In 1879, Lillian Belle Bolton was the first of four children born to Amaziah and Effie Bolton in Cuba in Fulton County, Illinois. Amaziah, originally from Pennsylvania, worked first as a clerk and then as a grocer in Cuba. Young Belle and her siblings went to local schools there as they grew up in the rural farming and coal mining area. She then attended Western Illinois State College in Macomb.
In 1899, Belle married Charles Murphy, two years her senior, in Cuba. He was a day laborer while she taught school. The couple’s son, Carter, was born in Cuba in 1901.
But soon after, Charles and Lillian divorced, and Charles remarried almost immediately. Belle’s parents had moved to Kewanee in 1901, where Amaziah worked at Western Tube Co. After the divorce, she and Carter eventually moved to Kewanee and the two lived with her parents.
Belle Murphy started teaching at the Whiting School in southern Wethersfield Township sometime after her arrival. The school, located on the northwest corner of the intersection of today’s East Street Extension and 300th Street South, had been built in 1857 and then enlarged and remodeled. It was named after the owner of the land, whose daughter, Miss Abbey B. Whiting, had once taught at the school. A well was dug in 1874 and shade trees were planted in 1876. It was one of a number of rural schools in the township.
But Belle had taught at the Whiting School for only a short while when she was offered a position at the Tibbetts School in Kewanee, much closer to her parents’ house. She resigned from the Whiting School in September 1903 and immediately started teaching eighth grade at the Tibbets School. It would be the school she called home until the end of her career in education.
In 1904, Belle took an examination in Geneseo to earn her first-class teaching certificate. She then was named head teacher at her school.
But in August 1904 in nearby Princeton, she married a prosperous Franklin County, Indiana, farmer, George L. Alexander. After the wedding, Belle accompanied her new husband back to his Indiana farm. It appeared that Kewanee had lost her.
The marriage, however, lasted less than a year. She returned to Kewanee, while her former husband published notices in the Kewanee newspaper that he would not be responsible for any debts or obligations she incurred.
When she returned, Belle settled back in with her parents and son. She also returned to teaching at the Tibbetts School and her lifelong commitment to education. She taught a variety of grades from first to sixth.
By 1908, Belle had been assigned as principal at the Tibbetts School while she continued teaching. She was earning $45 per month for a salary of $402.75 for just under nine months.
In the spring of 1918, Belle became critically ill and was removed from her school duties. She eventually was transferred to a Peoria hospital for surgery. She was able to recover and returned to teaching.
Meanwhile, young Carter was enjoying school as well as social life in Kewanee. He and his mother also traveled around Illinois to visit family as well as family in northern Minnesota.
Carter graduated from Kewanee High School in 1918 and then moved to Kansas City to attend Sweeney’s Auto School. But tragedy struck.
Late one night after he apparently had been in a fight, Carter was shot and killed in an altercation outside of a gambling house in an unsavory part of town. When Belle arrived in Kansas City to bring her son’s body home, she talked to the police. Her understanding was that Carter had been with a friend at a gathering for returning military personnel, and on their way home two young women asked them to escort them to their home. When they arrived there, it appeared as a robbery set up and Carter was shot and killed.
Carter was buried in Kewanee. Belle continued to be distraught, and was in regular contact with Kansas City and Missouri officials. She even put up a $1,000 reward for the capture of the assailant. But the shooter was never found.
Later that year, Belle became a delegate to the Illinois State Teachers Association annual meeting in Springfield. Throughout her career, she was active in regional and state teacher and principal organizations.
Over the years and led by Belle, Tibbetts School incorporated building birdhouses into the curriculum. Each pupil was required to keep a book, secure pictures of the birds studied, keep track of the dates, localities, weather conditions and the like, and write a composition on the subject. The pupils used their ingenuity and available materials provided by local merchants to build the houses, such as a log bird house and one made from a cigar box. Photos of the birdhouses appeared in the Illinois Arbor and Bird Day publication put out by the Illinois Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
Belle’s dedication to her students and their families extended far beyond the school day. During the rugged days of the Depression, she quietly provided food from her own kitchen and clothing she purchased for many of those connected to the Tibbetts School.
Belle retired from teaching in 1949. She was honored at a number events, including a dinner at Princeton’s Underground Inn and by a festive group of students, parents and fellow educators gathering at Windmont Park for a potluck dinner. She then moved to Peoria.
Later that year, Belle married Edward L. Dennis. A thirty-year resident of Kewanee, Dennis had met Belle when he was boarding in the house of her parents at 222. N. Vine Street many years earlier. The couple lived in Peoria.
On Sunday, April 8, 1956, the school district unveiled the name of the school replacing the Tibbetts School, the Belle Alexander School. The school presented her with a plaque which read:
Belle and Dennis continued to live in Peoria until her death in 1966.
At her death, the Star Courier wrote:
“She was one of those persons who taught school 24 hours a day.
“And this in simple terms is probably the finest tribute that can be paid to a dedicated person. who died last Sunday in Peoria after a ‘lifetime’ in the educational system of Kewanee.
“We speak of Mrs. Belle Alexander Dennis, 88, of Peoria. for whom the Belle Alexander School was named when it was dedicated April 8. 1956.
“For 44 years, she was teacher and principal of Tibbetts School, retiring in 1949. Certainly it was appropriate when the new grade school was constructed on E. Lake Street to name the building in her honor.
“One of her former students told us, ‘Everyone knew Belle Alexander.’ She had taught his father, his uncle. a sister and himself. And this was not uncommon because her teaching influence extended over several generations.
“But her attention and dedication went far beyond the classroom walls. She thought constantly about her ‘children’ and, yes. their parents. During the rugged days of the depression she quietly provided clothing and food for many of those in the Tibbetts School area. Few publicly realized the extent of her charity.
“She was both competent and considerate. Kindly. too. but if she thought inspiration could be provided through modest use of the hickory stick in the early days she used that along with kindness.
“Her memorial physically is in the Belle Alexander School, but a more glowing testimonial is in the hearts of her former students and friends. For there she will remain. longer than the mortar of a brick structure.”
Of course, her name lives on today in the school on Lake Street.
(Thanks to Steve Morrison and Pat Baysingar for providing information and photographs for this story. One interesting tidbit I learned from Pat was that the school had blackboard walls between rooms which could be slid open when a larger space was needed.)
