Category Archives: Schools and school districts

‘Rachel,’ the Springfield High School ghost

Posted on October 22, 2024 by editor

There is some truth to the folklore around “Rachel,” the supposed ghost that haunts Springfield High School. SHS was built on the former site of Hutchinson Cemetery, once the city’s largest graveyard. Hutchinson Cemetery covered five acres southwest of the … Continue reading →

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Springfield High School sketches, 1930 (Alda Raulin)

Posted on October 8, 2024 by editor

                                    Alda Raulin captured classic views of Springfield High School in five line drawings that led off the 1930 edition of The Capitoline, … Continue reading →

Posted in Architecture, Arts and letters, Buildings, Education, Illustrations, Lithuanians, Lithuanians, Schools and school districts, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Buster Bartholomew, coach & educator

Posted on April 7, 2024 by editor

As an athlete, Buster Bartholomew was a one-armed wonder. But he made his mark as a coach, teacher and booster of country schools. Homer “Buster” Bartholomew (1891-1943), born in Tuscola, was the son of Charles and Susan Myrtle Bartholomew. His … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Prominent figures, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation | 1 Comment

Schools ban girls’ basketball, 1907

Posted on March 4, 2024 by editor

In December 1907, when Springfield high school Principal L.M. Castle abruptly told the women’s basketball team they had to play behind closed doors, the girls revolted. They shut down the team and published a bitter protest in the January 1908 … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized, Women | Leave a comment

Tri-City boys basketball, 1952-53

Posted on January 17, 2024 by editor

The Tri-City Tornadoes were kings of Sangamon County basketball in the 1952-53 season. Tri-City Community High School, located in Buffalo, was the first consolidated high school district in Illinois. The merger of formerly separate high schools in Buffalo, Dawson and … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Education, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

First Rochester schools

Posted on November 3, 2023 by editor

The 1881 History of Sangamon County, Illinois, Together with Sketches of Its Cities, Villages and Townships includes two short accounts of the earliest schoolhouses and teachers near Rochester. As described, the schools were rough and improvised, and one burned down in … Continue reading →

Posted in Communities, Early residents, Education, Histories, Prominent figures, Schools and school districts, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

First school for Black children

Posted on May 31, 2022 by editor

Springfield’s Colored Baptist Church created what apparently was the city’s first school open to African-American children in the late 1840s. It was a struggle to keep open, but it took a decade before the city finally opened a public school … Continue reading →

Posted in African Americans, Children, Churches, Education, Local government, Schools and school districts | Leave a comment

Cathedral High School basketball champions, 1939

Posted on January 28, 2022 by editor

Springfield’s Cathedral Boys High School won its only Illinois Catholic Conference basketball tournament in 1939. The 16-team event was held at the Illinois State Armory Feb. 24-26. Cathedral’s 285 students (as the name suggests, the school was open only to … Continue reading →

Posted in Education, Schools and school districts, Sports and recreation, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

The ‘Tournament of the Big Snow’, 1931

Posted on February 19, 2021 by editor

“(W)hen coaches, players or spectators recall 1931 to their grandchildren, they’ll call it the Tournament of the Big Snow,” Illinois State Journal sports editor Bob Drysdale wrote of the 1931 boys district basketball championships. A blizzard – 14 inches of … Continue reading →

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Brown’s Business College (1864-1994)

Posted on November 8, 2020 by editor

In 1864, Washington Rutledge, a relative of Abraham Lincoln’s reputed love Ann Rutledge, opened Rutledge & Davidson’s Commercial College in Springfield. Over the next 130 years, Rutledge & Davidson’s and its descendants provided what an early advertisement called “passports to … Continue reading →

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