Starkey Common Elementary District No. 113 was organized just southeast of Rockford in approximately 1866. The district was named in honor of a county doctor who was then serving this farm area that claimed a population of 240. Starkey Cemetery, located across Alpine Road from the present Buckbee School, was also named after Dr. Starkey.
School directors ordered construction of a small frame building in 1866 that served the children of Thompson, Green, Dierks, Baxter, Bartholomew, Hoffman and Anderson families. Enrollment at the school had increased to nearly 20 in 1913 when County Superintendent of Schools O. J. Kern cited the board of directors and teacher Nina Hastings for a well-groomed school yard. A year later the directors authorized an expenditure of $62.30 for books, curtains, swings and supplies for the school year.
The white frame Starkey building was used by the district until 1928 when Directors Charles Baxtor, William Dierks and Esther Anderson voted to build a new school. The structure was erected on a plot of land at the corner of Alpine and Harrison Roads donated to the district by Congressman John T. Buckbee. The building subsequently dedicated Buckbee School and the district's name was changed to honor the man who also established the Buckbee Seed Company.
Two teachers were hired by the district until 1941 when increased enrollment forced the addition of another faculty member. By 1946 there were four teachers at Buckbee School including Acting Principal Helen Lichtenwalner. Enrollment and staff members began to increase steadily as the rural area was transformed in part into a suburban residential district.
An attempt in May of 1949 to create a consolidated district composed of the Buckbee, Bell, Guilford Center, White Swan, Alpine and Vandercook districts failed and the following year John Campbell was named to head the district's six-teacher faculty. Mrs. Helen Lichtenwalner returned to Buckbee as principal in 1951.
Population increases by 1952 enabled the district to legally drop its three-man board of directors and replace it with a seven-person board of education. The first board of education included Kenneth Bartholomew, LaVerne Freed, Lloyd Funk, Milton Lindstrom, Robert Miller, President Carl Peterson and Gordon Walker.
In 1957 the board of education, under President Carl Sig Johnson, named Leonard Hallen to replace retiring Helen Lichtenwalner. The board also began making plans for the construction of a second school in the district, which had been served only by Buckbee School since the sale of the old Starkey building in 1928.
Dedication Ceremonies were held in November of 1958 for the new A.C. Thompson Elementary School, named in honor of a former county supervisor and a member of the Buckbee board of education for more than 30 years. Thompson School, built between Charles and Newberg Roads at 4949 Marion Avenue, initially housed two first grade and two second grade classes. Today there are 15 first through fifth grade classes in the building.
(Reproduced from "The History of Public Education In Winnebago County" by Charles Espy, Superintendent of Schools-Winnebago County, Rockford, Illinois. Copyright Charles Espy 1967. Permission granted by Mr. Espy February 10, 1969.)
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