Posted: 8:23 AM - Jun 03, 2005
From The Wilmington News Journal – 27 Mar 2003
Remembering the days when she was a student and recalling her 50-year career as a teacher brings back special memories to Esther Underwood Doster as she nears her 100th birthday. She's looking forward to visiting with many of her 41 descendants and dozens of friends and neighbors during an open house on her birthday Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Ellis Room at Friendly Center in Wilmington. The public is invited, but she requests no gifts.
Doster was 26 and teaching in the village of Highland when she received her Ohio High School Life Certificate in 1929 for teaching high school English, history and home economics. She also coached basketball and directed class plays at the school.
Though she is now retired from teaching, she continues to teach life skills to her family, says her son Howard.
Doster has a great love for family and their memories. With that thought, in December she provided the money for Jonah's Run Church to purchase two acres of her great-grandfather Underwood's former farm adjacent to the church sanctuary.
Her schooling began in a one-room school near her home on Brimstone Road. At that time she says she was "shy, hesitant to speak and easily embarrassed."
In the fifth grade she went to consolidated Kingman School and was "really scared" when she realized that each student had to speak before the whole school once a month. Somehow, Esther gave her first speech. Harley Smith, principal, personally critiqued Esther's presentation by saying, " ... Esther Underwood was ... just perfect." The next month, teacher Lila Inwood said, "And, of course, Esther Underwood was ... just perfect."
Esther was pleased but she realized she must work hard to maintain this new reputation, and she did.
Speaking at her 70th high school alumni meeting, Esther remembered her high school principal made bleachers above their basement gym floor, and the fans had to climb a ladder to their seats for the women's basketball games. She noted that Kingman had a real gym, and didn't have to play their home games in an outbuilding or barn.
Also at the 70th alumni gathering, she related the titles of three topics she and her teammates debated. The first, women's suffrage: "Once women get to vote, we just knew there would be no more wars." The second was on prohibition: "Once prohibition was in effect, we just knew there would be no more crime." And, third was League of Nations: "But our country wasn't ready for that yet."
Esther remembers she and her three sisters riding to Kingman in a horse-drawn school wagon driven by two older Doster boys. Recalling this experience, she remembers that the day before her first alumni meeting one of them called to see if he might pick her up to go to the gathering. That was her first date with the man who later became her husband, William Doster.
Initially Esther planned to study chemistry after receiving a $25 scholarship from Wilmington College. When she heard her father asking the registrar if he might pay the tuition monthly, Esther realized the hardship on her family so she dropped the expensive chemistry lab class.
After her freshman year at college she took her first teaching job at White Chapel, a one-room school in southern Greene County for $600. She recalls students drinking water from a bucket using the same tin cup. Esther says she showed her students how to fold a paper to make their own drinking cup.
After a year, she returned to Wilmington College where she graduated second in the class of 1926. While on campus she helped found her sorority and the college drama society and played basketball.
Later she was a teacher at Harveysburg and Clinton-Massie High School.
The skills learned in studying home economics she also used in her home. In 1933, Esther and her husband budgeted $490 for family living, including $90 for savings. She remembers that they made their budget. In 1937, their farm record book entries show they realized the highest return on investments among Clinton County farmers in the Ohio State Analyses.
Esther and William raised four children on their farm.
Over the years Esther has enjoyed having dozens of former students share how they have been influenced by her teaching, including what they learned both in and out of the classroom.
Another highlight of her life was that she was still teaching her adult Sunday school class on her 90th birthday.
She was a founding member of many local groups. When asked what was the first group she founded, she answered: "The Anti-can't Society when I was in the fourth grade."
Undoubtedly she has guided her life and influenced the lives of her family and friends with that attitude.
(Esther Doster recently attended the 2005 Collett-McKay Picnic at age 102. She was the oldest person present. Howard Shambaugh was the oldest descendant present at age 99.)
"Just perfect": Former teacher Doster turning 100
by Rose Cooper
The Wilmington News Journal
by Rose Cooper
The Wilmington News Journal
Remembering the days when she was a student and recalling her 50-year career as a teacher brings back special memories to Esther Underwood Doster as she nears her 100th birthday. She's looking forward to visiting with many of her 41 descendants and dozens of friends and neighbors during an open house on her birthday Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m., in the Ellis Room at Friendly Center in Wilmington. The public is invited, but she requests no gifts.
Doster was 26 and teaching in the village of Highland when she received her Ohio High School Life Certificate in 1929 for teaching high school English, history and home economics. She also coached basketball and directed class plays at the school.
Though she is now retired from teaching, she continues to teach life skills to her family, says her son Howard.
Doster has a great love for family and their memories. With that thought, in December she provided the money for Jonah's Run Church to purchase two acres of her great-grandfather Underwood's former farm adjacent to the church sanctuary.
Her schooling began in a one-room school near her home on Brimstone Road. At that time she says she was "shy, hesitant to speak and easily embarrassed."
In the fifth grade she went to consolidated Kingman School and was "really scared" when she realized that each student had to speak before the whole school once a month. Somehow, Esther gave her first speech. Harley Smith, principal, personally critiqued Esther's presentation by saying, " ... Esther Underwood was ... just perfect." The next month, teacher Lila Inwood said, "And, of course, Esther Underwood was ... just perfect."
Esther was pleased but she realized she must work hard to maintain this new reputation, and she did.
Speaking at her 70th high school alumni meeting, Esther remembered her high school principal made bleachers above their basement gym floor, and the fans had to climb a ladder to their seats for the women's basketball games. She noted that Kingman had a real gym, and didn't have to play their home games in an outbuilding or barn.
Also at the 70th alumni gathering, she related the titles of three topics she and her teammates debated. The first, women's suffrage: "Once women get to vote, we just knew there would be no more wars." The second was on prohibition: "Once prohibition was in effect, we just knew there would be no more crime." And, third was League of Nations: "But our country wasn't ready for that yet."
Esther remembers she and her three sisters riding to Kingman in a horse-drawn school wagon driven by two older Doster boys. Recalling this experience, she remembers that the day before her first alumni meeting one of them called to see if he might pick her up to go to the gathering. That was her first date with the man who later became her husband, William Doster.
Initially Esther planned to study chemistry after receiving a $25 scholarship from Wilmington College. When she heard her father asking the registrar if he might pay the tuition monthly, Esther realized the hardship on her family so she dropped the expensive chemistry lab class.
After her freshman year at college she took her first teaching job at White Chapel, a one-room school in southern Greene County for $600. She recalls students drinking water from a bucket using the same tin cup. Esther says she showed her students how to fold a paper to make their own drinking cup.
After a year, she returned to Wilmington College where she graduated second in the class of 1926. While on campus she helped found her sorority and the college drama society and played basketball.
Later she was a teacher at Harveysburg and Clinton-Massie High School.
The skills learned in studying home economics she also used in her home. In 1933, Esther and her husband budgeted $490 for family living, including $90 for savings. She remembers that they made their budget. In 1937, their farm record book entries show they realized the highest return on investments among Clinton County farmers in the Ohio State Analyses.
Esther and William raised four children on their farm.
Over the years Esther has enjoyed having dozens of former students share how they have been influenced by her teaching, including what they learned both in and out of the classroom.
Another highlight of her life was that she was still teaching her adult Sunday school class on her 90th birthday.
She was a founding member of many local groups. When asked what was the first group she founded, she answered: "The Anti-can't Society when I was in the fourth grade."
Undoubtedly she has guided her life and influenced the lives of her family and friends with that attitude.
(Esther Doster recently attended the 2005 Collett-McKay Picnic at age 102. She was the oldest person present. Howard Shambaugh was the oldest descendant present at age 99.)