Tripp School

The original Tripp School in Vernon Township was held in a log cabin located at the back of the Job W. Tripp farm located on the east side of Milwaukee Road about 1/2 mile north of Deerfield Road. In 1848 Tripp sold a small piece of the southwest corner of his farm to the township for $10, where a frame school was built. This school, also called the Tripp School, was located directly across Milwaukee Road from the George Rockenbach II farm on the west side of the road, at what is now the intersection of Milwaukee Avenue and Estonian Lane in Prairie View, IL.

In 1912 the school was remodeled with the addition of a basement, front entryway and furnace. In 1979 the building was scheduled to be demolished, but was instead moved 1.5 miles south to Wheeling, onto the property that was at one time the Reidlinger farm. The school was restored and stands today as an example of early one-room schools in Illinois.

                                  __________________________________

Soon after arriving in Deerfield, George Rockenbach II purchased a 130 acre farm located on Milwaukee Road in Vernon Township. George Rockenbach III grew up on that farm and attended Tripp School. In 1864 he married Sarah Ott and in 1866 they bought the Ott farm that was located in Deerfield on Saunders Road just south of Deerfield Road. It is likely that their eight children (including Almon) attended the Wilmot School which was located nearby at  the intersection of Wilmot Road and Deerfield Road. 

In 1899 Almon married Lizzie and they moved to the Rockenbach farm on Milwaukee Road adjacent to the Tripp School. Consequently, thirteen of their children received some or all of their grammar school education at Tripp School (youngest son Philip began grammar school in Crystal Lake after the family moved there in 1927).