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Page 7 text:
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History of Pottsville High School By J. SHELHAMER and H. E. HOBBS, from data gathered by History Committee Such an institution will bring, within the reach of all classes, the means of obtaining a thorough education. The poor, among whom there are often the most promising youths, will thus have it in their power to make themselves useful to their country, and to bring into play those powers of mind, which might otherwise be buried in oblivion. This prophetic endorsement of the proposed establishment of Pottsville High School, now celebrating its centennial anniversary, was contained in the application of Elias Schneider, who sought and won the position of superintendent of Pottsville schools on March 29, 1851. The many thousands of P. H. S. alumni are proof of the historical educational observation made by Elias Schneider. At home and abroad, in fact in every part of the world, P. H. S. graduates have, in his words, made themselves useful to their country. Like the nation that has made the system of free public education possible for its people, Pottsville High School achieved its present position of solidarity only after an unceasing battle to grow bigger and better in the field of education. just as the nation faced temporary periods of adversity in times of national strife and conflict, so did Pottsville High School. During the Civil War the school became little more- than a grammar school, and had to be reorganized on june 1, 1868. ln the conflict between the North and South, the war with Spain, two world wars, and the Korean conflict, the names of thousands of alumni members, enshrined on countless rolls of honor, proved the wisdom of Elias Schneider. ln every walk of life and field of endeavor, P. H. S. alumni have made their mark and have brought distinction to their Alma Mater. Some achieved renown in the fields of the arts and sciences: others, in the industrial world. Many, of course, won no special fame, but all of them, famous or obscure, in the final analysis contributed their bit to the strength that is America's greatness. Unlike the fictional Topsy, Pottsville High School didn't just grow. lts expansion from one room on the second floor of the old Bunker Hill building to the unrivalled position it now occupies in high school educational circles was a guided growth. Credit for a bigger and better high school goes to all the school boards in the school's history, to the school administrative staffs, and. of course, to the tax- paying public without whose money the system could not operate. The present high school building, a modern and up-to-date school plant just as it was when opened as a million-dollar school twenty years ago, is a far cry from Pottsville's first high school. Although Pennsylvania's system of free education was established in 1834, plans for the establish- ment of a 'high school here were not projected until almost a score of years later. The town boasted several grammar schools, but boys and girls desiring a higher education were forced to attend a pri- vate school, of which there were several in the community. And, while Elias Schneider proposed the establishment of the high school in his application to the school board on March 13, 1851, it was not until early in 1853 that the first session of Pottsville High School was opened in the Bunker Hill building with an enrollment of thirty, under the principalship of Elisha Gotshall. Perhaps the first publically printed intent of the school board to organize a high school was con- tained in an item which appeared in a newspaper issue of September 6, 1847. lt announced that the school would open with Elias F. Perrin as principal: Monsieur F. Perrin, teacher of French and Ger- man: W. P. Koutz, of natural science, history and elocution: and E. Sagendorf, of English. A later notation announced that Pottsville High School was to be dedicated Ianuary 1, 1848. The above named teachers were those who had conducted the Pottsville Academy. On February 18, 1851, the school board advertised that applications would be received for a super- intendent of schools, and the reply from Elias Schneider seemed to indicate definitely the board had intended to establish a high school in September, 1851, since he said in part: I do, therefore, offer myself as a candidate for the office of a superintendent of your schools, with the expectation that the high school will be commenced next 1st of September. Mr. Schneider, who assumed his duties on April 1, 1851, received a salary of S50 a month. A report by Superintendent Schneider, on which the March 15, 1853, date of the founding of the high school is based, was received by the school board on March 3, 1853. The report asked favorable consideration of a plan to divide the No. 1 male school, fBunker Hill grammar schooll, by transferring the most advanced pupils from this room into the one above. At pres- ent, we have a high school in reality but not in name. As we have the thing, let us have the name, Schneider's report stated. Then he continued, A high school proper can be established without any other additional expense than a salary of a female teacher. Mr. Gotshall and myself can attend to the upper classes, and the male assistant with a female can teach the others. This arrangement would give me just about sufficient time to attend my general duties, as well as to a number of daily recita- tions. Undoubtedly the school board of the time was faced with many problems concerning the operation of the new high school but what they were is a matter of conjecture because historical information on the subject is meager. However, the weather -4,-.
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did occupy the attention of the directors at a meeting on May 18, 1853. The following named scholars petitioned the board for but one session of school during the hot weather, school to begin at 7:30 A. M. and dismiss at 1:30 P. M.: Charles H. Krebs, Oliver C. Bosbyshell, Benjamin McCool, Francis I. Quin, F. Shelly, Sam R. Whitney, Iames Sillyman, Hiram Parker, F. M. Waters, Iohn T. Protheroe, Baird Snyder, C. Loeser, W. L. Hazzard, David Conrad, T. Carlin, William H. Carter, George W. Harlan, Robert Fletcher, Thomas A. Reilly, H. S. Thompson, William Tregeo, Luther Minnig, Sam Parker, Lamar S. Hay, Ioseph H. Gould, F. U. Farquhar, T. C. Toussaint, Robert Morris, G. H. Snyder. A paid advertisement appearing in The Miners' Iournal issue of April 26, 1851, gave the folowing regulations for the opera- tion of the common schools as adopted April 10, 1851: The hours of instruction shall be from 8M o'clock until 12 in the morning, and from 2 P. M. until 5 in the afternoon, from the lst of April until the lst of October: and from 9 o'clock until 12 in the morning and from 1M o'clock until 4M in the after- noon from the 1st of October until the lst of April. A vacation shall be allowed the month of August, and in the afternoon of each Saturday. The schools shall also be closed on the lst day of Ianuary, Good Friday, in Easter week until the Tuesday following, 4th of july, and Christmas Day, and on such other days as the directors may allow. Graduation from high school during the first eight years of its operation carried with it no tangible evidence of the fact for the boys and girls who had completed the course. According to an early newspaper clipping the Class of 1862 was the first to receive diplomas. These went to a class of ten-seven girls and three boys. Among them were Iames B. Reilly fwho later represented this area in Congressj, whose grandson Robert R. Reilly is now a member of the faculty at Pottsville High, Alfred I. Derr, joseph W. Gumpfert, and Miss Wynkoop. The commmencement was in the form of a public examination conducted by the faculty from the State Normal School. At the time, I. W. Roseberry was president of the school board, and Christo- pher Little the secretary. The receipt of a diploma, however, didn't help the school enrollment during the Civil War period. Many scholars enlisted and others went to work. The school became practically non-operative and higher education for Pottsville pupils virtually halted at the grammar school level. It was during this period that Benjamin F. Patterson, one of the outstanding figures in the history of the Pottsville school system, came on the scene. Mr. Patterson was elected high school principal in March, 1865. On April 1, 1867, he was named superintendent, a position he held until his death in july, 1906. After the Civil War a committee comprising Peter W. Sheafer, William B. Wells, Christopher Little, john W. Roseberry, and David A. Smith accomplished the reorganization of the high school and it was again placed on a firm basis. The P. H. S. Annual of 1905 said of the reorganization, At this time a curriculum was adopted which has suffered little change. The then prevailing three-year course offered the following subjects: First Uunior Yearj-History, algebra, geometry, foundation of Latin, Caesar, elocution, Second jMiddle Yearl-Geometry, physiology, literature, botany, composition, Cicero, Latin prose, Caesar, elocution, physical geography: Third jSenior Yearj- Physics, Cicero, Virgil, rhetoric, civics, astronomy, trigonometry, chemistry, geology, elocution, IACKSON STREET BUILDING ,..6,-.
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