EX-LANSING AUTHOR DIES
Miss Edith Rosina Mosher, long-time resident of Lansing, and author of elementary school text books and writings of pioneer Michigan, died Saturday in a Sturgis nursing home, where she had resided for 10 months.
A former teacher, Miss Mosher taught in New York, and also was employed later in the forestry division of the national department of agriculture in Washington, D.C., prior to moving to Michigan many years ago.
She was a familiar figure for years at the state library here where she did a great deal of her writing. She was co-author, with Nella Dietrich Williams of East Lansing, of "From Indian Legends to Modern Bookshelf."
A statue of Miss Mosher is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Surviving her are a sister-in-law, Mrs. C.D. Mosher of Centreville, and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rex Road funeral home in Centreville, and burial will be in the Prairie River cemetery there.
THE STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Mon., Oct. 5, 1959, Pg. 2, Col. 3, Art. 2 (Ex-Lansing Author Dies)
NOTE: In paragraph 2, the line, "A former teacher, Miss Mosher taught in New York, and also was employed later in the forestry division of the national department of agriculture in Washington, D.C., prior to MOVING TO Michigan many years ago." would have been more accurate had it stated, "moving BACK to Michigan", as she was born near Centreville, her family being pioneer settlers in the area.
~~~~~~~~~~~~EDITH R. MOSHER (1872-1959)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edith R. Mosher, born on a farm near Centerville, Michigan, is the daughter of Josephus and Lida Stebbins Mosher. When a child she attended the district schools and, later, moved to the village of Centerville, where she graduated from the High School at the age of 16; she then entered the state normal school, where she took the literary and scientific course and graduated at the age of 18, with a life certificate to teach in the state of Michigan, and immediately began teaching in the public schools. While teaching in the kindergarten and primary grade in Grand Rapids, she studied kindergarten methods with the late Mrs. Lucretia Willard Treat Having had considerable instruction in drawing at the State Normal School, and having a natural, ready talent for it, she was constantly called upon to do blackboard decorating, and to illustrate science lessons, throughout the school building. In connection with this work, she became impressed with the necessity for finding easy, accurate illustrations of the everyday blossoms and leaves of our trees, which so readily lend themselves to board illustrating and interesting science lessons, and began to realize the vast importance of the forest as a great educational influence upon the growth and upbuilding of humanity. From her somewhat varied experience in the different grades, she grew profoundly conscious of the significance of the early impressions upon the plastic mind of the child, and knowing how children love nature, she believed that it should be the constant study of the teacher to bring into the schoolroom as much of nature and nature suggestions as can be appreciated, thus to fill child life with pure wholesome thought from the overflowing well-spirit of nature, and ideally mold child character.
It was while standing before a blackboard in the schools of Grand Rapids, preparing a science lesson suggested by a small peach branch, which one of the pupils had brought, with only the scientifically accurate, but unattractive outlines from a book on botany and some pictured cards, that there came over her a startling realization of the entire lack of any book really useful to teachers in this kind of instruction, which she believed to be fundamental, and she registered a vow to supply this need in the form of a series of books to be used in the school room. With this object in view she resigned and went to Washington, D. C, to obtain a position in the government, and there carry on her work with the better facilities offered by the Congressional Library. In Washington, she again took up literary work in the George Washington University, and has continued to carry on studies along educational lines, taking a summer course at Harvard University in 1909.
In the meantime the "Tree-Study" books planned in the Grand Rapids school room were growing. A transfer had been obtained to the Forest Service as the best place to perfect this work, which was followed by special permission from the Forester, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, to attend the Yale University Summer School, which is not a co-educational institution.
The work of compiling and illustrating the first book on "Fruit and Nut-Bearing Trees" was finished in 1907, and was followed in 1909 by "Our Oaks and Maples," and "Our Cone-Bearing Trees." The urgent demand of the publisher and others interested in the work resulted in five more of the series in 1910, under the titles of "Fruit Studies;" "Our Queenly Maples;" "Our Kingly Oaks;" Studies of Nut-Bearing Trees;" "Studies of Evergreens;" a book entitled "Twenty Forest Trees," is now being prepared.
SOURCE: THE PART TAKEN BY WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
*****
EDITH R. MOSHER was born in 1872 on a farm near Centreville, in southern Michigan. She studied both literature and science and graduated from Ypsilanti State Normal School (later to become Eastern Michigan University) in 1892. She began teaching kindergarten in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and at the New York University summer school. In 1900, at the age of 26, she bought a round-trip ticket to attend the National Teachers' Association meeting in Washington, sold the ticket on arriving, and took a Civil Service examination. She was employed by the Bureau of the Census from 1900 to 1902. From 1902 to 1905, she worked for the USDI General Land Office. On March 1, 1905, she went to work for the Forest Service, performing miscellaneous clerical duties. She was promoted to the position of clerk effective April 2, 1910. In May 1911, Mosher was promoted again and put in charge of boundary records. She resigned from the Forest Service in 1920.
She is considered the founder of environmental education in the Forest Service. In her writings, she used her initials, "E.R.," for fear that an article by a woman would not be published. Mosher saw the lack of teaching aids in conservation, so she wrote a 76-page booklet, "Forest Study in the Primary Grades," that proved to be very popular. This set the stage for environmental education and working with schoolchildren for years to come.
SOURCE: THE FOREST SERVICE: FIGHTING FOR PUBLIC LANDS by Gerald W. Williams, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut and London, 2007, Pg. 283 (Edith Mosher)
************************~ooOoo~************************
STEBBINS ANCESTRY
Editor, The State Journal:
Was interested in the "Incidents of Yesteryear" in last Sunday's State Journal.--C. Rowland Stebbins looking through a bound copy of Journal issues of the year 1857.
Brings back memories of my childhood when my grandfather, Dwight Stebbins, who came from New York in a covered wagon, used to tell us tales of the early days in St. Joseph county, where we played croquet and the deer would come up to the back door.
Dwight Stebbins came with the Freeland family, and he rode horseback to Constantine to work in a saw mill. Later he married Risina Freeland and they settled in the wooded regions not far from Centerville, where the family always lived and where I was born.
Rowland Stebbins and his wife Sarah came in the ship "Francis" of Ipswich. He is "the ancestor of over 95 percent of the Stebbins descendants in America." The Stebbins coat-of-arms is available and very interesting.
My mother was Lida Jane Stebbins, and she married Josephus Mosher, also of pioneer ancestry and from central New York state. One wonders how many descendants of Stebbins ancestry there are today in the state of Michigan.
~~EDITH R. MOSHER, Lansing
THE LANSING STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Sun., Oct. 15, 1950, Pg. 11, Col. 4, Item #4 (Stebbins Ancestry)
*****
BOOK ON FORESTS SALUTES MEMORY OF GOV. OSBORN
Because of a strong interest in forests shown by the late Gov. Chase S. Osborn, the 94th anniversary of his birth on Jan. 22 will be commemorated by a reprinting of the book "Forest Study in the Primary Grades," which will be distributed to teachers throughout Michigan.
To finance the reprinting, $500 has been donated by an unidentified member of the governor's family. The book was written by MISS EDITH R. MOSHER, now a Lansing resident, while she was a member of the United States forest service. First published in 1919, it went through several editions. Gov. Osborn wrote the preface for the first edition of the book.
Announcement of the unusual memorial gesture was made by Dr. Paul A. Herbert, director of conservation at Michigan State college.
In his preface to the book, Gov. Osborn wrote, "It is natural to love trees...There ought to be no slaugher of a tree without the birth of two new ones by planting." He at one time was the state game and fish warden of Michigan. Purdue university, from which he was graduated in 1880, established a memorial to him known as the "Chase S. Osborn Wildlife Conservation Fund," available to students in wildlife conservation.
"Forest Study in the Primary Grades" is being revised to bring figures and references up-to-date, Prof. Herbert said. It will be ready for distribution by early spring.
THE STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Sun., Jan. 24, 1954, Pg. 6, Col. 1, Art. 2 (Books on Forests Salutes Memory of Gov. Osborn)
EX-LANSING AUTHOR DIES
Miss Edith Rosina Mosher, long-time resident of Lansing, and author of elementary school text books and writings of pioneer Michigan, died Saturday in a Sturgis nursing home, where she had resided for 10 months.
A former teacher, Miss Mosher taught in New York, and also was employed later in the forestry division of the national department of agriculture in Washington, D.C., prior to moving to Michigan many years ago.
She was a familiar figure for years at the state library here where she did a great deal of her writing. She was co-author, with Nella Dietrich Williams of East Lansing, of "From Indian Legends to Modern Bookshelf."
A statue of Miss Mosher is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Surviving her are a sister-in-law, Mrs. C.D. Mosher of Centreville, and several nieces and nephews.
Funeral services will be conducted at 2:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Rex Road funeral home in Centreville, and burial will be in the Prairie River cemetery there.
THE STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Mon., Oct. 5, 1959, Pg. 2, Col. 3, Art. 2 (Ex-Lansing Author Dies)
NOTE: In paragraph 2, the line, "A former teacher, Miss Mosher taught in New York, and also was employed later in the forestry division of the national department of agriculture in Washington, D.C., prior to MOVING TO Michigan many years ago." would have been more accurate had it stated, "moving BACK to Michigan", as she was born near Centreville, her family being pioneer settlers in the area.
~~~~~~~~~~~~EDITH R. MOSHER (1872-1959)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edith R. Mosher, born on a farm near Centerville, Michigan, is the daughter of Josephus and Lida Stebbins Mosher. When a child she attended the district schools and, later, moved to the village of Centerville, where she graduated from the High School at the age of 16; she then entered the state normal school, where she took the literary and scientific course and graduated at the age of 18, with a life certificate to teach in the state of Michigan, and immediately began teaching in the public schools. While teaching in the kindergarten and primary grade in Grand Rapids, she studied kindergarten methods with the late Mrs. Lucretia Willard Treat Having had considerable instruction in drawing at the State Normal School, and having a natural, ready talent for it, she was constantly called upon to do blackboard decorating, and to illustrate science lessons, throughout the school building. In connection with this work, she became impressed with the necessity for finding easy, accurate illustrations of the everyday blossoms and leaves of our trees, which so readily lend themselves to board illustrating and interesting science lessons, and began to realize the vast importance of the forest as a great educational influence upon the growth and upbuilding of humanity. From her somewhat varied experience in the different grades, she grew profoundly conscious of the significance of the early impressions upon the plastic mind of the child, and knowing how children love nature, she believed that it should be the constant study of the teacher to bring into the schoolroom as much of nature and nature suggestions as can be appreciated, thus to fill child life with pure wholesome thought from the overflowing well-spirit of nature, and ideally mold child character.
It was while standing before a blackboard in the schools of Grand Rapids, preparing a science lesson suggested by a small peach branch, which one of the pupils had brought, with only the scientifically accurate, but unattractive outlines from a book on botany and some pictured cards, that there came over her a startling realization of the entire lack of any book really useful to teachers in this kind of instruction, which she believed to be fundamental, and she registered a vow to supply this need in the form of a series of books to be used in the school room. With this object in view she resigned and went to Washington, D. C, to obtain a position in the government, and there carry on her work with the better facilities offered by the Congressional Library. In Washington, she again took up literary work in the George Washington University, and has continued to carry on studies along educational lines, taking a summer course at Harvard University in 1909.
In the meantime the "Tree-Study" books planned in the Grand Rapids school room were growing. A transfer had been obtained to the Forest Service as the best place to perfect this work, which was followed by special permission from the Forester, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, to attend the Yale University Summer School, which is not a co-educational institution.
The work of compiling and illustrating the first book on "Fruit and Nut-Bearing Trees" was finished in 1907, and was followed in 1909 by "Our Oaks and Maples," and "Our Cone-Bearing Trees." The urgent demand of the publisher and others interested in the work resulted in five more of the series in 1910, under the titles of "Fruit Studies;" "Our Queenly Maples;" "Our Kingly Oaks;" Studies of Nut-Bearing Trees;" "Studies of Evergreens;" a book entitled "Twenty Forest Trees," is now being prepared.
SOURCE: THE PART TAKEN BY WOMEN IN AMERICAN HISTORY, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
*****
EDITH R. MOSHER was born in 1872 on a farm near Centreville, in southern Michigan. She studied both literature and science and graduated from Ypsilanti State Normal School (later to become Eastern Michigan University) in 1892. She began teaching kindergarten in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and at the New York University summer school. In 1900, at the age of 26, she bought a round-trip ticket to attend the National Teachers' Association meeting in Washington, sold the ticket on arriving, and took a Civil Service examination. She was employed by the Bureau of the Census from 1900 to 1902. From 1902 to 1905, she worked for the USDI General Land Office. On March 1, 1905, she went to work for the Forest Service, performing miscellaneous clerical duties. She was promoted to the position of clerk effective April 2, 1910. In May 1911, Mosher was promoted again and put in charge of boundary records. She resigned from the Forest Service in 1920.
She is considered the founder of environmental education in the Forest Service. In her writings, she used her initials, "E.R.," for fear that an article by a woman would not be published. Mosher saw the lack of teaching aids in conservation, so she wrote a 76-page booklet, "Forest Study in the Primary Grades," that proved to be very popular. This set the stage for environmental education and working with schoolchildren for years to come.
SOURCE: THE FOREST SERVICE: FIGHTING FOR PUBLIC LANDS by Gerald W. Williams, Greenwood Press, Westport, Connecticut and London, 2007, Pg. 283 (Edith Mosher)
************************~ooOoo~************************
STEBBINS ANCESTRY
Editor, The State Journal:
Was interested in the "Incidents of Yesteryear" in last Sunday's State Journal.--C. Rowland Stebbins looking through a bound copy of Journal issues of the year 1857.
Brings back memories of my childhood when my grandfather, Dwight Stebbins, who came from New York in a covered wagon, used to tell us tales of the early days in St. Joseph county, where we played croquet and the deer would come up to the back door.
Dwight Stebbins came with the Freeland family, and he rode horseback to Constantine to work in a saw mill. Later he married Risina Freeland and they settled in the wooded regions not far from Centerville, where the family always lived and where I was born.
Rowland Stebbins and his wife Sarah came in the ship "Francis" of Ipswich. He is "the ancestor of over 95 percent of the Stebbins descendants in America." The Stebbins coat-of-arms is available and very interesting.
My mother was Lida Jane Stebbins, and she married Josephus Mosher, also of pioneer ancestry and from central New York state. One wonders how many descendants of Stebbins ancestry there are today in the state of Michigan.
~~EDITH R. MOSHER, Lansing
THE LANSING STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Sun., Oct. 15, 1950, Pg. 11, Col. 4, Item #4 (Stebbins Ancestry)
*****
BOOK ON FORESTS SALUTES MEMORY OF GOV. OSBORN
Because of a strong interest in forests shown by the late Gov. Chase S. Osborn, the 94th anniversary of his birth on Jan. 22 will be commemorated by a reprinting of the book "Forest Study in the Primary Grades," which will be distributed to teachers throughout Michigan.
To finance the reprinting, $500 has been donated by an unidentified member of the governor's family. The book was written by MISS EDITH R. MOSHER, now a Lansing resident, while she was a member of the United States forest service. First published in 1919, it went through several editions. Gov. Osborn wrote the preface for the first edition of the book.
Announcement of the unusual memorial gesture was made by Dr. Paul A. Herbert, director of conservation at Michigan State college.
In his preface to the book, Gov. Osborn wrote, "It is natural to love trees...There ought to be no slaugher of a tree without the birth of two new ones by planting." He at one time was the state game and fish warden of Michigan. Purdue university, from which he was graduated in 1880, established a memorial to him known as the "Chase S. Osborn Wildlife Conservation Fund," available to students in wildlife conservation.
"Forest Study in the Primary Grades" is being revised to bring figures and references up-to-date, Prof. Herbert said. It will be ready for distribution by early spring.
THE STATE JOURNAL, Lansing, Mich., Sun., Jan. 24, 1954, Pg. 6, Col. 1, Art. 2 (Books on Forests Salutes Memory of Gov. Osborn)
