Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1903-04-08
VERDE VALLEY NEWS
Advent of Spring in the Valley. Prevalence of La Grippe Dur
 ing the Winter.
Consolidation of Schools Talked of With Camp Verde as the
 Central Point.

Camp Verde, Ariz., March 31.- Editor of Journal Miner: Blue birds and robins used to be the heralds of the approach of spring-of the time ''when the green gets back in the trees"-in the land of my nativity, but here its rather different We have signs it is true but the never failing one is when the Verde rancher turns the water out of the ditch and pre- pares to clean it. There is no poetry about ditch cleaning-its all prose. That's why, Mir. Editor, that the Verde country is short on spring poets. The ditch cleaning season is about past and nearly every one has water again.
 Considerable work has been put out on the Ralston ditch in widening and extending it to within half mile of this place furnishing water for the development of five ranches owned by Messrs. Johnson, Durfee and Gillett.
 There has been an unusual amount of la grippe in the valley this spring and many are still under the weather with it.
 Mrs. J. H. Vanderen who for some time lay at the point of death with peritonitis is recovering slowly.
 Our new blacksmith, Mir. Johnson, has an assistant but as he is only a week old he is probably more bother than help, but he will grow.
 Mrs. E. B. Mulholland has been seriously ill for some time but is i'm proving.
 The Camp Verde schools under the Misses Arnold and Bowman closed on Friday with school picnic.
 There has been some talk of the consolidation of the Camp Verde Clear Creek and Squaw Peak school dis tricts into one school to be located at Camp Verde. The plan is good one and is giving splendid results wher- ever it has been tried There are se-
  into consideration and overcome such as the distance and the river crossing, but the plan has so many advantages that an effort should be made to over come these difficulties. It is serious matter to be obliged to pack up and leave a country-a hOme-and your business in order to give your chil- dren a common school education and yet that is the nightmare that is star ing some of us in the face unless we can have better school system here at home. We have here a good eli mate comfortable homes and the problem of making a living for a fam fly is no more complex than in many other places in the world. The con- binatiOn of these four schools would form the nucleus which would ulti- mately develop into a high school. It would at once make a grade school possible and the added enthusiasm of larger school and closer competi- tion. A good school system here would be an inducement for better class of people to come in here, bringing more money and better social advan- tages. Its worth thinking about and not only thinking but acting upon. There are more children just coming into school age here now than ever before and a larger provision should be made for them. The Literary Society held its clos ing meeting for the season on last | Friday night. The river was on a | rampage during most of the week so i that many were prevented from at | tending on account of high water. | The Society adjourned until the first | Friday in October electing Wm. | Stephens, pesident; o. H. Benedict, vice president; Miss Bowman, secre- tary; pr. Palmer. treasurer. The so- ciety has left us with a circulating library of about 200 volumes. Mir. | Ben Eaman was selected by the li- brary committee as librarian, Miss Josephen Hance as assistant. The following citizens were appointed as trustees of the library: Wales Arnold, Dudley Brooks, L. B. Bell for term of one, two and three years respect lively, their successor to be elected by the two remaining trustees. Long live the Literary Society.
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