The village of Delafield was platted before 1870, but in 1887 was
said to consist of “little more than a station on the railroad”. The village apparently grew around the
turn of century, but probably never had more than 200 people.
The available information about
Delafield High School is primarily from a history written in 1982 by former student Mildred
Rawls Neal, as posted on the Hamilton County Geneologytrails website found at the following address:
http://genealogytrails.com/ill/hamilton/delafieldschool.htm
The original rural
school in the Delafield area was known as the Texas Grove School . In 1903, a new two-room Texas Grove school was built
about a half-mile southeast of the village of Delafield . At some point, probably in the 1920’s, the school began
offering 2 years of high school classes.
A long, narrow storage/cloakroom
that ran the length of the building was remodeled into high school classrooms. High school teachers at Delafield included
Aaron Cravens, Nana Hart, John Knight, Marion Brown and Wilburn Cullins, Principal. Around 1930, the school began to be known as Delafield after the new state
highway was completed. High school classes were continued at least into the 1940’s. In 1950 the Delafield
school was closed, and the district was consolidated into Hamilton County District #10.
In 1982, the Delafield school
building was still standing and was used by a business known as Hodge Furniture. The current status of the building
is not known.
Kyle Shoultz tells us the following information
about the Delafield HS building:
"The Delafield School building was auctioned and torn down in the
summer of 2004. My great grandmother, Imogene Myers, is the only teacher of the school still living to date."
Delafield students today attend
McLeansboro ( Hamilton County ) High School. More information and pictures of Delafield High School are welcome.
Delafield
High School Quick Facts
Year opened:
1920s?
Year closed:
late 1940s?
Consolidated
to: McLeansboro Hamilton County High School
School team
nickname: unavailable
School team
colors: unavailable
School Fight
Song: unavailable
Athletics
Mrs. Neal states
that the Delafield boys developed an outdoor basketball court and played games against other schools. Their foes likely
included other 2- and 3-year high schools in the area, such as Belle Rive, Opdyke , Macedonia, and Walpole.
