52 Ancestors Week 36: School Days

Question

Time for the next 52 Ancestors challenge!

Please share with us a profile of an ancestor or relative who matches this week's theme:

School Days

From Amy Johnson Crow:

It's back to school time here in the U.S. Many school districts in my area have been back for 2 or 3 weeks already! This week's theme is "School Days." Have you used school records or yearbooks to find out more about your ancestors? Do you have photos or memorabilia from their time in school? How about any teachers or school staff in the family tree. Write about it this week!

Share below!

Participants who share every week can earn badges. If this is your first time participating and you don't have the participation badge, or if you pass a milestone (13 in 13, 26 in 26, 52 in 52) let us know here. Click here for more about the challenge. 

Comments

Oops meant to answer not to comment - please ignore!

Answer 1

My great grandmother, Clara McIntire, was a school teacher in Baylis, Illinois before she married my great grandfather. She kept a little book for her students to write in. This is one written 10 Sep 1882.

Comments

Eowyn, I tried to get rid of the lower photo, but I never figured it out. Sorry.

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Edit, click on the lower image, hit delete?  (Works when I do it.)

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Thank you Melanie!

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My pleasure!

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This is just beautiful.

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Such books have been around for a long time.  We had autograph books when I was in school .. and my Mum had one from HER mother's youth.  (Not sure what happened to that, though.)

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Thank you C Ryder.

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Melanie many of the writings are getting very faded.

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Can you maybe scan or photograph them before they are totally unreadable?

Answer 2

My uncle Bill Lannin was on the historic preservation board for The Little Red Schoolhouse in the Hessville district of Hammond, Indiana. The building was built in 1869 and restored in 1975. It was moved to a park, and every year in July a festival is held. When my children were little, they enjoyed going there. The schoolhouse was open and a guide would tell its history. Uncle Bill was always there, helping people and making sure the event ran right.

Answer 3

My grandpa is number 13in this pic, standing next to his teacher, but he’s very fuzzy. His handwriting is on the  photo. On the back, he wrote all the names he could remember, including some of his siblings, and many cousins.

Comments

Probably should not waste your time.  But I want to  thank your grandpa in public for writing in the names.  I still sometimes have to fight people about writing names on pictures.  Perhaps you could share the list and where this was taken.  If someone else's grandpa is in the picture they would love it.

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Pip, have you already done everything you can to improve visibility for this wonderful photo?

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But don't write the names in ball point ink.  I understand there is an acid that down the road will destroy the picture.

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I have, to the best of my capabilities. I used various filters. I can get it lighter and only slightly clearer. My grandfather’s face just will not come clear. It’s the earliest surviving pic of him at about 12 years old.

Answer 4

This week I am honoring my great great grand uncle William Hamilton Pruett.  After both of his parents died in Oregon in 1866 when he was about 20 years old, he  became the head of the family and was executor of his father's estate.  His youngest sister was about nine years old when orphaned.  He ensured that all of his brothers and sisters received an education. His brothers John and James (my great great grandfather) both became physicians, his sisters Mary, Martha and Minerva graduated from college and were teachers before marrying and raising families.  His dedication to his family touched my heart.  I was amazed at the care and education he provided for his sisters.  It was the same as his brothers. 

Comments

He's a good looking fellow!

Answer 5

I was digging through records and I came across my mother and her siblings in their High School yearbook.  Uncle Herb is the only one who has passed so I'll share his page - he is in front of the base drum:

Comments

No drum, no uncle, nothing but a little question mark shows up for me.

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should be fixed now

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It is.

Answer 6

I have so many who are connected in some way to a school (well, we all attended as pupils!), but for this week I would like to present my first cousin twice removed Ada Jane Slate (married name Weatherall).

Ada's occupation in 1911 is listed as "Pupil Teacher", an occupation she had to give up on just four years later when she married, because married women were not allowed to be teachers.  In 1919 the Sex Disqualification Removal Act was passed, which (theoretically) would have allowed her to continue had she still been teaching — however, all kinds of restraints and barriers (known as "bars") were put in place to "keep the little woman in her place .. in the kitchen" (my paraphrasing).  These bars were not lifted until 1944, more than a little late for Ada.  She died the following year (1945).

Comments

Where did this happen? My grandmother who lived in Alberta, Canada was called upon to teach in rural schools after she was married in 1909. When a nearby school needed a teacher, she was asked to take the job, at times teaching her own children. Practices were clearly different from your cousin's area.

Answer 7

54 Years a Teacher

Mary J O'Connor (1863-1940) is one of the four women in my tree who went to college. (Incidentally all four of them never married.) She went on to a career in teaching in Sioux City, Iowa, and rapidly became principal. Working with the school board, she contributed to school programs in History; she also revised English courses. Members of the principals' club called her "The Rock of Gibraltar".

Mary J was my great grand aunt, whom I discovered thanks to a cousin I've never met, whom I discovered thanks to research. So glad my cousin Lisa answered my letter!

Comments

Can't figure out how to put Mary J's picture up.

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………………………………………………….

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Thank you Melanie :)

Answer 8

My great-great-grandfather David Dillon was a teacher at St. Xavier in Louisville, and his wife Margaret Burch Dillon was a schoolteacher in Union County, Kentucky before her marriage.

My 2nd cousin (2x removed) Lamar Dodd was the head of the art department at the University of Georgia (the art school there now bears his name).

My great-uncle by marriage Joel C. Reeves was a teacher at the Atlanta Art Instute and dean of the Atlanta College of Art.

Answer 9

Here is my 6th grade class, Eisenhower Elementary School, Ft Leavenworth KS- i still remember vividly when the principal announced over the loudspeaker that President Kennedy had been shot. https://www.wikitree.com/photo/jpg/Sears-3708-33

Comments

Can't see your photo.  Just a little question mark in a tiny blue box.  But you've already got three votes anyway!

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Thanks Julie- you should be able to see it now- didn't realize it was marked Private with the padlock.

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Hello L,

You must have gone swimming at the Fort Leavenworth officer's club, and maybe you took a plunge from the high dive?  Or had a burger at the FLOOM?

We had a number of army brats at my school in the town of Leavenworth. Somehow your class picture looks sort of  familiar.

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Yes a lot of time spent at the pool. I rode the bus to school but it was on-post. We were mostly there for only a year so all in the same boat when it comes to making friends

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In my school we had 3 or 4 army pupils every year who came and went. It was frustrating for me too, to see new friends move away so soon.

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Yes that was the life of an Army brat- go where Dad goes- i went to three different jr Highs-  one each for 7th (Houston), 8th and 9th (Virginia)

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OMG!  I was a student at Eisenhower Elementary the year before (62-63), in Mrs. Meyers's third grade class!  As soon as I scrolled past this picture I had to go back, because I recognized it as almost exactly the same as my third grade picture.  In 63-64, my dad was serving in Vietnam - he completed the course at Ft. Leavenworth in June 63.  Small world!

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For me it was Reagan!

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What?

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The rest of us are old enough to remember Eisenhower and Kennedy, which leads SJ Baty has to flaunt his youth by dropping Reagan into the conversation...

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There was a movie theater on the Ft Leavenworth base where I saw Peter O'Toole as Lawrence of Arabia. My favorite actor and movie at the time. Turns out one of my 11th great grandfathers is an eighth great grandfather to Lawrence.

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I'm with you!  (Remembering Kennedy's assassination, and before that, Eisenhower as President.  I'd hate to say how old I was before I realized that Truman was President when I was born, but after all, I was only two years old when Eisenhower was elected.)

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Have you ever been to Fort Leavenworth, Julie?

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No, but my mother was born and grew up in Kansas.  She met my father at Antioch College in Ohio.  We lived (mostly) in Ohio until 1956 when we moved to California.

Note:  Not sure why you asked.  I only got involved here because I told SJ his photo wasn't displaying.

Answer 10

For 52 Ancestors this week we go back to school. https://allroadhaverhill.blogspot.com/2019/09/52-ancestors-week-36-back-to-school.html Oh, God. Who is that kid in the drenched cap and gown?!? Wait....That's me.

Profiles discussed were my grandmothers, Natalie Felker and Olympia Carrabs.

And I offer up some tips on how to use the yearbooks.

Answer 11

My first cousin, Horace Green, was a physician & medical educator (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Green-28957). He studied & practiced medicine in Rutland, VT & Paris, France. When he returned to the US, he was the first to present a paper to the New York Surgical Society on the method & value of topical medication for airway passages, a practice for which he is believed to be the originator. In 1850, along with distinguished medical colleagues, Dr. Horace Green founded the Medical College of New York in which he was Chair of Theory & Practice. He was also elected president of Faculty & Trustees. In 1854, along with colleagues, he started the American Medical Monthly and served as its first editor. 

I believe there is something to the idea 'it's in the genes.' I completed a masters in nursing a doctorate in psychology and worked with colleagues in pulmonary medicine on a grant to study sleep disorders and chronic disease. I've taught for over 34 years. My daughter is an 8th grade school teacher. Teaching is a very noble profession! 

Comments

Noble profession indeed.

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Your first cousin was born in 1802??

Answer 12

52 Ancestors, 52 Weeks, 52 surnames:

All the profiles of the Angelroth family, who came from Saxony to Wisconsin, were entered by me.  I entered two today that are uncertainly children of Johann Michael Angelroth and his wife Marie Dorothea unknown (one of my brick walls). 

One of the possible children was Heinrich or Henry Angelroth, who was born in Saxony and spent time as a musician in Russia before coming to Wisconsin. https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Angelroth-6 

Henry lived in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and in St. Paul, Minnesota.

In Milwaukee, he played the fagotto (a wind instrument apparently not well known) in Bach's Orchestra and was recruited by Herr Siebert of St. Paul to perform with it there.

I imagine that, between engagements, teaching was his bread and butter.

Answer 13

My maternal grandfather, Otis W. Witcher, had been educated as an engineer receiving his degree from the School of Mines at Ft. Collins, CO. He went on to study mechanical drawing in Bushnell, IL. 

In the late 1920s my Grandpa used his skills to do the surveying for the Incline Railway, at that time the steepest of its kind in the world, that terminates at the Royal Gorge Bridge outside of Cañon City, CO.

In 1930 he was one of four who were featured in an article for the International Correspondence Schools of Scranton, Pennsylvania. He was, at that time, taking a course on surveying and mapping from their school to further his education.

Answer 14

Here are my uncles Granville and Nathaniel Rogers at the Auburn School in California in 1910 with all the primary children. They look so sweet here, but I understand they were really little hellions! I'm thankful for the names!week 6? for me

Comments

What an adorable class - they all look about 5 years - great age!

Answer 15

Here is a photo of my grandmother Mary Lambie at school in Forfarshire, Scotland in 1922. She is fourth from left of photo in the third row.

Answer 16

None of my ancestors that I know of have been teachers (except for my great-great-grandfather Walter Utting, who taught music in Norwich), nor have I been able to locate any of them in school records. I have seen rather brilliant class photos of my grandmother Elaine Goodwin (who I can't link, as she is still living) with a rather wonderful mane of hair.

Answer 17

My Great Grandfather Arthur McDaniel (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/McDaniel-4982) was not only a teacher but also became a Superintendent for multiple schools in Michigan.

Answer 18

My family has had several teachers among them.

On just the Allison branch of the family there was a teacher in 5 generations ... My great-great grandmother {Catherine "Kate" Mumma-Omelia (1848-1935)} ... my great grandmother {Etta May Omelia-Alliosn (1872-1944)} ...  my grandmother {Oma M Allison-Rammel (1895-1995)} ... my aunt {Catherine "Katie" Ann Rammel (1928-2017)} ... and myself {William "Bill" Dale Sims (1941-....)}.

Kate and Etta didn't have or need to have a college degree in those early days ... but they were both certified teachers as required at the time.

Oma and Katie had the proper level of college to be certified in the later years.

Oma taught long enough to have been the 1st grade teacher for several generations.  

Oma also received the Outstanding Alumni Award for her contribution to the school system and many children in Assumption, Illinois in 1978.  Here is a photo of her with the plaque.

Below are a couple of articles about her retirement

I must admit that I was not a full time teacher.  In the late 1960s the computer world was in its infancy.  I got in early.  So I taught part time at several different universities over the years ... University of Dallas ... SMU ... St Edward's University ... University of Texas

Answer 19

I was able to find my Great-Grandfather and several of his siblings including Addison Brigham Crofut, on memorial cards from the McIlwain School in McNett Township in 1895-1897.  They are located at the wonderful Tri-Counties Genealogy & History Site by Joyce Tice. http://www.joycetice.com/schools/mcilwain.htm

A lovely find to fill in their young lives.

Answer 20

I have a picture of my granduncle on his first school day in 1930.