal and in manu- facturing, she stands third in the list of states; fourth for wheat ; second for oats, first for railroads and meat packing and for corn. Of the eight banner agricultural counties in the nation, four are in Illi- nois.
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