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| MAESTRO AMERICANO, Carroll Peabody, Mabalacat Teacher |
Carroll A. Peabody was a fresh graduate
of Western Reserve University in Ohio, when he answered a call for teachers to
come to the Philippines to teach—and the promise of exotic adventure in
America’s newest territory in the Far East. Born on 4 April 1880 in Chandon, Geugua,
Ohio to parents Henry Lionel Peabody and Ella Jane Stafford, he grew up in the
state with siblings George Alfred, Carie Adella, and Mary Ann Peabody.
The 21 year-old Education graduate was one of the first waves of American teachers to arrive via the USAT Thomas transport ship, beginning in August 1901. The Thomasite teachers were tasked to help establish a new public school system in the Islands, uisng English as the new instruction medium for basic education and the training of local teachers.
Mabalacat became Carroll’s first teaching assignment, conducting his classes in nipa huts that served as rudimentary school buildings on rented lands beginning in 1902. While in Mabalacat, Peabody documented the hardships of setting up schools and keeping them running despite inadequate supplies (billiard cue chalk were sometimes used as blackboard chalk), in his unpublished memoirs, “Personal Reminiscences of Early Days”.
In the course of his work, he met a fellow Ohioan Thomasite teacher, Emma Montgomery Monroe (b. 29 Sept 1877) whom he courted and married on 6 July 1904. Peabody’s diligence and hard work as an educator paid off, as he was quickly became a Supervisor, and later, a Division Superintendent in Tarlac. Replacing him in Mabalacat was Joseph L. Flaherty who was assigned as a Supervising Teacher in 1906.
From Luzon, Peabody moved to Antique as School Superintendent of the province. Owing to the pregnancy of his wife and with mission accomplished, Peabody decided to resign on 7 June 1914 to return to the United States. The couple settled in Cleveland Ward, Cuyahoga, Ohio, where their son Carroll Alden Jr., was born.
The senior Peabody resumed his teaching profession at East High School under the Board of Education of Cleveland, remaining an educator all his life. His beloved wife, Emma, passed away due to a heart disease in 20 Apr. 1961. Carroll Peabody, himself, died of a cerebral vascular accident (stroke) compounded by senility at the Broadway Convalescent Center in Bexar, San Antonio, Texas on 25 June 1966 at the age of 86.
SOURCES:
https://www.familysearch.org/en/philippines/
Larkin, John, The Pampangans: Colonial
Society in a Philippine Province. Pp. 358. Berkeley, Cal.: University of
California Press, 1972.
Dizon, Lino L. Mr. White - A 'Thomasite'
History of Tarlac Province 1901-1913 - In Honor of Frank Russell White. January 1, 2002
Report of the Philippine Commission to the Secretary of War, Part 3, (1900-1916)
