Chester High School - Summit Yearbook (Chester, IL)

Page 16 text:

Classes On the opposite page is pictured the first recorded graduating class of C. H. S. The entire class, numbering only eight, is as follows: Back row— Eloise Harmer, Dane Williams. Eunice Anderson (LeMay); middle row—Sara Tate, Martha Nesbitt, Eliza Mann (Cosby); front row—Mary Alice Cris-sey, Susannah Tate. Although 1,022 graduates, comprising 53 graduating classes, have followed closely in the illustrious footsteps of their predecessors, the first graduating class still stands out among them. This class was the first class in C. H. S. to attain the coveted goal, and, as a result of this, it has inspired the classes of the past and present to the end that they too would some day stand upon the pedestal of victory, ready to face the world with the knowledge they had attained.

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STUDENT BODY OF 1911 Historu of the Schools of (Chester, Illinois From the History of George L. Guy, Supt. 1882-1885 and 1890-1893 About the year 172! a Fleming taught the Tamaroa and Kaskaskia Indians to sow wheat in this region; whereby the condition of these tribes was very much improved.'' This is the earliest record of any teaching near the place where Chester now stands, and it may be regarded as a good beginning for an industrial university. Father Charlevoit and the fesuit missionaries are associated with the earlier instruction of the children in the newly forming civilization; but the French language was their medium, and their impress was lost on the incoming English and American settlers. On the present site of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary the city of Portland was started. A building used for school purposes stood at this place as early a date as 1830. Early schoolhouses stood beyond the present location of the cemetery; below the hill near what is now Joseph Beare's residence; near the Presbyterian Church, which is now the site of the Lincoln School. As stated in the Combined History of Randolph, Monroe, and Perry Counties the Board of Trustees in 1839 arranged to erect a building twenty-eight feet front by forty feet deep, to be used as a schoolhouse, meeting house, and town house. Mather, Lamb Co. gave lot five of block nine of 14