USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 15
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 15
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CHAPTER VII. POLITICS.
The political history of Putnam county has not been so radical that it differs materially from the political life of any community. Her local mat- ters have always been administered in a satisfac- tory manner to the people of the community. She has a few times furnished members to the State Legislature. The number has been limited by the fact that she has always been united with some stronger counties in the legislative district and has had to take what she could get. By no means has it been because she did not have men capable of holding the position. Many times in the years past have her honorable citizens had their ears to the ground waiting for their country's call, but the most ambitious have accepted their fate grate- fully and heroically. We are a part of the great commonwealth of Illinois, and Illinois' glory is our glory ; Illinois' great men are our great men. Lincoln, Douglas, Grant, Logan, Cullom and men of their stamp were the product of our state. Most of these men have figured during campaigns in Putnam county, and Daniel Webster at one time considered the territory of sufficient importance to make a speech here. The county, since the organ- ization of the republican party, has been repub- lican, but strange as it may seem the offices of the county have been about equally divided between
the democrats and republicans, which goes to show that political ties do not bind where personal tastes differ. While space will not admit of a re- view of the officers of the county, interesting as it might be, we do wish to enter in this record a list of the first and present official roster :
County Judge-John P. Blake, 1833; Henry C. Mills, 1902.
County Treasurer-James W. Willis, 1833, ap- pointed; Harry E. Raley, 1906.
· Circuit Clerk-Hooper Warren, 1831, also Re- corder; Jefferson Durley, 1876-1900; J. Linn Downey, 1904.
State's Attorney-Wm. H. Casson, 1872-1888; James E. Taylor, 1888.
County Clerk-Hooper Warren, 1831; Amos T. Purviance, 1857-1898 ; Chas. C. Greiner, 1902.
Sheriff-Ira Ladd, 1831; Jasper Cecil, 1906.
County Surveyors. O. F. Stevenson, 1831; Dan- iel B. Turner, 1879, till present time, except six months.
Coroner-Aaron Payne, 1831; O. F. Taylor, 1902.
County Superintendent of Schools-1831, N. Chamberlain. Called School Commissioner until 1865 and then called Superintendent; George W. Hunt, 1902.
It might be said in passing, that the first and last may not include the best always, and we are of the opinion that many of the officials whose names do not appear in this list made equally as interesting and successful history as those here mentioned.
The men who have represented Putnam county in the State Legislature, who have gone from this county, have been :
In the Tenth General Assembly-Thomas At- water.
In the Twelfth General Assembly-William H. . Henderson.
In the Seventeenth General Assembly-E. B. Ames.
In the Twenty-third General Assembly-George . Dent.
In the Twenty-fourth General Assembly- George B. Henderson.
In the Twenty-sixth General Assembly-Joel W. Hopkins.
In the Twenty-seventh General Assembly-Jo- seph Rheinhardt.
Abrokaw Voorhees Willis.
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In the Twenty-eiglith General Assembly-John G. Freeman.
In the Twenty-ninth General Assembly-James T. Thornton.
In the Thirtieth General Assembly-Eli V. Ra- ley.
In the Thirty-second General Assembly-James T. Thornton.
In the Thirty-third General Assembly-James T. Thornton.
In the Thirty-fourth General Assembly-Eli V. Raley.
In the Thirty-seventh General Assembly-Ar- chibald W. Hopkins.
In the Thirty-eighth General Assembly-Archi- bald W. Hopkins.
CHAPTER VIII.
PUTNAM COUNTY NEWSPAPERS.
The first paper published in Putnam county of which we have any knowledge was the Hennepin Journal, established by Dr. Wilson Everett in 1837, which was published until December, 1838, when it suspended for want of patronage.
The Genius of Universal Emancipation was then started in 1845 by Benjamin Lundy, a brief sketch of whose life appears elsewhere, but it was soon moved to Lowell, near Ottawa, where it existed only a few years.
In 1845 Philip Lynch started a paper in Hen- nepin called the Hennepin Herald; which lived from 1845 to 1848.
Then came the Hennepin Tribune, in 1856, by Birney and Duncan, which existed for about three years. This was followed by the Putnam County Standard, with Grable Bros. as publishers, in 1860. In 1861 the Grable boys enlisted in the army and left the paper in the hands of their father with Thomas Stanton as editor. W. H. G. Birney was also connected with the Standard for a short time. At the close of their terms of ser- vice, the Grable boys moved the plant to Wénona and started the Index.
On the 25th of June, 1868, I. H. Cook issued the first number of the Putnam County Record, a little three column folio 12x18 inches, printed on an Army press, which was continued for one year. In July the paper was enlarged to a six column folio and the name changed to the Putnam Rec-
ord. This was on July 23d, 1869, and it continued until 1877 when it was enlarged to a seven column folio, which form was continued until 1882. In 1882 a new power press was purchased (the one now in use) and the form of the paper was changed to a five column quarto. One year later an engraved head was put on the paper, which is still in use.
Mr. Cook has edited an extremely unique peri- odical. Never has he tolerated matter of a politi- cal bias to enter his columns, nor in the history of his paper has he ever mixed in community squab- bles. He has edited a newspaper pure and simple and his subscribers, who are legion, insist that he has run the best paper ever published at Hennepin. Mr. Cook's office is decidedly a condensed curi- osity. In a little room hardly large enough for a private office, he has stowed away all the necessary outfit for successfully carrying forward a newspa- per business. No visitor to Hennepin bas seen all the attractions of the place until he visits the Rec- ord office.
Mr. Cook, who has passed the three-score year and ten mark in life's pilgrimage, still devotes as many hours to his business as he did in his young- er years. Always agreeable and accommodating we have found him an honorable competitor and a faithful friend.
A number of papers have been started in Hen- nepin since Mr. Cook's residence there, among which we recall the Hennepin Herald by a Mr. Whitaker. After a seamy existence of a year and a half it sank into Grover Cleveland's famous in- nocuous desuetude. The Epitome, started by A. A. Davis an attache of the Record office, after a brief and rocky effort was transferred to some Dakota town.
Magnolia boasted of a paper at one time called the Magnolia News, edited in Magnolia and pub- lished in Wenona, but it also followed in the wake of oblivion. The County . Superintendent of Schools, John M. Boyer, while occupying that office, established the Granville Review, which was published at Spring Valley. The first number appeared March 28, 1891. A very creditable little sheet, spicy and newsy, with a fairly good adver- tising patronage and correspondence from every hamlet in the county. In looking over an old file of the Review which we have in our posses- sion we discover that Mr. Boyer used the columns of his paper for the publication of his official re-
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ports of visits to the various schools. Some of the comments upon the schools, the ability or lack of ability of the teachers, general appearance of the school property and school children make very interesting reading at this late day and must have created no little furor at the time of publication. Boyer had physical courage and was never thrashed that we have heard of. When he was superin- tendent of schools the work advanced under his administration very rapidly. The Granville Re- view, after about two years' existence, was dis- continued and F. S. Johnston took it under the wing of the Spring Valley parent paper.
The Granville Echo came into being May 29, 1903. A number of newspaper men visited the village, which had taken on new life by reason of the advent of a railroad and coal mines, with the expressed intention of establishing a news- paper for the growing town, but were not the kind of people that the community encouraged, so moved on.
W. E. Hawthorne, Boyer's successor as superin- tendent of schools of the county, who at the time was engaged in mercantile pursuit, and who had had some little experience in newspaper work believed that the opportune moment had arrived for him to launch his barque on a comparatively untried sea. Therefore, under the management of his brother-in-law, B. B. Blosser, who had been at the head of the Carlinville Republican, the first Echo went out from Granville on May 29, 1903. The enterprise being fostered by all of the busi- ness men of the community and patronized by the people quite generally met with unusual suc- cess from its inception. The editor was a man of rare talent in his profession whose experience covered every phase of newspaper work from er- rand boy to business manager of a city daily, but owing to misfortune not necessary to recount here, we find this new enterprise very fortunate in his misfortune in securing such a man to stand at the helm. Business and circulation increased rapidly, so much so that on December 1, 1905, the proprietor disposed of his mercantile interest in which he had been engaged since the expira- tion of his term as school superintendent and de- voted all his time to the newspaper business. On .the 3d day of June, 1906, Mr. Blosser died sud- denly of heart failure. During the year of 1906 Mr. Hawthorne was doing the entire editorial and reportorial work of the paper. The ever-increas-
ing volume of business indicates the favor with which the enterprise has been sustained by the community.
CHAPTER IX. EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS. UNION GROVE.
The first school at Union Grove was taught by Mrs. Ramsey in a blacksmith shop in the summer of 1831. The building stood about half a mile from the site of the present brick church called the Union Grove church. In the fall of '31 John P. Blake was engaged to take charge of the school and he remained for two years. His building was a log cabin that had been erected by the Presby- terian church society in 1830, a fairly good room eighteen feet square with logs hewn on the inside. Some of the children who attended the school were those of John W. and Stephen D. Willis, Hugh Warnock, J. L. Ramsey, Thomas Gallaher, Mr. Leech, Isaac Stewart, William Stewart and Torrance Stewart. It is also stated that two colored people, a young man twenty-two years of age and a girl twenty years old, runaway slaves, who were staying with James Willis, at- tended this school. The establishing of schools in the adjoining districts and nearness to the vil- lages in this part of the county prevented Union Grove from ever becoming more than a "district" school, which it remains to the present day.
SCHOOLS AT CLEAR CREEK AND CEN- TER.
The oldest school in Magnolia township, if not in the county, was built in the fall and winter of 1830 and stood on Clear creek about a mile above the camp ground. It was of hewn logs, sixteen feet square, with a hole hewn for a window made by cutting out a log. Its roof was covered with sticks, and C. S. Edwards, the pioneer pedagogue, opened school there January 6th, 1831, and taught . until February, 1832. When he commenced teach- ing the building was unfinished, having neither a floor nor a permanent door. It was supported for several years on the subscription plan. The patrons of this first school were Aaron Whitaker, Thornton Wilson, Aaron Payne. David Boyle. Hartwell Haley, George Hildebrant, William Graves, Ashael Hannum and Mr. Studyvin. The average attendance in this school was from ten to
JOHN SWANEY SCHOOL.
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twelve in summer and from fifteen to twenty in winter.
This school's development was commensurate with the opportunities of the community. Ap- preciating the benefits to be derived from superior instructors, the fathers of the community began importing professional teachers, and the spirit of advancement has grown until today within the boundaries of this district stands an educational monument, unique in its history and prophetic in its consummation, which shall be treated as wor- thy of special mention under the head of the "John Swaney School."
In the district adjacent to Clear Creek on the east is the famous Center school, formerly called the Quaker school because a large majority of the attendance were Quakers. This district has pro- duced some of the very strongest men of the county ; strong in every sense of the word, and this school was known for years as the best rural school in the state of Illinois. It has been cus- tomary, as in the Clear Creek district, to employ especially qualified instructors ; and students from this school have been admitted without examina- tion to higher institutions in the state. Out of this spirit of intellectual development and thirst for refinement and culture has grown a commu- nity rural in aspect that is equal in intelligence to the educational centers of the state. This dis- trict has had much to do with bringing about the establishment of the John Swaney School and it is now merged with the Clear Creek and Ox Bow schools into one district-the famous 532 school.
JOHN SWANEY SCHOOL. -
As an introduction to this theme, which has been one of absorbing interest and great import to the entire county during the present year, let us quote from the Granville Echo of March 2, which first announced the plans of its organi- zation :
Our venerable and esteemed citizen, John Swaney, of McNabb, has planned and promul- gated a scheme by which the community about his home may receive an everlasting benefit and a world-wide renown.
Lying north of and contiguous to the Grange fair grounds is a splendid tract of twenty-four acres of beautifully located land which Mr. and Mrs. Swaney propose dedicating to the people of
two or more school districts on condition of their consolidation into one district and the selection of said site for such consolidated school district, within eighteen months from the date of said proposition. Mr. Swaney further proposes to put the plat into special condition after the planning of a landscape gardener, provided that the plans should be after the manner of rural ideals, and not in imitation of city park or flower gardening.
A gentleman from the state university has been on the ground and has made blue prints of an ideal arrangement of the grounds which the donor endorses as his own ideal of what a rural school premises should be.
It is specially provided that this platting shall teach to the children and to the whole commu- nity the possibilities of a beautiful rural environ- ment, inspiring a love for nature and a desire to remain on the farm. The idea is unique, the man- ner of acomplishment is reasonable, and the au- thor is able and willing to supply the means for its development.
Nothing of its character now exists that we know of save by public expense. To be sure this school must be sustained as other schools are, by public tax; but it will offer superior opportuni- ties to any school system now extant. Think of it, a fine, up-to-date building with campus, ex- perimental garden and field, home for superin- tendent, stables for students' horses, walks, drives, and fountains ; is it not a beautiful conception ? Ought not this consummation make country life more attractive, bring child life more in touch with the great heart of nature?
And here in this sequestered spot, far from the contaminating influence of the maddening crowd, children may grow to maturity subject to home atmosphere, tinctured and rarefied by con- tact only with this ideal intellectual dispensary. ""T'is a consummation devoutly to be wished."
What a noble purpose! This patriarch who at best has but a few years' pilgrimage before him, who has no personal benefit to derive from his great plan, is willing to build a monument more enduring than granite shaft, more beneficial to posterity than houses or land, with a portion of his material accumulation, blessing his neigh- bors' children to generations yet unborn.
Will the people of the community appreciate the opportunity and rise to the demands of the occasion? We think they will. Already a large fund has been raised which is increasing daily
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to be used for furthering the plan. The oppor- tunity to vote on the consolidation will be given the districts to be benefited this spring and it is morally certain that these friends of education whose record has been to spare no expense to give their children the greatest possible advantage obtainable in the premises will endorse the plan of enlargement and thus increase their already envious reputation for leadership in rural school work.
Putnam county stands in the first rank in Illinois for the condition of work in the district schools, and carrying to completion Mr. Swaney's plan for Clear Creek, Center and the adjoining districts will give us a distinction not only in Illinois, but in the country at large, for a. mam- moth stride in advance of the most progres- sive rural communities.
No more beautiful site for such an experiment can be found in our country.
While it is an experiment in one sense, it is not of a speculative character; there is no uncertainty about its results.
There is no life so full of sweetness, so enjoy- able, so conducive to a completed development of perfect manhood as a life on the farm. To this end our venerable friend proposes the estab- lishment of this ideal country school.
The matter of the consolidation of the three districts, Center, Clear Creek and Ox Bow, came up for consideration before the trustees of Mag- nolia township at their April meeting and became the issue in the election of a trustee which resulted in the selection of the anti-consolidation candi- date. Seventy-five per cent of the voters in the three districts petitioned for the consolidation, which was rejected by the board of trustees. The matter was appealed to the county superintend- ent, who in an elaborate official ruling setting forth in a concise and exhaustive manner the law and the interest of the question, reversed the decision of the trustees and granted the prayer of the petitioners for consolidation.
After much study, gathering of data at home and abroad, counseling with the state superintendent and authorities legal and scholastic, the county superintendent elaborated an exhaustive opinion which he rendered to the parties interested on Saturday, April 27, 1906, at the Congregational church in Granville.
Quite a delegation came from the districts in-
terested and a number of Granville people gath- ered to hear the decision that was to affect for all time the school life of the county. Acting upon the decision of the superintendent, an election was called for a board of directors in the new district, which resulted in the selection as the first board, Willis B. Mills, from Center; John Wilson, from Clear Creek, and Victor Kays, from Ox Bow, a splendid selection to initiate this new plan -- men of practical experience, of character, of intelligence, and each vitally interested in the success of the enterprise. Procceding at once to the business in hand, an election was called to vote on bonding the new district to secure funds for the crection of a suitable school building. The people entered into the matter with zeal and a building was soon under way which, at the close of the year, is about completed-a beautiful three-story brick structure with all the modern improvements; light, water and heat in every room; the most ideal rural school in existence. This season's school work has been carried on in the Grange Hall and the Clear Creek school house a few rods south of the new building under the superintendency of McNeil C. James of the state university. Thus have the ambitions and dreams of the promoters of this philanthropic enterprise crystallized into, a magnificent reality. the John Swaney School.
VILLAGE SCHOOLS. MAGNOLIA, HENNEPIN, PUTNAM, FLOR- ID AND MCNABB.
There is no written record that goes to show that any one of these villages ever aspired to be- come seats of learning. No colleges have ever been established and the early schools were all of a private character. While these villages have maintained schools of average standing, none of them has been a leader in school matters. In later days since the establishment of public schools they have held their standards up to the average and are still pushing to the fore. At the present time each village has a graded school with a clas- sified course of study and employs especially quali- fied instructors who give the students a rudiment- ary education.
In Magnolia and Hennepin lecture courses have been maintained with varied success which have done much for the stimulating of educational in-
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terests. Hennepin in particular, as the county seat, has been the center of many gatherings, po- litical and educational, that have brought to the town educators of superior talent, and as commu- nities, like individuals, are subject to influence, so these villages have kept abreast of the times in matters educational and social. At the present time, in Hennepin and Putnam the spirit of con- solidation is the leading hope of the' people, and no doubt at an early date this movement will crys- tallize into something real along this line. Put- nam county as a unit is well to the fore in school matters and under the leadership of the present superintendent, George W. Hunt, sustained by an intelligent and enthusiastic constituency, she is destined to take front rank in the great com- mon wealth.
JUDSON COLLEGE.
Mr. Christopher Winters, in the establishment of the village of Mt. Palatine, designed an edu- cational institution and planned and hoped to make it a seat of learning. When he built the first school house it was called a seminary, but it afterward rose to the dignity of Judson College. The probability of the town ever becoming a place of any size depended upon the success of this scheme. The school that was erected was paid for by subscriptions from the farmers in the neighborhood. The building begun in the fall of 1841 was plain and substantial, built of brick. Rev. Otis Fisher, who had done much in the build- ing up of the Granville academy, came to this new field as superintendent. For fifteen years the college flourished and the village grew in popula- tion; but as is cited elsewhere, the coming of the Illinois Central to Tonica, only six miles distant, caused the rapid decline of Mt. Palatine. The school, too, ceased to be an attraction and, becom- ing unprofitable, was sold in 1860 to the Catholic people in the vicinity. A condition of the sale between the parties was that the buyers should maintain permanent school in the building, which they have done thus far, the condition being that in the event of failure to maintain such school the title of the property reverts to the original owners. The Catholics not only use the building for school purposes, but for church as well. This educational institution began first under a char- ter as an academy, but during the days of Mt. Palatine's prosperity the trustees obtained from
the legislature a charter as a college. The build- ing cost originally $3,000.
. Among the students who attended this school at one time were the Hon. Thomas Shaw, late judge of this district, and a Rev. Daniel Whittaker, who became a distinguished missionary to Bur- mah. Another distinguished person connected with the institution as a teacher was the poet, Coates Kenney, author of "Rain on the Roof" and other poems.
As a climax to the educational interests of the village it might be said that at this time she sup- ports a fairly good rural school in one of the poorest school buildings in the county.
HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN GRANVILLE. .
We have a faint recollection of once hearing it stated that a gentleman by the name of Mr. Columbus, from Europe, a long time ago, while out boating, was surprised by a sudden fog preva- lent in those parts which so befogged him that he floated across stream and discovered a new country, inhabited by a strangely peculiar people. It is stated that at the time he named his dis- covery Putnam county, in honor of an Israelite named Putnam, who afterward appeared, fought and died for his country.
If we remember correctly, it is further stated that this same Putnam, along with some of his neighbors, had a little unpleasantness with an- other crowd at that time considered consider- able, and, although Mr. Putnam's neighbors came out ahead, he lost his head. It appears that about 1827 the following parties, disregarding Mr. Columbus' rights by discovery, began occupying that gentleman's territory: Three brothers by the name of Willis, Haws, Rosses, Warnocks, Ishes, Harpers, Mills, Blakes and Wares. Still there were Moores to follow, Gunn, Whitaker, Hopkins and Shepards (by the way, there must have been rich pasturage here in carly days, judging from the number of Shepards that pitched their tents here).
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