Clark County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter V Education 1883
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Book Title: HISTORY OF CRAWFORD AND CLARK COUNTIES, ILLINOIS

CHAPTER V.



EDUCATIONAL-FIRST STEPS TOWARD KNOWLEDGE-SCHOOL LANDS AND THE FUND DERIVED FROM

THEM-THE DUNCAN SCHOOL LAW-TAXES FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES-CHANGES OF THE SCHOOL

LAWS-FIRST SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTY-EARLY TEMPLES OF LEARNING AND PIONEER

TEACHERS-ACADEMIES AND COLLEGES-STATISTICS, ETC., ETC. "



   " 'Tis education forms the common mind;

     Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined.'"



AS early as 1647, the question of educating the masses through the medium of

common schools was agitated in New England. In that year, an act was passed, to

enable "every child rich and poor alike, to learn to read its own language."

This was followed by another act, giving to every town or district, having fifty

householders, the right to have a common school, and to every town or district

having one hundred families, a grammar school taught by teachers competent to

prepare youths for college. An eminent writer, in after years, commenting upon

this act, states it to be the "first instance in Christendom where a civil

government took measures to confer upon its youth the blessings of education."

"And never before," he adds, "was embodied in practice, a principle so

comprehensive in its nature, and so fruitful in good results, as that of

training a nation of intelligent people, by educating all of its youth." When

our forefathers, nearly a century and a half later, declared in the ordinance of

1787, that "knowledge, with religion and morality was necessary to the good

government and happiness of mankind," they struck the keynote of American liberty.



   The educational history of the county, should interest every reader of this

work, more perhaps than any other subject mentioned and treated in the general

history of Clark. When the survey of the Northwest territory was ordered by

Congress, it was decreed that every sixteenth section of land should be reserved

for the maintenance of public schools within each township. The famous ordinance

of July 13, 1787, proclaimed that "schools and the means of education, should

forever be encouraged." By the act of Congress of April 18, 1818, enabling the

people of Illinois to form a State Constitution, the "section numbered sixteen

in every township, and when such section has been sold, or otherwise disposed

of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, should be

granted to the State, for the use of the inhabitants of such township for the

support of schools. The act further recites, "That five per cent of the net

proceeds of the lands lying within said State, and which shall be sold by

Congress from and after the first day of January, 1819, after deducting all

expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved for the purposes following: two

fifths to be disbursed under the direction of Congress, in making roads leading

to the State; the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for

the encouragement of learning, of which one sixth part shall be exclusively

bestowed on a college or university." In other words, Congress donated to the

State a full township, six miles square, for seminary purposes, and the

thirty-sixth part of all the residue of public lands in the State, and three per

cent of the net proceeds of the sales of the remainder, to support common

schools, and promote education in the then infant State. Truly a most

magnificent and princely donation and provision for education. The sixteenth

section, so donated, amounted in the State to nearly a million acres; in Clark

County, to about nine thousand acres.



   Laws were first made directing county commissioners courts to appoint three

trustees for the school land in each township, where the inhabitants of such

townships numbered twenty white persons. The first school trustees in Clark

County, were appointed December 2, 1819, and were Samuel Prevo, William Lockard

and William B. Archer, for Union, or what is now York township; Charles Neely,

Zaccheus Hassel and John McClure for Dubois, now Darwin township; Thomas Black,

Richard Armstrong and Samuel Peery for Washington, now Wabash township; Jonathan

Mayo, Lewis Murphy and John Stratton for a township then in this county, and

lying about seven miles north of the present town of Paris. The commissioners

also appointed three trustees for the school section lying two miles east of the

city of Danville then in this county. These trustees had power to lease the

school lands at public outcry, after twenty days notice, to the highest bidder,

for any period not exceeding ten years, the rents to be paid in improvements, or

in shares of the products raised. The laws were crude, and fell far short of

their intended object. The school lands under the lessee or rental arrangement,

yielded little or no revenue; many of the renters having no title to, nor common

interest in the land, only opened and cultivated enough for a bare support, and

of course produced nothing to divide. Then squatters took possession of a

considerable portion, and wasted the timber, and in many ways depreciated the

value of the lands. As a result, the cause of education languished, and was at a

stand-still for years. There were a great many influences and obstacles in the

way of a general diffusion of knowledge. The settlements were sparse, and money

or other means of remunerating teachers were scarce. And teachers competent to

impart even the common rudiments of an English education were few and school

books were fewer.



   This state of affairs continued until 1825, when Joseph Duncan, then a member

of the State senate, and afterwards joint owner with W. B. Archer, of the lands

on which Marshall is situated, introduced a bill for the support of common

schools by a public tax. The preamble to the act, appended, was as follows: "To

enjoy our righs [sic] and liberties, we must understand them; their security and

protection ought to be the first object of a free people; and it is a

well-established fact, that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment

of civil and political freedom, which was not both virtuous and enlightened; and

believing that the advancement of literature always has been, and ever will be

the means of developing more fully the rights of man; that the mind of every

citizen in a republic is the common property of society; and constitutes the

basis of its strength and happiness; it is therefore considered the peculiar

duty of a free government, like ours, to encourage and extend the improvement

and cultivation of the intellectual energies of the whole."



   This admirable law gave education a powerful impetus, and common schools

flourished in almost every settlement. But the law was in advance of the

civilization of the times. The early settlers had left the older States, and

plunged into the wilderness, braving countless dangers and privations, in order

to better their individual fortunes, and to escape the burdens of taxation,

which advanced refinement and culture in any people, invariably impose. Hence

the law was the subject of much bitter opposition. The very idea of a tax was so

hateful, that even the poorest preferred to pay all that was necessary for the

tuition of their children, or keep them in ignorance, as was generally the case,

rather than submit to the mere name of tax. This law, is the foundation upon

which rests the superstructure of the common school system of to-day. In fact,

our present educational laws contain nearly all its salient and distinctive

features. The law provided for the division of townships into school districts,

in each of which were elected three trustees, corresponding to directors of the

present day, one clerk, one treasurer, one assessor and one collector. The

trustees of each district, had supreme control and management of the school

within the same, and the employment of teachers and fixing their remuneration.

They were required to make an annual report to the county commissioners court of

the number of children living within the bounds of such district, between the

ages of five and twenty-one years, and what number of them were actually sent to

school, with a certificate of the time a school was kept up, with the expenses

of the same. Persons over the age of twenty-one years, were permitted to attend

school upon the order of the trustees. And it was no uncommon thing for men

beyond the meridian of life, to be seen at school with their children. The law

required teachers at the close of their schools, to prepare schedules, giving

alphabetically, the names of attending pupils, with their ages, the total number

of days each pupil attended, the aggregate number of days attended, the average

daily attendance, and the standing of each scholar. This schedule was submitted

to the trustees for their approval, as no teacher was paid any remuneration,

except on presentation to the treasurer of his schedule, signed by a majority of

the trustees. The law further provided that all common schools should be

maintained and supported by a direct public tax. School taxes were payable

either in money or in produce, and teachers would take the produce at market

price, or if there was no current value, the price was fixed by arbitration.

Peltries were received in full payment of school taxes. It is related that the

salary of a teacher named Malcom, for a ten weeks school, was once paid wholly

in coon skins. And that the pedagogue carried them on his back to Vincennes, a

distance of over thirty miles, and there disposed of them.



   When this wise and wholesome law was repealed by the Legislature, General

Duncan wrote, as if gifted with prophecy, "That coming generations would see the

wisdom of his law, and would engraft its principles on their statute books; that

changes in the condition of society, might render different applications of the

same necessary, but that the principle was eternal and the essence of free and

enlightened governments." "And," he added, "legislators who voted against the

measure, will yet live to see the day, when all the children of the State will

be educated through the medium of common schools, supported and maintained by a

direct tax upon the people, the burden falling upon the rich and poor in

proportion to their worldly possessions." These predictions are yellow with the

years of a half century and over, and have been faithfully fulfilled and verified.



   The Duncan School Law, as it was called, remained in force only a little over

two years, when it was repealed. It was, substantially, that the legal voters of

any school district, had power, at any of their meetings, to cause either the

whole or one half of the sum necessary to maintain and conduct a school in said

district, to be raised by taxation. And if the voters decided that only one half

of such required amount was to be so raised, the remainder was to be paid by the

parents, masters and guardians, in proportion to the number of pupils which each

of them might send to such school. No person, however, could be taxed for the

support of any free school, unless by his or her consent first obtained in

writing. Though all persons refusing to be taxed, were precluded from sending

pupils to such school. In almost every district there were those who had no

children to educate, and then there was an uncivilized element of frontier life,

who believed education was a useless and unnecessary accomplishment, and only

needful to divines and lawyers. That bone and muscle, and the ability to labor,

were the only requirements necessary to fit their daughters and sons for the

practical duties of life. A proverb then current, was: "The more book learning,

the more rascals." To quote a localism of the day: "Gals didn't need to know

nothin' about books, and all that boys orter know, was how to grub, maul rails

and hunt." That senseless prejudice, born of the civilization of the time, has

descended in a slight degree to the present, and yet tinges the complexion of

society in some localities in our county.



   The law required the trustees, when they deemed it expedient, to divide the

township into school districts, so that each district should not contain a less

number than eighteen scolars; [sic] and that the funds arising from the rents of

school-lands, should be paid over to the several districts, in proportion to the

number of attending scholars, to be applied toward employing a school teacher,

etc. At this time, 1827-8, there were only three or four schools in the county.

This law was repealed January 22, 1829, and a law enacted the same date,

provided that the sixteenth section, given by the government to each township,

might be sold upon petition of nine tenths of the freeholders of the township,

to the trustees of school lands, the proceeds to be loaned on real estate and

personal security, and the interest to be applied toward the payment of

teachers. The lands not to be sold for less than government price, one dollar

and twenty-five cents per acre. This law was repealed in turn, by an act of the

Legislature of February 15, 1831, which provided that three fourths of the white

male inhabitants of any township could petition for the sale of their school

section, the proceeds to be loaned at the highest obtainable rate of interest.

The law furthur provided, that any five citizens, of any school district, could

borrow any sum not exceeding two hundred dollars, for a period not exceeding ten

years, for the purpose of erecting a school-house.



   Not one of all these laws embodied, nor did they for many years after,

embody, a standard of qualifications for teachers. All that was necessary, was

for the instructor to satisfy the people and trustees hiring them. As a

consequence, many of the early schools were of a poor description. The teachers,

as a rule, were illiterate, their acquirements consisting of a smattering

knowledge of the trinal branches of early day teaching, namely: reading, writing

and ciphering, which were then considered to comprise all needful learning.

Geography, history and grammar, were never taught, the latter being considered

as especially useless and superfluous. Once at at [sic] a debate, where the

question, "whether or not grammar was necessary to learning," was discussed, a

pioneer teacher paralyzed his opponents, and demolished their argument, by

declaring that "grammar was like the top-knot of a jay bird-more for ornament

than for use." "For," he continued, "what difference does it make whether a

fellow says onions or ingens, so he can figger, and tell what five and a half

bushels come to at twenty-three and three fourths cents a bushel."



   A portion of the school fund received from the State, known as the "State

Interest Fund," and which has been paid regularly for over half a century for

the support of common schools, occurred substantially in this way: In 1828 the

practice of selling the school lands was first inaugurated. The system was

continued under various laws, to follow which, through all their ramifications,

would necessitate tedious prolixity, and be of no interest to the reader. The

proceeds of such sales, together with the 3 per cent of the net proceeds of the

sale of public lands, were paid into the State treasury, and were disbursed by

legislative authority, as other moneys. But the State only borrowed these funds,

and agreed to pay interest on them. Under the law trustees of school lands were

authorized to invest the funds resulting from their sale in auditor's warrants,

and State paper, as the notes of the State bank were then called, at any

discount they were able to procure. These vouchers were received by the State at

face value, and interest was paid on them at the rate of 2 per cent per annum to

February 15,1831, when the interest was added to the principal, the State paying

6 per cent interest on the aggregate, and so on, adding the yearly interest to

the principal, until December 31, 1833, when the total amount became the

principal, to which has been added all amounts since received, and on the total

the State pays an annual interest, which is distributed yearly among the

counties, the share of each being proportioned to its school population.



   The first educational effort attempted in the county was a school taught by

Peleg Spencer, west of York on Union Prairie, about the year 1820. He afterward

removed to Lawrence County, and is described as having been a successful teacher

for the period, but very harsh and severe; a grim tyrant in his little literary

realm, over which he ruled with despotic sway. He was a conscientious man, it is

said, and ever bore in mind the golden maxim. "Spare the rod, and spoil the

child." And from his freedom with the hazel and hickory it is safe to say his

pupils were not spoiled. The next school was on Walnut Prairie, in a log

building, where the brick school-house, near Shaw's Ferry, on the Wabash, now

stands. It was taught by Robert Taylor, a pioneer and highly respected citizen

of Clark, and who died in 1869. Mr. Taylor was eminently successful, as an

educator; was a marked exception and far superior to the teachers of his day and

age. There are estimable citizens now living in the county who remember him as

their best benefactor. These were the pioneer schools of Clark County, no others

being established until about the year 1825, under the Duncan law, when three or

four were put into operation: one in Washington, now Wabash Township, and was

taught by a man named Johnson; one near the present town of Westfield, and one

near Charleston, which was then included in this county. After the repeal of the

Duncan law, education, for over a generation, was in anything but a flourishing

condition, either in the county or State. Like the stagnant waters of a southern

lagoon, it was difficult to tell whether the current flowed backward or forward.

For nearly forty years the school-houses, school books, school teachers and the

manner of instruction, were of the most primitive character throughout a large

portion of the county.



   The early school-houses, as a general thing, were of the poorest and rudest

kind, and are fully described in other chapters of this work. A few of these

humble school-houses-time-worn relics of the early days-are yet standing,

eloquent of an age forever past. The writer recalls one, rotten and shaky to the

last degree, and serving as a receptacle for a farmer's corn-fodder. The huge,

open-throated chimney has fallen down; the broad clapboards of the roof, held on

by crumbling and worm-eaten weight poles, are deeply covered with moss and mold;

the rude door is gone and the puncheon floor has disappeared. The The [sic]

genius of learning has long since flown to finer quarters, and over the whole

edifice hangs a gloom-a mist of decay.



   The old-time pedagogue was a marked and distinctive character of our early

history- one of the vital forces of our earlier growth. He considered the matter

of imparting the limited knowledge he possessed, a mere question of effort, in

which the physicial element predominated. If he couldn't talk or read it into a

pupil, he took a stick and mauled it into him. This method, though somewhat

distasteful to the urchin, always had a charming result,-a few blubbers, red

eyes and a good lesson. The schoolmaster, usually, by common consent was a

personage of distinction and importance. He was of higher authority, even in the

law, than the justice of the peace, and ranked him in social position. He was

considered the intellectual center of the neighborhood, and was consulted upon

all subjects, public and private. Generally, he was a Hard-shell Baptist in

religion, a Democrat in politics, and worshipped General Jackson as his

political patron saint. But the old-time pedagogue-the pioneer of American

letters-is a thing of the past, and we shall never see his like again. He is

ever in the van of advancing civilization, and fled before the whistle of the

locomotive, or the click of the telegraph were heard. He can not live within the

pale of progress. His race became extinct here over a quarter of a century ago,

when our common school system began to take firm hold, and became a fixed

institution among our people. Our older citizens remember him, but to the young

of to-day, he is a myth, and only lives in story and tradition.



   The Legislature, in 1837, again revised the school law, making several

important changes, repealing many objectionable features of former enactments,

and adding several wise and liberal amendments. Under this act, any township

might become incorporated by a two thirds vote of the inhabitants. Three

trustees were elected, whose duty it was to divide the township into school

districts. Teachers were to be paid wholly, or as far as the same might extend,

out of the interest arising from the proceeds of the sales of school lands, then

or thereafter made. Any excess remaining, was to be added to the principal of

the township fund, at the option of the trustees, and any existing deficiency to

be raised either by taxation or subscription, as the voters might determine. No

teacher was to be paid, except on presentation to the township treasurer, of a

certificate of qualification to teach. A section of this act, and which is

embodied in the school law of the present day, created what is known as the

Surplus Revenue fund, and from it is derived a portion of the State Interest fund.



   The first step toward establishing a higher or more advanced institution of

learning in the county, than the common district school was in 1839, when a bill

was passed incorporating the "Marshall Academy," with William B. Archer, James

Whitlock, William C. Griffith, Channing Madison, Justin Harlan, Nineveh Shaw,

William McKeen, Woodford Dulaney, Stephen Archer, James Plaster, John Bartlett,

Jonathan K. Greenough, William Tutt, Nathan Tefft, Thomas T. Wethers and Joshua

P. Cooper as trustees. Stephen Archer is the only survivor of the original

board. The act provided, that if at any time, the trustees desired to change the

character of the institution, from an academy to a college, they should

memorialize the Legislature to that effect, when a liberal charter would be

granted, with all the necessary powers to carry the same into effect, and that

the name and style should be the "Marshall College, of the Eastern Division of

Illinois." The first academic building stood where the present brick high school

of Marshall is situated; it was a long one-story frame structure, and was

afterward removed to the present premises of M. R. Chenoweth. The academy was

placed in charge of the late Rev. Dean Andrews, and many are the living

representatives throughout the county, who received instruction in that humble

building and from that able preceptor. The main portion of the present brick

building was afterward erected, and about 1856, the building and grounds were

sold to the Methodist denomination, which conducted the school for many years.

In 1872, the people of school district, number five, Marshall township, became

the purchasers of the building and converted it into a graded common school, and

by additions to it, and improvements to the grounds, have rendered them

commodious and sightly.



   In 1839, also, a law was passed, incorporating the "Marshall Female Academy,"

with James McCabe, Isaac Hill, Thomas Henderson, Thomas Carey, Justin Harlan,

John Bart-lett, Stephen Archer, Woodford Dulaney and "William B. Archer as

trustees. This institution was never carried into successful operation.



   Matters pertaining to education and common schools, remained substantially

unchanged until 1845, when a law was passed making the secretary of State

ex-officio State superintendent of common schools, and authorizing: a school tax

to be levied in each district, subject to the decision of the voters. The

secretary reported to the Legislature in 1847, that the common schools

throughout the State, with the exception of a few localities, were in a

deplorable condition, especially in the southern portion.



   After the adoption of the constitution of 1848, the school law was again

revised in all its details. From the passage of this act, dates the office of

school commissioner, who was made ex-officio county superintendent. School lands

could be sold when two thirds of the white male inhabitants thereof, over

twenty-one years of age, should petition the school commissioner. Each

congressional township, was established as a township for school purposes; the

law provided for the election of three trustees in each township, who had

supreme control of the schools. The trustees divided the township into school

districts, and three directors were elected in each, the employment of teachers,

building and repairing school houses, and many other duties. Taxes could be

levied by a majority of the voters of each district, but the levy was limited to

twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars valuation of property. The law required

that all teachers be qualified to teach orthography, reading in English,

penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, modern geography and the history of the

United States. Each teacher was required to exhibit a certificate of the school

commissioner certifying to his qualifications. This revision is essentially the

foundation on which our present superstructure rests.



   The Constitution 1818, is silent upon the subject of educating the masses

through the medium of common schools. The framers of the Constitution of 1848,

went a little further, and said, in a subjunctive way, that the general assembly

might provide a system of free schools. But it was not until after half a

century of existence as a State, that, our delegates in convention assembled,

engrafted upon the pages of our organic law, a mandatory section, declaring that

"the general assembly shall provide a thorough and efficient system of free

schools, whereby all children of this State may receive a good common school

education."



   The following: exhibit of the condition of the common school system in the

county, for the year ending June 30, 1882, is not uninteresting: to the friends

of education. There are at present, in the county, on hundred and two school

districts, and one hundred and four school buildings. There were employed,

during the year, one hundred and seventy-seven teachers, who imparted

instruction to six thousand and thirty-eight pupils. Of the one hundred and four

schools taught in the county, six are graded, and two of the six are high

schools proper, one each at Marshall and Martinsville. A graded school is where

there are more than one teacher, and where the school is divided into

departments, usually with a reference to the age and advancement of the pupils,

and known as the primary, intermediate and advanced grades. The county in

addition to her excellent and flourishing common school system, and her high and

graded schools, has one college, conducted by an able faculty, and with a

reputation inferior to none; it is under the direction and management of the

United Brethren denomination, and is located at Westfield. All these will be

fully written up in the respective townships in which they are situated. The

educational history of each township will also be given, from the small and

humble beginnings, through their various changes and improvements to the almost

perfect state of the present.



   The total school expenditures, in each township, for all purposes, including

wages of teachers, repairs, fuel, erecting school buildings, etc., are as follows:



   Anderson, $1,397.92; Casey, $14,794.93; Darwin, $1,497.65; Dolson, $3,908.53;

Douglas, $619.05; Johnson, $1,150.18; Marshall, $6,721.84; Martinsville,

$4,439.19; Melrose, $1,955.32 ; Orange, $1,417.91; Parker, $1,325.88; Wabash,

$4,336.51; Westfield, $8,018.87; York, $2,459.65-Total, $54,143.43.



   In the townships of Westfield and Casey new school-houses were built, which

will explain increased expenditures over those of the other townships. The above

expenditures were for the year ending June 30, 1882. About one hundred and

eighty unexpired teachers' certificates are outstanding, of which about twenty

are first grade, the remainder second grade. The county received from the State

school fund, for the year, the sum of $7,437.13; from the State interest fund,

$423.45; from fines and interest on loans, the sum of $189.42, making in all

$8,050.00, which was distributed by the county superintendent to the treasurers

of the different townships in the county.



Additional Comments:
Extracted From:



HISTORY OF CRAWFORD AND CLARK COUNTIES, ILLINOIS.

EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY PERRIN.



ILLUSTRATED



CHICAGO: O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,

LAKESIDE BUILDING.

1883.

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