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First School in Hannibal

Sometime during 1830 the first school was built in the public square. Heads of families at that time were Joseph Brashears, Zachariah Draper, Joshua Mitchell, Abraham Curts, Abner Nash, Isaac Williams, A. M. McGinnis, John Samuel Bowen, and Thomas Williams. In 1832 Anne Eliza Garrard came to Marion county, with her parents and settled on what is now known as the Fisher Estate on McMaster Avenue. Ann Eliza Garrard attended school in the log building in the square as testified by her son Edward McMaster. The log school was replaced on the same site in 1834 by a frame building that Alfred Bigelow Paine referred to when he said, “Jane Clemens, Little Sam’s Mother, decided when he was five years old, that he must have some book learning. She declared she was willing to pay somebody to take him off her hands for a part of each day and try and teach him manners.

J. B. Briggs was his seatmate—according to his daughter, Mrs. Gertrude (Briggs) James, of Center, Mo. Others who attended the school recorded by Paine were Will Bowen, Benton Coontz, and the Robards boys. George was the best Latin scholar, and John always won a medal for good conduct. Other students included Buck Brown, Von Pohl Draper, Bettie Ormsley, Arthesia Briggs, Jennie Brady, Mary Mills, Laura Hawkins. The teacher’s name was Cross. Cross by name and cross by nature.

Evaluation of City Schools was recalled by Miss Martha Ray, for many years a teacher. One John Ray of Kentucky came to Hannibal in 1841 and in 1850 was put in charge of one of the crude public schools of Hannibal, for boys. The girls were taught by Mrs. Fannie Lewis. Like most girls of that era Martha was educated at home and then in a private school held in the front room of a brick house on Bird Street. Before that time there was no such thing as a public school as we know today. In 1858 it was decided to open a public school and Ray was asked to take charge. There he continued to teach until the Civil War broke out, ending the first period of education in Hannibal. With the coming of the War public funds were misappropriated to carry on the War and no money left in State’s treasury. On the site of the Douglass school there was a little brown frame German Lutheran Church where The Rev. Carl Schmidt preached on Sunday and Miss Dora McKinney taught the primary grades during the week. This was one of the first grade schools. In the meantime a public school was organized, which met in the old Melpontian Hall, corner of Third and Center, now the Courier-Post Building. Up to that time there had been no free schools attended by any but the poorest classes, since the people of Hannibal thought it degrading for their children to accept education for which they were not paying. Very few teachers in the school system were local talent, most of them coming from the East and North.

The Wathon building, which housed a grocery store near the present Eugene Field school, was bought by the city, and converted into a grade school. Miss Ray taught in the High School which was on the third floor. In 1886 the Hannibal public school system became focused into one unit with Mr. H. K. Warren as its head, as superintendent. One by one the grade schools were developed. First the West or Eugene Field was rebuilt. The city bought a building near the Third Street bridge and started the South Side school, later moved to A. D. Stowell school. Central School was built in 1876 and A. H. Foreman was the first principal. Miss Ashmore and Miss Ray were succeeding principals.

When the Eugene Field School was rebuilt, the high school was moved into one wing of the Central School. Then in 1904 the new High School was erected on Broadway. The new building was regarded as a miracle of construction with its marble window sills and its furnace replacing the old stoves. Miss Ray went to the High School to teach English. The journalism department was started in 1912 when Miss Watts, who studied under Walter Williams at Missouri University, began teaching. The domestic science department was added under Miss Rose Green. Athletic instruction was not added to the program until later. A fine new High School was then built on McMaster Avenue in 1934, a far cry from the crude houses during the first phases of education. Until the time of the old High School drinking water was dispensed to the pupils at recess via pails and dippers. Iron clad stoves warmed the schools.