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HISTORY OF FOWLER FRIENDS ACADEMY
The first Friends in the
Fowler community were the Nixon Rich and Albert Roberts
families, who located there in 1905. Since there was no High
School in Fowler and people recognized the need for one, and
since it was known that Friends were interested in higher
education, these Friends were approached about the
establishment of an Academy if a building was provided for
that purpose. There being no established monthly meeting at
Fowler, these Friends contacted Haviland Quarterly Meeting
(the nearest Quarterly Meeting) to establish a Monthly
Meeting so the school could have some official connection.
By this time several
other Friends families had arrived in Fowler and in early
June, 1906, they met in the yard of the farm home of Albert
and Elizabeth Roberts four miles north of Fowler for the
purpose of beginning a church. On June 23, 1906, an
organizational meeting was held in the Congregational
Church.
The Academy was built
and located at the northwest edge of Fowler (NE corner of
Sec. 1-31-27.) It was a two story structure with living
rooms for teachers on the second floor and school rooms on
the first floor. This building was also used for church
services until the school closed and Fowler Friends Church
was built in 1916.
The following “Origin of
the Academy” was printed in the student handbook when the
school opened in 1906:
"The origin of Fowler Friends’ Academy is
traceable to an expression of a former student of Friends
University that he would give more to found an Academy at
this place than he would to promote any other enterprise.
The suggestion was taken up and a generous sum pledged for a
building and five acres of land donated for a site. The
citizens offered all of this to the Haviland Quarterly
Meeting of Friends with the provision that when it had
maintained an Academy for five years the property should
pass wholly into its hands. Haviland Quarterly Meeting, not
being an incorporated body, did not accept this offer, but a
corporate body of Friends was organized, the gift accepted,
plans for a building adopted and a contract for the building
let. The result is an artistic, commodious, and well-built
structure on a beautiful site commanding an extensive view
of the Artesian Valley. The board of management in assuming
control of the institution gratefully acknowledges the
liberality of the donors the confidence placed in the
Friends Church, and the hearty cooperation met on every
hand. It is the general feeling, “It is the Lord’s doing. It
is marvelous in our eyes.” The weight of responsibility is
great, but undertaken in the faith that, with God’s
benediction and the help of all, a great educational need
will be met. We have contracted with teachers of approved
ability who will do all they can to promote the interests of
e very student who enrolls in the institution.
The Building
On the first floor there are an entrance hall
and two cloak rooms, the main school room, two recitation
rooms, and an office and library room. On the second floor
there are three good rooms."
As Fowler Friends
Academy was the first high school in the county, students
came from far and wide. They came from rural areas, Meade,
Plains, and surrounding counties. The second floor housed
the principal’s family for a time and the rooms were used
for boarding teachers and even students that came from a
distance. Boarding for students was also offered in people’s
homes.
An ad for the Academy in
the July 12, 1906, Meade County News stated the
following:
“The building is well adapted to its purpose
and commands a beautiful view of the artesian valley. The
institution is under the care of the following Board of
Trustees: Nixon Rich, Fred Johnson, A.B. Robert and A.J.
George, of Fowler, Kansas; B.H. Albertson, Alvin H. Parker
and B.F. Parker, of Haviland, Kansas; James H. Hadley, of
Coldwater, Kansas and James L. Welsh, of Wichita Kansas.
Thorough courses of study have been provided,
calculated to develop the student and fit him for college,
for teaching or for the everyday duties.
We are pleased to announce that we have
secured for Principal Prof. H.H. Townsend, a graduate of
Earlham College, Indiana, and one who has had long and
successful experience in conducting academies. He will be
assisted by competent instructors."
The school opened
September 17, 1906, with Henry H. Townsend and Anna, his
wife, as instructors. They continued teaching three years,
then Henry kept on one more year with Mary Franklin, of
Ohio, as assistant. After Henry Townsend left, other
teachers were: Emmett E. Hadley and Mary Franklin one year,
John Howard and Mary Franklin one year, John Howard and
Grace Gibson one year, Sylvester Chance and Mary McCracken
one year.
The handbook listed
tuition to the school was as follows in 1906:
Fall Term, 11
weeks… ...$7.50
Winter Term, 13 weeks… 9.00
Spring Term, 12 weeks… 8.50
For less than one term seventy-five cents per week.
Tuition is due on entering.
Boarding can be obtained in private families.
In June of 1911, the
Academy board met to discuss closing the doors of the
institution because they felt they could not afford to run
the school in opposition to a free high school which the
City was in the process of building. As a result of this
meeting a petition was circulated and in a very short time
sufficient funds had been pledged to give the Academy the
best support it had received since it had been established.
The prospects then pointed to the largest enrollment that
the Academy had ever known.
By May of 1914, a public
high school had been built in Fowler, and Fowler Friends
Academy closed its doors. Miss Mabel Hoskins was the only
senior that year and the last student to graduate from the
Friends Academy.
Number of enrolled
students as shown by an old register:
Year 1
40 Year 4
45 Year 7 43
Year 2 54 Year 5
34 Year 8 31
Year 3 34 Year 6
60
After the school closed the property was
purchased by John F. Conrad who constructed a family
home from the building using three of the original
walls. The dwelling then passed to the Conrad’s daughter
and was known as the Henry L. Salmon home, and was
eventually torn down in 2011.
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