Our beginnings
The information below is taken from the Fort Scott Tribune in 1948
A Few Years ago, the members of the congregation of the Church of God Holiness on Sixth Street had a dream. It was a big dream of a church school here which would have a complete elementary and high school courses.
Because it was a good dream, the congregation’s members quit dreaming and got down to work. Plans for the building were worked out by the members. Then in after-work hours the congregation pitched in with voluntary labor to build the two-story school building which stands on the rolling slope just east of Twelfth and Margrave streets.
Tomorrow that dream becomes a final reality as an estimated 50 pupils, at least 20 of them in high school years open the 1948-49 school year at Fort Scott Bible School of the Church of God Holiness.
It is not the first year for the school since a full-year of courses was given in the uncompleted building last year. But today the building stands complete with every room and facility available to this year’s students. Formal dedication of the 32×70 foot concrete structure is planned for some time during the winter term.
The school teaches the full standard required subjects of the state, plus Bible study courses. Four classrooms and the main auditorium are on the first floor and there at two grade rooms and teachers living quarters in the semi-basement floor. The school, a non-profit institution is open for anyone regardless of religious denomination. A tuition of $2.00 a month for the high school and $1.50 for elementary work is assessed per student.
W.L Gates is president of the school and Mrs. Lawrence Query is principal and grade teacher. Miss Lois Durkee is a high school teacher and one more will be added to the high school faculty. The presence of the school here has already drawn several evangelists of the church to Fort Scott to lecture and aid in the school’s work and it is hoped that the new school will become a center for the church’s educational work in this section of the nation.
W. L. Gates, president and Kathryn Wright-Harms pictured above.
