Wednesday, January 15,1986 - the PAPER 
21 
Warsaw's early scllool years 
, 
By GINA M. SMITH 
Guest Feature Writer 
Imagine what the ciphering 
teachers of yesteryear would 
think if they could visit a modern 
computer labora tory in one of the 
Warsaw Community Schools. 
Would they find the machines 
cumbersome and of suspect 
reliability, or would they soon 
give up their slates to become 
computer 'hackers?' 
Yes, diskettes have replaced 
the abacus, but that is only one of 
the innumerable changes taking 
place in the Warsaw schools since 
the first brick schoolhouse was 
constructed in 1858. And, surely, 
many more changes will be seen 
as we face the year 2001 and 
beyond. 
While. the first recorded brick 
schoolhouse in Kosciusko County 
was constructed in 1858 at Detroit 
and Market Streets (where 
Schrader Automotive is now 
located), another school building 
is believed to have been located 
at Fort Wayne Street and Fort 
Wayne Avenue in the 1840s. At 
that time, the area surrounding 
Detroit and Main Streets was 
considered the hub-Sf the town's 
activity. Subscription schools 
were offered in 12-week sessions, 
when parents could pay a mon- 
thly fee to retain a teacher for a 
group of children. 
The first brick schoolhouse, 
known as Union School, became 
Center Ward in 1872 after govern- . 
mental action in the 1850s made 
education a public and tax- 
supported service. In the 18608, 
schools were also located on the 
northeast side of Market and 
Bronson Streets <Brown School) 
and the southwest corner of In- 
diana and South Streets. Three 
new . buildings _ ~~re apparently 
These-gl'a~ti!s must have 
gone through many slate pencils, 
which sold for one cent at the 
time. Slates were 15 cents or 25 
cents for a doublesided version. 
The first high school 
newspaper was published in 1905, 
followed by the first yearbook in 
1912. Also in 1905, girls' basket- 
ball debuted and was said to be a . 
sport too feminine for boys to 
play! 
The first Warsaw superinten- 
dent (superintendents were ac- 
tually called principals until the 
19oos) wasD. T. Johnson at Union 
School. He was followed by Valois' 
Butler, D. W. Thomas, and C. P. 
Hodge. In 1878, W. H. Wheeler 
was hired at an annual salary of 
$1,200. That stipend dropped to 
$900 for John Poole Mathers, who 
took over in 1880. He was followed 
by T. J. Sanders in 1885, Edwin 
Taylor in 1888, and James Henry 
in 1890. 
. Superintendent Noble Harter in 
1896 was credited with several 
changes, including a redistric- 
ting, the use of a coded grading 
system (on a scale of one to 10, a 
mark of '4' would indicate a- 
misspelling, for example), and a 
method of diagramming' 
sentences by placing each word 
in a oval. Historic records in- 
dicate Harter insisted on unifor- 
mity in the shape of the ovals, 
and students who mastered his 
technique were allowed to give 
demonstrations to parents. 
Perhaps this started what we can 
an 'open house' today. 
Following Harter was Early in 
1902, H. S. Kauffman in 1908, and 
James Leffel in 1917, who re- 
mained until 1943. 
Leffel's successor, Carl Burt, 
who served' until the year of his 
death in 1966, saw the construc- 
tion of Lincoln Elementary as 
If this weren't enough exercise, 
football players had to take 
another jaunt. After traveling on 
foot from the former high school 
to Center Ward to change in the 
locker rooms, the students had to 
run to the football field, which 
was located then where Kroger 
and Zale Drug are today. They 
also had to run back after prac- 
tice to shower and change! 
Before a cafeteria was added, 
students had the opportunity to 
bring their lunch, walk home, or 
go uptown. Lunch periods were 
one hour in length. . 
During World War II, voca- 
tional education and machine 
shops played an important role at 
the high school level. Adult 
education was added at this time, 
also, and the machine shop was 
operated 24 hours a day, training 
students and adults to work in 
factories where war supplies 
were being manufactured. Many 
went on to operate this equipment 
overseas. 
When the present high school 
opened, vocational education was 
in full swing, and the class, 
Diversified Occupations (now 
Distributive Education), was 
quite popular. This on-the-job 
training had begun in 1954, as 
students were given credit for 
working part of the day in either 
industrial educa tion or business- 
related jobs. 
It has been said the present 
high school was crowded from 
opening day. Although the . become the middle school, and 
building was planned and laid out the middle school will be 
in 1958 to 1960, it did not open until. renovated to become a ninth 
1962, and by that time, the State elementary school. Silver Lake 
Department of Instruction had Elementary is scheduled to be _ 
mandated consolidation. To add replaced with a new building and 
to the crowding, Plain Township Atwood will be substantially 
officials had been planning to join renovated. 
the Lakeland, now Wawasee, 	Just getting underway, also, is '., 
Community Schools, until a natatorium located adjacent to . 
transportation routes were the new Freshman High School 
studied, and they, too, decided to and a Central Instructional 
consolidate with Warsaw. Enroll- Materials Center, which will also 
ment grew sharply from 2,750 in be located at the State Road 15 
grades one to 12 in 1960, to 3,751 in site. 
1963. 	What will the future bring for 
Today, there are 5,578 students the Warsaw Community Schools? 
enrolled in the 11 Warsaw Com- Growth has been the trend; ex- 
munity Schools,' which include cellence has been the goal. 
eight elementaries (Atwood, 
Claypool, Jefferson, Leesburg, 
Lincoln, Madison, Silver Lake, 
and Washington), a middle 
school, freshman high school, . 
and the ever-growing Warsaw 
Community High School. 
Vocational education has 
grown in popularity and need pro- 
bably more than anyone could 
have imagined in 1940, and has 
been accompanied by Career 
Education, Computer Education, 
and special programs for gifted, 
as well as handicapped students. 
. A new building program 
receiving approval in October 
1985 calls for the still-new 
Freshman High School to receive 
an addition, creating a 9-12 grade 
high school once again. The pre- 
sent high school is scheduled to 

(Author's note: This article 
was made possible through an 
oral history of the schools by For- 
rest Croop, a 51-year veteran stu- 
dent, teacher, and Warsaw 
native. Also providing informa- 
tion were local historian George 
Nye's volumes 2, 21, 24, and 37 
and L. Royse's "History of 
Kosciusko County," Vol. 1, 
published in 1919, all found at the 
Warsaw Community Public 
Librsry.) 
Offered la nd 
Congress offered $20 and 100 
acres of land to all army privates 
who agreed to remain in military 
service for the duration of the 
Revolutionary War. 
DENTURE DOLLARS 
WE PAY YOUR. ·FIRS~T $50 
UNTil I=I=RRIIARV 1 ~~ 1 QRG 

In areas now served by the 
Warsaw Community Schools, log 
cabin schools were recorded as 
far back as 1835 in Prairie 
Township. The first town school 
was located in Leesburg in 1845. 
Clay Township followed suit in 
1840 with a pole structure. This 
was followed by a log cabin in 
1841, a frame building in 1859 and 
a brick building in 1877. 
The Center Ward moved to 303 
E. Main Street in 1906, but not 
before the ninth grade class, as 
just one example, reached a ratio 
of 60 students to just one teacher. 
Subject specialization began' in 
1904 which must have adjusted 
the teacher burden somewhat, 
but old records indicate crowded 
classrooms have been common in 
the Warsaw schools. 
The Center Ward of 1906 re- 
mains in service today on the east 
end as the central administration 
office; however, it is expected 
this building will be closed com- 
pletely in the next one to two 
years. Virtually every grade has 
been housed at the Main Street 
location, as it served as a junior 
high, Freshman High school (un- 
til1985), and Adams Elementary, 
which was located on the west 
end. 	n ••••••• • 
At about the same time the 
move was made from Market 
Street to Main Street for Center 
Ward, a new' high school was 
opened on the northwest corner of 
Main and Washington Streets, 
where the Retired Tiger Apart- 
ments are now located. Albert 
Keep was the principal of this 
school when it opened in 1905 and 
J. J. Early was the superinten- 
dent. This building served as the 
high school for 43 years, and then 
served as Freshman High School 
before its closing. 
The first recorded graduating 
class from Warsaw High School 
consisted of three women - Belle 
Weimer, Alice Carpenter, and 

~Mary Shaffer in 1878. In 1902, a 
'e ou n ty-w i de g r ad ua t i on 
-eremony for eighth-graders was 
onducted in Winona Lake by 
-~e Worley, county 
. dent. 
•••• U' ••••••••••••••••••••••••• ""' ••••••••.• .LV. _. 	-w·ca."! a·.:)~"'Jl~ln:;-YY l1ClJ-l1C;:- 1:VJ. .&.:.Ja., 

Ward (McKinley Elementary) 
and a new West Ward (Madison 
Elementary>. Burt's triumph, 
though, must ha ve been the con- 
struction of the present high 
school, which opened in 1962 on 
the shore of 'Winona Lake. 
Wilmer Bugher was superinten- 
dent 1966-1970. 
Max Hobbs was superintendent 
from 1970 to 1976, followed by 
Charles Bragg until 1979 and 
Larry Stinson as acting 
superintendent for a brief period 
during 1979-80. 
Dr. Larry W. Crabb joined the 
school system in 1980 and has 
generally been credited with a 
turn-around in student test 
scores, teacher morale and com- 
munity attitude toward the school 
system. 
Burt was able to witness the ad- 
dition of Prairie Township to the 
school system, with the inclusion 
of Atwood Elementary. Hobbs 
was superintendent when a 
reorganization of the school 
system added Clay, Lake, and 
Plain Townships to the ever- 
growing educational corporation. 
This change took place in 1966 
and still governs the makeup of 
the school system and the school 
board, with representatives from 
the townships of Wayne, 
Prairie/Plain, Clay /Lake, and 
the City of Warsaw. By this time, 
too, the Wayne Township schools 
of East Wayne (Jefferson) and 
West Wayne (Washington) had 
joined the system . 
Before the move to the shore of 
Winona Lake, the high school on 
West Main added several new 
programs as well as two wings. 
Prior to 1940, high school shop 
students were. forced to literally 
run to Ceriter Ward (the 
equivalent 9f running from 
Retired Tigers to McDonald's) in 
a normal passing period (five to 
six minutes) for an industrial 
arts class. 
Likewise, the .drama students 
would walk or run uptown to the 
former Centennial Theatre for 
play practice. This theatre later 
became the Boice Theatre and is 
. now the Town Center Mall. 
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Present these Denture 
Dollars on your initial visit 
and we'll pay your first $50 
on a new full set of custom 
or deluxe dentures, or we'll 
pay your first $25 on either 
the uppers or lowers. 
WARSAW DENTAL 
	•	CENTER 	( 
269·5050 
Drs. S. Hunt, R. Windsor, D. Krause 
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