Historical Commission Corner
SEPTEMBER 2021
September makes us think about the beginning of a new school year and school days of yore. Since the coal mines weren’t yet in production in the early days around Superior, local farmers generally created schools and districts for the children scattered throughout the countryside. George Washington Eggleston homesteaded 160 acres along Coal Creek west of present-day Original Town Superior in 1864. The following year, joined by his wife Sara, and their children, the Egglestons created a school for all the children living in the area.
Since Sara Eggleston was qualified and experienced as a teacher back in Michigan, she established a school in her home, holding class in her living room and using her own books and materials. Then the Egglestons donated a parcel of land for a schoolhouse. Once the little structure was built, their daughter Bessie was hired on as the first salaried teacher in the Eggleston School District.
Once the Town of Superior was off and running due to the opening of local coal mines in the 1890’s, a school was created there, and Anna Ewing was hired as one of the early teachers. Her sister Flora was also hired to teach at a country school about three miles west of Town, the Eggleston School. Anna was hired at the rate of $50 per month and Flora’s salary was only $35 a month. The young sisters rented a three-room house in Original Town Superior for $5 a month.
Even though Flora found a shortcut to school, she still faced a 1.5-mile trek one-way. This was no stroll in the park. In Fora’s memoir she recalled the cutoff that involved “crawling under two or three fences and jumping across a ditch so wide I was afraid every time I jumped I would land short the other side.” This challenging situation motivated her father to purchase a pony for $10 that she could ride to school, and this she did. After brushing, cleaning, and feeding her horse following breakfast, Flora arrived at the schoolhouse at 7-7:30 in the morning, stabled her pony, and then built a fire in the heating stove to warm up the building for the students’ arrival at 8:30. She also did her own janitor work at the school.
 This one room (with two doors) schoolhouse served the Eggleston School District 3 miles west of Original Town Superior, ca. 1890’s.
Photo courtesy of Superior Historical Museum, Charles Waneka collection
 After a hearty breakfast, Flora Ewing would ride sidesaddle from Superior to her teaching assignment at the Eggleston School, ca. 1890’s.
Photo courtesy of Carnegie Library for Local History, Boulder
Times have certainly changed, but the American democratic tradition to “educate all the children of all the people” was established and took root in the Coal and Rock Creek valleys. We are thankful the tradition lives on.
For further reading, two wonderful resources are available:
Arsenault, Cynda. Superior: A Folk History. (Available for purchase at Superior Town Hall or the Superior Historical Museum)
Dyni, Anne. Back to the Basics – The Frontier Schools of Boulder County, Colorado, 1860-1960. Pages 8-9 tell Flora Ewing’s story.
The Superior Historical Museum will be open Saturday, September 4th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Stop in and see the historic resources on display there.
Did you know . . .
- On September 13, 1861, in the first naval battle of the Civil War, the Union frigate “Colorado” sank the Confederate privateer “Judah” off Pensacola, Florida?
- On September 17, 1935, Ken Kesey, Merry Prankster and American author, (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest), was born in La Junta, Colorado?
- In 1935, the cheeseburger was invented when cook Louis Ballast accidentally spilled some cheddar cheese on sizzling burger patties at his Humpty Dumpty drive-in on Denver’s Speer Boulevard?
For further information on Superior Historical Commission and Museum activities please contact Bryan Meyer, Town Staff, at 303-499-3675 or Larry Dorsey, Commission Chair, at 303-499-1969. Content by Larry Dorsey, Town of Superior Historical Commission. Proofed by Dorothy Mahan.
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