Women, Teaching, and the Importance in Education in the Late 1890’s: The Summerlin Institute, Bartow, Florida

The Summerlin Institute was founded by Jacob Summerlin in 1867. Originally constructed as a wood-frame building, it began to deteriorate in the mid-1880s, and was soon replaced by a substantial brick building. The Summerlin Institute had high quality educational equipment for the times, including 12 botanical microscopes, a four-inch telescope valued at $250, survey instruments, and electrical mechanisms. When the new Summerlin Institute was completed in 1889 at a cost of $20,000, it was the only brick school south of Jacksonville. By 1901 enrollment had reached 470; a majority of the registered students were women.

Canter Brown writes in his Peace River Frontier, “The old Summerlin Institute constructed in 1867, had begun to show it’s age. In 1884 it was ‘a rickety old frame building,’ containing only the rudest furniture and a promiscuous lot of pupils ranging from infancy to manhood.” On May, 12, 1887, Jacob Summerlin laid the corner stone for his new institution. Crowds came from as far north as Orlando and at even greater distance from the Charlotte Harbor to witness the event. Dr. W.F. Yocum would be the school’s first principal.

Two of the Institute’s most enterprising faculty members included Miss Rowana Longmire and Miss Maud Schwalmeyer, who were progressive teachers in their own right. In a time when women’s rights were far from equal to that of their counterparts, and in an era predating women’s suffrage, these women, as early as 1894, were teaching the sciences, chemistry and advanced English.

In the 1899 Biennial Report, the Superintendent of Public Instruction in the state of Florida is quoted as saying: “One of the chief factors in the recent progress of the school [Summerline Institute] has been the admirable primary work of Miss Schwalmeyer, one of Col. Parker’s trained teachers, and the best results must follow such good early training.”

In her 1904 essay, “Child Study and Primary Methods,” Miss Maud Schwalmeyer spoke passionately about the need for psychological and pedagogical studies. She spoke at the Southern Educational Association’s annual meeting and purported the following: “Let us begin with form study. All representation begins with the six geometrical forms. This knowledge coupled with childish joys of creating or representing things in everyday life, is used in the first steps of symbols. If these form lessons are connected with early lessons of the reader by association, a child learns a whole word in the same time and with the same effort required to learn a single letter. Hence, we have the successful word method in print and script.” It was a brilliant essay at the time.

In terms of Miss Longmire’s contribution to teaching, the following is noted in “The School Journal of 1898” about her: “Tuesday afternoon Miss Rowena Longmire read a paper ‘Observations on Children’s Reading.’ She asserted that reading is a means of development for the teacher as well as the pupil. It brings the teacher and the pupil together than does any other study. It often wins unruly pupils.” Miss Longmire was a true advocate for reading.

Miss Schwalmeyer articulated her own views on education in 1904, stating that, “Again, instead of filling the minds of little children with beautiful things in the texts of the best authors, we have boiled down all the mythology and nearly all of the English classics in simple prose for children, until little is left for them in the original, except ‘Paradise Lost.’ When primary curricula contains biology, chemistry, ethics, hygiene, evolution, astronomy, history, manual arts, mythology, music, arts, etc., there is a direct violation of the law of ’stimulus through newness or curiosity,’ and takes away the interest that should be excited when a text book of a new subject is taken up.” Her essay was very courageous, questioning the educational structures and boundaries of her time.

Miss Longmire and Miss Schwalmeyer were forerunners of early Victorian feminism at the “Turn of the Century” and were distinguished teachers. Rowena Longmire, along with Miss Maud Schwalmeyer, would later leave the Summerlin Institute at Bartow in 1905 to become founding members of the Florida State College for Women (FSCW) Alumni Association.

Through the Buckman Act of 1905, the state legislature reorganized higher education in Florida, establishing a school for female students in Tallahassee, FL. In 1947, the Legislature designated Florida State College for Women as coeducational, later changing the name to The Florida State University. The Longmire Building located on the Florida State University campus was constructed and named in honor of Miss Rowena Longmire in 1938.

In conclusion, women’s involvement with education in the Peace River Valley was substantial and evident in the late 1890’s. In fact, the Summerlin Institute was known as one of the most progressive schools in the county and the state, with women comprising the majority of the graduating classes. My sole purpose of this article is to enlighten my readers of the role of women and their importance in education in what was still a frontier town. I am regretful that my sources were limited, as much of history in those times was written mostly by men.