Walnut Hills High School - Remembrancer Yearbook (Cincinnati, OH)

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Canister. Since the initial organization, changes have, from time to time. been made in the com- position of the committee, by the retirement of some members and the appointment of others, 50 that the body at present consists of Hon Jacob Schroder, Chairman; John Schwaab, William J. Klein, L. J. Dauner, and R. D. Barney. The Walnut Hills High School was opened in September, 1895, with a corps of twenty teachers and an attendance of 684 pupils. On Friday, October 11, the building was formaiiy dedicated. The Superintendent and the several school officers upon whom devolved the delicate and complicated function of overseeing the affairs of the great school their energy had created were equal to the responsibility. The organization and equipment of the school were completed with more rapidity than was expected. so that. within a very few weeks from the start, everything was in running order. and a zealous esprit du tarps already manifested itself among the pupils. Necessarily the success of the school must de- pend upon the vigilance and fidelity of the teaching body. Six of the teachers were transferred from the older high schools: two from Hughes, Mr. Bishop and Mr. Venable; four from Woodward, Mr. A. S. Henshaw, Miss Rachel V. Wheeler, Mrs. C, D. Klemin, and Miss Eulalie Artois. Other experienced instructors were selected from various schools in which they had won reputation, or were chosen on account of high attainments in college. Mr. H. E. Newman. teacher of chemis- try and physics, had been instructor in the Uni- versity. Mr. Julius F uchs was placed in charge 19 0f the German teaching. Mr. Arthur Knoch was called to direct the athletic training of the pupils and to have Charge of the gymnasium. Without specifying the grades to which they were assigned, or the particular branches by them taught, we here record the rest of the names of those who formed the teaching corps in the hrst two years of the history of the school. These are: Miss Mary E. Magurk, Miss Henrietta Reuschel. Miss Helen Shrader, Miss Belle Woods, Miss Margaret E. Layman, Miss Agatha Hope Rice, Miss Jane 81 OiHara, Miss Eleanor Passei, Miss Esther H. Hagen, Miss Mamie B. Walker, and Miss Alma Diserens. The special department of drawing was conducted by Miss Frances Kohnky. and the musical directorship 0f the school was intrusted to Mr. Joseph Surdo. Since the organization of the faculty, in 1895, several changes have been made: Miss Hagen and Miss Walker both resigned in 1897, and in January of the same year Miss Laura E. Aldrich was appointed teacher of elocution in the new school. In the following year, 1898, Miss Alice L. Betts, Miss Louise Spilman, and Miss Alma S. Fick were added to the teaching force, and in 1899 Mme. Eleanor Peltier was appointed teacher of French. She resigned in 1900, and M. Nonnez was called to fill her place. Miss Diserens withdrew in 1899, and Miss Frances Kohnky was transferred to Hughes. Dri XV. H. Venable resigned in 1900, and his 5011, Emerson Venable, was appointed to succeed him as teacher of literature. Miss Magurk has gone to Wood- ward School and Miss Rice to Hughes, from which Miss Frances Kohnky and Miss Nora Ettlinger have been transferred to Walnut Hills.

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11k JL ,M v :ielm ,41?$ ghdhi 1'55 The Walnut Hills R High 501100168363 HE two excellent high schools, which for nearly half a century supplied means of advanced secondary educa- tion to the ambitious youth of our city, becoming overcrowded and altogether inadequate to the cultural demands of greater Cincinnati, had to be supple- mented by another institution of their class. The urgent necessity fer estalr lishing another high school was felt most pressingly by citizens of that part of the city spreading northward to the attractive hill-tops in the townships of Columbia and Millcreek. and taking in the urban localities of XVainut Hills, Mount Auburn, Avondale, and Clifton. As early as the year 1890 active mem- bers of the Board of Education and of the Union Board of High Schools were practically considering proposals which led to the erection of a commodious and really magnifi- cent new high school building, on a lot two hundred feet square, located on the comer of Q 15' Burdett and Ashland Avenues, in the midst of a population eagerly desirous of the best educa- tional advantages. The school edifice. one of the most elegant public buildings in the City, admirably designed for the accommodation of a large school1 was completed 111 the autumn of 1895 at a cost of $120,503. the lot costing 1111 additional $21000. The house contains seventeen light, airy recita- tion rooms, a spacious assembly hall, a line gym- nasium, a good chemical and physical laboratory, and a biological laboratory, besides a general ofhce, a library, and various lavatories. The committee having in charge the construc- tion of this noble building was composed of the following gentlemen: Jacob E. Cormany, H. H. Mithoefer, Joseph J. Parker, H. W. Allens, and Charles Weidner, Jr. The local committee selected from the Union Board of High Schools to exercise supervisory care over the newly-organized high school con- sisted, at hrst, of H. H. Mithoefer, John Schwaab, R. D, Barney, Drausin thlsin, and XVilliam MC-

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Miss Henrietta Reuschel has been transferred to the Woodward colony. Since 1901 the depart- ment of drawing has been under the able direc- tion of Miss Jeanette Cist. Other new members of the faculty are: Mr. Paul Francis Walker, who was appointed instructor in Spanish in I902; Mr. A. M. Crane, and Miss Agnes Brown, both of whom were added to the teaching corps at the beginning of the last term. The steadily increasing attendance of the school has necessitated the establishment, during the past year, of a Hcolony department, which has its present quarters in the Twentyesecond District School Building, on Walnut Hills. The two rooms occupied by the colony accommodate one hundred and htteen hrst-year pupils, whose class-work is supervised by two instructors, Miss Nora Ettlinger, and Miss Agnes Brown. The entire high-school faculty, including special teachers, new numbers ten men and sixteen women. The principal, Mr. John Remsen Bishop, 3 Harvard graduate, who, in 1882-3. was teacher of Greek in St. PauPs School, Concord, N. H1, in 1884-7; principal of Princeton, N. J., Prepara- tory School; and from iSHH to 1895 instructor in Greek and Latin in Hughes High School, has strenuously labored to carry into successful opera- tion, in the new field to which his energies were assigned, the pedagogical theory and practice suggested by the following words from his own pen: HXVllO is it that said: tRemember that your discipline must result in a self-governing being?y It is the aim of this school never to forget this injunction of perhaps the greatest thinker in the domain of education. Dependence upon the will of others to force us to decision or action is vicious in its essence. The high school of to-day ought to be well enough established to put aside shams of all kindseto call to itself the hearty support of parents and school authorities. It should be strong enough to pursue its progress toward the only good worth reaching, self-gov- ernment and self-activity. although one in ten of its pupils should therebybe declared, temporarily or permanently, poor material for citizenship. This school stands for the freedom of the teacher and for absolute ftdelity as the justihcation of that freedom. Conscience, and not force, will be here the ultimate appeal, as soon as circum- stances will permit so radical a change from local tradition. In the meantime, progress is to be made in this direction as rapidly as possible. H tThe need of having the feelings on the side of action has long been recognized as imperativef says one of our well-known school men. This school aims to recognize this imperative need, with 110 shirking of temporary inconveniences caused by this recognition. Lofty aim, thorough- ness of daily work. honor and truth in all things, are the watchwords of our progress. We shall thus win to our support all who have good ethical impulses and give full exercise to these qualities. Many who are ethically weak we shall, through exercise, strengthen. No one will leave this school without an increased respect for right doing and high thinking. We shall teach love of learning, as well as learning, and shall hope to see the future of our work, not in school records, but in noble lives? In conclusion, a brief account of the material equipment of the lValuut Hills High School.