Buckner High School “Wildcats”

http://www.illinoishsglorydays.com/id973.html

The white building is believed to be Buckner High School which sit next to the grade school which burned a few years ago. (Genealogy Trails website.

NOTE:  I will be sharing links from time to time from the website, Illinois High School Glory Days.  It is a website dedicated to schools that have consolidated in Illinois.

Please click on the link above for several news clippings and photos about Buckner High School.

I am a history buff.  I would like to share stories in the future of some of the consolidated grade schools and one room schoolhouses that use to dot the landscape of Franklin County.

Here are some excerpts about the Buckner Wildcats.

Buckner (population 479) is located in far south-central Illinois in the west-central portion of Franklin County.  Buckner is located on Illinois Route 14 about three miles west of Interstate Route 57.  The Illinois Central Railroad also passes through Buckner and runs parellel with Illinois Route 14.  The city of Benton is located about 4 miles east of Buckner.

It was in 1880 that a post office was erected and the town was named Sofronia.  Soon, however, the town seemed to disapate and the post office was closed.  Eventually a railroad was slated to pass through the town.  The owner of the land that the railroad would pass over was donated by J.L. Buckner on the promise that the railroad complany would name the town Buckner.  Such was the deal and the town was so named in 1914.

Russell Browning provided a lot of information to the website about Buckner, He said the following.”“I grew up in the town of Buckner and I did not know, and only the very old people there knew, about the High School.   Nothing was known about teachers, class mates and any other thing until I found one woman, who has passed away now, that gave me access to pictures. Then I did a micro film search of those years and came up with the information.”