100 years ago, today..

I did a double take when I noticed the date on this photo! Here we find my paternal grandfather, James “Jim” Isaac Wise, exactly 100 years ago, to the day, sitting with his class and teacher posing for a class photo. He’s a young 8 year old in the photo based on his August of ’13 birthday.

Jim is #14 in the outline below:

For location, the school name on the sign was helpful, as did finding Jim in the 1920 census:

These place him in Mound Township of Miami County, Kansas.

I reached out to the Miami County historical museum with this photo — and they confirmed this was a school in the area. Their response:

We did not have a picture of any students from the Crescent Hill School; so we’re very glad to see what you sent.
Miami County historical museum

I checked the weather forecast for Nov 29 in this area of Kansas, near Osawatomie, and it’s high of 70, low of 39 — so maybe it was comfortable, mid-day, for this group of 13 students, perched on the steps of their school. Only #1 is a smiler this day, while the rest seem neutrally curious about the photography process or are otherwise unimpressed.
I wonder if the slate they are holding up a sign is one of their usual slates for in-class use.

For identifiers, the museum does indicate to me they have lists of each student from the early 20’s from this school, maybe that’ll be useful in some way if I can get them to share with me. Girl #2 appears to have some initials on her outfit.