Margaret Stanton Kirshman

MARGARET BEAUMONT STANTON KIRSHMAN

Born May 16, 1883 in The Maples family home of Edgar W. and Margaret MacDonald Stanton (later became Music Hall) on the Iowa State College campus.

CHILDHOOD Had two brothers: Edwin MacDonald (Don) four years older and Edgar W. Jr. four years younger. The faculty children played together in the North Woods where they hunted rabbits and squirrels. Margaret didn't like to eat rabbit but her brothers tried to fool her with rabbit gravy. Margaret's father Edgar W. Stanton was the first graduate of I.S.C. in the class of 1872. He first taught all mathematics classes then was Dean of the Junior College secretary and treasurer and upon four occasions Acting President of Iowa State. His wife was first Preceptress so their home became a center for student activity for counseling and discussions. Prof. Stanton was in charge of loans and Margaret recalled that he helped George Washington Carver by having him work around their house and yard. Margaret was made to take piano lessons and hated to practice so George Washington Carver would place a fresh bouquet of flowers on her piano daily to try to cheer her.

Margaret recalled special visitors in her home were her father's classmate Catt who married Carrie Chapman class of 1880 leading suffragist and founder of League of Women Voters who helped with passage of the 19th Amendment. Carrie Chapman Catt later wrote to Margaret expressing her regard for Prof. Stanton and how his wisdom had been instrumental in formulating her character and convictions.

EDUCATION Some of the faculty children took classes at the college instead of attending high school in Ames three miles distance on the "Skunk" train which crossed the Skunk River. Margaret graduated from Iowa State College in the class of 1902 at the age of 19 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1904. Her brother Don graduated in the class of 1898 and then went to medical school at the University of Pennsylvania since their father had come from Waymart, Pa.

While there Margaret attended Bryn Mawr which was nearby. Margaret took graduate work at the Univ. of Wisconsin Madison from 1904-08. She had a scholarship in European History and received a Master of Arts degree in 1908. She then traveled through Europe for a year with four other girls and a chaperone. About 1912 her father sent Margaret to Columbia Univ. to "ferret out" some new theories and to pursue her interest in engineering of the home. In the Household Arts Review published by Columbia Univ. she wrote about "Southern Girls Canning and Poultry Clubs". These were started by her great-uncle Dr. Seaman A. Knapp to develop the head heart hand and health later known as the 4-H Clubs.

TEACHING While still a student at I.S.C. Margaret taught calculus and differential equations to Engineering students. She taught history in high school in Des Moines. Then at Boulder Prep School later Colorado Univ. She taught economics and history at Pine Manor the high school level of Bryn Mawr where she was instructed to pass all students so didn't have to spend extra time with the slower ones. Later she was instructor of Domestic Science at the Univ. of Illinois Champaign-Urbana.

There she met an Economics professor John Emmett Kirshman whom she married. (She was born on the 16th engaged on the 16th married on the 16th in 1916.) After their marriage John Emmett worked in the shipping department for the government in Washington D.C. tracking troop movements to Europe during World War I. They then moved to Cambridge, Mass. where he received his Ph.D. degree in Economics at Harvard Univ. While in the area Margaret lectured for Smith College and Wellesley on the Engineering of the Home and designing more efficient kitchen arrangements.

She intended to get a doctorate but couldn't find anyone to study with who was as advanced in their thinking. She always said she traded her Ph.D. for an MRS. However she was continually studying - art and sculpture at the Univ. of Nebraska where John went to teach and after in her 60s taught herself to carve embroider and weave. She made wooden furniture and dolls designed entire outfits for herself and daughter Peggy including coats with a matching hat and purse.

MEMBERSHIPS National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution - 1905 Wisconsin Alpha chapter of Pi Beta Phi Sorority - 1907 Chapter AA of P.E.O. Sisterhood Ames, Iowa. Later admitted to Chapter K Lincoln Nebr. and then was a charter member of Chapter EO Denver, Colo. Elected to Iowa Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi honorary fraternity - 1913 Elected (posthumously) to World Guild of Carilloneurs - 1987. Margaret felt she lived a fulfilling and rewarding life culminating in the birth of a granddaughter Kendra just nine months prior to her death at the age of 75 in 1959. She is interred in the I.S.U. cemetery in the North Woods she loved.

Submitted in loving memory by Margaret K. Doe, daughter

5/31/1996