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Note: , 1960
(Ed. Note: The following tribute to Mrs. Ely, the woman and teacher, was written by the editor and published in the June 7, 1945 issue of the Tribune. We are reprinting it verbatim and only deleted in the postscript the phrase ( her son, a Lt. Col. In the Army). The writer cannot think of a better tribute to Mrs. Ely than he paid her in 1945. Hence the reprint. F.H.)
Mrs. Ely's Career of Distinguished Service. If it ever could be said of me that I wrote anything well, I wish that it could be said that I had written well a tribute to the remarkable career of service, achievement and inspiration of Rugby's Eva B. Ely on the occasion of her retirement from the Rugby public school system. I think I know pretty well what I can do and what I cannot. No one need tell me that the career and spirit of this woman are much beyond my depth of understanding and expression. After all, who am I to pretend to be able to evaluate the worth or influence of a teaching career which has off and on affected the lives of thousands of Rugby school children over a span of 55 years? (Her folds, the Chas. Bigelow family, came to Rugby when Eva was a girl of 11. They came when Rugby came, 1886. She taught for a short while as a girl of 16.) As a teacher for 12 years in all levels below college, I was often annoyed and discouraged because there was no way of measuring results in the things about teaching which seemed the most important. For how can you measure whether you have lindled a desire to learn; re-awakened and re-affirmed a love and respect for truth, honesty, fair play, a fellow man; in short, the influence for good you had on your students? You cannot measure these things, we all know. Yet we all know, too, that these immeasurables are the very things which make a life worthwhile, futile or worse. How can I pretend to say what that influence has been from the spirit of this unusual woman over an interval of 55 years? How can I understand, to say nothing of describing a woman who, with tear-filled eyes and a voice chocked with emotion, could tell a group that had met to honor her: I cannot understand all this fuss and bother for having done one's simple duty. To have all these honors for that, is almost more than I can stand I could not have been here so long, if the board hadn't hired me so often; I could have accomplished nothing if I had not had the cooperation of the children and the people of Rugby. There is nothing remarkable about what I did because young people are eager to learn. (Imagine that.) I love Rugby and I love its people. They are my people and Rugby is my home. I'm warning you, I'll be back and it won't take a banquet to bring me. Its been a grand journey. A glorious journey. I've had many compensations which far outweighed what any financial remuneration was or could have been She cannot understand all these tributes and honor because she did her duty as she saw it. That duty was first of all to her pupils; its was advice, cooperation and loyalty to those with whom she worked. Her work was pleasant because young people have always been my hobby. They have taught me so much of life and they have kept my outlook fresh and my spirit young. I've never cared much for money, although I wished I had a little more than I have. These letters, often times years later, from former purpils expressing appreciation for something you had said or done for them; a card like that from Vic McLean and his daught Jeanine saying, We enjoyed having you for a teacher; the problem children who return to you remorseful and appreciative now, as one did recently and said to me, How could you stand me, Mrs. Ely? I was such a darn fool; (to which she sagely replied, Son, there are times in our lives when all of us are darn fools); when Edgar Dale, a former Rugby Boy with a doctor's degree, a member of the faculty at Ohio State and nationally prominent in Education and Education Research told me last summer, Mrs. Ely, you taught me to want to learn. All these things have meant so much more than money or what I could express. My wife came closer to summing up Mrs. Ely and her career in a sentence than I could come in a volume of verbiage. I ashked her how Mrs. Ely was as a teacher. Without giving any thought to the question she replied, Well, she brought out the best in you and covered the worst. That, ladies and gentlemen, will have to suffice to explain why this woman, her spirit and career have been one of the great things in the life of this town and community. Mrs. Ely taught for a couple of years in Towner and lived for a few years at New Rockford until her husband's death in 1917) but Rugby had been her home. Here her son, Bigelow, (and only child) grew to manhood. Here, in her mind and heart, will always be home. F.H.
Note: The Pierce County Tribune, Rugby, North Dakota, Thursday, April 21st
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Note: Pioneer Women Teachers of North Dakota Eva Bigelow Ely
The First dwelling house in Rugby was built in 1886 by Charles A. Bigelow, father of Eva B. Ely. Early in the spring of 1886 the Bigelow family had come from Sinclairville, New York, to Dakota Territory "to enjoy and edure the rigors of pioneer life." From that time until her retirement fifty-nine years later Eva B. Ely lived and worked in North Dakota.
Eva, born November 16, 1874, was the eldest of three children, two girls and a boy, of Charles A. and Ellen Van Slyke Bigelow. For a time there was no school in Rugby. Mrs Bigelow taught her own children and those of other settlers in their homes. In the fall of 1889 Eva entered the Preparatory Department of the University at Grand Forks. She lived in Davis Hall, one of the two buildings on the campus. the site of the other, the Main Building, is now marked by an eternal flame. Eva's education was interrupted in 1885 by the death of her father. She completed her college course thirty years later by means of extension courses and summer sessions, receiving the degree a few months after her son was awarded his.
On New Year's Day, 1903, thirty-one years to the day and hour after the marriage of her parents, Eva Bigelow and Fred L. Ely of Cando were married in the Methodist Church in Rugby with the Episcopal Rector officiating. They established their home in New Rockford where their only child, as son, was born. Mrs. Ely's teaching career began in 1890 with a summer term in the Moffet District. After leaving the University she taught for eight years, 1895-1903, in rural and small town schools in Pierce County. After the death of Mr. Ely in an automobile accident in 1917 Mrs. Ely taught for two years in New Rockford. Then she returned to Rugby where she continued until her retirement in 1945. Most of these years she served as principal of elementary schools. Twice Mrs. Ely was honored by the citizens of Rubgy, first in 1928 on the completion of twenty-one years of teaching in Pierce county, and again in 1945 when she retired.
On Good Friday, in 1960, death came with unexpected swiftness as she arose to answer the doorbell. Burial was at Rugby. Since retirement she had lived in Portland, Oregon, where her son resides.
Mrs. Ely was active in child welfare work, a member of the Episcopal Church, Eastern Star, the Federation of Women's Clubs and the Delta Kappa Gamma Society.
Mrs. Ely had an understanding heart. Each pupil was an individual. She was wont to say, "Junior High School boys and girls need special sympathy and understanding. They are truly natural and above board when they are given a chance to be so. I like them, even when they slam doors and drag their feet."
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