CHAPTER XIV.

EDUCATIONAL INFLUENCE.

Turning to a successful side of the missionary's work, it is to be noticed that his influence in educational matters was creative, definite, permanent. Illinois owes much in her educational development to him. He brought with him the knowledge of the three-fold educational organization of New England, the college, the academy and the common school; and he added to this, wrought out from the circumstances of his surroundings, the idea of industrial education by the State.

Applying this program to Illinois, we find, in the local conditions, certain helps and certain hindrances to the cause of education. To begin with there was generous financial encouragement provided by the general government in the terms of the ordinance of 1787 for the disposing of lands in the Western Territory, by which section sixteen in each township was devoted to school purposes. The enabling act of 1818 also devoted one entire township for the use of a "seminary of learning" and of the five per cent of the net proceeds of the sale of government lands within her limits granted to the use of the State, it was provided that three-fifths should be used for educational purposes, one-sixth of this sum to be used for a college or university. În 1882 this, together with a surplus revenue fund given by Congress in 1837 and certain county funds, amounted to a principal of $9,691,932.89 with an income of $636,204.64.

In enumerating the disadvantages with which education had to contend it is obvious at once that funds would not flow into the State treasury very early from these provisions since the sale of lands. would naturally be slow till settlers became abundant. In fact the first sale was not made till 1831 in Greene county. Again the early settlers were not in so prosperous a condition at first as to lead them to impose taxes upon themselves nor were they as a class at all disposed to promote free schools.1

To this should be added the fact that the legislative bodies of the State were controlled by representatives of the southern settlers during all the years we were considering. Any advance in educational matters was wrested from these men only by long siege and after repeated rebuffs. These legislators diverted the school funds to the

1 W. L. Pillsbury, in Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1881-82 p. CXXIII, CXXVII; in Report, 1887-88, LXVII; Samuel Williard, History of Early Education in Illinois, in Report, 1883-84, LXVII.

payment of other State expenses so persistently in the early years that Congress withheld the fund for several years previous to 1831. By act of 1835 the interest was distributed to the counties and no longer loaned to the State. The State by public act pays interest on all the funds which have accrued to it from the sources named although the funds themselves were long ago diverted to State uses.1 The establishment of free schools, the appointment of a State superintendent of public instruction, an institution for the education of teachers, and an "industrial university," where the main objects for which special and long continued effort were necessary.

"The paramount influence of the New Englanders in accomplishing this program is fully acknowledged by those most conversant with the educational history of the State. The origin of the American common school in Illinois was due to the tide of immigration from New England." "But as the immigration from the south and especially from the east poured in the modes of life of the people changed; then the earth floor and the slab seats and the puncheon writing desk gave way to oaken boards from the saw mill. The ceilings and the walls ere long were clothed with lath and plaster; the chimney of brick and the stove superseded the hugh chimney of sticks; glass windows admitted light; the framed and boarded house took the place of the log structure, and change followed change till the present tasteful, well-furnished school house caused the older expedients of the early days to be forgotten. With these the pupil and teacher and text books changed in equal ratio." This authority it should be said is particularly anxious to give proper credit to all the sources of help in the educational struggle.2

The earliest of New England educational workers to be noted was Rev. J. M. Peck, also remembered for his services in keeping Illinois an anti-slavery state, a missionary of the Massachusetts Baptist Society and later an agent of the American Bible Society. He is described as "perhaps the most indefatigable worker in behalf of eduIcation the State has ever known." He furthered the educational interests of his own denomination in Rock Spring Seminary and Shurtleff College. "He brought teachers from the east and helped them to employment; in every way and at every time he used tongue. pen, time, means and influence for the cause of education." "3 In 1833 at Vandalia in the first educational convention ever held in the State he organized the first educational society, "prominent among those special agencies, educational associations, State legislatures, ladies educational societies, teachers institutes and popular methods" which participated in the struggle for popular education up to 1855.*

This society was called the Illinois Institute of education. Mr. Peck was made a corresponding secretary. It devoted itself to the gathering of information as to the condition of the primary schools of the State, to corresponding with centers of school information outside

1 Pillsbury, in Report, 1881-82, XXXVI.

2 Mavo, Education in the Northwest, in U. S. Commissioner of Edncation Report, 1894-5, II, 1543; Willard, Early Education in Illinois. cxviii.

3 W. L. Pillsbury, in Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1885-86, pp. cvi cxx; Willard, as above, p. cxviii.

4 Mayo, as above, p. 1541.

of the State and to an effort to inform and arouse the public on the subject. Mr. Peck's denominational paper, the Pioneer and Western Baptist, became also an educational organ, publishing information, suggesting a second educational convention at Vandalia in December of 1834 and printing its proceeding, an "Address to the People of Illinois" and the "Memorial" to the Legislature.

A free school law had been passed by the General Assembly of Illinois, January 15, 1825, embracing all the essential points of the free school idea. The law met so much opposition that it never became generally operative, and was soon made ineffective by an amendment removing the general tax. The following statement is the conjecture of its origin. "If we could get at the unwritten history of the passage of the law we should, I imagine, find its passage was secured by strong personal influences, more potent in Vandalia with the small number who could be talked to face to face, than with the sparse and widely scattered people of the State at large in those days of few newspapers with short subscription lists, when travel was chiefly on horseback.". As a result of the educational agitation in 1834, above noted, another broad and liberal educational bill was introduced into the Assembly only to fail in its most essential feature of general taxation.2.

It was at this session, 1834-5, that Illinois college gained its charter. Its doors had been open since 1830, but it had been impossible to gain a satisfactory charter until this session. By making common cause with Shurtleff and McKendree colleges, she gained her charter, not without restriction however. All three were forbidden to hold more than 640 acres of land or to establish theological departments, restrictions removed in a few years. Such men as Hon. Samuel D. Lockwood and Judge William Brown, men "devoted, heart, soul and purse to the cause of education". worked for the bill. Judge Lockwood had shown his affection for Illinois College before this time when Mr. Ellis proposed to make the tour through Greene, Morgan and Sangamon, the "upper counties," in the interests of the Home Missionary Society and of the proposed college in 1828. Judge Lockwood proposed that his clerk, Thomas Lippincott, who afterwards became a missionary of the society, should accompany him and he furnished a horse and the funds necessary for the expedition. Later, when all had made their home in Jacksonville, he selected the college site for his own home, but gave it to the college on the condition that the college should be located there..

The nature of the opposition can be gained from the three questions discussed in the report of the committee on petitions:

1. Are institutions of this character really needed in the State? 2. Is it important to their success that the trustees who manage them should become bodies corporate?

3. Can corporate powers be granted with safety to the public interest?

1. Pillsbury in Report, 1885-6, pp. cviii, cxv.

2. W. L. Pillsbury, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1885-6. p. cxxv. 3. Ibid., p. cxii.

4. Julian M. Sturtevant, An Autobiography, 176.

The following is an extract from the argument on the last question: "These men have some peculiar claims upon our confidence and support. They commenced their operations in the infancy of our State, when the means of education were exceedingly limited, and schools of every description were few and far between. They do not simply prepare to educate those who should hereafter come upon the stage, but the present generation also. The cry now is from all parts of the State, educate the present generation. The petitioners are ready to vociferate the same loud and long. This is the very thing that they propose to aid in accomplishing. They come to us and point to the present state of education in Illinois and simply ask us to afford them such facilities as will enable them to prosecute this noble work without embarrassment. Shall we then withhold from them that countenance and support which they ask? It would seem that none would be more deserving of encouragement than the pioneer in the cause of education. In the opinion of your committee the petitioners are richly entitled to confidence of their fellow citizens, and the support of ourselves as a legislature."1.

In addition to the members of the "Yale Band" already noticed whose interest was assured to the new college either by direct service for it or by sympathy and indirect service, one must note its first president, Edward Beecher, who came to Illinois in 1833, Truman M. Post, Samuel Adams, and Jonathan B. Turner. From the beginning the college grew in numbers and influence. Drawing its teachers and to a large extent its funds from New England, there was appropriateness in calling Jacksonville, its home, "the New Haven of the West." The Home Missionary churches contributed to its support. Land as well as money was given to it. Its professors did not confine their labors to the class-room. They went abroad lecturing on temperance, and they promoted anti-slavery sentiment; but chiefly they tried to rouse interest in popular education. Mayo says: "One of the most potent and influential of all the special agencies in promoting education was the new college of Illinois. It threw its entire influence on the side of the common school."3

In 1834 Professor J. B. Turner spent his summer vacation in traveling at his own expense to the counties southwest of Morgan county, delivering addresses in behalf of public schools wherever he could gather an audience. Through these years the papers had such notices as these: "At commencement in Jacksonville, August 21, 1832, an address on common schools by Rev. Theron Baldwin." "November 13, 1834, an address in Springfield by Professor J. B. Turner, subject, 'Common Schools."" "Lecture on 'Education' by Rev. Mr. Baldwin at Mt. Carmel, Wabash county, August, 1836. A subscription for an academy followed." Commencement time was for years taken as an opportunity to present the claims of this interest. At the commencement in 1836 the Illinois Teachers' Association was formed. For four years Rev. John F. Brooks, of the "Yale

1 W. L. Pillsbury, report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1887-88, p. cxxvii, 2 Historical Morgan and Classic Jacksonville.

3 A. D. Mayo, Education in the Northwest.

Band," was its secretary. Addresses at this first meeting were made by J. F. Brooks, Edward Beecher, Theron Baldwin, and J. M. Sturtevant. Of the eight officers chosen six were Congregational clergymen. The aim of the association was to elevate the qualifications of teachers, "giving permanency to their employment, and by mutual counsel fixing upon the best text-books and methods of instruction." The minutes of the four years following, with meetings all held in Jacksonville, record discussions on all sorts of matters pertaining to the conduct of schools, with committees appointed to promote the forming of county associations, to investigate the text-books used in schools and similar subjects. In 1837, Rev. Lyman Beecher, of the Lane Seminary in Ohio, was present at the Illinois commencement and addressed the association.1

In 1837, "The Common School Advocate" appeared, published at Jacksonville and edited "by a few literary gentlemen who, from their deep interest in this subject, generously volunteered their services for one year without remuneration." Samuel Willard ascribes the editorship to Rev. Theron Baldwin. Its first editorial urges the importance of national and state secretaries of education, the first mention of a subject on which much agitation developed later. The next number gave a resume of Rev. C. E. Stowe's (a brother-in-law of Edward Beecher) report on the Prussian system of private schools. This report by calling attention to the normal schools of Prussia had particularly interested the East, where the question of the state's establishing normal schools was becoming prominent. This paper ceased to appear at the end of a year. The "Union Agriculture and Western Prairie Farmer," which appeared in 1841, added common school interests to agricultural under the editorship of John S. Wright, of Massachusetts. He agitated two subjects particularly, the appointment of a State Superintendent and a normal school. Up to 1855 this paper occupied the field of school journalism in Illinois. Parallel with the influence of Illinois College in promoting the interests of common schools was that of the "Ladies Association for Educating Females," founded in Jacksonville in 1833. Its aim was "to encourage and assist young ladies to qualify themselves for teaching." Female education had received early attention. While John M. Ellis was founding Illinois College with his wife's help he also began the Jacksonville Female Academy in 1828. This is said to be the earliest institution for the education of women in the north west, outside of Ohio. The first teacher, Miss Sarah C. Crocker, was recommended by Mary Lyon. Miss Crocker was the first vice-president of the Ladies Association and Mrs. Theron Baldwin its first secretary, while the other two officers were Jacksonville ladies.3 "The first year five were aided and received tuition and books, assisting in some families as part compensation for board. The third year fortyfive were assisted in different parts of the State. The association met with favor wherever known; friends and means were raised up,

1 W. L. Pillsbury, in Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1885-86, pp. Cxxix-cxxxiii.

2 Ibid, 1883-84, p. cxvii.

3 W. L. Pillsbury, in report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1887-88, p. p. lxxx, cxxxix, cxiv, cxliii. Eames, Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville.