Eldorado High School - Golden E Yearbook (Eldorado, IL)

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Through 50 Years of E. T. H. S. by T. Leo Dodd The Eldorado Township High School is more than a high school-it is the expression of a community idea. The people of Eldorado did not have a high school forced upon them. The law of the State of Illinois did not require the people to provide secondary education for their children in the first decade of the 20th Century. The privilege of providing such educational advantage was made available and it was up to the expressed choice of the people as to whether or not a high school should be. Thus it is that the Eldorado Town- ship High School is a monument to the abiding ambition of the people of this community to provide the best within their means for their children. Prior to 1908 the only opportunity avail- able for those in the community who sought formal education beyond the 8th grade was in the Eldorado Public School system which provided only two years of high school train- ing or in one of the very few four year high First Board of Education. Standing: D. L. Wood, L. J. Wise, R. F. Jones. Seated: J. A. Watson, J. C. Dodd. schools in Southern Illinois. The need for a high school to accommodate the rapidly in- creasing population of the Eldorado commun- 4 ity was sensed by many local citizens. ln the spring of 1907, a vote was taken in Eldorado Township to establish a high school district, and was carried by a large majority. A high school board of education was elec- ted, consisting of five members: I. A. Watson, President, I. C. Dodd, Secretary, D. L. Wood, R. F, lones, and L. F. Wise. An election to issue bonds, December 14, 1907, and to select a site, April 1908, re- sulted in the issue of bonds and the selec- tion of the present site which was donated by Henry David Westbrook. This area near the High School came to be called College Heights because many people referred to the new school as a college. M. T. Van Cleve First Principal, 1908-1914 Van Cleve Building erected 1908, This is the way it appeared before the addition of the Dodd Building. On May 30, 1908 the Board of Education employed lvl. T. Van Cleve as principal, and authorized him to confer with them in the selecting of teachers and the selecting and purchasing of equipment. He was also to visit