Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....Educational Facilities 1879 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com June 28, 2007, 8:31 pm Book Title: History Of Coles County EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES. Some modern sage, imbued with a poetical view in his composition, has very wisely declared: " 'Tis education forms the common mind, Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined." And when our forefathers declared in their ordinance of 1787, that knowledge in connection with religion and morality, was "necessary to the good government and happiness of mankind," and enjoined that "schools, and the means of education, should forever be encouraged," they suggested in that ordinance the very bulwark of American liberty and freedom. The first free-school system of the State was adopted thirty years before the present one. Schools flourished in almost every neighborhood, says Gov. Ford in his history of Illinois, and "the law worked reasonably well." Gov. Coles, in his Message to the Legislature of 1824-25, directed attention to the liberal donation of Congress in lands for educational purposes, asking that they be husbanded as a rich treasure for future generations, and, in the mean time, to make provision for the support of local schools. During this session, Hon. Joseph Duncan, subsequently Governor (then Senator), introduced a bill, afterward passed, to which the following is the preamble: "To enjoy our rights and liberties, we must understand them; their security and protection ought to be the first object of a free people; and it is a well-established fact that no nation has ever continued long in the enjoyment of civil and political freedom which was not both virtuous and enlightened. And believing that the advancement of literature always has been, and ever will be, the means of more fully developing the rights of men 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." Stuve, in his history of Illinois, speaking of this act, says: "It was provided that common schools should be established, free and open to every class of white citizens between the ages of five and twenty-one; and persons over twenty-one might be admitted on such terms as the Trustees should prescribe. Districts, of not less than fifteen families, were to be formed by the County Courts, upon petition of a majority of the voters thereof; officers were to be elected, sworn in, and their duties were prescribed in detail. The system was full and complete in all particulars. The legal voters were empowered at the annual meeting to levy a tax, in money or merchantable produce at its cash value, not exceeding one-half of one per cent, subject to a maximum limitation of $10 to any one person. But, aside from this tax, the best and most effective feature of the law, in principle, the great stimulant of our present system, was an annual appropriation by the State of $2 out of every $100 received into the Treasury, and the distribution of five-sixths of the interest arising from the school funds, apportioned among the several counties, according to the number of white children under the age of twenty-one years, which sums were then redistributed by the counties among their respective districts, none participating therein where not at least three months' school had been taught during the twelve months preceding. In this law were foreshadowed some of the most valuable features of our present free-school system. But it is asserted that the law of 1825 was in advance of the times; that the people preferred to pay their tuition fees, or do without education for the children, rather than submit to the bare idea of taxation, however it might fall in the main upon the wealthier property-holders, for the benefit of all; and the law was so amended, in 1827, as to virtually nullify it, by providing that no person should be taxed for the maintenance of any school, unless the consent was first obtained in writing, and the continuance of the State appropriation of $2 out of every $100 received into the Treasury, being its very life, was denied." In the foregoing extract is portrayed something of the first school laws of Illinois, and their virtual abolishment developed the rude system of schools of the pioneer days in Coles County. The school fund was not sufficient to support the schools, and the people obviated the difficulty by some one, specially interested, taking a paper, going to the parents and having them sign as many scholars, at §1.50 apiece (that was the standard price), as they could send to school. If a sufficient number were subscribed they had a school, if not, the children ran wild and unrestrained as the prairie winds, at least, so far as pertained to schools. Nor were schoolhouses built then by general taxation, as they are now, but by gratuitous contribution. This contribution usually consisted in a man taking his ax and cutting logs, or taking his team and hauling them from the timber to the building-site, or carrying the hod while the chimney was in process of erection, or of "riving" boards to cover it, etc., etc. These schoolhouses were built of logs, often without hewing, raised one story high, and, as an old settler informed us, "whitewashed inside and outside with original Illinois mud, floored with rude puncheons, and cracks between them through which the small children sometimes fell." With a fire-place extending across one end of the room, benches made of trees split, open, and wooden pins put in for legs, the half of two logs cut out, and white domestic tacked over it (the pioneer glass window), completes the picture of the original schoolhouse. In these rude temples of learning the pioneer's child acquired his education. There were no grades then, and but few classes, for in a school of twenty or thirty pupils, there would be found as many arithmetics, geographies and readers as there were extant in the English language. But the adoption of the free-school system, entered upon in 1855, marks the turning-point in the history of common-school education of the State, and abolished forever the rude and imperfect system hitherto in force. The donation by Congress of the Sixteenth Section of every Congressional Township, or, if sold, lands equivalent thereto, as contiguous as might be, for the use of the inhabitants of such township for school purposes, amounted to over 998,000 acres, and which, had it been properly managed and husbanded, would have given the people such an ample school fund as would have saved them from any local taxation. At the session of the Legislature of 1854, that august body took the first step in the right direction, .by the enactment of a law separating the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction from that of Secretary of State, and creating it a distinct department of the State government, the incumbent to receive a salary of $1,500, and Gov. Matteson appointed the Hon. N. W. Edwards State Superintendent of Common Schools. This most important office, at that juncture, was bestowed upon Mr. Edwards on account of his long experience in public life, and from the conviction that he would carry into effect the hopes of the people and the designs of the Legislature in creating it. In January following, he submitted to the General Assembly a full report upon the condition of the public schools throughout the State, ably urged the education of the children of the State at the public expense, and presented a well-drawn bill for a complete system of free schools which, with some alterations, became a law. The act bore date February 15 1855, and embraced all the essential principles now in force."* But, however interesting our school history may be to the friends of education, we cannot follow it through all of its mutations, but have already trespassed upon time and space, and will only add, that there is not a State west of the Alleghanies whose educational interest and common-school system is so well developed, so well protected and so well adapted to the wants of the people and the spirit of the age, as the State of Illinois. With a few statistical facts from the last report of Prof. T. J. Lee, County Superintendent of Schools, to the Superintendent of Public Instruction, which are of special interest to the people of the county, we will pass on to other branches of our work: Number of schools taught in the county 121 " " pupils enrolled 7,937 Male teachers employed (1st grade) 66 " " " (2d grade) 41 Female " " (1st grade) 50 " " " (2d grade) 67 Total number of teachers employed 233 Average merit of their certificates 8.3 Months taught by males 526 " " " females 582 Average number of months taught previous 38 Average age of these teachers (years) 27 Average monthly wages (males) $48.88 " " " (females) $30.60 Amount paid teachers $44,607.00 Number of persons between 6 and 21 years 9,099 " between 12 and 21 unable to write 20 *Stuve's History of Illinois. Referring to the qualifications of teachers, Prof. Lee says: "Shortly after coming into office, I deemed it best to reduce, gradually, the number of certificates by raising the grade of qualifications, and adopted the following rules concerning certificates: " 1. Scale: 5, very poor; 6, poor; 7, tolerable; 8, good; 9, very good; 10, perfect. 2. For First Grade-Average of 8, with no branch below 7. 3. For Second grade-Average of 7, with no branch below 5. After twelve months teaching, same mark as for First Grade. 1. Only bona-fide applicants to teach in this county will be examined. 5. Reference of good moral character required of applicants unknown to Superintendent. 6. In addition to above, aptitude for the business of teaching will be required. 7. No re-examination under three months after rejection. 8. No certificate now held will be renewed or another issued instead, except on personal application for reexamination. 9. All examinations must be begun and completed on the same day; therefore applicants should come to the office early in the day. 10. No certificates will be issued except at published time and place." Prof. Lee closes his report as follows: "Our common school system is yet an experiment. Give it time to o-row, and it may yet unfold into that perennial blessing, and those beneficent propositions dreamed by its founders. Its growth cannot be hastened- but retarded rather-by certain utopian ideas that now, unhappily for it, seem to be gaining ground. Let us call a 'halt' and wait. Let all who are 'called' to help administer the system strive in every good way to bring it up equal to the provisions already made for it, before attempting new excesses." Additional Comments: Extracted from: THE HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY. ILLINOIS, CONTAINING A History of the County—its Cities, Towns, &c; a Directory of its Tax-Payers; Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map of Coles County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest, Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c, &c. ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO: WM. LE BARON, JR., & CO., 186 DEARBORN STREET. 1879. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/coles/history/1879/historyo/educatio106gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 12.2 Kb