P a g e 6 Ghost Towns & History of MT Newsletter the street between the two pieces of property owned by the district in order that they might be in one parcel of land. Then a good substantial brick building could be built, and there would be plenty of play ground. Trustee, Huffman agreed with Mr. Jacky.“ Ultimately, a mill levy was passed by the City of Philipsburg and Contractor Charles Suiter won the bid to construct a High School Building. By early December the Citizen Call, announced the new school was almost completed and should be turned over to the school trustees by the fifteenth with a new term of school starting by January 4. Finally, The Mail, happily announced on January 9, 1896 the: “...school house was completed and Mr. Charles Suiter turned the building over to the school board. The board accepted the building with an agreement that $5 per day equaling $275.00 does not have to be paid to Mr. Suiter due to the building not being completed on the agreed date. School will open next Monday. The teachers hired are: Prof. J.S. Gifford, Miss Annie Price, Miss M.C. Ryan, Miss Amy Short, Miss Madge Short and Mrs. Eugene Smith.” The janitor hired was Harry Rust, at $50.00 per month. To fill in the void while the school was being constructed, the Citizen Call October 30, 1895, made a comment about some one starting a private school and “…Mrs. F.H. Titus and Julius Hansen will open a private school in the private buildings owned by A.S. Huffman on California Street. They have secured the seats and other furniture of the old school house and will probably be ready for children on next Monday morning. There will be two departments, Julius Hansen will teach the grammar and Mrs. Titus the primary department. The terms have not been fully decided upon as yet, but it is believed that the tuition will be $2.50 per month.” The following week there were twenty students in attendance on Monday and thirty were expected by the end of the week. I did not find any more reference to the private school once the new building was completed. The original frame school house was then “remodeled for court house purposes.” When the modern current Court House was erected, this still solid frame building was put on skids and moved to Porter’s Corner where it became known as the Vince and Maxine Fessler house (November 23, 1934). The Philipsburg High School dedication was held on February 21, 1896, and the entire front page of the Philipsburg Mail was dedicated to the event. A.R. Dearborn gave the opening address. It was originally named the Philipsburg High School. The first graduating ceremony was on May 27, 1898, comprised of Clara D. McDonel, Mary A. McKenzie (Burks), Pearletta M. Scott (Kroger), Lulu B. Rust (Lively), Fredrick W. Kroger, William H. Loughrin, and Vincent D. Doody. A classmate William B. Calhoun enlisted in the Spanish American War shortly before graduation, so did not attend the services. By January 1904, school enrollment was looking up. An open letter to parents from Principal, G.T. Bramble, asked them not to send children that recently turned six years of age to school in January as the teacher already had nearly seventy first graders. To add more students would make it impossible for her to give new
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