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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
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D
il
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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
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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
APPKNDIX
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APPENDIX
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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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