Gerald W. Smith Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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Gerald W. Smith Q. Northern was called what at that t'ime? A. It was Northern Illinois--Teachers Colleg? Was it Teachers Co leg at that tim? . . . It was a normal school. T guess it was just th 1 norm1 school of IkKalb. I forgot the offidal nam at that time. Q. And she graduated from Northern? ! I A. No, she went there just a year and then went to teaching and taught until we were married. In the s mr of 1928 on August 19, just before I went to Wdia to begin rqy first position, we were mied and mv$d to- gether then to Media. I was in &dia seven years; they were very pleasant and interesting years and were good years for rre . As I've indicated kdia was a community of about two hundred and f'if'ty people. The high sdool served about two township areas around there, and the enrollrent wa$ between fifty and sixty. The school had a rather interesting background. In the late 1880's l'k. Nathan Weaver, a fmr at Media with a Pennsylvania background, was interested in education and so he established personally the Weaver-Wdia Acadew and Henderson County Nomnal School. Q. Weaver hyphen Nkdia? A. Yes, Academy and Henderson County Normal School. Q. Henderson County, goodness, what a m . A. Now it was strictly a secondary school because in those days you could qualim people to teach on a hi& school education. So, the Hendemon County Normal School was the teaching aspect of the secondary school. He built a building, a f'ram building, but a very adequate building, in one of his fYe1d.s riat up there at the edge of the villw, and until about 1893 he operated the school himself, hired his teachers and ran it. He built a modest size house as a dormitory for students. Q. Did he do this for tuition, or did he receive public money? A. Oh no, this was a totally prlvate enterprise and he did it for i uition. In 1893 he had the school incorporated. He subsequently moved out o Iowa, but it was handled by a board of trustees. He retired f'rom active articipation in it in about 1901 or 1902 and I believe died around 1908 o 1909. The school ran as that type of academ, a secondary school for that area, with vayying levels of success or fortune. I think perhaps it was lways successful, but its fortunes v&ed through the years. At somtim it succeeded in having rather strong enrolhrents. Upon his death he left a will providing for the continuation of.the school and endowing it with some land. The heirs attempted to break the will and in the period of litigation that followed his death, I think there were a couple of years the school did not operate, but it picked up again and ran. In 1917 the school was having great difficulty with finances as a private institution, but the people of that area were very practically minded so they mved to organize a cormrrunity high school district and elect a board of education. That was how the Media Township Cornunity High SchooT was I I
Gerald W. Smith 72 the building, maintain it, heat it and hire the comrcial teachers (laws ) fomd in 1917. There upon the school district--and thls was a part kiSh of the plan in calling the election--the school district and the acade entered into a mutual worldng agreement. The school district would operate the school, the board of education would manage it and m it and eqlo the teachers and do all the things that boards do. The acadew would And they operated that wa$. I do not know when they terminated the / ernploy- rent of the teacher, but when I went to work there in the fall of 1928, this was still the arrangment. So I was hired by the school, but we were using the acadew building and they were maintaining it and I believe were not heating it, we were heating it, but they were providing it and we had that working arragpemsnt. So it was kind of an interesting setting to go into . . . Pretty introduction to the subtleties of administration. A. Yes, yes, and a pretty good introduction into the history of Amrican secondary educatfon; the total transition f'rom the old academ to the public hi@ school hadn't quite disappeared there. The student population cane f'rom the little village of Media and f'rom Raritan. which had the s m New Jersey background as hitan, New Jersey. END OF SIDE ONE A. Raritan was somwhat larger than Edia and their youngsers practically all cam to the high school, althow they were not in the hi& school district. This was in the days when 50 percent or mre of the Illinois territory was not in a high school district, but there were legal - pmvi- - sions for them to attend and for their tuition to be paid by taxes, They cam by bus. A man in Raritan, again it was private enterpfise, owned the bus and transported the students to the school, (telephone ring) Several thin@ happened to me at Media that I think me of worthy note as a part of q~ professional career and life since I fwshed college. The student body at Media was, I'd say, an above average student body, the families that lived in that nei&borhood were progressive families, they tended to be generally quite well educated. The influence of the United Presbyterian College at b!bmuth was very evident there in the people who went to lkmuth. The use of the normal school at Macomb had had quite an effect on people, a nwnber of people had gone to Knox College, so the educational level was fairly high, and likewise the perfomce. Fifty percent of our hi@ school paduates in the seven yews that I was at Medla would go on to school after paduation which was, you know, falrly hi& for that t-. It was, of course, a close and intimate relationship with the students, there were five mmbers on the faculty, there agaln their standards were high, we hired no faculty ~mbers that were not graduated f'rorn college before they began teaching. For us and all of the teachers that I d did paduate wo~k during the years that they were teaching with us Media. The faculty was also quite stable, we didn't have a heavy t % over, but we did have som because we lost our teachers to bigger j better paying jobs from time to time.
Page 1 and 2: University of Illinois at Springfie
Page 3 and 4: Gerald W. Srriith 5 2 A. That's ri&
Page 5 and 6: Gerald W. Smith 5 4 it. So I went t
Page 7 and 8: Gerald W. Sdth 56 such that it's ti
Page 9 and 10: Gerald W. Sdth ablative absolute. T
Page 11 and 12: Gerald W. Smith president of Knox t
Page 13 and 14: L for them and for m, too, it was a
Page 15 and 16: Gerald W. Smith 6 4 Q. Excuse m . (
Page 17 and 18: Gerald W. Smith 66 Q. I believe you
Page 19 and 20: Gerald W. Smith people. fis career
Page 21: Gerald W. Smith 70 and I'm not bash
Page 25 and 26: Gerald W. Smith 74 they deeded thei
Page 27 and 28: Gerald W. Smith get the benefit of
Page 29 and 30: Gerald W. Smith 7 8 So, we could re
Page 31 and 32: Gerald W. Smith 80 'Ithe professor1
Page 33 and 34: Gerald W. Smith 82 that had to do w
Page 35 and 36: Gerald W. SdtO Was this the way you
Page 37 and 38: Gerald W. Smith into them, and they
Page 39 and 40: Gerald W. Smith 8 8 sfble for IE to
Page 41 and 42: Gerald W. Smith 90 I I made. Of cou
Page 43 and 44: Gerald W. Smith 92 were discussing
Page 45 and 46: Gerald W. Smith 94 of us with an ad
Page 47 and 48: Gerald W. mth at a station on a giv
Page 49 and 50: Gerald W. Smith 98 Officer of a new
Page 51 and 52: Gerald W. Smith 100 I've done since
Page 53 and 54: Gerald W. Smith 102 coming over fro
Page 55 and 56: Gerald W. Mth 104 / -*I A. No, I di
Page 57 and 58: Gerald W. Smith 106 The second one
Page 59 and 60: I Gerald W. Wth 108 Q. Well, was th
Page 61 and 62: Gerald W. Smith 110 A. I don't tell
Page 63 and 64: school building and introduced rrys
Page 65 and 66: Gerald W. Smith 114 to work our way
Page 67 and 68: Gerald W. Smith 116 hi@ schools wer
Page 69 and 70: Gerald W. Sdth 11 8 Gerry. You beca
Page 71 and 72: Gerald W. Smith 120 A. . . . yes, y
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Gerald W. Smith 122 that the Moline
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Gerald W. Szith 124 through twelve.
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Gerald W. Smith 1 A. Yes. The objec
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Gerald W. Nth 128 of the comnau?ity
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Gerald W. Smith 130 rw= would be wi
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Gerald W. Smith very active and ver
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A. I think the only sJgnificance th
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Gerald W. Sdth 136 1 i a planning y
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A. . . . so~thing of a problem. The
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Gerald W. Nth So, the students like
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Gerald W. Mth and renewal and . . .
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Gerald W. M.th 144 Cook County had
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A. Well, I don't know I . . . Q. Wh
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Gerald W. Smtth 148 But so far as s
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Gerald W. Smith 150 you'll probably
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Gerald W. Smith 152 A. No, I did no
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Gerald W. Smith 154 every one of th
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Gerald W. Mth 156 A. . . . Yes. ?he
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Gerald W. 158 Q. This to me has alw
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Gerald W, Smith 159 list there were
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Gerald W. Smith 16 1. something." (
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Gerald W. Smith 163 of the third ye
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Gerald W. Smith 16 5 A. Yes, so we
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Gerald W. Smith 167 so that we were
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Gerald W. %ith 169 A. Oh, Irm sorry
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Gerald W. Smith It was an instituti
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Gerald W. Smith 173 individual. Bec
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Gerald W. Srnith 175 A. Yes. !Re co
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A. . . . these are illustrative - -
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Gerald W. Wth 179 bearing on people
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Gerald W. Smith la that was taking
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Gerald W. Smith 183 picture emerged
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Gerald W. Smith 185 pzaphrasirg tha
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Gerald W. &nith 187 college. But, t
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Gerald W. Smith 189 here, but now t
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Gerald W. Wth 19 1 Q. I agree, they
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Gerald W. Smith project was in moti
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Gerald W. Mth 19 5 was in progress
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At this point I would like to make
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Gerald W. Smith 1519 Dr. Glenny, Dr
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Gerald W. Smith Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

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