Columbian High School - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Tiffin, OH)

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fffcfucml Jawa A tiny, red-brick cottage on the edge of a broad, wooded ravine at Milan, Ohio, has taken its place among the historic shrines which commemorate great Americans. It is the 100-year-old birthplace of Thomas Alva Edison, the Ohio genius who invented the electric light, the phonograph, the moving and talking picture, and many other marvels we take for granted today. Thirty acres of adjacent ravine, through which runs the Huron River, have been purchased by Mrs. Edison and will in time become a memorial park to her husband, who died in 1931 at the age of 84, The land is pastoral and quiet today, but 100 years ago it rang with pounding and sawing, for Milan then was the second largest grain port in the world, with six shipyards and sixteen grain warehouses along a canal teeming with trade. Imports and exports totaled more than 351,500,000 a year. Here the boy Edison lived the hrst seven years of his life, before his family mov-ed to Port Huron, Michi- gan. Through the century, the old home, occupied by relatives, underwent many changes. Eighteeen months ago Mrs. Edison commissioned an old friend of the family to restore the birthplace. Soon the only modern traces will be the electric lights and the oil furnace. -'L 4

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, - .-.1 ,- Supt. Paul V. Brown and the daughter of Thomas Alva Edison, Mrs. Madelaine Edison Sloane, taken in the living room of the Edison birthplace, Milan, Ohio, on February 11, 1947, during the 100th Anniversary celebration. Milan, Ohio February 11, 1947 To the Students of Tiffin Columbian High School: I have been asked by your superintendent, Mr. Paul V. Brown, to send to you my greetings from Milan, Ohio, on this, the 100th anniversary of the birth of my father, Thomas Alva Edison. I am happy to do this, especially since I have been told of the theme of your 1947 yearbook. It is nice to know that you are using Thomas A. Edison as such a theme. My very best wishes to you from this, the birthplace of my father. As he lived a life of service to hisfellowmen, I am wishing for you something of the samenideal. May you remember that doing for others is what counts most in life, after all. lhank you for..this-opportunit3Lto..greet.yuu,.and-I.,send you my every good wish. x Q.A..D-.4,:,g,, Mason Dionne... ,

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152 ar Uma Jfcime The earliest classes to be graduated from Tiffin High School, those from 1859 to 1868, held their com- mencement programs in the high-school room on the third floor of Monroe Street School. At that time the women teachers received 330 a month salary, while the salary of the men was 3535, and the superintendent received 35100. The Monroe building continued to be the seat of secondary learning until 1893 when the Columbian High School building was completed at a cost of 375,000 The school name was selected because of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago that year. General W. H. Gibson was the orator of the day when the cornerstone was laid. Tiffin at that time had 10,801 inhabitants. Commencement exercises were held in National Hall from 1869 to 1907, when they were transferred to the Grand Theater. After the erection of junior High School in 1924, programs of the graduating classes were held in that auditorium, with a seating capacity of 1200. An addition to the Columbian building was completed in 1933. The Columbian auditorium, with a seat- ing capacity of 650, is the scene of present commencement activities. The alumni roster of Tiffin High School has 4,610 names. V 5