Thurza M. McElman

Thurza M. McElman taught in the Billerica public schools for forty-two years, from 1912 until 1954, and was the first principal of the school in Pinehurst that became the Ditson School. She was born in Billerica on July 15, 1885, to Matthew and Alice McElman, immigrants from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; the town recorded her birth only in 1947, among births of earlier years registered that year. Her father, Matthew W. McElman, did cement, paving, mason and cemetery work for the town around the turn of the century, and died in January 1923 at the age of 74; her mother, Alice N. (Shaw) McElman, died in March 1945 at 83. Thurza attended the Pollard School in the 1890s, and the school department's teacher lists give her training as the Howe School.

In 1912 the School Committee elected her to teach the one-room Richardson School, and that fall the local magazine The Billerica reported that "The Richardson School is prospering under the tutelage of Miss Thurza McElman, and has an enrollment of 24." After three years there she was, in the words of the School Committee's report for 1915, "taken from the Richardson school and given the sixth grade at the Pollard school." From 1920 she taught the sixth grade in the Old Howe building, and by 1931 she was also the head teacher of the Howe elementary school there. To meet the new requirement of instruction in physical training, she spent the summer of 1922 at the Harvard School of Physical Education, and the superintendent then put her in charge of that work at the Pollard.

In 1931 the town built a six-room brick school in Pinehurst to replace the crowded two-room Pinehurst School. The rooms were organized in September and moved into the new building in December, and the superintendent reported that "Miss Thurza McElman was elected Principal and teacher of Grade Six"; Mary E. Gill succeeded her as head teacher at the Howe School. In 1935 town meeting voted to name the building the Ditson School, in honor of the Revolutionary patriot Thomas Ditson. She remained its principal, and taught its sixth grade herself, for more than twenty years; the staff tables of the 1940s show her with sixth-grade classes of forty to fifty pupils.

In January 1954 the Pinehurst Junior Recreation Club presented a portrait of her to the Ditson School. She resigned during 1954 and died on June 2, 1954. The school report for that year printed the portrait with an In Memoriam notice: "Principal of Ditson School. Began service in Billerica: 1912. Died June 2, 1954." She is buried in North Cemetery, Billerica.

References

1. In Memoriam, 1955
2. School Committee Report, 1913
3. School Committee Report, 1915
4. Superintendent Report, 1931
5. The Billerica, 1912 (School News: the Richardson School under Miss McElman)
6. Report of the School Committee, 1915 (transfer from the Richardson School to the Pollard sixth grade)
7. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1922 (Harvard School of Physical Education)
8. Deaths recorded in 1923 (Matthew W. McElman)
9. Teaching staff and pupil enrollment, December 1, 1943 (Ditson School)
10. Deaths recorded in 1945 (Alice N. (Shaw) McElman)
11. Births previous to 1947 recorded in 1947 (Thurza McElman, July 1885)
12. Report of the Superintendent of Schools, 1954 (resignations)