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The first elementary school in the village of Fairbury was taught by Alonzo Straight, in a little frame building of the south side of the T.P. and W. Railroad. The first public school building was erected in 1860 on the north side of the railroad and stood where the recently demolished Izaak [Isaac] Walton School stood. (Izaak [Isaac] Walton School was the site of the Fairbury High School as well.) The building, a two-story frame building costing $2,500 was surrounded by a picket fence and shaded by willow trees. The first teacher was Olney Smith. Mrs. [Alma Lewis-] James says, in her book, that many of the later women teachers were Civil War widows who depended upon their jobs to supplement their government pensions of $10 per month.
The first building on the south side, Edison School, a two-story frame building costing $3,500, erected in 1868, was destroyed by fire. Some said the fire as started by a group of boys who piled hay up near the building and set it on fire. School was held, nevertheless, the next year in McDowell’s Hall while a new building was constructed. The attendance during the year of 1876 averaged about 500 for the two buildings.
The History of Livingston County of 1878 states that the appearance of the buildings in Fairbury at that time was quite weatherbeaten [sic] and dingy, but they were comfortable inside and supported excellent schools.
A fine brick building costing $13,000 with room for 400 pupils followed. It had outside toilet facilities, however, and was heated by stoves.
(Page 42; “A Livingston County Scrapbook: (1855-1975)” by Lucille Goodrich, County Supt. Of Schools, Livingston County, Ill. 1947-1971. Donnells Printing – Pontiac, Illinois. Copyright: Lucille Goodrich 1979)
In 1880, the first high school in Fairbury, known afterwards as the Isaac Walton Elementary School, was erected at a cost of $20,000. Both the elementary school and high school were under the supervision of C.E. DeButts, who was well-known in Livingston County. A graduate of Cornell College in 1890 with a Master’s Degree in Philosophy, he had served as principal at Cornell two years, principal of the city schools of Pontiac three years, principal of Odell Schools three years, assistant principal of Pontiac Township High School three years, and finally superintendent of schools in Fairbury. Increased salaries and responsibilities were given each time as the reasons for his moving to another position.
Mrs. Alma Lewis-James; mother donated most of the high school site in 1913. Mrs. Alma Lewis-James donated another tract in 1948 for part of the athletic field, and she sold the school still another ten acres in 1955 for an addition to the site. The land had been in the family for more than a century. The original land grant was given to Mrs. Lewis-James’ great grandfather, Dr. Lorenzo Beach, on October 9, 1854, for his services as an army physician in the Seminole Indian War in Florida. The second owner of the land was his son, Thomas A. Beach, the founder of the Fairbury Bank. The third owner was his daughter, Mrs. Ella Beach Lewis, Mrs. James’ mother.
A rather amusing item concerning Fairbury High School appeared in The Blade of October 15, 1892. Quote: “An effort is being made by the high school to establish a gymnasium in connection with the school. The undertaking is a laudable one and should be encouraged. Better results will grow out of a gymnasium than a course in Latin.”
That same issue of The Blade told that the teachers of the public schools had had a picnic out on the banks of the Vermillion the previous Saturday.
(Page 54; “A Livingston County Scrapbook: (1855-1975)” by Lucille Goodrich, County Supt. Of Schools, Livingston County, Ill. 1947-1971. Donnells Printing – Pontiac, Illinois. Copyright: Lucille Goodrich 1979)
When Isaac Walton School was built in 1895, it also served as Fairbury High School. When the building was sold in 1965, the old bell was sold separately. The 1,200 pound bell on which was inscribed “Buckeye Bell Foundry 1912,” was dropped onto huge truck tires placed on the ground to catch it. The space on which the school stood is now a parking lot for the Methodist church.
In May, 1914, at a special election, a small majority of 685 to 527 voted for a new Fairbury High School and a $60,000 bond issues. Commencement exercises that year were help at the Central Opera House. For the first time in the history of the school, the graduates (22 of them) wore caps and gowns.
Fairbury has since voted a $350,000 expansion program for its high school building in 1949, a new gymnasium in 1951 ($250,000), and several other bond issues which included all of the schools.
In 1949, Fairbury-Cropsey became a community unit district. In 1950, the seventh and eighth grades moved into the old high school building where they could use the shop equipment, the home economics facilities, and the gymnasium. The home economics department moved to the basement and the old gym was used for a music room. Food was prepared in a central kitchen and distributed to the other buildings in Fairbury in thermos-style cans.
The new gymnasium was ready in February, 1951, and the regional tournament held in it on February 26-March 2. The building seats 2,400 people and the boast is that there is not a single post or pillar to block the vision.
It was necessary in 1954-55 to rent space in the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches to house the overflow first grade classes. Voters turned down the approval of a building program for the erecting of six-classrooms 243-198. As a crisis measure, the board set up a Pay-As-You-Go Building project of $135,000. In February, 1957, the sixth and seventh graders moved into the new $180,000 building, just north of the gymnasium, called Lincoln School.
In 1955, Mrs. Alma Lewis-James sold the Fairbury School ten acres of land which was granted to Mrs. Lewis-James’s great grandfather, Dr. Lorenzo Beach on October 9, 1854, for his services as an army physician in the Seminole Indian War in Florida. Mrs. Ella [Beach Lewis], his granddaughter, donated most of the original high school site 1913. Mrs. Lewis-James, the fourth owner of the original tract, donated another tract to the school in 1948 for part of the athletic field.
Outstanding features of the new Lincoln School were the shelter at the service entrance and foot warmers just inside the door, the nine skylights above the 166-foot corridor, the Dutch door on the lobby side of the general office for selling tickets, the diffused lightings and the two deep planters in the lobby, the varied colors used in the classrooms and the all-purpose room which served as lunch room, library, and auditorium.
On December 6, 1961, a $1,387,800 bond issue for building a new 23 room elementary school, addition on the Cropsey School, and remodeling the high school was defeater 3 to 1. Edison School has been built in 1880, Isaac Walton in 1895.
In 1962, two new rooms were added to Lincoln School out of current funds. The 6th, 7th and 8th grades were now housed at Lincoln School.
A $706,000 bond issue to construct an addition to Lincoln School, add to the vocational shop and make repairs in the high school building was rejected 619-380.
At a third election on February 9, 1963, voters approved 528-375 a $400,000 bond issue for a new elementary school of 12-15 rooms to replace Edison School.
The Fairbury Board purchased 13 acres of the Dally property in southwest Fairbury as a site for the new Westview School, located just west of the fairgrounds. Cost of the land was $22,950 or $1,700 an acre.
The L-shaped building housed 8 primary classrooms with their own playground to the north in the East Wing, and 6 classrooms with their athletic field in the south wing.
Dr. John O’Neill, Assistant Superintendent in the office of Public Instruction, was guest speaker at the dedication on November 8, 1964. Of special interest at the Dedication Ceremonies was an exhibit of School Antiques. There was a teacher’s pointer from the 1800’s, a school bell and a copy of the Hans Christian Anderson Library of 1878, copy of an original unabridged Webster’s Dictionary, classroom and playground handbells, a copy of the 1913 eighth grade examination for Livingston County, a lunch pail carried to school in 1924, a pair of high button shoes, R. Caldecott’s Picture Book 1818-1885, a quill and inkwell, a hornbook, a copy of an 1890 History of the United States, several ancient school books, school desks of other ages, and dresses worn by teachers of other days.
Over 2,000 pounds of blue-green carpeting (363 yards) had to be hauled into the library at Fairbury-Cropsey when the high school library was remodeled in 1965. Eighty pounds of 8 penny nails were also driven into the floor to stop squeaking that had plagued both students and teachers in past years.
Clarence Herbst of Pontiac purchased the old Edison School building on August 7, 1965, for $28,500. Later the building was demolished and one of the Weber Apartments built on the site on 4th Street. (This would be the corner of Fourth Street and Route 24)
On December 9, 1969, Fairbury-Cropsey voters went to the polls to decide a $985,000 bond proposal for adding 13 rooms to Westview Elementary School, converting the old high school gymnasium into four classrooms, and building an addition connecting the high school and Lincoln Junior High School and serving as a joint facility for both.
In 1971, voters approved a bond issue of $1,007,000 by 16 votes (659-643) to do the above.
The price paid for one of the old buildings in 1972 was among the highest in the county. Four or five years previously the old Cropsey grade school building has been auctioned off for $3,500 before an audience of four people, three of them from Cropsey. Six years before the Edison School had sold for $28,500. In 1972, the Methodist Church paid $40,000 for the Isaac Walton School for a parking lot site, 2 2/3 more than what is had cost 77 years before.
In 1972 Fairbury-Cropsey viewed the Westview addition which included a 36’ x 76’ instructional materials center, eight academic classrooms, an art room, storage, rest room facilities and an air-conditioned music room used in the summer band program.
(Page 230 – Page 232; “A Livingston County Scrapbook: (1855-1975)” by Lucille Goodrich, County Supt. Of Schools, Livingston County, Ill. 1947-1971. Donnells Printing – Pontiac, Illinois. Copyright: Lucille Goodrich 1979)
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Fairbury Schools
Livingston County, Illinois
(Photos and Transcription by: Abby Schlichte)
Isaac Walton School, Fairbury, Illinois
Edison School, Fairbury, Illinois
South Side School, Fairbury, Illinois
Fairbury Township High School, Fairbury, Illinois
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