This is a transcription of the Luella M. (Little) Wilson biography from New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State, Who are Worthy Representatives of their Sex in the Various Walks and Conditions of Life, The New Hampshire Publishing Co., Concord, NH, 1895, page 245.
Luella M. (Little) Wilson
WOMAN’S superior capacity for imparting instruction to the young, or stimulating the youthful mind in the search for knowledge, has long been recognized, and women have been more generally employed than men as teachers in our public schools. But woman’s capacity for administration, whether in school management or otherwise, has not been so generally conceded. A female member of a board of education was an anomaly but a few years ago, and the selection of a woman for superintendent of schools, in any large town or city, would have occasioned universal surprise. One of the first women in the country to occupy the latter position was Mrs. Luella M. Wilson, a native of New Hampshire, then of Des Moines, Iowa. Mrs. Wilson was born in Lyman, daughter of William and Maria (Stephens) Little. She was educated in Providence, R. I., and at the Methodist Seminary and Female College at Newbury, Vt. She commenced teaching at an early age, being engaged in country schools in northern New Hampshire and Vermont. In November, 1866, she married Dr. Adams B. Wilson, of Bradford, Vt., who settled in Littleton. Three years later he died, and Mrs. Wilson removed to Des Moines, where she engaged as a teacher in the public schools, Her first position was in the primary grade, but her marked ability was soon recognized and she was rapidly advanced till she became principal in the Irving building, and demonstrated such capacity for school management that she was soon made superintendent of the city schools, a position which she filled with great success until June, 1889, when she resigned to spend a year in travel and study in Europe. Returning to America in 1890, she located in Chicago, where she established, and still conducts, the Stesan school, a first-class private boarding and day school for young ladies, at 4106 Drexel Boulevard. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the Illinois Woman’s Press Club, and has written extensively for the press on educational and miscellaneous topics.