Jewett High School “Redskins”

Jewett High School Building 1940 Yearbook Photo
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Submitted by Rosanna Hogarty
Jewett School Building
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http://www.genealogytrails.com/ill/cumberland/schoolpics.html

The History of Jewett High School

Jewett (population 232) is located in the lower-eastern portion of Illinois in the south-central part of Cumberland County.  U.S. Route 40 is the main roadway to and from Jewett. County Highways #5 and #6 also bring you to the small village.  Interstate Highway 70 passes by town to the north.  The Conrail Railroad also passes through town.  Jewett sits about 4 miles due south of Toledo.  According to the web address of http://genealogytrails.com/ill/cumberland/villages.html

, Jewett was platted in 1870.

An excellent history of Cumberland County was located “on-line” in the form of a book titled “Cumberland County Illinois 1843 – 1993“. The book can be read in its entirety at the web address of

http://www.archive.org/stream/cumberland1843county1993lindrich/cumberland1843county1993lindrich_djvu.txt

A nice history of the Jewett school district was found on page 63 of the book.  The history is copied below.

“Jewett School started with a small school, located two blocks west of the last one. The last school was built in 1881 with the help of Alfred Williams, grandfather of Bess Laughter. It was a red brick building, later a basement and furnace were added.

In 1920 the inside burned out and was rebuilt. A one, then two years of high school work was added.

A front hall was added to the entrance in 1926. A frame room was added to the north side and three year high school work was made available.

In 1928 an outside stairway was added to the basement to meet state fire codes. Later a small two story gymnasium was built of brick.”

After the third year of high school courses was added in 1926, the graduates would attend either Greenup or Toledo high schools for the fourth year of study.

It was in the late 1940s that consolidation talks arose for the many small schools in Cumberland County.  It was soon determined that the schools in Jewett, Greenup, and Toledo would consolidate to form the Cumberland School District.  This consolidation effort took place in the late 1940s and likely was completed in 1948 or 1949.  The new high school was located in the county seat of Toledo.

Jewett continued to host grade school classes in the school building through the 1966-67 school year.  The final school classes in Jewett concluded in May of 1967.  The school building was then used as a community center for several years, and may still be so utilized today.

Jewett High School Quick Facts

Year GS opened:        1881

Year HS opened:        1920

Year HS closed:         1949

Year GS closed:         1967

Consolidated to:          Cumberland School District (Toledo)

Jewett HS nickname:  “Redskins”

Jewett HS colors:        unavailable

School Fight Song:      unavailable

ATHLETICS & EXTRA-CURRICULARS

Jewett High School’s athletic and extra-curricular activities are in need of research. We could find no mention of the school’s accomplishments on the IHSA website (www.ihsa.org). Jewett HS team nickname, colors, fight song, team records, and coach’s names are all items we are seeking. If you have any information please contact us via the means listed below.

We do know that Jewett High School competed in boys basketball and baseball. It is likely that other extra-curricular activities such as chorus, band, FFA, FHA, and other clubs were available for the students to participate in.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Though we do not have any information regarding season records or coaches’ names for the Jewett HS basketball program we did locate one basketball score from the IHSA Tournament involving the school. This was found on a website titled “Illinois Postseason Basketball Scores” and is reprinted below.

1944-45                Dietrich District Tournament                Coach’s name & record needed

1st Rd lost to Montrose 50-32

Montrose lost to Strasburg in semi-final

Strasburg beat Toledo in title game

Jewett High School Class of 1940
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Submitted by Rosanna Hogarty

Memories

**From Rosanna Hogarty:

“Above is a copy of a photo of the Class of 1940 for Jewett High School in Cumberland County, Illinois.  My mother is Irene Flood in the photo. She is still living at age 92. As I remember my mother telling me, Jewett HS only went to Junior year. She wanted to graduate from high school so she secretly worked for a family in a nearby town that had the 4th year of high school. It might have been Greenup High School. She went to school during the day and babysat for her room and board after school and at night.  I think it was the town physician she lived with.”

     

Searching For More Information

Jewett High School was the pride and joy of Jewett for at least 3 decades.  JHS’ many successes and achievements should not be forgotten.  If you have any information you can share about Jewett High School, especially a photo of the old high school building, please send it to us.  You can contact us via e-mail at ihsgdwebsite@comcast.net or by real mail at:

Illinois HS Glory Days

6439 N. Neva Ave.

Chicago, Il.  60631

Jewett HS 1940 Yearbook Photo Compilation
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Submitted by Rosanna Hogarty
    


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