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Because of the increasing competition of academies and "select schools" in the county, the school districts of the river communities of Beaver County in the last third of the nineteenth century had no choice but to enlarge their offerings. The public was demanding free secondary education. According to New Brighton historians, F.S. Reader and Mrs. Marjorie Mowry, the first high school graduate was Fannie Wallace, graduating in 1877 from New Brighton. In the same year the Beaver Falls Board of Education voted to establish a high school. Historian J. Neal Mathews called it the first high school in Beaver County. In 1877 grade eleven was added to the school program. (The district had already opened grades nine and ten.) In 1878 twelfth grade was added. Miss Alice Abel was the high school teacher for nine years. She taught spelling and defining, select reading, rhetoric, philosophy and general history, algebra, higher mathematics, geometry, trigonometry, physical geography, drawing, physiology, and hygiene. And then her health broke down! Miss Agnes Mackey took over the high school training duties. Twelve students graduated on May 20, 1879, at the first public Commencement program in the county. Former County Superintendent of Schools, W.B. Lambert, stated that the first high school diplomas were granted in 1883.
The historians' conflicting claims are easily explained. A high school was not built in a year, but was developed by the gradual adding of extra years and courses to the common schools' eight year program.
Following its one graduate in 1877, the New Brighton High School had no graduates in 1878, but
five students were graduated in 1879: Agnes Patterson, Mary Coventry, Elizabeth Pontefract, Mary Seawright, and Bessie Barker.
By resolution of the Board of Directors on June 2, 1890, the Rochester High School was established. In 1901 ground was purchased on Pinney Street for the site of a high school building. It was erected in 1901 at a cost of $43,270. Mrs. Jean Brown, historian of Rochester schools, adds that before 1890 most Rochester secondary students attended the Piersol Academy in West Bridgewater. The principal of the Rochester schools, Wilbur F. Bliss, was elected principal of the high school, and Mary J. Stone was employed as a teacher in the school and his assistant. The school met in the upper rooms of the Jefferson Street Building until 1902. The first class began its studies in 1890 and was graduated in 1891. Members of the class were five: Laura Brown, Katherine Crane, Olive Ellis, Irene Hillman, and Cora Parr. The program was lengthened until a four-year course was adopted in 1903.
Mr. Lewis Blistan, historian of the Monaca Schools, writes that "sentiment for a local school of higher education began to manifest itself in the community, and on July 7, 1896, the board passed the motion ... to establish a Rudimentary High School." In the fall of 1896 a two-year program of higher education was instituted. Subjects offered were algebra, rhetoric, physical geography, higher arithmetic, and other branches as the board deemed advisable. W. W. Reno was the first high school principal, followed by Frank W. Smith, who withdrew because of poor health. On October 26,1899, D.C. Locke was elected to fill the unexpired term. The first Monaca High School Commencement was held in 1898, when four girls were graduated: Maud Carey, Myrtle Carey, Elizabeth Craig, and Margaret Varner. Upon the recommendation of Mr. Locke, who had been elected supervising principal, the course of study was extended to a three-year program in 1902.
County Superintendent Benjamin Franklin reported a unique high school opening being planned in 1880. In Beaver a high school for the county, forthe benefit of which an academy fund of some $14,000, belonging to the county, had been turned over to the Beaver School Board, planned to open in September, 1880. The intention was to provide the county a high school at a mere nominal fee for tuition. (Beaver Academy was an institution that had received state funding, as had many early accredited academies in Pennsylvania.) By 1880, however, we have seen that New Brighton and Beaver Falls had already organized high schools and Rochester and Monaca were soon to do so. The county high school soon became Beaver High School.
Other river towns, such as Midland, Ambridge, Aliquippa (then Woodlawn) had early twentieth century high school foundings. Much later the outlying townships built their beautiful modern consolidated structures. These early high schools we have looked at set the pattern for the all-inclusive educational complexes of today.