Dubuque High School - Echo Yearbook (Dubuque, IA)

Page 9 text:

. 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

Page 8 text:

William A. Carter and Timothy Mason were elected board mem- bers. Although a tax was levied, there was not enough money raised to buy land and erect a school building. The Board made arrangements with the private schools, the Board agree- ing to pay individual tuition if the schools would accept all pu- pils who applied. About this time there was throughout the country a strong feeling toward public education, and so by 1850, in spite of such argu- ments as, Why should I be taxed to educate other peoples children'?'l, many of the states provided free elementary edu- cation. ln 1850 two one-story 'brick build- ings were erected on the First and Third VVard sites. The First Ward is today Franklin School, and the Third, is Pres- cott. Dubuque had many difficulties in maintaining its early schools, perhaps the most troublesome was that of inade- quate funds. Lack of money caused the schools to close until several years later when the Third NVard school was re- opened with money received from state appropriation. In 1858 our first high school was es- tablished. Opened in what was called the uupper roomv of the Third VVard School, the high school was known as an auxiliary, or higher departmentv of the public schools. This new school found many adversities in its early years. A few months later, in 1859, the high school was moved to a building on Seventeenth and Iowa Streets, known then as the Female Seminary and now known as Our Lady of Lourdes Home. Very soon after, affected by a nation- wide depression which had started in 1857, the school was forced to close. Although the grade schools remained open during this period, the teachers worked for half their salary. In 1866, after being discontinued for more than five years, the high school was reopened in what was known as Turner's Hall, a girls will remember how they would hide behind an old stov to escane exercises! l This is the gym building on West 17th Street. Some of

Page 10 text:

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.