Early Schools: Part 1

The history of the early schools in Peoria exists almost altogether in traditions which are fast fading out. Almost all the teachers and a large majority of the pupils are dead or have left Peoria. The subject is one which, except at the time, excited little general interest and was seldom mentioned afterwards. There was no school in or near Peoria before 1821, more likely not before 1822. [**emphasis by color coding is mine & was not in the original book. -- S. Slaughter]. The Indians certainly had no schools or school houses. So of the French, nothing ever known of them induces any suspicion that they had 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 scholars, 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 provision for free schools by reserving Section 16 in each township for that purpose, which 5% of the proceeds of the land sold, two-fifths 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 provision. The statement, however, is incorrect. In May, 1785, Congress passed an Act for disposing of the land in the Northwest Territory, and under the leadership of Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Dane, and others it was provided, "There shall be reserved the Lot No. 16 in every Township for the maintenance of schools in said Township." Illinois received under this distribution 985,066 acres, together with 480,000 acres for which script was issued for 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 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 Legislature 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 free schools. It would be thought crude, in the light of 75 years, which have elapsed since its passage. Its rather high sounding preamble provokes a smile, but it is an approving smile, and the declaration therein "That the mind of every citizen in a republic of ours, is the common property of society" has our hearty approval. It distinctly foreshadows the principle of compulsory education which Illinois did not attempt to enforce until more than 50 years later. The tax to pay teachers "in produce", not unusual at that day, with a provision for assigning the tax list and warrant 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 tended, would seem a queer and unusual proceeding at the present date and would hardly satisfy teachers now.

The provision of the Law of 1827, that no one should be assessed unless he had signified in writing 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 taxed, might possibly not give entire satisfaction to some of our citizens at this date.

The Bill for the Act of 1825 referred to, was introduced in the Senate by the committee on seminary lands and education, December 1, 1824, by Joseph Duncan, chairman, then Senator from Randolph County, who was undoubtedly the author of the law. The law was an excellent one for the times and schools would have prospered under it, but the notion of a tax to support schools was hateful to a politician of that date and the Legislature soon 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 is a citizen of Southern Illinois and well acquainted with the early society of this State, in an address before the Historical Society of Chicago in 1880, said, "During the early history of Illinois schools were almost unknown. In the most favored districts they were kept 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 scholars should be subscribed, at the rate of $2.50 or $3.00 per quarter. In these written articles the teacher bound himself to teach spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic as far as the double rule of three. The mode of conducting schools at that day was peculiar, all the pupils studied their lessons by reading or spelling aloud 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, except 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 almost every instance built of logs; the books in use were usually Webster's Spelling Book, Murray's English 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 gone from his neighborhood, to attend some college in the East remarked, "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 55,165. Peoria now contains more inhabitants than the entire State did then. It is probable that one of our school houses in Peoria, now contains more room and certainly infinitely better school accomodations than all the school houses in the State did then, while the method of teaching and the qualifications of teachers is now incomparably superior.

As has already been stated, much of the largest part of the history of 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 were no schools or school districts or school money. Educational affairs, like everything else, was in chaos without form and void. The County was wilderness 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.

"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 the 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 chimney and fireplace at the other end. The seats were made from puncheons 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 2 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 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 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 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 pioneer. A cabin with but one room in which the whole family cooked, ate and slept was the rule. Perhaps 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 downstairs, which was the family living room, as well as the kitchen and dining room.

A letter from one of these old teachers 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 26 scholars, most of them very regular in attendance. I have 2 girls and 2 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 people and seem desirous to do anything they can to make me comfortable and at home.

Judging from the names in these several classes, who were all citizens of Peoria, the school house must have been built somewhere in Peoria, if built at all. It was, however, 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.

In 1876 President Gregory of the Illinois Industrial University of Champaign, issued a circular to teachers and friends of education throughout the state, soliciting historical sketches of the schools in several counties. In response to this circular, Johnson says the following sketch was prepared which is the only account of the very early schools remaining.

The response says: "The first school taught at Peoria, 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 subscription, so much for 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 94 years old. He lives with his grand-daughter, Mrs. Baker, who with her husband lives on the bank of the river near the foot of Fulton St. 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 instead of glass was inserted to admit 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 later. Eads says that four of his father's family, his brother Thomas and his two sisters, two of his cousins, the children of ABNER EADS and some others were among the pupils.

JAMES EADS, the old gentleman referred to was a son of WILLIAM EADS who came here in 1820, the year after JOSIAH FULTON and ABNER EADS and party landed here. He came with his father in the fall of the year when he was about 14 years old, and "pretty soon" as he says, he thinks the next year after, he went to school for Peter Grant. Grant was a tall slim man about 30 years of age and he was not married at that time. He was a pretty strict disciplinarian and whipped pretty liberally 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 Fulton County does not show his name.

Mr. Eads mentions in this connection, a thing not generally known and though it does not relate 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 then says they bought two pirogues or canoes, 30 or 40 feet long, lashed them together and laid rails 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 10 years before any school in Chicago, 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 Peoria by the Americans, and somewhere there may have been a school, but none is known to have existed. James Eads is without doubt the oldest living person attending any school in Illinois. He speaks the Pottawatomie language and has acted as interpreter. His recollection is clear and his mental faculties bright. He has lost the use of his lower limbs.