USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois > Part 57
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The Northwestern Educational Society was organized at the Chicago Convention, which met Ort. 8. 1846, with Wm. B. Ogden as Presi- dent : G. W. Meeker, Recording Secretary, and John S. Wright, Corresponding Secretary, and a vice-president for each of the nine states represented in the convention. It held sub- sequent sessions in Milwaukee, July 25. 1847. and in Detroit, Ang. 17, 1848.
In Will County, Oet. 19, 1848, so far as appears, the first county institute was held. In October, 1849. an institute continuing for three weeks was held in Ottawa, with sixty-two teachers present. One in Pike County in 1850, of which the Prairie Farmer gives a flattering account, was in charge of Prof. J. B. Turner, assisted by John Shastid, with fifty-five teach- ers present. By this time institutes had be- come common. There were twenty-five teach- ers employed in the common schools of Chicago at this time, and in December, 1850, the com-
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mon council ordered that "the teachers in all the schools shall meet on Saturdays under the direction of inspectors, for their own improve- ment in teaching." This in place of teaching half a day Saturday as they had been doing. This action had been suggested to the council by the board of school inspectors.
During twelve years beginning 1847. Hon. Wm. Slade of Vermont, as agent of the Ohio Central Committee for the advancement of common school education, brought west about five hundred teachers, more than one hundred of them coming to Illinois. "Being ladies of culture and having had special training for this work as teachers. they did build up our schools.
Ilon. Thompson Campbell, Secretary of State and ex-officio Superintendent of Common Schools, made the first State School Report (if we except a very brief report made by Levi Davis. Auditor, for the year 1837) in January. 1847. The statistics were reported to him in response to a circular sent to county school commissioners dated Sept. 3. 1846. Returns were received from 57 counties as follows: Schools. 1,592: scholars. 46.814: persons under twenty years of age. 155.715: funds (town- ship). $557.780: funds raised by tax, $8.763: school houses, 1,328; average wages of teachers per month, male and female, $12.90: district libraries, 21: teachers, male (56 counties). 1.051 : teachers, female (56 counties . 484.
By act of Congress in 1850 certain "swamp" lands were again given to the States formed from the public domain. Illinois has received about 1,500,000 aeres under this act. By an aet of General Assembly approved June 22. 1852. these lands were granted by the State to the several counties in order that they might be used for drainage purposes. There was a pro- vision in this act whereby any of said lands. the sale of which was not necessary to com- plete the reclaiming and draining the same. should constitute a part of the school fund of each township. to be disposed of by the school commissioners of said counties, for edu- eational purposes. in the same manner as the sixteenth section of each township. The amount added to the common school funds from this source in the several counties and townships is estimated at about $600,000.
Pursuant to a call signed by thirty-two educational men of the state, a convention met in the Methodist Church in Bloomington on the evening of Dec. 26, 1853. At this meeting was fairly organized the present Illinois State Teachers' Association. A charter was secured Feb. 14. 1855. under the name of Illinois State Teachers' Institute. It amended its constitu-
tion at the meeting of 1856, made the name. The Illinois State Teachers' Association. By act of Feb. 11. 1857. the legislature made this the legal name of the organization.
At the special session of the legislature in February, 1854. a law was passed providing for the election of a State Superintendent of Schools at the general election in November. 1855. and every two years thereafter ( which was a blunder, 1854 being intended ), and that the Governor shonkdl appoint a fit man to hold the office until the election. Hon. Ninian W. Edwards was appointed by Gov. Matteson. and because of the blunder noted above. since then, there was no general election held in 1855. retained the office until January, 1857. There was other legislation affecting public schools by which a great impetus was given to the school work. The chief features of the law which helped the onward movement were the "no-school-no-state-fund" clause and the provisions for local taxation.
The bill for a normal school was introduced in the General Assembly, that convened Jan. 6. 1857. It passed the Senate by a vote of sixteen to four, and the House by a vote of thirty-nine to twenty-five. The institution was styled a "Normal University," although what was established was in faet a normal school, and the question of location was shrewdly eliminated from the contest before the legisla- ture by referring it to the trustees appointed in the bill. The board advertised for proposals. and several cities and towns competed for the prize. The bid of MeLean county ($141,725 in real estate and subscription pledges was so far ahead of the others that the board located the university "on the 160 acres of fine rolling land within three-quarters of a mile from the junetion of the lllinois Central and Chicago and Alton railroads." upon the condition that the full amount of the MeLean county sub- seription of $70.000 should be legally guaran- teed within sixty days, in default of which the location was to be made at Peoria. They employed Abraham Lincoln to draw up a form of bond or guaranty to be signed by respon- sible citizens of Bloomington. The corner stone of the university building was laid on Sept. 29. 1857. but the financial crisis of that year caused the work to be temporarily suspended. and hence the buildings were not thoroughly completed until the early part of 1861. The total cost of the buildings, with all the inei- dental expenses, books and furniture, was about $200,000. a large part of which was raised and utilized by the strenuons and per- sistent efforts of Gen. Charles E. Ilovey. Dur- ing the years while the great building was
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rising to completion the school work was car- ried on in a cramped and inconvenient building called Major's Hall. The first president of the university was Charles E. Hovey, but at the beginning of the Civil War he entered the army as colonel of the Normal Regiment, which he had organized. Nine of the instructors ac- companied him as officers, and a majority of the male students as privates. Dr. Richard Edwards was president from 1862 to 1876; Dr. Edwin C. Hervett from 1876 to 1891 : Dr. John W. Cook from 1891 to 1899: Dr. David Fehley is the present president (1905).
"Where was the first free school established in llinois?" is a question not easily answered. llon. Ninian Edwards stated in an address be- fore the State Teachers' Association in Decatur in 1870, that it was established in AHon in 1821. under the law passed that year, and he repeats the statement in his "History of Illi- nois and Life of Ninian Edwards," p. 195. It is true that about this time a town was laid out near what is now Upper Alton, and that the proprietors gave one hundred town lots, one-half for religious purposes and one-half for school purposes, and that by an act of 1831, certain trustees therein named were vested with the title to those lots, and given power to levy a tax of not more than seventy-five cents a year upon the lots in the town and required to establish and maintain a school free to all children, in the town, of a suitable age. After careful inquiry the weight of testimony seems to be that no school was established in Alton under this law, and that Mr. Edwards inferred that the first free school was estab- lished there from the fact that a law was passed making such a thing possible.
In October, 1833, a large part of the school section in Chicago was sold for $39,000; the interest on this fund went for the support of schools. Feb. 6. 1835, "An act relating to schools in Township thirty-nine north. Range fourteen east," was passed. vesting certain powers in the legal voters of that township. which was Chieago, Alton, in 1837, and Spring- field and JJacksonville in 1840 were given power to establish and maintain schools, but it does not appear that either city exercised this power until a much later date. It is thus soon that the honor of having the first free schools in the State must be conceded to Chicago and the date placed as early as 1834. It is probable that the schools were first graded in Chicago, since a beginning had been made as early as 1846. In 1844 "a good permanent brick school house. 60x80, two stories," had been erected at a cost of abont $4,000, and presumably this school was graded. The building was thought
by many to be too large for the needs of the city, and the Mayor, in his inaugural message, "recommended that the big school house be either sold or converted into an insane asyhun.'
In April. 1847. for the first time the city of Quincy was organized into school districts under the control of the city authorities, by a law of the legislature. In June of the same year, ordinances were adopted by the council for the support and management of the public schools and the appointment of a superintend- ent. Mr. 1. M. Grover was chosen for the posi- tion, and he served in that capacity for three years.
Dr. Bateman organized the West Jackson- ville Distriet School in September, 1851, with four departments - primary, intermediate. grammar and high school --- and, according to his own statements. all departments were made free to resident pupils some time before the free school act of 1855 went into force. The pupils of this high school were taken over a course of study sufficient to fit them for col- lege, and it was the first genuine high school in the State which was a free school.
The Peoria high school was organized in 1856, with Charles E. Hovey for principal. The Chicago high school followed in October of the same year, with C. A. Dupee as prin- cipal. The city council of Chicago authorized the appointment of a superintendent of schools with a salary of not more than $1,500, in No- vember. 1853. The school board elected John (. Don, who was principal of the Boylston Grammar School, Boston, who accepted and entered on his duties in June, 1854. Mr. Ilovey became superintendent of schools in Peoria in 1855. It should be mentioned here that neither the State Constitution of 1818 nor that of 1848 makes any special mention of education. The constitution of 1870. on the contrary has an entire article devoted to the subject and de- (lares "that the General Assembly shall pro- vide a thorough and efficient system of free schools, whereby all children of the State may receive a good common school education." The first law providing for the establishment of free schools, as has been noticed, was passed in 1825. Many changes have since been made. some of which destroyed for a time the free school features of the system. Some of the most important laws passed and now in force. aside from that creating the separate office of State Superintendent, are deserving of notice.
The school law of 1865 provided that County Superintendents, instead of county commis- sioners, should be elected in the regular elec- tion of November, the same year, and hold
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office for four years. He has supervision of the township treasurers whose bonds must be approved by him, and to whom he apportions the money from State and County funds : he ex- amines their bonds, accounts, notes, etc .. an- nually and withholds from those districts, that have not made annual report to him, their share of funds. He must hold ammally a teachers' institution, which must continne in session at least five days. The expenses of this institute are paid from what is known as the "institute fund," derived from the payment of a fee of one dollar from every applicant for examination for a teacher's certificate, and for each renewal of a certificate. Prior to 1885. the county superintendent visited schools only when directed to do so by the county board. Under the present law he must visit every school in his county at least once a year. Ile is to spend at least one-half the time given to his office in visiting ungraded schools.
The business of the school township is done by three trustees, one of whom is elected on the second Saturday in April annually, except, as is usually the case, where the boundaries of the school township coincide and are identical with the boundaries of the town, as established under the township organization laws when the election of school trustees is held at the same time as the annual town meeting. Their duties are, to appoint the township treasurer, to divide the township into distriets or to change the same under certain conditions and to ap- portion and distribute the State, County and Township funds on hand and subject to dis- tribution among the several districts which have kept school according to law.
Each school district has three directors, one being elected annually on the third Saturday in April at the district election. The directors have the management of the school in their district in the matter of prescribing rules for the school employing teachers. selection of text-books, etc .. they may levy a tax within limits prescribed by law, at present not to exceed two and one-half per cent for educa- tional and two and one-half per cent for build- ing purposes, to defray the expenses of the schools in their districts. In school districts having a population of not less than 1,000 and not over 100,000 inhabitants, under the general law, instead of the directors provided by the law in other districts, a board of education. consisting of a president, six members, and three additional members for every additional 10,000 inhabitants, is elected.
As has been noted, the oldest educational in- stitution of the State is the Normal University. at Normal, Mebean County, established in 1857.
The institution is under control of the Board of Education of the State of Illinois. This board consists of fifteen members. The State Superintendent of Public Instruetion is ex- officio a member and secretary of the Board.
The University of flinois, located at Ur- bana. Champaign County, was established in 1867, under the name of Illinois Industrial I'miversity. The change to University of Illinois was made in 1885. the fact that the word industrial is applied to charitable and penal institutions being the principal reason for the change. In 1862 congress provided for the apportionment, to such of the States as should comply with certain provisions within five years, of an amount of public land equal to 30,000 acres for each senator and repre- sentative in congress to which each State was entitled by the census of 1860. One of the provisions of the grant was that there should be established in each state desiring to obtain an apportionment of land at least one college in which the leading object should be to teach such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts. The pres- ent University of Illinois was established under the provisions of this act of congress. It is controlled by a board of trustees. nine in num- ber, three being elected every two years. The Governor, the President of the State Board of Agrienlture and the State Superintendent of Publie Instruction are ex officio members.
The Southern Illinois Normal University was established in 1869. It is located at Carbondale, Jackson County, and is controlled by a board of five trustees.
The Eastern Ilinois State Normal School, located at Charleston. Coles County, was es- tablished in 1895. It is controlled by a board of five trustees.
The Northern Ilinois State Normal School, also established in 1895 and controlled by five trustees, is located at DeKalb. DeKalb County.
The Western Hlinois State Normal School is at Macomb, MeDonough County. It was es- tablished in 1899, and is controlled by five trustees.
PERMANENT SCHOOL FUNDS.
The following is a statement of the perma- nent school funds, the income alone of which can be expended for school purposes :
1. School Fund Proper, being three per cent on the net proceeds of the sales of the public lands in the State, one-sixth part excepted. This fund amounts to $613.362.96.
2. Surphis Revenue. being a portion of the money received by the State from the General Government, under an act of Congress pro-
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viding for the distribution of the surplus revenue of the United States, and by act of the Legislature, March 4, 1837. made a part of the common school fund. This amount is $335,592.32.
3. C'ollege Fund, being one-sixth part of the three per cent fund originally required by aet of Congress to be devoted to the establishment and maintenance of a State College or univer- sity. $156,613.32.
4. Seminary Fund, being the proceeds of the sales of the "Seminary Lands" originally donated to the State by the General Govern- ment for the founding and support of a State seminary, $59,833.72.
5. County Funds, created by act of the Leg- islature, Feb. 7, 1835, which provided that the teachers should not receive from the public fund more than half the amount due them for services rendered the preceding year, and that the surplus should constitute the principal of a new fund to be called the "County School Fund," total in all counties, $158,072.83.
6. Township Funds, being the net proceeds of the sale of the sixteenth section in each Congressional township of the State, the same having been donated to the state for common school purposes by act of Congress in 1818 and of additions thereto, total of all the town- ships, including valne of school lands unsold, moderate valuation, $15,614,627.31.
7. University of Illinois Fund, before men- tioned, including original sale of serip, of lands, and value of unsold, unproductive lands, about $600,000.
THE STATE COURSE OF STUDY.
A properly graded course of instruction is a very important factor in any system of schools. The Illinois State Course of Study, now generally recognized as the most com- plete course ever compiled for the schools of any state, has been in process of development during a period of about twenty-five years. Its evolution is due to the realization, on the part of progressive superintendents, of the great need of some plan of country school super- vision. John T. Trainer, formerly county superintendent of Macon County, was the pioneer in the use of a course of study in the country schools of Illinois. As early as 1875 or 1876 he issned a book entitled "A Graduat- ing System for Country Schools." This work was widely eirenlated and the system was adopted in many parts of the country. The Knox County Outline of Study, prepared by Snpt. W. h. Steele, of Galesburg and Co. Supt. Geo. W. Oldfather, of Knox County and the Champaign County Mannal and Guide, pre-
pared by Co. Supt. Geo. R. Shawhan, followed soon afterward and were used also in counties nearby, the latter principally in the eastern part of the State. There were also other courses of study, individual courses, in several counties. It is readily seen that so many courses of study were a disadvantage in many ways. During the meeting of the Central Illinois Teachers' Association, held at Jackson- ville in March, 1889, a number of enthusiastic county superintendents and other friends of the plan, met in one of the hotels and dis- cussed in an informal way the advantages of having a state course of study. As a result of this discussion, Hon. Richard Edwards, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was asked to call a meeting of County Superintend- ents and leading teachers of the State to dis- cuss the subject. and if thought advisable to take steps to prepare a state course. The call was issued and the conference was held in Springfield, April 10, 1889. At the close of the day's conference a committee of five county superintendents was appointed to work out the course in detail according to conditions agreed upon. This committee consisted of the follow- ing county superintendents: Geo. R. Shawhan, Champaign Co .; J. A. Miller, McLean Co .; Geo. W. Oldfather, Knox Co .; Geo. 1. Talbot, DeKalb Co., and JJ. D. Benedict, Vermilion Co. The committee was a strong one and well chosen, the course was completed and pub- lished in time for the opening of school in September, 1889. It contained 94 pages and continued in use five years, from 1889 to 1894.
Acting on the suggestion of Mr. J. 11. Free- man, president of the State Teachers' Associa- tion. December, 1893, the association appointed a committee to revise the course. This com- mittee completed the revision of the course in time for use in most of the annual institutes of 1894. This first revision of the State Course of Study contained 96 pages and was used three years. from 1894 to 1897.
At the annual meeting of the County Super- intendents' Section of the State Teachers' Association, in December, 1895, it was sug- gested that there should be a standing com- mittee on State Course of Study to revise the course from time to time. A committee of six was appointed with the understanding that of the first committee one-third of the members were to serve one, two and three years, respectively, and in future members were to be appointed for a term of three years, except appointments to fill un-expired terms. The State Superin- tendent was to be a member of the committee by virtue of his office. In 1897 the committee put out the second revision of the course. In
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this revision the plan of alternation of studies was worked more definitely and extended, the work of the primary division was more fully explained and outlined to some extent, and new and valuable features were added, such as work in composition, vocal music, etc. This second general revision of the State Course contained 148 pages, and with two additions, a year's course in agriculture, in 1900, and second year's work in the same subject, 1901, was used six years, from 1897 to 1903. In the third general revision of the State Course, made in 1903. two new features were included, a course in honsehold arts was added and sev- eral high school courses were carefully worked out on the principle of alternation. The 1903 revision of the course contained 218 large, closely printed pages, and is in nse at the present time with varying degrees of success in nearly all the counties of Illinois. It has been officially adopted in five states and terri- tories, and is placed in the hands of teachers in a number of counties in different parts of the United States.
Through the use of the Course of Study great improvements have been made in the common schools :
1. The school year has been lengthened in many localities.
2. The older boys and girls enter at the beginning of the year and remain until the close in order to complete the entire course.
3. The common school course leads up to the high school.
4. The pernicious enstom of changing teach- ers twice a year has almost entirely disap- peared.
5. The Course of Study has been the means of improving the methods of instruction of thousands of teachers who could not be indneed to attend the normal schools.
The State Course has become so well estah- lished and is so far reaching in its influence that a new subject of study or an improved method of teaching may be published in it, and in a few months thousands of teachers and tens of thousands of pupils of the state will go to work earnestly to meet the new requirements. (We are indebted to C. M. Parker, Taylorville, Ill., publisher of the State Course of Study, for information concerning its history. etc.)
EDUCATION IN ADAMS COUNTY.
The early history of edneation in this coun- ty is largely incorporated in the history of the townships and the city of Quincy. The ob- stacles in the way of pioneer endeavor and struggles. the hopes, the defeats and the vic- tories which apply to what has been said of the
State, in securing needed legislation, were shared by the ambitious, progressive residents of Adams County. Where tardy recognition of the claims of public education was accorded, no county in the State more promptly pre- sented the opportunities and advantages of the free school system to her boys and girls.
There are 182 school houses in the county, nearly all in good condition. Of these 129 are frame structures, 36 of brick, 16 of stone, and one only. Hickory Grove school house, in Liberty township, is of logs. There are seven- teen private schools in the county.
The first county school commissioner is said to have been A. Tonzalin, from Feb. 21, 1854, to Dec. 1. 1857 ; but the first official record in the County Superintendent's office is that of A. W. Blakesly, from Dec. 1, 1857, to Dec. 1. 1859. The first teachers' certificates seem to have been granted by him to Hamilton Young and Mary Young, of Richfield, both bearing date of Dee. 9. 1857. The commissioners suc- ceeding Blakesly were: M. T. Lane, Dec. 1, 1859; Wm. Avise, 1860; Hope S. Davis, 1864. As a result of the school law of 1865, in No- vember of that year Seth W. Grammer was elected first County Superintendent of Schools for a term of four years. He was succeeded by John H. Black, who served from 1869 to 1881. In 1881, the County Board of Super- visors appointed S. S. Nesbitt Connty Super- intendent for one year, in compliance with a law making a change in the time of election of certain county officers. John Jimison was elected to the office in the fall of 1882, and served from Dec. 1. of that year until his death in June 1893. Miss Ella M. Grubb was appointed by the county board to fill out the remainder of his term, and in the election of 1894. A. A. Seehorn was chosen and held the office until Sept. 16, 1897, when he resigned to accept the position of city superintendent of Quincy schools. A. R. Smith, by appointment of the county board, filled out the remainder of Mr. Seehorn's term, and in the fall of 1898 was elected to the position which he has held continuously since that time.
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