For 17 years M…
source date: 1889
availability: public-domain

opened its doors, and it sent Out one graduate that first year — Isabell L. Eckles, who was to become State Superintend- ent of Public Instruction in New Mexico. For 17 years M. R. Koehler directed the Silver City school, whose fame extended far beyond the Territorial limits. In 1907 she resigned from that position to become the business associate of Elizabeth C. T. Warren, who had added contracting to her other activities. Miss Koehler learned with Mrs. Warren the exactions of concrete, a new and little understood form of construction in that part of New Mexico. It was she who personally superintended the laying of these sidewalks, which set a new standard in dur- ability. She was 46 when she undertook this new activity, and her success in the contracting business — in which she advanced from side- walks to building construction — testifies to the virility of her mind, the ability to keep on learning, which is the proof of educational power. In 1916 she married Judge Frank J. Wright, one of the most distinguished and most highly respected attorneys in Silver City. She retired from business, but rejoined the Warren activi- ties 10 years later when the judge died. She died in 1949 after a lifetime of achieve- ments that have earned her a niche in New Mexico’s Hall of Fame.