The History of Ringwood High School
Ringwood (population 471) is located in far northeastern Illinois in the northeast portion of McHenry County.
Illinois Route 31 is the main road that will take you to and from Ringwood. The county roadways of Ringwood Road and
Barnard Mill Road also pass through town. The Union Pacific Railroad appears to travel to Ringwood as well. Ringwood
is about 5 miles south of the Wisconsin border and 20 miles west of Lake Michigan.
Though it has a long history, having been platted in 1837, the village of Ringwood was not incorporated
until 1994. The town was aptly named because the original settlement was surrounded by woods on each side, therefore
it was "ringed with woods". The web address of http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=6607 provides some nice photos of the downtown area of Ringwood as it appears today.
Roberta VanBriesen McKisk provided us with an article fropm a book titled "The History
of McHenry County 1885". On page 788 of this book the history of the Ringwood School is laid out. A copy of this article
is available for your reading pleasure below.
In summary, the Ringwood School was established in 1866. The original building served the
community and surrounding area continuously until 1962 when a new building was erected. The article states:
"Lorena Jepson McCannon, an alunmi of Ringwood School (circa 1862), who moved to Ringwood in 1918 when
she was in fourth grade, remembers that the school is in the same building as is there now (located on Barnard Mill Road adjacent
to School road, now converted to apartments). There were outdoor toilets--one on either side of the building, one for
the boys and one for the girls. At first there were no electric lights, just hanging kerosene lamps. The school
was heated with big coal burning stoves. There were two rooms downstairs. The first three grades were in the room
on the left, and the other elementary grades were in the room on the right. The upstairs was the high school and the
eighth grade. Cora Peet from Richmond was her teacher and she remembers Miss Ingram and Mr.
Bottomley.
In 1920, a community high school disrict was formed and Ringwood was included in the McHenry Community
High School District."
In reading this, it is probable that the school offered some high school courses, maybe even a
two or three year course of study after eighth grade. If you have any information to support this please contact us at
eganann@sbcglobal.net .
Ringwood High School Quick Facts
School Established:
1866
High School closed:
? (students attended McHenry HS)
Ringwood School replaced: 1962 (new one
built)
Ringwood Students attend today: Johnsburg High School
(Unknown if Ringwood High School offered athletics)
)