Bureau County, Illinois - Chapter 31, 1885

Interest Treated, Etc., Etc., Etc

SCHOOLS - WHIN THEY CAME AND WHO BBOUOHT THEM - THE SUBJECT or EDUCATION CONSIDEBED - AND QINEEAL MATTERS OF INTEREST TREATED, ETC., ETC., ETC.

FOB more than 1,700 years the subject of schools has been of interest to most of the civilized people of the world. In their present form they have been a thing of slow growth. Like nearly every other permanent institution they have been in various degrees of efficiency and force, in nearly every age and with nearly every different people. For centuries among all the autocratic nations, schools were only supposed to be for the purpose of enlightening the nobility, and the great mass of men were supposed to have no concern in the subject. The educated and the uneducated have always been separated by a high, and nearly always a supposed impassable wall and deep ditch. Then the time came when royal blood was supposed to be born above the needs of common mortals, and they left education to those of meaner blood, and the great old kings could only sign their name with their signet rings.

Early in the second century of the Christian age, the present system of schools was founded in Egypt. They were simply pietistic schools to train young men for the priesthood. And then for many centuries the priests were supposed to be the only men who had any concern about education. The schools were a mere annex of the Catholic Church, and the church was eager to extend its power through this as other channels. A priest who could read and write became an awful person in the minds of the illiterate and superstitious world. It was the mastery of the magic art, the mysterious powers of necromancy, in their estimation, for a man to be able to read the thoughts of others from the dead pages of papyrus. Can you imagine the thoughts of the Indian savage, when the white man got him to go to a neighbor and carry a block of wood on which he had written his request, when the savage saw the one write and the other read and understand ? It was not only mysterious, but wholly incomprehensible and startling. The Manitou had never come down and so worked wonders for the Indian. And like ignorance everywhere, it was folly to tell him such wonderful things were not supernatural.

In the long centuries the schools have to some extent grown away from their alma mater, the church, and have started along life's highway, scorning longer to reach up and steady its steps by the extended hand that had so long guided and protected it. It has come to feel and know that education is for all men - even for all women, too - and that there is something more in it than committing to memory the church prayers, rubrics, disciplines and the Lives of the Saints. And the singular fact is found in history that the church eventually found it necessary to say to its too inquiring priests, that the pious orders "had not time from their prayers and meditations to investigate the movements of the heavenly bodies." Thus it was forced to become the friend only of that education that made believers in its dogmas, and the enemy of all so-called education that dared to pass beyond this sacred ground. And to-day ignorant churchmen draw the rigid line at about the same point. They cannot comprehend that all truth and all truths are good mental food. They frankly confess that, except themselves, men ai'e incapable of such investigation, without rushing into confusing doubts when they approach the study of the physical laws that environ the universe. Hence, their ideas of real education are vague and nebu-

Ions. They persist in believing that the morals and intellects of the human families are distinct things - things that conflict in some inscrutable way, and that the best Christian, therefore, is not the best thinker, but the best believer.

While the history of the school is one of profound interest, yet the subject whether the system has reached that stage of perfection that it can go no further is a more practical and still greater theme for contemplation. The church, the school, the law and the government are always telling the world what they have done, in tones of loud and confident assertion. These mere arrogant assumptions are as often baseless as well founded. And to men of ordinary penetration of mind they are heard with many grains of allowance. What truth there is in the claims is freely granted, and the errors are generally passed in charitable silence, in the unalterable conviction that the truth never dies, and that the ultimate judgment will come the moment the mind is ready to understand it. Certainly the greatest improvement in the public school is the gradual and nearly complete separation of the school from the exclusive proprietorship of the church. Whether its transfer to the State was the wisest thing that could be done with it is another and perhaps as yet an unsolvable problem. The average man will tell you, if you attempt to discuss this part of the subject, that you are opposed to education, and if you are the enemy of education of course you have no right to talk about the great work they are doing, much less to criticise it, or point out any imperfections, or possible improvements; because the average man thinks exactly as the fleet-footed race horse would run with hobbles on his feet. The very large majority of men, not quite so great a proportion now, probably, as formerly, seize upon one or two axiomatic truths about all such practical subjects, and from these form instant judgments, and are hot and impatient of all doubts as to their infallibility upon questions they are unable to ever know - questions that may command the patient study and tireless investigation of the greatest philosophers and biologists. When such able investigators come eventually to look in upon this vital subject, it is easy to imagine some of the questions they will confront on the very threshold of their examination. For instance : Does the vital economy of nature require that to educate children they must be herded together in crowds - rooms full, great buildings full, and then classed and graded and divided, and so many assigned to each different teacher, or all to one teacher where the numbers are not too great for the holding capacity of a single school room ? Is that the one and only way to do, to build schoolhouses large and small, ranging from the little cabin to the splendid university, and the work of educating is taken away from the ho'me and transferred to the school room, and the parental responsibility is taken charge of by the teacher? Is this modern invention of rigid grading the child's true interests, or the teacher's comfort? Are the modern improvements real or imaginary ? Is committing to memory education? Is there anything else in the system as now practiced except committing to memory ? Is a text book of any value in a school room ? If yes, then are both a teacher and a text book prime necessities? Which should be abolished, if either? And while it has only occurred here as a " lastly," it is probable it would come to the great philosophic mind as a "firstly" - what is education? Now, reader, you must bear in mind that it is not treason to the intelligence and education of the human race for the mind that is able to do it, to dispassionately con- sider all these subjects. The ultimate welfare of civilization hangs upon these and a similar scrutiny of all subjects whose wide range takes in mankind. And then again, is the entire curriculum, after you pass reading, writing and the four first rules in the arithmetic - or addition, subtraction, division and multiplication - of any practical value in after life, except for those intending to be school teachers? And seriously is there any more urgency to build great schools to teach Latin and Greek than there is for Chinese and Choctaw ? Has a man education in fact when he knows all the text books and can read and translate Latin, Greek and Hebrew? All these are questions that should be discussed in every literary society, in every newspaper and magazine, in public gatherings and in the private circle. They are questions of transcendent importance, and the overwhelming evidence of their importance - the imperative demand there is for correct answers to the above and many other questions about the schools - is the fact that upon the first asking of the questions ninety-nine men in a hundred would doubt your being serious, and would tell you that they had all been forever settled hundreds of years ago. But with sufficient discussion nearly all men of quick and strong comprehension would come to see their importance, and that time or age cannot take away the right and the duty to look into all questions, each for himself, and strike always for the truth. It would be another great step in teaching men that error is wrong and ignorance a crime. It would widen the door to the world's great schoolhouse, broaden and deepen the human grasp of thought, and pave and smooth the rugged highway for the coming school and school teacher, as well as bear the golden harvests of that distant and glorious summer of a higher and better civilization. To better the condition of mankind, to relieve suffering, give health, lighten and equalize the heavy burdens, to make men better, happier and wiser is the only supremely noble work in this world. He who aids most in this noble work and transmits such blessings to the future ages is not only the greatest but the best in the tide of time.

An interesting fact in the long history of schools of every kind or variety is the fact that their entire, real advances in the way of improvement have, like every other social institution, been forced upon them by outside power. The churches have been thus liberalized and bettered, and so have the schools, the political economy of nations, governments themselves as well as all other great social concerns. The school men have not been marked by any greater reluctance to be pushed forward than have any of the others. Civilization grows always in this apparently anomalous and tortuous course. For instance, a law is adopted. Possibly (though not as a rule) it was the very best device for all at the time of its adoption. But in the long course of time it outlives its usefulness. In the great onward highway it is passed and becomes a laggard and a criminal. The people suffer and suffer, and eventually from the ranks of the oppressed there arise serious mutterings; it is openly attacked, the rebellion grows and deepens and the executors of the now bad law strike valiant blows in its defense. They are alarmed at this spirit of evil, as they regard all innovation on the sacred arrangements of the fathers, and they yield only when compelled to do so. And when they have thus reached and realized the improvement, they are forever pro- .claiming the glorious advancement and soon come to believe that they really did it all themselves - that they fought out the good fight and covered themselves with glory. These are curious phenomena, presenting in-

To reach the best possible educational system is the grand approach to the highest attainable civilization. It is, therefore, the subject of deepest interest to all men. The old saying has it: " 'Tis education forms the common mind." Not true, but it is a stagger in the right direction, and is a fit companion piece of the grand advancing idea of our Revolutionary fathers, when they incorporated in the celebrated ordinance of 1787 the bold declaration that "knowledge, with religion and morality, are necessary to the good government j of mankind. " The governing power in every | nation is of necessity an educated one, be- j cause in every ruler or his advisors there must be some knowlege of international law, of domestic relations, of finance, of commerce and the organization of armies and navies. England has cared little for the education of its common people, but it has carefully attended to the education of its ruling classes. It has differed radically from this country (not so much now as in the past) in drawing a line and educating the nobles to the fullest extent, and neglecting the laborers or masses of the people. And yet the people when they were left to care for themselves have not been far surpassed in the race for great intellects. Indeed, is it not a startling comment that will force itself upon the minds of the student of English history, that her great men have come from the ranks of the poor - the neglected - in a large majority of instances?

When the survey of the Northwest Territory was ordered by Congress, it was decreed, that every sixteenth section of land should be reserved for the maintenance of public schools within each township. The ordinance of 1787 proclaimed that " schools and the means of education should forever be encouraged. " By the act of Congress passed April 18, 1818, enabling the people of Illinois to form a State Constitution, the "section numbered 16 in every township, and when such section had been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto and as contiguous as may be, should be granted to the State for the use of the inhabitants of such township for the support of schools." The act further stipulates "that 5 per cent of the net proceeds of the lands lying within said State, and which shall be sold by Congress from and after the 1st day of January, 1819, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved for the purposes following: Two-fifths to be disbursed, under the direction of Congress, in making roads leading to the State; the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university." In other words, Congress donated to the State a full township, six miles square, for seminary purposes, and the thirty-sixth part of all the residue of public lands in the State and 3 per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of the remainder, to support common schools and promote education in the then infant State. Truly a most magnificent and princely donation and provision for education. The sixteenth section, so donated, amounted in the State to nearly 1,000,000 acres; in Bureau County to over 16,000 acres. Laws were first passed directing Commissioners' Courts to appoint three Trustees for the school land in each township where the inhabitants of such townships numbered twenty white persons. These Trustees had power to lease the school lands at public outcry, after twenty days' notice, to the highest bidder for any period not exceeding ten years, the rents to be paid in improvements, or in shares of the products raised. The laws were crude, and fell far short of their intended object. The school lands, under the lessee or rental arrangement, yielded little or no revenue; many of the renters, having no title to or common interest in the land, only opened and cultivated enough for a bare support, and, of course, produced nothing to divide. Then squatters took possession of a considerable portion, and wasted the timber, and in many ways depreciated the value of the lands. As a result, the cause of education languished, and was at a stand-still for years. There were a great many influences and obstacles in the way of a general diffusion of knowledge. The settlements were sparse, and money or other means of remunerating teachers were scarce; and teachers, competent to impart even the common rudiments of an English education, were few and far between.

This state of affairs continued until 1825, when Joseph Duncan, then a member of the State Senate, introduced a bill for the support of common schools by a public tax. The preamble to the act was as follows: " To enjoy our rights and liberties we must understand them; their security and protection ought to be the first object of a free people; and it is a well-established fact that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom which was not both virtuous and enlightened; and believing that the advancement of literature always has been and ever will be the means of developing more fully the rights of man; that the mind of every citizen in a republic is the common property of society, and constitutes the basis of its strength and happiness; it is, therefore, considered the peculiar duty of a free government like ours to encourage and extend the improvement and cultivation of the intellectual energies of the whole." The text of this admirable law may be divined from the preamble. It gave education a powerful impetus, and common schools flourished in almost every settlement. But notwithstanding all this, the law was in advance of the civilization of the times. The early settlers had left the older States - the Southern States, where common school education never has flourished as it should - and plunged into the wilderness, braving countless dangers and privations in order to better their individual fortunes and to escape the burdens of taxation, which advanced refinement and culture in any people invariably impose. Hence, the law was the subject of much bitter opposition. The very idea of a tax was so hateful that even the poorest preferred to pay all that was necessary for the tuition of their children, or keep them in ignorance - which was generally the case - rather than submit to the mere name of tar. This law - the Duncan law, as it was called - is the foundation upon which rests the superstructure of the present common school system of Illinois. The law provided for the division of townships into school districts, in each of which were elected three School Trustees, corresponding to Directors of the present day, one Clerk, one Treasurer, one Assessor and one Collector. The Trustees of each district had supreme control and management of the school within the same, and the employment of teachers and fixing their remuneration. They were required to make an annual report to the County Commissioners' Court of the number of children living within the bounds of such district between the ages of five and twenty -one years, and what number of them were actually sent to school, with a certificate of the time a school was kept up, with the expenses of the same. Persons over the age of twenty- one years were permitted to attend school upon the order of the Trustees; and the history of education in Illinois discloses the fact that it was no uncommon thing for men beyond the meridian of life to be seen at school with their children. The law required teachers, at the close of their schools, to prepare schedules giving alphabetically the names of attending pupils, with their ages, the total number of days each pupil attended, the aggregate number of days attended, the average daily attendance, and the standing of each scholar. This schedule was submitted to the Trustees for their approval, as no teacher was paid any remuneration except on presentation to the Treasurer of his schedule, signed by a majority of the Trustees. The law further provided that all common schools should be maintained and supported by a direct public tax. School taxes were payable either in money or in produce, and teachers would take the produce at market price, or if there was no current value the price was fixed by arbitration. Fancy the schoolma'am of the present day taking her hard-earned salary as a teacher in potatoes, turnips or coon skins! We have heard it related of a teacher in one of the counties bordering the Wabash River that he was paid in coon skins for a ten weeks' school; and after his school was out he footed it to "Vincennes with his pelts upon his back, a distance of over thirty miles, and there disposed of them.

When this wise and wholesome law was repealed by the Legislature, Gen. Duncan wrote, as if gifted with prophecy, "that coming generations would see the wisdom of his law, and would engraft its principles on their statute-books; that changes in the condition of society might render different applications of the same necessary, but that the principle was eternal, and the essence of free and enlightened government; and legislators who voted against the measure will yet live to see the day when all the children of the State will be educated through the medium of common schools, supported and maintained by direct tax upon the people, the burden falling upon the rich and poor in proportion to their worldly possessions." These predictions, yellow with the years of a half-century and over, have been faithfully fulfilled and verified.

The Duncan school law remained in force only a little over two years, when it was repealed. The great objection, as we have said, to the law, was the tax clause. This was, substantially, that the legal voters of any school district had power, at any of their meetings, to cause either the whole or onehalf of the sum necessary to maintain and conduct a school in said district, to be raised by taxation. And if the voters decided that only one-half of such required amount was to be so raised, the remainder was to be paid by the parents, masters and guardians, in proportion to the number of pupils which each of them might send to such school. No person, however, could be taxed for the support of any free school unless by his or her consent first obtained in writing, though all persons refusing to be taxed were precluded from sending pupils to such school. In almost every district there were those who had no children to educate, and then there was an uncivilized element of frontier life, who believed education was a useless and unnecessary accomplishment, and only needful to divines and lawyers; that bone and muscle and the ability to labor were the only requirements necessary to fit their daughters and sons for the practical duties of life. A proverb then current was (in many localities), " The more book-learning the more rascals." To quote a localism of the day, "gals didn't need to know nothin' about books, and all that boys orter know was how to grub, maul rails and hunt.? That senseless prejudice, born of the crude civilization of the early period of the country, has descended, in a slight dregree, to the present, and yet tinges the complexion of society in many different localities.

After the repeal of the Duncan law, education, for nearly a generation, was in anything but a nourishing condition, either in this county or in the State. Like the stagnant waters of a Southern lagoon, it was difficult to tell whether the current flowed backward or forward. For many years the schoolhouses, school books, school teachers and the manner of instruction were of the most primitive character throughout the whole of southern Illinois. The houses were the proverbial log-cabin, so often described in the early annals. A few of these humble schoolhouses, unused and almost rotted down, may still be occasionally seen, eloquent of an age forever passed. The early books were as primitive as the cabin schoolhouses, and the early teacher was, perhaps, the most primitive of all. The old-time pedagogue was a marked and distinctive character of the early history - one of the vital forces of the earlier growth. He considered the matter of imparting the limited knowledge he possessed a mere question of effort, in which the physical element predominated. If he couldn't talk or read it into a pupil, he took a stick and mauled it into him.

The school-master usually, by common consent, was a personage of distinction and importance. He was of higher authority, even in the law, than the Justice of the Peace, and ranked him in social position. He was considered the intellectual center of the neighborhood and was consulted upon all subjects, public and private. Most generally he was a hard-shell Baptist in religion, a Democrat in politics and worshiped Gen. Jackson as his political savior. But the old-time pedagogue - the pioneer of Ameri can letters - is a thing of the past, and we shall never see his like again. He is ever in the van of advancing civilization, and fled before the whistle of the locomotive or the click of the telegraph was heard. He cannot live within the pale of progress. His race became extinct here more than a quarter of a century ago, when the common school system began to take firm hold and become a fixed institution among the people. The older citizens remember him, but to the young of to-day he is a myth, and only lives in tradition.

The school laws, after the repeal of the Duncan law, were often changed - they were revised and changed again before they attained to the perfection we at present have in them. Even now, they are susceptible of improvement, though they are superior to those of many other States. A peculiarity in the different State constitutions is that pertaining to education. The constitution of 1818, while endorsing education in a general way, is silent upon the subject of educating the masses through the medium of the common schools. The framers of the constitution of 1848 went a little further; they said that the General Assembly might provide a system of free schools. It was not, however, till after half a century of existence as a State, that her delegates, in convention assembled, engrafted upon the pages of her organic law a mandatory section, declaring " that the General Assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free schools, whereby all children of this State may receive a good common school education.

the first schools in the county, by -whom taught and where, in the earliest settlement - of the county. Hence, now it is only necessary that we take up the subject by a rapid reference of the early days of the school-masters as they came to the places in the county that were settled at a later date.

The first teachers in Lamoille were Hezekiah Smith, Mrs. Pierce (from Dover), Rev. Vincent Baltist. Howard Johnson taught a subscription school at Perkins' Grove. Mariah Smith, now Mrs. Clapp, a sister of Hezekiah Smith, was also one of the early and efficient teachers.

In Arlington the first teacher was Mrs. Carrie Brush. She also taught a school in Tiskilwa. Her successor as a teacher in Tiskilwa was Senator L. D. Whiting. The first schoolhouse built in Arlington was in 1855, and the first teacher in this was Miss Caroline Morton, who was followed by W. H. Robinson (this was W. H. R. No. 2, and not the one first named), W. H. Hill, M. D. Paxson, Z. S. Hills, C. O. Sawyer, S. C. Whippie, H. S. Hallock and A. E. Okey. Members of the present School Board are T. A. Maul, R. B. Van Lew, and Thomas Ryan.

L. J. Kendall furnishes us the following from Lamoille: " Owing to there being no records kept, I have been obliged to glean what I could from the older citizens in regard to the history of the schools. In (about) 1836 Mrs. Bowen, now Mrs. Walter Porter, taught a free school in her house. In 1838 money was raised by subscription and Hezekiah Smith was employed to teach, on the site where Charles Thompson now lives. Soon after a building was erected for school purposes on the lot now occupied by John Igon's shops. The township in 1846 first raised money by taxation for schools at the rate of 15 cents on $100. In 1851 the first

Congregational Church was built and the basement was used for school purposes until 1858, when the present brick building of two rooms was finished. In 1875, more room being required, a frame one-story building was built near the brick. Among the Principals who have been employed since 1858 are: Frank Allen, Lyman Kendall, Mr. White, Mr. Corning, Z. S. Hills, J. H. Smith, j A. M. Burns, Mrs. A. M. Richardson, J. E. Hathorn, S. C. Whipple, B. F. Stock, Addison Lowry and E. P. Hussey.

In 1867 the Arlington School District erected a school .building at an expense of $14,500. A Principal and two assistants commenced work at once. The same number of teachers have been employed continuously since, except one year a fourth teacher was employed half the time. The average attendance has ranged from 125 to 150, the highest number being 175. The Principals were: Profs. S. B. Bathurst, S. C. Whippie and W. H. Robinson, each serving a term of years.

The first school in Neponnet was taught by Julia A. Bigelow in the winter of 1855-56. She was paid $20 a month. The school was for three months. In 1861 two teachers were for the first time employed, and an extra room had to be secured to accommodate the large number of pupils applying. A frame building was erected in 1864 of five rooms. This was burned April 13, 1870. In 1870 the present two- story brick was erected at a cost of $15,000. In 1877 the School Board arranged a complete grade of the schools, and have granted diplomas to graduates since that time. There has been no change since the course was adopted.

This District No. 4, Selby Township, was organized November 20, 1852. Eli Leonard, John H. Stockman and Joshua Bishop were the Directors elected at the first meeting. Mrs. Elizabeth Spratt was the first teacher employed, and on a salary of $2 per week and board. The term as indicated by the record (rather indefinitely) consisted of about four weeks only. Among the earlier teachers of this school were W. H. Mesenkop, who was engaged to teach a term of three months, commencing the first Monday of November, 1857, at a salary of $37 per month and board himself. MissM. A. Wheeler, who was succeeded by Miss Mary Johnson, taught during the year 1858, each at a salary of $5 per week, exclusive of board. Since said year the following teachers have been employed:

The first school building erected in this district was a frame built during the summer of 1854; size of building, 24x30, one story. The present building is a brick, two stories and basement, the latter being ten feet high, and used for the Primary Department; the upper rooms are each thirteen feet high, and are used for the Intermediate and Grammar Departments. All of said rooms are 27x33, feet, are convenient and well ventilated, and contain No. 1 seats and desks. This building was erected by Chris Mason in 1874, and cost about $6,000. The following are the present school officers: Paul J. Smith, President; Edward Finley, Clerk; Charles E. Stedman.

at an expense of $4, 500. The following teachers have been employed in the order given: I. J. Heaps, two years; J. W. Rice, one year; D. C. Cooper, one year; S. D. Abbott, two years; L. K. Holroyd, two years; Frank Akins, same; A. D. Jenkins, same; J. W. Boling, same. The assistant teacher s were Mary Eipley, Carrie Newbecker, Sarah Henry, Emma Henry, Ida Knipple, Martha Banenger, Jesse Biley, Belle Pettis and Edna Brainard.

Princeton Schools. - The basement of the old Hampshire Colony Church was the shelter for Princeton's first school, which was taught in the winter of 1836-37. The first private school was taught by A. B. Church, in his own dwelling. In 1851 James Smith kept a private school. In 1851 the South Union schoolhouse was erected by J. H. Bryant and James Everett P. W. Ferris was the first Principal. The School Board until 1872 consisted of three members, one retiring every year. The first consisted of Arvis A. Chapman, President; J. V. Thompson, Clerk, and John Biale. They were elected in 1857. They appointed H. P. Farwell Principal, at a salary of $700 per year. Miss Allen, Miss Dunbar and Victoria White were employed as teachers at a salary of $6. each per week; in a short time two other teachers were added to the force. The Principals were: Mr. and Mrs. Forrest, Job A. Parker, J. H. Blodgett, G. W. Dickinson, Mr. and Mrs. Bangs, M. E. Ryan, T. M. Johnson, E. P. Burlingame, Samuel F. Hull, Albert Ethridge, D. L. Hurd, Charles Robinson and Z. S. Hills. These were in charge of separate buildings. In 1868 Mr. Maltby was appointed Principal, and was the first to have charge of all the public schools in the town. The next year he was succeeded by the present incumbent, C. P. Snow, a native of Boston. He came to Princeton from Peoria, where he had been engaged in teaching. His ability and value are well attested in the long and prosperous course of his work in the schools here, and the entire satisfaction his labors have given the entire community. He literally organized and graded the Princeton schools, brought order out of chaos, and has given the schools a wide and enviable repu tation.

The present force of teachers in the Princeton schools consist of: C. P. Snow, Superintendent, and Miss H. L. Everitt, Miss Stella Burr, Miss Minnie Bryant, Miss Clara Allen, Miss Mary Stone and Miss Sarah Kannan in school No. 1 ; and Miss Lottie E. White, Miss Minnie Phelps, Miss Gertrude McCormick and Miss Sarah J. Sharpe, in No. 2; and Mrs. Lelia Holt, Miss Carrie Hodgman and Miss Minnie Colesberry, in No. 3.

Princeton High School. - A complete history of the origin of this school will be found in a previous chapter. Here we need only add this was the first township high school organized by a special act of the Legislature of the State.

The school has a library of about 1,000 volumes, embracing works of history, biography, travels, science and general literature; a laboratory well supplied with the necessary chemicals, gas and water, for general chemistry, and philosophical apparatus and specimens for the study of natural history, sufficient to meet the requirements of preparatory text work.

Over 2,000 pupils have received instruction, of whom 305 have completed the course of study and received the diploma of the school. The present occupation of graduates so far as known is as follows: Lieutenants United States Army, 2; preaching, 2; medicine, 8; law, 14; teaching, 65; farming, 30; business, 53; married ladies, 46. Eleven have died.

The first Board of Education was appointed in 1867 and their respective terms expired: Eev. Flavel Bascom in 1870; Hon. JohnH. Bryan, 1881; George O. Ide, Esq., 1869; Matthew Trimble, 1869; Jacob Chritzman, 1871.

The present corps of teachers: Charles Raymond, A. M., Latin, political economy; Osgood Smith, A. B., German, Greek; John C. Bannister, natural sciences ; Miss Emma V. White, history, English literature ; Miss Carrie Everett, mathematics ; Miss Julia S. Charbonnel, United States history, constitution ; Miss Caroline M. Hyde, B. S., mathematics, grammar; Miss Mary B. Creesley, drawing ; Miss Annie Kelly, A. B., elocution, rhetoric.

Classes were organized in the fall of 1867 under the Principalship of Henry L. Boltwood, A. M., with five assistants, and an average attendance of 138 pupils.

There was a steady increase of attendance till the year 1875, when the highest enrollment was attained, 383 pupils, of whom 119 were from other towns in the county.

this part of the State, and drew largely from the surrounding towns. Its success has stimulated other communities to raise the character of their own schools, and has resulted in the establishment of academies and district high schools in different parts of the county, thus cutting off a fruitful source of revenue.

There are four courses of study, each requiring five years of work, viz: the Normal, the English, the Latin, Scientific and the Classical. The Normal is designed for pupils intending to teach in our public schools, and is made to conform to the statute requirements for first grade certificates.

Walnut Grove. - For some years a school was taught during the winters in this place in a log schoolhouse of the diminutive and illy arranged style. In 1859 a comfortable frame schoolhouse was erected. This answered all purposes until 1869, when a more pretentious two-roomed building was erected, but the demands soon outgrew this building, and additions doubling its capacities were added, and gave them four rooms, each thirty feet square, and these are taxed to their utmost capacity.

Tiskilwa Schools. - These have long been a source of great pride to the good people of this town. No similar sized town in the State has done so well. Their splendid graded school building stands as a splendid monument to the enlightened enterprise of her people. It was erected in 1867 at a cost of 135,000, and has a seating capacity

Miss Abbie (Mrs. Lyford, of Galesburg,) was among the pioneer school teachers here in 1838. She is a sister of Judge Jesse Emmerson, and is remembered by those who were school children then and are growing gray now as the kindest and best of teachers. This first schoolhouse was built by the voluntary work of the early settlers, the chief among whom was Amariah Watson, who eventually bought out the interests of the other holders, and then he sold the building to the School Trustees. A union schoolhouse was erected on the line between the towns of Indiantown and Tiskilwa. This was the first brick schoolhouse in Bureau County. The first Principal in this school was Alaason Benson. This building was used until 1867, when the present house was completed.

Lamoille. - In addition to many facts already given of the schools in this place we give the following additional items: One of the first teachers was Miss Jennie Beach, whose school had the appearance of but a feeble remnant from the vacated nurseries of the few houses about there. Several private schools were then taught, of which we have already given an account A building was erected in 1855. It was afterward converted into a Free Methodist Church. In this building C. A. Davis, A. L. Stearne, A. W. Hempieman and Mr. Chapman taught good schools. A small building was purchased in which to teach the primary department This was occupied during the winters of 1864 and 1865. The latter year the schools were first graded by J. A. Mercer, for man years the Principal. To him is due much of the honor of the admirable schools the good people of this place have so long enjoyed.

j by William Bryan. In the summer she taught where William McFarland afterward resided. In 1857 Carrie Van Court taught in what is now George Robinson's kitchen. In 1858 the schoolhouse was built; Miss Van

! 1867 an addition was made and Prof. Knapp became Principal. This house was burned April 14, 1870, on which was an insurance of $6,000. Then a brick building was erected at a cost of $14,000. After Mr. Knapp retired Prof. Joseph Bates was the Principal.

Dover. - The first teacher here after the erection of their school building was Mrs. Abigail Nichols. Then the present elegant building was erected, and Miss Emma Horford was teacher.

Leepertown. - For some years the only school in this township was taught in the village of Leepertown. In 1859 a large brick was built, accommodating eighty pupils.

The wide-spread interest and the ready aid extended in every direction toward schools is well attested by the action of the County Agricultural Society, where every year such munificent premiums are offered and paid for school work of every kind intended to stimulate teachers and pupils to struggle for the prizes. This is already quite a feature of the annual society exhibitions, and the school exhibitions in the buildings erected for their especial purpose are well worthy the inspection of all visitors. Over $200 in prizes were paid out this year (1884), and the growing interest in this part of the society's work is attested by the fact that the buildings should at once be greatly enlarged.

In the county there are of school age - between six and twenty-one years of age - 5,052 males and 5,111 females; a total population under twenty-one years of age of males, 7,284, and females, 7,434. There are in the country 185 ungraded schools and 16 graded schools. Enrolled in the graded schools are males, 1,391; females, 1,407; in ungraded schools, 2,605 males and 2,356 females. There are 16 male teachers in graded schools and 45 females. The total number of teachers in the county, 244. There are 182 frame schoolhouses and 19 brick buildings. The highest wages paid any teacher in the county is $155.55 per month; the highest paid any female is $50 per month. The lowest paid any male teacher is $25 and any female The total of the district school tax is 486.87. Total value of school property, $265,365. Bonded debt, $5,830.60. Received from the State fund, 1884, $11,115.76. The total school expenditure for the last fiscal year, $190,129.99.

The present county school Superintendent, Jacob Miller, holds each year a county institute of three weeks' duration, which is largely attended by nearly every teacher in the county, and is one source of the great efficiency of the schools of the county.