Bowlegs High School - Yahnseh Yearbook (Bowlegs, OK)

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Allen, Thrace, Walker, Treadaway, Rascoe, Tay- lor, and Wilson. Later, the Thrace unit was dis- continued and the building moved to Bowlegs, where the teacherage became the janitor's home. The brick high school building and the gymnasium were formally dedicated on January 11, 1929. The present Central Grade building was completed during the fall of the same year. During the construction of these edifices, classes were moved into each room as soon as it was completed. Teachers talked to the accompani- ment of hammers and saws and the voices ot workmen. When school opened in the fall of 1930, high school students were offered a schedule in- cluding music, language, mathematics, history, physical education, science, home economics, band, manual training, and commerce. All Work in both Junior and Senior High School was de-- partmental, with splendid equipment and teach- ers with standard college degrees in each de- partment. Under the supervision of Mrs. Elizabeth Emerson, the home making department had been organized two years earlier. At the same time classes in physical and biological science, taught by Mrs. Phyllis Draper Newport, were added to the curriculum. A year later, Miss Beryl Simpson joined the faculty as head of the new commercial depart- ment. At this time the Bison News, mimeograph- ed school paper, edited and published by the students made its first debut. The original staff of this periodical included: Editor, Floyd Lans- ford, Assistant Editor, Lola Montgomeryg Sports, William Robinson, Advertising, Ted Bath: Jokes, Thomas Mayhueg and cartoonist, Ruth Drake. In the fall of 1930 Industrial Arts was offer- ed for the first time in Junior and Senior high school. This work carried on in an annex to the gymnasium in order not to disturb other classes, was under the instruction of Clifton Parker, now a member of the faculty at Tonkawa Junior College. In this original annex, which now houses one room of the seventh grade, boys learned to make articles of furniture and to make repairs on the school equipment. Three annual football queens had been se-- lected: Winifred Diverse, '28, Helen Tennison, '29, and Lola Montgomery, '30, Outstanding football players remembered by fans of those early days were Maurice Lawson, Erdie Lans- ford, Francis Chapman, Floyd Lansford, and others. The Roustabouts, girls' pep squad, was sponsored by Miss Geneva Colley. Bowlegs' first graduating class received their diplomas in the spring of 1928. Personnel of this class included: Frances Faye Fortner. Valedictorian, and Gladys Bacon, Salutatoriang Gladys Gosnell, Lucille Lawson, Pauline Mc- Intyre, Troy Nicholson, Ray Nowlin, Sadie Sesher, Dovie Lee Summers. Another custom, instituted with the first graduating class, was the annual junior-senior banquet. Successive themes carried out in these gala affairs were: spring festival, Dutch, Japanese, flower garden and May day fetes. Students of U. G. No. 5 have always won honors in literary and musical contests. In the first year of its existence, Bowlegs high school carried off honors in a literary event held in the only available place in Bowlegs-a dance hall. In 1930 Thomas Mayhue won first place in Chemistry in the East Central Inter-scholas- tic meet, and several other students won awards. Miss Ruth Fraser directed the first operetta, Polished Pebbles, a junior high affair of 1929 Next year the first high school operetta, 'tGypsy Rover, was given. Plays and dramatic produc- tions date back to Adam and Eva, staged by the Junior Class of '29, and So This Is London, staged by the Senior Class of '30, Musical opportunities now included both junior and senior high chorus work, glee club. quartet, and both advanced and beginning band work. This department was provided with a new music room, annexed to the gym, during 1930. Even in these early days assemblies were under the complete direction of students, with Sinclair Plant 13 Page Eight

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poured into the new oil field. From the Missis- sippi westward the Seminole-Bowlegs Oil Field became the mecca of the fortune hunter and the job seeker. Young Harvard engineers represent- ing great oil companies, rubbed elbows with gamblers and dance-hall girls, representing the evil that accompanies oil discoveries. Roads around Bowlegs were in rainy weather not roads but quagmires. A trip to Seminole or Wewoka by car or truck was a matter of half a day. From ten to twenty mules were required to transport oil field machinery and equipment. Hastily built Wooden shanties housed fam- ilies and stores and business enterprizes. For- tunes were made and lost in a day. Bowlegs of that day might have been likened to a Franken- stein. It was a creature, created by oil and grown beyond all bounds. Then came the school and the churches with their cultural influence. That surging sea of humanity continued to ebb and flow, but the riff-raff went out with the tide. Only the deep- calm ocean of a substantial citizenry remained. And this was the true foundation of U. G. No. 5. On May 24, 1927, a special election was held, a Union Graded school decided upon, and the name of Bowlegs appended thereunto. H. Emerson was elected superintendent and charg- ed with the task of building a high school. This he has done so nobly and so well that the creature of his building stands as a noble monu- ment to the faith, foresight, and ability of its founder. Oil furnished the money, but an able Superintendent backed by a loyal Board of Edu- cation, furnished the motivating force. Twenty-seven sections of land made up the new school district. Within this area all the major oil companies had camps, peopled by the workers and their families. Many gasoline plants were located in the district, the largest of which was Sinclair Plant 13, at that time the largest gasoline plant in the world. There were hundreds and hundreds of children for whom educational opportunity had to be provided. After bonds were voted in July, 1927, for the construction of a high school, the oil companies in the district assisted in making a survey to determine the centers of school population. The site selected for the three-room frame structure that housed the first high school was the loca- tion of the principal's home today, and that duplex teacherage has been constructed from the original high school building. Three wing schools were added before school opened on September 19, Taylor, Allen, Thrace, Treadaway, and Rascoe. It was necessary for patrons and business men to contribute funds for the structures of the first grade school at Bowlegs. New buildings were erected and additional faculty members added rapidly during the next few years, but the enrollment increased even faster. In those early days of U. G. No. 5, classes were held in teacherages and one semes- ter the fifth and sixth grades met in the super- intendents garage. Seating facilities were in- adequate and teachers often had a hundred or more students in one room. During the school year of 1928-29, the present brick high school and the gymnasium were built and the Wilson and Walker wing schools added. But enrollment increased, addi- tional equipment was added, the faculty was enlarged, and many customs and precedents es- tablished. By 1930, Bowlegs had become known as the largest Union Graded school in existence with an assessed valuation of nearly five million dollars. Enrollment had passed the 2,000 mark. A teaching staff of 38 instructors offered work including a full four year high school course with 26 units accredited by the State Depart- ment of Education. Four school buses trans- ported the students above the sixth grade to the central plant. There were seven wing schools at one time: ITIO Camp Page Seven

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outside speakers rarely featured. Different classes and departments vied with each other in conducting their annual assembly programs. At that time assemblies were held each Thurs- day, but at a different period each week in order not to unduly interfere with class work in one subject. The Home Room Plan had already been instituted for class organization. Faculty members of 1930 who are still in the system include: C. N. Merrell, Pete Duncan, B F. Snyder, James Rogers, Marie James Tucker, Mrs. Pearl Snyder, Mrs. Beutice Treadaway, Lucy Beach, and Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Emerson. And so in 1930, Bowlegs was known as the world's largest Union Graded School, as a mod- ern, growing institution that the community, the county, and the state was proud to point out as embodying the best in educational practices of the day. C H A P T E R III - DEPRESSION - In 1930-31, the Great Depression swept down upon the country like a mighty avalanche and enveloped business and industry and the whole of human society in its gloomy shroud. Bowlegs suffered, inevitably. The oil companies began a policy of retrenchment. New operations ceased and hundreds of men were dismissed. Families moved away, taking their children from school. Gross production tax decreased alarmingly. Educational institutions born of the oil fields seemed doomed. Referring to U. G. No. 5, the Shawnee Even- ing Star reported: When the depression came, some who knew not the true pioneer spirit of the people of the district prophesied the begin- ning of the end for that remarkable school system. But they figured without recalling the spirit of the school, the loyalty of the school board, and the efficiency of the superintendent and the faculty. An unusually competent and sympathetic Board of Education was at the helm during these trying years. J. D. Magruder, president, one of the pioneer farmers of Seminole County, was thoroughly familiar with rural problems that were introduced or augmented by the de- pression. The business and financial part of the school board was handled by one of Bowlegs' first merchants, J. L. McClung. The member was B. O. Hindman, superintendent of the I. T. I. O. operations in the Seminole field. Every possible phase of the district and its problems was intimately known by one or the other of these men, and, by their aid and loyal support. they made it possible for the district to thrive during the lean years. Superintendent H. S. Emerson, assisted by the Board of Education, worked out a plan whereby a full nine-months term of school was assured. The faculty was reduced to twenty- nine. Everyone, including the janitor and bus drivers, took a substantial cut in salary. The building program was temporarily halted. The parents, the school, and the community worked together so that it was 'fthe everlastin' team- work of every bloomin' soul that Won the battle. It was frankly predicted that when school opened in September 1931, there would be an alarming decrease in enrollment throughout the system. But more students appeared than were expected by even the most optimistic, a com- parison between the first monthly report of 1927-the boom daysvand the first of 1931- the dark days-is of interest: 1927 1981 Total enrollment .,.....,. 1121 1127 Number on roll .......... 1008 1023 Average daily attendance- 865 1019 Per cent of attendance .... 90? 96'?? There were five Wing schools with enroll- ment and principals as follows: Wilson, 100, James Rogers, Walker, 67, Pete Duncan, Tread- away, 91, Loyd Rolandg Allen, 65, Sibyl Caudlc: Taylor, 253, C. N. Merrell. In Central Grades there were 215 with 340 enrolled in Junior and Senior High School. School went on as before. Excellent class- work was excelled only by achievements in extra-curricular activities. The glee club and quartets appeared in new sweaters and present- ed operettas and negro minstrels. Outstanding performances were turned in by various athletic teams. Students received high school diplomas dur- ing these trying years. Among the intelligentsia were the valedictorians: Olen Self, '32, Helen Welsh, '33, Florence Eberhardt, '34, and the corresponding salutatorians: Byron Patillo, Madeline Moore, and Ruth Gragson. Dramatic productions of these classes were respectively: The Goose Hangs High, Who Wouldn't Be Crazy? and Here Comes Charley. In 1933 football received a new impetus with election of Clarence Moon Mullen as coach. Claude O'Neal, Emmitt Alexander, and Leon Wright were selected as all-conference players. Ursula Virden, freshman candidate, was elected athletic queen after a spirited contest. Other class nominees were: Willa Dean New- kirk, Francis Byrd, Freida Morton, Laverne Cox, and Polly Remy. The victorious candidate, who succeeded Violet Sims, queen of the pre- Page Nine 7 Ai . .1 T ..4