The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1910-05-12
WellKnoWnKenosha Woman
Named By Board of Educa-
ton as Supt. of Schools
WIDELY KNOWN AS EDUCATOR
Has Been Connected With the School
System of the State for Many Years
and Has Gained Fame as a Teacher
and Supervisor.

Kenosha is to follow Chicago by hav-
ing woman at the head of the city
school system for at the meeting of the
board of education held on Tuesday
evening Mrs. Mary D. Bradford was
elected by the unanimous vote of the
board to be superintendent of the
schools to succeed P. j. Zimmers who
was recently elected superintendent of
the schools of Manitowoc and who will
be released from his contract in Keno
sha on June l to begin his work at the
northern city The election of Mrs.
Bradford was not unexpected She
had been leader among the candidates
for the Office since the resignation of
Mr.. Zimmers and she was recommend
ed by the committee on teachers after
they had examined the recommends
lions of more then sixty applicants for
the position. The unanimous recon-
mendation of the committee brought to
Mrs. Bradford unanimous election.
Mrs. Bradford is at present head Of the
training department of the Whitewater
State Normal School, but she will at
once send her resignation to the state
and deception the election of the Ke-
nosha Board of Education She will
have the honor of being the first woman
to be placed at the head of the schools
of Kenosha.
Mrs. Bradford is a Kenosha woman
and she received her first training as
teacher in the schools of Kenosha
county. Through an experience cover
ing more than thirty-fve years she has
gained national repute as a teacher and
as an authority on educational subjects
and her election by the board will be
one that will meet with the hearty sup
port of the great majority Of the teach
ers and school patrons of the city.
Mrs. Mary Dawson Bradford, the
new superintendent, is native of Ke-
nosha county, farm in the town of
Paris being her birthplace. Her
father, Andrew j. Dawson, was one of
the pioneer settlers Of that section.
Her family moved to Kenosha when
she was child, thus affording her the
advantages of the Kenosha schools.
Her apprenticeship as a teacher be-
gan at an early age in the country
schools of the county. Circumstances
made it necessary for her to teach dur
ing the spring term and do her high
school work during the fall and win
ter. Her first school in Kenosha was
in the fourth grade of the fNew Build
ing" name well known to those ac-
quainted with the situation before
1890.
She was able to~attend the Oshkosh
Normal in rs and rs. The next year
brought her the position of second as
sistant in the Kenosha High School, T.
p. Marryalt being then principal.
In 1878 she was married to w. r.
Bradford, whose death occurred in
1881. Mrs. Bradford again took up
the work of teaching. She served a
year in the primary department of the
north side, Of which experience she has
many pleasant remembrances, taught in
the grammar department, and in 1884
again became member of the high
school faculty This position she held
for ten years.
Meanwhile her reputation as teach
er had spread and she was assigned
to institute work during the summer.
In 1894 at the opening of the state
normal school at Stevens Point, she was
asked by Pres. Pray to teach il that
school. For twelve years Stevens
Point was the scene of her labors, her
position being that Of principal Of the
grammer school, and supervisor of prac-
tice. Her experience in the Kenosha
High School, before the DAYS of de-
partmental work, had given her a
varied experience that proved the best
sort of a qualification for directing the
teaching of the different subjects.
In 1906, Superintendent L. D. Har-
vey Of Menominee, Wis, invited Mrs.
Bradford to go there to take the posi-
ton Of assistant superintendent Of
schools and as teacher in the Stout In
stitute After three years in .AIenoni-
nee, she resigned, expecting to take a
year for study and writing; but an
offer from Whitewater Of the same
position as that held at Stevens Point
tempted her again into normal school
work,