Latin School of Chicago - Sigillum Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 17 text:

,I A XI IC S O. XY O O D For Klr. Wood, wliont we older boys lizive ztlwztys closely associated witli tlie lgitin School, we lizive tlie deepest regard. He has guided us skillfully tlirougli tlie plztstic years and lizts lent constant encouragement to our efforts. illlltlt liis office door lizxs always been open to us lizls led to at close and friendly relzitionsliip. :ind we know it will continue in tlie years to coine. For liis wise council, for liis objective criticism. for liis boundless patience. we are duly grateful. 'l'liis is our lust year at ltilflll. Next fall will find us scattered over tlie country in many different colleges. We feel. as we are about to leave, tlizit at Latin we liztve liad tlie utmost in education and friendsliip. This is in no sntzill ineusurc due to Xlr. Wood, for tliat lists been liis constant aim.

Page 16 text:

L Milli, THE KERSEY COATES REED FIELD HOUSE THE PRESENT SCHOOL BUILDING

Page 18 text:

The Early School MABEL SLADE VICKERY One bright, crisp morning in September, 1888, there gathered in the pleasant library of Mr. and Mrs. Eliphalet Blatchford at 375 LaSalle Avenue a group of boys all about ten years of age, their teachers and several parents. It was nine o'clock. The boys had just come in from play, summoned by a peremptory gong, proclaiming loudly that the school year of 1888-9 was about to begin. For more than an hour they had been playing about the quiet, residential streets of the neighborhood-Maple Street, Elm Street, and LaSalle Avenue, wide and elm-shaded, with large, old-fashioned mansions surrounded by beautiful grounds, Hanked by neat alleys, with carriage houses and well-kept stables for the fine horses cared for by picturesque coachmen and grooms of the old school. Little did these boys realize that they were pioneers--the first pupils of a school which was to become noted in the annals of Chicago. lf you had told them, they would not have been in the least thrilled'- not even if you had added that they possessed another claim to distinction, that of being members of the first school of the Middle West to adopt the principles of education professed by the then- famous public school system of Quincy, Massachusetts, known to the uninitiated as the Quincy Method. They would have listened apparently with respectful attention, but would all the while have been wondering if this first morning at school would be a long one. An early breakfast already seemed an event of the remote past, and luncheon beckoned them from an uncertain distance in the future. They were glad when Mrs. Blatchford's gracious words of welcome proved to be few and the ceremony of introduction to the new teachers very brief. Then their names were entered in Mrs. Blatchford's big book, as follows: Gilbert Allen, Frank Blatch- ford, Huntington Blatchford, Harry Bradley, LeGrand Burton, How- ard Coonley, Charles Henrotin, Henry Porter, Arthur Wilkinson and Frank Wilkinson. Two other boys were expected within a few days. When all the chronicles of this school shall have been written, it will be seen that it owes much to six distinguished women- Mrs. Eliphalet Blatchford, Mrs. John C. Coonley Cthen a widow, later to become Mrs. Coonley-Wardl, Mrs. A. C. McClurg, Mrs. Cyrus McCormick, Mrs. Emmons Blaine and Mrs. George lsham,- who by their wise counsel, generous gifts and sympathetic interest in teachers and pupils during early years helped them to lay firm foundations for usefulness.