The first school in what is now Asotin County was at Anatone, then the most flourishing community in what was then the eastern part of Columbia County. It is worthy of special note that the building was erected and the school maintained by the settlers themselves without any county appropriation. Miss Angie Bean, now Mrs. Tuttle and now living on Anatone Prairie, was the teacher of that pioneer school. We are informed by Mr. John Romaine, who came to Anatone in 1878, that the school was at its best during the first dozen or so years of its existence. As has not infrequently occurred in exclusively grain regions, the large farmers have absorbed the small ones and after a certain stage has been reached population tends to decline. As a result school districts diminish. Thus it has proved at Anatone.
The first school in Asotin City dates to 1881. The first teacher was Miss Blanche Marsilliott. There seems to have been much tribulation at Asotin about building an adequate schoolhouse. Not until 1904 was there sufficient space for the steadily increasing numbers in the town. Even with the handicap of insufficient space and equipment a high standard seems to have been maintained, insomuch that the report of the State College at Pullman indicated that the graduates of the Asotin High School stand at the head in preparation for advanced work.
As giving a clear and effective general view of the present status of the schools of Asotin County, we incorporate here a few paragraphs for which we are indebted to Prof. W. J. Jerome, formerly county superintendent and now city superintendent of Asotin.
PRESENT STATUS ASOTIN COUNTY SCHOOLS
By W. J. Jerome
The county being strictly an agricultural district, except for a small portion devoted to the fruit industry, the school population is comparatively small. Nevertheless the interest in education has always been great and is steadily increasing.
The number of school census children in the county in May, 1917, was 1,777 but the number actually enrolled in the schools of the county for the year was 1,884. The fact that the number enrolled is greater than the number of census children is largely due to the fact that a large number of children come into the schools of Asotin and Clarkston from other places to take advantage of the good schools and the mild winter climate.
The county contains two fully accredited high schools, Asotin and Clarkston. Clarkston had a total enrollment during the past year of 1,005, Asotin, 317. The interest in education in each of these places is very great and each maintains a fully equipped high school not only carrying the regular old line courses but offering courses in industrial arts as well. The Asotin School was the pioneer in the county in the newer branches and is at present the best equipped school in the county for work in manual training, home economics, agriculture and science work. However Clarkston is now beginning a program of industrial education that will soon place that district in the forefront in this line of work.
There are also two other centers, Anatone and Cloverland, which have introduced these new subjects and are rapidly building up splendid little high school centers.
Perhaps the greatest change in the county has come to the one room rural schoolhouse. In many cases the simple log building has been replaced by a neat modern building, heated and ventilated by some of the new heating and ventilating systems and provided with all modern equipment.