OTTERVILLE - Local history buffs can get an inside look at an Otterville building with a fascinating backstory while supporting its restoration at the 41st annual Hamilton Primary School Festival.
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The festival spans two days, including Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024 from 12 to 5 p.m. As always, it will be held on the Hamilton Primary School grounds at 107 E. Main St. in Otterville.
The weekend’s festivities include live musical acts, free tours inside the Hamilton Primary School, local vendors, prize raffles, a 50/50 drawing, and kids’ activities, including crafts and a coloring contest. Plenty of great food will also be on-hand, such as fried fish, pulled pork, hot dogs, bratwursts, and more.
The festival also features an annual bake-off and auction, both of which are set for Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. The top three bakers in each of four dessert categories will walk away with cash prizes, with winners announced that afternoon at 1 p.m.
The public is also welcome to attend an outdoor church service scheduled before Sunday’s festival events at 10:30 a.m. Every dollar raised at the 2024 Hamilton Primary School Festival will go directly towards continuing the restoration of the school building, which was built from 1834 to 1836.
According to a sign outside the building, Vermont physician Dr. Silas Hamilton moved to the Otterville area in 1830 with his slave named George Washington.
Hamilton had set aside $4,000 for the construction of a primary school, which he envisioned being free for all residents - including Washington, who was now a free man. The funds were used after Hamilton’s death in 1834 to build the school, which opened in 1836.
Washington would leave $1,500 upon his own death to erect a monument to his former master, which still stands on the schoolhouse lawn. It states among other things that Hamilton funded the school’s construction and freed 28 slaves during his lifetime.
Just west of the school, Washington and Hamilton are laid to rest in the only known instance of a former master and former slave being buried beside one another.
The Hamilton Primary School was not only the first free school in Illinois, but also the nation’s first-ever integrated school, underscoring its historical significance locally and beyond. The building has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1998.
For more information about this year’s Hamilton Primary School Festival, contact Sonny Renken at 618-971-8509 or pastorsonny@outlook.com or Mary Drainer at 618-535-0342 or mdfarmgirl25@gmail.com.
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