Laura Temple

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Laura Temple
A newspaper photograph of a middle-aged white woman with dark hair, center parted and dressed back to the nape
Laura Temple, from a 1914 newspaper
BornAugust 3, 1865
Jefferson County, Pennsylvania
DiedJune 23, 1949
Mexico
OccupationMissionary educator

Annie Laura Temple (August 3, 1865 – June 23, 1949) was an American teaching missionary, based in Mexico.

Early life[]

Temple was born in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Samuel Wylie Temple and Annie J. Smith Temple. She trained as a teacher at the State Normal School in Edinboro, and attended Allegheny College, where she earned a bachelor's degree in 1893 and a master's degree.[1] She earned a second master's degree in archaeology at the University of California.[2]

Career[]

Temple was a school teacher in Pennsylvania as a young woman. She went to work in Mexico under the auspices of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.[3] She was appointed principal of Hijas de Juarez school in Mexico City in 1903.[4] She was founder and director of the Sara L. Keen Methodist College in Mexico City,[5] which offered commercial and teacher-training courses.[1] She was president of the Mexican Education Society. In 1912, Temple was in the United States to attend missionary conferences in Baltimore and elsewhere.[6]

Temple was the only American missionary who did not evacuate the city in 1914, during the Mexican Revolution.[5] "If I were in the United States, I would volunteer to come here for Red Cross service. Now that I am here, why should I go away when there is an opportunity for serving?"[7] She successfully protected her school from violence and damage.[8]

In 1915, she spoke at a missionary conference in Pennsylvania,[9] and the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society meeting in San Francisco, and attended the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.[10] In 1916, she was a delegate to the Congress on Christian Work in Latin America, held in Panama.[11] After the Revolution, she founded and ran Granja, a farm school for orphaned boys, in Chapultepec.[12][13]

Temple was involved in archaeological projects in Mexico, and considered an expert on Mexican codices.[1] In 1923, in her fifties, she was part of a project led by Byron Cummings, studying ancient Navajo pueblos in Northern Arizona.[14][15]

Personal life and legacy[]

Temple died at her home in Mexico in 1949, aged 83 years.[3][2] One of the schools she founded was renamed the Laura Temple School.[2] Allegheny College had a Laura Temple Scholarship Fund.[12]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Leonard, John William (1914). Woman's Who's who of America: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Women of the United States and Canada, 1914-1915. American Commonwealth Company. p. 805.
  2. ^ a b c "Hazen Educator Buried in Mexico; Local Woman Founder of Laura Temple School, Mexico City". The Brockway Record. 1949-07-22. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b "Founder of School in Mexico Dies". The Jeffersonian-Democrat. 1949-07-21. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ "She Goes to Mexico". The Jeffersonian-Democrat. 1903-03-05. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b Clarke, Ida Clyde (1914-08-23). "Plucky Woman in Mexico Remains at Her Post". Lexington Herald-Leader. p. 17. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "About the Folks". Kingston Daily Freeman. October 21, 1912. p. 7. Retrieved August 9, 2021 – via Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers.
  7. ^ "Faces Peril for School; Miss Laura Temple Remains at her Post in Mexico". The Washington Post. 1914-05-15. p. 5. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ "Woman Remains to Face Mexican Mobs". Oakland Tribune. 1915-10-08. p. 13. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ "Missionary Conference Held in College Chapel". The Evening Republican. 1915-06-21. p. 6. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Church Women Granted Plaque". San Francisco Call. October 9, 1915. Retrieved August 9, 2021 – via California Digital Newspaper Collection.
  11. ^ "The Congress on Christian Work in Latin America". The Woman's Missionary Friend. 48: 12. January 1916.
  12. ^ a b "Founder of School in Mexico Dies (continued)". The Jeffersonian-Democrat. 1949-07-21. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Phi Kappa Phi Takes Mexican Education into Honor Society". Arizona Republic. 1923-05-26. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ "Byron Cummings to Lead Archaeology Party into Unexplored Navajo Pueblos". Arizona Daily Star. 1923-05-13. p. 23. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ "Archaeologist's Expedition Starts for Home with Data Gathered in Northern Hills". Arizona Daily Star. 1923-09-07. p. 7. Retrieved 2021-08-10 – via Newspapers.com.
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