Information for this article was gathered from "The Chaffee Leader Newspaper"

and the 1st Chaffee MOGUL (Yearbook) of 1922-23

From THE CHAFFEE LEADER

September 1, 1955

History of Chaffee School System

Staff Article in The Chaffee Leader Newspaper

The first school was established in 1905 but the first success was not experienced until September of 1907 when 134 pupils were enrolled.   In 1908, the enrollment increased to 157 and the pupils had to be divided into morning and afternoon sessions.   The first building was in the third block of gray avenue.  It was a wheat grainary and was supplemented with a frame building directly across the street on Gray.

In 1909 Miss Finley and Miss Hicks secured public subscriptions to begin first library.  In that same year construction was started on the corner of Elliot and Fourth of a new grade school.  Since then the building has been added to various times and again this year another sizable addition is being constructed.  O.E. McGee was Superintendent and it was during his tenure that Chaffee had one of Missouri's finest football teams.

In 1916 the three story high school building was erected on the corner of Yoakum and Fifth.   In 1921 a gymnasium was built but later destroyed by the tornado.  A new and completely modern gym was erected in 1937 and in 1940 the Manual Arts building was finished.

Fred Lewallen became superintendent in June of 1935.   He established the Parent-Teachers Association and worked hard for the revival of football and band.  Mr. Lewallen has been Superintendent for 21 years seeing the schools work down through the years performing the important job of educating our children.

The above Chaffee Leader Newspaper article (Volume 2, Number 21) was from Page 2 of that newspaper.

The above article was written during the summer of 1955 in the midst of Chaffee's Golden Jubilee Celebration.   While the material does appear to be accurate, "The Chaffee Leader" newspaper did not identify the source(s) used to quote dates and events used in the article.   The Chaffee Historical Society makes available to this website the article as printed in that newspaper without attesting to the accuracy of the quoted material.

One of the earliest sources of Chaffee educational school information comes from a page of the Chaffee MOGUL of 1922-23.