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MHS
ALUMNI STORIES…….YEAR 2010
Series II
1895, 1900, 1905 Honor Years
Greer County was part of Texas from 1860 to 1896. By 1895, residents
of Old Greer County, Texas, were restless and growing more dissatisfied
with their territorial government and a general feeling of isolation
trying to serve two states and abide with two sets of governing laws.
In December of 1891 and 1893, bills had been introduced into Congress,
both leading to the admission of Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory
as one state. Long debates and political wrangling involved leading
men of the Five Civilized Tribes and the white residents. The proposal
was to name the new state Sequoyah and it would be divided into 48
counties. When this movement failed, there wasn’t much hope that
statehood would hold for either Oklahoma Territory or Indian Territory.
President Roosevelt approved the Enabling Act of 1906, whereby equal
delegates from Indian Territory and Oklahoma Territory would convene.
Guthrie was designated the temporary state capital and $5,000,000 was
voted to the new state in lieu of school land reservations which could
not be made in the Indian Territory. History was about to be made when
Mangum, Greer County Texas and Mangum, Oklahoma Territory, would become
Mangum, Oklahoma in 1907.
During these years, Mangum was a bustling and industrious part of Texas/Oklahoma Territory with families living in every conceivable type of dwelling. Education was at the top of the list for parents hoping to improve the lives of their children in the ‘land of opportunity’.
According to an article about Greer County school history found in The Enterpriser, June 23, 2005, writer, Charlotte Harris says, “Greer County is especially noted for its educational system. Prior to 1896, the County Judge acted as the County Examiner for the teachers. When Greer County became a part of Oklahoma Territory, the office of County Superintendent for Public Instruction was formed. Thomas E. Jones was the first County Superintendent. Greer County was only a great pasture with a few half dug-outs hidden away on the hill sides.”
MHS 1900…. DR. DODSON
A History of Old Greer County and its Pioneers, (book can be found at the Old Greer County Museum) is full of history and tidbits. Dr. W. O. Dodson was an early day pioneer and MHS student: Quote is taken from the Mangum Daily Star, Sunday, July 21, 1935: “Dr. Dodson was only 8 years old when he came to Greer County. He attended school in Mangum, his first teacher being O. P. Elliot. He finished school in 1900, completing all work offered in Mangum school. Although he did not receive a high school diploma, because no high school existed at that time, Dr. Dodson was elected a member of the Mangum High School Alumni Association a few years ago and is one of the two oldest alumni, the other being Dr. E. M. Poer.” Dr. Fowler Border influenced W. O. to enter the medical profession. W. O. Dodson enrolled in medical school at the University of Louisville from which he graduated in 1904. He then located at Reed, Oklahoma, where he practiced his profession until 1907, when he then moved to Willow, Oklahoma.” This is an important piece of history which could answer questions about the very very small number of MHS graduates on the old alumni roll books. With no high school, these students could have just moved away and never applied for membership after 1910 when the MHS Alumni Association was formed.
In the meantime, a man named Peyton Earle Brown, arrived in Mangum in
1904, after his early education from a private school in Vernon, Texas.
He graduated with the MHS Class of 1908. He was to become the first President
of the MHS Alumni Association; he also had a long successful career as
an Oklahoma attorney. Source: Mangum Star, May, 25, 1889.
MHS 1905…..
According to the Mangum Star, April 28, 1935: In 1905, the first “Grand Old High School” was opened on North Oklahoma where today’s Middle School still stands. Open house was held on Sunday morning preceding the opening of the school. The entire population inspected the palace of education. The auditorium had opera chairs, stage scenery, a piano and hot air heating plant with thermostats, a new invention for that day. It was a magnificent building having a full auditorium on the top floor and a huge ‘cavern’ type room on the west side which was used for a study hall, meetings, sports, and served as a storm shelter. This old school was modified in the 1930’s, and today serves as the ‘new Middle School’ of Mangum ISD.
Note: This writer visited Anna Fritsche Hunter, MHS Class of 1929, in Arizona during the summer of 2009. Ms. Hunter talked about her days at this old school building. Ms. Hunter just celebrated her 98th birthday and has a vivid memory of her days in the Mangum Public Schools along with her siblings and many friends, some who still live in Mangum today.
Courses of Study offered IN 1905 at the new high school were:
First year: Algebra, Latin, General History, Rhetoric, Composition and
Physiology
Second year: Plane Geometry, Caesar, English History, American Literature,
Botany and Zoology
Third Year: Solid Geometry, Algebra, American History, Spanish, English,
Literature, Physics
No electives were offered and promotion was by grade. If a student failed
first year English, he/she were required to repeat all the first year
courses. Four years of high school would not begin until 1912.
Mangum citizens, recognizing that the new high school building was already overcrowded by the time it was completed in 1905, a ‘NEW High School’ was started in 1918 and opened in 1920. The ‘Old High School ’ was to be used as a junior high. This is where most of today’s alumni visit when they return home. It is the only school they remember other than the ‘old gym’ on Pennsylvania. Some ‘old grads’ can hardly believe the ‘old junior high’ most of us living today attended, still stands on the actual base of the first 1905 high school.
Board of Education in 1905 included Lee Hawkins, Jasper Leadbetter and Lon McKinney. Faculty included: Dr. James A. McLaughlin, Superintendent; Wade H. Shumate, high school principal; Mrs. Tilla McIntosh and Emma Thompson were teachers. The school had 56 pupils.
During this period of history, families attending these schools contributed
to the recorded history we have today. A History of Old Greer County
and its Pioneers offers insight into the James Robert Curry family.
James and Nathilia Curry arrived in Greer County spring of 1885. Their
first child died and was buried on family property. When Riverside
Cemetery opened, the body was placed at Riverside. The Sweet Family,
Crouch Family, a Mr. Damsen and the Curry Family were the very first
recorded white families settling in what is today “downtown” Mangum. “J.
R. Curry” built the first “trading post” on the east
side of the cow trail which became today’s South Oklahoma Avenue.
His family built the first two-story house in Mangum. The Curry’s
second child, George M. Curry was born 17 March 1886, while the family
was camped beside the Red River, waiting for the flood waters to recede.
They were trying to get to Vernon and a doctor. A third child, Eugene
Curry, was born in 1887 in the dugout back of the Trading Post. A sister,
Eula Mae, was born on the family farm. George and Eugene began school
in the first school built in Mangum, a one-room frame building which
appears to be the wooden structure acquired from John R. Rose. George
Curry has been acclaimed as the “first white child born in Old
Greer County” and the family of Louis Tittle also makes that
same claim. Wonder if this discrepancy will ever be resolved??? Gene
graduated MHS in 1905 before enlisting in the army during World War
I. He died in 1958. The family home was later sold to Clifford Hannah,
a MHS grad and long time druggist.
In the same book, Miss Nina Davis, 42 years teaching in the Mangum schools, came to Mangum in 1905………….She was a Vernon, Texas, High School graduate of 1895.
The three 1905 MHS grads listed in the 1913 MHS Yearbook are: Linnie Lockard and Stella Naudain, (Mrs. T. H. White) and Gene Curry.
Mangum Star April 22, 1909: Mangum has more pupils within the school age than any other city in Oklahoma west of the Rock Island Railway, except Lawton. The new high school which opened in 1905, was inadequate by the time it was finished. The board decided to call an election on the question of issuing $80,000 in bonds to equip the schools for fast growing needs. “A few years ago objections were made about building the new high school. Now, the town has outgrown it. The other buildings are dilapidated and the wooden structures are eyesores. “The ‘stone’ building is dangerous; it has cracked walls. “Since we must build, it is the part of wisdom to build for the future. With over sixteen hundred pupils within the district, the prospect of several railroads to be built in our midst within a year or two, increasing population, it would be foolish to build only for such needs as are now evident.”
Series 3 will include the Honor Years 1910 1915, 1920.
Researched by MHS Alumni Historian, Joy Hall Grant, Class of 1957.