While many women walked, rode horseback, or drove a horse and buggy to their schools, some invested in another popular mode of transportation, the bicycle.

Ruth Abbott-Haug
McHenry 1901
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Ruth received a teaching certificate from the University of North Dakota. She taught in various schools in the Deering area. One school was a mile and a half from her claim. She rode to school on her bicycle carrying her lunch pail, a broom, and her 22 rifle. After one session, she found that collecting her salary ($120) was no simple matter. The officers of the district lived many miles apart, and she needed all their signatures before she could collect her pay. It took her three nights away from home and over 100 miles by bicycle to acquire the necessary signatures.

Rosa Kateley-Olstad
McHenry 1900
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Rosa taught school and took an active part in organizing the Non-Partisan League. Her diary tells of traveling to Washburn to write a state teachers exam. On a cold day in March (1901), she borrowed a fur coat and started out alone across the prairie on her bicycle. She spent the first night in a rancher's home. The next day, she arrived in Washburn, wrote the exam, and started for home, spending the night in an abandoned house. The following day, she reached her shack at about 10 p.m.

(Courtesy: Olive Sprague, Miami, Florida)

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Institute for Regional Studies
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