WILLISTON, KATHERINE MOSLEY (1841-1899)

WILLISTON, KATHERINE MOSLEY, teacher; b. Bay du Vin, c1841, d/o Alexander Williston and Phoebe Wathen; unmarried; d. New York City, 25 Oct 1899.

Katherine M. Williston was trained as a teacher in the 1860s in the program offered at the Presbyterian Academy in Chatham by William Crocket. She was on the staff of the Academy in 1871-72 when Crawford M. Hutchison was principal and was teaching in the advanced department of the Grammar School on a 1st class license in 1876. She had forty-five pupils in this department in 1882.

Williston brought "a class of little girls" to the first meeting of the Teachers' Institute in 1878 and taught a model lesson on "Ratio and Proportion." In 1879 she read a paper on "Reduction of Denominate Numbers." In 1882 she spoke on "Truthfulness and its Cultivation." In 1884-85 she was vice-president of the institute and one of the five members of its management committee, which was composed mostly of school administrators. She was held in high regard in educational circles and was perceived to be "a very superior woman in every respect."

Around 1889 Williston left classroom teaching and took a position in New York City as manager of St Agnes's Nursery, a charitable day care home for children. She continued in this work until she became ill a few months before her death. In accordance with her wish her funeral was conducted from the Church of St John the Evangelist at Bay du Vin, where "her active and energetic life of usefulness in Christian work" was warmly praised.