As to vitalized teaching, Matilda Jones Madden, one of Miss Miner's pupils, wrote the following: "She gave special attention to the proper writing of letters and induced a varied correspondence between many prominent persons and her pupils, thus in a practical way bringing her school into larger notice with many of its patrons and friends and vastly increasing the experience of her pupils."
Mrs. John F. N. Wilkinson, a former pupil of Miss Miner, of Washington, D. C., states that Miss Miner held classes in astronomy with the larger girls who were required to meet at the school in the evenings to study their lessons from nature. Mrs. Amelia E. Wormley, the mother of the writer, residing in Washington, also a pupil of Miss Miner, recalls vividly the emphasis which Miss Miner placed upon the teaching of physical culture and the tenderness with which she handled the younger children of her school.[7]
The school increased in usefulness and importance. As a result of this, on March 3, 1863, the Senate and House of Representatives passed an act to incorporate this institution for the education of girls of color in the District of Columbia. By the act William H. Channing, George J. Abbot, Miss Miner, and others, their associate and successors were constituted and declared a body politic and corporate by the name and title of "The Institution for the Education of Colored Youth," to be located in the District of Columbia. Though this act of Congress legalized the institution, the school appears to have lapsed into inactivity from 1863 to 1871 because of the absence of its guiding spirit, Miss Miner. On account of ill health she was compelled to give up the work, and the strain and stress of civil affairs reduced national interest and support to a minimum. After a sojourn of three years in California in search of renewed energy and more funds for the fulfillment of her plans and the consummation of her ideals, Miss Miner departed from this life at the home of Mrs. Nancy M. Johnson of Washington, D. C., on the 17th of December 1864.
In 1871 the work of the school was resumed in connection with Howard University. A preparatory and Normal Department was opened and controlled by this institution but supported by the Miner Funds. The school existed in this connection until September 13, 1876, when it began a separate and independent existence which lasted until 1879 when it was taken over by the school system of the District of Columbia. From 1879 to 1887 the Miner Normal School was jointly controlled by the Board[8] of Trustees of the Public Schools of the District and the Miner Board of Trustees, the principal's salary being paid by the Miner Board to which she made her reports while the obligation of keeping up the enrollment of the school was assumed by the Trustees representing the District Government.
In 1887 the Trustees of the District assumed full charge of the school thus centralizing authority and management. The unification of the dual management under District authority added keener interest on the part of the citizenship of the community and a deeper feeling of responsibility on the part of the faculty. Fortunately for the institution, moreover, the women who succeeded Miss Miner as the heads of this institution caught the great spirit of their predecessor and in their efforts to continue the useful work which she had done, followed so closely in the path which she had trodden as to assure success and preclude any necessity for general reorganization.
The first of these women to take up the work of Miss Miner, was Miss Mary B. Smith, of Beverly, Massachusetts, who was assisted by her sister Miss Sarah R. Smith. These two worthy ladies were succeeded by Miss Martha Briggs who is characterized by Dr. W. S. Montgomery in his Historical Sketch on Education for the Colored Race in the District of Columbia, 1807-1905, "as a born teacher whose work showed those qualities of head and heart that have made her name famous in the annals of education in the character of the graduates. The student teachers caught her missionary spirit and went forth from her presence stronger souls, full of sympathy to magnify the teacher's vocation and to inspire the learner. Many of the women who sat at her feet are laboring in the schools here now, filling the highest positions and in beauty and richness of character running like a thread of gold through the teaching corps."
Miss Briggs was succeeded in 1883 by Dr. Lucy E. Moten, who after faithful and successful service for thirty-seven years, retired June 20, 1920. As principal of the Miner Normal School, Dr. Moten graduated the majority of the teachers now employed in the public schools of the District. She saw the Normal course lengthened from a one year course to that of a two year course, offering greater opportunity for broader professional equipment of the student teachers, the results of which are manifest in the Washington Public Schools today. This school, however, is destined in the near future to undergo other changes in the line of progress. It may be the extension of the course to three years or the development of a Teacher's college of four years which will offer courses leading to a degree. With an enthusiastic whole-hearted response of the teaching corps of Washington, D. C., to the slogan of the new Superintendent, Dr. Frank Washington Ballou—"Hats off to the past and coats off to the future," The Miner Normal School will reach higher in its aim to serve and realize the ideals of its noble founder and benefactress, whose struggles and sacrifices are sacred in the memory of every teacher of color in the District of Columbia.
G. Smith Wormley.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The facts set forth in this sketch were obtained largely from Ellen M. O'Connor's Myrtilla Miner, A Memoir; W. S. Montgomery's Historical Sketch of the Education for the Colored Race in the District of Columbia, 1807-1905; and The Special Report of the Commissioner of Education on the condition and improvement of the Public Schools in the District of Columbia, submitted to the Senate June 1868 and the House, with additions, June 17, 1870-1871. Some valuable facts were also obtained from former pupils of Miss Myrtilla Miner now residing in the District of Columbia and from public spirited citizens who cooperated with her.