PEARL HILL SCHOOL 1929-30
(FRONT) John Erwin, Howard Swindle, Tommy Yeager, Harold Ireland, Mabel Fern Ireland, Helen Dickson, Hazel Dickson, Marjorie Erwin, Melva Dean Booth.
(MIDDLE) Lawrence Erwin, Wayne Lundien, Chester Palmer, Clarence Scammel, Ray Dickson, Erma Scammel, Freda Swindle, Mildred Scammel.
(BACK) Claude Ireland, Milton Palmer, Marion Dickson, Mabel Dickson, Nadine Howard, Hazel Harpole, Dorothy Yeager. (PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY JEANNE NEWBY)
Old News
Webb City Area Genealogical Society
The photo we’ve selected this week is of the Pearl Hill School students during the 1929-1930 school year. Teaching all grades, first through eighth, was Mildred Scafe.
There was also another school in Jasper County that went by the name Pearl Hill. It was located southeast of Carthage and was also known as Jones School.
Pearl Hill School was located about 1½ miles west of the Oronogo Cemetery on Ivy Road.
In 1950, the residents of the Pearl Hill School District voted in favor of annexing their district to the Webb City School District. There were 30 school-age children in the district at that time.
Why Webb City instead of Oronogo?
The tax was an issue with voters. Webb City’s was $2.30 compared to Pearl Hill’s $0 .65. 22 were for the merger and 21 against. The one-vote margin was sufficient under state laws concerning annexation.
Possibly Oronogo had an even higher tax levy, but that is doubtful. Maybe rumors of Oronogo consolidating with Webb City were in the air, but that did not happen until 1968.
There was a fire at the Oronogo school in March 1952, after which the Webb City district offered use of the Prairie Flower and Pearl Hill buildings, as well as desks and books.
The WCAGS has accepted ownership of the complete collection of bound volumes of the Webb City Sentinel, from 1983 (after the fire) until the final issue on Dec. 30, 2020.
Those issues can also be viewed on microfilm, along with much older issues.
WCAGS members staff the Genealogy Room on the third floor of the Webb City Public Library. Current hours are noon to 4 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. Meetings are held at 6 p.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the Geadalogy Room.
Everything you want to know about Jasper County Missouri Schools is available at a site compiled by Webb City Area Genealogical Society member Kathy Sidenstricker.
The Webb City Sentinel isn’t a newspaper – but it used to be, serving Webb City, Missouri, in print from 1879-2020. This “newspaper” seeks to carry on that tradition as a nonprofit corporation.
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