Berthoud Weekly Surveyor | Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot

Berthoud schools thrived under hand of F.I. Gammill

April 15, 2023 | Local News

By Mark French

The Surveyor

Prior to the consolidation of Berthoud’s rural and town school districts in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the junior-senior high school in the town of Berthoud was located in a two-story, brick building (no longer standing) at the northwest corner of Ninth Street and Massachusetts Avenue. The town’s elementary school (no longer standing) sat at the center of present-day Fickel Park. The two schools, each with a principal and teaching staff, made up Larimer County School District No. 13. A single school superintendent oversaw both schools. From 1929 through 1940 Berthoud’s school superintendent was F.I. Gammill.

Before the arrival of Finis Isgrig “F.I.” Gammill, the Berthoud newspaper announced that he had purchased the J.G. Doherty house at 806 Eighth St. Two weeks later the local tabloid added, “F.I. Gammill, who received his B.A. degree from Colorado State Teachers College in 1921, has been elected superintendent of schools at Berthoud.

“Mr. Gammill is well known in public school circles of the state. He is just completing his third year as superintendent at Flagler where he has been very successful. He was superintendent at Arriba for two years and Simla for four years. Previous to his Simla superintendency he was superintendent at Mead for eight years.

“Mr. Gammill, who is a native of Illinois is married and has two sons. The eldest, Homer, received his A.B. degree from Colorado State Teachers College in 1926 and is teaching in Missouri. The youngest, Kenneth, is a senior in high school.

“Mr. Gammill is connected with Camp Olympus and spends his summer in Estes Park.”

Gammill came to Mead in 1911 after his potato crop on a farm near Kuner, Colo., was destroyed by a killing frost. Beginning in January of that year, Gammill was employed teaching the upper grades (fifth through eighth grades) in Mead’s two-room school house. After he moved his wife and two sons to Mead later that year, his wife Loura took a teaching job at the nearby Pleasant Hill country school. She commuted from Mead to Pleasant Hill in a horse-drawn buggy.

Gammill remained in Mead for nine years, during which time he played a key role in the consolidation of the community’s rural and town schools and the construction of a new school and gymnasium (no longer standing) at the west edge of Mead. From Mead, Gammill moved to the Colorado communities of Simla, Arriba and Flagler before landing in Berthoud.
F.I. Gammill retired from his superintendent’s position in Berthoud in 1940 due to poor health. His position was filled by Berthoud High School Principal Kenneth LeMoine.

Following Gammill’s death in April 1946, The Berthoud Bulletin noted, “Funeral services were held Tuesday at the Presbyterian church for F.I. Gammill, resident of Berthoud for seventeen years and former superintendent of the Berthoud school system. Mr. Gammill died suddenly Friday night at his home at 806 Turner Avenue.

“Finis I. Gammill was born near the village of Trilla, Cole County, Illinois, December 30, 1876, the second son of Lee and Adella Gammill, both natives of Illinois. There he grew to manhood, attending Neoga high school and Illinois State Normal school, and began teaching in 1896, shortly after the death of his father. His further education at the Illinois Sate Normal school was temporarily interrupted by the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, and he enlisted in the United States Army, serving in Troop B First Regiment of Illinois Cavalry Volunteers. He was mustered out of his regiment October 11, 1898, at Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

“He was married in 1901 to Loura Milholland at Charleston, Illinois, and in 1909 he brought his family to Colorado. They resided briefly near Kuner and Ault, moving in 1911 to Mead where Mr. Gammill resumed teaching.

Photo courtesy of the Berthoud Historical Society
Finnis “F.I.” Gammill was Berthoud’s superintendent of schools from 1929 through 1940. The Gammill family lived in the residence at 806 Eighth St.

“His long service in the field of education was marked by his intense loyalty to his profession. He always stood for what he believed to be right and refused to compromise in any program that he felt was to be of benefit to his pupils. He gave unstintingly of his energy to further the training of the young men and women in his schools. His interest in his students continued long after their graduation, and he followed closely their activities in college and business and later in the armed services. In later years his greatest pleasure was derived from visits with former students that he might hear first-hand of their individual successes and feel that he had a part in the development of each as a good citizen.”

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