The following is a History of Monroe Elementary School written by Lou Ella Lee, for information on South Sevier High School, and Middle School please scroll down the page further.

History of Monroe Elementary School
Lou Ella Lee

This is a brief history of Monroe Elementary School from 1864 to the present time. There are many histories of the Jr. High, Middle School, and High Schools, but—like the woman on T.V. says: "That’s a whole other story".  

One Hundred Thirty One years ago in 1864 a little group of home seekers, weary from travel, made their camp where a clear stream of water made it’s way through the brush. They called the new home "Alma" after a Book of Mormon prophet. There were 32 families in the original settlement of this little town. At first the people lived in dugouts. Their lives were always in danger from the hostile Indians. In 1866 it became necessary for the people in the little settlement to move to Richfield, Gunnison and so on where they could be safer.

During the summer the women and children lived in these other communities, and the men went back and forth to Alma to clear more brush from the land, make ditches to get water onto the land and care for the small crops they had planted. They were also very busy building a fort for protection from the Indians. In the fall of 1866 the men brought their families back to Alma and lived in the fort which had been completed. A marker stands on first West and second North showing location of the Fort. The Indians continued to steal the settlers cattle. A few men from surrounding settlements and one man from Alma were killed, so in 1867 Brigham Young gave orders to evacuate Sevier Valley and seek protection elsewhere.

Four years later (1871) some of the men returned to their lands and tried to make more permanent homes for their families. The little settlement was now called Monroe after U.S. President James Monroe. There was another settlement farther north called Alma and the people wanted to avoid confusion of names, so it was re-named. These brave people, always in fear of Indians, living in dugouts and houses with dirt floors and dirt roofs, worked hard to build homes and to build up a commonwealth.

With all their danger and poverty and hardships these settlers of Alma knew how important it was for their children to learn to read and write at an early age. They had been taught that "The Glory of God is intelligence."

the Tune of the Hickory Stick." The stick was readily available and used. With our modern day rulings those teachers might be cited for Child Abuse. Later on, after land had been allotted to each family and home built, school was held in the homes of the teachers (usually a two room house).

Teachers were not hired by a School board as they are today. (there was no School Board) There were no laws requiring a degree or any certain qualifications. If someone felt qualified they could teach (usually in their own home). Most however, were graduates of the eighth grade. The teachers did not receive a certain wage nor were they paid by the city. Tuition was charged for each child and the parents paid according to the number of children attending school. Books were few and were furnished by the parent. The Bible and Book of Mormon were used as text books for reading. Later they acquired a little Brown Reader. Notebooks and pencils were unheard of. Slate pencils were used and when the slate was covered with writing it could be erased and used again. With very few books and a very short school term the pupils made slow progress. Sometimes a child would attend for a few weeks and then drop out so his brother or sister could go, because the parents could not afford tuition for them all.

One of the early teachers who held school in her home was Clarinda Washburn who had a big family of her own. Another of the early teachers was Ellen Lisonbee who conducted school in her home on 1st North and Main Street (Now owned by Dalles and Pauline Julander). Other early teachers were Lewis Barney, Curtis Bolton and Mary Casto. These education seeking parents finally built a one room log schoolhouse. This was some distance north of our present Elementary School. This room served as school, church and dance hall. Always they provided room for dancing and theater.

Not many years passed before the parents decided that they must have a larger, better school. So, construction was started on a new red brick schoolhouse. While the school was being built, school was held in the upstairs of the tithing granary . This was a white rock building located where our Stake Center now stands on 1st and Main. The lower floor was used for storing grain, oats, corn, potatoes, all collected from tithe payers who often paid in produce. Besides school, the ground floor served as church, school and dance hall. Teachers who taught here were Malinda Bean and Wm. Collings. Another teacher was James Williams. Mr. Williams was a member of the Mormon Battalion and in 1881 he and his family were passing through Monroe and stopped at the home of A.W. Bohman (my grandfather). Mr. Bohman said "We are in desperate need of school teachers. Why don’t you stay and teach school". He did stay and made his home at the very East end of Center Street. (Later the Ellis Asay home). He was the grandfather of Lindon Anderson. I’m sure there are a lot of you who have relatives and know people who have contributed to the educational system of those days.

then reading of scriptures by others. It was later sold to Charles and Thelma Compton and made into a beautiful home. They preserved the steeple and the bell of the church and rang it every morning during the school year. The bell is inscribed "Presented to the Presbyterian Church, Monroe, Utah by the women’s Home Missionary society of the Presbyterian of Troy." "Let him that hearth say-come". Prior to statehood in 1896 many daily schools were operated by various religious denominations.

The property on which the old Methodist Church stands (South of Center on 1st West) was granted to Lydia McCarty of Monroe, Utah January 23, 1880, and then granted to the Board of Education of the Methodist Church. After closing of the Methodist School activity, the property changed hands two or three times and finally the Reynolds family obtained possession of it in 1919. They lived in the building at the back and a Methodist Pastor from Marysvale held Sunday Services in the Church itself. Jennie Reynolds, a member of this family was a wonderful school teacher for many years. These religious denominations discontinued their school activities after Utah became a state (1896).

children and one teacher. In the early nineties (1890) a rock addition was built just south of the brick room and the two were joined together with a hallway and a door opening into the new part. When school started in 1902 there was a complete change. Text books were free! The parents had always paid for the little Brown Readers, and they were handed down from brother and sister all through the family year after year. Now these were green books with titles "Stepping Stones to Literature." New language books, history, and geography books—all free!

The use of slates was discontinued. The slate pencils made a squeaking, irritating noise and the slates made a loud clattering sound. Some of the children used a piece of damp cloth or sponge to do the erasing but others spit on the slate and wiped it with their fist or shirt sleeve. The town grew and the number of children increased and again more room was needed.

In the summer of 1906 the little red brick schoolhouse was torn down and four new rock rooms were added to the north side of the rock part. The south end was remodeled making sunny south classrooms and a second story was added on top with a unique bell tower.  There were now nine large classrooms and at the same time all of this was accomplished lavatories were built outside and a steam heating plant was installed. There were metal radiators in each classroom that would pop and crack when the heat was turned on. Before this there had been a wood burning stove in each classroom. Those who sat near the stove and those who sat in the corners were always cold.

In 1906 another improvement was added. The Monroe City waterworks had become a reality, and a drinking fountain was installed on the grounds south of the school building. Before this the children all ran across the street west of the school and drank from the ditch. Some shaped their hands into a cup and dipped up the water, but most lay on the ditch bank and drank from the stream. People drove their cows and horses to the ditches to water morning and night, so it was very unsanitary as drinking water. Thus-a drinking fountain on the school ground with clear, cold water bubbling out was a wonderful asset and greatly appreciated.

In 1912 the schools had become consolidated and a Sevier District Board of Education was appointed, August Bohman, Ed  Heppler and Will Crane comprised the Board. A new High School was built and a new feature was added to the Elementary School, school lunch was offered to the students. The lunches were prepared at the High School and brought down to this building (On the corner of 1st west and Center). One class at a time went across the street at noon for lunch. My Older kids remember sneaking across during a school break and the lunch ladies would give them a delicious glass of juice.  This building was used previously as the City Hall with a dungeon like jail in the basement to hold prisoners. After the erection of the New City Hall this building was purchased by Orvil Kirby who still resides there with his ceramic “Sleepy Hollow” business.

In 1948 because of increased population and need for more room, the Sevier School board was considering two options, (1) Build onto the old rock building (2) Build a new school. Early in 1949 teachers told their students that the Board would soon make the decision and when they did the Principal, Delbert Higgins, would enter each room and write on the blackboard either “New” or “Addition”. He did this, writing “New” in each room. Needless to say there was much jubilation. The new building went into construction, and after it was started, it was found that zoning laws and close proximity to the street necessitated removing the belfry and front offices of the old rock school before they could continue the new building.

The teachers were given notice that in the front entry and the 2nd story Library room needed to come down. School was dismissed in the forenoon of the day and the wrecker came to demolish the front of the school. Busses arrived, children were sent home. A crowd of adults and older children watched as the cable was put around the Bell Tower and attached to a caterpillar tractor. When the operator tried to pull it down it wouldn’t budge. That building was built to last!  It had to come down piece by piece using a large crane. When the debris was cleared away it left the upper and lower halls exposed, as a heavy plastic was used to cover the opening and the building of the old school, the dust, noise and distractions in the new caused very little inconvenience and complaint, and the new building was 18 inches from the old classrooms.

When the new building was ready for painting, each teacher was assigned their room and could choose the color of the paint. There were new tables and chairs for the Kindergarten and First grade, and new chairs and desks for grades 2 to 6. The move came the day after Thanksgiving 1951. Teachers moved all books and etc., and all the students had to do was go to the old building and get what was left in their old desks.

The old building was demolished after school was out in the spring. That was the same spring Annabella School was closed, so students from there entered Monroe Elementary in the fall of 1952. The Joseph and Elsinore Elementary schools were closed much later.  A portion of the school ground surrounding the Old Rock School had been donated for a playground by C.C. Bell who owned and operated the Monroe Garage on the west corner of Main and Center Street. After his garage was destroyed by fire in 1966, the remaining ground was sold to Sevier School Board of Education and added to the adjacent grounds of the Elementary School. This building has been remodeled and enlarged since the original building was completed.

From the meager beginning in the Old Fort with 62 pupils and one teacher we have to present, 558 pupils, 22 teachers, and 14 aides. Education is contagious! Utah has one of the highest literacy ratings in the United States-94%. I want to leave you with this thought. “A person’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, can never return to its original dimension.” January 17, 1996.

As the town’s population continued to grow it was decided that they needed some kind of Jr. High or Middle School. In the 1930’s the school district constructed a new building just for the Jr. High Students. This building stood where the current Middle School is located. Over time this building and the original High School Building grew too small to meet the needs of the students,  so in the mid 1970’s both the original Jr. High and High School Buildings were torn down, and one new building [Current Middle School] was built in their place, that would hold both Schools.

As a senior in 1997 Lloyd Gleave, wrote a history of the South Sevier High School from personal accounts in filed at the high school and information gleaned from a 1915 yearbook. His compilation was included in the 1997 SSHS yearbook, and part of it now follows:

 In the summer of 1907, Lorena Eugenia Washburn felt the need for a high school in Monroe. The school board refused to help. There was no place to house a new school and no money to pay teachers.

So Lorena thought of a plan to get a new high school started. She canvassed the town and found ten families who promised to each gave $100 to pay a teacher so one or more youngsters in each family could have one year of high school study. Their efforts were successful and October 1907 marked the beginning of Monroe High School.

The northeast room on the first floor of the elementary school building was the first home of the little high school, and Earl Thompson of Annabella was the first principal. At the opening of school there were only six students [Other accounts say 8] enrolled, but their numbers grew until there were more than 20 attending. A number discontinued so at the close of the school year there were 14 students. Eventually the elementary school needed the room which the school occupied and the only space available for the high school the teacher’s office, a little room which in later years was used as a storeroom.

For six weeks only two students attended. The school board, then called “Trustees,” held a meeting asking the parents for support. They said they could not afford to pay a teacher $90 a month to teach two students and if more didn’t enroll the high school would be discontinued.

After the crops were harvested, the students came and the number grew too large for the 10 by 12 room, so they moved over to the old City Hall. This was a rock room over the old jail across the street south from the old elementary school .Although their numbers were few they had a very good baseball team.

They had no coach but they studied the rules of basketball themselves. They had no gym so they practiced on school grounds. They went to Richfield and played their team on the slick floor of the Anona Pavilion.

In spring of 1909, the Monroe High School organized their first band. They had no music teacher. In the spring of 1910, the “H” was made on the hillside east of Monroe. The students planned to make M.H.S. but later they decided that three letters would be too many, so they let the “H” stand alone signifying “High School.” The last Friday of March each year was set apart as “H” day and the letter received a new coat of white. When the work was down, a celebration was held. A dance in the pavilion always concluded the events of the day. [In 1914 a new building was completed at the head of Center Street for the High School]

Now in the spring of 1918, eight years after the “H” was made, the students who were attending school at that time decided to change the “H” to an “M” for Monroe.

When it was accomplished they admired the “M” with pride. But they had not asked the consent of the students who had made the “H”. Those boys had worked hard to make that letter on the steep hillside. It meant a lot to them. They were men now, each doing his own work, but they together and in the words of a poet “while their companions slept, they were toiling upward in the night.” The next morning when the high school students looked to the east to admire their beautiful “M”, they couldn’t believe their eyes. There stood the “H” with its new spring coat of white. Then the students of 1918 showed their fighting spirit and tore out part of the “H”.

A few days later, however, the two groups got together and went up to repair the “H”, and it stood for a number of years. Then with common consent it was torn out and “SS” was made signifying South Sevier.

In 1910-1911, the Home Economics Department was added to the curriculum and so was physiography. In 1911-1912, cooking was taught in a little frame room at the back of a store one and half blocks from the school building. They didn’t have the convenience of hot water. In fact, there wasn’t even cold water piped into the room. The girls chopped the wood, made the fire, carried the water from quite a distance, and furnished the food that they cooked. They also had sewing class and a speech class, which at the time was called “elocution”…  For more please see the South Sevier High School Yearbook for 1997!