Elk Grove High School - Elk Yearbook (Elk Grove, CA)

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I I , Lf-1 r 1 ' 1 - ,.,,,v5i'-H ' V fP,.wQi. ff -'fu id- TL J lid N lt Hx A Glimpse Into Our Past 1 wish that there might be hung in some conspicuous place in the Elk fwrove High School, a bronze tablet with these names inscribed upon it: Dr. J. A. McKee Julius Everson 10561111 KCFI' james T. Chinnick 10561511 1'l?1S1112l11 Alfred Coffman How many of you young people now attending this school, indeed how many who have been enrolled here during the past fifteen years, ever heard those names, or know what they mean to you? But those names should be familiar to, and held in honor by, every boy and girl who has ever attended the Elk Grove High School. It was through the untiring efforts of those men, nearly thirty years ago. that this high school, the first union high school in California, was established. Five of those men had received no higher education than that obtained in the common schools of their times, and some of them very little of that, two were foreign born. Still, they gave freely of their time and money, that this high school might be established, and the boys and girls of the country dis- tricts have the advantages of a higher education. Of the six, but one is now living, Dr. J. A. McKee, now of Sacramento, who was the first person to give serious thought and action to the establish- ment of a high school in Elk Grove. This was in the early nineties. Many parents in the community had ex- pressed a wish that such a school might be established here, and their boys and girls receive an education without being sent away from home. It was long before the high cost of living had struck this land, but times were not nearly so prosperous then, as they are now, and there were very few who could afford to send their children away to school. ln 1892, Dr. 1XlcKee had taken a few steps to arouse a general interest in a high school, but a disastrous fire occurred here that year, in which his papers were destroyed and which seriously affected several of the business men of the placeg and the matter was dropped until the following year, when Dr. NcKee's attention was called to a bill just passed by the legislature. lt was the Union High School act under which we are working today. He immediately went to work on the subject, and enlisted the aid of three other men,-Julius Everson, joseph Hasman, and james T. Chinnick, all business men of Elk Grove. These four men were able to see many people and discuss the project with them. A ln the spring of 1893, a meeting was held in Toronto Hall, and the subject discussed. They then secured the services of Mr. Alfred Coffman, a trustee of Old Elk Grove District, and a man who, though having had very little school- ing in his boyhood, took a deep interest in promoting education among the boys and girls. Mr. Coffman drove through eighteen districts, interviewing all the resi- dents and trying to convince them of the advantages that a union high school would be to their community. He asked the head of every family to sign his name to a paper, stating whether he was in favor of, or opposed to, the move- ment. Dr. McKee carefully arranged that, in Mr. Coffman's campaign. Elk Grove was kept the central point of the territory canvassed. The opposition which the recent campaign for a new high school met, viv- idly recalled -those days of 1893, when interest was waxing warm in the estab- lishment of the high school. Mr. Coffman met with many rebuffs, which sometimes really amounted to insults. Nine

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6, 'M Stanley R. Gage CC1erkj I-Icnry L. Ehrhardt fPresidcntD John Schulze P. B. Smith George W. Lee

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if 'X l if Q 'A ' X I V fi - .F jwvjwli-L, 1' Aliywj' ' L 'lf ' N, - L Q,7.'l'jl ,YJ . Wy. But his earnest work was rewarded. An election was called in each dis- trict and a vote taken on the establishment of the union high schoolg it car- ried in sixteen districts. Each district then sent a representative to a meeting held in Toronto Hall, in july, to determine the location of the new school. Naturally the people of Elk Grove felt that the site should be in their own town, first, because it was the most central point and second, because they had started the movement and carried it on. Furthermore, they knew that the success of the school depended in a great measure upon the location. But other districts bid for this. Franklinis delegate offered the Franklin Hall for a school building. Mr. Thomas McConnell offered a piece of land at McConnell's station. The delegate from Florin humorously announced that they had no site to offer, but could provide plenty of children to run the school. Many who opposed the high school had insisted that the necessary ten pupils required to open it could not be found. Then the delegates asked, VVhat has Elk Grove to offer ? Dr. McKee handed an envelope to County Superintendent of Schools, Mr. B. F. Howard, who was chairman of the meeting. Mr. Howard drew out a paper and read it. It was a deed of the present site from joseph Kerr to the Elk Grove Union High School. This was something tangible, it was a gift where the others were only promises. The Elk Grove Union High School had its site. Need- less to say a large majority voted to accept the donation. This result was announced by firing the anvils in the street. Wfork was begun on the building in the fall of that year. It was not com- pleted by the time school was ready to openg so the library building adjoin- ing the school grounds was used, when school opened the first week in No- vember with an enrollment of twenty. A three years' course was decided upon. R. T. lNlcKisick, just fresh from the University of California, now a leading lawyer of Sacramento, was the principal and faculty. The new school building was completed and dedicated in December. After the Christmas holidays, school opened in the building which it still occupies. The far reaching good of the high school was soon felt in the outlying districts. Pupils who had been indifferent towards completing their grammar school course, knowing that no further opportunity awaited them for a higher course of learning, felt a new inspiration, and immediately the number of graduates from the country districts showed a marked increase. ln some instances, pupils who had dropped out of school, returned and completed the course in order to attend high school. The high school has now far outgrown the building erected twenty-seven years ago, fand enlarged at more recent datesj and also the grounds so gene- rously bestowed by Joseph Kerr. Let us hope that Dr. McKee, the originator, and the one surviving founder, may see during his life time an adequate modern building for the Elk Grove Union High School. One of the Pioneer Class. Ten