A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Sara A. Sandidge
Her name is spelled Sara and Sarah in different places. At least after she was grown, she spelled her name Sara.
Sara apparently followed her mother in working with the mentally handicapped. She was a teacher in at least three state institutions. The first information I have is that she was a teacher at the Missouri Colony for Feeble Minded and Epileptic in Marshall, MO, in 1905-1906. See the notes for Jane (Jennie) Brown for more about the Colony and the Biennial Reports (from Google Books) on its activities. The earlier reports (before 1905-1906) did not list the teachers, so it is possible that she was teaching there earlier than that. She was not listed in the Colony Biennial Report for 1907-1908, but instead was listed as a teacher in the 1907-1908 Biennial Report for the Nebraska Institution for Feeble Minded Youth at Beatrice, NE. She apparently didn't stay there very long because in the 1910 census she was listed as a teacher at the State Home for the Feeble Minded in Walnut, Cowley Co., KS. And then, not long after that she was back teaching at the Missouri Colony for the Feeble Minded and Epileptic. For the period after 1910, there are additional Colony Biennial Reports on Google Books, which can be searched but not viewed in their entirety, so I can see that she was listed as a teacher again, but do not know what year or years. In the 1920 census she was listed as the Principal of the school at the Missouri Colony for Feeble Minded and Epileptic. Apparently, after 1920 the biennial reports were combined with those of other state institutions into Biennial Reports of the Board of Managers of the State Eleemosynary Institutions. The first of those, for 1921-1922 is available from the Hathi Trust Digital Library (http://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000054001), and shows Sara Sandidge was still the Principal at that time. I have not found further mention of her after that, so far. (The name was changed to Missouri State School in 1925; some very brief historical information is at http://dmh.mo.gov/about/history.htm.)
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
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