During the taming of the Wild West, many educators became trailblazers. One of these was Mary Aguirre, a pioneer teacher in Tucson, Arizona. Photo credit: Arizona Historical Society.

During the taming of the Wild West, many talented educators became trailblazers. One of these was Mary Aguirre. She was a pioneer and teacher in Tucson, Arizona.

Mary was born Mary Bernard in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. Her early years were spent in Baltimore, Maryland, but later her family moved to Westport, Missouri, where her father owned a large store. At the age of 17, she enrolled in college. When the Civil War erupted, Mary supported the Southern cause.

In 1862, Mary married Epifanio Aguirre, a Mexican freighting contractor. The union produced three sons. In 1863, Epifanio and Mary moved with their children to the Southwest, where they settled in Las Cruces, New Mexico. During her travels, Mary kept a detailed journal. The account is considered an important documentary record of the time. By 1869, the family had relocated to Tucson, Arizona. The following year, Epifanio was killed in Sasabe, Arizona, during an Apache raid of a stagecoach. Following her husband’s death, Mary was forced for financial reasons to return to her parents’ home in Missouri.

Mary returned to Tucson in 1874. For the next four years, she taught in public schools in the Tucson area, including the Tucson Public School for Girls. In 1878, she transferred to Arivaca, 60 miles south of Tucson, where she became one of the first teachers on the faculty at the newly-established University of Arizona (UA). There she became the first woman professor, and she went on to Chair of the Departments of Spanish Language and the English History in 1885.

Sadly, Mary was seriously injured in a Pullman train crash in San Jose, California, in 1906. Two weeks after the accident, on May 24, she passed away.

For her work as a pioneer teacher of the Southwest, the University of Arizona awards a Women’s and Gender Studies professorship in Mary’s name every year. In 1983, she was inducted into the Arizona Women’s Hall of Fame.

To learn more about this trailblazer, pioneer, and teacher, see this online biography published by www.tucson.com.