First officers: Evan Rea, N. G.; Geo. R. Pyle, V. G.; Geo. W. Harris, Sec.; Jas. M. Stacy, Treas.; T. T. Jacobs, Warden; Robt. Knight, C.; Wm. Powers, I. G.; A. Beeler, O. G.; R. P. Thorp, R. S. N. G.; Geo. C. Thorp, L. S. N. G.

The Lodge is prosperous and occupies a finely furnished hall in Keystone Block.

This Lodge has held regular meetings every Monday night since its organization, in 1849.

Admissions by card and initiations to the present time (Dec., 1877), 310. Present membership, 110. The following named brothers have served the Lodge as Deputies and Representatives: R. G. Bailey, J. E. Frost, John

Irvine, Geo. W. Stiteley, and Henry Shiner.

Hill City Lodge, No. 8, was instituted Sept. 28, 1874, by W. L. Sweeny, P. D. G. M., of Rock Island.

Charter members: T. T. Jacobs, I. J. Petitt, D. Weidman, O. P. Miles, A. H. Sichty, S. Stakemiller, H. G. Fisher, Ethanan Fisher, C. D. Austin, C. Rosenstock, Oliver Swartz, J. M. Keiter, B. F. Aikens, A. H. Nyman, C. Holman, Jones Schick, S. Moore, R. B. Hallett, J. H. Stakemiller and L. D. Lee. First officers: H. G. Fisher, N. G.; Stakemiller, V. G.; L. D. Lee, R. S.; O. F. Reynolds, P. S.; Jones Schick, Treas.

This Lodge holds regular meetings every Monday night, in their hall, in Bank Block. The charter members of this Lodge belonged to Carroll Lodge, No. 50, but withdrew therefrom and took their No. 8, from a defunct lodge at Springfield, Ill.

A. H. Sichty and Ethanan Fisher have been Representatives to Grand Lodge, the former gentleman having also been Grand Representative to the Grand Lodge of the U. S., and also M. W. Grand Patriarch of the Grand Encampment of the State of Illinois.

T. T. Jacobs, of Hill City Lodge, is the only surviving member of those who were present at the institution of Carroll Lodge, No. 50, and is the oldest Odd Fellow in the county.

A. O. U. W.—This society was instituted Nov. 24, 1876, with 30 members. P. M. W., H. M. Ferrin; M. W., H. G. Fisher; F., Seaborn Moore; O., A. B. Nelson; R., W. D. Hughes; F., J. W. Miller; R., Thomas Squire; G., Solomon Lohr; I. W., C. D. Austin; O. S. W., Sample Mitchell. The society is in a flourishing condition.

Sons of Temperance.-Between 1845 and 1847, a division of the Sons of Temperance was organized, and was the means of accomplishing a great deal

of good. For a while the organization was prosperous. About 1851-2 the Hydraulic Company was organized, and under the impression that it was to distill alcohol, and that its products would not get into the market as whisky, almost every body took stock in the enterprise-some of the Sons of Temperance as well as others, and it is maintained by many of the old members that the temperance distillery killed the order in Mount Carroll. Father Irvine was not a friend of alcoholic distillery, but opposed it from its inception, and fought it with unyielding courage. For a time he infused a little new life into the temperance element of the community, but it was sickly at best. In 1863-4 a Good Templars Lodge was organized, flourished only a little while, and gave up the ghost. In 1874, the present division of the Sons of Temperance was organized, and has maintained its organization to the present, accomplishing much good.

In November, 1877, under the direction of Dr. McCallister and Major Cooper, a great temperance revival was inaugurated, and a large number of the citizens donned the Red Ribbon. A hall was leased and fitted up, and the movement vitalized in every way. As the work of writing this history is being brought to a close, the members are thoroughly and effectively organized and promise great usefulness.

EDUCATIONAL.

The graded school system was organized about 1857 or 1858, under the management of Miss Witt. She was succeeded by Hayes, Long, Smith, et al. The present fine brick Union school building was erected in 1866, at a cost of $16,000. The school has met the expectations of the people in every particular. The very best educational system has been maintained, and the best educational talent of the country has always been employed. The school is now supplied with an excellent library and all the modern appurtenances to aid the pupils in the prosecution of their studies.

Present Corps of Teachers.-Principal, Prof. J. H. Ely; Assistant, Miss Mary Mooney; Room No. 1, Miss Mamie Irvine; No. 2, Miss Clara Fisher; No. 3, Miss Mattie Lumm; No. 4, Miss Emma H. Tomlinson; West Mount Carroll, J. Charles Ferrin. Prof. Ely has the reputation of being one of the ablest and most thorough teachers in the country, while his aids-de-camp possess all the requisite qualifications to make good teachers-well educated, industrious and energetic.

Among the numerous educational institutions that have been built up in the land of the Illini and other parts of the Great West, there are not many, if, indeed, there are any, that surpass in influence, usefulness and capacity the Mount Carroll Seminary. The history of this place of learning dates from 1852, and forms so important a part of the history of the county being written that it demands separate and distinct mention.

About the year 1840 of 1841, Judge Wilson came to Savanna from Macoupin County, and was elected the second clerk of the county commissioners court,

William B. Goss being the first one, elected in April, 1839. Mr. Wilson was the clerk of this court when the county offices were removed from Savanna to Mount Carroll, in September, 1844, and thus became thoroughly identified with the early interests of the county. He was a warm and ardent friend of education, and belonged to that class of men who would make education a compulsory measure, as is the practice in Germany and some of the other European countries. He was a graduate of Yale College, and consequently possessed a collegiate education. Aside from this, he was a man of enlarged views and liberality, and warmly attached to that system and diffusion of education that would fit the lowest and humblest, as well as the richest and greatest, for any duty or position in life.

In 1850, William T. Miller, of Mount Carroll, was elected to represent Carroll County in the state legislature. In 1852, there was an extra session of that body, when Mr. Miller presented and secured the passage of a bill, prepared by Mr. Wilson, incorporating the Mount Carroll Seminary. John Wilson, Nathaniel Halderman, Calvin Gray, Leonard Goss, David Emmert, B. P. Miller, James Hallett, James Ferguson and John Irvine, senior, were named as the incorporators. From the early records of this seminary, the following agreement is transcribed, as showing the plans and purposes of the incorporators:

WHEREAS, It is intended to purchase grounds, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, for seminary purposes; also to erect a seminary building, within a distance of one half mile of the Town of Mount Carroll, in accordance with the provisions of a charter entitled "An Act to Incorporate the Mount Carroll Seminary," passed at the special session of the legislature, 1852; now, therefore,

We, the undersigned, agree to take the number of shares of stock in the said seminary set opposite to our names, to pay therefor to the treasurer of the board of trustees of said seminary the sum of five dollars for each and every share of said stock set opposite to our names, respectively, in manner and proportion as follows, viz.: Five per cent upon receiving public notice, in some newspaper in Carroll County, that two hundred shares have been subscribed, and the remainder in instalments, not exceeding ten per cent during any subsequent period of three months; and provided, also, that any subscriber may, at his option, pay at any time, after two hundred shares are taken, the full amount subscribed by him.

And it is further stipulated that the amount paid on the stock hereto subscribed shall bear interest, from the date of payment, at the rate of six per cent per annum, payable at the office of the treasurer of the board of trustees, in Mount Carroll, on the first Monday of July and January each year, until dividends shall be declared by the board of trustees, out of the profits arising from said seminary.

And it is further agreed that a failure to pay any instalment called upon our shares of stock respectively, for sixty days after the same shall have become due, and of which due notice of a call thereof shall have been given, shall authorize the board of trustees, at their option, to declare the stock upon which instalments shall have been called and shall remain due and unpaid, and all sums previously paid thereon, forfeited to said incorporation.

Shares of stock were placed at five dollars each, and the old stock book shows that five hundred and forty-eight shares were taken, ranging from one to fifty shares to each individual subscriber, and, omitting the Misses Wood and Gregory-of which, more hereafter-representing eighty-three different individuals. These 548 shares, at five dollars each, were supposed to be equal to $2,740, but the authority from which we are quoting shows that out of the entire eighty-three different subscribers, only six of them paid up their stock in full. These six were: R. G. Bailey, 5 shares, $25; E. Funk, 5 shares, $25; William Halderman, 10 shares, $50; T. W. Miller, 10 shares, $50; H. B. Puterbaugh, 2 shares, $10; Thomas Rapp, 10 shares, $50. Total paid up shares, 42; total cash receipts from this source, $210; from partly paid up shares, etc., $750.75, making the grand total of cash receipts only $960.75.

Synoptical.-Whole number of shares subscribed, omitting Wood and Gregory's, 548; supposed cash value, $2,740. Of this sum only $960.75 was ever realized in cash. Settled by notes, $300.75, on which but a very small per cent was ever paid.

Such were the surroundings of the seminary, now so prosperous and popu lar, in its early days. By means of a business correspondence with Isaac Nash, a wealthy farmer of Saratoga County, New York, Mr. Wilson learned of two young ladies of that county, graduates of the Normal School at Albany, who were desirous of coming West to engage as teachers, for which profession they had qualified themselves, intending to make it the business of their lives. These young ladies were Miss Frances A. Wood (now Mrs. Shimer) and Miss Cinderella M. Gregory. When the seminary was chartered by the legislature, Mr. Wilson opened a correspondence with these ladies, and, in May, 1853, they came to Mount Carroll as teachers, under the patronage of the seminary interests. Soon after their arrival, they commenced their engagement in the second story of the building now known as the Ashway Building, and then the only brick building in town. At that time the land where the seminary buildings have been erected, down as far as the Baptist Church, on Main Street, was a wheat field, valued at only $7.50 per acre, and considered away out of town. Although it was generally understood that these teachers were employed in the seminary interests, they were thoroughly independent of the board of seminary trustees. Only the influence of the seminary incorporators was behind them. They made all the necessary arrangements, provided the school room, paid all the bills, and collected all tuition fees. Their first term commenced on the 11th of May, 1853, with eleven pupils, but closed with forty This select school (for it was in reality nothing more) was continued down town about one year and three months.

When the Board of Trustees came to select a site for the contemplated seminary building, there was a remarkable vigilance on the part of land-owners, and the movements of the board were carefully watched. Wherever they perambulated, lands suddenly and rapidly increased in value. As an example: When the Misses Wood and Gregory came to Mount Carroll, in the Spring of 1853, the lands from the depot down as far as the Baptist Church were held, as previously stated, at $7.50 per acre. But when a site was selected there for the seminary building, they jumped up in price to $100 per acre. The magical charms of Aladdin's lamp, as related in the tales of the Arabian Nights, were lost as compared with the touch of these trustees. But five acres were purchased for $500, and in 1854 a brick building 42 by 46 feet on the ground, two stories and a half in height, with basement, was erected thereon. This building was erected under contract at a cost of $4,500, not including window blinds, etc. It contained twenty rooms, and as soon as finished, which was in October, 1854, the seminary formally organized under the charter, and the Misses Wood and Gregory employed as teachers at a stated salary of $300 per year each.

About the time the building was finished, the teachers were enjoying a vacation, and had gone back home to Saratoga County, New York, on a visit to their friends. Money was borrowed to furnish the building, and forwarded to Misses Wood and Gregory with instructions to expend it in the purchase of such furniture as, in their judgment, was necessary. At the end of six months the creditors began to clamor for their money, and it was found that a new financial management was necessary to the success of the institution. The expenses exceeded the income. The stock subscribers became dissatisfied, and the corporators began to devise ways and means to shift the responsibility of the enterprise. At last an arrangement was made by which the two New York women agreed to pay the cost of the building, $4,500; the trustees to donate the furniture on condition that they (Misses Wood and Gregory) would continue the school for a period of ten years, and Rinewalt and Halderman donated five acres of ground. Subsequently, claims for money borrowed, etc., were presented, which the plucky and enterprising teachers likewise assumed, on the condition of their being released from their ten years' obligation. All of this indebtedness, however, was not paid in money. Mr. Rinewalt, who had always