Location: 700 N. Union St., Lee L. Driver Middle School, Winchester (Randolph County, Indiana)
Installed: 2009 Indiana Historical Bureau, Randolph County Historical Society, and the Randolph Central School Corporation
ID#: 68.2009.1
Text
Side one:
Indiana laws passed 1897-1907 provided for abandonment of rural one-room schools; they were replaced with consolidated schools that offered graded curriculum, high school education, and athletics. Driver, Superintendent of Randolph County Schools, 1907-1919, replaced over 100 district schools with 20 multi-room buildings, which garnered national acclaim.
Side two:
Born in Randolph County 1867. He graduated from teachers college 1883 and returned home to teach; named principal of Winchester High School, 1900. Elected county superintendent in 1907, 1911, and 1917. In 1920, Driver became Director of Rural Education for Pennsylvania; known there as the “father of rural school consolidation.” Driver died 1960.
Keywords
Education and Libraries
Annotated Text
Lee L. Driver
Side one:
Indiana laws passed 1897-1907 provided for abandonment of rural one-room schools; (1) they were replaced with consolidated schools that offered graded curriculum, high school education, and athletics.(2) Driver, Superintendent of Randolph County Schools, 1907-1919, replaced over 100 district schools with 20 multi-room buildings, (3) which garnered national acclaim.(4)
Side two:
Born in Randolph County 1867. He graduated from teachers college 1883 and returned home to teach; named principal of Winchester High School, 1900.(5) Elected county superintendent in 1907, 1911, and 1917.(6) In 1920, Driver became Director of Rural Education for Pennsylvania;(7) known there as the “father of rural school consolidation.” Driver died 1960.(8)
Notes
1. Laws of Indiana, 1897, 248-50, as cited in Clifton J. Phillips, Indiana in Transition (Indianapolis, 1968), 389 (B070333); Laws of Indiana, 1899, 547-51 (B070390); Laws of Indiana, 1901, 448-49 (B070389); Laws of Indiana, 1907, 444-45 (B070391).
2. Phillips, Indiana in Transition, 386-402 (B070333) provides a good overview of public education in Indiana from 1880 to 1920 (B070333); Indiana Department of Public Instruction, Twenty-Sixth Biennial Report, 1913, 105-13 reports the results of consolidation at that time and includes Driver’s report on Randolph County, pp. 124-47 (B070408); Indiana Department of Public Instruction, Twenty-Eighth Biennial Report, 1917, 459-61 (B070406); Louis W. Rapeer, The Consolidated Rural School (New York, n.d.), 260-70 (B070352) is an updated report based on Driver’s report in 1913; O. H. Greist, Consolidation of Schools in Randolph County, Indiana (Washington D.C., 1923), 1-12 (B070341); reports specifically on Randolph County Delaware State Parent-Teacher Association, The School as a Community Center (1924), 6-19 (B070392).
3. “Driver Accepts Place in East,” Indianapolis Star, December 19, 1919, p. 9, c. 3 (B070342); “A Superintendent of the County Schools was Chosen Monday-Prof. Driver the Man.,” The Winchester Herald, June 5, 1907 (B070699); “Directory of School Officers and Teachers of Randolph County, Indiana 1907-1908” (B071424); “Randolph County Public Schools Officers and Teachers 1919-20” (B071425); Indiana Department of Public Instruction, Twenty-Sixth Biennial Report, 1913, 105-13, 124 (B070408); “Chinese Party Visits Schools,” Winchester Democrat, January 29, 1920 (B070396); Greist, 4 (B070341).
4. Julius Bernhard, Rural Education and the Consolidated School (New York, 1918), 182-85 (B070351); “Indiana's Rural Schools,” Indianapolis News, October 23, 1915 (B070346); “Dr. Kendall Compliments Schools,” Winchester Herald, October 27, 1915 (B070395).
Foreign recognition of Randolph County schools appeared in the following: “Chinese Party Visits Schools,” Winchester Democrat, January 29, 1920 (B070396); “Fame of Randolph County Schools, Spreading to Canada, May Result in Educational Revolution There,” Winchester Democrat, February 2, 1916 (B070456); Richard Lees, “The Consolidated School and the Community,” Farm and Dairy (Peterborough, Ontario), 27 January 1916 (B070451).
5. John L. Smith and Lee L. Driver, Past and Present of Randolph County Indiana: With Biographical Sketches of Representative Citizens and Genealogical Records of Many of the Old Families (Indianapolis, 1914), 1396 (B070310). Driver’s biographical sketch indicates his birth date is February 22, 1867.
6. “A Superintendent of the County Schools was Chosen Monday-Prof. Driver the Man.,” The Winchester Herald, June 5, 1907 (B070699); “Was Elected Again,” The Winchester Herald, June 7, 1911 (B070701); “Lee L. Driver Succeeds Himself as County School Superintendent,” The Winchester Democrat, June 7, 1917 (B070706); “Honor Comes to Supt. L. L. Driver,” The Winchester Democrat, June 19, 1919 (B070703).
7. “Driver Accepts Place in East,” Indianapolis Star, December 19, 1919, p. 9, c. 3 (B070342); “Lee L. Driver,” Winchester Journal, December 24, 1919 (B070394).
The Indianapolis Star article stated Driver’s resignation would become effective on January 1, 1920, but the Winchester Journal claimed Driver’s last day as County Superintendent would be around January 10, 1920.
8. “Dr. Lee L. Driver, Noted School Administrator, Dies in Florida,” Winchester Journal Herald, October 22, 1960 (B070393); “Necrology,” Pennsylvania School Journal, Vol. 109, No. 4 (December 1960): 191 (B070350); Winship, Albert E., “Dr. Lee L. Driver of Pennsylvania,” Journal of Education, 112 (1930): 546 (B070348).