Frontier teacher Anna Webber of Kansas leaves a diary that describes her classroom experiences and conditions in her prairie school.

There are many fascinating stories in American history of remarkable young women who taught school on the Western frontier. One of these was Anna Webber, an elementary school teacher from Kansas. Anna left behind a diary of her classroom experiences which describe the typical conditions of prairie schools.

Anna Webber was born in Breckenridge, Kansas, on September 16, 1860. Her parents, William Ellsworth and Thankful Delila Webber, moved to Iowa shortly after Anna’s birth because of economic pressures. They lived there until Anna’s mother passed away in 1872.  Anna’s father remarried and moved his new wife and children back to Kansas the following year.

Not much is known about Anna’s childhood. Historical records show that she attended school in Mitchell County, and in the spring of 1881 she travelled to Beloit where she passed her teacher’s examination. 

The young teacher inaugurated her professional career in 1881 in a small town in Mitchell County, Kansas. The town was was a growing community of farmers and railroad workers. Eleven boys and five girls were enrolled on her first day at Blue Hill School. Her students ranged in age from six to thirteen years, and the school term was three months in  length. Anna’s one-room school house was constructed from sod, and the furnishings were sparse. There was one chair for the teacher, and the students sat on benches made of lumber boards balanced on rocks. 

Anna taught school in Blue Hills and in two nearby Kansas counties throughout the 1880’s. In June, 1890, she accepted a position at the Kansas Industrial School where she taught home economics courses. That same year she met Robert Gravatt, and the two were married on February 5, 1891.

Anna kept a diary of her experiences as a frontier teacher which has been edited by Lila Gravatt Scrimsher. The diary was published as “The Diary of Anna Webber: Early Day Teacher of Mitchell County” in Kansas Historical Quarterly in 1972. You can read the publication online at Anna Webber’s Diary.

You can read more about this remarkable teacher in the book Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West by Chris Enss. You can also read the article “Wild Women of the West: Anna Webber,” also by Chriss Enss, published online at Cowgirl Magazine.

Oregon Territory teacher and pioneer teacher Mary McLench in her Tualatin classroom (circa 1852).

Mary Almira Gray was born in the Green Mountains of southern Vermont, the oldest of four children. Mary had already been teaching students to read and write at a one room school house in the village of Grafton, not far from her home. As a young woman, Mary helped her siblings with their lessons, and when she was old enough she decided to turn her knack for teaching into her profession.

Although she had never ventured far from her home town, Mary was full of pioneer spirit. She was 25 years old in 1850 when she ventured into the Wild West to teach on the frontier of Oregon Territory. She was one of five young women from all over New England that had been recruited for this work by Vermont Governor William Slade. In addition to serving as governor, Slade was an agent with the National Board of Popular Education.  The organization was created to train and sponsor teachers and encourage them to go West.

In April, 1851, Mary finally arrived in Oregon Territory after a long and arduous sailing to Panama, a grueling overland trek to the Pacific Coast, and then another sailing north to her final destination. At the time, Oregon Territory included what is now Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, and the total population was only 14,000 people. Mary was assigned to inaugurate a school in Tualatin, a town 13 miles south of Portland. There she taught five terms.

While teaching in Tualatin, Mary met and married Benjamin McLench in 1852. Through the Oregon Land Donation Act, the couple established a farm on 160 acres of land in the Willamette River Valley. There they raised their children, along with wheat, apples, onions, potatoes, and honey bees.

You can read more about this pioneer teacher in the book Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West by Chris Enss. The volume is available on amazon. You can also read an online article published in Cowgirl Magazine, also written by Enss.

Alaska pioneer teacher Crystal Brilliant Snow Jenne

Alaska’s history abounds in stories about lionhearted pioneers who were also chalkboard champions. One such teacher was Crystal Brilliant Snow Jenne.

Crystal Jenne was born on May 30, 1884, in Sonora, California. In 1887, when only three years old, she emigrated to the Alaska Territory with her parents, who worked as a troupe of actors who entertained Alaska’s gold miners.

For a number of years, Crystal’s mother tutored her, but the child was ten years old before she was enrolled in school for the first time. She attended an Alaskan mission school, where she learned “singing, praying, and knitting.” When the family moved to Juneau, Crystal was sixteen. Despite her age, she was placed in a fifth grade class. Being behind in formal education did not stop Crystal from achieving,  however. She graduated from Juneau High School in 1905 at the age of twenty-one, the only member of her class.

Following her high school graduation, Crystal enrolled in the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in music. She also earned a teaching certificate. After her college graduation, Crystal taught in Paso Robles, California. From 1907 to 1908, Crystal taught school in Douglas, Alaska. A talented musician, Crystal performed creekside concerts for gold miners in the Alaska and Yukon Territories when she was not in the classroom.

Always thirsty for knowledge, the venturesome teacher attended the Spencerian Commercial School in Cleveland, Ohio, where she studied business and shorthand. Following her graduation from business school, Crystal returned to Alaska, where she continued her career in education, teaching in Skagway, Sitka, and the Mendenhall Valley, and also at her alma mater, Juneau High School.

In 1916, Crystal married Dr. Charles Percival Jenne, a Juneau dentist, and the couple had three children. Even after she started her family, Crystal continued to teach and give concerts. In 1923, she performed her mother’s composition, Alaska and the U.S.A., for President Warren G. Harding and First Lady Florence Harding, during their visit to Juneau.

Charles Jenne passed away in 1938. The next year, Crystal published a volume of historical poetry. Meanwhile, she pursued community activities, participating in church choirs, running a flower shop, and continuing with her teaching career. In 1940, this remarkable educator was elected to the Alaska Territorial House of Representatives on the Democratic ticket. She was the first woman to run for representative in the Alaska Legislature. She served several terms representing the First District of Southeast Alaska.

During her lifetime, Crystal was a member of the Alaska Federation of Women’s Clubs, the Democratic Women’s Club, the Juneau Women’s Club, and the National Business and Professional Women’s Club. She passed away on June 5, 1969, at the Sitka Pioneer Home.