George Wedelin, More Than a Teacher
George Wedelin, (18971991) grew up on a farm nearClimax,andgraduated from Severy High School in 1917. That fall he took his first teaching job in New Albany, which is northwest of Fredonia a few miles. It was a two-year high school and he stayed there two years. He helped organize the first football team at the school and even had to play in its only game as there were not enough players on game day to compete against his old classmates at Severy High School. Wedelin said the Severy team worked him over and he was pretty sore the next day.
Wedelin then took a job at Lafontaine, about 10 miles south of Fredonia, as a teacher and Principal. He was there three years and met his wife while teaching at Lafontaine. In 1921, Wedelin went to Emporia Normal College (now Emporia State) and graduated in 1924.
Wedelin was hired by Climax in 1924 as a teacher and Principal and remained there until 1939. His starting salary was $2,300 a year and that dropped to $1,350 in 1929 with the start of the Great Depression. Wedelin helped with the starting of a football program at Climax and the program continued until 1929 when the school quit the sport. Wedelin was much more than a teacher and Administrator at Climax and the other schools he worked at. He bought a movie projector from K.U. and showed weekly films to raise money for the 1925 gymnasium seating and this allowed the community of Climax to have a place to gather for social and educational events.
In 1939, Wedelin moved to Hamilton and stayed there until 1945 when he went to Stafford, as Principal. In 1946, he was hired as Superintendent and remained there until 1953 when health issues caused him to resign and move back to the family farm near Climax. After two years on the farm, his health had improved and he was hired to teach at Eureka High School. He remained at Eureka for 10 years, before retiring after 44 years in the field of education.
While working at Hamilton, the school district was the first to bus students into Hamilton in Greenwood County. Students were bused from Thrall and Burkett oil camps located west of Hamilton. There were thirteen high schools in the county at this time.
Maybe the most thoughtful, time consuming and patriotic thing Wedelin did took place during WWII. In December 1943 and 1944, Wedelin wrote a letter and mailed it to former students of Hamilton High School who were in the armed forces at that time. There were 105 names of alumni going all the way back to 1926 who were in the service. Wedelin wanted these alumni to know they were not forgotten and to keep them up on some of the events that were happening at Hamilton High School and in the community. Many of these former students wrote back to Wedelin from the bases where they were stationed. The Greenwood County Museum has many of these letters and they are available for the public to read. Residents and former residents of the Hamilton area who had family serve in WWII are encouraged to see if any of the letters are from the relatives and come into the museum and read them.
The following are some highlights from the December 7, 1944 letter that Wedelin wrote to service members and former alumni of Hamilton High School: “Dear Fellows: Another Christmas season is here and with it I get the urge to get in touch with you again. If Santa Claus were to look in on me right now and ask what I want most for Christmas, I could tell you in a few words—I would like to have everyone of you back in Hamilton High School for one day.
We have had a wonderful season, the crops were outstanding. Right now, Emporia is isolated by high water and we had no mail service in or out of Hamilton for two days.
Now about H.H.S. Our enrollment is lower than it has been in the past eleven years. Ralph Reno is the only member of our faculty whom most of you will remember. Football has shown improvement this year. We won from Yates Center 19-0, and Emporia B, 13-0. Just a little more of “something” applied at the right time might have won for us four of those which were so close. As a result, we are putting back into force the “no-smoking” rule for the basketball season.
As to the class of ‘43, sixteen are in the service. Charles Sanderson seems to have considerable to say about K.P. in his letters: “peeling onions should be discontinued until some genius invents some device to keep the eyes from watering.” We had a real long letter from Fred Borsdorf last spring. Apparently, he and the Japs have been having some dealings, and Fred was staying close to a foxhole.
A letter from Glen Tarrant last week says that if he had known in time, he might have put forth more effort and time in history and geography when he was in school. Rosie Weaver was in to see us just a few days agosame Rosie, except she now wears her shoes all day. The class of ’35 has contributed not only male members to Uncle Sam’s forces, but also one girl, Betty Rinker, who is now Lt. j.g. in the Waves. Perhaps the oldest alumnus of Hamilton High in the service from the standpoint of graduation is Joe Ulrich of the class of ’26.
Maybe you would like to hear some of the names from our football line-up for the Madison game. Here are a few weights, undressed: Bill Gillispie, 171; Jack Cypert, 133; Wilbur Mitchell, 155; Roy Starks, 151; (he left for the service four days after this game); Bill Kniesley 111; James Linden, 157. Our lightest substitute is Larry Carson, weight 87 pounds. He got along all right, except the pants were a little too tight under the chin.
Our basketball season will include two games each with Virgil, Madison, Gridley, Toronto and Lamont.
In order to stimulate cooperation and good citizenship on the part of the students, the faculty members, at the end of each six-week period, meet and select the outstanding school citizens for that period. I am still trying to figure out why only three of the sixteen on the list are boys—are the girls naturally better, or are the school teachers prejudiced?
Indications are that scholarship around H.H.S. is again coming into its own. I just looked in on the commerce department and Donald Scott made 44 net words per minute in a five- minute speed test this morning. The Home Making girls are using all of our sawdust and shavings (out of Manual Training class) to stuff rag dolls.
Maybe you will appreciate this one. A few weeks ago, several boys in a neighboring town that I won’t mention, although they do have dial telephones, called several Hamilton people and after giving fictitious names proceeded to kid them along a little bit. They called Dr. Rinker ( local dentist) and asked if he did bridge work. He said yes, and they replied, “come over and put one across the Verdigris, we need it.”
Well fellows, I didn’t get through with this last night. Here it is Friday morning and the morethan- usual confusion. The bus that goes through Thrall has been getting stuck nearly every morning this week. They burned out the lights on the other bus yesterday morning. We could not get a mechanic to fix it, so that bus just went out a few minutes after daylight. Since we play basketball at Virgil tonight, we have the task of hunting up cars. One thing does look encouraging, the sun is going to shine today.
Looking back over this letter, I think I have told you about everything I know and a few things that I guessed. Last year when I wrote you, I thought that most of this would be over and some of you would be back home for the holidays this year. This time I’m making no predictions, but you can’t possibly get home too soon to suit me. Until that time when we can all be together again, I wish the best of everything for you. In anticipation that the final outcome of this catastrophe will be for the good of us all, we take courage and wish for everyone a Merry Christmas and a more prosperous and happier New Year.”
