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Date(s)
- 1895-1922 (activités de gestion des documents)
Importance matérielle
8 folders
Nom du producteur
Notice biographique
Clara Johnson Wolverton was born on December 3, 1879, in Stockton, Hunterdon County, New Jersey, to Sarah Catherine Cole and Gabriel Wolverton. (Note: Wolverton is also sometimes spelled Woolverton in some sources). At the time of her birth, her parents were in their 40s and had two other surviving children - brothers Harry and Gabriel Jr. Some time in the 1880s, the family moved to Trenton, NJ where her father and brother worked as harness makers. Her earliest schooling is unknown, but she began keeping a meticulous record of her grades and teachers’ names while attending Centennial Grammar School from 1892 to 1894 (the current equivalent of middle school), then Trenton High School from 1894 to 1898, where she majored in English.
In the fall of 1898, she enrolled in New Jersey State Normal School. She was given the nickname “Toddie” by her peers and her favorite occupation was “performing experiments.” According to the school’s Grade and Report Book, she does well academically and is “Quick to understand a child’s point of view and to help, yet her manner seems unsympathetic, due to lack of facial expression. Ernest and shows some good ideas of teaching.” Despite the negative evaluation of her manner and expression, she was immediately placed in a teaching position at Bound Brook Public School just before her graduation in February 1901. For the next two years, she was well-reviewed by her superiors and admired by her students in Passaic County Public Schools in Manchester Township and Haledon Borough. Finally, In 1904, she accepted a permanent position in Trenton Public Schools.
She continued to live with her family in Trenton, which, at times, included her brother Harry and nephew Austin Wolverton. Her brother Gabriel Jr. worked in the insurance business as did Austin. Her father died in the early 1900s, and by 1910, she was living with her widowed mother at 248 Pearl Street in Trenton where she continued to live for several decades. In the 1920s, while teaching, she also attended the University of Pennsylvania and received a degree in education.
According to her obituary, she spent 50 years teaching science at Trenton Junior High School No. 1, which opened in 1916, and was later renamed Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School (closed in 2007). She died May 8, 1964, and was buried in Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey.
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This series contains a wide range of materials from her high school through professional years. From Trenton High School, there are tickets and programs for graduation exercises which contain lists of names of graduating students. From State Normal School, there are Matriculation (enrollment) cards, performance programs, and graduation event materials starting in 1898 until 1901. Of particular note are hand-written song lyrics to "Farewell to State Schools'' and "Seniors" sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle, as well as printed songs for holidays and February Class of 1901. From Wolverton’s early teaching years, there are event programs from her school, social, and possibly church activities. In addition, there are some personal items including a business card for her brother G. Wolverton Jr. at Prudential LIfe Insurance Company, a Pennsylvania Railroad Company Photographic Monthly Commutation ticket from 1929 when she may have still been a student at University of Pennsylvania, Red Cross membership certificates during WWI, and Botanical Society of Pennsylvania meeting programs and studies from the early 1920s. It is unknown if Clara Wolverton attended these programs for pleasure or part of her continued education to become a science teacher.