Montana’s Lucia Darling: Pioneer teacher of the Wild West

I always enjoy sharing stories about teachers who were 19th-century pioneers in settling the untamed territories of our country. One such story is about Lucia Darling, a young educator who founded the first school in the state of Montana.

In October 23, Lucia was only 27 years old when she opened her school on the banks of Grasshopper Creek in the frontier village of Bannack, Beaverhead County, Montana. Until a cabin could be constructed to serve as the schoolhouse, the young teacher used the home of her uncle, Sidney Edgerton, who was serving as the governor of the territory. Makeshift desks and chairs, books, and other instructional materials were hastily assembled to serve her pupils.  Lucia’s students were the children of the approximately 3,000 homesteaders and gold miners who had established their claims in the wild and woolly Western town.

In those days, Bannack was tumultuous and rough,” the young schoolteacher recorded in her diary. “It was the headquarters of a band of highwaymen. Lawlessness and misrule seemed to be the prevailing spirit of the place.” Through her school, Lucia sought to inject some semblance of law and order into the community.

Lucia was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1939. Although raised on a farm, she became a qualified teacher and spent nine years teaching in an area of northeast Ohio. She also taught at Berea College, the first integrated college in Kentucky. She did this at a time when it was unusual for a woman to get a college education or go to work.

In 1863, Lucia accompanied her uncle and his family as they moved West. She kept a a detailed diary of the route, the Native Americans they encountered, the historic landmarks they passed, the weather patterns, and the chores she completed each day along the journey. The group traveled by train from Tallmadge to Chicago, by river boat down the Missouri River to Omaha, and by covered wagon across the vast prairies of the West. After three months, the expedition finally landed in Oregon territory. From there Lucia made her way to Bannack, where she founded her historic school.

After the Civil War, Lucia traveled to the Deep South where she taught for the Freedman’s Bureau, an organization founded by the US Government in 1865 to provide educational opportunities for newly-freed African Americans.

Lucia Darling: A true chalkboard champion.