Weaver School, 1962

Weaver's fifth and sixth grade classes. Pictured standing in back were teacher Norma Hutcheson, SWRE manager J.M. Maddox, and Weaver Supt. M.E. Friels.

All photos from the files of Southwest Rural Electric Cooperative

 Click on photos to see in clearer resolution.

Weaver School Profiled by SWRE in 1962

     In its November 1962 newsletter, Southwest Rural Electric Cooperative did an extensive profile of Weaver School.

     Weaver, located six miles west and one mile south of Frederick, had gone "all-electric" and was served by SWRE.

     I was in the fourth grade at Weaver in 1962-63, and I clearly remember the new electric heaters that had been installed in each classroom during the previous summer. Getting modern electric heat was a big deal!

     I also vaguely remember the day in October 1962 when some folks from the electric cooperative came to take pictures and do interviews. Those were simpler times, with few distractions for country school kids.

     Weaver was a great school, with great traditions. It was built as a consolidated school (Cons. #13) in 1930, with the first graduating class in 1931.

     For more than 50 years Weaver served students who lived on farms west of Frederick. In many families (including mine), several generations attended school at Weaver.

     The high school's final graduating class was in 1968 (the end of my 9th grade year). The high school was done in by tightened state requirements for student enrollment numbers.

     Weaver's elementary grades (1-8) remained in place until the late 1980s.

     Today, the wonderful old Weaver building has a second life as the Oklahoma Department of Corrections' Frederick Work Release Center.

     SWRE's article from the November 1962 newsletter follows:

From Southwest Rural Electric News, November 1962

The Miracle of Electricity Comes to Weaver School

Weaver, a consolidated school in southwest Tillman County, has taken a great step forward recently in that they “have come up to progress.” A progress which means it is a leader in progressiveness of southwest Oklahoma and perhaps in this entire area.

Northeast corner of the Weaver gymnasium

Weaver is an ALL-ELECTRIC School, which means heating, cooling, and all the electrical equipment to make the school as modern and efficient as the school of tomorrow.

This spacious and certainly well equipped plant of learning is a far cry from the little red school house that once graced the prairie, and readin’, writin’ and ‘rithmetic are now such a pleasure with all-electric facilities that many child wants to attend school. They are eager to get to school and try their hand out on that beautiful new equipment that seems almost magic.

Each Room Heated Electrically

All inside classrooms are equipped with three heating units and the outside rooms have four. These are controlled by individual thermostats so that at all times the atmosphere is pleasant. Electricity cools the clean air in warm weather as well.

Billy Hunt talks with J.M. Maddox in the typing room.

Before installing the electric system, the school was equipped with a Stoker steam heat system. It was dirty, maintained an uneven heat and certainly caused smoke-stained walls and windows besides the unpleasant fumes from the coal burner. A janitor was required to start the boiler at 4 a.m. in order to have the school warm enough for nine o’clock classes. The coal had to be shipped to Frederick and then hauled to Weaver. Superintendent Meridith Friels says that the savings in man hours and the special electric heating rate which Southwest Rural Electric offers, makes the cost about the same.

Weaver's seventh and eight grades

Electrically Equipped Shop

A trip to the school’s shop was a revelation in real progress and what power tools can do for this department. Billy Cox, who holds a B.S. from Southwestern and had a Math Fellowship at O.B.U. last summer, is the shop and math teacher at Weaver.

The shop, in its own separate building, has all the appearance of a small factory. The boys are busily engaged in creating their own designs in end tables, what-not-shelves, lamps, bookcases, cedar chests, etc.

Math Lab is Outstanding

Mr. Cox also presides over the math lab, and this is perhaps the most outstanding room in the school as far as equipment is concerned. On entering the well-lighted room, the first thing that greets the eye is an eight-foot slide rule. This is a demonstration instrument, Mr. Cox explained, big enough that any student in the class may see from any angle. Each desk in this room is equipped with a built-in rectangular and polar coordinate system where a student may copy work on the same example that the teacher is working at the all-steel chalkboards at the front of the room.

View from south back of Weaver includes the lunch room.

A drafting machine occupies a prominent place. This machine can be set at different angles and can be slid up and down or back and forth. This is used in Trigonometry. The rectangle coordinate is used in Algebra I and 2, preliminary and quadratic equations.

Mr. Cox explained that several of his boys were most interested in being draftsmen and that a well-qualified man in this line is always in demand in the business world.

Mrs. Mary Lee Friels teaches English and Home Economics and holds a B.S. from OSU and a life certificate in English and Vocational Economics. She heads the 4-H groups at Weaver, also, and has had many students to bring honors to Weaver.

Science room at southeast corner of the school building

In the Home-Ec department, naturally electricity plays a big part. Electric sewing machines, good lighting, heating, cooling and every electrical appliance to make the work easier, faster and more attractive have been added. There are even electric scissors. Electric stoves are being installed so that young Home-Ec students may learn the timesaving freedoms of electric cooking.

The Lunch Room is in its own cottage. Mr. Friels explained that this had been an old barracks which they purchased, had knocked down and moved from Enid to Weaver. With a little planning and much hard work it has transformed into the present attractive dining room which, by removing the folding tables, an attractive party room is provided. This room is also provided with electric equipment making for clean, healthful food. Mrs. Turrie Blalock heads the lunch room with Mrs. D.B. Wynn as assistant.

The overall picture of Weaver school is a busy, progressive educational plant drawing students from an area of 76 square miles in school district No. 13. Five buses transport the 165 students to Weaver.

The school has new furniture throughout. This is particularly fine in the typewriting classes. Adjustable, steel desks and chairs, electric typewriters, correctly placed lighting fixtures and an overhead projector, makes this room very modern and a room in which it is pleasantly easy to learn to type.

High school students in the English/study hall classroom

 The lighting of the entire school was designed by General Electric and the fixtures are the best made, Mr. Friels said. Suspended ceilings of fiberglass make the acoustics almost perfect

Well Equipped With Visual Aids

The school is well equipped with visual aids which are so important in the present-day modern school system. A Bell and Howell 16 mm projector, an RCA projector, three tape recorders, a film strip machine and a controlled reader are a few of the items used in this department.

Outstanding Faculty Listed

A well trained and qualified faculty besides those already listed are as follows:

William McKee, Science, holds a degree in Science from Midwestern at Wichita Falls, Texas, and had a fellowship at Colorado State last summer at Greely, Colorado. He has been at Weaver for three years;

Mrs. Billy Hunt, Commerce, holds a B.S. from Central State and has been at Weaver for five years;

Mrs. Norma Hutcheson, fifth and sixth grades, holds a B.S. from O.U. and has been at Weaver for eight years;

Mrs. Bill Hubbard, third and fourth grades, holds a B.S. from Southwestern and has been at Weaver for ten years;

Mrs. Irma Latimer, first and second grades, holds a B.S. from Southwestern and has been at Weaver for 14 years.

Mr. McKee is a girls’ coach and Mr. Friels is the boys’ coach. In athletics, they participate in basketball and baseball. In 1958 the Weaver girls went to the state tournament in basketball.

Mrs. Friels, in sponsoring the 4-H, is very proud of some of the records made by her students. Jim Richards, Elwanna and LaVelle Gottschall, and Rita McCormack are among many who have won signal honors for their school in safety, speech, agronomy and beef judging, so that each field seems well represented.

Every well-qualified member of the faculty seems to be on his toes pushing ahead for Weaver. No Siree, Weaver is not one of those country schools that had to shut down to make way for progress… Weaver stepped out ahead and has kept abreast of progress, and today is considered one of the outstanding school systems in southwest Oklahoma.

County School Districts

Column sent to Frederick Leader and Frederick Press

August 31, 2010

Tillman County School Districts, 1930

Early Tillman County Schools (Part I)

In the earliest decades to Tillman County, schools marked more than 100 distinct communities. Over the years, the small schools eventually closed, consolidating with or sending students to other nearby schools.

Last week in this column, a 1930 map showed the schools that existed at that time. By 1930, many of the original school districts had already merged into larger consolidated districts such as Laing, Weaver, Wilson, Victory, Hollister or Loveland.

What follows in this week’s and next week’s column is a listing of all county school districts from the county’s earliest days.

In addition to the school name and district number, general directions are given to the school location, the approximate date of the school’s closing, and the school to which the original school was consolidated or to which students were sent.

Alpian 153 (6 miles south of Tipton), to Weaver Cons. #13, 1949.

Bethel 141 (4 east, 1 south of Manitou), to Manitou School, 1940.

Belmont 65 (4 east, 1 and half north of Manitou), to Manitou School

Blue 86 (4 north, 1 west of Tipton), to Tipton Cons. #8, 1940.

Blue 171 (3 east, half south of Davidson), to Davidson Cons. #9, 1909.

Blue Valley 259 (3 east, 3 south of Grandfield), to Devol School, 1913.

Brush Creek 226 (5 north, 2 and half east of Grandfield), to Grandfield School, 1941.

Burnett 149 (3 west of Tipton), to Tipton Cons. #8, 1919.

Cameron 233 (4 south, 2 east of Hollister), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1913.

Carter 168 (2 north, 4 west of Davidson), to Wilson Cons. #2 1914.

Center Point 248 (3 east of Grandfield), to Grandfield School, 1947.

Centerview 178 (northeast of Tipton), to Laing Cons. #1, 1912.

Chadwick 187 (1 west, 1 and half north of Tipton), to Tipton Cons. #8, 1923.

Chateau 232 (11 east of Davidson), to Victory Cons. #11, 1926.

Circle Valley 151 (3 south of Tipton), to Tipton Cons. #8, 1923.

Dawson 212 (northwest of Hollister), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1921.

East Aurora 144. Changed name to Manitou in 1907. Operated high school until 1964, and grade school until 1977.

East Jack Creek 134 (2 west, 1 and half north of Chattanooga). Operated until 1942.

Edendale 230 (2 east, 1 and half south of Hollister), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1925.

Ernest 76 (3 north, 4 and half east of Tipton), to Laing Cons. #1, 1912.

Fairview 142 (4 north 5 east of Frederick), to Manitou School and Frederick School, 1942.

Farmingdale 231 (3 south, 1 west of Hollister), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1921.

Fort Augur 256 (6 west, 4 south of Grandfield), to Grandfield School, 1959.

Glendale 64 (7 and half east, 1 and fourth west of Manitou), to Manitou School, 1937.

Glenwood 155 (2 north of Frederick), to Frederick School, 1938.

Goehler 258 (3 south of Grandfield), to Grandfield School, 1917.

Good Hope 164 (4 south, 3 east of Frederick), to Sunrise Cons. #6, 1916.

Hackberry Flat 165 (6 east, 2 north of Davidson), to Sanford School in 1923, and later to Victory Cons. #11.

Harmony 214 (4 east, 1 and half north of Hollister), to Isadore School in 1915 and later to Hollister Cons. #10 or Loveland, Cons. #5.

Haskell 210 (10 east, 1 north of Frederick), to Hollister, Cons. #10.

Henderson Cons. #3 (five miles south of Frederick). To Frederick School and Davidson School, 1943.

Hiawatha 133 (5 north, 2 west of Chattanooga), to Chattanooga School, 1948.

Hill Top 71 (4 north, 1 east of Manitou), to Manitou School and Snyder School, 1942.

Holton 139 (7 east, 1 and half south of Manitou), to Manitou School, 1943.

Horse Creek 63 (4 north, 7 east of Manitou), to Snyder School, 1947.  NOTE: Building was moved to Frederick in 1977 and is located at the Pioneer Townsite.

Howard 236 (2 and half north of Grandfield) to Grandfield School, 1917.

Hurford 169 (4 west, 1 south of Davidson), to Davidson Cons. #9 and Wilson Cons. #2, 1920.

Hurst 161 (2 south, 8 west of Frederick), to Wilson Cons. #2, 1914.

Isadore 213 (11 east, 1 and half south of Frederick), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1928.

IXL 154 (3 west, 1 north of Frederick), to Weaver Cons. #13, 1950.

Laing Cons. #1 (closed in 1958).

Leggett 208 (4 west, 1 and half south of Chattanooga), to Chattanooga School and Loveland Cons. #5, 1938.

Liberty School, 1911

Liberty 91 (to Laing Cons. #1, 1914)

Lone Star 209 (13 east, half north of Frederick), to Hollister Cons. #10, Loveland Cons. #5 and Chattanooga School, 1944.

Maple Dale 137 (10 east, 1 south of Manitou), to Manitou School, Chattanooga School and Indiahoma School, 1944

Mayflower 252 (8 west, ¼ south of Grandfield), to Victory Cons. #11, 1947

Mounts 211 (6 east of Frederick), to Hollister Cons. #10, 1921

North Deep Red 94 (northeast of Manitou), closed in 1945

Otter Creek 73 (4 south, 3 west of Snyder), to Snyder School and Laing Cons. #1, 1947

Parks 234 (1 west, 2 south of Loveland), to Loveland Cons. #5, 1915.

Pearson 167 (3 north of Davidson), to Wilson Cons. #2, 1914.

Pitzer Dale 235 (2 east, 1 and ¾ south of Loveland), to Loveland Cons. #5, 1918.

Column sent to Frederick Leader and Frederick Press

September 14, 2010

Maple Dale School, 1907

Early Tillman County Schools (Part II)

In recent weeks this column has explored early Tillman County schools.

In the earliest days of settlement, there were more than 100 schools in the county, located approximately 3 miles apart. The small schools were a center of social life in those early communities. In addition to classroom instruction, the schoolhouses hosted church services, social gatherings, and according to early newspapers, school grounds were even the sites of some early funerals and burials.

Today, there is often nothing left to mark the spot where those early schools stood.

Eventually, school districts began to consolidate or merge, creating fewer, larger schools. And, over the years, even most of those larger, consolidated schools have faded away, leaving only four county schools today – Frederick, Davidson, Tipton and Grandfield.

In a previous column, many of the early schools were listed, along with general locations and information about when the school closed. That list continues in this column.

Please note that this list of early schools is likely not complete, and the location listed is approximate.

Early Schools

Plainview 145 (5 north of Frederick), to Frederick and Manitou, early 1940s.

Pleasant Ridge 144 (4 north, 2 and half east of Frederick), to Manitou and Frederick, 1938.

Pleasant Ridge School students and teacher

Pleasant Valley 92 (2 south, 8 west of Snyder), to Snyder, 1949.

Pleasant Valley 138 (12 east, 3 and half north of Frederick), to Hollister and Manitou, 1943.

Pleasant Valley 148 (located near Tipton), to Tipton, 1909.

Pleasant Valley 255 (8 west, 3 and half south of Grandfield), to Victory Cons. 11, 1947.

Polk 229 (half north, half west of Loveland), to Loveland Cons. 5, 1914.

Prairie Dale 228 (2 east, 1 north of Loveland), to Loveland Cons. 5, 1914.

Prairie Dale 250 (2 and fourth west of Grandfield), became part of Union Graded 1, 1917.

Red Bluff 166 (7 south of Frederick), became part of Henderson Cons. 3, 1915.

Rich Valley 227 (6 north of Grandfield), to Grandfield, Chattanooga and Loveland, 1949.

Rita 253 (11 west, 2 south of Grandfield), annexed to Victory Cons. 11, 1929.

Riverside 120 (8 and half west, 2 south of Frederick) along North Fork, became part of Weaver Cons. 13, 1930.

Rose Hill 156 (3 east, 1 north of Frederick), to Frederick, 1944.

Sage 260 (5 south, 2 west of Grandfield), to Grandfield, 1959.

Sanford 172 (7 east, 1 south of Davidson), became part of Victory Cons. 11, 1923.

Siboney 72 (2 north of Manitou), to Manitou in 1930s.

Sims 237 (3 east, 3 north of Grandfield), to Grandfield, 1945.

South Deep Red 140 (4 north, 8 and half east of Frederick), closed in 1943.

Spring Valley 257 (2 west, 3 south of Grandfield), to Grandfield, 1947.

Sunny Slope 251 (5 west of Grandfield), became part of Union Graded 1, 1917.

Sunrise Cons. #6 (3 east, 3 and half south of Frederick), to Frederick, Hollister, and Victory, 1949.

Sunset View 207 (18 east, 1 south of Frederick), to Chattanooga, 1938.

Sunshine School 147 (near Tipton), consolidated with Tipton, 1919

Tesca 152 (10 west, 1 north of Frederick), became part of Weaver Cons. 13, 1930.

Thacker 4 (2 west of Manitou), to Manitou and Tipton, 1944.

Union 146 (northwest of Frederick), to Frederick, Tipton, Manitou and Weaver, 1947.

Union Graded I (3 and half west of Grandfield), to Grandfield, 1947.

Union Home 135 (5 west, 4 and half north of Chattanooga), to Chattanooga and Indiahoma, 1942.

Valley Home 160 (5 west, 2 south of Frederick), became part of Weaver Cons. 13, 1930.

Valley View School

Valley View 215 (4 north, 1 east of Loveland), to Loveland, 1922.

Victory Cons. 11 (east of Davidson). Formed through consolidation, 1923. Closed in 1968.

Warren 157 (2 south, 3 east of Frederick), became part of Sunrise Cons. 6, 1915.

Weaver Cons. 13 (6 west, 1 south of Frederick). Formed from consolidation, 1930. High school closed in 1968, and elementary closed in 1990, to Frederick, Tipton and Davidson.

West Jack Creek 136 (northwest of Chattanooga), to Chattanooga in the 1930s.

West Liberty 159 (2 south, 3 west of Frederick), became part of Weaver Cons. 13, 1930.

White Lake 150 (southwest of Tipton), to Tipton, 1921.

Wilson Cons. 2 (6 west, 6 and half south of Frederick), formed from consolidation in 1913. Closed in 1954. Students to Weaver and Davidson.

NOTE: More detailed information about each of the schools, along with stories and photos, can be found in the Tillman County History, Vol. II. (1978).

Joe Wynn is a member of the Tillman County Historical Society Board of Directors. He can be contacted by e-mail at jawynn@cableone.net.