Beaumont High School 1955 Yearbook (Monroe Township, PA) - Full Access

42 Monroe Township School History The first school in Monroe Township was a log cabin built at the present junction of Route 309 and the Harvey's Lake Road. This log cabin housed the children of the early Connecticut settlers who brought with them the first teacher, Ashel Barnes. In time a frame schoolhouse replaced this log cabin. It was known as the Rock Corner School. Mrs. Calla Parrish attended the frame schoolhouse and now lives in it. When population demands deemed it, another frame schoolhouse was built on Cemetery Hill below the Church. It was known as the White Schoolhouse on the hilL It was this schoolhouse, partially standing today, that Mr. William Newberry attended. He remembers eighty-six pupils in his group and one teacher, Miss Mary Campbell. At one time Monroe Townships population needed seven schools, the two mentioned in Beaumont, one in Plattsburg now used as a dwelling and owned by William Arch Austin, one in Marsh Creek, one at Evan's Falls, one at Buckwheat Hollow, on the site now oc– cupied by the Lowell Boones, and one at Bowman's Creek near Lutes Corners, now the Free Methodist Church Youth Center. The name of the last was "The Red Schoolhouse". Prior to the building of a school on September 16, 187 2, the largest rooms of the Presbyterian Parsonage, now the home of C. Hilbert, were opened for higher learning under the name of Monroe Academy which was designed to teach the " higher branches and the classics, and also to serve as a normal school" . No fewer than fifty successful teachers had their start here. In 1873, the Odd Fellows' Hall was occupied. Then in the summer of 1874 the building, known as the Monroe Academy, but chartered as the Bowman's Creek Presbyterian Church, was erected. The total cost of the building, con– sisting of two classrooms and a chapel auditorium, was $6,452, chiefly contributed by the citizens of Monroe Township. The first principal was Rev. C. K. Canfield. The large maple trees in front of the Beaumont Schools and Clarence Hilbert's house are now the living memorials to the Monroe Academy, which was attended by students from Easton, Tunkhannock, Kingston, and this vicinity. J. P. Breidinger, former principal at Coughlin High School at Wilkes-Barre, was the principal at Monroe Academy when Mrs. Calla Parrish, Mrs. Addie Ryman Austin, Lewis Orcutt, and William Newberry attended. In 1890 a meeting was held at the Bowman's Creek School where it was voted to build a grade school at Beaumont. During the next few years one acre of land was purchased at the site of the present high school at Beaumont. In 1894 a four room building with a second story auditorium was built by Jesse Albertson of Dallas.. The plastering was done by A . J . Frear, brother of the late Henry Frear and Mrs. Parrish. There was some opposition to the building of a new school and so it was nicknamed the "White Elephant ." by those who thought it was going to b., such an expense and was not needed. The four rooms housed four departments: primary, intermediate, grammar, and three year high school. Each department contained three grades. This wa:S commonly called a New England type school. At this time the two schools at Beaumont and the one at Plattsburg were dosed and the pupils came to the new school with Mr. McCreary, the Plattsburg teacher, as the principal and high school teacher. The second principal was Mr. David Weant of Huntington Mills. He taught several years and was instrumental in making it a high school. The first class graduated in 1898 and consisted of two members . The school term was usually seven or eight months. The next change came in 1922 when the ninth grade was dropped and two teachers were used in the three years of high school. In 1930 the fourth year of high school was added and a four-room elementary school was built by the late Alphens O'Dell of Eatonville, allowing the remaining one -room schools to be abandoned and the pupils brought into Beaumont via bus. A temporary program, still in use, calling for four te::tchers for the first six grades and four for the upper six was installed. We wish to thank Mrs. Calla Parrish, Miss Florence Frear, Mrs. Oce Austin, and alt the advisors who helped to make this history possible.