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

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I5 Index Historical Sketch I Illinois was admitted to the Union in 1818 the federal government provided endowments for higher education known as the college and seminary funds. For nearly forty years no permanent disposition of these funds was agreed upon. Some wished to found a 4 US state university such as Virginia had established at 5322, -Ei H , . 1 .3.o hi' 1 - 'C :'Q.'!9:5i'eb.z'v'- A QQ Monticello, the friends of the various denominational 'ii' 'lf ,: . colleges urged a division of the funds among them, ef: in the backward condition of elementary education led ,gl 5 'S others to advocate an institution for the training 5353? 'l of teachers. With the powerful backing of the f , I Prairie Farmer and the State Teachers' Association the last idea prevailed. On February 18, 1857, Governor Bissell signed the act creating the Illinois State Normal University. Among the various competing cities Bloomington secured the in- stitution by offering SI4I,OOO. A noble building was planned, con- tracts were letg the foundation was built, then the financial crash of 1857 brought building operations to a standstill. In two years, work was resumed, the building completed and dedicated in January 1861. Meanwhile the school had opened. On October 5, 1857, nineteen students had gathered in Major's Hall in Bloomington to greet the principal, Charles E. Hovey, and his assistant, Ira Moore. Both were men of rare ability, but the outbreak of the Civil War summoned both to the Union army. President Hovey led a regiment and became a brigadier general. After the war Mr. Moore became president of the St. Cloud, Minnesota, Normal School and later accepted a similar position at Los Angeles. ' In the fall of 1860 school was opened in the incomplete new build- ing. The faculty had increased to ten, the student body averaged about 175. In 1857 Mary Brooks, an accomplished primary teacher, was brought from Peoria, to open an experimental school as a supplementary feature of the Normal University. This became very popular. Pro- vision was made in the new building for a model school of all grades. All the children from Normal and many from Bloomington were en- rolled in the model school. Its high school department soon won a high reputation. Such men as W. L. Pillsbury and H. J. Barton of the University of Illinois, Edmund J. james of the Northwestern Uni- versity, Charles F. Childs, Lester L. Burrington, and O. L. Manchester have been its principals. The model school in the early days was mainly a school for obser- vation. Not much teaching was required of the normal students, and that was not carefully supervised. In 1867 the school had grown so large as to demand an additional building, which was erected by the school board of the village. In 1868 the Normal University dis- continued the supervision and instruction of the pupils in the new building. Not until 187 3 was the value of practice teaching adequately recognized. In that year the Training Department was organized with Thomas Metcalf as its first principal. The war made serious inroads upon the Normal University, six of

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The Faculty I5 knows his work and is not lost without an outline book before him. In Mr. Ridgley, as head of the department of geography, the faculty has one of its strongest members. JOHN P. STEWART. Mr. Stewart is assistant in biology and physics and succeeds Charles Whitten. He graduated from the I. S. N. U. in 1899. During the next two years he taught latin, biology and physics in the Biggsville Township High School. The following year he received the degree of A. B. from the University of Illinois. In September, 1902, he en- tered Cornell University and did special work in biology and horticulture under Professors Bailey, Atkinson and Comstock. In june, 1903, he received the degree of A. M. from Cornell. Mr. Stewart is pleasant, aifable, second best singer on the faculty and a first-class man in the athletics of the school. WILLIAM T. BAWDEN. Professor Bawden is at the head of the manual training depart- ment. He and his work are very popular among both students and faculty. Mr. Bawden has been graduated from more schools than any other member of the faculty. The list is as follows: Mechanics' Institute, Rochester, N. Y., 1898, Doane Academy 1892, Denison Uni- versity 1896, Teachers' College, Columbia University 1903. He is eminently qualified for his work and is making the new department so strong that new quarters must be provided for manual training in the near future. Mr. Bawden is a good athlete. Mr. Stewart and he are good as coaches and trainers in all of the athletic work done by the boys. BIABEL LoU1sE CUMMINGS. Miss Cummings is a native of Massachusetts. She is a graduate of the Boston Normal School of Physical Education. Miss Cummings is an ardent advocate of the Swedish system of gymnastics. She is an excellent instructor and it is needless to say that the girls have had the best of training. ISAAC N. VVARNER. Mr. Warner has been succeeding well as principal of the training School. He is a native of Illinois and was graduated from the I. S. N. U. in 1900. He has had several years of experience in public school work and is a strong man for the position. FLORENCE GRACE STEVENS. Miss Stevens is a graduate of the Oswego Normal School, having taken the special course for critic teachers. She has had charge of the first primary and is an excellent teacher.

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The Invitation I7 its faculty and in all one hundred eleven of its students enlisted. Three of the new professors called to fill the vacancies, as well as Ira Moore and E. C. Hewett, who had come in 1858, were graduates of the Mass- achusetts State Normal School in Bridgewater. Here they had been under the instruction of a West Point graduate, Nicholas Tillinghast, who, by his thoroness, his accurate temper, his devotion, his fidelity to the truth, and his unsparing contempt for sham, for laziness, and frivolity, stamped these sterling qualities upon his students. Of these five Bridgewater men, Richard Edwards was president from 1862 to 1876, Edwin C. Hewett from 1876 to 1890. Albert Stet- son and Thomas Metcalf served in the faculty twenty-five and thirty- three years respectively. Most of the other teachers were pupils of the five. Hence during these years, 1862-1890, the institution underwent little change. Into all its students it breathed its peculiar life, and that life was the spirit of Tillinghast. The school won a great reputa- tion for thoroness in the common branches. Every student owned a copy of Lippincott's Gazetteer. He learned to read with the fervor of Dr. Edwards, to pronounce with the precision of Mr. Metcalf, to spell the sesquipedalian terms of the dictionaries under the leader- ship of Dr. Hewett. The period, 1888-95, saw many significant changes in the life of the institution. Buel P. Colton, who had studied biology at johns Hopkins under pupils of Huxley, introduced his methods into the department of science. In the same year Charles DeGarmo returned to the institu- tion after three years of philosophy and pedagogy at Halle and Jena. Several of the faculty became interested in German thought and met weekly in a philosophy club, under the leadership of George P. Brown. In 1890 John W. Cook became president. Himself the product of the old spirit, for he had been identined with the institution for twenty- seven years, he saw its limitations, as well as its power, and soon with characteristic energy began to strengthen the school. The training department received his first attention. A new building was erected. Frank McMurry, Charles McMurry, and C. C. VanLiew, all of whom had studied with Dr. Rein at Jena, came into the department of pedagogy and practice. The courses in psychology and pedagogy were lengthened. The elementary course in the model school was reorganized along Herbartian lines, three critic teachers were employed, beside paid student-assistants to care for the various school rooms. The various departmental and society libraries were consolidated and put in charge -of a regular librarian, instruction in physical training was provided, and in 1895 a beautiful fire-proof building erected to contain gymnasium, library, museum, and scientific laboratories. The years, 1893-98, saw a rapid growth in the attendance in the Normal department. This expansion was due in part to the business depression with its restricted opportunities for employment. A deeper cause was the growing recognition of the value of professional training for teachers, the same conviction that has since 1895 established three additional State normal schools in Illinois. Because of the crowded condition of the school, the high school was discontinued in 1895. Prior to this date a uniform three-year course had been provided for all normal students. Any desiring additional instruction in ancient or modern languages entered the high school classes in these branches. It was now found advisable to establish a two-year course for students of superior preparation, and a four-year course, including Latin and Greek or German, for such as were looking to a future college course.