While plans were being made in April 1904 for the commencement exercises for the last class of high school students to graduate from the old South School, bonds were being sold to finance a new high school, now Beckemeyer Grade School.
     The soon-to-be 75-year-old building that has served as the high school, junior high school and as a grade school for the past quarter of a century will join Winhold and Edison schools as a part of Hillsboro's past in the months ahead. Plans are being drawn to replace it with new educational facilities under the unit school district improvement program.
     The 20 members of the pass of 1904 were ordering invitations for the May 23 commencement which was to be held in the Opera House when the school board sold the bonds to build the new school.
     Little did the class members, Ada Brown, Amy Brown, Orville Boyd, Minnie Bremer, Edna Bremer, Geneva Chancey, Gertie Cress, Mary Crawford, Carrie Lipe, Nell Martin, Spray Newton, Lucy Roberts, Zella Robertson, Myrtle Smith, Nell Woodruff, Jessie Wooll, John Osborn, Earl Killpatrick, Ross Eagle, and Seward Fisher care who bought the bond on April 17.
     Haisey & Company of Chicago was the top bidder for the purchase of $17,000 of 5 percent school bonds and paid a premium of $1,041.25 to secure them.

School Site Chosen

     At a special election held March 7, the voters approved a tax levy to build the new high school and chose the Old Fairgrounds as the site. Offered a choice of seven different locations at prices ranging from $2,000 to $5,000, the voters approved paying Arthur Kinkead $3,000 for the 15-acre fairground tract. The other sites available were: 14-acres at the west edge of town, owned by Burrell Phillips; for $4,000 (which C. P. Bliss soon purchased and where the writer of this feature was born four years later on Bliss Place.); J. M. Clotfelter tract on School Street, where the hospital was later built, (now the site of the Hillsboro Assisted Living area), $5,000; several lots near the South School, owned by A. H. Brown, $4,000; five lots in the north part of town, owned by Jacob Harkey, $1,800; the site of the old Empire mill on North Broad Street, owned by J. T. Maddux, $2,000; and a tract of land in the south part of town owned by A. E. Fish.

Lincoln Spoke at Fairgrounds

     The site chosen for the new high school had been owned early in Hillsboro's history by Wesley Charles Seymour. Methodist camp meetings and other gatherings were held in the grove of trees, some of which still stand, until 1854 when the Montgomery County Agricultural Society was formed and the fairgrounds were established there.
     County fairs were held on the grounds annually, with political speakers and horse races as drawing cards. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas each spoke there during fair week in 1854. Some of the fastest horses of the day raced there each year and the old one third mile race track is still visible on parts of the school campus.
     The Old Settlers' Association was formed during the fair in 1883, the year the first class graduated from Hillsboro High School. A log cabin was built by members of pioneer families as a meeting place at the fairgrounds and stood on two different locations on the present school campus until it was destroyed by fire In 1932.

Awarded building contract

     In the beginning, members of the school board, Thomas M. Jett, president; A. M. Banes, secretary, J. K. McDavid, Edward Duncan, James E. Colvin, William Markel and Mr. M. L. Moyer, had considered building the new school along the lines of the old Academy.
     The board engaged Paul Moratz, a Bloomington, IL architect, to design the building. Mr. Moratz had also been engaged to design the new Hillsboro Carnegie Library building, which he was designing along Academy lines. Plans for the high school were changed and Beckemeyer School, as it stands today, was approved by the school board.
     Changes were later made to the interior of the building. L. M. Garwaith, the Chicago contractor who had been awarded the bid to erect the library building for $11,000, was engaged to build the new high school for $16,900, not including plumbing, heating or electrical work.
     The entire cost of the new building totaled $24,498. According to an itemized statement, the expenditures were as follows: Cost of site, $3,000; original contract, $16,900; heating and plumbing, $3,200; wiring building for lights, $85; slate for blackboards, $212; furniture, $665; concrete walks and extra work, $329; grading lot, $35; and building cistern, $72. Construction was started in late spring. The 1904 cornerstone was scheduled to be laid June 27 but a torrential rain forced the ceremony to be delayed until July 4. In reporting the event, the NEWS said:
     "The ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the new high school building at the old fairgrounds was performed Monday, July 4, at 10:30 a.m. Most Worshipful Grand Master W. B. Wright of Effingham taking charge of the exercises in his official capacity.
     "A goodly number of Masons from the county lodges were present to assist and the ceremony was very impressive. The Masons met at the Masonic hall and formed a procession and marched to the grounds. Several hundred people were congregated there to witness the ceremony which proved to be most interesting.
     Placed in the cornerstone were: "Copies of the Montgomery News and Hillsboro Journal newspapers, dated July 1, 1904, a report of the financial condition of the school district, a copy of "The Historian" published by the high school last year, a copy of the school laws of Illinois, a list of the names of the high school pupils, the names of the board of education, the city officials and the high school alumni and a coin bearing the date of 1904." Judge Edward Lane was the featured speaker and reviewed the history of Hillsboro schools.
     The building was not completed by the time school opened in September so classes were taught in the old Presbyterian Church until December. The building was occupied for the first time on December 19, 1904 and class after class of children have been taught there since then.

"The Inini" Established

After the new year arrived, the members of the Class of 1905 established "The Inini" a school publication which they hoped would be issued monthly. The editorial staff reported that "Inini" was the original Algonquin Indian name for Illinois and meant, "The man perfect and accomplished."
     The first issue of "The Inini" was published in May with Myra Banes as editor. Others on the publication staff were Mary Watson, Cora Lipe, Fern Livengood, Earl Risk, Mattie Paisley, Fred Eagle and Roy Middlecoff, all seniors, and Miss Lucy Roberts, who graduated in 1904 and was the alumni editor.
     The new high school and course of study were recorded in the 16-page booklet, which was sponsored by a number of Hillsboro merchants. "The Inini" editors wrote:
     "Few towns the size of Hillsboro can claim the distinction of having a separate High School building upon a fifteen acre tract of natural forest. Our people may feel a just pride in their new High School. It is a large and commodious building containing a basement and two floors. The second floor is occupied by the large assembly hall, two cloak rooms and two well lighted recitation rooms. The assembly hall will now seat 126 pupils."
     "The first floor has one recitation room, the physical and biological laboratory, lecture room, office and alumni room. The laboratory is furnished with eight tables, accommodating 32 pupils. The lecture room, having a raised floor, is especially adapted for demonstration work. This room can be darkened any time within the day making it possible to use the lantern whenever desired. The alumni room has been furnished with elegant mission furniture at a cost of nearly $200. The alumni of the High School have thus shown their abiding interest in their Alma Mater."
     "The basement has the furnace room, gymnasium, chemical laboratory, toilet rooms and manuel training room. The gymnasium is being equipped as funds can be obtained and in time will be a valuable help to the athletics of the High School. The chemical laboratory is fitted with two tables containing 32 lockers."
     "With such surroundings, a good corps of teachers and an earnest body of pupils, work can be done equal to any other High School in southern Illinois. Those who are contemplating a High School course will do well to consider the advantages our school offers. Graduates of three year courses from neighboring towns are especially urged to consider our claims.
     "Three courses are offered, known as the English History, Scientific and Latin. A limited number of electives can be taken. The course required four years for completion. Thirty-two credits are required for graduation."
     "The following is the course offered in the High School. It places us on the accredited list of the State University. All subjects continue for the year except where noted otherwise."
     "FIRST YEAR - Latin, algebra, Rhetoric, Bookkeeping and Commercial Arithmetic, Civics, fall term; Botany, spring term."
     "SECOND YEAR - Latin, Algebra, Rhetoric, Ancient History (Grecian or Roman), Zoology, fall term; Physical Geography, spring term."
     "THIRD YEAR - Latin, Plane Geometry, American Literature, Physics and Modem History."
     "FOURTH YEAR - Latin, English, Literature, Chemistry, U.S. History and Solid Geometry, fall term; Reviews and Political Economy, spring term."

Class Orations

     As was the custom then, each of the eight members of the graduating class had to give an oration at commencement exercises before they could receive their diplomas. Miss Mary Watson, the valedictorian, spoke on, "Vital Question" - a protect against foreign immigration with limitations. Miss Martha Paisley, the class salutatorian, titled her oration, "To Thine Own Self Be True."
     The other six members of the class spoke on the following subjects: Miss Cora Lipe, "The Open Eye", F. Earl Rish, "Sources of Our National Greatness:, Miss Fern Livengood, "Red Cross Knight", Fred Eagle, "The New South", Miss Myra Banes, "Internal Russia", and Roy Middlecoff, "Modem Diplomacy".