Dubuque High School - Echo Yearbook (Dubuque, IA)

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damage the ibuildingf' Another in- teresting quote from the Board min- utes states that a doctor requested permission to examine the students for the purpose of making a study as to what effect, if any, school life had on the health and eyesight of pupilsf, The request was granted. After the Civil War American life affected by the Industrial Revolution, changed greatly. The poet Carl Sand- burg wrote of this period: 3 i'Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of youth, half- naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Toolmaker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads, and Freight Handler to the Nationf, This industrialization brought with it improvements in public education, the number of high schools in the nation increasing from 500 in 1870 to 6,000 in 1900. Even so, the aver- age American in 1900 received only five years of schooling. The nation- wide average expenditure per child of school age was only 83.84 a year, while in Dubuque it was 3520.99 for every pupil in average daily attend- ance. In 1893 lots on the corner of 15th and Locust Streets were purchased for a new high school. On january 17, 1895, this new high school build- ing was dedicated, and on February 4, it was occupied by the students. Kindergarten classes were held in the old high school building. Miss Eleanor Ceisler, a graduate of the class of 1902, commented on this period of high school history. She remembers that the classes passed between the new high school build- ing and the annex on Twelfth and Central and that the students used This is one street car, shown here on Main Street, that carried many students to high school. to stop at a nearby bakery between classes. Very few students had cars, almost everyone rode the street cars to school. There were no buses. There were seven periods, almost all of the pupils went home for lunch between 12 and 1:30, and school dismissed at 3:40. Miss Ceisler remembers that the students used to attend a movie after school for 12 cents. There was no regular library at the time, but a room was opened in the Fifteenth Street School for such a purpose. Stu- dents were in charge of the library. There were no monitors then, but students had to sign the register when they came to the library. This old car marks a period in the history of the Adams Company.

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. krvkr K kb,,L f - jill K ,V K X xp V ly r . .... Mx Y , M K A group of teachers at Central School building at the northeast corner of Twelfth and Clay Streets. In the first year of its existence the Dubuque High School offered a three-year course, with three tenns in each year. Candidates for admission to the high school were required to pass an examination of ten ques- tions each in definitions, geography, mental arith- metic, English grammar, United States history, and general history. The examinations were given by a committee of citizens. During the years that the country was torn apart with the Civil War, many interesting events were a part of life in Dubuque. A law was passed forbidding the use of tobacco in the schools. The reading of the Bible was adopted in the schools, and quite a controversy arose over this. In 1854, children at the Fifth and First Ward schools bought a melodian and an organ for their schools. There was a day in Iuly when a tornado blew the roof off the Fifth Ward School. In 1867 the Board demanded that if the local bookstore did not reduce the price of text books, the Board would open its own store. A year later, a small- pox epidemic raging in the community, the prin- cipal ordered strict enforcement of the vaccina- tion rule, although the schools did not close. In 1866 a petition for the opening of a school for colored children was presented, and the Board rented a church basement and opened such a school on March 5. In 1868 the uschools were charged with failure of giving any moral instruc- tions to the students, and their charge was vigor- ously denied by the principals and teachersf' In the same year the primary departments were so crowded in the First and Fifth Ward schools that classes were divided into two shifts, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. In 1874 some of the pupils in the High School petitioned the Board for permission to use one of the rooms in the High School as a gymnasium, and the re- quest was granted with the provision that the stu- dents would furnish and equip the room them- selves and secure the opinion of a respectable architect that the strenuous exercises would not

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TIE? wa . fq,Z,?::,: -I I, I 525 3 5 -I Q , A-A, . x .x,.,m-X: Q . r ,V 2 ttf. D ::,, ., 'i ' ' Q .- r '5 W K if A ,-.. , ,, 5 I l --, - I 'V. 'li , ,Q M WMM AMW .,.,. I fi ' . :W : M . w bii? . , -'wif I i s -V-'-N ' :ss 1 . .is A ,, , 1 Ti ': 5 ' . Z .,..'.'!i 5 . .... ,V ' jiij' lrrl IAE :QA I . A s' ,r ,r..l.. ' 3 s, -Q -' L4 f ' ,.' .- ll , ,, . .liens rn.. Mr. Henry Bechtel drew this picture of the Grand Opera House, now the Grand Theater, with a Flomaster pen. The graduation exercises were formerly held here. She recalls there was no athletic field connected with the high school, so football and baseball teams had to go to the ball park at 25th and Iackson to practice and have their games. There was a lot of school spirit and students enthusiastically attended the games. Physical education classes were held in the rooms, the pupils exercising for half an hour be- side their desks. Graduation exercises were held at the Grand Opera House, now Grand Theater. The girls wore long white dresses. Cabs, each carrying four students, transported them from the school to the Opera House. The graduation dinner was held at the First Congregational Church. In 1914 Miss Geisler began to teach clothing and foods. Her classes were held in the annex building. The equip- ment in the sewing room consisted of four long tables, a mirror, two ironing boards, an iron, and two old dressers. In the foods classes the equipment was kept inside the desks. There were gas plates on top for cooking, and one stove provided the only oven. The classes were large, usually filled. Other quotes from the Board of Edu- cation minutes give us further insight into school life at this time. In 1905 'can epidemic of diphtheria and scarlet fever broke out in the city. However, the schools were kept open and were fumigated once or twice a week during its durationf' and the truant officer sub- mitted his first annual report in which he stated he had investigated 105 cases, and in most cases the parents were at First home economics class.