Hallie Stillwel was an intrepid teacher on the Texas frontier during the Mexican Revolution.
There are many instances in American history when intrepid teachers on the frontier faced dangerous circumstances in order to safeguard their students and conduct their lessons. One such intrepid teacher was Hallie Stillwell, a school marm in Presidio, Texas, during the Mexican Revolution.
Hallie was born in Waco, Texas, on Oct. 20, 1897, but her family moved to Alpine, Texas a short time later. Hallie inaugurated her career as an educator in 1916, when she accepted a teaching position in Presidio, Texas. She was only 19 years old at the time. Because the school was located within shooting distance of the encampment of Pancho Villa’s Revolutionary Army, the neophyte teacher conducted her classes with her father’s gun strapped to her hip. In fact, to compensate her for this danger, her salary included extra dollars for hazard pay!
Hallie’s life also included romance. On July 29, 1918, the teacher married Roy Stillwell, a rancher from Alpine. After their wedding, the couple moved into the primitive one-room cabin on Roy’s sprawling 6,500-acre ranch. Her life as a rancher was filled with manual labor. Day after day, Hallie worked at her husband’s side, herding, branding cattle, mending fences, and hunting game. The circumstances of their lives would have been described as harsh under ordinary circumstances, but became especially difficult during the Dust Bowl years, although the couple managed to save their ranch from foreclosure. Along the way, Hallie and Roy raised two sons and a daughter.
Despite her home and family responsibilities, the former teacher found time to become a published columnist and author. In 1955, Hallie launched a published column she called “Ranch News” for the Alpine Avalanche. She also co-wrote a book with Virginia Madison that was entitled How Come It’s Called That: Place Names in the Big Band County, which was published in 1962. She also published a memoir she called I’ll Gather My Geese in 1991. And as if all that were not enough, Hallie officially became a Justice of the Peace for Brewster County in 1964.
