C
entral to the Heart: Our Legacy Family
My great-grandma, Myrtle Bell (Randall) Pitchford, graduated from Normal School No. 2 in 1913. Her brother, Alva Randall, was a student in 1915 when the original campus was destroyed by fire. Shortly after the blaze, churches in town opened their doors to the university to use for classes. Myrtle’s husband, my greatgrandpa Ava Cast iron drawing tables were pulled Pitchford, from the science hall during the 1915 fire. also went to the Normal School. He arrived by train in 1914, and having never been to Warrensburg, accidentally walked to the courthouse thinking it was the college. Although Myrtle didn’t marry him until years later, Ava and Alva were college buddies. 2
By Ellen Blaize, ’11, ’13
Back then, the school year was divided into four terms, and tuition was free; students simply had to pay a $5 incidental fee per term. According to a 1914 publication, students were required to submit “satisfactory evidence of a good moral character” from a “person of well-known integrity” on their admissions
Spring 2021 | ucmfoundation.org/magazine
application. Textbooks were furnished at a rental fee of $1 per year, along with a $3 deposit to ensure proper use and safe return. The school did not have dormitories, which meant students boarded at private houses in town. The house my greatgrandma lived in is still standing, on the corner of Grover and South College streets. She had an upstairs room with no heat and helped the homeowner cook and clean. Although students attended Normal School No. 2 to become teachers, there was a diverse selection of classes, including Electricity and Magnetism, Household Management, Carpentry and House Building, and Penmanship. I have my great-grandma’s 108-year-old leather-bound yearbook, in which the senior class was asked to provide a suggested epitaph (see above) to go next to their picture. My grandma always got a kick out of reading to me her mother’s entry. I like to think I inherited her sense of humor.
