Page:Women of distinction.djvu/88

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WOMEN OF DISTINCTION.

from the Normal School. While attending this institution she entered a teachers' examination in Newport with sixteen Anglo-Saxon candidates, and came out of it with a general average of 94⅓ per cent. This, while not exceptionally high, was, according to official statement, the highest average that had, up to date, been gained in that city in a teachers' examination. A regulation certificate duly signed was given her, the first time that anything of this kind had occurred in the history of Rhode Island.

In the fall of 1879 she began her life-work as a teacher, and ten consecutive years were thus spent in an enthusiastic and self-sacrificing manner. Bight of these years were spent in Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri, to which institution she was called by Professor Inman E. Page soon after he became its official head. He had been made acquainted with her success as a student through her former instructors. She was at once put in charge of chemistry and succeeded so well with this and other scientific branches assigned her that eventually the entire department of natural science was turned over to her. At the time of her resignation she was Professor of Natural Science in the before mentioned institution, at a salary of one thousand dollars per school year, and was, at that time, probably the only colored lady in the country holding such a position. During this entire period her summers were invariably spent in the East, where, seizing every opportunity offered by teachers' associations, summer schools and individual effort, she endeavored to find out the best methods by