The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Early teachers and principals of Avon Park, 1904-1935

Between the 1895 destruction of Avon Park’s pioneer wooden schoolhouse and the consolidation of the public school system under Highlands County in the 1930s, the town’s classrooms were led by a sequence of certified educators who bridged rural one-room instruction and modern secondary accreditation. Four key educational figures named in state and national directories establish the administrative and pedagogical leadership of the period.

Professor Erving Leander Richardson (1897–1911)

Professor Erving Leander Richardson (1849–1911), born at Columbia, Connecticut, and graduated from Dartmouth College in the Class of 1873 (where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa), served as the principal instructor of the Avon Park school during its post-freeze recovery era under the DeSoto County Board of Public Instruction.[dartmouth-alumni-1912-03][maxwell-1976] Before coming to Florida, he had served as principal of schools in Norwich, Vermont; Addison, New York; New Lebanon, Pennsylvania; and Windsor, New Hartford, and Lebanon, Connecticut, and had farmed at the village of Liberty Hill in Lebanon while serving as president of the Windham County Christian Endeavor Union.[dartmouth-alumni-1912-03][willimantic-1898-05-06]

When Avon Park’s rebuilt two-story frame schoolhouse at South Forest Avenue and West Walnut Street opened on 4 October 1897 with fifty-eight pupils, Richardson became its first teacher and principal.[maxwell-1976] On 6 May 1898, The Willimantic Journal reported that a letter of greeting from “Mr. E. L. Richardson, of Avon Park, Florida, ex-president of the union and a former resident of Liberty Hill” was read at the Christian Endeavor convention at Liberty Hill.[willimantic-1898-05-06] He is subsequently listed on the official teacher-certificate rolls of the Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction across three successive biennia (1904–1906, 1908–1910, and 1910–1912) with an Avon Park post-office address, continuing until his death at Avon Park on 25 July 1911.[dpi-1904-1906][dpi-1910-1912][dartmouth-alumni-1912-03]

Beyond the classroom, Richardson served a term as mayor during the town’s 1897–1899 incorporation, presided over the Avon Park Horticultural Society in 1906, and was a prominent leader and benefactor of the Union Evangelical Church (Congregational).[maxwell-1976][home-missionary-1907] Under his tenure, the school expanded from an $80 state apportionment allocation to an established graded institution with a sixty-volume library by 1906.[dpi-1904-1906]

Sarah Elizabeth Bangs (1908–1912)

Sarah Elizabeth Bangs (recorded in state rolls alternately as “Sarah E. Bangs” and “Elizabeth Bangs”) brought formal collegiate training to the interior Ridge. Bangs graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) degree from the University of Michigan in the class of 1881.[umich-alumni-1912]

Prior to her service in Avon Park, Bangs held a Florida Life State Certificate and served on the faculty of the Florida State Normal School at DeFuniak Springs and St. Petersburg, training common school teachers across the state. She taught in Avon Park between 1908 and 1912, elevating local pedagogical standards during the town’s rapid citrus expansion prior to municipal incorporation.[dpi-1910-1912]

A. J. Gross (1912–1916)

A. J. Gross led the academic expansion into secondary subject instruction as Avon Park prepared for its 1913 school bond issue and the erection of the two-story brick junior high school on Forest Avenue. Gross held a First Grade State Certificate with examination specializations in advanced high school subjects, including plane and solid geometry, trigonometry, rhetoric, and psychology.[dpi-1912-1914]

In the 1914–1916 state report, Gross is identified as a teacher-training and secondary instructor in DeSoto County, teaching the inaugural cohort of secondary students in Avon Park District No. 3 as enrollment grew from 21 pupils toward high school status.[dpi-1914-1916] Local recollections preserved in town histories record Gross overseeing the addition of tenth-grade coursework during this period, with Cyrus Street advancing as the school’s lone tenth-grade student.[maxwell-1976]

In April 1916, The De Soto County News reported that Professor Gross was preparing the Avon Park school’s closing exercises, spanning Wednesday through Friday, concluding the 1915–1916 academic year and his four-year administration of the town’s public school.[dsc-1916-04-20]

Miss Martha Livingston (1915–1916)

County press chronicles establish that Miss Martha Livingston of Arcadia served on the Avon Park public school faculty during the 1915–1916 academic year. The Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction’s 1914–1916 roster records her as a Florida State College for Women graduate with an Arcadia post-office address and a Graduate State Certificate.[dpi-1914-1916]

In February 1916, The De Soto County News recorded that Miss Livingston, “who is teaching school this year at Avon Park,” returned to Arcadia to spend the weekend with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. John T. Livingston, accompanied by one of her Avon Park pupils, Miss Irene Clark.[dsc-1916-02-03]

During Livingston’s term, the physical plant received substantial improvements: in April 1916 Contractor Brazier graded the school yard and prepared to erect an iron fence enclosing the brick school grounds.[dsc-1916-04-06] Livingston’s teaching colleague Miss Laura Chapman was also in Avon Park by January 1916, when visiting Arcadia as a guest of Mrs. John Livingston.[dsc-1916-01-27]

Miss Anna Mae Laubach and Miss Laura Chapman (1916–1918)

Local press chronicles from DeSoto and Polk counties preserve the names of additional graded classroom teachers who served during the expansion of the junior high school on Forest Avenue prior to the creation of Highlands County.

Following Professor Gross’s departure at the close of the spring 1916 term, the DeSoto County Board of Public Instruction voted in October 1916 to designate the First National Bank of Avon Park as depository for District No. 3’s bond and sinking fund, assessing two mills for interest and three mills for sinking fund.[dsc-1916-10-19] The instructional staff underwent transition: in September 1916, The Punta Gorda Herald recorded that Miss Anna Mae Laubach of Punta Gorda had accepted a teaching appointment in the Avon Park public school system for the 1916–1917 academic year.[pgh-1916-09-21] In December 1917, The Lakeland Evening Telegram reported on Miss Laura Chapman, serving as an active classroom teacher in the Avon Park school.[let-1917-12-03]

Robert T. Fairey (1934–1935)

Robert T. Fairey served as the supervising principal of Avon Park Junior-Senior High School during the Great Depression, managing a student body of 237 secondary pupils across grades seven through twelve.[dpi-1934-1936][pattersons-1935]

A native of South Carolina, graduate of Wofford College, and World War I veteran, Fairey had previously served as superintendent of public school systems in Latta and Bishopville, South Carolina. In Avon Park, he directed the fully accredited four-year high school curriculum, which included federal vocational home economics and athletic programs, before transitioning into national administrative leadership with the Veterans Administration and serving as National Historian of the American Legion.[dpi-1934-1936][pattersons-1935]

Summary of Tenures and Credentials

Educator Active Years in Avon Park Credentials & Alma Mater Primary Role in Avon Park
Erving Leander Richardson 1897–1911 A.B., A.M. Dartmouth College (1873); State Teacher Certificate Principal & common school instructor; early mayor; Union Church leader
Sarah Elizabeth Bangs 1908–1912 A.B. Univ. of Michigan (1881); Life State Certificate Graded classroom teacher; Normal instructor
A. J. Gross 1912–1916 First Grade Certificate (Mathematics/Psychology) Junior High & secondary subject instructor
Martha Livingston 1915–1916 Florida State College for Women graduate; Graduate State Certificate Avon Park public-school teacher
Anna Mae Laubach 1916–1917 Common school certificate (Punta Gorda) Graded classroom instructor
Laura Chapman 1916–1918 Common school certificate Graded classroom instructor
Robert T. Fairey 1934–1935 A.B. Wofford College; WWI Veteran Supervising Principal, Jr.-Sr. High School (237 pupils)

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
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society

Sources

  1. Rev. S. Winchester Adriance, Class Secretary, Class of 1873: Erving Leander Richardson — Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Vol. IV, No. 5 (March 1912) (1912) · official
  2. The Willimantic Journal, The Willimantic Journal (Willimantic, Conn.), 6 May 1898, page 8: Liberty Hill Christian Endeavor Union convention (1898) · newspaper
  3. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1904-1906: Teacher Certificate Roll (1906)
  4. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1910-1912: Teacher Certificate Roll (1912)
  5. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1912-1914: Teacher Certificate Roll and DeSoto County Report (1914)
  6. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1914-1916: High School Roster and Teacher-Training Department (1916)
  7. Florida Superintendent of Public Instruction, Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Florida, 1934-1936: High School Directories (1936)
  8. The Punta Gorda Herald, The Punta Gorda Herald, 21 September 1916, page 7: Local and Personal (1916)
  9. Lakeland Evening Telegram, Lakeland Evening Telegram, 3 December 1917, page 4: Avon Park school notes (1917)
  10. Homer L. Patterson, Patterson's American Educational Directory, Vol. 32 (1935)
  11. Congregational Home Missionary Society, The Home Missionary, Vol. 80 (1907)
  12. University of Michigan, General Catalogue of Officers and Students, 1837-1911 (1912)
  13. The De Soto County News, The De Soto County News, 20 April 1916, page 5: Avon Park Column on Pete Ruhl and Professor Gross (1916)
  14. The De Soto County News, The De Soto County News, 19 October 1916, page 1: County School Board Minutes on Avon Park School District Bonds (1916)
  15. The De Soto County News, The De Soto County News, 27 January 1916, page 13: Local and Personal Items (1916) · newspaper
  16. The De Soto County News, The De Soto County News, 3 February 1916, page 10: Local and Personal Items (1916) · newspaper
  17. The De Soto County News, The De Soto County News, 6 April 1916, page 12: Avon Park Column (1916) · newspaper
  18. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (references/the-first-hundred-years-of-avon-park_leoma-bradshaw-maxwell_1976.md) (1976) · book

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