100 years ago, just four graduated from Columbia Falls

A hundred years ago, four students formed the first graduating class of Columbia Falls High School. William Opalka, Bertha Shouse Jolly, Amelia Lewtz McDougall and Ollie Walsh graduated in 1916.

The first graduating exercises were on a Thursday evening, May 25, at the opera house and the event drew a large crowd, according to The Columbian newspaper archives. John R. Hanson was principal at the time and had been for the past four years. F. L. Cummins, principal of Flathead County High School, delivered a speech on the need for a college education. 

Columbia Falls had two schools at the time. One was Columbus School, which was built in 1892 on property donated by James Talbott. The school has since been demolished and Columbus Park is now in its place at Second Avenue East and 2nd Street.

The other was the Talbott School, which was built for high school studies on the same property where Glacier Gateway is. The School District 6 board named the school in 1908, according to The Columbian newspaper. By 1909, the school was open for classes. Eventually Talbott School held all of the grades before a new school was built in 1940, which remains standing today.

Before Columbia Falls had a high school, children had to go to the Flathead County High School or quit at the eighth grade. 

The first graduates of Columbia Falls have all died, but two of them still have family living in the Flathead Valley.

William Opalka didn’t start school until he was 10 years old, so he graduated when he was 22 years old, his son John said recently. John lives part-time in Polson. He said that William’s brother stopped school in the sixth grade. It was a big achievement at that time that William graduated from high school and went on to college, John said. 

William studied forestry for one year at Montana State College in Missoula, before entering the Army for nearly two years during World War I. He worked for the Flathead National Forest for most of his working years, but also helped build the Hungry Horse Dam and the Anaconda Aluminum Co. plant.

William married Anna Feirstein and they had four children, Bill, John, Bruce and Diane. The children also graduated from Columbia Falls High School, his son, Bill noted. 

Bill lives part-time in the valley today.

In May 1966, 50 years after he graduated high school, William was living with his wife on 31 acres at the base of Columbia Mountain. It was a quarter-mile from the homestead where he was raised. He came to the area with his family from Nebraska about 1898. 

In December 1966 William died. Several years ago one of his sons returned his diploma to the high school.

Ollie Walsh graduated from Columbia Falls High School when he was 20. He enlisted in the Army and served in France during World War I, his nephew Pat Walsh said recently. 

Ollie was born in 1895 on a family homestead where Walsh Road is now. His parents moved to the homestead in 1887. Pat still owns half of the original homestead.

Walsh died in 1954 as a bachelor. He was the last child in an Irish family, so his job was to take care of the parents, Pat said.

Shouse was born in Kansas. She graduated from high school a week after she turned 19. She married James Jolly and they had two sons, James and Robert. Fifty years after graduating, she was living in Evergreen with her husband. She died in 1970. 

McDougall died in 1963.

This year’s class, in stark contrast, will have more than 130 graduates. Graduation ceremonies are Saturday at the high school beginning at 11 a.m.