Hannah Clapp was born in 1824 in upper New York state. She came West in 1859, and eventually made her way to Carson City, where she opened a school and began to teach some of the children of the most influential families in the capital city. Hannah’s school was the first educational institution in Nevada Territory. The Seminary was just the beginning of a long line of firsts. Hannah operated the school as the first co-educational institution in the state, too. Many of Hannah’s students became successful educators and entrepreneurs. George Washington Gale Ferris began his studies at the seminary and went on to gain fame and fortune as the inventor of the Ferris Wheel. In 1877, Clapp and Babcock created the first kindergarten in Nevada, when they opened it in the basement of the Sierra Seminary.
Carson City
In 1875, the Nevada legislature began looking for bids for a substantial fence around the grounds of the legislature building. They wanted to protect the building with a stone and forged metal fence. They took bids from several contractors and finally awarded the bid to a H.K. Clapp, which turned out to be Hannah and her partner, Eliza Babcock. They contracted out the actual building of the fence to a local contractor, and made a nice profit on the project, while making a name for herself as a successful entrepreneur as well as an educator.
The Move to Reno
In 1887, Hannah moved to Reno and began teaching history and English at the newly formed University of Nevada, Reno. The next year, she took on the job of librarian, and organized the collection in Morill Hall. In six years, she grew the collection from 4,000 volumes to 6,000 volumes and 5,000 pamphlets before she retired in 1901. Before her retirement, she worked with the Twentieth Century Club to create the Reno Kindergarten Association, and shortly afterward, the first Reno kindergarten opened in a part of the Bishop Whitaker School for Girls. Babcock died in 1899, and Hannah opened the Babcock Memorial Kindergarten for her on the corner of Walnut and Fifth Streets in Reno.
After her retirement, Clapp moved to Palo Alto, California, where she passed away in 1908, at the age of 84. Her tireless work in education for the children of Nevada lives on in the Hannah Humanitarian Award, which is presented annually by the Committee to Aid Abused Women to a deserving citizen.
Sources:
Totten, Kathryn Dunn. Hannah Keziah Clapp: The Life and Career of a Pioneer Nevada Educator, 1824-1908.
Nevada Historical Society Journal, vol. xx #3, Fall 77, p. 167-183.
Sherril Steele-Carlin - I'm a freelance writer and researcher in Reno, Nevada, where I've lived for over 20 years. I love the history and lore of Nevada, and I ...
