[Paragraph breaks and a few punctuation marks added for readability (Mr. Geddes' original manuscript is mostly single spaced).  Photos and [bracketed text] are not part of the original piece.]

The earliest settlers in Fountain Green Township came from Kentucky.  They were the Days, Mudds and three families of Lincolns.  The latter were related and why they settled so far apart has always been an unanswered question with me.

They no doubt had a reason, although they had no reason to fear the Indians by that time.  With no roads or bridges, with no stores, mail service, churches or schools, and with the horse being the fastest means of travel, it does seem they could have helped each other in every way by living closer.  The Days located east of Fountain Green, Abraham Lincoln on the Bob Sharpe place [owned by Sharpe at the time this article was written], Mudds south of the Green, the James Lincolns southeast.  The Perkins settled in Webster and the Brewers a mile north.

All teaching, if any, was done by parents or older children.  We do know these people could read and write.

By 1836, other families by the names of Tyler, Beebe, Hopkins, Ferris, Prior, White, Prentis, Geddes, Alton, Andrews, Yeager, and Hardy, coming mostly from the east, made a school possible.

This year the people built a community log building on the lot south of the park.  It was used as a town hall, church, and school.

Miss Susan Allton, now spelled Alton, a daughter of David Allton who had come here the year before from New York State, organized a private school; anyone could pay a tuition to her and attend.  This school opened in 1837.  It was in this same building that a group organized the Presbyterian Church on November 27, 1840.  [See note at the bottom of this page.]

There were those who believed that parents without children should not be taxed for schools.

The First Illinois State Constitution of 1818 stated:

Before 1829, what is now Hancock County was a part of Adams County, but that year the settlers of this new county elected a governing board of three commissioners, whose names were: James White, Henry Nichols and George Cutler.  They were appointed Sheriff, Treasurer-Clerk and Coroner for this county and in 1834 created the office of School Commissioner and named Benjamin F. Marsh to that office.  His duties were:

After 1845 this office was filled by election every two years.  After 1865 it was known as the County Superintendant of Schools and the post was filled by election every four years.  The first to hold this office was George Bachelder, 1865-69; then followed: William Griffin, 1869-77; Samuel Layton, 1877-86; Linnaus Cravens, 1886-90; John Califf, 1890-1902; J. E. Williams, 1902-10; Stephen D. Ferris, 1910-22; Arthur Decker, 1922-42; Olen Smith, 1942-66.

After 1881 all teachers were examined by the County Superintendant of Schools before being issued a certificate.  Today a teacher must have a teacher's training course of four years.

In 1841 Mathew McClaughry, Col. Thomas Geddes, Jesse Hadley, Jary White and James Renshaw were appointed by the County School Commissioner to divide Fountain Green Township into School Districts.

When that was done, Mathew McClaughry was appointed the first township Treasurer, to receive state or other money due the township and distribute it to the districts in proportion to the student population of each.  Col. Thomas Geddes was Township Clerk and examined those desiring a certificate to teach.

[The author cited here that he had in his possession a school schedule kept by Col. Thomas Geddes, and that this schedule was the source of the information in the above paragraph.]

These trustees divided the township into six districts: Fountain Green, Webster, Joe Duncan, Rossville, Eagle and Elder Grove, and a few years later, Hickory Grove and McGuffy.

In 1841 the first public school, built mostly by taxation, was built on the southeast corner of lot 13, the one south of the Edith Latherow home.  It was taught by John M. Ferris, whose certificate stated he was competent in English language, penmanship, reading and arithmetic.

In some schools of this county, where the pupils could not speak English, classes were taught in French or German, but finally the English became the only one allowed in common schools.  New Mexico today does permit the Spanish language to be used where the distric is predominantly Spanish.

Since all the rural schools of this township are consolidated into the LaHarpe School System, it seems best to state where those school houses were located, for in a few years it will not be known.

Fountain Green has a new brick building built in 1958.  Here are taught all grades.  The old school building in Fountain Green was purchased by Kermit Bouseman in 1954 and torn down.

The Joe Duncan schoolhouse still stands.  It is two miles east and a half south of Fountain Green on the east side of the road.

Hickory Grove was near the exact center of section 15, one-half mile south of the Blandinsville road.

Elder Grove is in section two, near its center on the north side of the road.

Rossville was torn down in 1960.  It was on the Gay Wright land and was bought by him.  It was one mile east of LaCrosse on the south side of the road.

McGuffy school, still standing, belongs to _endell Renshaw, about three-fourths mile south of LaCrosse on the east side of the road.

Webster School was north and west of the present church in Webster.  It was sold to John Miller and placed west of the Post Office on the Green and used as a poolroom.  Then it was bought by Rev. Sheets and made into an Assembly of God Church, where it now stands, and became a restaurant, post office and poolroom owned by Edwin Myers.

Eagle was bought by Carl Alton; it is a machine [shop?] and granary on the northeast corner of section 15.

While driving through the country, anytime you came to a house about 24 x 30, about 12 ft. to the roof, a doorway in the center of the front, a pump to one side, setting on a half acre of land with a toilet on each back corner and a hitching rack (place to tie horses) in front, that was a school house.

These were a far cry from those very early school houses. I never saw one but have read about them.  A long table for a desk, the teacher on one end, girls on one side, boys on the other, sitting on benches facing each other, a fireplace for a stove, a gourd for a dipper (used by all) a wooden bucket filled with water replenished from a nearby spring, pool of clear water or a well.

Two or three big sticks for whips were in easy reach of the teacher, and were considered standard equipment as late as 1900.  It was not uncommon for boys to go to school until they were twenty-one or two, they often challenged the teacher's authority.

At the Green, when I went to school and afterward taught, the pump had a wire around it to hang tin cups.  More often they were on the ground a few steps away, and if they were dirty and you weren't in too big a hurry, you might rinse it off under the pump spout.  Who was afraid of germs, a dirty tin cup or a pupil with a runny nose or a sore throat drinking out of your cup?  This practice was still going on twenty years ago and may, to some extent, still be going on today.  Microbes were seen by Leeuwenhoek [a Dutch naturalist and pioneer in microscopy] about 300 years ago, but were not taken seriously until about 1900.

A doctor explained what they were supposed to be like to me when I was a small boy; he called them 'micro-bees'.  I was not on too friendly terms with honeybees, bumblebees or sweat bees and I figured them all first cousins.

Many years ago I found an old record, it was in my grandfather Geddes' attic.  This tells of the birth of a country school, the McGuffy school, south of LaCrosse.  Its beginning was probably not much different from others of that time.  The record is in bad shape and I will copy to preserve some of its interesting highlights.

This district and also Rossville west of Lacrosse were the last to be settled in this township, because they were level and level land remained covered with water until late in spring, buffalo grass grew on it, and the steel moldboard that came later was needed to turn it under.  That is why this district was not laid out earlier when the others were platted.  John Lionberger wrote of coming in 1837 and only two families were living there, that of Abraham Lincoln and Richard Andrews.

Having these last two ____s and no mention of the sale of a former school building and had there been a former school, the later would have taken its name, instead they voted to call it McGuffy, supposedly after the text book so popular at that time.  I am going to make copies of interesting parts of these old records. When it says "Copy" I will copy it exactly using their spelling, punctuation, capitalization and grammar, and when it says "Note" that is my comment.

D N Bainter A. Libby Joseph Ogden Lewis Long H. Sherman Dn Bainter Joseph Ogden Lewis Long A Libby H Sherman Joseph Ogden Lewis Long A Libby H Sherman	voted for   " "     "   " "     "   " "     "   " "     " voted for   " "     "   " "     "   " "     "   " "     " voted for   " "     "   " "     "   " "     "	A Lincoln "      " "      " "      " "      " Nelson Maynard     "            "     "            "     "            "     "            " Daniel Bainter     "            "     "            "     "            "	for director   "        "   "        "   "        "   "        " for director   "        "   "        "   "        "   "        " for director   "        "   "        "   "        "
Where upon A Lincoln, D. N Bainter and Nelson Maynard were declared duly elected directors in said distrect Clerk
A Lincoln one of the Directors duly Elected was by the other two Directors duly elected as aforsaid appointed Treasurer of said district No(2) in form following to wit:       We do appoint A Lincoln Director Treasurer for district No(2) in township 6N5W given under our hand this the 2nd day of October 1847       According to previous notice the legal voters of District No 2 in Township 6N5W, assembled as provided insection Seventy Seven of an ach to establish and maintain a comion school.  Here upon A Libby was elected chirman and Joseph Ogden Secretary it was motioned and seconded and unamously voted that the school house should be set on the south east corner of the South West quarter of section six in Township 6N5W.       We certify that the above is a true Coppy of the proceedings Secretary          Chairman

COPY:

April 7, 1852 Received of James Westfall D. C. (Dist Clerk) on contract for building school house Thirty one dollars and thirty five cents Robert Lincoln

COPY:

May 27 1850 Emily Henderson taught 14 weeks for 24.00 Jany 7 1851 William C S Walker 15.00 per month three months 45.00 May 12 1851 employed Almira Ewing at $2.00 per week and boarded round  This School was closed Aug 10 1851 by directors [T]hey found due to teacher 24.00 Pilot Grove indebtedness 7.51 Fountain Green    "      " 16.49 24.00

NOTES:

     The Walker Geddes was later Captain of Co A 118 Ill. Vol.  He was killed in the Civil War and the G. A. R. Post in LaHarpe was named for him.

     James Campbell, was my mother's uncle, he was the father of Irwin, Gordon, Mary, _eber, and Boyd and the Campbell Business Block was built by him in LaHarpe.

     Martha Walker was Aunt Mattie Walker or Mattie Stahl, as we all knew her around Fountain Green.

     In this record not once did a woman vote and the salaries paid to them were about half what men received.

     Several pages have McGary Hancock Co. Ill. written as tho there might have been a post office of town by that name.  If so I can find no record of it.  Some one may have got up too early and plowed it under.

     In looking further I find they voted on a name for the school; some wanted it McGary, others McGuffy, the latter won.

     I notice the name Martin Parsons as a director, that was the father of Abe, Tom and Charlie.

Mrs. Susan (Harwick) Alton was the daughter-in-law of David and Lucy (Farwell) Allton, wife of their son, David F. Alton.  Her obituary mentioned that she established the first school in the township.