Three Gleeson sisters were school teachers. Elizabeth (1865-1942), Helena Mary (1867-1950), and Margaret T. (1873-1941) grew up first in Carleton County, Ontario, Canada, and then moved to Davison County, Dakota Territory in 1879.
By the 1890s, Elizabeth and Helena were living in Anaconda, Montana, and worked as school teachers. Margaret arrived before 1900 and followed in their footsteps. None of these women married. Helena and Margaret taught school for their entire life. Elizabeth had other adventures after teaching for a few years and ended up being a landlord in Los Angeles.
However, what do school teachers do in the summer months? Take trips. Newspapers reported on these trips, so it is interesting to see where they traveled.
Summer of 1899
“Miss Elizabeth Gleeson left last evening via the Northern
Pacific for South Dakota on a visit to her former home.”[1]
Her parents still resided in Mitchell. The Northern Pacific Railroad line traversed from Seattle to Minneapolis. A map from 1885 shows the train did not stop in Anaconda. She would have had to make her way to Butte to catch a short line north to Garrison, a connection on the mainline.
A 1909 map shows a connection in Anaconda. So perhaps the line had been extended when she left. The Northern Pacific did not stop in Mitchell, either, and she would have taken another branch line train.[2] It would have been a twenty-four-hour overnight ride to McKenzie, North Dakota, where she would have caught her connection.[3] I would need to locate the timetable of the branch line connection to know when she would arrive in Mitchell. Likely, it took an extra day, and maybe even having to stay overnight in McKenzie.
“Miss Margaret Gleeson left yesterday for Santa Monica, Cal.
She will visit with her sister during the summer vacation.”[4]
Now Margaret could have traveled west on the Northern Pacific to Portland, Oregon.
From Portland, she would have caught a Southern Pacific Railroad train to Oakland, and then another train down the valley to Los Angeles.[5] The trip to Portland would also be overnight.[6] Today, the trip to Los Angeles from Portland would also be an overnight trip, arriving early evening the next day.[7]
My husband just suggested that she could have caught the Oregon Short Line train to Ogden and then a San Pedro Los Angeles and Salt Lake City train to Los Angeles. That might have been faster and easier to purchase a through ticket.[8]
Both sisters must have had a good visit with family. Elizabeth
would have visited with her parents, John and Margaret Gleeson, and five of her
brothers, Martin, John, Willie, and Frank. Margaret went to Santa Monica to
visit her older sister, Mary Martha, who had married Warren W. Gilbert. She may
have had fun playing with Mary Martha’s four-year-old daughter, Muriel.
[1] “About
the City,” Anaconda Standard, 13 Jun 1899, p. 4, col. 3.
[2]
For the 1885 map, see “Map of Northern Pacific Railroad and Connections,” (Chicago,
Illinois: Rand McNally & Co., 1885), digital image, Montana History (https://www.mtmemory.org/nodes/view/45337#idx383776);
Montana State Library. For the 1909 map, see “Northern Pacific Railroad” (New
York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1909) from The New Encyclopedic Atlas and
Gazetteer of the World; imaged at Alabama Maps (https://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/railroads/Northern%20Pacific%20RR.htm),
Northern Pacific Railroad.
[3]
The 1885 map has the timetable on the back.
[4] “About
the City,” Anaconda Standard, 13 Jun 1899, p. 4, col. 3.
[5] “Southern
Pacific Railroad” (New York: P.F. Collier and Son, 1909) from The New
Encyclopedic Atlas and Gazetteer of the World; imaged at Alabama Maps
(https://alabamamaps.ua.edu/historicalmaps/railroads/Southern%20Pacific%20RR.htm),
Southern Pacific Railroad.
[6]
1885 timetable.
[7] Official
Railway Guide of the Railway and Steam Navigation Lines in the United States,
Canada, and Mexico, (New York: National Railway Publication Co., 1899), p. 483.
[8] “Southern
Pacific Railroad” map, 1909.
These teachers must have seen a bit of the country while on their travels to visit with family. TY for including those maps!
ReplyDeleteI love the maps. Interesting they never married.
ReplyDeleteMy GG Aunt, Gertrude McGinnis, was born in Wisconsin. She lost her leg when she was a small child in a farming accident and her family sent her to college because they knew she would not be able to work on a farm. She became a teacher first in Rifle, Colorado, and then she taught math and German in a High School in Gooding, Idaho. She traveled extensively, even to Europe and Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteI love your use of maps to track their movements. Maps are the best!
ReplyDelete