James Monroe Sinclair
Known by most everyone as Monroe, and by his students as Mr. Monroe. Monroe was born June 14, 1866. When he died as a result of an automobile accident on January 15th, 1937, his occupation on the death certificate was listed as postmaster, which is interesting as he was in middle of a school term as teacher at Jenny Lind. However, the post office was in his home, and I would assume that he was listed as the postmaster.
The picture on the left, I suspect was taken before or just after his marriage in 1904 to Grace Wright. Going back to school teaching about 1927 probably wasn't his first choice of a vocation, and he may have ended up back teaching due to a series of events beyond his control. Whether that is true or not, he is revered by his ex-students and I was told a number of times during the two years I taught at Jenny Lind that I would never be Monroe, which indeed, I never was.
I believe that he began teaching again when the general merchandise store that he owned on Main St.in Jenny Lind burned about 1927. While teaching, he ran the post office out of his house, was the New York Life insurance agent, was a carpenter, and ran the telephone exchange. He continued to teach at Jenny Lind until 1936, when he was injured the day after Christmas in an automobile accident. He died on January 15, 1937 of Lobar Pneumonia.
Riverside School was a mile South of Jenny Lind on the Milton Road. The district, and I guess we
can assume the school, was created in 1892. Monroe was one of the earliest teachers in that school,
as we know that he taught there prior to 1899, sometime during those first seven years of the
school's existence. Note that he is posed with his girl's drill team. Then, before the turn of the century, at least here in this part of California, it was considered important for a school to have a drill team. The book, Pioneer Schools of Calaveras County has pictures of the drill teams at Chaparral School and at the Willow Creek School. Monroe also taught at the Chaparral School, but I seem to have misplaced the picture that I had of him there.
Note about Monroe's hip
This is one of the few pictures that you will see that Monroe is sitting with his right leg out in front of him. He had had some sort of accident or congenital hip problem that left the hip ball outside of its socket. He had a bulge on that side of his body where the hip ball had somehow attached itself to the pelvis. He must have spent much of his life in great pain, but continued to work 12 to 14 hours a day. This included milking a couple of goats that he had on his place, carpentering, store keeping, etc.
Monroe is at the right of the third row up from the bottom.
Did they expect teachers to dress up for duty in those days? Just that probably would
have gotten me in trouble. My Grandfather, and my mother also, were very
careful about how they dressed. They believed that looking good was part of being good.
I've lost track of the exact year, but it was in the early 1900's.
Monroe is to the right of the bearded man with the Stetson. As I look at this photograph, I think of how many legendary teachers were in that group. I have no names other than Monroe's, but if I heard their names I'd know many of them by reputation.
The Sinclairs owned a ranch out in the area along what is today called Warren road. They were rather
large grain farmers based on pictures I have of their harvesting operation. They also thrashed grain
for the other farmers in the area, because they owned the large steam operated thrashing machine.
Pictures of the Sinclair Threshing Machine at Work
Sometime soon after graduation from Stockton Business College and Normal Institute in June of 1888,
he became the teacher at Chaparral School located kind of between the Sinclair Ranch and the
Wright Ranch at what today is Stone Corral on Highway 26. Monroe's father, William, had helped found this school and was a trustee at one point. Monroe taught 1st grader Grace Wright,
who some 12 to 14 years later was to become his wife and 29 years later, my grandmother.
Grace and Monroe honeymooned at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, which was a celebration
of the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase.
Monroe at Murphys School
Monroe taught in Murphys at one time, as did daughter Margaret, and grandson John. He was apparently close with the legendary William Leonard Redding, a teacher at the school in Murphys for 32 years. A fascinating book on Mathematics, that I still have, was given by Mr. Redding to Monroe. Mr. Redding also was my mother's Principal at her first teaching job, which was in Murphys. See the Margaret section of this web site for more details about this.
Monroe's Poem About What is Really Important in Education
Amazingly timely philosophy, considering the state of education today in California, and this was a hundred years ago.
Monroe at Stone Corral Church
Monroe had, somewhere in his life, become an ordained minister and much of his life was dedicated
to service at the Stone Corral Church on Highway 26. The original Stone Corral Church, where Monroe and Grace were married, was attached to the Stone Corral Ranch which was the Wright family farm. In 1919, Monroe, his father William Clark Sinclair (also known as Uncle Billy), probably the Wimers and the Kirks and others, built the new church at its present site.
This is a section of a photograph of a Stone Corral reunion, date unknown, with Monroe standing to our left of the horse. My grandmother's father, I believe is sitting on the chair with the child on his lap.
My mother rebelled against the strict upbringing she had had from her parents, but her ties to
Stone Corral never left her and we attended these reunions until the time her sight was so bad that
she couldn't recognize people and this embarrassed her to the point that she would no longer go.
Monroe as Storekeeper
Monroe and his brother, William Francis Sinclair (Frank) owned a general merchandise store and a grocery store side by side on Jenny Lind's Main Street. Monroe's store also contained the post office. In this photograph, Monroe is standing on the far left in front of his store, and I think Frank is out in front of his. Fire gutted both buildings, but Frank rebuilt his side and used Monroe's side as a granary and storage. Apparently, it burned again in 1933 and was rebuilt once again. When Frank's wife died, Frank's son Paul took over the store, which burned again in 1943. To the right of Frank's store was a one story hotel built of stone quarried from the hill up and east of where the school was. The next building that looks as if it is two story is the one story Dew Drop Inn.
