In Part I, I introduced George’s middle child, Theresa Pake, who was born in 1893.
Professor Lawrence has put much effort into piecing together his mother’s educational history.
At some point Theresa lived with foster parents, Una Orline and Oliver Oratio Pickard. Prof. Lawrence thinks she maybe have gone to live with them as early as age six, which would mean she wasn’t under the care of her older sister. However, the newspaper article about the fire in 1902 would show that she was still living at home at the time of the fire (nearly 8 years old). Regardless, at some point, the Pickards became the caregivers of Theresa. None of the other children in the family seem to have gone to live with the Pickards.
The Pickards sent Theresa to Jennings Seminary, a private Methodist school in Aurora, Illinois, from 1911 – 1913. Here is a link to the history of Jennings Seminary, but to give you an idea, it was a school for young ladies and once considered one of the finest private high schools in the middle west.
From there, Theresa went to Chicago Evangelistic Institute. After studying at CEI from 1913-1915, she graduated from the missionary course.
Theresa moved on to Western State Normal School’s High School Department. She attended the program for at least the school year of 1916-17, participating in a play (where she played “mother-in-law”) and gave a speech advocating Republican Charles Evans Hughes (who was supported by Teddy Roosevelt) as the next President of the United States. She took classes such as anatomy, chemistry, French, and children’s literature. Western was a teaching college, and the high school department was designed to not only give an excellent education to its students, but to provide a sort of student teaching experience for the college teaching students who planned to teach in high schools. Theresa graduated, at the age of 24, in June 1917 with 27 other graduates. At this time, it is possible that Theresa planned to become a teacher.
Here is a description in the yearbook about the high school program at the teaching college:
Here is Theresa’s yearbook photo. Note that in the above portrait, Theresa is not wearing glasses, but in the yearbook photograph she is wearing them. I think it’s likely she began to wear them in her early 20s.
In 1919, Theresa went to Wilmore, Kentucky, to attend Asbury College. At that time, Mrs. O. O. Pickard, at 1846 Oakland Drive, Kalamazoo, Michigan, was listed as her parent, so Theresa still was being educated under the guidance of the Pickards. Theresa had matriculated at age 25 with the intention of becoming a missionary. She attended Asbury for four semesters, from 1919-1921.
But Theresa’s education was far from over!
The Children After the Fire, 1902
It’s good to see that women were receiving more than a basic education back then (or at least some women). Do you know whether her siblings also received such an extensive education?
I can’t wait to learn what she did next!
i am amazed at how much education Theresa ended up with. There is more coming next week. I highly doubt her siblings received an education like this as she was the only Paak child being raised by the Pickards who apparently had the financial resources to do this for Theresa. But I have not yet studied the other siblings.
I will be interested to see what else you find. Why would this one child have been singled out by the Pickards? Only time will tell!
We don’t know why! I am hoping that as I examine the other children more the answer will become apparent.
Wow! How fascinating that a young lady’s education in that era should have been so extensive. Here is something possibly interesting. Dorothy Dalton graduated from Smith College in 1914 and came home to Kalamazoo where she assisted the only theatre professor at Western State Normal School and led the drama club. I’m not sure how long she stayed there, but she next joined a Chicago repertory company, remaining there until the start of World War I (4/17/1917 in the US). Wouldn’t it be fun if Theresa was in DD’s drama club?
WJ, you have an amazing memory for these facts. I would love to be a bug on the wall in that drama club! There are files available with articles from the Western Normal Herald. According to the article about the play, it was done through an English class outing and the teacher was Miss Rousseau. I think That the Western Normal newspaper would be a rich source of information about Kalamazoo from that time period and wonderful for viewing the early history of WMU. I was actually surprised that Theresa was in a play because of the strict Methodist upbringing she was given by the Pickards.
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I love the Theresa story, btw…:)
Me too!!
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