Pioneer educator in Bloomington schools
Almost everyone knows Sarah Raymond was Bloomington’s first female Superintendent of Schools. But she had a forgotten college classmate who left her own mark in local classrooms.
Isabella F. Goudy was a dedicated, community-active teacher and principal who has been largely forgotten. Born into an intellectual family in Ohio in 1843, she took up teaching in the Bloomington Schools in 1869. But she only stayed for a year. She spent the next school year or two teaching in Cairo, in extreme southern Illinois, before returning to Bloomington.
She went by the name “Belle,” and returned to Bloomington in 1872. In 1874 she was made first assistant in the Number Three school district. Most Bloomington schools had numbers for many years before they had names, and Number Three became Emerson School.
In 1887 she was named principal of Edwards School (Number Two). She remained there until 1896, when she was transferred to Irving School, again as its principal.
Right: Belle Goudy, date unknown.
From Pantagraph Archives.
It wasn’t unusual for women to be principals in the local schools. The female gender dominated, not only in the classroom but also in the principal’s office. In Belle Goudy’s time almost all of Bloomington’s principals were women.
Her retirement article in the Pantagraph of June 1, 1911 described her as a principal with a rare quality to meet parents and pupils successfully; as an excellent executive; a good teacher with native tact; a keen sense of humor that enabled her to see the bright side of every situation.
A century later, she was enshrined in the District 87 Hall of Fame. She was described as a pioneer who introduced domestic science (think home economics) into the curriculum. She was also described as “one of the most progressive women in public.”
Her stay at Irving School had lasted until 1911, when she announced she was no longer going to teach. It was sad news, but not exactly shocking. She was 68 years old and the school board, friends and faculty had been encouraging her to go ahead and retire. To that end, her friends had bought her a diamond pin as a token of their esteem and appreciation, and gave it to her on May 31, 1911. With the close of the school year, Belle Goudy was done.
She traveled in her retirement, and in 1914 found herself with her friend. Mrs. S. Noble King, in Paris as the hostilities began in World War I. They went into neutral Switzerland and made their way to London without serious incident. Belle’s nephew, type-style developer Frederic Goudy (a Bloomington native), was travelling with the ladies and assisted in their getting to safety.
They weren’t alone. The outbreak of the war had left many McLean County people scrambling to get out of Europe. It took Belle and Mrs. King a whole week to get to Paris. They sailed home from London by way of Liverpool on the Adriatic, booking the last two available spots on the ship at Liverpool. There were 3,200 passengers aboard.
The Adriatic was a luxury liner of the White Star Line, and one of the ships commandeered later by the British government as a troop carrier. But in the early days of the war it shipped Americans home, safely away from the ravages of the war. Other White Star Liners in similar service included the Lusitania, Olympia, Mauretania and the Saxonia.
On June 11, 1922 Belle died while on an extended visit to the home of her sister, Mary Allen, in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her death certificate says she suffered a stroke on June 1. She lingered for ten days before the end. Her remains were shipped back to Bloomington and she was buried in Park Hill Cemetery.
Belle Goudy never married. Indeed, she barely owned property. For most of her adult life she roomed with friends here and there in Bloomington rather than live in a home of her own. The only real estate she held when she died was a farm valued at $7,000: a Kansas tract of 160 acres, possibly inherited from a departed brother. She left half the farm to her sister, Mary Allen. Three other relatives, including nephew Frederic Goudy, shared equal parcels of the remaining eighty acres.
Isabella F. Goudy was enshrined in the District 87 Hall of Fame in 2019. The on-line wording paints a rosy, perhaps glowing picture of her. With her 42 years in Bloomington principals’ offices and classrooms it’s a fair guess that she earned them.