A brief history of Peoria - University Library

20. ..PEORIA
and eig-hty-one teachers employed. There are more than seven
thousand children receiving instruction in her public schools daily.
On these schools she spends a quarter of a million dollars annually,,
and she is proud of the fact that there is open to each child in her
borders an education which is more than eqnal to the best given in
our colleges half a century ago. The best advanced schools of the
nation receive her graduates without conditions, thus enabling her
children to build worthily upon the foundation laid in her own
schools.
Her private schools and her church schools are also of the best
kind. Her system of kindergartens, supported by contributions, is
one of which any city may be ju&tly proud. Her business college
is one whose success is shown in the great number of pupils which
fill many of the best offices in the city. The parochial schools are
carefully graded, and give to the children committed to their care
not only the elements of a religious abiding faith, but also a care
ful intellectual training. In these schools thousands of dollars are
invested and scores of teachers employed.
It is the intention of .Mrs. Lydia Bradley, the woman to whom
Peoria owes so much, to establish at no distant day a Polytecnic
school which shall be in every way the equal of the best. It will af-
ford a direct preparation for the active duties of life. It will be
open to all the children of the city whose .preparation will enable
them to pursue with success its course of study.
This school will stand at the head of the schools of the city and
be an honor to the people. It will crown the many noble works of
this noble woman, and be for all time her lasting monument of faith
in human nature and her love for the children of the city.
POST OFFICE
BY H. B. MORGAN, P. M.
The following will show the growth of the business of the Peoria
post otifice:
For the year ending June 30th, 1879, the gross receipts from the
sale of postage was S41,02:>.45; for the year ending June 30th, 1887,
$70,520.66; for the year ending June 30th, 1896, (estimated for June
on a basis of June, 1895,) S142,687.00.
From this it will be seen that the office is doing more than
double the business of nine years ago, and three and one-half times
the business of seventeen years ago. In 1879 the office was run at
an expense of 40 per cent of its gross receipts. It is now being run
at an expense of less than 30 per cent, of its gross receipts, which is
a much less percentage than any office of the first class in the United
States, save one.
During the calendar year of 1895, money orders issued amounted
to $121,397.25; money orders paid, amounted to $406,945.26. Increase
over 1894 in issued, $6,553.74; increase over 1894 in paid, $194,514.69.
The office employes 22 clerks and messengers and 26 carriers.
Mail is received by thirty trains and dispatched by thirty trains-
daily, 13 of which carry railway postal cars, employing 44 postal
clerks; 86 pouches and 60 tie sacks are dispatched daily and about
the same number of each is received.