History in the Hallways: Project connects FHS students to heritage

There’s history in those hallowed hallways.

That’s the point Flathead High School social studies department head Sean O’Donnell is trying to make as he helps students connect with the legacy left by previous students, teachers, administrators and school board members of the 1900s. 

O’Donnell is linking students to their academic heritage through a project he began last year called History in the Hallways. 

Upstairs by the history classrooms are the beginnings of the project. A display case built by Flathead history teacher Pat Reilly contains artifacts and documents from Flathead and the district dating back to the early 1900s. 

On the walls outside the classrooms are reprinted photographs from Central School Museum archives. Some photos are familiar, such as Kalispell’s Main Street, and some are unfamiliar, such as an image of the National Biscuit Company now known as Nabisco.

“I joke with the kids it was the Walmart of the era. You would know it from town to town,” O’Donnell said. 

The Kalispell Education Foundation awarded $2,000 to the project. Valley Glass donated glass for the display case.

Inside the case are diplomas, board minutes, grade books and photos from 1899 thorough the 1950s. The documents are exciting finds for O’Donnell and provide clues about what life was like in education and in the community.

One of the photos stands out to O’Donnell. It is a black and white group picture of the first graduating class of Flathead County School in 1902. 

Eleven young men and women are posed with serious faces. The women are dressed in long-sleeved gowns bedecked with flowers and the men are wearing suits with high-necked collars and white bowties. This photo contains a possible clue and leaves many questions — as do most of the documents — about education in Kalispell during the 20th century. 

What is significant about the class photo is that it gives a glimpse of race relations. Standing in the back row is a black woman named Ellen White. 

“What I find fascinating is there’s an African American girl in the background. I don’t know any differently, but I would assume you had an integrated school in Kalispell in 1902, which as a history teacher is a great thing to bring kids down to say ‘look at that, what do you see from a historical standpoint.’ Those things tell about the culture in Kalispell at the time,” O’Donnell said.

O’Donnell opened a third-grade grade book from 1912. Students passed or failed, were promoted or retained and it was denoted whether they moved to the country, reservation or another state.

“It’s just you get that real feel of the West,” O’Donnell said. “It’s just fascinating.”

He said history teachers had fun looking at the number of tardy and absent reports. O’Donnell noticed one student was absent a lot.

“Well, he may have helped out on the farm; sometimes you’ll see five to 10 straight days which could be illnesses like measles,” O’Donnell said.

Tardies were recorded down to the minutes of class time lost.

“One tardy, half a minute lost,” O’Donnell said, pointing to one example.

Students even may discover names of their relatives in the documents. O’Donnell himself has nearly a century-old family history in the valley, which got him started on the project. 

In a book of registered voters dating back to 1911, he has found what he believes to be his great, great-great aunt’s name — Ida Bell. O’Donnell’s grandfather Roy Alton graduated from Flathead 1924 and is listed in a book of graduates. O’Donnell’s youngest child will graduate in 2022. 

“I feel we don’t have enough connection to our Montana history, to our local history. It’s important to celebrate that part of who we are and as the older school [of Kalispell], this is our tradition,” O’Donnell said.”

This year, two Flathead seniors, Haakon Sande and Eliza Diegel, are doing some of the historical research for an International Baccalaureate project. 

In September they ventured down to the basement of Kalispell Public School’s central office to meet with District Outreach Coordinator Mike Kofford. Kofford was tasked with going through some of the district’s old records in storage.

“I separated the things of historical interest and value and called Mr. O’Donnell and said it might be of interest for his exhibit,” Kofford said.

After clearing out one of the basement rooms containing district records, Kofford found several leather-bound books of historical interest. O’Donnell was ecstatic about the finds.

“We had no idea of some of the stuff down in that basement,” O’Donnell said. “They’re working their way through that basement to see what other treasures are in there for us to look at.”

Kofford, who was formerly director of the Conrad Mansion, animatedly explained the significance contained in the yellowed documents that contained teacher contracts, an official register of electors, student activities and ledgers of district purchases.

Opening up the voter registry, Kofford stopped on a page with the year as 1915. Information by each name such as country of origin, job and marital status started to give shape to who these people were. There were laborers, merchants, engineers, jewelers, draftsmen, scholars, plumbers and blacksmiths hailing from Germany, Sweden and Holland.

Sande leafed through a ledger of purchase orders. 

“Installed one electric clock system as furnished by the International Time Recording Company,” Sande read. “Wiring for the electric clock and the program bells.”

“Outside weatherproof gongs,” Diegel continued.

Both smiled at the outdated technology.

The goal, O’Donnell said, is to have community members and alumni donate documents or memorabilia related to Flathead High School and Kalispell, preferably prior to the 1960s. Items on loan will not be accepted due to time constraints in cataloging and tracking items.

The other side of the display case will feature displays that are focused on national events. Currently on display are artifacts from World Wars I and II.

The plan is to rotate the exhibits and have students continue to help with the project as they get more items.

“The ultimate goal is to rotate this; every quarter there will be a new museum display. We’re not there yet, so we’re still collecting a lot of materials,” O’Donnell said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.