Intrepid teacher and pioneer Olive Mann Isbell was a California teacher who taught while war raged around her. Photo Credit: Braun Research Center

One relatively unknown figure in California history is educator Olive Mann Isbell. This outstanding lady taught while the Mexican American War raged on around her. She is credited with being the first teacher in a school in the state of California.

In 1846, when Olive was only 22 years old, she and her husband, Dr. Isaac Isbell, made the arduous journey west by wagon train. Western territories had recently severed their relationship with Mexico, and the Isbells arrived just as the Mexican army was poised to attack in an attempt to reclaim the land.

When fighting broke out, Olive and over two hundred American women and children barricaded themselves inside Mission Santa Clara de Asis, while the men were quickly drafted to defend the dilapidated fort. Inside the shelter, Olive sensed the anxiety of the children, so she decided to organize a school to occupy their attention. The newly-arrived pioneer was well-suited to this work, being the niece of the famous educator Horace Mann and an experienced teacher from her home state of Ohio.

The bullets were flying all around the mission, but Olive steadfastly conducted her lessons. Without slates or chalk, without pencils or paper, and with only a few books, the intrepid teacher skillfully conducted her lessons with little more than her experience and her wits. She used a long pointed stick to draw diagrams on the dirt floor. She used charcoal from an extinguished fire to write the letters of the alphabet on the palms of the children’s hands. And she kept a long rifle by her side, just in case.

When  Mexico finally laid down their arms and signed a truce with the United States on January 3, 1847, Olive’s Santa Clara Mission School became recognized as the first American school on California soil.

You can read more about this amazing chalkboard champion in my book, Chalkboard Heroes, available on amazon.com.

Eulalia Bourne, the plucky Arizona teacher who was ahead of her time. Photo Credit: University of Arizona

I love to share stories about plucky teachers, and here’s one about a really plucky teacher from the American Southwest: Eulalia Bourne. This daring educator, whose career spanned more than four decades, taught elementary school in rural areas, mining camps, and Indian reservations throughout Arizona during some of our country’s most challenging periods: World War I, the Depression, and World War II. This women’s libber was ahead of her time, becoming one of the very few women in her day to own and run her own cattle ranch.

Eulalia thought outside the box in many ways. Every year on the first day of school she would wear a new dress, usually blue to complement her eye color. Every school day after that, she wore jeans, Western-style shirts, cowboy boots, and Stetson hats to class. She was once fired for dancing the one-step, a new jazz dance, at a birthday party some of her students attended, because the clerk of the school board considered the dance indecent! She even learned to speak Spanish fluently and, when confronted with non-English-speaking students, taught her classes in Spanish, even though at the time it was against the law to do so.

Eulalia is probably best known for producing a little classroom newspaper entitled Little Cowpunchers which featured student writings, drawings, and news stories about classroom events. Today, these little newspapers are recognized as important historical documents of Southern Arizona ranching communities from 1932 to 1943.

Additionally, Eulalia published three critically-acclaimed books about her teaching and ranching experiences: Ranch Schoolteacher, Nine Months is a Year at Baboquivari School, and Woman in Levi’s. These volumes, although now out of print, can sometimes be purchased at used book stores or at online sites featuring royalty-free works. These books are well-worth the search, particularly for those interested in Arizona history.

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!