WHITEFISH SCHOOLS
September 26
By
Jill Evans, Administrator of the Stumptown Historical
Society
At a school
board meeting on November 6, 1920, the board solemnly
resolved that “girls coming to school with artificial
complexions must remove same with soap and water as a
condition of entering classes.” School dances were
forbidden, a ruling that was said to have increased
attendance considerably in public dance halls.
By 1925 there were 21 grade school teachers in the
Whitefish school system and 1,035 elementary school
children. There were 175 students in the high school.
A new gymnasium was built in 1927-by a two-year mill
levy raising $34,000. It was formally opened December 9,
1927. A marker twelve feet high reading WHITEFISH was
placed on the gym roof to help airplanes. It had an
arrow pointing north. Unfortunately the arrow did not
point true north, and a second arrow had to be added.
By this time, of course, Hayden had left Whitefish and
been replaced in 1923 by E. A. Hinderman (“Hindy”) as
superintendent. Hindy brought a lot of changes. Excerpts
from an article written by Dorothy Johnson at the time
of his retirement in 1953 help to explain the man;
“…It’s hard to imagine him as retired-he is wired for
high voltage. His curly hair is
white, and sometimes he limps a little, but he gives the
impression that he could still
make the winning touchdown.”
Hindy was born in Reichenweier, Alsace, Germany.
“He and his roommate, Vic Cassidy, had set themselves a
goal - $100,000 apiece by
the time they reached 40. Cassidy made it, but not in
teaching school.”
Hindy came west in 1911, worked at many odd jobs, was
principal at Lewis and Clark
High School in Spokane.
“In 1923 he started his work at Whitefish, not guessing
that the job would last for 30
years. He made athletics hum and kept a lot of boys
going to school because they
couldn’t play football if they didn’t. Education wasn’t
popular 30 years ago in
Whitefish –it was all right for girls, who weren’t good
for much anyway, but a boy
could fib a little about his age and get a job on the
railroad. E. A. Hinderman changed
that.
“By 1928, Whitefish had the best high school gym in
Montana. It had a good band the
year before and was one of the first schools in western
Montana to make visual
education part of the program. Hindy had the first movie
projector for school use in
the western part of the state, took his own movies and
showed them by invitation at a
lot of other schools.
“He coached all sports his first three years and kept on
with football until ten years
ago Whitefish won the football district championship
three times under the tough
tough old system in which big and little schools
competed on an equal basis-and
Whitefish was a little school. But the Bulldogs chalked
up victories over Missoula,
Havre, Great Falls, Butte Central, and Flathead High in
Kalispell.
“In 1938 Superintendent Hinderman faced a problem that
kids, but not school
Superintendents sometimes pray for. The school started
to fall down.
“The old central plant, opened about 1912, was built of
defective brick and without
sound supporting beams. An earthquake shock weakened it,
bowing one wall so that it was noticeably out of true.
Part of the school was still safe, but the main part had
to be rebuilt at once, and school had to keep anyway
Hindy made plans to hold classes in the school gym and
church basements. But the condition was hideous, with
groups of students in the bleachers and on the gym
floor, and parents said the church basement couldn’t be
heated property.
“Hindy went to see the local division superintendent of
the Great Northern Railway…who…telephoned headquarters
in St. Paul and in fifteen minutes had permission to set
out passenger coaches for classrooms. Next day men
started laying track to a point just west of the school
gymnasium. And in a week, the kids started going to
school, two classes to a coach. Men faculty provided
heat for the temporary schoolrooms. A threshing machine
engine made steam alongside, with a 40-foot culvert
upended for a smokestack.
“After all his efforts, Hindy amost didn’t live to see a
new school building completed. Two floors of the old
building, which was being demolished, collapsed thirty
seconds after he had walked under the spot where they
tumbled into ruins.
“Hindy never did get rich. He gave up the idea. But a
few years ago Vic Cassidy, who did (in California peach
land and the newspaper business) came through Whitefish
and met part of the Hinderman family-the Missus and Dan
and Marcia. His comment was, ‘Dutch, I’d trade with you
any time!”
Note: The quoted
material is taken from
Stump Town to Ski Town, by Betty Schafer and
Mable Engelter, written in 1972 and reprinted by the
Stumptown Historical Society in 2003. It is available
for sale in the Whitefish Museum located in the Train
Depot.
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