1955 Berryville School 100 Year Anniversary

A new addition, shown at left, has been added to Berryville School.  Open house is being held in conjunction with the school's celebration of its 100 anniversary.
(Source:  Photo and Text below Kenosha News November 8, 1955)

"It was a big day, 100 years ago, when a log cabin in the berry path, was completed.  That cabin was Berryville community's first schoolhouse, located in the small community named by Minnie Paine because of the large variety of berries growing in the area.  On Thursday the school will observe its 100th year of service.

The same year the original school was built the last rail of the revolutionary Lake Shore Railway, going right through Berryville, was completed.  The railroad station, where farmers took their berries for shipment to Milwaukee or Chicago, was only a short distance north of the Berryville Road.

The neighborhood looked quite different from today, with 40 acres of additional land extending out into Lake Michigan.  The land since has been worn away by erosion.

Other dramatic changes in the Berryville community also have taken place.

The church (Berryville Methodist Episcopal "ME" Church) on Highway 32 and County Line Road near the old school house, has been made into a three-family apartment house.  The old log cabin, attended by the early settler families of Mrs. Minnie Paine, David Doolittle, Charles and William Smith and John Graig, since has been turned into a grainery on the John Hansche farm.

Among other families, shown on the early rosters, are E.G.  Witing, Hugh Longwell, Benjamin and Alice Field, William Braid, Allen Bradley, John Hansche, A.J. Piper, William Curtis, Herman Krueger, William Dearsley, John Gehring, Charles Paine, Bill Wensing, Herzil Dorey, Charles Barrows, William Bose, Ernst and Rudolph Hansche, Frank Swingle and Mrs. Minnie Ozanne.

After the first log cabin became obsolete for the thriving Berryville community, a second school house was constructed in 1872 on the same site.  The second building later was used as an onion storage center, but was torn down about six years ago.

Berryville's third, and present, school building was constructed on Berryville Road and Highway 32.  As the population increased, additions were made.  The newest addition is the second to be added to the original structure, and school officials report that a third addition already is being discussed.

Berryvile School, which was considered among the most progressive in the county made its gradual mark on the community."