By Marian Powell

In Sharlot Hall Museum's main lobby, there is a book open for all visitors to investigate. Within the book are stories of the over 400 women represented in the Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden on the Sharlot Hall Museum Heritage Campus. Biographies and photographs tell the story of each extraordinary woman and place them in the larger context of Territorial Arizona's history. From housewives and mothers to business professionals, each woman had something to offer the various communities within our region. Particularly important were the teachers of the frontier. This article will explore a few of the significant educators represented in the Rose Garden.

The Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden is located between the Governor's Mansion and W. Gurley Street on the Sharlot Hall campus. First suggested in 1938 by a Mrs. Evelyn Perkins, the Rose Garden was designed by then President of the Prescott Garden Club, Dorothy McMullen, in 1948. The first rose bushes were planted in March of 1948 by the Yavapai Cowbelles and cared for by the Prescott Garden Club. In the beginning, each rose bush represented a different woman who was in Arizona prior to February 14, 1912; however today the entire Garden honors all of the women pioneers.

Education was available for few of the women represented in the Rose Garden; however, some came to Prescott as frontier teachers. As in most societies and cultures not unlike our own, education and literacy were important factors in forming an upstanding community. Mata Dexter, for whom Dexter School is named, was the principal of both Washington School and Lincoln School and was a driving force in the establishment of formal education in Prescott. Dexter was inducted into the Rose Garden in 1992. 

Pamela Otis taught school for 12 years in Cleveland before moving to Prescott in 1874 where she helped her husband establish a grocery business. Although she did not formally teach in Prescott, Otis was an informal advisor for the majority of the young lady teachers in Prescott. Otis taught Sharlot Hall and fellow Rose Garden Honoree, Francis Munds, in Sunday school and was president for the Literacy and Library Association in 1876. Instrumental in the founding of the Arizona Federation of Women's Clubs, Otis was active in the temperance movement and the Monday Club. Pamela F. Libby Otis was inducted into the Rose Garden in 1993. 

Perhaps one of the most important figures in young Sharlot Hall's education was Kathryn Dunning. In 1879, three years before Sharlot M. Hall and her family arrived from Kansas, Kathryn Dunning arrived from New York to teach at the Prescott Free Academy. She did not teach for long, however, for in 1881 she married Prescott businessman, Amos Adams and settled down to rear her children. One of the children, Helen, was born in November of 1885. 

In October of 1886, in order to attend Prescott High School, a sixteen-year-old Sharlot Hall was invited to live with the Adams family and work for her room and board. She came to live with Kathryn Dunning Adams for six months. It can be assumed that it was because of the presence of baby Helen that the Adams family needed a helper. There are many ways to teach outside of the classroom. Kathryn Adams was described as "a deep thinker, a giver of counsel, thoughtful, kind and bright." One can't help but imagine that she was the ideal companion for Sharlot. During Sharlot's stay with the Adams family, she began to write stories, plays, and poetry in earnest. She stayed with the family until returning to her home the following summer due to her mother's illness, but her career started soon after her stay with Kathryn Adams. Within a few years, Sharlot was a published writer and began her remarkable career. 

Assuming that Sharlot had taken care of baby Helen, it's interesting that Helen Adams went on to become a teacher like her mother; obtained her teaching certificate in Flagstaff, coached the local basketball team, was an accomplished musician, and after she and her husband moved to the Grand Canyon, became the first woman Justice of the Peace and a Notary Public. She, too, is honored in the Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden. One might suggest that Helen Adams was too young for Sharlot to have influenced, but one cannot help notice how lives intersect in the context of history. 

Educators are the backbone of a community even though they are humble servants to society. They give our children inspiration and ambition to succeed in life and their future endeavors. They allow for free thought and creative ideas to influence how communities interact and essentially teach our children how to be good members of a community in a larger society. The Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden has thanked past educators like Dexter, Otis, and Adams for their contributions to our hometown. Now it's our turn; thank a teacher for their contributions, they deserve it. 

The Territorial Women's Memorial Rose Garden Collection, located in the Sharlot Hall Museum Library and Archives, consists of biographies, genealogy, photographs, and other materials devoted to each individual honoree in the Rose Garden. The collection is open to the public Tuesday-Friday 12-4 p.m., and Saturday 10-2 p.m. 

(Marian Powell is a volunteer docent in the Governor's Mansion at the Sharlot Hall Museum.) 

 

Sharlot Hall Museum Photograph Call Number:(bus5026pb)
Reuse only by permission.
The Prescott Free Academy, torn down in 1903, was the first graded school established in Arizona Territory in 1876.