SCHOOL TIMELINE

First school was a log school built in 1853.  Teachers were Alexander Walls and Mr. More. 
1855 A new school was built, Mr. Williams was the first teacher in this building.  The school served as a place of worship until 1863 when the Episcopalians built a church (Redeemer Lutheran) 
In 1877 a two room school was built, and burned before occupied.  Classes were held in an empty store.  There was no high school during these years. 
In 1888 high school started, (Rosa Burke (Mrs. John Main) was principal of grade school and high school.  Grade school was at Little Brick and empty store buildings. 
In 1905 Big Brick was built.
In 1909 addition was made to Big Brick adding to existing four rooms…cost 20,000.
In 1918 overcrowding in the grade school forced classes to be held in the Henry Behrens home.  The house was used as a school for six years.
In 1920 Behrens home was torn down and Maple Street School was built. 
First high school was held at White School which was near the mill on Walnut Street.  Mr. H.A. Wood was principal, and taught all of the subjects when the two year school began.
The Four Year high school was in the Big Brick. 
In 1920 the new high school was built on Broadway…cost…124,000.  And 16,000. For furniture.
​Taken from
The ECHO, 1922
(the Gillespie High School Yearbook) 
The first house built in Gillespie in 1853, by B.F. Clark….the first floor was a store and the second floor was the living quarters.
All buildings were made of rough lumber sawed at the Cahokia Saw Mill.
Four rough shanties were built on the principle corner of the square.  People began building their houses around the shanties that were used for businesses.
Until 1879 all of the businesses were on the Southeast side of the railroad.
The first addition (Higgins) was added in 1854.
First Post Office was in Clarks store, Thomas Chandler was the Postmaster.
The first Hotel was the National, built by S.D. Martus in 1856.
The first Mill was built in 1859 by Settlemire-Rankin and Holmes.
The first blacksmith shop built by McGoern and Benning.
The first doctor was Dr. Isaac Osborne in 1855.
The first church was built in 1863 was the Episcopal Church, Rev. Mitchell was the first preacher along with Mr. Dresser.
The Methodist church was built in 1863.
The Lutheran church was built in 1869.
The Catholic Church was built in 1879.
The first Mayor was William McDaniels.
The first school for Gillespie was in Mrs. Greens home, but the first school was in the home of Mrs. Beggan, and stood where the Little Brick School now stands.  It was first used as a town Hall and then as a school.
The first High School was White school by the Mill, it later burned.  The Big Brick School was built with four rooms and later expanded to fourteen rooms.
Increasing population forced building G.C.H.S. in 1919 and finished in 1920.  Construction cost along with the furniture cost $124,000.
In 1880 the first mine was known as the McKinley mine located near where the old Slack Pile now stands.  The Voge mine, four miles east of the Big Four was sunk in 1882 was considered a good mine with a hoist of 600 tons a day.  Dorsey mine, northeast edge of Gillespie was considered the best of all three mines.  All were sold to Consolidated Coal Company which owned all of the mines in Southern Ill.
The population was now 800.
Superior Coal Company located in Gillespie in 1902, purchased 52,000 acres of land and sank Number 1 mine. The office was above Charles Smith store.
Number 2 mine (Sawyerville) was sunk in 1903.
Number 3 mine (Mt. Clare) was sunk in 1904 and boasted the largest smoke stack ever used in this country.  Several times this mine has had the record of hoisting the most tons of coal in eight hours work.  It hoists 5,730 tons in eight hours.
Number 4 mine (Wilsonville) was sunk in 1918 and was reported to be the best equipped mine in the U.S.
Liberty mine sunk in 1919 was first owned by Home People and in 1922 by West Virginia Coal Company.  Electrically equipped but with a much lower hoisting capacity.
The coal washer was built for $200, 000.
In 1916 pavement and sewers were added.
1922 the population had grown to 6,000.

Gillespie Public High School
By Steve Joyce
The beginning starts in 1888 when a 2 yr course of high school work was started at the Old White School near the Bycroft Flour Mill which eventually became the Gillespie Elevator. The school was located at the top of the hill at the corner of Clinton and Walnut. H A Wood was the first teacher and principal. The high school course had approximately 30 students.
He was followed by L B Birdsall, W M Vaughn, A Freeman, Rosa Burke and F L Hoehn. All were 2 yr principals. The 1st graduating class of the 2 yr high school came in 1895. Those 4 graduates were: Emma Schmidt Snell, Gertrude Bycroft McPherson, Margaret Newman and Mandi Steidley.
As Gillespie’s population grew, to over 1000, there was a more demand for schools. Little Brick School and White School are becoming crowded.  In 1905 the school district passed bonds to build Big Brick School to house the elementary and the 2 yr high school. The school opened in Feb 1906. The building was basic and had only 4 rooms. The cost was $5,750. One of those rooms housed the high school which moved over from White School.
In 1909 Big Brick School was remodeled and expanded at the cost of approximately $25,000. More additions occurred eventually expanding to 14 classrooms. The high school changed from a 2 yr course to a 4 yr course. A C Sprice was the superintendent of the schools and Rosa Burke was the principal of Big Brick. The 1st 4 yr graduating class was Floyd Sawyer, Eva Jackson Bartels, and Roy Hoehn in 1908.
George Solomon was the next superintendent followed by F L Hoehn. The high school at this time had 151 students in 1919. Gillespie High School and Big Brick Elementary School share the same building until 1920.
With continued growth of high school students, there was a need to build a new high school. Bonds were passed and construction started in June 1919 and completed in September 1920. The cost was $121,000 with additional $20,000 for equipment and furniture.  Because of the closing of some of the rural schools, the high school now became Gillespie Community High School.
In 1928 a gymnasium was built adjacent to the high school at the cost of $40,000. Prior to this all physical activities and sports were held in the cafeteria/gymnasium. The 1st basketball game was held Dec 1 against Bunker Hill. The gymnasium over the yrs is basically unchanged, minus the stage, and several rows of seating.
During the next several decades, Gillespie School District had elementary schools at Big Brick, Little Brick, Maple Street and Carney School on East Pine along with the HS. In December 1957 voters approved the passing of bonds to build a new elementary school next to the high school. Immediately the bond referendum of $480,000 was challenged in court that would delay the start of construction for 3 yrs until April 1960.
In February 1960 the School Boards of Gillespie, Benld, Mt Olive and Bunker Hill met to discuss possible mergers of school districts. This group hired a 3-member team from the Educational Research Bureau at SIU in Carbondale to take a look at reorganization. In their January 1961 report, one of the many items recommended was the consolidation of Gillespie and Benld schools. At approximately the same time a petition of 1280 people encouraged the consolidation of Benld to Gillespie. Immediately there became opposition mostly from farmers in Gillespie.
Consolidation between school districts had to 1st go through Macoupin County Board of School Trustees. The Board had a hearing and listened to arguments for and against consolidation and in June 1961 voted to approve annexation. A suit was filed in Macoupin County Circuit Court against multiple parties to disallow annexation, but the court ruled in favor of annexation of Benld to Gillespie in July 1961.
Students from Benld HS would now merge with Gillespie HS in the fall of 1961. At the time of the merger Gillespie had approximately 350 HS students and Benld had around 135. As the new school yr started in 1961, Gillespie also opened up their new elementary school and closed Little Brick and Big Brick Schools. Benld still maintained an elementary school for grades 1st through 8th, while Gillespie had KG through 8th grade and Wilsonville had 1st through 6th  grade. All freshmen would attend Benld, while sophomores through seniors would attend Gillespie.
In the fall of 1973 a realignment occurred bringing all high school students to Gillespie High School and merging all junior high, 7th and 8th grades in Benld. The last freshman class in Benld was the Gillespie HS graduating class of 1976.
In March 1992 Korte Construction was hired to build a new Gillespie HS with approximately $3.6 million in Life-Safety bonds. Partial demolition started following the school yr in 1992 and construction followed throughout the 1992-93 school yr. Dedication of the new Gillespie Community HS was in September 1993. The old 1920 high school lasted 73 yrs. The arch at the entrance of the HS is the only remembrance of the 1920 school.
The football field which use to be behind the old high school since 1920 was moved to its present location in 1972 and the old football field became the location of the Industrial Arts building, which was built in the fall of 1992 along with the other construction.
Sometimes change is slow. Sometimes people don’t like change. But, change is constant. Of course, over the yrs there have been other minor changes and there will always be something that needs to be updated or moved, the elementary building is an example of this change.