Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1883 (Creation)
Extent
1 folder (1 diary)
Name of creator
Biographical history
Ida Frances Totten was born February 21, 1861, to Benjamin Totten and Harriet Monks Totten in Sussex County, New Jersey. She attended Andover Academy, then possibly a Normal School. According to her diary, in the autumn of 1883 she was placed in a teaching position in Greenville (now called Greendell) School, in Green Township, Sussex County, about 5 miles from her home in Andover. But her contract extended to the following term and it is not known whether she taught again or continued with her education. On April 4, 1894, she married Fred Mortimer Hunt, who was a New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton class of 1889 graduate, and also one of the first editors of the Signal newspaper. The pair likely met while he was a principal at Andover School in Sussex County and she was likely living at or near her home. They had several children, though only two lived to adulthood (Leroy and Helen), and made their home in Spring Lake, Monmouth County, where Fred taught before becoming a clerk. Ida died in her mid-40s on October 27, 1907, and was buried in Andover alongside Fred who died in 1928.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
It is not known whether or not, or where, Ida Totten might have attended a Normal School or received teacher training, but in the fall term of 1883, she began a diary to record her first experience of teaching in Greenville (now called Greendell) School, in Sussex County. She described her frustrations with named children in her class and the challenges of disciplining them, as well as her activities at home on the weekends including attending temperance meetings and church. The final pages of the diary are from May 1884 and contain notes from Page’s Theory and Practice of Teaching, so perhaps she was continuing her teaching education, or had not yet graduated (if she did).
Some of the names mentioned in the diary include: Catherine or Kate Ayers Rutan, Sarah Grace Batley Coleman, Louis Berry, Elsie F. Howell, Abraham or Abram Hubert, Rosie Kinney, Irving Labar, Anna or Annie Longcor, Cora Longcor, Daniel Longcor, William K. Longcor, Stella R. Morris Emmans, Mr. and Mrs. Redding, J. Stackhouse, Annie Stackhouse, Benton Stackhouse, Cassius Stackhouse, Albert Stang, Anson Stang, William Stang, Dr. Sidney Brian Straley, Benjamin Totten, and Jacob or Jake Wolf.