Perseverance, Determination, a delightful report of a girl with a purpose!!

LeMars Globe-Post (story on the front page)
Thursday, June 25, 1925

THIS LE MARS GIRL WAS AN ORIGINAL GO-GETTER

This is the story of a LeMars girl, just out of high school, who could give a lesson in go-getting to many a man. Her name will not be printed here, but the story is true and we can prove it.

This girl worked her way through the LeMars high school by doing housework and taking care of the children for a family here.  She missed some good times, but she got her education and this spring she was graduated, with qualifications to teach a rural school.

She heard of an opening about three miles from LeMars toward Dalton, and telephoned to one of the school board members.  It was a wet, rainy day.  The school board member got no particular enjoyment out of a long conversation.  “There’s been 10 or 12 before you.  I can’t give you this job without seeing you.  Sometime when you have nothing to do, come over and see me.”

“If there are 10 or 12 others,” thought the girl, “I’d better not lose any time.”  So she put on some old clothes and WALKED to Dalton.  She walked on the country roads—didn’t ride—walked in all that mud and down pour, and when she came to the home of the board member she found everybody at home keeping dry.

Well, he was surprised.  He hadn’t thought any girl wanted that job with $90 a month so much. He admired the girl, too, and signed the contract.

Most girls would have been content to go home now, and rest up, and dry up, but this girl, as we said, was a go-getter.  One signature on a contract wasn’t good enough.  The others might refuse to sign.  She thanked the farmer and asked him to tell her where the other board members lived—she would walk over and see them, too.

Be it said to his credit, he wouldn’t let her.  The roads were too bad for the car, so he hitched up some horses and took the girl around to his neighbors, and got their signatures, too, and she came home, proud and happy, the signed contract concealed under clothing to keep it dry.

She will start teaching in the fall, and judging from the display of mettle she gave, it is likely that the school will be hers as long as she wants it.

[Note from the transcriber: I have studied the TEACHER LISTS of the Washington Twp schools.  I believe I have narrowed down the identity of this determined young woman by eliminating the teachers who were known as veterans. There were five existing schools on the township list and very likely the newly graduated teacher was:  Martha Kammeier who taught Washington No. 4, 1925-1927.]

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