Leesburg High School alumni gather for the 100th anniversary of LHS.

LEESBURG — More than 220 former students, teachers and guests on Saturday attended the 100th anniversary of the first 4-year graduating class of Leesburg High School. The event, which also is the 50th anniversary of the Class of 1966, the last to graduate from LHS, took place at Maple Leaf Farms’ world headquarters.

Maple Leaf purchased the former Leesburg elementary and high school in 2010, demolished the old structure; however, it kept intact and refurbished the gymnasium, which often is used for corporate meetings. The first Plain Township grade school was in Leesburg in 1835 and the first high school graduation was in Oswego in 1890, when two years of high school was standard. Edna Cormany Byrer and Max Rosbrugh comprised the members of the 1916 class, two Byrer relatives and one Robsbrugh relative, all of whom also graduated from LHS, attended the banquet.

The banquet included a 137 item slideshow of the history of Plain Township schools and was played on a continuous loop on the stage screen. More than 100 various types of memorabilia, dating back to 1904.The slide show was created by the Kosciusko County Historical Society, which is publishing a 248-page coffee table book, with 750 photos, covering the history of all of the Township Schools of Kosciusko County. It will be available Sept. 1.

Contact the society at (574) 269-1078 or by email at [email protected] for more information.