Nellie I. Boston

Teacher: Livermore Grammar School, 1895–1902; Hayward Grammar School 1902–1906; Berkeley Schools, 1906–1939

Nellie I. Boston was born in 1874 or 1875[1] in Douglas County, Nevada to John L. and Jennette M. (Jones) Boston.[2] In 1876 Nellie's family moved to Inyo County, California, where her mother gave birth to a son on Sept 7, 1877 and died eight days later.[3] After the death of her mother, Nellie and her father returned to Douglas County.[4] Nellie grew up in or near Mottsville, in Douglas County, surrounded by an extended family that included initally her father, her maternal grandparents, and her mother's seven siblings. We don't have much information about where exactly she lived or who raised her, but we know a little bit about the situation in 1880. Nellie was enumerated in the 1880 census in the household of her maternal grandfather, D. I. Jones. Her father lived nearby. A newspaper article from about the same time as the census suggests that he was involved and around, but mentions that a sister-in-law took care of her. That sister-in-law was most likely her aunt Viola.[5] Viola married J. H. Dungan, editor of the Genoa Weekly Courier, in 1883, and they moved to Woodland, CA in 1884.[6] We don't know whether Nellie continued to live with her grandfather after Viola left, but we know that she remained in the Mottsville area because she attended the Mottsville Public School.

We know from school reports published in the Genoa Weekly Courier that Nellie attended the Mottsville Public School from 1882 to 1889.[7] During this period she gradually lost her father to a chronic health problem that resulted in his commitment to the Nevada Insane Asylum in 1886 and his death there on June 9, 1889.[8] At the end of October 1889 Nellie left for an extended visit with the Dungans in St. Helena, where J. H. Dungan had been part owner and editor of the St. Helena Star since 1887.[9] While visiting the Dungans she attended the St. Helena Public School and graduated from the eighth grade there in June 1890.[10] She returned to the Mottsville Public School for the 1890–1891 school year and then attended Carson High School (Carson City, NV) for two school years, graduating in July 1893.[11]

Shortly after her high school graduation, Nellie took the examination for a teachers' certificate and was granted a first grade certificate.[12] At the end of August she left for an extended visit with the Dungans in Livermore, where J. H. Dungan had been owner and editor of the Livermore Herald since 1891.[13] She took the examination for a teachers' certificate from Alameda County in December 1893 and was awarded a primary certificate, which was good for two years and qualified her to teach the primary grades.[14] In July 1894 she was elected a teacher in the Livermore Grammar School for the 1894–1895 school year.[15]

The teachers elected by the trustees in July 1894 were James D. Smith (Principal), Wilbur M. Doyal/Doyle, Timothy A. Spaulding, May Gregory, Maggie McKee, Ella Weymouth, Lizzie Waltenbaugh, Nellie Boston, Lottie Cozad, Emma C. Smith and Lillie Meyers. James D. Smith took the place of J. M. Patton, who had resigned after the end of the previous school year to take the position of principal of the High School. Smith had been the principal and owner of the Livermore Collegiate Institute (a. k. a. "Livermore College") from 1875 through its closing after the 1892–1893 school year. Doyal and Spaulding had been his assistants at the College.[16] Of the rest, three were graduates of the State Normal School at San Jose (Gregory, Waltenbaugh, and Weymouth), two were graduates of the Livermore College (McKee and Cozad), and two were straight out of high school (Meyers and Boston).[17]

Smith had a reputation as an educator based on the success of the Livermore Collegiate Institute and its graduates. And he was considered progressive. As principal of the Grammar School he introduced specialized teaching in the grammar grades, so that students did not have the same teacher for all subjects, and regraded the students by subject. The school also employed a "special teacher" in music. Special teachers were considered progressive at the time. Smith and his new system received a glowing half-page report in the Oakland Tribune in May, which was subsequently cited by an article in the Herald. Those articles provoked letters to the editor of the Echo that expressed strong disapproval of Smith and his innovations. The letters to the editor were accompanied by a harsh editorial which judged the year just ending to be the "most disasterous year in the history of the school". One of the reasons cited for their disapproval of Smith was the lack of progress of the students over the year: no students graduated, only three of twenty-six eighth grade students passed their examination, and a much lower percentage of students were promoted to higher grades than in previous years.[18]

On July 8, 1895 the Board of Trustees met and elected Henry C. Petray, principal, and Alice Dougherty, vice principal. They re-elected May Gregory, Maggie McKee, Ella Weymouth, Lizzie Waltenbaugh, Nellie Boston, Lottie Cozad, Emma C. Smith and Lillie Meyers. And they elected Emily Tingman to fill the remaining vacancy. P. A. R. Dow was retained as the special teacher of music. May Gregory resigned in December and was replaced by Rose Ismert. Jessie P. Doty was added sometime before January. This was the set of teachers that was listed in the Herald's "Special Midwinter Edition" published on January 25, 1896.[19]

For the 1896–1897 school year, Nellie Clark replaced Lottie Cozad, and all the rest were re-elected. This is the set that is in the composite photograph that appeared in the Herald's "High School Edition" published on June 26, 1896.[20]

In October Jesse Dungan sold the Herald and bought the Woodland Mail. Thereafter, Nellie regularly spent the holidays and her vacations with the Dungans in Woodland. She also visited the Mixens in St. Helena. After W. F. Mixen became a partner in the Woodland Mail in 1898, she visited both the Mixens and the Dungans in Woodland. She also visited Jesse Dungan's sisters Jewell/Julie and Annie in San Francisco. The extended Mixen-Dungan family was her family.[21]

On June 8, 1902, Nellie Boston and Jessie P. Doty were confirmed at the first service conducted in the newly built Grace Episcopal Church, Livermore.[22]

At the end of the 1901–1902 school year, a dispute between Principal Petray and eighth grade teacher Alice Dougherty escalated into a political battle between factions backing one or another set of candidates in the trustees election of June 6. The dispute was amplified in the newspapers, with the Echo devoting a great amount of paper and ink to attacking Petray and the Herald providing space for Petray to defend himself.[23] The side backing Dougherty in the dispute won the election. As a consequence, Petray resigned and accepted a position as Principal of the Haywards Grammar School. Two teachers, Jessie Doty and Nellie Clark, were not re-elected for the following school year, and it was suggested in the papers that they had lost their jobs because they were somehow associated with the faction that had supported Petray.[24] In October, after the school year had already started (on Aug 4), Nellie Boston resigned to accept a position at the Haywards Grammar School that was created to relieve overcrowding due to higher than anticipated enrollment.[25]

In mid-August 1906, shortly after the start of the school year in both Hayward and Berkeley, Nellie resigned her position at the Hayward Grammar School to accept a position in the Berkeley schools. She was hired in the midst of the Berkeley School Board's efforts to accomodate an increase in enrollment by establishing new classes and hiring more teachers.[26] We don't know whether she was hired to teach one of the new classes, or she was hired for a position that became available for other reasons.[27] Rose Ismert, a former colleague of her's from the Livermore Grammar school, was also hired by Berkeley at this time. Ella Weymouth had been teaching at Lincoln Grammar School in Berkeley since 1902, and her brother-in-law had been appointed the principal of that school earlier in the year.[28] Nellie and Rose boarded with the extended Weymouth family in a large two-story house built by Ella's father at 1916 Woolsey Street in Berkeley.[29]

She was assigned to Longfellow school for the 1907–1908 school year and remained there through at least 1918. She boarded at 1916 Woolsey until Albert Weymouth passed away in 1928.

In June 1909, Nellie lost four of her closest family members: Jesse Dungan's wife (Nellie's aunt), his fourteen-year-old daughter, and two of his sisters were all killed when the automobile they were riding in fell into the Sacramento River at Knight's Landing. The headline in the Woodland Democrat, "Woodland Crushed with Anguish and Horror", was probably an understatement.[31]

Nellie resigned from the Berkeley Schools at the end of the 1938–1939 school year.[32] She didn't make the papers much after that, so it is difficult to know how she spent her retirement. She died in 1973.[33]

Notes

  1. ^ We don't have a reliable source for her date of birth. A reliable source would be a birth certificate or a newspaper item reporting her birth, or a statement by her of her birth date or her age at a particular date. The closest we have to the latter is the 1940 and 1950 census records, since she was head of her household for those census years, and the only person in her household, so she would most likely have been the one supplying the enumerator with the information about herself. In 1900, 1910, 1920, and 1930 she was a boarder and the information on her age might have been supplied by someone else in the household if she wasn't home when the enumerator visited. Her age is recorded as 65 in the 1940 census and 75 in the 1950 census (c10: Household of Nellie Boston in the 1940 census | c11: Household of Nelle Boston in the 1950 census). Both were enumerated in April, so according to these two census records she was born sometime between April 1874 and April 1875. The 1880 census, enumerated in June, records her age as 5 (born between June 1874 and June 1875); the 1900 census reports her age as 24 and the month and year of her birth as July 1875 (the 1900 census is the only census that asks for month and year of bith in addition to a person's age); the 1910 census, enumerated in April, records her age as 33 (born between April 1876 and April 1877); the 1920 census, enumerated in January, records her age as 44 (born between January 1875 and January 1876); and the 1930 census, enumerated in April, records her age as 55 (born between April 1874 and April 1875) (c3: Household of D. I. Jones in the 1880 census | c6: Household of Thomas E. Knox in the 1900 census | c7: Household of Albert Weymouth in the 1910 census | c8: Household of Albert Weymouth in the 1920 census | c9: Household of Berca Stevens in the 1930 census). The Nevada census of 1875 only adds to the confusion (c5: Household of J. Boston in the Nevada census of 1875). This census was transcribed from the handwritten records of the enumerators and published in the Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assembly, of the Eighth Session of the Legislature of the State of Nevada. The transcription probably introduced even more error into records that were already far from error free. The published transcription is considered the final product of the census, and the handwritten records possibly no longer exist. In this census, the household of J. Boston consists of three people: himself, his wife, and a girl named E. J. Boston, age 1, as of June 1875. If Nellie was born in July 1875 (as indicated in the 1900 census), then she wasn't born yet and E. J. is an older sibling of whose existence we have no other record. Otherwise, the girl is Nellie, "E. J" is erroneous, and Nellie was born before June 1, 1874 (if her parents reported her age accurately and the enumerator was meticulously following the instructions on the census form). I don't trust either the transcription or the orignal enumerators to get a person's name right: Nellie's aunt, Viola F. Jones, is listed as "L. Jones" in this census. But "E. J." is not a likely transcription error for "N. I.", so perhaps Nellie did have an older sister and was born after June 1875. Lastly, the California death index, which contains information abstracted from California death records, gives Nellie's date of birth as July 7, 1875 (a4: Nelle I. Boston, in the California death index). That information probably came from her death certificate and is not necessarily reliable, since the age and date of birth of the deceased on a death certificate is usually provided by some other person or record, not directly by the deceased. It is probably the same source of infomation that was used to report her age at death in her obituary, which said that she died in Aug 1973 at the age of 98, so we can't necessarily count her death certificate and obituary as two different sources. (n128: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 29 Aug 1973)
  2. ^ Nellie's mother is not identified directly in any sources that I know about, but her identity can be determined through a chain of sources that begin with the identification of Mrs. Jesse H. Dungan as Nellie's aunt. She is identified as such in multiple newspaper items, such as the one that appeared in the Genoa Weekly Courier in September 1893 which said that she had departed to vist her aunt, Mrs. Jesse Dungan, in Livermore (n 354: Courier, 1 Sept 1893). Her aunt's maiden name, Viola F. Jones, is given in a Genoa Weekly Courier item announcing her marriage to Jesse H. Dungan (n132: Courier, 4 May 1883). Mrs. Dungan is identified as the daughter of D. I. Jones in his obituaries (n 51: Woodland Daily Democrat, 17 Sept 1896 | n 52: Genoa Weekly Courier, 18 Sept 1896) and multiple items reporting visits between them, such as one that appeared in the St. Helena Star in September 1888 (n333: St. Helena Star, 7 Sept 1888). And D. I. Jones is identified as Nellie's grandfather in an item in the Genoa Weekly Courier (n40: Courier, 11 Jan 1895). Viola F. Jones had three sisters. They are listed in the in the 1860 census as Jennette, Margaret, and Jemima (c1: Household of David I. Jones, 1860 census). A Nevada County marriage record records the marriage of a "Nettie M. Jones" to John L. Boston in 1872 (a2: Entry for John L. Boston and Nettie M. Jones, Western States Marriage Index). An item in the Inyo Independent reports the death of Jennette M., wife of John L. Boston, gives her maiden name as Jennette M. Jones, and says that her parents reside in Carson Valley (n 316: Inyo Independent, 22 Sept 1877). A one sentence notice of her death in the Carson Valley News does not give her name, but identifies her as the wife of John L. Boston and the daughter of D. I. Jones (n 317: Carson Valley News, 28 Sept 1877). Put together, all these sources establish that Nellie's mother was Jennette M. Jones, daughter of David I. Jones of Carson Valley, NV. David I. Jones and wife were from Wales. They immigrated to the Great Salt Lake area of Utah Territory with the help of the Perpetual Emigrating Fund Co. of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (n369: Deseret News, 21 Aug 1852 | w2: "Abraham O. Smoot Company", Church History Biographical Database website, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints). They came to Carson Valley in 1857 (n 52: Genoa Weekly Courier, 18 Sept 1896).
  3. ^ The Carson Valley News reported in their June 2, 1886 issue that John L. Boston and family were moving to Arizona (n314: Carson Valley News, 2 June 1886). If they actually were, and did, they didn't stay long, but ended up instead at Bishop Creek, Inyo County, California (in or near the place that is known today as Bishop, CA). The only record we have of their time in that place is the sad set of newspaper "Born" and "Died" notices that report the birth of a son there on September 7, 1877 and the death of his mother on September 15 (316: Inyo Independent, 22 Sept 1877). The newspaper said that the mother had lived there for a year.
  4. ^ The Carson Valley News reported in its December 14 issue that John L. Boston had returned and that he had lost his wife (n 319: Carson Valley News, 14 Dec 1877). The newspaper said nothing about his daughter or infant son. I am assuming that Nellie came back with her father.
  5. ^ In Jan 1880, the Morning Appeal (Carson City, NV) and the Carson Valley News reported that John Boston was the intended victim of a poisoning (n 320: Morning Appeal, 22 Jan 1880 | n321: Carson Valley News, 23 Jan 1880). The article in the Morning Appeal mentioned, as part of the circumstances of the story, that Boston had a daughter who was being taken are of by his sister-in-law. In the 1880 census, which was enumerated just a few months later, Nellie was listed in the household of her maternal grandfather, D. I. Jones, which means that his household was her "usual place of abode" at the time (c3: Household of D. I. Jones, 1880 census). Nellie's father was listed in the household of Chris Rabe (c4: Household of Chris Rabe, 1880 census). The two households lived in dwellings that were only five apart in the order of visitation by the enumerator, which means they were probably geographically close. It is tempting to assume that Nellie's father just dumped her at her grandparents' house, but we don't know that. All we really know is that she was living there in June of 1880 and that one her aunts was taking care of her. Nellie's grandfather had four daughters, of which Nellie's mother was the oldest. The next oldest was Margaret, who was called "Maggie". She married in 1878 and died in 1879 (n356: Carson Valley News, 8 Feb 1878 | n355: Carson Valley News, 12 Dec 1879). So she was not the sister-in-law who was taking care of Nellie in 1880. The third oldest of D. I. Jones's daughters was Jemima, who was called "Minnie". Viola was the youngest of his daughters. Both Minnie and Viola were listed in their father's household in the 1880 census (cited above). Viola is on line 39; she was just 15 years old. Minnie was 20 and appears as "M. K." on line 37. Either of them could have been the sister-in-law mentioned in the article. Their mother died on June 11, 1880 (n360: Carson Valley News, 18 June 1880 [She is included in the census because she was living on June 1]). Minnie probably married and left Douglas County in 1881 (n332: Genoa Weekly Courier, 20 July 1883), leaving Viola as the last remaining daughter in the household of D. I. Jones until it was her turn to leave in 1883.
  6. ^ J. H. Dungan was born in Genoa, NV, in 1863, and attended the Genoa Public School. In 1882 he became Editor and Manager of the Genoa Weekly Courier. He married Nellie's aunt, Viola Jones, on May 1, 1883. In August of 1884 he left the Courier, and Genoa, to take a job in the printing plant of the Woodland Democrat in Woodland, CA. See the article on J. H. Dungan and the sources cited therein.
  7. ^ The Genoa Weekly Courier published monthly school reports submitted by the teacher at the Mottsville school in some years and not others, depending, I suppose, on space, the cooperation of the teacher, and the interest of the editor and his readers. Nellie first appears in the monthly reports published in the 1882–1883 school year, at which time she was 7 or 8 years old (n750: "Mottsville School Reports", Genoa Weekly Courier, 24 Nov 1882 to 8 June 1883). In the 1883–1884 school year, the Courier published only an item on the school's Christmas entertainment, in which Nellie performed, a report on the school's examinations in March, in which Nellie was listed, and a brief description of the school's closing exercises in June, in which no student names were mentioned (n8: Courier, 28 Dec 1883 | n9: Courier, 28 March 1884; n12: Courier, 13 June 1884). Nothing was reported in the 1884–1885 school year. In the 1885–1886 school year, the Courier published a list of students who had passed their yearly examination (n 14: Courier, 21 May 1886). Nellie was listed in the first of three divisions and also received the prize for excellent spelling. Nothing is reported in the 1886–1887 school year. Monthly school reports began again in the 1887–1888 school year (n751: "Mottsville School Reports", Genoa Weekly Courier, 18 Nov 1887 to 13 April 1888). Those reports grouped the students into "Grammar" (the highest), "Intermediate", and "Primary" divisions. Nellie is in the Grammar division (she is 12 or 13 years old). There are no reports for the 1888–1889 school year. Nellie's father died in June 1889 (see note 8 below). The Courier published a school report at the beginning of the 1889–1890 school year in which Nellie was listed (n20: Courier, 4 Oct 1889). Her score was lowered by absence. In November, she left for a visit with the Dungan's in St. Helena, California, and finished the rest of the school year there.
  8. ^ The Genoa Weekly Courier reported in March 1884 that John Boston had been "adjudged insane" by two doctors and taken to the the Nevada Insane Asylum near Reno (n10: Courier, 28 March 1884). Testimony was obtained from witnesses that he suffered from "fits" of some kind that caused him to lose consciousness. When he recovered he was not always rational. The hope was expressed that his condition was temporary and that he could get the care he needed at the Asylum. We have verification of his commitment to the Asylum in the "Report of the Superintendent of the Nevada Insane Asylum" published in the 1885 Appendix to Journals of Senate and Assemby (p5: "Excerpts from Reports of the Superintendent of the Nevada Insane Asylum that Contain Information on John L. Boston"). The report says that the cause of his "insanity" was "cerebral embolism" and that he was discharged July 8, 1884. An item in the April 11 Genoa Weekly Courier, says that he was discharged on April 9 and had arrived in Genoa the same day "looking considerably better" (n11: Courier, 11 April 1884 [I don't know how to explain the two different discharge dates]). The newspaper (Dungan was still the editor at this point, and Boston was his wife's brother-in-law) expressed the earnest hope that he would be entirely well again soon. But the Courier reported in July 1885 that he was again suffereing the same problem (n 325: Courier, 3 July 1885). He was reported to be severely ill in September 1885 (n326: Courier, 18 Sept 1885). Then, on April 30, 1886, the Courier (Dungan was no longer the editor) reported in a bleak two-sentence item that John Boston was insane and would be committed to the Asylum (n13: Courier, 30 April 1886). The "Report of the Superintendent" in the 1887 Appendix gave the cause of his "insanity" as "epilepsy" (p5: "Excerpts"). He remained a patient at the Asylum until his death on June 9, 1889 ("Report of the Superintendent" in the 1891 Appendix, extracted in p5: "Excerpts"). His death was not reported in the Courier. He was probably buried in the cemetery at the Asylum, in an unmarked grave, and the cemetery was eventually abandoned and forgotten about. But a group formed in 2008 to reclaim and restore the cemetery (n328: Reno Gazette-Journal, 5 May 2008). They erected a monument with the names of all the people who were known to be buried there. One of the names on the monument is John L. Boston (a1: Memorial Page for John L. Boston, Find a Grave website). The cemetery was rededicated in 2011 (n329: Reno Gazette-Journal, 22 Jan 2011).
  9. ^ "J. H. Dungan", note 8.
  10. ^ Nellie began the 1889–1890 school year at the Mottsville Public School. (n20: Courier, 4 October 1889). An item in the Nov 1 issue Genoa Weekly Courier reported that she had gone to St. Helena and intended to stay there for several months (n21: Courier, 1 Nov 1889). While there, she attended the St. Helena Public School. She made the honor roll for February, as reported in the St. Helena Star, in which her name appeared under the heading "Department I ... eighth year" (n22: Star, 7 March 1890). In June she was promoted from "eighth to the graduating class" (n24: St. Helena Star, 13 June 1890). She was 14 or 15 years old. I assume the "graduating class" was ninth grade. An item in the June 20 issue of the Star reported that she had left for her home near Genoa, NV (n25: Star, 20 June 1890).
  11. ^ Nellie returned to the Mottsville Public School for the 1890–1891 school year and made the honor roll for October, January, and February (n752: "Mottsville School Reports", Genoa Weekly Courier, 7 Nov 1890 to 6 March 1891). But then her name does not appear in the Courier until its July 14, 1893 issue, in which a brief item reports her graduation from Carson High School (n32: Courier, 14 July 1893). I do not know whether the Mottsville public school went through sixth, eight, or ninth grade, or if they even operated under any concept of grades that corresponds to our current system. I also don't know if Carson High School started with ninth or tenth grade, or went through eleventh or twelfth grade. In order to attend Carson High School, Nellie would have had to board in Carson City because it was too far from Mottsville to commute there daily. Three articles in the Morning Appeal (Carson City, NV) indicate that she was a student at the school in the 1891–1892 and 1892–1893 school years: an article on the school's commencement exercises in the June 29, 1892 issue lists her as a participant; an article on a program given by the school's Debating Society during the 1892–1893 school year lists her as a participant; and she is listed as a participant in the program of entertainment of the graduating class in the July 1, 1893 issue (n29: Morning Appeal, 29 June 1892 | n30: 14 April 1893 | n31: 1 July 1893). The Morning Appeal did not list the graduates, so the July 14 Courier item, and another item on Aug 11, are the only evidence we have that she graduated from Carson High School in 1893. (n 32: Courier, 14 July 1893 | n33: Courier, 11 Aug 1893)
  12. ^ The Morning Appeal, 11 July 1893, reported the names of those who were granted teachers' certificates on the basis of an examination held "under the new law", in Carson City, July 6–8 (n34: Morning Appeal, 11 July 1893). The new law, "An Act to Provide for Uniform Examinations for Teachers' Certificates", made the examinations given by the counties uniform across the state (n372: Nevada State Journal, 23 June 1893). A first grade certificate qualified its holder to teach unclassified schools, grammar schools, and high schools, whereas the second grade certificate qualifed its holder to teach only in primary schools (p20: "Act to Provide for the Maintenace and Supervision of Public Schools", Statutes of Nevada: First Session, 1864).
  13. ^ Jesse Dungan sold his interest in the St. Helena Star and purchased the Livermore Herald in October 1891. (J. H. Dungan, note 9). The Genoa Weekly Courier reported on September 1, 1893 that Nellie left to visit Mrs. Jesse Dungan of Livermore on August 26, and that the length of her stay was yet to be determined (n354: Genoa Weekly Courier, 1 Sept 1893).
  14. ^ The Oakland Enquirer reported that Alameda County was holding an examination for Teachers' Certificates starting Monday, December 18, 1893, at Oakland High School (n370: Oakland Enquirer, 16 Dec 1893). The results were published in the Oakland Times and in several other newspapers (n37: Oakland Times, 1 Jan 1894). County boards of education had the power to grant teachers' certificates in three grades: high school, grammar, and primary, the latter valid for two years and authorizing the holder to teach in any primary school (section 1771 in p25: Political Code of the State of California, 1889, compared for revisions with p17: Political Code, 1897).
  15. ^ Most California school districts at this time, with the exception of some city districts like Oakland and Berkeley, were governed by a Board of Trustees, three in number, one of them elected each year, on the first Tuesday in June, for a term of three years. Teachers were "elected" by the Trustees each year, usually after the trustees election and before the start of the new school year, for a one year term of service. The corps of teachers that had survived to the end of the previous school year was usually re-elected, but sometimes a teacher would not be, in which case it was said that the teacher had been "deposed". In the Livermore School District, at this time, the election of teachers usually happened at a meeting of the Board of Trustees in July, occasionally in June. The teachers for the 1894–1895 school year were elected at a July meeting of the Trustees and the list was published in the Livermore Echo (n38: 12 July 1894).
  16. ^ The Livermore Collegiate Institute (a. k. a. "Livermore College") was one many private educational institutions in the later half of 19th century that prepared students for college or to become teachers. The Livermore College closed after the 1892–1893 school year in part because it could not compete with the new high schools being established at the time, like the Livermore Union High School, established in 1891. Since the College had recently been closed, James D. Smith and his assitants were available.
  17. ^ May E. Gregory graduated from the Normal School in June 1890. She taught the 1890–1891 school year in Eureka, NV and 1891–1892 in Rio Vista, CA. She was elected a teacher in the Livermore Grammar School in July 1892 (n399: Livermore Echo, 7 July 1892). Lizzie F. Waltenbaugh graduated from the Normal School in June 1891. She taught the Rosedale School for 1891–1892, then was elected a teacher in the Livermore Grammar School in July 1892 (n399: Livermore Echo, 7 July 1892). Ella L. Weymouth graudated from the Normal School in June 1893 and was elected a teacher in the Livermore Grammar School in July 1893 (n403: Livermore Echo, 27 July 1893). Margaret M. McKee graduated from the Livermore Collegiate Institute in May 1883. She taught the Highland School from Jan 1884 to June 1884, the Vista School starting in July 1884, and the Livermore Grammar School from July 1885 (n386: Oakland Tribune, 30 July 1885). Lottie Cozad graduated from the Livermore Collegiate Institute in 1893 (Livermore Echo, 25 May 1893) and was elected a teacher in the Livermore Grammar School in July 1893 (n402: Livermore Echo, 6 July 1893). [[ I have the documentation for all of this, but some of it is on pages that are not yet ready for uploading to the web. ]]
  18. ^ One of the letters published in the Echo, the one printed under the title "An Aggrieved Parent", was said by its author, Mrs Jacob Hanna, to be in response to an article in the Herald which referred to "an account of the Livermore Public School published in the Oakland Tribune". The account published in the Tribune was most probably the half page article that appeared in the May 29 issue under the multi-tiered title "Well Handled: Livermore District School is Going Ahead: Principal J. D. Smith Knows His Business Well: A Fine System of Instruction Faithfully Carried Out" (n374: Tribune, 29 May 1895). According to Mrs. Hanna, one or the other, either the Tribune or the Herald, claimed that the year just ending was the most successful in the history of the school. Mrs Hanna disagreed, saying rather that it "has been the most disasterous" (n544: "Aggrieved Parent", Livermore Echo, 6 June 1895). The other letter published in the Echo, under the title "A Communication", and signed by "A Rate Payer", cited a Herald article from the previous Saturday, "eulogizing the Trustees and Principal of the Public School" (likely the same Herald article mentioned by Mrs Hanna, but we don't know that). The author of the letter claimed to have observed in the article a "covert and cowardly attack made upon the Principal's predecessor" (not named, but the reader would have known that was J. M. Patton, who was Principal of the High School that year). The author doesn't describe the substance of the attack, and we don't have the Herald article, so it is difficult to tell how or whether that attack has anything to do with the author's main criticism, which is the absurdity and unnecessary expense of employing special teachers at the grammar school level (n543: "A communication", Livermore Echo, 6 June 1895). The Tribune article devoted thirteen paragraphs to the teaching of the special teacher in music, P. A. R. Dow, and the importance of music education to the whole project. The article also devoted two paragraphs to Mr. Smith's teaching of classes in physiology, expressing amazement at the student's knowledge of the names of the bones and other parts of the human body, etc. The editor of the Echo considered that and the music education to be a waste of the students' time. Both the letters and the editorial pointed to the lack of graduates, the poor performance on the eighth grade examination, and the low rate of promotions. That only three of twenty-six eighth grade students passed their examination means that only three were advanced to ninth grade; that there were no graduates means that none of the ninth graders would be entering high school the following year. H. H. Pritcher won the trustee election in June, and an item in the Oakland Tribune reported that some people were hoping he would combine with one of the other trustees, Albert Weymouth, to bring J. M. Patton back to the Grammar School to replace Smith (n408: Tribune, 8 June 1895). But Smith was not replaced with Patton. Patton went to Oakland High School and the Trustees elected H. C. Petray as principal and Alice Dougherty as vice principal. Doyle and Spaulding either resigned or were deposed. In spite of all the criticism of special teachers, P. A. R. Dow evidently held on to his position as a special teacher of muscic because he was mentioned in the article on the school that appeared in the special midwinter edition of the Herald (n 410: 25 January 1896).
  19. ^ The trustees met July 8 and the list of teachers was reported in the Livermore Echo on July 11 (n45: Echo, 11 July 1895). Henry C. Petray was from Healdsburg and graduated from the Normal School at San Jose in 1883 (p31: "Twenty-Fourth Class", Historical Sketch of the State Normal School). He had previously been a principal in Santa Rosa and in 1894 became principal of the Jefferson Street school in Stockton (n603: Petaluma Courier, 18 July 1894). His father was a first cousin to Livermore's Daniel M. Teeter. Alice Dougherty was from Livermore. Her father was Hugh Dougherty and she had two sisters who were also teachers. (They were not, as far as I know, related to the Dougherty family in the Dublin area.) She graduated from the Normal school in 1892. She taught from 1889 to 1895 in Merced County. Emily Tingman was from San Francisco. She graduated from the Livermore Collegiate Institute in 1891, then taught the Mocho school. May Gregory resigned in December 1895; she married and moved elsewhere. (Oakland Tribune, 18 Dec 1895). Gregory was replaced by Rose Ismert. She was from Grass Valley. Her older sister had married Albert Weymouth during the time that the Weymouth brothers were in Grass Valley. The Weymouth brothers came to Livermore in the early 1870s. Ismert graduated from the Normal School in January 1893, then taught at the Green and Harris schools (Livermore Echo, 23 Feb 1893 | Livermore Echo, 12 July 1895). Jessie Doty grew up in Livermore and graduated from Livermore Union High School in 1894 along with Lillie Meyers, Lulu Aylward, and Alice Dougherty's younger sister. I don't know when Jessie was added to the corps of teachers at the Grammar School. [[ I have the documentation for all of this, but some of it is on pages that are not yet ready for uploading to the web. ]] The Herald's "Special Midwinter Edition" included an article on the Livermore Grammar School (n410: Livermore Herald, 25 Jan 1896).
  20. ^ I don't know why Lottie Cozad left; she married Duncan Smith in 1897. The Herald's "High School Edition contained a picture of the corps of teachers that had just been elected to teach the Livermore Grammar School in the 1896–1897 school year (n560: Livermore Herald, 26 June 1896).
  21. ^ That Nellie regularly spent holidays and vacations with the Dungans can be seen by scanning the newspaper items on the List of Sources for Nellie Boston, beginning in 1895.
  22. ^ n472: Oakland Enquirer, 10 June 1902
  23. ^ "n767: "The Petray-Dougherty Dispute", Items from the Livermore Echo and Herald, 15 May to 5 June 1902.
  24. ^ Thomas Scott and George Beck won the election over C. H. Wente and W. P. Thorn (n434: Oakland Tribune, 7 June 1902). Petray tried to resign, but the new board, meeting on June 11, did not accept his resignation and instead declared his position to be vacant (n438: San Francisco Examiner, 12 June 1902). At the same meeting, the board selected the teachers for the upcoming school year, replacing Jessie Doty and Nellie Clark with Daisy Righter and Lulu Aylward (n88: Livermore Herald, 14 June 1902). The Oakland Tribune characterized Jessie Doty as a "political victim", alleging that she lost her position because her father had circulated a petition against one of the victorious trustees before the election (n440: Oakland Tribune, 16 June 1902). They reported that Jessie had a many friends and supporters among the voters who were circulating a petition to the Board to have her reinstated. She instead accepted a position at the Ocean View School in Ventura County, a position held previously by Ella Weymouth and Rose Ismert. [[ I will be writing articles about Doty, Weymouth, and Ismert, which will document their teaching in Ventura County ]]
  25. ^ The October 18 issue of the Livermore Herald reported that three teachers, Ella Weymouth, Nellie Boston, and Lulu Aylward, had submitted their resignations during the previous week (n90: Herald, 18 October). The October 20 issue of the Oakland Tribune also reported the resignations, under the headline "Teachers Leave in Livermore: Three Instructresses Drawn Away from the Public School", and added that "no little excitement has been caused as a consequence among the patrons of the school" (n91: Tribune, 20 October 1902). The Herald said that these were teachers "of the highest merit and ability" and that "Principal Martin and the patrons of the school regret to see them leave". The Tribune also pointed out that each of the teachers had "considerable experience in school work" as compared to their replacements. But this wave of resignations probably had little to do with the earlier conflict, at least with respect to Alyward and Weymouth. Lulu Alyward "quietly married" on October 26 and moved to Lassen County (n478: Oakland Tribune, 29 Oct 1902). Ella Weymouth had applied earlier to the Berkely school district, probably because her parents had moved to Berkeley and she wanted to live with them. She was not elected by the Berkeley School Board at the usual time, in June or July, but was offered a position after the beginning of the term, which began on August 4 (n479: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 27 Oct 1902). Nellie Boston accepted a position at the Hayward Grammar School that was created to relieve overcrowding (n475: Oakland Tribune, 25 Oct 1902). This can't have been a desirable enough position to draw her away from Livermore in the middle of the term, other things being equal. Hayward Grammar School was where Petray landed after being deposed by the trustees of the Livermore district (n441: Oakland Enquirer, 16 June 1902). We don't know what motivated Nellie to make the change.
  26. ^ Nellie had submitted an application to the Berkeley School Board in June, according to the Berkeley Daily Gazette (n98: 13 June 1906). The receipt of applications by school boards was routinely reported in the newspapers. The normal procedure of the Berkeley School Board at this time was to elect their teachers in late May, usually re-electing the previous corps plus any new teachers that were needed due to resignations or planned expansion. A list of the elected teachers was usually published in the Gazette. The assignment of teachers to schools was usually reported later as if it was a separate step in the process, but in some years only changes in assignments were reported. The Gazette reported on May 31 that all the grammar school teachers had been re-elected for the following year, and it printed a list by school (n480: Gazette, 31 May 1906). Joseph L. Blumb (husband of Eva Weymouth) appeared on the list as the Principal of Lincoln Grammar School, and Ella Weymouth was listed as one of the teachers at the school. A few resignations and new teachers were also reported. The assignment of the full corps of teachers, by school, was reported in the July 11 issue (n481: Gazette, 11 July 1906). School opened in the Berkeley schools on August 6 with a large increase in primary and grammar school students (n484: Gazette, 6 Aug 1906). The Hayward Grammar School also opened Aug 6 (n492: Oakland Tribune, 5 Aug 1906). At an informal meeting of the Berkeley School Board held on Aug 7 it was decided to accomodate the increased enrollment by establishing eight new classes, divided into half-day sessions, making a total of sixteen new half-day classes, at McKinley and Whittier schools. This would require hiring eight new teachers (n483: Gazette, 9 Aug 1906). At a Board meeting on August 14, the superintendent reported that he had established fourteen new half-day classes. He also told the Board that it had been necessary to hire six more teachers and submitted a list of seven teachers that had been hired (one of them to fill the position of a teacher taking a leave of absence). Nellie was on the list (n99: Gazette, 15 Aug 1906).
  27. ^ The August 15 article in the Berkeley Daily Gazette, in which the the superintendent informed the Board that he had engaged seven new teachers, Nellie among them, does not report the school to which Nellie was assigned (n99: Gazette, 15 Aug 1906). Neither did the Oakland Tribune, which reported on Aug 15 that Nellie had resigned from the Hayward Grammar School to accept a position in a Berkeley school (n100: Tribune, 15 Aug 1906). Nor did the brief items in the Oakland Enquirer, on Aug 18, or the Gazette, on Aug 20 (n493: Enquirer, 18 Aug 1906 | n495: Gazette, 20 Aug 1906). The only evidence we have is Husted's Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley Directory of 1907, which indicates that she was a teacher at Lincoln Grammar School as of whenever the information for the directory was obtained (d11: Husted's Directory 1907). If we knew what her initial position was, it might help explain her motivation for changing districts. She can't have been motivated soley by the opportunity to teach two half-day sessions in an overcrowded school. The Hayward school building in which she was teaching was newly built, as of January 1905, and was described by the Oakland Tribune as "one of the most modern in Alameda county" (n499: San Francisco Call, 12 Jan 1905 | n490: Tribune, 23 Dec 1905). It was said to be "large, roomy and well-lighted", with eighteen "study and recitation rooms", a large assembly room, a heating and ventilation system worthy of specific mention, and a telephone system that connected the rooms to the principal's office. The Oakland Tribune, 5 Aug 1906, reported that enrollment was high enough that it was necessary to add another teacher, so that there were 16 in addition to the principal for somewhere between 750 and 800 students ("750" is given in n490: Oakland Tribune, 23 Dec 1905 | "over 800" is given in n505: Oakland Enquirer, 23 Jan 1907). There are no issues of the Hayward Review between Oct 1902 and July 1909 on Newspapers.com, and none at all in the CDNC, so we don't know much about what was going on in the Hayward schools unless it is reported in the Oakland papers. In particular, we don't have a list of teachers for the 1906–1907 school year. We do know that Petray resigned to accept the principal position at the Grant School in Oakland (n619: Oakland Enquirer, June 30, 1906).
  28. ^ Rose Ismert, who had been Nellie's colleague at the Livermore Grammer School from 1895 to 1900, was teaching in Martinez in the 1905–1906 school year and submitted an application for a position in the Berkeley schools which was read and placed on file at a meeting of the Board on May 8 (n496: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 9 May 1906). Husted's Directory indicates that Rose was a teacher at the Whittier school, and so she was possibly hired to teach the half-day classes that were established there to accomodate the increased enrollment (d11: Husted's 1907 Directory). She had probably been hired even later in the process than Nellie. The first newspaper confirmation we have that she was teaching in the Berkeley schools is an October 20 item in the Oakland Enquirer which reports that Rose and Ella Weymouth, "both teachers in the Berkeley schools", were vacationing together (n101: Enquirer, 20 Oct 1906 [Berkeley schools took a mid-term break in October]). Confirmation that she was teaching at Whittier comes from a December 12 article in the Berkeley Daily Gazette which lists Rose among some teachers at the Whittier school that would be transferred to classes being established at another site, in the Board's ongoing effort to relieve overcrowding in some schools (n482: Gazette, 12 Dec 1906). Ella Weymouth had resigned her position in the Livermore Grammar School to take a postion in the Berkeley schools in October 1902, in the same week that Nellie Boston resigned to take a position in the Hayward Grammar School. Although we don't have any sources that tell us in which school she was hired to teach in October of 1902, two sources indicate that she was at Lincoln Grammar School at the end of the 1902–1903 school year (n488: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 3 June 1903 | n489: Gazette, 4 June 1903). And numerous sources indicate that she was at Lincoln in subsequent years. The Principal at Lincoln in the 1902–1903 school year, Joseph L. Blumb, was married to Ella's sister Eva. He had been elected Principal of that school in February 1906 (n497: Gazette, 14 Feb 1906).
  29. ^ The Husted's Oakland, Alameda and Berkeley Directory of 1907 indicates that Nellie, Ella, Rose, and Joseph L. Blumb were all boarding at 1916 Woolsey, which was the residence of Albert Weymouth, Ella's father (d11: Husted's 1907 Directory). According to an item in the Sept 10, 1904 issue of Organized Labor, in a list of building contracts, the house at 1916 Woolsey was built by Albert Weymouth in 1904 and owned by Ella (Organized Labor, 10 Sept 1904). Based on directory entries and a few scattered newspaper items, it appears that Nellie lived there through 1928, Ella lived there through her death 1927, and Rose lived there until her marriage in 1921. It is possible that Nellie applied to teach in the Berkeley schools in 1906 because she wanted to be close to her teacher friends and colleagues in the extended Weymouth family that lived in that house.
  30. ^ Nellie, Ella, and Rose were re-elected by the Board at the end of the school year (n102: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 29 May 1907). The Gazette reported in mid June that Nellie had been assigned to Longfellow School, Rose Ismert to Washington School, and Joseph L. Blumb and Ella Weymouth has been reassigned to Lincoln School (n103: Gazette, 12 June 1907). Based on subsequent newspapers items, Nellie appears to have been assigned to Longfellow school through at least 1918.
  31. ^ n105: Woodland Daily Democrat, 8 June 1909.
  32. ^ n127: Oakland Tribune, 20 April 1939.
  33. ^ n128: Berkeley Daily Gazette, 29 Aug 1973.