Lake View High School - Red and White Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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1874 4- 4 1949 jkrougfr due Mani Final examination papers were sent in a sealed envelope by the State authori- ties. The principal opened it in the sight of pupils and teachers, and immediately, the students began the test, working under an honor system which required them to sign a pledge that they had neither given nor received information. After the papers had been carefully graded, the awards were given. The girl receiving the highest marks received the gold Kerfoot medal worth twenty dollars. The boys had their choice of a gold Saint Andrew's Cross or books. There was also an award for those outstanding in botany and mathematics. Beniamin Franklin McConnell, sole graduate in 1876, was the first alumnus. Two years later Ella Mead, a very beautiful young girl, who was one of the eight graduates of the class of 1878, became Beniamin's bride-and the first class bride of Lake View. Graduation Day was a momentous event requiring weeks of preparation and planning. For several days before the ceremony the boys, after wheedling permis- sion from Dr. Nightingale, would take every wagon and buggy available, and drive merrily into the nearby woods lForest Preservesl where they gathered spruce, ever- green, hemlock, and arbor vitae to decorate the halls and auditorium. The fragrant boughs were deposited in the basement, and there the students fairly fiew when- ever a moment could be spared, the boys cutting the branches and the girls weaving wreaths or sewing arbor vitae on the cardboard letters which were to fashion the school motto, Ad astra per aspera. The week before graduation the Seniors were given a gala party by the Juniors. Unlike our proms, it consisted of games and dancing, the games proving so hilarious that dancing was always forgotten. Commencement night found almost the whole town thronging into the auditorium to admire the nervous graduates-the girls in starched white dresses and the boys in high collars, and always tight new shoes. Dresses and collars wilted visibly as the students awaited their turn to speak, for each one was required to give a thesis of a thousand words. In addition to these, the two ranking students had to present the valedictorian and salutatorian addresses. Between 1876 and 1884 there were sixty- seven graduates-forty-one girls and twenty-six boys, of whom, about forty per cent entered college. The remaining sixty per cent took courses in manual training and bookkeeping which were offered even in those early days. The enrollment gradually began to increase as did the faculty. Former students began to return as teachers-Miss Flora B. Andrews of the class of 1877 became sec- retary to the principal and an instructor in mathematics, while Miss Emma Johnson came back to teach art. Miss Eleanor Larrison was elected to teach English and his- tory. During this period members of the faculty also included Miss Clara Clemm, Miss Helmuth, and Mr. Martin Anderson. Laura C. Hills, class of 1878, joined the faculty as a teacher of French in 1882. At the same time James H. Norton took charge of the Science Department, and a few years later romance entered Lake View, for Miss Hills became Mrs. James Norton. lt was around this time that one of Lake View's immortals, Miss Mary T. Cochrane, arrived on the scene. She was a combination assistant-principal and teacher of English. Although she is remembered for many outstanding accomplishments, the mention of her name often brings to mind one amusing, yet almost tragic, incident. It occurred during the winter of 1883, the most severe in the history of the school. That the pupils had to struggle through the biting cold and freezing wind was bad enough, but when the dummy car was abruptly re- moved, it became necessary to take drastic measures to provide some means of transportation, since three-fourths of the faculty and student body lived too far away to walk to and from school. 1. MR. B. F. BUCK, PRINCIPAL, 1900-1912 3. GIRLS' BASKETBALL, 1-904 2. BASKETBALL TEAM, 1903 4. FOOTBALL TEAM, 1908 l7

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1874 4 4 1949 .7lwouglz fAe Mara At first an old bus was pressed into service, but that had severe drawbacks, daily the driver would discover that some part of the machine was about to give away, and excusing himself politely, he would start out along the route for help, a little too eagerly to be believed. An hour or so later he would sway gently toward the bus, hammer in hand, and tinker abstractedly with the engine. Meanwhile, his pas- sengers had been frozen literally and figuratively into silence. Finally, the indomitable Miss Cochrane came to the rescue. Using all her in- genuity and wit, she secured from a friendly neighbor the use of his sled, and each student paid the fee of five dollars in advance for the rest of the winter. Packed three deep in the hay-filled bobsled, the students had many a iolly time as they rode to and from school, but the bitter wind that blew across the prairie often robbed the trip of all its pleasure, for it usually resulted in frozen fingers, ears and noses. The sleigh made only two trips, one in the morning and again in the afternoon. If one missed the sled-I! Yes, cruel hardships of nature were abundant then, but somehow the happy- go-lucky spirit of youth managed to prevail. In the calendars of Lake Viewites there was no more momentous, wonderful day than April first. On this solemn date every- one hied his way to school filled with trepidation, fearing, yet looking forward to, the pranks that were certain to be played upon him. There was no limit to the reign- ing impishness, and no teacher or pupil was overlooked. On one occasion Dr. Night- ingale, whose head was as bald as the well-known billiard ball, was presented with a giant bottle of Hair Restorer. At another time, a group of boisterous students found Miss Cochrane sitting in a rocking chair. With a whoop they seized the chair, Miss Cochrane in it, and lifting it to their shoulders marched victoriously through the halls and out onto the campus. Here they set the chair with its flustered occupant in the back of a wagon, then, climbing in themselves, they took her for a hilarious ride over grassy meadows to the north-a ride which that teacher probably never forgot. On another April FooI's Day the boys suddenly, caught up Dr. Nightingale as he was walking down the hall and carried him outside the school. The weather had been freakish that year and great drifts of snow lay all about. Into one of these huge drifts the boys dumped him head foremost. A sham battle followed in which the snowballs flew thick and fast. After a moment or two, Doctor Nightingale called, That's all, boys, brushed the snow from his coat, and followed by the laughing students, entered the building. Some fifteen minutes later he began a frantic search through his pockets saying quietly, Boys, I am not averse to fun, but, in the scuffle, I have lost my glasses. Go out and look for them, and don't come back without them. Melt the snow if necessary. The boys undertook the task, a snowy counterpart to finding a needle in a haystack-and after a diligent search returned triumphant. Friday, March 13, 1885, is an unforgettable day in Lake View's history. Pro- fessor Nightingale, seated at dinner in his home on Diversey Street, was startled by the loud clanging of fire gongs. Running to the door, he shouted, Where's the fire? to the men on the apparatus drawn by two galloping nags. He was dismayed and alarmed at the reply, The High School! and ordered, Take me along! Because of the sparse settlement of the district the fire was easily discernible in all directions, and the populace had already gathered to watch the first township high school in the state go up in fiames by the time the old fire engine arrived. Most of the first-floor furniture and science apparatus had been rescued, when suddenly a cry went up from the throng. A man was seen to dash recklessly into the flames. After a few tense minutes, he staggered out carrying on his shoulders a grue- some burden-a human skeleton! The crowd, composed mainly of students who had been late in leaving school, shuddered, seeing in the charred bones all that remained of a school chum. Gasps gave way to relieved smiles, however, when closer inspec- tion revealed that this skeleton was only Johnny, an expensive specimen from the science laboratory, whose bones they had often counted as part of their classwork. When the sun rose the next morning, its rays fell on a heap of ashes and smouldering embers in the center of a large prairie. Delightful memories were all that remained of the proud young high school. 1 BASKETBALL TEAM, 1916 4, 5, 6. SCHOOL ACTIVITIES, FIRST WORLD WAR 2 MR B FRANK BROWN, PRINCIPAL, 1912-1924 7. GINGHAM DAY, MAY 22, 1922 3 FACULTY 1918 8. MISS MARY I. REYNOLDS, ASSISTANT-PRINCIPAL 19121929 I9