1926 Macedonia High School Memory Book page 35

                   The first money was obtained through a division of the funds belonging to the township,
            upon amicable terms, by which the independent district received twenty-one percent,
            amounting to $1,847.60.
                   In this division, O. P. Mace, J. W. Griffis and Willoughby Dye represented the township
            while S. D. Lane, Sylvester Dye and T. J. Young the first school board, Looked after the
            interests of the independent district.
                   With this fund on hand and prospects for the future in sight, following the desires of the
            people, the board proceeded to purchase the present school grounds at a cost of  $375, and
            the construction of the building which is now called the grade building at the contract
            price of $5,100 was begun.   Quite an undertaking at the time, considering that it was
            necessary to maintain a school during the time.
                   Like all the other patriotic communities, it was the first effort of the people to provide
            means for educating the youth, that they might grow up to be beneficial to the community
            in which they might live, and good citizens of the state.  With commendable zeal, the Board
            of Education has always worked to maintain the standing of our school equal to other like
            schools of the state.
                   The first regular commencement exercises were held in 1893, when Armanis Patton
            and Lillian Ashley passed out regularly from the school and were given certificates as
            having completed the complement of study.
                                                             - - - - - - - - - - -

                                                  THE CONSOLIDATED SCHOOL

                   The present Consolidated District was formed in1917 and work on the present high
            school building was rushed, but it was not ready to use until about the first of January, 1918.
            Consolidation did not affect the size of the high school so much as it did the grades.  The
            school now employs twelve teachers including the Superintendent.   It is regularly approved
            by the State Department of Public Instruction as a four year high school.

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1926 Macedonia High School Memory Book page 34

                         The pupils in this first school were: -  Frank Shinn, Ephraim Baker, Cyrus Burkholder, 
          Louisa Tuttle, James Agler, John Agler, Charles Price, Louisa Price, Warner Losh, Emerson Losh
          Cynthia Losh, George Shinn and Andrew Shinn.

                         Rev. A. T. Shinn, a Methodist minister preached the first Gentile sermon in the
           Graybill cabin in April 1858 to a full house.

                         At this time the Macedonia Township and Kane Township were the only two
           organized townships in the county.  The west line of Macedonia Township took in Silver
           Creek and Washington Townships.  The first election was held in the old mill.  Seventy
           votes were cast coming from Loon's Grove (Avoca), Big Grove (Oakland), Rhode Island
            Ridge (Waveland and Washington Twps.), Wheeler's Grove and Taylor's Station and
           Button's Settlement on Silver Creek.  Those townships in all occupied twenty-four square
           miles.

                        In 1879 the Rock Island and Burlington Railroads were surveyed and on July 4th,
            188? the first train came to Carson.
                        The town of Macedonia was soon moved from "Old Town" to the railroad and
            grew to its present population of three hundred seventy four, more or less, in a few years.
                         EDITOR'S NOTE:  -   This sketch is as nearly as possible in the words of Mr.
            Shinn as he told it to representatives of the Senior Class of 1926 in February 1926. 
            Errors in the spelling of names or other unimportant details may have crept in to the
             narrative, but we believe that it is in the main authentic.



                                         HISTORY OF MACEDONIA HIGH SCHOOL
                                                              By J. M. Kelly
                                                   (Taken from the 1906 Annual)

                       The history of the Macedonia High School may properly date from 1882, when the
                territory now comprising the Independent District of Macedonia was carved out of the
                township district and started to do business "on its own hook."

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1926 Macedonia High School Memory Book page 33

                             
                        A millwright named Hauze came from Gardens Grove and with the help of the settlers he cleared the timber and built a mill.  Stutzman sent to St. Louis for the burrs.  This mill was always known as "Stutzman's Mill."
                         It cost the people here twenty-five cents to send a letter to the Eastern part of the United  States.  Mail for them came up the Missouri river by steamboat to Knoxville    (Council  Bluffs) and was left at Stutzman's store until a neighbor would bring it out.
                          There people held regular meetings.  Elder Calvin A. Beebe was the minister.  His first sermon was on this text,  "There is a cry from Macedonia, come over and help us."  After this
first sermon a petition was prepared and sent to Washington, D. C., asking for a post office to be
established.   At this time the people gave the settlement the name of Macedonia.  The post office was established in 1849 and C. A. Beebe was the first postmaster.
                         The first sttlers chose land which had on it plenty of timber or water power or both. 
When the government survey was completed in 1851 and the land was formally thrown open by the government in 1853, Tuttle filed a claim for the land on which the mill stood and Stutzman filed on the eighty acres north of him.  It is supposed that Graybill deeded his original claim to the water rights to Stutzman.
                         The settlers from 1853 to 1858 included Wm. Hinman, mcClure Hinman, W.W. Wilson,
Ezra Baker, A. T. Shinn, Wm. Price, J.Z. Losh, John Agler, T.J. Ring, George Cotton, Peter Frain and
Charles Burkholder.
                          The first school election was held in 1858 and the following directors were chosen:
A. T. Shinn, President, Ezra Baker and Charles Burkholder.  Jas. B. Rue was the County Superintendant
of Schools and Joe Lyman was the first teacher.  The log cabin built by Graybill was used for a school house.  Mr. Lyman was paid twenty dollars a month and "boarded 'round."
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1926 Macedonia High School Memory Book page 32

HISTORY OF MACEDONIA

 

                                                                          BY FRANK SHINN

                              In 1846, two years after the assassination of Joe Smith, the Prophet, father of
     the Mormon Church, Brigham Young, with several hundred members of his church in Navoo,
     Illinois, crossed the Mississippi river in the spring and started westward.
                              Several stopped at Garden's Grove in Dayton County and several stopped at
     what is now called Macedonia.  They stayed for some time at the place called Old Macedonia.
     Four of the elders of the Mormons died and were buried on what is now the Clyde Scott farm.
     Brigham Young continued and stopped at a place he named Weeping Water. late. Florence,
     north of Omaha.
                              The next spring, 1847, Levi Graybill discovered the stone and the fall of the water in the river at Old Macedonia, while camped near the river.  After going on to Knoxville,
(now Council Bluffs) he left his people and came back to the  Nishnabotna river and posted a squatters notice at the waterfall in the river and then took eighty acres of land that was covered with heavy
timber.  Here he built the first log cabin on half mile south of the main street of the present
Macedonia and moved in his family.
                             Calvin A. Beebe, a Mormon elder was the next settler.   Next came Joe Smith
(grandfather of Henry Smith), then came John Weiniger and John Mowry.  All these came in 1847.
                              Thomas J. Ring came from Gardens Grove in 1848 with three yoke of oxen and
settled between Macedonia and Carson.
                               Levi Graybill sold his squatter's claim to J. B. Stutzman of Council Bluffs.  To
hold such a claim it had to be occupied so Mr. Stutzman sent Luther Tuttle, who had just married
a Miss Wilmot, to live on the Graybill place for him.
                               At this time the people who had settled here had to drive a hundred miles south
into Missouri to get their grain ground into flour.  They wanted a mill nearer so the persuaded
Stutzman to build a mill on the Nishnabotna River.