Carson's New School
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The town was swarming with rough and tough men. One article in the Placerville newspaper quoted a local “Such things as cuttings and shootings are of frequent occurrences here.” Without any governmental rule, a people’s court was convened.
But into this town also came upstanding citizens - like H. K. Clapp. Sierra Seminary So, it was only a matter of time before the upstanding citizens in Carson City wanted a school for their children. At the same time Miss Hannah Keziah Clapp wandered into Nevada. She had passed through the valley in 1859 on her way to Vacaville. In 1860 she came back to Nevada with the Perkins family. Hannah had been a teacher at many levels in Michigan and California and made an ideal teacher for the brand new community. She was leased land to begin a private school which would be called the Sierra Seminary. It would be opened in 1861. In 1864 the school went through an expensive expansion with the help of the territorial government and the support of Governor James Nye and the ever-powerful William Stewart. Two new staff members had to be added. Mark Twain would visit the school twice and talk with Miss Clapp. His observations of the school and Miss Clapp’s teaching methods and final examinations would find their way into Tom Sawyer. Miss Hannah K. Clapp |
Hannah Keziah Clapp was born in up-state New York in 1824 and at the age of 25 she began her teaching career in a private seminary in Michigan. She soon became a principal of the Lansing Female Seminary, and later taught at Michigan Female College. Like many other Midwesterners, she answered the beckoning call of the American West and joined her brother’s family on a wagon train going to California.
Moving to Nevada in 1860 and seeing the great need for a school, Hannah Clapp organized a private co-educational school. In 1864 after the school was expanded Eliza C. Babcock and Clapp made the Sierra Seminary one of Nevada’s most outstanding schools, graduating many students who went on to influential positions around the state of Nevada, as well as to prominent universities around the country.
But these two educators, who became closest friends, were involved in the community in many ways. Because of the unsightly muddy field in front of the Capital, which attracted stray cows, loafers, and garbage, the 1875 Legislature set aside funds for landscaping, driveways, pipes for fountains, and a fence with a stone work foundation and iron railing. Clapp and Babcock were awarded the project and they put in a bid of $5,500, lowest of any bids. That fence was constructed at a cost of $4,500 and the Carson City Daily Appeal noted, "Let there be no further complaints about the non-enjoyment of their rights by women of Nevada,"
Their investments in a number of mines, including the Belcher mine, helped fund many of their endeavors as well as long trips across the country. After a cross-country trip in 1876 to the kindergartens in the East, they returned home to Nevada determined to replicate the innovative program for six year olds. In 1877 they opened the first kindergarten in Nevada, in the basement of the Sierra Seminary in Carson City. In 1895, after they had moved to Reno, they persuaded the new Twentieth Century Club to organize the Reno Kindergarten Association. Reno’s first kindergarten soon opened, in the annex of the Bishop Whitaker’s School for Girls, on the site of today’s Whitaker Park. After Eliza’s death in 1899, Hannah raised funds to build a new home for the school, named the Babcock Memorial Kindergarten, at the corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets in Reno. The beautiful two-story brick school remained in service for many years.
When the new University of Nevada was moved from Elko to Reno in 1887, President Leroy Brown hired Hannah Clapp as the University’s first staff member, to teach history and English - in addition to overseeing the University Library in the newly constructed Morrill Hall. Because there was no electricity or gas in the campus’ first building when classes began, as she later recalled, they literally “burned the midnight oil” in the rooms to make the “blackness more palatable.”
Hannah Clapp is remembered today as one of Carson City’s most interesting figures, but she also was the co-founder of Reno’s first kindergarten, and, being an ardent feminist and suffragette, was one of the founders of the Twentieth Century Club, a progressive women’s organization that planted the trees along Riverside Drive and worked to make Reno a safer and cleaner city (among their accomplishments: outlawing spitting in the streets).
1. “Hannah Keziah Clapp” by Walton-Buchanan biography on website of Nevada Women’s History Project
2. “History of Nevada” by Thompson & West
3. “History of Nevada” by Davis
4. “Hannah Keziah Clapp in Memoriam” by Weir in the First Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society, 1907
5. “Hannah Clapp and the Capitol Fence “ by Rocha & Meyers in Nevada Myths
6. “First Directory of Nevada Territory, 1862” by Kelly
7. “The Records of Carson County, Utah & Nevada Territories” by Ellison
Moving to Nevada in 1860 and seeing the great need for a school, Hannah Clapp organized a private co-educational school. In 1864 after the school was expanded Eliza C. Babcock and Clapp made the Sierra Seminary one of Nevada’s most outstanding schools, graduating many students who went on to influential positions around the state of Nevada, as well as to prominent universities around the country.
But these two educators, who became closest friends, were involved in the community in many ways. Because of the unsightly muddy field in front of the Capital, which attracted stray cows, loafers, and garbage, the 1875 Legislature set aside funds for landscaping, driveways, pipes for fountains, and a fence with a stone work foundation and iron railing. Clapp and Babcock were awarded the project and they put in a bid of $5,500, lowest of any bids. That fence was constructed at a cost of $4,500 and the Carson City Daily Appeal noted, "Let there be no further complaints about the non-enjoyment of their rights by women of Nevada,"
Their investments in a number of mines, including the Belcher mine, helped fund many of their endeavors as well as long trips across the country. After a cross-country trip in 1876 to the kindergartens in the East, they returned home to Nevada determined to replicate the innovative program for six year olds. In 1877 they opened the first kindergarten in Nevada, in the basement of the Sierra Seminary in Carson City. In 1895, after they had moved to Reno, they persuaded the new Twentieth Century Club to organize the Reno Kindergarten Association. Reno’s first kindergarten soon opened, in the annex of the Bishop Whitaker’s School for Girls, on the site of today’s Whitaker Park. After Eliza’s death in 1899, Hannah raised funds to build a new home for the school, named the Babcock Memorial Kindergarten, at the corner of Fifth and Walnut Streets in Reno. The beautiful two-story brick school remained in service for many years.
When the new University of Nevada was moved from Elko to Reno in 1887, President Leroy Brown hired Hannah Clapp as the University’s first staff member, to teach history and English - in addition to overseeing the University Library in the newly constructed Morrill Hall. Because there was no electricity or gas in the campus’ first building when classes began, as she later recalled, they literally “burned the midnight oil” in the rooms to make the “blackness more palatable.”
Hannah Clapp is remembered today as one of Carson City’s most interesting figures, but she also was the co-founder of Reno’s first kindergarten, and, being an ardent feminist and suffragette, was one of the founders of the Twentieth Century Club, a progressive women’s organization that planted the trees along Riverside Drive and worked to make Reno a safer and cleaner city (among their accomplishments: outlawing spitting in the streets).
1. “Hannah Keziah Clapp” by Walton-Buchanan biography on website of Nevada Women’s History Project
2. “History of Nevada” by Thompson & West
3. “History of Nevada” by Davis
4. “Hannah Keziah Clapp in Memoriam” by Weir in the First Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society, 1907
5. “Hannah Clapp and the Capitol Fence “ by Rocha & Meyers in Nevada Myths
6. “First Directory of Nevada Territory, 1862” by Kelly
7. “The Records of Carson County, Utah & Nevada Territories” by Ellison
The small broadside at the top of the page brings into perspective the arrival of H. K. Clapp and the Sierra Seminary. (Although the school is not named, it can only be the Sierra Seminary!) On May 3d a Benefit Party is to be held at the new school house “under the supervision of Miss H. K. Clapp.”
And just look at the names on the broadside. Abe Curry, the founder of Carson City is there! William Stewart is listed. He was the most powerful man in Nevada during this period as he represented the large mining companies. It is said he single handedly defeated the first attempt at creating a state constitution since it taxed mining at the same rate as every other business. This is a battle we still fight today. J. J. Musser is listed. He was one of the original owners of the ranch where the city was platted and Musser Street in Carson City is still an important thoroughfare. Seymour Pixley, one of the people who leased Clapp the land to build a school, is listed (see right). John Winters of Winter’s Ranch in Washoe Valley, Peter Hopkins of the Magnolia Saloon, W. P. Harrington who was a member of the first territorial legislature, Alfred Helm, district court clerk, John F Long selectman associated with Major Ormsby, J. Neely Johnson attorney, and Frank Perkins who brought Miss Clapp to Carson City are also listed. This is a veritable who’s who of important early Nevada residents. |