Richmond School #77 Commencement announcements, invitations and programs
Several beautiful examples of commencement materials from the early years of the Richmond Schools exist in the Franklin County archives.
Click on any thumbnail for more information.
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From “The hitching post…” column in the Ottawa Herald, a series of articles about early Franklin County schools researched by Bruce Fleming and written by Herald Editor and Publisher Jim Hitch. This article appeared 5 March, 1992.
Richmond School, District 77, as well as the town, was named after John C. Richmond, who laid out the community in 1870, upon the completion of the Kansas Southern Railroad to that point.
The school district was organized in 1871. A depot, which included the post office, a boarding house for railroad section hands, and a store were then built.
The first public school classes in Richmond were held for four pupils, in 1875, and the teacher was LaCretia Brown.
Classes were held in a building “on the Bryan Vallier place” in the southwest part of town.
In a July, 1937 interview, C.E. Kelsey told of attending the first school at Richmond. His father, he said, received the first teaching certificate issued in Franklin County.
He said the first county superintendent of schools, a Mr. Hanway, gave his father the examination by marking illustrations in the dirt with a stick.
In 1881, the school was moved to the southwest corner of the location of the last grade school. Seven years later 56 pupils were enrolled.