West Seattle High School - Kimtah Yearbook (Seattle, WA)

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g EAQLUMY The earliest faculty consisted of only one teacher, Mrs. Blaine, who was employed soon after her arrival in Seattle because of her capa- bility and fine education. The school began in January in the year 1854, using McGuffy's reader, M itchell's geography, and Davis' arithmetic as texts, books which still bring back to our parents happy recollections of their own school days. It was not by accident that the school week began on Tuesday, since Monday was wash day and school teaching, cooking, and housework were all tasks which had to be accomplished in one room. In spite of these handicaps, S eattle's pioneer school teacher was gratified by the improvement noted in her scholars at the termination of the frst semester. It was largely through the efforts of such splendid teaching that new customs and advanced ideas were introduced into the West, for the early teachers did much to raise to a higher level the culture of the pioneers. The settlers began an agitation for the location of the University in Seattle, feeling that this addition would regain for the city much of the prestige that had been lost through the selection of Olympia as the state capital. As time passed and no action was taken, it grew to be a joke among the people, but it took a man of Clarence Bagley's calibre to turn the joke into a reality, for it was his perseverance that finally won the University for Seattle. Asa Mercer became the first professor, acting as faculty, principal, and janitor, although in the beginning his knowledge was imparted to an enrollment consisting of grammar school students, there being no pupils of high school and University age. Mrs. Blaine and those teachers who followed soon after her exem- plify the fine courageous type of pioneers who held such responsible positions in the community. It was to them that folks looked for guidance and leadership. Today they are respected as greatly as they were in those history-making times by all who honor and hold in esteem the memory of our own pioneers.

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PRINCIPAL VICE-PRINCIPAL A study of the lives of the pioneers of this section reveals a quality somewhat lacking in the social world of our time. In a secluded corner of the country, with no press to record their deeds, they underwent hard- ships and risked their lives to better conditions for us. They were apparently willing to toil for the knowledge of work well done. The establishment of several places of worship as a first step in building a new community indicated a willingness to answer to a higher control than that of the social group. May we be guided by their example and work, not for grades or perfect attendance or with an ear to criti- cism or commendation of our fellows, but rather in the knowledge that the heritage received from them car- ries with it an obligation to answer to our own con- sciences, only, for a quality of service to others which will add to this heritage as we pass it on to unborn generations. Q 744- Pioneers! You men and women of vision with the daring and industry, the fortitude and endurance to translate that vision into living reality. We salute you. For you the better world was on the make and it is your glory that you enrolled yourselves among the makers. We, too, would join your band. Much has been done. Much remains to do. The dawn of a new day faces us. What is ahead if we are true to our heritage and loyal to your hopes? West Seattle High is a school in which every pupil and teacher is working with and for every other teacher and pupil for the common goodg a school in which fric- tion and ill feeling and all the multitudinous wastes of energy and time and materials are eliminated, a school in which boys and girls are trained in those ways of living that mean fulfillment and happiness, a school in which is built a community of highminded, farseeing, public-spirited individuals, equipped with everything needed for fine, full, free and purposeful living. This is our goal. May every West Seattle High School stu- dent do his share in bringing this about. Onward!