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

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ws By the Mighty Mlsslsslppn Introducing Miss Evelyn Green, Ianuary, '38, Historical Editor, who, with the help of well-known alumni will present a chronicle of interesting 3493 events in the history of Central High School-1853-1938. HE 1850's-a period of transition and unrest. On the banks of the mighty Mississippi rises the city of St. Louis-a city whose quiet French charm and serenity has not as yet been dispelled by the vague stirrings of national unrest. The echoes of the furtive tread of moccasin'd feet, the haughty step of the Spanish grandee, and the martial clank of French swords have not yet died: for over this gateway to the West-this city of Indian mounds-have waved the French, the Spanish, and the American flags. Even before the advent of the Spanish Conquistadores and French Iesuits, St. Louis was the home of the mound- building Indians, and Indian war drums throbbed where Auguste Chouteau and Pierre Laclede later built their stately mansions. But by the 1850's the footsteps of the Indian, the Frenchman. the Spaniard, the Virginian, and the Kentuckian have merged into the easy swing of the American. Through this city stream, the valiant Forty-niners to open the West for America: the Mormons in their search for religious toleration: and the Irish and Germans to seek a refuge from famine and political upheaval. Boats laden with the manufactures of the North and cotton from the South ply the Father of Waters, and the little French fur-trading post has become the metropolis of the West of that period. Let up stop at the year 1858. The memorable Dred Scott decision has made history the year before, and only two more years must pass before the Stars and Stripes will be replaced by the Stars and Bars in one-half of the country. A new political organization called the Republican Party is rapidly gaining new adherents, and an obscure young Southern composer named Stephen Foster is writing the melodies which are to become the folksongs of America. Victoria reigns in Britain and a Bonaparte, in France. The men affect flowing beards, and the women copy the crinolines and ruffles of Napoleon llI's Empress Eugenie. It is the morning of Iuly 2. Assembled on the stage of the auditorium of a large building on Fifteenth and Olive streets are a group of boys and girls-the boys self-conscious in their tail-coats and most of the girls in ankle-length dresses covered by demure fancy aprons. The building is the new site of the first high school west of the Mississippi, founded in 1853, on the third floor of the old Benton School building. Constructed at a cost of 543.000, it is one of the most modern in the United States, and houses not only the high school but the normal school as well. This is the first graduating class of the high school. The exercises are beginning. Mr. Ieremiah D. Low, the principal, is introducing the first speaker, Campbell Crrick Bishop. As the young man advances to the center of the stage to deliver the salutatory, two of his classmates whisper to each other. Let us listen: Even if Campbell Orrick Bishop hadn't received second highest grades, he would be the perfect choice for de- livering the salutatory, l'Ie's one of the most effective speakers I have ever heard. I think so, too. I thought that he would surely have the high- est grades in the class. but evidently Robert Allen Davison c a m e out just a fraction h i g h e r. If Bishop doesn't make good, it won't be because he hasn't the talent. What does he plan to do after graduation? He told me yester- day that he plans to go to college and take up Page Twenty-three

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HIGH SCHOOL Fifteenth and Olive Dedicated March 24, 1856 Home of Central Until 1893 JW 3, Y in 4 K I Y V ,A ' 1. K it ,,,, ' , fu: - ' N ' ,i . it f ' T s J v' - .J J 1, + mug mmm . cm mm mm! , M ' N+N+-w:-'smr:iaa-:ia'v-'s-i---:aa-sw++N a+ img b nun, mn. 4-rv-av-:Y----vw--vw--wav-ow 4-no-r.-.rsrvv:-av-a-r --- I I , 3, up umnmnunmmzmfwunnnmmi -1. , ,V wanna:-nmrms wnummw.v.z,mnum if ,,,i.vWgt' ,w, V ,tg Q lvl. mem. - mms! xi. :mann nmnam M-at ,- A ' 1 - - ' wafnmueu' assi mamma r , 4 uNra:v.a:ltw-nsxvsmmrfmmmnmsmsnfmmusr - ' t - xxsmxm i-.mf miami an :.ms.mrx. - - 4 -fest Pi rf. at wif 12 as-frfrjeiig, zgiixyznlxyuvr sf. 1138. Page Twenty-two By the fiery kilns and the noisy marts, By city and town I race: The smiles and tears of a million hearts Are mirrored in my face: The kiss and the curse, the sob and the song, The cry of the weak and the shout of the strong- 1 gather them all as I hurry along. And scatter them all apace. By the deep bayou and the broad lagoon, By the ranch and the range I roll: The silver sheen of the southern moon I offer the sea as toll. I throw the delta gateways wide In my rush to the deep, and, side by side And hand in hand with the welcoming tide I reach my journ.ey's goal. O river, river, never yet Was half your glory sung: And never skill of painter's brush Nor praise or poets tongue Shall half reveal the majesty, The charm, the primal grace That clothe you and attend your ways And shine from out your face.

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Old Benton School on Sixth Street between Locust and St. Charles where the high school was begun in 1853. Home of Central until 1856. law. If I ever go to court, he'll be my lawyer And so the classmates of Camp- bell Orrick Bishop recognize the genius which is to make him many years later one of St. Louis's most prominent judges. Thus the first step taken toward secondary edu- cation in the vast region from the Mississippi to the Pacific, from Canada to Mexico, culminates in the graduation of these thirteen boys and girls who are the first to carry the ideals engendered at Central out into the world. The succeeding two years see an increase in the enrollment, but with the year 1860 comes the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln, and the secession of most of the South- ern states begins. As the call from both sides comes for volunteers, the young students lay down their books to shoulder arms and to help lndus- try meet the increased demands of War. Some join the ranks of the Confederate Army and some the Grand Army of the Republic, for the high school is a democratic in- 'rv stitution and the sons of proud Southerners attend as well as the sons of German immigrants. The crisis of Missouri's status-whether she is to be Union or Confederate--passes, and the sight of soldiers drilling becomes a familiar and thrilling sight to the young high-school pupil on his way to the High. The views of the German element in St. Louis, to whom slavery was not only abhorrent. but alien, rule the city. The following summer the school closes several weeks earlier than usual because of curtailed funds. Year after year the bloody war is drawn out until the last set of the great tragedy which had its beginning at Fort Sumter is played out at Appomattox. But through the war-years the high school continues its task of education. Many refugees from the South flocked to St. Louis during the war, and one such refugee from Texas was young Charles Nagel, son of German im- migrant parents. Fate had great things in store for the German- American refugee who spoke English brokenly, and to whom the High School was the first rung on his ladder of success. He was destined to become na- tionally known, for his long career as lawyer and member of the Missouri Legislature was climaxed by his appointment as Secretary of Commerce and Labor in President Taft's Cabinet. I now turn the microphone over to the Honorable Charles Nagel, '68, Central's most distinguished alumnus. Let him tell you of the school, of St. Louis-of America-in the late Sixties. The Honorable Charles Nagel: w+nvw++:e::.-::-::::--::--Y-4vvseee:e: Page Twenty-four ' fi:-0:1 lm