Noland School
Noland
School was named Southside Elementary School when Truman attended the first
and second grades here, from 1892 to 1894. "My first year in school was
a happy one. My teacher was Miss Myra Ewing, with whom I became a favorite,
as I eventually did with all my teachers. When I started the second grade,
my teacher was Miss Minnie Ward." (Memoirs, I, 116.) Truman's desk mate
in the first grade, Mize Peters, remembered his schoolfellow as a bright,
unpretentious boy. "Why he was in the same [class] room I was, as smart
as he was, I don't know. He was always smart but he didn't try to impress
people with his smartness. He enjoyed studying and learning." (Mize
Peters oral history interview, Truman Library, 1963.) Truman got a severe
case of diphtheria in January 1894 and missed the remainder of the school
year. After going to summer school to catch up what he had missed, he went
to a new school, Columbian, where he was put in the fourth grade.
The original Noland School building, at 527 South Liberty Street, was taken down in 1935.
