Sumter High School: Class of 1903

The Truth... What is it?

Sumter High School, Class of 1903

Dave Pettigrew, SHS class of 1971, has developed an outstanding website in which yearbooks are being scanned onto his free website (HERE..click on a yearbook image) with many class photos, lists of graduates, and an outstanding graphics and text page of the school's history (HERE).

On this page you are now viewing, the memorial #s are memorials on the free Find a Grave (separate but owned by the subscription genealogy website, Ancestry.com).

I want to directly link to some old, online newspaper sources (Sumter's The Watchman & Southron via Library of Congress' Chronicling America, which detail some history and the senior class graduates.

S. C. petition of Legislature, May 1888, HERE.
Commisioner J. T. Green's 1890 letter about the schools, HERE.
Sumter public school system opens 2 Sept 1889, young John B. Duffie, superintendent.
First year (9 months) ends (students: 310 whites & 294 blacks), HERE (Watchman & Southron issue of 4 June 1890, vol. IX #43, page [image] 3, 2nd column from viewer's left near page top).

Links to classes 1889-1912, HERE . W & S of 1910 has 1891-1910 lists HERE and W & S of 1912 lists 1891-1911 HERE.

***(1889-1913, only 10 grades; 1914-1944, only 11 grades)***

***(Student names: before maybe 1915, names by which people were baptized were frequently & without legal process, changed before, say, age 12. Grade school nicknames often changed as the person became older (HERE). In cases of those with 1 or 2 middle names, either or both of those might be deleted as they became older or married. Old printed source material was printed by a more tedious process than today & typos were not uncommon. Females are especially hard to track down from names on graduate lists; so, the birth year range of a graduation group becomes helpful.)***

Sumter HS Class of 1903 (W&S 3 June 1903, page 6, column 4, "Commencement of The Graded School", HERE):
(the name they apparently "went by" in italics)

Boys (5):

Richard Dozier Lee, Jr., (born 1885), FaG mem. # 129727000
Bentley Gordon Gibson, Jr., (born 1886), FaG mem. # 108272398
Leon Myer Green, (born about 1887), FaG mem. # (nothing found yet).
Guignard Richardson Jones, (born 1886), FaG mem. # 21227565
Edward Douglas McCutchan, (born 1884), FaG mem. # 23894574

Girls (7):

Elizabeth Sinkler Boykin, (born 1886), FaG mem. # 39868463
Emma Adella Boyle, (born 1886), FaG mem. # 130867596
Celeste Hughson, (born 1886), FaG mem. # 123842147
Edna Earle Broughton, (born 1886), FaG mem. # 132243712
Mary Evelyn Cunningham, (born 1882), FaG mem. # 57518777
Mary Eliza Gaillard, (born 1887), FaG mem. # 157145989
Elizabeth Louise Satterwhite, (born 1885), FaG mem. # 118426028

Lincoln HS Class of 1903:
(it is hard to be sure of gender (W&S, 3 June 1903, p6, column 4, "Lincoln School Commencement", HERE)

Names that appear to be students vs program participants: John McKenzie Harrison, Harrison Morton Waities, Sarah Blonnie Ericker Davis, Delia Antonia Davis, Ella Nathaniel Stokes, Oliver Alexander Parker, James Dewey Anderson, and Hazel William Davis.

Years 1892-1912, LINKS:

1891

1892

1893 (no graduates, HERE)

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

1900

1901