Week 4: Education (52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks – 2023 Version)

The theme for Week 4 is "Education." There are lots of ways you could approach this theme: teachers, yearbook photos, tales of being a good (or bad) student. You could also highlight an ancestor who got their education at the "School of Hard Knocks." As always, there is no wrong way to interpret the theme! Click here to check out all the themes for 2023!

My mother and her sister were both teachers. Even though, my mother only taught for one year and then proceeded to have a large family, my aunt taught her entire life. So, growing up, education was always something important. I had several siblings who went onto higher education; however, it was one of my brothers who was the first of the siblings to finish and obtain a bachelor’s degree. I myself, received an associate’s degree in computer science.

My paternal grandmother, on the other hand, only had an eight-grade education. I don’t know if this was the standard back then, or if this was because her mother passed away, and being the oldest, she was expected to raise her younger siblings, which included a toddler. 

So, when I go through my family tree, I am always fascinated by the doctors that I find. I wonder what kind of doctor and where did they get their education. I have found quite a few Dentists and I get really excited when I see that they attended Marquette University in Milwaukee. My youngest daughter, went to Marquette, not to be a dentist but still attended and graduated with honors.

Marquette began as a dream of the Rev. John Martin Henni, the first Catholic bishop of Milwaukee. After a trip overseas to find an investor, Bishop Henni worked on his dream for the next eight years until he could purchase a parcel of land on a hill topping today’s North 10th and West State streets. Nearly three decades passed before the doors of Marquette College, a small liberal arts school for men named after Rev. Jacques Marquette opened on Aug 28, 1881. Bishop Henni died just two days later. 

However, it was wasn’t smooth sailing for Marquette College. Attendance was haphazard. Students came and went throughout the first year of operation. Milwaukee’s finest young scholars lacked the preparatory background to undertake collegiate studies in the Jesuit tradition. Seeing a need to prepare students at the “academic level” brought about the creation of the Marquette University High School. Finally in the fall of 1883, the first regular college classes were taught at Marquette College.

During the school’s opening decades, the “academic” and “preparatory” (grade school age) students always outnumbered the college students by a handy amount. Overall, this all-male population ranged from about elven years of age to twenty or more and it included youngsters of many faiths. 

The institution that is now the Marquette University School of Dentistry came into existence as the Dental Department of the Milwaukee Medical College on September 26, 1894. On May 7, 1907, Marquette University had been created through the affiliation of Marquette College and the Milwaukee Medical College with three departments, dentistry, medicine and pharmacy and the hospital which included a school of nursing. 

After twenty-five years as a small, liberal arts college, Marquette blossomed into Wisconsin’s largest private university through its affiliation with the Milwaukee Medical College in 1907, the purchase of two, privately-owned law schools in 1908, the establishment of an engineering college that same fall, and finally, the opening of journalism and business programs in 1910. By this time, the institution had moved from its original hilltop site at Tenth and State streets to Grand Avenue, alongside the Church of the Gesu. 

Soon Marquette set a course toward coeducation, the first Catholic college/university in the world to make this choice. In June of 1909, against the normal Jesuit’s practice, Marquette University open it doors to Women into their Bachelor of Arts classes. Within two years, the Jesuit’s Superior General in Rome gave his approval for the co-educational program which now had women and men taking classes side-by-side in all programs. Thus, Marquette University was the first Catholic institution of higher education to admit both men and women. 

In 1919, the dental school graduates 140 students and the Encyclopedia Britannica describes the school as one of the largest dental schools in the country. By year 100, the Dental School had graduated a total of 7,962 Dentist. 

My paternal 2nd great aunt, Margaret O’Brien’s husband, Roy Charles Rowley (according to his obituary) was in the first graduating class in dentistry from Marquette University.

Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!