Middleburg High School - Monitor Yearbook (Middleburg, PA)

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ALMA MATER I9OO M-I-D-D-D-L-E-B-U-R-G To you we pledge undying loyalty, Hold up the banner so that all may see. A high school whose attainments reach into the sky And so throughout the years we'll ever raise, Our joyous songs of happy high school days, Songs filled with warm, enthusiastic praise, With gratitude to Middleburg High. And so to your proud name we'1l ever be true. Show highest honors to the gold and blue, As earnest students strive our best to do. And on the field of sports Fair Play will he our cry, And when the Natio-n's schools are brought to Old M.H.S. will rank among the best. Proving itself Superior to the rest, Let's have a cheer for Middleburg High. tes I925

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4 ' I li l. JFNIFJ J' The History of Middleburg High School Middleburg has ever shown high appreciation for education, and through a long series of years, has always stood in the foremost rank for good schools. Up until 1917 there was no high school build- ing. The high school was held in the grade school with one room and one teacher. In the spring of 1908, the first class of a two year high school from Middleburg was graduated under Professor T. A. Stetler. The Commencement exercises were held at the Court House. In the spring of 1917, Swineford and Middle- burg became consolidated into the Borough of Middleburg. Then the Franklin Township school building, which was a small, two-room brick build- ing located on Fremont Road, became a two year high school of Middleburg Borough. This building is still owned by the school board but is used for the Boy Scouts and as the election poll for the second precinct of Middleburg Borough. This first school was small and the furniture crude, but the teaching was satisfactory. Considerable sentiment developed along educa- tional lines that a four year high school should be established. Then another problem, that of having another teacher and another room, arose. So, in the fall of 1923, a temporary addition was built to the old school building to take care of three teach- ers and three rooms. Miriam Herman and Edgar Dieffenderfer were the first students to be grad- uated from a four year high school of Middleburg Borough. As the school enrollment increased, again it be- came necesary to think about the enlargement of the school building to relieve the crowded condi- tions. The first proposal was to add rooms to the present grade school building, but was turned down by the popular vote. The next year it was passed by a popular vote that a new high school should be built at a new location. The present high school was the result of gifts from generous citizens: Mr. I, R. Kreeger, Mr. W. A. Hassinger, and Mrs. Laura H. Barnes, who gave the land for its loca- tion. To finance the new building a bond issue for forty-five thousand dollars was approved by the State Department of Education. The contract for the new high school building was let to Albert Boyer, contractor, from Northumberland. At the dedication of the new high school building, Gov- ernor Gifford Pinchot was the speaker. lLVithin the next year there was much improve- ment along educational lines, both in the academic subjects and in the extra-curricular activities. In the fall of 1925, an athletic instructor was intro- duced for the first time in M.H.S. in the person of Mr, Earl Thomas. The students at that time were given opportunities to take up new sports and branches of studies such as basketball, chemistry, and Spanish. By the fall of 1926, there were such musical organizations as Girls' Chorus, Boys' Chorus, and Orchestra. The Class of 1925 published the first yearbook, The Monitor , and the first newspaper, The Echo. In 1927, Home Economics was added to the curriculum. After several years, the high school building was found inadequate to house the activities, so in 1940 a gymnasium and auditorium were built during the depression by the W.P.A. labor and govern- ment allocations. However, material was purchased by the local school board, who issued more bonds, Before this time, the present agriculture room oc- cupied the space formerly used for a gymnasium. The office occupied the place of the present read- ing room of the library, and the main entrance to the building was directly under the office. A few years later the school grounds were in- creased several acres by a gift from the M. K. Schoch Estate. Also, Miss Rosa Schoch willed ten thousand dollars for the improvement of the Home Economics Department. At that time, she also willed five hundred dollars for the building of a walk from the main highway to the school building. From this history of the Middleburg Schools. we can readily see that many people have been responsible for the growth and advancement of the educational system which we have today. We hope. that in the future years, there will be as much progress as there has been in the past.