High school graduation in Chariton at the turn of the 20th century was a complicated affair because the school board and faculty demanded that each scholar either deliver an oration or perform in some other manner before walking across the stage to collect his or her diploma. Depending upon class size, this could be time-consuming and stretch over two evenings.
The 24-member class of 1904, faced with the prospect of two long evening performances during May, staged a modest revolt in early April. The class asked that instead the school bring in a guest speaker to do the orating and simplify the process. Although parents apparently were on board, board and staff were having none of it. The result was a confrontation, reported upon as follows under the headline "Students Revolt" in the April 7, 1904, edition of The Chariton Leader:
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The members of the senior class of the Chariton High School, twenty-four in number, have been having troubles of their own the past few weeks. Instead of the regular commencement exercises, they asked the school board to give them a lecture. This request was refused by the board and then the trouble commenced.
The seniors then prepared a petition signed by their parents, and presented to the board, asking them to reconsider the matter. This the board refused to do. The seniors thought they had a grievance and on the eve of April Fool's day they prepared a joke in the shape of a number of printed hand bills announcing that Prof. L.D. Goodrich of the Chicago University would deliver a lecture instead of the regular commencement exercises to be held this spring. These bills were distributed over the city.
It is hardly necessary to state that Supt. Morris and the members of the board failed to see the joke.
To carry the matter still farther, the seniors went to school on the morning of April Fool's day dressed to resemble clowns. They were refused admittance to the school building. In the afternoon they went back, dressed in mourning. They were met at the door by Prof Morris and given the alternative of signing a paper stating that they would give their commencement orations without any more trouble, or going to their homes and remaining there until the matter was definitely settled.
The paper was signed by eleven members, but the remainder of the seniors declined to do so.
On Monday morning all members of the class were permitted to go back to school, but only those who signed the agreement will graduate. The Chariton schools have been moving along smoothly and without any friction and it is greatly to be regretted that this trouble has arisen.
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As the days passed, the stormy waters calmed and The Leader of April 21 was able to report, "As the matter now stands the members of the senior class expect to deliver their orations and graduate, although we understand that the two class factions, those who signed the agreement and those who did not, are unable to agree on any question that arises."
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Commencement exercises were duly held in the high school auditorium (in a building later known as Alma Clay) on the evenings of May 18 and May 19, 1904. At great length. Looking at the program, which survives in the Lucas County Historical Society collection, you almost wonder if the students didn't twist the knife just a little by planning exercises that seem now to be of excruciating tedium. And then there was the enigmatic class motto, "On the market but not sold."
If you look at the class list, you'll find among the rebels the names of several young men and women who went on to become mainstays of their community. So the class of 1904 turned out OK.
During 1904, high school class size was small in large part because so many young people attended private schools and acadamies. My paternal grandparents, for example, attended the Blackburn Academy, then located about two miles east of Chariton. There were several others.
As these private schools faded and the high school program improved, Chariton High School class size increased dramatically. As that happened, commencement exercises that demanded performances by all the graduates became a thing of the past eliminating at least one cause for revolt.
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