Elizabeth "Bess" Cowperthwaite

 

    Miss Cowperthwaite started out working as a teacher for 25 years. She continued to teach after she became Principal of Filbert Street School. She became the First Principal of Allen until her retirement in 1939.

 

A special thanks to Mrs. Lois Kirby for providing this information. 

"She was tall , slender, rangy, and a stern disciplinarian." Justus Brick

This poem was handed down through the years (and a good many years at that):

"Old Bess Cowperthwaite

six feet tall

sitting in the parlor

 with her feet in the hall."