ULLIN SCHOOLS
FIRST ULLIN SCHOOL
ca.
1868-1917
Submitted & Written by; Paul E. Echols
The first documented school building in Ullin was a white two-story wooden frame school building built in the middle of town. The exact date of construction is unknown, but it was probably constructed around 1868, which is when the first Methodist Episcopal (M.E.) Church was constructed in Ullin. The small one-story wooden church was located only about 150’ east of the school. Old photos of the two buildings reveal similar construction. Several structures began to be built in Ullin after it was founded in 1857.
Some have written that Ullin was named after the highly respected Ulen Family, who were early settlers in the Ullin area. The legend declares the name was misspelled when officials filed the name with the state and the mistake was never corrected. My research and collection of old documents through the years reveal the name Ullin existed prior to 1857, when Ullin was founded. Ullin Officials did not incorporate the little town until 1900, when officials filed with the state of Illinois. Documents from the 1800’s reveal Ullin’s name was taken from several poems written by the 3rd Century Gaelic Poet Ossian. Ullin was a character in these poems. These poems were later translated by James Macpherson (1736-1796), who was a popular Scottish poet and scholar. The poems were quite popular with early pioneers who settled this area of the United States. It is unknown who actually named Ullin or when it took place, but the name was in place prior to 1855, when the Illinois Central Railroad began service through Southern Illinois. With all respect to the Ulen Family, there is no evidence to support the town was named by mistake.
The original founding of Ullin involved two blocks east of the Illinois Central Railroad laid out by D. L. Phillips and J.P. Ashley, gentlemen associated with the ICRR. The first two east-west streets were named First North and Second North, while the first north-south streets were named Oak and Locust. The school was located on First North Street, about 350’ feet east of the Illinois Central Railroad Depot. The ICRR Depot that remains today was built in 1897 and in 1998 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places (it is currently undergoing refurbishment and has quite a history of its own). Even the old ICRR Depot has an indirect link to the Ullin Schools. When the winter weather caught students who lived in the country off-guard, the ICRR Stationmaster would allow them to spend the night inside the Depot. A fire was maintained in the old pot bellied stove keeping the passenger side of the Depot warm all night long.
Years later, Reagan’s General Store, Hart’s Drug Store, and Wilkins’ Chevrolet (later, Dickerson’s and Cache River Chevrolet) occupied the same lots where the wooden school once existed. In about 1918, the old wooden M.E. Church, which was located east of the school, was moved and replaced by a beautiful brown brick church building, which was dedicated in 1920. After the wooden M. E. Church building was moved north onto another lot, it was used as a gymnasium for the Ullin High School. The brick Methodist Church stood on this site until 1997, when several Ullin churches combined to form the Crossroad’s Methodist Church on the Ullin-Tamms Road. Cache River Chevrolet purchased the old church lot and razed the building.
When the old M. E. Church and the old school existed, a dirt road named Locust Street passed between the two buildings. Eventually, this road became a highway. It was paved in 1924 and named Illinois Highway 2. Some years after that, the Federal government took control of the road and renamed it U. S. Highway 51. Today it is known as the Historic Egyptian Trail.
The school stood about 30’ high, not including the belfry, which was located on the south gable. The bell was of course contained in the belfry and could be heard for miles when it was sounded. The building was constructed in an “L” shape. It was 70’ long (north and south) and 40’ wide on the north end. There were four large classrooms inside the building. The school was heated with coal stoves and vented by a brick chimney located in the middle of the building. The classrooms were cooled by opening the numerous eight-pane double hung windows found on both levels of the building. Lighting was provided by the sun and coal oil lamps. There were two entry doors, one on the south end, and the other facing south located on a small off-set porch on the west side of the building. This porch was often used as a small stage for class pictures. One of only a few photos of my grandfather H. E. Echols Sr. (1893-1925) was made on that porch in 1909.
Miss Leona Brust, who was a long-time Ullin School Teacher, was the subject of an article appearing in the Cairo Evening Citizen newspaper written by the late June Reagan on August 21, 2003. June wrote, “I would like to honor one of our Ullin ladies who reached the great age of 96 on August 12 (2003) and that being a much loved Leona Brust. Miss Brust is surely known to almost all of our community, as she was a first grade teacher in the Ullin Schools for some 50 years and almost touched the lives of everyone in some way or another in this little community. I personally got to tell Miss Brust that I was sure that God would let her make the 100 mark.” Three years has passed since that article was written and Miss Brust is less than one year away from achieving Centenarian status.
In 2002, I sat down with Miss Brust and discussed her very impressive teaching career. I might also note that Miss Brust was my father’s (Maurice “Baldy” Echols) first grade teacher as well as my first grade teacher, and he was 35 years older than me. In 1960, the Ullin High School Yearbook “The Indian” was dedicated to Miss Brust because of her dedication to teaching. As I previously mentioned, Miss Brust’s teaching career in the Ullin area span from 1928 to1973. Her first teaching position was at the Dexter School, a country school located west of Ullin. In a letter provided to me by Miss Leona Brust, she provided me with some of her memories of the old Ullin School. Miss Brust wrote:
In September 1915, I enrolled as a first grader in Ullin Eastside School when it was a four room white {wooden} building. It and the playground were located where the Ullin Foods Store and the Chevrolet Garage are now.
There were several teachers and the principal Mr. Zenith Jenkins, who taught classes too. There were four rooms, two rooms upstairs and two on ground level. I can not remember how the school was heated. It seems I remember seeing my teachers with a little white apron on putting coal in the stove that was in the middle of the room.
My first year was unpleasant until we finally had a {permanent} teacher. The first one never came. We heard she became ill. The second was married after a week or two (Married teachers could not teach then). We had several young women in town or some of the upper grade girls “kept” school an hour or two until at last Miss Grace Carlock from Dongola, IL finished the term. Some of the substitutes were Bessie Blaylock, Garnet Carson, Bessie Sydenstricker, and Mrs. Zenith Jenkins filled in sometimes.
The Primary Room consisted of four groups of children. There were Beginners, First A, First B and Second Grade. School supplies were few. Beginners read from a chart that hung on a stand. It was like a big tablet with a lesson on each page. There was no seatwork or workbooks. Pupils had a tablet and pencil. Some children had a slate and slate pencil or piece of chalk. Some of the wealthier children had coloring pencils or crayons.
After the pupils learned to read what was on the chart, they received a “premiere” text book. The First A and B and Second Grade had books on their level too. All school supplies were furnished by the parents. That was the reason some of the children borrowed books from other classmates. Some of the children were generous and loaned their books to children who did not have books. Often children who borrowed books took them home to study their lesson at home.
My second year in school was better and I enjoyed school always after the beginning of my first year. Some of the teachers who taught in the old Eastside School were: Grace Carlock, Grace Palmer, Ida Holcomb, Lois Bankson, Aletha Palmer, Artie Brown, and Principal Zenith Jenkins.
An old photo postcard of the old school postmarked “Ullin 1910,” which was sent to my great-great grandmother Louisa Echols, by my grandfather H. E. Echols Sr., reveals a slightly tattered building still in use. Many in my family attended school there and I have several old photos taken outside the building. I have never found a photo taken inside the old school.
There were several country schools surrounding Ullin. They were built to accommodate the children born and raised on the numerous farms surrounding Ullin during this era. Some of the country schools near Ullin included the New Hope School, Dexter School, Beech Grove or Jump-Off School, and the Butterridge School. Many of those schools were also closely associated with the country churches built to accommodate the farmers and their typically large families as they practiced their faith. One-by-one they all eventually consolidated with the Ullin School as bus transportation was made available. One of the last country schools, to merge with the Ullin School was the New Hope School District #18 which merged with Ullin in 1946. Many of those country school houses still exist today and a few have been made into homes. Other feeder schools that eventually consolidated with Ullin were Wetaug and Perks. Students last attended these schools in 1918.