Jessie was born February 2, 1859, in Bastrop, Texas, the oldest child of Dr. David Sayers (1811-1886) and his second wife Inda Scott Sayers (1828-1877). She attended Bastrop public schools and graduated from the Virginia Female Institute (now Stuart Hall School).
She taught in the primary department at Austin High School and at West Austin Public School from at least 1885 to at least 1890, along with her older sister Lillie (Elizabeth Scott Sayers Sayers, 1863-1918). A June 12, 1884 article in the Austin Weekly Statesman indicates Jessie taught in Austin public schools in 1883 and 1884 as well. In 1888, she taught grade 6 at West Austin.
In 1892 and 1893, Jessie was back in Bastrop teaching. In April 1894, she was too ill to read her own paper on "Language" at the Middle Texas Teachers Association meeting, in which she essentially was a early proponent of integrating reading and writing across the curriculum.
By 1897, she was back at the West Austin School. She apparently took courses at the University of Texas in Austin in 1898 and 1900. In 1900, she was teaching arithmetic at Austin High School.
Jessie appears in the 1900 Census living in the Texas Governor's mansion with her half brother and his second wife, Lena Walton Sayers. An article about the governor on page 3 of the March 3, 1900 Galveston Tribune stated:
"A pretty pink and white 'den' just across the hall from their apartments is occupied by the governor’s sister, Miss Jessie Sayers, who makes her home at the mansion. Well known as one of Austin’s most intellectual women, she holds a position of trust in the public school."
In 1903, Jessie was appointed first assistant in mathematics at the Southwest Texas Normal Institute in San Marcos. She remained there for the next 25+ years.
Above: Jessie Sayers' photo on page 11, 1907 Pedagogue yearbook, Southwest Texas State Normal School.
Below: Jessie Sayers' photo on page 12, 1912 Pedagogue yearbook, Southwest Texas State Normal School.
Jessie appears to have been a rather popular instructor. In the 1906 yearbook, she is listed as an honorary member of the Gypsies girls basketball team. In 1917, she served on the advisory board of the campus YWCA. She also wrote the original words to the school song, the Alma Mater. The November 11, 1911 issue of The Normal Star, the school newspaper, had this quote on page 3:
"Some teachers can teach nine subjects very well, but when it comes to explaining 'Mathematics Miss Jessie Sayers has other teachers skinned a country block. A Freshman."
The General Register of the Students and Former Students of the University of Texas published in 1917 lists her as a student in the College of Arts in 1911, but not earning a degree there. On June 7, 1916, Jessie was awarded a bachelor of science degree in education from Columbia University in New York City, as well as a teacher's college diploma there as a teacher of mathematics. The alumni directory lists her as a member of the class of 1915, though, and she apparently did some graduate work there as well.
Above: Jessie Sayers' photo on page 13, 1914 Pedagogue yearbook, Southwest Texas State Normal School.
Below: Jessie Sayers' photo on page 23, 1920 Pedagogue yearbook, Southwest Texas State Normal School.
It's not clear when Jessie retired. One source says 1933, another says 1937. She is last mentioned as faculty in the 1928 yearbook (the year she turned age 69), but is still mentioned in The Normal Star as involved in college-related activities through 1934. A girls dormitory, built in 1936, was named for her.
Jessie died at age 80 on March 25, 1939, at 326 West Hopkins in San Marcos (which still stands and is an inn), the same house she'd been boarding in since at least the 1920 Census (although numbered 338 then). She is buried in the Dr. David Sayers family plot in Section E(B) at Fairview Cemetery in Bastrop.
Above: Jessie's death certificate, from "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GB9F-S4ZV?cc=1983324&wc=9THK-L23%3A263835801%2C268207301%2C268210101 : 22 July 2014), Death certificates > 1939 > Vol 028, certificates 013501-014000, Mar, Harris-Jefferson counties > image 136 of 554; State Registrar Office, Austin.
Below: Sayers Hall in the 1945 Pedagog yearbook of Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
Above: Sayers Hall on page 18, 1954 Pedagog yearbook, Southwest Texas State Teachers College.
Below: The new Sayers Hall (on the left) opened in 2014.
The original Sayers Hall, which cost $125,000 to build, was demolished in 1975 to make way for the Education Building. A new Sayers Hall opened in the Fall of 2014.
"The First Seventeen: The Story of the 1903 Faculty," on pages 29-30 of Fifty Years of Teacher Education, 1901-1951: The Story of Southwest Texas State Teachers College, had this to say about Jessie Alison Sayers:
"None of her students will forget Miss Jessie A. Sayers, witty, keen, alert, exhibiting a thoroughness in scholarship and expecting in return perfect recitations."
© Amanda Pape - 2020 - e-mail me!
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