Ottumwa High School - Argus Yearbook (Ottumwa, IA)

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THE 1935

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 UCTION • I Early in the history of Ottumwa, its far-sighted citizens began to realize the importance of instructing their young in the rudiments of book learning. Of | practical education there was a great plenty; a child could learn all there was to know about nature, the ways of the woods, how to shelter himself against cold, hunger, and danger from the heavily timbered hills that rose—and still do rise- from the edge of the Des Vloines river. But of book learning there was little in- deed until 1865. when a commodious brick schoolhouse was built on College Square, where the present high school is located. Before this there had been several schools established in succession, but they were schools without their own build- ings—schools that met in homes, churches, and even the fields. Finally, when in 1865 the first Adams school, as it was called, was erected for approximately S28,ooo, j Ottumwa was launched on its great public school system. From then on the other grade school buildings were built with great rapidity. High school was held in the first Adams building, and when it was torn down, school was held in the new one. Later, in i8qq, when the Adams was outgrown I the Washington, then known as the new high school. was completed. By 1921, the attendance at this school had increased so greatly that it became necessary to build our present Si,000,000 high school. We students of the Ottumwa High School are grateful to those early pioneers who had sufficient foresight to provide an efficient system of schools. They built better than they knew, for in its most important aspects our modern or- ganization of the educational system differs surprisingly little from theirs. , We citizens of Ottumwa appreciate and acknowledge our good fortune in having fallen heir to such a legacy. Our fine schools are known all over the state. We arc justly proud. I )

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Presented by' the GRADUATING CLASS of the OTTUMWA HIGH SCHOOL AT OTTUMWA, IOWA in commemoration of The Founding of the High School in America and the Progress of the High School in Ottumwa SIXTEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE NINETEEN HUNDRED THIRTY-FIVE VOLUME THIRTY-FIVE ARGUS I