The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-11-27
Drizzle of Rain Fails to Dampen Interest AS
School Board Dedicates New High
School Building.
MRS. M. D. BRADFORD HONOR GUEST
CongratuIates City for Appreciation of Significance
of Educational Progress" ~ $500 School
Children Take Part.

tHe AHhudt NePo1tS prepared during
the administration of Mrs. Mary Brad
ford as superintendent of schools; a
directory of the teachers of the city;
a history Of Lincoln, Washington, Me-
kinley, Grant and jefferson junior
high schools; copy of the Kenosha
Evening News of Thursday, Noyemt err,
90, iceland the paper of Mrs. Per-
dita Dewey Pope, of the Glass of 1905,
describing the history of Kenosha
high school from it's inception in 1857
to the present time which she read
as part of the program.
Mrs. Pope's paper was a most in-
terestipg one. 1t traced the rapid de-
velopment of Kenosha high school
from its humble beginning to the pre-
teDtious quarters which it. will soon
occupy. The history follows;
"The History of Kenesha High
School is like moving picture with
three reels almost shown and the
fourth reel about to begin. Our first
reel covers the period from 1910 to
1860, and may be called the pioneers
Age" It takes us back over 80 years
to Southport, a village Of about 1000
souls with no modern conveniences,
no transportation except by boat or
stage, and no public schools. But this
frontier village had been founded by
men and women Of intelligence and
culture, many of whom had come
from New England where the public
schools or the free schools as they
were called, had already been accepted
and established, One of the first
friends of the free school in the west
was Colonel Michael Frank, who as
early as 1910 through the columns of
his newspaper, the Southport Tele-
graph, began his crusade in behalf OF
the free school. We of 1924 who ac-
cept our educational privileges as we
do our pavements and our sidewalks,
little realize the fight that those early
pioneers had to make to put over their
ideal of an educated citizenship at
the public expense" "No taxation to
educate my neighbors' children" was
the cry of the enemies of education.
Property owners who had no children
to educate denounced taxation to edu-
cate their neighbors children as I'M
just. But such men as Rev, r. IT. DEM
ing, Judge ], B. Jilsen, Hon. Charles
Durkee, Serene Fisk and Col. M. Frank,
bravely kept up the fight; and to these
Southport pioneers belongs the credit
of blazing the trail for free schools
in not only Wisconsin but in the mid
die west. When Wisconsin became a
state in 1s48, to Col. Frank of South
port, was assigned the work of form,
ulating the "free school code" which
has proved the lasting basis for our
present school system.
In 1915 free summer school was
established in Southport, and in 1s49
the first free school building was
erected in the block to the west and
on the site now marked by the. huge
boulder which the Daughters of the
American Revolution has placed in
order to commemorate the founding
of the first free school outside of New
England. This building was the first
home of the Kenosha high school.
From 1s49 to 1860, questions of grad
ing the school and of establishing in
struction in the higher courses en-
gagged attention of the community and
Oh inc Gritty pIlHCApd1Ss JOtuG CtE1ZCuS
centended that it was unjust to tax
property to pay for instruction in any
except common branches required by
law to be taught in the common
schools. Others held that such a
policy would place instruction in the
higher branches beyond reach of those
unable to pay for tuition, After much
serious discussion the higher courses
were put in, and by 1859, Kenosha
high school was definitely established.
The Pioneer Age was finished.
Second Era:
The second reel of our picture ex-
tends from 1860 to 1891. These years
in the frst high school building can
rightly be called the Cultural Age of
Kenosha high school because this
period in the history of Kenesha was
marked by cultural rather than COM
merciai growth and the center of that
cultural growth was the high school.
For many years the old high school
building was the best in the state.
Everyone who came to Kenosha went
to see It. In the year 1860, the school
has over 1000 visitors. BY 1860, a
four-year graduate course of study
had been established, and the class of
1891 was the first class to receive di-
plomas.
Among the early classes were many
who have since become great leaders
of thought. One girl from the class
of 1874 returned to US in 1910. as
Superintendent of our schools-the
first woman in Wisconsin to hold a
position of such importance-Mrs,
Mary D. Bradford.
With the wreeking Of the old high
school building the cultural age came
to an end.
The third reel of our picture be-
gins in 1851, with the erection of our
present high school in the block to
the west. We shall call this age from
1891 to 1924, the Industrial Age, be-
cause the history of the high school
from now on is history of mental
and physical adaptation to the needs
attendant upon our industrial growth
The population in 1890 of about $500
more than doubled in 1905 to over
10000. To accommodate this growth
| in 1907 the west wing of the present
building was added. In 1912, what
elementary grades still remained in
the building were removed. In 1917
the junior high schools were estab-
lished, thus relieving congestion al
the high school by the removal of the