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

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HENRY MQCORINHCK, A.M., Pl1.D.

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TO llwfry 1lll'f'lIl'llll.l'A', .1.Jf., Ijhll., mn !lllll0l'l'lZ Irl.Cl'-lJl'i'Sl.l,l'llfs as fl 1'w0!l ' firm of his lung mul fhlnfhfllz Sf,'l'l'l.C'L', Mis bool' is lovingly ffwfff-afc'ff by M1 CLASS OF 1905.

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Jmclax U15 HENRY MCCORMICK on the extreme noithw est coast of Ireland, the subiect of this sketch was born Feblualy 5, 1831. The legion was altogether treelessg peat the universal fuel, potatoes the chief crop, but the soil was ill-adapted to agriculture, the people depending mainly upon the herring which swarm the bays that indent the coast. When after the famine of 1846, the stream of emigration to America had risen to a flood, the elder lXIcCormick determined to try his fortunes in the New NVorld. In 1850 he settled in central Ohio. Three years later, Henry, then a boy of sixteen, followed him. 'Ihe voyage by sail lasted some six weeks. NVhen Ohio was reached he learned that his father had succumbed to a fatal illness a month before. Altho stranded and desolate in a strange land, he was not the lad to lose heart. He soon drifted to southern Wiscolisiii where he spent several years farming in summer, attending school in winter in district school or village academy. In 1859 he taught his first school. He received thirteen dollars per month and boarded 'roundf' The salary seems small but the board was doubtless tl1e best the district afforded. VVhile the absence of a fixed abode brought some inconvenience to the young teacher, the system was likely to develop a mutual understanding between parents and teacher and the cordial cooperation whose absence is much bewailed in modern pedagogy. For six years he taught rural schools, mostly in Boone County, Illinois. Meanwhile he had married him a wife, who had, it seems, more confidence in her husband's future than he possessed himself. His success in teaching united with her argu- ments to turn him towards the state normal school. He arrived in Normal in 1865. The records of the next th1'ee years reveal his in- dustry and thorouess. Upon his graduation in 1868 he was elected the lirst superintendent of the public school of Normal. The next year at the age of thirty-two he was appointed professor of geography and began his long CEITQGI' as a teacher in the Illinois State Normal University. It must not be supposed that his teach- ing was confined to this branch. Either because of the extension of knowledge, or because of the indolence of the younger generation of N the village of Belmullet, a community of some 700 inhabitants, . . . F' . .' , ' . Uhr 'gf llw rlwrrrs limi slr-ny 1111 lln'1-41i1f1ufs. -CA1:11112 A'rK1NsoN. .l l:'1Ifwlm1gl1lrr qfllrr nmlllrr. -LILLIAN ANDI-3RsoN, 4