About the only thing the state legislation had done was to assign money derived from a single section in a township (usually #16) to be used to support schools budget, the resource being such as timber off of it sold, or farmed with a percentage from it ... Such and such. Schools at first were built about two miles apart just large enough to support a teacher and small enough so the child/student could walk back and forth, home to school, vice-versa. In the early 1840’s an “activist” for school situations stated, “Most teachers have taken it up because they have nothing particularly else to do.” And by 1860 a reference stated that salaries of teachers had doubled with men receiving $45 a month, women $25. Doubled! Even at that, how creative and able would a teacher be working for that amount?

In 1845 it was thought that standards would surely be raised when the state legislature passed a requirement that teachers be knowledgeable in six subjects to receive a certificate ... Reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography and history.

We don’t have to guess the level of teachers’ education when two years later the legislature had to rescind the law to read only one subject had to be passed in their exam.

In 1860 there were but 294 graded high schools in Illinois, tax/state supported and those in bigger towns or cities. West Jacksonville, Illinois had opened the first such high school in 1851. John Wright, a longtime “activist” for raising school standards, ran out of patience in Chicago and built a high school there in 1856. He had pushed ten years before in the mid-1840’s for the legislature to appoint an office having a state superintendent of schools but it took a decade before it happened and then it was a part of the secretary of state’s office. He received a $1,500 a year salary.

The next step was to collect fines and sale of swamplands in a fund to be distributed throughout the state. In 1856 the total was $42,300 passed out to all counties in the state for school use.

At this time there were twenty colleges throughout Illinois, some of them local such as at Mt. Morris (1839) “Rock River Seminary,” Frances Shimer, Mt. Carroll (1853), Dixon had a college as well as, at one time, a law school. Rockford College is still in operation today.

Locals interested in advanced learning gathered subscriptions to fund them or a church sponsored a school, such as the Methodists at Mt. Morris. They were lone beacons on the prairie. The first state funded college was the “Normal School” in McLean County, the legislature signing the bill to initiate it in 1857. There were 19 students and three instructors matriculating in a rented hall until in 1861 a three story, domed building stood “lone and majestic” two and a half miles north of Bloomington—today Illinois State University.

Many of those small colleges did excellent work preparing young men and women for professions, trades and life. Towns were proud of them for the fact they were living in a climate of advanced learning, culture, good character at a time when society was as yet a bit unpolished. The small town college supported the school but one would not expect that so small a community as Dakota, Illinois would have had a college, it being a few hundred population and is yet today. But the “College of Northern Illinois” was a prominent presence and a school for over eighty years.

The college was sponsored by the English Reformed Church and directed by Rev. Frank Wetzel, inaugurated in 1882. Dakota, the town, hadn’t begun until the late 1850’s although the first settler, John Brown, had staked a claim in 1835, he having seen the potential of eastern Stephenson County during the Black Hawk War. Others followed in homesteading the area until in 1857 the Racine and Mississippi Railroad poked through, aiming southwest across the county into Carroll and to the river.

At first the depot/market was named Dakotah, with an “H” because at that period the Dakotah Indians were much admired thus the spelling. The United States Post Office, too, spelled it with the “H” to avoid confusion with the town in Wisconsin without the “H!” But residents, perhaps, thinking it too uppity wouldn’t use the last letter so eventually it was dropped.

A village, naturally, grew around the depot with the usual general stores, blacksmith grain dealers and so on until in 1882 the college began to rise. The picture here is taken from the Stephenson County history, 1970, a rather imposing for such a simple setting. A Freeport Journal, 1893, reminded its readers that, yes, Dakota, Illinois was host to a college that provided courses in the classical, philosophical, preparatory scientific, literary, normal and business. Presumably, the normal was training for teaching and business, a popular study just then because women were going outside the home to work for the first time as secretaries, clerks, receptionists. “Business colleges” were found in many small cities around 1900.

There were six instructors according to the Journal’s article and each student (it was co-ed) could select their own course of study and it was non-sectarian, meaning a student didn’t have to belong to the Reformed Church to go there.

However, if their parents were Reformed they must attend church and Sunday school. And all must attend morning Chapel. “The claims of Christianity are recognized with everything done to develop a symmetrical and virtuous character.”

The College of Northern Illinois at Dakota existed for fifteen years and merely switched its level of instruction to become a high school, “Interior Academy of Northern Illinois.” As before stated, high schools had been few and far between even up to 1897 when the Interior Academy began. Freeport was eight miles west of Dakota so not exactly handy in those days of horse and buggy transportation. It was a fine decision for the area student wishing to take advanced courses. However, reference gave that many students only went to the Academy for one or two years then dropped out. Few graduated so in 1913 that high school closed.

The school’s next character was that of “Dakotah School for Boys” which continued for fifty years.

The campus was enlarged to about ten acres, a new dormitory built and the old school remodeled. The photo here is from the Freeport Journal Standard of 1961, an imposing facade even with the “steeple” at the middle gable somewhat “abridged.” (Thanks to the Historical Reference Room at the Freeport Library for their exhaustive search in this subject, even adding Orangeville to the search!!!)

The Wyler families and the Balzer families were instrumental in both the high school and boys school phases of the site with Harold Balzer being headmaster for forty years. He had attended the college for his education.

Ultimately, the Dakotah School for Boys gained an excellent reputation. Boys from throughout the United States and Europe attended because of the fine direction they received. There were small classes, individual attention, high academic standards, attention given a boy’s creativity and outdoor physical activity were all part of the reasons full attendance was always achieved.

For fifty years the school was known for its excellence but closed in 1963-’64. Reference doesn’t say but surely the fact that the Wyler and Balzer families had passed or retired was reason for its closure. It was a unique part of the village of Dakota.

And times had changed. Competitors in the educational field had come about, transportation made commutes to nearby schools faster/easier.

As a school with three differing objectives the “college” had persisted for over eighty years. It was another example of how in our rural, small town environment the unique so often occurs.

As the school was being razed after its closing, the site was vandalized and burned, a sad ending to such a distinctive idea.