Blanche Smith was born on June 27, 1881, to Sarah and Andrew Smith in Phillipsburg, New Jersey. When she enrolled in the New Jersey State Normal School, she was living in Lambertville with her great-uncle Amos Smith (1830-1901), her grandfather William Smith’s brother. Amos’s household also included his niece Clara Tomson and her children, including Grace Tomson (1896-1990) who graduated from the Normal School in 1915. At the Normal School, Blanche received high grades. Her final evaluation in Grade Books and Reports, volume 1 on page 130, said: “Earnest, enthusiastic over her work. Has teaching power. Discipline good. She needs to cultivate repose of manner, tho’ this need is not noticeable in the classroom.” She graduated in June 1901, with a certificate to teach primary grades. She taught in Belmar and Garfield, N.J. school systems until she married Winthrop T. Woodford in 1907, and had two children: John W. (1909-1996) and Saramae “Sally” or “Sallie” (Conn) (c.1914-2000). They resided in Garfield and later Westfield, where she died at age 100 on April 1, 1982.
Instructor in Kindergarten Practice at New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton.
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.
Rosena Craig Foster was born September 2, 1890, to Samuel P. Foster, founder of a local bank and editor of the Elmer Times Newspaper, and Fannie Bateman Foster, in Elmer, Salem County, New Jersey. She attended Bridgeton High School, then New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton where she studied Music and Manual Training. According to the school’s Grade Books and Reports, Volume III, her grades were favorable and her final evaluation read: “Has teaching power. Individualizes well and manages a primary grade well. Lacks ease in speaking, but has a sweet voice.” In the spring of 1910, she completed her student teaching in Millville, New Jersey, and graduated in June 1910. According to family history provided by her granddaughter, she was assigned to work at Lafayette Elementary School (to teach music, dressmaking, and shop), in Highland Park, New Jersey, along with her Normal School classmate Mary Celia Whitlock (1891-1977), with whom she shared an apartment. During this time, she met Mary’s brother Frank Boudinot Whitlock, a banker, whom she married on May 28, 1913, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had four children and made their home in Highland Park, where Rosena lived for over 70 years. After her marriage, she stopped teaching, but volunteered through much of her life, including for the Red Cross during WWII and local and national chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She died at age 99 on March 5, 1990.
Kenneth H. Weber (1919-2009) graduated from New Jersey State Teachers College at Trenton in 1941. His first teaching position was in Phillipsburg. He later served in the Army Air Force during WWII. He taught Industrial Arts at Bernards High School in Bernardsville for many years.
Instructor in Domestic Science at New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton.
George Henry Voorhis was born on December 27, 1842, to Salome DeRonde and Lucas Voorhis near Hackensack, New Jersey. He entered the Normal School in Trenton in 1861 and graduated in 1862. On July 16, 1864, he married Jane Amanda Tindall. He worked as teacher and later, an administrator for several years in New Jersey. By 1868, he was the principal of Bordentown Public School (New Jersey). He received a state certificate for teaching first grade in 1880. He left Bordentown in 1881, and by the late 1880s, he was the principal of Trenton Public Schools’ Centennial School until 1902, when he retired early to Ocean Grove, New Jersey, due to poor health. He later returned to Trenton, where he died on May 14, 1911.
Jessie R. Turk (1920-2009) graduated from Montclair State Teachers College in 1942, then obtained a master's degree from Oberlin College and doctorate from Columbia. She was a Professor of Geography at Trenton State from 1947 to 1982. An oral history interview with her in 1991 is available to view at https://www.njvid.net/show.php?pid=njcore:17492
Michael A. Travers (1902-1970) received a law degree from New York University, then obtained Bachelor, Master, and Doctorate of Education degrees from Rutgers University. In 1928, he became the first Dean of Men at New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton. He also taught Business Education (as well as served as chairman of that department) for 40 years, retiring in 1968. In addition, he served as Hopewell Township Municipal Judge and taught courses at Rutgers and Temple Universities.
Mary Isabelle (who went by M. Isabelle) Vanderhoff was born in 1900, to Rosanna (also spelled Rose Anna) and Samuel H. Vanderhoff in Butler, Morris County, New Jersey. She enrolled in the New Jersey State Normal School where she was active in the school’s orchestra and mandolin clubs. Her description in the 1919 Seal yearbook on page 56, reads: “Isabelle surely is musical! We believe that she could make the violin tell a love romance which she might have difficulty in expressing verbally.” Her musical ability was judged more favorably than her academic ability as described in the Grade Books and Reports, volume 4 on page 102, as: “Lacking in enthusiasm & ability to make herself felt. Work lacks fire. Inclined to shirk but improved. Discipline & interest not strong. Practice was divided between grade & special work, which was unfavorable to Miss V. as she is slow of development.” She graduated in June 1919, and was placed in Butler School teaching the 4th and 5th grades, according to the Teaching Appointments Register, volume 2 (scanned page 48). In the 1920 census, she was still listed as a public school teacher in Butler, Morris County. She married Roy E. Tallman and had one son, Richard Tallman (1928- 2011). She continued to play violin in community groups, as mentioned in local newspapers, but wasn’t listed as a teacher in the census from 1930 on. She died in 1997, in Pompton Plains, New Jersey.