To become a teacher, a man or a woman had to be able to read, write, and handle rough and ready students. Most teachers were men. They were called school masters. Female teachers had to be single because they could not continue teaching if they had children.

When a new teacher arrived in town he or she was given food and shelter. Every family paid a small amount of money they would give them goods such as corn and tobacco. They traded for money and other things.

Some ways pioneer children got to school was by walking. Other ways are riding horses or sometimes riding sleds.

The teachers hardly have time to teach more than three subjects a day and they were called reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Schoolbooks and writing paper were scarce in settler times. Students did much of their learning by rote which meant memorizing long poems and stories and reciting them to the teacher. Students also had to write and deliver speeches.