Western Illinois University - Sequel Yearbook (Macomb, IL)

Page 15 text:

HE bill for the creation of such a school was written by Mr. Thompson, who was at the time a bill carpenter for Judge Sherman. A host of others, including C. V. Chandler, W. A. Compton, I. M. Feilheimer, H. C. Agnew, John Keefer, and editors, Van H. Hampton, W. H. Hainline, and T. J. Dudman, gave freely of their time and effort in order that the school might be brought to Macomb. As the original bill p-rovided, every avail- able location in the territory was to be ex- amined before the place for the school was determined. Sites were offered by Mon- mouth, Oquawka, Aledo, La Harpe, Ma- comb, Rushville, and Quincy, while each city was ready to comply with stipulations set by the Board. The prospective sites were visited by the Board of Trustees during the month of August, 1899. The value of hav- ing the institution located in their respective towns caused much competition among the civic minded citizens of the contesting com- munities. On August 31, after having visited each locality, the Trustees met at Galesburg and there heard the pleas of the competing towns. Of the act creating the schools, the portion which authorized the Trustees To receive from localities desiring to secure the location of said school proposals for dona- tions of a suitable site and other valuable considerationsv was interpreted to include monetary contributions. Accordingly, the towns offered, besides the sites, varying sums of money as follows: Rushville, S120,000g Aledo, S70,000g Macomb, 3570,- jThirty years have transformed the ravine from a small brook winding its way through very ordinary countryside into a place of shaded beauty. The photograph was taken south of the campus, probably as far south as Calhoun Street. ' 000, Monmouth, S54,000g Quincy, 530,- 900g and La Harpe, S10,000. A In an attempt to decide the issue, the Board was in session thirty-seven days, held sixty-one separate sessions, and cast five hundred ninety-seven ballots. At just the moment when it appeared that the Board was about to make a decision deciding in favor of Aledo, Monmouth, or Rushville, the Governor requested their resignation and created a new board. The rules governing the new Board abolished the pecuniary con- siderations. Less than one year later, August 14, 1900, the Board assembled at Spring- Held, and cast one ballot unanimously se- lecting Macomb as the future site of Wes- tern Illinois State Normal School. The building season being too far ad- vanced and the appropriated sum ridicu- lously inadequate, it was decided to con- struct only the foundation of the building at that time. Plans and specifications sub- mitted by tlte State Architect were accepted by the Board and the contract was awarded for 512,000 to the Tri-City Construction Company of Davenport, Iowa. jThis unusual photograph was taken in 1875 from the top of a windmill, located over the well now known to Western students as the Old Well. The large building seen in the distance is the present Court House, just completed when the picture was taken.

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S The Western of today is a splendid monument to the efforts of a few patriotic Macomb citizens who a generation ago conceived, fostered, and developed the idea for a state school in Macomb. The air View shows not only the buildings but the campus and the sparsely wooded slopes of the prairie north of the school.

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HE next spring on April -5, 1901, a contract was let to the same company for a consideration of Sl68,980, which cleared the way for continued work ony the main building. 1 It is difficult for persons today to realize how remote from the Macomb business cen- ter the site of the new school appeare to be at that time. Conversation with lder citizens reveals that there was some feeling in many cases that the state had beeniun- wise in selecting an old brickyard arid a series of brakes and hollows west of Ma- comb as a site for the school. In order that the school might be accessible to the town, the city under bond entered into contlract for building pavement on Carroll west to Sherman Avenue, on Sherman Avenue nbrth from Carroll to Adams, and east on Adams to Lafayette Street. The city was to fur- nish sewer connections for the new school, to clear and seed the ground that was to be the campus, and to construct power lines to the site of the new school. y SAlfred Bayliss, who had been Superintend- ent of Public Instruc- tion, came to Western as President in 1l906. Through his efforts: sev- eral departments .were added and a number of important changes fwere made. He served lxntil his tragic death in 11911. The Monroe Hall! was the last contribution which Mr. Baylissrnade to the school. Despite the lateness of the building season the foundation of the building was com- pleted early in December and the date for the dedication and laying of the corner stone was set for the first day of winter, Decem- ber 21, 1901. A solid canopy of clouds and a moderate but biting' northwest vsiind greeted the large. crowd that had paraded from the business section to the location of the new school to hear, former Governor John B. Tanner give the dedicatory address after the corner stone had been laid accord- ing to Masonic rites. -5 Speaker Sherman and his colleagues were desirous of securing Alfred Bayliss for lthe first president of the new Western Illinois Normal School, hence the comment that the school was built for Mr. Bayliss is heard l N l Qjohn W. Henninger was appointed the first president of Western Illinois in 1901. Much of the early success of the school may be at- tributed to Mr. Hen- ningcr's organizing abil- ity. He served as presi- dent during the first five years of the school's existence, most perilous years in the life of any college. yet today. Mr. Bayliss was superintendent of public instruction at the time and was extremely interested in taking the responsi- bility of developing the school at Macomb. A change of governors in the 1900 elections effected a drastic change in the plans for the school. John W. Henninger, then su-- perintendent of schools in Jacksonville, was called as the first president. On April 22, 1902, the first faculty meeting was held, and the plan presented by Mr. Henninger provided for three departments, primary, in- termediate, andygrammar, the plans being generally acceptable as presented. Exactly at nine o'clock on the morning of Tuesday, the twenty-third day of Sep- tember, 1902, a business-like young man stepped out of the front door of the main building and rang a brass colored bell lus- tily, and the three hundred and seventy-- three students, who had enrolled in the Nor- mal and preparatory departments, assembled for the first day of school. The young man appeared each school morning at the front door with the bell, so long, in fact, that he ceased to be young, and when the primitive means of summoning all the students to or- der was dispensed with, Ed. De Camp con- tinued to serve the school as he does even today as director of the caretakers of the many buildings on the campus. Serious difficulties were encountered be- cause of the building's being incomplete, making it necessary that the work of the Training School and also that of the Normal School be done on the first floor. All Hn- ished rooms, constituting the first floor, were in use all of the time, maximum co- operation and mutual concession were es- sential .in order that confusion might be minimized. The pressing need for the com- pletion of the building urged the General