The Battle for the Aberdeen Schoolhouse
While the school board awards a major construction contract, 414 residents rally to force a new election over the building's controversial site.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
A special secret meeting of the school board was held Saturday afternoon at the office of J. Weatherwax for the purpose of opening bids for the erection of a schoolhouse on the site owned by the district. Directors Owen and Wood and Clerk Wyman were present. The bids were for furnishing all materials and building the schoolhouse as per amended specifications. Little, Creech & Co. won the contract with a bid of $13,999. Meanwhile, a petition signed by 414 legal voters—281 men and 133 women—was filed with Clerk Wyman, demanding a new vote on the location of the school site. The school board refused to consider the petition at the meeting, maintaining that the issue had already been decided by the public at the polls. Attorney Bush, representing the petitioners, has vowed to take the matter to the highest court through a writ of mandamus if the board continues to ignore the community's request.
“I am satisfied they have no legal grounds upon which they can compel the board to call such an election. The voters have decided the matter at the polls and I hold that the board cannot hold two elections on the same question.”
Debates over school sites and taxpayer funding remain a staple of Aberdeen’s civic life today. This 1892 struggle captures the early tension between municipal expansion and the democratic power of a petitioning public.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.