University of Wisconsin Oshkosh - Quiver Yearbook (Oshkosh, WI)

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ROSE C. SWART TO the readers of this sketch of Miss Swart the incidents of early life overcome will perhaps be as beneficial as a dissertation upon the influence she has directly exerted for (food upon more than 5,000 students of this school. Miss Swart is a native of Pennsylvania. At the age of ten years she lost both her parents. The father was from the sturdy stock of Hollanders, the mother of the keen-witted but no less sturdy line of Puritans. Soon after the death of her parents, she came with her elder and only sister to Racine, Wis., a lonely stranger in the western world. The next three years were sjient in school, during which she reached the high school grades while the educational stimulus of John 1. McMvnn (the pioneer educator of Wisconsin), was at its best. In 1862 Col. McMvnn went south to battle for country's freedom, and Miss Swart, a lass of 15, began her struggle as an officer in the field of education, in a rural school of Racine countv, at $8 a month with board. The realization that this was independence, that she was now equal to a self-sustaining life, gave her courage and left no room for repinings. The next four years were repetitions in detail of the first term, varied by two winters of further schooling in the high school at Burlington. These terms closed the formal pupilage and training in the public schools. From this time her personal conviction of needs has been her schoolmaster; an ever present motive which has brought forth fruits for which the majority court college precincts in vain. After four years of struggle in country schools she was invited to graded school work at East Troy, Walworth Countv. to take charge of a primary department of five grades, and 12 pupils : salary $30 a month. She remained in this position three years, where she developed a reputation which extended beyond the limits of Walworth County; and the superintendent of Racine, avaricious of excellence, urged claim to her service, promising $ » and the freedom of the city in which to grow great. Instead of accepting the Racine position she went to Janesville to take charge of a grammar department under the supervision of Supt. W. I). Parker, who hail known of her worth Ik-fore the Racine man thought of securing her services. In the summer of 1871 the authorities at Madison deliberately outbid Janesville by the munificent offer of $5 more a month and equally wide margin of compensation in glory. In fact Wisconsin has been very liberal in compensating its teachers with this last named currency during the last half century, and Miss Swart accepted both compensations. Whether the thought that residence within the sacred fold of the capital city was privelegc to forego the association with the valued superintendent of Janesville, the record does not reveal, 14

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ROSE C. SWART I

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but circumstances cut short any aspirations which may have budded in the sphere of Madison; for the Oshkosh Normal School, then in itsstruggling infancy, had sought far and near for a teacher of primary grades with little success; there simply did not exist in the state those who were possessed of skill and at the same time with any breath of view regarding the significance of education and the mission of a normal school. It was Supt. Parker, who said Why not try Miss Swart, she has great sense at least ?” An invitation with very dubious possibilities of renown, was promptly accepted, and Miss Swart assumed duties in December 1871. over a room full of children, as many in grades, though not so numerous as that of her first graded experience. A mild sort of chaos had reigned, but that fled without standing upon the manner of its going, when Miss Swart entered the room and has never returned. Prom fifteen to twenty-five docs not seem a long period when we look back over time spaces, but how charged with preparation for that solitary straggler, whose chief purpose appears to have been to meet every present duty as her ability could, while the future intruded but little ; certainly did not excuse from the most strenuous effort to deal to the utmost with the immediate demand. Still we see intimations of realization that the future had demands if not rewards in store; for from the time she left the high school, some branch of study was kept constantly on the anvil, forging for use either as increased power or as material for wider outlook on life. Such a woman, so trained and equipped, found herself, for the first time, working in close co-operation and intercourse with men and women trained in some of the best colleges of the land. They had messages for her and she for them, so equal in values that no spirit of patronage was ever manifest. With all the excellence of the work done with children, it was clear to educators that Miss Swart’s greatest talent lav in other directions than charge of the primary: and after three years of most acceptable work, she was gladly passed to a chair in the normal department of the school, that of geography. Thousands can testify what her efforts came to mean to the department of geography in the Oshkosh Normal. In 1897 Miss Swart accepted a position in an academy in St. Paul. The year following the board of regents tendered her the necessary advance in wages to secure her return to this school. Four years later, 1884, the work of inspection had became too burdensome to be borne longer by the president and he asked that Miss Swart be permitted to aid for half time daily. Two years later, the position of inspector of practice was made independent and Miss Swart placed in charge. Within a few months the city of Philadelphia tendered to her the position of assistant superintendent at $1,800. The board of regents promplv met the demand necessary to keep her in her chosen work. In June, 1$%, the University of Wisconsin honored Miss Swart and the state by conferring upon her the degree of Master of Arts. At the meeting of the Wisconsin Teacher Association held in Milwaukee, iti December 1807, Miss Swart was chosen president almost without opposition, undoubtedly the highest honorary position ever conferred upon a woman in our state. During this relation to one institution for more than twenty-five years, filling in fullest degree all positions named, and that of teacher of German for some years, acceptably, as well. Miss Swart has never degenerated into a 16