Gotebo District 3
Gotebo school began in 1902. Some years ago, Gotebo and Mountain View consolidated, with grade school at Gotebo and junior high and high school in Mountain View.
Mountain View District 39
The first school for Mountain View began at the town of Oakdale, just across the Washita River from the present location in 1899. The site is now in Washita County, but at the time, it was the Cheyenne-Arapaho lands which were already opened to white settlement.
It was a subscription school organized with 90 children. Desks and seats were built by local carpenters and supplied by the parents of the children. Teachers’ salaries were paid by the subscription parents.
When the Kiowa-Comanche Apache Lands were opened in 1901, gradually the homes and businesses moved across the river to present Mountain View. The school house was moved also.
A tornado that struck the town Nov. 4, 1905, turned the school house over almost on its foundation. It was completely destroyed. Fire insurance but no tornado insurance had been carried on the building. The district being bonded to the limit because of the move, had no way of creating funds through any form of taxation. The citizens had to look for funding from outside sources. An insurance company proposed a loan of $5,000.00 for building a school provided insurance policies totaling $50,000.00 were written for the people of Mountain View. This proposition was accepted. A company of business men was organized and incorporated for the purpose of receiving the loan and erecting a six room brick building.
The school term that year, spring of 1906, which had the first graduating class with six members, was finished in a store building. Counters served as desks and long benches loaned by churches served as seats. A low partition in the building separated the high from the upper grades. The lower grades were conducted in church buildings. In 1909, a large brick 2 story, with basement and large attic, high school was built. The school was also the town’s first auditorium.
In 1940 a grade school was built. In 1945, the school built the band and shop buildings. The large section, connecting the junior high and high schools, which houses the large gymnasium, office rooms, and class rooms was built in 1950-51. The former gym was made into a model kitchen and dining room. The south part of the building is now used for the high school and the north part is junior high.
In 1960, Miss Hedwig Schaefer, one of the children of the first school
board president, bequeathed in memory of her father, The H. Schaefer scholarship
to Mountain View High School. Each year for as long as Mountain View has
a high school, this scholarship will be given to a qualifying boy or girl
who enters the University of Oklahoma, where Miss Shaeffer taught for
many years.
A. E. Kobs, president of the first National Bank for many years was instrumental in placing vocational agriculture in the high school. Each year, te First National Bank follows Kob’s example by sending an outstanding F.F.A. boy from Mountain View and one from Gotebo, together with an F.F.A. instructor, alternating instructors from the 2 schools, to the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City , paying all expenses.
Copyright, 1998-2003
Return To Early Schools
Updated October 25, 2003
Background Courtesy Pat Calton