More Than One Hundred Years of Excellence

Emily Davis
Carbondale Community High School, Carbondale

It is amazing to think that an Illinois town with such humble beginnings would turn into a center of so many cultures one-hundred-forty-six years later. Well-known today as a university town, Carbondale gained that reputation more than one hundred years ago as the home of a small regional college. This initial action laid the foundation of the junior and senior high school systems as well as the higher education found in Carbondale today.

Only four years after its founding, a group of three men from the Alton Presbytery traveled to Carbondale, Illinois, and made the decision that would change the town's history forever. It was a typical humid southern Illinois day in May 1856 when Reverend Joseph Gordon, Elisha Jenney, and Edward B. Olmstead arrived at Carbondale looking for a promising place to establish an "institution of learning." That night they met with the local townspeople, many of whom owned businesses. It was at this meeting that the Reverend Gordon explained, "the desire to establish a promising place, an institution of learning of a high literacy character with the said church."

Soon afterward, it was decided that a school must be built. Daniel Harmon Brush, the original founder of Carbondale, drew up subscription papers, which were immediately circulated throughout the town and countryside. The Presbytery committee's spirits were good. Its members were certain that money and land could be found to help their dream grow. Citizens gave $1,045, 6 lots, and 494 acres to the cause. A board was organized with Reverend Joseph Gordon as president, Dr. William Richart as treasurer, and Daniel Harmon Brush as secretary. James M. Campbell, "one of Carbondale's wealthier public spirited citizens," A. Conner, and Daniel Harmon Brush were also appointed to a committee that persuaded the community members to make further subscriptions. Additionally, fifteen trustees were appointed.

In 1874 Southern Illinois College became one of the state's "normal" schools to train future teachers. Pictured here is the main campus building far the Southern Illinois Normal University.

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By June 17, 1856, the Presbytery board and city officials decided on a name—Carbondale College. It was to be located on ten acres in southeastern Carbondale on South East Street, later renamed South Washington Street.

On October 20, 1856, an architect was employed and a building committee including Reverend W. S. Post, Daniel Harmon Brush, and James M. Campbell was formed. By January 5, 1857, the committee had contracted with Thomas Thornton to make and fire "a sufficient number of good, merchantable bricks—say, 400M (400,000), more or less, to lay up the walls of the north wing or end of the building." By the time his contract ended he had finished making only about 310,000 bricks. This slowed the building process, but with a little "coaxing and possibly a few threats" the work was continued. For an anxious Brush, the building was, "actually melting from . . . view" as each successive rainstorm pelted the piles of unused bricks. Finally, in the midst of the Civil War, during the autumn of 1861, the building was completed.

Sometime between 1863 and 1866 the Christian Church bought the property and renamed the school Southern Illinois College. In 1867 the eastern side of the building was built and by 1868 or 1870 (sources differ) there were nearly three hundred pupils, an attendance not reached again until 1904. Student ages ranged from elementary to college level with tuition ranging from $6 to $10 depending on classes.

Despite the rapid development of Southern Illinois College, people believed there was a need for a state normal school that could cater to the growing needs of the region known as Egypt. Although with little connection to one another, three similar conventions called for school reform throughout the southern region. One of these convened in Carbondale from June 24 through 26, 1868. Many of its talks were held on the lawn of the Southern Illinois College, which was hoped by many in Carbondale to be utilized as the new Normal school building.

By the end of 1868, the Southern Illinois Teachers Association had been formed to work for not only the downstate region's educational reform, but for statewide reform. Strongly supported by such prominent political leaders as General John A. Logan and Colonel D. H. Brush, the association pushed for the formation of a Normal School in southern Illinois. This charter act was easily passed by the Twenty-Sixth General Assembly and signed by Governor John M. Palmer on April 20, 1869. It laid the foundation for the present Southern Illinois University campus in Carbondale.

The Southern Illinois College building was used as part of the original Southern Illinois Normal University in September 1874, while arrangements for the new school were being laid out approximately three-quarters of a mile south of the town square on twenty acres of farmland. At that time, Normal Hall, the first main building on the present campus, had just been completed. Even at the beginning of the university's existence, local Carbondale elementary students were taught by university professors through arrangements made by the local school board and university officials. This arrangement continued for high school students at the University School on the Southern Illinois Campus until the close of the summer quarter of 1971.

Although the use of the building from 1874 to the turn of the century is unclear, it is known that beginning in 1905 the building was used as Carbondale's public high school. It served only Caucasian students in grades nine through twelve and was one of four Carbondale public schools that together served nearly nine hundred students. In 1908 the school board had acquired the land for $15,000, and the city block was secured for elementary education. The building was renamed Lincoln School, and another building, connected by a tunnel, was added to the grounds.

The Southern Illinoisan reported on March 22, 1967, that Lincoln School had been condemned as unsafe and consequently was demolished. However, the newer 1949 construction as well as a 1967 addition were spared the wrecking ball, and they continue today to serve Carbondale Elementary District No. 95 as Lincoln Middle School.

Lincoln School has responded to community growth and educational changes for more than one hundred years. These changes reflect community social and economic patterns and new developments in teaching methods. The original goals of excellence and service continue. Its formation in 1856 laid the foundation for both a state university and a school district. Throughout the many years of its existence, no other school in southern Illinois has had such a profound effect on the education of young minds nor reached out to such a large span of academic levels as has Lincoln School.—[From D. Brush II, Growing Up with Southern Illinois; Eli G. Lentz, Seventy-five Years in Retrospect; student historian's interview with Lawrence Martin, Feb. 17, 1996; Betty Mitchell, Carbondale; Betty Mitchell, Southern Illinois University; Sanborn-Perris Map Company, Carbondale, Jackson County, Illinois [Property Insurance Map] 1899; Sanborn Map Company, Carbondale, Jackson County, Illinois [Property Insurance Map], 1906, 1913, 1929, rev. 1946; Southern Illinoisan, Feb. 28, 1965; Mar. 22, 1967; Southern Illinois University, Annual Report of the Board of Trustees, 1870/71.]

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