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104
W. HAROLD THOMAS.

[[image: black and white portrait photograph of W. H. Thomas]]
[[caption]]W. H. THOMAS.[[/caption]]

Mr. W. HAROLD THOMAS, principal of East Side School, Carbondale, Illinois, is a graduate of the class of 1905.
 
He is one of the young men who taught long enough before coming to Lincoln Institute to find that to be taught himself a few years would be beneficial to those who might sit at his feet for instruction as well as to himself. Accordingly, after teaching several terms in the public schools in the State of Missouri he entered Lincoln Institute, 1901.

For four years he maintained a good record in his class. He was valedictorian of the class when he finished the half course, and always remained among those

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105
MISS CARA L. WALLER.

"honorably" mentioned after the term examination. He was all this time working with his hands to pay his expenses in school and his general appearance indicated that he must have succeeded, as well in results from his labor with his hands, as his examinations showed him to have succeeded in mental exertions.

In his Senior year, President Allen sent him to fill a vacancy in the school at Fulton, Missouri, the president having been asked for a teacher. Mr. Thomas finished this unexpired term of two months, returned and made his examinations and graduated with his class.

He was elected to teach the following regular session in Fulton.

During the summer the school board at Carbondale, Illinois, asked for a principal there. Mr. Thomas applied and was elected. It is quite a compliment to him at his age to be principal of a school of this grade with so many teachers under him.
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Miss CARA L. WALLER, of the class of 1900, taught one year at Wentzville, Missouri, and then decided to go to new and broader fields. Accordingly, she went to Chickasha, Indian Territory, where she was elected as a primary teacher in the public school of that town. She taught her for two years and was reelected for the third, but resigned to accept a better position at Muskogee, Indian Territory.

When she left Chickasha, the school board gave her