George Smarsty (1896-1980) – Was Grandpa a High School Dropout?

Born in Dubuque, Iowa, George Joseph Smarsty lived most of his 83 years in Moline, Illinois a life which included 2 wives, 5 children, and 18 grandchildren. With so many grandchildren, I feel fortunate that he and Grandma let me and my sister spend summers and school holiday breaks with them.  These long vacations included staying up late (10:00 PM) and eating ice cream just before going to bed.  Warm and happy memories.  He would talk about his high school class reunions where he always won for most children and most grandchildren.  They lasted into his 80’s.  As an adult, I realized that I knew little about his early life so decided to try to find information about his high school years.

Some clues to start.  My mother told me that he had dropped out of high school to work. Railroad retirement record showed that he worked on and off for the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad starting in the summer of 1912. While working, George recognized that promoted employees were high school graduates, so he returned to high school to finish.  Was this true?  He loved football and told us stories of his playing days. Was there a photo? Maybe a high school yearbook that would help.   What could I find? 

Although the building is different, the Moline High School still exists today.  My mom and her siblings and some of my cousins attended there.  My aunt worked there.  Mom proudly taught me the high school fight song at a young age. I called the school and asked if there was a yearbook for the 1915 time period. The woman who answered said that the high school did not have a copy.

However she offered something even better. She had his original permanent record card. In Illinois, the student’s permanent record card, by law, must be saved by the school for 60 years.  Moline High School had saved it longer than necessary, but soon it would be thrown out.  Did I want it?  Yikes!  Sure!  Better than a yearbook!  She said it would be mailed to me.

What else might I find? I checked newspapers and found some articles.  Grandpa played running back in high school. His coach nicknamed him Agony, because his arms hurt from sores and scrapes by his sliding. Grandpa (or Agony) was not thrilled about sliding during practice, so the coach nicknamed him.  I found these football articles in a 1915 (undated) Rockford Register newspaper.

My cousin kindly sent me a photo of his high school football team, the Marooners.  George (or Agony) is sitting, first on the left, hands crossed. 

The elusive 1916 yearbook, The M was located at Classmates.com.  George graduated the same year as his younger sister, Martha. Here is the page, which describes his track and surprisingly, his stage career. His sister Martha is also listed.

 

The photo in the yearbook looks similar to one I had in my collection:

Lastly, the permanent record card arrived in the mail.  It gives birthdate, and dates he entered high school (January 1912[1]) and graduated (June 2, 1916). It shows his grades and that he attended high school 8 semesters.  If he had attended eight consecutive semesters, he would have graduated in December 1915.  So he did take a semester off, and return, graduating with his younger sister.  His best grade was in mechanical drawing which he used at work. He also took short hand!  Looks like he was a good student.

In researching this article I found something interesting.  When he entered high school in 1912, he attended in the building that was affectionately known as the castle, because of its two turrets.  He would have attended there until the “new” high school on the same property was finished in 1915. The same building his children attended in the 1940’s.  The third high school in use today was built in 1958.  Here are the photos.

I tried to find the lyrics to the Moline High School Fight song, but was unsuccessful. Instead I’ll give you the Jacquie version, which I learned at about 5 years old:

We are Moliners

We’re from Moline

We are the best team

You’ve ever seen

You do your best boys

We’ll do the rest boys

Cheer on for old Moline!

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[1] Until the early 1950’s Moline had two classes every school year, the fall class and the spring class, which depended on your birthdate.  So it was not unusual to enter high school in January.