Start My Family Tree Welcome to Geni, home of the world's largest family tree.
Join Geni to explore your genealogy and family history in the World's Largest Family Tree.

Top Surnames

view all

Profiles

  • Wayne Gard (1899 - 1986)
    Wayne Gard, author of Texana and Southwestern history, was born on June 21, 1899, in Brocton, Illinois. His childhood was spent in Kansas, Missouri, and Illinois. His studies at Illinois College were i...
  • Thomas Kinnicut Beecher (1824 - 1900)
    Rev. Thomas Kinnicut Beecher Thomas & Julia adopted the children of Charles Samuel Farrar. Thomas was ordained in Williamsburg, across the East River from New York City, in Sept. 1851. He was a Cle...
  • William A. Jayne, Governor of the Dakota Territory (1826 - 1916)
    A. Jayne (October 8, 1826 – March 20, 1916) was an American physician and statesman. He served as Governor of the Dakota Territory and as the territory's delegate to the United States House of Represen...
  • Ralph Tyler Smith, U.S. Senator (1915 - 1972)
    Ralph Tyler Smith, a Senator from Illinois; born in Granite City, Madison County, Ill., October 6, 1915; attended public schools in Granite City; graduated from Illinois College at Jacksonville in 1937...
  • Col. William E. Hughes (1840 - 1918)
    Lawyer and Banker. Born in Morgan County, Ill., U.S.A., March 15, 1840; son of John and Eliza (Rutherford) Hughes. Educated at Jacksonville High School and Illinois College. He has been Colonel in the ...

Wikipedia

Illinois College is a private, liberal arts college, affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the Presbyterian Church (USA), and located in Jacksonville, Illinois. It was the second college founded in Illinois, but the first to grant a degree (in 1835). It was founded in 1829 by the Illinois Band, students from Yale University who traveled westward to found new colleges.[3][4] It briefly served as the state's first medical school from 1843–1848, and became co-educational in 1903.

The Rev. John M. Ellis, a Presbyterian missionary in the East, saw the need for a “seminary of learning” in the new state of Illinois. His plans drew the attention of Congregational students at Yale University, and seven of them, in one of the famous “Yale Bands,” came westward to help found the College.

The first president of Illinois College was Edward Beecher who left his position at the Park Street Church in Boston and firmly imbued the new College with New England traditions and academic foundations. His sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe, was author of the influential anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin and a visitor to the campus. His brother, Henry Ward Beecher, preached and lectured at the college as well. Beecher Hall, named in honor of president Beecher, was the first building constructed on the Illinois College campus, and remains the oldest college building in the state of Illinois.

Beecher Hall is the oldest college building in the state of Illinois.
The first two college graduates in the state of Illinois, Richard Yates and Jonathan E. Spilman, received their degrees from Illinois College in 1835. Yates became the Civil War governor of Illinois and later a U.S. senator. A program at Illinois College for first generation college students was named The Yates Fellowship Program in his honor. Jonathan Edwards Spilman composed the familiar music to Robert Burns’ poem “Flow Gently, Sweet Afton.”

William Jennings Bryan, a member of the class of 1881, is one of the most famous Illinois College graduates. He was secretary of state, a congressman, and a three-time candidate for president of the United States.

Many Illinois College graduates have gone on to have influential careers in public service. Two graduates became U.S. senators, 20 became congressmen, six were state governors and two currently serve as federal judges.

Among the visitors and lecturers on campus during the early years were Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, Mark Twain, Horace Greeley and Wendell Phillips. Many speakers, including Lincoln, were sponsored by the college’s literary societies which still exist today.

Illinois College was a center of the abolitionist movement due to its Northern location near the Mississippi River and outspoken campus leaders such as President Edward Beecher and Professor Jonathan Baldwin Turner. In the mid 1800s, a group of students at the college were indicted by a grand jury for harboring runaway slaves. Two campus buildings also have ties to the abolitionist movement; Beecher Hall is believed to have been part of the Underground Railroad, and a campus house, the Gillett House, has attained the prestigious National Park Service certification as a “National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom” site.

The College became co-educational in 1903 by incorporating the Jacksonville Female Academy (founded 1830), and in 1906 IC awarded degrees to its first four female graduates. Illinois Conservatory of Music (founded 1871) was also absorbed in 1903. In 1932 the Phi Beta Kappa Society established a chapter at Illinois College, and it remains one of only 11 chapters in the state.