WHAT’S HAPPENING?!?

The Pierceton School Alumni Association is committed to serving our members as well as the Pierceton Elementary School and the Pierceton community. The Association is committed to keeping our members informed of the activities we support and the projects that we undertake in fulfilling our Mission Statement. Here are a few things we’re doing right now!

PSA Sec. Report, 1899 – 1927 has been digitized!

Through the generosity of Becky (Bryant) Ogden-Bowman (Class of 1968), the Association has come into possession of an historical journal titled the Pierceton School Alumni Secretary Report, 1899 – 1927, a compilation of business meeting notes and annual alumni banquets observations from over 100 years ago. Heritage Photo Research digitized the document, and it is now available on-line at our website. This amazing document records the proceedings of business meetings of the Pierceton School Alumni as they navigated the early 1900s and held banquets to honor new Pierceton School graduates every year. It offers a fascinating portrait of the Town of Pierceton during this time period.

The journal provides details of Association elections, hints at negotiations for banquet meals, and shares insights into the Pierceton social scene during the first three decades of the twentieth century. The single-mindedness of the Association members and their laser focus on the business of the Association, along with their overriding commitment to hold the annual banquet, are remarkable. The secretaries’ notes never reference national and world events, even as the US dealt with the bubonic plague from 1900 to 1904, the Great War from 1914 to 1918, and the Spanish flu pandemic from 1918 to 1920. The Journal is also silent regarding the tragedy and upheaval caused when the 1870 school burned in 1921 and a new one was built at that same location. Certainly, these were times of great turmoil and unease, but the secretaries maintaining the journals are silent to those events. In the later years covered by the journal, there is no glimpse of the introduction of automobiles, telephones, movies, radio, and electrical appliances in the lives of millions in America that surely must have effected the lives of these graduates.

Click HERE to view the journal as well as a typed transcript of the entries. You’ll feel like you were there in the early 1900s.

But wait! There’s MORE!

The Association is pursuing a project to digitize copies of the Pierceton Student newsletter. These old documents offer a glimpse into the details of life for Pierceton students – sometimes sad, sometimes mundane, often hilarious. The Pierceton Student was a staple for nearly every student who attended the school and these copies are important reminders of our history. If you have copies of old Pierceton Student newsletters you would like to have digitized, please contact Doug Gregory 260-437-9935 for information about how to get them to the Association. We’ll digitize them and return them to you!

Pierceton School memorabilia on display at Larwill

The Whitko Career Academy has provided space for alumni associations of Pierceton, South Whitley, Larwill, and Sidney to display school memorabilia at the Larwill Campus. PSAA has set up a revolving display there and it is available for viewing at any time. You’ll see student newspapers, diplomas, spirit items, sports trophies, letter jackets, senior cords, diplomas, and much, much more. Simply contact the main office at the Academy (260-723-5146) for more information and to obtain entry.

Senior Class Pictures all displayed at Pierceton Elementary

All of the old Senior Class Pictures that lined the hallways of the 1870 and 1923 Pierceton School buildings for decades are now displayed in the hallways and office spaces of the Pierceton Elementary School. From the oldest known picture (Class of 1913) to the final class to be graduated from Pierceton High School (Class of 1971), the pictures are displayed so they are easily viewed by all visitors.

The elementary school welcomes alumni to stop, visit the school, and see the pictures. Browse through time and see yourself and your classmates as you were “back in the day.”