North Grove School Association

05/07/2026

Today is the day!!!! Help make an impact for your favorite non profits!!! Follow along with an inspiring day of giving- www.givedekalbcounty.org

05/06/2026

Tomorrow is the day!! The day you can help make an impact to help restore and continue our mission to share the rich history of Historic North Grove School….

Here is a peek our current restoration process of leveling and and stabilizing the structural frame of this 148 year old historic structure.

We are so grateful for every single dollar donated- Thank You!!

Join us on May 7 for Give Dekalb County!!

05/04/2026

4 more days to go… help us to continue making an impact on keeping history alive

04/16/2026

Mark Your Calendar for Celebrating!

04/06/2026

08/09/2025

Stop by Historic North Grove School today...we are listed as an extra stop on the DeKalb County Barn Tour....(Tickets not needed for our stop) come see what these photos are all about....

We are located at 26745 N. Brickville Rd Sycamore...hope to see you!

06/29/2025

Join us for seed spitting contest today at Historic North Grove School...watermelon included!!

06/26/2025

Just 2 more days until our Summer Open House.....here's a sneak peek of a few new installations in our evolving back room museum...intrigued???? Stop by this weekend! June 28-29 from 12:00-4:00 reach day

06/20/2025

BIG NEWS - our original advertised food truck has to cancel this year BUT we are EXCITED to offer on Saturday, a New and Highly recommended vendor -The Waggin.

Mark your calendar and come check him out AND visit the school, animals, crafts people and more....See you Saturday June 28 and Sunday June 29 from noon to 4.

https://www.facebook.com/share/19JaUg53mt/?mibextid=wwXIfr

We are a small cart on a big mission. To pioneer flavor and hospitality one dog at a time

06/19/2025

Come visit Historic North Grove School on June 28-29 (noon - 4:00 both days) to experience where the Beard children attended school

On this , we have a local connection to share. This holiday was established to commemorate the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. This day was first celebrated in Texas, where on that date in 1865 enslaved people were told they were free under the terms of the 1862 Emancipation Proclamation. Julia Jones came to Sycamore in 1871 after spending her early years as a slave in Texas.

Julia Jones, who moved to Sycamore after she married Henry Beard. This couple was the first African American family to permanently settle in Sycamore. In 1941, the Sycamore True Republican interviewed Julia, and she described growing up in Texas. She would have been about ten years old in 1865 when Texas slaves found out they were free. Here are some highlights from that article:

“My mother was owned by the master of the place where I was and my father was owned by another master who was situated a few miles away. When I was but a little girl the only kind of work I could do is to pick cotton and I was put to this task when I was very young. When I turned ten years of age, I was brought to work in the house, waiting on members of the household in the master’s home.”

“When slaves were freed” as the Civil War ended, “our family had to go out and make a living,” she later recalled. “I was hired out to work for one man at $35.00 a year, and he put me to work plowing his fields when I was but 12 years old. I did not like this very well and I was happy when I later learned that our family was to leave for the North.”

In 1865, her family was part of a caravan of eight wagons and about 70 people “who were some of the first to come out of the south for a new land.” The group “would camp by the side of the road at night” until they reached Kansas City, Missouri.

Later, at Ft. Scott, Kansas, she met Henry Beard, who would become her husband. After their marriage, the couple settled in Sycamore (Sycamore True Republican, February 21, 1941).

To learn more, visit the History Center's Arts in Action website, createchange.today.