A New School


September on the prairie is a fantastic sight! Yellow golden rod, lavender gay feathers, several varieties of sun flowers, and red velvet sumac berries form a colorful collage. Hundreds of Monarch butterflies flit around the milkweeds on their annual flight to New Mexico. The red-tailed hawk circles in the blue sky looking for a tasty meal.


September 1919 arrived and Mrs. Odena Detwiler, teacher and principal greeted 4 eager freshmen Zelma Snyder, Ina Ward, Elva Ward and Birdie Thompson. Joining the freshmen were 2 sophomores Alan Maag and Grace Brown, having attended high school in Michigan Valley the year before. Makeshift classes were held in the Appanoose Baptist Church since the new school building wasn't completed. Mr. Lonnie Lyons was teaching Dean Grade School across the church yard and also acted as the basketball coach for the girls. Not having an indoor gym was no deterrent they practiced outside and worked hard in sports as well as academics.


In September. 1920, the 51' by 56' building of stone, tile and stucco was ready for the increased enrollment of 17 pupils. As the students came into the new building and down the stairs there was a manual training room and domestic science room, also a boiler room. There was a small gym down there too, all with cement floors. The gym had cement benches on either side and would soon be referred to as "the hole". Going back upstairs they saw a large study hall and 2 more class rooms - Wow! all this space was almost over-whelming after the makeshift conditions in the church last year. Teachers were E. H. Browne and Helen Moherman.


Dr. W. A. Elliott, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Ottawa delivered the Baccalaureate Sermon and the first commencement exercises were held in 1922 for Alan Maag and Grace Brown. This was a momentous occasion for the community which had supported the school from the beginning. Much emphasis was put on grades and academic achievements but sports also played an important role at AHS. The girls had an outstanding basketball team and in 1923 they won the Franklin County Championship and brought home one of many trophies.


March 21, 1934, was a cool day and as usual the strong March winds were blowing. This was a dry and windy season - dust bowl days in Kansas. After cleaning the building, Mr. McNees, the janitor, banked the fire in the boiler room before he left for the night.


March 21, about 6:00 P.M. while Louie Maag was plowing a field near AHS he noticed smoke coming from the building and left his horse and plow to investigate. Upon entering the building he could tell the center of the fire was in or near the boiler room but the fire had too much headway and the wind fanned the flame making it impossible to save any of the contents. Columns of black smoke could be seen for miles and neighbors came but stood by helplessly as their school was destroyed.


No time was wasted and the next morning school board members met with the county superintendent to make plans for the remainder of the semester and the future of Appanoose School. With only a month of school left it was agreed to hold classes once again in the Appanoose Church, the Dean School and the overflow would have classes at the Abersold home north of the school.


Plans were started immediately to replace the building. Insurance covered $10,000.00 of the loss but it would be necessary to vote bonds for an additional $6,000.00. A.O. Beeler was the contractor. Work was started May 25, the footings were dug by hand and bricks carried by hand. When the building was about one story high the bricks were thrown up to the brick layer 4 at a time. There was much pride in the workmainship of this building.


Times were hard in 1934, there were very few jobs to be had and money was scarce. Job seekers came to the construction site every day hoping for even 1 day of work. Sometimes as many as l00 would come.


Efforts were being made to secure a power line from Michigan Valley to supply electricity to Appanoose so electrical wiring was put in and AHS would be ready for electricity whenever it came.


[Information about the fire and rebuilding came from former students Pauline Wilford, Cecile Anderson, Harold Bennett, Margaret Ships and Dan Randel.]


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