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.

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In 1871, the residents of Big Valley on the Lassen County side, petitioned the Lassen County Board of Supervisors for a school district there. While there was a public school in Adin, that was under the jurisdiction of Siskiyou County, as Modoc County had not yet been created. The Big Valley residents were included the Willow Creek Valley School District and that school house was nearly forty miles away. With that thought in mind, the petition stated, “It is frequently impossible for their children to attend school on account of high water, deep snows muddy roads, etc.” The petition was signed by seventeen residents and combined they had twenty children eligible for school. The Board obliged and created the Providence School District on November 10, 1871. A school house was built two miles south of Adin.

One person is under the impression that sometime, possibly in 1920s, that the school was moved to its current location. However, I am unable to locate any information on that event. If anyone cn shed some light on this, it would be appreciated

In 1953, the school was annexed to the Adin Joint Unified District. The school house then became the property of the Providence Farm Bureau and the farm bureau still owned it in 2002, but I do not know its current status.

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One of the most common deed restrictions years ago included a clause prohibiting race and alcohol. In 1914, when John Spalding subdivided his property on the west shore of Eagle Lake. The deed stated no person of African or Mongolian descent would be allowed to occupy, own rent or lease the premises and that no type of alcoholic beverages would be allowed on the premises with an exception for medicinal purposes. Should the owner not abide by these regulations, the property would revert back to Spalding. It was not much of an issue, since Spalding sold only one lot.

Another type was a reversion clause. On August 11, 1877, John Dobler donated the land that the Willow Creek School, was built on  with the provision that when no longer used for a school, the property would revert back to him or his heirs. In 1950, when the Willow Creek School District was dissolved, the provision was ignored. The same thing happened with the Lake School, since the property was donated by Epley family with the revision clause that was ignored. This case was a bit unusual since the Janesville School District annexed the Lake School deemed it surplus property. However, the school trustees deeded the school property to the Bailey family, because they assumed the family donated it in the first place.

In 1864, when Isaac Roop sold a Susanville city block to Lassen County for a courthouse, it included a reversion clause. This caused quite a stir back in the late 1970s when the county purchased property on North Mesa Street for a possible new courthouse complex. That is an interesting tale in itself, but as many know it never transpired.

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