Gove County KS Archives History - Books .....The Schools 1930 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ks/ksfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 24, 2005, 1:04 am Book Title: History Of Gove County, Kansas, Part II CHAPTER III THE SCHOOLS It would be the merest commonplace to brag about our schools. Of course Gove county has schools, and they are our joy and pride. Gove county has always been a leader in maintaining schools and in enforcing compulsory attendance. The first report we have was for 1889 when there were 1108 pupils enrolled in the common schools, forty seven teachers employed and school property valued at $33,025. The percentage of enrollment was probably as large then as now, (and who shall say that the schools did not do as good work then as now?), but the value of school property was not great. The country was too poor in those pioneer days to afford fine school houses and expensive equipment; these had to wait till more prosperous times. There are some still living in (Jove county who can remember going to school in a sod house or a dugout. The report of the county superintendent for 1928 shows an enrollment in the common schools of Gove county of 1277, with eighty nine teachers employed and school property valued at $355,010. There are seven "Standard" schools and one "Superior" school—the latter being at Quinter. As might be expected, this tenfold increase in the value of school property has been accompanied by a rising debt. The old school houses were paid for; but Gove county school districts now carry a bonded debt of $83,300 (most of which is on the grade schools, in the towns). Even so, this is not bad, compared with some of our neighboring counties. Sixty one school districts have been organized in the county. Of these about a dozen were laid out before the county itself was organized in 1886, and while we were still a part of Ellis or Trego county. The others have been formed since, as the need arose. Eleven of these districts have been disorganized or joined to others. One district was included in the Oakley consolidation, and several in the Quinter Consolidated School. The Quinter people are very proud of their school, but for some reason the other parts of the county have not taken to the idea of consolidation,—probably because they fear the expense. Graduation records for the common schools run back as far as 1894. For some years the number of graduates was not large, but it is now sometimes more than a hundred in a single year. It is worth while to print the names of those who carried off the class honors for each year. It will be noted that the list includes some now prominent in Gove county affairs. There is one college professor and three now teaching in high schools. Two of the valedictorians were killed in the World War. In several instances children of honor students have themselves carried off the honors in their time. In this list the valedictorian is named first, salutatorian second: 1894—C. L. Cook, W. S. Kriegh. 1895—Mabel Munns, Evelyn. Bentley. 1896—E. L. Wickizer, W. S. Harper. 1897—Etta McKinney, B. B. Bacon. 1898—Annie Harrington, Verna Cook. 1899—Sybil Wilson, Lucy Wilson. 1900—L. G. Peirce, J. L. Mendenhall. 1901—E. D. Samson, Ruby Darnall. 1902—Moyne Jones, Annie Williams. 1903—John Borah, Annie Ritchie. 1904—Blanche Mendenhall, Gaye Iden. 1905—Edna Rundberg, Olive Steck. 1906—Newton E. Terrill, Stella Houser. 1907—Ella Holaday, Chas. L. Caldwell. 1908—Pauline Pritchard, Joseph Bowman. 1909—Eric Cummings, Lela Songer. 1910—Emma Haldeman, Martha McKnight. 1911—Clara Jamison, Minnie Smith. 1912—Charles Harvey, Orpha Hinchslitt. 1913—Pansy Turman, Faye Smith. 1914—Elva Bowers, Lennie Nelson. 1915—Geo. D. Royer, Jr., Floyd Cooper. 1916—Myrtle Crist, Velma Anderderson. 1917—Cecil Walt first; Marie Hall and Rosa Suter tie for second. 1918—Frank Phelps, Robert E. James. 1919—Bryonia Pearce, Cynthia Cooper. 1920—Elsie Albin, Nancy Beesley. 1921—Ella May Cooper, Iver Tokoi. 1922—Mary Marshall, Bertha Marshall. 1923—J. Wayne Lansdowne, Ivan Walt. 1924—Lloyd Sheard, Merlyn Grecian. 1925—Dorothy Pittinger, Grace Beesley. 1926—Edna Mann, Lucille Thompson. 1927—Fred Benson, Jr., Jennie Sterrett. 1928—Nadine Calvert, Clyde Coulter. 1929—Joseph Mohler, Jr., Pearl Doxon. The agitation for high schools began in 1895. In the election of that year a proposition was submitted to the voters to establish a county high school. The proposition was not very strongly supported, and received only 97 votes as against 231 in opposition. It carried only a single township, Gove township, where the school would have been located if established. At length the idea gained enough favor that in the legislature of 1903 the representative from Gove county (Jones) got a special bill passed providing for a county high school in Gove county. The act created much dissatisfaction, it did not submit the matter to a vote of the people but provided that the school could be established upon a petition signed by a majority of the voters of the county. The petition was secured, and the Gove County High School was opened at Gove City in the fall of 1903. The Gove County High School had a short and troubled existence. It started out with nine students, and the student body never grew to be a very large one. Certain parts of the county never were enthusiastic about it and were always fighting it. It might be said, too, that its supporters were not always wise, and the institution lost support on account of their actions. As the opposition grew Representative Dennis introduced in the legislature of 1907 a bill to submit the fate of the school to a vote of the people of the county. If this election had been held the school would probably have been sustained, but the supporters of the G. C. H. S. were unwilling to allow the matter to come to a vote. The principal of the school and a delegation of its friends went to Topeka and "lobbied" against the Dennis bill and secured its defeat. This was hailed as a great victory for the G. C. H. S., but it was the beginning of its downfall. The fight was taken to the courts; a taxpayer was found who protested against the tax levied to support the school and brought suit to test the legality of its establishment. It was a matter of a technicality, the law creating the school had not been properly complied with, the petitions had not been published the required number of times; and so the district court and the supreme court put an end to the Gove County High School, the final decision being rendered in May, 1909. One of the graduates of the Gove County High School (Lieutenant George Strong) penned the following tribute to it after the school had gone out of existence: "Though its existence was brief and its end oblivion, yet it was the instrument of perhaps more good than one would think of at a casual notice. Of the graduates and students of this high school two continued their education at Kansas University, one at Washburn College, four at Kansas Wesleyan University, eight at the Western Branch of the State Normal at Hays, three at the State Normal at Emporia, three at the State Agricultural College, two at Kansas Wesleyan Business College at Salina and one at Spalding's Commercial College at Kansas City. "About forty teachers received full or partial training at this high school. Most of them taught or are teaching in Gove county. Four of this number have become teachers in other high schools. "Among this high school's former students and graduates may be numbered one lawyer, one law student, two holding clerical positions, one graduate nurse, one evangelistic worker, one merchant, and two young men who have been of inestimable value to their father in assisting him in the editorship of a newspaper. Not a bad record for a small high school in existence only six years and whose average enrollment was about thirty." The Gove County High School was never a very heavy financial burden. It carried on in the grade school building at Gove City (since torn down) and never had a building of its own; and the taxpayers of Gove county at this date would be tickled pink if they could bring their present high school tax down to the figure which sufficed to maintain the old county high school. But those days are gone, probably forever. The property of the G. C. H. S. was sold at auction and bought in for $500 by School District No. 8, the district in which Gove City is located, and this district bravely proceeded to carry on a high school,—a heavy load for so small a unit. But at last came a time when the country was ripe to take advantage of the rural high school law passed by the legislature. Then a rural high school district was carved out for each town in the county. Gove and Grinnell districts organized in 1915, Quinter, Grainfield and Park in 1916. The Quinter, Grainfield and Gove districts have erected handsome buildings for their high schools. Park high school is still using the grade school building. It took three bond elections in one year before the Grinnell district could start on its high school building. Since its organization the school has been conducted in the grade school building. In January, 1929, an election was called to vote $60,000 in bonds to construct a high school building. The opposition contended that the amount was too large, as the Quinter and Gove districts had issued but $30,000 each and the Grainfield district $20,000. The bond issue was beaten at the January election by a majority of five votes. The friends of the $60,-000 proposition alleged that illegal votes had been cast, and caused another election to be called in March, at which time the proposition carried by about the same majority by which it had been beaten at the first election. The opposition now brought suit and had the second election set aside for irregularities of procedure. Then the two factions got together on a proposition to vote $40,000 and called a third election. And so the Grinnell Rural High School will have a $40,000 building — which is in course of construction at this writing. The enrollment in our five rural high schools at last report was Gove 59, Grainfield 32, Grinnell 57, Park 13, Quinter 128, a total of 289. These five institutions are a trifle expensive; but when you come to think of it, it is a very nice arrangement — each ambitious town in the county can have its own high school, and the way is made easy for every bright boy and girl in the county to get an education. And one out of every twenty of the entire population of Gove county, big or little, is enrolled in high school. Think of it a moment. The writer claims that no other county in the state can equal this record. Having treated of our grade schools and our high schools, let us now consider our college. How many know that Gove county once had a college? In 1889 the G. A. R. Memorial College of Buffalo Park was chartered by the state, its object being, as stated in the charter, "to build and maintain a college for the free education of the children of the union soldiers of the late rebellion in the United States." The incorporators of the college are Mrs. Mary J. Whiting of Oakley, Miss L. A. Mints of Buffalo Park, and Mrs. Carrie Chase Davis, Mrs. Agnes Frick and Mrs. Sarah J. Johnston of Wakeeney. I find but one newspaper reference to this Gove county college. The Gove County Republican under data of Sept. 20, 1889, says: "The G. A. R. Memorial College at Buffalo Park opened Sept. 11 with an enrollment of 21. The College occupies elegant and commodious rooms in the new school building. Miss Clara Davis, president of the College, has charge of Preparatory and Normal courses; Mr. Griffith has charge of the Commercial course, Mrs. D. A. Woodford the Musical department and Mrs. N. Saum the Art department. A library of about 300 volumes has been established and additions will be made as rapidly as possible. The students are doing thorough good work and all are ambitious and enthusiastic. On the evening of the 10th a concert was given in honor of the opening of the school by the Woodford orchestra which was a complete success. It was the first concert given in Gove county and won the appreciation of all present." And that seems to be all. Buffalo Park had no newspaper, the Pioneer having suspended two years before, and no other mention of the G. A. R. Memorial College appears. And who the incorporators and the teachers are whose names are given, I have never been able to find out— except one. Evidently the sponsors of this Gove county college soon found out that running a higher institution of learning is a financial proposition and the country was not able to sustain it—so it died an early death. In the year 1922 Miss Lucille A. Mints, who is the same person mentioned as one of the incorporators of the college, came to Quinter for a short time to conduct a class in painting and drawing. This old lady, whose home was then at Seattle, Wash., told the writer of this history that the G. A. R. Memorial College was soon removed from Buffalo Park to Oberlin. That city wanted it and promised to maintain it. Inquiry at Oberlin brought the information that a tract of 640 acres (I think) was set aside on which to erect the college buildings, which same were never erected. And what became of the G. A. R. Memorial College at Oberlin or how long it lasted there is no part of the history of Gove county. Our neighboring city of Oberlin is said to be getting ambitious again, and to be dreaming dreams of expanding her fine community high school ino a college. It is to be hoped those good people will have better luck with it than they had with the G. A. R. Memorial College which they took away from Gove county. Additional Comments: History of Gove County, Kansas by W. P. Harrington Gove City, Kan. 1930 File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ks/gove/history/1930/historyo/schools34ms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/ksfiles/ File size: 14.2 Kb