Lacon High School - Tickler Yearbook (Lacon, IL)

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A ONHIGHSCHOOL l A pleasing memorial in 'marble to those noble citizens of Lacon who through, their financial assistance or their service on the Board of Difrectors made the present school building possible.

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L THE STORY OF LACON SCHOOLS Our boys and girls have not always had the palatial structure they now enjoy. But a few years after the first white settler, john Strawn, built his log cabin the proprietors of the little town turned their attention to educa- tion, and in 1836 the l.acon Academy was organized and one thousanzl dollars pledged to its support. A building was put up in that year capablc of holding sixty to seventy students, and for many years this afforded all the educational privileges needed. The Lacon Academy was undoubtedly mod- eled after the famous New England academies of that time. The first acad- emy built in Lacon was used for church purposes, town meetings, elections. lyceums, and all public purposes. It later became a private dwelling and eventually was moved and became the store which XVilliam Fisher occu- pied in 1880. Jane M. Kilgore was the first teacher. The second school built in Lacon also became a private dwelling, but in 1856 a fine building was constructed at a cost of 38.000, which for many years served its purposc. Before the present building was constructed, within the memory uf many Lacon residents, three scattering wooden buildings served for school purposes. At one time, we are told, for a considerable period many high school children left school because that part of the building where their seats were located was considered unsafe. ln our imagination we can draw a picture of those far-gone days of early Lacon, when boys and girls daily expected. perhaps hoped, to be without a school building. Teachers in the early nineties received from thirty to fifty dollars a month, but in 1805 Professor Frost, superintendent of the Lacon schools, received a salary of 551,500 a year, a princely sum in those days. In 1902 the public-spirited citizens of Lacon constructed the present school building and, although nineteen summers and winters have passed, Lacon has still a beautiful school structure. There is still plenty of room in the building and the assembly hall provides a place of meeting for various purposes. One seldom sees a building constructed: as our building is' and many are those who remark of its beauty. L. G. H.