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Note: ainous West to teach. later at Fannie's house. She had ridden her bicycle 30 miles to bring the news that they could both have teaching jobs in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. After 3 days of preparation they set out on the union pacific railroad for a destiation about which they knew nothing.
The route took them trough Cheyenne and Rock Springs, Wyoming, and on to Pocatello and Saint Anthony, Idaho, where the rail trip ended. In Cheyenne they were thrilled to see a real cowboy; in the Rock Springs the hems of their floor-length skirts became white from the alkali which dusted everything; in Poctello they counted 14 saloons! Their arrival in Saint Anthony was on a Sunday, and they spent the whole aftennoon sitting at the edge of the river. The scenery was completely novel to them. The proprietor of the hotel did not know how they could continue their journey, but finally suggested that they might hire someone with a team to take them on to Jackson Hole.
A sheep-herder with a wagon behind his team of small horses agreed to take them. Following just a wagon trail, they traversed a hot, grassy plain all the first day and felt lucky that they found a opitable home near a beautiful stream as night came on. the next day the little horses carried them up and over the 7,000 ft pass which brought them down to the Snake River. The wagon trail ended at the river's edge. Uncertain of how to proceed, they remembered having seen a young man near a house several miles back. So they went back, and he returned to the river with them, took the reins, and guided the wagon safely across the swift-flowing water by following the ripples. They had no trouble finding a home where they were made welcome.
Except for on e summer teacher, they were the first teachers to come to the valley. The settlers who were already there were generous in their care of the young women--providing horses for them, and helping to build a two-room log cabin. It was constructed on land 3 miles north of the Gors Ventre river and near the present day airport for which Fannie had taken a homestead grant. There was no electricity and no water. Neighbors saw to it the they always had a full barrel of water. she stayed for 3 years, enjoying her job . the frequent dances which were the major form of entertainment, and the excitement of being a real pioneer. From the time of her arrival she was in love with the beautiful mountains. (adapted from a tape recording dictated by Fannie when she was 92 yrs old. Her nieces, Margaret Schlotz (152) and evalyn Scholtz Bivins 153) assisted her in leaving a record of her early adventures.)
Fannie went back to Nebraska and taught school there for 10 years before returning to Jackson Hole to spend most of the rest of her life. She was always concerned about the area, and in 1920 was elected to its first all-woman town council in the U.S.
A letter to her from John C Thompson Jr. of the newspaper the Cheyenne State Leader, dated May 17, 1920 and quoted in part, gives evidence of the significance of this honor.
Dear Madam:
The town of Jackson, through its election of women to conduct its municipal affairs, has come suddenly to command the attention and interest of the entire nation. the remarkable achievements of women during recent years in fields so long erroneously regarded as openly to men, and recently the about to be successful fight to write into the constitution of the nation recognition of the rights of American womanhood to an equal voice with men in governmental affairs, has caused the people of the country to be keenly interested in any unusual accompishments by women. Jackson, by its election of women to fill all municipal offices, therefore has become one o the most widely discussed towns in the U.S.
Her husband, Don, was the ranch foreman for the Pederson family, who held a number of patents on firearms developed and marketed by the Remington Arms Company in that day. the Haights' own ranch has been in the National Elk Refuge since 1937. They moved to Halfway, Oregon in 1953.
Note: Fannie had been a school teacher in central Nebraska for a few years when she shared a room with another young woman one winter. Together they talked often of the possibility of going out to the mount
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