This is a reprint of a “From the Local History Room” column that first appeared in February 2014, before the launch of this weblog.
A look inside Pekin Community High School in 1915
By Jared Olar
Library Assistant
Although the community of Pekin lost one of its well-remembered landmarks when the former West Campus of Pekin Community High School was demolished, many relics and mementos of Pekin high school’s past will remain for a long time to come.
One of those mementos is a part of the Local History Room collection at the Pekin Public Library: it’s a copy of the 1915 “Catalog of the Pekin High School,” published by the Times Publishing Co., former owners and publishers of the Pekin Daily Times.
The 1915 catalog can give us a glimpse inside Pekin high school from the time when construction on West Campus was either underway or just about to begin. West Campus opened its doors in 1916 as the city’s new high school, replacing the old high school, erected in 1891, which was located at the present site of Washington Intermediate.
The high school’s entire faculty for 1915 fit easily on a single page of the catalog. On page 5 is a faculty list beginning with Superintendent Robert C. Smith and Principal F. B. Morgan. Then comes the following list of 16 instructors:
R. Y. Allison, English.
Alice T. Anderson, Ass’t. Mathematics, English.
Lena Boyd, Assistant History.
Lois I. Burwash, Science.
Bertha Duerkop, German.
Gertrude Falk, Commercial, Stenography, Typewriting.
Gertrude Fleming, Ass’t. English.
Matthew Lawrence, History, Civics.
Lela Lockett, Latin.
R. E. Patten, Assistant Commercial, Bookkeeping.
Etta Ruhaak, Mathematics.
Wm. P. Wyatt, Assistant Science.
Otto Burg, Physical Director.
A. L. Fratt, Manual Training.
Bertha Kraeger, Domestic Economy.
Irene Muehlmann, Musical Director.
The catalog also includes an overview of the calendar for the 1915-1916 school year, starting with the “classification of high school students” (i.e., registration) on Sept. 2-4, and the official start of school at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 7. Thanksgiving vacation was Nov. 25-26, and Christmas vacation extended from 4 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 23, 1915, until Monday, Jan. 3, 1916. First semester ended on Jan. 28, and the school year culminated with Commencement exercises on Thursday, June 8, 1916. The high school then closed for the summer on June 9.
The 1915 catalog also includes descriptions of curriculum for each course that was taught. These descriptions give an idea of the quality of Pekin high school’s education in those days. Like most schools, of course, Pekin high school supported its athletic programs, and in 1915 the school was especially proud of its track teams. “In track, Pekin has been very successful,” the catalog says on page 18. “The Tazewell County Banner has been won by Pekin High so many times that there is a tendency for some schools in the county to lose interest.”
On the other hand, the high school was somewhat embarrassed by its library. “The high school library is small and incomplete. Few books of reference are available,” the catalog confesses on page 16. “It is hoped that the school authorities may see the advisability of improving and adding to the school library,” the catalog says in a bold and undisguised message intended for the school’s administration and board of supervisors.
One final glimpse inside this catalog gives a taste of student life at Pekin High as well as in the city’s elementary schools back then. The catalog on page 18-19 tells of an annual tradition called “Field Day,” which was “an exhibition of the physical training work of the schools both in the grades and in the high school is given, usually in the last week of May.”
“The exercises usually consist of calisthenics of the first order without any hand apparatus, such as flags, hoops, etc., for the first and second grades, fancy steps, folk dances, May pole drills and ‘roundels’ for the girls of the higher grades; general calisthenics for boys and girls of the higher grades for the 3rd to the 8th; dumbbell exercises for the fourth and fifth grades, tactics, wand exercises and club swinging of the second and third order for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the High School girls, pyramids and track work (running, pole vaulting, etc.) for the High School boys.”
