COFFEEN, Olive
Miss Olive Coffeen
Photo by Steve Kruger – findagrave
This is amazing. Olive Coffeen spent 69 years teaching school in Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Kansas and Washington. She taught math in the old Indiana State Normal at Covington from 1888 until its close, then opened her own normal school before joining the Covington HS faculty in 1908. Born in Lebanon, Ohio (Sept 12, 1847) she came to Indiana with her parents. Having passed the teachers exams in Ohio when she was 14, she had to wait to teach until she was 15. She did teach in her native state, along with schools in Illinois, Kansas, Washington state and of course, Indiana. She began her career in Chambersburg (Fountain County) making a whopping 72 cents a day, tallying to $14 per month. Miranda Rowland Luke was one of her early pupils then came her children and grands in the schooling of Miss Coffeen. Not sure where this is now, but Eugene Savage (see Who’s Who) was her former pupil and in awe of her, painted her portrait which was in the high school, a gift from the 1924 class. She joined the HS staff in 1908 and retired from there in 1931 at age 84. Savage later chose Miss Coffeen to represent the spirit of education when he did the mural at the entrance of the Fountain County courthouse. Although not affiliated with any church her beliefs centered around the Swedenborgian religion (according to Google, this is a Christian denomination based on the teachings of the 18th century scientist Emanuel Swedenborg – he “emphasizes God’s unconditional love, with an open approach to scription and active spiritual development”). A study club in Covington was named Coffeenian for the dear lady. In 1998, they (still going strong) among others took up a great deal of money to restore Miss C’s portrait by Savage. (he did not charge for the work but did for the paint and supplies as long as sending it from his home in NY to Fountain County. Throughout the census years (9th Street and Crocket Street mainly her residence and she was listed as a “public school teacher”). Quite impressive, she was featured in Robert Ripley’s Believe it or Not syndicated feature. At her death she only had three nieces and a nephew (Mable Coddington; Clea Fresh and Maria Young plus nephew Ray Coddington). Her lifelong devotion to student instruction (which continued well after her retirement doing much tutoring then and throughout the years where she did not charge for her help). She passed at age 96 in August 1943 after 69 years of teaching. That is amazing! Totally amazing!
Sources: Obituary – ingenweb.org; Laf Journal-Courier. Dec 4, 1998; findagrave; Indianapolis News Mon Jan 1, 1934 p 13; Indianapolis Star Aug 15, 1943 p 21. --transcribed by kbz