Teachers and Their Impact Part I

By Janet Wilcox and friends San Juan County has been blessed with hundreds of dedicated well trained and caring teachers since 1880. Issue 8 of Blue Mountain Shadows gives a detailed coverage of both superintendents and teachers who came to this isolated part of the state and made a difference in the lives of hundreds of people. A few you may recognize: Joseph Bond Harris, George A. Hurst Jr., Lucretia Lyman Ranney, Elizabeth Park Guymon and Gladys and Albert R. Lyman. The Lymans not only daily walked out past Westwater to teach children but they also brought food for the native people they were teaching. By 1911 there were 60 families living in (Grayson) Blanding. Albert and Glady’s students in town included: Herman Steiner, Warner Hardy, Dee Bayles, Paul Black, Roy Johnson, Ezra Lyman, Laura Brown, Annie Shumway, Seth Young, Adelaide Oliver, Isabell Carroll and Ellen Palmer. Joseph Bond Harris and his wife Lucy arrived in Grayson in September of 1912 in a two-seated buggy. He had signed a contract to teach in Bluff for 3 years and later became the principal and taught the first 5 grades in Grayson. Classes were held in the Relief Society Hall, a small frame building. That building was also used for church, recreation, politics and dramatics. When winter weather arrived, students had to wear their coats and overshoes to keep from freezing. Joseph helped Ed Thompson make a partition in the big room so there could be more classrooms. Often new school teachers were sent to outlying one room school house such as East Summit, Ucolo, Torb, Lockerby, Fry Canyon. There were nearly 30 such isolated schools in San Juan County. The teachers usually lived with a nearby family and besides teaching they were expected to keep a fire going to heat the building and attend to any medical issues that might occur. Since there were no telephones, this required initiative and common sense. Such experiences occurred in surrounding states as well and there are many common themes. The main one being a teacher’s dedication, creativity and efforts made to provide the best education possible for their students. Walter C. Lyman had a vision of the educational mecca that Grayson would eventually become. He mapped out the town and surveyed it. At that time, he owned 1/3 of all the city lots as well as 1/3 of the water stock in the canal. When a good respectable family moved to Blanding, he would give them 1,000 shares of water and a city lot for free. When he died in 1943, he didn’t own a home or a foot of ground. He had given everything away for the building of the town and the tunnel through the mountain which was completed after his death. Truman and Ada Rigby were two well educated and kind people who taught for many years. They were dedicated and thorough in their instruction and very patient. Ada is also remembered for her beautiful paper cuttings. Many of our school principals here in Blanding started as teachers and later became principals. Their wisdom and patience dealing with contrary students was much appreciated. Some of them are Jim Harris, Don Jack and Bob Bowring. (More stories will be included in part 2 on education.) Though a whole state away, our family lived on an isolated farm 22 miles from Ririe, Idaho and the closest school. To get there on we had to get up early and one of our parents would drive us 2 miles out to the road to meet the bus (both morning and after school). The bus rides were long and often we’d sing crazy songs together, tell knock-knock jokes, or count how many ducks or antelope we saw. School was our main social life and we were blessed to have wonderful teachers. There was no kindergarten in those days, so 1st grade was our introduction to new friends and the wonders of Dick and Jane Books. Our 1st grade teacher was Rhoda Harris. She was a very engaging teacher and I especially remember the rhythm band she organized. Everyone was taught how to play an instrument of some kind: drum, bells, mini xylophone, triangle with piano accompaniment. It was a fun wonderful learning experience. Our 8th grade teacher Mr. Hanson made music important in Ririe and organized a school choir where we learned to sing parts. He was a strict disciplinarian and several times noisy boys would be sent through the “swatting” machine! Another teacher who impacted my life was Thyrza Barrett our English teacher at Ririe High. She expected quality work, rewrites, and involved us in evaluating each other’s papers so we learned to edit and make suggestions. She also was our advisor for The Rattler (the school newspaper.) If she felt our work was good enough, she would find a way for it to be published in other places and encouraged us to enter writing contests. There was no computer technology in those days; everything for the Rattler had to be typed on a typewriter into columns onto a filmlike paper that could be used on the copy machine. Thankfully there were many excellent typists in the class but still errors crept in. Every issue took hours to type, edit, and lay out. We would work late into the night and if the school doors were locked by then, we’d exit through a window! I’m sure most of my classmates remember Mr. Helm because he had a ping pong table in the back of the classroom and we came to school very early so we could rotate into the lineup for games. Everyone in the class became excellent Ping-Pong players. However, if a student was not paying attention or too noisy once class started, he’d throw an eraser at them! Mr. Nield was our patient algebra teacher and both my brother Doug and I met with him at times to clarify the process for solving problems. He must have been a lot like Richard Pincock, who also spent after hours helping students understand algebra. Tamara Boyle: I so loved my first-grade teacher, but we all love our first teacher! She was Josie Bird. she lived in the Palisades area (in Idaho). One day many years later, I was coming home from the 4h camp in Alpine and decided to stop to see if she was home. She remembered me almost before I told her who I was! She was happy to see me again after 50 years! My other favorite teacher was Mrs. Tew from Leslie, Idaho! She was so kind and seemed to just bring out the best behavior of everyone in her class.

Pete Henderson was a teacher and newcomer to San Juan County but he had a great impact when it came to enriching and promoting local talent. He started The Canyonlanders, a large chorus who performed several times a year. There were between 80-100+ people who sang in the group. He was tireless and practiced with the group until it was perfect. He also helped start the annual performance of The Messiah, which continues to this day. However, because he was born in another country, he didn’t always understand what locals were talking about. His first assignment was teaching at Montezuma Creek and on his first day there he was given a glass vial and told to fill it. He thought it was a little strange they wanted a urine sample and was on his way to the bathroom, when the secretary clarified, “Be sure you let it run for 5-6 minutes.” Then he knew it was “water” she was talking about.

Issue 46 of Blue Mountain Shadows shows how Walter C. Lyman’s vision of education was realized. No one but a visionary would have believed this tiny town would eventually have a college! USU Eastern Blanding Campus (as it is known today) offers live instruction as well as long distance video classes in multiple sites in the Four Corners area. Those who helped initiate this educational blessing include Cleal Bradford, Bob McPherson, Don Smith, Merry Palmer, Garth Wilson, Kay Shumway, Stan Byrd, Karolyn Romero, Terri Winder, Tom Austin, Gloria Barfuss, Silvia Stubbs, Van Potter, Dennis Bradford, Lynn Lee, Susan Raisor Young, Brian Stubbs, LaPriel Begay, Jenae Herrera and many others.