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Call her Jennifer, Jennie, Johnnie or Jane (her preference), or simply a pioneer. Legend has it that when Jane Mears approached her husband, Lt. Col. Fredrick Mears of the Alaska Engineering Commission, and asked him to build a school, he responded he was busy constructing a railroad and if she wanted a school, she’d have to build it herself.
So that’s what she and members of the Anchorage Women’s Club did. The four-room, wooden schoolhouse was erected in less than a month and opened in 1915. Devoid of running water and sanitation standards, it packed in 100 students and four teachers.
– Eve Lederman, The 100 Companies