Goodfield (population 686) is located in central Illinois in the southwest corner of Woodford County. Interstate Highway 74 passes by the south edge of town and provides exit and entrance ramps to visit there. U.S. Route 150 takes you to and from Goodfield, and Illinois Route 117 will also lead you there. Goodfield is about 20 miles east (and a little south) of Peoria.

 

According to a book titled "A Woodford County History 1968", the town of Goodfield was established in 1888 when the Lake Erie & Western Railroad laid tracks through the area.

 

A grade school for grades 1 - 8 was started in Goodfield in 1894. A frame building was constructed to house the school. In 1907 the need for a larger school building was realized by the people of the area. A brick structure was then built that included two rooms for study. This building, in 1968, served as an apartment building. Its status today is not currently known.

 

In 1920 voters approved the creation of the Goodfield Community High School District. A brick building was erected to house the high school. Goodfield High School served the community and surrounding farm kids until the end of the 1947-48 school year. At that time the Congerville-Eureka-Goodfield School District #140 was formed.

Greg Knapp provided the following summary for the Goodfield High School building that was then utilized as a grade school facility for the new district, an arrangement that continues today.

 

" From 1949-1966, the elementary school housed grades 1-8, with eight grades but only four teachers. Each teacher taught two grades. Until some time after 1966, there was no kindergarten in Goodfield. The Goodfield children attended a combined kindergarten in the nearby Congerville elementary school. Beginning in Fall 1966, grades 7 and 8 were consolidated with Eureka, leaving grades 1-6 in Goodfield. Later, a 5-8 middle school was built in Eureka, and that is when the Goodfield HS building began to house K-4."