The development of schools in McDonough County is an engaging story—of values, efforts, and improvements that eventually made a great contribution to countless lives. This brief overview will emphasize the kinds of schools that provided general education during several past generations— and in a later article for this series, I will focus on college-level institutions.
Of course, the earliest school buildings were log cabins on the raw frontier.
The first one was located in Industry Township, during 1830, and it was taught by a man named George Dowell.
We have no description of it, but The History of Bardolph, Illinois (1911) describes one of the early log cabin schools in that community, which was surely similar: “This [windowless] cabin contained a huge fireplace, and when the enormous back-log was rolled into place and the fire was started for the day, the scholars’ faces would burn, while their feet would freeze. . . .
There were slab seats for the scholars, and a three-legged stool, and a hickory rod, for the teacher. . . . The desks were large planks held in place by pegs in the logs.”
