Lexington Teacher Now in the East

Lexington Teacher Now in the East

Boller, Ada.

The article was obtained from The Fort at Lexington [Illinois] which is run by the Lexington Genealogical and Historical Society in the town where Mr. Boller was born. It is an account of the life of Mr. Boller's sister, Ada Boller. It supplies information about her life as a school teacher in Lexington, Illinois.

Trimmer, D. F.

Unknown.

Unkown.

February 16, 1917.

The Fort at Lexington [Illinois].

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English.

Text.

Editor Pantagraph: We are quite sure that the patrons of the paper will be pleased and will look with pleasure on the familiar face and form of her, whose picture we here present.

The Boller's were a fine family and a popular people of honored lineage in the early days; coming to Lexington from Indiana in 1857. Their residence and half block of ground was situated just north of the new high school building.

Religiously, Mr. Boller was a Baptist, as were the children. The good old habit of al the family spending the evenings by the fireside, around the reading lamp, engaged in study and useful endeavor, was strictly adhered too; the results of which will be shown later on.

The mother, of course, was of the worthy type, whose works go on when...


...they have fallen asleep. We do well to honor them before the rising generation, that their tribe may be increased.

Of the eleven children the following remain: Mrs. A. G. Woodward, of Tulare, Cal.; W. A. Boller, of New York; C. E. Boller of Philadelphia; C. V. Boller, of New York; Carrie E. Boller and Ada A. Boller, both of Brooklyn. "bring up the child in the way he should go and when older he will not depart from it," is not a sacred saying only, but it's a truism and holds good in the above mentioned, for all hold positions of honor and trust, and have a rating in the business world.


Mr. Boller figured largely in the educational interests of Lexington at one time. About the year of 1862, he and the Rev. J. G. Evans, then pastor of the M. E. church, introduced the grade system in the Lexington schools. The school was held in an old two-story building near where the Baptist church now stands. It aws enlarged by moving and adjoining other buildings to it. The teachers in order of rank at that time were J. G. Evans, Mr. Boller, Emma Fulwiler, Agnes Hughes and mary Watkins. Devotional services were held in the assembly room each morning which might be practiced with profit now in our schools

Mr. Boller was an expert penman and taught writing school for several years, having as many as one hundred in his class, young and old people and even married people took writing lessons from him.

Miss Ada Boller, whose sketch this is, inherited from her father the tact of teaching and the gift of imparting knowledge to others. She attended the public schools, taught successfully in the country, then entered the state normal university. After two years she was called back to Lexington to substitute for Miss Taggart, at the West primary who, on account of sickness, had to resign. Here it was this capable, conscientious teacher gave twenty-three years of her life almost a quarter of a century to her chosen profession, she having commenced in 1873.

About the year 1890, the family moved to Chicago. Miss Boller joined them in 1896. There she taught music and was successful. In 1906 they moved to Bronxville, New York. After the death of her mother, which occurred in 1912, the two sisters moved to Brooklyn. At the present time Miss Carried has a paying position on Wall street. Miss Ada continues her music teaching.


To Miss Boller children were charming, and they cheered her on. In sone respects she as mother to them, always keeping needle and thread on her desk in readiness to replace buttons, mend rents in their clothes, or bandage little stubbed toes. Treats were always given on holidays, punishment was very rare, for love ruled and not the rod. Calesthenics with guitar and the teacher's sweet contralto voice to lead, was not only the children's delight, but enjoyed by the grownups as well. As I remember, one exercise ran like this: "Rap a tap tap, tink a tat to, this is the way we make a shoe." It was almost unbelievable how the children could read music, understand fractions and mental arithmetic.

Miss "Tot" Mahan, the bank's bookkeeper, and a busy business woman, says: "It was Miss Boller who taught me my A. B. C'S, promotion to the big brick school and from room to room, grade to grade, and from graduation to graduation, up and out into the busy business world, is all very well. But the lesson that lasts  and the love that lingers, is the little West primary, where we learned to sing, speak and play, romp and run, march hand in hand, arm in arm, cuddle our dolls in the shade of the trees and form friendships never to be fogotten."

It is a pleasure to speak of the high appreciation for the services rendered. Hers was a field of fruitful endeavor and the little West primary was advertised by the consecration of it's teacher, and the deed and results of its boys and girls in attendance. The splendid army she tutored and trained, are growning aged and old, they are scattered ober this and other states, and I but voice the sentiment of each and all when I say we hold her in loving remembrance.

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