Orange Prairie School
District 53
In 1840, Mr. Samuel Dimon, who came to this country in 1838 and settled in Kickapoo Township, hauled the logs for the first schoolhouse in what is now District No.1. Miss Harriet Hitchcock is believed to have been the first teacher in that first schoolhouse. Mr. Dimon subsequently “wielded the birch and ferrule” as teacher for two or three quarter in the same building.
There were eight school districts in Kickapoo Township and Orange Prairie was No. 1.
From History Peoria County 1880
In 1876 the original school was replaced with a brick building. A mason constructed the building for $4,000. The school had a hall with recitation room on the left; boys and girls cloak rooms on the right and a classroom on the east. A library was added later.
A well was dug in 1915, but it caved in the second day after it was used. Later a cistern proved unsatisfactory and a new well was dug in 1927.
In 1915 there were fifteen students and in 1930 there were thirty-two.
In 1946 Orange Prairie School and four other school consolidated and became Wilder-Waite No. 303.
Students from the new district attended classes at Orange Prairie, Glendale School, and Orange Grange (located near Orange Prairie School) until the new Wilder-Waite School was completed in 1948.
It housed an antique shop until it was sold at auction in 1961. It was later torn down.
