The History of our Public Schools
Wyandotte County, Kansas

Residents of Kansas City in 1892 were troubled by assaults and robberies.  Armed bandits boarded the cars and trains to hold up the drivers and passengers.  Eight-year old Fred Carlson at the Armourdale School dashed in front of a street car in front of the building and was terribly crushed.  Years later his brother, John Carlson, served on the Board of Education.  Superintendent Pearson told Carlson about his holding the dying boy in his arms after the accident.  Mr. Pearson was the principal of Armourdale School at the time.

Principal Colvin of Everett was a victim of the mumps early in 1892.  The founders of Bethany Hospital made plans for its establishment.  [Annotation: Bethany, one of the largest hospitals in the central west and the first public Protestant hospital to be established between the Mississippi river and the Pacific coast, was organized in March, 1892, by Dr. P. D. Hughes, Mrs. Reba S. Freeman, Mrs. V. J. Lane, K. P. Snyder, Dr. Hoyt and others. Dr. Hughes, for four years prior to that time, endeavored to interest the people in the matter of a Protestant hospital. Winfield Freeman and K. P. Snyder, attorneys, arranged a constitution and bylaws and applied for a charter from the state, which was granted March 8, 1892.  The hospital was conducted in a large building on Washington avenue between Third and Fourth streets until the buildings at Orchard street and Tenney avenue were erected and properly furnished. These buildings, while offering every convenience for the work, are too small to meet the requirements, but in a few months it is expected that the new hospital building will have been erected.The new Bethany Hospital is to be one of the largest and best equipped institutions of its kind in the United States, and for its erection and equipment a fund of $200,000 is being raised in the five conferences supporting it. It is located in a beautiful park between Eleventh and Twelfth streets north of Central avenue, the highest point in Kansas City, Kansas. It is to be made fire-proof. The foundation has been laid and all is now (July, 1911) ready for the erection of the great structure.  Transcribed from History of Wyandotte County Kansas and its people ed. and comp. by Perl W. Morgan. Chicago, The Lewis publishing company, 1911. 2 v. front., illus., plates, ports., fold. map. 28 cm.]  On May 26, Mrs. John Wherrell's Girls Academy graduated five girls, who read the customary essays at commencement.  Mrs. E. L. Barnes addressed the group.  The audience at the high school exercises on June 5, 1891, was patient during the long program presented by nineteen graduates. 

The weeds in Huron Place produced enough seeds by August to insure a good crop the following year.  The street cars took the lives of children and cholera warnings alarmed adults.  Cleanliness should be stressed, the papers warned.

The Columbian Exposition in Chicago, postponed to 1893, inspired a group of women to prepare an exhibit from Kansas City.  The Columbian Ladies, 300 in number, gave a dinner and bazaar on April 5, 1895 to raise funds for the exhibit.  County members donated chickens, eggs, and butter to be sold. Teachers and other interested people were invited to assist in the exhibit.

Schools opened on January 4, 1892 under the board's jurisdiction.  The high school returned to two sessions a day instead of one.  A building on lots north of Greystone School was leased for the colored children and named Garrison.  Employees received pay after two weeks instead of the usual four weeks' period.  London Heights patrons wanted their children back from Everett and the board assented.  The Everett principal was notified about the uncleanliness of his building.

In January, William Becker, a blind man, received the board's permission to sell pens, pencils nd tablets in the schoolhouses during noons and recesses.  Teachers, were authorized to spend not more than ten minutes daily in physical exercise.  Fifth eighth-graders took the mid-year tests, but only twenty-six were promoted to the high school.

After the music director's disputed hiring, his term evidently was short.  The superintendent was instructed to see that as much music instruction be given as possible without supervision.  When a committee of principals asked for standards for children's promotion, the board set up some rules.

The last of the old Kansas City, Kansas, bonds were paid off in June, 1892.  The Herald's editor took up the matter of salaries and announced that when a woman does a man's work and does it equally well she should be paid the same salary.  He accused the board of violating its rule as to grades of certificates when holders of first grade certificates were paid $88 and those with second grade certificates received $110.  He went so far as to wonder if the board were running schools as charitable institutions.

The board had financial problems aside from salaries.  Property valuation in the city decreased $14,000.  Although the purchase of supplies was reduced to one third of the previous year's expenditure, the board would have difficulty in providing school for nine months.  Cypress Gardens colored people near the Missouri Pacific tracks east of Riverview School wanted a school.  District Number 9 had operated a school previously for them, but now the Kansas City board was in charge.  The board refused to continue the school.

The superintendent was directed late in the summer of 1892 to use a plan employed in other cities, frequently from choice and not necessity.  The plan was that teachers who left would not be replaced.  Teachers of first grade would have charge of 80 to 110 pupils each.  There would be two divisions, one in the forenoon and one in the afternoon.  Such measures were temporary, but for the time teachers who had no less than 80 pupils would received $5 extra.

Sally Lindsay, who married William Allen White, resigned in September, 1892, from her position at Long School.  The board regretted her loss.  Mrs. Godsil requested a teaching certificate with an examination only in physiology.  The law forbade such an arrangement.  Property in Armourdale and Greystone was sold for taxes, a matter for the city attorney to investigate.  The colored children enjoyed a holiday on September 22, Emancipation Day.  Winter preparation began with the purchase of twenty-five wagon loads of wood.

Worried colored citizens from Cypress Yards appeared again and again to plead for a school, for half days even, and the board had to refuse.  The superintendent and principals made plans for a city-wide Columbus Day celebration.  Parents with children under age seven had little trouble getting special permission to enroll their children in school.

Flags awaited poles from which to fly.  The board hoped to have flag poles at the principal schools before October 19.  It reluctantly granted permission for Miss Donnelly and Mrs. Slusser to take two weeks from their classrooms to campaign for the office of county superintendent.  Several principals wanted to go to Topeka and Leavenworth to see what schools in those cities were sending to the Exposition.  Superintendent Olin was given two days leave to go and to confer with the Board of Directors for the Kansas Educational Exhibit.  The exercises at the Tabernacle had earned $140.  A large crowd attended and pronounced the entertainment good.

The Herald and the Gazette bid for the board's printing contract.  The Gazette won and the Herald's editor made charges of favoritism against Thomas W. Heatley, board president.  Parents thought Professor Olin should do something about the morals of the schools.  The "male pupils" indulged in profane and obscene language when they left the school.  It was easy to remedy.  The superintendent could tell the principals that they were responsible for children's morals.  The principals then would tell the teachers, and moral, as well as intellectual, culture would be assured.

   1893