April 2023 Wander: Otterville and the first free and integrated school in the US
When we left Jerseyville to head over to Calhoun County (across the Illinois river) we made one stop: Otterville, Illinois.
It really is a perfect example of why we wander. I tell you, we find important bits of history just sitting in unexpected places.
Otterville was never large, 223 people in 1880, but is now down to about 84. However, here, because they did it so well, is what Landmarks Illinois had to say in 2014 when they named it one of their most endangered landmarks in Illinois:
The Hamilton Primary School in Otterville opened in 1835 as the first free and integrated school in the nation. Dr. Silas Hamilton was a New England physician who moved to Mississippi in 1820 to create a plantation that he believed could be “humane” despite still promoting the inhumane and abhorrent practice of slavery. The plan failed and Dr. Hamilton moved north, freeing 28 slaves in the process. In 1830 he settled in Otterville, Illinois. Living with him were three former slaves: an elderly couple and a young man named George Washington.
Dr. Hamilton passed away on November 19, 1834 and in his will bequeathed $4,000 for the establishment of a free and integrated primary school to educate George Washington, as well as other freemen. By an act of the Illinois General Assembly in 1839 the school was incorporated as the Hamilton Primary School with a district of four square miles. After the death of Dr. Hamilton, George Washington lived with the family of Gilbert Douglas (Hamilton’s brother-in-law) and became a successful farmer. When Washington died he left funds in his estate to erect a monument to Dr. Hamilton on the school’s front lawn. In a cemetery, one block west of the school, Dr. Hamilton, George Washington, and Gilbert Douglas are buried side by side in a crypt. In George Washington’s will, he also left a trust fund for the education of "Americans of African descent.”
In 1872 the original school was razed to build a larger two story school. The present building, erected in 1873 and listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was built using most of the original building’s limestone. The school building has two classrooms and a large assembly hall. The Hamilton Primary School provided education for all Otterville area students until 1971 when the school closed.
When we first came to the intersection that is Otterville we turned before we should and drove along the back of it.
We kept going down the road and Ernie was happy because we found some vintage tin as he refers to it. We kept moseying. I must admit, after reading about people being shot for turning around in drives, one can get a little leery driving around but everybody was friendly, including the guys mowing the lawn that kept getting in the pictures.
Created by George Washington
Born in Virgina a Slave
Died at Otterville, Illinois
April 18, 1864
A Christian Freeman
To the Memory of
Dr. Silas Hamilton
His former master
Born at Tinmouth, VT May 10, 1775
Died Otterville, Illinois November 19, 1834
Having his lifetime given freedom to Twenty-eight slaves and at his death bequeathed four thousand dollars for the erection and endowment of the Hamilton Primary School
The first free and integrated school in the US.
In Otterville, Illinois.
Onward.