Reviews -- "A Schoolmarm All My Life"



	"A Schoolmarm All My Life" Personal Narratives from Frontier Utah

Western Historical Quarterly, Pamela Herr
This interesting and often evocative book consists of 24 autobiographical accounts by pioneer Mormon women who taught school in nineteenth-century Utah. Ranging from diary excerpts to portions of reminiscences and memoirs, these narratives together form a valuable composite picture of women who "worked at a conventional profession in an unconventional society," as editor Joyce Kinkead describes them (p. ix).

In her thoughtful introduction and prologue, Kinkead provides the context for the narratives that follow. Particularly useful is her overview of schooling in frontier Utah, where the emphasis was practical and authoritarian, and where free public education was not established until 1890. She also discusses marriage, family, and gender relations, pointing out that in Utah, contrary to practice elsewhere, female teachers were not dismissed when they married. Polygamy is of course an important, though often buried, theme in these accounts; Kinkead notes that ten of the 24 women narrators were plural wives, while four others were children in polygamous families.

The earliest accounts depict not only the harsh life these women endured, but also their remarkable independence and enterprise. Typical of such women was Elizabeth Terry Heward, who arrived in Utah with her husband and children in 1848, suffered from cold and hunger, but nonetheless managed to set up a small school "when the spirit came upon me" (p.37). For several of these pioneer women, Mormonism provided an escape from an abusive marriage. Laura Farnsworth Frampton Owen, for example, divorced an alcoholic husband and in 1852 emigrated to Utah, where she supported herself as a teacher. Martha Spence Heywood also journeyed to Utah as a single woman, where she became the third wife of Joseph Heywood, taught school, and raised a child.

One particularly interesting account is that of Lucinda Lee Dalton, who was both an early feminist and a plural wife. As a child she longed to be a boy, "because boys were so highly privileged and so free" (p. 63). She married for spiritual reasons, explaining that "only for the sake of its expected joys in eternity, could I endure its trials through time" (p. 69). Another plural wife reflected on her marriage: "I could not say that I had really loved the man as lovers love, though I loved his wives and the spirit of their home" (p. 97). When she needed a place to teach, her "sister-wives" helped her convert an unfinished room into a classroom.

While these accounts inevitably vary in interest and value, the cumulative effect is to evoke a rich sense of real lives lived, of silent women who endured. As Kinkead writes, "They provide a picture—sometimes in pentimento—of what it meant to be female, Mormon and a teacher" in nineteenth-century Utah (p. xvii).

Deseret News, Carma Wadley
History may be recorded in the big events, but life is lived in the details. And over a period of time, the most common, ordinary details can be some of the most telling. In recent decades, historians have discovered the common man—and woman. The big events are needed as milestones and markers, but common events and ordinary people also have compelling stories to tell. Here are three new works about Western women that provide ample evidence of that...

Schoolmarms interest Judy Kinkead—specifically Mormon schoolmarms who taught in the early days of the settlement and territory, women who "worked at a conventional profession in an unconventional society." These were women who often had little formal training themselves, who had to cope with the other trials of frontier life, who still developed a love of education and a desire to impart knowledge and were sustained by their faith and beliefs.

From countless diaries and life sketches of early Mormon women, Kinkead has selected 24 that belong to women who were teachers some or most of their lives, covering a century—from Louisa Barnes Pratt, born in 1802, to Reva Stevens Daniels Smoot, born in 1902. Given the scope of the study, Kinkead seems overly fascinated by polygamy (several of the teachers were polygamous wives), and some of the introductions are a bit repetitive; but the overall tone of the work is scholarly and thoughtful. A dissertation-like introduction is followed by a lengthy, well-researched prologue that provides background and an overview of education in these early days.

"The first Utah school, taught by Mary Jane Dilworth, opened in October in 1847 in a tepee-shaped army tent inside the old town fort (now Pioneer Park) with nine pupils; Dilworth was 17."

And it is interesting to see how much some things have changed: "One incident impressed my mind always. 'Twas of a boy hanging by his feet from one of the joints in the room, his face red and his eyes bulging. This was given as punishment for some unruly act. My wonder afterward was how the woman got him up there. The children were all crying for fear he would fall."— Martha Cragun Cox.

And how much some things have not: "What trying things children are! Especially boys; full of fun and mischief and so ungenerous, ungrateful and tantalizing! Really, I think sometimes the better they are treated, the worse they act. I haven't had a minute's rest all this long afternoon."—Louisa Lula Green Richards.

"School has been fairly good today. I must introduce percentage tomorrow to my eighth grade. I dread it. Only eight weeks until Christmas."—Vilate Elliott.

It is an interesting collection from diverse women joined by a common thread. The diaries and sketches reveal a lot about teachers and teaching, of course—but even more about life.