President Andrew Johnson was acquitted
by a single vote in impeachment proceedings that culminated May
26.
Victoria was queen of England.
Oleomargarine was perfected in France.
The lawn mower was invented in the U.S.
Henry Shaw deeded the land for Tower Grove Park to the City of St.
Louis.
And on March 28, President Johnson signed as act passed by the 39th
Congress establishing the U.S. Office of Education.
Aug. 25 - five moths later - 21 Webster Groves residents gathered at
the town railroad station to organize a school district.
In 1868 - when women wore long velvet dresses and lemon pies sold for
5 cents apiece - the Webster district elected its first board of
education.
When ballots were counted on Aug. 27, T.L.Slocum promptly resigned his
board post to be signed as the first of three fulltime teachers hired
by the district.
The other two were women - Miss Augusta Murfeldt and a concerned Miss
Emma Babcock who volunteered to teach separate classes for Negro
children.
A part-timer was hired to teach singing once a month to all pupils -
for the extravagant sum of $3 a month.
On the same August night, the newly elected board bought land for the
district's first school - a tract at 20 Gray Avenue, where the Bristol
School now stands.
The board collected $300 to put down on the $1600 tract, promising to
pay the balance at 8 per cent interest in 90 days.
But the business education couldn't wait for its own building.
The board rented space in churches and other buildings to offer
classes for the 225 white and 30 Negro children living in the
district.
The Webster School. completed after a year of makeshift learning, was
a three-room white wooden building boasting a stylish cupola and a
loud tardy bell.
The children marched down its stone steps to a small playground with a
line down the middle - the boys on the left, the girls on the right.
That same year, 1869, the district took over the responsibility for a
private Negro school that had been started in a church basement in
1865 by a group of white citizens.
The new district grew slowly.
Twenty-one years passed.
The 1890's - signs of progress had sprung up everywhere.
People were talking about the new Eads Bridge, the Republican
convention to be held in St. Louis, a smooth macadam road named
Lockwood Avenue - and two new Webster schools.
In 1890, the Selma School, now the Goodall School was built.
In 1895, a new two-room building on the west side of Holland Avenue
was dedicated to Negro education and named for Frederick Douglas, a
Negro leader.
By 1900, that faculty numbered seven and the enrollment had reached
312.
A dunce cap and switch - referred to in hushed tones as "the
rattan" - hung in each classroom.
The New Franklin Reader provided reading lessons with a moral.
And spelling was a tricky matter of rhyming - "comet, vomit,
plummet, summit."
Arithmetic took a pragmatic approach: "2 bushels, 1 peck, 1
quart, 1 pint by 6 equals 13 bushels, 3 pecks, 1 quart."
In 1901, the district annexed to schools - Tuxedo Park, at Bompart and
Marshall Avenues where the Avery School now stands, and the Old
Orchard School - which no longer exists - on Big Bend
Blvd. near Laclede Station Road.
1901 also was the year of the high school.
The women in Webster Groves - who had no voting voice - wanted a
separate high school building. The men didn't.
A vigorous bond issue campaign ensured and the men won - a victory
they regarded as a rebuke to "petticoat politicians."
But the women were insistent.
In 1902, the high school course was increased to four years.
In 1903, the football fever took hold. There were not enough
older boys to make up a team, so Principal Mark Moody played guard.
And the only recorded victory was Webster's triumph over Kirkwood, now
an arch rival.
The women has not forgotten about a separate high school, and by 1906
they had gotten their way. A bond issue finally was passed and
the cornerstone laid at 100 Selma Avenue.
By 1907, the St. Louis World's Fair had come and gone. St. Louis
was the capitol of ragtime, lemon pies had risen to a scandalous 10
cents at the Webster Bakery - and 21 young people had walked down the
aisle at Bristol Hall to receive the high school's first diplomas.
By 1911, 1600 students enrolled in the Webster district and the
faculty had grown to 35.
Although the canopy top automobile with patent leather fenders and
dash was a familiar sight on Lockwood Avenue, every high school boy
secretly yearned for a Thomas 40 with a mother-in-law seat.
The students big geography books shielded paperback versions of
"Doubly Wronged," "Close Call," "Trip
West," and "Redeemed by Love" - forbidden novels that
taught that all villains are dastardly, all heroes dashing and all
heroines beautiful and persecuted creatures.
On Dec. 6, 1916, the board officially changed the name of three
district schools. The Webster School was renamed The Bristol
School in honor of a prominent physician.. The Tuxedo Park
School became the Avery School, and the Old Orchard School the
Lockwood School - both in honor of wealthy landowners.
The times were sad in Webster as they were all over the nation.
The Lusitania had been sunk. War had been declared. A dark and
ominous cloud of concern hung over Webster - the district's 50th
anniversary went almost unnoticed.
But with the fiery struggle over the League of Nations, the first
talking movies and the advent of prohibition, the pace of life
quickened.
Like teen-agers everywhere, Webster boys converted to low shoes and
soft collars. The girls bobbed their hair and hemmed their
skirts.
In 1922, there were 1,872 students in the Webster schools.
By 1930, the number had grown to 3,768.
1939 - 4,415.
1950 - 4,787.
1965 - 8,414.
And the anticipation 1968 enrollment - 8,518.
Kindergarten had come on the scene in the 1920's.
The school board, loath to spend money unless an actual need existed,
told parents to run their own kindergarten for a year and if the need
was shown, the board would take it over.
In spite of the insistence of middle-aged mothers that the new young
mothers were lazy and just wanted to get rid of their kids sooner, the
kindergarten became a regular part of the curriculum.
The need for space was pressing from the "20's on, but it was not
until after World War II that building expansion really got underway.
Roberts gym was added in 1946, and in 1958 two schools in Rock Hill
became part of the Webster district.
Clark School named for Miss Anna B. Clark - a teacher of 46 years -
was dedicated in 1949, Edgar Road in 1951.
Warson Woods, the last elementary school to be built, was finished in
1958.
In 1930, the junior and senior highs had been merged into a six-year
school. With the opening of the Hixson Junior High in September of
1955, the pattern was broken. By 1960, Plymouth and Steger junior
highs were ready for students.
Finally in 1966, extensive repairs to the high school were completed
and the Schooling Library was dedicated.
Today what began as a four-teacher district has been hailed by
educators at both the state and national levels.
The district was one of the first schools in Missouri to be accredited
by the North Central Association, a seal of approval which is held by
only 183 of the state's 600 secondary school systems.
From 1963 - 1968 approximately 80 per cent of
Webster's graduates have attended college.
Offering the 3R's to a handful of youngsters had bloomed into the
demanding business of quality education for thousands.
