1882 History
Chapter 10 – City of Hillsboro
HILLSBORO — EDUCATIONAL INTERESTS — EARLY SCHOOLS AND THE OLD LOG SCHOOLHOUSE — HILLSBORO ACADEMY — ITS COLLEGE CAREER — THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS — NEWSPAPERS — THE FIRST PAPERS OF THE TOWN — UPS AND DOWNS OF THE BUSINESS — THE "NEWS" AND THE "JOURNAL" OF TO-DAY, ETC.
"A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."
By W. H. Perrin
AMID the various conflicting opinions on moral, political and religious
subjects, there is need of charity and forbearance, concession and
compromise. Citizenship is of no avail unless we imbibe the liberal spirit
of our laws and institutions. Through the medium of the common schools are
the rising generation of all nationalities assimilated readily and
thoroughly forming the great American people. The common schools are alike
open to the rich and the poor, the citizen and the stranger. It is the duty
of those to whom the administration of the schools is confided, to discharge
it with magnanimous liberality and Christian kindness. Diligent care should
be taken by instructors, to impress upon the minds of children and youth
committed to their care, the principles of morality and justice, and a
sacred regard to truth, love of their country, humanity and universal
benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation and
temperance, and all other virtues which are the ornaments to society.
The people of Hillsboro displayed an early interest in educating their children, and among the pioneer institutions of the town, may be noted the old log schoolhouse, already frequently mentioned in these pages. Says Mr. Rountree in his early reminiscences of Hillsboro: "It is a remarkable fact that Hillsboro, like Jacksonville, was a kind of Athens of Illinois. The early citizens, coming as they did from the older States, where education was the rule, the great mass of them were intelligent, well-educated men and women. One of the earliest school teachers in Hillsboro was Nancy Crumba, who was a sister of the first wife of David B. Jackson. She taught frequently in Hillsboro, and was a refined, cultivated lady — so much so, that girls and young women were sent from abroad — Vandalia, Carlyle and Edwardsville, to her, that she might put on the finishing to the education that they had received at home."
Another of the early teachers of Hillsboro was Rosetta Townsend, who was raised on the place known as Rose Hill. She afterward married Andrew M. Braley, an old sailor and surveyor, and died early, leaving one child, Ann Eliza, who also taught in Hillsboro years after John C. Terret was another early teacher, and the first who taught the classics in a school in the town. Many other good and efficient teachers taught in Hillsboro up to the time of building the academy.
The first schoolhouse ever built in Hillsboro was in the winter of 1825. It was of round logs twenty-five feet square, chinked and daubed with mud; the fire-place occupied nearly one whole side of the house, its jambs of mud, and chimney of sticks covered with the same material. A log was sawed out on two sides of the room, and the long space filled with sash and glass, while on the fourth side was the door, with shutter made of clapboards. The floor was of puncheons, the benches of split logs, with legs in the round side, and the upper side somewhat smoothed with axes. There was no loft or ceiling; a few shelves on pegs, etc. The roof was of clapboards held to their places with weight-poles. Two writing desks made of puncheons, perhaps a chair, a water "piggin," no andirons except rocks, no tongs, a clapboard shovel, wooden fire-poker, a mud hearth, and a few "peep-holes" through the chinks or cracks. This was the first temple of learning with which the youth of Hillsboro became acquainted, and in the unpretending structure, the foundation of the education of some of Illinois' great men were laid. This early schoolhouse stood on the crest of the hill above the natural spring at Rountree's pasture, in the eastern part of what is now the main city. Of the teachers who instructed in this old house, it may be said, that they were men and women of culture, some of whom arose to eminence. Of these we may mention Maj. Campbell, of Carlisle; Maj. John H. Rountree, a prominent politician and legislator; Hon. James M. Bradford, who held various offices, and John Hays, Mr. Springer, W. L. Jenkins, Frank Dickson and many others. There are many of the citizens of the town and county received their education wholly or in part, viz.: the Cresses, Rutledges, Blackbergers, Seymours, Boones, Grubbs, Rountrees, etc., etc., also Revs. R. J. Nall and W. S. Prentice, prominent Methodist preachers; James and Sidney Harkey and Jacob Scherer, of the Lutheran Church, and Gen. Tillson, of Quincy, whoso part in the late civil war highly distinguished him. Indeed many persons of distinction taught, or were taught in that old building, Hillsboro's first schoolhouse.
No doubt the memories connected with it, says Mr. Rountree, are warm in their hearts, but the old house is gone. Other buildings have been erected to take its place. Our fine brick free schoolhouse is an ornament and well worthy of our pride. The old academy still flourishes. But it is a question if they are more useful in their day than the log houses for similar purposes were in the pioneer days. Of the new brick schoolhouse, it is a comfortable and commodious structure, standing on a beautiful lot north of the court house. It is built after the usual style of architecture of the modern schoolhouses, and is finished and furnished in the latest improved manner.
The Academy. — About the year 1836, the people united together and built the Hillsboro Academy. At the time of its erection it was one of the most magnificent temples of learning in the State. John Tillson was the moving spirit in its construction and endowment, and to him, more than to any other single individual is the community indebted for the high reputation of the institution. Young men and boys came from all the surrounding country to receive academic and collegiate training at Hillsboro Academy, and afterward College. Here the energy of Mr. Tillson shone out. He brought the first Superintendent, Prof. Isaac Wetherill, from the East, and his wife for associate in the female department, with Prof. Edward Wyman associate in the male department, and Miss E. F. Hadley, teacher of instrumental music. The first session commenced the first Wednesday in November, 1837, and was liberally patronized for years. It gave Hillsboro so great a reputation for education and morality that no other public school building was erected until the present brick edifice alluded to above.
The Academy was changed to a college and carried on several years as such by the Lutherans, but was abandoned by them in 1852, when they removed their institution to Springfield. The building then became the property of the common schools, and has since been used by the city as the high school department. It has lost nothing in this capacity from the high standard of excellence it occupied, and is still an educational institution of more than ordinary merit. It stands in the most pleasant part of the city, near the center of a gently rolling piece of ground, whose rich, grassy carpet is shaded with a profusion of fine old forest trees of a century's growth. In a word, no city of its size and population possesses better facilities than Hillsboro for a good common-school education.
The Press. — The newspapers of Hillsboro next claim our attention, and in connection with the educational history their mention is peculiarly appropriate, as the press has always been deemed a zealous friend and advocate of learning. From the "Rountree Letters," so freely quoted from in these pages, we gather the early history of the press of Hillsboro, and no man, perhaps, was more capable than Mr. Rountree of doing the subject justice.
The Prairie Beacon was the first paper published in Hillsboro, and was established about the year 1838, by a stock company. It was published in the upper story of Hayward & Holmes' old storehouse, and Aaron Clapp, Esq., was its editor. He is described as a tall, straight, red-haired man, badly cross-eyed, but a fine scholar, fresh from an Eastern college, and a friend and college-mate of Prof. Isaac Wetherill, then Principal of the Hillsboro Academy. The Prairie Beacon proved a poor and unprofitable investment, and after struggling on for about a year and a half it ceased publication. The press, type and fixtures were sold to some parties in Platteville, Wis., where it was used in the publication of a paper called The Northern Badger. So disastrous was the failure of the Prairie Beacon that some years elapsed before another attempt was made to establish a paper at Hillsboro. In 1850, Frank and Cyrus Gilmore established the Prairie Mirror, with Rev. Francis Springer as editor. The boys, for they were but boys at the time, did all the office work themselves. In national politics the Mirror was Whig, but upon home affairs it advocated "State policy," which by its success staved off the building of a number of other railroads until the building of Hillsboro's road. The Gilmore boys sold out to William K. Jackson in 1851, who became its proprietor, with C. P. Pickerson as editor. In the reconstruction of political parties the Mirror became the exponent of the Know-Nothing party. Pickerson bought out Mr. Jackson in 1854, and carried it on himself until 1856, when he changed it to the Montgomery County Herald; afterward sold it to James Blackmam, Jr., and removed from Hillsboro.
The Herald was continued by Mr. Blackmail as a Know-Nothing paper until 1858, when he sold out to J. W. Kitchell and F. H. Gilmore, who ran it as an independent paper until the opening of the campaign of 1860. They then sold it to Davis, Turner & Co., who published it through the campaign as a Democratic paper, and late in the season sold it to F. H. Gilmore, who continued it as a Democratic paper. In 1862, he sold it to E. J. Ellis, a refugee from Missouri. Mr. Ellis was an old editor, and after the war returned to Missouri, where, at the last account of him, he was publishing a paper called the Montgomery Standard. He sold the Herald to Ed. L. Reynolds and Wilbur F. Stoddard. They continued it as a Democratic paper until 1867, when they sold it to William McEwen and John Auginbaugh, who, the next year (1868), sold it to E. J. C. Alexander. Mr. Alexander continued the paper as Democratic, but changed its name to the Hillsboro Democrat. "He so run the paper," says Mr. Rountree, "as to make a fortune and elect himself to the State Legislature, where he is now (1873-74) serving his constituents. While it claims to be a Democratic paper, it is only negatively so; and it is in full accord with the 'Farmer movement,' as against both political parties, hanging with the Democrats in their fight with the Republicans." With the issue of April 29, 1874, Mr. Alexander changed the name of the Democrat to that of The Anti-Monopolist, and became the zealous exponent of the farmer or grange movement. Still he was not happy, and another change came over his paper. This time he called it the Hillsboro Blade, and changed its politics to Republican. He then sold it to James L. Slack, who again changed its name, calling it the Hillsboro Journal. Slack sold it to Charles R. Truitt in 1881, the present editor and publisher. It is a handsome eight-page paper, neatly and tastefully printed, ably edited, and is the Republican organ of Montgomery County.
About the year 1859 or 1860, the Illinois Free Press was established in Hillsboro, as the advocate of the views of the Republican party. It was published by a stock company composed of the leading Republicans of Hillsboro and Butler, and Mr. D. W. Mann was its editor. Later it was in charge of J. B. Hutchinson and James Munn. Hutchinson afterward moved to Iowa, and Munn was slightly wounded at Donelson, Tenn., when he retired from the army, and finally returned East, whence he had come, and where he was lost sight of. The Free Press was never a financial success, and suspended publication, but was resurrected again in 1863 by John W. Kitchell, and the name changed to the Union Monitor. D. W. Munn had become sole proprietor previous to the sale to Mr. Kitchell. It was next bought by Mr. Thomas J. Russell, Mr. Kitchell remaining as editor, until he was drafted into the army in the spring of 1865, when Mr. J. E. Henry, a native of Bond County, a good writer and an able man, became editor. He afterward removed to St. Joseph, Mo. Mr. Alexander, afterward editor and proprietor of the Democrat, became, in May, 1867, proprietor of the Monitor, as the Republican organ, but becoming a little "tender-footed," as be expressed, it on the negro question, he sold out to B. S. Hood, of Litchfield, a man of fine abilities, but not being acquainted with the modus operandi of running a newspaper, did not make a fortune out of his investment. It was removed to Litchfield, and for a time was run by a stock company, Messrs. Bangs & Gray finally became the purchasers, who, after a little while, divided the office, and from this division sprung the News Letter of Hillsboro, conducted by C. L. and E. T. Bangs. The remainder was sold to Taylor & Kimball, of Belleville, who conducted the Monitor a few months by agents, and then transferred it to Coolidge & Litchfield, and it became what is now the Litchfield Monitor.
The News Letter was sold to Slack & Tobin, and the name changed to the Hillsboro Journal. Mr. Tobin sold out to Slack, who sold to Johnson & Tobin in 1875. Up to this time it had been Republican in politics, but Johnson & Tobin changed its name to Montgomery News, and its politics to Democrat. In 1876, Johnson sold his interest to George W. Paisley, and February 6, 1882, Paisley & Tobin sold the paper to Benjamin E. Johnson, who is the present owner and editor. The News is the official organ of the Democracy of Montgomery County, and is a large eight-page paper, well edited by Col. Johnson, a man of considerable newspaper ability, experience and enterprise.
The press of Hillsboro at the present time is second to that of no town of its importance in Southern Illinois, and the people should be justly proud of it, and extend to it the support and patronage it so richly merits. No town can prosper without live, enterprising newspapers, and such papers cannot exist without liberal patronage.
Extracted 24 Mar 2017 by Norma Hass from History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, published in 1882, pages 242-248.
