What was name source for Garfield School?

By Al Rabenold

The Garfield School was the first “modern” school built for Montezuma students. 

In February of 1878 a $10,000 bond was passed to build a new school, but a feud ensued over the location. It pitted the “north siders” vs. the “south siders”. 

After a compromise the Garfield School was built for $12,000 on the McIntire’s “Old Grist Mill Site” at 103 West Liberty Street – highway 63 south just west of Super Valu. 

The classes began in 1881 with Principal John McCandless and six teachers in charge of 270 pupils.  The first official graduation was held in June of 1884.  All grades continued in this building until January of 1893.   

 

Many years later the Garfield School eventually became the Winburn Hatchery where locals joked (?) about getting a job there “leading the blind chickens out to poop.”  

When the hatchery closed it became a warehouse for Brownells, Inc. The building continued to stand for more than 100 years.  Today the site is the home of Crow Shooting Supply, Inc.

I am still curious where the name Garfield came from.  The likely guess is President James Garfield, the 20^th president of the United States.  But he wasn’t elected till 1880, didn’t take office until March 4^th of 1881 and his stay was quite short.  He was assassinated just a few months into his term.

What about Garfield the fictional cat — the protagonist of the comic strip of the same name, created by Jim Davis?  But Garfield wasn’t introduced to us until nearly 100 years after the Garfield School was built, plus the lovable, orange Persian/tabby cat is portrayed as fat, lazy and cynical, — hardly traits that you would want your students to identify with. 

And what if we had team mascots back then? Would we have been known as The Presidents, The Mighty Garfields, or maybe The Cats?  Would the boys teams have been called the Tom Cats and the girls have been referred to as Kittens? 

I promise not to spend many sleepless nights worrying about this dilemma but I do look forward to your help in solving this puzzle.  Enjoy a chuckle like Garfield the cat does!