Bisbee daily review., 1917-10-26
FIRST SCHOOL TEACHER HERE
 VISITS AFTER
 LONCAbSENCE
Dr. Clara Judson Sillman of Pasadena Looks in Vain for Landmarks of 1886 When She Taught First Bisbee School.

Yesterday afternoon a woman stood
 upon the platform of the Phelps Dodge store and looked earnestly up the can yOn ana across a. the mountains on either side. Shading her eyes with
 her hand, she looked again and again. ! Then she shook her head sadly and.
 turning to her companion. said: ;It is no use: I cannot see a single land mark to remind me of other days"
 We'll might this lady look long and
 finger. and still find nothing to re
 mind her of her former sojourn in this district, for 31 years have passed
 by in squads and companies to be- pouch upon the field of time since sha had locked up and down this valley. Dr. Clara Judson Stillman of Pasa- dena, Cal, was the lady who stood in front of the Phelps Dodge store looking for familiar sign. and she was the first school teacher in the Warren district. Her ccmpanion is her sister-in-law, Mrs. H. c. Sillman of Douglas. To Mrs. Sillman was born the first white child in Bisbee. Mrs. Sillman had not been here for many years. and she moved to Douglas some b years ago. These ladies were the pioneers of the district in deed and in truth. They braved the pressing dan ger of the Indians and withstood a hundred privations when they came here to live. Only a few cabins, shacks and struggling stores chung to the mountain passes on either side of the trail, and the closest railroad line was at Benson, some 40 miles away by roads that were almost impossible most of the time.
 Miss Sillman is well-known physi- clan of Pasadena now. Her intelli- gent face lighted up and her compell- ing dark eyes shOne as she talked of the old days in Bisbee. She was a young girl with two years experience as a school teacher. living at Bridge T.. V. Sillman. telegraphed her to come out here and teach school. With the en- thusiasm and courage of youth she came at once. Leaving the train at Benson, she travelled by stage to Tombstone. and then down the can yon to her new home. They made the trip at night for fear of Indians.
 The first school house in Bisbee was at the second turn above Castle Rock in a little cabin deserted by some miner One little. window-a dirt floor. The Yankee schoolma'am used a barrel for desk and the children sat upon boxes. No books except al few the teacher had brought and nondescript books carried over from their own school days by parents of the schildren.
 Five pupils faced Miss Sillman the first few weeks of school. They were: William and James Munch (their mo- ther still lives here); Nellie and Jo- sephine Savage daughters of Judge Savage), and May Sillman. niece of the intrepid teacher
 Socn after school opened the miners became afraid to have the temple of learning so far from the town on ac- count of the Indians. and the parents feared for their children. So thel school was moved into the Miners hall in Brewery Gulch at the place. where Tovrea's market now stands. This hall was as much too large as the cabin was too small. But later more children were added to the rolls. and, five years later when Miss Sill man left here. she had 6S pupils en- rolled. counting the Mexican children.
 Many and interesting are the sto-l ries told by the first Bisbee school teacher Besides the dearth of books. there was no chalk, blackboard, pen cils and many other things now thought necessary to the smallest and most remote country school. For a blackboard she had three pine boards nailed together upon the wall and painted black She used chunks of tale from the mines for chalk and had to wash off the marks they made with soap and water Every Friday night she painted the board over again SO it would be fresh for Monday |
 The menace of the Indians always hung about them. The Apaches were on the warpath then, not yet being rounded up by General Miles. and many outrages in this To-