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

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

There is very little information available on 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 Burnettsville and Logansport and he was so impressed with their work that before leaving Indiana for Missouri, he asked them to consider coming with him if he was 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 when he resigned from the Normal (Dec 1869 or at the end of the 1869-70 academic year), and how long he stayed with the school system, (Spring term 1870 or a full year).  In either case, he resigned from the public school for health reasons and moved to Colorado where 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 is that her death occurred at least a year and a half before Frank’s.  In her June 1872 letter of resignation, Amanda Greenwood, Model School primary teacher, 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.