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

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Page Twenty'-one Uhr Z1 uhm: I returned as principal of the high school in September, 18749, resigning my position on aeeouut of ill health at Christmas time, 1883. Since that time my connection with the Normal University has been one of affection and love, rather than active participation in its work, though I am glad to have made my little contribution at one time or another toward advancing the interests of the school. 1 I had, at the time, and have preserved during all these years, a sincere affection for the men and women under whose influence and under whose tuition I was privileged to be. Cook, Carter. l'illsbury, Miss Ilorton, Coy, are names that have endeared to me everything connected with that institution. I had, of course, in addition many other teachers, particularly while I was a student in the grammar school and in the first year in the high school, and while there were some misunderstandings between me and some of 1ny teachers, I only hope that they eher- ish, so far as they are alive, the same kindly feelings towards my- self, as I have ever entertained toward them. Even when Mr. C ook threatened to cowhide me and llllr. Carter nearly shook the life out of me I felt that they had to a certain extent, justice on their side, though I did not altogether approve of the expression which they gave to it. I have seen many schools in many countries, and on the whole I have never seen one which I should have preferred to the grammar and higher departments of the Illinois Normal School as a place to spend six years of my life. I believe they did for me as much as any school could have done. Of course as one grows older, if he is in the educational current, he comes to look upon many things which were done in his youth as perhaps a trifle old-fashioned and yet the essence of education remains the same. Nothing is so important as honest, clean work, and per- sistent insistence upon doing one's school work in the proper way. Among the teachers who influenced me aside from those whom I have mentioned, in a way for which I have always been grateful, I should certainly mention Thomas Metcalf, a man whose very presence was a powerful admonition to live up to the very best that one was capable of, and whose careful enunciation and pronunciation were of marked influence in improving the speech of the entire school. Mrs. Haynie for many years was a guide, philosopher, and friend for every student who entered her classes, and her personal interest in and friendship for me was of great importance. Dr. Hewett, Dr. Edwards, and the many pupil teachers under whose tuition I came-they are all held in grateful memory. It is a grand old school and every alumnus may feel proud of having been connected with it. EDMUND I. JAMES.

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E132 Elnhrx Page Twenty EDMUND -I. ,lAMEs My recollection of the work of the Normal School extends perhaps over as wide a range of work and as many years as that of almost any other man who was ever connected with the insti- tution. It was in the spring of 1863 that I remember following my mother about as she went from one class room to another,listening to the recitations, in order to determine for herself whether this was a school to which she desired to send her children. The ex- amination was so satisfactory to her that my father purchased a small farm a mile and a half east and north of the Normal School building, diagonally across from the little red school house, just east of the Central road, and a little over a mile north of the Alton. It was in the spring of the year 1867 that I entered the Nor- mal School, first in the grammar school department, which at that time was conducted by john NV. Cook as principal. He remained only one term after I entered the grammar school and was followed in the autumn of 1867 by joseph Carter. The school under Principal Cook had been located in the village school house, as an arrangement had been made between the vil- lage and the Normal School by which the public schools of the former were to be considered as the training school of the latter. The arrangement was not fully satisfactory to either party, and the connection was dissolved in the autumn of 367 when the Model School was located on the hrst floor of the Normal School build- ing, in the northeast corner. After completing the course of this department, I entered the high school department, located on the same iioor in the north- west corner of the building, in September, 1869. I was for one year in this school under the tuition of Wfilliam L. Pillsbury, a graduate of Harvard, an earnest, sincere, and well trained and successful teacher. Here also for one year I enjoyed the tuition of Miss Horton, a rare woman for any time, and any country, especially rare for those days, in the accuracy of her classical scholarship, in her wide knowledge of subsidiary subjects, in her conscientiousness and faithfulness as a teacher. Miss Horton remained only one year and was succeeded as principal of the school by IC. XV. Coy, who had been principal of the Peoria High School. lf. XV. Coy was a graduate of Brown, and a devoted admirer of IIarvard, and he first turned my at- tention in a very definitive and hnal way toward Harvard as the institution which I intended to enter upon graduation from the high school. For two years I pursued my studies in the classics under Mr. C'oy's tuition, graduating from the high school in 1873.

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i .4 i I :xr Eh? mnhpx Page Twenty-two FAN NIE FELL I have been asked to recall some incident associated in my mind with the every day life in the I.S.N.U. when I was a stu- dent there. .Xs I think of my school days there comes to me one warm Iune afternoon. It was the fifth hour tnot period as it is now called IJ and Iinglish Literature, under the leadership of Professor Stetson was to be in full sway the following hour. This was a section A study. The members of the Senior class seated next the middle aisle to the left of the president, were al- lowed special privileges of conferring with one another on any weighty matter pertaining to the assigned class room work. Even this was not enuf for two members of the class of i7Q. 'Iulia Scott and your humble servant were not content with this subdued and restrained method of communicating our deep and original observations on the subject of Eng-lish men of letters. Consequently we quietly and decorously Cas became dignified Seniorsj slipped out through the west door of the Assembly Room and up the steps on the north side leading to the entrance of the XVrightonian Society Hall as it was in our days. Gnce seated on the top stair there commenced a low but con- tinued interchange of ideas as to the writings of this or that author. Not many minutes passed before we heard a gentle tapping of feet on the stairs. The footsteps were all too easily recognized by the two intellectual miscreants. Those light, steady, but quick footfalls could be caused by none other than our short but highly esteemed President, Dr. Hewett. lVe managed to maintain our dignity in the ordeal and sa- luted our respected superior as if he were an expected guest. There he stood at the turning of the stairs, watch in hand and gave forth this sententious remark, with a twinkle in his eye, XYell, I thought there was a woman's sewing society in pro- gress. That was all, but it had its effect, we vanished. However, I found that our cheering hospitality, or the dig- nified position we held as Seniors, must have inHuenced the good doctor. Later on he entered a complaint to Mr. Burrington, the reverend principal of dear old high school, against certain high school pupils whom he had found wandering around the build- ing without leave or license, and my name was not on the list of culprits.