At the age of 91, William Jasper Stockton wrote a biographical sketch in 1939 in which he said the first school he attended was in a barn owned by his uncle, Isaac at Coal Bank which was located between Marion and Spillertown.

He wrote that his uncle and his father hired a man and his wife by the name of McCoy to come to his uncle’s farm and teach the children of both families. A few other pupils also attended. In all, there were between 15 and 20 “scholars”. Part of the barn was cleared out and a floor put in for use of the school. A big pile of corn in the back part of the room was simply thrown out of the way. For a desk for use of the older pupils on which to write, a large, wide poplar board was nailed up along the wall. Benches on which to sit were made out of logs split in two and held up by wooden pegs for legs.

When the people of Illinois voted to provide free public schools in 1857, Stockton’s father was elected to the school board, and a school was built in Marion. Robert G. Ingersol was one of the teachers.

The Stockton family lived on a farm they owned just north of what was then the boundary of the town of Marion. They manufactured cow bells which members of the family sold throughout several states.

Their bell factory and home are believed to have been located on North Market Street on a tract that is now the site of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Burress at the junction of North Market and West Stockton Street (named after the family). The family later moved to California. (At this writing, the Henry Burress family lived in the old William S. Burkhart home at 910 N. Market St.)

See also, the post “Stockton Bell Factory”

(Glances at Life by Homer Butler, published on October 9, 1976; notes in parenthesis for clarification only by Sam Lattuca)