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

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,L A X LV! ll if-1 i il M ii A V611 1 A :L ll winter. Acconimodatiims for students were scarceg and many of them, young women included, lived in .Hlooniington and walked back and forth every day. The new building was formally dedicated in February,1861, Gov. Hit-lil' Yates making the principal speech. In the spring of 1861 the school contained about 150 pupils in the normal department: the faculty consisted of Charles E. Hovey, Ira W s. Ill-Z. JUIIX NV. COMIC,1'RlCSlIJlCN'l' 1800-1800. Moore, Edwin U. llewett, Leander H. Potter, J. A. Sewall,Julian Bryant, Miss Frances A. Peterson,and perhaps one or two others doing special work. All seemed to be going on verv prosperously. But in April, the war 1-loud, which had so long been gathering broke. A few from the Normal, including Joseph G. Howell, who was then principal of the Model School, answered .President Lincoln's li1'stCall for 75,000 men. And, duringthe remainder of the term. al- most everv young man in the school engaged in daily drill. Their 'HN'lwllu-ff .slor. fS'l'if:i.i..x linis'roI,. .l jn'nr4'l1rl srlfmyflilwi' lfflu1l1lllr'r'NlNYllAZEI.BRAND. 7.7

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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

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drill grounds were where the public scliool buildingnow stands. Just after the second commencement came the disaster of Bull Run, quick- ly followed by the presidentls call for 300,000 men. This took away all the male members of the faculty buttwo, and nearly all the young men in the institution. Hovey was made colonel of the Thirty-third Illinois Infantry, and most of the young men joined that regiment, which was often called the Normal Regiinentfl 'His enlistment in the army linally severed Hovey7s connection with the institution. He is deserving of great credit for his services in the establishing and conducting the allairs of the institution thru a most trying period. A man of inflexible will, tireless en- ergy, persistence, and audacious courage, it is doubtful if the history of the Normal University would not have been quite dilierent had he not been at the head during the linancial troubles ot which I have spoken. In fact, I think the1'e is some reason to doubt Whether there would have been any history to write. Charles Hovey was a native of Vermont, a graduate of Dartmouth College, a teacher in Massachusetts, and the head of the schools in Peoria, Ill., before he became principal of the Normal University. After the war he nev- er engaged again actively in educational work. But it is very clear that no work of his life ever engaged his deepest interest and ener- gy like the establishing and di1'ecting of the Normal University in its early days. This is the one achievement recorded on his monu- ment, as Iread it last summer in Arlington Cemetery, WVashington, D. C. I Mr. Hovey had been principal of the school for four years, and, for the next year after his resignation, Perkins Bass, Esq., of Chi- cago, a member of the board, was acting-principal. During this year the aH'airs of the school went forward in a quiet and fairly pros- perous way. There were few young men among the students, and the whole number was much smaller than the year before. But as the year passed on the ranks gradually lilled up. In March of 1862, a man came to Normal who was destined to have much todo with its affairs in the years to come. This was Mr. Ricliard Edwards, who had been principal of the City Normal School in St. Louis. VVhen the war broke out, in that city aliairs were very much demoralized, and he came to Normal and Hlled a subordinate place for the re- mainder of the school year. At the close of the year the board chose him to be the head of the institution, which office he continued to I lilllllld' lin' srrfnls I IIHI no!grwll.7'-Alzl+1I.I,A lVl. lillcovli. 'tflf' Nllltffll-NHIIII' .will fn' fluff flu' ffrfn lflfll H'rn1'l funn' fgffiit-CIARENUIC BA!-illlli. 7 Quik llidi UIKKAQK EJ CEP Q