Emma (Slack) Dickinson – several Missoula firsts
Several Missoula Firsts – Emma (Slack) Dickinson
First teacher, first marriage, first church
PIONEER TEACHER IN LOCAL SCHOOL RELATES HISTORY
There is a certain sweet-faced, white-haired, lady in Missoula who is loved and honored always, but to whom is due this week an especial measure of recognition. Eminent educators of the northwest have just concluded a meeting of the Inland Empire Teachers’ association at Spokane. Recent progress of higher education in the northwest was there displayed with pride. Methods and means of attaining larger educational growth were thoroughly discussed. In the same connection it is a gracious thing for Missoula people to recall the beginning of the Missoula school system and to pay a tribute of praise to the dear old lady who was the first school teacher in Missoula. Mrs. Emma S. Dickinson.
She tells the story herself in a few modest sentences.
“I came to Montana in 1869 by way of the Missouri river. I was six weeks making the journey from Sioux City, Iowa, to Fort Benton. My brother, who had already established his home in the Bitter Root valley, met me at Fort Benton and we drove in his conveyance, camping along the way, from Fort Benton to Missoula, occupying a week in the journey.
“I rested for a month at the home of my brother and then came into Missoula to obtain a certificate to teach the school which had been offered me at Corvallis. There had just been appointed a school board in Missoula and its members were looking for a teacher. They offered the position to me at $100 a month, which was $15 a month more than I had been offered at Corvallis. I took the more attractive place and opened the school about the middle of July, 45 years ago. I had 15 pupils, 10 being from Missoula, two from Frenchtown, two from Stevensville and one from the country. The schoolhouse stood where the Missoula mercantile store now stands. It was a large frame room, larger than we needed. I had two benches, a long table and one chair for the teacher. I begged for a blackboard and finally some kind friend made one for our use. The children brought what books they could get and there was a fearful and wonderful variety in literary style and subject matter. It was uphill work, but we all pulled together and made the hilltop. I taught that summer only three months. I also taught the Missoula school in the spring of 1870, also in 1871. In the fall of 1871 I was married and made my home in Missoula, where I have lived ever since.” It is a bare little outline, which pioneers of Missoula love to embroider with memories of the rich service rendered by Mrs. Dickinson during her 45 years in Missoula. Like the great artist who saw “The Angel in the Marble,” these early dwellers in the city builded from crude and scanty material, a structure broad and high and beautiful.
The above article is from The Daily Missoulian, April 19, 1914.
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
By Emma Dickinson
The writer came to Missoula before there were any churches. The Sabbath was given up to horse racing and sports. The stores were opened, and it was a big day in general. The first church built was the Methodist church on Main street, where the parsonage now stands. It was built by Rev. T. C. Iliff, the first minister in Missoula. He came here in the spring of 1871, organized a church and built a very small building, which was for some years the only church building in town, and was used for the various denominations in turn, as needed. This building was afterwards moved to face on Washington street and enlarged by the Rev. A. D. Raleigh in 1890. It was again remodeled in 1895 by the Rev. J. J. McAllister, and has been enlarged several times since to take care of the growing congregation and Sunday School.
At the time of organization there were less than a dozen members, of which the writer was one, and is now the only one left. The present membership (including probationers) is 410. The Sunday School of First Church has an enrollment, including Home Department and Cradle Roll, 464. The Daly Addition School has an enrollment of 100. The Epworth League has a membership of 140. There is also a Ladies’ Aid Society which goes under the name of the “Lend a Hand” Society, with a membership of 100, and a Woman’s Home Missionary Society of 39 members. All branches of the church are working hard to raise funds for the new $50,000.00 church which we are erecting, and which we hope to see dedicated in the near future.
The above article is taken from The Woman’s Souvenir of Missoula, Montana, published in 1910 by the Ladies of the Christian Church. This little pamphlet is now held at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library at the University of Montana, Archives and Special Collections.
Below is a biographical sketch of the Dickinsons in Missoula from NWDA – Northwest Digital Archives.
William H. H. Dickinson was born in Ohio in 1840, where he received a business education. When he was twenty years old, he went to Kansas, and served in the Third Kansas Infantry (later consolidated with the Fourth Kansas Regiment to become the Tenth Regiment, Kansas Volunteer Infantry) during the Civil War. He emigrated to Montana after 1868, moving to Fort Peck, Fort Benton, and then to the Bitterroot Valley, where he taught school, mined, and took photographs. In 1872 he was appointed postmaster in Missoula, Montana. He continued in that post, was one of the city’s first merchants, and served as school clerk and superintendent of schools.
In 1871, Dickinson married Emma C. Slack, who had come to Montana from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1869. They were the first couple married in Missoula. She taught in Missoula’s first public school beginning fall of 1869. She was one of the organizers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Missoula, and remained active in that organization.
The Dickinsons had three children. Mr Dickinson died in 1910; Mrs. Dickinson died in 1927.