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Osawatomie was founded by staunch New Englanders, the sons and daughters of the pilgrims. Their first concern was to plant the church, the next to build a school, and she has always been loyal to her schools. The first school was taught in the fall and winter of 1956-7 by Captain Luke A. Thrasher who recently died at Lynchburg, Virginia. Since that time, Osawatomie has had a historic career. It was the home of John Brown; the rendezvous of the Free-State forces of south-eastern Kansas; the birth-place of the Republican party in Kansas; and was finally sacked and burned by the Missourians. thus checked in her prosperity, she was slow to recover and remained for some years a hamlet of six or seven hundred, but with the coming of the railroad and the shops the population rapidly increased and now Osawatomie is an enterprising city of the second class with a population of near four thousand. Since the first school if 1956, Osawatomie has had a regular succession of schools and teachers. Many of the former teachers are known to the pupils of the present, either as honored citizens of Osawatomie, or men who have won eminence in other places. Some of these men are Messrs. O. T. Beeson and C. S. Bixby of the city; Professors R. S. Russ, Principal of the state Normal Auxiliary, Pittsburg, Kansas; J. R. Theirstine, President of a college, Freeman, South Dakota; Roy Rankin, Superintendent of Schools, Caney, Kansas; Chas. L. Williams, Ness City, Kansas. At present there are two large well equipped buildings for the use of the schools. The High School building is situated in the east part of the city and contains ten rooms. Six of these are occupied by the grades while the High School uses the other four. The Meek building, named in honor of A. F. Meek, President of the board of Education for years, and a true friend of the schools, is located in the west part of the city and contains eight rooms occupied by the grades. The enrollment in the grades for 1907-08 was seven hundred forty-nine and in the High School ninety-one, making a total enrollment of eight hundred forty pupils. |
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GRADE |
HIGH SCHOOL BUILDING |
MEEK BUILDING |
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First |
Anna J. Rearick |
Agnes Gigax |
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Second |
Jessie Wright |
Ada Remington |
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Third |
Susan Whiteford |
Charlotte Cooper |
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Fourth |
Sibyl Hiles |
Alberta Anderson |
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Fifth |
Bessie Bixby |
Jessie Remington |
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Sixth |
Carlie Dallas Sinkey |
Anna Gardner |
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Seventh |
Minnie Gigax |
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Eighth and Principal |
D. M. Numbers |
Superintendent of the Schools and
Mathematics in the High School - Floyd B. Lee The work of the grades compares
favorably with the work in the best city schools of the
state, and the High School is classed by the University,
among the schools that satisfy every demand made by the
University for admittance to her Freshman class. Thus the grades offer to the pupils of
Osawatomie a thorough foundation for an education and the
High School offers not only to the young men and women of
Osawatomie but also to those of the surrounding community, a
thorough preparation for further study or for the best
citizenship to those who are so unfortunate as not to obtain
higher training. The following is the class roll of
those receiving diplomas from the eighth grade and who will
constitute the Freshman class of the High School next
year: Dean Powell Fern Pinkerton Ethel Carrico Fred Vermillion Homer Sellers Ethel Clark Bert Demastus Frank Swain Maud Carr Walter Allard Gussie Van Deren Marguerite Hinton Beryl Bevis Stanley Williams Iva Hollins Frank Bristow Lulu Blackmer Maud Johnson John Chambers Mary Keuerkauf Esther Kelly Hugh Campbell Mabel Roseberry Ruth Maher Lawrence Doyle Carmen Allard Fern Preston George Lowe Lucille Braun Alma Reynolds Frank Marsh Louise Brun Edna Tede Paul McCurdy Keita Cragg Essie McDonald Roy Preston
Principal of the High School and Science - Roy E. York
English and History - Ethel J. Ridnour
Latin and German - Lulu Brown