Frank L Ferris
Principal of the Model School &
Instructor of Geography, Penmanship & Drawing,
1867-1870

L D Ferris
Model School Intermediate Teacher &
Instructor in Grammar
1867-1870

There is very little information available for Frank and LD Ferris, a young married couple who were members of the original faculty of Joseph Baldwin's North Missouri Normal School.  They were with the school only three years.

Although Frank was an ordained Universalist minister, he apparently never served as pastor of a congregation.  The couple was from New York and had moved to Indiana after their marriage to teach.  They were Baldwin's colleagues in Burnettesville and Logansport and so impressed him with their work that before leaving for Missouri, he asked them to consider coming with him should he be able to establish his own normal school.

Ferris was about 27 years old when he came to Kirksville in the spring of 1867. He taught three years at the Normal before resigning to become Principal of the Kirksville Public Schools.  There are discrepancies in reports about exactly when he resigned from the Normal and how long he stayed with the school system, but he appears to have left Kirksville before the Federal Census was taken in Adair County in June 1870.  He resigned for health reasons and moved to Colorado where it is reported that he died of consumption, November 18, 1873.

We know even less of Mrs Ferris than we do of her husband; even her given name remains a mystery.  All we do know that is that her death occurred at least a year and a half before Frank's.  In her June 1872 letter of resignation, model school teacher Amanda Greenwood made reference to the excellent teaching record of her deceased colleague, Mrs L D Ferris.  We have no other information as to the date or place of her death.

Please Note: This biographical sketch has been compiled from secondary sources and may not be complete or totally accurate; it is therefore subject to update or correction.

Greenwood, Amanda A. to the Board, 26 June 1872. Board of Regents Records. Truman State University Archives.
Ryle, Walter H.  Centennial History of the Northeast Missouri State Teachers College.  Kirksville: the College, 1972.
Selby, P.O.  One Hundred Twenty-Three Biographies of Deceased Faculty Members. Kirksville: Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, 1962.
Violette, E.M.  History of the First District State Normal School.  Kirksville: Journal Printing Company, 1905.