Clarinda High School of 1866
from Pat McNichols - pmcnichols@bex.net
 

Pat McNichols has sent an interesting document to Page County, Iowa. It is a page from a Bible with the insciption

Presented to
Mary Elizabeth Webster
    by
The Students of Clarinda
  Highschool
        January five 1866

 
It is to Mary Elizabeth Webster. Pat McNichols letter states

"I would like to know more about Mary Elizabeth Webster's time teaching in Clarinda and am wondering if you know of any resources that would provide early information about the school and its teachers.

Mary Elizabeth Webster Zimmerman's obituary states that she taught in Ohio and Iowa.  I always assumed her teaching in Iowa coincided with her husband's ownership of a piano factory in Bellevue.  However, that was much later (early 1900s) and Clarinda is no where near Bellevue.  

Mary Elizabeth was born in Greene County, Ohio in 1841.  Her father was a minister who moved often (each of his 10 children was born in a different location).  However, I have no information to indicate that he was ever in Iowa.  From 1859 - 1863 Mary Elizabeth was in college at Wesleyan Women's College (now Ohio Wesleyan) in Delaware, Ohio.  In 1869, she married Levi Franklin Zimmerman in Union County, Ohio.  Her stay in Iowa must have been fairly short."

 
Our school alumni list always start with 1875. We do not have any newspapers to check on this 1866 date.
 

Does anyone else have an data about a High School in Clarinda in this early day?

Pat O'Dell - genpat@netins.net