Ottumwa High School - Argus Yearbook (Ottumwa, IA)

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Presented by' the GRADUATING CLASS of the OTTUMWA HIGH SCHOOL AT OTTUMWA, IOWA in commemoration of The Founding of the High School in America and the Progress of the High School in Ottumwa SIXTEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE VOLUME THIRTY-FIVE ARGUS I

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THE 1935

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TRIBUTE . . Pioneer Forefathersl We salute you, O pioneer forefathers in the field of education! To all of you. giants in a nation of stalwart doers, who labored towards the establishment of those institutions to which we have fallen heir, we give our thanks and homage. All through the dark years of rebellion, civil war, and economic upheaval, when the stern realities of an ever westward-pushing pioneer civilization absorbed the best energies of heart and soul, you kept this torch alive and burning —universal education. How casually we accept our easily won luxuries—beau- tifully equipped buildings with swimming pools, theatres, libraries: leisure to enjoy these things which our education has taught us to demand : scientific knowl- edge of which only our early Benjamin Franklins dreamed. It is hard sometimes to remember that to you. w ho triumphed over the crudities of our early nation- hood. we owe indebtedness for such a legacy. John Harvard. Elihu Yale, Horace Mann. Matthew Vassar. Henry Durant these are only a few of the glorious names that come ringing down to us from the past. But we remember, too, the thousands of earnest schoolmasters and school- mistresses who toiled humbly and devotedly, generation after generation, to create an educated common-folk. You began what we are here to finish. You dared to plant in the world a revolutionary idea which even yet has not born its full burden of fruit. You in- vested a treasure of mental and moral capital which enriches our lives and supports our efforts towards the goal you set before us. May your fire and zeal ever be before us. urging us on. We stand with one foot over the threshold on which you stood with both feet firmly planted. May reposed in future generations reaching enterprise! we not betray the trust you w hen you undertook your far- Can you hear us down voices to you in tribute with full-hearted Hail! the dusty years as we lift our one mighty, full-throated.