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. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 "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. 1 2 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. 1 2 "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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