The following is an article written by avid genealogist and former resident of Plymouth, Mary Jo Jacob, who now lives in California. She recounts the history of her grandmother, Tillie Scott Hollett, whose determination resulted in the education of hundreds of Marshall County children.

My Grandma Tillie Scott Hollett worked hard and overcame obstacles to become a teacher. Her love of learning and teaching animated her life and influenced her children and grandchildren. In my case, Grandma reassured my mother I would do just fine in first grade even though I could not go to kindergarten. (We lived in the country outside of Plymouth where the rural school bus schedule did not accommodate kindergarten hours.) Grandma advised mom to teach me my numbers and letters from the cookbook we used when baking. The year I was five, I baked my way into numeracy and literacy and was well prepared to start first grade at Washington School in Plymouth. Grandma’s own education began more conventionally, but her educational achievements were hard-won “firsts” in the family and inspired my own educational goals.

Born in a covered wagon in What Cheer, Iowa in 1898, Tillie Scott’s educational prospects were initially dim but improved when her parents returned home to their farming community in Pulaski County, Indiana. One room schoolhouses sprouted up every couple of miles alongside the cornfields that covered the county. For seven or so years between September and April, whether it was sunny, rainy or snowing, Tillie tramped down the dirt road from her family’s farm to the nearest school. By age thirteen or fourteen, she finished the sixth grade, the highest grade completed by each of her parents.

Around that time, the one room schools in her part of the county were consolidated. Thereafter, Tillie journeyed further to school in the nearby town of Kewanna which is where she graduated from the eighth grade. Subsequently Tillie studied at Kewanna High School for three years. When she entered her senior year, her family moved away from the farm and the county. Tillie likely had to fight with her parents to continue in high school. If so, she won the battle.

Tillie moved thirty miles from the farm to the town of Logansport where her Scott family relatives lived, and where she enrolled for her senior year. Although she was a new student, the high school yearbook noted Tillie gave a memorable speech to the school on women’s suffrage, a topic about which she was passionate. Tillie graduated from Logansport High School in 1909.  She was twenty years old and proud to be the first high school graduate in the family. According to one family story, Tillie felt her parents did not fully value her accomplishment because their graduation gift was a mirror from a coffee tin, put there as a promotional gimmick.

Tillie aspired to higher education but had to set her educational ambitions aside. After high school, she moved to her parents’ home in Plymouth where she found a job working at Schlosser Brothers Creamery. The job enabled Tillie to help her family financially as well as save money for herself. Her goal was to become a schoolteacher. To do so, she needed to take college courses and pass a state teacher’s license exam.

In 1912, Tillie applied to nearby Valparaiso University which at the time was the second largest school in the nation after Harvard University. In fact, Valparaiso University was nationally known as the “Poor Man’s Harvard” because of its affordability and high quality. (Valparaiso University History https://www.valpo.edu/about/history/). She was accepted into the Teacher’s Department and enrolled for two consecutive twelve-week terms.

Tillie was an excellent student who scored 95 percent or better in most of her classes. One of her worst grades was in cooking – 87 percent. Not a surprise to her grandchildren who remember that Grandma was not a good cook. On the other hand, she excelled in American and English literature which is also unsurprising to those who knew her. Tillie instilled a love of poetry, literature and books in her children who, in turn, shared that love with their own.

After two terms at Valparaiso and passing the state teacher’s license exam, Tillie returned to a one room schoolhouse in Pulaski County, this time as the teacher at the Emmett School in the village of Denham. For two years, she taught kindergarten through the eighth grade to a group of thirty students. At the end of her first year, she returned to Valparaiso University to complete her third and last term. Ten days after she completed her second year of teaching, Tillie married Clarence Hollett and left Denham because Harrison Township did not employ married women. In fact, Harrison Township did not hire its first married female teacher until 1942.

Tillie moved to Culver in neighboring Marshall County where the school system had no restrictions on married women teaching. She initially taught the third and fourth grades and eventually taught home economics at Culver High School in 1918-1919. While in Culver, Tillie became involved in women’s clubs which were important organizations for women to educate themselves, develop their leadership skills, and improve their communities through volunteer efforts. Through her membership in the Culver City Club, Tillie continued her educational and advocacy work on behalf of the Susan B. Anothony amendment. She was thrilled when the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in 1920.

During the next three decades, marked by the Great Depression and World War II, Tillie’s teaching and educational endeavors were focused on her four children and channeled into her club activities. She wrote poetry and compiled research papers that she read to club members as part of club educational programs. After the war, and after her children were married, Tillie wanted to teach in the classroom again. However, she needed a new teaching credential, and that required a bachelor’s degree.

Ever determined, Tillie enrolled at Manchester College (now Manchester University) and completed her B.S. degree in Elementary Education in 1953 at age sixty-four. Her graduation was a family affair attended by a proud husband, her mother, her four children, eight grandchildren, and her brother’s family. Tillie had accomplished another educational first. She was the first person in the family to graduate from college.

Tillie taught elementary school for nine years in Tyner, a small town near her home in Plymouth. During my “baking kindergarten year,” Grandma invited me to visit her classroom for a day. Whether it was the excitement of finally being able to go to school, or the fact that I got to ring the bell to end the recess period, I never forgot my first day of school. Years later Grandma encouraged me to go to college, but her less than encouraging reaction to my decision to continue for a master’s and doctorate surprised me. She worried, “You won’t become a wife and mother.” She came to my wedding but did not live to meet my son or see me receive my advanced degrees. Given her profound influence, I like to think she would have been pleased with my own educational first, the first in the family to get those two degrees.

The Museum is proud to preserve and share family stories. Stop in anytime between 10 and 4 on Tuesday through Saturday to learn more or bring your own! The Museum is located at 123 N. Michigan St. in Plymouth. Call us at 574-936-2306.