In spite of their rowdy reputation, Arizona pioneers valued public education and worked hard to provide it. In 1867, the Territorial Legislature passed the first county property tax to be used for education. The same year, Tucson formed School District One and hired Arizona’s first public school teacher Augustus Brichta, a New Yorker, graduate of Saint Louis University and a veteran of the Mexican-American War. Fifty-five boys attended the school, but no girls were allowed. Six months after the school opened, funds ran out and the school closed.

In 1871, the Legislature created the first Territorial school tax and increased the county tax. Tucsonans hired another teacher, Swiss immigrant John Spring. The one-room school he taught in had a packed dirt floor, no blackboard and splintery benches that fit three large boys or four to six toddlers. Parents supplied plenty of ash wood flogging switches, even though Spring believed in sparing the rod. Spring taught 138 boys ranging in age from six to twenty-one. After about 18 months, rowdy behavior took its toll, and Spring asked Governor A.P.K. Safford to double his salary so he could hire an assistant. The Legislature felt they could hire two women teachers with Spring’s salary, so they closed the school until they could find women teachers to hire.

Meanwhile, Estevan Ochoa, a Tucson businessman and political leader, and other townspeople began raising funds for the two-room Congress Street School. The school’s Sonoran-style architecture offered no shade for the students and made it difficult to learn under the blazing afternoon sun. Ochoa and Sam Hughes, another prominent Tucson leader, decided to hold a cakewalk to raise money for a shaded porch. After soliciting saloon patrons and other townspeople, they were able to raise enough money.

The townspeople’s only job now was to convince single women to come to one of the wildest towns left in the West. Tucson Citizen editor John Wasson wrote an editorial asking for good schoolmarms, adding: “and when they get tired of teaching, we will find them good husbands.”

Traveling east by train during the summer of 1872, Wasson met Maria Wakefield, a young schoolteacher from Stockton, California. He offered her the teaching job, and Governor Safford wrote her a travel warning in October, 1873: “…you better start for Tucson after the 25th, as the Apaches are headed toward the eastern part of the Territory and cannot get to the western side before this time; also the moon is full. Bring the best lady teacher you can secure to take care of the girls’ room.”

Wakefield began her teaching career at age 15 in Rochester, New York. Most likely, her teacher got fed up and quit, making her (probably the oldest pupil) take over. At 5’2,” Maria must have had a strong will to keep the students in line. After several successful years that included teaching the young Mayo brothers (William J. and Charles H. Mayo were founders of the famous Mayo Clinic), the 24-year-old adventuress took a teaching position in Stockton in 1869. There she met her future Tucson teaching partner, Harriet Bolton, age 40, from Maine.

The schoolmarms’ trip to Tucson was rough—for five days and nights they were jostled around their stagecoach barely able to wash their hands. The driver pointed out heaps of stones along the way, marking deaths due to Indian encounters. Prominent storekeeper Edward Nye Fish heard that the ladies were on their way and figured that if he wanted to marry a teacher he’d better get the jump on the other eligible bachelors. He and Dr. Charles Lord got a swift buckboard and set out to meet the stagecoach. After a 40-hour trip straight through to Yuma, they found the stage delayed there because of the threat of Apaches. For all his efforts, however, the would-be suitor was rejected! The ladies sent word to Fish that they were too travel worn and in no shape to meet anyone.

Once in Tucson, the teachers didn’t have to teach too long before good husbands were provided. Maria Wakefield married E. N. Fish in March 1875, less than five months after she turned him away in Yuma. She was 18 years younger than her husband, but their marriage lasted 49 years. The following July, Tucson Citizen editor John Wasson made good his promise when he married Harriet Bolton. They were the same age and remained married for 30 years.

Both ladies continued to support public education throughout their lives. While legends endure regarding the Earp brothers and other ne’er do wells, education pioneers settled for lesser glories. Ochoa, Safford, and Hughes have Tucson elementary schools named after them, while Wakefield, Spring, and Safford live on as middle school names. —

Jim Turner. Photos courtesy of Arizona Historical Society.