Caldwell County MO Archives History .....EARLY HISTORY OF THE HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL 
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Karen Walker khw4@yahoo.com September 8, 2008, 4:29 pm

EARLY HISTORY OF THE HAMILTON HIGH SCHOOL
             Narrators:  Minnie Ogden, Lotta Daniels, and others

     The first idea of a high school in Hamilton came in 1870 when A.G. Davis 
gave a tract of land (he had already given one for school purpose in 1857).  
The school, both private and public, had been plodding along since 1857 with 
little organization.  This new plot was in block 23, given toward the erection 
of a high school.  The rest of the block was subsequently bought.  In 1871 the 
contract for a two story brick was awarded.  The school board of that 
important year was S.F. Martin pres., J.N. Morton, Geo. Brosius and James 
McAdoo.  In Sept 1873 the high school building was finished and the new H.S. 
was started on the second floor.  The first floor was the primary work.  Prof. 
David M. Ferguson gets the credit of being the father of the Hamilton High 
School, for he was the first principal in the building.  He organized the 
course of study and graded the whole schools.  There were four grades high 
school, A B C D, D being the lowest.  They finished the course but did not 
graduate under Uncle Davy.  A statement to that effect was given to those 
asking for it.  When the alumni association was formed here, Prof. Ferguson 
made a list of those who had finished the course under him and they were 
called alumni.  That list is Dr. E. Van Note, Thos. A. Filson, Minnie Ogden, 
F.A. Martin, Mamie Tuttle Eldredge, Sarah Van Note Ogden, W.F. Colby, Belle 
Eggleston Aplin, and E.F. Schellebarger.
     The first formal graduates came 1892 and they were from a two year high 
school course by that time.  A new course of study had been put in after Prof. 
Ferguson left.  Prof. Guttery was the principal and the graduating exercises 
were in the assembly room of the old brick building on the north side.  Some 
old pupils who took the course with Guttery, say that it was more like present 
day H.S. work than the course under Ferguson.  No data is available on that 
point, except the biases ideas of the pupils.
     The 1882 graduates were; Elmer E. Clark, Henry W. Coffman (later of 
Texas), Wm. Partin, (now of Rock Springs Wyo.) Belle Holmes Dudley, Willis 
Lynch, Sarah Tuttle Haggerty, Mittie Penney Whitman, Fannie Gaer Martin, and 
Emma Walling Kiddle of Oregon.  There were no graduates in 1883, 4, 5 while 
the course was building up to 12 grades.  In 1886, the second class to 
graduate was a four year class and the exercises were in old Anderson's Opera 
House.  The graduates were:  Minnie Harper Hooker, Mamie Dean Stanley, Anna 
Harris Todd, Lillie George (dead), and Isanel Atherton.  The girls were in 
white dresses and by the customs of the day, each read an essay and bouquets 
were carried up to each after the essay.  There was more or less rivalry in 
the number of bouquets.  No other gifts were given then.  One family at their 
daughter's graduation brought a clothes basket to carry home the anticipated 
bouquets and needed it.  White silk was quite the nicest material for 
graduation dresses, and often the dress was laid away and never used again.  
Admission was often charged, to get library school funds.  If the class was 
small, they sat in a borrowed parlor plush suite.  The class continued to be 
small till 2e graduated in the class of 1893.  This was the class in which 
J.C. Penney, the chain store man, graduated.  The smallest class was in 1890 
when one graduate, Cora J. Martin, was the only one.
     In those days, the best student gave the valedictory address and the 
second best the salutatory address.  The motto was always hung in swaying 
letters out in front.
 
     The number of teachers has varied.  In Prof. Ferguson's time, there were 
two, himself and Miss Griffith, but they had six classes to work with.  Every 
thing above the sixth grade was seated upstairs.  The head of the school was 
called the principal of the Hamilton graded schools till in 1891 when D.T. 
Gentry was elected the first Superintendent.  His niece, Fannie Gentry, was 
the first principal of the High School.  The two did the teaching.  For many 
years prior to this, the principal taught every thing given in the tenth, 
eleventh and twelfth grades.  The ninth grade was not seated with these grades 
for many years here in Hamilton and, indeed elsewhere in the county.  One room 
was called the grammar room and held the seventh, eight and ninth grades.
     But with the coming of a principal of the high school and a 
superintendent, we are reaching the end of the early period of the history of 
the Hamilton High school which was the object of this inquiry.
     Interviews  1935.


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