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The 
 
 hools and the 
 Teachers of 
 Early Pepria . 
 
 By H. W. WELLS 
 
 Peoria, III.: 
 
 JACQU1N & CO. 
 
 1900. 
 
Press of 
 
 SMITH &SCHAEFER 
 Peoria, III. 
 

 THE SCHOOL HOUSE OF 1821. 
 
 There in his noisy mansion, skilled to rule, 
 The village master taught his little school. 
 Goldsmith. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 This book is altogether made 
 up from the recollection of teach- 
 ers and pupils of the long ago. 
 These were private schools that 
 there were never any records kept 
 of, and of course traditions grow 
 dim as the years run away. One 
 remembers a circumstance one way 
 another remembers it differently. 
 This difference in recollection ap- 
 plies especially to dates and more 
 or Jess to all other circumstances 
 here related, and of course many 
 
 vii 
 
 MI71737 
 
PREFACE 
 
 errors must have crept in and some 
 teachers entirely forgotten. The 
 book, however, is as near correct 
 as I could make it, and with this 
 apology it is submitted to the con- 
 siderate judgment of the surviving 
 teachers and pupils in the schools 
 of lang-syne and their friends who 
 may read its pages. 
 
 Almost 80 years have elapsed 
 since the first school was opened 
 in Peoria, of that school, the teach- 
 er and the pupils all, save one, are 
 long dead and gone. Concerning 
 the next school, not a line of its 
 history has ever been written; the 
 teacher and all the pupils are dead 
 or gone; every recollection of it 
 has vanished beyond recall, in fact 
 its existence was discovered by ac- 
 cident, and yet the children, or 
 grandchildren of any teacher or 
 pupil of any of those old schools 
 would read with interest any ac- 
 
 vlii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 count of them, were it possible any 
 might be found. This book con- 
 tains the traditions of many schools 
 gathered from hundreds of differ- 
 ent sources. The recollections are 
 dim and will soon be forgotten. 
 Perhaps something here written 
 which may recall to some gray- 
 headed father, or some matronly 
 lady the pleasant recollections of 
 their younger days as school chil- 
 dren, when everything looked 
 bright and all the way was along a 
 path strewn with flowers. In the 
 hope that it may do so I have writ- 
 ten these lines. 
 
 ix 
 
INTRODUCTORY LETTER 
 
 BY 
 N. C. DAUOHERTY. 
 
 The lower animals make no pro- 
 gress; they have no history; they 
 have no records; they have nothing 
 that could be recorded or that could 
 constitute a history. Each gener- 
 ation moves on in precisely the 
 same path as its predecessor, just 
 as we see on the banks of the Nile 
 to-day precisely the same method 
 of irrigation in process with the 
 help of man or beast as we find 
 pictured in the temple, pictures 
 
 xi 
 
INTRODUCTORY I,ETTER 
 
 that have stood there for thousands 
 of years. Each generation is the 
 trustee of a civilization; and each 
 generation owes it to itself and to 
 posterity and to civilization to pro- 
 tect it and to enrich it and to trans- 
 mit it; and the only institution that 
 mankind has worked out for that 
 purpose is the institution known as 
 education. That institution is the 
 one which in this century attracts 
 of all institutions the most thought, 
 which is receiving the most careful 
 consideration from the world's 
 great thinkers to-day and which is 
 likely to deepen and widen in its 
 scope with the coming years. It 
 is the record of this institution in 
 our own city of which this book 
 treats. 
 
 Anything which enables us to 
 compare the present with the past 
 in the history of education must be 
 not only profitable, but interesting. 
 Independent of the satisfaction to 
 
 xli 
 
INTRODUCTORY I.ETTER 
 
 be derived from recalling old and 
 almost forgotten associations, his- 
 tory sets up for us land marks to 
 indicate the progress, which we 
 have made; we may sum up the 
 work which has been done and es- 
 timate the position we occupy. 
 
 Compare the school of 1821, its 
 one room log shanty, one log cut 
 out and greased paper to admit 
 the light, its puncheon door, its 
 mud and stick chimney, its indiffer- 
 ent accommodations for a dozen 
 pupils, with the school house of 
 1900. We may gain some idea of 
 the progress that has been made 
 in the last 79 years. The steps from 
 1821 to 1900 is each represented in 
 the pages before us. The school 
 house of 1821, the school house of 
 1846, the school house of 1848, the 
 boys stock school of 1854 and the 
 school house of 1900 each step 
 indicates advancement. At the 
 present time the public schools are, 
 
 xiii 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 and for more than 45 years have 
 been under the direction of one 
 independent authority elected by 
 the people. The school inspectors 
 occupy the place of school direc- 
 tors; the parents furnish the means 
 in the public taxes and the inspec- 
 tors are charged with the duty of 
 wisely expending them, tested by 
 45 years experience this is one of 
 the best systems yet devised for 
 the maintenance of schools. 
 
 The early schools were in all ca- 
 ses private or select schools. A 
 few families living near each other 
 felt the necessity of schooling their 
 children and casting about they se- 
 lected one of their number as 
 teacher. These teachers were as 
 a rule not scholars, but they could 
 teach the simple elements of com- 
 mon school education, and that was 
 ample for those who could do no 
 better. There were no public 
 schools and no public money and 
 
 xiv 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 no qualified teacher for many long 
 years after, and of course no record 
 of these schools has been preserved. 
 It is the history of these private or 
 neighborhood schools, which is re- 
 lated in these pages and which 
 gives it its value. This history 
 should have been written years 
 ago, when the recollections were 
 fresh and green. In a few years it 
 will all be forgotten. This publi- 
 cation is undertaken at the latest 
 day that such a history was possi- 
 ble, just before it fades out and is 
 gone forever. The author and 
 publisher deserve thanks of the 
 public for their work. 
 
 N. C. DAUGHERTY, 
 
 Superintendent of Public 
 
 Instruction. 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE TEACHERS 
 OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 THE history of the early schools 
 in Peoria exists almost alto- 
 gether in traditions which are fast 
 fading out. Almost all the teach- 
 ers and a large majority of the pu- 
 pils are dead or have left Peoria. 
 The subject is one which, except at 
 the time, excited little general in- 
 terest and was seldom mentioned 
 afterwards. There was no school 
 in or near Peoria before 1821, more 
 likely not before 1822. The Indi- 
 ans certainly had no schools or 
 school houses. So of the French, 
 nothing ever know r n of them in- 
 duces any suspicion that they had 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 either schools or teachers at any 
 time during their occupation of the 
 valley of the Illinois. 
 
 The Americans, the English 
 speaking people, brought with them 
 to the Garden of the World the 
 first idea of school and school 
 teachers. 
 
 The first schools were for many 
 years select or private schools 
 where the tuition was paid by the 
 parents or guardians of the schol- 
 ars, usually about two and a half 
 or three dollars each scholar for 
 each term of three months. This 
 select or private school was the 
 only course followed for many 
 years. 
 
 The General Government in 
 1818, in the act admitting Illinois 
 into the Union made liberal pro- 
 vision for free schools by reserving 
 Section 16 in each Township for 
 that purpose, with five per cent of 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 the proceeds of land sold, two-fiths 
 of which was to be expended for 
 roads and three-fifths for schools 
 and a college or university. 
 
 It has been stated that Illinois is 
 indebted to John Pope for this pro- 
 vision. The statement, however, 
 is incorrect. In May, 1785, Con- 
 gress passed an act for disposing 
 of the land in the Northwest Ter- 
 ritory, and under the leadership of 
 Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison and 
 Mr. Dane, and others, it was pro- 
 vided, "There shall be reserved the 
 Lot No. 16 in every Township for 
 the maintenance of schools in said 
 Township." Illinois received un- 
 der this distribution 985,066 acres, 
 together with 480,000 acres for 
 which script was issued to this 
 State, making a total of 1,465,066 
 acres almost an Empire. Illinois 
 through a short sightedness ,which 
 is much to be regretted, sold the 
 
THK SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 most of these lands at a small price 
 and thereby lost the magnificent 
 provisions for free schools at a 
 later date. 
 
 At the date of her admission all 
 the machinery of government was 
 new and very rough. It was not 
 until January, 1825, that the Legis- 
 lature passed a law establishing 
 free schools in Illinois. The law is 
 given in the appendix. This was 
 the first law on our statute books 
 establishing fiee schools. It would 
 be thought crude, in the light of 
 seventy-five years, which have 
 elapsed since its passage. Its rather 
 high sounding preamble provokes 
 a smile, but it is an approving 
 smile, and the declaration there- 
 in "That the mind of every citizen 
 in a republic of ours, is the com- 
 mon property of society" has our 
 hearty approval. It distinctly fore- 
 shadows the principle of compul- 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA 
 
 sory education which Illinois did 
 not attempt to enforce until more 
 than fifty years later. The tax to 
 pay teachers "in produce", not un- 
 usual at that day, with a provision 
 for assigning the tax list and war- 
 rant for collection to the teacher, 
 to be levied and collected by him, 
 with the probable disagreement 
 about the prices at which he should 
 accept what was tendered, would 
 seem a queer and unusual proceed- 
 ing at the present date and would 
 hardly satisfy teachers now. 
 
 The provision in the law of 
 1827, that no one should be assess- 
 ed unless he had signified in writ- 
 ing his willingness to pay, and in no 
 event more than $10.00 in any one 
 year, and that no person should be 
 permitted to send a child to school, 
 unless he had consented to be tax- 
 ed, might possibly not give entire 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THK 
 satisfaction to some of our citizens 
 at this date. 
 
 The Bill for the act of 1825 re- 
 ferred to, was introduced in the 
 Senate by the Committee on semi- 
 nary lands and education, Decem- 
 ber i, 1824, by Joseph Duncan, 
 chairman, then Senator from Ran- 
 dolph County, who was undoubt- 
 edly the author of the law. The 
 law was an excellent one for the 
 times and schools would have pros- 
 pered under it, but the notion of a 
 tax to support schools was hateful 
 to a politician of that date and the 
 Legislature soon after repealed it. 
 Subsequent attempts at the school 
 law were made, but Illinois was for 
 many years without any good 
 school law. 
 
 R. W. Paterson, who was a citi- 
 zen of Southern Illinois and well 
 acquainted with the early society 
 in this State, in an address before 
 
 6 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI/V PEORIA. 
 
 the Historical Society of Chicago, 
 in 1880, said, "During the early 
 history of Illinois schools were al- 
 most unknown. In the most fa- 
 vored districts they were kept up 
 solely by subscription and only in 
 the winter season, each subscriber 
 agreeing to pay for his children 
 pro rata for the number of days 
 they should be in attendance. The 
 teacher usually drew up an article 
 of agreement which stipulated that 
 the school should be commenced 
 when a specified number of schol- 
 ars should be subscribed, at the rate 
 of two and a half or three dollars 
 per quarter. In these written ar- 
 ticles the teacher bound himself 
 to teach spelling, reading, writing 
 and arithmetic as far as the double 
 rule of three. The mode of con- 
 ducting schools at that day was pe- 
 culiar, all the pupils studied their 
 lessons by reading or spelling aloud 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 simultaneously, while the teacher 
 heard each scholar recite alone. 
 At the opening of the school a 
 chapter of the Bible was read by 
 the older scholars by verses in 
 turn. At the close of the school in 
 the evening, the whole school, ex- 
 cept the beginners, stood up and 
 spelled the words in turn as given 
 out by the Master. In those early 
 days the school house was in al- 
 most every instance built of logs; 
 the books in use were usually Web- 
 ster's Spelling Book, Murray's Eng- 
 lish Reader and Pike's or Dabold's 
 Arithmetic." 
 
 It was amusing to a person of 
 ordinary education, to listen to the 
 pretentious, but erroneous use of 
 language, that was indulged in by 
 men who were ambitious to be 
 thought more learned than their 
 neighbors. One gentleman in 
 speaking of a young man who had 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 gone from his neighborhood, to at- 
 tend some college in the East, re- 
 marked, that he could not judge 
 "How well the young man might 
 succeed as a public speaker, but 
 there was no doubt he would make 
 a very "superficial scholar/' 
 
 These were but the beginnings, 
 our early days as a State. The 
 population of Illinois in 1820 was 
 fifty-five thousand one hundred 
 and sixty-five. Peoria now con- 
 tains more inhabitants than the en- 
 tire State did then. It is probable 
 that one of our school houses in 
 Peoria, now contains more room 
 and certainly infinitely better school 
 accommodations than all the school 
 houses in the State did then, while 
 the method of teaching and the 
 qualifications of teachers is now in- 
 comparably superior. 
 
 As has already been stated, much 
 the largest part of the history of 
 
'THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 schools in early Peoria, exists only 
 in the recollection of the surviving 
 teachers and scholars. Johnson's 
 History says, "For a good many 
 years after the first settlement of 
 the County of Peoria, commenced 
 at Ft. Clark, as Peoria was then 
 called, there was no schools or 
 school districts, or school money. 
 Educational affairs, like everything 
 else, was in chaos, without form 
 and void. The County was wilder- 
 ness and the pioneer fathers were 
 left to get along as best they could. 
 As the settlements advanced, and 
 as schools were desired, a central 
 location as to neighborhood and 
 the convenience of scholars was 
 selected and a school house built. 
 Each settler who had children large 
 enough to go to school volunteered 
 a certain amount of work towards 
 its erection. In no case was the 
 school house large or pretentious. 
 
 10 
 
TEACHERS O# EARI<Y PEORIA. 
 
 One window on each side of the 
 structure furnished the light, that 
 is, if the settlers had money enough 
 to buy the sash and glass, if not 
 greased paper supplied the place 
 of glass. More than likely as not, 
 a part of a log was cut out and 
 greased paper fastened over the 
 aperture was made to serve as a 
 window. There was a puncheon 
 floor, a puncheon door, on wooden 
 hinges at one end of the building, 
 and a mud and stick, or sod chim- 
 ney and fireplace at the other end. 
 The seats were made from punch- 
 eons or a suitable sized tree was cut 
 to the desired length and split; the 
 split sides were dressed with a 
 broad axe; holes were bored in the 
 round sides with a two-inch auger 
 and pins inserted for support. 
 Writing benches or desks were 
 made by boring slanting holes in 
 the sides of the houses, in which 
 11 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 supports or arms were driven and 
 a wide plank or puncheon with the 
 upper side dressed smooth and 
 held in place by shoulders cut on 
 the lower end of the supports, an 
 
 ViL 
 
 &2 
 
 4*=-5?ii -^- : "%rf^? 
 
 v rTTr* 
 
 old split bottom chair was added 
 for the teacher and the school 
 house was complete. 
 
 The teacher in a large majority 
 of cases, in these early schools 
 "boarded round". That is, he 
 
 12 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI<Y PEORIA. 
 
 boarded a week, more or less with 
 one patron of his school, and then 
 with another; usually his boarding 
 places were in the rough, homely, 
 but hospitable homes of the pio- 
 neer. A cabin with but one room, 
 in which the whole family cooked, 
 ate and slept was the rule. Per- 
 haps there was a loft reached by a 
 ladder where the boys slept, but it 
 was unusual to find a cabin without 
 two beds and perhaps three in the 
 only room down stairs, which was 
 the family living room, as well as 
 the kitchen and dining room. A 
 letter from one of these old teach- 
 ers written to his mother in one of 
 the eastern states lies before me 
 and from it I make the following 
 extract: 
 
 * * * "I am told my school is 
 a large one for this place. I have 
 twenty-six scholars, most of them 
 very regular in attendance. I have 
 
 13 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 two girls and four boys, who are 
 older than I am, but they are well 
 behaved and seem desirous to 
 learn. I board this week with Mr. 
 * * * * they are nice peo- 
 ple and seem desirous to do any- 
 thing they can to make me com- 
 fortable and at home. * * * I 
 have a nice large room with a fire 
 in it, all to myself, I allow Mrs. 
 - to cook at the fire in my room, 
 I also allow the family to eat there- 
 There are three beds in the room 
 and a trundle bed, which may be 
 pulled out at night. As I cannot 
 use all the beds myself, I have con- 
 cluded to allow Mr. and Mrs. - 
 sleep in one of them, and the girls 
 sleep in another, as I do not want 
 to disoblige such kind patrons. For 
 dinner to-day (Sunday) we had 
 venison and corn bread and two 
 kinds of pie, pumpkin pie and 
 
 14 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI/V PEORIA. 
 
 Dutch cheese so you see I live 
 like a nabob." 
 
 Some of the early schools were 
 very rough. There were schools 
 where the big boys thought it a 
 solemn duty to lick the schoolmas- 
 ter and drive him off before the 
 winter was out, and frequently they 
 did so. Sometimes the teacher 
 was young and athletic and came 
 off victorious after a fight. These 
 contests were usually a kind of 
 rough horse play without much 
 malice on either side. They fre- 
 quently originated at Christmas 
 time when the boys would smoke 
 the teacher out by putting a board 
 over the top of the chimney. Many 
 stories have been written illustrat- 
 ing these contests. 
 
 There was a provision in the 
 law at that time, by which the in- 
 habitants of any school district 
 might classify themselves and allot 
 
 15 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 for each class a portion of the 
 work, and materials for buildings 
 see Section 22, Law 25; thus one 
 class might cut the logs and an- 
 other might hew them, a third 
 might make puncheons and split 
 shingle, etc., etc. Such was the 
 course pursued in an attempt at 
 the first school building in Peoria 
 County, as shown in the following 
 order: 
 
 ORDER FOR BUILDING A SCHOOL 
 HOUSE. 
 
 In pursuance of the order of the 
 legal voters of Peoria School Dis- 
 trict No. i, the trustees make the 
 following apportionment of fami- 
 lies in classes to erect and finish a 
 school house 16x18 feet, at least 10 
 feet high from the ground to the 
 eave bearers as follows: 
 
 The first class consists of Henry 
 Neely, James Walker, John Ham- 
 
 10 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 lin, John Barker to cut the logs for 
 the body and sills, ribs and bunting 
 poles, joists, sleepers and eave 
 bearers, chimney and chinking 
 stuff, door facings and to split pun- 
 cheon stuff for floor, benches and 
 other necessary timber for said 
 house. 
 
 The second class to consist of 
 Isaac Walters, James Latham, Wm. 
 Clark and Augustus Langworthy, 
 to cut and split seven hundred clap- 
 boards, hew the puncheons for 
 floor and to lay the floor. 
 
 The third class to consist of 
 Wm. Holland, AbnerEads, George 
 Sharp and Alva Moffitt,to haul the 
 timber and stone for the house and 
 to chink the same, cut out and face 
 the door and windows and cut out 
 out the fire place. 
 
 The fourth class to consist of 
 Isaac Hyde, John Dixon, John L. 
 Bogardus and Archibald Allen, to 
 
 17 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 build the chimney, daub the house, 
 make the door and windows and 
 writing table; to hang the door and 
 bank the house. All the classes to 
 join, to raise and cover the house 
 and lay the floor. 
 
 To Mr. Elijah Hyde, you are 
 requested to call on each individ- 
 ual in the above classes and to no- 
 tify all those belonging to the first, 
 second and third class to meet and 
 perform their several portions of 
 labor from Wednesday to Friday 
 next both inclusive. And the fourth 
 class to meet and perform their 
 respective portion of labor from 
 Monday to Wednesday next, both 
 inclusive. You will not fail to serve 
 the same on each of the above 
 named persons on or before the 
 1 2th day of the present month and 
 make due return hereof and fail 
 not under pain of $5.00. 
 
 (Signed) NORMAN HYDE 
 
 Clerk Peoria Common School District No. 1. 
 December, 1825. 
 
 18 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI^Y PEORIA. 
 
 Judging from the names in these 
 several classes, who were all citi- 
 zens of Peoria, the school house 
 must have been built somewhere in 
 Peoria, if built at all. It was, how- 
 ever, much easier to make the plan 
 than to build the house. The house 
 may have been built, if so it has 
 entirely disappeared, not even a 
 recollection of it remains, and it 
 may be strongly doubted whether 
 the house was ever built. 
 
 In 1876 President Gregory of 
 the Illinois Industrial University of 
 Champaign, issued a circular to 
 teachers and friends of education 
 throughout the state, soliciting his- 
 torical sketches of the schools in 
 the several counties. In response 
 to this circular, Johnson says the 
 following sketch was prepared, 
 which is the only account of the 
 very early schools now remaining. 
 The response says: 
 
 19 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 'The first school taught at Peo- 
 ria, or at Ft. Clark, as it was then 
 called, was taught by a man named 
 Peter Grant, about 1821 or 1822. 
 The school was necessarily small 
 and the teacher was paid by sub- 
 scription, so much each quarter for 
 each scholar/' 
 
 James Eads, one of the pupils 
 who attended this first school, is 
 still [in 1900] living in Peoria. He 
 is ninety-four years old. He lives 
 with his grand-daughter, Mrs. Ba- 
 ker, who with her husband lives on 
 the bank of the river near the foot 
 of Fulton street. He describes the 
 old school house as follows: It 
 was a small building on the river 
 bank below Water street and near 
 Bridge, [of course there were no 
 streets then]. The house was built 
 of unhewed logs, a part of a log 
 was cut out and greased paper in- 
 stead of glass was inserted to ad- 
 
JAMES EADS 
 AGED 94 
 
 Attended the first school ever held in Peoria, taught 
 by Peter Grant, 18-21. 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 mit the light. It was chinked and 
 daubed with mud, a stone hearth 
 and fire place, with a stick and mud 
 chimney, and a puncheon door, 
 completed the structure. Ogee's 
 hewed log cabin which was famous 
 afterwards as a school house and 
 court house was not built for two 
 or three years after. Eads says that 
 four of his father's family, his bro- 
 ther Thomas and his two sisters, 
 two of his cousins, the children of 
 Abner Eads, and some others were 
 among the pupils. They are all 
 dead. 
 
 James Eads, the old gentleman 
 referred to, was a son of Wm. Eads, 
 who came here in 1820, the year 
 after Josiah Fulton, Abner Eads 
 and party landed here. He came 
 with his father in the fall of the 
 year, when he was about fourteen 
 years old, and "pretty soon" as he 
 says, he thinks the next year after, 
 
 21 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 he went to school to Peter Grant. 
 Grant was a tall slim man about 
 thirty, he was not married at that 
 time. He was a pretty strict disci- 
 plinarian and whipped pretty lib- 
 erally to keep the boys straight. 
 He whipped Eads for some boyish 
 prank. Eads says he dare not tell 
 his father for fear he would be 
 whipped again. Grant did not stay 
 long in Peoria. It is said he went 
 to Lewistown in Fulton county, but 
 the history of early settlers in Ful- 
 ton county does not show his name. 
 Mr. Eads mentions in this con- 
 nection, a thing not generally 
 known and though it does not re- 
 late to schools or school houses, I 
 cannot forbear to relate it. He 
 says his father and his uncle Abner 
 started the first ferry at Peoria* 
 He says they bought two pirogues, 
 or canoes, thirty or forty feet long, 
 lashed them together and laid rails 
 
 22 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 thereon, covering the same with 
 straw, and that was the first ferry 
 at Peoria. He says he well knew 
 old Bisson (pronounced Besaw) an 
 old French trader, who kept a 
 Trading house at Wesley City. 
 
 This school taught by Grant 
 was certainly the first school in 
 Northern Illinois; it was probably 
 ten years before any school in Chi- 
 cago, and it ranks with the first, if 
 it was not the very first in the state. 
 There were perhaps some villages 
 in Illinois settled earlier than Peo- 
 ria by the Americans, and some- 
 where there may have been a 
 school, but none is known to have 
 existed. James Eads is without 
 doubt the oldest living person at- 
 tending any school in Illinois. He 
 speaks the Pottawatomie language 
 and has acted as interpreter. His 
 recollection is clear, and his mental 
 
 23 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 faculties bright. He has lost the 
 use of his lower limbs. 
 
 The school next after this seems 
 to have been taught by Norman 
 Hyde in 1825. Hyde was the first 
 Probate Judge of Peoria County. 
 He was elected January 1825, and 
 was commissioned by Governor 
 Edward Cole. He was a surveyor 
 and his handwriting shows he was 
 an educated man. 
 
 In the papers of the Probate 
 Court in the estate of James La- 
 tham is an account, from which I 
 make the following extract: 
 
 Estate of JAMES LATHAM 
 
 To N. HYI>E, Dr. 
 1825 
 
 March 16, To amount of School Sub- 
 scription $7.00 
 
 June 22, To amount of School Bill 6 95 
 
 Aug. 24, To amount of last quarter 
 
 of School 2.51 
 
 This extract from an account 
 arising in 1825, before any tax 
 
 24 
 
TEACHERS OF EARtV PEORlA. 
 
 could be levied, or before any 
 school officers were elected is tol- 
 erably good evidence that Norman 
 Hyde taught here in 1825. 
 
 It is probable the next school in 
 Peoria was taught by Mrs. Maria 
 Harkness, she was certainly the 
 first female teacher and there be- 
 gin to be clearer glimpses of the 
 school, taught by a dame now al- 
 most forgotten. Maria Harkness 
 was the daughter of Isaac Walters 
 and the wife of James P. Harkness. 
 In a letter written in 1879 and fur- 
 nished President Gregory for his 
 information concerning her school, 
 she says: * 
 
 *A letter was written to the University of Illinois 
 at Champaign, asking for information on this subject 
 and the following is the reply received. 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 
 President's Office 
 
 CHAMPAIGN, ILL., February 20, 1900. 
 H. W. WELLS Peoria, Illinois. 
 DEAR SIR 
 
 Your letter addressed to the President of 
 the Illinois Univeroity has been referred to me for 
 reply. 
 
 There is nothing in the records of the University 
 of Dr. Gregory's circular letter asking for Historical 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 "In May, 1826, as was then the custom, I 
 Wrote out an article of agreement proposing 
 to teach a school at Peoria, as Fort Clark 
 had then come to be called, enumerating- the 
 branches I proposee to teach spelling, read- 
 ing, writing, arithmetic, geography, and 
 needle work, at $1.50 per scholar for a term 
 of three months and board. The teachers 
 in those days boarded around among the 
 patrons of the school. Thirty scholars were 
 subscribed and I had an average attendance 
 of twenty-four. My patrons were Judge 
 Latham; then Indian Agent; Dr. Augustus 
 Langworthy, Joseph Ogee, Indian interpre- 
 ter; John L/. Bogardus, John DixoH, John 
 Parker, George Sharp, William and Abner 
 Eads, Capt. Joseph Moffitt and Isaac Waters 
 (who was the father of the teacher.) The 
 school was commenced in a log cabin owned 
 by William Holland, the village blacksmith, 
 where it was continued but one week, be- 
 cause there were no windows and no light 
 except the open door. It was opened the 
 second week and completed in Ogee's new 
 hewed log cabin, which was afterwards used 
 as a court house " f 
 
 School data; nothing to show that it was ever replied 
 to. There is not even a copy of his letter. The entire 
 Centennial exhibit from the University has been care- 
 fully examined. There is nothing upon the subject to 
 which you refer. Yours very trujy, 
 
 LITTIA HEATH, 
 Secretary to the President. 
 
 tThe County Commissioners March 8th, 1825, 
 Court ordered the building a Court House twenty 
 feet square and nine feet between the floor and the 
 joists. The order was, however, rescinded a short 
 time after. No court house was built uiitil 18.'J5, 
 
 26 
 
TEACHERS OF HARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 This is the first and most defi- 
 nite account we have of the schools 
 in early Peoria. The teachers and 
 all the pupils so far as known, are 
 long since dead. 
 
 Maria Harkness left several ac- 
 quaintances in Peoria county, 
 among whom may be mentioned 
 Mrs. Emerson, residing on Evans 
 street, Mrs. Lovell Harrison, re- 
 siding on Hurlburt street and some 
 others, from whom it may be gath- 
 ered she was in many respects a 
 remarkable woman for the times- 
 She was educated beyond most 
 women of that early day. She was 
 entirely capable as a teacher, of 
 more advanced scholars than at- 
 tended her school in Peoria. Some 
 time about in the forties, two pu- 
 pils in one of the schools, (prob- 
 
 when the brick building on the square was built. 
 Ogee's hewed log cabin here mentioned was the court 
 hou e and school house for many years. It stood on 
 the bank of the river. 
 
 27 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND 
 
 ably Page's), were discussing with 
 each other some question in gram- 
 mar, some rule about the infini- 
 tive mode, an old lady, a total 
 stranger to both of them, heard 
 them some time and at length in- 
 terrupted the discussion and gave 
 them a clear explanation of the 
 rule, and its application, to great 
 astonishment of both of them. It 
 turned out the old lady was Maria 
 Harkness. Her latter days were 
 somewhat embittered. She claimed 
 title through her father to a tract 
 of land in the upper part of the 
 city, now worth perhaps a million 
 of dollars, and to which she at- 
 tempted to establish her rights. 
 She was defeated by lapse of time 
 and perhaps through lack of friends 
 and means to push her rights. She 
 was at length sent to the poor 
 house, from which she was rescued 
 by her son. She went to Minne- 
 
 28 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI.Y PEOKIA 
 
 sota some time in the fifties. She 
 adopted and wore bloomer cos- 
 tume for several years while in liti- 
 gation about her land, and until 
 her death. E. C. Harkness of 
 Elmwood was her son. 
 
 In his history of Peoria County, 
 Johnson says that Isaac Essex 
 taught school here about 1823 or 
 1824. This is probably a mistake. 
 Essex came here, according to his 
 own statement to Mrs. Shallenber- 
 ger, in her history of Stark Coun- 
 ty, in 1826. He probably taught 
 school here that winter. He did 
 not reach Peoria until the latter 
 part of November, and Mrs. Hark- 
 ness taught school in the summer 
 of 1826, she must have preceded 
 him. Essex was a strong anti- 
 slavery man, though born in Virgi- 
 nia, he was an active Methodist, 
 and in fact, a very decided man. 
 
 29 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 He was born in Albermarle Coun- 
 ty, Virginia, in 1800. 
 
 On the 25th of December, 1821, 
 Christmas Day, he married Miss 
 Isabel Williams, and removed to 
 Ohio. From Ohio he removed to 
 Illinois, reaching Peoria the 26th 
 of November, 1826. Crossing the 
 river at Sharp's Ferry. When he 
 reached Peoria he had $14.00 in 
 cash, a small stock of household 
 goods and a team. He found shel- 
 ter for his family and that winter 
 taught a mission school under 
 some arrangement with the Rev. 
 Jesse Walker, the first Methodist 
 preacher and the first Protestant 
 preacher north of Alton. 
 
 He established Mission schools at 
 various points in northern Illinois 
 for the Indians. One here at Peo- 
 ria, one at Mission point near Ot- 
 tawa. White children were ad- 
 mitted, but the schools were called 
 
 30 
 
TEACHER OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Mission schools. Essex probably 
 taught one of these Mission schools. 
 The next summer Essex left his 
 family and went into what is now 
 Essex Township, Stark County, 
 split clap boards and cut logs for a 
 a cabin. He then took his family 
 and went there. It was then Put- 
 nam County, afterwards Stark. He 
 put up his cabin and to use his own 
 phrase, "Cut out a log and moved 
 in." In 1832 the Blackhawk war 
 was raging; the families in this 
 part of the state concentrated for 
 safety, he moved his family to Peo- 
 ria, where he again taught school 
 for a short time. The war scare 
 being over he surrendered his 
 school to a Mr. Allen and returned 
 to his farm in Stark County. He 
 was a man of strong personality, a 
 well known and highly respected 
 citizen of Essex Township, which 
 was named after him, He accumu- 
 
 31 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 lated considerable property and 
 afterwards moved to Rock Island 
 County, where he died in 1877. 
 
 I can find no trace of Mr. Allen 
 to whom Essex is said to have sur- 
 rendered his school. The name of 
 Henry Allen appears as one of the 
 first voters on the first poll books 
 in 1825, and Archibald Allen's name 
 is found in the first assessment list 
 returned by John L. Bogardus in 
 1825. It may have been either of 
 these gentlemen, nothing is cer- 
 tainly known of them. It was 
 probably Archibald Allen whose 
 name appears in the fourth class of 
 those assigned to build a school 
 house. (See above.) 
 
 Probably the next school was 
 taught by Samuel C. McClure, 
 though it is not certAin he was the 
 man. Samuel C. McClure was, at 
 one time, one of the owners of the 
 land on which Bigelow & Under- 
 3-2 
 
F1KST FRAME SCHOOL HOUSE. 
 Washington St., /elo\v Chestnut. 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 hill's Addition to Peoria was locat- 
 ed. It is said McClure taught here, 
 and one or two old citizens think 
 he was the man. H. C. Wright, 
 now residing at Henry in reply to 
 an inquiry writes as follows: 
 
 HENRY, lu,., Jan. 23, 1900. 
 H. W. WEI^LS Peoria, 111, 
 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 Referring to your letter of November 18th. 
 The first school I attended in Peoria was in 
 the old Log- Court House on Water Street, 
 near Bridge. I think it was in 1830, and 
 that the teachers name was McClure. Jack- 
 son and Washington Sharp, who lived south 
 of Peoria, and Frank Moffitt on the Kicka- 
 poo, were among- the scholars. I remember, 
 but its been years since I have heard from 
 any of them. The second school house that 
 I remember was a Frame Building on Wash- 
 ington Street, It seems to me it was there I 
 first met Moses Dusenberry. My recollec- 
 tion is that the Washington Street School 
 House was built just after the Black Hawk 
 war. I attended school in the log house be- 
 fore the war. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 H. C. WRIGHT. 
 
 James Eads remembers McClure 
 
 33 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 perfectly well and says he thinks 
 he taught school here. He is not 
 certain. 
 
 Among the early teachers in 
 Peoria was Charles Ballance, he 
 came here in 1831; he had taught 
 school for two winters in Kentucky 
 before coming, and after reaching 
 Peoria, in the fall 1832, taught 
 school a short time, he tells his 
 own story very modestly in his his- 
 tory of Peoria. He says "I be- 
 lieve the first school attempted in 
 Peoria was in the fall of 1832, the 
 author seeing some children run- 
 ning about and learning that there 
 was no school in the village rented 
 a room and opened a school, but it 
 was so badly patronized for want 
 of children that it soon closed/' 
 Here he stops. His subsequent 
 history is tolerably familiar to our 
 citizens. He died August 10, 1872. 
 Ballance also says in his history, 
 
 34 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 the first house that was built in 
 Peoria on purpose for a school 
 house, was built by the author in 
 
 1846, on a lot on Walnut street, be- 
 tween Washington and Adams 
 streets, on the corner of the alley 
 on the lower side, a private school 
 was kept there until the public 
 school was opened under the law 
 of 1857. It seems a little strange 
 that there was no school house in 
 Peoria until as late as 1846, but 
 school houses were scarce fifty- 
 four years ago. Miss Kate Keller 
 taught in that house in 1846 and in 
 
 1847. She had a tolerably large 
 school for the times. She was a 
 daughter of the Rev. Isaac Keller, 
 and still lives at Keller Station, a 
 few miles out on the Rock Island 
 & Peoria R. R. She was an excel- 
 lent teacher, several of the Bal- 
 lance children attended her school. 
 She devised a scheme of rewards, 
 
 35 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THK 
 
 which greatly stimulated her schol- 
 ars. When any scholar was per- 
 fect in any study for an entire week 
 she gave a "reward of merit card", 
 on which was a request for the 
 child's parents to pay it a pickayune 
 (6% cents). One little girl, Miss Jen- 
 nie Ballance, succeeded in getting 
 these rewards to the amount of 
 $1.25 in one term and of course her 
 father paid her the money and she 
 felt as though she owned the earth. 
 
 Michael Pfeifer, the hardware 
 merchant on Bridge street, after- 
 wards bought this old school house 
 and in 1862 moved it to Washing- 
 ton street, two or three doors be- 
 low Maple, where it is now stand- 
 ing in good repair. It has had a 
 kitchen built on the rear, otherwise 
 it is as it was fifty-four years ago. 
 
 The next school concerning 
 which any information has come to 
 us, was kept by Isaac Sheldon 
 as 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 Dewey, in 1832, who taught in the 
 log structure before mentioned on 
 the bank of the river. Information 
 as to this school is given by Moses 
 Dusenbery, an excellent and well 
 preserved gentleman, residing at 
 102 Jackson Street. He is a brick- 
 layer and plasterer by trade, an ex- 
 cellent workman, who still works 
 daily at that business, notwith- 
 standing he is verging towards 80 
 years. His recollection is clear and 
 bears evidence of truthfulness on 
 its face. He says "I first went to 
 school to Mr. Dewey in 1832, I 
 know it was in 1832, because it was 
 the year before the great meteoric 
 shower, which they say took place 
 in November 1833." 
 
 He describes the storm, he says 
 some one was on the other side of 
 the river who came to notify Col. 
 Menard that some member of his 
 
 37 
 
THK SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 family was sick.* The messenger 
 called several times, but could not 
 arouse the ferryman, and Mr. Du- 
 senbery, then a lad about 14 years 
 old, went in a skiff and brought 
 him to this side, on returning with 
 his passenger, about the middle of 
 the stream, the shower of meteors 
 began. He was not frightened, 
 but when he reached his home, 
 climbed on top of his father's log 
 cabin, in order to see how the stars 
 fell, or how near they came to the 
 earth. The falling of the stars, he 
 says, made it as light as day, peo- 
 ple were much frightened, many 
 were praying and thinking the 
 world was corning to an end. He 
 says he did not go to school very 
 long, at least not a full term, when 
 Mr. Dewey was taken sick and the 
 school was closed. 
 
 *Menard kept a trading store on the corner of Mala 
 and Water Street, but his family lived on the other 
 side of the river. 
 
 38 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Hiram Wright, now living at 
 Henry, and who writes the letter 
 given above, and Henry Moffit, 
 were among the scholars, and prob- 
 ably with Mr. Dusenbery, the only 
 ones who now survive. Henry 
 Moffit was probably the first white 
 child born in Peoria County. He 
 lives in the lower part of the city. 
 Dewey was rather a small man, he 
 had a scar on his face, caused as 
 Mr. Dusenbery thinks, by a gun 
 shot wound, which somewhat mar- 
 red its regularity. He was prob- 
 ably about 30 or thereabouts. He 
 died and was buried in Peoria a 
 number of years ago. His son, 
 Thomas Dewey, now lives on Glen- 
 dale Avenue. 
 
 Mr. Dusenbery tells a character- 
 istic anecdote of the first and only 
 Sunday School he remembers. This 
 he thinks was held in the log court 
 house on the bank of the river. 
 
 39 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 The school was opened one Sun- 
 day afternoon, and the lesson 
 about to begin, when one of the 
 boys listening, leaned out of the 
 window a moment, and then shout- 
 ed Steamboat, by thunder, and 
 bounded out of the room. He was 
 followed by the teacher and all the 
 scholars and that ended the Sun- 
 day school for that day at least. 
 
 The next teacher of whom we 
 have any account, was Miss Eliza- 
 beth Morrow. She taught two or 
 three terms here, commencing 
 probably in the summer of 1832 or 
 1833, in the little log cabin before 
 mentioned, and later in a little 
 frame building, which stood on 
 Main Street, opposite the Court 
 House, where the Herron Block 
 now stands. This building was 
 leased to her by Charles Ballance. 
 She was a good looking woman, 
 medium sized, blonde complexion, 
 
 40 
 
TEACHEKS OF EARI.Y I>ORIA 
 and wore linsey woolsey dress, then 
 worn by all women. Among her 
 pupils was Capt. J. H. Hall, who 
 attended in the little frame build- 
 ing opposite the Court House. He 
 is perhaps the only one now living 
 in Peoria. Miss Morrow went 
 away, came back in 1836 and taught 
 in a private house on Main Street* 
 The house was occupied by a fam- 
 ily named Little. Miss Morrow 
 boarded with the family and taught 
 in one room of the house. She 
 next taught in a house near and 
 above where the First National 
 Bank now stands on the corner of 
 Main and Washington Street. 
 P. C. Bartlett well remembers at- 
 tending this school. He says his 
 father lived in a little yellow frame 
 house on the corner of Adams and 
 Hamilton Street, where the Eld- 
 rick Smith Block now stands. He 
 says he sometimes heard wolves in 
 
 41 
 
f HE SCHOOLS AND 
 
 the night which came to steal pigs 
 or chickens from Mr. Anderson, 
 who lived lower down on Main 
 Street. 
 
 Miss Morrow afterwards mar- 
 ried Amos Stevens, a prosperous 
 man living near Elmwood in Peo- 
 ria County. She died about 1838, 
 
 About 1833, or possibly 1834.) 
 Cyrus W. Parker taught one term 
 here. The family came from Ohio 
 in a lumber wagon; they struck the 
 Illinois river somewhere below 
 here, when they sold their team 
 and came here by boat. On reach- 
 ing Peoria, he found some trouble 
 in getting shelter tor his family. 
 At length he managed to get his 
 family provided for and secured a 
 log shanty, where he opened a 
 school. This was probably in the 
 old Court House. He afterwards 
 moved his family to Washington, 
 Tazewell County, where he died 
 
 42 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,V PEGRIA* 
 
 some 30 or more years ago. The 
 latter part of his life he was nearly 
 blind; he was an excellent teacher, 
 much better qualified than teach- 
 ers usually were at that time. 
 
 Mr. Douglass was the next to 
 teach a winter school, according to 
 memory of old settlers. He taught 
 in a little frame building not far 
 from where Anthony's Bank now 
 stands on Main Street in 1836 or 
 
 1837, and afterwards in the First 
 Congregational Church, a one- 
 story frame building just across 
 the alley above Rouse's hall. It 
 
 43 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND 
 
 was plastered both inside and out- 
 side, and was built in 1835. It is 
 claimed to be the first church build- 
 in Peoria. 
 
 Mr. Douglass was a fine looking 
 man about 28 years of age and an 
 excellent teacher. John H. Hall 
 and P. C. Bartlett were among his 
 scholars. He also taught in a log 
 school house, which stood where 
 Spinnetto's saloon once stood on 
 the lower side of Main Street, just 
 above the alley between Jefferson 
 and Madison. The front has late- 
 ly been changed and it is now oc- 
 cupied as a Millinery store. 
 
 There was a school opened here 
 about 1838 or 1839, the teacher's 
 name is remembered by Mrs. Har- 
 rison as Mr. Winslow. The school 
 room was on Washington Street, 
 up-stairs in a building, situated in 
 the rear of what is now Robt. Da- 
 vis' Drug Store. Capt. John Hall, 
 
 44 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI/VT PEORIA. 
 
 T. B. McFadden, P. C. Bartlett 
 and Clint Farrell were among the 
 scholars. 
 
 Miss Margaret Fash, now Mrs. 
 Harriman Couch, residing at 312 
 South Jefferson Avenue, opened a 
 select school in the old Court house 
 on Water Street in 1834. Her 
 school was a large one for the time> 
 she had about 30 pupils and kept a 
 summer school one term. Mrs. 
 Couch is a very pleasant old lady 
 and bids fair to live many winters 
 yet. Her recollection is clear, al- 
 though more than sixty-five years 
 have elapsed since her school was 
 closed. Miss Rouse, now Mrs. 
 Capt. Sweeney, now living in New 
 Jersey, and her sister, now Mrs. 
 Winchell, residing on Fayette 
 Street, were among his pupils. 
 
 In 1835 Miss Sarah Bigelow, who 
 subsequently married Jas. C. Arm- 
 strong, and is now a widow resid- 
 
 45 
 
THE SCHOOIvS AND THE 
 
 ing at 1009 Jackson Street, also 
 taught a summer school. Her 
 school was well attended. Miss 
 Margaret Rouse, nowMrs.Winchell, 
 and her sister, Mrs.Capt. Sweeney^ 
 and one or two of the Hamlin 
 children were among her pupils. 
 Mrs. Winchell is piobably now the 
 only one now living in Peoria. Mrs. 
 Armstrong was for years Librarian 
 of the Peoria Mercantile Library, 
 and though now in feeble health, 
 her mental faculties are unimpair- 
 ed. She was an excellent teacher 
 and popular with her pupils and 
 patrons. 
 
 Miss Jane Taggert, a daughter 
 of Mathew Taggert, taught in what 
 was then known Hunts Row, some- 
 where near 1838. Hunts Row was 
 a row of frame buildings on the 
 corner of Adams and Fulton Streets, 
 where the B. & M. now stands; 
 each house consisted of one room, 
 
 46 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 about fourteen feet square. They 
 were built by Judge Hunt to rent. 
 If the family of new comers was 
 able to get one room, they thought 
 they were well provided for at that 
 time. Miss Taggert afterwards 
 taught on Washington Street, on 
 the lot now occupied as Proctor's 
 Lumber Yard. Henry T. Baldwin 
 and Mrs. Harry VanBuskirk were 
 her pupils. The family lived there 
 and she taught in one room of the 
 house. 
 
 She afterwards taught in a house 
 known as the Cleveland House. It 
 was situated on Jefferson Avenue 
 on the corner of Fayette Street. It 
 was afterwards moved to the lower 
 end just above the alley, between 
 Jefferson and Madison Avenue. It 
 was a large house for the times. 
 The Taggert family lived there 
 and Miss Taggert taught in one of 
 the rooms. The lot is now owned 
 
 47 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 by Mr. Schradzki, who has torn 
 down the old house. T. B. McFad- 
 den, Clint Farrell, Miss Richardson, 
 now Mrs. Lovell Harrison, Sanford 
 Richardson, many years a mission- 
 ary in Syria, and Aunt Lizzie Ai- 
 ken, the well known army nurse 
 were among her scholars. The 
 house was known as the Cleveland 
 House, probably because Henry W. 
 Cleveland built it and lived there 
 in 1836. Miss Taggert was a rather 
 precise, formal lady, but was rea : 
 sonably well qualified as a teacher 
 at that time. Later she lived with 
 her father in a little low frame 
 building on Jefferson Avenue across 
 from the Greeley School. She was 
 small, below the size of women 
 usually, and was a strict disciplina- 
 rian. The family have disappear- 
 ed and are probably all dead. 
 
 About 1838 Asa T.Cassell taught 
 in the old plastered church on 
 
 48 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Main Street for one term. He was 
 a brother of Doctor Cassell, who 
 was well known in early Peoria; he 
 is said to have been a good teach- 
 er. He also taught early in the 
 forties in the building on the cor- 
 ner of Main and Adams Streets, 
 where McDougal's Drug Store now 
 stands. The building was a two- 
 story frame. It was built by Fisher 
 Brothers of Lacon. The upper 
 story was for some years used as a 
 school room. P. C. Bartlett after- 
 wards occupied the lower story as 
 a grocery store. Main street was 
 afterwards cut down and the house 
 was left some two or three feet 
 higher than the street. T. B. Mc- 
 Fadden, P. C. Bartlett and William 
 Reynolds were among the schol- 
 ars. 
 
 A Mr.Johnson taught in a build- 
 ing near the old church and next 
 above the alley on the lot where 
 
 49 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 the old Library Building stands. 
 It was a little frame building, built 
 for a residence. T. B. McFadden 
 and Clint Farrell were among the 
 scholars. He afterwards taught 
 up-stairs on Main street, about two 
 doors below Robert Davis' Drug 
 Store. The school room was en- 
 tered by stairs on the next build- 
 ing above with a bridge across the 
 space to the school room. The 
 school was a large one for the time. 
 Johnson Cole was one of the pu- 
 pils attending this school. 
 
 Robt. Cooper, a brother of J.K. 
 Cooper of legal fame, taught here 
 in 1845, on South Washington 
 street, at the corner of Fulton. 
 He was a good teacher, well quali- 
 fied and a regular martinet in dis- 
 cipline. Henry T. Baldwin and 
 Johnson Cole were among his pu- 
 pils. His school was up-stairs in a 
 two-story building. 
 
 50 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI<Y PEORIA. 
 
 Mr. Cooper also taught in the 
 Congregational, then Presbyterian 
 Church, for one or more terms. 
 Cooper was a man slow of speech, 
 a better than ordinary scholar and 
 teacher. His school was large for 
 that day; the exact date of school 
 cannot be certainly learned ; neither 
 can I learn the exact date at which 
 Johnson taught, but it was probably 
 1837 or 1838-1839, and probably in 
 the winter. Mr. Cooper also taught 
 near the corner of Washington and 
 Fulton streets in the forties. He 
 was a strict disciplinarian, a tall, 
 spare man, not unlike in physical 
 make up to his brother, the well 
 known lawyer. 
 
 Miss Royes taught a Summer 
 School here in 1837 or 1838 in the 
 old Congregational Church; her 
 school was large for that day; she 
 is said to have been a good teacher 
 and a favorite with her pupils. Miss 
 
 51 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 Russell, now Mrs. Caleb Whitte- 
 more, was among her pupils, and 
 speaks well of her as a teacher. 
 
 About 1839, Mr. Rice opened a 
 school near the corner of Main and 
 Adams street, up-stairs in the build- 
 ing built by Fisher Bros., and af- 
 terwards used as the Postoffice. He 
 taught one or two winters here and 
 died some thirty or more years 
 ago. It is said that Rice afterwards 
 taught in a carpenter shop built by 
 Charles Benton, on Second street 
 near Franklin, but I can learn noth- 
 ing definite about this school. In 
 front of the shop on Second street, 
 was a fine brick building, built by 
 Doctor Cassell in 1839. The house 
 is still standing, although the car- 
 penter shop has long since disap- 
 peared. 
 
 On the ;th of January, 1840, the 
 Rev. David Page opened a private 
 school in the old Buxton House, 
 
 52 
 
TKACHERS OF EARI/ PEORIA. 
 
 which stood on Adams Street, near 
 Fulton, about where the Powell 
 Block now stands. His sister-in- 
 law, Miss Boardman, was his assist- 
 ant. He taught two or three terms 
 in this house and lived in the other 
 half of the same house. This 
 school was famous in Peoriaat that 
 time; he called his school the Peo- 
 ria Academy. It was much better 
 than an ordinary district school ot 
 that day and was by far the best 
 school in Peoria up to that time. 
 About 1843 or J 844 he removed his 
 school to near the corner of Sec- 
 ond and Franklin street on the al- 
 ley (there were no alleys at that 
 date, all was open ground) into 
 Wilkinson's carpenter shop, which 
 he fitted up as a school house. He 
 published an advertisement, de- 
 scribing the school. He stated that 
 children of every age were admit- 
 ted from the alphabet and upwards 
 
 53 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 through the whole circle of scien- 
 ces as far as they were taught in 
 any academy. The branches above 
 ordinary common schools are geo- 
 metry, algebra, surveying, natural 
 philosophy, chemistry, history, ce- 
 lestial geography, astronomy, logic, 
 rhetoric, declamation and compo- 
 sition. The Greek and Latin lan- 
 guages are also taught. Very small 
 boys in their first attempt at going 
 to school are sometimes placed in 
 the female department; almost any 
 kind of produce received for tuition 
 at a reasonable price. 
 
 Miss Abbey Lovett and Miss 
 Louisa Aldrich, graduates of Mt. 
 Holyoke, were employed as assist- 
 ants; Miss Aldrich taught Latin 
 and Greek and Miss Lovett taught 
 French. Page's Academy was a 
 popular school and was reasonably 
 profitable to the proprietor. During 
 the early part of this school, Miss 
 
 E4 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI/V PEORIA. 
 
 Boardman, who was his wife's sis- 
 ter, and his wife, were his assist- 
 ants. Mrs. Lovell Harrison, now 
 residing on Hurlburt street, was 
 one of his pupils, and speaks in 
 very high terms of the efficiency of 
 his school. The Rev. Page was a 
 small man, below the ordinary size; 
 his wife and Miss Boardman were 
 large, as much over the ordinary 
 size for women as Page was below 
 the ordinary size for men. Page 
 on one occasion announced to the 
 school that business called him 
 away, that he should be gone until 
 after dinner and that he was com- 
 pelled to leave the school in charge 
 of his wife for that morning. He 
 charged the scholars to be good 
 boys and not make any disturbance 
 etc. He had hardly gone, when 
 one of the boys, said to be Bob Cox 
 or Daniel Van Bard, took a large 
 pin and bent it so that it could be 
 
 55 
 
THE; SCHOOLS AND THK 
 placed on a seat where it would 
 pierce the tender extremity of any 
 one who would sit down. One of 
 the boys managed unnoticed to 
 slip this pin on the chair of the 
 Mistress, who presently sat down 
 on it. The teacher screamed, ran 
 out of the room, and the boys had 
 the balance of that forenoon to 
 themselves. Capt. John H. Hall, 
 Clint Farrell, Murry Blakesley, 
 Daniel Van Baird, Bob Cox, 
 Sanford Richardson and many 
 others were among his pupils. For 
 some boyish prank played on the 
 teacher, Page was one day about 
 to thrash one or two of these boys> 
 The boys, however, made common 
 cause with each other and all of 
 them grabbed their caps and ran 
 out. Their continued absence gave 
 Page some uneasiness and after 
 school he started to find them, 
 which he did. He told them to 
 
 56 
 
= 
 
 H 
 
 d 
 w 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 I 
 
 o 
 
 I 
 
 * 
 

 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y 
 
 come back and he would not pun- 
 ish any of them. The boys went 
 back to school and the escapade 
 was overlooked. They say Page 
 treated them very kindly after that, 
 The old Buxton House deserves 
 a passing notice. It was a double 
 frame house, two stories high and 
 the largest house in Peoria at the 
 time it was built. It stood, as stat- 
 ed, where the Powell Block now 
 stands, near the corner of Adams 
 and Fulton street. It was built in 
 1834 by Hurd and Hamlin for old 
 Maid Buxton, as she was then 
 called, and was occupied by Bux- 
 ton and Wolford until Buxton died 
 in 1835 and until his widow was 
 compelled to leave it. It was a fa- 
 mous old house in its time and is 
 still standing at No. 212 and 214 
 Glendale Avenue, where it was 
 moved by Henry Mansfield, a num- 
 ber of years ago; it is now occupied 
 
SCHOOLS AND THE) 
 
 as a tenement house. The old 
 house did not extend beyond the 
 porch shown. The two ends have 
 been built since. Abraham S. Bux- 
 ton was the editor of the "Cham- 
 pion", the first newspaper printed 
 in Peoria. He had what at that 
 day was an extensive and well se- 
 lected library. The books were 
 sold by his administrator. A list 
 of them can be seen in the inven- 
 tory now on file in the Probate 
 Court. 
 
 Miss Mary Waters taught a se- 
 lect school in the summer of 1839 
 or 1840; the school consisted of 
 very young children. Miss Leah 
 Thomas, now Mrs. Chas, Benton, 
 who lives on Franklin street, at the 
 head of Sixth street, was one of 
 her scholars. Her only recollection 
 of the school is, that Miss Waters 
 was a very good, and a very pretty 
 woman. She afterwards married 
 
 58 
 
TKACHERS OF EARI/V PEORIA. 
 
 John McClay Smith, a stately old 
 gentleman, who kept a Grocery on 
 the corner of Fulton and Washing- 
 ton street, where Zell's Bank now 
 stands. She died about a year af- 
 ter her marriage. The following 
 letter contains more of her history 
 than can otherwise be given: 
 
 CAI,DWEI.I,, KANS., Nov. 25, 1899. 
 H. W. WELLS, ESQ. 
 DEAR SIR: 
 
 Your letter of inquiry is received. Am 
 sorry, I can give you but meager informal 
 tiun, as to my Aunt, Mrs. Mary Waters 
 Smith, connection with Peoria schools. All 
 I have for reference is an obituary notice 
 printed in the "New York Observer", the 
 year of her death, 1848. * * * She carne 
 with her father, Rev. John Waters, with a 
 colony from New York State, which settled 
 oa the site of the present city of Galesburg 
 in 1835. 
 
 She so~n after engaged in teaching- in a 
 small log schoolhouse in Peoria County, also 
 hi several other of the schools in the state 
 in successive years. 
 
 In 1841 she went to Green Bay. Wisconsin, 
 and taught six years, she returned to her 
 father's house in spring of 1847 and the fol- 
 
 59 
 
f HE SCHOOtS AND THE 
 
 lowing- June became the wife of J. McClay 
 Smith, of Peoria, 111. 
 
 It is evident that she taught somewhere in 
 Illinois about five years, but when she taught 
 in Peoria, what kind of a school, or how 
 many scholars, I have no facts on which to 
 base reply. She died August 17, 1848. * * * 
 
 Regretting- my inability to give more of 
 the desired information. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 HATTIE L,. WATERS. 
 
 In the summer of 1844, a con- 
 vention was held at Peoria for the 
 purpose of discussing a system of 
 education for this state. The con- 
 vention was attended by John S. 
 Wright of Chicago, Judge H. M. 
 Wead, the father of S. D. Wead, 
 the attorney, Thos. Kirkpatrick, of 
 Winchester, and some others. They 
 prepared a memorial to the Legis- 
 lature, which resulted in a new 
 school law, but as usual, resulted 
 in very little benefit to schools; 
 in fact, a new school law was en- 
 acted at almost every session of the 
 Legislature, and repealed by the 
 
 60 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 next. The different school laws 
 enacted by our Legislature would 
 make a very large volume if pub- 
 lished together. 
 
 John Porter taught here in 1844 
 in a schoolhouse on the bluff side 
 of Washington street, between 
 Main and Fulton streets, and after- 
 wards in the Congregational 
 church. He afterwards bought the 
 lot on Main street and built the 
 building now occupied by McFad- 
 den as a bakery. He taught two 
 or three terms in that building. 
 His wife also assisted him and 
 taught music. His son, Gib, then 
 a chunk of a boy, assisted in teach- 
 ing the young children. Mrs. Harry 
 Van Buskirk remembers that Gib 
 Porter taught her her letters- 
 While this building was beingmade 
 ready he lived on Fulton street in 
 the building across from the City 
 Hall, now lately torn down. He 
 
 61 
 
THR SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 afterwards moved his family back 
 to Massachusetts. He was killed 
 by the explosion of a boiler near 
 Morris in Grundy county. Henry 
 T. Baldwin, Jacob and Peter Frye, 
 Clint Farrell, the Rouse boys, Lem 
 Lindsay and Vic Hamlin, now the 
 wife of Harry Van Buskirk, were 
 among his pupils. 
 
 Mr. Hooper taught up-stairs 
 about where Clarke's Dry Goods 
 Store on Adams Street is. He 
 probably taught in 1846. Hooper 
 was a fat old man, and was in the 
 habit of taking a nap after dinner. 
 Sometimes, however, he would 
 "possum" on the boys. On one oc- 
 casion he lay with his head on his 
 desk, apparently asleep, when one 
 of the boys on a seat near him 
 made some noise. Instantly the 
 old man was awake and as he could 
 not tell which boy was at fault, he 
 deliberately thrashed the whole 
 
TEACHERS OK EARI.Y PEORIA. 
 
 bench of boys, remarking, they 
 probably deserved it anyway. Hen- 
 ry T. Baldwin and the two Merwin 
 boys can remember and tell about 
 this. 
 
 William Frisby taught in the 
 old Lowry Church in 1844. Valen- 
 entine Schlink was one of his pu- 
 pils. He did not teach a full term. 
 Business called him out of town 
 and Ephraim Hinman taught the 
 remainder of the term. He was 
 not a teacher; he was a lawyer and 
 taught school for lack of something 
 better to do. 
 
 Jim Anderson, the house mover, 
 who turned the church around, said 
 he used to go to school in it. Mur- 
 ry Blakesley, Johnson Cole and 
 Valentine Schlink were also pupils 
 at that school. 
 
 Hinman also taught in this old 
 Church. Val. Schlink distinctly 
 remembers going to school there. 
 
 63 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI<Y PEORIA. 
 
 dette has written up this Hinman 
 school better than I can, and let 
 Bob tell the story: 
 
 THE STRIKE AT HINMAN'S. 
 
 Away back in the fifties, k 'Hinman's" was 
 not only the best school in Peoria, but it was 
 the greatest school in the world. I sincerely 
 thought so then, and as I was a very lively 
 part of it, I should know. Mr.Hinman was the 
 Faculty, and he was sufficiently numerous to 
 demonstrate cube root with one hand and 
 maintain discipline with the other. Dear old 
 man; boys and girls with grandchildren love 
 him to-day, and think of him among their 
 blessings. He was superintendent of public 
 instruction, board of education, school trus- 
 tee, county superintendent, principal of the 
 high school and janitor. He had a pleasant 
 smile, a genius for mathematics, and a West 
 Point idea of obedienee and discipline. He 
 carried upon his person a grip that would 
 make the imported malady which mocks that 
 name in these degenerate days, call itself 
 Slack, in very terror at having assumed the 
 wrong title. 
 
 We used to have "General Exercises" on 
 Friday afternoon. The most exciting feature 
 of this weekly frivolity consisted of a free- 
 for-all exercise in mental arithmetic. Mr. 
 Hinman gave out lists of numbers, be- 
 ginning with easy ones and speaking slowly; 
 
 65 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 each succeeding list he dictated more rapidly 
 and with ever increasing- complications of 
 addition, subtraction, multiplication and di- 
 vision, until at last he was giving- them out 
 faster than he could talk. One by one the 
 pupils dropped out of the race with despair- 
 ing faces, but always at the closing peremp- 
 tory: 
 
 "Answer?" 
 
 At least a dozen hands shot into the air 
 and as many voices shouted the correct re- 
 sult. We didn't have many books, and the 
 curriculum of an Illinois school in those days 
 was not academic; but two things the chil- 
 dren could do, they could spell as well as the 
 dictionary and they could handle figures. 
 Some of the fellows fairly wallowed in them. 
 I didn't. I simply drowned in the shal- 
 lowest pond of numbers that ever spread it- 
 self on the page. As even unto this day I do 
 the same. 
 
 Well, one year the Teacher introduced an 
 innovation; "compositions" by the girls and 
 "speakin* pieces" by the boys. It was easy 
 enough for the girls, who had only to read 
 the beautiful thought that "spring is the 
 pleasantest season of the year." Now and 
 then a new girl from the east, awfully pre- 
 cise, would begin her essay "spring is the 
 most pleasant season of the year," and her 
 would we call down with derisive laughter, 
 whereat she walked to her seat, very stiffly, 
 with a proud dry-eyed look in her face, only 
 66 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA 
 
 to lay her head upon her desk when she 
 reached it, and weep silently until school 
 closed. But "speakin' pieces" did not meet 
 with favor from the boys, save one or two 
 good boys who were in training- by their pa- 
 rents for congressmen or presidents. 
 
 The rest of us, who were just boys, with no 
 desire ever to be anything else, endured the 
 tyranny of compulsory oratory about a 
 month, and then resolved to abolish the 
 whole business by a general revolt. Big and 
 little, we agreed to stand by each other, break 
 up the new exercise, and get back to the old 
 order of things the hurdle races in mental 
 arithmetic and the geographical chants 
 which we could run ard intone together. 
 
 Was I a mutineer? Weil, say, son, your Pa 
 was a constituent conspirator. He was in 
 the color guard. You see, the first boy called 
 on for a declamation was to annonnce the 
 strike, and as my name stood very high in 
 the alphabetical roll of pupils I had an ex- 
 cellent chance of leading the assaulting col- 
 umn, a distinction for which I was not at all 
 ambitious, being a stripling of tender years, 
 ruddy countenance, and sensitive feelings. 
 However, I stiffened the sinews of my soul, 
 girded on mj- armor by slipping an atlas 
 back under my jacket and was ready for the 
 fray, feeling a little terrified shiver of de- 
 light as I thought that the first lick Mr. Hin- 
 man gave me would make him think he had 
 broken my back. 
 
 67 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 The hour for "speakin' pieces," an hour 
 big with fate, arrived on time. A boy named 
 Aby Abbott was called up ahead of me, but 
 he happened to be one of the presidential as- 
 pirants (he was mate on an Illinois river 
 steamboat, stern- wheeler at that, the last I 
 knew of him), and of course he flunked and 
 "said" his piece a sadly prophetic selection 
 "Mr. President, it is natural for man to in- 
 dulge in the illusions of hope." We made 
 such suggestive and threatening gestures at 
 him, however, when Mr. Hintnan wasn't 
 looking, that he forgot half his "piece," 
 broke down and cried. He also cried after 
 school, a little more bitterly, and with far 
 better reason. 
 
 Then, after an awful pause, in which the 
 conspirators could hear the beating of each 
 other's hearts, my name was called. 
 
 I sat still at my desk and said: 
 
 "I aint goin' to speak no piece." 
 
 Mr. Hinman looked gently surprised and 
 asked: 
 
 "Why not, Robert?" 
 
 I replied: 
 
 "Because there ain't goin' to be any more 
 speakin' pieces." 
 
 The teacher's eyes grew round and big as 
 he inquired: 
 
 "Who says there will not?" 
 
 I said, in slightly firmer tones, as I realized 
 that the moment had come for dragging the 
 rest of the rebels into court: 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 "All of us boys!" 
 
 But Mr. Hinman smiled and said quietly 
 that he guessed there would be "a little more 
 speaking- before the close of the session." 
 Then laying- his hand on my shoulder, with 
 most punctilious but chilling- courtesy, he in- 
 vited me to the rostrum. The "rostrum" was 
 twenty-five feet distant, but I arrived there 
 on schedule time and only touched my feet 
 to the floor twice on my way. 
 
 And then and there, under Mr. Hinman's 
 judicious coaching-, before the assembled 
 school, with feeling-s, nay, emotions which I 
 now shudder to recall, I did my first "song 
 and dance." Many times before had I stepped 
 off a solo-cachuca to the staccato pleasing of 
 a fragment of slate frame, upon which my 
 tutor was a gifted performer, but never until 
 that day did I accompany myself with words. 
 Boy like, I had chosen for my "piece 7 ' a poem 
 sweetly expressive of those peaceful virtues 
 which I most heartily despised. So that my 
 performance, at the inauguration of the 
 strike, as Mr. Hinman conducted the over- 
 ture, ran something like this 
 
 "Oh, not for me (whack) is the rolling (whak) drum, 
 Or the (whack, wh;ick) trumpet's wild (whack) 
 appeal (Boo-hoo!) 
 
 Or the cry (.swish whack) of (boo-hoo-hoo ! ) war when 
 the (whack) foe is come (ouch!) 
 
 Or the (ow wow!) brightly (whack) flashing (whack- 
 whack) steel! (wah-hoo, wah-hoo!)" 
 
 Words and symbols can not convey to the 
 most gifted imagination the gestures with 
 
 69 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE? 
 
 which I illustrated the seven stanzas of this 
 beautiful poem. I had really selected it to 
 please my mother, whom I had invited to be 
 present, when I supposed I wonld deliver it- 
 But the fact that she attended a missionary 
 meeting in the Baptist church that afternoon 
 made me a friend of missions forever. Suffice 
 it to say, then, that my pantomime kept pace 
 and time with Mr. Hinman's system of punc- 
 tuation until the last line was sobbed and 
 whacked out. I groped my bewildered way 
 to my seat through a mist of tears *and sat 
 down gingerly and sideways, inly wondering 
 why an inscrutable providence had given ta 
 the rugged rhinoceros the hide which the 
 eternal fitness of things had plainly prepared 
 for the school-boy. 
 
 But I quickly forgot my own sorrow an<$ 
 dried my tears with laughter in the enjoy* 
 ment of the subsequent acts of the opera, as* 
 the chorus developed the plot and action. Mr. 
 Hinman, who had been somewhat gentle 
 with me, dealt firmly with the larger boy 
 who followed, and the' e was a scene of rev- 
 elry for the next twenty minutes. The old 
 man shook Bill Morrison until his teeth rat- 
 tled so you couldn't hear him cry. He hit 
 Mickey McCann, the tough boy from the 
 Ivower Prairie, and Mickey ran out* and lay 
 down in the snow to cool off. He hit Jake 
 Bailey across the legs with a slate frame, and 
 it hurt so that Jake couldn't howl he just 
 opened his mouth wide, held up his- hands,. 
 
 70 
 
OF EAR^Y PE'ORIA. 
 
 gasped, and forgot his own name. He 
 pushed Bill Haskell into a seat and the bench 
 broke. 
 
 He ran across the room and reached out 
 for L,em Harkins, and I^em had a fit before 
 the old man touched him. He shook Dan 
 Stevenson for two minutes, and when he let 
 him go, Dan walked around his own desk 
 five times before fre could find it, and then he 
 wouldn't sit down without holding- on. He 
 whipped the two Itnowltons with a skatestrap 
 in each hand at the same time; the "Green- 
 wood family, five boys and a big- girl, he 
 whipped all at once with a girl's skipping 
 rope, and they raised such a united wail that 
 the clock stopped. 
 
 He took a twist in Bill Rodecker's front 
 hair, and Bill slept with his eyes open for a 
 week. He kept tire atmosphere t>f that 
 school-room full of dust and splinters, and 
 lint, weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth, 
 until he reached the end of the alphabet and 
 all hearts ached and wearied of the inhuman 
 strife and wicked contention. Then he stood 
 -up before tis, a sickening tangle of slate 
 frame, strap, ebony ferule and skipping rope-* 
 a smile on his kind old face, and asked, in 
 tilear, triumphant tones: 
 
 "WHO says there isn't going to be any 
 more speaking pieces?" 
 
 And every last boy in that school sprang 
 to his feet; standing there as one human be- 
 
 71 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 ing with one great mouth, we shrieked in 
 concerted anguish: 
 
 "NOBODY DON'T!" 
 
 And your Pa, my son, who led that strike, 
 has been "speakin' pieces" ever since. 
 
 Hinman afterwards taught in 
 the public schools. It was proba- 
 bly one of these schools where the 
 strike so graphically described, oc- 
 curred. Hinman is living, a hale 
 old gentleman at Los Angeles, Cal- 
 ifornia. 
 
 About 1846 or 1847, Alfred 
 Washburn taught school in the 
 same place. He was a brother of 
 Cephas Hercules Washburn, well 
 remembered by most old citizens. 
 Washburn also taught over the 
 old Postoffice Building, which 
 stood on the corner of Main 
 and Adams street, where R. D, 
 McDougal's Drug Store stands. P. 
 C. Bartlett and Clint Farrell at- 
 tended this school. Washburn was 
 a fair teacher, a little inclined to 
 
 72 
 
TEACHERS OF EARtY 
 let things take their course. He 
 went from here to New Orleans, 
 where he married and went to Cal- 
 ifornia, where, it is said, he died. 
 He was a small man and very quick 
 on his feet. 
 
 Samuel L. Coulter, who was an 
 uncle of the late Wm. E. Stone, 
 taught school in 1848 in a little 
 brick building, nearly opposite the 
 National Hotel, on the rear of the 
 lot occupied by the late Harvey 
 Lightner's residence, in a building" 
 built for a Swedenborgian Church* 
 His school was exclusively for boys, 
 and it is believed that that is the 
 first school in Peoria where the 
 children of different sexes were 
 separated. He afterwards taught 
 in the basement of the Baptist 
 Church, a school for boys and girls, 
 Miss Sophia Lalanne, a sister of 
 his wife, was his assistant. Miss 
 Kidder, now Mrs. Reinhart, Mrs. 
 
$ Hfc SCHOOtS Afrfc 
 
 Henry T. Baldwin, the Lightnef 
 girls, Martha Calhoun and Mary 
 Powell were among his pupils. Miss 
 Sophia Lalanne afterwards went 
 to California, ahd about 1882 was 
 the wife of Judge Byers of Stock^ 
 ton, Cal. Oh one occasion Mrs. H. 
 T. Baldwin was registered at one 
 of the hotels in Stockton, as resid^ 
 ing in Peoria, and Mrs.Judge Ryers 
 called to make some inquiry about 
 Peoria people, when a little con^ 
 versation revealed the fact that 
 she was the teacher and Mrs. Bald^ 
 win was one of the pupils in the old 
 school at Peoria almost forty years 
 before. 
 
 About 1846 of 1847, the Rev. j. 
 S. Chamberlain, an old time Epis^ 
 copalean clergyman, now rector of 
 that church at Jubilee, taught a 
 select school in a room over what 
 was then Pettengill's store. Henry 
 T. Baldwin was one of his pupils* 
 
 74 
 
F EARtv 
 
 The building stood at No. 203 Mali! 
 street, and is now occupied by thd 
 Peoria Soiine newspaper office. Mr. 
 Chamberlain was a fin teacher and 
 an excellent man. Few teachers 
 with his merit afe so modest and 
 retiring as he, As a clergyman he 
 has for fifty yeafs been held in 
 high esteem as an exemplary mart 
 and teacher in all respects by his 
 parishioners and the public. He is 
 a tall, spare old gentleman and is 
 now quite deaf. 
 
 In 1848 he built a school house 
 on the corner of Main and Monroe 
 street, on the lot now occupied by 
 St. Paul's Church, and opened a 
 school for boys. It is best to let 
 him tell the story himself, though 
 his letter was not written with any 
 idea of its publication. 
 
THE SCHOOtS AND THE 
 
 JUBILEE, Iw,., Jan. 15, 1900. 
 tt. W. WEL,LS, ESQ., 
 
 Peoria, 111. 
 
 DEAR SIR: * * * In A. D. 1848, I 
 opened a school in a small building, erected 
 by me for the purpose on a lot owned by St. 
 Paul's parish, on N. W. cor. Main and Mon- 
 roe Sts., your city. This school I continued 
 for about ten quarters. The sittings provi* 
 ded were twenty-eight and were uniformly 
 all occupied by pupils, these being limited to 
 boys over twelve. 
 
 Among those in attendance were Henry 
 Rouse, son of Dr. Rouse J three sons of Mr. 
 John Burkett; three sons from the Voria 
 family and George Bestor. Mr. Davis, edi- 
 tor of Peoria's newspaper, also had a bright 
 son amongst our pupils during the whole 
 time of the schools continuance. But it was 
 more than fifty years ago, my brother, that 
 these things occurred and my memory fails 
 to recall the names of others, whose persons 
 I recollect. 
 
 My school was entirely subordinate to my 
 church work and was resorted to solely that 
 I might live while working to build the con* 
 gregation and church edifice of St. Paul's 
 parish on an annual salary from my bishop 
 of $100. And this church work, by the di- 
 vine blessing, the little school made possible. 
 In its hired room the congregation grew. A 
 few paces from the school the church build- 
 ing arose and was completed at a cost of 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 about $4000. And my work and that of the 
 school were thus ended happily. You will 
 not wonder that I am very sensitive to all 
 these things and that my heart goes out 
 with all it has of gratitude to offer it to Him, 
 whose blessing enabled me and my little 
 school to do so good a work, 
 
 Your friend and servant for j? * 
 
 J. S. CHAMBERLAIN. 
 
 Rev. Chamberlain afterwards 
 opened a school for girls, called St. 
 Mary's Academy, in the building 
 on the bluff, built by Captain Moss, 
 afterwards occupied by G. C. Bes- 
 tor. Mr. Chamberlain bought the 
 house and opened his school under 
 the promises of an endowment suf- 
 ficient to maintain it. The school 
 was opened and went along swim- 
 mingly until it began to need funds, 
 
 * The monogram X at the end of the above letter 
 may not be understood by all. It is an abbreviation 
 of the name of Jesus Christ, used by churchmen of 
 the old times. It is the cross the Emperor Constan- 
 tino saw in the sky the night before his victory over 
 Maxentius, surrounded by the motto: "/ hoc signo 
 vt'nces." It is called the Cross of Constantino. .It is 
 from the first two letters of the Greek word Christos, 
 the X (Chi) and P (Rho) united in the form shown. 
 
 77 
 
SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 when the parties who had promised 
 to furnish them, slipped out and 
 left Mr. Chamberlain with the ob- 
 ligation on his hands and no 
 money. The school was of course 
 obliged to suspend and Mr. Cham- 
 berlain saddled with debt, was 
 broken hearted. 
 
 About this date, Isaac Under- 
 hill, who was a prominent citizen 
 of Peoria, offered a gold watch as 
 a prize to the best speaker among 
 the children in the schools of Peo- 
 ria. The contest came off in the 
 court house; the contestants were 
 numerous, and as a matter of 
 course, the audience was large. 
 After an exciting contest, the judges 
 awarded the prize to Sanford Rich- 
 ardson, and gave him the watch. 
 It is said the award caused some 
 heart burnings at the time. 
 
 Mrs. Walker taught school in 
 the basement of the old Baptist 
 
 78 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Church on Hamilton street, just 
 below where the County Jail now 
 stands. The church was built in 
 1847 while the Rev. Isaac D. New- 
 ell was pastor and the basement at 
 times was occupied as a school 
 room. Mrs. Walker was a member 
 of the church and was probably the 
 first to teach in its basement. She 
 is said to have been a large, fine 
 lady, considerably above the ordi- 
 nary size for women. Linn McCoy 
 was one of her pupils, unquestion- 
 ably there were others, but their 
 names have been forgotten. 
 
 Mrs. Gustorf about 1849 taught 
 on the corner of Hamilton and 
 Madison streets, near where the 
 Russell property is. Mrs. Henry 
 T. Baldwin was one of her pupils, 
 Tom Griffiths another. Mrs. Gus- 
 torf afterwards taught on Eaton 
 street in the rear of where the 
 Academy of the Sacred Heart now 
 
 79 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 stands. She was an English lady 
 of fine appearance and education 
 and an excellent teacher. She was 
 the mother of Mrs. Wm. E. Stone. 
 Mrs. Stevens taught in a little 
 brick house on the corner of Madi- 
 son and Eaton streets. She was a 
 widow lady about 40 and well qual- 
 ified as a teacher, but not very pop- 
 ular with her scholars She was 
 rather free with her rod and very 
 free with reproof. Whipping min- 
 gled with prayers was her long 
 suit. Sam Calhoun was among her 
 pupils. On one occasion she ac- 
 cused Sam of throwing a spitball. 
 Sam, then an unregenerate little 
 villain of eight, stoutly denied it, 
 whereupon the teacher took him 
 upstairs and after compelling him 
 to kneel, she prayed over him and 
 licked him doughtily for lying. It 
 afterwards appeared that Sam's 
 story was true. An apology was 
 
 80 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 due and a nice tart to Sam. It is 
 probably still due. 
 
 Thos. Griffiths taught about 1851 
 on Jefferson street, near where the 
 Hamlin Block is now situated. Geo* 
 Bestor, Jackson Mayer and Onslow 
 Peters, Jr., were among his pupils. 
 
 He afterwards taught between 
 Fulton street and Liberty on Jef- 
 ferson street in 1854. Charles Bal- 
 lance, James and Samuel Thomp- 
 son, Eugene Peters and Thomas 
 Griffiths were his pupils at 
 that school. He was an excellent 
 old gentleman and a great favorite 
 with his pupils. He was the first 
 librarian of the Peoria Public Li- 
 brary. He died many years ago. 
 
 Mrs. Walker taught in the base- 
 ment of the old Baptist church on 
 Hamilton street, just below where 
 the County Jail now stands. The 
 church was built about 1847, while 
 Rev. Isaac D. Newell was pastor 
 
 81 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 and the basement was at times oc- 
 cupied as a school room. Mrs. 
 Walker was a member of the 
 church and probably the first teach- 
 er in its basement. She is said to 
 have been a large, fine looking 
 woman, considerably above the or- 
 dinary size. Linn McCoy was one 
 of her pupils; probably there are 
 others here, but none have been 
 found. 
 
 Rev. Benjamin Huntoon, late in 
 the forties, taught on Washington 
 street, between Main and Fulton. 
 He was a Boston man and a fine 
 teacher. He had over thirty schol- 
 ars, among whom were P. C. Bart- 
 lett, John Kuhn and Johnson Cole. 
 He was a brother-in-law of Moses 
 Pettengill. He died many years 
 ago. His son was at one time in 
 the Dry Goods business on Main 
 street. 
 
 82 
 
TEACHEKS OF EARI^Y PEORIA 
 
 The following letter from Capt. 
 S. F. Otman speaks for itself: 
 
 WYOMING, lu,., April 18, 1900. 
 MY DEAR MAJOR WEU,S 
 
 Your letter regarding- schools came to 
 hatid. * * * I taught two terms in Peoria 
 during the winter of 1849 and 1850. There 
 were at that time four public schools in the 
 city and designated as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 
 4th Ward schools. 
 
 The 1st Ward school was located I think 
 on Hanison street, between Washington and 
 Adams streets, and taught by a man by the 
 name of Conner, a you ug irishman. 
 
 The 2nd was near what was called the 
 State House Square, and the teacher's name 
 was Hinman, who taught there several years 
 and was quite successful as a teacher. 
 
 The 3rd Ward school, which was mine, 
 was located on Perry street, between Fayette 
 and Jackson, on the bluff side of the street. 
 
 The 4th was located on North Washington 
 street, near Eaton, and was next to the old 
 jail and the teacher was D. M. Cum wings. 
 
 I can now recall but a very few among 
 my scholars t living in Peoria; Charles and 
 Edward Easton, James Ward, John M. Simp- 
 son, three Warner boys, George and Harry 
 McClelland, who were the last I knew of 
 them in Chicago. School matters were in 
 poor shape at that time. Each ward had 
 three school director- and the teacher was 
 
 83 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 employed at a salary, which he had to pro- 
 rata among the patrons of the school and 
 collect his salary from them. There was no 
 public school fund. I had some young men 
 as scholars, who were larger and older than 
 I was, but they as a rule were easy to man- 
 age. The directors of the 3rd Ward school 
 were George Greenwood, John Waugh and 
 Abram Fash. I have to depend on my mem- 
 ory in regard to these matters and as it is 
 now fifty years since I quit teaching, I can 
 recall but little that transpired in those days. 
 Very respectfully yours. 
 
 S. F. OTMAN. 
 
 Captain Otman is employed on 
 the Revenue force here in Peoria, 
 and is an excellent man. In 1861 
 he enlisted and was elected Cap- 
 tain of one of the companies in 
 the 1 1 2th Illinois Volunteers 
 and served until the close of the 
 war, since which time he has re- 
 sided at Wyoming. 
 
 The foregoing letter is the only 
 information I have or can find of 
 the teacher named as Conner. It 
 seems, however, that there was a 
 
 84 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 teacher of that name who taught 
 on Harrison street, between Adams 
 and Washington. He seems to 
 have disappeared behind fifty years 
 which have since intervened. 
 
 Since the foregoing was in type, 
 I am in receipt of the following let- 
 ter from Samuel Lowry, son of the 
 Samuel Lowry, who built the 
 old church in 1835, which mentions 
 Geo. H. Quigg as a teacher here in 
 1835 on the northwest corner of 
 Adams and Fulton streets. This 
 means in Hunt's row before men- 
 tioned. From Ballance history it 
 may be learned that Quigg was a 
 tall Irishman, who had a high opin- 
 ion of himself. He was at one time 
 employed by Wm. L. May to run 
 the ferry, about which there was 
 much contention. He lived after- 
 wards in a very pretty one-story 
 frame cottage at the southeast cor. 
 of Jefferson and Fulton streets. Mr. 
 
 85 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 Garrett says he saw him in Chicago 
 before the great fire; that his 
 daughter taught school in Henry. 
 
 ST. Louis, April 24, 1900. 
 H W. WELLS, ESQ., 
 
 Peoria, 111., 
 
 DEAR SIR: Your letter of 20th inst, ad- 
 dressed to Cincinnati, has been forwarded to 
 me here where I am now residing-. In re- 
 sponse to your inquiries I would say that no 
 school was ever held in the old church to 
 which you refer.* In 1838, when I was about 
 eleven years of age, I attended a school that 
 was held in the "Main Street Presbyterian 
 Church", located on the East side of Main 
 street, half block north of the Public square. 
 The teachers name was Douglas. This may 
 be the school you are seeking- to trace. 
 
 Previously, in 1835, I was a scholar in a 
 small school, held in a room on the upper 
 side of Adams street, just west of Fulton, 
 the teacher's name was Quigg. 
 
 In 1837 I attended a school held in the sec- 
 ond story of a building- on the west side of 
 Main street, south of Washington, taught 
 by Mr. Winslow. In 1839 Rev. Benjamin 
 Huntoon had a school on Washington street, 
 east of Fulton. 
 
 The same year the Peoria Academy was 
 started by Rev. David Page in a building 
 on the upper side of Adams, east of Fulton. 
 * The schools were after Lowry left. 
 86 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Later removed several blocks north and 
 west to a building- purchased and enlarged 
 by Mr. Page, which was the first building- 
 devoted exclusively to school purposes in 
 Peoria. 
 
 My father (whose name I bear) was a 
 school trustee I think in 1837-39. The church, 
 sometimes called "Lowry's Church, " was a 
 frame building erected in 1835, upon a large 
 lot on the southwest corner of Adams and 
 Jackson streets. If the building is still 
 standing it is not upon that ground. My 
 father's residence, a frame cottage, built in 
 1836, was directly opposite on the upper side 
 of Adams, and when I was last in Peoria, 
 about ten years ago, it was still there. The 
 frame house* of those days were built to 
 last the frame of oak, the weather boarding 
 of black walnut, and the floor of yellow pine. 
 
 The congregation that built the church 
 was organized in December 1834 in my fa- 
 ther's dwelling, then on Water street, the 
 second house west of Hamilton. The details 
 of its history and of Mr. Kellar's connection 
 with it, are I think in the possession of the 
 First Presbyterian Church. 
 
 If these statements are of use to you it 
 gives me pleasure to furnish them. I still 
 cherish a warm feeling- for the home of my 
 school boy days. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 SAMUEI* LOWRY. 
 2803 Russell Ave. 
 87 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 Mr. Fey taught in the old Con- 
 gregational Church ; he is described 
 as a small man, a fairly good 
 teacher, but I can get no particu- 
 lars about him except that he was 
 a Yankee and was always well 
 dressed. 
 
 About 1848 a Miss Ellis taught 
 in the basement of the old Baptist 
 Church. Some time after she went 
 to Alton where she taught school 
 a short time and afterwards mar- 
 ried a wealthy manufacturer of 
 that city. She is believed to be 
 residing there now. 
 
 Anastatia Joyce taught in a two- 
 story frame building that stood on 
 the northwest corner of Hamilton 
 and Monroe streets in 1847. The 
 family afterwards moved to Block 
 34 in Taylor & Blakely's Addition, 
 near where O. C. Parmelee lived 
 on North Jefferson street. They 
 
 88 
 
ANASTASIA JOYCE 
 Teacher from 1847 to 1857. 
 
TEACHERS OF EARtY TEORlA* 
 
 afterwards moved up Jefferson 
 street near the corner of Wayne* 
 Mrs. Joyce continued to teach until 
 1857. James and John Dolan, Miss 
 Kate Kelley, Sam Calhoun and 
 many others were among her pu- 
 pils. She was a faithful teacher 
 and many young business man 
 learned his letters from Mrs.Joyce, 
 Her husband was a cooper. He 
 afterwards moved to Livingston 
 County and Mrs. Joyce died near 
 Chatsworth in 1864. She is de- 
 scribed as a tall woman, dark hair 
 and eyes and fair skin. Her son, 
 John N. Joyce, lives at 2520 South 
 V/ashington St. 
 
 Mr. Ferris taught in a little 
 brick school house on the south- 
 east corner of Madison and Han- 
 cock street. Miss Martha Calhoun 
 was one of her pupils, and speaks 
 in high terms of her teacher. 
 
 89 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 Chas. Doty taught on Walnut 
 street, just below Adams. The 
 foundation of the large two-story 
 school house, which once stood on 
 the corner of the streets, was partly 
 built when the school inspectors 
 organized and completed it. Doty 
 was an excellent teacher, with a 
 very hot temper and a very strict 
 disciplinarian. Miss Virginia Bal- 
 lance was his assistant. The boys in 
 this school were large, and some 
 of them boisterous and unruly fel- 
 lows. It is said on one occasion 
 they determined to rebel, at least 
 to scare the teacher if he should 
 attempt to correct any one of them. 
 The occasion soon came. He at- 
 tempted to correct one of his big 
 boys, when four or five of the others 
 came to the boy's rescue. Some 
 of them drew knives and made 
 noisy threats to use them. Miss 
 Virginia Ballance, now Mrs. Bash, 
 
 90 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI.Y 
 
 attracted by the noise, came in 
 from the next room, marching 
 straight into the melee, she com- 
 manded the boys to go straight 
 into their seats. They at once 
 slunk away and the row quelled. 
 
 The Snow family is famous in 
 the history of schools in Peoria. T. 
 J. Snow came here from Kentucky 
 to avoid raising his family in a 
 slave state. He was a graduate of 
 Brown and Harvard, and a fine 
 scholar. He died about two years 
 after, leaving a wife and four sons 
 and three daughters. The two 
 oldest sons took charge of their 
 father's school, then on Main street, 
 just below the Post Office. In 
 about two years they opened a 
 school on Fayette street, teaching 
 higher branches. 
 
 In 1854 H. O. Snow taught in 
 Chicago. A fire destroyed his 
 school in 1858 and he went to Ra- 
 
 91 
 
THE scnoots AND THE 
 cine, Wisconsin. About 1870 he 
 commenced teaching in Kentucky, 
 where he died in 1895 after fifty 
 years successful teaching. 
 
 O. T. Snow taught a private 
 school in Chicago and in 1862 re- 
 moved to Batavia, where he was 
 principal of the public school for 
 nearly 30 years. He died in 1891. 
 C. P. Snow taught in the public 
 school in Peoria and while teaching 
 the war broke out and he at once 
 enlisted as a private and was pro- 
 moted to first lieutenant. At the 
 close of the war he resumed teach- 
 ing in Peoria and was principal of 
 one of the city schools for about 
 eight years, when he removed to 
 Princeton, where he has been Su- 
 perintendent of city schools for the 
 major part of thirty years. 
 
 H. W. Snow was also a teacher 
 and principal in Peoria. He en- 
 
 92 
 
TEACHERS OF ttARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 listed in the army and was chosen 
 Lieut. Colonel isist Regt. Illinois 
 Vols., and was Provost Marshal of 
 Georgia. He was afterwards elect- 
 ed to Congress on the Democratic 
 Ticket and after his term was 
 elected Sergeant at Arms of the 
 house. He is now President of a 
 bank and resides at Kankakee. 
 
 Miss Bonnie Snow, daughter of 
 J. T. Snow, taught several years in 
 the Peoria High School. She 
 finally married A. C. Little of Au- 
 rora, where she now resides. Many 
 of our best business men received 
 their education under some one of 
 the Snows. All speak of them in 
 the highest terms as teachers and 
 excellent men. 
 
 In 1851 the Methodist Church 
 obtained a charter and organized 
 the Wesleyan Seminary of Peoria. 
 They purchased the Mitchell house 
 
 93 
 
THE SCHOOI^S AND THE 
 on the corner of Jefferson and Ful- 
 ton streets, and opened where the 
 "Star" office now stands with con- 
 siderable ceremony. They had 23 
 trustees, all influential men, and a 
 good attendance of scholars fol- 
 lowed. They were, however, un- 
 fortunate in their selection of their 
 principal. Ballance says he was a 
 vile hypocrite and filthy debauchee. 
 The school closed before it had 
 fairly started. 
 
 There is an old brick school 
 house now standing at 322 North 
 Washington Street, just below the 
 site of the old jail. It is supposed 
 to be the first school building built 
 in Peoria by the public. It was 
 probably built in 1847 or J 848 by 
 Wm. Senior as contractor. Mr. 
 Phillips did the brick work. It was 
 known as the Fourth Ward school. 
 The building was an excellent one 
 
 94 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 for those days and would accom- 
 modate about 80 scholars. W. H. 
 Gowdy is said to be the first teach- 
 er. Chas. Shaw of Chillicothe was 
 one of his pupils. Dave Cummings 
 also taught there and was followed 
 by J. B. Paul. Johnson Cole was a 
 
 pupil of Dave Cummings and used 
 to assist him at times in teaching. 
 The building was sold many years 
 ago and is now occupied as a tene- 
 ment house. When built it was in 
 the residence part par excellence 
 of Peoria. 
 
 C. C. Bonney opened a school 
 called the "Peoria Institute" No- 
 vember 4th, 1850, in the basement 
 of the Baptist Church. The school 
 lasted but a few terms. Bonney 
 afterwards studied law and moved 
 to Chicago where he now is. He 
 had charge of the Congress of Re- 
 ligions at the Worlds Fair in 1893. 
 
 95 
 
THIS SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 Bonney was followed by Dr.John 
 Niglas and E. S. Wilcox. They 
 taught in the basement of the Bap- 
 tist Church. Dr. Niglas was a Ger- 
 man and as well and favorably 
 known as any physician in Peoria. 
 E. S. Wilcox is librarian of the 
 Peoria Public Library and is well 
 known to our citizens. 
 
 Miss Sarah J. Matthews taught 
 in the Girls Stock School on Jef- 
 ferson street, which was afterwards 
 destroyed by fire. After that she 
 taught in the brick school house, 
 which the Association built at the 
 corner of Jackson and Adams. Not 
 long after she became the wife of 
 Alexander McCoy. She died many 
 years ago. Her sister Adalaid, also 
 a teacher here, married Geo. Hard- 
 ing, a well known lawyer of Chica- 
 go. She had considerable trouble 
 with her husband, out of which 
 
 96 
 
TKACHERS OF EARI,Y PKORIA. 
 
 grew a suit for divorce, which de- 
 veloped much bitterness. 
 
 Miss Clerk, an English lady, 
 taught here about 1853 on Harri- 
 son street, at No. 308, on the ground 
 now occupied by Murphy's Plumb- 
 ing Shop. Charles Ballance was 
 one of her pupils and describes her 
 as a fair teacher. 
 
 Miss Helen Partridge taught in 
 the school afterv/ards called the 
 Irving school in 1854. She was a 
 large woman of fine presence and a 
 superior teacher. She afterwards 
 removed to Princeton, where she 
 married Mr. P. J. Newell and 
 now resides. Frank Newell of 
 Chicago, late of Peoria, is her son. 
 Mrs. Newell says there was a 
 Teacher's Association in Peoria in 
 1854, gives the names of some of 
 the members. Mr. and Mrs. Hovey, 
 Sophia Lalanne, Miss Sarah and 
 
 97 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 Adelaide Matthews, Miss Laura 
 Chambers, Ephriam Hinman, D. 
 McCulloch, Dr. Niglas, O.T.Snow, 
 J. B. Paul and others. 
 
 David McCulloch came here in 
 1853. In January of that year he 
 began teaching a classical and sci- 
 entific school in the basement of 
 the old Methodist Church, corner 
 of Madison and Fulton streets. He 
 began a second term of the same 
 school, September 5th, which con- 
 tinued eleven weeks. On the 8th 
 of January, 1854, he taught one full 
 term. He afterwards rented the 
 room over the old Engine House, 
 229 North Adams street, where he 
 taught one term. He also filled 
 out a term for Snow on Main street. 
 He taught nothing but the higher 
 branches of Mathematics and the 
 classics. Among his pupils maybe 
 named Rollin and Portius Whee- 
 ler, Arthur Rugg, Linn and Wil- 
 
 98 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 Ham McCoy, John Dodge, Phillip 
 Brotherson and others. With the 
 closing of the term last mentioned 
 his career as a teacher was over. 
 He began studying law with Man- 
 ning & Merriman. His subsequent 
 career as a lawyer and judge are 
 well known in the history of the 
 state. 
 
 The two Misses Clark taught in 
 the old Ballance school house on 
 Walnut street, below Adams. They 
 kept the last school taught in that 
 house. They were very precise 
 ladies, but good teachers. One 
 thing mav be noticed. They re- 
 quired a contract with parents of 
 pupils, that the children should be 
 clean and neatly dressed each day, 
 before they were sent to school. It 
 was a departure from customary 
 methods in education, but the de- 
 parture was sometimes needed. 
 
 99 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 The Misses Clark were English 
 ladies and taught but one or two 
 terms when the district school was 
 opened just across the street. In 
 that school Miss Grace Bibb and 
 Miss Wood were employed to 
 teach; young children and the 
 Misses Clark brought their school 
 to a close. 
 
 THE COLORED SCHOOL. 
 
 There was a school for colored 
 children taught by Miss Rebecca 
 Elliott, who came here from Cin- 
 cinnati as their teacher about 
 1860. 
 
 Schools for colored children 
 were a rather scarce article in Peo- 
 ria before the war. The city con- 
 tributed $15.00 per quarter of the 
 teacher's pay and the parents of 
 the children paid the remainder. 
 
 The school was opened in a 
 small frame building, which stood 
 100 
 
f 
 
 D 
 
 il 
 
 == a 
 
 V. K 
 $ O 
 
 So 
 
 "I 
 
 ? 
 
 -p 
 
 w 
 o 
 
 en 
 
 H 
 
TEACHERS OF J'lARI/VT PEORIA. 
 
 at the head of Chestnut street, No. 
 209. The building was built by the 
 Turners and was the first Turner 
 Hall in Peoria. It then stood on 
 Washington street. About 1858 
 or 1859 it was sold; the colored 
 people bought it and moved it to 
 Chestnut street and used it for 
 some years as a church and school 
 house. The building is yet stand- 
 ing and is now occupied as a tene- 
 ment house. 
 
 Miss Elliott must have been a 
 good teacher, at least her name 
 may be found among the teachers 
 of the public schools in 1863. I* 
 was a separate school for colored 
 children, white children were 
 hardly wise enough then to attend 
 school with colored children. Miss 
 Elliott was paid by the public $125 
 for twenty-five weeks. 
 
 The next school for colored 
 children stood at the head of 
 Franklin street on a vacant piece 
 
 101 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 of ground claimed by the city. 
 That school house was built during 
 or just after the war. The school 
 was taught by Miss Duffee, who is 
 said to have been an Irish lady and 
 a good teacher. Miss Duffee went 
 to Ireland and Miss Houghtailing 
 taught for some time. 
 
 The colored children are now 
 admitted to the public schools the 
 same as white children. 
 
 GIRLS' STOCK SCHOOL 
 
 The Female School Association, 
 better known as the Girl's Stock 
 School was opened in 1850 and 
 proved to be reasonably successful 
 and became a paying investment. 
 They leased the lot on Jeffer- 
 son Avenue on which it stood 
 from Charles Ballance, be- 
 fore the lease expired the house 
 was burned. The Association af- 
 terwards bought a lot at the corner 
 102 
 
TEACHRRS OF EARI.Y PEORIA. 
 
 of Adams and Jackson streets, and 
 put up a fine brick building. This 
 school also prospered there until it 
 was taken by the School Inspec- 
 tors, who for some time made use 
 of it as the High school under 
 their system. It afterwards be- 
 came the Irving school and 
 was so used some years. It is 
 now occupied by the Teacher's As- 
 sociation as a club room. 
 
 BOYS' STOCK SCHOOL 
 
 The Boy's Stock School was or- 
 ganized in March 1854 in pursuance 
 to several public meetings held in 
 1853 an d 1854. A meeting of the 
 shareholders was held at Hascall's 
 Hall in February 1854, where the 
 plan was outlined, and on the 23rd 
 of March the shareholders met 
 and elected Hon. Onslow Peters, 
 President and A. P. Bartlett, Sec- 
 retary and H. G. Anderson, treas- 
 
 103 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 urer. They purchased lots 10, 11 
 and 12, Block 47 in Monson & San- 
 ford's Addition and a building was 
 erected and furnished at a cost of 
 
 $8000, ready for occupancy Nov. 
 27, 1854, the school was opened, 
 Chas. E. Hovey was selected as 
 principal; Mrs. Hovey, C. H. Doty, 
 Elizabeth Smith and Sophia La- 
 lanne assisting. Dr. Niglas in- 
 structed in German and J. M. Hig- 
 
 104 
 
TEACHERS OF BARI.Y PEGRIA. 
 
 gins in music. One hundred and 
 nineteen students entered the 
 school. 
 
 The New Testament, the Bible, 
 Webster's Dictionary and Julius 
 Caesar are the only books in a 
 long list of studies, which are rec- 
 ognized now. This school was 
 chartered by the Legislature Feb- 
 ruary 6, 1855, under the name of 
 Peoria Academy and April 6, 1856, 
 was purchased by the School In- 
 spectors of Peoria and the school 
 became incorporated in the gener- 
 al school system of Peoria. (See 
 Appendix.) 
 
 THE GERMAN SCHOOLS. 
 
 So far as known the following 
 is all of the German schools in 
 early Peoria: About the year 1849 
 a school was opened by Rev. Mi- 
 chael Ruppelius, formerly a Luth- 
 eran minister, then a Notary Pub- 
 
 105 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 lie and Justice of the Peace. It 
 was located on Adams street, be- 
 tween Main and Fulton. It con- 
 tinued until 1857, employing two 
 teachers, one of them being the 
 late Mr. Chr. Zimmermann. 
 
 Soon after another was opened 
 by Mr. J. G. Schultz on the corner 
 of Washington and Harrison Sts. 
 After running it with fair success 
 for a few years Mr. Schultz obtain- 
 ed a position in the Recorder's of- 
 fice and dismissed his pupils. 
 
 About the same time a third 
 was conducted under Catholic au- 
 spices by Mr. Franz Stubenrauch 
 on South Washington Street, be- 
 tween Walnut and Bridge, whence 
 it was moved about the year 1850 
 to No. 311 South Washington 
 street, and kept up until i859,when 
 it was closed. Joseph Brodman, 
 John Henseler, Chris. Yerger and 
 Frank J. Miller were among his 
 pupils. He married Susanna Streitz 
 
 106 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI/V PEORIA. 
 
 in March, 1859, and died 1873. 
 widow and family live at No. 411 
 First avenue. 
 
 A fourth school, opened by a 
 a Mr. Nachtigal, on North Adams 
 street, corner Morgan and Adams, 
 had a precarious existence from 
 1856 to 1858 and was closed in the 
 middle of the schoolyear for want 
 of scholars. 
 
 A fifth was operated by a Mrs, 
 Stein on Walnut street and man- 
 aged to hold out until 1859 or 1860- 
 There may have been others in the 
 decade ending with the year 1860, 
 but of these there is no informa- 
 tion available, except that in 1859, 
 when all or nearly all those men- 
 tioned had been given up, another 
 effort was made by a Mr. Stieboldt, 
 a linguist and gentleman of supe- 
 rior education, who opened a 
 school on Washington street. This 
 school was afterwards assumed by 
 
 107 
 
THK SCHOOLS AND THE 
 the late Mr. August Kampmeier, 
 and by him transferred in the fall 
 of 1871 to Mr. Schultz, named ear- 
 lier in this article. It was held in 
 the court house. Mr. Schultz soon 
 tired of his second venture and 
 early in 1862 turned over to the 
 newly formed German School So- 
 ciety, all the belongings of his 
 school, together with perhaps 69 or 
 70 pupils, himself remaining as one 
 of the teachers. 
 
 Many Germans had settled in 
 the lower portion of the city, in 
 what was familiarly known as the 
 "Krim", and to accommodate these 
 a Mr. Gehrig in 1860 opened a 
 school on South Washington street, 
 just below Edmund, which was 
 fairly well patronized and contin- 
 ued to exist until 1867 or 1868. 
 
 108 
 
TEACHERS OF FARI.Y PEORIA. 
 
 GERMAN FREE SCHOOL. 
 
 On the 2ist of March 1862, a 
 meeting of Germans was held at 
 Bergan'sHall,509-5ii South Wash- 
 ington Street, to consult about es- 
 tablishing a German school. Dr. 
 Brendel was called to the chair and 
 H. Baier chosen Secretary. After 
 full consultation a committee was 
 appointed to report a plan. The 
 committee reported in favor of es- 
 tablishing a German School and 
 $600 was at once subscribed by 
 those present and a committee to 
 solicit funds was appointed. 
 
 On the nth of April the school 
 was organized, 13 directors were 
 chosen and Carl Feinse was elected 
 president. Bergan's Hall on South 
 Washington street was rented and 
 Chris. Zimmermann and J. G. 
 Schultz were engaged as teachers. 
 
 May 3rd the school was opened 
 
 109 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 with 103 scholars. April 8th, 1863 
 the lot at noSecond avenue, where 
 the school now stands, was pur- 
 chased for $1200 and the building 
 was erected at a cost of $4,698.14. 
 It was dedicated October 30, 1863. 
 The president, Carl Feinse, made 
 an English oration and Dr. Studer 
 spoke in German. April 29, 1864, 
 the number of pupils had increased 
 to 275 and two more teachers were 
 employed. The school is main- 
 tained from voluntary subscription 
 and a small charge to the pupils. 
 The school was incorporated in 
 1864, and has now ample funds on 
 hand for the maintenance of the 
 school. It is emphatically a Ger- 
 man-English school. They teach 
 the same branches from the same 
 books used in the English Gram- 
 mar school. During a portion of 
 each day the studies are conducted 
 in German. April 4, 1890, a Kin- 
 
 no 
 
TEACHEKS OF EARI<Y PEOKIA 
 
 dergarten was added with Miss 
 Jennie Dammann as teacher. The 
 officials at the present time are Dr. 
 O. J. Roskoten, president, Fred. 
 Kleene, secretary, John Schlatter, 
 treasurer. The teachers' names 
 are Robt. Eckstein, D. H. Poppen, 
 Emily Wetzlau and Mrs. Frahm. 
 
 The founders of this school were 
 many of them exiles from their na- 
 tive land on account of the Revo- 
 lution of 1848, most of them came 
 here very poor. After a shelter 
 for their families they built a school 
 to educate their children. That 
 school, a monument of German 
 industry, pluck and patience is still 
 standing at no Second avenue, 
 and the school is still in active op- 
 eration. 
 
 The forty years, which have 
 elapsed since the German school 
 School was started, has made many 
 
 changes. Emigration has dimin- 
 111 
 
THK SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 ished. The Germans have to a 
 large extent become Americans. 
 The public schools are much better 
 and are more convenient than at 
 first, and of course the attendance 
 at the German school has fallen 
 off. It is not impossible the Ger- 
 mans may in the near future con- 
 clude to transfer the school to the 
 American school board, possibly to 
 be maintained as an exclusively 
 German school of the higher 
 grade. 
 
 There were some funny mistakes 
 that arose in these German schools 
 from a misunderstanding of lan- 
 guage. One German teacher on 
 one occasion seeing a new boy in 
 his school, said to him "Komm mal 
 her!" the boy thought he said 
 "Comb your hair" and putting his 
 hand to his head, said my hair is 
 combed. The teacher at once 
 reached for his gad and started for 
 
J 
 
 8 
 
 - 
 O 
 
 P 
 
 J 
 
 fc 7) 
 
 < c 
 
 SI. 
 
 35! 
 
 g 
 p 
 
 i ( 
 
 - 
 iJ 
 
 8 
 1 
 
 c/) 
 
 E 
 
TEACHERS OF KARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 the boy, to administer a sound 
 thrashing, when one of the Ger- 
 man boys called to him: Er ist ein 
 englischerBub, er kann kein Deutsch. 
 (He is an English boy, he cannot 
 speak German.) The teacher sur- 
 veyed the boy with astonishment 
 and said "Soh" 
 
 THE PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 The Parochial Schools, or Parish 
 Schools are controlled by the Par- 
 ish authorities, which in this coun- 
 try in all cases are the church au- 
 thorities. A church is organized 
 within a district, which is called a 
 parish, the school is a part of the 
 church in effect or belongs to the 
 church. There are in Peoria 13 of 
 these Parochial schools, of which 
 seven are Catholic and six are Lu-< 
 theran. Among these early Paro- 
 chial schools, St. Paul's Evangel- 
 
 113 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 ical Lutheran School at the corner 
 of Prairie and Goodwin streets, is 
 perhaps the first. It was organized 
 in 1854. The Rev.H. Kopman was 
 the first teacher. The school was 
 supported largely by the church, 
 but the patrons are usually charged 
 50 to 75 cents a month for each 
 scholar up to two, the remainder of 
 the family all being included in 
 this charge. They teach ordinary 
 English branches, a part of each 
 day being devoted to teaching 
 German, while for the remainder 
 of the day the teaching is in Eng- 
 lish. The schools sometimes have 
 a Kindergarten for young children 
 as a part of the school. Wolfgang 
 Semmelmann is the present teach- 
 er of this school, while his wife is 
 teacher of the Kindergarten. The 
 school now numbers 106 pupils. 
 Their first school house was rather 
 a small affair. The second adjoin- 
 
 114 
 
PRESENT BUILDING ST. PAUL'S GERMAN 
 
 LUTHERAN SCHOOL 
 Goodwin St , cor. Prairie. Built 1898. 
 
TKACHKRS OF QARI<Y POERIA. 
 
 ing it is a much larger and better 
 building. 
 
 In 1857, a Lutheran school was 
 organized at No. 418 Warner ave- 
 nue. It was taught by Prof. E. 
 Miller. It is called the German 
 Lutheran Trinity School. In 1888 
 the Rev. E. J. Keimnitz was the 
 teacher. He continues to be the 
 teacher at this time and has about 
 80 scholars. 
 
 In 1892 a school was organized 
 at 214 Malone avenue, called the 
 Evangelical Lutheran Christ's 
 School. Edward Kremsieg is the 
 teacher. This church and school 
 was destroyed by fire in 1895, but 
 the congregation at once rebuilt a 
 new school house and church. The 
 school now has 56 pupils in attend- 
 ance. The pupils pay 75 cents per 
 month, up to two members of a 
 family, the other members are free 
 
 115 
 
THE SCHOOI3 AND THE 
 
 and the remainder of the expenses 
 are paid by the church. 
 
 Other Lutheran schools in this 
 city are not essentially different 
 from those already given. They 
 all teach the ordinary English 
 branches, and I believe all devote 
 a portion of their teaching to Ger- 
 man, or in the German language, 
 and a portion in English. The chil- 
 dren, however, all get English 
 enough in their contact with other 
 children on the street. 
 
 There is a German Reformed 
 Church on the corner of Reed and 
 Persimmon street, which is differ- 
 ent in faith from the Lutheran, but 
 not essentially different in their 
 manner of teaching. Their school 
 is small, not having over 30 schol- 
 ars and is kept only in the summer 
 months. It is substantially a Ger- 
 man Reformed School, which in 
 English means congregational. 
 
 116 
 
I 
 
 g 
 
 w 
 
 S 
 
 .0 
 
 
TEACHERS OF BARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 CATHOLIC PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 ST. JOSEPH'S PARISH SCHOOL. 
 
 The first organized effort on the 
 part of the St. Joseph's congrega- 
 tion to establish a school was made 
 in 1858. Four members, Messrs. 
 John Wichmann, Andreas Goebel, 
 Philip Rohmann and Henry Lam- 
 mers donated to the congregation 
 a lot for this purpose, situated at 
 the corner of Spencer street and 
 First Avenue, extending 50x150 
 feet. In the middle of this lot the 
 congregation, about 40 families in 
 all, built its first one story frame 
 school house, 16 feet wide by 24 
 feet long, which soon received an 
 addition of the same dimensions 
 along Spencer street line, so that it 
 represented a lengthy structure of 
 the dimensions 16x48 feet. 
 
 The families resided within two 
 miles of the school, and the num- 
 
 117 
 
'THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 her of school-going children ranged 
 from 60 to 70. This was the first 
 Parochial school built in Peoria, 
 for children of Catholic parents, 
 at a time when its inhabitants 
 counted less than one-sixth of their 
 last census. 
 
 The men who taught St. Joseph's 
 school from 1858-1869 were educat- 
 ors. Messrs. Frank Stubenrauch 
 and Peter Elzer deserve this dis- 
 tinction. Messrs. Herzog, August 
 Steiger, Titner and Higi were 
 teachers. 
 
 Ten years after a new and bet- 
 ter school house was erected at 
 the corner of Spencer street and 
 First avenue, on the site now occu- 
 pied by St. Joseph's church. The 
 school building in question consist- 
 ed of two large rooms, 24 feet wide 
 and 30 feet long, which could be 
 thrown into one hall by opening 
 
 118- 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 the folding doors, forming a parti- 
 tion. The cost amounted to 
 $2,600. 
 
 A third school house was built 
 in 1869, facing Spencer street, es- 
 pecially designed to furnish class 
 rooms for the boys. The teachers 
 engaged on their behalf were Mr. 
 George B. Meiler, who was a com- 
 petent teacher, but no educator. 
 Then followed in succession Mr. 
 Barth and Mr. Bahl. Then, the 
 principal of co-education of the 
 sexes was imperceptibly introduced 
 and finally became firmly estab- 
 lished in 1885. 
 
 On January 10, 1868, the School 
 Sisters de Notre Dame took charge. 
 In place of one teacher as former- 
 ly, the school now had four Sisters. 
 They also employed one male 
 teacher for the boys; the training 
 of the children became from that 
 
 119 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 time more thorough and systemat- 
 ic than before. 
 
 The studies were graded. In- 
 dustrial Drawing, Plain and Fancy 
 Needle Work were taught in each 
 room. Promotions henceforth took 
 place only after passing satisfacto- 
 ry examinations. 
 
 Moral training forms an essen- 
 tial element in education; the Sis- 
 ters acted the part of parents to- 
 wards the children entrusted to 
 their care, and spared no efforts to 
 secure the cultivation of the heart 
 as well as the mind. Some of the 
 readers may be interested to know 
 that the first Superior was a baron- 
 ess von Pronath and went by the 
 cloister name of Sister Seraphina. 
 
 The superiors in charge are the 
 following in order of their succes- 
 sion: Sr. M. Seraphina, Sr. M. 
 Amanda, Sr. M. Melania, Sr. M. 
 
 120 
 
TKACHKRS OF BARI,Y PEORIA 
 
 Fulgentia, Sr. M. Alphonsa, Sr. M. 
 Kostka, Sister M. Anna Garcia, Sr. 
 M. Antonia is the present Superior. 
 
 All discharged their duties with 
 credit to themselves and their in- 
 stitute. The number of children 
 had increased until at the close of 
 i86g there were 285 pupils and 400 
 at the beginning of 1872. 
 
 About that time an agreement 
 between the rectors of St. Joseph's 
 and St. Patrick's Schools separated 
 the children of Irish parentage 
 from those of German. In conse- 
 quence of this agreement the num- 
 ber of pupils in the school gradu- 
 ally diminished from 400 to 264 
 during the school year 1872. 
 
 In 1885 the pupils numbered 
 270. At present 355 are enrolled. 
 From 1858-1868 the attendance had 
 grown from about 60 to 90 pupils. 
 In less than half that space of time* 
 
 121 
 
TtlK SCHOOIJ8 ANt) THE 
 
 namely from 1868 to 1872 the num- 
 ber of German-American pupils 
 alone had nearly trebled, and the 
 teaching staff had to be increased 
 from time to time, so that now sev- 
 en teachers are actively engaged 
 in school work. 
 
 This result was due to the slow, 
 but steady growth of the city, dur- 
 ing the 15 years since the opening 
 of the school and the consequent 
 growth of the congregation. 
 
 In 1877, in order to make room 
 for the present St.Joseph's Church, 
 the two school houses were remov- 
 ed to the north-east corner of Spen- 
 cer and Hurlburt streets. In 1885 
 both were furnished with new 
 benches. 
 
 St. Joseph's School has had a 
 useful existence of more than forty 
 years. It took its beginning when 
 the city was as yet an insignificant 
 
 122 
 
TEACHERS OF SARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 town. In 1885 the old school hou- 
 ses were sold and in May of the 
 same year the foundation of the 
 new school house was layed at the 
 corner of Prairie avenue and Spen- 
 cer street. 
 
 This new school house is a large 
 brick building 60 feet by 95 feet* 
 It cost $24,000. The basement and 
 first floor contain each four large 
 rooms, and the second story two 
 large rooms and a hall. As regards 
 fixtures, space, natural and arti- 
 ficial lighting, ventilation, heating 
 apparatus and sanitary arrange* 
 ment, nothing was left to be de- 
 sired. The school was formally 
 opened by the Rt.Rev.BishopSpal- 
 ding, October 22nd, 1889. 
 
 In September, 1893, ** was 
 changed into a free school, the par- 
 ish paying all the expenses. 
 
 The year following also a Kin- 
 dergarten was opened, which up to 
 
 1*23 
 
THE SCHOOfc* AND THE 
 
 the present has been well attended 
 and is continuing to gain great 
 favor. 
 
 Teaching both German and 
 English, with a leaning toward the 
 latter, the school is keeping step as 
 a whole in connection with the 
 steady progress of the city. It 
 suffices to point to three prizes, 
 which the St. Joseph's School won 
 at the World's Columbian Exposi- 
 tion at Chicago in 1893. 
 
 The history of this school shows 
 a steady improvement all along the 
 line. Ever bettering her discipline 
 and improving her methods she 
 has been able to send forth several 
 thousand boys and girls, well equip- 
 ped to become citizens and mem- 
 bers of the larger Peorian commu- 
 nity. 
 
 124 
 
At 
 
TEACHKRS OF KARLY PKORIA. 
 
 ST. PATRICK'S SCHOOL 
 
 St. Patrick's School on Sarato- 
 ga, near Johnson street, was orig- 
 inally a small frame building on 
 the site of the present brick. 
 
 The school was opened Septem- 
 ber, 1869, with about 150 pupils. 
 Miss Mary Ryan, now Mrs. John 
 Madigan, Miss Mary Nailon, now 
 secretary and part owner of the 
 Nailon Bros. Co. Steam Fitters and 
 Plumbers, were the teachers of the 
 first school; a year later Miss Ellen 
 Donlin and Miss Beust were em- 
 ployed as additional teachers. 
 
 About 1873 the school was placed 
 in charge of the School Sisters of 
 Notre Dame, who have been in 
 charge of the school for the last 
 twenty-eight years. Under their 
 hands it has increased largely. 
 Some eight or ten years ago the 
 old frame school house was sold 
 
 125 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THR 
 
 and moved away and a large fine 
 brick structure was erected on the 
 same site. The new school house 
 contains about ten rooms, each 
 having all the improvements of the 
 most modern school. 
 
 Sisters of Notre Dame still have 
 charge and the pupils number 
 about 300. John and James Nai- 
 lon, Thomas N. Gorman, Frank J. 
 Quinn and John Brady went to 
 school there as their first school. 
 
 ST. BONIFACE SCHOOL 
 
 St. Boniface School was opened 
 about 1884 on the site of the pres- 
 ent school, on Louisa, near the 
 corner of Antoinette street. It is 
 under the charge of the Francis- 
 can Sisters, who have their mother 
 house at La Crosse, Wisconsin. 
 They are said to be excellent 
 teachers and their school now num- 
 
 126 
 
g 
 
 H 
 
 Q 
 
 H 
 03 
 
 3 
 
 BE, 
 O 
 
 S 
 
 X 
 
 Bl 
 
TEACHERS OF EARLY PEORIA. 
 
 bers 200 pupils. The school is 
 maintained by* a charge of fifty 
 cents per month to each pupil. 
 
 ACADEMY OF OUR LADY OF THE 
 SACRED HEART. 
 
 The Academy of Our Lady of 
 the Sacred Heart was founded in 
 1862 by Father Abraham Ryan, 
 and was opened in April, 1863. 
 Mathew Henebery, Patrick Har- 
 mon, N. Bergan, Patrick Dunne' 
 Charles Burt, John Boyle and 
 others were induced to subscribe 
 to the expense and the teachers 
 from the Sisters of St. Joseph were 
 selected to teach. Their first house 
 was on Jefferson street, between 
 Eaton and Hancock, where the 
 school was opened with about 100 
 pupils. They next moved to the 
 corner of Jefferson and Fayette 
 street, and later sold that lot to C. 
 
 127 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 P. King and bought at the corner 
 of Eaton and Madison streets, 
 where the school is now located. 
 Mother Teresa was the first Lady 
 Superior or mother. She was fol- 
 lowed by Mothers George, Assinsi, 
 Agnes, Theodosia, Mathilda, Lu- 
 crecia, Estella, Teresa, and Mother 
 Alexander, who now presides. 
 Their services were all short, three 
 or six years, except Mother Ma- 
 thilda, who had control eighteen 
 years. 
 
 Their Academy is now a large 
 fine building, containing several 
 school rooms for pupils in different 
 grades, with a number of music 
 rooms, painting and drawing rooms, 
 chapel, etc., with accommodations 
 for some hundred boarders. The 
 building is an ornament to the city. 
 
 The institution admits pupils to 
 both a boarding and day school. 
 
 128 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 Pupils of all denominations are ad- 
 mitted, and except the religious 
 instruction to the children of Cath- 
 olics, all are treated alike. They 
 have now about three hundred pu- 
 pils and seven expert teachers. 
 
 The course in addition to the 
 ordinary branches of an English 
 Grammar school, embraces Rheto- 
 ric, Natural Philosophy, Civil Gov- 
 ernment, Literature, Geology, Zo- 
 ology, Mythology, Botany, Astron- 
 omy, Mental Philosophy, Chemist- 
 ry and Criticism. 
 
 They also have classes in French, 
 German and Spanish, Music and a 
 systematic course of Art study. 
 
 In the rear of this school and 
 convent is a pile of stone five or 
 six feet high and eight or ten feet 
 across at its base. No one now 
 living knows when it was first 
 planted, nor the purpose, for which 
 
 129 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 placed there, but the good Sisters 
 of the Convent all devoutly believe 
 it marks the spot, where the priests 
 who came with La Salle planted 
 the first cross In the great wilder- 
 ness of new France. They point 
 to legends, which they say, justify 
 this belief, and when the ground 
 was first purchased, it was with a 
 view to possessing the spot of 
 ground to which the legend at- 
 tached. 
 
 The Parochial school near the 
 corner of Eaton and Jefferson ave- 
 nue, adjoining the Academy of our 
 Lady of the Sacred Heart was first 
 opened by a lay teacher before the 
 Sisters took charge of it. The 
 Sisters of St. Joseph, however, took 
 charge of it the same time they 
 opened the Academy. The school 
 is simply an ordinary grammar 
 school, for the purpose of fitting 
 young ladies, who may desire for 
 
 130 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 entering the Academy, and for fit- 
 ting boys for the High school or 
 for the Spalding Institute. This pa- 
 rochial school now has from one 
 hundred and fifty to two hundred 
 scholars, and is taught by four of 
 the Sisters. It is managed with the 
 usual skill of these excellent teach- 
 ers. 
 
 This substantially brings the 
 history of the private schools in 
 Peoria down to the year 1855- 
 February 15, 1855, the school in- 
 spectors took charge and the 
 schools became public schools, 
 the records of which have been 
 preserved. 
 
 When the inspectors assumed 
 control, there was no school house in 
 the First Ward, although the foun- 
 dation had been laid for a building 
 at the corner of Adams and Wal- 
 nut streets. In the Second Ward 
 
 131 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 there was a small school house, in- 
 convenient and uncomfortable. In 
 the Third Ward there was an old 
 foundry, which had been fitted up 
 as a school room and would ac- 
 commodate 80 or go pupils. It was 
 hot in summer and freezing in 
 winter. In the Fourth Ward was 
 a better school house, which is 
 now standing at No. 322 N. Wash- 
 ington Street. In this school house 
 there were seats for about 80 or 90 
 pupils. There were then in the 
 city approximately 230 children 
 attending school. There were ap- 
 proximately 1000 of proper age, 
 who should have been attending 
 school. 
 
 From May to October, 1855, the 
 Board had been able to get togeth- 
 er $2414.85, the sum total of the 
 school money of that year. During 
 the next year they had been able 
 to collect $11,089.46. During the 
 
 132 
 
TEACHERS OF EARI,Y PEORIA. 
 
 year ending May 1900, the inspect- 
 ors expended $63, 503.00 for new 
 school buildings. They have in 
 all parts of the city 18 large well 
 furnished school houses, averaging 
 ten or more rooms each. The total 
 cost of these was $750,000.00. The 
 total disbursements of the Board 
 for the year was $246,168.00, of 
 which $135,106.96 was for salaries 
 paid teachers. During that year 
 they employed and paid 218 teach- 
 ers. They had in round numbers 
 8000 pupils to educate. 
 
 When President McKinley came 
 here in the fall of 1899, there were 
 approximately 5000 children march- 
 ing in procession to welcome him 
 to Peoria. This did not include 
 the scholars of the High school, 
 nor did it include any of the small 
 pupils of the primaries. 
 
 There has sometimes been a 
 
 133 
 
THE SCHOOLS AND THE 
 
 snarl at the school taxes. This 
 exhibit shows the cost of schooling 
 a child approximately $20.00 a year 
 for each pupil. The cost in a pri- 
 vate school would be over $50.00 a 
 year, and the schooling would be 
 much inferior. The school tax in 
 cities of the size of Peoria is gen- 
 erally higher than in this city. 
 
 K54 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 An Act providing for the Establishment of 
 Free Schools. Approved and in force 
 January 75, 1825. 
 
 PREAMBLE To enjoy our rights and liber- 
 ties we must understand them; their security 
 and protection ought to be the first object of 
 a free people and it is a well established fact 
 that no nation has ever continued long in 
 the enjoyment of civil and political freedom, 
 which was not both virtuous and enlighten- 
 ed; and believing that the advancement of 
 literature has always been and ever will be 
 the means of developing more fully the rights 
 of man; that the mind of every citizen in a 
 republic is the common property of society, 
 and constitutes the basis of its strength and 
 happiness. It is therefor considered the pe- 
 culiar duty of a free government like ours to 
 encourage and extend the improvement and 
 cultivation of the intellectual energies of the 
 whole. Therefor, 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Be it enacted by the People of the State of 
 Illinois represented in the General Assembly: 
 
 SEC. 1. That there shall be established 
 a common school or schools in each of the 
 counties of this state, which shall be open 
 and free to every class of white citizens be- 
 tween the ages of five and twenty-one years. 
 Provided, that persons over the age of twen- 
 ty-one years may be admitted into such 
 schools on such terms as the trustees of the 
 school district may prescribe. 
 
 SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, That the 
 County Commissions Courts shall from time 
 to time form school districts in their respect- 
 ive counties, whenever a petition may be 
 presented for that purpose by a majority of 
 the qualified voters resident within such con- 
 templated district. 
 
 SEC. 3. Be it further enacted, That the legal 
 voters in each district to be established as 
 aforesaid, may have a meeting at any time 
 thereafter by giving ten days previous no- 
 tice of the time and place of holding the 
 same; at which meeting they may proceed 
 by ballot to elect three trustees, one clerk, 
 one treasurer, one assessor and one collector, 
 who shall respectively take an oath of office 
 faithfully to discharge their respective du- 
 ties. 
 
 SEC. 4. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 
 be the duty of the trustees to superintend 
 
 the schools within their respective districts; 
 
 to examine and employ teachers; to lease all 
 
 ii 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 lands belonging to the district; to call meet- 
 ings of the voters whenever they shall deem 
 it expedient; or at any time when requested 
 so to do by five legal voters, by giving to 
 each one at least five days notice of the time 
 and place of holding the same; appointing 
 one or more persons living within the district 
 to serve the necessary notice; to make an 
 annual report to the County Commissioner's 
 Court of the proper- county of the number 
 of children living within the bounds of such 
 district between the ages of five and twenty- 
 one years, and what number of them are ac- 
 tually sent to school with a certificate of the 
 time a school is actually kept up in the dis- 
 trict with the probable expense of the same. 
 
 SEC. 5. Be it further enacted, That each 
 and every school district, when established 
 and organized as aforesaid, shall be, and 
 they are hereby constituted a body politic 
 and corporate so far as to commence and 
 maintain actions on any agreement made 
 with any person or persons for the non-per- 
 formance thereof, or for any damage done to 
 their schoolhouse or to any property, which 
 ma}- belong to or be in possession of such 
 school, and be liable to an action brought 
 and maintained against them for the non- 
 performance of any contract by them made. 
 
 SEC. 6. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the trustees to prosecute and 
 defend all such suits in the name of the 
 trustees for the use of the school district; 
 
 iii 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 giving- it its proper name; and that it shall 
 be lawful for said trustees in the name and 
 for the use of said district to purchase, or 
 receive as a donation and hold in fee simple 
 any property, real or personal, for the use of 
 the said school district and they may defend 
 or prosecute to any suit or suits relative to 
 the same; and it shall be the duty of the trust- 
 ees to give order on the treasurer of said dis- 
 trict for all sums expended in paying teach- 
 ers and all other expenses necessarily in- 
 curred in establishing, carrying on and sup- 
 porting all schools within their respective 
 districts, and at the regular annual meeting 
 of the inhabitants of the district the said 
 trustees shall, together with the other offi- 
 cers, settle all accounts, which shall have 
 accrued during the year for which they are 
 elected. 
 
 SEC. 7. Be it further enacted. That it shall 
 be the duty of the clerk of each district to 
 keep a book in which he shall make true en- 
 tries of the votes and proceedings of each 
 meeting of the voters of the district and of 
 the trustees, which shall be held according 
 to law and to give attested copies thereof, 
 which shall be legal evidence in all courts of 
 this state. 
 
 SEC. 8. Be it further enacted. That it shall 
 be the duty of the treasurer of each school 
 district to receive all money belonging to the 
 same and pay them over for the use of the 
 school to the order of a majority of all the 
 lv 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 legal voters by a vote in general meeting or 
 the order of the trustees, requiring at all 
 times written vouchers for such payments, 
 stating the purpose for which it is made. 
 
 SEC. 9. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the collector of each school 
 district to collect all the money belonging to 
 or due to the same when directed so to do, 
 and to collect such taxes as by vote of the 
 district shall be levied and to pay over all 
 moneys when collected to the treasurer of 
 said district within twenty days of such col- 
 lection, except five per cent, which he shall 
 retain for his services, taking his receipt for 
 the same. 
 
 SEC. 10. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the assessor of each school 
 district to assess all such property lying 
 within and belonging to the inhabitants of 
 said district as he may be directed to assess 
 by a vote of a majority of the voters of such 
 district and to make return of the same with- 
 in thirty days after such assessment to the 
 trustees of said district. 
 
 SEC. 11. Be it further enacted^ That when 
 any legal voter living within any school dis- 
 trict shall be duly elected or appointed ac- 
 cording to the second section of this act, 
 trustee, clerk, treasurer, collector, assessor 
 or to serve notice, and refuse or neglect to 
 discharge the duties of the same he shall, if 
 a trustee be fined in the sum of ten dollars, 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 if a clerk in sum of eight dollars; if a treasu- 
 rer in the sum of five dollars; if an assessor 
 in the sum of five dollars; and if a person 
 appointed to serve a notice of any meeting 
 the sum of five dollars; and for a neglect to 
 settle all of their respective accounts at the 
 end of the year for which they were elected 
 the trustees, clerk, collector and treasurer 
 shall be fined in the sum of twenty dollars, 
 which together with all other fines imposed 
 in this act shall be collected by suit before 
 any justice of the peace within the proper 
 county, and when collection shall be paid 
 over to the treasurer of the district for the 
 use of the school or schools within the same. 
 
 SEC. 12. Be it further enacted, That the 
 legal voters within any school district law- 
 fully assembled shall have the following 
 power, to -wit. To appoint a time and place 
 for holding annual meetings, to select a place 
 within the district to build a school house to 
 levy a tax either in cash or good merchanta- 
 ble produce at cash price upon the inhabi- 
 tants of their respective districts, not exceed- 
 ing one half per centum, nor amounting to 
 more than ten dollars per annum on any one 
 person, to do all and everything necessary 
 to the establishment and support of schools 
 within the same. 
 
 SEC. 13. Be it further enacted, That one of 
 
 the trustees shall preside at all meetings of 
 
 the voters, who shall put all questions upon 
 
 which a vote is to be taken and when the 
 
 vi 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 vote is taken upon levying- a tax upon the 
 district, each of the voters present may pro- 
 pose a sum to be levied and the vote shall be 
 taken upon the highest sum proposed first, 
 and in case of a disagreement, upon the next 
 highest, and so on down until a majority of 
 all the legal voters within the district so 
 taxed shall agree. 
 
 SEC. 14. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the trustees, or a majority of 
 them, to furnish the collector with the fol- 
 lowing warrant to collect such taxes as may 
 be so levied, which warrant shall be his au- 
 thority for collecting the same to wit: 
 
 STATE OF IUJNOIS, \ 
 County f bv 
 
 To A. B. Collector of the School District 
 
 in the County afofesaid, Greeting: 
 In the name of the people of the State of 
 Illinois, you are hereby required and com- 
 manded to collect from each of the inhabit- 
 ants of the said school district the several 
 sums of money or produce as the case may 
 be, written opposite their name in the an- 
 nexed tax list and within sixty days after 
 receiving the warrant to pay amount of 
 money by you collected into the hands of the 
 treasurer of the aforesaid district and take 
 his receipt for the same, and if any one or 
 more of the said inhabitants shall neglect or 
 refuse to pay the same you are hereby fur- 
 ther commanded to levy on the persona* 
 goods and chattels of each delinquent and 
 vii 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 make sale thereof according to the law reg- 
 ulating the collection of taxes within this 
 state. 
 
 Given under our hand this day of 
 
 A. D., 18 
 The annexed tax list: 
 
 G H $1.50 ) A. B. 
 
 I. J 5.00 }. C. D. Trustees. 
 
 K. L 3.00 ) E. F. 
 
 SEC. 19. Be it further enacted, That the au- 
 ditors and secretary of state under the di- 
 rection of the governor are hereby declared 
 and constituted commissioners of the school 
 fund; and the said fund now on deposit in 
 the State Bank, together with all such money 
 as shall be and accrue to this state for the 
 use of schools and a seminary of learning by 
 virtue of any act of congress, shall be and 
 the same is hereby vested in said commis- 
 sioners, to be by them applied in such man- 
 ner for the use of schools and a seminary of 
 learning as shall be prescribed by law, and 
 the said commissioners or a major part of 
 them are hereby authorized to receive and 
 give acquittances for all such sums of money 
 as this state is or shall be entitled to receive 
 from the treasury of the United States. 
 
 SEC. 20. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the cashier of the state bank 
 to pay to the order of the commissioners or 
 a majority of them the amount of the school 
 fund on deposit in said bank and the said 
 commissioners shall forthwith proceed to 
 vlli 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 buy up therewith as large an amount of the 
 bank notes of said bank as the same will 
 purchase and the notes so purchased, shall 
 be by said commissioners deposited in said 
 bank and the cashier shall giv e to said com- 
 missioners a receipt therefor and proceed 
 to burn the same in the manner and at the 
 time prescribed for burning- the ten per cent, 
 paid into said bank, which receipt the said 
 commissioners shall present to the auditor 
 of public accounts, who shall issue a certifi- 
 cate for the amount specified in said receipt, 
 payable to the aforesaid commissioners of 
 the school fund in the legal currency of the 
 United States, which certificate shall be by 
 said commissioners safely kept as an evi- 
 dence of the claim of the commissioners 
 upon the treasury of the state. 
 
 SEC. 21. Be it further enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the clerk of the county com- 
 missioners court of the several counties in 
 this state to make an abstract of the report 
 of the trustees of the schools established, 
 stating the number of children within each 
 district, the number actually sent to school, 
 the time a school has been kept in operation 
 in each district, with an account of the ex- 
 pense of the same and forward it to the Sec- 
 retary of State on the first day of December 
 in each and every year. 
 
 SEC. 22. Be it fitrther enacted, That it shall 
 be the duty of the inhabitants of any district 
 at their regular or called meetings to make 
 ix 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 such regulations for building or repairing 
 school houses as they may think necessary 
 and for furnishing the school house with fire 
 wood and furniture. They shall have power 
 to class themselves and agree upon the num- 
 ber of days each person or class shall work 
 in making such improvements and all other 
 regulations that they may think necessary 
 to accomplish such building or improvement. 
 
 Provided, however, That no person shall be 
 required to do any work or pay for such ira. 
 provements or wood unless they have the 
 care of a child between the age of five and 
 twenty-one years or unless he shall attend 
 the school for the purpose of obtaining in- 
 struction and for any neglect or refusal to 
 do such work by any one of the inhabitants 
 according- to this act, there shall be a fine 
 for each day they shall so neglect or refuse 
 to work of seventy-five cents. 
 
 SEC. 23. Be it further enacted. That the 
 several school collectors and treasurers, who 
 may be appointed under the provisions of 
 this act, shall before they enter on the dis- 
 charge of the duties of their respective of- 
 fices, enter into bond and security in the 
 sum of two hundred dollars to the county 
 commission of the county in which they re- 
 side and their successors in office, conditioned 
 for the faithful accounting- for all money re- 
 ceived by them respectively under and by 
 virtue of any authority conferred on them by 
 this act. 
 
 x 
 
AFPBNBIX 
 
 SBC. 24. Be it further enacted, That when- 
 ever the tax is levied according to the twelfth 
 section of this act in good merchantable pro- 
 duce, it shall be lawful for the trustees te 
 make out a list with a warrant stating to be 
 collected in produce and they shall have pow- 
 er to transfer the list and warrant to any 
 teacher or teachers that they may have em- 
 ployed, who shall have full power to collect 
 the same, and if any person shall refuse or 
 neglect to pay their respective amounts in 
 produce for two weeks after demand it shall 
 toe lawful to collect the same in cash. Pro- 
 vided, that whenever there is any disagree- 
 ment about the price of aay produce offered 
 in payment it shall be the duty of each to se- 
 lect one disinterested housekeeper to value 
 the same and if they cannot agree it shall be 
 their duty to choo*e a third and all such val- 
 uation shall be binding. 
 
 Approved January 15, 1825. 
 
 This Act was amended by the act February 
 17, 1827. Section 3 and 4 are the ones which 
 are essential to the history of the earliest 
 schools. Sec. 3 provided, The legal voters of 
 aay school district at their regular meetings 
 shall have power in their discretion to cause 
 either the whole or one half of the sum re- 
 quired to support a school in such district to 
 be raised by taxation the remainder may be 
 required to be paid by parents, master and 
 .guardians in proportion to the number of 
 persons which each of them shall send to such 
 
 school. 
 
 xi 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Sec. 4 provided that no person was to be 
 taxed for the support of free schools in the 
 state unless by his own fre will and con- 
 sent first had and obtained in writing and 
 unless he was taxed he could not send any 
 children to the school. 
 
 xil 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 THE PEORIA ACADEMY. 
 
 The following is an exact re- 
 print of an old catalogue and all of 
 it of Page's Academy, kindly loan- 
 ed for this purpose by Henry T. 
 Baldwin. It is in all probability 
 the only copy now in existence. 
 (This Catalogue must not be con- 
 founded with the Boys' Stock 
 School. Page called his school the 
 Peoria Academy, because it was the 
 first and only academy at the time.) 
 
 CATALOGUE 
 PEORIA ACADEMY 
 
 1840. 
 
 SCHOOL TRUSTEES 
 
 SAMUKI, LOWRY, 
 JOSEPH C. FRYE, 
 LEWIS HOWBU,, 
 FRANCIS VORIS, 
 GEORGE T. METCAI.FE. 
 Teachers in Peotia Academy during the year 
 A. D. 1840. 
 
 REV. DAVID PAGE, Principal, 
 MRS. HANNAH B. PAGE, 
 Miss MARY I/. BOARDMAN. 
 
 xlii 
 
MALE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 William Alte'r James S. Davis? 
 
 James F. Anderson Robert R. Davi 
 Carneal Armstrong' Charles Davis 
 Long worth Armstrong Reuben Davis 
 Lewis K. Armstrong William O. Dewey 
 Wm. P. Armstrong 
 Peter C. Fartlett 
 George Blakeley 
 Hermon Blakeley 
 John M. Blakeley 
 
 James Blakeley 
 Daniel Banvard 
 John Burnheisel 
 
 Joseph Ellis 
 Benjamin Ellis 
 Watson M. Evans 
 James W. Evans 
 D. W. C. Farrell 
 Hiram G. Farrell! 
 Henry Forsyth 
 James Fbrsyth 
 
 Cornelius Burnheisel George Fbtd 
 
 John: CaMweB 
 Jerome H. Case 
 Johnson L. Cole 
 George Cone 
 Charles- Cook 
 Frederic Cook 
 Joshua Gushing: 
 James Gushing 
 John Gushing 
 George Gushing 
 Southwick Davis 
 H K. W. Davis 
 John C. Hardesty 
 Dixon Hardesty 
 Anderson Hardesty 
 Abijah Hunt 
 F. W. L. Buntoon 
 Marcellus Hun toon- 
 John Huntoon 
 Isaac D. Huntcon 
 
 James Fowler 
 Francis Fowler 
 James Frye 
 William Gaines 
 Reay Gaskill 
 Cyrus Gaskill 
 Samuel H. GaskiliE 
 Joseph Glaze 
 layman Hall 
 John Hall 
 Thomas Hardesty 
 Henry Hardesty 
 Daniel E. Oakley 
 Henry S. Phillips- 
 William Phillips 
 Francis Phillips 
 Benjamin F. Pierce 
 Daniel Kaney 
 Isaac Raney 
 David B. Reynolds, 
 
 xiv 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Wm. J. Harrington 
 Jerome C. Hawley 
 James Heaton 
 Ferdinand Heyl 
 Michael R. Hughes 
 Theodore Keller 
 Henry C. King 
 Charles Knowlton 
 Henry Little 
 James C. Lindsay 
 Samuel Lowry 
 Wm. J. Lowry 
 William Lowry 
 William J. Mason 
 Albert M'Clellan 
 James M'Coy 
 Alonzo Nurse * 
 Horatio G. Nurse 
 Edw. F. Nowland 
 William M. Oakford 
 
 William Reynolds 
 Sanford Richardson 
 Erasm. D. Richardson 
 Anastus Robin 
 Jacob H. Slough 
 Wm. A. Schlotman 
 William Shores 
 Wiley Sigler 
 Enoch Sigler 
 Jacob Sigler 
 Leonard Summers 
 John Summers 
 Jonathan Sweet 
 James Taylor 
 Andrew J. Tuller 
 Elam Tuller 
 James Thomas 
 Francis Upshaw 
 Albert Zieber 
 
 Males 107 
 
 FEMALE DEPARTMENT 
 
 Catharine Beck 
 Elizabeth Banvard 
 Susan Bartlett 
 Catharine Bettleton 
 Ellen Brady 
 Allah Ann Buckley 
 Amanda Caldwell 
 Catharine Cook 
 Mary Cunningham 
 Sarah Gushing 
 Augusta A. Davis 
 Melinda Dewey 
 Sarah Dewey 
 
 Elisabeth Blakeley 
 Hester Ann Bice 
 Sarah M. Bice 
 Sarah Brestle 
 Elizabeth Markley 
 Sarah J. Martin 
 Marion Oakford 
 Marion Oakley 
 Hannah L. Page 
 Mary E. Page 
 Hannah J. Pettengill 
 Sarah F. Pettengill 
 Ann Eliza Phillips 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Isadore E. Edwards 
 Catharine Farrell 
 Mary Jane Forsyth 
 Alicia Forsyth 
 Elizabeth Fisher 
 Mary Gaines 
 Eliza Gaines 
 Phebe L. Gardner 
 Caroline Gibson 
 Mary Gray 
 Martha Hardesty 
 Madora Hall 
 Cecilia Hill 
 Helen A. Heaton 
 Susan Huntoon 
 Hannah Hyde 
 Elsey Jane Justice 
 Anna Maria Knight 
 Sarah A. Kellar 
 Margaret A. Kenney 
 Elizabeth Knowlton 
 Mary Kingsley 
 America Leadley 
 Jane Lindsay 
 Cynthia B. Lindsay 
 Rebecca Lowry 
 
 Rebecca Pollock 
 Maria L. Proctor 
 Juliet Richardson 
 Lucinda Richardson 
 L/ydia Rogers 
 Margaret Rouse 
 Amelia Ann Rouse 
 Martha Rouse 
 Diana Sanford 
 Catherine Slough 
 Cynthia Sharp 
 Mary G. Stearns 
 Jane A. Tagart 
 Mary R. Tagart 
 Harriet Taylor 
 Georgianna Taylor 
 Matilda Thomas 
 Catharine Tuller 
 Melissa Upshaw 
 Narcissa Ann Upshaw 
 Phebe J. Welch 
 Jane Weis 
 Mary Woodworth 
 Celestia Woodruff 
 Eugenia Zieber 
 
 Females 77 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 MALES - 
 FEMALES 
 
 107 
 
 77 
 
 TOTAL 184 
 
 TERMS. 
 
 The academical year is divided into two 
 sessions of twenty-four weeks each, to com- 
 mence the first Mondays in January and 
 
 July. 
 
 xvi 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Tuition for 12 weeks, - - $4.00 
 No deduction for absence. 
 The Principal of the institution would ex- 
 press thanks for past favors, while he solicits 
 future patronage. 
 
 DAVID PAGE, Principal. 
 PEORIA ACADEMY ) 
 Dec. 24, 1840. f 
 
 WESLEYAN SEMINARY. 
 
 The following pages contain a 
 copy of an old Programme of the 
 Graduation Exercises of the Wes- 
 leyan Seminary, the first and last 
 held by that school. It was kindly 
 loaned by Henry T. Baldwin and 
 is believed to be the only copy in 
 existence: 
 
 xvii 
 
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 T?,fnn,-1 <,-.+ < stn 
 
 xxi 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 PEORIA ACADEMY. 
 
 HISTORY. 
 
 The Peoria Academy originated in a de- 
 sire, on the part of a number of citizens of 
 Peoria, to have a school, for males, more 
 thorough in its teachings and more perma- 
 nent in its character than existed in the city. 
 Accordingly, stock was created to purchase 
 a site, and to build thereon an edifice larg-e 
 enough to accommodate one hundred and 
 forty students. The shares were first put at 
 forty dollars, subsequently increased to 
 fifty, and finally to sixty dollars each. 
 Messrs. Hansel and Bartlett drew up the 
 paper and circulated it for subscription. 
 
 At the first meeting- of the share-holders, 
 holden in Haskell's Hall, Hon. Onslow Peters 
 was called to the chair, and J. A. McCoy was 
 elected Secretary. On motion, A. P.Bartletti 
 E}. N. Powell and J. W. Hansel were appoint- 
 ed a committee to prepare articles of associa- 
 tion; J. Gale, H. J. Sweeny, C. S. Clarke, C. 
 Ballance and W. F. Bryan to inquire in rela- 
 tion to a location; and J. Johnston, H. G. 
 Anderson and A. P, Bartlett to report apian 
 for a school house. 
 
 xxii 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1854, the share- 
 holders again met, received and adopted the 
 report of their committee to draft articles of 
 association, and elected the following offi- 
 cers: 
 
 HON. ONSLOW PETERS, President. 
 
 A. P. BARTLETT, Secretary. 
 
 R. ROUSE, ) 
 
 P. R K. BROTHERSON \ Directors. 
 
 J. W. HANSEL, ) 
 
 H. G. ANDERSON, Treasurer. 
 
 THOMAS BALDWIN, ) 
 
 WM. R. PHELPS, \ Trustees. 
 
 H. S. AUSTIN, \ 
 
 At a subsequent meeting, "For the pur- 
 pose of determining upon a location for a 
 school house.'* Capt. Sweeny, in behalf of 
 the committee, reported in favor of purchas- 
 ing lots 10, 11 and 12, block 47, in Monson & 
 Sanford's addition to the city of Peoria. On 
 motion of W. Loucks, the report was adopted 
 and the committee discharged. The build- 
 ing committee, Messrs. Bourland, Ulricson, 
 Sweeny, Hazzard and Bartlett, employed 
 Charles Ulricson as architect, and contract- 
 ed with Preston & Brooks to erect a build- 
 ing, and with Joseph L/. Ross, of Boston, 
 Mass., and Dredge, Keys & Co.. of this city, 
 to furnish it. 
 
 Cost of the site $1800.00 
 
 Cost of building, furniture, etc. . . 6200.00 
 
 Total, $8000.00 
 
 xxili 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 The edifice was dedicated by appropriate 
 ceremonies, and an elaborate address from 
 the President. On the morning- of the 27th 
 of November, 1854, one hundred students, 
 having received certificates, were admitted 
 to the school, and took their seats. Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hovey appeared as teachers, and a 
 large number of parents were present at the 
 opening ceremonies of the institution. The 
 principal held a parley with the students, 
 touching little matters and observances, 
 which it was no great honor to know and 
 observe, but yet quite a dishonor not to know 
 and observe. Perfection is made up of tri- 
 fles, but is itself no trifle. The President 
 also made some fitting remarks, and was fol- 
 lowed by A. P. Bartlett and J. P. Hotchkiss. 
 After the school had been in operation a few 
 days, nineteen other students were admitted 
 and two additional teachers employed. 
 
 NAMES OF STOCKHOLDERS. 
 
 H. G. Anderson, John Anderson, 
 
 J. C. Armstrong, Henry S. Austin, 
 
 Charles Ballance, Thomas Baldwin, 
 
 G. T. Barker, Amos P. Bartlett, 
 
 George C. Bestor, Charles P, Billon, 
 
 Edward Bohanan, Charles Bonney, 
 
 B. L. T. Bourland, P. R. K. Brotherson, 
 W. F. Bryan, S. H. & G. Burnett, 
 Samuel H. Calhoun, Marvin S. Carr, 
 
 C. S. Clarke, S. S. Clarke, 
 Joseph Clegg, Washington Cockle, 
 
 xxiv 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 E. M. Colburn, 
 P. M. Comegys, 
 N. B. Curtiss, 
 William H. Davis, 
 V. Dewein, 
 John Dredge, 
 Geuel Ely, 
 Jacob Gale, 
 William S. Gregg-, 
 Matthew L,. Griswold, 
 Warren Hall, 
 A. C. Hankinson, 
 William H. Haskell, 
 Ephraim Hintnan, 
 Joshua P. Hotchkiss, 
 E. G. Johnson, 
 Charles Kettelle, 
 Theodore Lawrence, 
 Wellington lyoucks, 
 Julius Manning, 
 William E. Mason, 
 J. A. McCoy, 
 Thomas C. Moore, 
 James F. Murden, 
 O. C. Parmely, 
 William Peters, 
 William R. Phelps, 
 ElihuN. Powell, 
 E. A. Proctor, 
 Rudolphus Rouse, 
 Enoch P. Sloan, 
 J. McClay Smith, 
 H. J. Sweeny, 
 Alexander G. Tyng, 
 Isaac Underbill, 
 
 Jona. K. Cooper, 
 Jas. Crawley, 
 James Daugherty, 
 Thomas I/. Davis, 
 T. S. Dobbins, 
 Jacob Darst, 
 Smith Frye, 
 Charles Greenleaf, 
 Richard Gregg, 
 William Hale, 
 Ralph Hamlin, 
 John W. Hansel, 
 James Hazzard, 
 John Hinzey, 
 Norman Howe, 
 John Johnston, 
 Charles P. King, 
 John L/indsay, 
 Tim. L/ynch, 
 Thomas L,. Mayne, 
 John McClallen, 
 G. C. McFadden, 
 Henry Morell, 
 E. F. Nowland, 
 Onslow Peters, 
 Moses Pettengill, 
 Thomas J. Pickett, 
 B. P. Pratt, 
 George N. Remington, 
 H. I. Rugg, 
 Job Smith, 
 George Spurck, 
 William Truesdale, 
 Charles Ulricson, 
 Samuel Voris, 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 T. Wagener, I. Walker, 
 
 Horatio N. Wheeler, Michael Yost. 
 
 TRANSFERS T. Wagener to A. Frank, 
 W. Cockle to Mrs. Thompson, Wellington 
 Ixmcks to J. Tapping-, Jacob Darst to Ralph 
 Hamlin. 
 
 OFFICERS OF GOVERNMENT. 
 
 Hon. Onslow Peters, President. 
 A. P. Bartlett, Secretary. 
 Rudolphus Rouse, M. D. 
 P. R. K. Brotherson. 
 J. W. Hansel. 
 
 OFFICERS OF INSTRUCTION. 
 
 Chas. E. Hovey, A. B., Principal. 
 
 Mrs. C. E. Hovey, First Assistant. 
 
 C. H. Doty, Second Assistant. 
 
 Anna E. Kilburne, Third Assistant. 
 
 Dr. J. Niglas, L,L<. D., Instructor in German. 
 
 T. M. Higgins, Instructor in Vocal Music. 
 
 Elizabeth Smith, Assistant. Winter Term. 
 
 Sophia L/alanne, Assistant, Winter Term. 
 
 STUDENTS. 
 
 Adams Chester, Armstrong Charles, 
 
 Armstrong L<ewis, Armstrong James, 
 
 Austin Richard H., Austin Thaddeus R., 
 
 Austin, Charles S., Baldwin William J., 
 Baldwin Franklin T., Barker Walter T., 
 
 Bartlett Samuel C., Bentley Edward N., 
 
 Bestor George L., Billon Francis C., 
 
 Bohanan Major G., Boilvin William F., 
 
 Boyd John S., Boyle Matthew, 
 
 Brokaw Frederic Brotherson Philip 
 
 XXTl 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Callender Eliot, 
 Carr George H., 
 Clegg Joseph A., 
 Colburn Walter P., 
 Cornwell Edward E., 
 Creighton John M., 
 Crawley Eadron 
 Chadwick Henry, 
 Davis Robert S,, 
 Dodge Loring, 
 Dudley Ethelbert L-, 
 Ely Edwin C., 
 Eynatten Frederic, 
 Frank August, 
 Frink George M., 
 Frye Smith, Jr., 
 Frye Chastain S., 
 Gilbert Aaron F., 
 Gregg Robert J., 
 Gregg Samuel T., 
 Gray William H., 
 Hankinson A. C. 
 Hamlin George 
 Haskell Joseph E., 
 Haslett John, 
 Hinds George E., 
 Hotchkiss Jay P., 
 Hotchkiss James M., 
 Hotchkiss Walter B., 
 Irons Charles D., 
 Johnson Samuel M., 
 Johnson Austin, 
 Kettelle George H., 
 Kettelle Edwin S., 
 Lawrence Romeo, 
 Lindsay James A., 
 
 Calhoun Samuel A., 
 Clark Sutnner, 
 Chambers Perry 
 Chambers Francis M., 
 Cornwell Millard C., 
 Creighton David 
 Childs H. F., 
 Chadwick Charles A., 
 Daugherty James P., 
 Dredge Henry W., 
 Durst Edwin S., 
 Ewalt Henry, 
 Ford George S., 
 Fields Charles H., 
 Frye Henry A , 
 Frye James K., 
 Gale Edward, 
 Glaenzer Philip J., 
 Gregg, W. S., Jr., 
 Gustorf Frederic, 
 Hansel Jacob C., 
 Hankinson John K., 
 Hamlin Charles 
 Haskell Charles E., 
 Hazzard Joseph F., 
 Hinze, Elias C., 
 Hotchkiss M. V., 
 Kurd Charles T., 
 Littleton A. W., 
 Irons Henry F., 
 Johnson Alexander 
 Johnston John, 
 Kettelle Charles A., 
 Kirkman John 
 Lineback Boyd, 
 Lindsay, William P., 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 Mason Richard, 
 Mayne Georg-e A., 
 May William, 
 Metcalfe Charles F., 
 McClallen George H. 
 McCoy William D., 
 M'Culloh Robert L,., 
 Morell Henry F., 
 Mueller George H 
 Mull Julius C.. 
 Oakford Edward. 
 Peters Eug-ene P.. 
 Pickett Horace G., 
 Powell Charles F.. 
 Preston Thomas E., 
 Purple Frank. 
 Rugg Arthur H., 
 Remington Philip H. 
 Rouse Henry B., 
 Shelly William K., 
 Spurck Henry, 
 Swayze Ambrose, 
 Taber Charles, 
 Tapping- Samuel P., 
 Thompson Samuel E 
 Voris Richard R., 
 Ward James, 
 Weis John C., 
 Wheeler Portius C., 
 Wood John C., 
 Yost John, 
 
 Mary T. Hotchkiss.* 
 Annie E. Kidder. 
 
 McCoy Ivindsay, 
 May Rodney, 
 Maxwell Henry, 
 Metcalfe George T., 
 McClallen Henry W., 
 M'Culloh Thomas G., 
 Moore Thomas H., 
 Mueller George F., 
 Mueller William, 
 Noyes Alfred S., 
 Oakford Aaron S., 
 Peters William, 
 Pickett George B., 
 Powell William H., 
 Purple William, 
 Raney George B., 
 Richardson Charles A. 
 
 , Remington George 
 Rouse Rudolphus, 
 Smith Theodore, 
 Spurck Albert 
 Sweeny Rudolphus E., 
 Taber James, 
 Thompson James B., 
 
 , Truesdale William, 
 Voris Robert C., 
 Wagener Charles, 
 Wheaton L/oyd, 
 Wheeler Charles R., 
 Wood Gilbert E., 
 Yost Daniel Z., 
 
 * Ladies are admitted for the study of the Classics 
 only. 
 
 xxviii 
 
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