Teacher Emma Hart Willard was one of the most influential educators in American history. Photo Credit: Public Domain

One of the most influential educators in American history was Emma Hart Willard, a teacher and women’s rights advocate from New England. In a time when most women were restricted to the role of homemakers, Emma advanced the cause of making higher education available for girls.

Emma was born on Feb. 23, 1787, in Berlin, Connecticut. Even at a young age, her intelligence was evident. Even though she was a female, her father nurtured her intellectual development. By the time she was 17 years old, Emma was teaching at the academy where she had been a student. By the time she was 19 she was the principal of the school.

In 1809, Emma married Dr. John Hart, and the couple had one son together. After her marriage, Emma and her family moved to Vermont. There she opened her own boarding school for girls. She taught her young students courses in science, mathematics, philosophy, geography, and history. The experience put her in a fine position to advocate for an institution of higher learning for female students.

In 1821, Emma persuaded the leadership of Troy, New York, to sponsor the founding of an institution of higher learning for girls. The school became known as the Troy Female Seminary, the first higher education institution for women in the country. The school was an immediate success, and upper class families began to send their daughters to Troy. Her example inspired other private institutions to open their doors to girls. Emma served as the principal of Troy Female Seminary until 1838. By that time, hundreds of graduates of the school—many of them teachers—had been shaped by her philosophy.

In addition to paving the way for advanced educational opportunities for girls in New York, Emma traveled widely throughout the country and in Europe, where she advocated more schools of higher learning be established. She founded an all-girls school in similar to the Troy School in Athens, Greece. She also wrote textbooks for American history and geography. In addition, she published a volume of poetry.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away on April 15, 1870, in Troy, New York. She is interred in Oakwood Cemetery in Troy. In 1905, Emma was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Great Americans in Bronx, New York. She was also inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2013. The school that Emma Hart Willard founded in Troy still exists today, although it is now known as the Emma Willard School.

To read more about Emma Hart Willard, click on this link to Encyclopedia Britanica.

The American Wild West was tamed, in part, due to the talented and dedicated women who served diligently as frontier schoolteachers. These pioneering women who became teachers during this period of our nation’s history were indeed a special breed.

At the turn of the 19th century, women were expected to be completely 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 of them were filled with burning ambition, and others were seeking a better life, and perhaps some were seeking a husband of like ambition. In general, though, these intrepid women 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 represent her state in the United States House of Representatives!

Our society owes these heroic frontier schoolmarms a great debt. Read more about pioneer teachers in my book, Chalkboard Champions, available through amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. Click on the link to find out how to get a copy of the book. Enjoy!

Teacher and pioneer Eliza Mott is credited with founding the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada. Photo credit: Cowgirl Magazine.

There are many amazing pioneer teachers who brought education and culture to the Western frontier. One of the most amazing was Eliza Mott, a remarkable educator who is credited with founding the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada.

In 1852, this enterprising pioneer wife and mother set up her school in her farmhouse kitchen. Her students sat on bare logs around a crude, wooden table. Armed with a couple of McGuffey Readers, a speller, and an arithmetic book, Eliza welcomed boys and girls dressed in plaid shirts or gingham dresses and home-knit stockings. Some were barefoot and some were wearing rough shoes with hard leather soles. The students in Eliza’ s class ranged in age from five to eleven years in age. Some of her pupils were her own children, and some were her nieces and nephews. 

Eliza was born on January 13, 1829, in Toronto, Canada. Her family immigrated to Lee County, Iowa, in 1842, and it was there that young Eliza developed her skills as a teacher. She excelled at academic subjects and vowed to make great strides in the field of education.

At the age of 22, she met and fell in love with Israel Mott, and on April 10, 1850, the pair were married. As soon as they were married, Israel and Eliza decided to go West. The fledgling pioneers set out in a Conestoga wagon pulled by two sturdy oxen. In early 1851 they landed in Salt Lake City, where they joined a Mormon wagon train and headed for California, one of a party of thirty families led by the famous frontiersman Kit Carson. When the caravan stopped to rest at Mormon Station in northern Nevada in July, 1851, Israel decided he liked the area so much he wanted to stay there. The couple homesteaded a 2,100-acre section of land along the Carson River route, and on this homestead Eliza established her school.

As more pioneer travelers established their farms in the area, the name of Mottsville was given to the settlement. It quickly became apparent that a school was needed. In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Eliza still had to run the farm. On an average day, she would rise before dawn to care for her children, milk the cows, cook breakfast for her family and hired hands, prepare lunches for her students, and then complete her lesson plans. By fall, 1855, the Mottsville School had officially outgrown Eliza’s kitchen, and by the next year a schoolhouse was built in town. A schoolmaster was hired from the East, and Eliza resigned as the teacher to care for her family full-time.

This Chalkboard Champion will always be remembered fondly as the founder of the first school in Carson Valley, Nevada. You can read more about her in this story by Chris Enss printed online in Cowgirl Magazine.

Many gifted classroom teachers have proven to be groundbreakers in the field of education. This is certainly true of Kate Vixon Wofford, a high school teacher from Laurens, South Carolina.

Kate was born on October 20, 1894, the eldest of ten children born to John and Cleo (Cunningham) Wofford. As a young girl, Kate attended Winthrop College, where she graduated with honors in 1916.

Kate accepted her first position as an educator at Laurens High School in Laurens, South Carolina. When World War I broke out, the intrepid teacher joined the United States Navy, where she served as a yeoman. She was one of the first women to enlist in the war effort. After the war was won, Kate returned to her classroom at Laurens.

At a time when women were not generally active in the political arena, Kate broke down many barriers. In 1922, she was elected to the position of County Superintendent of Schools, becoming the first woman in the state of South Carolina to be elected to a public office. She served two terms in this position. In addition, she served a term as the first president of the South Carolina State Teachers Association. And in 1929, she was selected to be a delegate to the World Conference in Education held in Geneva, Switzerland.

A lifelong learner, Kate returned to school in 1930. She earned her Master’s degree from Cornell University in 1931, and her doctorate from Columbia University in 1934. Following this, Kate accepted a position as the Director of Rural Education at State Teachers College in Buffalo, New York. An accomplished author, Kate wrote two books about education: Modern Education in the Small Rural School in 1938, and Teaching in Small Schools in 1946. These books were widely acclaimed. She also published pieces for the National Education Association (NEA).

In 1947, Kate was selected to be the Director of Elementary Education at the University of Florida in Gainesville. In 1952, she threw her energy into organizing a program for the Turkish Ministry of Education, successfully gaining funding and then directing a course of study for 25 Turkish educators. Her report of this program, entitled The Workshop Way with Foreign Students, was published in 1954.

Sadly, that same year, Kate learned she had cancer. She passed away at the age of 60 on October 31, 1954, in Gainesville. She is interred at the New Prospect Baptist Church Cemetery in Laurens, South Carolina.

During her lifetime, Kate was a member of the Daughters of American Revolution and the National Council of Administrative Women in Education. She was also a member of the honors association Pi Gamma Mu. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see South Carolina Encyclopedia.