Chicago State University

History & Fun Facts

• •History Early history: 19th century Cook County Normal School was founded in 1867 as Cook County’s first teacher training school largely through the initiative of John F.
• •He convinced the County Commissioners to hold a teacher training institute in April 1860; its success convinced the commissioners of the need for a permanent school to educate teachers.
• •In September 1867, the Cook County Board of Commissioners created a Normal school at Blue Island on a two-year experimental basis; Daniel Sanborn Wentworth was appointed as the first principal.
• •The school opened in 1869 as a permanent institution in Englewood, which at that time was a village beyond the city-limits of Chicago at that time.
• •After Wentworth died in 1883, he was replaced by Colonel Francis Wayland Parker, a towering figure in the history of American education.