The History of Rollo High School Rollo is a tiny hamlet located in southwestern DeKalb County in northern Illinois. There is no population listing for the town of Rollo in the 2000 Illinois Census report, however we are told there are only two houses left in the area which once was the village of Rollo. The town was founded in 1885 along a railroad line that connected Spring Valley and DeKalb. Rollo is located on the DeKalb County roadways of County Road 6 and Suydam Road. The Chicago & Northwestern Railroad cuts by the western edge of the town limits. The nearest town of note might be Mendota located 14 miles to the southwest of Rollo. Rollo is named after a character, “Little Rollo”, from the children’s book series of the day, The Rover Boys. In 1886 a school building was moved to the west of edge of Rollo. A well was built near the school and its cement frame was still visible in the 1960s. This building was moved to a nearby location in 1912 and in the 1960s, possibly even still today, serves as the Rollo Township Hall. It was in the year 1900 that interest arose in developing a consolidated school district for the many country schools in the Rollo area. Several years of planning took place until finally the Rollo School District joined with seven Country School Districts to form a consolidated school district. A school building, it was decided, would be built and located on the western edge of Rollo. The land for this building was donated by Harvey and Nellie Weddell Bullis. Several visits were made to McNabb Swaney High School (also on this site) in attempts to learn from and improve upon the Swaney efforts. The new building was finished and the children all moved in on Jan. 13, 1913.
One of the Principal’s duties was to keep the fires burning and the rooms warm. The boys of the school would chop firewood during their recess to help out. This new school in tiny Rollo gained not only state-wide attention, but also attention on a national level. Collier’s Magazine had this to say about the Rollo Consolidated School effort:
“One of the best examples in the United States of how rural schools may benefit from consolidation is the new township educational plant in Rollo, Illinois. It teaches all the grades from ABC to high school, and includes laboratory work, manual training, and house- keeping courses.*
There were very few other buildings in Rollo even at this time. A general store, teacher’s house, town hall, train depot, grain elevator, and a church along with but a few houses actually stood inside the town limits. Support for the school was overwhelming though. Christmas plays, spring “May Day” parties, and special events were known to draw crowds of well over 200 people. This in spite of Rollo’s population never exceeding 100 people, normally much less. A gymnasium was added to the school grounds in 1917. The only problem was this building was not connected to the school building where the locker and shower rooms were. The boys of both teams would dash from one building to the other before and after games. It was said that the Rollo boys had a distinct advantage in the early years of the gym’s use. Hot boilers were located in the corners of gym. The out of bounds lines went right up to the point where the boilers sat. The Rollo boys were known to set “traps” in the corner near the boilers, causing more than one lad from the visiting team to lose his concentration protecting the ball. Dressing rooms were added to the gymnasium building in 1936. A new stage was added to the building in 1915. For nearly four decades Rollo high school proudly served its community. For some of those years Rollo was but a three-year high school with the senior class attending school at nearby Shabbona or Earlville. It was in 1935 that Rollo High School received a four-year high school accreditation. Rollo High School’s new building was all inclusive for grades K – 12. The year the Rollo School System closed there were a total of 40 kids in the entire school (K – 12). The final graduating high school class at Rollo (1954) had a total of six kids (see photo below). In fact the largest enrollment in the high school’s history of grades 9 – 12 was 16 students! It was in the late 1940s and early 1950s that Rollo residents began consolidation talks with its neighbor to the north, Shabbona. As stated in report I was fortunate enough to read, the Rollo High School District fell victim to the very item which was the cause for its creation, progress. It was felt with the developments in transportation and financial gains by combining school districts that the Rollo kids would benefit more by consolidating their school district with a larger school district. Rollo High School was deactivated in 1954 with its high school students bused to Shabonna for their education. The Rollo school building served as a grade school for kids in grades K – 8 through the 1976-77 school year. The Rollo High School building hung in there for years, for a while being used as a township building, before being destroyed in 1984. A sad ending for a once truly proud school building. Several alumni gathered and each took a brick from the fallen building as a reminder of their school days. As the school’s “obituary” card read: In Memory of Rollo High School Date of Birth: January 13, 1913 Date of Death: September 17, 1984 Burial: Rollo Township Park Family: 263 High School Graduates 178 Grade School Graduates Rollo was featured in an Illinois schools journal in 1920. The following facts were made available for the publication: No. of districts consolidated: 6 Square miles: 27 Assessed valuation: $589,910 Cost of house: $35,000 Annual tax levy: $8,968 Tax rate: 2.40 Annual tax levy before: $2,250 Teachers now: 9 Teachers before: 7 Enrollment now: 125 Enrollment before: 90 Enrollment in grades: 74 Enrollment in high school: 43 No. studying agriculture: 17 No. studying manual training: 18 No. studying home economics: 13 Aid from vocational fund: Yes Public conveyance: No Years of high school course: 4 Months in year: 10 Rollo Principal J.R. McEntee fielded questions from the publication as well: Q – In what way do adults of the community profit by the school? A – School foster the community spirit. Adults use building and equipment for social affairs, grange, short course, etc. Q – In what particular does the school meet the needs of the children and young people in the community in a superior way? A – School gives the children better and more schooling, encourages college education, raises the standard of living. Q – What complaints are made? A – No objections from anyone. Q – What features give the most universal satisfaction? A – Community spirit created around the school. Better school advantages. Vocational education a factor in the lives of boys and girls. Big school budget. More money.
The wishes of the donors of the land, Harvey and Nellie Weddell Bullis, were that if the land were to no longer be used as a school ground it should be returned to the ownership of their heirs. The children of Harvey and Nellie graciously donated the property to Paw Paw Township who currently utilize the former Rollo School grounds as a park. Rollo High School Quick Facts Year opened: 1915 Year closed: 1954 Year building razed: 1984 Largest High School enrollment (9 – 12): 16 students Total enrollment last year open (K – 12): 40 students Last Graduating Class size (1954): 6 students School nickname: the “Eagles” School colors: Orange & Blue School Fight Song: Written in 1950 by RHS Class of 1933 alumnus Marjorie Atherton Cook “We’re The Eagles” “We’re the Eagles The Eagles from Old Rollo High We’re Royal Blue and Orange Too!” (remainder being sought)
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