1906 Howard High School, the first high school

[genealogynut]

I found this newspaper article (see below) the other day while I was looking thru some microfilm at the library.  I am under the impression they must have had grades 1-12 all in the same building.  This article is found in the June 10, 1915 edition of the Courant.

[Wilma]

Lois, that is very good.  I wonder if that was the first schoolhouse in Howard. 

[W. Gray]

Just before the court house on Wabash Street was finished in 1879 the Thirteenth Judicial District court had convened at, among other places, the spacious Howard School according to the Howard Daily Courant in an early issue of that year.

In contrast, the Elk County history books says the first school in Howard was a frame house built in 1873 holding 19 pupils. The book says it had a cramped capacity and was used until 1882 when the new school, in the 1915 Courant article, was built at a cost of $8,000. $6,000 of the cost came from a bond issue. The building had a forced air furnace in the basement. It also says part of that 1882 school was reserved for a town hall. 

The first high school (three years) in Howard was in 1886 according to the history book and a wing was added to the 1882 school to house those kids.  The entire building had a seating capacity of 600 pupils. In 1900 the high school became a four year school.

First football team came along in 1904. Wonder if they were the Patriots?

First kindergarten was in 1906 and Howard, Kansas, supposedly had the first kindergarten in the state of Kansas.

[genealogynut]

I think it would be a great project if the West Elk students (this next school year) would research the history of all the schools in Elk County, post it on the web, and particularly the Elk County forum.  That is something that would be of interest to the majority of folks.

[frawin]

No Waldo, unfortunately there was not any pictures of the infamous Alligators. I spent lots of time in Hottingers, I stopped in there many times when I was a young boy and Mr Hottinger allowed me to look at and hold some of the old antique guns, knives and grenades, etc. I went in the back and looked at the two cars, I think they were 1918 era Buicks, and also looked at the Alligators which were in pretyty bad shape. When Hottinger finally closed up which I think was around 1960, they left everthing in the building until somewhere around 1962-1963, then had a big auction on main street.Many times I had looked at the old picture album that Mr. hottinger had and I wanted to buy it and did buy it at the auction. It had lots of old pictures of Howard and other southeast Kansas towns.

[Marcia Moore]

Besides Howard, what other towns are in your album?

[Flintauqua]

I found this newspaper article (see below) the other day while I was looking thru some microfilm at the library.  I am under the impression they must have had grades 1-12 all in the same building.  This article is found in the June 10, 1915 edition of the Courant.

I find the names of the contractors on that 1882 building to be humurously fitting to certain contractors of today "Crooks and Steele".

[W. Gray]

The Annals of Kansas, 1886-1925, volume I, does indeed say that Howard was the first city in the state to have a public school kindergarten.