Lawrence High School - Red and Black Yearbook (Lawrence, KS)

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1923 Red and Black History of Lawrence Lawrence High School owes much to those courageous men and women who, braving hardships and discomfort, came to the unknown land to make their home. Through the efforts of those pioneers have come our state, our city, and the high school that means so much to all of us. One of the first bands of settlers that came to Kansas built homes on the present site of Lawrence. The daring adventurers were soon joined by other homeseekers and by and by the little village became a scene of activity. The settlement was named Lawrence in gratitude to Amos A. Lawrence of Boston who had been of great assistance to the immigrants. Churches were built, a saw mill erected, and finally a hotel, on the same site as the present Eldridge House, was constructed. Two newspapers were established and soon after travelers came to make their homes in the growing town. Six months after the founding of Lawrence a school was opened in the office of Doctor Charles Robinson. Since that time the city’s progress along educational lines has been rapid. In 1864, the first building of Kansas University, old North College Hall, was erected on the hill where the first pioneers had pitched their tents. In 1866 the University was opened with three professors and forty students. Yearly the number of both instructors and pupils has increased until now the enrollment num- bers approximately five thousand. The educational institutions, founded by the early residents of Kansas, are the most valuable assets of the city. When the struggle between the North and South was approaching a crisis, the anti-slavery people of Lawrence had ever increasing trouble with the Southerners of Missouri. In 1861, Kansas, after a bitter struggle, was admitted into the Union under a free state constitution. During the Civil War, Lawrence suffered greatly. In 1863, just sixty years ago, the prosperous little town was devastated in the raid of the infamous guerilla, Quantrill. Many citizens were killed, among them a teacher in the city school. Numerous buildings, including the Eldridge Hotel, were burned. Property was destroyed and much plunder was car- ried away by the invaders. The close of the Civil War did not end the struggles of the hardy Lawrence pioneers. Because of drouths and the grasshopper plague, crops were very poor and times were very hard in the little city on the banks of the Kaw River. Then later, in 1903, came the flood, which left ruin in its wake. Since then the progress of the town has been mainly smooth and easy. Today, thanks to those brave pioneers, Lawrence is a thriving, prosperous little city of the middle west with a high school that takes this book as a means to express its gratitude for the service so unselfishly given. Page 2

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Foreword We have endeavored to make this book a true record of Lawrence High School during the past year. We have done our best to make it a suc- cess and we hope it will meet with your approval. Because this year marks the sixtieth anniversary of Quantrill’s raid, we have given prom- inence to the pioneer idea throughout the Annual. If in the years to come, while turning these pages, you find one picture, one verse that brings back to you the joys and memories of dear old Lawrence High, we shall count our work well done. The Staff.

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