Beloit High School - Trojan Yearbook (Beloit, KS)

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H., :ls ' .- '. f-Q ik if- if f ri fr 1 we , 1 .r 1 .. 2l2'fk:l, 1 2-we we siebpsei GREETINGS l N presenting the B. H. S. to the public we do so with a feel- ing that it should be and will be favorably received. It is a book devoted to the schools of Beloit, and as it is published by the Senior class it, of course, deals mostly with the High school. The first High school annual to be published in Beloit was The White Rose, published by the Senior class in 1902. Each year since then, with the exception of one year, the Senior class has published an annual of some sort. The HB. H. S. is the largest annual ever published in Beloit, and we, without any intention of boasting, truly believe that it is the best. It has been our purpose in. pre- paring this book to make it of such nature that it will be of the utmost in- terest to every student of the Beloit High school as well as to every person connected with or interested in the Beloit schools. Getting out a High school annual is a bigger task than anyone, who never had any experience along that line, can readily believe. To get out an annual similar to the UB. H. S. would be an impossibility if the student body in general did not rally to the cause. The support of the students this year was excellent and especially so in the snapshot department. The snap- shots this year make up one of the biggest and best features of the annualg there are one hundred and fifteen of them, excluding the baby pictures, which is an increase of at least eighty over the previous annuals. To all of the associate editors, to the B. H. S. board officers of the various classes, to all students who assisted in getting out the B. H. S. by contributing snapshots, jokes, stanzas, sketchings, etc., and to Mr. Hamilton for his valuable assistance as business manager, we extend our warmest thanks. A Now as you look through this book, we sincerely trust that you will be pleased with it as a whole. --A. B. D.

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HISTORY 5 DEVELCPMENT ' OF THE BELOIT Pusuc SCHOOLS 3, ix L N order that we may more fully appreciate the excellent school en! Lf, facilities that Beloit now enjoys, it is necessary that we at should first become acquainted with the foundation and the -O: development of the Beloit schools. The schools of Beloit, like the schools of many other places, may be traced back to Qi' a little one-room building with a missionary in charge. We rm: In 1871 Timothy F. Hersey, the founder of Willow Springs, Qsoon changed to Beloitj raised a small amount of money to be used in starting a school. A small cottonwood shanty was erected on the location of the present site of the German National Bank. It was used both as a school house and as a tovsm hall. A Baptist minister, Rev. O. N. Fletcher, was the man who first wielded the hickory limb in Beloit. Ex-congressman W. A. Reeder was the first regular teacher in Beloitg he taught the 1872-'73 and the 1873-'74 terms. Some time in 1871 or 1872 bonds were voted in the old school district No. 2 of Mitchell county to raise money to be used in erecting a brick school building on lots near the site of the present High school building. The building had one room upstairs and one room downstairs. Owing to some legal entanglements the work on the building was required to cease for two years, and during this time school was held only in the lower room. The building was finally completed and served its purpose until 1884. In 1882 it was declared unsafe and the superintendent had to dismiss school when- ever a storm occurred during school hours. In 1884 bonds amounting to 520,000 were voted, and the money de- rived from them was used in erecting what was for so many years known as the Central building and what is now the major part of the present High school building. The building was completed and ready for the occupancy at the beginning of the fall term in 1885. There were ten large accomoda- tion rooms and two large halls. On the fifth day of May, 1879 the first Board of Education was or- ganized. It was composed of Wm. H. Burke, presidentg William Grew, vice- president, A. Patten, clerk, and J. W. Walker, treasurer. In connection with this period a quotation from an address by Rev. W. J. Mitchell, who was Methodist minister here about twenty-five years ago, is quite interest- ing. The quotation: The Board of Education organized in May, 1879 came into power with many varied difficulties before them, chief among which was a large floating debt of over three thousand dollars with school room large enough to accommodate only about one-half of the pupils of our city. But thanks to the united and energetic efforts of our board, backed up by the generous support of our wide-awake citizens, they were enabled successfully to grapple with the problem presented. Bonds were voted bearing a low rate of interest and negotiated at par, our floating indebted-