Women in Santa Clara County

Grade:
8^th Grade Social Studies

Theme:
Women in Santa Clara County

Lesson:
Identifying Various Roles of Women

Objective:
By looking at six pictures associated with women in Santa Clara County,
the student will identify major themes and visual clues to associate with women’s history
in Santa Clara County sufficient to match descriptions to pictures.

Standards:
3.3.2, 3.3.3, 4.3.4, 8.6.6, 8.8.3, 8.12.6

Time:
Two Days

Method:
Picture Interpretation, bumper sticker, and dialogue.

Materials:
1. SVHO pictures of women in the area of politics, business, education and agriculture.
“Fair Riders of the Range at the Round-Up,”
“Eastside Plant,”
“San Jose High School, Class of 1898. ”
“Sarah Winchester, ”
“Anna Stokes McColl, ca. 1905, ”
“Encarnacion Pinedo, ”
“Women Working at Intel, ”
“Coeds at SCU, ”
“DiFiore Cherry Orchard Workers, ”
“LBJ Girls, ”
“SJ Normal School Cooking Class, ”
“Ricketts Millinary Shop, ”
“Girl Cutting Apricots, ”
“Tradition Shattered - SCU, ”
“Women College Students SJSU 1935, ”

2. “Bio Brief” hand-out for each group.

Procedure:

Day One:

1. Post the recommended SVHO pictures on the whiteboard. Facilitate a discussion about the pictures by discussing with the students the occupational role of the women. Students may try to identify occupational roles that they are familiar with.

2. Divide students into groups of five or six. Give each group a picture to answer the following questions on their Bio Brief worksheet.

Occupational Role: What is happening in the picture. Refer to the introductory remarks by the teacher and general information from the image.
Clues: Although we have briefly discussed the occupational roles, identify specific details in the image that help define those roles such as specific tools, uniforms, or activities.
Dialogue/Thought Box: As a group, create a dialogue or thought box the woman likely would have said or thought during work in which she expresses her feelings about work. The dialogue or thought box must be more than two sentences.

3. Have the following four categories listed on the whiteboard or somewhere clearly marked in the classroom; Politics, Education, Business, and Agriculture. As groups finish have them post their Bio Brief worksheet and picture under the appropriate category heading.

Debrief:

The instructor should review the posted Bio Briefs and point out the specific issues facing women of the day. Determine what skills and education were needed for these roles. What challenges women faced in the variety of positions.

Homework: Use the Internet site http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/women/womensbook.html to research women’s roles in World History to create a summary of their contributions. Create a bumber sticker, which briefly summarizes the contributions. Be prepared to present your analysis.

Day Two:

1. Have the students post their bumper stickers in the class (possibly posted on an automobile drawn on the board). Review the various struggles and challenges women faced in their occupations.

2. Briefly describe the contributions of local women pioneers. These may include the following;

Mary Folsom Hayes-Chynoweth: Born in New York and moved to Wisconsin where she became a well-known spiritualist with mystical healing and communication skills. Marrying a well-to do farmer the couple had three sons. After the death of her husband, she invested in productive iron ore mines in Wisconsin and moved to San Jose in 1887. Purchasing 240 acres from John Tennant, the family began to build Eden Vale in 1887. The first mansion was built with a 30-horse stable, library and private chapel. Accompanying the Hayes family were many of Mary’s patients, one family was the Chynoweth family of whom she married T.B. Chynoweth. However, the marriage lasted 10 months as he died shortly from sickness. Mary continued to administer to local residents often holding “Reception Days” on Tuesdays and Fridays when she spent the whole day ministering to people with troubles or illnesses. She never charged for her healing or advice. News of a fire in her mine in Wisconsin reached Mary, she quickly rode out there to assure the miners if they were faithful and obedient no one would perish. After five days of battling the blaze, no one was injured. Back home another fire destroyed her mansion in 1899. Mary rebuilt the mansion into a three-story Mediterranean style villa, built between 1899 and 1905. The current mansion has been on he National Historic Register since 1975 and is owned by the city of San Jose. Mary’s two surviving sons, Everis Anson (E.S.) and Jay Orley (J.O.) continued to extend the legacy of the Hayes family. E.S. went on to serve seven terms in the House of Representatives from 1904-1918. J.O. helped organize the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association, later called Sunsweet Growers and ran unsuccessfully for California Governor in 1918. Both were staunch Republicans who helped form the Good Govern-ment League to fight corruption in San Jose City Hall.
Jesusita Patron Bernal: In 1906, following the death of her husband, Jesusita searched for a way to maintain a reliable income. The family had used their large Rancho Santa Teresa for many businesses. However, the cattle business and other livestock businesses were declining. However the ranch had a natural spring with legendary healing powers. Jesusita recognized the business opportunities of the spring and became the proprietor for the Santa Teresa Water Company. They began bottling water and sold the water to farmers and city dwellers. It boasted, “eight grains of Calcium Carbonate.” They opened a business office in downtown San Jose. Unfortunately, the company went out of business after several years. However in an age in which women-owned businesses were rare, Jesusita’s determination and ingenuity should be celebrated.
Sarah Pardee Winchester. An heiress to the family, which owned the Winchester Repeating Arms Company, Sarah married Oliver, the son of the company founder in 1862. A highly cultured woman who spoke four languages, she gave birth to a girl, Annie in 1866, who died within a month. Deeply affecting Sarah, the loss of her child was compounded with the loss of her sickly husband of tuberculosis fifteen years later. She moved to San Jose, purchased an unfinished home and began remodeling the home. During this period, 1881-1889, Sarah was receiving an average annual income of $43,335 from the dividends of her 777 shares in the company (in 1897, she inherited another 2000 shares from her mother-in-law). So expense was not an issue as she gave her foreman daily revisions, often written on scratch paper for him to interpret. The many mistakes and errors were sealed or ignored. Her house contained some of the newest inventions in the area. She patented several new inventions, one a window locking mechanism modeled after the Winchester trigger and trip hammer. After living in the home for 38 years, at the age of 85, Sarah died in 1922.

3. Have the students use the Internet to compare the challenge and accomplishment of one nationally known woman and one locally known woman. Compare their interests, talents, challenges, and contributions.

4. Students will then prepare a one-page dialogue between the two female leaders as they are standing in line at a cash register in a store. Both characters need to describe their background in the dialogue. Be sure to identify similarities and differences.

Alternative Procedure for Elementary students

1. Omit the Bio Brief, so that the teacher helps the students verbally identify the main topics of each picture and helps them identify clues within the picture.

2. Working in pairs, the students can write down what is going on in each picture.

3. At the conclusion, the teacher reviews with everyone what is going on in each picture by using the clues. They might include a few vocabulary words which include the following; abolition, frontier, citizenship, government, and equal rights.

Debrief: Women played a critical role in the development of Santa Clara County in education as students, teachers, and administrators, in politics as activists, in business as entrepreneurs and management and in agriculture as labor.

Resources:

History of Santa Clara County; With Biographical Sketches of the Leading Men and Women (1922), Eugene Sawyer; Call 979.4 at San Jose City Library
Some Pioneer Women of Santa Clara County (1999), California by Mary Lou Lyon; Call CWA R 979.472 at San Jose City Library and Santa Clara County Library
Some More Pioneer Women of Santa Clara County (1999), California by Mary Lou Lyon; Call: CWA R 979.472 at San Jose City Library and Santa Clara County Library
Women of Our Valley. 1955-1956 v. 2, Bertha Marguerite Rice. Call: R 920 Rice Santa Clara County Libraries http://www.firstladylawyer.com/about_clara.asp
Santa Clara County Superior Court http://www.sccsuperiorcourt.org/aboutus_court_history.htm is run by the Court.

Bio Brief

Print Bio Brief Handout

Main Topic:

Clues:

Dialogue/Thought Box