The professors at Arkansas Industrial Univeristy: Mary Gorton

Mary Gorton
History of the University of Arkansas

Mary R. Gorton (b. September 27, 1844; d. November 15, 1875)

Illinois.  White.
Education: Illinois Normal University

Occupation: school teacher

Mary Gorton was born in Rock Island, IL in 1844 to Truman B. and Elizabeth (Searle) Gorton. The father Truman worked as a farmer and land broker. Truman saw considerable financial success. By 1860, he had accumulated $25,000 in real estate.

Mary attended Rock Island High School and graduated in 1863. She then matriculated at the Illinois Normal Univeristy (now Illinois State Univeristy). She graduated with highest honors and was class valedictorian.

While a student, Mary worked for a year as an assistant principal in Rock Island. However, after graduating she took a position in Cook County, IL at a normal (or teacher training) school. She taught in Cook County for four years.

Mary was one of the first faculty members hired at the Arkansas Industrial Univeristy. She was elected as Preceptress in the Normal Department. She started teaching when the univeristy opened in January 1872. She was made principal of the Normal Department in Fall 1875.

Mary was the source of controversy in 1874. Some Fayetteville residents accused her of being a religious skeptic and teaching "doctrines at variance with the Holy Scriptures." The accusations were taken seriously enough that the other univeristy faculty published a letter in the local newspaper defending her. In the letter, the professors acknowledged that Mary held religious views that differed from those of many community members, but they said that she regarding the Bible with high veneration. They further added that her students asserted that she'd never expressed any religious skepticism.  They condemned Mary's accusers, saying that the unsupported accusations were a "cowardly and unmanly attack upon a lady who is held in the highest esteem by those who know her best."

Mary resigned from the univeristy in 1877. Upon receiving her resignation,  the Board of Trustees expressed their appreciation for her contributions to the university. They passed a resolution declaring, "By her happy tact in subduing and controlling the wayward and the idle, impressing upon them her own high type of thought and mode of reasoning, and by her unvarying devotion to the interests of the University, has made us to feel her loss to be almost irreparable."

Mary left Arkansas for St. Louis, MO. She had been privately studying law and was hoping to open a law practice. While studying, she continued teaching, this time at a St. Louis public school. Mary was admitted to the bar in 1878.

Tragically, Mary died before she could practice law. In November 1878, she fell ill and died. She is buried in the Chippiannock Cemetery in Rock Island, IL.

Sources

1. 1850; Census Place: District 37, Rock Island, Illinois; Roll: 126; Page: 233b

2. 1860; Census Place: Rock Island, Rock Island, Illinois; Page: 489; Family History Library Film: 803222

3. 1870; Census Place: Rock Island Ward 3, Rock Island, Illinois; Roll: M593_273; Page: 342A

4. Illinois Normal University Catalogue, 1863. 

5. History of the University of Arkansas

6. "A Card." Fayetteville Weekly Democrat (Fayetteville, AR). October 17, 1874. p. 3.