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

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i i F' I Page 11 The INDEX best of all, he located for us some of the fixed stars that his long vision had discovered. Meanwhile he had managed another term at school, at liu- reka this time, and he liked what he was finding in the books. llc determined to go further and on the first day of the new Normal School, at Bloomington, he was there and enrolled for the course. That was a half century ago last fall. He finished his course with the first class in 1860, manifesting thru all of his work the same characteristics that marked him as a man-trustwfmrthiness, caution, persistence, good judgment, hatred of sham. The next September saw him at Decatur, master of the third grade Two years later he became the city's first superintendent and so con- tinued until the close of the school year in 1906-7. He was a plain man, plain in speech, plain in manners and plain in living. And it was always plain to see what he was about. He practiced publicity in all of his dealings with the pub- lic. He knew that he was the peoples' servant and he never for- got it, and he was frank and candid with his employers. They appreciated it and believed in him and stood by him all of the time. He held them to their duty to their children and looked them straight in the eye as he looked straight into his own eye, it is a strong man and a true man who can look steadily and with sincere respect into his own eye all of the time. He found some- thing there that he thoroly respected and he would not do it vio- lence nor would he permit another to treat it with any show of disrespect. It was the sense of moral obligation and it was to him the dearest thing in all the world. Rather than to disobey its voice he would have walked alone. He was the least pretentious of men, indeed, his modesty often led him to affectations of ignorance where he was wise. He so thoroly despised dishonesty of every kind that he was a rigorous censor of himself. He was a rare combination of con- servatism and radicalism, cherishing what was of worth in the old and rigidly scrutinizing the new yet quietly adopting it and working it out without talk about it. He was especially inter- ested in nature study and advocated it a third of a century ago. He was with .Xgassiz at Penikese in the school of which XVhit- tier wrote: H011 the isle of Penikese, Ringed about by sapphire seas, Fanned by breezes salt and cool, Stood the master with his school. His recreations were largely with his garden and his bees. He loved the fiowers which he cultivated in rich profusion and the home was decorated with them from the early spring when the crocus came until the frost sent them all into hiding.

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The INDEX Page io He was of mixed ancestry. His father was Dutch and his mother was Irish. To the kinsman of XVilliam the Silent I have been accustomed to attribute the steadfastness of his purposes and the loyalty and devotion with which he worked them out. To his mother's race I ascribed the mirthful vein which ran thru a life of many sorrows like a thread of purest gold in a fabric of sober hues. His father was a sailor and beat about the world for years, meeting many strange adventures and some quite in- credible hardships. He had married in New York four years be- fore Enoch was born and in 1838 he imigrated to Illinois, set- tling within eight or nine miles of Bloomington. How much the stories of his interesting experiences may have stimulated the imaginations of his boys I cannot say. The eldest of his sons was tall, angular, rather awkward, but of excellent parts and of Fine repute thru all the country-side because of his manliness and exceptional reliabiity. He had a way of holding his head erect and of looking at some distant goal, as if he were native to the sea or to the wide expanse of the prairies. It was familiar to all who knew him, and as well, the earnestness of his penetrating eyes when unrelieved by the light of his playful humor. It was an impressive peculiarity, but when one learned the method of his life it was simple enough and singularly interesting, he had acquired from his sailor father the habit of guiding his course by fixed stars. His early education was limited. There was a rude school house with ruder benches and the school was taught on the half- subscription plan, for there was no free-school law yet in Illi- nois. There we were mates in the winter of 1852-3. It was a good school, as memory recalls it. The teacher was neat and precise and quite a bit of a scholar, and he was rigorous with the bigs boys and patient with the small ones. There we conned our lessons in the three r's and stood up in a row to spell the words in the old VVelJste1 ' and spoke pieces out of the readers on the Friday afternoons. And who shall say that we were not well employed ? VVhen a triHe over twenty be began to teach. After trying his hand and finding the work to his taste he went to the Illinois NVesleyan University for a term or two. Two years later he was teaching again and in the village where my parents lived. He was the best schoolmaster that the little community had ever known and when his first term was ended he was employed for another term and at his own price. It was an epoch-making experience for those of us who were his pupils. NVe did not a few things that were outside the common run. VVe parsed The Elegy and committed it to memory and learned to love the lines and to respond to the pensive melancholy of the sentiment. But

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The INDEX Page 12 He was fond of the comedy side Of life. Laughter was music to his ears. He looked for the relief which comes with the play of fancy as it festoons with its airy grace and delightful draperies the severities of life. It was an instinct with him to contribute to the happiness of others and he sought such Opportunity. Qver against this quality the most tender 'sentiment was set. lt led him to invest childhood with that dignity and sacredness which every true-minded teacher recognizes. Few faces were so sad as his when lost in reflection. NVas he thinking of his dead? Five preceded him to the shadows. Here was the realm of a deep religious sentiment, not so much the fruitage Of the creeds as of the love of the gracious Master who had won his allegiance. And here, too, was where he shared his inner life with the friends he loved, and to be admitted there once for all was a thing that memory fondly dwells upon. There was a third aspect to his character that added to its attractiveness, at least to those who love the truth and the true- hearted. lt was an element of sternness and rigor that some- times approached severity. lt was his instinctive answer to the call of the right as he saw the right. He stood sharply and clearly four-square to the world. He had none of the arts of the Hman- agerf' He was too blunt for delicate finesse. The profound im- pression that he made upon the community in which the work of his life was done was due to his clear-grained human worth. He was close to the management of this institution. For thirty-six years he was a member of its board of control and for thirteen its president. He was always present at its meetings. He was not old yet he was impressed that he was soon to go away. Vfe looked to see him sit for years among his sheaves in glad content before the final call of fate. He told his pastor his simple wishes as to what they should do when he had no voice and he confided to his loving wife the names of a few friends to whom should go- The steel cold fact in one laconic thrust, if the end should come unexpectedly. In the night, in a distant city, without warning, with no one near but his faithful wife, like the sudden blowing out of a taper, the end came and he was gone. As was said of the master whom he met and loved at Penikese: lVhere the eyes that follow fail, On a vaster sea, his sail, Drifts beyond our beck and hailf' It was a joy to us that knew him that we could walk and serve with him and learn anew the beauty of sweet sincerity and undeviating devotion to childhood and to truth. Delialb, March 2.1, IQO8. JOHN W. COOK.