Elsie-Adventures of an Arizona Schoolteacher 1913-1916 - Softcover

Waite, Barbara Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0983945209 ISBN 13: 9780983945208

Publisher: Palomar Mountain BookWorks, 2012

Synopsis

In 1912, the first year of Arizona's statehood, rural Verde Valley was home to enterprising ranchers and farmers who raised cattle, crops - and children. These children needed a school. So just as they mail-ordered supplies from the Sears catalog, the community mail-ordered a teacher. Elsie Hayes, a college graduate, came from a world of concerts and literary clubs. The teacher's tiny shack in Cornville was a far cry from her family's lovely home in Long Beach, California. This cultured young woman drank water from an irrigation ditch, bathed in Oak Creek, and taught in a one-room schoolhouse to children first considered "common," but with whom she soon developed a mutual love. Though she had come to Arizona feeling a bit superior to these "backwoods" folks, her emotions transformed into admiration and respect, and the untamed wilderness became "breath-taking and glorious." In this true story, Elsie's 100-year old journals, photographs and detailed letters home paint a picture of a time and place that has since faded, and give insight into the early history of Cornville and Williams, Arizona. Even more than this, they are a vivid portrayal of colorful adventure, tragedy, and a heartbreaking story of lost love.

About this title

About the Author

“I love and still love Arizona....” The detailed, well-crafted, handwritten manuscript did not appear to be the work of someone who was almost 97 years old. It was author and educator Elsie Reed Hayes Roberts’ final manuscript, but was a project never she unfortunately never completed. A year after Elsie’s death, I discovered this manuscript nestled among her many published short stories and articles. Never before had she written anything that stirred me like this unfinished story of love and adventure in the early state of Arizona. Obviously, these three years in her early twenties had been an unforgettable time for her. While doing research I came across a tape recording Elsie had made for the Jerome Historical Society. On the tape she said in closing, “I don’t see how people who have lived in Arizona’s Verde Valley or the mountains, even briefly, can bear to live in a real city.” Elsie in fact lived in a “real city” for most of her 71 years after she left Arizona. Perhaps she lived on memories of her time in Oak Creek Canyon and Williams, memories kept fresh by re-reading her daily journals and letters to her family. I have left her letters and diary in this manuscript as she wrote them, editing out unrelated events. I used additional narrative from her cassette tapes, manuscripts , recollections by her former students, and newspaper accounts. Arizona from 1913 to 1916 was a wild and wonderful place. For those of you who enjoy a grand sense of adventure I want to give you Elsie’s memories of the fledgling state of Arizona as seen through the eyes of this delightful, spirited, young teacher. I hope you enjoy her memoirs as much as I have.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palomar Mountain BookWorks
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 0983945209
• ISBN 13: 9780983945208
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 218