The Schoolmarm

taught K thru 12 in a one room schoolhouse, carried water and chopped her firewood. Often she lived in a different pupil's house each month. She has to cope with kids who missed months of schooling due to working the crops or hunting and fishing to help feed their families. No dating was allowed, and marriage often ended her job. Of course, I am talking about the frontier schoolmarms. My grandmother was a widow with three children, living in Vicksburg, Mississippi. She taught in a one room school house, grades K thru 12. Her kids carried their shoes to school and they had meat for dinner one day and gravy the next. One of the kids favorite sandwiches was ketchup on home made bread. I imagine that the ketchup was home made too. This was in the early 20th century.