Siskiyou Union High School - White and Gold Yearbook (Weed, CA)

Page 14 text:

IN MEMORIAM IUDSON ARTHUR AGER 1861-1942 The Seniors of 1942 regretfully announce the death of I. A. Ager, President of our Board of Trustees for a period of more than 28 years. Mr. Ager passed away Ianuary 16, 1942 at the Siskiyou County General Hospital. His funeral was prob- ably the largest attended in Siskiyou County, testimony of the love and affection the people of Siskiyou held for him. The Seniors would like to state on this page a few of the facts of his good and useful life. Iudson Arthur Ager was bom within a mile of the present Ager homeplace, at Ager, May 15, 1861, a son of Ierome Ager and Lucy lane Axtell Ager. The town of Ager was named in honor of his father. Mr. Ager received his education in the school near his home and remained on the home ranch until he was 27 years of age. He then entered the freight commis- sion business and wholesaled everything needed in his home community, freighting it to there and to merchants in Southern Oregon by team and wagon. He later spent some time in the livestock business and also operated a hotel at Ager. Until Ianuary 1, 1940, he owned and operated the general store at Ager and conducted the postoffice there. In 1892 Mr. Ager was married to Miss Emma Spannaus, a daughter of the pioneer Ernest and Catherine Spannaus family of Yreka. This hCIpDY union was blessed with five children, two boys and three girls.

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SISKIYOU JOINT UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT F rom a thin line of thirteen states on the Atlantic seaboard, Americans of many origins have builded a nation across a continent to the shores of the Pacific, writ- ing as they passed on and on the American saga of freedom, equality, and oppor- tunity. Along that march they paused to build public schools, all dedicated to the same high purpose, education for democracy. Today, in their hour of need, the people are claiming from these schools leadership they have every right to expect in the difficult work of preserving for themselves and their posterity, the principles of freedom, justice, and democracy. Our very way of life is jeopardized since the attack on Pearl Harbor and our country has accepted the gauge of battle which has been forced upon us by the totalitarian governments. Into this battle for the right goes the might and force of a free people fighting in defense of a cause which they know to be just-and naturally when their country was in danger, great numbers of students and former students of the Siskiyou loint Union High Schools courageously entered the armed forces and are gallantly defending the faith of America, on land-on the sea-and in the air. Many of them already have ren- dered their last full measure of devotion. The Seniors of the Class of 1942 have therefore chosen Democracy and Victory as a central theme for the 1942 White and Gold and have respectfully dedicated this issue of the White and Gold to the students and former students of the Siskiyou Ioint Union High School District gallantly serving in the forces of the United States in the cause of freedom and democracy, and we like to feel that the term students and former students also includes our teachers and former teachers who are also serving in the armed forces of our country. The American Way and Democracy are synonymous terms and the Public School is the foundation stone of Democracy. The Seniors of the Class of 1942 of the Siskiyou Ioint Union High School District are gratefully appreciative of the fine system of high schools and the splendid educational opportunities the Board of Trustees of the Siskiyou Ioint Union High School District is providing for the boys and girls of the Siskiyou loint Union High Schools. We are ever mindful that the creative men who serve us as Trustees and give so much of their time and energy to youth and our schools, are themselves true symbols of the Ameri- can Way and our progressive school system. When the Pilgrims came to America, one of the first acts was to establish a school for their children. And when the early pioneer settlers came to Siskiyou County they early established schools for the benefit of their children and their children's children. We are grateful to those early Pioneers of Education, and we are deeply grateful also to the men who make up the present progressive Board of Trustees of the Siskiyou Ioint Union High School District, Whose consciousness of the faithful and unselfish discharge of their civic duty can be their only reward, and through whose efforts we are enjoying the benefits of one of the finest educa- tional systems in the State. The first event in the history of the Siskiyou Ioint Union School District was the formation of the Siskiyou County High School at Yreka in 1893, which included a greater part of the territory in Siskiyou County. The Siskiyou County High School later became the Siskiyou Union High School, but for about twenty years, the high school at Yreka remained the only one in the District. Then, due to an increasing need for high schools the establishment of five additional high schools within the District, which were situated at Dorris, Fort lones, Weed, Mt. Shasta, and McCloud. Subsequently three additional high schools were added to the list, at HCIDDY Camp, Tennant, and Tulelake, making nine high schools in all within a single district with a unified plan of administration and one administrative head and an enrollment of 1800 and a faculty of 80. The Seniors of 1942 are truly grateful and appreciative for the fine group of men who make up our progressive High School Board, and for the excellent system of high schools provided for us.

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Mr. Ager was a leader in any movement having as its purpose the advance- ment of his community and Siskiyou County and the State and the Nation. He was active in public affairs during all his life. For two four-year terms he served on the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors for his District, and for many years was chairman of the Board, bringing to the County Government the talents of his high executive ability and his brilliant mind. He served for years as Chairman of the Siskiyou County Republican Committee. In addition to his interest and work in other fields Mr. Ager was a life-long friend of Education and of the children of all the people of Siskiyou County. He was renamed President of the Board of Trustees of the Siskiyou Ioint Union High School District at the start of the present school year. He held this position since the District was first organized in 1914, a period of 28 years, indication of the deep confidence and respect that the present members of the Board and members in the past always had for him. The excellent educational system of the District is largely due to his efforts and his inspiring leadership. Under his guidance the new High School Building at Yreka was completed in 1917 after fire had destroyed the old school structure, and since 1917 eight other high schools were established under his far-sighted direction. He was in truth the friend of youth. And youth was his friend too. Three years ago as he was about to complete his twenty-fifth year as President of the Board of Trustees the student bodies of all his nine high schools joyously dedicated the White and Gold, their annual year book, to him, in appre ciation of his services to them and for the deep affection they held in their hearts for him. During his years as President of the Board of Trustees he has signed and issued three thousand high school diplomas to graduating Seniors, most of which he presented in person at the graduation exercises. Mr. Ager was also active in lodge work. He was a member of Howard Lodge No. 36 Free and Accepted Masons of Yreka, and of Cyrus Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, and the Commandery of Knights Templar in which he held the office of standard bearer at the time of his death. Both he and Mrs. Ager were members of the Order of the Eastern Star. He never took his lodge work lightly and when he accepted an office in a lodge he gave his heart and mind to the work iust as he did to the offices he held in public life. In addition to his bereaved wife, Emma, Mr. Ager is survived by two sons, Faye Ager of Los Angeles and Earl Ager of Tule Lake, and three daughters, Mrs. Vesta Leibert of Scm Francisco, Mrs. Inez Chase of Prospect, Oregon, and Mrs. Harriet Trimmer, of San Francisco. There are three brothers, George and Charles of Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Ierome Ager, who lives near Montague, and four living sisters, Mrs. Kate Freeman of Sunol, Mrs. Lucy Van Sandt of Yreka, and Mrs. Alice Parriot of Los Angeles, and Mrs. Fanny Anderson, also of Sunol. Another sister, Mrs. Harriet Terwilliger, passed away in Yreka last year. There are five grandchildren. A good and useful life may be likened to a flower. The flower grows, and blooms in all its beauty, lives its life, and then fades. But it leaves its beauty and fragrance and glory behind. The good that Mr. Ager has done in this world he is leaving behind to inspire his relatives and friends.