31 August 1930 Nevada State Journal
Edith Hurd was my Great Great Aunt, the youngest sister of my Great Great Grandmother Elizabeth Jane Hurd Burrows. This is her story!
I share a birthday with Edith Francis Hurd, who was born February 4, 1875. Picture shared by Mimi Swaney on Ancestry.com.
Edith Francis Hurd was the last child born to William and Harriet Hurd. She was born in Mahanoy, Pennsylvania right before the family came back out to Virginia City, Nevada. She was only a year old when her father William died in a mining accident in the Ophir Mine. Edith had several older sisters who taught in Virginia City, first at the First Ward School, and then at the Fourth Ward School. The family made sure that the youngest daughter would have a good education, as she attended Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls in Reno, and graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno before going on to become a teacher and eventually a principal in Reno. She had an amazing career and was the contemporary of many women who have very familiar names to anyone living in Reno: Miss Mamie Towles, Miss Echo Loder, Miss Libbie Booth, Miss Grace Warner, Miss Rita Cannan, Miss Alice Maxwell, and Miss Jessie Beck. If those names sound familiar, it is because elementary schools in this area bear those names!
Here is a timeline of Edith Hurd's life and career.
1875 Edith was born on 4 February Mahanoy, Pennsylvania, and the family moved back to Virginia City, Nevada. In 1876 William was killed in a mining accident in the Ophir Mine.
1891 Edith was 16 years old when she traveled from Virginia City to Reno to attend the Bishop Whitaker School for Girls (2 Sept. 1891 Nevada State Journal). Ozi Whitaker was the Episcopal Bishop of Nevada. On his arrival in Reno, he saw the need for educational opportunities for girls and built a school on land donated by Charles Crocker of the Central Pacific Railroad. It is located where Whitaker Park is now. It was completed in 1879, and had a dormitory for boarding 40 girls and was a day school for local girls. Edith may have been a boarder. Highly qualified educators provided rigorous courses through 12th grade as well as exposure to traditional Christian values. Monthly tuition was $65 a month, and so attracted daughters of wealthy Nevada families and boarders from the east. The school closed in 1894. (Mella Harmon, "Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls (site) Reno Historical).
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Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls Courtesy of Jerry Fenwick (Mella Harmon, "Bishop Whitaker's School for Girls (site) Reno Historical)
Her mother Harriet died in 1893, leaving the rest of the family to make sure she completed her education. Edith's family was not wealthy, but she had many siblings that most likely made sure the tuition was paid. Education was always a top priority for the Hurd girls. She was on the Roll of Merit in 1893, and the Honor Roll in 1894 in the Music Department.
1896 June 9 Edith Hurd graduated from the University of Nevada, Reno (the University was moved from Elko and opened in Reno in 1886). She graduated from the Normal School which was a department specifically designed to prepare high school graduates for teaching in the many remote mining towns in the state.
1900 The US Census enumerated Edith as living in Rebel Creek, Humboldt County (half way between McDermitt and Winnemucca on Highway 95). She was a boarder, and was working as a teacher. What an experience that would have been! That area of Nevada was, and still is, out in the middle of nowhere.
By 1903 Edith was back in Reno. She was teaching, as in 1905 she won a contest sponsored by the Palace Dry Goods Company (July 21 1905 Reno Evening Gazette):
She returned from Portland on August 19, 1905 (Reno Evening Gazette). She had attended the Lewis and Clark Centennial and American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair.......
1916 According to the Nevada Educational Directory of 1916 Edith was teaching at the Orvis Ring School (Libby Booth was principal), living at 339 W. First Street in Reno.
1917 Edith was teaching at the South Side School, and making $1,000. Her friend Echo Loder was Principal at the Mary S. Doten School, where Ina Powers was also teaching. Ina was the daughter of Edith's sister Hattie, and had graduated from UNR also. (GoogleBooks.com State of Nevada Educational Directory)
1923 The Reno City Directory listed Edith as teaching at a High School (it didn't list which one).
1925 The Reno City Directory listed Edith as the Principal at McKinley Park Elementary, which was just down the street from where she lived on 339 West First Street. This was the first mention I had found of her career as a Principal.
Just a little side note on McKinley Park Elementary....it was designed by George Ferris in 1909 and was part of the "Spanish Quartet" schools built in Reno in the early 20th century. The other three were Mt. Rose Elementary (still in use as a school), Mary S. Doten on Lander Street (no longer in existence), and Orvis Ring Grammar School on Evans Avenue (no longer in existence). McKinley Park Elementary is now the McKinley Arts and Cultural Center overseen by the City of Reno. renohistorical.org is a wonderful resource for history in the Reno area if you are interested. The school was built on the sight of McKinley Park, which was named after President McKinley who had been assassinated in 1901.
Edith Hurd also taught at the Southside School which was on East Liberty Street. The newer art deco annex was built in 1936, and the original building built in 1903 does not exist any longer.
The last mention I could find of Edith's position as Principal of McKinley Park was in an article written in February of 1936 in the Reno Evening Gazette. I believe she retired after that, as she had been teaching since the turn of the century. At that time she was living at 120 Stevenson Street, which was on the same corner block as 339 West 1st Street. I am not sure if it was an apartment building at the time, or how the address changed, but she did live with her sister Winnifred Curtis and her family at one time at the West First street address and then her sister Annie and her sister Hattie, as well as Hattie's daughter Alta at the Stevenson street address. It was an address that Morrill Curtis was living at in 1920, and may have been his property. I need to do more research into this property.
Edith did not marry, but kept up a busy social life with her friends and family. It looks like she also loved to travel during her summers off....
12 August 1912 Reno Evening Gazette. Miss Sweiss was also a teacher.
And, she found time to spend with her niece Ina during Ina's summer vacation....
27 July 1960 Reno Evening Gazette
There are so many other stories I found in the newspapers about Edith. Too many to share all of them. She must have been a popular teacher, as she was reported to be "near death" in 1907 from typhoid fever (thank goodness she recovered), she underwent an operation at St. Mary's in 1926, she saved a young lady from a car wreck on the Truckee Highway in 1932, she was an Eisenhower supporter in 1956 and entertained friends at the Mapes in 1957. She led a wonderful life and had a very successful career.
What fascinates me the most about my Great Great Aunt is that I had no idea she even existed until a few years ago. I have lived in Reno for 37 years and have driven by McKinley Park School at least a thousand times. I have driven by the cemetery where Edith is buried many, many times, as I lived in the same neighborhood. I finished my Masters at the University of Nevada, Reno, helping to start a brand new department of Early Childhood Special Education in 1986. I worked in the Washoe County School District for 31 years, teaching young children with developmental disabilities and working with their families. My first teaching job was at Mamie Towles Elementary in 1984. I spent a total of 7 years teaching at Alice Maxwell Elementary during my career. Now, all these parts of my life have a very different meaning in the context of my family history. I also have a unique place in this story of education in the Truckee Meadows!
I am so proud of the many wonderful women that came before me and laid educational foundations here in Reno. And now, I can count my relatives in that group. Ella Hurd taught at the First and Fourth Ward school in Virginia City, Carrie Hurd graduated and also taught at the Fourth Ward school in Virginia City, Hattie Hurd's daughter Ina graduated from UNR and taught handicapped children, and of course, Edith's teaching career that began in remote Rebel Creek in 1900. I secretly wish that an elementary school had been named after Edith Hurd.....!
And how can I not mention my mother, Margaret Hansen Boothby, who was (and still is) a life long educator in Nevada County, California. I watched her juggle a teaching career along with family and community responsibilities while I was growing up in Nevada City. I had a wonderful role model! I will also mention Gay (Hansen) Sandberg, who was an educator in the Washoe County School District for many, many years (daughter of Robley Hansen, Harold Hansen's brother). She taught Government and Civics at the Jr. and Senior High level, teaching at McQueen and Hug High Schools. Claire Hansen Clark, my aunt, had a short teaching career before raising her family in California. We have a unique family tradition of teachers on this side of the family to be sure.
Just a few years ago, my mom and my daughter and I visited the Fourth Ward School in Virginia City (which is now a museum) and just marveled at how our relatives carried out their teaching duties. It was a great trip back in time!
Patti (Boothby) Alden and Margaret (Hansen) Boothby 18 June, 2017 Fourth Ward School, Virginia City, Nevada
Fourth Ward School Virginia City, Nevada 2017 (photo by Patti Alden)
Fourth Ward School Interior 2017 (photo by Patti Alden)
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