Columnist Dean Karau recalls: Ralph A Tenney – A Kewanee Founder starcourier.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from starcourier.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Columnist Dean Karau traces Kewanee – In the Beginning . . .
DEAN KARAU
What was Kewanee like in its first year? Let’s take a look. But first, for a frame of reference, let’s revisit Wethersfield prior to the founding of Kewanee.
Wethersfield’s growth was stunted by the Financial Panic of 1837, which lasted through much of the 1840s. By the early 1850s, Wethersfield had only a dozen or so businesses operating in the village. It’s population hovered around 400, but most lived on farms outside of the village. What later became Kewanee Township had another 400 or so similarly living on farms. It was a typical agricultural economy with folks having to travel to Peoria, Lacon, or Chicago for their wares.
Local history columnist Dean Karau revisits a time when Kewanee, Wethersfield shared a school
Star Courier
Soon after the founding of the Wethersfield Colony in 1837, the settlers built a small hewn-log meeting house on the northeast corner of Tenney and Church Streets. In 1839, the Colony opened the first school with a single teacher in the meeting house. Early teachers included Miss Stewart, Miss Dorr, Mr. Keeler, and C. C. Blish.
The seats were slabs four to eight feet long, with legs made of wooden pins driven into augur holes, and no backs to the seats. Younger students sat on the seats holding books in their laps, swinging their feet which could not yet reach the floor. Older students had seats facing the walls, with a wide board jutting out from the wall to be used as a writing surface. The students would gather the school books from the seats each Friday afternoon to make way for the Sunday services.