Arthur J Bill of the Pantagraph (Agricultural Editor) wrote a long piece on the Trimmer Country School in Money Creek on this date 100 years ago. Trimmer was something of a model school. It seems that the community was very supportive of this school and that the parents were supportive as well.
Twenty three students attended Trimmer School, which was a one room school house. Maude B Armstrong was the teacher. (She later married Hugh M Jones of Montana, who was elected to the Montana House of Representatives in 1919.) Mr. Bill was much amazed at Miss Armstrong's control over her students and the industry of those students. What seemed to most impress him was the way the students would silently go about their work, going to the correct table at the correct time as if by instinct, without any direction by Miss Armstrong. Of course at this point in education, recitation was a large part of the curriculum, so Bill testified to the enthusiatic recitation by the older pupils.
One interesting fact was that the school had a water fountain. This was a very new innovation in schools, and water fountains had only been added to the Bloomington Schools around 1911. (Prior to this all the children in the school would use the same cup for drinking water.) The Trimmer School was also installing playground apparatus in the school yard.
Arthur Bill died in 1936. At the time of his death he was Editor of the Pantagraph. His son Frank was a popular reporter for the Pantagraph as well. Frank Bill was a resident of Founders' Grove Neighborhood.