In honor of Alma Clay --- and teachers in general

Classes resume in the Chariton school district on Tuesday, so I've been thinking about the teachers who will be on hand to greet students next week --- noble souls for the most part who enter a profession guaranteed not to make them rich, committed to the welfare and nurture of their charges. 

Alma Clay (1872-1928) was one those, in her time perhaps the most widely known and admired, now largely forgotten. The portrait here is from the Lucas County Historical Society collection.

Born in Sweden, Miss Clay arrived in the United States (and Chariton) at the age of 9 and was an 1889 graduate of Chariton High School. She taught rural schools for three years, then joined the elementary school staff in Chariton where she remained for 34 years, rising eventually to principal.

Stricken by cancer in 1926, she died two years later. During the weeks prior to her death, the school district decided to rename the its former high school "Alma Clay" in her honor. And so it remained until the summer of 1970, when torn down.

Victor Swartzendruver was editor of The Herald-Patriot at the time of Miss Clay's passing on Sept. 26 1928. Here's his tribute to her, published in The Herald-Patriot of that week:

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Nothing that is now written in praise of Alma Clay, long time teacher and noble woman of Chariton,, will be seen by her, nor will she smile that gracious peaceful smile at this mention of her name. But this writer, privileged to hold acquaintance and to be associated with her a few times in small tasks of school and community interest, would not be making an honest use of this column if he neglect to call attention at this time to the  spirit and genius of she who has passed.

Alma Clay was an unusual woman and she did unusual things in that she dedicated her life to service, and so gave it. She had a remarkable aptitude, a natural endowment that is not given to many persons, and hundreds of young people and some not so young in Chariton are better men and women because of Alma Clay. Miss Clay taught gentleness because she sensed the obligation owing to him who made us, and to the common nature which we all share. She taught honesty because she realized honesty means honor. She taught humility because she understood that true humility is a right estimate of our selves as seen by the creator of all. She taught industry because she realized that all time is lost that might have been employed to a better purpose. She taught all the virtues because she recognized the fundamentals of useful living, and these she impressed on her students. She was a remarkable teacher because she did more than teach the book text, efficient as she was in this.

And so Miss Clay is gone, and if the reader can find nothing else from her life to remember and think about, let it be occasionally recalled that the life and being of Miss Alma Clay among Chariton people was proof that persons noble beyond ordinary do yet move among us. Her service at Chariton was a thing of use and beauty, and let her example give us faith, and impress us that it is possible in this worldly age to approach even yet the high minded state that is intended for us.