SCHOOLS.

It was many years from the first settlement before any educational progress had been made. Settlers were few, everything was in a rough state, all improvements had to be supplied by slow and hard toil ; ground broken up, timber felled, cabins built, fences made ; so that rigid muscle was the first demand, while little use was found for books, and pictures, and teachers.

But the schoolmaster came at last, and his dominion has grown more powerful than church and more extensive than state. The beginnings were of the feeblest character. One term in a year was thought to be a good achievement, and indeed it was for the frontier ; but who would think of calling this the frontier as late as 1847 or 1848? Fifteen years had elapsed since the Black Hawk war. Children had passed the school age in that time. Does it not seem to our young friends that it must have been a gloomy era ? We dare say that it was. not less joyous than the present. Wants were fewer then than now, and the greater number of today are not more easily satisfied.

Then they were supplied without vexation, because they were mostly natural ; but now they are gratified with sensible, if not painful, effort, for the reason that they are largely artificial. Intellectual attainments cost something ; physical power is the gift of nature. In the former time hewers of wood and drawers of water were of the first station, economically, for they accomplished that which was the chief necessity— material development. Education was less valued when bone and sinew held sway, but mind has taken the throne of power, and skilled labor and intelligent machinery, to use a figure, have driven blind force into the rayless gloom beneath the feet of the majority. Acquirements which mean cost to the possessor, the world demands of him with all ease. Hence the multiplication of wants and the sharper struggle.

At first there was little public money, and schools were maintained by subscription. In this township the school section, number 16, was surveyed and classified with the swamp lands. It was but a fractional tract, and the trustees made a selection on section 9, but did not get the quota to which the township was entitled. It was all timber land and was sold in small lots varying in price from $2.50 to $10 per acre.

" Delightful task ! to rear the tender thought, To teach the young idea how to shoot."

The first school in Keithsburg was taught in a log cabin on the lot now occupied by C. S. Orth's house. This was . in the summer of 1846, and Thomas Libby was the teacher. Isaac Bliss taught next in 1847 in a vacant cabin in Robert Keith's doorvard. The third pedagogue was John Heaton, who had a school in 1848 in a small frame house on the site of Dennis Murto's residence. He taught also in 1849. Mrs. Lucretia Freeman opened a small school in the summer of that year in the brick building belonging to Mrs. Isaac McManus.

The first school-house was a brick structure built in 1849 on lot 3, block 13, the site of the present Methodist parsonage. John C. Pepper, who had just arrived, and was preparing for the bar, was employed to teach. He filled three terms and yielded the post to Isaac N. Smith, who was at the head of the school through the following winter, and was assisted by Mrs. Freeman. Harvey Senter was the principal from the fall of 1851 to 1855. He was an instructor of excellent capabilities, ingenious in resource, practical in method, untiring in effort, sharp in discipline, and a splendid arithmetician. He died in Aledo a few years ago. N. P. Brown took his place and taught the last term in the old school-house. This build in . had been erected by private subscription on a lot donated to the public by Robert Keith so long as it should be used for school purposes. The donor deferred the conveyance till suit was brought to compel such performance, but on his promise to execute a deed the action was withdrawn; still he failed to carry out the agree­ment, and afterward sold the property to the Methodists.

The main part of the present building was erected, as near as we can learn, in 1856, and was dedicated by Warren Shedd, who was. principal about two years. He served in the war of the rebellion as colonel of the 30th reg. Ill. Vol. frlf. His death in Montana occurred in 1881. No records of this distant period can be found, and the recollections of men fail at this point.

T. C. Swafford, of New Boston, a printer by trade, was principal in the year 1862-3. He died in the profession at Oneida, Knox county, in 1878. Isaac McManus taught about 1867. The principalship has been held by the following persons : William A. Wray, 1869-70; John P. Chowning, 1870-71; C. W. Searles, 1871-2; W. H. Farris, 1872-3 ; E H. Jamison, 1873-6 ; William A. Griffin, 1876-80 ; B. V. Leonard, 1880-81; William A Willits, 1881-2. I. Cook Brisbin and. Philip Weaver were teachers of good reputation in the lower depart­ments in the long ago, prior to the war. Rebecca Weaver and Josie L. Calhoun taught several years in succession at a later period. Of the present teachers Miss J. Hannah Willits presides over the grammar department, and has been connected with the school as teacher nearly twenty years. Miss Julia Willett is employed in the first intermediate, Miss Mary Thomson in the second, Miss Alice Sheriff in the third, and R. W. Kile in the primary. Mr. Rile commenced in the school in 1S65, and since 1870 has been continuously employed. He first began teaching in Ohio in 1846. In the spring of 1850 he emigrated to this town, and has taught until the present time without intermission, excepting three years when he was fighting the battles of his country.

The school-house is a strong, two-story brick edifice, with low ceilings, but apartments that are models of neatness and taste. They are all seated with patent furniture and heated with Snead's school room heater and ventilator, and supplied with necessary charts and . apparatus of approved kinds. The main part is 30x 56 feet on the foundation, and the wing in the rear, built in 1875, is 26X36. feet in dimension. The location is on block 7, second addition. This is the best school building in Mercer county. Under its efficient management for several years past the school has taken a rank inferior to no other of similar grade anywhere.

SELECT SCHOOLS

In Keithsburg select schools have flourished with no common success, and their number has not been small. As far back as the autumn of 1855 a Miss Mulky opened a female seminary in Apollo Hall. She retired from the work at the close of the spring term of 1857. The Misses Todd immediately organized the Keithsburg Seminary, but it is not known how long it was continued. The sessions were held in the Methodist church. The Rev. C. M. Wright started the Mercer Female College in 1863, in the Orth house, subsequently occupying the Masonic 'building. Late in 1864 the reverend educator -was commissioned chaplain of the 102d Ill. reg., on the request of the rank and file, and at once departed for his new field of labor.

He was very ably assisted by the Misses Mary W. Evans and Emily J. Whitlock, from Pennsylvania , and probably by Miss Louisa B. Gass. The first two ladies remained in charge of the school after Wright's with­drawal, and the institution was kept up about three years. J. S. McMillan, another tutor of rare qualification, gave instruction there immediately after, and Miss Gass kept select schools in the same place. Mrs. Lou Kessel also taught several schools of the same class. Five or six years ago W. P. Allen had a business school in Apollo Hall. These do not comprise all, but are the principal ones. The veteran pedagogue, Rezin W. Pile, has organized and taught numerous "pay schools." These private schools have usually been well patronized.

Until recently this township was divided into but two districts. It now contains three, and will likely remain without important change for a long time. District No. 2 extends from east to west across the north part of the township and is two miles wide north and south. No. 3 embraces sections 14, 24, part of 23, including Upper Keithsburg, and all of 13, except the E. N. E. which, with sections 26 and 36, is attached to Abington for school purposes. The rest of the township constitutes No. 1, having Keithsburg in the center. District No. 3 was formed from No. 1, after a long and determined contest. The first effort for a division was made about eight years ago.

A vote had been taken on the question of authorizing a bonded debt to enlarge the school-house in Keithsburg, and was adversely decided. As soon as the movement for a division was begun the opportunity was seized by those favoring the extension (which was seriously needed) to obtain the necessary authority by election. As the law then stood a district with a bonded debt could not be dismembered. Before the inhabitants in the proposed district began the agitation, the want of more room in the school building was not apparent to the majority. As soon as a separation was seriously attempted it was instantly recognized with sweeping unanimity. The debt was made and the addition built. The matter slumbered some two years, then the petitioners revived it, on the technical failure of the board of trustees to follow the exact requirements of the law concerning the registration of the bonds.

The trustees denied their prayer, and the subject was allowed to rest. In the mean­ time the law was changed so as to permit a division of bonded districts and an apportionment of their liabilities. In 1880 the struggle was renewed. Some additions to the number of pupils had been made in the dissatisfied territory, and the bounds were now extended by the petitioners, enlarging the proposed district. They went to work this time with every advantage in their favor. The trustees again rejected their claims. The case went to the county superintendent on appeal

The application was successful. But before proceedings could be taken upon the order of the superintendent, an injunction was served upon the trustees and treasurer, restraining them from any action in the premises until the question should come before the circuit court of Mercer county for review. Here the decision of the superintendent was sustained.. An appeal was next carried to the appellate court, sitting in Ottawa, and on February 28, 1881, the judgment of the lower court was affirmed. This victory was followed by the election of directors for the new district on. March 19. These were H. S. Scott, David Pardee and 0. A. Wilson. The enumeration of scholars at this time was fifty- seven. A school-house was straightway built at an expense of $700.

 

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