The Lakeside-Mt. Morris connection

One of the most famous Lakesiders has a connection to Mt. Morris, Illinois, where I graduated from high school, and my parents, paternal grandparents and great grandparents lived most of their lives, and where my parents and maternal grandparents attended college. John Heyl Vincent, one of the founders of the Chautauqua Movement (adult education, Sunday school teacher education), a Methodist bishop and author of many books, was once the pastor of the Methodist church in Mt. Morris, and attended the Methodist Rock River Seminary, which was located in Mt. Morris (later changed hands and became Mt. Morris College, a Church of the Brethren school when the Methodists established Northwestern). He and his wife began their married life in Mt. Morris shortly before the Civil War.

"John Heyl Vincinet was born 23 February 1832. He was educated at academies in Milton and Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, began to preach at the age of eighteen, completed his training for the ministry at Wesleyan institute, Newark, New Jersey, and in the four years' theological course of the New Jersey conference, into which he was received in 1853. He was ordained deacon in 1855 and elder in 1857, when he was transferred to the Rock River conference, serving as pastor in Chicago, Galena [President Grant attended his church], and elsewhere [that would be little Mt. Morris] till 1865. In that year he established the "Northwest Sunday-School Quarterly," and in 1866 the "Sunday-School Teacher." He was appointed general agent of the Methodist Episcopal Sunday-school union, and in 1868 was elected by the general conference corresponding secretary both of the union and of the tract society, in which posts he was continued till 1884. He was the editor of the Sunday-school publications of his denomination, conducting the "Sunday-School Journal," published in New York city, with such success that its circulation rose from 16,500 to 160,000, while that of his lesson-books has been nearly 2,500,000 copies. In 1873, with Lewis Miller, of Akron, Ohio, he projected a Sunday-school teachers' institute for the purpose of preparing teachers for their work by means of lectures and drills. The institute first met at Chautauqua, New York, in August, 1874, and has since assembled each year in the same place. It has extended beyond the limits of its original design, and given rise to allied institutions, which, as well as the Sunday-school assemblies and the international lessons, extend their benefits to members of all Christian bodies. The Chautauqua literary and scientific circle, which prescribes courses of reading for all classes of people, was founded in 1878, and within a few years had 100,000 students on its rolls. In connection with this the Chautauqua university was established, a summer school in which lectures on most of the arts and sciences are given, and of which Dr. Vincent, who received the degree of D. D. from Ohio Wesleyan university in 1870, and that of LL. D. from Washington and Jefferson in 1885, has been chancellor from the beginning. At the general conference of 1888 he was elected a bishop. Among his published works are "Little Footprints in Bible Lands" (New York, 1861); "The Chautauqua Movement" (1886)" "The Home Book" (1886)" " The Modern Sunday-School" (1887); and "Better Not" (1887)." Appleton’s Encyclopedia (on-line)

Lakeside was established a year before Chautauqua NY, but the name of the movement to provide a cultural, moral and spiritual education for adults comes from that camp meeting. In Vincent's 1886 book he listed 38 "other Chautauquas," some former camp meetings like Lakeside, and some formed expressly for that purpose. So the movement grew very quickly, although it had no central organization and each location was independent. By 1891 there were 51 independent Chautauquas and by 1907 there were 97. (Figures from David T. Glick, "The Independent Chautauquas then and now" Herald, V. 13, no. 2, 1984). John Heyl Vincent's brother, BT Vincent, was the Superintendent of Instruction at Lakeside.

When my parents were young, traveling Chautauquas were popular, and there were tent Chautauquas in both Franklin Grove and Dixon, Illinois which provided plays, operas, monologues, speeches, and music for several weeks in the summer for rural people. Movies, radio and the Great Depression pretty much killed the tent Chautauquas. Today there are 12 permanent Chautauqua communities.

The other Chautauquas

Andrews, North Carolina
Bay View, Michigan
Chautauqua, New York
Colorado Chautauqua Association
DeFuniak, Florida
Monteagle, Tennessee
Mount Gretna, Pennsylvania
Ocean Grove, New Jersey
Ocean Park, Maine
The Florida Chautauqua
Waxahachie, Texas