TEACHERS IN THE FAMILY IN THE PAST (March 2011)
It is worth noting that even though
our family historically had a most famous educator in our background, I have
found others in my research from other branches who also were in teaching and
deserve mention. So I give you these
tidbits to add to my current newsletter.
First of
all, I want to show you the Durland schoolhouse which was on the Durland
property in Brownstown, Indiana. This
information came in a handwritten unsigned note sent to me by a cousin long
gone. The figure on the right is Opal
Durland Jefferis. The schoolhouse was
torn down around 1980. The unsigned note
also said that the Durland family would board the teacher because the stipend
was so meager and depended on “subscription.”
Because it was a Durland school, all the Durland children of Robert
attended before Robert moved his family to Flora, Illinois.
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Probably one of the most interesting tidbits I have of the Durland family is a newspaper clipping of Solon Durland dated April 11, 1872 from the Brownstown Banner. It talks about Solon Durland, teacher of 21 students in a German district school. It said “Mr. Solon Durland made a good report…on the other hand the parents and scholars speak in terms of the most flattering commendation of Mr. Durland’s skill and efficiency as a teacher. The patrons…are honest, industrious and intelligent Germans, who avail themselves of every opportunity to educate their children.”
When Charles Kuhnert moved his family to Johnsburg, very German community, to open the general store there, his daughter Josephine became a teacher at the large Catholic school. It is my understanding that Josephine taught there for four years even though the large school was under the auspices of Catholic nuns. Josephine and her sister Minnie had been educated in a convent school in Waukegan and were bilingual in English and German before they moved to Johnsburg. These are examples from two of our families involved in education.
However, the most surprising information I found was from the Free family side. It seems that Mary Free, sister of Rebecca, was also a teacher. I found her listed as such on several census records but I haven’t been able to find anything more. She is listed as a teacher both in Flora in 1870 with her father William, and in Oklahoma in 1900 with her brother Milton. I have tried finding more in Flora but to no avail. To be a teacher in the past did not require the formal education it does today. Nevertheless, the very fact that some of our ancestors were able to teach in country schools deserves our respect for their achievement.
When Charles Kuhnert moved his family to Johnsburg, very German community, to open the general store there, his daughter Josephine became a teacher at the large Catholic school. It is my understanding that Josephine taught there for four years even though the large school was under the auspices of Catholic nuns. Josephine and her sister Minnie had been educated in a convent school in Waukegan and were bilingual in English and German before they moved to Johnsburg. These are examples from two of our families involved in education.
However, the most surprising information I found was from the Free family side. It seems that Mary Free, sister of Rebecca, was also a teacher. I found her listed as such on several census records but I haven’t been able to find anything more. She is listed as a teacher both in Flora in 1870 with her father William, and in Oklahoma in 1900 with her brother Milton. I have tried finding more in Flora but to no avail. To be a teacher in the past did not require the formal education it does today. Nevertheless, the very fact that some of our ancestors were able to teach in country schools deserves our respect for their achievement.