Monday's Diggings

Grandma’s 1913 Diploma

Sometimes several seemingly ordinary family keepsakes come together to tell a much larger story.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared several items connected to my grandmother Pauline Mentzer’s school years in Coffey County, Kansas. One was a school souvenir listing Pauline and other Mentzer children among the pupils. Another was Pauline’s 1912–1913 grade card, which provided a glimpse of the subjects she studied and how she performed in school.

Today’s digging adds another piece to that story—her eighth-grade diploma.

The diploma is a wonderful old document, complete with elaborate scrollwork, flowers, and the large words “Public Schools Diploma.” It records that Pauline Mentzer had completed the prescribed Common School Course of Study in Coffey County and was awarded the diploma on May 31, 1913.

In Kansas at the time, completing the common-school course had real significance. State law provided that pupils who completed the prescribed course of study for rural and graded schools could receive a common-school diploma, which qualified them for entrance into a Kansas high school. 

That makes this more than an attractive certificate. It represents an educational milestone in Pauline’s life.

Connecting the pieces

What I especially enjoy about this diploma is how it fits with the other school records that survived.

Pauline’s 1912–1913 grade card shows her doing well in subjects such as orthography, reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, physiology, history, civics, Kansas history, agriculture and deportment. She ranked first during each of the six months recorded on the card, with monthly averages ranging from 93 to 97.

Then there is the school souvenir, another keepsake preserved by the family. It lists Pauline along with her siblings Paul and Herbert Mentzer and gives us another glimpse of the children with whom she attended school.

And now I have the diploma marking the completion of that stage of her education.

Together, these documents provide something that no single record could provide by itself. The souvenir gives me names. The grade card tells me what Pauline was studying and how she was doing. The diploma tells me that she successfully completed the common-school course.

One puzzle remains

There is also a wrinkle in these records that deserves more investigation.

The school records I have do not all appear to use the same district number. My other records associate Pauline with the Crandall school and Joint District No. 1, while the graduation material associates her with District No. 9. The diploma itself also needs to be read carefully when sorting out those district designations.

Rather than assuming that one of the records is wrong, this is another research question to pursue. School district boundaries, district organization, and the distinction between the school a child attended and the district used for county graduation records may help explain the difference.

Fortunately, records may survive to help answer that question. The Kansas Historical Society describes Coffey County scholastic census records that include district numbers, enrollment, teachers, board members, and the numbers of pupils promoted and graduated. Records covering 1908–1914 survive on microfilm. Coffey County also reports that its Register of Deeds became custodian of rural school records from the former county superintendent's office and holds student records dating from the early 1900s. 

Sounds like another digging project!

A document that survived

The diploma itself has obviously had a long life. It has been folded, creased, stained, and torn. It is also much too large for my scanner, so I had to photograph it with my phone.

But those imperfections are part of its history.

Someone thought enough of this diploma to keep it. Pauline kept it through adulthood, marriage, moves, and all the ordinary events of a long life. More than a century after it was issued, it is still here.

Genealogists spend a great deal of time looking for records created about our ancestors—census records, deeds, obituaries, marriage records and probate files. Family keepsakes like this diploma are different. They are objects that our ancestors themselves held onto.

And when Pauline Mentzer received this diploma on May 31, 1913, she probably had no idea that more than a century later her granddaughter would be studying it, comparing it with her grade card and school souvenir, and using all three to reconstruct a small part of her childhood.

That is what makes this particular piece of paper much more than an eighth-grade diploma.

It is another piece of Grandma’s story.