North High School - Polar Bear Yearbook (Des Moines, IA)

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A school paper under this name has been publlshed contlnuously smce at first monthly with annuals m Iune and later weekly with semester books Instead of annuals ln 1903 also a manual tralnmg depxrtment was installed in the school The same year a very wide awake debating club was organized under the sponsorship of Emma Case Moulton Some very outstandmq work was done by this group and by 1906 lt conslsted of forty seven members of the most capable boys m the school ln 1901 there were seyen hugh school teachers for an enrollment of two hundred puplls Seven rooms ln the bulld mg were occupxed by grade school classes which were spoken of as the lNorth Hxqh Annex In 1904 when there was talk of another teacher for the grades the guestxon was ravsed as to whether her classes should meet tn the cupola or the furnace room The fall of 1904 saw XV A Crusenberry who had long been a teacher of matmematlcs at West Hxgh installed as a principal of lNorth but ln December of the same year he was called back to West as principal smce Mr W O Riddle who hxd been prmcxpal there was promoted to the posltton of superintendent of the Cnty schools nn the place of Mr S H Sheakley who had resigned from that posltton ln lanuary 1905 for the first and apparently the last time a woman sat at the office desk Durmg the next few months Mlss Amelia Morton who had been prtncxpal for twenty years of lrylng school dxrected the actlvltles of North Htqh The Oracle of 1908 says that flowers stood on the office desk sash curtains were at the windows and femme touches were elsewhere in eyldence but at the end of that year there came a change xn the office Flowers were seen no more on the office desk so the Oracle says but ln thelr place a motto appeared on the wall Be brief we have our llylng to make Happy prosperous years filled with efficiency serious busmess and defintte advancement followed ln the October 1905 number of the Oracle appears this ln terestmq statement North High IS to be congratulated on the absolute freedom from rowdylsm anywhere wtthxn its walls Of nec sstty lt couldnt exlst but there seems to be no tn clmatlon to xt We are glad to chronlcle the passlng of rowdytsm By the end of the 1907 football season North had de this school year a new qymnasxum was completed and the girls were allowed to take physical traxmng Durmg the year 1908 all the schools wlthxn the city l1m1fS of Greater Des Moines were consolidated mto one school district At that same time the thirty five pupils of Oak Park High were trans ferred to North Vyftth this addition and the otherwise rapidly mcrews nq enrollment 1t became necessary to have more room Hence by 1910 all the grade school classes had been removed from the building By the fall of 1911 North had an enroll ment of 433 pupils wtth a faculty of eighteen ln a bulldmg planned for not more than three hundred pupils As a result of this condmon xt became necessary for some teachers to develop m extremely migratory habtt sometimes each of thetr five or sux classes would meet ln a different room and one teacher recalls having to go from a basement room one period to what 1s now 414 but then known as the balcony between classes each day and back again to another basement room the next period ln those days the periods were shorter buf there were more of them so while one teacher was m charge of the study hall m old 350 another could be uslng her room In those days the class work was completed by one p m thus le1ymq the time after luncheon untll two thirty dtsmxssal time for teachers to meet with pupils who needed extra train mg either mental or character The November 1911 issue of the Oracle contalns that which 15 probably North s first school sonq written by Don ald Murphy of the 1913 class to be sung to the tune of Farr H xrvard O Dear North High to thee beloved school we come With love tn our hearts ever more Let thy spmt descend from the aqe that ts past To the age that IS wattmq before Dear North High on us drop thy mantel of years With strength glrd our llmbs for the strnfe And to us gxye the spmt to strlve to attain To that qlory that is dearer than life VVhen thy loved halls we leave ln the days yet to be Mny this memory ald ns we go ln the but le of life ln the stress of the fiqht Be our armour against every foe And then when we gather at memory s shrme Wall we pledge m our loyalty true The treasures of hands and the wealth of our souls Alma Mater Dear North High to you The mam extra class actlvxty of pupils and teachers during e year of 1913 and 1914 was that of boostmg for a new bulldmg COHd1I10nS as to class room space were becoming very serious The first defimte steps were taken after a rousing assembly lanuary 3 1913 Student committees headed by Theodore Rehman and Lester Eby were appointed to carry on the work of securing signers to a petttnon for placing before the voters at the next school election 'he question of a bond issue of 5150000 for a new building for North High Students of Fast Htgh graciously offered their ass1stance ln cxrculat ng the petitions and surprlsmgly soon sxx thousand names nearly twice as many as were needed had been secured The news papers were filled that ear wlth North Hxghs need Parents alu nt and students al workmg together in a common cause de nltely revned that old North Hlgh spmt which seems to have tts ebb and flow and when electmon day was over xt was found that the bond lssae had been carried by a large majority The breaking of the sod for the bmldmg on March 23 1914 was a memorable occasion m the annals of North High the accompanying ceremony haytng been carefully planned by Principal Grundy At mne o clock the school accompanied by the orchestra filed out upon the North lawn The plow which was to break the sod and which had been appropriately decorated m pmk and green stood ready to be drawn by thxry two stalwart boys eight from each year and to be guxded by Dxrectcr Charles Hutchmson who was the member of the school board from North Des Moines and chairman of the butldmg committee This team of boys four abreast was to be guided by long and wide pmk and green ribbon lmes m the hands of two girls one from the senlor and one from the sophomore class The glee club sang Dr ldleman offered a prayer then Iudge Hutchmson seized the handles of the plow and the boys were off cutting a furrow ten feet long Over the broken ground two girls one from the lumor and one from the freshman class strewed flowers The hlstorlan out of respect for the past refralns from telling all that was turned out that mornlng by that plow The puplls and vlsitors then returned to the assembly for the program Then Principal Grundy called upon the vxsltmg board members Miss Flora Dunlap Dr Conkllng and P B Sheriff to speak briefly M Neuman the contractor assured us the buxldmg would be ready for use by February 1915 City Superintendent Z Thornburg who as County Superintendent ten years before had rendered the dectsxon against consolidating North with Wlest High made an optlmxstxc speech rn which he saxd he had lxyed to see the wisdom of hrs own earlier decision Then Dr How land Hansen pastor of the First Baptlst Church and a very loyal frxend to North High gave the concluding address The address as a whole would well bear quotmg but space permits only the last part of xt which may well be an mspxratnon to North High students still After having Introduced and dns cussed three prlnclples of lxvtng which he hoped might be kept m mmd by all North High students always th t ns a spxrlt of reverence a splrnt of voluntary obedlence to all ap pointed authorities and a splrlt of loyalty ln their coming cxt xzenshxp he closed with these words We want thts spirit of loyalty to be the dominant one nn the cxtxzenshtp here created My home my school my city my country but whether victory or defeat shall come my home whxle life shall last my school forever my cxty my state my country tlll time shall be no more If we can cultivate this spmt of loyalty tn North Hxgh we shall neyer re ret the breakmg of ground today It will appear tn lifelong rxendshxps ln unxted efforts for future ylctorxes and lf ever the need arises it will send our young men and women mto the hazards of llfe to wm safety for the health and the llves of their people The last words of Dr Hansens address were probably prompted by the knowledge of the war clouds which hung over Furope that spring The new btuldmg was finished accordmg to promise and ln September 1915 seven hundred students and twenty five teachers took possession Mr Grundy decided that summer to retire from the school business and Mr E I Eaton born and educated m New York state but coming to us from Grand Rapids Michigan took up the rexns of government at North Durmg the three years of Mr Eatons regime many new thmgs were introduced mto the school one of the first belraq the reorganization of the school into home rooms six at rst For some reason even the Oracle decided to begin over for It was chanqed from a twenty page exght by eleven ' , V , th ' ' AT- I A ' ' l . A' 4.. I 4 . I'-. . - V - 7 A ' V r v A V v - . A . . ' A A . Q ' A ' V A ' ' . ' c ' ' ', ' 1 ' V V 1 1 ,, v ' . . I V- .H 1 c 7 K sv 'I A ' A veloped and cheered on a city championship team. During A - D V - ' - r . V V A 1 V . V -A . . . ' fm ' , . - - A A A 1- ' ' V '. V ' ' ' ' ' . V a - V A. .V u . A I I A Y v ' - A ' ' - v l . I f 1 ' - - -. ' ' V . ' ' - - . c 'l l ' , ' ' V , ? - i r H '-' 1 A A . ' l 1 v A - V -5 V ' ' ' I V Q 1 '. 2 , 1 I ' , ' . , . . Y D 1 V ' A

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Again North High was becoming over crowded This condition was taken care of in the year 1921 and on for a while by rearranging the whole schedule for the day and run ning the classes in two shifts with home room period for the sophomores juniors and seniors at 8 15 a m with six forty mmute periods from then until lunch period at 12 43 when many of these students went home for the rest of the day The home room period for the freshmen came at 1 16 p m after they may have had two classes or their lunch and their classes continued on until 4 18 This made it possible for the rooms to be used by two sets of classes throughout the day The real problem for the teachers was where to go when not havmq classes or presiding over a study hall By 1922 there were twenty seven home rooms instead of seven a change which made possible more effective home room work At that time there were sixty teachers for about fourteen hundred pupils In the fall of 1921 Mr A Neal Hutchins came to North as her first vice principal and remamed in that capacity until une 1928 His office was the tower room openm onto the half way landing on the north stairway to the third oor in the oldest building Anyone golng to the third floor or balcony H14 nowl in those days was likely to have to wind his way up among boys sitting on the stairs awaiting their turn to appear before the judge The headlines of the Oracle May 5 1922 was Honor Mr Fletcher Mr Fletcher was then completing his twentieth year as custodian of the building during which time he had seen the school grow from one hundred fifty to fourteen hun dred in number Amonq other words of appreciation were the following North High s lawn has been one of her proud est possessions since Mr Fletcher took charge No bare spots are on our lawn flowers and the American flag add beauty to the grounds Folks are so used to the immaculate appearance of the place that they never disturb the flowers This however was before pupils had to go to classrooms out side the building Steps toward securing a school emblem were first taken when the Iune class of 21 left a sum of money to be given as a prize to the school artist who should submit the best de sign for an emblem The design presented by Evelyn Mc been developed by a commercial art company the North High emblem or seal just as it is now was accepted by a vote of the whole school on February 29 1924 When the idea of adopting a uniform class pm or rmg instead of the individual class pins chosen each semester by each class first came to a vote of the school it was overwhelmingly defeated but grad ually after the emblem had become familiar to all the uniform pm was approved by a large majority of the school Only one real disaster at the school has occurred through out all these years and that was the fire in the aud1tor1um Ianuary 24 1923 It burst forth apparently spontaneously and destroyed everything in the room but did no harm to any person For the next few months there were no assemblies and the students learned to appreciate their assembly privileges by the time they regained them Overcrowded conditions had developed in all the schools agam and an extensive building program was carried on throughout the next two or three years The building of the rumor highs made it possible for the ninth grade pupils to be removed from North and agam for awhile there was breathmg s ace P ln March 1923 Principal Merrill was elected to the position of Assistant Superintendent of Schools We were proud to know that our principal s worth was recognized but we were sorry to have him leave North indeed the school did not really give him up as we have always thouqht of him as still bemg a very good friend to North High The following September Mr Curtis Threlkeld came from Marshalltown to take Mr Merrills place Roosevelt High opened that fall and several of our teachers were transferred to the new school making it necessary to bring other new facultv members to North and to do a good deal of reorgan izmg here Throughout the years changes had been taking place in the extra curricular activities work usually improvements and this year two very important changes were made Partly be cause of rather serious ill healths resulting to some popular students who had been elected to far too many offices at the same time and very much in order that honors as well as responsibilities might have a far wider spread throughout the school a plan for limiting participation on the part of mdi viduals now knovsm as the Points System was adopted This plan has been revised from time to time to meet the shifts of interest time and responsibility connected with the various act1v1ties and it will no doubt continue to be revised by the Activities Committees and udicial Boards of the future Another improvement in extra curricular 368175 had to do with the Council During Mr Merrill s regime the constitution had been changed so as to give more responsibility to the stu dents and in keeping with this idea the name of the organ ization had been changed from The North High Student Teacher Association to The Student Council of North High Several new committees such as the judicial board the halls and ushers committees had been added In 1923 another re vision of the constitution was made which greatly expedited the early semester organization The membership of the council from then on consisted of the presidents of the home rooms untll some time later when chairmen appointed outside the elective members and later the members of judicial board who might have been chosen from outside the elective members be came by their appointment to these positions by the executive committee members of the council The organization of the council since that time has been made at the end of each semester instead of bemg delayed until the opening of the new semester and the election of serior class officers That fall Billy Sherman who had played on North s foot ball team in 1907 when she won her first city championship came back to his old school as coach and agam as in 1917 18 and 19 there began a great era in athletics At the beginning of the year 1924 Principal Threlkeld called the Council to a special meeting in which he laid upon them very impressively the responsibility of aiding in the P T A membership drive and how those boys and girls did respond' They worked through their home rooms their homes and their neighborhoods until they brought the mem bership of the P T A for that year from sixty hve to nearly one thousand making it one of the largest P T A organ izations in the United States The parents were so appreciative of the efforts of the students that they provided furniture new rugs davenport chairs etc for the club room a large room on the mam floor of the old building A branch of the National Honor Society called the Aelioian Chapter was formed ln 1924 the first of four such organizations in the city This organization together with the old custom of granting honoraria to certain students at the Moines schools in Iune 1938 bv decision of the School Board Excellent vxork has always been done by North High stu dents in music but in the days before the possible number of credits a student might acquire was so closely limited many more pupils choose music and more time was given to par ticipation in contests by large as well as small groups North s contestants have always won their share of the higher places Mr Threlkelds efficient administration was brought to an end after four years by his bemg called to South Orange New Iersey to take charge of a new 5200000 school build ng and its fifteen hundred pupils He had carried on in a fine wav the activities which former principals had initiated and will be remembered for his encouragement of student co operation in government of extra curricular activities as well as improvement of class work and for his great interest in the P T A work Mr H T Steeper who had been principal at West High for seven years was transferred to North at thjg time and rg mamed until Iune 1935 The second year of Mr Steepers administration Mr S E Thompson came from Omaha Techni cal High School to serve as vice principal and boys adviser but he did not stay with us long as he was in 1930 appointed Principal of Amos Hiatt Iumor High Mr F I Meier who had been vice principal at West High several years came to fill the same position at North and he has carned on so well in this work that he is still the wise and kind adviser of North High boys ln addition to this office he teaches two history clhssef advises the athletic committee and is principal of night sc oo VVhen Miss Sadie Campbell who became advisor of the girls and the seniors after Miss Edith Fisher left North de cided to go back to Columbia University for advance work Miss Fssie Whirry took up her work Miss Whirry had been an excellent history teacher and home room adviser and was already well known at North In addition to her advisor ship of the irls and the seniors she has charge of the whole social life o the school and still teaches two history classes In Ianuary 1928 West Senior High was given up be cause of the small number of students there About one hundred of these students transferred to Roosevelt and over four hundred to North Several teachers who had been at West also came to North Every eEort was put forth by all concemed to bring about as speedy and as perfect an amal ama tion of the two groups of students as possible glome ' ' ' ' ' V. - . -A r . . . A x' ' ' V ' - Q ' ' K' . . s - - 5 1 A 1 . I . l I . i .. . . - , - - I . 1 . . ' - I 3 ' V ' ' . . . - Nealey was finally considered most suitable: and after having end. of each Semester Was abandoned thf0UQh0'-it all the Des V 7 . I v I l , ' l - ' . . ' - D I ' U 1 I 1 ' 1 I . . . . . - 1 1 v 4 I 1 4 . ' l . ' ' ' - - - . ' . ' ' ' 1 ' ' ' ' , . . . . , . I 1 I 1 U ' A : n . , 2 V - - . . . . , - . s . - 5 ' Q ' . . l'- , 1 r ' . '