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Very few other early schools remain to be mentioned.
A young man named Reuben Andrus, who in after years became prominent as a
Methodist minister, was a highly esteemed teacher in the town, but where or for
how long he taught has not been ascertained. Miss Sallie McCall taught in a room
where the Nugent building now is, and Miss Norris and Miss Bradford taught in
the Jacob’s house, south of Wyman’s drug store, the former in 1843 and the
latter in 1844.
And just here a hastily written note from H. L. Wright, a well known resident of
Canton, may be inserted. He refers only to schools between 1838 and 1848, but
without giving special dates for any of them. Many of these have been already
mentioned, and then he further says:
R. W. McKinney taught in a private room a year or so, and I attended his school.
He was a great lover of tobacco and sometimes sent me to buy it for him. He used
to sleep a great deal in school hours (from disease, perhaps), and I have seen
Andy Hulit, Bill Stipp and Sam McPheeters play ball over his head many a time.
S. A. Lowe was quite a popular teacher for some years, and he constructed the
first paper balloon I remember ever to have seen. He taught in a room on the
west side of Van Buren Court. Marion Scudder taught in a building on the north
side of the square. Another teacher I remember was a Miss Knapp, who taught in
the Methodist church on West Locust street, and who used to put one of the
scholars in the pulpit to report the misdeeds of the others. One afternoon when
I was sentinel I caught a girl whispering, and wrote on my slate, “Mandy Clark.”
I remember, too, my surprise when the teacher told me that I had not spelled the
name correctly.
Another incident occurring while Mr. Perry taught in the College I well
remember. His assistant, Mr. Kendall, had a way of punishing offending pupils by
shaking them. He would take hold of a boy by both shoulders and almost shake the
breath out of him. Charlie French committed some offense one day, and Mr.
Kendall shook him so terribly that Margaret Freeman, a girl twelve years old,
got up in school and protested against such brutal treatment in a school of
civilized people. I can not remember what Mr. Kendall said to her, only I know
that Margaret Freeman was supported in the stand she took by both scholars and
the community. A gentleman told me yesterday that Mr. Kendall hurt him very much
by the same treatment and that he did not get over the effects of the shaking
for a long time.
George S. Hill’s school was taught some years later. During attendance at this
school we were invited one afternoon to witness some special exercises at Miss
Helen Judd’s “Select School for Young Ladies.” Miss Maria Johnson was the star
on this occasion, and while Mr. Hill’s scholars went to see the school, he went
to see the star, and afterward married her.
The school mentioned by Mr. Wright in the above note as taught by Miss Judd, now
Mrs. W. C. Goudy of Chicago, was opened in 1847 in a room of Deacon N. Jones’
house, corner of West Pine and Martin Court. It was an excellent school and
continued about two years, after which Miss Judd went to Lewistown to teach.
Nearly all the schools hitherto mentioned were in operation for comparatively
short periods, but between 1846 and 1860, after the destruction of the college,
with no prospect of its ever being rebuilt and used, and with the greatly
increasing population and wealth of the town and surrounding country, a number
of schools of more permanent character were opened to supply the needs of both;
while nearly all those which had served for temporary and local uses, though
credited with doing good work while they lasted, were discontinued.
The first of these more permanent schools was:
Walnut Grove Academy.
The writer of this sketch, after teaching three or four years in various rooms,
up stairs and down about the town, bought a lot on West Elm street and built a
school house in 1846 and 1847. The
building contained only large room fitted with desks, blackboards, etc., two
recitation rooms and a small hall. From the thrifty growth of walnut trees on
the lot, and in the midst of which the building was reared, the school received
its name, “Walnut Grove Academy.” It was a school for girls and was well
patronized, both by town residents and students from the country. It admitted,
as did all early schools, pupils of all grades and ages, and frequently had an
enrollment of from 80 to 100 names. The assistants were Miss Emily P. Hatch, now
Mrs. J. E. Roy of Chicago, Miss Mary D. Crane of Brooklyn, N. Y., Misses Harriet
N. and Eunice A. Marsh, Miss Ermina Finch of Galesburg, Miss Eliza M. Dewey, now
Mrs. Pierce of Minnesota, and others for short periods as they were needed. This
school continued with an intermission of five years till the fall of 1865 when
it closed, and the building used for eighteen years for school purposes was
transformed into a dwelling. In the summer o 1890 it was moved to the south end
of the lot to make room for the present residence of W. H. Corwin.
And here one of the other letters promised to be forthcoming in their proper
connection may be admitted. It is from Mrs. Mary K. Dilworth (nee Kirkpatrick),
now of Vermont, Ill., who when asked for some reminiscences of her school days
in Canton, wrote among other particulars already told, as follows: “Mrs.
Moseley’s school was much too early for my time, but from what my older sisters
have told me, I am sure that the germs of the much lauded kindergarten were
planted by her.”
Then, with perhaps the too partial enthusiasm of a loving pupil, she adds: “But
do not, whatever you do, forget Walnut Grove Academy, a first-class school in
every respect for those early days and their necessities, (was there ever one
just like it in the country?) with its nice, shady yard, pleasant recitation
rooms and well warmed combined chapel and school room.
“I have followed with the deepest interest the more modern educational methods
in this State and elsewhere, and I do not find a thoroughness of ‘knowing
things’ corresponding with the improved appliances in school buildings. We were
told to learn things ourselves and did so with more or less success, according
to ability. I can not see that the modern lecture system and some other modes of
teaching, though advantageous in some respects, turn out better scholars in the
main than did those old-fashioned schools. Can you?” The Page School.
Some time in 1851 Rev. David Page came to Canton and opened a school in the
third story of the Bell building on the north side of the square, his wife being
his assistant. Soon after, they purchased property just east of the Canton
House, on East Elm street, on which two buildings were erected, one for a
residence and the other of two rooms for a school house.
Both boys and girls were admitted and the school was generally full, doing a
good work. Indeed, a resident of Canton testifies from personal knowledge that
this was one of the best private schools the town ever had, and it certainly was
faithfully and conscientiously conducted in the interests of its pupils and
patrons. Mr. Page died about 1857, but Mrs. Page continued to teach till her
death in 1860.
Then for some months Rev. Mr. Trimper, a Lutheran minister, taught in the rooms,
after which both buildings were sold and occupied as residences.
Vinton Seminary.
Vinton Seminary, opened about the same time as the Page school, was housed in
the old Baptist church on North Third avenue. Its teachers, so far as can be
ascertained, were successively Miss Louisa Shriner, afterward Mrs. William
Johnson, the Misses Mary A. and
Emily P. Newcomb, and last Rev. E. W. West and wife, who carried it on a little
more than a year. The building was then needed for a grade of the Public School,
and the career of Vinton Seminary closed, having done a good part in the
education of Canton’s young people, both boys and girls sharing in its
advantages. Mrs. West taught in the Public School for two years, when her death
occurred in 1859.
Then during the period between 1855 and 1865 there were some other private
schools, bearing no conspicuous names and of short duration, but which exerted
considerable influence on the community. A Miss Willard taught a school for
young ladies in a room of the old original Canton House, and Miss Eliza M. Dewey
taught one of the same kind in a room on the D. H. Dewey property, near where
the Marvel livery is located.
Schools for both sexes were taught at various times in the old North Brick on
Avenue A by Miss M. J. Dunlap, afterward Mrs. Ramsey, and then Mrs. Bogue, Miss
Cummings, Mrs. S. E. Burnap and Miss Martha R. Shinn, now Mrs. Blair, of Peoria.
There may have been others equally deserving of mention, but their names and
places of teaching have not come to the knowledge of the writer.
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