Mary Post

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please discuss this issue on the talk page or replace this tag with a more specific message.
This article has been tagged since November 2005.

Mary Elizabeth Post (June 17, 1841-1934) was an Elizabethtown, New York native who immigrated to Arizona in 1872 to become a teacher there.

Although her father was a carpenter who worked very hard to maintain his family, he was a lover of books and literature done by such writers as Horace Greeley and others. Post and her seven siblings learned from an early age the importance of education and manners in society.

The farm in which her family lived served as stop-over for many Blacks who used the Underground Railroad in their quest of finding freedom in Canada. Many Blacks stayed at her family's home as Post was growing.

Post was subject to long hours of studying. Wanting a better future for his daughter, her father hired a teacher to visit Post and teach her during summers.

A fast learner, Post got her first job as a teacher in 1856, at the tender age of 15.

Post applied for a scholarship at the University of Vermont, not knowing that the university did not accept female students. Undaunted by this rejection, she went on to study at the Burlington Female Seminary. In 1863, after graduating from that University, she and her family relocated to Iowa.

In Iowa, she met a politician who was a rising star in his party. The couple fell in love soon after; they planned to have a future together. But something that would change Post's life happened soon after he went on campaign for an important political position: aware that he was about to win the election, his political enemies spread a rumor that he was having an affair. While the rumors had no base, Post believed them, and, deeply hurt, she avoided him for the rest of her life, not answering his letters or coming to speak with him when he tried to visit her.

Soon after, she accepted a job teaching at Lansing. Many in her family thought that moving to Lansing was just an attempt by Post to forget her former boyfriend, and those who thought that way were probably right: while at Lansing, she began to investigate about her former boyfriend's supposed affair. Eventually, she found out that the rumors were lies, but she was so hurt, that it didn't matter much. She felt too proud to apologize to him, and did not feel like giving him an explanation of the emotional pain she went through.

Having decided to get as far away as possible from everything that reminded her of her former husband, Post boarded a stage coach that took her to San Diego, by way of New Mexico. After arriving in San Diego, she boarded another stage coach, which took her to Arizona City, Arizona, a place that is now known as Yuma.

Post was with two other passengers during her trip to Arizona. Problems began for the travellers when, while coming off the San Diego Mountains, a duststorm hit the group, almost causing a stampede by the scared and temporarily blinded horses that pushed the car. Noticing that the driver had gotten lost, the three passengers jumped off the coach and ended up spending the night around the mountain.

Upon arrival in Yuma, Post was met by Arizona governor A. P. K. Safford. Only the fifth teacher in Arizona, Post got help from Safford to re-open a former saloon and turn it into Arizona's third school. Because it was a former saloon, the school would occasionally be visited by some drunken men who thought they could get some alcohol there.

Post was the only White woman in Yuma at the time, and she was intimidated enough by Native Americans and Mexicans, that she brought over her brother to walk with her to all places. She was known in class for being a rule enforcer: if a student missed class, for example, she'd go to that student's home and, unless the student had a valid excuse not to be in class, she'd take the student to school herself. Many parents of the students attending her classes disliked her practices, and Post was aware of this too. She began to gain the parents over, however, by ordering then trendy uniforms from San Francisco, and teaching the students' mothers how to sew.

On May 2, 1873, Mary witnessed an act that would mark her for the rest of her life: Soon after opening her class, jailmate Manuel Fernandez, who had been found guilty of murdering a local salesman, was hanged right across the street from Post's classroom. Affected by the act, Post sent her students home for the rest of the day.

After a column at the "Arizona Sentinel" made a comment approving of the hanging, Post decided she had seen enough and relocated to San Diego, where a job as general vice-principal of San Diego's school system awaited her.

Offered a job back in Yuma, she returned one year later to the Arizona city. She and her brother, Albert, shared positions at her new school; Mary would ovesee the girls and Albert would do the same with the boys. The Post siblings rejoiced at the opportunity of spending more time together, and they commonly took walks and talked for long periods of time about life. Albert was a good friend of Mary's ex boyfriend, but Mary was still traumatized by what had happened between her and her former beau, to the point that she never actually used Albert to try to contact him again.

A strong believer in education, Post once convinced a wealthy man to hold a charity horse race that raised 600 dollars, which she used to buy school supplies. Another time, she hired Captain Isaac Pulhamus to organize a beauty contest, from which she garnered 500 dollars, which were also used for school supplies.

After her retirement from teaching at the age of 72, the senate passed a bill which dictated for Post to receive a pension of fifty dollars a month. With this money, she was able to run a small store, and she was able to pursue her second hobby: sewing. She would go door by door and teach women how to make clothes by sewing. Her pension was the first teacher's pension in the state.

Post passed away of natural causes in 1934, at the age of 93.

The "Mary E. Post school" in Yuma is named after her.