Coachella Valley's first settlers, in 1890s, were mainly single men. Most worked for the railroad or they were looking into the possibilities of making a living here. Wives and children came later. Edith Mann Ross told of walking from Vancouver, Washington beside a covered wagon-a seven month journey-arriving in Indio in 1896 with her parents, her sister, Polly and two brothers, Asa and Will. The Mann children brought the number of school-age children to seven, the number required by the County of Riverside to justify hiring a teacher. The first classes were held in a tent, set up east of the railroad station.
In 1897 the classes were moved to a newly completed adobe school house at the corner of Bliss and Fargo Streets in Indio. The adobe bricks were shaped by local Indians who helped with the construction. A bell was donated by the Southern Pacific. Claude Cooper, a homesteader, built the bell tower and a picket fence which surrounded the school. Adobe was the building material of many of California's first schools. Many were dimly lighted, with doubtful ventilation, but they were a step up from school buildings described in early county history books as "just boards placed upright, with numerous ventilating cracks."
Indio School District was organized October 2, 1897 and the school had been built on land deeded to the district by George W. Durbrow, the subdivider. Miss Quinn, the first teacher, taught all eight grades, but she lacked enough pupils to fill them. Except for the buildings down Fargo Avenue the school was surrounded by desert. Bliss Street had not yet been put through.
Indio was only a strip of railroad tracks and a cluster of Southern Pacific houses in 1896. The Southern Pacific Depot was the social center of town. In a newspaper interview given on her 90th birthday, Edith Mann Ross remembered;
"We had such good times in that building. It was the only place to go for 'a night on the town.' The food was excellent. We danced there countless times. There was even a swimming pool complete with diving board, but beyond, there was actually nothing more than sagebrush, mesquite trees, rattlesnakes and coyotes. Sand blew across the barren land, and before the days of the stormwater channel, floods swept the valley.".
Indio grew and the adobe school was replaced by a two-room frame-construction school built at the corner of Bliss and Oasis Streets in 1909. The Methodists took over the adobe building and it served as a church for many years. It was damaged in the 1916 floods and was finally destroyed by fire in 1922 or 1923, when it was being used as a feed warehouse by Koehler and Sons.
A student who had attended the school in 1899, Mrs. Louise Cardinez Fawl, was interviewed on May 12, 1953, when she stopped in Indio on a trip East and visited the office of the Date Palm. She remembered when J. Win Wilson was the Editor. She particularly mentioned Maud Minthorn, who taught the school in 1899. Miss Minthorn's uncle was Herbert Hoover, ex-President of the United States. She mentioned classmates at the old school included her two sisters, Mrs. Theresa Bermudez and Mrs. Marina Davis, and Otho Moore, Hattie Horton, David, Annie, Frank, Irene and Pearl Smith, Lizzie Elgin, and Edith Mann Ross. She brought a picture of the original school house which she gave to the school district.
The Periscope, a series available on Amazon:
The Periscope includes a series of engaging publications that detail the rich history of the Coachella Valley. From life as a pioneer, the growth of the date industry, all the way to the Salton Sea saga, and much more, the stories bring to life the desert region of Southern California. Written under the umbrella of the Coachella Valley Historical Society (dba Coachella Valley History Museum), books in the series tell the stories of the innovators who helped to make the vibrant region what it is today.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Priscilla Porter is the Co-Director of the Porter History-Social Science Resource Center at the Palm Desert Campus of California State University San Bernardino and a volunteer at the Coachella Valley History Museum. A former elementary school teacher, she is the author of many popular curriculum guides for teachers.
Professional gratitude is extended to the contributing authors: Patricia Korzec, Renee Brown, Diana P. Kitagawa, Rod Hendry, Julia Sizek, and Patricia Laflin. Credit is extended to Eduardo Contreras for the cover design.
This is the first book in The Periscope series from the Coachella Valley Historical Society (dba Coachella Valley History Museum). Additional books in the series will be available SOON. To hear about the latest books, sign up for the exclusive New Release Mailing List by sending an email to prisporter@aol.com. You’ll be glad you did!
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