Mokena's Old Schoolhouse, 1872 - 1929

Schools are the lifeblood of a community and they carry the tremendous responsibility to educate the youth of our town. A desirable school district increases home values and make a community more desirable. 

Though it was not the first Mokena school house, the grand 2 story schoolhouse that sat at today's Front Street and Schoolhouse Road, was at the leading edge of features when it was built and offered Mokena families a quality education within walking distance. This was a time when there was no high school in the area and kids would have to take the train out of town if they chose to continue their education beyond grade school. 

Matt shares some great information about the school during this time and some of the early teachers and principles along with some of the amazing stories from through the years. This was a beautiful building that drew acclaim from around the area. 

We hope you enjoy this story and our conversation!
You can find Matt’s Blog Post about this article here! 

Chapters

• 0:00 Mokena's School History and Street Names
• 9:14 Names and History of Mokena Streets
• 20:39 History of Mokena Public School
• 34:22 Events and Challenges at Mokena School
• 46:33 The Legacy of Mokena's Old School

Transcript

Israel: 0:00

Welcome to Mokena's Front Porch. A Mokena History podcast with Mac Dalek and me, israel Smith.

Matt: 0:07

Before the sale. The school's old iron bell, installed in 1881, and the work of Philadelphia's McShane Foundry, was removed from its tower and stored at Front Street's Village Hall. There it was held on to for safekeeping, with the news bulletin, deeming that it may come in handy for future use. It is the legacy of hundreds of Mokena children who attended class in our town in the buoyant days after the end of the Civil War.

Matt: 0:37

For over half a century, the ornate two-story Mokena public school stood on the northwest corner of Front Street and today's Schoolhouse Road, a place that loomed large in the lives of generations of villagers.

Israel: 0:51

Alright, this episode. We're talking about the article that you wrote, matt, you published on Saturday, august 5th 2023. Yeah, definitely, and it was titled Reading, writing and Rhythmetic the Mokena Public Schools from 1872 to 1929. Yes, yeah, so, and just briefly, what was the, what is the significance of that time frame?

Matt: 1:16

Yeah well, those years, or the span of years between those two, was when the schoolhouse the Mokena schoolhouse was in use. That stood on the let's see, that would be the northwest corner of today's Front Street and Schoolhouse Road.

Israel: 1:35

And you talk in the article how really at the time when that school was built, what we now know as Schoolhouse Road was really like a country road, I mean it's at the edge of town. Oh, yeah, yeah. This was all kids walking to school, largely right and people from the right there in the community, there were no school buses and things like that.

Israel: 1:53

It was true yeah, definitely not, not yet so and you continually hear this school referred to, as you know, one of the grandest schools, one of the you know greatest buildings or school buildings in Will County and the pictures on the blog really do show what a cool building this was. And you know a two-story with a grand, you know bell tower at the top and really neat building. And it's kind of hard to you know. With some of the pictures that you post you kind of get the idea of where it sits. But there's so much change now. Now on that it sits kind of where that yellow house is is that right?

Matt: 2:36

Yeah, more or less where the yellow house is. I don't think it may be set exactly in the footprint, because when you look at pictures of the Schoolhouse it looks like it was set back from the road a little bit.

Israel: 2:50

So, maybe close.

Matt: 2:52

maybe the back was closer to First Street, that's kind of the notion I'm getting yeah or that I've always gotten yeah. So it kind of sat between on that corner but between Front Street and First.

Israel: 3:02

Street, and so 1872, the school is built. And at that time, what was the school system in Moquina looking like? High school, wise, sure, yeah, I know you covered a little bit. We'll get into an article.

Matt: 3:19

Yeah, so in 1872, there wouldn't have been any high school to speak of. There was already a schoolhouse in town. So this schoolhouse, our schoolhouse here on the corner, was not the first one in town. There was a much smaller building that had stood in or, pardon me, that was built in 1855 for about cost about $1,000 to build it when they built it, and it was a. It was a handsome little building, but it was nowhere near as big and as grandiose as this schoolhouse was, and it stood on what then was called the public square, which kind of describe where that was or is and never really went anywhere. But it would be.

Matt: 4:03

The southern boundary of the public square would be Second Street, with the eastern boundary being Union Street, northern boundary being Third Street and the western boundary would have been roughly where St John's is nowadays, maybe a yard or two to the west of where St John's Church is. This was a tract of ground that was set aside by our founding father, alan Denny, in the 1850s strictly to be used for schools and churches, and that's why St John's is still there, because that's where they've always been, in that parcel land somewhere. But this original schoolhouse, that was the first building built on the square when it opened in 1855 was stood kind of tough to explain. Kind of close to where St John's is nowadays but not exactly in the footprint. We could walk out there and we could stand right about where it was, but it doesn't neatly fit into the footprint of any building that's there nowadays.

Matt: 5:15

But kind of stood between where St John's is now and where their Christian community center is Kind of in that driveway parking lot kind of area there stood there and interestingly this building is still with us in town today, just not in its original location. St John's. St John's Church, which then was called the German United Evangelical St John's Church, purchased the building from the school board Few years after it went out to use, probably around 1875 or so, and they had it moved and tacked on to their parsonage which stood on the south side of Third Street, and this old schoolhouse was used by St John's as a schoolhouse for Sunday school and occasionally meetings and so on and so forth. And then in the 1920s the schoolhouse was detached from the former parsonage building and rotated a little bit so that part of it fronted on Third Street and so it sits today as a residence.

Israel: 6:23

Sure, and that's the one. The first house directly west of the parking lot, yeah, that's right Of St John's. That's the one, yeah.

Matt: 6:30

Yeah, okay.

Israel: 6:31

Interesting.

Matt: 6:32

Yeah, and it's one of the few houses in town, because it's one of the few where we can actually affix its date of construction to it. With so many of the other really really old ones, we only have kind of a rough estimate as to when it was built. But since that building was the schoolhouse and its history was very well documented, we know it was built in 1855.

Israel: 6:56

And I don't know if you've ever been in that building, or yeah. So we don't know if there's any remnants of the schoolhouse or the looks of Right.

Matt: 7:08

Yeah, unfortunately I've never been inside. I would absolutely love to, so if anybody out there knows the owners and would like to give us a tour. But I've been told and this is going back a little bit so this may not be the case anymore but I told back in the 90s so 20 plus years ago that the original wooden beams, the supports in the floor, were still visible in there. From the basement you can see them. So I don't know if they're still exposed or they've been covered up over the years, but at least as of back then they were still there.

Israel: 7:49

And I know it's sold not too long ago, that's right, yeah. There might be some pictures somewhere on the Internet of that.

Matt: 7:55

Yeah.

Israel: 7:56

So that was the original, the first known school house in Moquina.

Matt: 8:02

Yeah, that was the first schoolhouse in Moquina proper, not counting the country schoolhouses that we had. But yeah, that was the first one and our schoolhouse and schoolhouse road was the second new and improved schoolhouse.

Israel: 8:17

And as again, as you say and as we've covered in previous episodes, that building still kind of lives on with other homes, homes that were built from it, which you'll talk about in the article.

Israel: 8:28

Yeah, definitely, which is kind of interesting. I mean you need to be able to walk through this beautiful building but, as we hear, that was kind of a struggle too, or a fight in town of what happens with that building, Absolutely. So you talk in the very beginning a little bit. You mentioned some of the street names and how it relates to town and the founders and that, and so, reading again the article, I thought you know I see a lot of the street names around town and not always sure how they're related or who if they're named after somebody. So I had a short list I thought we'd go through and see if we can shed any light.

Matt: 9:11

And if not, you know that's fine too. Okay, yeah, we'll see.

Israel: 9:14

So north the tracks, there's Cross Street, yep, and then there's St John's there.

Matt: 9:19

Absolutely. That's named after a gentleman by the name of Cyrus Cross who was one of our early settlers not the first, but he was. He was on the scene almost going back to day. One came to us by way of Homer Township I believe he was a born New Yorker, if I'm not mistaken, but he subdivided that little area along Cross Street. That was originally part of Denny's addition to Moquina, but then, a few years after Denny had laid out the town, cyrus Cross bought that little chunk of it and he then chopped it up further into lots and the street just so happened to be named after him because it was his property.

Israel: 10:06

Interesting. I always thought it was maybe a connection to St John's and a religious, but that that makes sense. Cross Street is one of my favorite streets to walk down around downtown. It's just a cute little street, neat houses on.

Matt: 10:19

Yeah, a lot of history on Cross Street. Absolutely.

Israel: 10:22

All right, how about Carpenter Street?

Matt: 10:24

Carpenter Street is another interesting one, another early guy in Moquina's history. He was a contemporary to Alan Denny and Cyrus Cross. What's interesting about Carpenter Street? Once again we have a street named after a subdivision, by the man who subdivided it. An early settler who came along saw that Moquina was growing a little bit. The Rock Island had just come through. Alan Denny had subdivided, sold off some lots, people were building houses and businesses and stuff like that, as did John McGovney, alan Denney's neighbor, however, or I should.

Matt: 11:04

I should backtrack a little bit. So this is what Carpenter is doing to over in that neck of the woods on Carpenter Street. But which Carpenter that street is named after is kind of foggy because there were two Carpenter's who at that time were kind of wheeling and dealing and dealing in property speculation in Molkina back in the 1850s and I've looked into the genealogy and I believe these two men were brothers or cousins. There was Chauncey Carpenter who I believe we talked about when we talked about Laura Thiel Solon on Front Street. He I believe he had a connection to the early history of that house and was the other one that Norman Carpenter, I want to say. So it could have been named after either one of them, or both of them, even, who knows?

Israel: 12:01

Okay, but yeah, all right. And how about Parker Street?

Matt: 12:06

Parker Street is another interesting one. It's kind of a mystery to me, kind of nebulous A theory, an idea I have. Maybe it was named after a local guy, thomas P Parker, who was a farmer not really close to town. He was more out in the town line road area, or what we now know is town line road which there's another Parker not far from there either, right Exactly.

Matt: 12:39

It could very well be named after the same family, but Thomas Parker volunteered in the Union Army during the Civil War and was ultimately killed at the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863. So I wondered well, maybe it was named after him, but I'm not totally sure because Parker Street wasn't platted. It wasn't laid out until well after Thomas Parker died. So he died in 1863. Parker Street was part of Benedict Marty's subdivision to Mochino, which he had laid out in. That must have been around 1904 or thereabouts. So there's quite a passage of time between Thomas Parker and the street coming along. So maybe, but I can't say with any definitive.

Israel: 13:33

OK yeah, how about Revere Road?

Matt: 13:36

Revere. I've always just kind of kind of thought that was named after. It was just somebody being patriotic naming it after Paul Revere. That's kind of what I was thinking, but you never know, yeah, yeah, I've never heard one way or the other, but that's what I always figure. I mean, I've never happened to cross any Revere's in Mochino's history. Yeah, ok, so I think it says patriotism.

Israel: 13:59

So we said, or if we had south of the tracks a few more? Yeah, Obviously McGovney and Denny are. They're definitely well known street names, absolutely. How about Cluth Drive.

Matt: 14:10

Cluth, that's a good one. So Cluth Drive More or less not exactly, but pretty much follows a little what used to be a little farm lane that led west off of Wolf Road back into where the end of the street is. Nowadays there's a little kind of like a court at the end of the street. Right where that is and where those houses are, there was a little homestead that the Cluth sisters lived in and they were I believe I know exactly who I could ask this question to to get the definitive answer. But I believe the Cluths were relatives of the Sandrock family who were pretty early settlers who lived at that same site, and the Cluth sisters lived for pretty long time yeah, the time frame Well into the 20th century post World War II. Oh wow.

Israel: 15:09

Yeah, but they were.

Matt: 15:10

They were pretty old when they passed away and they had a.

Matt: 15:12

Yeah, it's a pretty rustic little homestead back there and, were they like, lived their whole lives in Moquina Once again, as always, I maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think they lived back there their whole lives, even though I'm pretty sure that property was in their family. But yeah, they nevertheless. They lived there for a very long time and up until recent, or some somewhat recently, in the grand scheme of things they had still had family members living in town. But yeah, when that area excuse me, when that area was developed back there, they were remembered and when that street was laid out, it was basically more or less followed the little lane that went back to where they lived.

Israel: 15:58

That's pretty cool. Yeah, yeah, how about Everett Lane?

Matt: 16:03

Everett that's named after Mr Mike Everett, who was our mayor back in the 1980s, and he's still around.

Israel: 16:10

Was a school board member up until recently.

Matt: 16:12

Yeah, he was yeah, he's still. He's still been involved in stuff around and of course now, without having my my details in front of me, I couldn't tell you what exactly his term was. I want to say he was in office as mayor from roughly 1982 or 83 until maybe 1989 or thereabouts. Maybe he's listening and he can. He can correct us, but that timeframe, for a good part of the 80s, he was mayor.

Israel: 16:43

And Swanburg Lane yeah.

Matt: 16:46

Swanburg Lane is named after Charles Swanburg. Chuck Swanburg, who was another mayor he was mayor back in the 1960s. Another guy who was very civically minded, wore a lot of hats around town was also very well known for being a businessman in town. He owned a farm implement dealership. Excuse me again, I believe he also sold some cars too. His business was down on Wolf Road, just north of La Porte Road, on the western side of the street where, I believe, just right north of the post office. I think that's like a sign shop now. That's where Mr Swanburg's business was for many years.

Israel: 17:31

And Scarth Lane, another mayor.

Matt: 17:34

Another mayor. Yeah, a lot of those streets, or maybe it's just those three thinking offhand up in that grass mirror. I think the other subdivision is called Green Meadow, like that neck of the woods there were streets named after mayors. But yeah, Mr Scarth was mayor from. Oh, let's see, I believe he was mayor in the 1950s and a lot of Mokenians once. I'm getting ahead of myself he was. I believe he was one of the owners of the Mokena wallpaper mill.

Matt: 18:09

He wasn't the only one. There was a few guys who were, yeah, owners together. In any case, he was running the wallpaper mill, so he was another big businessman in town and Shazar Drive in Foxboro Estates.

Israel: 18:24

that one I know is after Bob Shazar, a former mayor who recently passed away.

Matt: 18:29

No, unfortunately recently passed. Very nice man.

Israel: 18:33

And I didn't know him. I got to hear more about him since he's passed and he was a longtime Mokena lion and very civically involved Sure.

Matt: 18:42

He was with the Scouts as well. Yeah, he did a lot for Mokena, that's for sure.

Israel: 18:47

So and that obviously in one of the newer subdivisions fewer mayors names over there.

Matt: 18:54

Yeah.

Israel: 18:54

But he's one that made it, so that's great. He did indeed. And then the last one. How about Reagan Road? That's another good one.

Matt: 19:02

So Reagan Road, it's kind of an interesting little area back there because technically that's New Lenox Township. But they might have Mokena addresses, if I'm not mistaken, and it's sort of like right in the borgor. So a lot of people will consider that Mokena. But Mr Reagan is not Ronald Reagan the president His first name's escaping me right now but he was a very successful farmer in that area for many years.

Israel: 19:31

So would he have farmed that area off of what's Reagan Road now? Yes, he did.

Matt: 19:37

He did. He had a name for his farm that was. If I'm not mistaken. It was named after one of the native tribes. Was it the Ojibwe farm? It's buried in a file at home. I can dig it out. But yeah, I had a kind of like a romantic, poetic kind of name to it.

Israel: 20:00

It's an interesting area down Reagan Road because you've got to the north from Reagan Road all the way to the highway. There's that big open field. A lot of people do some off-roading back there. That's now listed for sale. We have Marshall Cemetery and then those houses as you drive to Parker Road beautiful, big lots, great houses. You really are in the country there.

Matt: 20:28

Oh, definitely.

Israel: 20:29

So kind of a neat area. It is Absolutely Well good, that's good to know, I'm sure. A local farmer, oh, definitely, yeah, yeah, good. Well, this is a really interesting article. We've talked about the Molkina schools before a little bit Not in any way as in depth as this article gets. We've talked about Mamie Bexten. We had the recording we got from Dr Cohen and the school district there Again really interesting. The pictures are awesome.

Israel: 21:04

We'll be sure to share these on Facebook, but as well as the link to Matt's blog here. I think it's a neat to note that the bell that's on top of there is still around. We can still go see it at MES behind there, behind Mokena Elementary School, and hopefully for a long time it comes, I hope so the names of our villages roads are a peek into our history.

Matt: 21:31

Some bear the names of founding fathers, such as Denny Avenue and McOveney Street, while others were called mayors, such as Everett Lane and Swanburg Lane. After all, the name of Wolf Road, originally a Potawatomi path, harkens back to none other than Fikaki Tayanaki, or their word for Trail of the Wolf. Through the Wonderful Land, schoolhouse Road also makes an appearance, not only being one of our main thoroughfares but also taking its name from a local institution of many years standing. However, in our fast-paced 21st century world, how many modern Mokenians actually reflect on the place from which the road gains its namesake? For over half a century, the Ornate two-story Mokena public school stood on the northwest corner of Front Street and today's Schoolhouse Road, a place that loomed large in the lives of generations of villagers. While it was the grandest school in our history, it was far from the first that honorable designation. Going to the schoolhouse, that was the inaugural building constructed on our public square in 1855, three years after the arrival of the Chicago, rock Island and Pacific Railroad. A small, low-slung Greek revival building boasting of one classroom, lightning rod and modest bell. It also served as a meeting place for Mokena's newly formed religious congregations and whoever else needed the space.

Matt: 23:01

By the time the Civil War ended in 1865, the ten-year-old building was already bursting at the seams with students. It was time to upgrade and, mirroring the up-and-at-them post-war mood in our neck of the woods at the time, no expense was spared. On the edge of town, at the northwest corner of Front Street and today's schoolhouse road and an unnamed farm lane, a magnificent two-story wooden eminence began to grow. Built under the leadership of local contractor and native Englishman James B Eason and the assistance of Carpenter George Schweizer, the new school bore touches of Italianate architecture then in vogue in this part of the state, with the elaborate brackets supporting the roof and window frames, complete with its bell tower standing triumphant, which, before the completion of our first water tower in 1898, was the highest point in town. All in all, the new structure measured in at 45 x 78 feet. Inside, two sets of winding stairs led down from the second floor. The meat of the structure were its two large classrooms, one upstairs and one down, each measuring in at 20 x 60 feet. Two round wooden pillars supported the ceiling in each room, although in later years more walls would be built to subdivide each room by the time construction was complete. The final cost of the new school, plus its furnishings, came out at $10,000.

Matt: 24:35

In those early years it was widely considered to be one of the crown jewels of Will County's school system. Only five years after its opening, eminent Will County historian George Woodruff stated that it is a flourishing school, ably managed and well attended. Well, years later, the Mokena News Bolton humbly wrote that it was the talk of the town and surrounding country in its day, so acute was the need for the new building that it was in use before it was even finished, with the ground floor being open for students in the fall of 1872, while the second was still under construction. When the doors first opened, none other than George Kimball was one of the first pupils who would be remembered as the real bad boy of the school. He was an orphan who lived with the Breumann family south of town and he was said to have been a great tobacco truer and could spit the farthest of any boy. Through the muddle of time, it is agreed that Professor Harris Smith was the new school's first principal, a man whose life in Mokena's history remains nebulous at this late date. Who the other firsts were leaves room for debate. Whenever the subject came up in the decades thereafter, memories were fuzzy. However, it can be certain that Miss Sarah Baldwin, miss Sarah Mather, miss Clara Williams, mr and Mrs Buck, mr Harrower and Mr Woolison were all there in the early days, although the first names of the latter educators are long since lost to the ages.

Matt: 26:15

In the beginning, the stately school housed grades 1 through 8, while around 1908, the passing of a state law proved fortuitous to local pupils. The long and short of it provided the rural students' home school district to pay tuition for a high school of choice, thus opening the door to a high school education in a time and place when young Mokenians would not normally have had it. Some village youth took advantage and commuted by train to Blue Island in this era, a stretch further down the Rock Island. At this time, most of these pupils were girls, as local boys were needed to do farm work. A little later, Mokena's own two-year high school was rung in in 1913, under the leadership of Professor SJ Eakley, an accredited chemist Holding class in the Front Street building. A third year was added to the high school in a period of prosperity, having existed in the blink of an eye from 1925 to 1927. In this inaugural year, these upper classes counted nine students, to which another teacher was added, bringing the total number of educators in the bygone school to five.

Matt: 27:30

For many in the village, their day began with the 830 tolling of the school's bell, which could be heard anywhere in Mokena, peeling around eight to ten times. Town folk grew accustomed to hearing it and would even set their clocks to it. Mamie Beckstein, member of a well-known local family who served as principal at the school from 1910 to 1912, painted a vivid picture of the bell. Years later she would describe feeling its weight when she pulled the inch-thick rope that came down from the school ceiling. That took quite a jerk to set into action. As the day came to life, all pupils walked to school, some coming from as far as two miles away. On rainy days, those who marched over the muddy rural roads to get to school were allowed to take their boots off and wear house slippers inside. At nine o'clock the day officially started, which was heralded with three or four more strokes of the bell.

Matt: 28:32

The fifth through eighth grades held court in the upstairs classroom, which had space for about sixty students, while the room on the main floor had space for fifty children of the lower grades. Each classroom had a platform upon which the teacher's desk stood, with bench seats being available for the pupils who came to the front of the room to recite their studies. Unlike today, there was no organized lunch system at the school, with the children bringing what they could on their own. Mamie Backstein remembered that some brought it in buckets and some brought it in their pockets, with some of the foreign children often bringing a chicken leg and homemade bread. The spacious building on the corner was heated entirely with coal, the ashes of which would be dumped in the road. A janitor was employed whose job it was to build the fires, although throughout the day the teachers would add to it from lumps of coal in buckets. The coal was originally stored in the school's basement, but later on a storage building was put up on the west side of the grounds, which decades later was moved and turned into a small residence just west of town on Francis Road.

Matt: 29:43

Running water inside the school was a luxury that could only be dreamt of. There was a shallow well on the property, water from which was blamed for an outbreak of the grip which swept through the school in early 1911, and was also the root of rumors a year later that it was causing jaundice, so powerful was the innuendo that local hardware merchant and school board member, william Neatammer, had a sample of the stuff tested by two separate laboratories in Chicago who pronounced it safe to drink as it was. The well was also known to be finicky, not to mention the fact that older students had to help the younger ones operate the stiff pump. So many of the pupils brought their own tin cups that they filled at the John Erickson family hand pump just across today's schoolhouse road. On a normal day, an early recess would be had from 1030 to 1045, with more ringing from the regal bell.

Matt: 30:41

Bells had ample space to play crack the whip, while boys would play baseball, which led to the occasional problem of a ball flying across the Rock Island tracks and being unretrievable due to traffic on the railroad Around. The turn of the 20th century, boys would also play shinny, an informal kind of hockey. Nevertheless, casualties mounted and the powers at the school came to find the game too rough and dangerous, which ultimately led the school board to ban it in November 1910. Bill Semler, our correspondent to the Juliet Weekly News, carried the word in his moquina column, to which the editor chipped in ah, what a wealth of memories the game of shinny brings forth. Who has not landed in the game in time to get the battered tin can in the face or the hickory club in the shins? Better call it golf and let the lads have all they want of it, so long as the teacher keeps out of harm's way.

Israel: 31:37

So real quick. Um, it sounds like a brutal game.

Matt: 31:42

Yeah, it definitely does.

Israel: 31:44

Yeah, enough that the school board stepped in and said no more, right, exactly, um, interesting. So you mentioned about the John Erickson family. Then John Erickson Farm Across Schoolhouse Road. Yeah, so is that the same farm and building that's still there today? Yep, that's the same. Wow, that's the same one. Yeah, and how long has that farm been there?

Matt: 32:12

It's very, very old, the house, the farmhouse probably and this is a prime example of what we were saying in the earlier part of the episode. Um, we don't have an exact date of construction but based on the little elements of its architecture that you can kind of recognize and pick out, I would reckon the house being built probably not too long after the Civil War. Wow, so it's. It's been around it. I can say for a fact it was already there in 1873, because there is a lithograph of another farm in town and as the artist put it together, he kind of sketched what was around the farm and in the background you can see what was later known as the Erickson Farm. That was 1873. So probably it was pretty new at that point.

Israel: 33:07

And did they have children going to the school at that time? Uh, dad, I'm not sure of uh they, they otherwise they just had all these school kids coming over and using their well.

Matt: 33:19

The John Erickson family did have children. Uh, let's see. Their son was Charles Erickson, who was, uh became an auctioneer in town, a farmer himself, a pretty well-known guy. He was born. He must have been born around 1884 or 1885. So when did they acquire? I can't remember off right offhand when exactly the John Erickson's bought that farm. I'm kind of thinking their son, Charles, did not go to school there once again.

Matt: 33:53

Maybe I'm wrong, but just just kind of thinking and trying to do the math real quick in my head. Um, I want to say they moved in around the early 1900s, but in any case Mr and Mrs Erickson would have been used to having lots of kids around coming in to use the uh, the hand pump on their well, and after a day's learning the pupils would gather their books and head home at four o'clock with two or three more strokes of the bell. Aside from the drudgery of their studies, the school could be a lighthearted place. Pupils were known to slide down the black walnut railing of the building's staircase, and music was supplied by a Julius Bauer piano installed in the upstairs room in the spring of 1911, paid for by two plays staged by the students Not to be outdone eleven years later. In the spring of 1922, two Victrola phonographs were purchased for the school, an improvement which the news bulletin hailed as never dreamed of. At the same time, new playground equipment was put up, consisting of teeter, totters, slides and the like, the cost of which was footed by dozens of Mokenians who helped raise the money. In describing these new niceties, the news bulletin proudly stated that More improvements have been made this fall than have been made in the last twenty years. Nevertheless, as nice as the new playground was, could also be a risky place.

Matt: 35:24

In the spring of 1927, an unimaginable accident befell ten-year-old Iris Hamilton when, in using the slide, a long, jagged sliver of wood drove itself into her leg. The school's principal, professor Clarence Ull, was quickly on the scene and hastily, determining that two arteries had been cut, stanched the flow of blood by pressing his thumbs against them. Iris was transported to Front Street's Cooper and Hosterd Ford Agency with the sliver still in her leg until professional medical help arrived forty-five minutes later. The news bulletin monitored the happenings closely and stated that the quick action and thought of Professor Ull was the only factor that prevented the child from bleeding to death, and his many friends here say he is worthy of a Carnegie Medal for saving a life. The pupils at the Mokena School were generally happy. However, an incident from 1913 stands as a stark contrast on the record of the years.

Matt: 36:28

In February of that year, the halls of learning came nigh being the scene of a strike, when some of the students threatened to walk out and not come back until their complaints were taken seriously. The scholars told their parents of petty annoyances and bristled at what they thought was discipline that was too strict. In many cases, the parents backed up their children. Luckily for all, cooler heads prevailed and the trouble was smoothed out. Mokena and Bill Semmler, our village's correspondent to the Joliet Weekly News, was of the opinion that overindulgent parents were to blame, writing that Overfined parents are often a hindrance to the welfare of a child and such parents cannot see the faults of a child as well as a teacher can, and that when tales of petty annoyances are told at home, parents should investigate, air-giving the child their opinion. A similar incident occurred at the end of the 1917 school year, when some of the high schoolers in their class publication, the Blab, raked the Board of Education's members over the coals. Bones of contention were the aforementioned pump and the lack of running water in the school, the fact that the entire building had yet to be electrified, with the honor only belonging to the upper room at that point and the absence of screens in the school's windows. A defender of the Board rallied to their aid and in the latter point, retorted that An epidemic hasn't yet made apparent of screening the rooms to protect the children against the flies that swarmed there during the fall months. Going on, this individual said that the Blab's comments were entirely uncalled for and the paper should be discontinued for its sarcastic remarks. So it was that pupils occasionally had grievances against the school's leadership. On the other side of the coin, for a good span of the building's life, punishment was dealt out with a rod and switch. In Florence Pittman's seminal 1963 work, the Story of Mokena, she recalled that In the 90s it was the universal policy of parents to start their children to school with the admonishment If you get a whipping at school, you will get another when you get home. Nevertheless, there was a limit as far back as the spring of 1874, when the school on the corner was a brand new structure. Professor Harris Smith, the school's first principal, landed himself in trouble for dealing out chastisement. That was a touch too heavy-handed. He struck a small boy with a hickory whip-stock for refusing to get a scuttle of coal, to which the Joliet Republican snidely remarked that strictness cost him the little sum of $25, or the equivalent of about $665 in today's money, as it were. Smith was not a popular man in Mokena. The same paper's town correspondent a few weeks later penning that Mokena has one of the finest school buildings in the county. It is wished that we had half as fine a principal to run it. While going on that, the man who tries to run it now says If you don't like my style, keep your children at home. Our local writer estimated that two-thirds of Mokena's parents were doing just that.

Matt: 39:54

In addition to being a house of learning, the school also served as a community showcase, with countless entertainments being given there over the decades. Typical was the exhibition given on Saturday evening, february 24, 1883. The weather that night was less than ideal, but Mokenians braved the muddy roads and turned out in full force. Music was supplied by the Mokena Coronet Band, backed up by Mrs N Enders and Ms Lizzie Brumond on the organ. An opening song was given by the school, followed by various recitations, readings and dramatic pieces such as Johnny Shrimp's idea of amusements, watermelon pickles and a pantomime called A Temperance Story, all of which were put on by the students and teachers when a final tableau titled Comfort was due to be framed. School directors John A Hatch, george Schweizer and Robert H Turner were called to the stage, where they thought they were being asked to speachify. Much to their surprise, it turned out they would be taking part in the tableau. An elegant chair was placed for each of them on the stage, each one a gift from the teacher and students, thanking them for their kindness and interest manifested in making things comfortable for them. One who was there said that the three men were so overcome they could not find words to express their gratitude. When all was said and done, the proceeds netted from the night's festivities were $25.75, or around $835 in modern funds.

Matt: 41:35

Alas, the good old days weren't always good, as is demonstrated by a peculiar incident that occurred in the fall of 1908. On Wednesday morning, october 14, 12-year-old Viola Hansen opened the schoolhouse doors and went upstairs by herself. Upon doing so, she happened upon a strange unknown man lying on a bench in a side room next to the library. She thought he appeared to be asleep, but couldn't be sure. Viola was thoroughly shaken up by her discovery and sprinted back to her front street home, and when others came to investigate, the stranger was gone. It was gathered that he gained entrance to the building through a downstairs window.

Matt: 42:19

The school was also subject to extreme temperatures during the more inhospitable months. For most of the building's history it had no central heat to speak of, with warmth being provided by two coal-burning stoves in each room. Local sage Clinton Krause would recall that he and his fellow students in pre-World War I days would gather around the stoves and study, with the best-case scenario being that the pupils near them would be in torrid heat while those farther away would freeze. Such was life until 1911, when the school board had a state-of-the-art heating system installed, being the first school in Will County to be so equipped. On the other hand, air conditioning was still decades away and as something the school would never boast of.

Matt: 43:08

At the beginning of the school year in 1893, an unlucky combustion of coal stored in the basement ignited a fire that caused quite a little excitement for a time. Luckily, things were quickly brought back under control and the flames made no serious headway, but nevertheless the starkness of the situation was lost on no one. Talking to the Joliac Republican, Mokena village leader Azias McGovney grimly said that if the fire had gone unchecked, the whole building would have been lost. Fires again reared their uninvited head on a school day in the winter of 1922,. When, on February 6th, the ashes in an overheated stove set the floor of the upstairs room ablaze, pupils were marched into the cold outdoors, some of whom purportedly were unaware of fire was happening, and the flooring torn up, once again preventing a small fire from becoming a serious one.

Matt: 44:07

Indeed concern over fires was a deep one for the school board. After the infamous Inferno at Collingwood, ohio, in March 1908, it was resolved that a fire escape would be built on the exterior of the aging structure, and by the following August, a Joliet concern had finished the steel stairs. The school's main doors facing Front Street were also fixed. Now they opened outward instead of inward, which to that point had been the case. When the first official fire drill was carried out toward the end of 1910, the pupils expertly used the escape, even though a few of them felt some initial trepidation.

Israel: 44:46

So fire again, which has been a theme throughout Moquina in its early days. Fortunately they were able to catch this. But you mentioned the infamous Inferno at Collingwood Ohio in March 1908. Can you just share a little bit about that?

Matt: 45:08

Yeah, a little bit. I'm not intimately familiar with the event, but after having heard of it in accounts from back then, I had never heard of it and wanted to find out more. So I looked around online a little bit and apparently that was a fire in a school in this place, collingwood, ohio, where a lot of students died. It was this really tragic, horrible event and the whole thing could have been prevented if they had adequate fire precautions in place.

Israel: 45:42

So that probably kind of rang out across the country as kind of a warning sign that they needed to take some precautions.

Matt: 45:50

Yeah, that's the impression I got. Yeah, the Moquina school board was pretty shook up about it, which then led to them having this fire escape built and the doors fixed. Yeah, and the doors.

Israel: 46:02

I mean, that's something you don't think about. They had to reverse the doors, so the doors are going out and stuff which is now a more commonplace thing. Interesting, and the first fire drill was held at the end of 1910, you mentioned, so Moquina. Teachers have been doing fire drills for about 113 years.

Matt: 46:29

Oh, yeah, very long time. I remember doing them at Moquina schools too. As the decades came and went and life went on in Moquina, the school was beginning to show its age. By July 1922, the House of Learning had sagged to such a degree that an architect from the county seat was called out who was greatly alarmed at the way the stone foundation on the east side of the building had bulged outward. To remedy this, it was recommended that 21 concrete piers, each three feet square, be built underneath the school. Alas, it was only a temporary fix.

Matt: 47:07

As the decade progressed, talkin' Town heated up about constructing a new school and, after 57 years of serving Moquina's youth, the grand old landmark was ready to be taken out to pasture. The last classes were held here in June 1929. The same year, the new school on Carpenter Street opened, which now serves the community as our city hall. Pupils were happy to make the move, with one being exuberant about getting to the new schoolhouse, away from the noise of the railroad, where we will have more room to play. So it was that America plunged into the Great Depression and the grand old school sat vacant for the next four years, during which time conjecture swirled about its future. At Christmas time 1933, will County Superintendent of Schools and Moquina native, august Maui, advised our school board to let it stand, citing his experience that in every district in which the old schoolhouse was sold or torn down has been that very soon thereafter the building was needed for regular school purposes.

Matt: 48:15

In the spring of 1934, the question was posed to Moquinians during the annual school election as to whether the building should be sold or not. The village's news bulletin was firmly in the former camp, writing that the place was "abandoned and facing ruin and that the community would be better off with the school board profiting from the sale of the property". The election came and Moquina's voters gave the green light for the building to be sold at auction on Tuesday May 15. Before the sale, the school's old iron bell, installed in 1881, and the work of Philadelphia's McShane Foundry was removed from its tower and stored at Front Street's Village Hall. There it was held on to for safekeeping, with the news bulletin deeming that it may come in handy for future use. As the sales calls were cried and bids cast into the air on that spring day, lester Sheik came out as the winner, beating out everyone else by offering $325 for the old school. Sheik will be known to listeners as Moquina's genial Dairy man, who was also a member of the school's first high school graduating class in 1914. Incidentally, one of the school's outhouses was sold to J M Yonker for $5, and the other to Ed Marshall for $7.50.

Matt: 49:41

Starting up with his brother-in-law, byron Nelson, lester Sheik set about to disassemble the landmark at the end of May 1934. The two men were of an admirable generation that didn't waste and set forth to use the school's robust lumber of which, it was reckoned, there was at least three boxcars worth, and just as good today as the day it was first used to build some new houses in town. This author is aware of at least six houses in Moquina, including his own on Midland Avenue, that claim to come from school lumber. Alas, with the unmerciful passage of time, it is impossible to verify which claims are authentic.

Matt: 50:25

The deconstruction of the school turned out to be a veritable trip down memory lane. When the blackboards were taken out in the spring of 1929, the back of one of them was found to be covered with writing bearing the date September 21, 1902. On it were enumerated the names of the Board of Education Tuwitt, christian Beckstein, simon Hollenstein and Irwin McGovney, as well as teachers WJ Cunningham and Leah Smith, not to mention Carpenters J Bigger and Charles Mowey, indicating that the moment preserved in time must have taken place during a renovation project, as the walls came down bit by bit. A book on grape growing, published in 1850, was discovered between them, as was also a hammer with a broken handle lost by some ancient workmen. Incidentally, the process of taking apart the old school was helped along by what was deemed a baby twister, which struck town in early July. Shingles, laths and pieces of lumber were described as flying through the air, all of which sent Byron Nelson, running south of the Rock Island tracks, to the Conoco Oil Station for shelter. The work was completed in the last week of July 1934, with our news bulletin heralding on its front page that the old Moquino school is a thing of the past.

Matt: 51:53

While those venerated halls of education have long since disappeared from our landscape, their legacy lives on in some very tangible everyday ways, such as the road named after the school and the houses built from it, all of whom are just as sturdy now as the day the school first went up in 1872.

Matt: 52:12

Not to be forgotten, however, is the fact that the school's erstwhile bell a very important part of life in the Moquino of our forefathers still remains here in town and can be readily visited. As the years went on, the old bell made its way to the fire department, who trooped it out occasionally on parades. In 1979, the bell was rediscovered in our midst and as the 1980s carried on interest in the historic relic bloomed, school superintendent Ray Garretano came up with a plan to build a new bell tower in town. Much in the style of the old schools, and after a period of brainstorming, the bell and its new home were officially dedicated on September 12, 1985, to the students' past, present and future of Moquino Public School.

Matt: 53:03

Thus the bell, whose strain had echoed over the rooftops of the village for decades, was given a new place of honor on a sunny knoll between the library and the schools. A neat ceremony was held, complete with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Craig Yonker, the recitation of the Eleanor Fair John poem, school Bell by Amy Danyelowicz and releasing of balloons by third grade students. The bell still reposes there to this day, a small piece of one of the grandest schools Will County ever knew. It is the legacy of hundreds of Moquino children who attended class in our town in the buoyant days after the end of the Civil War, spanning the years until just before the start of the Great Depression. Their ways of life are today but a distant memory, almost lost in the haze of time. Today, this August, iron Bell serve as a permanent reminder of their stories.

Israel: 54:02

Wow, how cool that that bell is still around and still on display for us to see. Yeah, I love it. So you said the last class, last class is in the old school. We're held in June of 1929. Yes, and then the property or the school is taken apart, as you said. Do you know when the land was sold or when anything else? The next? I assume the house that's there now was the next building that was there.

Matt: 54:31

Yeah, that is true. As it's known around town, the Yellow House was the next building built after the school. However, it came along quite a long time after the school was taken down. That property on the corner was vacant for many, many, many years. The house has always been there in my lifetime, but it's definitely a post-World War II construction.

Israel: 55:03

Strange that that lot would just sit empty when maybe it was the time. I mean, we talk about the Great Depression at a time, but with Mochina developing and downtown being very active at the time, yeah, yeah, it's strange that something wouldn't have happened earlier.

Matt: 55:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not sure as to why that is. I'm sure there was a reason, but yeah, why it just kind of sat there for so long, that I'm not sure.

Israel: 55:35

And you mentioned the six homes that you believed were all built from the lumber. Are all of those on Midland or are there some other places?

Matt: 55:46

That's a good question. So let's see here, going through them in my head most of them are on Midland. Let's see One, two, three, four Okay, I can think of offhand right now, I can think of four on Midland Avenue, between, let's see, between Carpenter Street, going north too, okay, a Parker Street. Then there's another home and Wolf Road, a little ways. Let's see a little ways south of Revere and the. They'd be the east side of the road, across from Wolf Point, the condominiums, there's another house and the corner of the northern side, of the corner of Midland and Parker I think it's Parker and Carpenter that was also said to have been built out of schoolhouse lumber and building materials. And all of these houses are totally possible because they're all were built right in that era, like the 1930s, around the time the original schoolhouse came down. But just, yeah, there's. There's just no way to verify it. It's just stuff. We have these houses identified just because it's been passed down in Moquina lore over the years that this house and that house were were built out of school lumber.

Israel: 57:16

So do you know, did they have any connection to that, those lots, or do they own that property already down Midland? Do you know?

Matt: 57:26

Yeah, no, I don't, Unfortunately. I do know that, for example, the the house I currently live in on Midland Avenue I like to believe it's an authentic school lumber house, because we do know for a fact that Lester Sheik built the house and you know he had at the same time was owning the schoolhouse and was taking it apart. So it makes sense that he was just moving the stuff from one piece of property in town to the next. Sure, to build from it. But but yeah, no, that's a good question. Yeah, that I'm. That I'm not sure of yeah.

Israel: 58:03

Yeah, and I thought it was interesting you talk about this, how they were excited about the school moving away from the tracks. Yeah, yeah, you think yeah, that's a that's a lot of noise and especially for kids. I'm sure they were. Every time a tree went by they were staring out the window and not paying attention to the teacher.

Matt: 58:20

Yeah, right, right, sure yeah.

Israel: 58:22

Yeah, so that's very interesting. And again, we mentioned maybe back steam, who was principal from 1910 to 1912. Yeah, yeah, really interesting, you know it's. It's interesting to see the schools and the school system progress.

Matt: 58:38

It is so much.

Israel: 58:39

I mean, think about they don't have screens on their windows and you know there's live embers flying around from you know, compared to you know, what our kids have now is a vast difference, major, major improvement in a lot of ways.

Matt: 58:56

It is complete, total night and day difference in what the Mokenians of your were experiencing when they were going to school.

Israel: 59:04

Yeah, I mean in the commitment of these teachers. I mean being a teacher today, I can't imagine but me neither In a day when you know you're dealing with so much. Yeah, yeah, it's. It's amazing that that we had so many people that were willing to do it and yeah, so well, this is a great story, matt, anything else that you want to add before we close.

Matt: 59:32

Just other than that, this was one I really particularly enjoyed writing and gathering all the material for and kind of making it into a narrative. Yeah, because it's a really great story, like I was saying, that really kind of illustrates what the what life was like for for Mokenians over a century ago.

Israel: 59:54

Yeah, and I think we're going to do. We're going to have a few more things about the school, the bell, the, the placecape now that's at MES. You know I thought it was you mentioned about how you know families and parents and that raised money back, you know in 1922 for the new playground, and that just reminded me of the same. You know a similar effort that took place to build that, that placecape the wooden placecape there that exactly the so many people are passionate about and care about.

Israel: 1:00:22

Oh, yeah definitely, unfortunately, the you know the tragedy that happened with the young girl and you know cutting herself and yeah, and this story after kind of changes the tone a little bit, but yeah, it's neat to see.

Israel: 1:00:36

You know, like, schools are always a place where community comes together fund raisers, things like that. So, absolutely, again, really neat to see and I look forward to you know hearing more about the bell and and what the school is going to be doing with that going forward as well. So, definitely, well, great, matt. Thank you, you're welcome. Great story. We'll share, like I said, the, as always, the, the link to the blog post, the photos all that on our Facebook and show notes. So check those out. Thanks, matt. We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you're enjoying our show, it would really help us out a lot if you leave us a rating and a review, especially on Apple podcasts and Spotify. There's a link in the show notes to Matt's blog article that this episode was based on, so be sure to check that out. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time on Mokenas Front Porch.