Education of Elizabeth Studebaker Gates

An Amazing Phone Call about an Even More Amazing Lady

I received one of the most amazing phone calls on the morning of July 13, 2000, from the Kansas School for the Deaf. The person calling on behalf of the school was trying to locate descendants of prominent alums. She had found Dad’s name with his contact information on the internet.  This school official knew my grandfather’s name was Edmund Gates. So acting on a hunch that the two were related, she had called at my father's home. She was planning the 140^th anniversary of the founding of the school. I knew my great-grandmother was born deaf but was astonished to learn she was the first student of the school.

Elizabeth Studebaker was born to Daniel and Elizabeth Jacobs Studebaker on May 16, 1851, in South Bend, Indiana. She was the first daughter born following the birth of three sons. She would have two sisters born later. Little Elizabeth was born deaf. At the age of six, she and her family moved west to Kansas in a covered wagon.


First Building to House the Kansas School for the Deaf

Elizabeth Studebaker Gates 

Above is a photo of the original building at Baldwin, Kansas, that housed the Kansas School for the Deaf. Records show Elizabeth Studebaker, whose portrait is above, studied there for six years following her enrollment as the first student on December 9, 1861. Her father would have taken her the approximate thirty miles between their closest town of Clinton to Baldwin, the only place Elizabeth could learn sign language. American Sign Language was a relatively new language at that time having been taught for less than fifty years. The school’s photograph, as well as the information below, is available on the school’s present website in its history section.

 Elizabeth Studebaker from Clinton arrived with her father, along with some ham, butter and eggs. These items, along with the following week's arrival of a wagon load of corn, served as the barter for the school costs of roughly $2.50 per week.

I am greatly indebted to Great-aunt Ella Gates-Meyer for information she wrote for the school about her mother, Elizabeth Studebaker. Her article about her mother indicated that Elizabeth did housework for one dollar per week to pay for her room and board. Great-aunt Ella stated that the only way her mother could attend the Kansas School for the Deaf was the school’s willingness to accept produce from Daniel Studebaker’s farm near Fort Scott, Kansas, in lieu of tuition fees. The forward-thinking Dunkard* minister, Daniel Studebaker purposefully and sacrificially sought out education for his deaf daughter in a time when many felt girls needed no education and one with a disability was considered “inferior.”

Tombstone of Daniel Studebaker, father of
Elizabeth Studebaker Gates. He is buried in
Colyer Cemetery in Douglas County in Kansas.
He was born on September 11, 1820 in Ohio.
He died on May 8, 1894 in Kansas.

*The Dunkards were a branch off the Church of the Brethren, a group that began in Germany in the early 1700s. The present day Dunkards strictly adhere to the New Testament. They practice “triple” immersion baptism once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and once in the name of the Holy Spirit. This ceremony was performed after an individual professed faith in Jesus as his/her Savior and Lord. Some categorize their doctrine as “Baptistic.” Incidently, Daniel Studebaker’s other six brothers were also Dunkard ministers according to Aunt Ella Gates-Meyer. A Dunkard congregation still exists in Kansas.

William Marion Rainey

Father of Daisy Rainey Rice, Lewis Rainey, Gladys Rainey Smith, Della Rainey, Alice Rainey, Emma Rainey Buckley, and Eugene Rainey

William “Bill” Marion Rainey, a fun-loving man who could dance a rousing Irish jig according to his youngest daughter, Emma, was the patriarch of the Rainey family who eventually settled in the Big Bend area west of Ralston, Oklahoma. He was the only child born to Thomas and Mary Rainey. Bill was born in Missouri, on July 15, 1868. In the 1910 Census, Bill listed his father’s birthplace as Kentucky with Tennessee as his mother’s birthplace.

Rosa, his wife, first recalled seeing him riding a horse before even meeting him. Given her meager upbringing, it seemed Rosa had encountered her knight on his charger.

My mother recalls him as a fun-loving, jovial man. This probably attracted Rosa to him since Mother remembers her beloved grandmother as serious, one who could laugh and enjoy herself but never the “prankster” that Bill was. How frequently do opposites attract!

One of the more memorable pranks that my mother recalls from her parents involved a night when they were spending the night with her grandparents. Her Aunt Alice and Uncle Gene were also living there. Thinking it would be grand fun, Grandpa and Gene planned and staged an elaborate ruse. The two of them sneaked outside and began throwing stove wood from the woodpile at each other, raising their voices, and using “colorful” language. They came into the house, with their battle scars, and told their wide-eyed guests that they had been attack outside of the house. Their guests, as well as Grandma and Alice, were terrified and sat up all night talking about what had happened—not daring to close their eyes for a wink of sleep lest the intruders that terrified Grandpa and Gene would return to break into the house and harm all of them. However, Grandpa and Gene slipped off to bed stifling their giggles. The next morning, their laughter could no longer be contained, and they spilled the beans to their weary family that they had faked the whole thing. Unfortunately, no one appreciated the antics they staged and the lengths to which they had gone to entertain themselves: in fact, let's just say, the women folk in particular were downright ticked off!

William Marion and Rosa Jarrell Rainey with their granddaughter Bernyce Smith  - taken in the late 1920s.*

*This is the only photograph my mother has of her grandfather. She says there was a wonderful portrait of him that Aunt Emma Buckley took to a professional photographer to have enlarged. Aunt Emma was dissatisfied with the results and refused to pay for the enlargement. That prompted the photographer to refuse to return the original photograph of her father. However, I am indebted to Aunt Emma Buckley for taking the above photograph.

In Honor of Bernyce Smith Gates

My mother will celebrate her eighty-ninth birthday this week. She was the inspiration for the first devotional article I had published. In honor of her, I am posting it as it appeared in Mature Living in the September 2007 issue.

My Mother’s Prayer

Each Sunday our pastor presents a brief children’s message and then leads the congregation in a time of silent prayer.

Mother mentions that she prays for the children who go the front of the sanctuary and gather around the pastor. She said, “I pray for each of them to come to salvation and to walk faithfully with Him all their lives.” How surprising that an arthritic, 81-year-old lady with no grandchildren of her own would have that prayer utmost on her heart.

Many Christians allow their own maladies and difficulties to monopolize their prayers, leaving little intercession time for others. Ironically, often as we make supplication for others, God quietly meets our own deepest needs.

James reminds us, “Pray for one another” (James 5:16).

Mother’s steadfast commitment to study God’s Word and live it out in her daily life has impacted not only our family immeasurably but others who have benefited from her teaching and consistent example.  

Mother as a child in the Great Depression

Mother Today



Mother in 1951

The Marriage of Robert and Nettie Black

Rufus Tripp, father of Mamie Tripp Gates, was a cowman, as the musical Oklahoma would describe him. Bob Black was a hired hand working for him. Shortly after Mamie’s father’s death at the age of only 42 of kidney failure, her mother, Nettie Ann Venator Tripp, married Bob Black on Dec. 13, 1900. 

Some questioned Nettie’s short period of grieving and quick marriage to Robert T. Black. She was living at the turn of the twentieth century when few careers were open to women, especially if the woman had children. After only eight years of marriage, Nettie found herself a widow at age 28  with little girls to raise. Her husband had died at the end of October. She faced caring for the livestock with the upcoming winter looming. She already knew Bob Black as a trustworthy worker, and he knew her late husband’s livestock operation. The primary characteristic that many pioneer women sought in men was an unwavering dependability to provide for a family through a stellar work ethic.

Therefore, the only maternal grandfather Mamie’s children knew was really a step grandfather, Robert “Bob” T. Black.  The “sweetest man who grew beautiful tiger lilies” was the description given by one of his step granddaughters, who as a teen deeply grieved for him when he died suddenly. He was a kind, giving man who lovingly cared for Nettie who suffered with diabetes in their latter years to the point of breaking his own health, some have said.
 



Robert and Nettie (Venator Tripp) Black taken at their last home in Fairfax. 

A Tiger Lily Like Grandpa

Black Grew in His Yard.

photographed by Bernadean J. Gates

 



Early in Katherine Heigl’s acting career, she gave a compelling performance as a young widow in the movie, Love Comes Softly. In the first few minutes of the film, her poignant portrayal of a grieving widow reminds me of the level of grief that Great-grandmother Nettie Tripp must have felt in the autumn of 1900. The 2004 movie was directed by Michael Landon, Jr. and based on the first book by Canadian author, Janette Oke. Incidentally, Oke’s book sold over a million copies.