Mertice Alma Gillespie

  General Notes:

She wanted to go to college at age 16. Her father would not pay for it, saying "girls should go to finishing school, but not college." She went out and taught in a little one room school house near Jackson. She taught first through eighth grade to the farm children. She taught them Latin, probably the McGuffey Reader, square root and cube root techniques long hand. She, as were all Minnesota teachers in those days, supervised from Minneapolis, The State Department of Education. They sent her the tests to administer and grade. She returned them and they were re-graded in Minneapolis. Her evaluation as a teacher was based on the progress of her students and on her ability to know the answers to the tests when she graded them. At this time, she was only a high school graduate, not a graduate of a "Normal School".Her father, W. B. Gillespie, came to pick her up for Christmas or Thanksgiving in his sleigh. After she bundled up all the children, she went out and chopped the wood for the stove for the next class meeting. Her father observed, "You really want to go to college, don't you?" She indicated affirmatively, and he said that he would pay for it. She said, "I only had one disagreement with my father, but I won." She enrolled in Carleton College in the fall of 1898. Carleton was the second college in America to be coeducational. Very progressive for 1898. Village of Jackson, Des Moines Township, Jackson County, Minnesota. Supervisor District 2, Enumeration District 111, Sheet 11, Line 30, Page 122 A, June 12, 1900., Dwelling No. 212, Family No. 212 (No street address listed.) Head 21 single Iowa Canada/Eng NY At school last 9 months (Probably home for the summer break from Carleton College, but not living at home. WBLII)

She was Presbyterian

Mertice married Walter Ball Laffer M. D., son of William Lewis Laffer and Lavinia Babb Ball, on 25 Nov 1903 in Jackson, Jackson County, Minnesota. (Walter Ball Laffer M. D. was born on 14 Oct 1871 in Lima, Allen County, Ohio, died on 28 Jul 1925 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio and was buried on 30 Jul 1925 in Lakeview Cemetery, Cleveland, Cuyahoga County, Ohio.)