Chillicothe Township
No. 11 N. R. 9 E.
1945
Consolidation History
Teachers
#20 Chillicothe
Ralph Cusac Supt.
Bernice Reeder 8Jess Goodwin 7Nina Hawley 6,7Olivia Leighton 6Lillian E. Johnson 5Adah Mattice 5Edan Hunter 4Maybelle Hettrick 3,4Vivian Kelly 3Linda Faw 2Louise Mills 2Gladys King 1Emily Morris 1Betty Weber KPeggy Babcock Music and Phys Ed1968 Chillicothe #321#21 Senachwine
Ethel Sexton1950 Chillicothe #20#22 Valley View
No school in 19451949 Chillicothe #20Chillicothe Grade School
District Number 20
Chillicothe Township is triangular in shape and contains the City of Chillicothe and the Village of Rome. Chillicothe School District #20 contains all of the City. When we think of our early history we think of a country overrun with buffaloes and Indians. A country of great fertility and beauty, which appealed to strong young men and women of sterling qualities who were undaunted by the inevitable hardships that go hand in hand with the building of a home in a new county.We can imagine all the celebrated Voyagers and Missionaries who have camped here in their journeying up and down the river. Joliet and Marquette and others have made this journey.The first white settler in the township was Mahlon Lupton who located on Section 9 in the fall of 1829. John Hammett and family came in June 1830 and other settlers soon followed. The old stone house, on the west side of the hard road, north of town was the home of Mr. Hammett.The first cabin erected on the present town site was by Jeff Hickson, a blacksmith, sometime before the town was laid out. This cabin stood on the bank of the river. Esquire Edwin Jones built and occupied the second cabin. In one room he put a small stock of goods thus becoming the pioneer merchant of the place. All homes and business houses were on Water Street for a number years. About 1838 the first frame house was built for Mr. Lehart.In 1838 an election was held at which WM. Moffitt, Hugh Moffitt, E. Jones and H. McLaughlin were elected school trustees.The first school taught in the village was in the winter 1838 and 1839 and occupied a vacant cabin. Pitman Tuple was engaged to teach this school. A rule was adopted not to accept a schedule in which the board bill was included.In September, 182, an election for school directors was held. J.D. Tomlison, C. Ladd, and John Brown were unanimously elected by a majority of six, all the votes cast.
In 1845 a one-room frame schoolhouse was built in the public square. This was a church and theater too. Some time later the school was moved to a location on the north side of Beech Street between Second and Third Streets.With the adoption of the free school system in 1855, public funds became available for building and school purposes. Therefore in 1856 a four-room brick building was erected on the corner of Fourth and Elm Streets and supplied with up-to-date furniture. The course of study embraced 10 years of attendance fitting one to enter college.In 1870, two schoolrooms, two recitation rooms, and a hall were added to the south. In 1890 another addition was built on the north. The whole structure was destroyed by fire the following February.A temporary frame building was built on the west side of Second Street between Walnut and Elm. The City Hall and Baptist Church were also used for school purposes.As soon as the necessary arrangements could be completed the present two-story brick building was constructed between Cedar and Chestnut Streets on Sixth Street. The new location was chosen because of the growth of the city in that direction.In 1905-6 the one story brick building was built south of the grade school to accommodate the growing High School. When this became inadequate the fine new Community High School was built in 1922 and the seventh and eight grades now occupy the one story building.The Great Depression saw 58 children being fed one meal a day at local schools in 1933. 102 families were receiving Red Cross aid. 58 families were receiving county aid for coal and groceries. 10 young men joined the CCC and were sent to Oregon.
As the result of many years experience the District has come to believe that good teachers should be kept in the service of the district as long as they are willing to remain. Because of the sentiment there are in the school whose service has extended over many years. The good judgment of the district is attested by the most excellent work accomplished by the pupils of the school. The present faculty, composed quite largely of home girls, is as follow, beginning with the teacher of the Eight Grade- Mrs. C.N. Slinn, Jessie Goodwin, Emma McMannamy, Oliva Ahlenfeld, Adah Zilm, Lavona McDaniel, Muriel Pearce, Vivian Kelly, Helen Davis, Gladys Carver, Florence Bloomingstock, and Vera Kehlenback, Mrs. Myrthe Root is Music Supervisor and L.L. Pearce whose service has extended over a period of ten years is Superintendent.The present Board of Education is composed of Dr. S.S. Smith, President, F.G. Carr, Eva Mullen, Pauline Shepard, W.E. Stephenson, E.E. Webb, and Eugene Weber, with George A. Leiner, Secretary of the Board.During the winter of 1935 the voters of District #20 Peoria County voted to comply with the United States regulations for government help to build a schoolhouse, a new school building on the present site of the old building. The government of the United States contributed 45% of the total cost of this building and the district issued bonds for 55%.Through the efforts of the voters of District #20 Chillicothe, and the government of the United States a splendid new building was brought to completion early in September, 1936. This building is the last word in school architecture, is well lighted, heated, and ventilated, and air-conditioned. It is one of the finest grade school building in Peoria County up to this time.John Hayes
Senachwine School
Shepard
District Number 21
Senachwine School received its name from an old Indian chief who had his camp a short distance from the site of the school. The building is located a short distance from the Senachwine Creek, on the side of a hill. Trees surround the yard and John Moffit gave the land, which the school is located on, to the district.The first two school buildings that were erected, were lost by fire. They were a little further up the hill than the present building. These buildings were small one-room affairs, crudely constructed with the siding boards running up and down. There was no cloakroom or hall in either and the seats consisted of long benches running crossways of the room with no desks on which the pupils could write. A little ways up the creek near where the old Indian Camp once was, there was located an old mill and couple of stores where the settlers purchased their provisions. The stores have long since been closed and torn down and the mill has been unused for many years but for those who are interested in seeing it, it is still standing and the building is used for storing grain.After the second school building was burned the present structure was built. It is a one-story building with a long hall in front. It has a large cement porch and a cement walk running out to the road. The windows are all on the south side and blackboards are all in the front of the building. A large furnace located in the basement furnishes the heat for the school. While this building was being constructed, school was held in an old an old cheese factory a short distance away.John Hayes
Valley View School
(Oak Grove School before 1929)
District 22
About 1826 or 1827 the residents along the Illinois River in what is now District Number 22, wishing that their sons and daughters might have the advantages of a “reading”, writin”, and “rithmetic” education during the four or five inactive winter months, began searching for place suitael for the schoolhouse.In 1829 John Hammet, a farmer of that section, who had recently emigrated from Kentucky, donated from his farm five acres of wooded hillside land, with the promise that it revert to the estate if an any time it be used for other than school purposes.The farmers united in felling logs and constructing a building located high on the hill and overlooking the river. It was large enough to suit the needs of thirty-five or forty pupils. Seats and disks were made from split logs. Along one wall ran a crude seat with rough support in front for copybook lessons. A large open fireplace at the end of the room furnished heat. A novelty in furnishings were the spittoons which one teacher insisted the big boys provide if they chewed tobacco. This was known as Coonskin School.Lynn Bates, a son-in-law of the man who gave the land, was the first teacher, and Mrs. Emily Miller of Chillicothe, ninety years of age and a daughter of John Hammet, the benefactor is the only living person in this section who attended the log structure during those early years. The old stone Hammet residence, built nearly a hundred years ago, still stands, in fair condition, about an eighth of a mile southeast of the present schoolhouse on land belonging to Mr. Reinhard Boehle.The social activities were limited to “spelling bees’. Every neighboring school was challenged and on moonlit nights the eager teams sped in well-filled sleds over crisp snow-packed highways to their destinations. Afterwards, at some home they might, if time permitted, make taffy and popcorn balls, and, on rare occasion, they enjoyed apples free from some proud owner’s carefully hoarded bin.This log building continued to serve as an educational center until during the Civil War in 1863 when it was replaced by a frame structure, built lower on the hill. This was a long high-ceilinged room with a platform three feet in height across one end. A row of windows set high in the wall face the hill on one side, while from the opposite wall longer windows faced the valley. This was known as the Oak Grove School.About 1910 excavations were made for a basement large enough for a furnace room, and a pipeless furnace was installed. In 1922 excavations were made for a fuel room in the basement.In 1923 Mr. Reihard Boahle, whose land adjoins the school grounds, covered the long needed felt for a stretch of level playground by donating, under the terms as those Mr. Hammet had stipulated, one-fourth acre of land from a ravine that lies to the immediate southeast of the schoolhouse.The frame schoolhouse of 1863 with improvements and additions was known as the Oak Grove School until 1929. Since that time it has been recorded in the county under the name of Valley View School.
Senachwine School #21 in 1924. School was also know as Shepard School. Pictures here is Benedict Road north of the Santa Fe Depot with the old bridge across Senachwine Creek, Senachwine/Shepard School is in the background to the right of the road, shocks of grain are visible to the let, and three boys in overalls are are walking toward the bridge.
Ruth Cusac pictured here with other students of Shepard School (Senachwine School).
Picture from Chillicothe Public Library
