History of the Beaman School

Beaman First Grundy Town to Vote Consolidated School

History of Beaman Consolidated School

Beaman was the first school in Grundy County to consolidate. The late H. H. Beaman of Marshalltown for whom the town of Beaman was named, offered the school board forty acres of land if the consolidation of six outlying districts and Beaman could be effected. The school directors at that time were George Elliott, Pres., D. B. Simms, F. L. Miller, Ned McMartin and W. H. Albery. On Feb. 3, 1915, the first election was held, the result was a tie. On March 20, 1915 the second election was held leaving out three of the farthest outlying districts, this election carried 102 to 30. Mr. Beaman giving 10 acres of land where the present building stands.

The first school board elected by the Consolidated district was G. A. Hitchcock, C. O. Meyers, Dave Simms, Ned McMartin and F. L. Miller. The bond election was held on October 9, 1916, the district being bonded for $35,000. In 1917 the present building was erected and in November of that year the old wooden school was abandoned and new quarters taken up in the new building.

Beaman was the first to consolidate and many school boards came here to inspect the building and to consult with the board in regard to consolidation There are sixteen sections in the consolidation thus offering the advantages of a high school education, to boys and girls of this community at a low cost.

Beaman is a fully accredited four year high school, maintaining a faculty of eight teachers, four of whom are in high school. The high school enrollment this year numbers thirty-fix; the grade school enrollment numbers seventy.

The Parent Teachers Association was organized in 1916 and has had a very influential part in helping build up a good school and community. This organization has purchased for the school a piano, playground equipment, about 1500 trees on a five acre tract landscaped the grounds and planted back of the school building, which will be our future play and picnic grounds.

At the present time four motor busses are being operated at a very low cost per capita to transport the children to and from school. Approximately 80 per cent of the enrollment live in the country and are transported this way.

The present school board consists of the following: Chas. Vint, Pres.; E. G. Elliott, Sec.; R. L. Oglesby, Walter Goos, Chas. Whorrall, Emil Vint. For the past three years Kenneth F. Jones has been superintendent of the school and has done much in maintaining a high standard in the school. A course in typewriting has been added to the curriculum and an extra teacher has been added to the faculty this year.

--The Grundy Register (Grundy Center, Iowa), 13 November 1931