Tecumseh High School - Savage Yearbook (Tecumseh, OK)

Page 33 text:

OKLAHOMA’S OLDEST ALUMNI GROUP IN 1916, with the completion of the temporary new high school, still here, the alumni held its banquets there until 1937. Since then, banquets are held in Tecumseh's Municipal Auditor- ium, built for $50,000 in 1937. An alumni business meeting is held at the high school each year. Officers meet numerous times throughout the year to plan each banquet. In 1975 the association formed the Century Club. Its sole pur- pose is to solicit $10 from alumni members to help finance operating costs of the group. Biggest over- head is printing the annual news- paper, The Tecumseh Alumni News, a 10-page paper devoted to pictures and news about members. It is mailed free to members whose current address is on file at alumni headquarters. This Bicentennial year, more than 400 alumni celebrated the as- sociation's 73rd consecutive alumni banquet. Dr. Ruby Drinkwater Gar- trell was toastmistress. The objective and purpose of the THS Alumni Association is: To keep alive and perpetuate the school spirit of Tecumseh High School; to renew and enjoy school associations, and to otherwise aid and promote the best interests of Tecumseh High School and the general membership of the As- sociation. F.E. Willingham, Left, beloved former THS coach, principal and longtime superintendent, presents Charles Ham Robertson, alumni historian, with award. Dolly Hendry, THS class of 1898, is oldest living graduate. Recent '76 graduates Sandy Whitehead and Kim Hulin, Candystripe workers, comfort her at local nursing home. Vitae Werrell Bell '24, is pictured with her husband, Newton, at '76 banquet. Vitae has not missed a banquet--attended her 52nd this year. Former teacher and principal of THS, Helen C. Taylor, is now confined to wheel chair in Shaw- nee nursing home. She is loved by hundreds of alumni. Miss Mittie Cotten Sweet as a senior class sponsor in 1922, received handwritten invitation, Right, to first Alumni Banquet in 1904. FIRST ALUMNI BANQUET INVITATION fe. fra , I 7' 7) s

Page 32 text:

THS ALUMNI ASSOCIATION OBSERVES ITS 73RD REUNION IN 1976 TECUM SEH High School is unique among all high schools in Oklahoma. It has the oldest active alumni asso- ciation in the state, and possibly the entire Southwest. More than 2,755 graduates belong to the unusual group. About 175 alumni members are now deceas- ed. The idea of forming an alumni group came in the fall of 1903, and in the spring of 1904, a Miss King issued a hand-written invitation to the four seniors graduating that year. Through through four wars and a depression the THS Alumni Association has met from its birth to the present. Early teachers Lola Durham and Helen C. Tay- lor help keep the infant association going. Others who assisted were Emmett Klapp, retired druggest now living in Tecumseh; his brother, John, living also in Tecumseh, and Mrs. Mittie Cotten Sweet, of National City, Calif. The first alumni meetings were held in private homes. Among those first hosting the event were Mrs. Mayme Henderson Newell and Mrs. Bessie Dic- kerson Clark, both deceased. As membership gained, site of the gatherings moved to the Opera House, where 5-Star Milling Company is now located. The last Saturday of each May, THS Alumni members single and renew old friendships at City Hall. ASSOCIATION IS . . . Photo Above shows part of the huge crowd that attended the Bicentennial Alumni Banquet. Below, three women who have served as Alumni Association presidents the past three years pose for the yearbook cameraman. Left To Right are Jerri Robinson Wolfinbarger, Peggy Harwell and Sharyl Tarbox Patten. Roy K. Tor Hays was elected president for 1976-77. (Continued on Next Page) The last Saturday of each May, THS Alumni members mingle and renew old friendships at City Hall. Above are some seniors of the historic 1976 class of Tecumseh High School. It appears they're having a good time and will attend again.

Page 34 text:

‘I AM CHIEF TECUMSEH!’ Tecumseh, a portrait based on description of the Shawnee Chief. (Courtesy Smithsonian Institution.) Chief Tecumseh, whose name our city and high school bears, was bom in March 1768 in Old Piqua, a village of wigwams and bark cabins near the Mad River of Ohio. When Tecumsh was six, he saw his father shot down by a white man for refusing to be his hunting guide. He would always remember his mother's voice: Avenge the death of your father! Become a whirlwind and a storm! Scatter desolation and death among the whites! Tecumseh was a Shawnee In- dian. Cornstalk was war leader of the Shawnees and adopted Tecum- seh as his son. But Cornstalk was also killed while visiting an American fort. In the villages of Piqua and Old Chillichothe, old people took Te- cumseh into their cabins and wig- wams and taught him how to speak his thoughts clearly and with force. He was kind to them. He brought them meat to eat and deerskins to make warm clothing and mocca- sins. When the War of Independence broke out in 1776, Tecumseh was a boy of eight. In 1780, Tecumseh watched his village go up in flames, as American soldiers drove the Shawnees from their homes. But before he was six, Tecum- seh's father taught him many skills. He learned to make a bow for his arrows, how to throw a tom- ahawk, how to fish and hunt. In 1781, Tecumseh took part in his first battle. His older brother was wounded and Tecumseh fled the battlefield. That night he called himself a coward and vowed he would never again show any fear. From that day on, Te- cumseh would be the last to leave the field of any battle. When he was fifteen, Tecum- seh joined a band of Shawnees who attacked flatboats carrying settlers down the Ohio. They cap- tured a settler and burned him at the stake. This infuriated Tecum- seh, who felt it was senseless tor- ture. He jumped to his feet and scolded the older men. An ani- mal shows such cruelty to the helpless, he cried, A man does not! Thus Tecumseh began to learn the power of his own thoughts spoken in his own words. With the end of the Revolu- tionary War, 10, 000 settlers a year poured into the Northwest Terri- tory, into Indian Land. They came by boat, wagon, carts and on foot. By the time Tecumseh was twenty-three, he had fought many battles against the frontiersmen.