09.20.05
Posted in Schools at 7:54 am by NW Okie
Stella Friends Academy…
I found this 1904 photograph amongst my Grandma & Grandpa McGill’s possessions. The Stella Friends Academy was located 1.9 miles east of the hwy 64 & Oklahoma hwy 11 jct north of Cherokee, Oklahoma, in Alfalfa County (a part of M county during pre-statehood days).
On the back of the SFA 1904 photo…
On the Back of the Photo it reads…. "Teacher, please let scholars see the picture while in their seats. 2 at a time can see much better & not let a bunch look or try to look at once, as likely to soil picture. This is one and let me know soon as possible how many more wanted at 25 cts. ea. Thanking you and all for favors. I am Resptly, B. F. Smith"
Stella Friends Academy Marker…
It sets on the southside of hwy11, where a mobile home and farm now reside. The historical marker reads, "Buildings near here from 1897 under auspices of Friends Church, the academy was noted for high moral, spiritual and scholastic standards. Closed 1922. Named for teacher of 1st school (1893) in this vicinity, a sod house near Stella Church in Cherokee Strip."
I found this snapshot of the old Stella Friends Academy in the Alfalfa County Historical Society’s book, "Our Alfalfa County Heritage, 1893-1976." The book also mentioned, "The higher education problem was solved for the Riverside District when the Stella District, just east of Riverside, erected the "Stella Friends Academy." The Stella Academy was a stringent 4 year High School education that required 3 years of latin. It had boys and girls dormitories. Charge for rooms per month was $1.25 and Board for a full week was $2.25 or $1.75 for a 5 day week.
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Posted in Schools at 7:45 am by NW Okie
1905 Orion School - Major County, OK
[The following information on the 1905 Orion School Pupils was submitted by Alice Shook via her granddaughter. To see more History go to - Bukowski History.]
The children all attended the Old Orion School. School only lasted for a few months in the Winter time, as the pupils were all farmers children and were needed a home to work. The children all attended school at the old Orion school house which was located north and east of their home. Walking was the only means of school transportation in those days. During the early years of the 1900’s, there would be anywhere from 40 to 50 pupils attending the one-room rural school at Orion. The pupils were all ages and all grades, and one teacher was in charge of all of them. The Teacher of the Orion Community School in 1905 was Margaret Engles.
List of Pupils in 1905: (left to right)
[1. Roy Holman]
[2. Ed Bukowski (1st row)]
[3. Phillip Bukowski]
[4. Fred Hurt (1st row)]
[5. Frank Hurt]
[6. Ira Painton]
[7. Mabel Kachel (1st row)]
[8. Mary Bukowski]
[9. Sam Kachel]
[10. Albert Kachel (1st row)]
[11. Ruby Gould]
[12. Gertie Gould]
[13. Leona Patterson]
[14. Lizzie Cossell]
[15. Johnny Eddingfield]
[16. Jimmy Eddingfield]
[17. Mary Eddingfield]
[18. Erma Holman]
[19. Nellie Eddingfield]
[20. Earl Gould]
[21. Lillie Cossell]
[22. Johnny Hurt]
[23. Grace Gould]
[24. Walter Eddingfield]
[25. Bessie Patterson (back row)]
[26. Plato Patterson (holding sign)]
[27. Ray Holman]
[28. (?-boy behind Ray Holman)]
[29. Claude Eddingfield]
[30. Maude Eddingfield]
[31. Charley Eddingfield]
[32. Albert Ring]
[33. (?) Holman]
[34. Roy Ring]
[35. Mary Shaffer]
[36. (girl) Secrite]
[37. (girl) Paris]
[38. (girl) Levitt]
[39. (girl) Levitt]
[40. (girl) Levitt]
[41. Hattie Painton]
[42. Clara Kachel]
[43. Myra Turner (right side, back)]
[44. Tillie Hurt (right side, back)]
[45. Emma Hurt]
[46. Mary Barbara Hurt (right side, back)]
[47. Floyd Painton]
[48. (boy 1st row, end) Secrite]
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Posted in History, Schools at 6:33 am by NW Okie
Northwestern at Alva Enters New Year in Front Rank of Educational Institutions - Degrees Secured Here Will Entitle Student to Course at Yale and Harvard [taken from Renfrew’s Record, January 2, 1920, Alva, Woods Co., Oklahoma, frontpage article.] — No longer need the youtn of Alva and vicinity go great distances from home for degrees which will entitle them to take post-graduate work in Yale, Harvard and Chicago, and all other leading American Universities. They can secure those degrees in the Northwestern Normal College at Alva.
On Monday, December 29, 1919, the State Board of Education met and changed all the normal schools into full-fledged, degree-granting colleges, after a four-years course beyond high school.
This movement is in accord historically, with educationally progressive states, such as Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, and most others, and is the natural result of the development of normal schools everywhere.
President J. P. Battenberg, State Superintendent Wilson, our district Board member, A. H. Burris, and all other State Board members deserve great congratulations on this advanced step in education. It will mean the saving of thousands and thousands of dollars in the eleven counties in Northwestern Oklahoma.
For a number of years the six Normal Schools of Oklahoma have not developed like the colleges in Oklahoma. While the enrollments of the O. U. and the A. & M. college have run into the thousands, the normals have had only a few hundreds. This would have been less surprising had it not been in the face of the greates demand for teachers in the history of the state. Oklahoma lacks 2,000 teachers in order to fill suitably each teaching vacancy.
The denominational schools of the state have also had excellent attendance, especially since the close of the war. But none of the colleges prepare exclusively for teaching. In fact none of them put their greates stress on preparation for teaching.
After the war closed it was expected that the normal schools would fill up, but they have hardly returned to pre-war enrollments, although all colleges in the state have large enrollments. This too, in spite of the greates teacher famine in the history of the country. What is the trouble? There are several causes. But one of the most important is that the normal schools have served as feeders of the colleges. On graduating from a normal school, the graduate is told he must get a degree before he can teach in first class high schools. The result is obvious, ambitious youth hie (sic) themselves off to college at the outset.
This, it is hoped, is over.
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I found this 1904 photograph amongst my Grandma & Grandpa McGill’s possessions. The Stella Friends Academy was located 1.9 miles east of the hwy 64 & Oklahoma hwy 11 jct north of Cherokee, Oklahoma, in Alfalfa County (a part of M county during pre-statehood days). 
On the Back of the Photo it reads…. "Teacher, please let scholars see the picture while in their seats. 2 at a time can see much better & not let a bunch look or try to look at once, as likely to soil picture. This is one and let me know soon as possible how many more wanted at 25 cts. ea. Thanking you and all for favors. I am Resptly, B. F. Smith" 
It sets on the southside of hwy11, where a mobile home and farm now reside. The historical marker reads, "Buildings near here from 1897 under auspices of Friends Church, the academy was noted for high moral, spiritual and scholastic standards. Closed 1922. Named for teacher of 1st school (1893) in this vicinity, a sod house near Stella Church in Cherokee Strip." 
I found this snapshot of the old Stella Friends Academy in the Alfalfa County Historical Society’s book, "Our Alfalfa County Heritage, 1893-1976." The book also mentioned, "The higher education problem was solved for the Riverside District when the Stella District, just east of Riverside, erected the "Stella Friends Academy." The Stella Academy was a stringent 4 year High School education that required 3 years of latin. It had boys and girls dormitories. Charge for rooms per month was $1.25 and Board for a full week was $2.25 or $1.75 for a 5 day week.