East High School - Echoes Yearbook (Wichita, KS)

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-55 n.JY.V-.- xi sv- I fax ' arf-M, XM, 14, . 1, -s A . ,-.N-XV-I . , ., 1 J'-, 'Ti'-. 'i,, v,fl, .el g ,, xx 1 I --...X ,L--, . Y , N,J-Cl. -IQ 'w,'Xx,,5-,Y '- V -c Y tx xii -' V , ,xwwf I- ' u Y i. . sa fi . , 1 I 7 'Q H if-x ,Q .V f 'f gf, .' A3 X if , tg. XVII1 i xx m .x, ...Q ii AJ .4 gb 4 L -3, K 1 iii J. Q, ,XX .rj P THU3 FAR S. THE SAILOR CHORUS FROM THE CLASS PLAY OF 1891 A Letter From Sedgwick County's First Teacher Sedgwick, Kansas, June 26, 1926. Some time the last of October, 1869, some of the settlers asked me to start a were only seven log houses and one frame saloon made from El Dorado. This settlement was along the line school. At that time there from walnut boards gotten where Waco Avenue is now and about half a mile north of Central. As there was no kind of government, the funds for running the school had to be raised by sub- scription. The only place I could find for housing the children was a dugout about a half mile north of the settlement. I was told some of the United States soldiers had occupied it the winter of 1868 and 'fi9. It had a dormer window in the roof and also a fireplace. This school was started about November 1, 1869, with sixteen. As I remember now, twenty was as many as attended at any time. All of Sedgwick was still in government land open to homestead and pre-emption, except a strip perhaps six miles wide, the Osage Strip. This strip was under the pre-emption laws only. The government sold this land to settlers for 51.25 per acre. The proceeds were given to the Osage Indians. Wichita is located on this strip. Sedgwick County was organized in March, 1870. At that time it included the territory where Newton is now located and on west to Reno County. The first two or three plats of Wichita were filed for record at El Dorado, as we were then attached to Butler County for judicial purposes. This shows that the first plats of Wichita were made before the county was organized. Probably the distinction between the two schools can be made that Miss Hunter drew the first public money as a teacher. While the dugout school depended on sub- scription. The teacher of the latter coming out second best. I have gone a little out of the way in answering your letter that you may have a better view of matters as they stood more than half a century ago. The last paragraph above would likely have answered all you wanted to know. Very truly yours, WM. FINN. -From Page 2435 in Community Life and Development. Page Seventeen