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

Page 24 text:

,f ff like Dndlegx would occasion less opposition to appropriate the income of the Col- lege and Seminary Fund to a university than to a normal school. Another. and perhaps stronger reason, was that it wasthen expected that other departments would be added to the Normal, making it a real State University. This idea was not given up until the State University was founded at Urbana. It was expected that grounds, buildings, and furnishings would be supplied by the town that secured the location of the institution. Several towns entered into the contest, making bids for the same. The two principal competitors were Bloomington and Peoria. I have not space to give an account of the struggle. The story is told in a full and interesting way in the book to which I have referred. Bloomington citizens pledged about 850,000 to the enterprise, and the county of McLean gave an equal sum to be derived from the sale of swamp landsn donated by the county. Abraham Lincoln drew up a bond which was signed by several prominent citizens of Bloom- ington pledging large sums to secure the amounts subscribed. Un the 7th of May, 1857, the site was lixed where the I'niversity now stands. lVithout question the man who did most to secure this re- sult was .Iesse W. Fell, the founder of the town of Normal. For an account of the way in which he did this, I refer to the book already mentioned. About the same time. llharles IC. Hovey, of Peoria, was selected to be the principal of the new institution, plans were drawn for the buildingg contracts were let: and the corner stone was laid with ap- propriate ceremonies on September QU, 1857. Meanwhile, tempor- ary quarters for the school had been secured in Bloomington in Major's Hall, at the southwest corner of Front and l'rairie streets. The building is still standing: but in 1857 it had th1'ee stories in- stead of two, as it now has. The two upper stories were occupied by the school for three years, while the lower story was used as a groce1'y. Here, on October 5, 1857, the teaching work of the I'ni- versity began, with Charles E. Hovey and Ira Moore as teachers and twenty-nine young men and women as pupils. The number of pupils during the first year increased to 127. The regular work of the school has continued uninterruptedly from that day to this, now almost lifty years. But the young institu- tion passed thru most trying times in its infant daysg and more than once its devoted friends had serious doubts of its continued Hhifllllllilfff will: l'l'llII'fllIlf.fl'I'l ll'lll'l'1' ilu' lfrook and !'fl'CI' nu'wf. il3lCssllQ B.xX'1'EH. 'Qlml .will lm' louyllr wo, on. - -Bic1z'rli.x li.-X'l'I2NI.XN, ll!

Page 23 text:

a prolonged struggle. The bill creating the institution Wasfsignecl by Gov. Bissell, February 18, 1857. No money was appropriated from the state treasury, but the in- terest on the College and Seminary Fund, or a part of it, was set apart for the current expenses of the school. This amounted to something more than 214111000 a year, and was aniply suilieient for its DR.-RICHARD EDWARDS, PRESIDENT 1862-1876. purpose for more than ten years. The question has often arisen why the name Normal University was chosen, rather than Normal School. There seems to have been two very good reasons. One was that it H llylm, hm rlwyf-f'?f1'l1f'sfw'f1:'wf'.s, ll'I'Ill on Vlffflillllff, fluff fffmrylfl 151' l'UIll'HII'l.Hjj lwffflr lflwlf ffmllylll qf'171'11f1lfj.H--lllli. BAIQBEH. l'mllf'11! lo ffw, ffm :lol lu fl'm't', -lIcAl.X lil. l5A'I'lmlcIf, l'i Tyra. Tlrsillili

Page 25 text:

existence. Scarcely had the corner stone of the building been laid before the severe hard timesw of 1857 were upon the country. Funds could not be collected, and, after a few months, work on the building was entirely suspended and the prospect for its resumption was gloomy indeed. How, and by whom, the difficulties were finally overcome, is an exciting story which I have no space to repeat. It will be found vividly told in the book to which I have referred. Suilice it to say here. that work on the building was resumed in 1859, and the structure was so near completion in the summer of 18150 that the graduating exercises of the first class were held in the room now occupied as the general assembly room. This was a great day. The class was composed of six young men and four young women. Enoch A. Hrastman, now of Decatur, gave the firstoration. The theme was HHorace lllanu,7' if I remember rightly. Following the exercises, a collation, in Normal Hall, was given by the ladies of Bloomington-there was no village of Normal then. The colla- tion was followed by speeches, and the day ended in a blaze of glory? In October. 1858, I became a member of the faculty. The first Saturday after my arrival in Bloomington I visited Normal, or the Junction,'7 as it was then called. The walls of the building had been carried up nearly to the top of the basement story, and there they had been standing for months. Much of the lumber and other materi-al was stored in a shanty just east of the building, and there an old lflnglishman lived who had charge of it. The campus was an old corn field, with stalks still standing upon it, but not a tree nor a hush Fell Avenue, or rather, the ditch beside it, marked the eastern limit of the old farmg and all the land between that and the Central Railroad was unbroken prairie, altho streets had been laid out. and some of the noble trees now standing 011 Ash Street, North Street, and Broadway had been set out, little shrubs, perhaps two inches in diameter. Mr. l1'ell's family were living in the house they occupied so long on the p1'esent site of Mr. Levi Dillon's house. There were two or three small houses across the Central Railroad from Mr I+'ell's, two or three near the present residence of Mrs. John H. Dodge. and perhaps a half dozen more within the present limits of Normal. That was all. In September, 1860, the school was moved from Major7s Hall to the new building, altho it was not completed until the following .N'fu' ll'l'Nlll'N, rrlul XIII' lI'IIlII1l'l'.N ll'!IIIj fu' fr nol by lll'l'N1l,t'.lllIxI.XIlll BOLIQY. HyllIl f'I'fl'1IfIlllX wort'o1'lrolf.wl1wl lilHl'llI'NN,llfIl,vISY l1lQN'l'l,Y. 21