Ottumwa High School - Argus Yearbook (Ottumwa, IA)

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The Argus and Its Story I am the Argus Annual. Let us turn back my yellowed leaves to where an almost forgotten past is faithfully recorded, and glance at some of the events so vividly depicted. ipcp a year which recalls the names of persons who showed much promise. Adolph Johnson- He slepe namo than doth a nightingale, and according to the prophecy of his class— Adolph and Lillian Roth have taken their famous divorce suit to the Supreme Court; Oscar Stoltz is taking the part of a wild and wooly cowboy in the Big Eleven Circus. Here are a few excerpts from the calendar of ipcp. January i—Had watch party. Girls swipe billiard balls. April 16—Seniors swipe faculty duds and hold mock chapel. Such advertisers and old friends as Stevens Shoe Store, Sargent’s Drug Com- pany. and Celania’s Confectionary have helped me this year. But can we ignore Slutz's Livery Autos, guaranteed to cure the blues? ipi7 Miss Clara Enoch now appears on my pages— Gentle of speech, ben- eficent of mind. Victor Hahn, basketball captain, great in all the lands. is captain of the basketball team. Under the coaching of Miss Olive Williams, Ot- tumwa High wins the Southeastern Iowa Championship in declamatory contests. In football the year is less successful. The team loses a game to West Dcs Moines High School with a score of pb—o! The fate of basketball is less disastrous. Burlington succumbs to a Bulldog attack with a twenty-three point to zero score. Mr. Eigenman is the coach. The school library is opened with eight hundred and seventy-five volumes. Familiar names are found among the advertisers. The Strand, an old- time nickelodeon, and Charlie Chaplin and Ben Turpin in pictures at the Orpheum Theatre are some of the most interesting. ipzb—Nine years later! For three years the high school has been housed in the present beautiful building. Mr. Blackmar is still superintendent of schools We notice Tullio Della Vedova. our beloved Italian, who helps Ot- tumwa win so many football victories. A new club, the Forensic Club, is organized for the first time. Such advertisers as the Iowa Steam Laundry and Sargent's Drug Company are still with me. ip30—I'our years later. How many changes have taken place since I first began my record! Mr. Frank Douma is now principal and Mr. Hannum has moved cn to the superintendency. Bob Erskinc, star left tackle in Coach Van Antwerp's great football team, is carrying off honors in the state. Three great dramatic successes coached by Miss Ertle Mac Smith are given Seventh Heaven , The Swan.........I'he Badman. Individual actors such as John Reynolds. Berg Allison, and Dick Davis make great reputations for themselves. What the future holds I cannot tell. My hope is. that with continued kind treatment and appreciation I shall be able to do my duty as faithfully in the years to come as I have in the years gone by. As class yields to class may I record its progress, its triumphs and victories, with the same fidelity. We 1935 12

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l$e sine qua non of the English- man—namely, his home, church, and state, assumed their accus- tomed relationships in the new land of America by developing in- stitutions necessary to promote social and economic progress. On the “13th of the 2D moneth 1635” —the twenty-third of April by our calendar, five years after the settling of Boston, the citizens of that town voted “That our Brother Philemon Pormont, shalbe intreated to become the scholemaster for the teaching and nourtering of children with us.” August 12, 1636, a subscrip- tion was made.....................

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Administration The Administrator and His Story (An Interview) Since 1927, when I first took up my duties as Superintendent of the Ottumwa Schools, a very in- teresting phase of my work has been seeing teachers come and go. Many leave to be married—too many for individual mention—while others leave to fill better positions elsewhere. Miss Marie Porter, now of Chicago, and Miss Alice Becmer. now teaching in the commercial department in Sioux City, arc among the latter. Both of these teachers were taken from O. H. S.—only two of a much larger number. It would not be fair to present only the pleas- ant side of my work and to ignore the disagreeable. Perhaps the most distasteful task of any superintendent is the meeting of people who look at the school system from a distorted point-of-view. Most often this is the result of a reprimand given a child by one of his teachers. Although this sort of thing is usually straightened out, it never fails to leave a bad taste in one's mouth. However, these episodes fall into the background when I remember the fine spirit towards its public school system prevailing in the town, and the coopera- tion given without stint by parents, business men. all public-spirited officials. One reason for Ottumwa’s growth in educational facilities, I believe, has been this unanimity of support by its citizens. The Ottumwa school system has progressed steadi- ly. The present is but a continuation of that past in which A. W. Stuart, who served as superintendent for thirty-five years and for whom the Stuart School is named, and H. E. Blackmar, who is now retired and living in New Jersey, all had a definite past. One should give education a long-range view—it is too vast a subject and must be regarded through the perspective glass of the years. As Tennyson says: Yet I doubt not thro’ the ages one increasing purpose runs. And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns.” For this reason the development of the child as citizen and creative personality should come first. We arc no longer concerned with encyclopedic knowledge— let the pupil find his detailed facts in books, not in his memory. Rather do we wish to develop him as a constructive, working member of a responsible, well- ordered society which ever bears in mind its duty to the future. Mr. Hannum ARGUS 13