A complete roll of the class of 1900 was not available. Two members of the class were Charles Harris and Anna Compton, both of whom were important to the history of Mexia. Harris, as far as is known about him, is the only native of Mexia to achieve the military rank of Major General. Compton was a long-time teacher in our school system.
The pay for the Principal in 1900 was $150 a month. Teachers were $55 a month and the janitor made $25 a month.
School was dismissed from the second Monday in February, 1901 for thirty days because of Scarlet Fever. Parents were afraid to send their children to school for fear of them taking the disease.
This is a partial list of the 10th and 11th graders of 1901. There was no listing of seniors.
Noland Arvin
Harvey Bennett
Guy Bond
Nathan Bourland
Minnie Carroll
Oscar Cox
Doyle David
Lillie Maude David
John Friley
Bess Gladdish
Gertie Green
Sadie Green
John Groover
Sallie Lou Hall
Bethel Hancock
Mabel Lewis
Tom Lewis
Lillian Machon
Nat Machon
John McBonner
Joe McCain
Ona McDonald
Lisia Miller
Retta Murphy
Jake Nussbaum
Rosa Phillips
Ona Roberts
George Ross
Vernon Ross
Luella Smith
Luther Smith
Laura Steen
Mary Steele
Ernest Stevens
Emma Taylor
Sophia Wood
Oran Wroe
Surrounded by the family and school board of the Mexia Public School, with a host of admiring friends and fellow citizens, the class of 1904 passed from the threshold of schooldom into the outer realm of reality. The stage at the Opera House was most beautifully and tastily decorated. The music was furnished by the Prairie Grove Band. High above the heads of the graduates was a gilded monogram, M.H.S. (This is an excerpt from the program of Closing Exercises for the class of 1904.
Roger L. Burgess
W. Barney Humphries
Janie Loader
T. Osro Lofland
Birnie May
Ena McDonald
J. Rueben Neese
William M. Peyton
May Phillips
H. Clay Watson
Herbert Wright
Julia Kauhl was a member of the class of 1906. She later was employed as a teacher and spent her entire life teaching career in the Mexia ISD. Hiram Sterling fled the law and became the star of a "wild west show." Ben Jackson remained in Mexia throughout his life and wrote a newspaper column about Mexia's history for the Centennial additions.
