A Woman State School Superintendent: Whatever Happened to Mrs. McVicker?

A Woman State School Superintendent: Whatever Happened to Mrs. McVicker?

BY CAROL ANN LUBOMUDROV

EMMA J. MCVICKER WAS THE ONLY WOMAN state superintendent of schools in Utah's history. Although she was deeply involved in educational issues in Utah between 1883 and 1905, very little is actually known about her: where she was born, her family or educational background, and when and where she died. Nor is much known about her personal educational philosophy. While all other state superintendents have separate boxes for their correspondence at the LItah State Archives office, her letters are mingled with those of A. C. Nelson. Instead of a portrait of her, as there are of all the other state superintendents, there is only an enlarged snapshot exhibited in the Utah State Board of Education office. Although she was the first woman regent at the University of Utah and a graduate of that institution, neither the registrar nor alumni association has any information concerning her. This paper is meant to serve as an introduction to what is known about Emma J. McVicker. It will present her views on the state of education in Utah history at the turn of the century and perhaps provide an impetus for further research concerning Utah's only woman state superintendent cf public instruction.

University records indicate that Mrs. McVicker was born in 1846. A published reference to her occurs in her husband's obituary (John McVicker) which states that he married an Emma Kelly, twenty-one years prior to his death. This would have been in approximately 1886 when Emma was about forty. It is assumed that they were married in Utah, since John had come from California to Salt Lake City and begun an assaying business in 1871 or 1872. There were no children as a result of this late marriage, and he died on September 27, 1907. At the time of his death, it was stated that Mrs. McVicker was to remain in charge of the assay office on Richards Street. She was listed in the 1908 Salt Lake City telephone directory and would have been about sixty-two years of age. This is the last record that has been found. She was not listed in the 1913 telephone directory, and there is no local obituary recorded for her or newspaper article referring to her death. Did she remarry and assume another name? Did she move out of the state and lose all contact with Utah? Did the fact that she was a woman result in a lack of interest in following her career and thus no record was kept as to the place and date of her death?

Besides her birth and marriage dates, most references to her center around her educational activities. In 1880-81 Miss E. J. Kelly was hired by the Collegiate Institute to serve as an assistant in the high school and to teach in the department of music. She filled in as principal of the school in 1882-83 but resigned in 1884. She wrote the section on Presbyterian church history in Utah for the World's Fair Ecclesiastical History of Utah in 1893, but the Presbyterian church archives in Salt Lake City and in Philadelphia have no further information about her during this period.

In 1883 she served as the first president of the Children's Service Society of Utah, originally known as the Orphan's Home and Day Nursery Association. This organization, according to their pamphlet, was "founded in 1883 by a group of ladies, representing all major faiths of this community to give day care to the children of working mothers whose hours were long and pay small." The society has no further record of her.

In 1895 she was nominated for the position of state school superintendent by the Republican party. This nomination was subsequently withdrawn for legal reasons. A 1900 newspaper article states that although the governor considered appointing A. C. Nelson to serve out the remainder of Dr. John R. Park's term as superintendent, "Mr. Nelson declined in favor of Mrs. McVicker for the reason that he considered she had prior claim on account of her being the nominee of the Republican convention in 1895, but withdrew for legal reasons." The "legal reasons" were discussed in The Republican Catechism written for the women of Utah by Emily S. Richards. She defended the governor for not supporting a woman's nomination for public office:

The Governor knew that the legislation which had been incorporated into the federal statutes disqualified women from voting and also from holding office, and it would be extremely unwise and improper in him to ratify any enactment or procedure that he knew to be illegal. That he was correct in his conclusion on this subject would seem to be demonstrated fully for Republicans in the resignations of Mrs. Pardee and Mrs. Mc­ Vicker from positions to which they had been nominated by the Republican Party, for the reason that the decision of the court withholding from the women the right to vote disqualified them for holding office.

Thus, in 1895, Mrs. McVicker could not run for office since women could not vote and apparently this was interpreted to mean that they also could not hold office. Park was subsequently nominated by the Republican party and served as superintendent until his death in October 1900. In 1895 the Utah Constitutional Convention, after lengthy debate, offered suffrage to the women of Utah and opened the way for allowing women to hold public office.

Mrs. McVicker was appointed the first woman regent of the University of Utah in 1896. The student paper stated:

The appointment of Mrs. McVicker is of especial interest, as she is the first woman who has been a member of the [Board of Regents]. She is a capable, persistent worker in education, and will doubtless make a good officer. Even the opponents of women suffrage recognize the fact that it is eminently proper that women should take an active part in the management and control of educational institutions.

In May of the same year, the Chronicle stated that Mrs. McVicker, "President of the free kindergarten schools of this city, spent two days visiting the Training School and University. She expressed herself as being both surprised and delighted with the work being done in our institution." She received an A.B. from the University of Utah in 1900 and remained a regent until 1905. Despite this close association with the institution, neither the registrar nor the alumni association at the University of Utah have any further information concerning Mrs. McVicker.

On October 8, 1900, she was appointed by Gov. Heber M. Wells to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. John R. Park, the first superintendent of public instruction in the state of Utah. The notices in the Deseret News and the Salt Lake Tribune contain very little information about Mrs. McVicker. Instead of discussing her qualifications, most of the articles expound on the gentlemanliness of A. C. Nelson in deferring to Mrs. McVicker for the appointment.

It was pretty generally expected that the Governor would name Professor A. C. Nelson, the Republican nominee for the office, as Dr. Park's successor, but that gentleman in a communication addressed to- the State's chief executive declined to accept the appointment, and even went so far as to say that were he appointed he would decline to accept. Although there were other applicants for the place, there is little doubt but Prof. Nelson's declination had a great deal to do with Mrs. McVicker's appointment.

Conspicuous is the lack of information concerning the appointee herself. Mrs, McVicker served as superintendent for three months, completing Park's term. A. C. Nelson was elected to the position and assumed office in January 1901, succeeding her.

With so little known about her, the superintendent's report she filed in 1900 and the correspondence she conducted while in office provide most of the insight as to her concerns. The problems she discussed sound familiar to those involved in education today. They give some idea of the educational issues facing Utah at the beginning of the twentieth century and sound curiously contemporary. Nevertheless it is hard to say what impact she had on the schools during her brief tenure. In the 1900 superintendent's report she wrote, "In that short time it was only possible to carry out the policy of the former Superintendent in relation to the schools of the State and to attempt to keep the office up to its usual excellent conditions."

Her first priority in assuming the superintendency was to visit several of the counties, since Park had been in ill health for some time and had not been able to do this. Several statements in her report refer to the aesthetic attractiveness of the classrooms, the poor performance of male teachers, and the special needs of primary age children and show that it was written from the perspective of a woman who had particular ideas as to what was needed to improve education in the newly created state of Utah.

Much of her report echoed Park's report of 1898. Although there had been general improvement in terms of schools being more carefully graded with better teachers and a much larger number of school population enrolled, consolidation of the schools had still not been adopted. Complaints about mismanagement and misuse of public funds continued. She gave several graphic examples of this situation and stated: "There is much needless expense and waste in handling of schools funds." 1Record-keeping was poorly done; but more important, "the State and county funds which are set aside by law for teachers' salaries only, are willfully used by the trustees for furniture, repairs, or new buildings." Thus, teachers went without pay and no attempt was made to replace this money. Books showed money on hand that had already been spent and/or diverted to other uses. "This shows a spirit of dishonesty and rebellion against lawful authority." She went on to suggest that county superintendents prosecute the cases where funds were misused but added cryptically, ". . . but they lack courage to do anything that would make them unpopular."

One area where she departed from previous policy and raised questions that became important in educational circles during the early twentieth century was school management. Whether or not a business model should be applied to education became a hotly debated topic during the progressive era. At issue was the applicability for education of the efficiency movement model. During this period business was seen as an excellent model that might be applied to education, with particular emphasis upon statistical evaluation and the use of businessmen as members of boards of education. Although not referring to this larger issue per se, Mrs. McVicker did point to the lack of understanding among businessmen of educational issues:

. . . but many of them [the trustees] while they are excellent business men and quite qualified to look after the affairs of the district as far as financial matters are concerned are totally lacking in the educational qualifications and are much better judges of livestock and fields than of teachers and school methods.

These trustees emphasized lower spending; and since their goal was to save money, teachers' salaries were cut to a bare minimum. She observed: "... the trustees congratulate themselves on saving money, regarding the work of a teacher like that of a farm hand, so many hours work for so much money."

Mrs. McVicker had a definite opinion about teachers and the characteristics that constitute a "good" teacher. She stated that "as a whole the teachers were found to be faithful and to some degree efficient though there were marked exceptions, principally among the men teachers." This must have caused some comment among the male-dominated administration. She was very concerned about the proper training of teachers, especially those who had to teach primary age children: "In my visits to various schools it was evident almost at a glance that certain teachers had received normal training and equally evident that others had not." She pointed out the kindergarten's importance as a foundation of the educational system, but at that time no provision was made to provide public money to support kindergartens. She recommended that the school age be lowered to five years of age and that the first two years of schooling be spent in the kindergarten.

Reflecting her background and emphasis on primary education, Mrs. McVicker was particularly adamant about which curriculum areas needed to be stressed in the schools:

. . . there is not sufficient interest in Nature Study, and in very few county schools do the children know much about the natural environment. The natural features of their district should be their geography lessons, and they should be familiar with every tree, herb, animal and insect, and intimately acquainted with the habits of life and development.

She placed a great deal of emphasis on "doing," insisting that children need to participate in the learning process by engaging in activities that involve a wide area of knowledge. Although she felt that children should learn to draw, she lamented that few teachers or superintendents had a knowledge of this area: "The system of copying cards is most pernicious in its influence on the art or creative instinct, as well as setting children copying extracts from literature to teach them to express their own thoughts." Singing was also much neglected in the schools. Many teachers seemed to feel that time spent singing was wasted time, but Mrs. McVicker disagreed: "It has been charged by some writers that in this scientific, utilitarian age too little attention is paid to the expression of our emotions by the means of poetry and music and thus the finer culture of the race is neglected." In both these subjects she stressed the importance of creative expression and expression of one's emotions. Children should observe nature and be taught to express themselves through active participation in subjects rather than passively absorbing knowledge that does not foster creativity or allow an expression of a child's emotions.

In another area, Mrs. McVicker demonstrated her understanding of young children and their needs. She attacked the way penmanship was taught:

. . . the children are allowed to cramp the fingers and write in so fine a hand that they stoop over the desk and strain the eyes and in fact impair the whole nervous system. Instead of the large free movements of the larger muscles, the smaller accessary muscles of the hand are employed before they are sufficiently developed, especially in the primary grades and much harm results. In all cases, the teachers were advised to correct these evils by large movements in writing on chalk boards.

One other area, still debated today, was discussed by Mrs. McVicker in her report. Making a plea for improved health conditions in the, schools, she stated that ". . . every school board should employ a competent oculist and aurist to test the sight and hearing of all the children in the schools since many children are accounted stupid who are simply unable to see or hear as normal children do." Although she wrote these thoughts in the early 1900s, many of them recur throughout the educational history of Utah.

It is fortunate that Mrs. McVicker was required to file a superintendent's report in 1900. Otherwise, she would remain a complete enigma. She was obviously an important figure in Utah's educational history: the first woman regent at the University of Utah and the first and only woman state superintendent of schools. She must have had some personal appeal or political backing that propelled her to the front during this period. The small amount of information available on her is tantalizing, and certain questions persist: Why were better records not kept on her? Why was more written about A. C. Nelson than on Mrs. Mc­ Vicker at the time of her appointment as state superintendent? Why do the Utah State Board of Education and the University of Utah have no further information concerning her? And, finally, whatever happened to Mrs. McVicker?

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