The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 100, July 1996 - April, 1997 Page: 52
551 p. : ill. (some col.), ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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52 Southwestern Historical Quarterly July
Worth to pursue a teaching career on the staff of Arnold-Walden Institute.
Huffman's life history to this point is consistent with the life courses of
many young women who were able to obtain an education, and teaching
was a respectable job to pursue until marriage prospects appeared.
After only a short time as a teacher at Arnold-Walden, however,
Huffman's life story deviated from the expected pattern of teaching
until marriage, then giving up that career for husband and family.
Huffman distinguished herself at Sam Houston Normal with her acade-
mic achievements and evidently continued her outstanding perfor-
mance as a teacher. As Fort Worth began establishing public schools,
Huffman's boss, Clara Walden, recommended her for the position of
superintendent. Several sources from the period state that Huffman
organized and graded the public schools of Fort Worth, being the first
superintendent of those schools and the first female superintendent in
Texas.'1 The Fort Worth system, in this first attempt to organize a school
district, had sixteen teachers. Huffman's superintendent's report for the
188o-1881 school year indicates that there were 625 students enrolled
and over $4,000 in expenditures." This system only lasted from
December 188o to August 1881 because the legality of using tax money
to support schools was being questioned in the courts. In the fall of
1883, Fort Worth's public schools were once again organized, this time
with a man appointed to the job of superintendent.
During the interlude between reorganizations, Huffman married Ed
Warren. She then served as principal of a private four-room school that
she planned to combine with the public schools on their resumption.
Once again, Huffman deviated from the norm by continuing to teach after
her marriage.'" During 1883, she was not offered the job of superintendent
but that of principal of a new eight-room school. She declined, and then
10 One source is ajournal titled The Bohemian, IV (Large Souvenir Edition of 1904), 14. Imo-
gene B. Dickey, Early Literary Magazines of Texas (Austin: Steck-Vaughn, 1970), 41-42, identifies
the sponsoring club as "Our Literary Club in Bohemia," with publication beginning in 1899 and
continuing until 1904 It started again in 1907 and lasted for one year. Another source is a short
biographical description included with Brady's article in Eagel (ed.), The Congress of Women, 30o6.
A third source mentioning Huffman as superintendent of schools in 1881 Is Ohver Knight's Fort
Worth: Outpost on the Trinzty (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1990).
" Fort Worth Dazly Democrat, Aug. 3, 1881.
12 Evidence now demonstrates that some women continued to teach after marriage and chil-
dren See Hunt, "To Wed and to Teach," 127-142. Some historians are also exploring the idea
of women teachers as feminists. See Geraldine J. Clifford, "'Lady Teachers' and Politics in the
United States, 1850-1930," in Martin Lawn and Gerald Grace (eds.), Teachers. The Culture and
Politics of Work (London. Falmer Press, 1987), 5; and Sylvia Hunt, "Women Educators in Texas,
1840-1920. Were They Feminists?" East Texas Historical Journal, XXVII (Spring, 1989), 16-30
Historians who note that women teachers had a degree of independence but still operated
under the influence of domesticity include Kathleen Underwood, "The Pace of Her Own Life:
Teacher Training and the Life Course of Western Women," Pacific Historical Review, LV (Nov.,
1986), 513-530, and Courtney Vaughn-Roberson, "Sometimes Independent but Never Equal-
Women Teachers, 1900-1950' The Oklahoma Example," Ibid., LIV (Feb, 1984), 39-58.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 100, July 1996 - April, 1997, periodical, 1997; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101218/m1/80/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.