Benton High School - Wahwahlanawah Yearbook (St Joseph, MO)

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lPage 61 Benton Historically When in September, 1905, a high school in South St. Joseph was opened in a vacant lodge room above Clark's undertaking parlors, only six young people reported for Work! From the entire South Side, Whose population then was very close to what it is now! The new building, the first modern school building in the city, would not be ready for occupancy for some two months. November, 1905. A gala day it was when the pu- pils gathered their books and marched up the hill to take possession of the new building-the north wing of the present building. 111 1908, the building was com- pleted to the present length, though the south rooms were unfinished. Harvard Street continued east across the hill. The building was thought of as facing north. In 1908 came basketball and in 1915, the present gymnasium that has housed so many Hbattles of the century. The curriculum had long since expanded beyond academic subjects to include manual training and commercial work. Since 1929, when as part of the reorganization of the city school system, Benton became a Junior-Senior high school, one piece of physical expansion after an- other has taken place. Two entirely new blocks of class rooms were added at the east, extensive rear- rangements and repairs made over the older interior. Last scene of all was the acquisition in 1930 of the hillside tract across the street east of the building for use as an athletic field. This addition to the school scene is still so recent that its development, while con- siderable, is as yet quite in its infancy. The school has always clung to the Indian legends clustering about King Hill and claimed them as her own. And with the best of reasons. While excavation for the building was going on, a magnificent specimen of Indian, judging by the skeleton, was exhumed. With great ceremony the skeleton was reburied beneath the tower and the school dedicated to the Indians, whose burial ground King Ilill was. Red and white for the colors were chosen in the very earliest years of the school's existence. Some years later, about 1929, when the need for an athletic mascot-symbol was felt, the cardinal was adopted, largely because it is suggestive by name and coloring of the school colors. Newsmen and others have had cause to note respectfully the drive of the Redbird athletic teams. Bentonls scholastic emblem is, most appropriately, its tower, the com- manding landmark of the South Side's skyline. lt is used on all class jewelry, school publications and formal invitations, and on the insignia of the Benton Chapter of the National Honor Society. Most precious tradition of all is the passing of the flag, a ceremony which is part of every Senior Class Night program. The flag was presented in 1909 by Mr. Golding of the St. Joseph News-Press to the Benton grammar school city basketball champions. They in their turn entrusted it to the care of the senior class. So each senior class president from that day to this has committed it to the keeping of the president of the junior class-a symbol of the qualities woven into the fabric we call t'Benton . MISS LAURA JESSIE LOMAX Dean of Girls MR. J. A. BELL Flrst Principal

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Benton's Heritage For a quarter of a century Benton graduates have been leavi11g the hill top school to add the force of their intellect, personality, and physical equipment to thc great army of man- kind that makes society. Benton is proud of her alumni, those alert, smiling, vigorous young people who have carried the 11ame and stamp of Benton far beyond the borders of this city and state. Proud too, of the stay-at-homes, who having established themselves in thc local commercial world, are building homes, rearing and training their children, a11d put- ting their influcnce on the side of the better forces of civic life. Always they show the impress of I Benton spirit, an inexplicable but none the less powerful entlmsiasm that be- comes part of the bone and sinew of every loyal Bentonitc. Elusive, it can- not be captured by words and reduced ,ii ' xg I to the imprisonment of phrases. ., pf ,K . 5. 1 . yr. N Impossible then to tell what it is. But one may perhaps set down the causes contributing to its birth and continued existence. Most important factor is the democratic, friendly na- ture of the pupils making up Benton's student body. Mentally they may be superior or just average, but in- variably they exhibit that kindliness of heart, the brotherly love which is the essence of friendliness. Everyone knows everyone elseg each sets himself without conscious effort to admire tl1e good points of his classmates. Xvill'llI0d by such genuine appreciation, who would not attain the best in him? af: ' 5 . a,g,,.5f- FIRST CHAMPIONSHIP BASKETBALL TEAM THE ORIGINAL BUILDING FUN FOR EVERYBODY-'08 Bt-uton's teaching staff has done its bit toward fostering Benton spirit, too. Everyone connected with the administration, in however humble capacity, has worked to make Benton mean something vital to all witl1 whom he came in contact. Mr. J. A. Bell, the first principal. was idealistic and visionary. but in a very practical way. Ile gave unsparingly of his time. his mental gifts. his physical strength to make dreams come true for his student body here and IIOXV. Ile handed down a tradition of cheerful service to others which our present prin- eipal, Mr. F. E. Vandersloot. carries on unostentatiously but no less eapably. The first faculty was chosen from the sort of people whose ideals and visions matched Mr. Bell's. All were teachers-extraordinary. Of them all, the influ- ence of Miss Laura Jessie Lomax has been most far-reaching because she has remained at her post, advising. counseling. encouraging each group of students in turn until now, hundreds will rise up and eall her blessed! I Page 75