Dr. Silas Hamilton, for whom the school is named, was born in New England. He later owned and operated a plantation in Mississippi, hoping to influence his neighbors by treating his slave humanely. His neighbors were unimpressed, and after the death of his son, Silas abandoned his dream. In 1827, he freed his 28 slaves in Cincinnati. He then moved to Illinois, settling in Otterville (then known as Gullum) in 1830. When Hamilton died in 1834, he left $4000 for the construction of a free and integrated public school. The school, which was completed in 1835, was the first free school in Illinois and the first free and integrated school in the United States. In 1839, the Illinois General Assembly legally incorporated the school. The original building was demolished in 1872, and the current school building was built from the same stone the following year.
