UNION COUNTY SCHOOLS
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Illinois Genealogy Trails



EGYPT SCHOOL

            The "Egypt" school is situated near old "Peru" in a very fertile spot of Union County.  The people in this district believe in good schools and in regular attendance.  They pay their teacher, Zenas Jenkins, $62.50 a month, which is above the average for district schools and which they are abundantly able to pay, their taxable property approximating $30,000.  The school directors are Charles A. Eddleman, a graduate of Dongola high school; W.V. Meisenheimer, a progressive young farmer; and Daniel Barkhauser.  They keep the school house in good repair, together with the aid of the pupils.  They have good blackboards, maps, library, wall pictures, a school organ, and an excellent playground.

            Old "Peru," in the southern part of this county, which was situated where the Caledonia road intersected the old Cape Girardeau and Golconda road, is one of the historic places to which little attention has been paid.  The first store house was erected about the year 1825, and town lots were laid out about a year later.  The store building burned during the war and has never been rebuilt.  Mr. J.H. Eddleman, who lives there now and who has always lived there, remembers distinctly the times before the war when there was abundance of travel along the road east and west.

            The new Smith's arithmetics which were placed in the school last fall seem to be giving excellent satisfaction.  Pupils in schools which are using these arithmetics have a decided advantage over those in which the old book is retained.

            The district school pupils are certainly taking advantage of the snow this week in coasting down the hills near their respective school houses.  It makes one feel young again to watch them.

            The new iron bridge across Big Creek, on the road leading from Dongola to Swan Pond school house, is a structure which will invite the attention of the traveler.  The road has been changed there for a considerable distance which changes the appearance of the locality wonderfully.

            There are six girls and one boy in the eighth grade class in the Swan Pond school.

            Egypt district furnishes one student to the Dongola high school this year.  This student is Ora Eddleman, daughter of J.W. Eddleman.  The Swan Pond district furnishes one student, Miss Ora Conant, to the same school. 

            Most of the teachers in this part of the county will attend the teachers' meeting in Jonesboro Saturday.

(Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 15 Jan 1909)

List of School District Clerks for 1921

Union County, Illinois

 Transcribed and submitted by Darrel Dexter

 Source:  Jonesboro Gazette, Jonesboro, Illinois, Friday, 29 Jul 1921

Chas. O. Otrich
County Superintendent of Schools
Jonesboro, Illinois