Raleigh High School - Excelsior Yearbook (Raleigh, IN)

Page 50 text:

A Brief First History of the Raleigh School HE first successful Centralized Township School in the United States is situated in the center of Washington Township, Rush County, Indiana. For some years the first school of this kind to prove a success was said to be located near Cincin- nati, Ohio, but facts in connection with this school claiming first honors, shows that it was not in exist- ence until a dozen years after the school in Raleigh was started. When our Indiana townships were first organized it was thought necessary to elect three trustees to look after township affairs. William S. Hall, an early pioneer of the state, son of a soldier of 1812, grandson of a soldier of the War of Independence, was chosen as one of these trustees of Washington township. Very soon it was noticed that all matters pertaining especially to the schools were left for William Hall to see after. When the time came that but one trustee was thought necessary to fill the duties of this office, then the voters, insisting that Mr. Hall was best fitted for these duties, kept him, year after year, in this office. Under Mr. Hall were eight district schools, and do the best he could, Mr. Hall found it impossible to fill these schools with competent teachers. Too often he found the boys and girls leaving the district schools entirely too young, their school education merely begun at the age they were leaving school. Page forty eight As this trustee, now an ageing man, possessed of a mind of the highest excellence, and a strong belief that the hope of our country lay in the education of the masses, tried to better his schools, there crept into his brain the dream of a central township school in which every country child could receive an academic education without price to the child, or leaving home to get it. This was not a new dream, as Eastern educators had tried to get such schools, butfailed in every instance. Not so William S. Hall. When ready to resign township duties to younger brains and hands, he formulated his plans secretly, for he was a man of old time action in public affairs. Opposition against throwing one district school out was strong against him. He went ahead as though it had not been, bonded his township for the money to build this first central country school, and at the date the tax was all paid, purchased this site of ground for his school, setting the brick makers right upon the spot to make the brick for his school house. This was in the year 1876. In the beginning of this year he threw out and abandoned four of his inner lying school houses, leaving the four outlying district schools supplied with teachers, the scholars of these schools given the privilege to attend the central school if they so pleased. By fall the house of three rooms, one large room covering all of the upper floor, the lower part divid-

Page 49 text:

ORVILLE MORGAN, Editor-in-Chief. DWIGHT BROOKS, Business Manager. MELVIN COLE, Athletic Editor. VOORHIESE THOMAS, Joke Editor. Page forty-seven

Page 51 text:

ed into two rooms called Primary and Intermediate, was ready for trial. Professor Taylor Kitchen and wife, aided by Miss Cornelia Loder, were hired to teach in this school. To the surprise of the people who had no faith in this new departure of a school, pupils came crowding into the school. A Principal endowed with the presence, dignity and learning of Taylor Kitchen could not but draw the presence of large boys and girls, many of whom had long, it seemed, given over school. The school was crowded, and a success from the first day. In the year 1879, Prof. Lemuel Shock, assisted by Lizzie Ging and Miss Fannie Meredith, took charge of the school, now taught on what was tht.-n called the seminary plan. As there seemed to be no age limit, a child of four or a man of twenty-,five was accepted as of proper age if they thought so themselves. The school was even more crowded under Prof. Shock than before, as it fame had gone abroad and scholars came seeking admittance from other townships and states. The higher grade were all taught on the upper floor, and the Intermediate grades in the second room down-stairs, and in this room, in the winter of 1879, was crowded a large scholarship of boys and girls ranging from fourteen to fifteen years old. The youngest scholar in this room that winter was Mattie McEntie, thirteen years old, who afterward taught that same room, and is now Mrs. Fart Gos nell, of Cambridge City, Indiana, and the oldest scholar was Mr. George Brothers, whose age was 25. Mr. Brothers from here went to a State Normal School and came back to teach several terms in this Intermediate room. The Principals that followed Professor Shock, who afterward became County School Superintend- ent, were Will Meredith, of Rushville, Indiana, Harry Williamson, now a prominent doctor, J. A. Buck, John W. Ball, Israel Gregg, John Peek, J. W. Worsham, Lot Hufferd, Ed. Hufferd, O. V. Staley, Arie Taylor, Miss Bertha Bunker. A. W. Kennedy, G. 0. Ball, Isaac Stanley, Earl B. Marlatt, W. 0. Fox. Of the teachers occupying positions in the Pri- mary and Intermediate grades during this time might be mentioned Ada F. Miles, daughter of the school's founder, Mrs. David Williamson, Lizzie Schooley, Connie and Fannie Meredith, Charles Bales and Professor Alfred Hall, nephew of William S. Hall. Of the Principals occupying this school since 1876, but two have gone Beyond: Prof. John Ball and J. W. Worsham. Of the other teachers, as far as known, but Lizzie Ging has passed away. During the years the school was conducted by Prof. Lot A. Huiferd, ranging from the year 1888 to 1891, the teaching passed from what was called Seminary rules to that of the strictly graded sys- tem, and the ninth year work was introduced. Under the leadership of Prof. Arie Taylor, it took on all of the high school courses. MRS. IDA SHEPLAR. Page forty nine