Part 1
With the end of the school year fast approaching, it’s important to remember and honor someone who is often referred to as the Mother of Education in Manatee County. A proud descendant of the Earl of Moss in Scotland, Frances McKay (1868-1956) was a promising student. She planned a career in journalism and joined the staff of the Chicago Daily News. After receiving a reporting assignment that her father deemed “unbecoming for a young lady,” Frankie’s journalism career was short-lived. Unfortunately for Frankie (but fortunately for our community!), asthma led her to a better climate with her aunt in Polk County. As an honors graduate of the Cook County Normal School in Chicago (“normal” schools were set up specifically to train teachers), Frankie McKay accepted her first teaching position in a one-room rural schoolhouse at Fallen Creek.
As word of her innovative teaching style spread, Manatee County offered to increase Frankie’s twenty-dollars-a-month salary if she would leave Polk County and teach here instead. Decision-makers in Manatee County must have been swayed by the glowing recommendation given by trustees of the Fallen Creek school: “Miss Frankie McKay is the best teacher we ever had, despite the fact that she is a woman.”
In January 1889, Frankie McKay started teaching in Palmetto’s one-room-schoolhouse: a box house that even served as a shelter for a number of pigs that slept under the building at night. Good thing Palmetto offered her a raise, because working conditions were not ideal: window screens were non-existent, and the pigs ensured a large number of flies were always present. In need of better school supplies, Frankie ordered them, paying for them in $5 installments from her monthly salary. Recognizing the quality education that their children were receiving, parents rallied together and began a fundraising campaign to repay her by organizing social functions such as school plays.
Coming from the big city of Chicago, imagine Frankie’s surprise when she learned that geography lessons were forbidden for religious reasons here. Due to the local minister’s literal belief that man came from the four corners of the earth, Miss McKay was unable to use the geography books she had brought with her. In an interview after her retirement, Frankie explains “I had to teach the truth some way.” With that goal in mind, Frankie began her “mapping lessons” by drawing a neighborhood map on the chalkboard. Interestingly enough, the minister’s house occupied the center of the blackboard with the rest of the neighborhood revolving around him. As these lessons progressed, Frankie drew blackboard maps covering the whole state, country, and even eastern seaboard. In a strategic move designed to get kids talking to their families about geography, these lessons were scheduled at the end of the school day. As it turns out, even the adults in Palmetto were thirsty for knowledge about geography and many parents and former students would watch these “mapping lessons” through the windows of the one-room schoolhouse. Bolstered by her success among townspeople, Frankie discussed sailors’ ability to sail the seas without falling off and eventually had the courage to draw a circle on the chalkboard and declare that the world was round.
Less than a year after her arrival in Palmetto, Frankie married Civil War veteran, Captain James Alexander Howze, a widower. Captain Howze was a merchant and he came in contact with a salesman from Tampa in August of 1888. The man was ill and Captain Howze provided him with a place to rest before he traveled back to Tampa. Shortly thereafter, word came back that he had died of Yellow Fever. A few days later, Captain Howze’s wife, Mary, and their children came down the affliction. The children recovered, but Mary Howze became Palmetto’s first victim of Yellow Fever, and was laid to rest in the historical cemetery on 5th Street. James met Frankie when she was teaching a Sunday School class during her first year in town and married her on Christmas Eve 1889. Frankie became a mother to his three children and they had four more sons together. This cemented Frankie McKay Howze’s place in the community and anchored her to this area… much to Palmetto’s benefit!
Part 2
Frankie McKay Howze first came to Palmetto to teach in a one-room schoolhouse in 1889. Though students of all ages shared a classroom and teacher, Mrs. Howze divided children into classes in order to teach age-appropriate lessons. While it was standard for kids to go to school up until their early teen years, Mrs. Howze found several older youth interested in higher subjects. Guided by a model for study, Frankie organized classes in Literature, Latin, Science and Algebra. These core subjects laid a foundation for High School.
Under Frankie’s direction, final exams became a big event. All members of the local school board and county superintendant would watch each student work an assigned problem on the blackboard. According to a descendent, “To be a student in Miss Frankie’s school was now quite an honor.” Parents from the surrounding counties would board their children in town in order to take advantage of the great educational opportunities.
Instead of just focusing on academics, the forward-thinking Mrs. Howze believed in educating the whole child. Frankie emphasized Physical Education before PE was a standard part of the curriculum. Former student, Lenore Stewart, reminisces about early-morning exercises in the school chapel (auditorium), where students sat in every-other chair to follow along with Mrs. Howze’s stretching exercises. Mrs. Howze even taught 5th and 6th grade boys football! In an interview after her retirement, she mentions that she “read up on it, you see, and I love the game. Used to take the boys around in my car to other towns where they were to play.”
As an above-and-beyond type of educator, Frankie also made sure her students received lessons in music appreciation. Alice Myers, a late Palmetto historian, shared stories of music lessons in which Mrs. Howze would lift the needle of her Victrola mid-song and ask students to identify the different instruments. Other former students have noted that Mrs. Howze was the reason they knew that the music played during many western chase scenes was from the William Tell Overture.
As education continued to improve in Palmetto, new schools were built and Mrs. Howze was made principal of the elementary school. In 1927, a school was built and named in her honor. A marble slab was put on the original building declaring it the “Frankie A. Howze School,” where she continued as principal until her retirement at 72 years of age. In 1979, after the demolition of this original structure, the slab was affixed to a new building in Palmetto Elementary School. In recent years, the school has been relocated to a different part of town and Frankie’s marble slab now resides in front of the kindergarten building at the Palmetto Historical Park.
While all of these duties and accomplishments would have been plenty to keep Frankie busy, for awhile she was also the town’s librarian! During her first year here, Frankie helped organize a civic organization with the main goal of establishing a library in Palmetto. The Carnegie Library was finally built in 1914 and Mrs. Howze served as librarian from 1916 until 1926.
It isn’t only locals who think Frankie’s contributions deserve to be remembered. In recognition of Frankie Howze’s philanthropy and public service, she was named one of the Department of State’s Great Floridians 2000. This program was designed to honor individuals who have “enhanced the lives of Florida’s citizens.” A commemorative plaque denoting this honor is proudly displayed on the façade of the Carnegie Library. This building that Frankie loved so well and fought hard to establish is currently in danger. Leaking windows threaten the 100-year-old structure as well as the irreplaceable archives housed inside (including the file about Frankie’s life). The Palmetto Historical Commission and the City of Palmetto are working to save this landmark… and you can help! When you donate $100 or more, your loved one will be recognized on a plaque in the Carnegie Library. Not only will they be honored for years to come, but you will be saving history. Spaces are filling up fast and the Historical Commission is currently accepting donations. For more information, please email palmettohistoricalpark@manateeclerk.com or call 941-723-4991.
