The University Teacher

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Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West.

 

HannahClapp

 

Throughout history teachers have been at the forefront of all civilizations, educating and inspiring the next generation and keeping societies moving forward. Frontier Teachers captures that pioneering, resilient, and enduring spirit of teachers that lives on today.

On a bright, sunshiny day in mid July 1859, a dusty, travel-worn, weary schoolteacher named Hannah Clapp trudged into Salt Lake City, Utah. Dressed in a calico blouse and bloomers made of thick, canvas-type material and carrying a pistol, the thirty-five-year-old woman drew stares from the settlers, prospectors, and trappers milling about the main thoroughfare. Hannah made the trip from Michigan with her brother, Nathan, his wife and children, and a handful of other pioneers. The trip across the rough continent had been fraught with peril. The small wagon train had endured disease, starvation, inclement weather, and towering mountains, and had more of the same to look forward to before they would reach California.

Many emigrants were coaxed west by their desire for gold. Hannah was driven by a desire to bring formal education to frontier towns. An unattached female making the journey over the plains was an unconventional as Hannah’s manner of dress. She was not affected by the attention her nonconformist behavior attracted. She was armed and ready to take on anyone who might physically challenge her style or dream of going to California to teach.

 

 

To learn more about Hannah Clapp, the schools teachers like her established, and about the other brave educators in an untamed new country read

Frontier Teachers: Stories of Heroic Women of the Old West.