September 21, 2009 © Thomas J. Kollenborn. All Rights Reserved.
When people
think of the first school in the Apache Junction area they instinctively
think of Superstition Mountain Elementary School located on Broadway
Road just east of Ironwood Drive. Construction began on this school in
1952, but Superstition Mountain Elementary School was not the first
school or school district in the Apache Junction area.
The first school was established over
one hundred years ago in the small gold mining community of Goldfield.
The site of this once booming territorial town lies 4.4 miles northeast
of Apache Junction on the Apache Trail (State Route 88).
The boomtown of Goldfield, Arizona
Territory, appeared overnight after the discovery of gold along
Goldfield Wash on April 14, 1893. This discovery of gold led to the
development of the famous Mammoth Mine and Mill. The Mormon Stope, in
the Mammoth Mine, produced more than 1.5 million dollars in gold bullion
in two short years when gold was valued at $20 per troy ounce.
Goldfield grew rapidly. The town had
three saloons, a hotel, mercantile store, butcher shop, boarding house,
livery stable, barbershop, blacksmith shop and about three hundred
residents. The one thing Goldfield did not have was a public school.
Thirtyfour school age children lived in Goldfield by the middle of July
1893. The Phoenix Daily Gazette on September 12, 1893, reported
Goldfield was in need of a school.
A request to form a school district was
submitted to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to establish the
Superstition Mountain School District. This request was delayed because
of the controversy involving the political location of Goldfield. It was
not known what county Gold- field was located in. This legal question
had to be settled before a school district could be established.
Although the newspaper had reported
thirty-four school age children resided in Goldfield, the board of
supervisors did not act on the request for a school district. Mr. M.
Lewis Spears open a private school in a small building constructed by
the miners. Spears became the town’s first school teacher. He was
shortly thereafter appointed Goldfield’s first Justice of the Peace.
The Pinal County Board of Supervisors
apparently approved the school district by February 1, 1894 because the
Mesa Free Press reported this date as the first day of school for
thirty-six children in Goldfield. The Phoenix Daily Herald reported Mr.
M. Lewis Spears as teacher at Goldfield School and stated he had
twenty-one students in his class. According to the article, he was also
serving as Justice of the Peace for Goldfield. Newspaper articles
indicate Mr. Spears served as schoolteacher in Goldfield from September
18, 1893 until September 13, 1894. Spear’s private school served as an
interim school until the Pinal County Board of Supervisors formed the
Superstition Mountain School District in the Spring of 1894.
Ms. Mamie Kennedy, of Florence, was
hired as the first public school teacher in Goldfield. The first public
school in Goldfield opened its doors for students on September 20, 1894.
School started with thirty-one students. Ms. Kennedy taught school at
Goldfield for the 1894-95 school year.
On June 16, 1895, Ms. Agnes Dobbie,
Tempe Normal Class “95” was hired by the Superstition Mountain School
District’s Board to teach the 1895-96 school year at Goldfield. Ms.
Dobbie taught two years before resigning in June of 1897 to get married.
Ms. Holmesley was hired in June of 1897
for the 1897-1898 school year. It was during Ms. Holmesley’s tenure that
the Goldfield Mines began to decline. When Ms. Holmesley dismissed
school for Christmas vacation on December 22, 1897, only eight students
were attending her classes. The real mass exodus of families from
Goldfield had begun by December 20, 1897.
It was clear the mines had failed by
January 3, 1898. When Ms. Holmesley reopened school on January 3, 1898,
she had only nine students. The school board had resigned and moved away
by the middle of January. The county school superintendent appointed
Charles I. Hall and John Mechan to serve on the school board of
trustees.
When the Richards family moved to
Wickenburg on January 27, 1898, only seven school age children remained
in the Goldfield School District. The Goldfield School closed it doors
in May of 1898, never to open again to the voices of children learning
and playing together.
Goldfield School served the needs of the
early miners and their families at a time when Arizona was a territory
of the United States.
It is
interesting to note that public education played an important role in
the lives of these people when gold was “king” at Goldfield. These hard
working Americans realized the greatest resource our nation had was our
children. They were willing to take that step forward and support
education at the turn of the century. It is certainly no different
today. We are all obligated to support public education today so we can
prepare students for the future.