Lorene Harrison, pioneer teacher, ventured to Alaska while it was still a territory. She was the first music teacher in the Territory. Photo credit: Anchorage Legends and Legacies Project.

I love to share stories of courageous teachers who have earned a name for themselves as intrepid pioneers. One such teacher is Lorene Cuthberton Harrison, a music teacher and singer who ventured to Alaska while it was still a territory.

Lorene Cuthberton was born in March 7, 1905, in Sterling, Kansas. After her high school graduation in 1922, she enrolled in Sterling College in Kansas, where she majored in Home Economics. She earned her Bachelor’s degree and her teaching certificate in 1928. At the time, she was 23 years old.

The same year she graduated, this pioneering lady traveled to Alaska Territory, where she became the first music teacher in Anchorage schools. She also taught courses in home economics, general science, and geography. When she arrived, Anchorage had only 2,500 residents and the high school had only six teachers. Her salary was $180 a month, compared to the $60 per month that her friends were paid as teachers in Kansas.

Two years after her arrival, the pioneer educator married Jack Harrison, a local railroad engineer. The couple had two daughters. While raising her children, Lorene continued to teach music and theater. She also continued to sing for others, performing at private and public events such as weddings and funerals. When World War II erupted, Lorene worked for the United Service Organizations (USO).

After her husband passed away in 1968, Lorene opened her own boutique which she called Hat Box. The store sold clothing and hats that she personally designed. The former teacher ran her store for 30 years. She also launched herself into various cultural activities in Anchorage. She organized the United Choir of All Faiths, which was the forerunner of the Anchorage Community Chorus; she served as the first president of the Anchorage Concert Association; she was on the founding boards of the Anchorage Arts Council, the Anchorage Civic Opera, and the Anchorage Little Theatre, and she served as the director of the First Presbyterian Church Choir for 29 years.

This amazing Chalkboard Champion passed away at the age of 100 in 2005 in Anchorage, Alaska. She was interred in the pioneer tract of the Anchorage Memorial Park. In 2009, Lorene Harrison was inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame. You can read more about this intrepid lady at the link AlaskaHistory.org. You can also purchase Mostly Music: The Biography of Alaskan Cultural Pioneer Lorene Harrison, which can be found on amazon.com.

Sarah Louise Judd, frontier teacher and pioneer, from Minnesota. Photo credit: Find a Grave.

Throughout American history there are many examples of frontier pioneers and innovators who became schoolteachers. One such young woman was Sarah Louise Judd, a pioneer and teacher from Minnesota.

Sarah Judd was born June 16, 1802, in Farmington, Connecticut. During her childhood there, she completed the requirements of her basic education. In 1832, Sarah’s family moved to Marine Mills, Illinois, where her father established a tavern and her brothers became stockholders in the Marine Lumber Company.

Later, the Judd family became frontier pioneers and headed for the new territory of Minnesota. In 1846, Sarah founded the first school in Point Douglas, Minnesota, and later she founded the first school in Stillwater. The Stillwater school was established in a small vacant log cabin. In January, 1849, the veteran schoolteacher married Ariel Eldridge. The couple had no children.

In her day, a French citizen named Louis Daguerre invented the ability to take photographs called “dagueereotypes.” The enterprising Sarah established a photography studio in her home town in Spring, 1848. In so doing, she became the first professional photographer in Minnesota.

Sadly, following a long illness, Sarah passed away in Stillwater on October 10, 1886, at the age of 84. She was buried in Fairwater Cemetery in Stillwater’s Washington County.

America’s Wild West was tamed in part due to the talented and dedicated women who served as frontier schoolteachers. The pioneering women who became teachers during this period of our nation’s history were indeed a special breed. At the turn of the century, females were expected to be dependent upon their husbands, fathers, or other male relatives. It was extremely unusual, and not at all encouraged, for a woman to support herself and function independently. Nevertheless, many intelligent and self-reliant women in search of personal freedom and adventure joined the Westward movement as schoolmarms.

The stereotype of a frontier schoolteacher was that of an unattractive spinster or a prim and proper young miss. In reality, she was often neither of those. Many of these ladies came from influential and affluent Eastern families. A few were filled with burning ambition, and others were seeking a better life, and perhaps some were seeking a husband of like mind. In general, though, they were dedicated practitioners of their profession. Despite primitive working conditions, uninviting classrooms, low wages, and overwork, these stalwart women introduced literacy, culture, and morality to the roughneck communities they served. A few of these teachers became missionaries, others became suffragettes, and one of them—Jeannette Rankin of Montana—even went on to become the first woman to be elected to the United States House of Representatives!

Our society owes these frontier schoolmarms a great debt. Read more about pioneering teachers in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com or Amazon. Enjoy!