WHITEFISH SCHOOLS
September
5
By
Jill Evans, Administrator of the Stumptown Historical
Society
The first children
in the Whitefish area went to school in Columbia Falls,
driven there usually by ox team, sometimes by horse or
sleigh. The children were few, because pioneers tended
to be young men, single or newly married, and both women
and children were scarce in the earliest years.
In January, 1904, a school was
operating with public funds for a trial period of three
months in the church on the hill north of the railroad
tracks (the Presbyterian church). Its teacher was a Miss
L. M. Light of Spokane. Board members were W. S. Dodge,
John E. Skyles, and R. I. Oliver, Charles Bayha was
clerk.
When the Great Northern required a few months later that
all trainmen baring their families to the new division
point, the Whitefish school situation for September,
1904, became critical. A contract for $2,387 was let to
W. I. Miller to construct a school beside the Whitefish
River at Railway Street. Two rooms only were ready and
occupied in the fall of 1904; about sixty children
attended, E. M. Hutchinson and Miss Nellie Monk were
teachers. Although the plans called for an additional
room, a basement, and a hot-air heating plant, these
were not ready the first year.
A third room was added in 1905 by conversion of the
janitor’s room into a classroom. As families grew, the
building was added to repeatedly until it had eight
rooms. It was used until 1913, when new schools were
opened. It was finally town down April 4, 1936, by
Walter Kaber, who had bought it from the school board.
The first school principal was E. M. Hutchinson. He was
followed by B. F. Maiden in 1906, J. W. Wheat, Bert E.
Gibson, and H. L. Gloyde, who was the first given the
title of superintendent. Gloyde was followed by Harry L.
Hayden, who served from 1911 to 1923, except for one
year in Polson, when he feared rumors that the division
point would leave Whitefish might be true. Hayden
followed by E. A. Hinderman, who served thirty years,
retiring in 1953. After “Hindy” came W. S. Mikel
(1953-57, Winton W. Wetzel (1957-60, and Lloyd Muldown
(1960-71), Russell Giesy, who had been high school
principal for many years, became superintendent when
“Mullie” retired.
Most of our information about the first years of
Whitefish schools comes from the Minutes of the Board of
Trustees between September 12, 1905, and May 15, 1912, a
book lost for many years, but found under the rafters in
the wall when the upstairs balcony of Central School was
remodeled and made into a classroom in 1965. Eldon Lee,
a member of the board and clerk from 1942 to 1967, found
the book and turned it over to the Whitefish library. It
makes fascinating reading, sometimes sketchy, but always
reflecting the diligence and dedication to education of
these early Whitefish citizens.
The school board in 1905 was made up of R. L. Oliver, W.
F. Doonan, and J. A. Monk. C. A. Matthews was clerk.
Regular board meetings were held quarterly.
The board was directly concerned with the hiring of
teachers in those days, and they hired Miss Frances
Mahan in 1906 for $70 a month, Miss Marie Shoaf in 1908
and Miss Olivia Forcum in 1910, “providing she has the
proper credentials.” Evidently she did, for Miss Olivia
taught school in Whitefish from 1910 until 1940, when
she retired at the age of seventy-four. In February,
1956, the entire community celebrated her ninetieth
birthday. E. A. Hinderman, under whom she taught for
many years, once said that whereas many teachers were
too old to teach at sixty, he would have kept Olivia
Forcum on into her eighties if he could.
The early school board was responsible for raising all
moneys needed by the schools; there were no state or
federal handouts in those days. Perhaps for the reason,
board members kept their eyes carefully focused on the
taxpayers’ purses and did not waste pennies.
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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