The first school in Matthews was taught by Miss Effie Mainord in 1907. As there was no organized school district, she was employed by the parents to teach the children in the village in a subscription school. It was after her marriage to a member of the Board of Aldermen, Leroy D. Waters, that she learned that her $25.00 per month salary was paid by the saloon license tax!. "Miss Effie" was nonplussed by this revelation as she was a member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union` (WCTU). "Miss Effie is still living in Matthews." (Mrs. Waters died on April 5, 1976, at the age of 89.)
The following year the Matthews School District was organized. The school was taught by Miss Dorothy McClaird of Bloomfield. The first building
was erected on Highway 80 at the west edge of town. It was a 3-room frame building to which two rooms were added on the east making it an "L"-shape with a porch with doors opening on the north. High school work was begun, in the Matthews School in the 1922-23 school year. Students who attended high school before this time went to Sikeston or New Madrid. About this time, desire for a high school at Matthews started agitation for a consolidated school district.
Consolidation of seven, three-director school districts formed the Matthews Consolidated School Districts #1 (Matthews C-1 Schools). It was
History of Matthews High School: 1906-1976 Benton B. and Glenda W. Conrad, January 1976. Additional information added February 1994 by Bonnie Conrad Nelson. 2nd additional information added by Steve Waters, November 2005
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