Illinois State Normal University - Index Yearbook (Normal, IL)

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In October, 1858, the Writer became a teacher in this lnsti- tution. On the first Saturday after his arrival, he came out from Bloomington, and visited the present site of Normal. The foundations of the building had been laid, but no Work had been done for about a year. Two shanties near the building covered the lumber and other material, and made ma temporary house for the keeper. What is now theicampus, was then a cornfield, with neither tree nor shrub. It was part of an old farm, whose eastern boundary was a ditch on the West side of what is novv Fell avenue. East of that, the site of the town of Normal, was a Wild prairie, with no roads,'and not more than five or six houses Within the limits of the Whole present corporation. The clay to make bricks for the building was dug just east of Where the Baptist church now isg and the brick were burned on the present site of the public school house. In the spring of 1861, this brick-yard had been leveled off, and it constitutedthe students' parade-ground. Every afternoon when school had closed, the young men drilled diligently on this spot, to the music of H Left, Left. Those who saw this scene will never forget if, and those who have been born since that time, can never appreciate it. My space is full. Look in the book before mentioned, for the rest of the story-that is, up to 1882. It is worth your careful study. There have been more than 1o,ooo different students at this Institution, and they are a noble band. They are found from ocean to ocean, and beyond the sea, many of them are' filling places of great importance, and filling them well. The students of the present day may Well feel proud that they are perm mitted to join so goodly a company. EDWIN C. HEVVETT. -a .f -1- fb, -f F311 Ns. Jae? TXV .4-F-11. , z':.f

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The act provided that the school should be located at a place, not objectionable, where the people would make the largest gifts. There were several competitors, but the principal ones were Peoria and Bloomington. The state made no provision for buildings. They were to be erected from the funds donated. McLean county gave 870,000 in swamp lands, and citizens gave about as much more. The building was commenced in the summer of 1857, but the H hard times beginning the following autumn caused work upon it to be suspended for eighteen months. The school entered the building in the fall of I86O. The first class, consisting of six young men and four young women, had their graduating exercises in the assembly room of the new building, in june, I86Oj a banquet. followed in the hall above. Supt. Gastman, of Decatur, gave the firstcommencement speech. On the 5th of Gctober, 1857, the actual work of the school began. The principal was Chas. E. Hovey, and the assistant, Ira Moore, now principal of the State Normal School at Los Angeles, California. The school was held for three years in Major's Hall, Bloomington, on the south side of Front street, one block east of Main. The building is still standing, but the third story, in which was the assembly room, has been removed. lnconvenient rooms, much mud from the street, smoke and soot from the coal stoves, were among the characteristic features of these temporary quarters. But the school grew in numbers and in reputation, and, in September, 3860, the whole was removed to the present building. Difficulties almost insuperable attended the erection of this building. You can find the story graphically told in the H History of the Normal University, published ten years since, on the occasion of the quarter-centennial celebration. This book, every Normalite ought to read, and, if possible, he should own a copy. The civil war began in the spring of 1861. In the following summer, Mr. Hovey, the principal, all of the teachers but two, and most of the young men, went to the war. Perkins Bass, Esq., of Chicago, was made temporary principal, and the school opened in the fall with about eighty students, nearly all ladies. In june of 1862, Dr. Richard Edwards was made principal, and held the oilice till january, 1876. He was succeeded by the writer, who resigned in june, 1890, and was succeeded by Pres. Cook. In the early days of the school, its head had the title of principal, and the teachers were called instructors, but by a vote of the Board in 1866, the present titles were established.

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N In John W. Cook. me RESIDENT JOHN W. COOK was born in Oneida county, New York,April 2o, 1844. When he was but i i ' seven years of age his parents removed to McLean 1,5 Q1 iii . . county, Illinois, and settled on a farm. Here he miles northeast of Normal. In the spring of 753 the family moved from the farm to the little village is of Kappa, in the northern part of McLean county. Here the remaining years of his boyhood and youth were spent, much like those of the other boys of the village-attending school during the winter, working on a farm or clerking in a store in the summer. As a boy, he took an unusual interest in attended school in a log school-house about nine farming, and spent considerable time working for farmers at from eight to ten dollars per month. Subsequently he carried on farming for himself. In 1862, Mr. Cook entered the Illinois State Normal Uni- versity, as a student in the Normal Department. After gradu- ating in 1865, he'was employed for one year as principal of schools at Brimfield, Peoria county, Ill. He was called the next year to the principalship of the Grammar School, in the Model Department of the I. S. N. U. This position he held until 1868, when he was appointed to supply the'place of Dr. Hewett for one year, in the chair of History and Geography. On Dr. Hewett's return to his work, in the fall of '69, Prof. Cook was placed in charge of the work in Reading, which position he held until his appointment to the Professorship of Mathematics and Physics. This position he filled until his pro- motion, in 1890, to the Presidency of the noble Institution to which he had already devoted the best efforts of almost a quarter of a century. I Besides an uninterrupted'experience of twenty-seven years' teaching, President Cook has found time for considerable extra work. For nearly six years he was engaged in editing and pub- lishing a school journal. In this work he was associated with