Central High School - Red and Black Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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do l79.Nl7'kll7'Qil I THE RED AND BLACK, THE FIRST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER By J. S. GOCHENAUER, Department of History ,,Q,, T was an important event in the history of secondary A x education in the United States when the St. Louis High School was opened on February ll, IS53. It is now ' N Lx seventy-five years since this school, the oldest secondary Lxm, school west of the Mississippi River supported entirely from public taxation, was first established in the Benton School at Sixth and Locust Streets in St. Louis under the principalship of Jeremiah D. Low, A. M. ln view of the magnitude that high school education has since assumed in the trans-Mississippi region of the United States, which is not far from two-thirds of the area of our entire country, the celebration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of an event of such far-reaching consequences should receive the attention that its place in our history of education deserves. ln investigating the primacy in point of age of the St. Louis Central High School among public secondary schools in this vast region, it is obvious that extensive areas may be practically omitted in the discussion since very much of this western country remained until long after 1853 either wholly the roam- ing ground of Indians, or else, if a few white men had already entered here and there, they had at the date in question only sparsely settled stations. For example, the whole region from the Rocky Mountains westward, with the exception of California and Oregon, had but a slight white population before IS53, and public secondary education could, of course, not have been estab- lished there until long after the date mentioned. In the portion of the trans- Mississippi country east of the Rocky Mountains, a similar statement would hold true if we eliminate for special consideration the tier of states stretching from Minnesota to Louisiana and Texas, and lying immediately west of the Great River. On the single question of the origins of public high schools in the entire area west of the Mississippi River it has been found necessary, there- fore, to examine only the history of the school systems in the states of California and Oregon west of the Rocky Mountains, and in the states of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, lowa, and Minnesota, all lying between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. ln preparation for the present article regarding the origins of high schools, letters were addressed to the state superintendents of public instruction in all the states mentioned in the foregoing paragraph. The replies in several cases Eighteen

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TZMWQWQQQVQZQQ were highly illuminating and satisfactory, while in other cases the state departments solicited for information replied by saying that their files do not contain records of the dates of establishment of the oldest high schools within their jurisdictions. This material derived from correspondence was sup- plemented by a. careful study of the histories of education of the states under inquiry. Some of the authorities consulted are the reliable Cyclopedia of Education edited by Paul Monroe, and the more general histories of the progress of education in the United States. From the materials in hand, the following paragraphs seem to be thoroughly justifiable as statements of fact. California, admitted to the Union as part of the Compromise of l850, may be considered first becausegthe letter received from the state department of education of that state was very explicit and satisfactory. This letter dated December I9, l927, and signed by the Chief of the Division of Research and Statistics of the state, runs in part as follows: The first high school estab- lished in California was in San Francisco in IS56. lt was maintained at the Union Grammar School of San Francisco. The name was changed in l858 to the San Francisco High School. High school courses, however, were given from IB56 on. The second high school established was at Sacramento in l859. The only other state West of the Rockies necessarily included in our investigation is Oregon, which was admitted to the Union in IB59. The Oregon state constitution, at the date of admission, provided that the legislay ture should create a uniform public school system, and schools of a higher grade, with a free school in every district for at least three months each year. lt does not appear that there were any public high schools in that state before IB59. ln fact the exact and authoritative statement relating to this specific question is contained in an interesting letter dated January I4, l928, from Dr. C. A. Howard, State Superintendent of Public Instruction of Oregon, in which the first paragraph runs as follows: Replying to yours of December l 3 will say that the oldest high school in Oregon is the one in Portland. The first high school in Portland was organized in IS69. This became a four-year high school in IS79. The second oldest school in the state was organized in' Baker in l887 with a three-year course. The Baker High School was organized on a four-year basis in l594. Returning now to the tier of older states immediately west of the Mississippi above mentioned, we note that Texas was admitted to the Union in l845, but it was not until i854 that a regular school system for the state was provided by law. The first school under this law was opened subsequently in San Antonio, but whether a high school in a strict sense, or a school of a lower grade is unknown to the present writer. With.secession in l86l, the Texas state constitution was naturally changed to conform to conditions in the Southern Confederacy. The Civil War engrossed the state so thoroughly Nineteen