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Page 5 text:
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THE HISTORY O AIVIANA HIGH SCHOOL ALUIVI AS IT WAS For nearly a century after Amana Soclety settled m Iowa the oontnol of all economlc, soclal 1'e1lg10Ll.S and educauonal act1v1t1es reslded ln the leaders of the Amana Church Tlus group oonsxsted of thxrteen trustees selected from a large group of elders of the church Then' pnmary a1m was to promote and pre serve ln the1r members devotlon to rellglous obser vances prety and fa1thfulness ln the performance of the1r dunes To l1ve a llfe of devotnon to rehgxon, to practlce the spu'1t of brotherhood to have personal xntegrlty were regarded as far more Important than gettmg a lugh school educatxon The 00I1J1Ct10IlS of those m author1ty resulted ln dlscouragxng as much as poss1ble unnecessary contact wxth the outsnde world hlgh school about SIX? years later than most Iowa school dxstrlcts Thls former system of control somet1mes referred to as rehgxous communxsm came to an end ln 1.932 A modern cooperat1ve corporatlon was formed by a popular vote of all CIIIZCIIS Isolatlon was a th1ng of the past Thls was brought about by the lmpact of World War I and by the new age of electnomcs wlth nts 1n ventlons bnngmg men and races mto closer commum catxon As soon as thus break took place the young people of Amana began to attend hxgh schools III nelghbormg towns They attended 1n such numbers that It convmced the people of Amana that a hlgh school mould. have to be estabhshed ln thelr home oommumty In 1934 the Board of Educatlon passed a resolution to establlsh a hlgh school ln Mnddle Amana Only the frrst two years of mstructxon were to be given The re mauung years were to be taken m atdqoxnmg towns Amana was 1n a penod of transmon and the nat1on was 1n the mxdst of a senous depressxon. Tltus accounts for the boards -declslon to pl.'0V1d8 for on.ly twwo years of school J R Neveln of Manly, Iowa, was selected by the school board to be the nrst superlntendent Alvm Skow of West Branch was selected as hrs assxst an The fxrst day of the Amana High School was Sep tember 3 1934 Fourteen sophomores and mneteen freshmen ennolled at that tlme The sophomores had attended hxgh schools 1n nearby towns the prevlous year Before the end of the fxrst week fourteen Jumors 1n the new Amana Hrgh School Th1s was granted Another teacher Edle Brandt, was engaged to teach typmg muslc and some addxtnonal subJects The en t1re school equrpment conslsted of four rooms wlth a bare mlmmum of laboratory and 11brary supplles The total school budget was S10 000 00 Thls had to suffxce for payment of mltxal eqmpment operatlon, and salar1es of th1rteen teachers In sprte of numerous handlcaps the scholastxc reoord of Amana Hxgh School students compared very favorably w1th Iowa state averages Hxgh school graduates made superxor scho last1c records ln colleges and. 'I.II1iV6I'S1tl8S The dlsad vantage of an insufflclent number of teachers and lack of equlpment was more than compensated for by a spxnt of enthuslasm and adventure Fmanclal support for extracurrlcular actxvrtles could not be secured from school funds However these actxvltles were not . , . I , - . . . 1 tu . . . . . , . , . - I Y ' This accounts for the fact that Amana established a requested permission of the school hoard to enroll . - ' f a , ' . . .
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Page 6 text:
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THE HISTORY OF A curtarled Careful plans were made to make them self supportmg fmanclally Typewnter rentals were pald by students The followmg notlce appeared m the Amana Bulletm on June 28, 1934 NOTICE I w1ll glve free nolm class mstructron dunng July and August to students of any of the Amana Schools provlded a suftlcxent number express thelr deslre to enroll If you do not own a vxolm, lt may be possxble to rent one If you wlsh to learn more about xt, meet me at my home on Frnday June 29, 7 30 PM Lllhan Neveln The responce and pnogress made by the vxolm students was most gratxfymg It was the begmmng of an orches tra whlch was playmg regularly durmg the flI'St month of schooL Thls also created mcreased mterest m mus1c m the entlre commumty The supermtendent of school was able to brmg one dozen or more p1anos into the homes. Llke the Quakers of Wxlham Penns tune, the Amana elders had formerly forb1dden and later on discouraged brmgmg muslcal mstruments xnto the commumty From the earllest begmnmg, students pubhshed a school paper w1th artlcles and news 1n both EI1g11Sh and German. They sold readlly m every vlllage It was pnnted 1D excellent type at the Amana Prxnt Shop Athletxcs were not overlooked yet never allowed to donunate xn a manner to dxmmxsh scholastxc standards The baseball team won the county tournament the flrst year Alvm Skow had orgamzed a very efflcxent Boy Scout Troop Every hxgh school boy took part Edxe Brandt orgamzed the G1rl Reserves whlch ln eluded nearly every g1rl The flrst hxgh school play coached by the supermtendent was so successful that the perfonnance was repeated four txmes by request Before the end of the f11'St year lt had become clear that Amana would be forced by pubhc opxmon to estabhsh a full four year hlgh school for 1ts youth Smce our country was Just emerglng from a most dxsas trous depression, the prospects for equxppmg and bull-ding a school were not pronusmg The members of the Amana School Board at the t1me were Pres1dent, W F Mlller, Dr H G Moershel Rudolph P1tz Ph1l1p Mrttelbach Martm Berger, Rudolf Schaefer and W1l ham Foerstner The Board after a careful survey of publ1c sentunent in Amana dec1ded that some steps would have to be taken Representatlves from the State Department of Publlc Instructlon, the School of Education at the State Umversxty, met w1th the School and local leaders to determme the local needs and possxblxtxes The school board gulded by the concensus of opuuon de clded to bulld an add1t1-on adJOlIlll'1g the two buxld mgs In Mlddle whlch had served Muddle Amana for many years The new addztnon was 84 feet by 36 feet, makmg the modern plant 169 feet long An outstandmg feature was a stage des1gned by dramatxc art d1I'9Cf0I'S from the State Unlverslty The aud1tor1um had gradually rxsmg seats and a capaclty of 400 Much of the stage equipment was bought w1th funds from school act1v1t1es A bond ISSUE of S16 500 00 was put to vote of the people and carr1ed by an overwhelrmng maJor1ty There were only seventeen negatlve votes out of 325 The amount of bonds to be lssued whlch was regarded as the hrmt was 1nsuff1c1ent to pnovxde fully for all extra currlcular act1v1t1es Thxs accounts for postponement of a gymnaslum bexng buxlt The second year began w1th a four year course a H S QCONTINUEDD h1gh school enrollment of 68 The grade enrollment was 206 The hlgh school teachmg staff oonslsted of J R Neveln, Howard Durner, Francls Hartley, Max me Cummnns, and Charles L. Selzer Grade schools contxnued to be operated 1n each town as before, w1th the exceptxon of the school rn Hlgh whlch was con sohdated w1th the other town schools Nxne grade teachers whose term ranged from 7 to 40 years con tmued rn then' posltlons The names of grade teachers ln onder of then' length of servxce are Ludwxg Unglenk Wllham Hemze, Fred Schaedhch, Fred Pltl, W11l1am Gra1chen, Carl Fels Rudolf Blechschmldt Adolf Ber ger, and Paul Kellenberger The supermtendent of schools presented a plan for extra compensatuon to be paid any teacher who would attend college for ad dltxonal tralnmg Nearly everyone took advantage of this On November 30 1936 the flrst program was pre sented m the new audxtonum. A muslcal play, Ma1d of Japan , was under the dlrectlon of Maxme Cum nuns On the 7th of December the sennor class pre sented the1r play ' The Mystery of the Thmd Gable The flrst baccalaureate servlce was held xn Amana Church on May 24 1936 Smce no muslcal mstrument had ever been used m the Amana church serv1ce lt re qulred specxal perrmssxon from the church 0fflCla1S to brlng m an organ to accompany the sxngers When the organ was placed 1n the church and the suoermten dent struck a few notes the presldent of the Board made the followmg remark You are the flrst man to play an mstrument m any Amana church for over 200 years' Dr H G Moershel a Homestead physxclan and an elder of the church dehvered the flrst bacca laureate sermon Dr Bemanun F Shambaugh of Iowa Clty dellvered the fxrst commencement address I-le IS nationally rec ogmzed as an outstandxng authonty 1n the fields of hlstory and politics Mrs Bertha Shambaugh IS the author of a hxstory -of Amana Soc1 ty The iollowmg lS a portwon of has dxrect appeal to the graduatlng class by Dr Shambaugh Members -of the graduatmg Class May I say ho you that y-ou have recelved from your commun 1ty fwhlch I stlll llke to speak of as the Commun 1ty of True Inspxratxonl the most precxous gnft that can posslbly come fnom the hand of men he g1ft of educatxon Wlth th1s glft you may lf vou wxll make your lxves a chant -of happiness and a song of beauty May I say to you also that you are most fortu nate ln your herltage Your ancestry for more than 200 years 1S wxthout blemlsh Wlth courage patlence and foresight your forefathers have burlded a commumty of noble trad1t1ons 1n thmgs both spu'1tual and materxal Moreover, durmg your hxgh school years you have w1tnessed a oommun 1ty achxevement that IS unparalleled 1n the annals of Amerlca Here 1n the Amanas you ha ve seen a whole commumty achxeve the goals of the Amer1 can Dream whxch are mdxvldual freedom popular oontnol and eoonomxc secunty For thzs herltage you should be .deeply apprecla t1ve and pnofoundly grateful Your fathers and forefathers have 1n then' tlme w1th courage and inslght poxnted the way to the Good Llfe May y-ou nn your day w1th understand mg hearts keep the faxth Remam true true to yourselves true to your herltage and true to your commumty . . . - . - . D . . . ' , . - - -. . . . . , ' . . . , , , . . . , , .. . . . .. , . . - 0 l I . . . . , - 0 1 I ' . . . . . . . . . . U . . . . n ' ' ' - . .. , - ' - . - . - c ' u , . . . . . . . - - . 1 1 ' , - . ' ' . . , . - . . .. . ' .lc ' - - . .. v , . . . . , . . ' . . . - ' ' ' , . . I . . . . . . ' - ' ,I . . L .n . fl ' o . ' - 1 . . . . , , ' ' ' ' ' . 1 ' ' .-1 ' . . . , I . . 1 ' . a . . . . . . .. , , . .. - D , . . ' . - . . . , ii .. . . .. I y 1 . . , . ... . ' ' '- . 4 , . . - J . r 1 ' 7 - . , - ' . 1 r , .
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