This township is described on the surveyor's plat as Ten North, Six East, is about fifteen miles in a northwest direction from the county-seat and near the northwest corner of the county. The first settlers to locate and acquire permanent homes came in 1835, about fifteen years before the adoption of township organization, settling on or near what is now the west part of the township and at neighboring distance from the little hamlet of Charleston, now the village of Brimfield. A few others scattered themselves on the east side in anticipation of a college being founded by Bishop Chase. The first settlers at that date (1835-40) appeared to be of three classes: First, those who possessed a little money and wished to begin life and establish homes where property would appreciate in value with time and improvement; and others who, having failed in business, or at their first start in life for themselves in the older parts of the country, came to a new country to begin life and fortune again. A few of a third class were hunters and frontiersmen who keep in advance of civilization, and who, when game becomes scarce and neighbors too near their door, sell out and move further on.
Jubilee Township has as great variety of land and as many natural resources as any other part of Peoria County. There are a few sections of prairie land interspersed with what is rather a rough and broken township. Several tributaries of the Kickapoo Creek have their source in or pass through the township, also
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the east branch crosses the southeast corner and joins the main stream near the south line. A few white oak, black oak, burr oak and red oak trees, also several varieties of hickory, were scattered over the bluffs and points at that time called by the settlers "Oak Openings," skirting the streams, and on the bottom lands were a large variety of forest trees, including the oaks (black and white), walnut, sycamore, cottonwood, maples (both hard and soft), and different varieties of willow. As the timber on the upland was scattered or in small groves, and that on the bottoms and along the streams much below the general level, the view of the country was nearly unobstructed and presented to the observer a pleasing aspect.
Shrubs and small fruits were found on the open; also some varieties of berries, surpassing in sweetness and flavor those of the cultivated kind, grew in the thickets of timber. Many varieties of grasses covered the ground, furnishing food for the sustenance of numerous varieties of wild game that roved at will over the country, and which, in turn, furnished a large proportion of the provisions for the settlers and their families.
Some of the cabins or homes of the pioneers were of the most primitive kind and rude in construction, built in the usual style of the pioneer log cabin. Some of the frontiersmen, being skilled in woodcraft, or handy with an ax, built houses of a better class. They hewed the timber to a square, dove-tailed the ends at the corners, laid a stone foundation in lime mortar, erected upon it the walls composed of logs fitted together in dove-tail fashion at the corners of the building, and carrying walls, perpendicular and true, as a wall of brick, to the height desired, usually one
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story and a fourth, or one and a half. The rafters, hewn smooth, were set at a good slant, with ribs fastened on crosswise, to which shingles, split and shaved by hand, were nailed. Fireplace and chimney were built of stone or brick filled with mortar, as were also the joints of the timber walls. The floors were often laid with boards taken from the boxes in which the people brought their goods, with a wide board for a door, one window of sash and glass for each room---and what more could human nature want?
The few vehicles, tools and agricultural implements were of the simplest design and construction, and were often made by those who used them. Teams of oxen were more generally used than horses or mules, being cheaper and easy to keep at that time. The first breaking of the prairie sod was done with four yoke of cattle, a large plow held in the proper position by axle-lever and wheels, cutting and turning over a sod of twenty inches in width. This work was usually performed in the months of June and July because the tough sod rotted sooner when broken up at that time, besides growing a crop of sod corn and pumpkins the same season. Cradles were used to harvest the small grain, while the hay and wild grasses were cut with a scythe and all stacked by hand. Small grain was threshed and corn shelled with flails or trodden out with horses, until the advent of the little thresher, a cylinder and concave set in a small frame and run by a four-horse sweep power, the straw being raked off by hand. The grain was afterward cleaned up with a fanning mill. Possibly the hardest and most difficult labor which the early settlers had to perform was the construction and maintenance of their fences, the kind in general use being built with rails, the split-
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ting of which would occupy the entire winter to make enough to fence a few acres for cultivation. Fenced pasture at that time was unknown, all stock running at large or in common.
The spinning wheel and hand loom were found in many of these cabin homes, where the women folks made the homespun cloth for clothing their families and a carpet for the floor. These primitive outfits and homes did not require much money, as that was scarce and hard to obtain. With the few things that were brought to the country, and such as human ingenuity could contrive, the pioneer had the necessaries and a few of the comforts of existence. Such was life in the log-cabin days.
Prominent among the pioneers of the township was the Rev. Philander Chase, Bishop of Illinois, who came to the then West to found what became known as Jubilee College. He settled permanently in 1836 on a part of Section thirty-six in the southeast corner of the township. Erecting a log cabin for himself and family, as did the other settlers, he set about the college work. Securing some funds, partly from friends in England and some from others in the Eastern States, and at times contributing from his own resources, a tract of land was secured, embracing about three thousand acres, more than two thousand of which was in Jubilee Township, and here was located the home chosen for himself. Procuring stones and timber near the site chosen for the buildings on Section twenty-six, the corner-stone of the chapel and school house was laid on the 3d day of April, 1839. The ceremonies on this occasion are thus described by Bishop Chase in his reminiscences or autobiography:
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"On Tuesday evening came our dear Samuel, and the Rev. Mr. Douglass; with the latter, a Mr. Jones, from Tremont. On Wednesday, at nine, came the Charleston people; at ten the congregation began to gather; at eleven, came the Peoria folks. Robin's Nest more than full. Divine service at half-past eleven. The Rev. Mr. Douglass read prayers, and Mr. Chase preached. Music, the best in the world for us. Notice given that the Rev. Mr. Chase would preach at Lower Kickapoo next Sunday, and myself hold a confirmation at Pekin.
"At one o'clock the procession formed at the bottom of the hill. The Rev. Messrs. Chase and Douglass in front; then the foot train; then the Bishop and his son, Philander, in his carriage; then a sequence of carriages and wagons too long to be even conjectured by you. The course of the procesison [sic] was directly through the fine lowlands, on dry and very pleasant grounds parallel with the stream, about midway between the bluff and the bank, pointing and aiming at the new bridge, which you know I built in the coldest weather last winter, now finished in the best order. When the procession turned to the right to cross the bridge, I could have a view of the vast extent of the train, and seldom have I been more elated at the goodness of God in giving us favor in the sight of all His people to gather such a multitude (for indeed, in this solitary country, a few hundred may be justly termed a multitude) together to praise His holy name, at the laying of the corner-stone of Jubilee Chapel. As we passed over the bridge, now (on the night before) finished in the neatest order, and looked up and down that beautiful stream, and then went along in solemn pomp over the level and exceedingly fertile and dry
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bottom land, in full view of the rising grounds, covered with budding trees, under which we could see the vast pile of stone for the chapel, and people there waiting for our arrival, you may well fancy my feelings. The flush of joy, the throbbing of the grateful heart, ready at every vivid reflection of my painful life, now about to terminate in the accomplishment of this great design, to burst the very bands of its tenement. Oh, that you could have been with me at this moment! you, who have shared my woes, to share also in my joys. The day fine, the sky serene, and just enough to remind us of the breath of God in the gentle influence of His Holy Spirit, refreshing beyond the power of language to describe.
"We mounted the rising ground slowly, and at every step looked back on the cavalcade behind. What a sight for a lonely backwoodsman! What an effect it had on me, when I reflected on the purpose for which we were now gathering on the ground together. Philander drove my carriage round to a pile of stones, to give room for all to dismount in order. The whole of the foundation, I found, had been already laid, but the corner, to the level of the first floor of the building. This enabled the eye to realize the plan, which you have seen, of the groundwork of this interesting building. We gathered round the southeast corner, where all was prepared for the present important solemnity. Before commencing I looked around me, and never was a sight more heart-cheering. The crowd were on the heaps of stones, and the friends and musicians were near me. Oh, how sweetly did they smile through tears of joy, as they saw my aged self among them. And when, after the address, we raised our souls in prayer and praise, may we not hope
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and believe that unworthy as we were, the God of Mercy and Love looked down upon us through Jesus Christ and gave us His blessing? It is this which crowns all and makes the remembrance of yesterday's service and solemnities sweet unto my taste. It has, indeed left a relish on my moral enjoyments, more exhilarating to my soul than any thing in the course of my whole life. The self-same thing was said by Samuel as we came home; nothing could exceed the expression of his joy."
The erection of the college, with the other necessary buildings soon followed; residences for the teachers, boarding houses for the scholars and workmen, so that in a few years' time, not later than 1859, nearly all of the various industries of the times were represented in the little village of Jubilee and the near surroundings. A saw-mill was constructed on the Kickapoo Creek, two miles south from the college, to which was soon added a flouring mill, with both steam and water power. A store building near at hand was filled with such goods as were used by the early settlers. A blacksmith shop and a shoemaker's shop were added for the convenience of all near by. A small hand printing press was operated in the college building, on which was printed, at short intervals, a small sheet entitled "The Motto." Farming and stock-raising were carried on extensively by the college, which introduced and operated the first agricultural machinery seen in the vicinity; such as McCormick's reaper, Allen's mower, Emory's tread power and thresher. Students soon filled the buildings and the college flourished for a number of years.
The first graduating exercises held at the college occurred on the 7th day of July, 1847, at which five
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persons received their degrees in the arts and sciences. A large booth was erected for the occasion, constructed of poles set in the ground and covered with branches from the trees. A band from Peoria City furnished the outdoor music. The exercises were attended by several hundred people, and it was indeed a happy and proud event to the founder of the college. A little knowledge of the work and the difficulties encountered in the building of such an institution, in those early days, may be obtained, when we realize that the stone was first dug from the quarry and shaped, the brick was burned within a few rods of where it was used, and nearly all the timbers were cut and hewed from the native forests by hand. On one occasion (in the year 1842) the father of the writer of this sketch made the journey to Chicago in the winter with a team, bringing from that place a barrel of salt for use at the college and a load of lumber with which to make sash for the buildings. A few of the settlers procured some of the materials for their first homes in the same way.
Township organization was adopted, April, 1850, and the usual township officers were elected. The formation of school and road districts was completed in a few years afterwards, the number of each at the present date being eight--the schools in each district continuing from six to eight months of each year.
Religious services and Sunday-schools were held at various times in several of the school houses, until the building of various edifices for public worship, of which Jubilee has three--the Episcopal, at the College, German Methodist and Lutheran. Five cemeteries situated in different parts of the township give the
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unwritten history that many have finished their labor and gone to the other shore. But few of those are now living who purchased their land directly from the Government, and, at this writing, but one is living on the land which was purchased in this way.
For a time elections were held at private houses or at the residence of the Town Clerk. Elections and town meetings are now held at the Town Hall in the center of the township. The number of legal voters in Jubilee at present is two hundred and twenty-five. Some changes of town officers have been made at every annual meeting, and but few have served the township many years in succession. Three members of the Illinois General Assembly have been chosen from the township, viz. William Rowcliff, H. R. Chase, and Peter Cahill. As township officers, William Church, H. I. Chase, Gilbert Hathaway, James H. Forney, J. B. Slocum, John Moss, William Rowcliff, H. R. Chase, Richard Pacey, Peter Cahill and Cecil C. Moss, have served as Supervisors. Those having acted as Town Clerk are David Sanborn, William M. Jenkins, George Radley, Noah Alden, George Paul, William H. Paul, S. S. Stewart, Chas. Hayes, F. E. Coulson, R. H. Van Renslar, George Stewart, F. T. Keefer, L. Hasselbacher, L. S. Barrett, S. P. Bower. Gilbert Hathaway held the office of Treasurer of School funds twenty-seven years, Thomas Pacey and Charles Hayes about twenty years, and L. Hasselbacher is the present incumbent of a few months.
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Many parents realize this fact--that, at a certain stage of a child's life, he can be better trained and managed at school than at home, if the school is of the right kind. Are you looking for such a school? Then listen to the story-book tale of Jubilee, the Little Place in the Woods, an ancient landmark, as ancientness goes in our raw young country.
Away back in 1837, Bishop Chase, having got his hand in at founding colleges (Kenyon, in Ohio, and another, farther east), came to Illinois, took up three thousand acres of land near Peoria, then but little more than an Indian trading post, and, full of the traditions of his English alma mater, full of zeal for the Church and education, built a little stone chapel and school; and, flushed with the success of his darling project, worked for hard and long, named it Jubilee.
An infant of the Church, it grew to man's age, with varying fortunes like those of many a man, waxed old and hoary, and fell into senile decay. For the last decade or two it was a romantic ruin, where people came to picnic and to carve their names in the soft sandstone walls.
Then, on a summer's day in 1905, came Bishop Fawcett and his helpers, and the result of that visit was a rejuvenated Jubilee. They found owls and bats as tenants, rubbish without end, and desolation everywhere. But soon the old house awoke from its Rip Van Winkle slumbers to find saws and axes at its vitals. Steam pipes, gas pipes and pipes for city water gave it a circulatory system, and ventilating grates, and fun-
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nels in the roof formed the respiratory organs it had always lacked.
"City water" of course means country water. Several old wells, that must be as deep as Spencer philosophy, for the house stands on a hill, show how the early dwellers got their supply; but now a little red-roofed pump-house nestles down in the valley among the trees, and the engine in it makes the water from a chain of allied springs run up hill, in direct defiance of the old adage which says it can't.
A coat of paint on the wooden trimmings was all that the outside of the building needed, for vines embower it, clinging lovingly to their old friends, the sandstone walls.
Within, there was carpentering and joining, and painting and glazing, and paper-hanging and plumbing, until every thing that could be done was done, and the Bishop said to the children, "Come!"
They came, to the capacity of the building, and more would have come had there been room. Like a Rooseveltian family in a small city flat we were stowed at the beginning of this, our first year, and every available inch was utilized. But a cottage dormitory, begun late in November, sprang up as by a rub of Aladdin's wonderful lamp, to house a certain number of the pupils, and amply relieve the pressure within the old stone walls. This cottage, standing at the top of a gentle slope to the south, commands a view of miles o'er hill and dale, field and forest and running stream, and every window frames a picture to delight a landscape artist's heart. The furniture of the cottage was made by Jubilee boys, in Jubilee shop, the large walnut folding doors used in the early days of the college providing a good share of the material.
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Any repairs needed in the carpentering, plumbing or painting line are also done by these youthful work-men-on-the-spot, for boys love to work, and if allowed to work will not be likely to hatch up mischief.
Only four hundred acres of the original three thousand remain, but we find that enough for the children to "turn loose" in; where girls may run and gather roses, of the American Beauty kind that blooms only out of doors, and increase their lung--and food! --capacity. Where boys may dig caves, build rafts, and huts, and chief staff of a boy's life, whoop and hurrah as much as they like, with no signs of "Keep Off the Grass," and no one to say "Don't." In short, where boys and girls alike may have all kinds of fun.
And they have it, except when engaged in business. Their business is school work, and their office hours are six hours a day five days in the week. This time is spent in recitation and in study under the eye of a teacher. There is no evening study, to tax the eyes and overheat the brain, and night work is limited to shop employments, orchestra or singing rehearsals, and mechanical or freehand drawing.
The school room is not the stiff and penal place the name suggests, but a pretty library with soft green walls, adorned with pictures, separated from the next class room by curtains only, and supplied with chairs and tables instead of nailed down desks. The maps and black boards appear when wanted, from a contrivance which at a magic hey, presto! swallows them up again; and the class rooms, when thrown together, make a charming social hall, with hard wood floor that tempts the light fantastic toe.
Twice a week we spruce up and have "small and early" affairs; and the lads and lassies in their best bibs and tuckers are an attractive looking lot.
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One evening a week is given to lively games, proper ones only, with teachers supervising or joining in; but some games are permitted on any evening, and good reading is provided without stint.
The dramatic instinct is strong in children, and manifests itself at an early age, as when the little girl pretends she is Mrs. This or That, and walks, and talks and acts like some one else; and the little boy as doctor comes to cure the ailments of the dolls.
It is the purpose of Jubilee to utilize this instinct to make it profitable as well as pleasant, by visualizing incidents in history, sometimes enacted, impromptu, in class, and sometimes given more ambitiously as a stage performance. Dramatic and operatic pieces are given as often as they can be properly prepared, the rehearsing and simple stage setting being regarded as recreation and done in recreation hours.
Excellence in scholarship is a large factor to be considered in making up the cast.
At the three meal times the family comes together, sitting six at a table, an older person being one of the six, and conversation and laughter help to make good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both.
Little need be said of book work. This is fundamental, and may go without saying: Whatever can be done is done, by the best instructors--not to pour knowledge, willy nilly, into the child, but to arouse his mental powers, awaken his interest and set him to getting for himself that which unless he does get it for himself, will never be of value to him. We take him from the intermediate grade on up to the entrance to University, and good work must be done; no shirking or evasion is allowed.
But the one basic principle of the school, book
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work being an adjunct to the means employed, is character-building. By every possible means we endeavor to exalt character, to instill the spirit of honor, courage, truth. Not only head work, but hand work, is a means to this end. Play is another and most important one. Some of the best lessons a child can get are learned, unconsciously, in play. He is benefited physically, mentally, and morally by entering heartily into games that call for strength or agility, alertness of mind, quick judgment, and co-operation with others.
Now do you see what kind of a school we have, in this historic spot so full of associations of the past and buoyant hope for the future?
It is a school based on the home idea, where, in fresh air and healthful surroundings, with regular hours and simple food, with work and play in just proportions, with all that devoted instructors can do to bring about such a result, boys and girls may be gently, but firmly and surely, led to knowledge, to refinement, and to high ideals.
A school for the development of character, for the preservation of individuality, for the formation of good habits and gentle manners, for the cultivation of hand and heart as well as head.
Was it not Froebel who said, "Come, let us live with our children?" We live with ours, work with them, play with them, with eye single to their well being and improvement.
The course is made to fit the child, not the child to fit the course; and the school is conducted for the benefit of the child, not of the teacher. The individual temperament of each child is carefully considered, and the personality best fitted to influence
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him is chosen from the faculty to give him particular attention.
In school work, not what percentage can he make but what use he makes of his powers, is the basis of reports. If he does his best, "S," or "Satisfactory," is his mark. If he has not done his best, even though his percentage may rank higher, he gets "Unsatisfactory," or "U."
Our aim is, not to turn out rows of children, like pins in a paper, all with the same size heads and sharpened to the same point, but to bring each one to his own highest and best.
We hope to send these children from us better in every way. Not a sudden transformation, like that of the skinflints and curmudgeons and hard-hearted fathers in the old--fashioned Christmas tales, but a gradual growth like that which Nature gives, we working as a loving gardener works, pruning and cutting back if need be, gently twining here and there, and shedding the sunshine of affection and praise, until the buds of promise show.
No new thing, this. We of this day prate much of Education, with a capital E, and fancy we are its sole inventors and patentees. But Plato said, in some Athenian Jubilee of long ago: "If you follow Nature, the education you give will succeed without causing you trouble or perplexity, especially if you do not insist upon acquirements precocious or overextensive."
It is this Platonian theory, to follow Nature, or to run with and not against her, that we try to put in practice in this little community set by itself, far from the madding crowd, making its own society, and living all for each and each for all, a miniature Democracy.