Butler High School - Tropaeum Yearbook (Butler, IN)

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n Qodpecf The Consolidation of Wilmington Township and Butler City points toward educational ad- vancement in our community. An increased enrollment, brought about by consolidation, will make a new building a neces- sity. Twelve acres have already been purchased for the site of an extensive building program, if it is needed. A buildin lev will be laced on the g Y P citizens of Wilmington Township and Butler City this summer. There is also a possibility that several other members of the school districts may become Metropolitan School District of Butler. Perhaps the new building will be similar to one of the new schools, whose pictures are shown in this book. The new school district will have greatly in- creased educational and recreational facilities. The present curriculum is limited by the small number of students, but it is hoped that the ex- pected increase in enrollment will make possible a much broadened curriculum. A fine arts curriculum, a science curriculum and an industrial arts curriculum would make fine additions to Butler High Schools present academic, vocational home economics, vocational agriculture, and commercial courses. Perhaps the addition of CfH't Housg D08 Mouse nt Norse - .1 a T Hammer s EEE EEE another foreign language to the academic course would be appreciated by the students. In the new building there might be farm shops, industrial arts shops, a new science labora- tory, and a new home economics department, greatly improved over the present one. Many parents have expressed the desire that vocational courses be offered to grade school students. At present there is a great need for an ex- tended physical education program which may be remedied by the new school. The students of Butler High School may look forward to a more varied extracurricular activities program. This year has brought the addition of a new club, the Library Club, which is sponsored by Mr. Jack Ruff. The hope has been expressed by several faculty members that the students will form a student council and help govern themselves. Some members of the student body are becoming more conscious of the need for self-government, so per- haps in a few years a student council may be achieved. A certain student group has tried to re- organize a school paper, but because of the scarcity of paper, it seems to have been abandoned for a while. As a school paper adds a great deal to a school, especially by giving students training in journalism, it is hoped that in future years, con- ditions will be more beneficial to the efforts of journalistically inclined students. Many senior students also enjoy working on the Annual staff, whose members are trying each year to make a Tropaeum bigger and better than that of the year before. A larger enrollment should bring greater annual sales, which, in turn, would make pos- sible a larger Tropaeum. Many improvements should be made in the library, which is very limited at the present time. Many additional non-fiction books especially should be added. More reference books would be ap- preciated very much by the high school students who often need much information for routine school work and term papers. Without a doubt, if all the things written about here actually occur, the future students will be the best behaved, the best educated, and the most intelligent students Butler has ever had. Not only that but our athletes will be better than ever. Yes, the future students of our community will have more educational advantages than former- ly, and they will be better trained to meet the problems of life. 1 TC -

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Ifl, Qtl 05l56Cf The citizens of Butler and the surrounding community early showed a praise-worthy interest in education, and have continued to do so through the years. In 1842 Norris, Egnew, I-Ianes, Tomlinson, and Cherry erected a schoolhouse on the land of George Egnew, on the north side of Main Street about opposite the present IVI. E. Church. It was large for a building of its kind and had on each side a long narrow window made of part of a section of a single log. The first teacher was L. Harding. As there is no picture extant of Butleris first' schoolhouse, Mr. Ashby has drawn a log building representing it for this book. In 1855 this log schoolhouse was supplanted by a frame structure erected on East Main Street on the lot now owned by Richard Schimpf. Mr. Ashby has drawn this building as it was described to him by Mr. Gehring and his sister, who re- membered it. Some of the early teachers in this school were John A. Campbell, Hamlin Fay, Mrs. Wood, and Mrs. Butler. As the years passed, this frame building be- came inadequate to meet the needs of the grow- ing community and by 1866, Butler had over one hundred pupils crowded into a schoolroom twenty- four by forty feet. In 1867 work started on a three-story brick building on the site of the present school. Dexter Ladd Thomas was the first teacher in the new school. In the first regular school held in the build- ing, Mr. James Ghreier Bowersox was the first principal and four other teachers were also em- ployed. The total enrollment of the school was three hundred fifty with sixty-six students in the primary department, seventy-nine in grammar school, seventy-nine in the intermediate depart- ment and one hundred twenty-six in high school. Five years after the school was built, it had its first graduating class, which was four in number. The enrollment steadily increased with the growth of the community and the schoolhouse was soon too small, hence in 1876 a two story annex was built, the lower room being used for primary work, and the upper for high school grades. A The Butler Public Schools gained a favorable reputation as a teachers training school through- out the northeast counties of our state. The period that teachers were trained in Butler was from 1868 to about 1880. In the year 1890, the seating capacity being once more insufficient, a frame structure large enough to accommodate another grade- was built in the rear of the main building. I In 1905 the three story brick building was torn down and replaced by a larger building which is still in use today. This was the first Butler School building to be heated by a furnace. As the school continued to grow, it was neces- sary to erect a separate building for the high school, including the first gymnasium provided by the school. The enrollment continued to rise and by 1929 the high school had one hundred forty-three students. In 1930 the school was granted a First Class Commission by the State Department of Public Instruction and was admitted into the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, which is the highest accrediting agency in the north Central States. The band was organized in 1930 by Lida Stage and in 1935 brought recognition to the school by winning first place among the high school bands of the state. It was also in 1935, that busses were first used to bring rural students into the school. In 1936 a new gymnasium was built by the aid of a P. W. A. grant. H wrncur -W , ' N 'II E Q -- orThi5H E E 5 sl-if ' 5 If S lf' E -D--.

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