Pekin High School - Pekinian Yearbook (Pekin, IL)

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PEKIN COMMUNITY HIGH SCHOOL ■

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[THE IS22 PEKIHIAHI THE ’22 PEKINIAN STAFF Ed it or-in-Ch i ej Robert A. Hinners Business Manager Raymond C. Dwyer Carl LJ. Beewen, Senior Assistant Waitman M. Flowers, Junior Assistant Editors Louise M. F.mmerling 1 Elizabeth R. Goar Louis R. Vogelsang............ Virginia M. Robbins........... Lois B. Kroll................. Ethel A. Conlee............... C. Gordon Koch................ Louis A. Balcke Carl F. Schlottman J.......... Constance M. Velde............ Ramona J. Beitel 1 Virginia B. Gueberj Senior Class Editors ..........Art Editor .....Literary Editor . . . . Dramatic Editor . Organization Editor .....Athletic Editor . . . Snapshot Editors . . . . Calendar Editor ........Joke Editors Anna Gehrs Mabel Gleich Staff Stenographers Helen Johannes Howard Hatcher Faculty Adviser M iss Elzoria M. !• '.NNIS The Pekinian is a great invention; The school gets all the fame. The printer gets the money But the staff—it gets the blame.

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HISTORY OF THE PEKIN HIOH SCHOOL (Revised and enlarged from the P. H. S. Catalog, 1915 edition) AMONG the men who have helped to make the history of Pekin must be mentioned one who has done much in an educational way, the late Mr. William Blenkiron. As far back as 1859, a ramshackle building on Ann Eliza street, called the “Old Brick,” was converted into a school house, and Mr. Blenkiron organized classes in some of the regular high school subjects. The curriculum included reading, writing, etymology, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, history, physics, and chemistry. The foreign languages were not taught. Those who needed German or Latin preparatory to college work, were compelled to go to a private school, or engage a special teacher. Until 1865, teacher and pupils put up with the many discomforts and inconveniences incidental to a building inadequate to their needs. In that year a new building was started on Washington street, and, after much controversy and delay, was finally completed in 1867. With the new building, an enlarged curriculum was inaugurated. In addition to the subjects previously enumerated, courses were offered in Latin, German, rhetoric, bookkeeping, botany, zoology, astronomy and geology. As a natural result, there was a steady increase in attendance and it became necessary, every now and then, to add one more to the corps of teachers. The first class was graduated from this building in 1873, and every year since, except in 1874, diplomas have been conferred on classes varying from three to fifty-three. The class of 1922 brings the total number of alumni up to eight hundred eighty-one. In 1890, the building which had served its purpose so well for twenty-three years was burned to the ground. Fortunately the fire occurred very early in the morning, and at nine o’clock, the hour for assembling, nothing remained but a smoldering mass of ruins. The loss was keenly felt in the months that followed when the schools were quartered in various churches, basements and other inconvenient places. But prompt and vigorous action on the part of the school board, backed by a public interest in the welfare of its children, resulted in the erection of the present Washington school on the site of the old building. One loss, however, is beyond the power of man to replace—the loss of the school records. The high school eventually out-grew the building erected in 1891, and in response to the urgent demand for larger and better quarters, a fine new high school was erected on a new site on Broadway. This building was ready for occupancy at the beginning of the first semester of 1916-1917. In 1918, the local school district was merged with neighboring districts to form a Community High School District. Since that date the high school has taken up a broader sphere of work than it could possibly have taken up previous to the change. Extensive vocational courses have been added in agriculture and in home economics, and the work of the commercial department has been enlarged. The present enrollment of four hundred forty-eight has already slightly exceeded the normal capacity of the new building, but this has not as yet seriously