In 1873 the first students graduated from Greenville High School.
In 1973, some 100 years after that first graduating class, the
high school yearbook, the Graduate, presented a special section
on the history of the high school.
The special 100th anniversary edition was edited by Deanna Schaufelberger, Judy McFarland and
Jeff Hughey, who was editor of the historical section of the 1973 yearbook.
The special section noted that the high school opened in the fall of 1869. Seven students took part
in the graduation exercises in June of 1873. The high school was started under the direction of
Professor Samuel Inglis, who was in charge of the Greenville school system for a number of years
and later was elected as Illinois superintendent of public instruction.
The original high school curriculum included reading, elocution, English grammar, rhetoric, Latin,
algebra, geometry, physics, physical geography and psychology.
Greenville's school building was torn down and a new structure (Central School) was erected on
the same site on South Second St. in 1894.
Then in 1915 a separate high school building was constructed on Beaumont Avenue. That structure
was used as a junior high school building after a new Bond County Community Unit No. 2 High
School was opened in 1956.
(The old high school building on Beaumont Avenue was demolished in 1966).
The new community unit high school included students from high schools that were closed in both
Pocahontas and Sorento.
The Pocahontas high school (a two-story brick structure) was built in 1910 to serve for all grades.
The historical section included a large photo of James Kesner, who became principal at
Pocahontas in 1948 and later served as an administrator in the community unit after it was formed
in the 1950s.
The last class at Pocahontas in 1956 included 21 seniors. The old high school building was used as
a grade school and then was torn down in 1969.
In Sorento a grade school and high school building was competed in 1883 and then a second high school building opened in 1905. This
included nine rooms. Then two rooms were added in 1925, with a gym above them. A separate
gym was built in 1936. According to the yearbook, it was a full four-year high school only in 1938
and 1939. During peak enrollment years in the 1930s graduating classes totaled about 20 to 25.
Fifteen students completed their third year in 1953, the year the community unit was formed. Then
students began attending high school in Greenville. (Charles Romani, principal at Sorento, became
an administrator in the new community unit).
The old Sorento building became a grade school and was razed in 1968. The yearbook included a
large photo of Louis Bledsoe, a teacher and superintendent at Sorento for many years.
The section on Greenville High School administrators included several pictures, including one of
Dale Schaufelberger, first president of the Bond County Community Unit No. 2 Board of
Education in 1953. Other members were Jack Compton, Robert Genteman, Lonis
Gruen, Marion Jenner, Frank Joy and Ray King. Some other photos spotlighted Hugh Pinkstaff, the last
superintendent of the Greenville school district, who continued on as the first superintendent of the
unit district.
Other photos included those of Ira King, principal of GHS from 1929 to 1940, Robert Wheat,
principal from 1952 to 1965, and Alex Long, principal of GHS from 1915 to 1917 and later
district superintendent. The section on academics included photos of Gilbert Mouser, a science
teacher from 1936 to 1944, and of a later science teacher, Clarence Johnson. Others included
long-time English teacher Jessie Baker and her husband, L. G. Baker, who taught for 43 years
starting in 1920. He taught manual training and was basketball coach.
Also pictured was Dorothy Stoutzenberg, who taught English and history (her specialty was the
Civil War) from 1921 to 1948. There was a photo of Eileen Nelson Budde, a long-time teacher
and later community unit librarian.
Latin was offered from the beginning of the high school. French was added in 1919 and Spanish in
1954. The first agriculture classes were offered at GHS in 1936 and business classes started about
the same time. High school art classes were offered in 1955. Musical and theatrical activities could
be traced back to before 1918.
Driver's training started in 1950 and the guidance program in 1960.
The Graduate yearbook began in 1918 and the first major newspaper, the G Whiz, started in
1921. Future Farmers of America was started in 1937 at GHS and the Girls Athletic Association
in 1938. The debate team began in about 1920.
The basketball team won fourth place in the state finals in 1923 under Coach L. G. Baker. In
1960, Coach Gordon Rogers took the team to the super-sectionals. Paul Shea was another
long-time coach and school administrator.
There was a football team for just four years starting in 1926 and then a football team was again
formed in 1956.
The 1973 yearbook also included brief histories of GHS baseball, golf, wrestling, tennis and track.
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