Ida Husted Lived Here!

 “Ida Husted Harper lived here!”

That was another revelation that came from our evening with Melissa Gentry.

“Who was she?”, you may wonder...

“Ida Husted Harper[1] (February 18, 1851 – March 14, 1931) was an American author, journalist, columnist, and suffragist, as well as the author of a three-volume biography of suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony at Anthony's request.  Harper also co-edited and collaborated with Anthony on volume four (1902) of the six-volume History of Woman Suffrage and completed the project by solo writing volumes five and six (1922) after Anthony's death. In addition, Harper served as secretary of the Indiana chapter of the National Woman Suffrage Association, became a prominent figure in the women's suffrage movement in the U.S., and wrote columns on women's issues for numerous newspapers across the United States. Harper traveled extensively, delivered lectures in support of women's rights, handled press relations for a women's suffrage amendment in California, headed the National American Woman Suffrage Association's national press bureau in New York City and the editorial correspondence department of the Leslie Bureau of Suffrage Education in Washington, D.C., and chaired the press committee of the International Council of Women.”

Would you expect that a woman of such prominence might have influenced some of your ancestors on a very different level?  As a teacher.  As the principal of their school.  Right here in Peru.

Well, Ida Husted arrived in Peru, IN in 1869. That same year Kate and Emma Leebrick also arrived here to teach.

While I have not been able to find out what school Kate and Emma taught, the history books tell us that Ida Husted came to Peru to take charge of Peru High School as Principal and teacher.  She was all of 19 years old! She had not even finished college yet!

The High School sat on the West 6^th Street and North Miami Street. 

The 1870 census places Ida Husted and fellow teacher, 31y old Mary Jordan, at the residence of Harvey J. Shirk[2] and his wife, Eliza Minerva Cole, on the corner of 6^th and Huntington Streets.  It was a straight shot from the residence to the school, just a short 3 blocks walk.

The house is pictured in the 1868[3] bird’s eye view of Peru, as well as in the 1877 Atlas of Miami County[4]. 

 

The fragile 1872 map of Peru located at the Miami County Museum also depicts the residence.

Eliza Minerva Shirk died in 1890, surviving her husband by only a year.  In her will[5] she left the house to her youngest unmarried daughter Martha, with conditions allowing for her sister’s family to reside there as well, rent free.

Her sister Winona Minerva McClintic and her husband William continued to live there. In 1920, the census shows Brown S McClintic and his family as residents at 109 North Huntington.

The house remained in the family until it was purchased by Francis and Irene Kramer in 1943[6]

The house went thru some serious renovations in the 1970s when the Pope family bought the house.

Julie Tussey, who had a chance to see the inside of the house, could still recognize the original layout. 

She recalls that there were at least 6 rooms on the second floor of the house, with some larger than others, and a bathroom. 

A grand staircase would have divided the first floor with former parlors on each side.  Behind each of them were pocket doors leading to what would have been a large dining room with a fireplace.  That room spanned the entire width of the house in the middle. 

Behind that were two more rooms, split like the parlors: one was the kitchen, and the other probably a less formal area with a door leading to the north, towards Ewing Street. 

What must it have been like coming home after a long day at school?

Was Ida a guest in the house? Did she rent a room upstairs or did she share a room with the other teacher? 

Harvey Shirk was a prominent lawyer, so I don’t imagine he needed to take on boarders, and there were 3 servants listed on the 1870 census so they likely were in charge of the cooking and serving.

Did everyone have to dress up for meals or was it more informal?

It’s easy to let our imagination run free.

It is possible Ida Husted went home to her parents’ in Muncie, in between terms, but there is nothing to confirm this.  

Ida Husted was born on 18 February 1851, in Fairfield, IN to John Arthur Husted and his wife Cassandra Stoddard.  The family had moved to Muncie when Ida was 10 years old, looking for better schools to ensure their daughter received a good education.  She had been studying at Indiana University in Bloomington when she accepted the position of principal of Peru High School.  Ida held that role for 2 school years, then she married Thomas W Harper on 28 December 1871 and moved to Terre Haute with him, where she resided most of her married life[7].

Already in 1861, Lizzie Bunnell was bragging up the forward thinking of the Peru Graded Schools in appointing a woman administrator.

The announcement[8] came out in February 1860.  School was to start on Feb 27, 1860.  The principal, Mr. A H Harritt, included his qualifications as he extended an invitation to parents to send their children to his school.

Three Departments, each for a 12-weeks term, paid by the parents at the following rates

1.      Secondary            $2.50-$3.50

2.      Normal                $4.00

3.      High School         $5.00

He even offered a prorated fees schedule, allowing for days missed because of illness.  School was held in the basement of the Methodist Episcopal Church that year.

The following year in February 1861, it appears the board of trustees had already made some adjustment, adding a Primary department for children 5 to 10.  Students were evaluated the last week of February, by age level.

“Scholars passing a satisfactory examination will be furnished by the Superintendent, with a Certificate entitling them to admission to the Department for which they are qualified – and NO SCHOLAR WILL BE ADMITTED TO ANY DEPARTMENT EXCEPT THE PRIMARY UNLESS FURNISHED WITH SUCH CERTIFCATE AND THE BOOKS THERE ON MENTIONED AS NECESSARY FOR THE STUDIES OF THAT DEPARTMENT.”[9]

The “New School Building” would replace the basement of the church and classes would start March 4^th at 9am.”

There is no mention of teachers or administrators.   

That information, as small as it is, comes from the pages of Lizzie Bunnell’s Mayflower of August 1, 1861, where she quotes the now lost pages of the Peru Republican:

“The examination and exhibition which took place a few days ago, at the close of the first term of the Peru Graded School, occupied the attention of many of our citizen…  We find in the Peru Republican quite a full account of the examination of the different departments; the editor of that paper seems to be at a loss for terms to express his unbounded admiration of the manner in which the female teachers have acquitted themselves.

…The Republican further says: ‘Until the experiment was tried here, we regarded the placing of females at the head of schools filled with grown up young men and women, as of questionable policy, doubting their ability to govern… as to government, it is a complete success; and few gentlemen possess a superior faculty of imparting knowledge… more plainly or forcibly the lessons to classes.’.”[10]

Lizzie Bunnell describes the evening session she was able to attend as filled with “orations, essays, declamations, recitations, songs etc., in all of which the performers did honor to themselves, and commanded the applause of the audience.” Then, tongue in cheek, she chides the girls for daring to appear before an audience in such unladylike manner and broaching such masculine matters.  She concludes “if, after this (warning), any of you should become so strong minded as to address an audience for the purpose of advancing the cause of truth, instead of displaying your scholarship, let none blame us…  Long live the Peru Graded School and all honor to its accomplished teachers and principal.”[11]

 

A Winter term was added in September 1863[12] as the school’s reputation grew, retaining the “old” teachers.

I had hoped to find information about Ida Husted’s tenure at Peru High School and I suppose I should be satisfied to have come across this bit.

The Superintendent, D Eckley Hunter, reports a 94% attendance on May 26, 1871.[13]

760 students had enrolled since September 1870, but only 468 actually followed thru.

It would be nice to have a list of teachers who taught there. For a rural community like ours, these are rather big number for one school building in 1870-1871.

By then Lizzie Bunnell had moved to Iowa and Ebenezer Loveland, the Peru Republican editor had passed away[14]

Did Ida Husted Harper ever miss her students?  The Shirk family?  Did she ever see any of them again?

She passed away in 1931 in Washington DC.  She is buried in Muncie, IN[15]

---

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Husted_Harper  

[2] https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15078coll8/id/3515

[3] https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4094p.pm002000/?r=0.463,0.194,0.306,0.24,0

[4] https://indianamemory.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15078coll8/id/3515

[5] Indiana, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1798-1999, Miami Will Records, Circuit Court, Vol 3, 1889-1895, pp81-83

[6] Dave Birnell, Miami County Clerk researched the Ewings Addition Lots 34 & 35

1891*-1900 Eliza Shirk

1900-1926 Winona and William McClintic

1926-1943 Brown and Elenore McClintic

1943-1972 Francis and Irene Kramer

1972-2011 George and Mary Etta Pope

7] The Muncie Evening Press, 16 Mar 1931, Muncie, IN p 7

[8] The Miami County Sentinel, 4 Feb 1860, Peru, IN

[9] The Miami County Sentinel 21 Feb 1861, Peru, IN

[10] The Mayflower 1 Aug 1861, Peru, IN https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53759204$4i

[11] The Mayflower 1 Aug 1861, Peru, IN https://iiif.lib.harvard.edu/manifests/view/drs:53759204$4i

[12] The Miami County Sentinel 27 Aug 1863, Peru, IN

[13] The Miami County Sentinel 8 Jun 1871, Peru, IN

[14] Ebenezer Loveland died 10 Feb 1871, Peru, IN - https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/16416315/ebenezer-pratt-loveland

[15] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/64633452/ida-a.-harper

Sojourner Truth, by Joseph A Dugdale

As published by Lizzie C Bunnell,

in The Mayflower, 1 November 1863, Columbia City, IN (page 166)

digitally archived by Harvard University for the Schlesinger Library

Harriet Beecher Stowe has written a graphic description in the Atlantic Monthly of this wonderful preacher of righteousness.
Ten years ago while traveling and "testifyin' to de people", she came to our home.

I have written a few anecdotes respecting her.  She is now very aged and living near Battle Creek in Michigan and dependent upon the kindness of those who appreciate her great excellence and purity of life.  No one can give an adequate idea of  

Sojourner Truth

This unlearned African woman, with her deep religious trustful nature burning in her soul like fire, has a magnetic power over an audience perfectly astounding.  I was present in a religious meeting where some speaker had alluded to the government of the United States, and had uttered sentiments in favor of its Constitution.  Sojourner stood erect and tall, with her white turban on her head, and in a low and subdued tone of voice began by saying:
"Children, I talks to God and God talks to me.  I goes out and talks to God in de fields and de woods." (The weavel had destroyed thousands of acres of wheat in the West that year) -
"Dis morning I was walking out, and I got over de fence. I saw de wheat a holding up its head, looking very big.  I goes up to it and takes hold ob it.  You b'lieve it, dere was no wheat dare?  I says, 'God (speaking the name in a voice of reverence peculiar to herself), what IS de matter wid DIS wheat? and He says to me, 'Sojourner, dere is a little weasel in it.'  Now I hears talkin' about de Constitution and de rights of man.  I comes up and I takes hold of dis Constitution. It looks MIGHTY BIG, and, I feels for MY rights, but der aint any dare.  Den I says 'God what ails dis Constitution?'  He says to me "Sojourner, dare is a little weasel in it.'  The effect upon the multitude was irresistible.
On a dark, cloudy morning, while she was our guest, she was sitting, as she often was wont to do, with her cheeks upon her palms, her elbows on her knees. -

She lifted up her head as though she has just wakened from a dream, and said:

"Friend Dugdale, poor old Sojourner can't read a word.  Will you git me de Bible and read me a little of de Scripter?"

Oh yes, Sojourner, gladly, said I.

I opened to Isaiah, the 59th chapter.  She listened as though an oracle was speaking.  When I came to the word,

"None calleth for justice nor any pleadeth for truth; your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity; they hatch cockatrice's eggs and weave the spiders web; he that eateth of their eggs dieth, and that which is crushed breaketh out into a viper", she could restrain herself no longer, and bringing her great palms together with an emphasis that I shall never forget, she exclaimed, "is dat thare? - 'it shall break out into a viper'.  Yes, God told me dat.  I never heard it read afore now I know it double!"

Of course her mind was directed by the heinous institution of American-slavery, and she regarded these terrible words of the Seer as prophetic concerning its fearful consequences.

On one occasion, in a large reform meeting, where many able and efficient public speakers were present, Sojourner sat in the midst.  One man, in defiance of propriety, was waiting the time of the meeting by distasteful and indelicate declamation.  Some, in despair of his ending, were leaving the meeting.  Others, mortified and distressed, were silently enduring, while the "flea of the Convention" continued to bore it. nothing daunted.  Just at a point where he was forced to suspend long enough to take a breath, Sojourner, who had been sitting in the back part of the house with her head bowed, and groaning in spirit, raised up her tall figure before him and, putting her eyes upon him said

"CHILD if de people has no whar to put it, what is de use? Sit down, child, SIT DOWN!"

The man dropped as if he had been shot, and not another word was heard from him.

A friend related the following anecdote to me.  In that period of the Anti-Slavery movement when mobocratic violence was often resorted to, one of its most talented and devoted advocates, after an able address, was followed by a lawyer, who appealed to the lowest sentiments - was scurrilous and abusive in the superlative degree.  Alluding to the colored race, he compared them to monkeys, baboons, and ourang-outans.  When he was about closing his inflammatory speech, Sojourner quietly drew near to the platform and whispered in the ear of the advocate of her people:

"Don't dirty YOUR hands wid dat critter. Let ME 'tend to him!'.   I had de dirty work to do - de scullion work. Now I am goin' to 'ply to dis critter" - pointing her long bony finger with withering scorn at the petty lawyer, "Now in de course of my time I has done a great deal of dirty scullion work, but of all de dirty work I ever done, dis is de scullionest and de dirtiest."

Peering into the eyes of the auditory with just such a look as SHE could give, and that no one could imitate, she continued: "Now children, don't you PITY me?" 

She had taken the citadel by storm.  The whole audience shouted applause, and the negro-haters as heartily as any.

I was present at a large religious convention.  Love in the family had been portrayed in a manner to touch the better nature of the auditory.  Just as the meeting was about to close, Sojourner stood up.  Tears coursing down her furrowed cheeks.  She said:
"We have heerd a great deal about love at home in de family,  Now, children, I was a slave, and my husband and my children was sold from me." 

The pathos with which she uttered these words made a deep impression upon the meeting.  Pausing a moment she added: "Now husband and children is all gone, what has 'come of de affection I had for dem? Dat is de question before de house!"

The people smiled amidst a baptism of tears.

Let food and raiment be given her -

There are many in the land who will be made richer by seeing that this noble woman shares their bounty; and then, when her lord shall come to talk with her, and take her into His presence chamber, and shall say, "Sojourner, lacked thou anything", she may answer, "Nothing Lord, either for body or soul."

Near Mt Pleasant, Iowa, 1863