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| Hazel Miller |
Hazel Lillian Miller was born December 3, 1893, the third
child of Elmer and Lillian Moulthrop Miller, and died March 15, 1971. Hazel attended school at a one-room
schoolhouse on Fulton Hill Road in Kenoza Lake.
The pupils had to go to a neighbor’s to get water. Hazel then attended the Jeffersonville
School, which must have offered classes through 10th grade. She graduated in 1912.
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Jeffersonville
High School students, 1912.
Front row
left to right: Inez Kohler, Emily Werth, Emily Scheidell, Amanda Bauernfeind,
Helen Bollenbach, Ethel Interlied, Hazel Miller, Sophia Menges.
Second row left to right: Emery Stalker, Kenneth Jacobs, Fred Tieman,
Mr. Bartholomew (the principal) Estelle Lichtig, Pearl Interlied, Edith Muller.
Third row left to right: George Miller, Harry Donaldson, Henry Meyer
(music teacher),
Ted Neuberger, George Menges. | | |
Hazel then went to Liberty High School. She boarded in Liberty and didn’t get home
except on holidays, according to her daughter Lillian Loeffel. Hazel also took teacher’s training in Liberty
and graduated from both high school and the Training Class in 1914, winning the
five dollar cash prize in science that year.
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Liberty High
School graduation picture, 1914.
Hazel
Miller is in first row, 2nd from left.
Harvey Myers is in 3rd row, 4th
from left.
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According to the Liberty High School Annual Catalogue
1914-1915, the Training Class covered a period of one year. To qualify, Hazel must have completed
elementary U.S. history with civics, arithmetic, geography, spelling, reading
and writing, English 2nd, algebra, physiology and hygiene or biology,
drawing and a foreign history.
Completion of the Training Class resulted in receiving a
teacher’s certificate valid for three years.
The graduate then had to gain three years of successful experience to be
eligible to teach in the “sub-academic grades” of any school. In addition, graduates were given one year of
advanced standing in the state normal schools thus making it possible to
graduate in one year.
Hazel gave the welcome at her high school graduation. She noted that “we have come to that place in
the path of life where many roads diverge.
Some of us will travel one and some another, yet we all know that we
will not attain success unless we continue to work for it. We wish to be noble but nobility comes only
by a slow growth of character. We wish
to be educated but education does not mean gaining knowledge alone, we must be
able to add to that knowledge a loving heart and skillful hands. Our motto is ‘Seize Opportunities.’ We expect to live up to those words and seize
opportunities to help others as well as ourselves.”
Hazel went on to New Paltz Normal School, which was strictly
a teacher’s college. Her daughter Lil
said she took a one or two year course there.
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Hazel
Miller’s graduation picture from New Paltz Normal School.
Hazel may be in back row, 3rd from
left.
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In becoming a teacher, Hazel may have been influenced by Ed
Nieger, who was the teacher in the Kenoza Lake school where Hazel went to grade
school. A postcard from April 28, 1909 shows
that Edward C. Neiger was Teacher of the Kenoza Lake School No. 2.
Hazel’s first teaching job was in 1914-15 at the school on
Swiss Hill Road, Kenoza Lake. She then
taught in 1916-17 at St. James Long Island.
When her father Elmer Miller died in 1917, she came home and taught the
primary grades in the “newly formed two room school” at Kenoza Lake, according
to a letter she wrote to the Teachers Retirement Board describing her teaching
experience. She taught at the Kenoza
Lake School starting in 1917-18 and continuing for two more school years,
1918-19 and 1920-21.
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Hazel Miller with a class in her early
teaching days
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In 1919, Edward C.
Neiger was Principal of the Kenoza Lake School, District No. 4, with Hazel
Miller as Assistant. Some of her pupils that
year were Harold Brey, Edgar Moulthrop and Hazel Moulthrop, Adelaide Lindt,
Raymond Moran, and George Raum, Jr.
Hazel taught some of the same students that her future
husband Harvey Myers had taught at the Kenoza Lake School, District No. 2, in
1915, including Bernice Fuhrer, Mildred Raum, Lillian Krantz, and Raymond
Bernhardt.
Hazel married Harvey William Myers on October 9, 1919 at the
Methodist parsonage in Kenoza Lake. They
had a daughter, Lillian Marietta, on March 10, 1922 and moved from Kenoza Lake
to Kohlertown. A son, Warren (Bud)
followed on October 11, 1924.
After Lil and Bud were born, Hazel didn’t teach until her
daughter was going into first grade. Hazel
was asked to fill in for half the year for a teacher who was leaving to get
married. She returned to teaching on
Feb. 18, 1929 at the Jeffersonville school, which was located at Lion’s Field. Her daughter Lil recalled walking to school
from Kohlertown, a mile and a half, since there was no bus.
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Hazel Miller Myers with one of her classes,
possibly in front of the school at Lion’s Field in Jeff
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Hazel continued teaching until 1960, with the exception of
only one year (1945-46). In her letter
to the Teachers Retirement Board in 1958, Hazel noted that some of her former
pupils “are the parents and in a few cases the grandparents of the children now
in our school.” Hazel herself taught her
daughter, Lil, and her granddaughter, Gale Myers.
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Hazel Myers with children on the playground
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1st grade class December
1958
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Hazel’s records show that her final year’s salary, in
1959-60, was $6,000. This was a
considerable raise from only five years earlier, 1955-56, when she made
$4,600. In addition to teaching, Hazel
was a life member of the Jeffersonville PTA.
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Carol Newkirk, Louise Krantz, Bob Cramer
with Hazel Myers
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In May 1960, Hazel was given a testimonial dinner by the
J.Y.C.S faculty in honor of her 35 years of teaching. Edna Clark reported in the Sullivan County Record that “about 100
guests attended paying homage to this endeared teacher.”
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Hazel’s
retirement dinner, left to right: ? Peters, ?,
Henry G. Paul (Pres. of the
Board of Ed.), Hazel Myers, Erwin Baker,
Henrietta Baker. Table at front: Frieda Neuberger.
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This picture is reversed. At right are Hazel's children and their spouses:
Iola and Bud Myers, Lillian and Norm
Loeffel.
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Seated left to right: ?, Frieda Neuberger, Hazel Myers, ?, Marie Norris.
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Among the guests were members of Hazel’s first class in the
Swiss Hill School: Norma Breen
Fresenius, Frieda Neuberger, Martha Eltz Joyner, Marie Eggler Norris, Leo Eggler,
Henry Kline, and John Pecsi. Three
generations of students from one family taught by Hazel also attended. They were Emma Bossley, Barbara Bossley, and
Marie Bossley.
Former students, Board of Education members, family,
ex-teachers, and current faculty members each paid tribute. Edna Clark writes that “words were inadequate
to express the long lasting influence of one so patient and reserved. Hundreds of children, youth, and now adults
have felt the impact of her guiding hand in their lives. Highlighting the evening were Mrs. Myers’ own
words of fondness and thanks to all her pupils and associates. Her true attribute of a friend and teacher
shone forth.”
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| Hazel Miller Myers |
