Illinois State University, which now enrolls 20,757 students, was among the first normal schools established in the United States, and grew out of the movement for free higher education that closely followed the establishment by Horace Mann of the first State Normal School in Massachusetts in 1839. A State convention of teachers at Bloomington in 1853 advocated the establishment of a normal school; in 1856, after side-tracking a motion to make the school a branch of the proposed Industrial University, they successfully petitioned the State legislature for a grant of funds.
Throughout the State newspapers announced that the school would go to the city offering the greatest inducement. When the contest narrowed to Batavia, Peoria, and Bloomington, local residents, led by Jesse Fell, increased their bid from $100,000 to $145,725, only to learn that their original bid had topped the next highest by $20,000; $70,000 of the bid was underwritten by a guarantee drafted by Abraham Lincoln and signed by 85 citizens.
Construction of the main building, begun in 1857, was soon halted by the panic, and classes were held in temporary quarters in Bloomington. When it became evident that some citizens would be unable to make good their pledges, additional funds were raised, largely through the efforts of Charles E. Hovey, first head of the school.
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