Chicago City (part 19 of 57)

Rev. Simeon Gilbert, D. D., editor of the Advance (Congregationalist), was born at Pittsford, Vt., one of the most picturesquely beautiful regions in New England. The house in which he first saw the light was the birth place of his father, as well as the seven sons and three daughters of the latter, and although old as the century, is still standing in excellent repair. He entered the University of Vermont at sixteen, the youngest of five brothers in the institution at that time. Graduating at twenty, he taught Latin and Greek in Barre Academy for a year; then went to Andover Theological Seminary, and in 1860, entered the ministry in St. Lawrence county, N. Y. In 1805 he declined a call toQuincy, 111., but came to Ames, Iowa, in 1868. In the spring of 1870 he became one of the editors of the Advance, whose first editor was Dr. W. \\ . Patton, where he has remained continuously to the present time, with the exception of four years (188'J-8(>) when he was Western editor, at Chicago, of the Boston Congregationalist. In 1881 lie received the degree of D. D. on the same day from Beloit college and from his Alma Mater. He was a delegate the same year from the National Congregational Council to the Jubilee meeting of the Congregational Union of England and Wales. In 1891 he was delegate from the National Congregational Council to the International Council in London. In 1880. he published a " History of the Origin of the Uniform Sunday School Lesson Systems." Dr. Gilbert's father, Hon. Simeon Gilbert, Sr., while a member of the Vermont Legislature, secured the passage, through that body, of a concurrent resolution addressed to Congress, asking the adoption by treaty with England of the policy of arbitration for the settlement of disputes between the two countries. This was brought to the attention of Congress by Senator Foote of Vermont, was favorably acted upon and became the basis of a treaty negotiated by Daniel Webster, and in accordance with which the Alabama claims were adjudicated. This in- teresting historical fact goes to show that Dr. Gilbert comes naturally by his aptitude for taking broad and progressive views in his editorial discussion of the larger questions of the day.

One of the best known aiul most widely honored names, in connection with pioneer journalism in Illinois, is that of '- Hooper Warren. He was born at Walpole, N. H., in 1790, but spent his early life in Vermont, learning the printer's trade on the Kutland Herald. In 1814 he went to Delaware, but some three years later removed to Kentucky, where for a time he worked with Amos Kendall, then connected with a paper at Frankfort, Ky., but afterwards Gen. Jackson's postmaster-general. In 1818 he came to St. Louis and, for a short time, was employed on the old Missouri Gazette, the predecessor of the St. Louis Republican, and also acted for a while as agent for a lumber company at Cairo, 111., when the whole population of that place consisted of one family, domiciled on a grounded flatboat. In March, 1819, he came to Edwardsville, 111., and established the third paper in Illinois, its predecessors being the Illinois Intelligencer at Kaskaskia, and the Emigrant, of Shawneetown. Gov. Ninian Edwards, who had been territorial governor from 1809 to 1818, and was one of the first United States Senators, and still later Governor of the State, early became one of Warren's friends, and aided him financially for many years. In fact, he appears from Warren's letters to have been the owner of the printing press and material which Warren afterwards used at Springfield and Galena. Warren also found other staunch friends in Gov. Coles, Daniel P. Cook, the latter a son-in-law of Gov. Edwards and Illinois' second representative in Congress; Judge William H. Brown, subsequently of Chicago; Geo. Churchill, for many terms a member of the Legislature from Madison county; Thos. Lippincott, afterwards a prominent Presbyterian minister and father of the late Gen. Charles E. Lippincott, State

Auditor between 1869 and 1877; the late Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, then receiver of the land office at Edwardsville, and others. Churchill and Lippincott were frequent contributors to the Spectator, while the others aided materially by their purses as well as by their pens. In 1822 began an attempt to secure a revision ofjthe first State Constitution, adopted in 1818, the object of the revisionists being to get a provision in the new Constitution establishing slavery in Illinois. This scheme was so far successful that they were able, by trickery, to get through the Legislature of 1823, a provision submitting the question of calling a convention to a vote of the people at the next general election. The real contest came in 1824, when the popular vote came to be taken on this proposition. In this struggle, Warren and his friends threw the whole weight of their personal influence and that of the paper under their control against a convention, and after a campaign unprecedented in bitterness and excitement, the scheme was defeated by a majority of over 1,700 in a total vote of Il,(il2. For this beneficent result the highest meed of praise has always been accorded to Warren. Some time during 1826 he became associated with the National Crisis, an anti-slavery paper at Cincinnati, 0., but six months later, removing his press to Springfieid, he established the Sangamon Spectator - the first paper ever printed at the present State capital. This he sold out in the fall of 1829, and a few weeks later, in conjunction with Drs. Newhall and Philleo, he commenced the publication of the Advertiser and Upper Mississippi Herald, at Galena. The work of conducting this paper, in all the departments, devolved largely on Warren, and his letters to Gov. Edwards about this time (published in the "Edwards Papers," under the auspices of the Chicago Historical Society), tell a pathetic story of hardship endured in lack of means for the payment of expenses, or even for the necessaries of life, and in the sickness of his family. Thoroughly discouraged, at the end of about two and a half years, lie abandoned the Galena enterprise, removing, in 1832, to Hennepin, where, within the lust five years, he filled the offices of clerk of the circuit and county commissioners' courts, and exofficio recorder of deeds. In 1836 he was induced to re-enter journalism, and coming to Chicago, in October of that year, established the Commercial Advertiser, a weekly " Liberty " paper, which lived about a year. The material was then taken to Lowell, La Salle county, and used by Benjamin Lundy and Zebina Eastman in the publication of the Genius of Universal Emancipation, an Abolition paper. Warren removed to Henry in 1839, where he engaged in farming, and, a year or two later, Lundy having died meanwhile, he was associated with Eastman in the publication of the Genius of Liberty, the successor to Lundy's paper. About 1850 or 1851 - perhaps a part of both years - he published the Bureau Advocate, at Princeton, under a lease, and during the next three years we find him again associated with Eastman in the publication of the Daily Times and Citizen, afterwards the Free West, consolidated with the Tribune in 1856. Mr. Warren now returned to his farm at Henry, where he spent the remainder of his days. During his later years he prepared a number of valuable papers on the early history of the State, some of which were contributions to the archives of the Chicago Historical Society, though unfortunately destroyed by the fire of 1871. One of his last was on the Black Laws of Illinois. While returning to his home from a visit to Chicago, in August, 1864, Mr. Warren was taken ill, ar.cl on the 22d of that month, according to a sketch of him published in the Historical Magazine (or the 25th, according to the records of the Chicago Old Settlers' Association), he breathed his last at Mendota, at the age of 74 years. He lived in a stormy period of State history ,» and while it maybe true, as he has said, that "his editorial experience has been a succession of failures," it is also true, as he added, that "most of the pioneer editors can say the same." In fact, some of the men whose whole experience has been a succession of business failures, have left the deepest impress upon the history of their time. A\/ though he did not live to see the complete triumph of the cause for which he battled in the wiping out of slavery, his labors have borne abundant fruit in the history of the State and the Nation.

Zebina Eastman, a most earnest co- laborer of Hooper Warren, and for many years the most prominent anti-slavery editor in the Northwest, was born of Puritan ancestry at North Amherst, Mass., September 8, 1815. Orphaned at the early age of six years by the death of both parents, and having had his mind attracted towards the printer's trade by reading the life of Benjamin Franklin, at the age of fourteen he became an apprentice in a printing office at Amherst. After the lapse of eighteen months, realizing the need of a more thorough education, he entered the academy at Hadley, Mass., with a view to preparation for a collegiate course. One of his fellowstudents, while there, was the late General Joseph Hooker, of the United States army. His health having shown signs of giving way under a course of study, he was compelled to abandon his education scheme, and return to the printing business, being employed for a time in the office of the Hartford Pearl. At the age of eighteen, his guardian having been induced to advance him his inheritance, amounting to about $2,000, he invested it in the establishment of the Free Press at Fayetteville, Vt., the first issue appearing June 7, 1834. The enterprise proved a financial failure, and before the close of the year it was abandoned, his possessions then consisting chiefly of experience in lieu of the capital with which he had started out. Having imbibed antislave ly principles, he now decided to devote himself to the cause of human freedom. Coming West in 1837, he stopped a year or two at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1839 he visited Peoria by way of Chicago, working for some time on the Peoria Register, then under the management of Samuel H. Davis. It was probably some time during the year 183& that he became associated with Benjamin Lundy, a noted philanthropist and abolitionist of that time, in the publication of the Genius of Universal Emancipation at Lowell, La Salle county, the press used being that which had been employed by Hooper Warren in printing the Commercial Advertiser at Chicago, a year or so before. Lundy died soon after, and Eastman continued the publication several months alone. In June, 1840, he was mar. ried to Miss Mary Jane Corning, of Burlington, Vt. Returning to Illinois, he was joined by Warren in the establishment of the Genius of Liberty as the successor to Lundy's paper. In 1842 he was induced to accept the invitation of prominent abolitionists to remove his press to Chicago, where he began the publication of the Western Citizen, which soon came to be recognized as the leading anti-slavery paper of the Northwest. In 1850 he served as a delegate to the World's Peace Congress, which met at Frankfort, Germany, making the acquaintance, during this visit, of a large number of the leading reformers -of the time. That he was not disposed to waste his strength upon abstractions, is shown by the fact that it was largely through his influence that the antislavery men of northern Illinois were induced to support E. B. Washburne for Congress in 1852. During this year he commenced the publication of the Chicago Daily Times (not the Times of Wilbur F. Storey), which was continued about a year. In 1853 the name of the Western Citizen was changed to the Free

West, and by the year 185G, the anti-slavery men of the Northwest having generally become identified with the Republican party, and there being no longer any reason for maintaining a separate organ, the subscription of the Free West was transferred to the Chicago Tribune, and the former ceased to exist. Soon after the suspension of the

Chicago Magazine, but it reached only the fifth number, when it w discontinued on account of insufficientsupport. Early in 1861, Mr. Eastman was appointed by Mr. Lincoln United States Consul at Bristol, England, serving with acceptability to the Government for a term of eight years. On his return from England, he took up his residence at Elgin, where he remained four years, when he removed to Maywood, then a suburb of Chicago. His later years were spent in historical researches and literary pursuits, and in correspondence with a large circle of friends in Europe and America. His death occurred at Maywood, June 14, 1883, in his sixty-eighth year. Of a family of five children, Mr. Eastman was survived by two - a son and a daughter - the former, S. C. Eastman, Esq., a well-known attorney of Chicago. His widow also survives in the enjoyment of the honorable fame bequeathed by him to his family.

George Schneider, though for thirty years past identified with other interests than those of journalism, deserves to rank with the most prominent and influential of those who have assisted to develop the newspaper press of Chicago. Mr. Schneider was born at Pinnasens, in Rhenish Bavaria, December 13, 1823. Educated in the schools of his native place, at the age of twenty-one he became a journalist, and four years later was one of the prominent actors with Schurz, Ilecker, Kapp and others in the revolution of 1848, becoming one of the commissioners of the Republican government of the Palatinate. The revolution having failed, the death penalty was pronounced against him, bui was revoked in 1866, by an act of the Bavarian Legislature. Escaping to New York in 1849, he went first to Cleveland 0. , and then to St. Louis, where, in conjunction with an older brother - Franz Andreas Heinrich Schneider, who became a prominent member of the St. Louis bar and exercised great influence in the organization of German troops for the maintenance of the

Union - he established a daily paper called the Jfeue Zeit ("New Era"). It was due to the seeds of freedom and loyalty planted in the minds of the Germans of Missouri by Schneider and his compeers, that that "Border State " stood true to the Union in 1861 and played so gallant a part in the next four years in suppressing the rebellion. The office of the Neue Zeit having been burned, Mr. Schneider came to Chicago, and in August, 1851, was employed as editor of the Illinois Staats Zeitung. Here he soon found congenial companionship in the society of such outspoken friends of human liberty as Zebina Eastman and others, and when, a few years later, the controversy over the extension of slavery into the territories sprang up in consequence of the introduction by Senator Douglas of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, Mr. Schneider was one of the first to range himself in determined opposition to that measure. In fact, it was through his agency that the first meeting in Chicago to protest against the Kansas-Nebraska act in 1854, was convoked and held. The position of his paper at this time was so distasteful to its partisan opponents that it led to the gathering of a mob in front of the Zeitung office in 1855, for its destruction, but the coolness of Mr. Schneider, loyally supported by the firm front of his employes, behind barricaded doors and windows, induced the mob to retire without causing serious damage. A few years later, an overwhelming majority of the Germans of Chicago and the Northwest were on the side of Mr. Schneider and the Staats Zeiiung, on the very questions which had led to this hostile demonstration. Inl85G, Mr. Schneider represented bis paper as a member of the convention of Anti-Nebraska (Republican) editors, which met at Decatur, on February 22 of that year, and took the initiatory steps in the organization of the Republican party in Illinois. He was a member of the State convention for which provision was made at Decatur, and which met at Bloomingn in May following, and both there and at

Decatur he contended manfully and successfully for the adoption of a liberal resolution toward foreign-born citizens. He was also a member of the National Republican convention of 1856, at Philadelphia, and again in 1860, when he assisted to nominate Abraham Lincoln for the presidency. Soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln in 1861, he was appointed by that great man Consul- General of the United States at Elsinore, Denmark, and in that capacity aided materially in enlightening the governments and people of northern Europe as to the policy of our Government in the suppression of the Rebellion. Keturning to the United States in 18(i2, he sold his interest in the Staats Zeitung and was appointed by Mr. Lincoln collector of internal revenue for the district of Chicago. During this period he was also a member of the Union Defense Committee, which played so important a part in upholding the hands of the Government and encouraging the soldiers in the field during the war. On his retirement from the reveenue service he engaged in banking, and is now president of the National Bank of Illinois, one of the strongest and most successful financial institutions of Chicago. His standing among his brother bankers is shown in the fact that he served for two years as president of the Bankers' Club of Chicago. In 1877, Mr. Schneider received from President Hayes a tender of appointment as minister to Switzerland, which was declined. In 1880 he was one of the Republican electors for the State-at-large. Though a successful business man, there is no part of his career upon which Mr. Schneider looks with more pride than that spent in connection with the liberal and patriotic press of his adopted country. Col. J. K. C. Forrest, one of the oldest newspaper men in Chicago, who has been familiar with Mr. Schneider's whole career, in a recent publication, says of him: " I have always, and do now, insist that Mr. Carl Schurz and Mr. George Schneider did nioru to kill slavery and save the Union than any other two men of their, or indeed of any other nationality in these United States." Benjamin P. Taylor, journalist, poet and lecturer, was born at Lowville, N. Y., July 19, 1819, and died at Cleveland, 0., February 24, 1887, in his sixty-eighth year. He was educated at Madison University, Hamilton, N. Y., of which his father, Stephen W. Taylor, was president, graduating in the class of 1839. His journalistic labors were performed chiefly as literary and dramatic critic and war correspondent of the Chicago Evening Journal during the war of the rebellion, though he was a frequent contributor to the Gem of the Prairie and other publications. He was also a popular lecturer and the author of several volumes of prose and poetry, a portion of them being collections of contributions to the newspaper press. His style was ornate and vivid, and while his fancy was exuberant, he showed good taste in the choice of metaphors. His letters from the seat of war were very brilliant, his description of " The Battle Above the Clouds'' on Lookout Mountain, in November, 1863, being widely quoted and admired. His employment upon the Evening Journal was at two different periods, the first beginning with the early history of that paper. lie has been awarded the credit of being the first musical and dramatic critic ever employed on a Chicago newspaper. In his later years he traveled extensively in California, Mexico and the Islands of the Pacific. The degree of LL. D. was conferred upon him by the University of California. His published volumes include: "Attractions of Language" (New York, 1845); "January and June" (Chicago, 1853); "Pictures in Camp and Field" (1871); "The World on Wheels" (1873); "Old Time Pictures and Sheaves of Rhyme" (1874); "Songs of Yesterday" (1877); "Summer Savory, Gleaned from Rural Nooks" (1879); "Between the Gates" and "Pictures of California Life" (1881); "Dulce Domum, the Burden of Song" (1884). A collected edition of his works was published after his death in 1887; also, "Theophilus Trent," his first and only novel, the manuscript of which was placed in the hands of his publishers shortly before his decease. Among his most popular poems were: "The Isle of Long Ago," "Rhymes of the River;" "The Old Village Choir," etc. The London Times accorded to Mr. Taylor the title of "The Oliver Goldsmith of America."

Charles Anderson Dana had only a brief connection with the Chicago press, but his prominence throughout the nation as a journalist entitles him to recognition in this place. He was born at Hinsdale, N. H., August 8, 1819, being a descendant of Richard Dana, who settled in Massachusetts about 1640, and became the progenitor of a family which has been distinguished in New England history. The subject of this sketch spent his boyhood in a store in Buffalo, N. Y., until he was of thev age of eighteen, when he prepared for college, entering Harvard in 1839. He was compelled to abandon his studies on account of the failure of his eyesight, bat subsequently received the degrees of A. B. and A. M. In 1842 he became a member of the "Brook Farm Community," an agricultural and educational association, where he was brought into intimate relations with George Ripley, George AVilliam Curtis, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Parker, William Henry Channing, Margaret Fuller, and others who have since been prominent in literature. It was this community that was commemorated by Hawthorne in the "Blithedale Romance." Mr. Dana's first newspaper experience was upon the Harbinger, devoted to social reform and general literature. He then spent two years on Elizur Wright's Boston Chronotype, an anti-slavery daily, and in 1847 became identified with the New York Tribune, then just beginning to lay the foundation of its subsequent reputation, finally becoming one of its proprietors and managing editor. To its practical skill and organizing ability was due much of the success of that paper. Disagreement with

Mr. Greeley as to the conduct of military affairs at the beginning of the war, resulted in liis retirement, when he was almost immediately employed by Secretary Stanton on special work in the war department. In 1863, he was appointed assistant secretary of war, thus being brought into close relations with both Lincoln and Stanton. During the next two years he visited the various military departments for the inspection of military operations, and did much to defeat the efforts to break down General Grant. In May, 1865, having resigned his position in the war department, he assumed the editorship of the Chicago Republican on the establishment of that paper. Kelinquishing this position at the close of the first year, he returned to New York, and in 1867 organized a stock company to purchase the New York Sun, of which he became the editor. The paper, originally Democratic, has maintained under his administration a degree of independence, though with Democratic leanings. In addition to his journalistic work, Mr. Dana has issued a number of books, his principal labor in this direction being the " New American Encyclopedia," compiled in collaboration witli George Kipley (1855-1863), with a second edition (1873- 187G); a life of General Grant, in conjunction with General J. H. Wilson, etc.

John G. Nicolay, journalist, private secretary of President Lincoln and historian, was born at Essingen, Bavaria, February 26, 1832, and came to the United States with his father in 1838. After spending some years at Cincinnati, where he attended public school, he removed to Illinois. At the age of sixteen he entered the office of the Pike County Free Press, at Pittsfield, 111., as an apprentice, :ind before he was of age, was editor and proprietor of the paper. In January, 1857. he went to Springfield as assistant to the late 0. M. Hatch, who had just been elected secretary of State on the first successful Republican State ticket. On the nomination of Abraham Lincoln for the presidency in 1860, he became the secretary of the latter, and on Mr. Lincoln's inauguration, he was appointed his private secretary, filling that position uutil the death of his chief. During a part of the campaign of 1860 he traveled extensively through southern Illinois as the correspondent of the St. Louis Democrat, furnishing that paper with political information and campaign literature. After the death of Mr. Lincoln in 1865, he was appointed United States consul at Paris, remaining until 1869. On his return he edited the Chicago Republican for some months, until the sale of that paper to J. B. McCullagh, John R. Walsh and Win. H. Schuyler. In 1872 he was appointed marshal of the Supreme Court of the United States at AVashington, continuing in that position until 1887. Mr. Nicolay is the author, in collaboration with Col. John Hay, of the life of Abraham Lincoln, first issued serially in the Century Magazine and afterwards printed in ten volumes; he also furnished "The Outbreak of the Rebellion" in the series of "Campaigns of the Civil War." He lives in Washington, and is an occasional contributor to the periodical press on historical subjects.

His early education was received chiefly through private tutors. A zealous advocate of Irish " home rule," he found it advisable in 1864 to emigrate to the United States. Soon after he joined the Ninety-ninth regiment New York Militia, and subsequently volunteered with it in the Federal service. In 1868 he became connected as a reporter with the Chicago Republican, and in 1871 was promoted to the position of city editor of that paper. After the fire he joined the staff of the Evening Post, but soon went over to the Tribune, remaining until the winter of 1875-6, when he became associated with the local staff of the Times. The next year he was detailed to accompany Crook's expedition against the Sioux, and in

1877 served as the New Orleans correspondent of the Times during the Nichols-Packard troubles in Louisiana. He also reported for that paper the Pittsburg labor riots of the same year. In 1879 Mr. Finerty accompanied the Miles expedition against the Sioux, and was with General Merritt in the campaign of 1880, and with General Carr in the expedition against the Apaches in 1881. Meanwhile, he traveled extensively as a correspondent of the Times through the Southern States, Canada, etc., besides acting as the Times' Washington correspondent, in 1881. In the latter part of that year he withdrew from the

Times and organized the first Irish National Land League, of which he has been an active member. In January, 1882, he issued the first number of the Citizen, which he has made a strong organ of the Irish National cause. In November following he was elected to Congress, as an Independent Democrat, from the second district, and in 1884 was a candidate for re-election on the Republican ticket, but was defeated. The latter year he supported Blaine for president and proved himself an able stump speaker. Mr. Finerty has traveled extensively, and possesses a vast fund of information on general affairs.

By Paul Sklby

Founders. Ordinance of 1787, when in organizing the "Territory of the Northwest," thirty years before the admission of Illinois as a State, with wise foresight and consideration they made the comprehensive declaration: "Religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to good government, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." A more specific and practical meaning was given to this declaration in the provisions of the enabling act of 1818 under which Illinois came into the sisterhood of States. According to this, five per cent, of the proceeds of public lands within the State were secured to the commonwealth, of which two-fifths (2 per cent, of the whole) were to be disbursed by Congress in the construction of roads leading to the State, while the remainder (3 per cent.) was to be expended under the direction of the State legislature in the encouragement of education - one-sixth of the latter being devoted to the support of a college or university. This provision was inserted through the personal efforts of Nathaniel Pope, then the Territorial delegate in Congress from Illinois, who had been the first Territorial Secretary of State and who served as United States District Judge from the admission of Illinois as a State up to the time of his death in 1850. The acts empowering Ohio and Indiana to form State governments had provided for a grant to those States of 5 pj cent, of the sums received from the sales of public lands within the same to be expended in the construction of roads and canals. Mr. Pope secured a modification of this in the Illinois enabling act, by which three-fifths of the proposed grant went to the benefit of public schools (as already stated) and the remainder to internal improvements. The same act also set apart one section of each township for the support of public schools in that township, besides one entire township, to be designated by the president and set apart for the support of a seminary of learning to be founded by the legislature. The latter constituted the basis of what has been popularly known as "the seminary fund," and with the donations previously referred to, and supplemented at a still later period by a property tax. laid the foundation of that system of free education which has become the pride of the State.

At even a still earlier date, legislative steps had been taken which, while they did Territorial n0*' ultimately affect the interests Legislation. of t],e people of Illinois, yet indicated the importance attributed by the infant communities of the Northwest Territory to the subject of popular education. On the 29th of November, 1806, the General Assembly of Indiana territory (of which Illinois then constituted a part) passed an act incorporating Vincennes University, to be located at the town of that name, then the capital of the Territory. It is worthy of note that this act bore the names of two men afterwards prominent in Illinois history, the one as Speaker of the Territorial House of Representatives, and the other as presi dent of the Territorial Council. The first was Jesse B. Thomas, afterwards Territorial Judge of Illinois, a member of the first State Constitutional Convention in 1818, and for eleven years (from 1818 to 1829) one of the United States Senators from this State; while the second was Pierre Menard, who afterwards served as president of every Legislative Council of the Territory of Illinois, and became the first Lieutenant- Governor of the State. The act received the approval of Gen. William Henry Harrison, then Territorial Governor. An organization was effected a few weeks later, with Gen. Harrison as president of the Board of Trustees. A brick building was erected the following year, and a preparatory department put in operation. A curious incident in this connection is the fact that the act of incorporation authorized the raising of #20,000 of the proposed endowment of this institution through the medium of a lottery. These general facts have been mentioned as a part of the early educational history of the educational system of the city of Chicago. That system, in its beginning, was as crude and unpretentious in its methods as it was unpromising in results. Its growth furnishes one of the most surprising chapters in the history of the metropolis of the Northwest. Beginning with a subscriptionschool of perhaps twenty-five pupils, taught in a log cabin by a single teacher, with his wife as assistant, it has grown in a little over sixty years to about two hundred and fifty public schools, some of them with several branches, employing over three thousand, three hundred teachers, and with an enrollment of over one hundred and fifty thousand pupils, to say nothing of kindergartens, church and parochial schools, business colleges and other institutions of a private character. The expenditure for salaries alone for the year 1891-2 amounted to over $2,500,000, and the expenses of all sorts in sustaining the public school system for the same year to more than $4,000,000, while the city has over $10,000,000 permanently invested in school property, of which onffourth is in real estate and the remainder represents buildings, furniture, heating apparatus, etc. These figures are rather suggestive of a great commonwealth than of a mere municipality.

and who prepared a most valuable history of the public schools of the city, which was published in his annual report for 1857 - the first attempt at imparting instruction of the character ordinarily afforded in a common school, where the city of Chicago now stands, was made during the winter of 1810-11, by Robert A. Forsyth, afterwards a paymaster in the United States army. The teacher was a youth of the mature age of thirteen years, a nephew of Mr. John Kinzie, widely known throughout the Northwest in the early part of the century as a successful Indian trader, while the pupil was the son of the latter, John II. Kinzie, then of the age of six years, and afterwards prominently identified with the history of Chicago. The text-book is said to have been a "spellingbook " brought from Detroit in a chest of tea, and the place where this "infant school " was taught, a cabin near the mouth of the Chicago river, erected in 1779, by a colored native of San Domingo, named Baptiste Pointe de Saible, who is reputed to have been the pioneer settler of Chicago. This house had become the property of a French trader named Le Mai about 179C, and was purchased by Mr. Kinzie when he came to the site of Chicago from his trading post on the St. Joseph river in Michigan, in 1804. The circumstances indicate that the tuition was in the nature of family instruction rather than a school. Fort Dearborn having remained unoccupied for four years after the massacre of 1812, Chicago was only known as an Indian trading post, consequently no progress could have been made in establishing schools. Six years later, however (1816) Fort Dearborn having been reoccupied, a private school of a more formal character was taught by a discharged soldier, named William L. Cox, in a log building also belonging to Mr. Kinzie, which stood in the back part of his garden about the present intersection of Pine and Michigan streets. This school was made up of four children (two sons and two daughters) of Mr. Kinzie and three or four children belonging to families in the fort. Owing to the dissipated habits of the teacher it appears to have had a brief existence.

The next school of which either history or tradition furnishes a record was taught in the fort by a sergeant of the garrison during or about the year 1820. Mr. Henry H. Hurlbnt ("Chicago Antiquities") thinks Mr. Eussell E. Heacock " probably taught in Port Dearborn in 1827, or at least previous to May of the ensuing year, when he was living at or near where Bridgeport now is," though no mention is made of this fact in any of the school histories of Chicago. If this conjecture is correct, the school was probably only one of several attempts made at various periods to impart systematic instruction to the few children about the fort and the agency, during these years when civilization was struggling to obtain a foothold about the mouth of Chicago river. There is a well authenticated statement that in 1829, Charles H. Beaubien, a son of James B. Beuubien, then agent of the American Fur Company at this point, was employed to teach the children gathered from the families which had settled about the fort, the school being composed chiefly of younger members of James B. Beaubien's family and of his brother Mark. A year later the infant settlement about Fort Dearborn, as it was still called, began to show evidences of growth into the proportions of :i village, and in June, 1830, Mr. Stephen Van R. Forbes (who afterwards became the second sheriff of Cook county), assisted by his wife, began a school near where Randolph street and Michigan avenue now cross each other. The house stood on the west bank of Chicago river which then flowed for some distance in a southerly direction, nearly parallel with the lake shore, emptying into the lake near the foot of Madison street. Mr. Forbes was employed by Mr. J. B. Beaubien and Lieutenant (afterwards Major General) David Hunter, then an officer of the fort and connected by marriage with the Kinzie family, and the school consisted of about twenty-five pupils belonging to families in the fort with a few outside, including among others that of Mr. Beaubien. Mr. Wells says of this school, "it was taught in a large, low, gloomy log building which had five rooms," serving as a residence and a school-room. "The walls of the schoolroom were afterwards enlivened by a tapestry of white cotton sheeting. The house belonged to Mr. Beaubien and had been previously occupied by the sutler of the fort." This, no doubt, deserves to be recognized as the first school in Chicago above the rank of a family school. A year later Mr. Forbes gave place to a Mr. Foot, of whose term of service there is no definite information.

city - a fact that has been apparent in the attention devoted to the subject of education in every stage of its history. Cook county having been organized in 1831, Col. Richard J. Hamilton, who had already acquired the reputation of an enterprising and publicspirited citizen, was made the first Commissioner of School lands, and in this capacity had charge of the school funds for the corporation until he was succeeded in 1840 by Hon. William H. Brown, who became school agent of the city. The State legislature had enacted a common school law as early as 1825, adopting a bill introduced by Joseph Duncan, then a senator from Jackson county > afterwards a representative in Congress and still later Governor of the State. While this law contained the elements of a system of common schools to be supported by taxation, owing to. the poverty of the people, there was scarcely an attempt made to carry it into effect. It is estimated that the two per cent, of the State revenue, which it provided should go into the school fund, would have produced, at that time, about $1,000. But even this feature as a compulsory measure gave place at the next session to an amendment making taxation voluntary, and was wholly repealed two years later. This left practically only the three per cent, from the proceeds of the sales of public lands and the fund derived from the sale or lease of school lands, as the basis of a free school system. As the former had been appropriated by the State to its own use under color of a loan, and the latter seldom proved productive on account of the impracticability of making sales, or the low prices at which they were made when effected at all, it will be seen how inadequate was the provision for anything like a system of free education. With the exception of perhaps a few districts and townships, which, having with exceptional good fortune come into possession of valuable school lands and managed the funds thereby acquired in a judicious manner, were thus able to support schools free to all the children within their boundaries, the State had nothing worthy of the name of a system of free schools - certainly nothing of a uniform and general character, until over twenty years thereafter in the enactment of the law of 1855.

The Chicago school section lies in the very heart of the city, and at the present time The School PrODab'y comprehends within its Section. limits more wealth than can be found within an equal area in any city on the Western Continent, unless it be New York. Its boundaries are Madison street on the north, State street on the east. Twelfth street on the south, and Halsted street on the west. Could its future value have been foreseen, there would, no doubt, have been a strong sentiment among the early citizens of Chicago in favor of the retention of the whole, or a considerable part. But the spirit of speculation had taken hold of the people. The entire section was platted in 142 blocks, and the requisite number of citizens having joined in a petition requesting its sale, it was offered at auction in October, 1833. The whole tract was ultimately sold, except four blocks, which were reserved for school purposes. The reserved portions were : Block 1, at the northwest corner of the section and bounded by Madison, Halsted and Monroe streets, and by South Union street extended ; blocks 87 and 88, situated between Fifth avenue and the river, and Harrison street on the north and Polk street on the south ; and block 1-12, in the northeast corner, surrounded by Madison, State, Monroe and Dearborn streets. The latter is the block upon which the Tribune and Evening Journal offices, McVicker's Theatre, the Stock Exchange, two or three hotels and a number of the most valuable business houses in the city are located, and is one of the most valuable squares of land in the city. The proceedsof the sale amounted to $38,865. This, although no doubt regarded as a munificent sum at the time, would scarcely amount to one-tenth of one per cent, of the ground value of an area upon which such buildings as the Board of Trade, the Grand Pacific Hotel, the Post Office and Custom House, the Great Northern Hotel, the Monadnock, Phoenix, Rialto, Rookery, Home and Royal Insurance Buildings and AVoman's Temple : the Rock Island, Wabash and Santa Fe, and the Canal Street Union Depots ; Marshall Field & Go's., J. H. Walker & Co's., J. V. Farwell & Go's., wholesale establishments; The Fair, and an almost countless number of the heaviest business houses of the city are located. The mere ground rental of this area, at its present value, would, no doubt, be sufficient now to support every school in the State of Illinois many times over. To return to the history of Chicago schools. In the spring of 1833, says Mr. First Public Wells, Mr. John Watkins began schools. to teach a small school in the North Division near the old Indian Agency, then the residence of Colonel Hamilton. He was employed by Colonel Hamilton and Col. T. J. V. Owen, for many years Indian Agent at Chicago. Mr. Watkins himself, in a letter written to the Calumet Club, in 1879, says he came to Chicago in May, 1832, and commenced teaching in the following fall (1832) in a building belonging to Col. Hamilton, about half-way between the lake 'and the junction of the North and South Branch, known as Wolf Point. The building he describes as a log-hut about twelve feet square, having been erected originally for a horse-stable and used as such. The furniture was constructed out of old storeboxe?. The school was started by private subscription, thirty scholars being subscribed for, though there were not thirty children in the town. Many of the subscribers had no children of their own, but subscribed in a spirit of public enterprise to assist those who had. Of the school itself Mr. Watkins says: "During my first quarter I had but twelve scholars, only four of them were white; the others were quarter,half and threequarter Indians. After the first quarter I moved my school into a double log house on the West Side. It was owned by Rev. Jesse Walker, a Methodist minister, and was located near the bank of the river where the North and South branches meet. He resided in one end of the building and I taught in the other. On Sundays Father Walker preached in the room where I taught. In the winter of 1832-3, Billy Caldwell, a half-breed chief of the Pottawattomie Indians, better known as ' Sauganash,' offered to pay the tuition and buy books for all the Indian children who would attend school, if they would dress like Americans, and he would also pay 1'or their clothes. But not a single one world accept the proposition conditioned upon the change of apparel."

Mr. Watkins says he " always had thti reputation of being its (Chicago's) first school teacher." This was, no doubt, based upon the claim of the school which he taught to be regarded as a public school - those which preceded it being more strictly in the nature of family schools. How long Mr. Watkins continued to teach is not definitely known, though he appears to have been teaching on the North Side as late as 1835. Mr. Wells says this school was taught, for a time, in a house built for Mr. Watkins on the north bank of the river near Clark street, and that this was the first house built for school purposes in this city, though erected by private individuals.

Following closely upon Mr. Watkins came Miss Eliza Chappel (afterwards wife of the Rev. Jeremiah Porter).. Miss Chappel was from Rochester, N. Y., had spent some time teaching at MaekinacandSt. Ignace, Mich., and during the year 1833 joined the family of Major Wilcox, for some time in command at Fort Dearborn. In the autumn of the same year Miss Chappel opened an infant school, consisting of about twenty children belonging to families in the fort and vicinity. This school was at first taught in a log house on South W'ater street, and a short distance west of the fort. As the population of Chicago was increasing rapidly at this time, Miss Chappel's school appears to have prospered so that larger quarters became necessary, and it was moved into the First Presbyterian church on the west side of Clark street,between Lake and Randolph. She had for assistants about this period Miss Elizabeth Beach and Miss Mary Burrows. Still later another move appears to have been necessary, as her husband (Rev. Mr. Porter) in a communication printed in a San Francisco paper, some years since, says "she took a house and opened a boarding school and received children from the country, who aided in housekeeping and, in part, paid for tuition and board by bringing provisions from their homes for the school family." Mr. Wells says that "one of the objects of the school was to train up teachers for the common schools in the new settlements." In the winter of 1834-5 Miss Ohappel withdrew from the school and returned East, being succeeded by Miss Kuth Leavenworth, afterwards Mrs. Joseph Hanson. In the following year (1835) Mr. John S. Wright, a public-spirited citizen and zealous friend of education, afterwards the founder of The Prairie Farmer, erected a building on Clark street just south of Lake, which Miss Leavenworth occupied with her school.

It has been claimed for this house that it was the first built in Chicago especially for school purposes, though the same claim has been set up for a house erected on the North side for the school ' taught by Mr. Watkins. These two houses (both erected by private enterprise) appear to have been built about the same time.

Within a few months of the beginning of Miss Chappel's school, Mr. Granville T. Sproat arrived from Boston and established an English and classical school for boys, occupying for that purpose the First Baptist church, a small frame building located on South Water street near Franklin. Miss Sarah L. Warren (afterwards Mrs. Abel E. Carpenter) became an assistant in Mr. Sproat's school in the spring of 1834. It has been claimed for both this school and Miss Chappel's, already referred to, that each was the first to receive aid from the school fund, and was therefore entitled to the distinction of being the first public school in Chicago. (Owing to the absence of official records for this period - 1833 to 1837 - it is impossible to fix dates with entire accuracv, or draw clear distinctions between public and private schools as they then existed). At all events, Mr. Sproat's school appears to have been recognized as a public school some time in 1834, and the same was probably true of Miss Chappel's at a somewhat earlier date in the same year. Sometime during this year the Sproat school passed into the hands of Dr. Henry Van der Bogart, who gave place a few months later to Thomas Wright - the latter being succeeded in 1835 by Mr. James McClellan, by whom it was continued as late as 1834. Mr. McClelhrn was afterwards associated with Zebina Eastman in the publication of the Western Citizen and other anti-slavery papers. In addition to the other schools already mentioned, during the winter of 1834-5, Mr. George Davis opened a school over a store on Lake street, between Dearborn and Clark, which was continued later in the Presbyterian church on Clark street. There is evidence that, in July, 1834, a Miss Bayne kept a boarding and day school on Randolph street near Clark, of which but little is known; also, that about the same time a Miss Wythe announced a school in which young ladies would receive instruction in music and the common branches. In August, 1835, a Mr. Charles Hunt announced his purpose to establish a high school for young ladies, but there appears to be no record of this school extant. In September of this year the town was divided into four districts. At this time there appear to have been three public and four private schools.

In the spring of 1836, Miss Leavenworth (the successor of Miss Chappel) having dis- Seiect School for continued her school, the same building was occupied by Miss Frances Langdon Willard (aunt of Dr. Samuel Willard, now of the West Division High School) as a select school for young ladies. Belonging to a family distinguished as educators, Miss Willard soon brought her school into high repute. Miss Louisa Gifford (afterwards Mrs. Dr. Dyer) was an assistant in this school, and many ladies whose names have - been familiar in Chicago society were enrolled among her pupils. A primary department was added, and it ultimately became a public school under the management of Miss Gifford, whin Miss Willard opened another school according to her original plan, which was continued about a year. Miss Willaid came from Alton to Chicago, induced by promises of the erection of buildings which were never fulfilled. She was a successful teacher, securing a large number of pupils, but laboring under serious disadvantages for want of suitable buildings. She finally married the Rev. John Ingersoll.

The annals of early Chicago schools make mention of a private school on the North Side, conducted for some months previous to March, 1837, by Mr. John Brown, who was finally driven out by unruly pupils. Brown was succeeded by Mr. Edward Murphy, who soon established such a reputation for firmness and efficiency that he was retained as a public school teacher for more than a year, at a salary of $800 per annum - probably the most liberal compensation that, up to that time, had been allowed to any Chicago teacher.

A fact of curious historical interest is mentioned in connection with the General Assembly of 1835. In February of that year, the legislature passed an act making provision for a special school system for "Township 39 North, Range 14 east of the Third Principal Meridian," which investigation proves to have referred to the township in which the village of Chicago was then situated - a village apparently "without a name," if not "without a local habitation." This act authorized the election of a board of school inspectors for the township, with three trustees of schools in each district - the latter being empowered to levy and collect taxes within certain specified limitations for the maintenance of a system of free schools. Thus it will be seen that special steps were taken at this early date for the establishment of a free school system in Chicago. While the repeal of this act by the incorporation of the city at the next session of the general assembly gave little opportunity to see its practical operation, it settled the principle of free schools for Chicago, and probably established its claim to the distinction of being the first community in the State to put this principle in operation.

paper on "Early Education in Illinois," published in connection with the report of Superintendent Raab, for 1885-6, discusses quite exhaustively the question, "Where were the first free schools established in Illinois?" After examining and dismissing as untenable the claim that such a system had been put in operation at Alton under a special act of the general assembly adopted in 1821, Mr. Pillsbury alludes to the act just above referred to, in connection with the school law of 1825, and the sale of the Chicago school section in 1833, and then adds:

" The legal voters of each district (under the special act of 1835) were to employ qualified teachers (those holding certificates) and ' to see that the schools are free.' The directors were given power to levy and collect a sufficient tax to defray all the expenses of fuel, rent of school room, furniture, and to levy such additional tax, not exceeding onehalf of one per cent, per annum, upon all the taxable property of the district. Andreas' History of Chicago (Vol. I, pp. 207- 208) shows that the schools were organized under this law, and though the law did not give power to levy a tax for paying teacher's salaries, I am of the opinion that the schools were free, as the law required. The population of the city then was but 3,235 in 1835. The report of schools in Cook county made to the auditor for the year ending December 31, 1837, shows interest on the 16th section fund for the year, $2,598.55, and amount expended for schools $2,117.25, of which $740.56 was for other expenses than salaries. Now Chicago was the only township in Cook county which had, up to that time, sold its 16th section, and consequently the township which had a 16th section fund; so this interest, must have belonged to that city alone. There were six schools in the county and 300 pupils, and these schools were doubtless all in Chicago.

The pay-roll of the teachers in 1841, when the schools were unquestionably free, was but about $1,800, and it would seem that §1,600 would pay the teachers in 1837. Besides, the income of the fund in 1835 - the lands having been sold in 1833 - was probably as large as in 1837. So I think it is a fair inference that the schools established in 1835, under the laws cited above, were free. The law of 1835 was repealed in 1837, and the city charter of that year did not put school matters on a good footing, and, possibly there was an interruption of the free schools, but it seems more probable that, with the interest and share of funds distributed by the State, such schools as were maintained were free. In 1839, March 1, ' An act relating to common schools in the city of Chicago, and for other purposes,' prepared by J. Young Scarnmon, was passed. This law gave ample power, and under it the schools were organized and have been free from that date.

" Alton in 1837, and Springfield and Jacksonville in 1840, were given power to establish and maintain free schools; but it does not appear that either city exercised this power until a much later date. To Chicago, then, the honor of having the first free schools in the Stale must be conceded, and I think the dale must be put as early as 1884."

In a footnote to the above Mr. Pillsbury says: -' I have received a letter from Mr. Granville T. Sproat, of Canaan Four Corners, N. Y., who says that he was teaching a private school in Chicago in 1833, and that his school became a public free school that vear in May. 1 think it was more likely May, 1834. He states that his wages and all the expenses of the school were paid from the public funds - that the pupils were not charged any tuition fee."

Mr. Pillsbury is also of the opinion that Chicago was the first city in the State to adopt a system of graded schools, though it was preceded by Peoria, by some months in

The history of Chicago public schools naturally divides itself into four principal eras or periods. The first was the pioneer, or formative period, in which the system of education, not only in Chicago but throughout the State, was taking shape. This extended from the earliest settlement of the place to the organization of the city government, and the placing of the school system on a new footing in 1837. The second era covered the period between 1837 and the appointment of a superintendent of schools, and the adoption of a graded system in 1854 - seventeen years. The third era began with the events last mentioned, and extended to 1871, another period of seventeen years. The fourth and last era, beginning with the Great Fire, when many of the school houses of the city were destroyed, has been emphatically a period of reconstruction and development unparalleled in the history of any other city on this continent or any other.

new footing, though, owing to the business depression which immediately followed and continued for many years, there was not that progress which might otherwise have been expected. The new city charter made the common council ex officio commissioners of common schools; empowered them to divide the city into school districts,to appoint annually a number of inspectors of schools, not exceeding twelve nor less than five, whose duty it should be to visit the schools, examine teachers, apportion to the districts the money collected for school purposes, and report upon the condition of the schools to the council, with suggestions and recommendations for their improvement. The charter also authorized the election of three trustees for each school district, whose duty it should be to employ teachers, fix salaries and have general supervision of the business affairs of their districts, such as the collection of taxes and payment of salaries, purchase or renting of school sites, building of school houses and furnishing the same, etc., and they were required to make quarterly written reports to the inspectors. In fine, the law made general provisions for maintaining a system of free schools at the discretion of the legal voters. That larger results were not immediately obtained was due to the causes already referred to, viz.: The business revulsion which followed the panic of 1837.

- The first board of inspectors appointed under the new city charter consisted of First Board Thomas Wright, N. H. Bolles, of inspectors. jo]ln Gage, T. B. Hubbard, I. T. Hinton, Francis Peyton, G. W. Chad wick, B. Huntoon, R. J. Hamilton and William H. Brown. At this time the city appears to have been divided into seven districts, and this arrangement was continued without material change up to 1840. The fourth district appears to have been attached to the fifth for school purposes, and there was a sim ilar union of the sixth and seventh. Reports for the quarter ending November 1, 1837, from the first, second, third, fifth and seventh districts,show a total enrollment of 400 pupils. The teachers of these schools, respectively, were George C. Collins, James McClellan, Hiram Baker, Otis King and Edward Murphy. Other teachers, during a portion of this year and the next, were Miss Sarah Kellogg, A. Steel Hopkins, C. S. Bailey and Samuel C. Bennett. During the winter of 1838, the school in district No. 5 was taught by C. S. Bailey. He was succeeded during the same year by Mr. Calvin DeWolf, familiarly known as Justice DeWolf, and the latter, at a still later date, by Thomas Hoyne. Districts Nos. one, two, and possibly three, appear to have been in the South Division; Nos. four and five in the West Division and Nos. six and seven in the North Division.

Enlarged Powers. Mr. Pillsbury) which materially enlarged the powers of the city council over school matters, giving them authority to sell or lease school lands; to raise funds by taxation when necessary for building school houses, or to establish and maintain public schools; to fix the compensation of teachers, prescribe the text-books to be used and the studies to be pursued, and to pass ordinances and by-laws for the control of the city schools.

Some meager records are furnished of several private schools in the city during at least a part of the year 1839. One of these was a select school for young ladies, established by Rev. I. T. Ilinton, in the Baptist church. The course included English branches, Latin, French, history, moral and physical science, etc. A Miss Dodge taught a private school during some portion of this year. Miss R. R. Carr, from Lima, N. Y., had an advanced school for young ladies on Clark street, adjoining the Presbyterian church. A Miss Pray ton is also said to have taught a similar school in the fort, in the summer and fall of 1840.

The first record of an attempt to lease the school lands belonging to the city, is of June 24, 1839, when the board of inspectors recommended to the city council to lease block 1 (at West Madison and Halsted streets) and blocks 87 and 88 (between Fifth avenue and the river and north of Twelfth street) for agricultural purposes, and block 14<J (bounded by Madison, State, Monroe and Dearborn) for business purposes, the leases to run five years. In May, 1843, the last named block was offered for lease again, and in 1855, the council adopted an order directing the school agent to have the west half of block 1 subdivided and leased. In the same order the marshal was directed to take legal steps to remove the "squatters" who had taken possession of the latter property and erected buildings on it without authority.

The first board of inspectors under the law of 1839, was composed of William Jones, J. Young Scammon, Isaac N. Arnold, Nathan H. Bolles, John Gray, J. II. Scott, and Hiram Hugunin - William Jones being the president and I. N. Arnold, secretary. The first written records commence under the administration of this board, with its organization in November, 1840. Meetings were held weekly until April, 1843, when they occurred monthly.

That, previous to 1840, the schools were cramped for means, is shown by the fact that, in March of that year, Mr. N. H. Bolles, who was appointed on the first board of school inspectors in 1837, and again reappointed in 1840, appealed to the city council for relief, on account of a note which he, in conjunction with others as trustees for district No. 4, in 1836, had signed as personal security for a loan of $200 from the school fund to build a school-house in his district. This note had been placed in suit, and Mr. Bolles asked that legal proceedings be suspended until opportunity should be had to raise the sum by taxation under the new law. The house referred to by Mr. Bolles is supposed to have stood on lot No. 2, block 142, school section addition, about where the Tribune office now stands, and is said to have been sold in 1845, it being described by the inspectors at that time as "the only school-house or school- room belonging to the city," and "so old, small and dilapidated, that it was sold recently by the trustees for the sum of $40, and the purchaser has no reason to congratulate himself on his bargain."

At this time (1840) the city was divided into four districts, their boundaries correschooi Districts Bonding with ward boundin IMC aries. The First and Second Districts were identical with the First and Second Wards, and comprised the South

Division ; the Third District included the Third and Fourth Wards, being the entire West Division, and the Fourth District took in the Fifth and Sixth Wards, being all of the North Division. The school building for the First District (the only one owned by the city) was at the corner of Dearborn and Madison streets; that for No. 2 on the north side of Randolph about midway between Fifth Avenue and Franklin street; No. 3 on the north side of West Monroe, west of Canal street, and No. 4 on the corner of Cass and Kinzie streets. The reports of these schools for the month of December of this year show a total of 317 pupils. The first attempt to secure uniformity of textbooks was made at the close of this year, when a series for elementary classes was adopted. This was extended in the early part of the following year to include the entire range of studies pursued in the public schools, and it was added: "No books except those prescribed by the inspectors will be permitted to be used in the schools after the books prescribed can be obtained."

In January, 1841, the city council enacted an ordinance materially enlarging the pow- Powers of ers °^ inspectors and otherwise inspectors amending the municipal laws in relation to schools. This was the more noteworthy in view of the action of their successors, five years later - in consequence, no doubt, of the heavy drafts made upon the city treasury in the construction of school houses and the support of schools - in depriving the inspectors of the powers conferred upon them in 1841, and reducing them to the rank of mere messengers of the council.

The total enrollment of pupils in the four districts of the city for December, 1841, was 410, and the expenditures for the year, $2,058.82, of which $1,774.83 was on account of teachers' salaries. The average attendance for the year 1842 was 456 ; the total expenditures $3,874.34, of which $2,249.23 was for salaries. The average membership of the schools in 1843 was 589, and the number of teachers, 8 ; the total expenditures were 13,582.50. The salaries of male teachers about this period were $400 per year, and of female teachers, $200. A few years later they were advanced to $500 and $250, respectively.

Interesting as the history of the Chicago public schools, during the pioneer period, First School nas been, it would be scarcely Ruiiding:. useful, even if it were practicable, to follow out in detail the history of each individual school established in a later era. During the year 1844, however, the first step was taken towards the erection of a permanent school-building, which, as it was the first building of that character in the city, marked an event in the city's history, and is worthy of special mention. This resulted in the erection of a brick building 60x80 feet, and two stories in height, which was located on the north side of Madison street opposite where McVicker's theatre now stands, and was known as the " Dearborn School." The total cost of this building was a little over $7,500. The lower story was occupied for school purposes about the middle of January, 1845, and the whole building completed in the following spring. It was thought by many to be greatly in advance of the wants and financial ability of the city at the time, and was called, in derision, "Miltimore's Folly," after the name of Mr. Ira Miltimore, chairman of the council committee on schools, who had been prominent in urging its erection, and its sale or conversion into an insane asylum was advocated. The result only proved Mr. Miltimore more sagacious than his critics. A year after the opening of the building, the two districts in the South Division having been practically united, the enrollment of pupils was 543 ; at the end of the second year it was 660, and a year later, 864. The latter year six assistant teachers were employed besides the principal. A number of the leading teachers of the city anterior to the fire found employment in this building, including among the principals : A. D. Sturtevant, A. W. Ingalls, Miss H. B. Rossiter, F. A.

Benham, J. P. Brooks, Perkins Bass, 0, B. Hewitt, George D. Broomell, Albert R. Sabin, Daniel S. Went worth, Leslie Lewo, Andrew M. Brooks and Alfred P. Burbank, their combined terms covering a period of a quarter of a century. This historic building, after standing over 26 years, was torn down in the summer of 1871 having been vacated at the close of the school year, and the ground leased for business purposes. The school was removed to a building on Wabash avenue, near Monroe street, which was wiped ont by the great fire of the same year, and the " Dearborn School" ceased to exist.

8tan(; ancj urgerit demand for additional seating capacity in the public schools. So pressing has been this demand, that, with the utmost liberality in the erection of new buildings, it has been found necessary to rent a considerable number of buildings for school purposes, and yet their combined capacity has always fallen short of the needs of the city, so that a very considerable percentage of the children have been practically excluded from the schools. Attempts have been made from time to time - especially after the great fire - to remedy this evil by allowing one portion of the children to attend certain schools in the morning, and another portion to attend the same school in the afternoon. The energy and liberality of the school board has no doubt relatively reduced the percentage of children excluded from the schools, though the need of more space is ever present.

Previous to the Fire. October, 1871, some forty schools were established, for the most part in buildings erected by the city, but in a few cases in rented quarters. Between the years 1867 and 1870 (inclusive), bonds to the amount of $1,200,000 were issued on account of loans made for the purpose of purchasing sites for school houses, and erecting buildings thereon and furnishing the same, under authority of acts of the legislature passed at the sessions of 1867 and 1869.. The following is a list of the principal buildings erected previous to the fire:

Dearborn School (1845); Kinzie, Scammon and Jones Schools (1846), one in each of the three divisions of the city, the latter in rented building; Washington (afterwards removed, and building became the Sangamon street) School, and the Franklin School (1852); Brown and Foster Schools (1855); Ogden, Moseley and Central High Schools (1856); Newberry School (1858); Skinner School (1859); Haven School (1862); South Chicago (afterwards Douglas), Bridgeport and Holstein Schools were acquired by extension of the city limits (1863); Wells and Cottage Grove (1866); Dore School and four primaries (1867); Holden, Hayes, Carpenter and two Primary Schools (L3G8); Clarke and West Fourteenth street Schools, and three primaries (1869) ; Lincoln and Douglas Schools, and one primary (1870). Some idea may be formed of the sums which the city was investing in public schools at this time, by the fact that some of these buildings cost from $30,000 to $75,000 each. New buildings, additions and branches of the established schools were being erected or rented each year to accommodate the rapidly increasing school population.

according to the census of the previous year, was 306,605; the population under twentyone years of age, 136,333, and the enrollment in the schools for the year of the fire, 40,832. The amount paid for tuition the same year was $444,634.53, and tile total current expenses of the schools $547,461.74. Although the school census of the next year (1872) showed an increase in population and the number of children of school age, there was a reduction in the average membership in the schools of over 3,500 and of expenses of about $70,000, which fell chiefly upon the cost of tuition. Ten school buildings - one in the South Division and nine in the North Division - valued at over a quarter of a million dollars, were destroyed by the fire, reaving only two buildings - the Lincoln and the Newberry - hi the North Division still standing. The schools, however were closed only two weeks, most of them reopening on the 23d, those especially in the burned district being crowded to excess in consequence of diminished seating capacity. An attempt was made to meet this emergency in the burned district by dividing the children in some of the schools into two classes - of which one class occupied the school rooms in the forenoon and the other class in the afternoon. The teachers were divided into four classes, preference being given in assignment to duty in the order named, as follows: (1) Those who had been burned out and left homeless; (2) those having parents or younger members of a family dependent upon them for support; (3) those dependent upon their own earnings for a livelihood, and (4) those having friends or relatives able to provide for their support. The Central High School building was taken possession of by the city immediately after the fire for the use of the courts, and retained until January following.

The legislature at the special session held in the winter of 1872, passed an act reorganizing the board of education and materially enlarging its powers (which had been restricted by action of the city council under the old constitution), and making it virtually independent of the council. The number of members of the board, which at this time was twenty (one for each ward), by this act was reduced to fifteen, appointed by the Mayor, with the advice and consent of the council, and divided into three classes of five members each, of which one class went out of office each year. The new board entered upon the task of restoring the public schools, and during the next few years its work was largely one of reconstruction. The Pearson Street school was the first new building to be occupied and, by the close of the school year in June, 1873, the new Jones, Kinzie, Franklin and Ogden Schools were added to the list - though the Jones School was again destroyed by fire during the next year. The rapidity of the work of reconstruction is shown by the fact that, in 1885 - fourteen years after the fire - there were 80 school buildings in the city, of which 56 had been erected after the fire. In 1890 there were within the old city limits 112 school buildings, valued, with their furniture, heating apparatus, etc., (exclusive of real estate) at $5,183,950. Of this number only 15 had been erected previous to the fire.

In the early part of the year 1873, under authority of an act of Congress, the city Exchange or transferred to the United school Property, states a tract of land on the corner of Polk street and Fifth avenue, extending 380 feet on the former by 198£ on the latter, for a tract 190 by 90 feet at the northwest corner of Dearborn and Monroe streets. The land transferred by the city was a. part of that retained for tlm benefit of the school fund at the sale of the school section in 1833, and that received by it was the site of the old post office, previous to the fire, with the ruins of the walls still remaining upon it. The latter was intended to be used for the public library, but it being found impracticable to build on this site, it was rented and is now occupied by the First National Bank of the city of Chicago. It is still retained by the city and rented for the benefit of the school fund, producing nearly $30,000 per annum. The first public lease of lots in block 142 of the "School Section" - between Madison, State, Monroe and Dearborn streets - was made in May, 1843, the property being offered for a term of seven years. There does not seem to have been much alacrity in taking this now immensely valuable property, as the committee on schools reported that sixteen lots out of thirty-eight had not been taken at the first offering. These were subsequently leased.

The report of Wm. H. Brown, the school agent, for January, 1844, shows that the school fund at that time amounted nominally to $46,- 848.64. Of this amount over $18,000 was in judgments and suspended debts. Of the latter sum he pronounced $16,324.16 as "decidedly bad" or of "doubtful" value, leaving a balance of $30,524.48, which he described as "effective."

During the year 1847, an event of considerable importance in its bearing upon the school fund was consummated, which may be properly mentioned in this connection. This was the settlement, under authority of an act of the State legislature, of a controversy between the city and the claimants of certain "wharfing privileges," as they were called. By the terms of this settlement each owner of what was known as a "wharfing lot" became responsible to the city for "a certain stipulated amount for his lot, with interest at six per cent., payable quarterly until the principal was paid." One of the conditions provided that $30,000 of the principal should go to the city to be used in the discharge of its obligations, or in such manner as the council might direct, while the remainder was to be paid over to the school agent and become a part of the School fund under the name of the "Wharfing Lot Fund." The sum ultimately realized for the school fund under this arrangement amounted to $68,061.94.

According to the report of the school agent, the city began the year 1848 with a nominal school fund of $50,994.19, of which he regarded $35,765.52 as "effective." [Further details of Mr. Brown's management of the city's school fund will be found under the head of "School Agents."] According to the report of the finance committee of the common council, the total

History Of Chic Aoo

Special Fundsschool fund principal represented by securities, in the hands of the school agent, June 30, 1892, was $960,439.25, and the income account from rentals on school property for the previous year, $255,634.22.

The above does not include sundry special funds - amounting in the aggregate to $53,- 100 - which have been donated from time to time by individuals, to be held by the school agent in trust, under the condition that the income derived therefrom shall be applied to certain specific purposes in connection with the schools in general, or certain specified schools in particular. These funds are designated as follows, with the sums which they severally represent :

The Moseley fund dates from 1856, when Mr. Flavel Moseley donated $1,000, the income of which was to be devoted to the purchase of text books for indigent children. On his death, in 1867, he added by bequest $10,000 (less the internal revenue tax of *600) to this sum.

The Foster Medal Fund is the result of a donation of $1,000 made by Dr. John H. Foster, in 1857, the avails to be expended in purchasing medals and other rewards of merit for deserving pupils in the grammar department of the public schools.

The Jones Fund originated in a donation of $1,000 by Win. Jones, in 1858, the interest of which is to be applied to the purchase of text-books for indigent pupils in the Jones School, or for reference books, maps, globes, etc.

goes to the purchase of text-books for indigent children in the school bearing the name of the donor, or for school apparatus, reference books, etc.

The Holden Fund originated in an annual contribution of $100 by Charles N. Holden, to be applied to the purchase of text-books for needy and destitute children in the Holdeu school, and for books for prizes.

The Burr Fund of $32,700 is the result of a bequest, left by Jonathan Burr at his death in 1868. The revenue, by the terms of his will, is expended in the purchase of books of reference, apparatus, text-books, works of art, etc., for the public schools. The income from these funds for the year amounted to $2,652.70.

The first attempt to secure uniformity of text-books in the Chicago city schools was made in December. 1840, in the adoption by the inspectors of a series of books chiefly for pupils in the elementary classes. This was extended to a higher class of studies in March, 1841, and a series of regulations adopted in April following declared that" no books, except those prescribed by the inspectors, will be permitted to be used in the schools after the books prescribed can be obtained." The course of study has, of course, been materially modified since, but this was the beginning of really effective steps toward the grading of the public schools.

In December, 1853, it was decided by the city council to create the office of supersuperintendent* of intendent of city schools, City schoo a. and the place was offered to John D. Philbrick, of New Britain, Conn., but declined. In March, 1854, a tender was made of the position to John C. Dore, principal of the Boylston Grammar School, Boston, Mass., and by him accepted at a salary of $1.500. Mr. Dore entered upon the office in June following, and immediately set about the work of a more thorough classification of the city schools. In March, 1856, he resigned, being succeeded in June following by William H. Wells, principal of the State Normal School at Westfield, Mass , who still farther prosecuted the grading of the schools, arranged a thorough systematization of the work of the teachers, and introduced many improvements and reforms. Mr. Wells' administration was eminently successful, but in the early part of 1864, he tendered his resignation, to the general regret of teachers and school officers. He was succeeded in June of that year by Josiah L. Pickard, who had been superintendent of public instruction for the State of Wisconsin. Mr. Pickard filled the position thirteen years, resigning in June, 1877, when he was succeeded by Dunne Doty, of Detroit, Mich., who in turn resigned in the summer of 1880. Prof. George Howland, who had been for twenty years principal of the Chicago High School, was appointed to the vacancy, retiring August 26, 1891, on account of ill health. Prof. Albert G. Lane, the present incumbent, was then appointed. Long experience as a teacher and as superintendent of schools for Cook county have qualified the latter for the successful discharge of the duties of the office.

of secretary of the board : Isaac N. Arnold, J. Y. Scatnmon, George W. Meeker, Edw. C. Larned, J. C. Dore, W. H. Wells, J. L. Pickard, Duane Doty and George Howland - the last five being ex-officio secretaries of the board, while serving as superintendents of public schools. On the retirement of Mr. Howland, Mr. Shepherd Johnston, who had been clerk of the superintendent of schools, became secretary of the Board. The school board, which had since 1872 consisted of fifteen members, was in 1892 increased to twenty-one members, divided into three classes, of seven members each - each class remaining in office three years.

Mr. James Hall was the first clerk employed in the office of the superintendent of the city schools, being appointed in 1859 and serving till 1863, when he gave place to Shepherd Johnston, already mentioned.

superintendents, appointed the first assistant superintendent, a position which he has continued to fill up to the present time. Since then the force of assistants has been increased from time to time, as the schools and the responsibility of their management have multiplied, until they now number eight - six gentlemen and two ladies.

From the organization of Cook county in 1831 to 1840 - nearly three years after the organization of the Chicago city government - the Chicago school fund was in the "custody of Colonel Richard J. Hamilton, the first commissioner of school lands for Cook county. During the first three years, his services as the custodian of the fund were no doubt merely nominal, but the sale of the Chicago "school section" in October, 1833, (described elsewhere in this chapter) produced the sum of $38,895, which remained in his hands until February, 1840, when, the State legislature having passed an amendment of the city charter at its session of the previous year, creating the office of school agent, lion. \Villiam H. Brown was appointed to that position by the city council. The amount of the fund realized from the sale of school lands appears to have been somewhat reduced (probably on account of expenses of the sale or from losses upon loans), as the sum turned over by Col. Hamilton to Mr. Brown is reported to have been $38,625.47, of which $24,001.96 was in the form of loans on personal or real estate security, $6,545 of notes in suit, $7,366.30 in judgments and $648.15 in cash. Mr. Brown continued to serve the city in the capacity of school agent for thirteen years, during nine of which he declined to receive any compensation for his services, for the remainder of the period accepting a nominal salary for a clerk. He retired by resignation in February, 1853, at that time turning over to his successor the sum of $41,123.20, of which over $5,000 was in cash, the remainder being loans secured for the most part by real estate mortgages. During his administration he succeeded in materially improving the condition of the fund, and it is said to his credit that not a single dollar was lost by a bad loan. His retirement was made the occasion of the adoption by the city council of a series of strong resolutions of thanks.

Mr. Brown was succeeded by Mr. James Long, who held the office some three years. Elias Greenebaum was then (April, 1856), elected, serving about a year, when he gave place in March, 1857, to Eugene C. Long. Mr. Long was succeeded by H. N. Heald in May, 1859, but in the following year, the custody of the fund passed into the hands of the city comptroller as ex-officio school agent. In May, 1865, the office of school agent was revived, and Mr. Charles C. Chase, chief clerk of the comptroller, was elected by the board of education to the place, which he has continued to fill ever since.

attracted the attention of the Board of Inspectors as early at least as 1843, and one of the uses to which it was proposed to put the new Dearborn school building when projected in 1844, was the accommodation of such a department. The discussion of the subject was renewed from time to time, and though extended reports of committees in favor of the measure were made, no steps of a positive character were taken, until January, 1855, when the city council adopted an ordinance authorizing the establishment of such a school, and prescribing the clas.s of studies to be pursued, and various other details of its organization. A few weeks later, orders were passed directing the committee on schools to prepare plans and specifications for the building, and the city clerk to advertise for proposals for its erection, the cost being limited to $22,000. One of the first duties of Mr. Wells, after his assumption of the office of superintendent, in 1856, was to arrange for the opening of this school, which was done wider the principalship of Prof. C. A. Dupee. Provision was made for classical, English and normal courses - the first two of three years each and the last of two years. The normal school was made independent in 1871, again attached to the high school in 1876, but finally suspended in 1877. In 1860, the classical and English courses were extended to four years, and all pupils were required to take at least one language during the course. In the early part of 1 858, Mr. George Howland was made assistant principal, and in 1860 he became principal, retaining the position for twenty years, when he was elected superintendent of the city schools. In 1869, in view of the crowded condition of the High School, it was decided to establish classes in the first year's studies of the High School course in some one or more of the grammar schools in each division of the city. The schools selected for this purpose were the Franklin School in the North Division, the Haven School in the South Division, and the Foster and Hayes schools in the West Division. This policy has since been abandoned, and in 1875 independent high schools wore organized in each of the divisions of the city, making, with the Central High School, on the West Side, four in all. In 1880 the

Central and West Division schools were consolidated into one, reducing the number to three, and in 1887, the present building at Congress street and Ogden avenuehavingbeen erected, the West Division High School was removed thither from thelocation which it had occupied at Morgan and Monroe streets. By the extension of the city limits in 1889, five additional high schools were brought into the city, viz: Englewood, Hyde Park, Jefferson, Lake and Lake View, besides the English high and training schools, which became independent, making nine in all. In 1892 they were increased to twelve, as follows:

Among the early principals and assistants in the high schools appear the names of C. ADupee, Geo. Howland, Hon. Geo. E. Adams, Edward C. Delano, J. C. Pickard, A. R. Sabin, Dr. Samuel Willard, Francis Hanford, Alfred Kirk, Wm. M. Payne, Selim H. Peabody, A. Henry Vanzwoll, and others. On the roll of graduates may be found such names as Luther Lafiin Mills, Charles S. Hutchinson, Telford Burnham, Arthur Burnham, John F. Ballantyne, Wm. Morton Payne, George C. Howland, and many others whose names are familiar in professional and business circles in Chicago.

EVENING SCHOOLS. - There is no more beneficent feature of the Chicago free school Free EveninK system than the free evenschoois. jng gohools conducted, during the winter months, for the benefit, of adults and other pupils of both sexes, who are unable, on account of their age or being compelled to labor during the daytime, to avail themselves of the day-schools. The first experiment in organizing a school of this character was made in the winter of 1856, resulting in the establishment of a school whose sessions were held three evenings of each week in West Market Hall, on West Randolph street between Desplainesand Union streets. D. S. Wentworth, principal of the Scammon school, had supervision of this school, assisted chiefly by teachers of the day-schools, their services being rendered gratuitously. Mr. Lane, the present superinof city schools, and Mr. Delano, his first assistant, were members of this little band of teachers. The school opened with about 60 pupils, but before the close of the term it had an enrollment of 208, with an average attendance of 150. »

While these schools appear to have been revived from year to year, there does not seem to have been much progress until the winter of 1863, when a school was opened in the old Dearborn school building, on Madison street between State and Dearborn, the session beginning on the 8th of January and continuing twelve weeks. The sessions for male and female pupils were held on alternate evenings, and the total enrollment was 483 - 294 males and 189 females.

The city council made an appropriation of $5,000 for the benefit of these schools for the fiscal year 1564-5, being the first appropriation of the kind made by the city. This enabled the Board to enlarge the system, and four schools were conducted that year. The statistics show a regular increase in the number of schools and of pupils until 1871, when the fire of that year caused their suspension for two years. In the fall of 1873, and with the exception of 1876, they have been kept in operation from ten to fourteen weeks each winter.

During the school year, 1890-91, forty-five evening schools were in session from four to twenty-four weeks - thirty-two of them for the longer period. The whole number of pupils enrolled was 12,060 - 9,671 males and

2,389 females - an increase of nearly fifty per cent.over the previous year - with an average attendance of 5,414. Besides the principals, 256 teachers were employed.

In the fall of 1868, an evening high school class was organized under the direc- 'tion of S. H. Peabody, a teacher in the High School, in which instruction was given in the higher mathematics, book-keeping, mechanical philosophy and mechanical drawing. The sessions of this school were interrupted by the great fire, but were resumed in 1874. The whole number of pupils enrolled in this department for 1890-91, was 711, and the average attendance nearly 400.

For several years past, these schools have been under the direction of a supervisor of evening schools, A. Henry Vanzwoll being the present incumbent, with James H. Brayton, assistant. a

The aggregate cost of maintaining the evening schools for the school year ended June, 1891, was $85,851.98, of which $72,- 610.50 was for salaries of teachers.

A Normal School, as a branch of the city school system, was established in the fall of 1 856, as an "annex" to the High ''School established that year - the object being to prepare young ladies for positions as teachers in the public schools. In 1871 it was made an independent school, so continuing until 1876, when it resumed its relation to the High School. One year later it was discontinued. In the earlier years of its existence, candidates for admission were required to pass an examination similar to that required for admission to the academic department; but after the organization of the Division High Schools, all graduates of these schools were admitted without further examination. A School of Practice was organized as a part of the Normal School system in 1866, being conducted in the Scammon school building. The number in the first graduating class (1858) was one; in the class of 1877 - when the school ceased to exist - it was 91.

Educational

The place of this school has been supplied, though somewhat imperfectly, by a system of "cadetships " by which graduates of the High Schools, who are candidates for positions as teachers, secure a sort of practical training in the profession. The superintendents of city schools have, however, from time to time, in their reports, strongly urged the importance of a*" Training School " for young teachers.