About Sarah Gillespie Huftalen's Life and Work:

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The excerpts below are taken from the writings of Sarah Gillespie Huftalen (and the excerpts have been transcribed by Ann Baumgarn:

Summer, 1908

Dear Friends:

We want to have the best school in the state, nothing short of it will satisfy us, we are determined to reach the summit of excellence that is founded on true merit and worth.  We are willing workers.  We want and need supplies and apparatus.  We seek your co-operation and helpfulness, such only as parents, patrons, and friends can give.  We solicit your visitations, interest and suggestions….

  The parent, the pupil and the teacher form the trinity of the schoolroom - of education.  Let us work together to raise the standard of excellence.

Sincerely and faithfully,

MRS. HUFTALEN

 From Arbor Vitae Summit School Record Book, 1904-1909, box 10, vol. 3, Huftalen Collection, Iowa State Archives, Iowa City, Iowa.

 Norwich, Iowa   September 8, 1910

 Dear Fellow Teacher:

The Rural school teachers, - the one room faraway country school teachers, who wade through mud and slush, build their own fires, get up box socials to secure apparatus that their contracts say the board shall provide, teach or hear thirty classes and eight grades - these country self-sacrificers are organized for the first time in the history of Iowa into a state assembly that meets at Des Moines November 3-5, 1910.

As you and I are part of this great body of ten thousand, upon whom rests the responsibility of the meeting and of much of the betterment of the conditions of our schools, in equipment, tutelage, salary, etc.  May I urge your attendance, your interest, your helpfulness.

 Have you an ideal, a question, a topic, that you would like to bring or have brought before the meeting?  Come and present it or have it presented.  Get your director to come.  If he is progressive and a booster he ought to be heard; if he is of the "old-time cradle and hoe" sort he ought to be whaled into line or out of office.

 Let us be boosters and progressive ourselves.  Let us marshall our forces for the improvement of our Rural Schools, that they may better meet present day conditions and demands.

Our vacations are about ended, we are planning for the coming year's work.  Let us include going to Des Moines in November.  We have a right to go without loss of salary.  We will never regret it.  The story of a trip to the capital city will inspire the dummest kind of pupil to loyalty, and a desire to see and know.

I would like to see you and explain the moment of this meeting of ours, but as I cannot, this meager message of invitation will have to do for now.

Sincerely and faithfully your friend and co-worker,

                                Mrs. Huftalen.

                Leader Rural Teacher's Round Table

                                I.S.T.A., 1910

P.S. Save this, my teacher friend, printing 10,000 costs some, and you may not hear from me direct again before we meet in November when I shall expect to see you face to face and we can talk all things over together.  (Huftalen Collection, Box 8, #11).

Sarah Gillespie Huftalen brought her interest and values to her scholars in their Arbor Vitae Summit School near Oneida, Iowa, named in recognition of their on-going planting and outdoor learning projects.  In 1904-1905, the school yard contained "Ash heaps, dirt mounds from the new building; sticks and stones, not a tree.  Only grass and weeds."  Huftalen and the children planned the improvements, planted the trees, including many arborvitae (white cedar).  The first tree they planted was named in honor of Frances Willard, the suffragist president of the WCTU, and the third three named for  Harriet Beecher Stowe, champion of antislavery.  Their first nineteen trees were named as follows:

Nos. 1 to 10 Arbor Vitae                     Nos. 11 to 19 Scotch pines

             1.  Frances Willard                                 11.  S.F.B. Smith

             2. Frances Scott Key                              12.  W.C. Bryant

             3.  H.B. Stowe                                       13.  Foster

             4.  Longfellow                                        14.  Fulton

             5.  Whittier                                             15.  Edison

             6.  Field                                                  16.  McKinley (tree died -

             7.  Dickens                                                      set another)

             8.  Hawthorne                                        17.  Washington

             9.  Lowell                                               18.  Lincoln

            10. Stevenson                                          19.  "Grow little evergreens,

                                                                                    grow."

Cordier, Mary Hurlbut, Schoolwomen of the Prairies and Plains: Personal Narratives from Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska, 1860's to 1920's. University of New Mexico Press, 1992, pp 96-97.

"We thought that every farm should have a wood lot so we collected hundreds of specimens, learned much about trees and their care and uses.  We committed to memory tree poems and made beautiful booklets 22 by 28 inches containing poems, drawing and maps.  We drew our homes and the school yard showing the tress and shrubs on each.  The sentiment spread through the community, many planting trees and shrubs and beautifying their yards and lawns."  Personal No. 2, 71, Box 8, vol. 10,  Huftalen Collection.

"When children are happily busy and interested in a united effort in their studies, projects and games one need not worry about the so-called problem of discipline.  There is none to worry about.  With a beautified yard that all hands help make possible establishes interest akin to ownership.  And what child does not but enjoy the sensation of ownership; his very own.  Complete trusting and confidence between teacher and a child served as a strong tie."  Personal No. 2, 64, Box 8, vol. 10, Huftalen Collection.

Editor's Note:  Much of the work done on the restoration of the McGee Brick School near Manchester, Iowa, Sarah's first teaching position, has been done by children and youth.  The fifth grade Iowa History students call the McGee "our school".  

September 6, 1934  Sarah wrote in her diary:

  "I worked hard at the farm, my hands are stiff, swollen, & lame yet.  I mended the board gate that the calves broke.  Had Reba keep me 3 or 4 days, to can fruit, clean the cellar of many pails of plaster, dirt that had washed in, old rubbish, rotted cupboards, which I broke into kindling, old cans, etc., etc., a hard job, & Reba cleaned the kitchen walls.  I, alone, took bbls. & seed corn, tool chests, bags of mineral feed, all to the store house.  It helps if I go every summer.  The screen doors which I repaired & put wire on; the window glass (many) I puttied in, etc. & the 2 w. rooms are pretty good shape, & the linoleum on their floors.  I got a large piece to put on top of other in parlor to save it.  My! My!  When I think of what I have done there it does not seem possible hardly.  It is hard.  I lost 9 lbs. This summer.  I picked up & split all the fuel used it is hard on one's back.  But I like the out-of-doors, air & freedom to breathe, etc. & the ozone of the meadow and wood lot.

  Am working on the genealogy which is interesting & fascinating.  Will be glad when finished.  Want to do other things.  I read Ma's diary 1858-1888.  It sorrows my heart & once again go with her though the trials & sorrows that were so heavy to bear.  It was not right.  I had never read it before.  Many articles & possible a story could be written."

Life-long learners in the twenty-first century are still educated by the articles and stories written by and about Sarah Gillespie Huftalen, hands-on historical restoration work, and historical reenactments by the Coffins Grove Guys and Gals 4-H Club.