Name changes can be a tricky issue. After all people are a creature of habit, so name changes can be disruptive. This is different from were names slowly fade away. Take for example Seven Bridges in the Honey Lake. Valley, if you know the locale, you are dating yourself. Anyhow, back to the name topic at hand—Lassen High School.

When high school was created in 1902 it was known as Lassen County High School. When it was established it was the only high school in the county. That changed in 1916, when two new county high schools opened—Big Valley and Westwood. California state law required Lassen to drop “County” and adopt “Union” to embrace all the districts in the county—thus is became known as Lassen Union High School.

A lot of people grumbled about the name change, since it was all they ever knew. Years later there is a generational change. The older insist its Lassen Union High School and the younger simply refer to their alma mater as Lassen High School.

Subscribe

This is what some referred to as a “ghost” school. The circumstances are rather odd. In January/February 1911 W. Mylar, who had three school aged children circulated a petition to establish the Purser School District. It met all the criteria. In the proposed district boundary there were 22 children. They were also more than five miles from the nearest school. For reasons unknown Lassen County Board of Supervisors did not approve it. Three years later, a new petition, known as Caloreta School District, which was identical to Purser, was approved.

Purser would later become known as the railroad community of Wendel. That locale had many names in its early years. It was named after Edward T. Purser, a major player in irrigation projects of the Honey Lake Valley in the 1890s.  I have large size professional photograph negative of him  but not a print, but once with a positive scan I will write about him.  A person has offered to scan negatives like this, but I have experienced issues on my part that have have stalled the hand off of such. Hopefully soon, another project to be completed during the forthcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Tim

There has been for some time a debate brewing over whether cursive handwriting should be taught. Debate no more. One of the many bills California Governor Newsom signed into law in October was to bring back cursive writing in elementary schools. Seventeen other states have cursive writing as part of the education process.

It should be noted that by 1850, Spencerian Script had been widely adopted in schools as well as in the business community. With the advent of typewriters it began to fade away in the early 1900s. By the 1920s, schools began adopting the Palmer Method. It was considered more streamlined, less laborious and faster technique.

Of note, the Spencerian had some quirky traits, which one sees a lot in early documents of Lassen County. A double “s” such as Lassen, looks like a “p.”  This was evident in the short-lived Lassen Post Office in the Willow Creek Valley that only operated from June 19, 1874, to July 14, 1875.  Some records cite it as “Lapen,” due to the penmanship of Edward Bonyman, its first and only postmaster.

Become a supporter for just $5 a month to ensure quality history continues. Click here

On June 21, 1907, Lassen County High School held its first graduation ceremony. It should be noted that in 1906, there was a three year-commercial course of graduates. The Class of 1907 consisted of Medford Arnold, Hanchen Lesser, Lena Cahlan, Jessie Hulsman, Evelyn Hulsman, Ralph Taylor, Jeanette Alexander, Kate Deforest, Ruth Hemler, Wright Spalding and Percy Holmes.

Evelyn Hulsman was the Class Valedictorian and the following is a synopsis of her speech that appeared in the Lassen Advocate, June 28, 1907: “Nemesis of an Amateur” was the theme of Valedictorian, Miss Evelyn Hulsman. The young lady had gone to Shakespeare for inspiration and in the pictured career of MacBeth she found it. Vividly with well chosen language she retold the story of MacBeth’s machinations, his great crime and the disastrous consequences to himself when ‘Great Birnam wood to high. Dunsine hill,’ came against him and sword Manduff put an end to his unworthy ambitions. Miss Hulsman’s effort was a notable one in many particulars. It was delivered with strong dramatic effect and token conscientious preparation. It is much too long for reproduction in these columns. A fact we regret.

Subscribe