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Before the unified district

Rural Schools and Consolidation

Explore the rural schoolhouses that became part of the Maroa-Forsyth district during the school consolidations of 1947 and 1948.

Historic Hickory Point School building
Hickory Point School

Macon and DeWitt counties

The rural schoolhouses

Many small community schools joined the newly formed Maroa district during the consolidations of 1947 and 1948. Select a linked school to explore its photographs and records.

Macon County schools

American School buildingAmerican School1874–1952 Center Ridge SchoolhouseCenter Ridge School1860–1947 Excelsior School students posed outside the schoolExcelsior NorthDate unknown Fair Play Schoolhouse and groundsFair Play SchoolCirca 1874–1950 Flood School students posed at the school building in 1930Flood SchoolCirca 1880–1947 Original Forsyth schoolhouse and studentsForsyth School1864–present Harmony North SchoolHarmony North School1896–1948 Hickory Point School buildingHickory Point SchoolCirca 1861–1954 Independence School students posed at the school entrance in 1899Independence SchoolCirca 1880–1936 Model School building in 1929Model School1909–1949 Former Parker SchoolhouseParker SchoolCirca 1890–1944 Pleasant View North schoolhouse with studentsPleasant View North1868–1948 Pleasant Valley SchoolhousePleasant ValleyCirca 1880–1934 Upper Ridge SchoolUpper Ridge School1856–1954

DeWitt County schools

Blue School students outside the schoolBlue SchoolCirca 1872–1948 Randall School students posed outside the schoolRandall SchoolDate unknown Willow Lane School students in front of the schoolhouseWillow Lane SchoolCirca 1881–1947

In the Archives

Records from the rural schools

The Maroa-Forsyth School Archives holds Center Ridge School’s district ledger from 1892–1902, Hickory Point School records from 1925–1954, and Pleasant View ledger books from 1923–1929.

Explore Archive Holdings

1947–1948

Forming the consolidated district

The consolidation process brought rural schools from Macon and DeWitt counties into the Maroa school system. Students who had attended neighborhood schoolhouses began traveling into town, and local school governance shifted toward the unified district that would become Maroa-Forsyth.

These changes connected the schools of Maroa, Forsyth, and the surrounding countryside under a shared educational system while closing an important chapter in the history of the rural schoolhouse.

Six members of the Maroa Community High School Board pictured in 1948
Maroa Community High School Board, 1948

Sources and further reading

This history draws on Rural Schools of Macon County, edited by Florence Scott White and published by the Macon County Historical Society in 1978, along with contemporary newspaper coverage of the school consolidations.

View newspaper sources
  • “4 Unit School Districts Set Opening Dates.” Herald and Review, August 21, 1950, p. 3.
  • “125 Expected to Register at Maroa High.” Herald and Review, August 20, 1948, p. 3.
  • “Five Rural Schools Sold.” Decatur Herald, November 9, 1947, p. 3.
  • “Maroa School Merger Vote Set for April 26.” Herald and Review, April 15, 1947, p. 3.
  • “New Merger Proposed for Maroa Schools.” The Decatur Daily Review, April 14, 1947, p. 16.
  • “Report Merger Plan Opposed.” The Decatur Daily Review, March 5, 1947, p. 4.
  • “Rural School Group Seeks County Plan.” The Decatur Daily Review, March 21, 1947, p. 13.
  • “School Merger Talks Planned.” The Decatur Daily Review, February 4, 1947, p. 21.
  • “Shift to Maroa Schools Voted.” Herald and Review, September 16, 1948, p. 3.
  • “Two Elections Set for School Consolidations.” The Decatur Daily Review, October 20, 1947, p. 13.
  • “Vote May Close 15 Schools in Macon, DeWitt.” Herald and Review, March 21, 1947, p. 3.
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