A new historical marker was placed at 11060 Songbird Rd. (Khoury League Park) on Sunday, June 25th, 2023 at 2:00 P.M. Despite the heat, about 24 people showed up for the dedication service to mark the location of the old Cross Roads school. Below is the history behind the marker.
Williamson County was formed from the south half of Franklin County on February 28, 1839. The county was divided into twelve congressional townships each consisting of 36 sections, each section consisting of one square mile. The 16th section of each township was designated to sell in order to fund the creation of schools and instead of being sold in sectional fractions like 40 acres or 80 acres were sold in 16 lots to fund future schooling.
From 1839 to 1856, children attended private subscription schools. The first subscription school noted was a Professor Bugg who taught in the village of Bainbridge in 1840. Many subscription schools hinged on the availability of a teacher who in the early days were generally males that were capable of teaching the fundamental of reading, writing and basic math. Many taught out of barns and family homes. They often bartered with local families who had a lot of children and would often swap out teaching their children for room and board. Other neighboring children could get in on the teaching for about a small fee per month per child.
In 1856, the Illinois District Free School Act was established and the first school district, Stotlar School, was created in Herrin’s Prairie in 1857. This school would, after Herrin came into existence around the turn of the century, become Southside School. Over time, 120 rural school districts would be created to serve the counties rural school children in addition to the schools available to children living in the villages and towns of the county who had city schools.
Since our county has 12 townships and 120 schools then simple math tells us that the average would be about 10 rural schools per township. Since each township held 36 square miles, then you should never be more than a few miles from any given schoolhouse. From 1948 through the 1960’s, the five Community Unit School Districts we have today in the county were created and eventually absorbed all of the rural school districts and bussing rural children into city schools.
1948, Johnston City Community Unit School District #1
1950, Marion Community Unit School District #2
1954, Crab Orchard Community Unit School District #3
1963, Herrin School Community Unit School District #4
1960’s, Carterville Community Unit School District #5, formed prior to 1965
On this site in 1862, the federal government established the acreage for a school and this became Williamson County School District #55. Cross Roads School was named for the crossing of two pioneer trails. The east-west trail now seen as Khoury League Road was once called the Marion-Galatia Road and extended further east and west as a connecting trail. The road to our side called Songbird once went south across Khoury League Rd. but had disappeared by 1920. It would have conveyed early travelers from the Ohio River heading to the north and northwest to bridge crossings across the Mississippi River and points west. This road was later referred to as the “Old Chicago trail.”
Throughout the years, Cross Roads School had approximately 85 teachers, 62 board members and 902 students. Of those students, some of the most represented family surnames were Norman, Davis, Hartwell, Owens, Lee, Parks, Walker, Mifflin, Zoeller, Odum, Purdue, Absher, Swafford & Heflin
The structure of a one room school was one teacher instructing eight different grade levels of students from first grade through eighth grade. The layout of these schools was reasonably dictated by a plan from the Department of Interior called the “Standard School Model” which this school conformed to and can be seen on the back of your brochures. Cross Roads had many outstanding teachers throughout its existence. The last teacher to serve the school was Aline B. Travelstead who went on to be named Illinois Teacher of the Year in 1957. The last year students attended Cross Roads was the 1951-52 school year and was absorbed by the Marion Community Unit School District #2.
In 1955, the site was sold at auction to members of the community to establish a community center. For many years regular observances of Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas were held. Additionally, there was an annual Homecoming gathering that lasted until 2016.
In 1972, a Khoury League baseball league was formed on this site. Boys and girls played on the ballfields until 2017. The legacy of Cross Roads lives on in the families of all those who gathered here to learn, foster community spirit, and play ball.