The Teacher

 

From Harriet's 1912 Ranch School souvenir booklet.

Harriet Shookman was likely destined to be a teacher.  She was raised by her parents, Samuel and Dora (Manley) Shookman, who obviously valued education for their five daughters enough to encourage them to not only finish school, which was 8th grade at that time, but to go on for additional training to become teachers so that they could support themselves. Hattie's two older sisters were accomplished teachers ahead of her and her two youngest sisters went on to become teachers as well.  In addition, her uncle, Willard Manley, was a schoolteacher, writer and newspaper reporter in Richland County, Wisconsin from the mid-1880's until his death in 1928.

Hattie graduated from 8th grade at age 15 the end of May 1910.  Her teacher that school year was her oldest sister, Lura.   

Below is the monthly report summary for Hattie's last year in school. 
There were three terms to the school year and final exams.
Note that there was no rounding up of the monthly average earned.

What was your score in Orthoepy?***

The reverse side of Hattie's School Report.

Signed by her teacher & sister, Lura Shookman.

Signed monthly by Samuel F. Shookman, Hattie's father.***

Hattie, Lura and Ina all traveled by train to the Arizona Territory shortly after Hattie's graduation and family stories indicate that they all worked at Ingleside Club and Resort just north of Phoenix.  The resort opened for business in the winter of 1910 and the girls were some of the earliest employees at the resort.  It was a winter season resort only due to lack of air-conditioning and according to the Arizona Memory Project, "it featured a main building, cottages, a rough golf course and a full range of guest activities".  The girls probably lived on the resort property but their Uncle Bert Manley's family and cousins lived about ten miles away in Phoenix.  Hattie told her daughter, Kathleen, that she was in Arizona for about a year or a little longer.  

The Ingleside Resort in 1910 when it opened.
https://azmemory.azlibrary.gov/digital/collection/splimage/id/41/

Lura, Ina and Harriet Shookman

Believed to have been taken in Arizona in 1910 or 1911.

According to her daughter, Kathleen, Harriet followed 8th grade by attending the Teachers' Normal school in Sparta taking a six week course, probably after her return from Arizona in the spring or summer of 1911.  Hattie sat for her first Teacher's Certificate exam in August 1911 in Sparta, Wisconsin to become certified as a "Third Grade Teacher".  She signed her first teaching contract at the age of 16 with the Town of New Lyme in Monroe county on 11 September 1911 with an agreement that she would teach for 8 months at a starting salary of $30 a month. 

Hattie's first Teacher's Certificate showing that she qualified as a "Third Grade" Teacher 

on 19 August 1911 demonstrating that she was able to teach elementary school in a wide variety of subjects.  This certificate also acknowledges Hattie's six weeks of Professional School.**

Hattie signed a contract with the Monroe County, Wisconsin School District as an elementary teacher in the Town of New Lyme at Ranch School.  The contract was for eight months and the agreement was to pay her $240 for the school year, or $30 a month.  Signed 5 September 1911.**

The contract (split over two pages in Hattie's scrapbook)  reflects the scores she received when she took the certification exam.  Although this form says that Hattie was 17 years of age, she actually was only 16 at this time and had no previous teaching experience.**

Hattie attended a 10-day Teachers Institute at the Normal School during the summer of 1912 and took the yearly test to be certified as a teacher again that August for both the Third and Second Grade levels now entitling her to teach some high school level courses.  Many of her exam scores increased dramatically in addition to her becoming certified for teaching at a higher grade level in new subjects.  The Town of Greenfield offered her a position at the Purdy Valley School for both the first and second halves of the school year, September 1912 - May 1913.  During that same year, sister Lura taught at Union Valley School and Ina taught at La Crosse Valley School.  All three girls celebrated the end of the school year with a picnic joining the students of all three schools.

Hattie's 1912 Teacher's Certificate for Third and Second Grade levels.

She qualified to teach additional course work in American Literature, English Composition, Physical Geography and Cataloging of Libraries.

This certificate acknowledges that Hattie had taught 8 months prior to this year and that she attended a Teacher's Institute for 10 days during the summer of 1912.**

Harriet holding the reins to her father's team of horses, sitting with sister, Ina 

in front of her first school building, Ranch School, Town of New Lyme.***

Hattie signed two separate contracts with Monroe County for the school year 1912-1913.  She was moving on to another school in the Town of Greenfield known as Purdy Valley School.  With this agreement, Hattie received a raise in pay to $38 per month.  Among several signatures representing the District School Board was that of Louis Avery Kenyon who would become Hattie's father-in-law three years later.**

Harriet Shookman with her students standing in front of Purdy Valley School 6 May 1913.***

A year end school celebration was held in May 1913 combining the students from the three schools taught by Hattie and her sisters:

Harriet Shookman, age 18 - Purdy Valley School

Ina Shookman, age 21 - La Crosse Valley School

Lura Shookman, age 23 - Union Valley School

There are two women in the front row.  The one kneeling on the left is Ina Shookman and Harriet is seated almost center in the front row.

Lura Shookman is standing just beneath and to the right of the La Crosse Valley School banner.***

Harriet, along with Lura and Ina again took the train west to Arizona sometime after the end of the school term about May 1913 and likely returned to work at the Ingleside Resort.  While she was in Phoenix, Harriet sat for the Arizona exam earning a Second Grade Teacher's Certificate.  I have found no record that she taught in Arizona, and there is no family story that she did although she obviously considered doing so.  Her sister, Lura, returned to Monroe County at some point before her marriage on December 23rd, 1913.  The picture below is believed to have been taken on this trip west.

Ina, Harriet, and Lura Shookman (L to R)

Likely taken in Arizona ca. 1913, possibly in uniforms for the Ingleside Club

Postcard of the Ingleside Club near Phoenix, Arizona.*** 

Harriet's Arizona Teacher's Certificate awarded December 1, 1913.**

Harriet was back in Wisconsin to stay by late summer 1914 when she sat again that August for her teacher's certificate, picking up a new qualification in Economics.  Although a copy of that year's contract is not in the family's possession, Kathleen verified that her mother did teach a 3rd year at Purdy Valley School from Sept 1914- May 1915.  

Harriet's 1914 Teacher's Certification from Monroe County.**

The land for the Purdy Valley School was deeded to the school district on 11 September 1911 by Louis Avery Kenyon for $1.  The school yard was carved out of the original Charles W. Kenyon homestead farm in Section 5 and was adjacent to the family farm.  In an e-mail written by Bessie Kmiecik in 2014:

According to the deeds that I have in my possession, Mr. L. Kenyon deeded the parcel of land to the school district on 11 Sept 1911. There is a previous location which was deeded to the district by an Ellen Elizabeth Hart. in 1906. The cost of each parcel was just one dollar. I have another little slip of paper which gives the dimensions of the school as 20 by 42 feet. The two toilets or "latrines" were both 10 by 12 feet and were valued at $15 dollars each. The school building, known as District # 4, Monroe county, was of brick construction. 

Living at the adjacent Kenyon farm when Harriet started teaching in Purdy Valley was her future husband, Charles Kenyon, his father Louis Avery Kenyon and Louis' widowed mother, Adelaide (Purdy) Kenyon.  Adelaide made her home with the two men after the death of her husband, Charles W. Kenyon and the death of Louis' wife and Charlie's mother, Gertrude (Vandervort) Kenyon, both in 1910.  

Although Harriet never taught school again after her marriage, she followed in her Uncle Willard's footsteps and wrote social articles for the local newspapers about life in the Town of Greenfield which she published over several years. 

Even though Charles left school before graduating from 8th grade when he was about 14 years old, Harriet and Charles were a strong force in the push for the education of all 8 of their children.  Their family lived and farmed in Purdy Valley, a rural area of the Town of Greenfield which was several miles from the high school in Tomah.  Every Monday during the school year, Charlie would take the high school age children into Tomah where they boarded with their great-aunt Cora (Kenyon) Heser during the week.  He would pick them up on Friday afternoons to return to the farm for the weekend.  The oldest 5 children, Doris, Veva, Glen, Kyle, Jim, and Jeanette all attended high school this way starting in 1933 through the fall of 1941.  Helen and Kathleen attended high school after the family moved into Tomah in October 1941.  The importance of the education of all their children was apparent despite the fact that it came at a cost to the family because they were not home during the week to help with the work output on the farm or the home at the height of the Great Depression.  

Two of Charles and Harriet's children went on to college, the first on either side of their families to do so.  Kyle attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison and earned a law degree.  Kathleen attended 3 semesters of college at UW-Madison, partly on scholarship and through the loving high school graduation gift from Kyle of $50 which helped pay tuition in addition to income she earned while in school.  Although Kathleen left college after the middle of her sophomore year due to lack of sufficient funding available for her to continue, she returned to college in the fall of 1981 and graduated from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa with a B.A. in Computers and Accounting.  

*From the collection of Jean (Kelley) Gluege, grand-daughter of Harriet.

**Harriet's Teachers Certificates and teaching contracts are found in a scrapbook that she put together of memorable papers from her early life.  The scrapbook was inherited by Helen (Kenyon) Kelley, then inherited by Jean (Kelley) Gluege who gifted it to Karla (Von Fumetti) Staudt for preservation and use in our shared family history.  

***From the collection of Dolores (Siekert) Kenyon, daughter-in-law of Harriet

© Karla Von Fumetti Staudt

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