Photo by Kamp Fender.
Schoolmarm Susan Webb stands in front of a blackboard inside the Fowler House at Tannehill State Park. Webb’s schoolmarm outfit mimics clothing from the 1800s time period, with mutton top long sleeves, a little bit of trim lace and, “of course,” she said, “a high collar.”
Susan Webb has always been fascinated by what she refers to as the backbone of American education: one-room country schools.
“I grew up in Iowa, where half of my high school class had attended a one-room school. Iowa had a law in the 1800s that there would be a school every two miles in the entire state,” she said, which immediately captured her interest.
Webb is an early American school historian who was largely inspired by her mother, who taught in a one-room school in Iowa in the early 1900s. Webb had been to hundreds of one-room schools all over the nation before she decided to settle down on Highland Lakes Road, along U.S. 280, and act as the schoolmarm for the Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park.
A schoolmarm was a female schoolteacher in a rural or small-town country school, often considered strict or severe in her teaching. Webb said schoolmarms were known for moving from school to school after a few months of teaching. They stayed in students’ family homes as they traveled. “[Tannehill is] trying to revive interest in the history. Everyone can relate going to school, and there’s some instances where I’ve had people who have attended one-room schools, and they like to tell their story to me,” she said.
Webb pays homage to her mother by acting as a schoolmarm and as a historical interpreter at Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. She spends at least two days a week in the spring and fall seasons educating students on field trips about life as a student in the 1800s and 1900s.
“Ms. Webb certainly brings our 1860s schoolhouse to life with her engaging and factual demonstration of the 19th century teaching and artifacts,” said Jennifer Watts, the museum and education director for Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park. “Our field trip visitors love the participatory role-play and always leave with a new perspective on their own lives.”
Photo by Kamp Fender.
Authentic 19th century teaching materials rest on a desk inside of the Fowler House.
For educational purposes, the historical park has recreated the Fowler House, originally built in 1860, “log by log,” as well as the Cane Creek School, originally built in 1923. These are the two houses Webb uses to teach living history. Before she retired, she taught all levels of education, from kindergarten to high schools in six states, and earned an undergraduate and master’s degree in education.
“Nowadays we take schools for granted, but this was hard for these early settlers in the Midwest to build schools because families, children, even younger ones were needed at home to help everyone out,” Webb said. “I always remind [my] students out in Tannehill, students didn’t have much time to play, it was a survival back then. Everyone was just trying to survive. They grew their own food, they built their own houses, they made their own clothes.”
Through her background in theatrical presentation and years of early American education research, Webb has developed unique and informative programs to share with groups at libraries, conferences and museums across the nation. She also has a special interest in educating about the Rosenwald Schools, which were the first schools built in the South with the purpose of educating black students.
Webb is a part of the Country School Association of America (CSAA), a nonprofit made up of volunteers who work to preserve, understand and appreciate early country schooling across the nation. Through the years, she has collected a small library of antique school books and historical school artifacts to share with students.
In the School Days demonstration, she teaches about how early education lessons were given. Webb said they are often characterized as recitation exercises, mental arithmetic, geography bounding, syllabic spelling, moral lessons, strict discipline and other demanding criteria for early pioneer students. These lessons were given to multi-aged students through primitive textbooks, rough-hewn desks and slate chalk boards.
Photo by Kamp Fender.
Tannehill State Park’s Cane Creek School house was built in 1923 and was originally located near Warrior. Schools of this time period were known for their large banks of windows that provided sufficient natural light for students.
“I show them artifacts, I have a lot. I have lessons, a little discipline lesson in particular that everyone likes,” Webb said.
The discipline lesson involves role-playing, she said, where she confronts a student who was late for school. Even though most students back then had to get up early to do chores for several hours before school, they would still get in trouble in they arrived late. For the remainder of the day, Webb said, the student would have to wear a sign around their neck.
“I have these little signs on humble pieces of cardboard paper with a rope that say ‘tardy’ and I say, ‘We have another one of a forgetful boy, today,’” she said. “I always have audience participation, like in a spelling exercise or a recitation lesson. It draws everybody in. Everybody seems to have a good time.”
Webb’s schoolmarm outfit mimics clothing from the 1800s time period, with mutton top long sleeves, a little bit of trim lace and, “of course,” she said, “a high collar.” She also wears an authentic cameo pin that belonged to her husband’s grandmother.
Webb said she put together a booklet for her high school class so they could document some of the memories about one-room schools prior to coming to the high school.
“I asked them for a story they could remember, and a lot of it had to do with an outhouse or the snakes,” Webb laughed, “or it had to do with snakes in the outhouse.”
Photo by Kamp Fender.
Schoolmarm Susan Webb at the Fowler House at Tannehill State Park.
The other comment they repeatedly made, she said, was that there was “tremendous community bonding” despite the lack of technology and resources compared to today. Early American students all personally knew each other and the parents were often quite involved, even sometimes tasked with building the school themselves.
“It was an extended family. They felt very close to their classmates. The other observation they had is because it was first- through eighth-grade, they learned their lessons eight times over, because if you were in the same room while they were learning the lesson, you had a tendency to get some of that by osmosis also,” she said.
To schedule a presentation with Webb, email onermschl1@aol.com.