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School History
Thomas More Prep-Marian has been a Catholic
secondary education school since 1917 in Ellis
County, Kansas.
Our alumni and alumnae can proudly
look back on its far-reaching history.
For more information about St. Joseph's Military
Academy, Marian High School, and the St. Francis
Seminary, please see below:
St Joseph's Military Academy
St. Joseph's Military
Academy was started by Capuchin Fathers Henry Kluepfel and
Eugene Becker on Sheridan Street (which is now
13th Street) in Hays as a combination high school and a
junior college, known as Hays Catholic College.
The high school was accredited by the State of
Kansas in 1927.
Efforts were begun already in
1923 to obtain a larger, more modern campus for
Hays Catholic College. After many financial
setbacks, these efforts culminated at the
dedication of the new St. Joseph's College on
the west edge of Hays in 1931. The following
year, a quasi-military regime had been added to
the school's program, and the name was changed
to St. Joseph's College and Military Academy. In
1935 the U.S. Army came to the school and
administered a junior R.O.T.C. program for 35
years.
The school received
accreditation from the North Central Association
of Colleges and Secondary Schools in 1937. This
recognition has been carried on to the present
day Thomas More Prep-Marian.
In 1952, the school became
simply St. Joseph's Military Academy because of
dwindling enrollment in the junior college
program, which had begun in World War II.
Memories of S.J.M.A. include not
only the regular marching and formations, but
also a precision drill team known as the Crack
Platoon, rifle teams, which regularly placed in
national competition, the R.O.T.C. honor school
rating held from 1948 to 1970, and the many
undefeated regular sessions in football and
basketball.
Marian High School
Marian High School's headwaters
are found in the year 1918, when St. Joseph's
grade school's principal, Sister M. Remigna
Neder, C.S.A., and the Hays pastor, Fr. Dominic
Schuster, O.F.M.Cap. agreed on the need to
provide a Catholic secondary education for the
girls already under instruction in the parish
grade school. The result was the opening of
Girl's Catholic High School in two frame
buildings on 14th Street, thereafter known as
"The Shacks."
The first faculty was composed
entirely of principals. Sr. M. Anthony Keller, C.S.A.
was the first high school principal, and Sr. Remingna began her 31-year term as the high
school principal in 1921.
The year
following, the school received accreditation
from the State of Kansas, five years before Hays
Catholic College.
One of the school's early lay
teachers, Kathryn O'Loughlin, later became the
first U.S. Congresswoman from Kansas. A grade
school in her name was dedicated by the public
school system in October, 1990.
When Hays Catholic College moved
to St. Joseph's College in 1931, Girl's Catholic
High School moved into the building on 13th
Street. Three decades later, a new compound was
built adjacent to the Saint Joseph Military
Academy campus, thanks to the efforts of Fr.
Alfred Carney, O.F.M.Cap. The new school was
named Marian High School.
St. Francis Seminary
St. Francis Seminary began in
Victoria in 1948 to educate students for
priesthood on the high school level. Between
1908 and 1948 many St. Joseph Military Academy
alumni entered the priesthood and/or religious
life. During these years, many other Kansans who
had wanted to become Capuchin priests attended
high school and junior college in Pennsylvania
and then returned to Kansas for two years of
philosophy at Victoria.
So as to obtain accreditation
for their college program, the Capuchins moved
the school of philosophy to Pennsylvania in
1948. In the space thus vacated at Victoria, Fr.
Claude Vogel, O.F.M.Cap., Capuchin minister
provincial, decided to open St. Francis
Seminary.
Following the 1970
consolidation, young men wishing to explore
possible vocations to the priesthood and/or
religious life received special help in a
special Priesthood - Brotherhood program at TMP,
and since the 1981 consolidation, this program
has also opened to young women who want help in
considering a vocation to the religious life.
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