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somehow excelled in, it was in education. In September 1902, Mary B. McClellan became the first Thomasite to teach in Ormoc. By 1905, 592 pupils enrolled had enrolled in school out of a possible school population of 4,152. There were already 11 municipal teachers that year who were part of 19 school districts under an American inspector. By 1906, another Thomasite was assigned here; this time, he was a Filipino by the name of Genaro Palami. He was placed in charge of the central school as of March 3, 1906. The average salary of the American school teacher at that time was P193.70 a month, while that of the Filipino insular teacher P40. As for that of the municipal teacher, salary fluctuated between P10 and P35. Everything was going well until an unfortunate incident where a pupil, named Juan Cabiling, fatally stabbed the American principal Clarence T. Allen with a sharpened pencil after being reportedly reprimanded and physically abused by the latter during a class which the American was facilitating. Cabiling was at first hidden by his relatives but later surrendered. He was confined at the Iwahig Penal Colony in Palawan, got married there and returned with a family after he served his prison term. In a bid to foster Catholic education, Padre Ismael Cataag, a native of Ormoc, set up what became as the first Catholic school in Leyte. It was first called the ‘Colegio de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe’ and run by the Sisters of Compania de Jesus . Then in 1930, it was turned over to the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of the Philippines. Fr. St. Peter’s Academy, the school was later renamed St. Peter’s College. Health was an issue that reached alarming levels in 1903. Official reports said 880 people died in Ormoc alone – 251 from malaria and 160 from Asiatic cholera. Because of the cholera that had become an epidemic, the American regime sent its sanitary inspector around the municipalities affected by the disease, one of which was Ormoc. In this account, the sanitary inspector Dr. Charles W. Hack paints a graphic picture of the sanitary conditions found here and in a few other selected places inspected.