Published: May 16, 2008 12:32 pm            

A Walk Down Memory Lane

LILLYVILLE — In the basement of an old school, young students anxiously, yet fruitlessly, search for themselves in photographs taken long before they were born.

Teachers search through tables of photographs and laugh as they remember field trips and class parties — memories fresh in their minds, yet gone forever.

And old classmates and friends reunite to remember childhood times of walking to school before buses serviced Lillyville and angering the formidable nuns who once served as teachers at the school for many years.

These were scenes from Lillyville School’s goodbye party, and most of the attendees were happy to share their stories.

Yet, the school’s story is about to come to an end. Thursday, May 22, is the last day students will attend school in Lillyville.

The impending closure of Lillyville School ends an era in the Teutopolis Unit 50 School District. Lillyville is the last of three Unit 50 schools that predate the unit’s formation in 1948 and served rural students for generations.

Effingham area residents Mary Althoff, Betty Fearday, Gin Gardewine and Bev Westjohn all have fond memories of years spent in Lillyville School. They graduated from the eighth grade in 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1961, respectively.

The four sisters, whose maiden name is Ruholl, crowded together in the rain to take a picture next to the old school sign.

Mary, the eldest sister, remembered having to crowd under a neighbor’s umbrella when walking to and from school in the rain. School buses didn’t service Lillyville School until later, she said.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t any buses in Lillyville at the time.

“The buses to Teutopolis High School drove right past us, but they wouldn’t pick us up,” Mary said.

Her little sisters were quick to tease Mary, jovially proclaiming they thought she was too old to have rode on a bus.

Bev also remembered school was a bonding time with her mother.

Their mother, Bertha Ruholl, was the cook at Lillyville School from 1955-1963, she said.

“I always thought it was neat to have Mother as a cook. When I went to each room to find out how many kids were eating lunch, I’d get to see my mom everyday,” Bev said.

She also saw an advantage to the small class sizes.

“There were only three students when I was in the second grade, and I was first in the class,” Bev said.

The women also remembered the “mean boys” in the class who would go and lift up the metal lids on the outhouses, causing a foul smell throughout the school.

Mary’s son, Del Althoff, laughed as he told his mom and aunts about getting red welts on his knuckles when a certain nun, who the group requested not be named, hit him with a 12-inch ruler when he misbehaved in school.

Del, who graduated from the sixth-grade in 1971, said he was a part of the first group of Lillyville students to attend seventh and eighth grade in the “big city” of Teutopolis.

Del said “everyone had a fit” when Lillyville junior high students were moved to Teutopolis, but the group didn’t feel that way about the closing of the school.

“I hate to see it go, but it’s progress,” Betty said.

An ironic twist to the end of Lillyville’s story is the school’s beginning is in question. The official date of the start of Lillyville School is 1935, but there is evidence that it began in 1930.

Among the old photographs on display in the basement is a class picture labeled as the class of 1930-1931.

Francis Wente also can confirm that date because he says he was among the first group of students to attend the school in October of 1930.

Unit 50 Superintendent Dan Niemerg said he doesn’t know for sure when the school was founded because it was not a part of the school district at that time.

“We’ve got records that show the (Lillyville) school ground was deeded over to School District No. 123 in 1922,” he said but doesn’t have any more details.

Principal Angela Sheehan said one explanation was perhaps the school went by a different name from 1930 to 1935. The top of the building is clearly labeled as “Standard School” in an old class photo from the early 1930s.

“We’ll just go with it’s been here a long time. There’s a lot of history in this community,” Sheehan said.

Lillyville School was founded during the depths of the Great Depression, though high school students in the area have attended Teutopolis High School since 1922. In recent years, it has only served students in kindergarten through second grade.

After a lengthy and sometimes acrimonious series of public meetings, the Unit 50 board voted in March 2006 to close Green Creek and Bishop schools at the end of the 2006-07 school year, with the option of closing Lillyville one year later, depending on how easily Lillyville students could be integrated into Teutopolis Grade School classrooms.

“It wasn’t completely unexpected. You knew it was coming, but it was still sad for everyone to hear,” said Karen Smith, who has been a kindergarten teacher at Lillyville for the past 10 years.

The three outlying schools were targeted for closure because of district enrollment that dropped from a high of 1,514 during the 1999-2000 school year to 1,350 in the fall of 2005. Enrollment has been expected to drop below 1,100 students by 2010, board members have said.

Lower enrollment figures come with a corresponding decrease in state aid. Proponents of the closings successfully argued closing the outlying schools would save the district a significant amount of money.

The students and staff of Lillyville School will head to Teutopolis Grade School. Smith said the staff is trying to get the students “pumped up” about T-Town. They recently visited the grade school for recess and a tour.

As the sound of baby chicks echoes from a nearby bathtub, which is a part of a yearly science project, Smith said she will always remember the eight years of incubating eggs and hatching chicks in her classroom.

“Some of the older students always remember, so it’s a kind of tradition,” she said.

What will happen to Lillyville School remains to be seen. Niemerg said Unit 50 hopes to lease the school back to the Lillyville parish.

“Nothing is official yet, but it’s definitely something the parish is wanting to have. We’re having our attorneys look for a way they (Lillyville church) can have the school without problems to us or them,” Niemerg said.

Bill Grimes contributed to this story.

Angie Faller can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 131 or angie.faller@

effinghamdailynews.com.