100 Years Ago: Alton High School Winter Graduation Honors Two Seniors, Including Czech Native

ALTON - Alton High School’s mid-winter commencement exercises were held at the school the evening of Friday, January 29, 1926. Two students received special recognition. Valedictorian Caroline Haberer had attained high honors rank for every semester of her four years at Alton High. She also studied pipe organ and was so skilled that she played the accompaniment for the Sunday School orchestra of the First Presbyterian Church. She also served as class vice-president, sang in the chorus, worked on the Tatler yearbook, and participated in May Fete and the Tin Soldier Dance. Superintendent Wilbur R. Curtis awarded Haberer a gold pin.

Superintendent Curtis also publicly honored Walter Mikesh, “a young man who had battled against misfortune in foreign nations and in this country mastered new customs and a new language to finish his high school course.” Mikesh was born in what later became Czechoslovakia (his birthplace in 1907 is listed in census and military records as Elchin, Czechoslovakia, but Czechoslovakia was not officially recognized as a country until 1918). Mikesh became an orphan at age ten. While in Russia, he worked his way to Siberia, then to Japan. In Japan, he attended a mission school and completed work corresponding to an elementary school education. In Japan, he was advised by the American Consul that it would be easier for him to gain entry into the United States (his ultimate goal) from Hawaii, so he set off for Honolulu “with his total capital of twenty-five cents.” While in Hawaii, he met George Crawford of Godfrey, a teacher. Crawford aided Mikesh in getting to the United States, where Mikesh resided in the home of George’s parents, William and Jessie Crawford, in Godfrey. “Not only did he master American customs and the English language, but he mastered American ways to the extent that he was, last fall, captain of the high school football eleven.” Mikesh walked to the school from Godfrey every day, and still found time and energy to be on the high honor roll, work on the Tatler yearbook, play in the orchestra, serve as class secretary, and play football and tennis.

Dr. W.P. Dearing, president of Oakland City College in Oakland City, Indiana, gave the commencement address, titled “The Art of Appreciation.” At the end, he spoke directly to the adults in the room. “The greatest need of the boys and girls of today is you, the parents. Not the money you make, not the luxuries you can provide, but you, yourselves. Not when you are laying up wealth, but when you are giving them yourselves.”

Sources

“Fulton – Caroline H.” Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, NM), June 14, 1976.

“Miss Haberer Honor Student of High School.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), January 30, 1926.

The Tatler. Alton High School (Alton, Ill). 1926.https://archive.org/details/AltonHS_Tatler_1926

“W.J. Mikesh.” Alton Evening Telegraph (Alton, IL), April 23, 1963.

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