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Texas Schoolteacher of the Year 1867
Texas Schoolteacher of the Year 1867
Miss Ann Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, was a teacher at the first formal school in Hamilton County after the Civil War. The Leon River School, a private school, was located approximately six miles northeast of the city of Hamilton on the banks of the Leon River in the Warlene Valley.
In July 1867, a group of Comanches attacked the school. Miss Whitney helped some children escape through the window and drew the attention of the raiders to herself. She was fatally wounded, but no children were killed. During the attack, Miss Amanda Howard, aged seventeen, risked injury to ride through the valley and warn the settlers.
A monument to Miss Whitney was erected in the Hamilton City Cemetery with donations raised by local school children. A second memorial is located on the Hamilton County Courthouse lawn.
Photo courtesy, Hardy Morgan, Find a Grave
Sources:
“Ann Whitney Memorial.” Ann Whitney Memorial | Hamilton, TX, https://hamiltontexas.com/184/Ann-Whitney-Memorial.
“Ann Whitney.” Ann Whitney, Frontier School Teacher, Hamilton County Texas., http://www.texasescapes.com/TexasPersonalities/Ann-Whitney.htm.
Deaton, Ellis L. “A School House Tragedy-Miss Ann Whiney Meets Her Doom.” Indian Fights on the Texas Frontier: A True Account of the Last Exciting Encounters with Redskins in Hamilton, Comanche, Brown, Erath and Adjoining Counties, Deaton Genealogical Publishing, Annapolis, MD, 1998, pp. 57–59.
Weathers, Elreeta Crain. Miss Ann Whitney, 1998, https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~gazetteer2000/genealogy/l/awhitney.htm.
Wilbarger, J. W. “School House Massacre.” Indian Depredations in Texas, Eakin, Austin, TX, 1985, pp. 472–478.
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