High-resolution, full color images available online
Search, browse, read, and print yearbook pages
View college, high school, and military yearbooks
Browse our digital annual library spanning centuries
Support the schools in our program by subscribing
Privacy, as we do not track users or sell information
Page 9 text:
“
THE MACOMB HIGH SCHOOL AN HISTORICAL SKETCH The Public School system now existing in Illinois was established by law in 1855. The law made no provision for High Schools, but authorized school directors to prescribe studies additional to the common branches enumerated in the law. It was through this door left open in the rear of our educational system that High Schools entered and became an integral part of our Public School System. School directors in certain localities soon began to prescribe studies that properly belong to secondary schools. I be High School movement had scarcely begun when our nation was plunged into a life and death struggle in the great Civil War. The movement for the establishment and the development of High Schools was brought to a sudden stand, while the entire energy of our people was devoted to the preservation of the Union. With the close of the war in 1865, our people again took up the cause of secondary education, so that during the half decade from 1865 to 1870 at least - 5 -
”
Page 10 text:
“
one High School was established in a majority of the counties of the State. This may truly be called the initiatory period of High Schools in Illinois. Shortly after the Public School System was established in 1855. there were erected in Macomb four school bindings each containing a single room—one in each of the four wards. 1 he chapel on ood-hury Street is the old school building of the 1 hire! ard ; the other three buildings were of the same general character. As the number of scholars increased with the growth of the town a lean to was added to each of these buildings, and two teachers were employed in each: the younger children being taught in the lean to and the older in the main building. 1 here was no gradation farther than that the older children were taught in one room and the younger in another. This was the condition of our schools in 1865. In the Summer of this year a movement was set on foot to erect a modern school building of eight rooms, to establish a High School, and to employ a competent educator who should teach in the High School and also give unity .organization, and system to the remaining schools of the town. A substantial brick building was erected where the High School now stands, and Professor II. II. Smith of Galena was employed to teach in the High School and to supervise and grade the schools in the other wards. There seems to have been little or no opposition to this great movement, as all the leading men were in favor of it: but the men who were foremost in establishing a High School and in placing the management of the schools in the hands of a trained educator were James L. Anderson. Joseph F.. Wyne, William E. Withrow. (). F. Piper. Joseph Updegraff, Horatio Bartleson, and some others. I he man who possibly took the greatest interest in the movement was William E. Withrow, a graduate of Yale College and deeply interested in higher education. September 1st. 1866, the new order of things began with forty or fifty young persons assembled in the northwest room of the second story and Mr. Smith in charge. The students who attended the High School the two years of Mr. Smith’s administration recall with pleasure and enthusiasm those times. The whole east end of the second floor was the chapel. The platform with the organ occupied the entire south end. Here the pupils, not only of the High School, but also of the Primary and Intermediate grades of the building, gathered each morning for devotional exercises. A great choir occupied the platform. A standing committee selected the music a - 6 -
Are you trying to find old school friends, old classmates, fellow servicemen or shipmates? Do you want to see past girlfriends or boyfriends? Relive homecoming, prom, graduation, and other moments on campus captured in yearbook pictures. Revisit your fraternity or sorority and see familiar places. See members of old school clubs and relive old times. Start your search today!
Looking for old family members and relatives? Do you want to find pictures of parents or grandparents when they were in school? Want to find out what hairstyle was popular in the 1920s? E-Yearbook.com has a wealth of genealogy information spanning over a century for many schools with full text search. Use our online Genealogy Resource to uncover history quickly!
Are you planning a reunion and need assistance? E-Yearbook.com can help you with scanning and providing access to yearbook images for promotional materials and activities. We can provide you with an electronic version of your yearbook that can assist you with reunion planning. E-Yearbook.com will also publish the yearbook images online for people to share and enjoy.
