Ptomaine poison cuts young Sapulpa teacher’s life short

This inscription is faded, but the sentiment is clear: This teacher touched the lives of her students. The tombstone represents the life of Grace Leach, who taught at Sapulpa’s Woodlawn School 1916-1917. She died of ptomaine poisoning in late May 1917 and is buried in the Old Sapulpa Cemetery. PHOTO/MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Just before noon on the last day of the school year, May 30, 1917,

some disgruntled boys hid near the steps leading  up to the entrance of Sapulpa’s three-story Woodlawn school. 

Inside the school, a group of unsuspecting teachers, toting their personal belongings after closing up their classrooms for the school year, headed down the hallway toward that same doorway, chatting in eager anticipation of the months ahead devoted to relaxation and academic renewal.

As the teachers stepped outside, projectiles – in this case rotten eggs – barreled in their direction. Some hit the intended targets (the school teachers) and others missed the mark.

As the stunned-yet-uninjured teachers processed details of the attack, the boys (thought to be those who failed to pass to the next grade) raced away into obscurity.

Supulpa teacher

Thirty-two year old Grace Martha Leach, trained for her profession at the University of Oklahoma-Norman just a decade after the institution’s founding in 1890, was reportedly among the educators leaving Woodlawn School that day. She had taught in Oklahoma schools since leaving the university in 1904, and carried with her high recommendations and credentials, which left her sought after by school districts both big and small throughout the region.

The Woodlawn building was the largest and second-oldest of the four elementary schools which served Sapulpa’s population, located on the edge of the Euchee mission property in rapidly expanding East Sapulpa.

(As of 1909, all Sapulpa pupils living east of the Frisco Railroad’s Red River Division tracks attended the Woodlawn school. The tracks went north and south through Sapulpa, parallel between Maple and Spruce Streets.)

Summer course

As Miss Leach had done in summers’ past, she was enrolled in a normal school summer course, structured as continuing education for working educators.

In June 1917 – has she had in 1913 - she would attend East Central State normal school at Ada, Okla.

Among the instructors for the summer course were Prof. P.W. Swartz, of Lindsay, Okla.; E.P. Downing, principal of Irving School in Shawnee; and Superintendent Thomas W. Abbott of Wanette. 

Grace Leach’s classmates that summer included Miss Lela Standridge of Steedman; Miss Maude Newlin of Frederick; Miss Daisy Whipple, teacher at Talahina; Miss Pearl Moss; and Miss Gladys Witt, of Maud. 

At the end of the summer term, Professor Downing, English instructor, was so appreciated by the students, that they presented him with a fountain pen in appreciation.

Student entertainment

It was a custom in Ada for residents to entertain normal school students during the four-week course, but as the Pauls Valley Enterprise and Valley News reported on Aug. 9, 1917, “The peculiar conditions occasioned by the war situation caused seriousness of purpose that prevented to a certain extent,” such entertainment. Regardless, the counties represented at the school each had an official picnic or outing, and numerous smaller excursions were held.

One such event was hosted by 34-year-old Richard T. (Doc) Couch, a husband and father, who had moved to Ada from Texas as a young boy with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Richard C. Couch, in 1889.

The Okarche Times reported that ptomaine (or food) poisoning, of which the likely cause was canned tuna fish served at the dinner, sickened people at this party, and ultimately claimed the lives of two in attendance: Doc Couch and Grace Leach.

Ptomaine poisoning

An explanation of ptomaine poisoning was offered in the March 21, 1916, Tulsa Daily World.

“Ptomaine is a scientific name for food poison,” the newspaper reported, “and although all ptomaines are not dangerous to health, there is no simple test for telling the dangerous ones from the others. Dr. Charles K. Francis, a noted Oklahoma chemist, gives the advice, ‘When doubtful about a food, do not eat it. This applies especially to meat which has a peculiar odor or taste, canned goods, especially when they have been opened for some time, and any other foods which do not seem just right.’”

Ptomaine poisoning didn’t discriminate among the classes. In January 1916, Gov. W.S. Hammond of Minnesota died of ptomaine poisoning while visiting Clinton, Louisiana.

Veteran teacher

Grace Leach began her first teaching assignment right out of college. At the age of 19, she was hired to teach at Kechi, near Chickasha, for the 1904-05 school year.

Other known teaching assignments, as culled from various newspapers:

1910-1911: Owens School, Tulsa

1911-1912: Owens School, Tulsa

1915-1916: Thomas, Oklahoma, secondary, geography and physiology

1916-1917: Sapulpa, Woodlawn school.

Leach family

Grace Leach’s father, John W. Leach, was a railroad contractor, and in 1910, the family was living at El Reno, Okla.

J.W. Leach died in 1920. His wife, Rowena Cox Leach, remarried in 1925, to David Straub of Stillwater, Okla. She died a widow in 1938, at Amarillo, Texas.

John W. and Rowena are buried next to their daughter, Grace, in Old Sapulpa Cemetery.

Much of the engraving has faded from Grace Leach’s 103-year-old tombstone, but still legible are her last name, and the endearing inscription, “Our Teacher.”

Note: The egg-throwing incident was reported in the May 31, 1917 edition of The Morning Tulsa Daily World, Genealogybank.com. Other online newspapers accessed for this story: Newspapers.com; and Chroniclingamerica.com.

Assistance in research and grave location was offered by Pearl Lay, secretary for Sapulpa’s city-managed cemeteries.

Sapula’s Woodlawn School is pictured during the early years of the 20^th Century. The photo is part of the Sapulpa Historical Society’s collection, accessed via their website.

Grace Leach rests near her father, J.W. Leach, who died in 1920.  PHOTO/MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Grace Leach’s mother, Rowena, died in 1938, and is buried near her husband and daughter in the Old Sapulpa Cemetery. PHOTO/MARY LOU MONTGOMERY

Mary Lou Montgomery retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri," and "The Historic Murphy House, Hannibal, Mo., Circa 1870." She can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com