During Women’s History Month, we recognize teacher and suffragist Bertha Boschulte

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Teacher, principal, and public health official Bertha Boschulte of the Virgin Islands was also a tireless women’s suffragist. Photo Credit: Public Domain

Many talented educators devote their considerable energy to social issues. One of these was Bertha Boschulte, a teacher, principal, and public health worker from the Virgin Islands who dedicated herself to women’s suffrage in her home territory.

Bertha was born on March 30, 1906, in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. After her graduation from Charlotte Amalie Junior/Senior High School, she taught for one year. Then she moved to the mainland, where she settled in the state of Virginia and enrolled in the Hampton Institute. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree, with distinction, in English and Mathematics in 1929.

Following her graduation from college, Bertha returned to the Virgin Islands, where she accepted a teaching position at her alma mater, Charlotte Amalie High School. During the next few years, while teaching and serving as the secretary of the St. Thomas Teachers Association, Bertha became a champion of the women’s suffrage movement. She was one of numerous women teachers who attempted to register to vote and had been denied. The teachers’ union filed a lawsuit, and earned a ruling in their favor.

By 1938, Bertha had been promoted to be principal of the Charlotte Amalie school, but after a few years, she decided to return to the United States, where she enrolled at Columbia University’s Teachers College. There she earned her Master’s degree in Educational Administration in 1945. After securing her teaching credential in 1946, Bertha accepted a teaching position at New York’s PS 81.

While in New York, the forward-thinking educator became involved with the International Assembly of Women, a conference organized by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to advance the goals of political equality for women and support the establishment of the United Nations. In 1947, Bertha returned to the Virgin Islands, where she worked with colleagues to establish a teachers’ institute to offer training to educators who wanted to improve their instructional practices.

Bertha launched a new chapter of her life in 1950 when she relocated to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to pursue a Master’s degree in Public Health. The following year, her goal achieved, she returned to the Virgin Islands, where she was appointed the Director of the Statistical Service for the territory’s Health Department. She served in that department until 1963. In 1964, this amazing former teacher was elected to the Legislature of the Virgin Islands, where she served one two-year term as a Senator. In 1969, Bertha was appointed to serve on the Commission on the Status of Women, and in 1970, she was elected to the Board of the Territorial Department of Education, where she was served as the Chairperson.

For her tireless work as an educator, public health official, and women’s suffragist, Bertha was named Woman of the Year by the Federation of Business and Professional Women in 1965. In 1981, the Bertha C. Boschulte Middle School in Bovoni was named in her honor. This Chalkboard Hero passed away on August 18, 2004. She was 98 years old.

During Women’s History Month, we recognize Alaska pioneer teacher Carrie McLain

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Alaska teacher Carrie McLain was a pioneer in the classroom at the turn of the century. Photo credit: Pubic Domain

During Women’s History Month, we pay homage to America’s pioneers in the classroom, including the many teachers who worked Alaska’s wilderness territories. One of them was Carrie McLain, who taught in Nome, Alaska, at the beginning of the 19th century.

Carrie was born on January 26, 1895, in Astoria, Long Island, New York. When she was just a child of ten, her father moved Carrie and her four siblings to the fledgling village of Nome on the ice-crusted coast of northwestern Alaska. There she grew to adulthood and became a young teacher at a pioneer school on the Seward Penninsula. During those years, she also married and reared a family of one son and three daughters. She lived and taught through a rugged existence on the frigid Alaskan frontier, and she even taught through the Klondike Gold Rush.

This Chalkboard Champion passed away on May 30, 1973, at Palmer Pioneers Home, and was buried in Nome. The city of Nome dedicated a community museum in her honor. The Carrie McLain Museum highlights the history of Nome and Western Alaska. Many of the institution’s more than 15,000 artifacts are relates to gold-rush days, including racks of mining equipment, historical documents, and photo albums.

Carrie tells the fascinating story of her provincial life in Alaska in Pioneer Teacher: Turn of the Century Classroom in Remote Northwestern Alaska. Anyone interested in learning more about her experiences should read the slender volume—it’s only 70 pages, including photographs. The book, published in 1970, can be found on amazon at this link: Pioneer Teacher. She also wrote Gold Rush Nome, which is only 46 pages in length, published in 1969, can also be found on amazon.  In addition to Carrie’s text, the volume contains 23 pages of black and white photographs.

 

Texas teacher Margaret Clark Formby founded Cowgirl Hall of Fame

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Margaret Clark formby

English teacher Margaret Clark Formby, a genuine cowgirl, founded the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in her home state of Texas. Photo credit: The Portal to Texas History

Not many teachers can describe themselves as genuine cowgirls, but one who can is a Texas English teacher named Margaret Clark Formby. This remarkable educator is best-known for founding the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in her home state of Texas.

Margaret was born in 1929 in Van Horn in Culberson County, Texas, a small town east of El Paso. She was the daughter of Fred and Mabel Clark, local ranchers. As a young woman, Margaret attended Van Horn High School, where she graduated in 1946, the salutatorian of her class. Following her high school graduation, Margaret enrolled at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas. There she earned her Bachelor’s degree in English and Speech in 1950. After her college graduation, she accepted her first teaching position at Hereford High School in Hereford, Deaf Smith County, before relocating to a school in Fort Worth, Texas.

As a young woman growing up in a Western environment, Margaret believed it was important to have women recognized for their many contributions to Western culture. To this end, she founded the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Hereford. The museum was originally located in the basement of the local public library, but was later moved to a building in Fort Worth. Margaret also worked as the editor of Sidesaddle, the official magazine of the Cowgirl Hall of Fame.

In addition to cultural preservation, Margaret labored tirelessly to create better conditions for young people. She was one of two women in Texas who was named to a commission to investigate child pornography. She also served on a committee sponsored by the Texas House Speaker that researched teen pregnancy.

During her lifetime, Margaret earned many accolades for her work. In 1993, the talented educator was the first woman elected to Texas Tech University’s Rodeo Hall of Fame. In 2000, her name was added to the list of “100 That Made a Difference: History Makers of the High Plains by the Amarillo  Globe News. She also received the Pioneer Woman Award from the American Cowboy Culture Society.

Margaret Formby passed away on April 10, 2003, at the age of 73. She will forever be remembered as a hardworking educator who worked tirelessly to preserve an important part of our Western heritage.

During Women’s History Month, we recognize America’s pioneer schoolteachers

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In honor of Women’s History Month, we’d like to pay homage today to our country’s pioneer schoolteachers. 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!