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. |