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Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
( E )

Biographical and Memorial Edition of the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois, Volume I,
by Newton Bateman, LL.D. and Paul Selby, A. M. and Special Authors and Contributors
Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company Publishers, 1915.

EARLY, John, legislator and Lieutenant-Governor, was born of American parentage and Irish ancestry in Essex County, Canada West, March 17, 1828, and accompanied his parents to Caledonia, Boone County, Ill., in 1846. His boyhood was passed upon his father's farm, and in youth he learned the trade (his father's) of carpenter and joiner. In 1852 he removed to Rockford, Winnebago County, and, in 1865, became State Agent of the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company. Between 1863 and 1866 he held sundry local offices, and, in 1869, was appointed by Governor Palmer a Trustee of the State Reform School. In 1870 he was elected State Senator and re-elected in 1874, serving in the Twenty-seventh, Twenty-eighth, Twenty-ninth and Thirtieth General Assemblies. In 1873 he was elected President pro tem, of the Senate, and, Lieut-Gov. Beveridge succeeding to the executive chair, he became ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor. In 1875 he was again the Republican nominee for the Presidency of the Senate, but was defeated by a coalition of Democrats and Independents. He died while a member of the Senate, Sept. 2, 1877.



EARTHQUAKE OF 1811. A series of the most remarkable earthquakes in the history of the Mississippi Valley began on the night of November 16, 1811, continuing for several months and finally ending with the destruction of Caraccas, Venezuela, in March following. While the center of the earlier appears to have been in the vicinity of New Madrid, in Southeastern Missouri, its minor effects were felt through a wide extent of country, especially in the settled portions of Illinois. Contemporaneous history states that, in the American Bottom, then the most densely settled portion of Illinois, the results were very perceptible. The walls of a brick house belonging to Mr. Samuel Judy, a pioneer settler in the eastern edge of the bottom, near Edwardsville, Madison County, were cracked by the convulsion, the effects being seen for more than two generations. Gov. John Reynolds, then a young man of 23, living with his father's family in what was called the "Goshen Settlement," near Edwardsville, in his history of "My Own Times," says of it: "Our family were all sleeping in a log-cabin, and my father leaped out of bed, crying out, "The Indians are on the house. The battle of Tippecanoe had been recently fought, and it was supposed the Indians would attack the settlements. Not one in the family knew at that time it was an earthquake. The next morning another shock made us acquainted with it. The cattle came running home bellowing with fear, and all animals were terribly alarmed. Our house cracked and quivered so we were fearful it would fall to the ground. In the American Bottom many chimneys were thrown down, and the church bell at Cahokia was sounded by the agitation of the building. It is said a shock of an earthquake was felt in Kaskaskia in 1804, but I did not perceive it." Owing to the sparseness of the population in Illinois at that time, but little is known of the effect of the convulsion of 1811 elsewhere, but there are numerous "sink-holes" in Union and adjacent counties, between the forks of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, which probably owe their origin to this or some similar disturbance. "On the Kaskaskia River below Athens," says Governor Reynolds in his "Pioneer History," "the water and white sand were thrown up through a fissure of the earth."



EAST DUBUQUE, an incorporated city of Jo Daviess County, on the east bank of the Mississippi, 17 miles (by rail) northeast of Galena. It is connected with Dubuque, Iowa, by a railroad and a wagon bridge two miles in length. It has a grain elevator, a box factory, a planing mill and manufactories of cultivators and sand drills. It has also a bank, two churches, good public schools and a weekly newspaper. Population (1890), 1,069; (1900), 1,146; (1910), 1,253.



EASTON, (Col.) Rufus, pioneer, founder of the city of Alton; was born at Litchfield, Conn., May 4, 1774; studied law and practiced two years in Oneida County, N. Y.; emigrated to St. Louis in 1804, and was commissioned by President Jefferson Judge of the Territory of Louisiana, and also became the first Postmaster of St. Louis, in 1808. From 1814 to 1818 he served as Delegate in Congress from Missouri Territory, and, on the organization of the State of Missouri (1821), was appointed Attorney-General for the State, serving until 1826. His death occurred at St. Charles, Mo., July 5, 1834. Colonel Easton's connection with Illinois history is based chiefly upon the fact that he was the founder of the present city of Alton, which he laid out, in 1817, on a tract of land of which he had obtained possession at the mouth of the Little Piasa Creek, naming the town for his son. Rev. Thomas Lippincott, prominently identified with the early history of that portion of the State, kept a store for Easton at Milton, on Wood River, about two miles from Alton, in the early "'20's."



EAST ST. LOUIS, a flourishing city in St. Clair County, on the east bank of the Mississippi directly opposite St. Louis; is the terminus of twenty-two railroads and several electric lines, and the leading commercial and manufacturing point in Southern Illinois. Its industries include rolling mills, steel, brass, malleable iron and glass works, grain elevators and flour mills, breweries, stockyards and packing houses. The city has eleven public and five parochial schools, one high school, and two colleges; is well supplied with banks and has one daily, three weekly and one monthly papers. Pop. (1900), 29,655; (1910), 58,547.



EASTERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. The act for the establishment of this institution passed the General Assembly in 1877. Many cities offered inducements, by way of donations, for the location of the new hospital, but the site finally selected was a farm of 250 acres near Kankakee, and this was subsequently enlarged by the purchase of 327 additional acres in 1881. Work was begun in 1878 and the first patients received in December, 1879. The plan of the institution is, in many respects, unique. It comprises a general building, three stories high, capable of accommodating 300 to 400 patients, and a number Of detached buildings, technically termed cottages where various classes of insane patients may be ground and receive the particular treatment best adapted to ensure their recovery. The plans were mainly worked out from suggestions by Frederick Howard Wines, LL.D., then Secretary of the Board of Public Charities, and have attracted generally favorable comment both in this country and abroad. The seventy-five buildings occupied for the various purposes of the institution, cover a quarter-section of land laid off in regular streets, beautified with trees, plants and flowers, and presenting all the appearance of a flourishing village with numerous small parks adorned with walks and drives. The counties from which patients are received include Cook, Champaign, Coles, Cumberland, De Witt, Douglas, Edgar, Ford, Grundy, Iroquois, Kankakee, La Salle, Livingston, Macon, McLean, Moultrie, Piatt, Shelby, Vermilion and Will. The whole number of patients in 1898 was 2,200, while the employes of all classes numbered 500.



EASTERN ILLINOIS NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution designed to qualify teachers for giving instruction in the public schools, located at Charleston, Coles County, under an act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1895. The act appropriated $50,000 for the erection of buildings, to which additional appropriations were added in 1897 and 1898, of $25,000 and $50,000, respectively, with 856,216.72 contributed by the city of Charleston, making a total of $181,216.72. The building was begun in 1896, the corner-stone being laid on May 27 of that year. There was delay in the progress of the work in consequence of the failure of the contractors in December, 1896, but the work was resumed in 1897 and practically completed early in 1899, with the expectation that the institution would be opened for the reception of students in September following.



EASTMAN, Zebina, anti-slavery journalist, was born at North Amherst, Mass., Sept. 8, 1815; became a printer's apprentice at 14, but later spent a short time in an academy at Hadley. Then, after a brief experience as an employe in the office of "The Hartford Pearl," at the age of 18 he invested his patrimony of some $2,000 in the establishment of "The Free Press" at Fayetteville, Vt. This venture proving unsuccessful, in 1837 he came west, stopping a year or two at Ann Arbor, Mich. In 1839 he visited Peoria by way of Chicago, working for a time on "The Peoria Register," but soon after joined Benjamin Lundy, who was preparing to revive his paper, "The Genius of Universal Emancipation," at Lowell, La Salle County. This scheme was partially defeated by Lundy's early death, but, after a few months' delay, Eastman, in conjunction with Hooper Warren, began the publication of "The Genius of Liberty" as the successor of Lundy's paper, using the printing press which Warren had used in the office of "The Commercial Advertiser," in Chicago, a year or so before. In 1842, at the invitation of prominent Abolitionists, the paper was removed to Chicago, wdiere it wras issued under the name of "The Western Citizen," in 1853 becoming "The Free West," and finally, in 1856, being merged in "The Chicago Tribune." After the suspension of "The Free West," Mr. Eastman began the publication of "The Chicago Magazine," a literary and historical monthly, but it reached only its fifth number, when it was discontinued for want of financial oupport. In 1861 he was appointed by President Lincoln United States Consul at Bristol, England, where he remained eight years. On his return from Europe, he took up his residence at Elgin, later removing to Maywood, a suburb of Chicago, where he died, June 14, 1883. During the latter years of his life Mr. Eastman contributed many articles of great historical interest to the Chicago press. (See Lundy, Benjamin, and Warren, Hooper.)



EBERHART, John Frederick, educator and real-estate operator, was born in Mercer County, Pa., Jan. 21, 1829; commenced teaching at 16 years of age, and, in 1853, graduated from Allegheny College, at Meadville, soon after becoming Principal of Albright Seminary at Berlin, in the same State; in 1855 came west by way of Chicago, locating at Dixon and engaging in editorial work; a year later established "The Northwestern Home and School Journal," which he published three years, in the meantime establishing and conducting teachers' institutes in Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin. In 1859 he was elected School Commissioner of Cook County—a position which was afterwards changed to County Superintendent of Schools, and which he held ten years. Mr. Eberhart was largely instrumental in the establishment of the Cook County Normal School. Since retiring from office he has been engaged in the real-estate business in Chicago.



ECKHART, Bernard A., manufacturer and President of the Chicago Drainage Board, was born in Alsace, France (now Germany), brought to America in infancy and reared on a farm in Vernon County, Wis.; was educated at Milwaukee, and, in 1868, became clerk in the office of the Eagle Milling Company of that city, afterwards serving as its Eastern agent in various seaboard cities. He finally established an extensive milling business in Chicago, in which he is now engaged. In 1884 he served as a delegate to the National Waterway Convention at St. Paul and, in 1886, was elected to the State Senate, serving four years and taking a prominent part in drafting the Sanitary Drainage Bill passed by the Thirty-sixth General Assembly. He has also been prominent in connection with various financial institutions, and, in 1891, was elected one of the Trustees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, was re-elected in 1895 and chosen President of the Board for the following year, and re-elected President December, 1898.



EDBROOKE, Willoughby J., Supervising Architect, was born at Deerfield, Lake County, Ill., Sept. 3, 1843; brought up to the architectural profession by his father and under the instruction of Chicago architects. During Mayor Roche's administration he held the position of Commissioner of Public Works, and, in April, 1891, was appointed Supervising Architect of the Treasury Department at Washington, in that capacity supervising the construction of Government buildings at the World's Columbian Exposition. Died, in Chicago, March 26, 1896.



EDDY, Henry, pioneer lawyer and editor, was born in Vermont, in 1798, reared in New York, learned the printer's trade at Pittsburg, served in the War of 1812, and was wounded in the battle of Black Rock, near Buffalo; came to Shawneetown, Ill., in 1818, where he edited "The Illinois Emigrant," the earliest paper in that part of the State; was a Presidential Elector in 1824, a Representative in the Second and Fifteenth General Assemblies, and elected a Circuit Judge in 1835, but resigned a few weeks later. He was a Whig in politics. Usher F. Linder, in his "Reminiscences of the Early Bench and Bar of Illinois," says of Mr. Eddy: "When he addressed the court, he elicited the most profound attention. He was a sort of walking law library. He never forgot anything that he ever knew, whether law, poetry or belles lettres." Died, June 29, 1849.



EDDY, Thomas Mears, clergyman and author, was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, Sept. 7, 1823; educated at Greensborough, Ind., and, from 1842 to 1853, was a Methodist circuit preacher in that State, becoming Agent of the American Bible Society the latter year, and Presiding Elder of the Indianapolis district until 1856, when he was appointed editor of "The Northwestern Christian Advocate," in Chicago, retiring from that position in 1868. Later, he held pastorates in Baltimore and Washington, and was chosen one of the Corresponding Secretaries of the Missionary Society by the General Conference of 1872. Dr. Eddy was a copious writer for the press, and, besides occasional sermons, published two volumes of reminiscences and personal sketches of prominent Illinoisans in the War of the Rebellion under the title of "Patriotism of Illinois" (1865). Died, in New York City, Oct. 7, 1874.



EDGAR, John, early settler at Kaskaskia, was born in Ireland and, during the American Revolution, served as an officer in the British navy, but married an .American woman of great force of character who sympathized strongly with the patriot cause. Having become involved in the desertion of three British soldiers whom his wife had promised to assist in reaching the American camp, he was compelled to flee. After remaining for a while in the American army, during which he became the friend of General La Fayette, he sought safety by coming west, arriving at Kaskaskia in 1784. His property was confiscated, but his wife succeeded in saving some $12,000 from the wreck, with which she joined him two years later. He engaged in business and became an extensive land-owner, being credited, during Territorial days, with the ownership of nearly 50,000 acres situated in Randolph, Monroe, St. Clair, Madison, Clinton, Washington, Perry and Jackson Counties, and long known as the "Edgar lands." He also purchased and rebuilt a mill near Kaskaskia which had belonged to a Frenchman named Paget, and became a large shipper of flour at an early day to the Southern markets. When St. Clair County was organized, in 1790, he was appointed one of the Judges of the Common Pleas Court, and so appears to have continued for more than a quarter of a century. On the establishment of a Territorial Legislature for the Northwest Territory, he was chosen, in 1799, one of the members for St. Clair County—the Legislature holding its session at Chillicothe, in the present State of Ohio, under the administration of Governor St. Clair. He was also appointed a Major-General of militia, retaining the office for many years. General and Mrs. Edgar were leaders of society at the old Territorial capital, and, on the visit of La Fayette to Kaskaskia in 1825, a reception was given at their house to the distinguished Frenchman, whose acquaintance they had made more than forty years before. He died at Kaskaskia, in 1832. Edgar County, in the eastern part of the State, was named in honor of General Edgar. He was Worshipful Master of the first Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons in Illinois, constituted at Kaskaskia in 1806.



EDGAR COUNTY, one of the middle tier of counties from north to south, lying on the eastern border of the State; was organized in 1823, and named for General Edgar, an early citizen of Kaskaskia. It contains 640 square miles, with a population (1910) of 27,336. The county is nearly square, well watered and wooded. Most of the acreage is under cultivation, grain-growing and stock-raising being the principal industries. Generally, the soil is black to a considerable depth, though at some points—especially adjoining the timber lands in the east—the soft, brown clay of the subsoil comes to the surface. Beds of the drift period, one hundred feet deep, are found in the northern portion, and some twenty-five years ago a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon was exhumed. A bed of limestone, twenty-five feet thick, crops out near Baldwinsville and runs along Brouillet's creek to the State line. Paris, the county-seat, is a railroad center, and has a population of over 6,000. Vermilion and Dudley are prominent shipping points, while Chrisman, which was an unbroken prairie in 1872, was credited with a population of 900 in 1900.



EDINBURG, a village of Christian County, on the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, 18 miles southeast of Springfield; has two banks and one newspaper. The region is agricultural, though some coal is mined here. Population (1880), 551; (1890), 806; (1900), 1,071; (1910), 918.



EDSALL, James Kirtland, former Attorney General, was born at Windham, Greene County, N. Y., May 10, 1831. After passing through the common-schools, he attended an academy at Prattsville, N.Y., supporting himself, meanwhile, by working upon a farm. He read law at Prattsville and Catskill, and was admitted to the bar at Albany in 1852. The next two years he spent in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and, in 1854, removed to Leavenworth, Kan. He was elected to the Legislature of that State in 1855, being a member of the Topeka (free-soil) body when it was broken up by United States troops in 1856. In August, 1856, he settled at Dixon, Ill., and at once engaged in practice. In 1863 he was elected Mayor of that city, and, in 1870, was chosen State Senator, serving on the Committees on Municipalities and Judiciary in the Twenty-seventh General Assembly. In 1872 he was elected Attorney-General on the Republican ticket and re-elected in 1876. At the expiration of his second term he took up his residence in Chicago, where he afterwards devoted himself to the practice of his profession, until his death, which occurred, June 20, 1892.



EDUCATION. The first step in the direction of the establishment of a system of free schools for the region now comprised within the State of Illinois was taken in the enactment by Congress, on May 20, 1785, of "An Ordinance for Ascertaining the mode of disposing of lands in the Western Territory." This applied specifically to the region northwest of the Ohio River, which had been acquired through the conquest of the "Illinois Country" by Col. George Rogers Clark, acting under the auspices of the State of Virginia and by authority received from its Governor, the patriotic Patrick Henry. This act for the first time established the present system of township (or as it was then called, "rectangular") surveys, devised by Capt. Thomas Hutchins, who became the first Surveyor-General (or "Geographer," as the office was styled) of the United States under the same act. Its important feature, in this connection, was the provision "that there shall be reserved the lot No. 16 of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the township." The same reservation (the term "section" being substituted for "lot" in the act of May 18, 1796) was made in all subsequent acts for the sale of public lands—the acts of July 23, 1787, and June 20, 1788, declaring that "the lot No. 16 in each township, or fractional part of a township," shall be "given perpetually for the purpose contained in said ordinance" (i. e., the act of 1785). The next step was taken in the Ordinance of 1787 (Art. III.), in the declaration that, "religion, morality and knowledge being necessary for the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." The reservation referred to in the act of 1785 (and subsequent acts) was reiterated in the "enabling act" passed by Congress, April 18, 1818, authorizing the people of Illinois Territory to organize a State Government, and was formally accepted by the Convention which formed the first State Constitution. The enabling act also set apart one entire township (in addition to one previously donated for the same purpose by act of Congress in 1804) for the use of a seminary of learning, together with three per cent of the net proceeds of the sales of public lands within the State, "to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part" (or one-half of one per cent) "shall be exclusively bestowed on a college or university." Thus, the plan for the establishment of a system of free public education in Illinois had its inception in the first steps for the organization of the Northwest Territory, was recognized in the Ordinance of 1787 which reserved that Territory forever to freedom, and was again reiterated in the preliminary steps for the organization of the State Government. These several acts became the basis of that permanent provision for the encouragement of education known as the "township," "seminary" and "college or university" funds.

EARLY SCHOOLS.—Previous to this, however, a beginning had been made in the attempt to establish schools for the benefit of the children of the pioneers. One John Seeley is said to have taught the first American school within the territory of Illinois, in a log-cabin in Monroe County, in 1783, followed by others in the next twenty years in Monroe, Randolph, St. Clair and Madison Counties. Seeley's earliest successor was Francis Clark, who, in turn, was followed by a man named Halfpenny, who afterwards built a mill near the present town of Waterloo in Monroe County. Among the teachers of a still later period were John Boyle, a soldier in Col. George Rogers Clark's army, who taught in Randolph County between 1790 and 1800; John Atwater, near Edwardsville, in 1807, and John Messinger, a surveyor, who was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1818 and Speaker of the first House of Representatives. The latter taught in the vicinity of Shiloh in St. Clair County, afterwards the site of Rev. John M. Peck's Rock Spring Seminary. The schools which existed during this period, and for many years after the organization of the State Government, were necessarily few, widely scattered and of a very primitive character, receiving their support entirely by subscription from their patrons.

FIRST FREE SCHOOL LAW AND SALES OF SCHOOL LANDS.—It has been stated that the first free school in the State was established at Upper Alton, in 1821, but there is good reason for believing this claim was based upon the power granted by the Legislature, in an act passed that year, to establish such schools there, which power was never carried into effect. The first attempt to establish a free-school system for the whole State was made in January, 1825, in the passage of a bill introduced by Joseph Duncan, afterwards a Congressman and Governor of the State. It nominally appropriated two dollars out of each one hundred dollars received in the State Treasury, to be distributed to those who had paid taxes or subscriptions for the support of schools. So small was the aggregate revenue of the State at that time (only a little over $60,000), that the sum realized from this law would have been but little more than $1,000 per year. It remained practically a dead letter and was repealed in 1829, when the State inaugurated the policy of selling the seminary lands and borrowing the proceeds for the payment of current expenses. In this way 43,200 acres (or all but four and a half sections) of the seminary lands were disposed of, realizing less than $60,000. The first sale of township school lands took place in Greene County in 1831, and, two years later, the greater part of the school section in the heart of the present city of Chicago was sold, producing about $39,000. The average rate at which these sales were made, up to 1882, was $3.78 per acre> and the minimum, 70 cents per acre. That these lands have, in very few instances, produced the results expected of them, was not so much the fault of the system as of those selected to administer it—whose bad judgment in premature sales, or whose complicity with the schemes of speculators, were the means, in many cases, of squandering what might otherwise have furnished a liberal provision for the support of public schools in many sections of the State. Mr. W. L. Pillsbury, at present Secretary of the University of Illinois, in a paper printed in the report of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for 1885-86—to which the writer is indebted for many of the facts presented in this article—gives to Chicago the credit of establishing the first free schools in the State in 1834, while Alton followed in 1837, and Springfield and Jacksonville in 1840. EARLY HIGHER INSTITUTIONS.—A movement looking to the establishment of a higher institution of learning in Indiana Territory (of which Illinois then formed a part), was inaugurated by the passage, through the Territorial Legislature at Vincennes, in November, 1806, of an act incorporating the University of Indiana Territory to be located at Vincennes. One provision of the act authorized the raising of $20,000 for the institution by means of a lottery. A Board of Trustees was promptly organized, with Gen. William Henry Harrison, then the Territorial Governor, at its head; but, beyond the erection of a building, little progress was made. Twenty-one years later (1827) the first successful attempt to found an advanced school was made by the indomitable Rev. John M. Peck, resulting in the establishment of his Theological Seminary and High School at Rock Springs, St. Clair County, which, in 1831, became the nucleus of Shurtleff College at Upper Alton. In like manner, Lebanon Seminary, established in 1828, two years later expanded into McKendree College, while instruction began to be given at Illinois College, Jacksonville, in December, 1829, as the outcome of a movement started by a band of young men at Yale College in 1827—these several institutions being formally incorporated by the same act of the Legislature, passed in 1835. (See sketches of these Institutions.)

EDUCATIONAL CONVENTIONS.—In 1833 there was held at Vandalia (then the State capital) the first of a series of educational conventions, which were continued somewhat irregularly for twenty years, and whose history is remarkable for the number of those participating in them who afterwards gained distinction in State and National history. At first these conventions were held at the State capital during the sessions of the General Assembly, when the chief actors in them were members of that body and State officers, with a few other friends of education from the ranks of professional or business men. At the convention of 1833, we find, among those participating, the names of Sidney Breese, afterwards a United States Senator and Justice of the Supreme Court; Judge S. D. Lockwood, then of the Supreme Court; W. L. D. Ewing, afterwards acting Governor and United States Senator; O. H. Browning, afterwards United States Senator and Secretary of the Interior; James Hall and John Russell, the most notable writers in the State in their day, besides Dr. J. M. Peck, Archibald Williams, Heiijamin Mills, Jesse B. Thomas, Henry Eddy and others, all prominent in their several departments. In a second convention at the same place, nearly two years later, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and Col. John J. Hardin were participants. At Springfield, in 1840, professional and literary men began to take a more prominent part, although the members of the Legislature were present in considerable force. A convention held at Peoria, in 1844, was made up largely of professional teachers and school officers, with a few citizens of local prominence; and the same may be said of those held at Jacksonville in 1845, and later at Chicago and other points. Various attempts were made to form permanent educational societies, finally resulting, in December, 1854, in the organization of the "State Teachers' Institute," which, three years later, took the name of the "State Teachers' Association"—though an association of the same name was organized in 1836 and continued in existence several years.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT AND SCHOOL JOURNALS.—The appointment of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction began to be agitated as early as 1837, and was urged from time to time in memorials and resolutions by educational conventions, by the educational press, and in the State Legislature; but it was not until February, 1854, that an act was passed creating the office, when the Hon. Ninian W. Edwards was appointed by Gov. Joel A. Matteson, continuing in office until his successor was elected in 1856. "The Common School Advocate" was published for a year at Jacksonville, beginning with January, 1837; in 1841 "The Illinois Common School Advocate" began publication at Springfield, but was discontinued after the issue of a few numbers. In 1855 was established "The Illinois Teacher." This was merged, in 1873, in "The Illinois Schoolmaster," which became the organ of the State Teachers' Association, so remaining several years. The State Teachers' Association has no official organ now, but the "Public School Journal" is the chief educational publication of the State.

INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION.—In 1851 was instituted a movement which, although obstructed for some time by partisan opposition, has been followed by more far-reaching results, for the country at large, than any single measure in the history of education since the act of 1785 setting apart one section in each township for the support of public schools. This was the scheme formulated by the late Prof. Jonathan B. Turner, of Jacksonville, for a system of practical scientific education for the agricultural, mechanical and other industrial classes, at a Farmers' Convention held under the auspices of the Buel Institute (an Agricultural Society), at Granville, Putnam County, Nov. 18, 1851. While proposing a plan for a "State University" for Illinois, it also advocated, from the outset, a "University for the industrial classes in each of the States," by way of supplementing the work which a "National Institute of Science," such as the Smithsonian Institute at Washington, was expected to accomplish. The proposition attracted the attention of persons interested in the cause of industrial education in other States, especially in New York and some of the New England States, and received their hearty endorsement and cooperation. The Granville meeting was followed by a series of similar conventions held at Springfield, June 8, 1852; Chicago, Nov. 24, 1852; Springfield, Jan. 4, 1853, and Springfield, Jan. 1, 1855, at which the scheme was still further elaborated. At the Springfield meeting of January, 1852, an organization was formed under the title of the "Industrial League of the State of Illinois," with a view to disseminating information, securing more thorough organization on the part of friends of the measure, and the employment of lecturers to address the people of the State on the subject. At the same time, it was resolved that "this Convention memorialize Congress for the purpose of obtaining a grant of public lands to establish and endow industrial institutions in each and every State in the Union." It is worthy of note that this resolution contains the central idea of the act passed by Congress nearly ten years afterward, making appropriations of public lands for the establishment and support of industrial colleges in the several States, which act received the approval of President Lincoln, July 2, 1862— a similar measure having been vetoed by President Buchanan in February, 1859. The State was extensively canvassed by Professor Turner, Mr. Bronson Murray (now of New York), the late Dr. R. C. Rutherford and others, in behalf of the objects of the League, and the Legislature, at its session of 1853, by unanimous vote in both houses, adopted the resolutions commending the measure and instructing the United States Senators from Illinois, and requesting its Representatives, to give it their support. Though not specifically contemplated at the outset of the movement, the Convention at Springfield, in January, 1855, proposed, as a part of the scheme, the establishment of a "Teachers' Seminary or Normal School Department," which took form in the act passed at the session of 1857, for the establishment of the State Normal School at Normal. Although delayed, as already stated, the advocates of industrial education in Illinois, aided by those of other States, finally triumphed in 1862. The lands received by the State as the result of this act amounted to 480,000 acres, besides subsequent donations. (See University of Illinois; also Turner, Jonathan Baldwin.) On the foundation thus furnished was established, by act of the Legislature in 1867, the "Illinois Industrial University" —now the University of Illinois—at Champaign, to say nothing of more than forty similar institutions in as many States and Territories, based upon the same general act of Congress.

FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM.—While there may be said to have been a sort of free-school system in existence in Illinois previous to 1855, it was limited to a few fortunate districts possessing funds derived from the sale of school-lands situated within their respective limits. The system of free schools, as it now exists, based upon general taxation for the creation of a permanent school fund, had its origin in the act of that year. As already shown, the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction had been created by act of the Legislature in February, 1854, and the act of 1855 was but a natural corollary of the previous measure, giving to the people a uniform system, as the earlier one had provided an official for its administration. Since then there have been many amendments of the school law, but these have been generally in the direction of securing greater efficiency, but without departure from the principle of securing to all the children of the State the equal privileges of a common-school education. The development of the system began practically about 1857, and, in the next quarter of a century, the laws on the subject had grown into a considerable volume, while the numberless decisions, emanating from the office of the State Superintendent in construction of these laws, made up a volume of still larger proportions.

The following comparative table of school statistics, for 1860 and 1896, compiled from the Reports of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, will illustrate the growth of the system in some of its more important features:

 
1860
1896
Population
1,711,951
(est.) 4,250,000
No. of Persons of School Age (between 6 and 21)
*549,604
1,384,387
No. of Pupils enrolled
*472,247
898,619
No. of School Districts
8,956
11,615
No. of Public Schools
9,162
12,623
No. of Graded Schools
294
1,887
No. of Public High Schools
272
No. of School Houses built during the year
557
267
Whole No. of School Houses
8,221
12,632
No. of Male Teachers
8,223
7,057
No. of Female Teachers
6,485
18,359
Whole No. of Teachers in Public Schools
14,708
26,416
Highest Monthly Wages paid Male Teachers
$180.00
$300.00
Highest Monthly Wages paid Female Teachers
75.00
280.00
Lowest Monthly Wages paid Male Teachers
8.00
14.00
Lowest Monthly Wages paid Female Teachers
4.00
10.00
Average Monthly Wages paid Male Teachers
28.82
57.76
Average Monthly Wages paid Female Teachers
18.80
60.63
No. of Private Schools
500
2,619
No. of Pupils in Private Schools
29,264
139,969
Interest on State and County Funds received
$73,450.38
$65,583.63
Amount of Income from Township Funds
322,852.00
889,614.20

*Only white children were included in these statistics for 1860.



 
1860
1896
Amount received from State Tax
$ 690,000.00
$1,000,000.00
Amount received from Special District Taxes
1,265,137.00
13,133,809.61
Amount received from Bonds during the year
517,960.93
Total Amount received during the year by School Districts
2,193,455.00
15,607,172.50
Amount paid Male Teachers
2,772,829.32
Amount paid Female Teachers
7,186,105.67
Whole amount paid Teachers
1,542,211.00
9,958,934.99
Amount paid for new School Houses
348,728.00
1,873,757.25
Amount paid for repairs and improvements
1,070,755.09
Amount paid for School Furniture
24,837.00
154,836.64
Amount paid for Apparatus
8,563.00
164,298.92
Amount paid for Books for District Libraries
30,124 00
13,664.97
Total Expenditures
2,259,868.00
14,614,627.31
Estimated value of School Property
13,304,892.00
42,780,267.00
Estimated value of Libraries
377,819.00
Estimated value of Apparatus
607,389.00


The sums annually disbursed for incidental expenses on account of superintendence and the cost of maintaining the higher institutions established, and partially or wholly supported by the State, increase the total expenditures by some $600,000 per annum. These higher institutions include the Illinois State Normal University at Normal, the Southern Illinois Normal at Carbondale and the University of Illinois at Urbana; to which were added by the Legislature, at its session of 1890, the Eastern Illinois Normal School, afterwards established at Charleston, and the Northern Illinois Normal at De Kalb. These institutions, although under supervision of the State, are partly supported by tuition fees. (See description of these institutions under their several titles.) The normal schools—as their names indicate—are primarily designed for the training of teachers, although other classes of pupils are admitted under certain conditions, including the payment of tuition. At the University of Illinois instruction is given in the classics, the sciences, agriculture and the mechanic arts. In addition to these the State supports four other institutions of an educational rather than a custodial character—viz.: the Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb and the Institution for the Blind, at Jacksonville; the Asylum for the Feeble-Minded at Lincoln, and the Soldiers' Orphans' Home at Normal. The estimated value of the property connected with these several institutions, in addition to the value of school property given in the preceding table, will increase the total (exclusive of permanent funds) to $47,155,374.95, of which $4,375,107.95 represents property belonging to the institutions above mentioned.

POWERS AND DUTIES OP SUPERINTENDENTS AND OTHER SCHOOL OFFICERS.—Each county elects a County Superintendent of Schools, whose duty it is to visit schools, conduct teachers' institutes, advise with teachers and school officers and instruct them in their respective duties, conduct examinations of persons desiring to become teachers, and exercise general supervision over school affairs within his county. The subordinate officers are Township Trustees, a Township Treasurer, and a Board of District Directors or— in place of the latter in cities and villages—Boards of Education. The two last named Boards have power to employ teachers and, generally, to supervise the management of schools in districts. The State Superintendent is entrusted with general supervision of the common-school system of the State, and it is his duty to advise and assist County Superintendents, to Visit State Charitable institutions, to issue official circulars to teachers, school officers and others in regard to their rights and duties under the general school code; to decide controverted questions of school law, coming to him by appeal from County Superintendents and others, and to make full and detailed reports of the operations of his office to the Governor, biennially. He is also made ex-offici© a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois and of the several Normal Schools, and is empowered to grant certificates of two different grades to teachers—the higher grade to be valid during the lifetime of the holder, and the lower for two years. Certificates granted by County Superintendents are also of two grades and have a tenure of one and two years, respectively, in the county where given. The conditions for securing a certificate of the first (or two-years') grade, require that the candidate shall be of good moral character and qualified to teach orthography, reading in English, penmanship, arithmetic, modern geography, English grammar, the elements of the natural sciences, the history of the United States, physiology and the laws of health. The second grade (or one-year) certificate calls for examination in the branches just enumerated, except the natural sciences, physiology and laws of health; but teachers employed exclusively in giving instruction in music, drawing, penmanship or other special branches, may take examinations in these branches alone, but are restricted, in teaching, to those in which they have been examined. — County Boards are empowered to establish County Normal Schools for the education of teachers for the common schools, and the management of such normal schools is placed in the hands of a County Board of Education, to consist of not less than five nor more than eight persons, of whom the Chairman of the County Board and the County Superintendent of Schools shall be ex-officio members.

Boards of Education and Directors may establish kindergartens (when authorized to do so by vote of a majority of the voters of their districts), for children between the ages of four and six years, but the cost of supporting the same must be defrayed by a special tax.—A compulsory provision of the School Law requires that each child, between the ages of seven and fourteen years, shall be sent to school at least sixteen weeks of each year, unless otherwise instructed in the elementary branches, or disqualified by physical or mental disability.—Under the provisions of an act, passed in 1891, women are made eligible to any office created by the general or special school laws of the State, when twenty-one years of age or upwards, and otherwise possessing the same qualifications for the office as are prescribed for men. (For list of incumbents in the office of State Superintendent, see Superintendents of Public Instruction.)



EDWARDS, Arthur, D.D., clergyman, soldier and editor, was born at Norwalk, Ohio, Nov. 23, 1834; educated at Albion, Mich., and the Wesleyan University of Ohio, graduating from the latter in 1858; entered the Detroit Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church the same year, was ordained in 1860 and, from 1861 until after the battle of Gettysburg, served as Chaplain of the First Michigan Cavalry, when he resigned to accept the colonelcy of a cavalry regiment. In 1864, he was elected assistant editor of "The Northwestern Christian Advocate" at Chicago, and, on the retirement of Dr. Eddy in 1872, became Editor-in-chief, being re-elected every four years until his death, Mar. 20, 1901. He had also been a member of each General Conference since 1872, was a member of the Ecumenical Conference at London in 1881, and held other positions of prominence within the church.



EDWARDS, Cyrus, pioneer lawyer, was born in Montgomery County, Md., Jan. 17, 1793; at the age of seven accompanied his parents to Kentucky, where he received his primary education, and studied law; was admitted to the bar at Kaskaskia, Ill., in 1815, Ninian Edwards (of whom he was the youngest brother) being then Territorial Governor. During the next fourteen years he resided alternately in Missouri and Kentucky, and, in 1829, took up his residence at Edwardsville. Owing to impaired health he decided to abandon his profession and engage in general business, later becoming a resident of Upper Alton. In 1832 he was elected to the lower house of the Legislature as a Whig, and again, in 1840 and '60, the last time as a Republican; was State Senator from 1835 to '39, and was also the Whig candidate for Governor, in 1838, in opposition to Thomas Carlin (Democrat), who was elected. He served in the Black Hawk War, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, and especially interested in education and in public charities, being, for thirty-five years, a Trustee of Shurtleff College, to which he was a most munificent benefactor, and which conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1852. Died at Upper Alton, September, 1877.



EDWARDS, Ninian, Territorial Governor and United States Senator, was born in Montgomery County, Md., March 17, 1775; for a time had the celebrated William Wirt as a tutor, completing his course at Dickinson College. At the age of 19 he emigrated to Kentucky, where, after squandering considerable money, he studied law and, step by step, rose to be Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals. In 1809 President Madison appointed him the first Territorial Governor of Illinois. This office he held until the admission of Illinois as a State in 1818, when he was elected United Sates Senator and re-elected on the completion of his first (the short) term. In 1826 he was elected Governor of the State, his successful administration terminating in 1830. In 1832 he became a candidate for Congress, but was defeated by Charles Slade. He was able, magnanimous and incorruptible, although charged with aristocratic tendencies which were largely hereditary. Died, at his home at Belleville, on July 20, 1833, of cholera, the disease having been contracted through self-sacrificing efforts to assist sufferers from the epidemic. His demise cast a gloom over the entire State. Two valuable volumes bearing upon State history, comprising his correspondence with many public men of his time, have been published; the first under the title of "History of Illinois and Life of Ninian Edwards," by his son, the late Ninian Wirt Edwards, and the other "The Edwards Papers," edited by the late Elihu B. Washburne, and printed under the auspices of the Chicago Historical Society.— Ninian Wirt (Edwards), son of Gov. Ninian Edwards, was born at Frankfort, Ky., April 15, 1809, the year his father became Territorial Governor of Illinois; spent his boyhood at Kaskaskia, Edwardsville and Belleville, and was educated at Transylvania University, graduating in 1833. He married Elizabeth P. Todd, a sister of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln, was appointed Attorney-General in 1834, but resigned in 1835, when he removed to Springfield. In 1836 he was elected to the Legislature from Sangamon County, as the colleague of Abraham Lincoln, being one of the celebrated "Long Nine," and was influential in securing the removal of the State capital to Springfield. He was re-elected to the House in 1838, to the State Senate in 1844, and again to the House in 1848; was also a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847. Again, in 1850, he was elected to the House, but resigned on account of his change of politics from Whig to Democratic, and, in the election to fill the vacancy, was defeated by James C. Conkling. He served as Superintendent of Public Instruction by appointment of Governor Matteson, 1854-57, and, in 1861, was appointed by President Lincoln, Captain Commissary of Subsistence, which position he filled until June, 1865, since which time he remained in private life. He is the author of the "Life and Times of Ninian Edwards" (1870), which was prepared at the request of the State Historical Society. Died, at Springfield, Sept. 2, 1889.— Benjamin Stevenson (Edwards), lawyer and jurist, another son of Gov. Ninian Edwards, was born at Edwardsville, Ill., June 3, 1818, graduated from Yale College in 1838, and was admitted to the bar the following year. Originally a Whig, he subsequently became a Democrat, was a Delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1862, and, in 1868, was an unsuccessful candidate for Congress in opposition to Shelby M. Cullom. In 1869 he was elected Circuit Judge of the Springfield Circuit, but within eighteen months resigned the position, preferring the excitement and emoluments of private practice to the dignity and scanty salary attaching to the bench. As a lawyer and as a citizen he was universally respected. Died, at his home in Springfield, Feb. 4, 1886, at the time of his decease being President of the Illinois State Bar Association.



EDWARDS, Richard, educator, ex-Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born in Cardiganshire, Wales, Dec. 23, 1822; emigrated with his parents to Portage County, Ohio, and began life on a farm; later graduated at the State Normal School, Bridgewater, Mass., and from the Polytechnic Institute at Troy, N. Y., receiving the degrees of Bachelor of Science and Civil Engineer; served for a time as a civil engineer on the Boston water works, then beginning a career as a teacher which continued almost uninterruptedly for thirty-five years. During this period he was connected with the Normal School at Bridgewater; a Boys' High School at Salem, and the State Normal at the same place, coming west in 1857 to establish the Normal School at St. Louis, Mo., still later becoming Principal of the St. Louis High School, and, in 1862, accepting the Presidency of the State Normal University, at Normal, Ill. It was here where Dr. Edwards, remaining fourteen years, accomplished his greatest work and left his deepest impress upon the educational system of the State by personal contact with its teachers. The next nine years were spent as pastor of the First Congregational church at Princeton, when, after eighteen months in the service of Knox College as Financial Agent, he was again called, in 1886, to a closer connection with the educational field by his election to the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, serving until 1891, when, having failed of a re-election, he soon after assumed the Presidency of Blackburn University at Carlinville. Failing health, however, compelled his retirement a year later, when he removed to Bloomington, which was his place of residence until his death, March 8, 1908.



EDWARDS COUNTY, situated in the southeastern part of the State, between Richland and White on the north and south, and Wabash and Wayne on the east and west, and touching the Ohio River on its southeastern border. It was separated from Gallatin County in 1814, during the Territorial period. Its territory was diminished in 1824 by the carving out of Wabash County. The surface is diversified by prairie and timber, the soil fertile and well adapted to the raising of both wheat and corn. The principal streams, besides the Ohio, are Bonpas Creek, on the east, and the Little Wabash River on the west. Palmyra (a place no longer on the map) was the seat for holding the first county court, in 1815, John Mcintosh, Seth Gard and William Barney being the Judges. Albion, the present county-seat (population, 937), was laid out by Morris Birkbeck and George Flower (emigrants from England), in 1819, and settled largely by their countrymen, but not incorporated until 1860. The area of the county is 220 square miles, and population, in 1910, 10,049. Grayville, with a population of 2,000 in 1890, is partly in this county, though mostly in White. Edwards County was named in honor of Ninian Edwards, the Territorial Governor of Illinois.



EDWARDSVILLE, the county-seat of Madison County, settled in 1812 and named in honor of Territorial Governor Ninian Edwards; is on four lines of railway and contiguous to two others, 18 miles northeast of St. Louis. Edwardsville was the home of some of the most prominent men in the history of the State, including Governors Edwards, Coles, and others. It has pressed and shale brickyards, coal mines, flour mills, machine shops, banks, electric street railway, water-works, schools, and churches. In a suburb of the city (LeClaire) is a cooperative manufactory of sanitary supplies, using large shops and doing a large business. Edwardsville has three newspapers, one daily, one semi-weekly and one weekly. Pop. (1890), 3,561; (1900), 4,157; (1910), 5,014.



EFFINGHAM, an incorporated city, the county-seat of Effingham County, 99 miles northeast of St. Louis and 198 southwest of Chicago; has four papers, creamery, milk condensory, and ice factory. Pop. (1890), 3,260; (1900), 3,774; (1910), 3,898.



EFFINGHAM COUNTY, cut off from Fayette (and separately organized) in 1831—named for Gen. Edward Effingham. It is situated in the central portion of the State, 90 miles northeast of St. Louis; has an area of 486 square miles and a population (1910) of 20,055. T. M. Short, I. Fanchon and William I. Hawkins were the first County Commissioners. Effingham, the county-seat, was platted by Messrs. Alexander and Little in 1854. Messrs. Gillenwater, Hawkins and Brown were among the earliest settlers. Several lines of railway cross the county. Agriculture and sheep-raising are leading industries, wool being one of the principal products.



EGAN, William Bradshaw, M.D., pioneer physican, was born in Ireland, Sept. 28, 1808; spent some time during his youth in the study of surgery in England, later attending lectures at Dublin. About 1828 he went to Canada, taught for a time in the schools of Quebec and Montreal and, in 1830, was licensed by the Medical Board of New Jersey and began practice at Newark in that State, later practicing in New York. In 1833 he removed to Chicago and was early recognized as a prominent physician; on July 4, 1836, delivered the address at the breaking of ground for the Illinois & Michigan Canal. During the early years of his residence in Chicago, Dr. Egan was owner of the block on which the Tremont House stands, and erected a number of houses there. He was a zealous Democrat and a delegate to the first Convention of that party, held at Joliet in 1843; was elected County Recorder in 1844 and Representative in the Eighteenth General Assembly (1853-54). Died, Oct. 27, 1860.



ELBURN, a village of Kane County, on the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 8 miles west of Geneva. It has banks and a weekly newspaper. Population (1900), 606; (1910), 615.



ELDORADO, a city in Saline County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis, the Louisville & Nashville, and the St. Louis, Alton & Terra Haute Railroads; has a bank and two weekly newspapers; district agricultural. Population, (1900), 1,445; (1910), 3,366.



ELDRIDGE, Hamilton N., lawyer and soldier, was born at South Williamstown, Mass., August, 1837; graduated at Williams College in the class with President Garfield, in 1856, and at Albany Law School, in 1857; soon afterward came to Chicago and began practice; in 1862 assisted in organizing the One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Illinois Volunteers, of which he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel, before the end of the year being promoted to the position of Colonel; distinguished himself at Arkansas Post, Chickamauga and in the battles before Vicksburg, winning the rank of Brevet Brigadier-General, but, after two years' service, was compelled to retire on account of disability, being carried east on a stretcher. Subsequently he recovered sufficiently to resume his profession, but died in Chicago, Dec. 1, 1882, much regretted by a large circle of friends, with whom he was exceedingly popular.



ELECTIONS. The elections of public officers in Illinois are of two general classes: (I) those conducted in accordance with United States laws, and (II) those conducted exclusively under State laws.

I. To the first class belong: (1) the election of United States Senators; (2) Presidential Electors, and (3) Representatives in Congress. 1. (UNITED STATES SENATORS). The election of United States Senators, while an act of the State Legislature, is conducted solely under forms prescribed by the laws of the United States. These make it the duty of the Legislature, on the second Tuesday after convening at the session next preceding the expiration of the term for which any Senator may have been chosen, to proceed to elect his successor in the following manner: Each House is required, on the day designated, in open session and by the viva voce vote of each member present, to name some person for United States Senator, the result of the balloting to be entered on the journals of the respective Houses. At twelve o'clock (M.) on the day following the day of election, the members of the two Houses meet in joint assembly, when the journals of both Houses are read. If it appears that the same person has received a majority of all the votes in each House, he is declared elected Senator. If, however, no one has received such majority, or if either House has failed to take proceedings as required on the preceding day, then the members of the two Houses, in joint assembly, proceed to ballot for Senator by viva voce vote of members praent The person receiving a majority of all the votes cast—a majority of the menibers of both Houses being present and voting—is declared elected; otherwise the joint assembly is renewed at noon each legislative day of the session, and at least one ballot taken until a Senator is chosen. When a vacancy exists in the Senate at the time of the assembling of the Legislature, the same rule prevails as to the time of holding an election to fill it; and, if a vacancy occurs during the session, the Legislature is required to proceed to an election on the second Tuesday after having received official notice of such vacancy. The tenure of a United States Senator for a full term is six years—the regular term beginning with a new Congress—the two Senators from each State belonging to different "classes," so that their terms expire alternately at periods of two and four years from each other.—2. (PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS). The choice of Electors of President and Vice-President is made by popular vote taken quadrennially on the Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The date of such election is fixed by act of Congress, being the same as that for Congressman, although the State Legislature prescribes the manner of conducting it and making returns of the same. The number of Electors chosen equals the number of Senators and Representatives taken together (in 1899 it. was twenty-four), and they are elected on a general ticket, a plurality of votes being sufficient to elect. Electors meet at the State capital on the second Monday of January after their election (Act of Congress, 1887), to cast the vote of the State—3. (MEMBERS OP CONGRESS). The election of Representatives in Congress is also held under United States law, occurring biennially (on the even years) simultaneously with the general State election in November. Should Congress select a different date for such election, it would be the duty of the Legislature to recognize it by a corresponding change in the State law relating to the election of Congressmen. The tenure of a Congressman is two years, the election being by Districts instead of a general ticket, as in the case of Presidential Electors—the term of each Representative for a full term beginning with a new Congress, on the 4th of March of the odd years following a general election. (See Congressional Apportionment.)

II. All officers under the State Government—except Boards of Trustees of charitable and penal institutions or the heads of certain departments, which are made appointive by the Governor—are elected by popular vote. Apart from county officers they consist of three classes: (1) Legislative; (2) Executive; (3) Judicial — which are chosen at different times and for different periods. 1. (LEGISLATURE). Legislative officers consist of Senators and Representatives, chosen at elections held on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November, biennially. The regular term of a Senator (of whom there are fifty-one under the present Constitution) is four years; twenty-five (those in Districts bearing even numbers) being chosen on the years in which a President and Governor are elected, and the other twenty-six at the intermediate period two years later. Thus, one-half of each State Senate is composed of what are called "hold-over" Senators. Representatives are elected biennially at the November election, and hold office two years. The qualifications as to eligibility for a seat in the State Senate require that the incumbent shall be 25 years of age, while 21 years renders one eligible to a seat in the House—the Constitution requiring that each shall have been a resident of the State for five years, and of the District for which he is chosen, two years next preceding his election. (See Legislative Apportionment and Minority Representation.) — 2. (EXECUTIVE OFFICERS). The officers constituting the Executive Department include the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State, Auditor of Public Accounts, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Attorney General. Each of these, except the State Treasurer, holds office four years and—with the exception of the Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction—are elected at the general election at which Presidential Electors are chosen. The election of State Superintendent occurs on the intermediate (even) years, and that of State Treasurer every two years coincidently with the election of Governor and Superintendent of Public Instruction, respectively. (See Executive Officers.) In addition to the State officers already named, three Trustees of the University of Illinois are elected biennially at the general election in November, each holding office for six years. These trustees (nine in number), with the Governor, President of the State Board of Agriculture and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, constitute the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.—3. (JUDICIARY). The Judicial Department embraces Judges of the Supreme, Circuit and County Courts, and such other subordinate officials as may be connected with the administration of justice.- For the election of members of the Supreme Court the State is divided into seven Districts, each of which elects a Justice of the Supreme Court for a term of nine years. The elections in five of these — the First, Second, Third, Sixth and Seventh—occur on the first Monday in June every ninth year from 1879, the last election having occurred in June, 1897. The elections in the other two Districts occur at similar periods of nine years from 1876 and 1873, respectively—the last election in the Fourth District having occurred in June, 1893, and that in the Fifth in 1891.— Circuit Judges are chosen on the first Monday in June every six years, counting from 1873. Judges of the Superior Court of Cook County are elected every six years at the November election.—Clerks of the Supreme and Appellate Courts are elected at the November election for six years, the last election having occurred in 1896. Under the act of April 2, 1897, consolidating the Supreme Court into one Grand Division, the number of Supreme Court Clerks is reduced to one, although the Clerks elected in 1896 remain in office and have charge of the records of their several Divisions until the expiration of their terms in 1902. The Supreme Court holds five terms annually at Springfield, beginning, respectively, on the first Tuesday of October, December, February, April and June.

(OTHER OFFICERS), (a) Members of the State Board of Equalization (one for every Congressional District) are elective every four years at the same time as Congressmen, (b) County officers (except County Commissioners not under township organization) hold office for four years and are chosen at the November election as follows: (1) At the general election at which the Governor is chosen — Clerk of the Circuit Court, State's Attorney, Recorder of Deeds (in counties having a population of 60,000 or over), Coroner and County Surveyor. (2) On intermediate years—Sheriff, County Judge, Probate Judge (in counties having a population of 70,000 and over), County Clerk, Treasurer, Superintendent of Schools, and Clerk of Criminal Court of Cook County, (c) In counties not under township organization a Board of County Commissioners is elected, one being chosen in November of each year, and each holding office three years, (d) Under the general law the polls open at 8 a. m., and close at 7 p. m. In cities accepting an Act of the Legislature passed in 1885, the hour of opening the poll's is 6 a. m., and of closing 4 p. m. (See also Australian Ballot.)



ELECTORS, QUALIFICATIONS OF. (See Suffrage.)



ELGIN, an important city of Northern Illinois, in Kane County, on Fox River and the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and Chicago & Northwestern Railroads, besides two rural electric lines, 36 miles northwest of Chicago; has valuable water-power and over fifty manufacturing establishments, including the National Watch Factory and the Cook Publishing Company, both among the most extensive of their kind in the world; is also a great dairy center with extensive creameries and milk-condensing works. The quotations of its Butter and Cheese Exchange are telegraphed to all the great commercial centers and regulate the prices of these commodities throughout the country. Elgin is the seat of the Northern (Illinois) Hospital for the Insane, and has a handsome Government (postoffice) building, fine public library and many handsome residences. It has three daily and several weekly newspapers. Pop. (1890), 17,823; (1900), 22,433; (1910), 25,976.



ELGIN, JOLIET & EASTERN RAILWAY. The main line of this road extends west from Dyer on the Indiana State line to Joliet, thence northeast to Waukegan. The total length of the line (1898) is 192.72 miles, of which 159.93 miles are in Illinois. The entire capital of the company, including stock and indebtedness, amounted (1898), to $13,799,630—more than $71,000 per mile. Its total earnings in Illinois for the same year were $1,212,026, and its entire expenditure in the State, $1,156,146. The company paid in taxes, the same year, $48,876. Branch lines extend southerly from Walker Junction to Coster, where connection is made with the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, and northwesterly from Normantown, on the main line, to Aurora. —(HISTORY). The Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway was chartered in 1887 and absorbed the Joliet, Aurora & Northern Railway, from Joliet to Aurora (21 miles), which had been commenced in 1886 and was completed in 1888, with extensions from Joliet to Spaulding, Ill., and from Joliet to McCool, Ind. In January, 1891, the Company purchased all the properties and franchises of the Gardner, Coal City & Normantown and the Waukegan & Southwestern Railway Companies (formerly operated under lease). The former of these two roads was chartered in 1889 and opened in 1890. The system forms a belt line around Chicago, intersecting all railroads entering that city from every direction. Its traffic is chiefly in the transportation of freight.



ELIZABETHTOWN, the county-seat of Hardin County. It stands on the north bank of the Ohio River, 44 miles above Paducah, Ky., and about 125 miles southeast of Belleville; has a brick and tile factory, mining interests, two churches, two flouring mills, a bank, and one newspaper. Population (1890), 652; (1900), 668; (1910), 633.



ELKHART, a town of Logan County, on the Chicago & Alton Railroad, 18 miles northeast of Springfield; is a rich farming section; has a coal shaft. Pop. (1890), 414; (1900), 553; (1910), 418.



ELKIN, William F., pioneer and early legislator, was born in Clark County, Ky., April 13, 1792; after spending several years in Ohio and Indiana, came to Sangamon County, Ill., in 1825; was elected to the Sixth, Tenth and Eleventh General Assemblies, being one of the "Long Nine" from Sangamon County and, in 1861, was appointed by his former colleague (Abraham Lincoln) Register of the Land Office at Springfield, resigning in 1872. Died, in 1878.



ELLIS, Edward F. W., soldier, was born at Wilton, Maine, April 15, 1819; studied law and was admitted to the bar in Ohio; spent three years (1849-52) in California, serving in the Legislature of that State in 1851, and proving himself an earnest opponent of slavery; returned to Ohio the next year, and, in 1854, removed to Rockford, Ill., where he embarked in the banking business. Soon after the firing on Fort Sumter, he organized the Ellis Rifles, which having been attached to the Fifteenth Illinois, he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the regiment; was in command at the battle of Shiloh, April 6, 1862, and was killed while bravely leading on his men.



ELLIS, (Rev.) John Millot, early home missionary, was born in Keene, N. H., July 14, 1793; came to Illinois as a home missionary of the Presbyterian Church at an early day, and served for a time as pastor of churches at Kaskaskia and Jacksonville, and was one of the influential factors in securing the location of Illinois College at the latter place. His wife also conducted, for some years, a private school for young ladies at Jacksonville, which developed into the Jacksonville Female Academy in 1833, and is still maintained after a history of over sixty years. Mr. Ellis was later associated with the establishment of Wabash College, at Crawfordsville, Ind., finally returning to New Hampshire, where, in 1840, he was pastor of a church at East Hanover. In 1844 he again entered the service of the Society for Promoting Collegiate and Theological Education in the West. Died, August 6, 1855.



ELLSWORTH, Ephraim Elmer, soldier, first victim of the Civil War, was born at Mechanicsville, Saratoga County, N. Y., April 23, 1837. He came to Chicago at an early age, studied law, and became a patent solicitor. In 1860 he raised a regiment of Zouaves in Chicago, which became famous for the perfection of its discipline and drill, and of which he was commissioned Colonel. In 1861 he accompanied President Lincoln to Washington, going from there to New York, where he recruited and organized a Zouave regiment composed of firemen. He became its Colonel and the regiment was ordered to Alexandria, Va. While stationed there Colonel Ellsworth observed that a Confederate flag was flying above a hotel owned by one Jackson. Rushing to the roof, he tore it down, but before he reached the street was shot and killed by Jackson, who was in turn shot by Frank H. Brownell, one of Ellsworth's men He was the first Union soldier killed in the war. Died, May 24, 1861.



ELMHURST (formerly Cottage Hill), a village of Du Page County, on the Chicago Great Western and Ill. Cent. Railroads, 15 miles west of Chicago; seat of the Evangelical Seminary; has electric inter-urban line, one weekly paper, stone quarry, electric light, water and sewerage systems, high school and churches. Pop. (1900), 1,728; (1910) 2,360.



ELMWOOD, a town of Peoria County, on the Galesburg and Peoria and Buda and Rushville branches of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 26 miles west-northwest of Peoria; the principal industries are coal-mining and corn and tomato canning; has a bank and one newspaper. Pop. (1890), 1,548; (1900), 1,582; (1910), 1,390.



EL PASO, a city in Woodford County, 17 miles north of Bloomington, 33 miles east of Peoria, at the crossing Illinois Central and Toledo, Peoria & Western Railroads; in agricultural district; has two national banks, three grain elevators, two high schools, two newspapers, nine churches. Pop. (1890), 1,353; (1900), 1,441; (1910), 1,470.



EMBARRAS RIVER, rises in Champaign County and runs southward through the counties of Douglas, Coles and Cumberland, to Newton, in Jasper County, where it turns to the southeast, passing through Lawrence County, and eptering the Wabash River about seven miles below Vincennes. It is nearly 150 miles long.



EMMERSON, Charles, jurist, was born at North Haverhill, Grafton County, N. H, April 15, 1811; came to Illinois in 1835, first settling at Jacksonville, where he spent one term in Illinois College, then studied law at Springfield, and, having been admitted to the bar, began practice at Decatur, where he spent the remainder of his life except three years (1847-50) during which he resided at Paris, Edgar County. In 1850 he was elected to the Legislature, and, in 1853, to the Circuit bench, serving on the latter by re-election till 1867. The latter year he was a candidate for Justice of the Supreme Court, but was defeated by the late Judge Pinkney H. Walker. In 1869 he was elected to the State Constitutional Convention, but died in April, 1870, while the Convention was still in session.



ENFIELD, a town of White County, at the intersection of the Louisville & Nashville with the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railway, 10 miles west of Carmi; is the seat of Southern Illinois College. The town also has a bank, poultry packing concern and one newspaper. Pop. (1890), 870; (1900), 971; (1910), 927.



ENGLISH, Joseph G., banker, was born at Rising Sun, Ind., Dec. 17, 1820; lived for a time at Perrysville and La Fayette in that State, finally engaging in merchandising in the former; in 1853 removed to Danville, Ill., where he formed a partnership with John L. Tincher in mercantile business; later conducted a private banking business and, in 1863, established the First National Bank, of which he has been President over twenty years. He served two terms as Mayor of Danville, in 1872 was elected a member of the State Board of Equalization, and, for more than twenty years, has been one of the Directors of the Chicago & Eastern Railroad. Mr. English spent most of the time in the latter years of his life in the West, practically retired from business.



ENOS, Pascal Paoli, pioneer, was born at Windsor, Conn., in 1770; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1794, studied law, and, after spending some years in Vermont, where he served as High Sheriff of Windsor County, in September, 1815, removed West, stopping first at Cincinnati. A year later he descended the Ohio by flat-boat to Shawneetown, Ill., crossed the State by land, finally locating at St. Charles, Mo., and later at St. Louis. Then, having purchased a tract of land in Madison County, Ill., he remained there about two years, when, in 1823, having received from President Monroe the appointment of Receiver of the newly established Land Office at Springfield, he removed thither, making it his permanent home. He was one of the original purchasers of the land on which the city of Springfield now stands, and joined with Maj. Elijah Iles, John Taylor and Thomas Cox, the other patentees, in laying out the town, to which they first gave the name of Calhoun. Mr. Enos remained in office through the administration of President John Quincy Adams, but was removed by President Jackson for political reasons, in 1829. Died, at Springfield, April, 1832.— Pascal P. (Enos), Jr., eldest son of Mr. Enos, was born in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 28, 1816; was elected Representative in the General Assembly from Sangamon County in 1852, and served by appointment of Justice McLean of the Supreme Court as Clerk of the United States Circuit Court, being reappointed by Judge David Davis, dying in office, Feb. 17, 1867.—Zimri Allen (Enos), another son, born Sept. 29, 1821, spent entire life in Springfield; served as County Surveyor and Alderman. Died Dec. 8, 1907.—Julia R., a daughter, born in Springfield, Dec. 20, 1832; married O. M. Hatch, former Secretary of State. Died Sept. 23, 1907.



EPLER, Cyrus, lawyer and jurist, was born at Charleston, Clark County, Ind., Nov. 12, 1825; graduated at Illinois College, Jacksonville, studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1852, being elected State's Attorney the same year; also served as a member of the General Assembly two terms (1857-61) and as Master in Chancery for Morgan County, 1867-73. In 1873 he was elected Circuit Judge for the Seventh Circuit and was re-elected successively in 1879, '85 and '91, serving four terms, and retiring in 1897. During his entire professional and official career his home was in Jacksonville. Died July 9, 1909.



EQUALITY, a village of Gallatin County, on the Shawneetown Division of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, 11 miles west-northwest of Shawneetown. It was for a time, in early days, the county-seat of Gallatin County and market for the salt manufactured in that vicinity. Some coal is mined in the neighborhood. One weekly paper is published here. Population (1880), 500; (1890), 622; (1900), 898; (1910), 1,180.



ERIE, a village of Whiteside County, on the Rock Island and Sterling Division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, 30 miles northeast of Rock Island; has a bank, some manufactures and one paper. Pop. (1900), 768; (1910), 804.



EUREKA, the county-seat of Woodford County, incorporated in 1856, situated 19 miles east of Peoria; is in the heart of a rich stock-raising and agricultural district. The principal mechanical industry is a large canning factory. Besides having good grammar and high schools, it is also the seat of Eureka College, under the control of the Christian denomination, in connection with which are a Normal School and a Biblical Institute. The town has a handsome courthouse and a jail, two weekly and one monthly paper. Eureka became the county-seat of Woodford County in 1896, the change from Metamora being due to the central location and more convenient accessibility of the former from all parts of the county. Population (1880), 1,185; (1890), 1,481; (1900), 1,661; (1910), 1,525.



EUREKA COLLEGE, located at Eureka, Woodford County, and chartered in 1855, distinctively under the care and supervision of the "Christian" or "Campbellite" denomination. The primary aim of its founders was to prepare young men for the ministry, while at the same time affording facilities for liberal culture. It was chartered in 1855, and its growth, while gradual, has been steady. Besides a preparatory department and a business school, the college maintains a collegiate department (with classical and scientific courses) and a theological school, the latter being designed to fit young men for the ministry of the denomination. Both male and female matriculates are received. In 1896 there was a faculty of eighteen professors and assistants, and an attendance of some 325 students, nearly one-third of whom were females. The total value of the institution's property is $144,000, which includes an endowment of $45,000 and real estate valued at $85,000.



EUSTACE, John V., lawyer and judge, was born in Philadelphia, Sept. 9, 1821; graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1839, and, in 1842, at the age of 21, was admitted to the bar, removing the same year to Dixon, Ill., where he resided until his death. In 1856 he was elected to the General Assembly and, in 1857, became Circuit Judge, serving one term; was chosen Presidential Elector in 1864, and, in March, 1878, was again elevated to the Circuit Bench, vice Judge Heaton, deceased. He was elected to the same position in 1879, and re-elected in 1885, but died in 1888, three years before the expiration of his term.



EVANGELICAL SEMINARY, an institution under the direction of the Lutheran denomination, incorporated in 1865 and located at Elmhurst, Du Page County. Instruction is given in the classics, theology, oratory and preparatory studies, by a faculty of eight teachers. The number of pupils during the school year (1895-96) was 133—all young men. It has property valued at $59,305.



EVANS, Henry H., legislator, was born in Toronto, Can., March 9, 1836; brought by his father (who was a native of Pennsylvania) to Aurora, Ill., where the latter finally became foreman of the Chicago, Burlington & Cjuincy machine shops at that place. In 1862 young Evans enlisted in the One Hundred and Twenty-fourth Illinois Volunteers, serving until the close of the war. Since the war he has become most widely known as a member of the General Assembly, having been elected first to the House, in 1876, and subsequently to the Senate every four years from 1880 to the year 1898, giving him over twenty years of almost continuous service. He is a large owner of real estate and has been prominently connected with financial and other business enterprises at Aurora, including the Aurora Gas and Street Railway Companies; also served with the rank of Colonel on the staffs of Governors Cullom, Hamilton, Fifer and Oglesby.



EVANS, (Rev.) Jervice G., educator and reformer, was born in Marshall County, Ill., Dec. 19, 1833; entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1854, and, in 1872, accepted the presidency of Hedding College at Abingdon, which he filled for six years. He then became President of Chaddock College at Quincy, but the following year returned to pastoral work. In 1889 he again became President of Hedding College, where (1898) he still remains. Dr. Evans is a member of the Central Illinois (M. E.) Conference and a leader in the prohibition movement; has also produced a number of volumes on religious and moral questions.



EVANS, John, M.D., physician and Governor, was born at Waynesville, Ohio, of Quaker ancestry, March 9, 1814; graduated in medicine at Cincinnati and began practice at Ottawa, Ill., but soon returned to Ohio, finally locating at Attica, Ind. Here he became prominent in the establishment of the first insane hospital in Indiana, at Indianapolis, about 1841-42, becoming a resident of that city in 1845. Three years later, having accepted a chair in Rush Medical College, in Chicago, he removed thither, also serving for a time as editor of "The Northwestern Medical and Surgical Journal." He served as a member of the Chicago City Council, became a successful operator in real estate and in the promotion of various railroad enterprises, and was one of the founders of the Northwestern University, at Evanston, serving as President of the Board of Trustees over forty years. Dr. Evans was one of the founders of the Republican party in Illinois, and a strong personal friend of President Lincoln, from whom, in 1862, he received the appointment of Governor of the Territory of Colorado, continuing in office until displaced by Andrew Johnson in 1865. In Colorado he became a leading factor in the construction of some of the most important railroad lines in that section, including the Denver, Texas & Gulf Road, of which he was for many years the President. He was also prominent in connection with educational and church enterprises at Denver, which was his home after leaving Illinois. Died, in Denver, July 3, 1897.



EVANSTON, a city of Cook County, situated 12 miles north of Chicago, on the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul and the Chicago & Northwestern Railroads. The original town was incorporated Dec. 29, 1863, and, in March, 1869, a special act was passed by the Legislature incorporating it as a city, but rejected by vote of the people. On Oct. 19, 1872, the voters of the corporate town adopted village organizations under the General Village and City Incorporation Act of the same year. Since then annexations of adjacent territory to the village of Evanston have taken place as follows: In January, 1873, two small districts by petition; in April, 1874, the village of North Evanston was annexed by a majority vote of the electors of both corporations; in April, 1886, there was another annexation of a small out-lying district by petition; in February, 1892, the question of the annexation of South Evanston was submitted to the voters of both corporations and adopted. On March 29, 1892, the question of organization under a city government was submitted to popular vote of the consolidated corporation and decided in the affirmative, the first city election taking place April 19, following. The population of the original corporation of Evanston, according to the census of 1890, was 12,072, and of South Evanston, 3,205, making the total population of the new city 15,967. Judged by the census returns of 1900, the consolidated city has had a healthy growth in the past ten years, giving it, at the end of the century, a population of 19,259. Evanston is one of the most attractive residence cities in Northern Illinois and famed for its educational advantages. Besides having an admirable system of graded and high schools, it is the seat of the academic and theological departments of the Northwestern University, the latter being known as the Garrett Biblical Institute. The city has well paved streets, is lighted by both gas and electricity, and maintains its own system of water works. Prohibition is strictly enforced within the corporate limits under stringent municipal ordinances, and the charter of the Northwestern University forbidding the sale of intoxicants within four miles of that institution. As a consequence, it is certain to attract the most desirable class of people, whether consisting of those seeking permanent homes or simply contemplating temporary residence for the sake of educational advantages. Pop. (1910), 24,978.



EWING, William Lee Davidson, early lawyer and politician, was born in Kentucky in 1795, and came to Illinois at an early day, first settling at Shawneetown. As early as 1820 he appears from a letter of Governor Edwards to President Monroe, to have been holding some Federal appointment, presumably that of Receiver of Public Moneys in the Land Office at Vandalia, as contemporary history shows that, in 1822, he lost a deposit of $1,000 by the robbery of the bank there. He was also Brigadier-General of the State militia at an early day, Colonel of the "Spy Battalion" during the Black Hawk War, and, as Indian Agent, superintended the removal of the Sacs and Foxes west of the Mississippi. Other positions held by him included Clerk of the House of Representatives two sessions (1826-27 and 1828-29); Representative from the counties composing the Vandalia District in the Seventh General Assembly (1830-31), when he also became Speaker of the House; Senator from the same District in the Eighth and Ninth General Assemblies, of which he was chosen President pro tempore. While serving in this capacity he became ex-officio Lieutenant-Governor in consequence of the resignation of Lieut.-Gov. Zadoc Casey to accept a seat in Congress, in March, 1833, and, in November, 1834, assumed the Governorship as successor to Governor Reynolds, who had been elected to Congress to fill a vacancy. He served only fifteen days as Governor, when he gave place to Gov. Joseph Duncan, who had been elected in due course at the previous election. A year later (December, 1835) he was chosen United States Senator to succeed Elias Kent Kane, who had died in office. Failing of a re-election to the Senatorship in 1837, he was returned to the House of Representatives from his old district in 1838, as he was again in 1840, at each session being chosen Speaker over Abraham Lincoln, who was the Whig candidate. Dropping out of the Legislature at the close of his term, we find him at the beginning of the next session (December, 1842) in his old place as Clerk of the House, but, before the close of the session (in March, 1843), appointed Auditor of Public Accounts as successor to James Shields, who had resigned. While occupying the office of Auditor, Mr. Ewing died, March 25, 1846. His public career was as unique as it was remarkable, in the number and character of the official positions held by him within a period of twenty-five years.



EXECUTIVE OFFICERS. (See State officers under heads of "Governor," "Lieutenant-Governor")



EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY, ILLINOIS CHARITABLE. This institution is an outgrowth of a private charity founded at Chicago, in 1858, by Dr. Edward L. Holmes, a distinguished Chicago oculist. In 1871 the property of the institution was transferred to and accepted by the State, the title was changed by the substitution of the word "Illinois" for "Chicago," and the Infirmary became a State institution. The fire of 1871 destroyed the building, and, in 1873-74, the State erected another of brick, four stories in height, at the corner of West Adams and Peoria Streets, Chicago. The institution receives patients from all the counties of the State, the same receiving board, lodging, and medical aid, and (when necessary) surgical treatment, free of charge. The number of patients on Dec. 1, 1897, was 160. In 1877 a free eye and ear dispensary was opened under legislative authority, which is under charge of some eminent Chicago specialists.

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