Cherry Grove
Scene of 1st
Schoolhouse
Six years before the community of Abingdon was
founded the family of Joseph Latimer migrated from the Volunteer State of
Tennessee in 1830 to a place which later became known as Cherry Grove, Knox
County.
Here in the same year when her immigrants were laying the cornerstones of
Abingdon community just barely a mile north of Cherry Grove, Latimer
established the first school in Abingdon area.
In June 1835 the Cherry Grove Cumberland Presbyterian Church was set up in
Latimer's residence. In 1836 a church building was built and at the same
time the school held in Latimer's house contained the name of Cherry Grove
Seminary. It was a boarding school and had children of all
ages.
Interest Increases
When interest in education and the population
in the Abingdon area increased, a two-story frame building was erected near
Latimer's house in 1849 to be used both as a church and a school. That year
about 100 pupils registered in the school.
The seminary lasted in Cherry Grove for 30 years. In 1866 the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church established a college in Lincoln and this institution
was to take the place of the Cherry Grove Seminary and two other small
educational institutions supported by the church in Illinois.
Thus the seminary closed that year and its records were transferred to the
new college. While in its bloom, the Cherry Grove school had students from
Iowa, Missouri, Kentucky, central Illinois and a great number from the
neighboring community - Abingdon.
The idea of the first college in Abingdon was born in the minds of two men, P. H Murphy and J. C. Reynolds, in 1853 when they taught select-school in an old rented building on Martin street near the corner of Main street. Work of these two men sold the idea for a college to citizens and church groups, and in the fall of 1853 the small school proudly carried the name of Abingdon Academy. The premises where the academy was located were far from sufficient. So the community of Abingdon decided to construct a building for the school. In 1854 work on a three-story brick structure began and it was finished at a cost of $10,000.
Chartered by State
In February 1855, the academy was chartered by the state as Abingdon College. The new building was completed in 1856 and the college left its dreary grounds in the small rented home and moved into the new building. P. H. Murphy, one of the founders of the college, was appointed the first president. The institution grew. In 1868 a brick addition to the original building was constructed for $40,000. The school now could accommodate about 500 students.
Rises to Prosperity
Abingdon College enjoyed a sharp rise to prosperity
for six years and then was doomed with just as sharp a decline. The period
between 1875 and 1877 was termed by residents as the "dark days" for the
school, and the college folded in 1888.
Financial difficulties were primarily responsible for
its downfall and strife within its organization hastened it. The college
was supported by the Christian Church.
During the "dark days" the church in Abingdon started
to split into two factions, which quarreled between themselves and with
college officials. The school closed its doors 33 years after its
birth. An attempt to bring the college to life was made by F. M. Bruner, who purchased the school in 1880. He was the sole
owner until 1885, when Abingdon College united with Eureka College
in Eureka.
More Records
After the records of the school were moved to Eureka,
another effort to revive the institution was made. The school property was
bought by a Prof. Summers of Kansas, who established Abingdon College Normal
on the land. Fate did not favor this educational institution, and
in a few years Prof. Summers had to give up the idea. Hedding College at
that time was enjoying its years of prosperity in Abingdon, and the
community just wasn't large enough to support two higher institutions of
learning. Hedding College purchased Abingdon College property in
1895 and moved its normal and music departments over to the first college's
buildings. Founded about two years before Hedding College,
Abingdon College lost out while the Methodist supported institution
continued to exist for half a century longer.
The Abingdon Schools.
One of the wisest moves that Abingdon has ever made was in
constructing the brick building which serves as the
North Abingdon High School.
It is quite a large building and is well arranged. It was built in 1868, at a
cost of $20,000. Seven rooms are now in the school and the present building is
now too small. The attendance in both schools exceeds 600 and Abingdon's need is a new High School
building. For a number of years the South School was conducted in a one-story
frame building, on the site of the present structure. Their present building
is an elegant one, constructed of brick, but like its sister school is rapidly
growing too small to accommodate our increasing population. Prof. George Bloomer
was principal of the North School and Prof. John Williamson of the South.
The advantages offered to the youth of our city are of the very best.
Hedding College
A Dream Come True
Cornerstone
For Building
Laid in 1855
When Abraham D. Swarts laid out the settlement of Abingdon in 1836, he
reserved a tract of land in hopes that at some time a college would be built on
it. His dream came true 19 years later. Cornerstone for Hedding Collegiate Seminary was placed on that tract in 1855
and the first building for a college, which had 75 years of growth and
activity before it died, was completed in 1857. The structure cost $12,000, a
high price for the times. The new school was named after Methodist Bishop Elizah Hedding. A slate
charter approved the school with the formal title of Hedding Seminary and
Central Illinois Female College, with the right to grant degrees to women. In
1875 the longer and cumbersome title was dropped and the school became simply
known as Hedding College.
Serves as President
First president of the school was the Rev. N. C. Lewis, who was succeeded by
John T. Dickinson, who served as head of the college during the Civil War
period, from 1858 to 1867.
The little college grew. In 1876 a second building was added to the premises
at a cost of $30,000. Between the years 1895-1896, Hedding College had 17
members on the faculty and a total of 403 students, consisting of 212 men and
181 women. The school taught science, mathematics, languages including Greek and Latin,
classics, music, fine arts, preparatory courses and oratory. At that time
the school had endowment accounts in the neighborhood of $50,000 and the
school property was valued at $158,000. The turn of the century brought a building boom to Hedding. In 1904 a boy's
gymnasium was built, following with a girl's dormitory, Nellie Blodgett Hall,
in 1910. A private residence was turned into a boy's
dormitory in 1915 and was named McHard Hall. Remodeling work was also in process,
in 1917 the original building, which was
referred to as the Chapel, was remodeled. Huge, white pillars were added to
the structure and the old, red brick was covered with yellow stucco.
Chapel Beckons
The chapel now stood surrounded by all the other college buildings in the
center of the growing town, beckoning to students from Illinois and
surrounding states.
Probably at the time when Hedding College was at its height around 1924, the
Methodist Church decided that there were too many educational institutions in
Illinois and that they would have a difficult time sub-sidizing them all. The college was discontinued as an independent educational institution and in
1930 its records were transferred to Illinois Wesleyan University.
Discontinue College
Though the church discontinued the college in 1924, its buildings
still served for educational purposes. Between the years 1924 and 1926 W. E.
Harnish established a junior college on the Hedding campus. In 1926 a
self-help school followed the junior college, but it lasted only for a few
months. In 1927 a Col. Terry conducted the Illinois Military School in
Hedding buildings, but when this school failed in 1935 all hope to
retain Hedding College as some kind of educational institution was given up. The school buildings stood idle until 1947 when a wrecking company tore down
the main building, gymnasium and Blodgett Hall. In 1940 the boys' dormitory
was sold and in 1945 the athletic field and horse barn followed suite.
Doesn't Die Out
But the feeling of education, did not quite die out of the grounds
on which one of the first colleges in this area stood. In 1951, Abingdon citizens through donations collected $l,000 and with this
cleared the title of the ground to be turned over to Abingdon Community School district. In 1953, a modern, one story, 24 classroom elementary school was constructed
by the school district at approximately the same place where almost a century
before the first cornerstone was laid for Hedding College.