Matherville High School

The History of Matherville High School

Matherville (population 772) is located in upper west-central Illinois in the northeast portion of Mercer County. U.S. Route 67 travels by the east side of town. County road 130th Avenue is the main roadway that connects Matherville to U.S. Route 67. A small lake appropriately named Lake Matherville lies on the northwest portion of town. Matherville is located about 20 miles south of Rock Island. The town was named by the railroad after George Mather. Mr. Mather sold articles at to the railroad workers in the late 1800s in exchange for the town being named after him. The town was first called Mather and eventually Matherville.

The history of Matherville High School is needed. We were able to locate very little information on the internet. One item we discovered was located on the web site titled "Illinois Post Season Basketball Scores" (http://sites.google.com/site/xtmi2000/ . It shows that in the 1935 District Tournament held in Moline the Matherville boys were defeated by Sherrard High School by a score of 39 - 18 in the first round.

At this time we can only speculate that Matherville High School was a two 0r three-year high school which was opened between the late 1800s and early 1900s. It is likely that Matherville High School existed through the late 1940s, possibly even through the early 1950s. We do know that Matherville High School closed and was merged into the Sherrard School District. Matherville still supports an elementary school which feeds into the Sherrard District.

Matherville High School Quick Facts

Year opened: late 1800s / early 1900s

Year closed: late 1940s / early 1950s

Consolidated to: Sherrard High School

Matherville HS team nickname: ??

Matherville HS team colors: ??

School Fight Song: ??