The name of one of Milford’s elementary school, Lulu M. Ross Elementary, has special meaning as it is named for Lulu May Ross, a teacher who taught for more than 60 years. The school, which was constructed in 1957 after Milford School District purchased land at Southeast Third Street and Bridgeham Avenue.
Ross was born in 1873, the daughter of Andrew Jackson “AJ” Ross and Mary E. Argo. She was the oldest of three girls. Her sister, Margaret Lee, was born in 1876 and her youngest sister, Elizabeth Postles, in 1878.
A member of the first graduating class at the North Milford School in 1891, Ross was one of only six girls in the class. Research found that Ross once told an interviewer that the girls would get “disgusted” with the boys in the school as they would call on girls from South Milford and ignore the girls in North Milford. At the time, North Milford and South Milford were bitter rivals.
After graduation, Ross stayed home to care for her mother who was ill for three years before she entered the teaching field. She had earned her teaching certificate in July 1891. The certificate shows that Ross’ skills were weak in geography, physiology and hygiene as well as U.S. History, earning a 50, 60 and 65 in each subject respectively. However, she scored a 90 in mental arithmetic, an 80 in written arithmetic and an 85 in both reading and writing.
In October 1894, Ross began teaching at Bennett’s Gate School in Thompsonville where she was paid $240 per year. She left there in 1896, moving to the Postles School the following year. That school was located on Old State Road between Milford and Frederica. The year after that, she taught at the Williamsville School.
In September 1898, Ross began teaching first and second grades at the Milford Academy. Her classroom was on the first floor of the school, but eventually she moved to the second floor where she taught only first grade. In 1915, Principial Edgar Varney, separated the first grade into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. This was to manage overcrowding. Ross used tow systems of teaching reading in each session.
During a Teacher’s Institute, Ross was chosen to demonstrate the “New Education Reading System.” Using the book “Fanny has an Apple,” Ross provided insight into teaching phonics, later telling others that it was an “ordeal to demonstrate in front of teachers from all over the state.” One of the agents from the book company was in the audience and his only critique was that Ross had not “held her cards correctly.”
Each day, her classroom began with Ross’ reed organ and the students singing “Good morning to you; we’re all in our places; with bright shining faces; good morning to you.” A student of Ross’ who went on to become a professor at a New England teacher’s college stated that Ross was ahead of her time when it came to teaching phonics.
When a child fell behind in their schoolwork, Ross would visit the parent and tell the mother how she could help her child with extra work.
“My sister and I have tramped this town ever calling on parents after supper,” Ross was quoted as saying. “Many times, I went along for I wasn’t afraid to go by myself.”
A former student, Foster Brooks, who had moved to North Hill, Pennsylvania, called on Ross at one time.
“What a great feeling it does give one to have an old student look you up and tell you how much they enjoyed having you for a teacher,” Ross said.
Once, a photographer came to the school to take a photo of the first-grade class. The photo was to be taken outdoors, but one of the children, who had a bad cold, had not brought his cap. Instead of telling the boy he could not be in the photo outside, Ross put her own cap on his head and the photo was taken – with the child in his teacher’s hat.
Ross left teaching in 1946 due to the illness of her sister. She taught for more than 50 years in Milford, teaching first grade for all but two of those years. She never married and lived in her own home. She was interested in town and world affairs. She followed the Democratic Convention on the radio.
“To tell you the truth, I’m so interested in what goes on that I often neglect my dishes, especially the dusting up, that I can read the papers and hear my favorite news commentators.”
The school was dedicated with the laying of a cornerstone in December 1957. A newspaper account of the time states that it was a thrill to see the beautiful school that was “modern in every respect,” but that it was not a beautiful as Miss Lulu M. Ross who “seemed to have a lively enjoyment of the entire proceedings.”
The new school opened with only 12 classrooms with another 12 added in 1958. Some of the more notable people taught by Ross were former governor, the late Ruth Ann Minner and the late Marvin Schelhouse, who served on the Milford School District Board of Education for many years.
Ross passed away in 1960 in the Messick Nursing Home in Harrington. Her sister, Margaret, who died in 1940, had married Harry Marshall Deputy and had two children who survived Ross – Margaret E. Deputy Townsend and James Jackson Deputy. Ross’ sister, Elizabeth, never married and died in 1947. Services were held at Christ Episcopal Church and Ross is buried in Odd Fellows Cemetery.
