When the Town of Kansas was incorporated in 1850 and reincorporated as the City of Kansas in 1853, there was little foresight to the foundations of governance or how the city would eventually grow. Education was limited to private schools and the home, and only the wealthier citizens were able to send their children off to higher learning far away from the western border of the United States.
It would take over a decade after the city reincorporated for a formal talk on public schools to emerge. And when public schools opened in 1867, one principal and one teacher led the way at the city’s only high school.
Mary Harmon was practically a child herself when she was selected to educate teenagers – some of which were older than she was. Her early role in the public school system as well as her ongoing advocacy for children across the country make Mary Harmon Weeks one of the most important child advocates of Kansas City’s history.
Mary Harmon’s Early Life
Born in Warren, Ohio in 1851 to parents Charles R. Harmon and Mary Hezlep, Mary Harmon’s childhood began in a small town where her father for a time worked as a horse dealer. She was the youngest of three children, joining twin brothers Ellis and William (b. 1849)…