1924 Maroon and White

May is the month for graduations.  This weekend, the Princeville High School Class of 2014 graduates.  These students have put in a lot of work in their four years at PHS.  Many of the memories have been captured and published in The Maroon yearbook.  According to our records, the first yearbook was published in 1914, 100 years ago.  See this post with pictures from the 1914 yearbook.  We also posted the advertisements in the 1914 yearbook in this post.  The yearbook was published for a few years, but during the 1920s, the yearbook was replaced by a booklet titled "The Maroon and White".  We have been told a yearbook wasn't published during those years because it was too expensive.  If you know more about the history of The Maroon, please call or stop in.

To celebrate this year's graduates, let's take a step back in time to 1924.  Ninety years ago, our high school students were busy with baseball, track, tennis, basketball, plays and class parties.  The 1924 graduating class had 22 students.

The 1924 Maroon and White was 8 pages of photos and commentary.  In 1924, Mr. J.A. Stewart was superintendent. He is pictured here on page 1 with the class of 1924.  Front row (left to right): Clement Weber (Webber?), Robert Acheson, Luther Mansfield, Vesta (Buck) Mason, Lucille (McGinnis) Montgomery, Faye (Nelson) Stargle.  Middle Row (left to right): Sarah (Routh) Webber, Leila (Williams) Stewart, Rosene (Hough) Van Sandt, Ruth (Noonen) Hardgrove, Marie (Weber or Webber) Dempsey, Gladys (Byrnes) Harmon, Marion (Rose) Inwood, Lucile (Carman) Camp.  Back Row (left to right): Supt. J.A. Stewart, Raymond Oertley, Louis Bouton, Elmer Byrnes, Joseph Ricketts, Louie Murnan, Harold Bouton, Walter Smith, Caroline (Friedman) Camp. The married names of the female students were added to this list from the 1955 alumni list that is published here.

Page 2 included a description of all the social events of the high school classes starting with the September PTA parent and student gathering.   During the year, each class held parties and picnics at various locations in the area.

During the school year the junior and senior classes each hosted a play. In addition to the plays, the glee clubs performed an operetta in February.  At the bottom of page 3, the tennis team is pictured.  Standing (left to right): Richard Auten, Harold Webber, Robert Hyde, Earl Best, Gerald Stewart.  Seated (left to right): Marion (Rose) Inwood, Raymond Searl, Marie (Webber) Dempsey.

The baseball team and a written account of the County Track and Literary meet are on page 4 of the newsletter.  Standing (left to right): Louie Murnan, George Smith, Clement Webber, Robert Weaver, Coach Bickford, George Young, Robert Hyde, Luther Mansfield.  Seated (left to right): Raymond Oertley, Earl Best, Captain P. Burgess.  The county meet which was held in Princeville included tennis, track, declamation, vocal and music contests.  The tennis was played on courts at the Presbyterian Church.  According to the article, the declamation/vocal/music contests was so well attended that both the Methodist and Presbyterian churches were used.  Since this was before internet and computer technology, the contestants had to perform twice, once at each church.  

The fifth page featured the track team and continued with the results of the county meet.  Princeville won the athletic meet and placed second overall, behind Chillicothe.  The track team is pictured with their javelins and discus.  Clement Webber broke the county record by throwing the javelin 167 feet, 16 inches at the county meet.  Standing in the photo (left to right): Franklin Gingrich, Robert Acheson, F. Timmons, Gerald Stewart, Coach Bickford, Robert Weaver, George Young. Seated (left to right): Louie Murnan, Captain Luther Mansfield, Earl Best.

The basketball team's season record and photo is on page 6.  Standing in the photo (left to right): George Smith, Robert Weaver, Gerald Stewart, Theodore West, Clement Webber, Coach Bickford.  Seated (left to right): Luther Mansfield, Robert Hyde, Captain George Young, Harold Webber, Earl Best.

Page 7 includes a description of the graduation events as well as the year in review.  Graduation was held on June 3.  Reverend Cecil Carpenter of Peoria gave the commencement address.

Jingles and jokes are the last page of the newsletter which was printed by the Princeville Telephone of Princeville, Illinois. Does this bring back memories of your high school years?  Are you related to any of these students?  We do maintain a library of books, scrapbooks, maps and more to help with local genealogy research.  Let us help you research your family tree.

This newsletter was a donation from the estate of James Montgomery.  If you have any items you would like to donate to the museum, please send us an email or call to make arrangements.