Harriet Weir Green: Educator and Matron at Her Father’s School

Harriet Weir Green: 1848-1932 (Maternal 2^nd Cousin 3x Removed)

Susan Mary Weir, discussed in my last post, died at age 53, leaving two grown children and a husband. Susan’s husband, William Lewis Green, had served as schoolteacher while young, and then became a Presbyterian minister. After Susan’s death, he combined his two professions, opening a faith-based school in the small city of Poynette, Wisconsin. Susan and William’s daughter, Harriet Weir Green, became an indispensable member of the school faculty as both a teacher and school matron.

Harriet Weir Green was born in October 1848 in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, where her father, William, worked as a schoolteacher. William began serving as a church pastor in the 1850s, leading the family to frequently relocate. By the time Harriet was thirty years old, the family had lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, and Illinois. While Harriet’s brother William married and became a successful and wealthy businessman, moving to California, Harriet remained at home, probably caring for her parents.

Following her mother’s death when Harriet was 31 years old, her father took a ministerial position in the town of Poynette, Wisconsin. Harriet moved there with him. Around 1883, William decided to purchase an old hotel to convert into a school. According to a history of the school written by Emilie Heidemann, William wanted to give low-income children “a biblical alternative to public school” and train them to “lead ‘useful’ lives.” She stated that “Green developed a curriculum that incorporated the Bible’s words into various courses.”

Vintage postcard showing the Poynette Academy

William needed to staff his school when it opened in 1884, and I hypothesize he hired an experienced teacher from the area named Fanny Curtis. Miss Curtis had been involved in the organization of the Poynette Teachers Association in 1875, so was a long-time teacher.

William and Fanny quickly moved beyond a professional relationship, marrying January 1, 1885. Fanny was 33 years old. William was 59, twenty-six years her senior. Harriet was three years older than her new stepmother.

Harriet continued to live in the household, even as her father and stepmother started a family, having two little girls, Fannie Christina, born in 1888, and Margaret Ruth, born in 1890.

William Green put a lot of thought into the school and its curriculum. He had acquired fifty acres of farmland to support students interested in agriculture. In addition, he expanded the school building so that it could become a boarding school. The Heidemann article stated that:

“In 1887, Green had the institute building moved slightly west, and a new building constructed in the front. The old building then became a dormitory.

According to an entry from the Poynette Press dated Aug. 21, 1891, the autumn term of the institute commenced on the first Wednesday of September. Tuition in the primary department of the school was $3, and tuition in the intermediate and academic departments was $5.”

According to Harriet’s obituary, she began teaching at the academy in 1881, which cannot be correct as the Academy didn’t open until 1884. However, we can assume that she took on teaching duties from the beginning. The obituary described her as “widely known in Wisconsin as a Bible student” so it seems possible that she taught religion classes at the school.

The 1900 census provides some fascinating information about the Academy. First, Harriet, or Hattie as she was going by, had her occupation listed as “matron of school”, but her father, listed as “Dr. Green” although he was a minister not a PhD, had the occupation of “farmer”!

Two other teachers are included on the census, one a 28-year-old woman and one a 33-year-old woman. Their names were followed by the names of 26 boarding students. To my surprise, these students were far older than I had expected. They ranged in age from sixteen to thirty! Obviously, this Academy was more akin to a private college or trade school than a high school.

William Green’s health failed as he grew older. Poynette Academy actually closed for two years between 1901 and 1903 due to his incapacitation. A new school president took charge and the school reopened in 1903. The Heidemann article stated there were 38 students and five teachers.

William Green died later that year on July 28, 1903. He was 77 years old.

Tragically, his much younger wife, Fanny, developed breast cancer and died just three years later on January 6, 1906. She was only 54.

This left Harriet, then 57 years old, responsible for her two young half-sisters, who were sixteen and nineteen. She ran the household while they completed schooling. In addition, Harriet continued to teach at the Academy until it closed its doors in 1911 when it consolidated with Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Heidemann wrote:

“According to an article in the Poynette Press dated Feb. 3, 1911, while the institute was quite prosperous, ‘the improvement in free high schools and the introduction of their courses of such branches as manual learning and domestic science, had an undermining effect on the Poynette Academy, which finally dissolved in June, 1911.’”

Harriet’s half-sisters continued to live with her through their twenties. Her younger half-sister, Ruth, married and had a daughter she named Harriet Ruth Terry, a tribute to her older sister. Following Ruth’s divorce and mental health issues that left her institutionalized in Rock Island, Illinois, Harriet raised her young half-niece as well until her own health failed and half-sister Christina took over the household. Harriet Terry followed her aunt Harriet Green into the teaching profession.

Harriet Weir Green died December 20, 1932 at the age of eighty-four. She was buried in Poynette near her father, stepmother and eventually her half-sister Christina, who died in 1947.

The Poynette Academy building was repurposed first as a hotel, and then as an office building. It still stands on Main Street in Poynette, and houses several businesses as well as the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation.