Women of distinction/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
JOSEPHINE A. SILONE-YATES.
Mrs. Josephine Yates, youngest daughter of Alexander and Parthenia Reeve-Silone, was born in 1859, in Mattituck, Suffolk county, New York, where her parents, grandparents and great-grandparents were long and favorable known as individuals of sterling worth, morally, intellectually and physically speaking. On the maternal side Mrs. Yates is a niece of the Rev. J. B. Reeve, D. D., of Philadelphia, a sketch of whose life appears in "Men of Mark."
Mrs. Silone, a woman of whose noble, self-sacrificing life of piety from early youth to her latest hours volumes might be written, began the work of educating her daughter Josephine in her quiet Christian home, consecrating her to the Lord in infancy, and earnestly praying that above all else the life of her child might be a useful one. Possessed herself of a fair education, she well knew the value of intellectual development, and spared no pains to surround her daughter with all possible means of improvement; the latter, now grown to womanhood, delights to relate that the earliest event of which she has any distinct remembrance is of that sainted mother's taking her upon her knee and teaching her to read from the Bible, by requiring her to call the words after her as she pointed them out.
Josephine was sent to school at an early age and had already been so well advanced by her mother in reading, 
JOSEPHINE A. SILONE-YATES.
Through the kindness of a Mrs. Horton, her Sunday-school teacher, she had access to a large and well-selected library for young people, and in all probability thus acquired an additional taste for literature, which was undoubtedly, primarily, a natural inheritance from her ancestors; be this as it may, an ambition to write, and a corresponding love for the best things in literature, began to assert itself at an early period. Her school-girl efforts at composition were favorably commented upon by her teachers; and while yet in her ninth year she wrote a story which she sent to one of the prominent New York weeklies. The manuscript was returned, it is true, but was accompanied by a letter of such kind encouragement and suggestion that it served to increase rather than to diminish her ambition.
At the age of eleven the Rev. Dr. Reeve, feeling that her desire for knowledge should have better opportunities for fulfillment than could be obtained in a district school, very kindly invited her to his home in Philadelphia that she might attend the institute conducted by Mrs. Fannie Jackson-Coppin. Here, for the first time, brought in contact with a large number of cultured persons of her own race in the home, church and school, she received a new and stronger inspiration for the acquisition of knowledge. Rapid progress was .made during this school year. Mrs. Coppin, who has ever since been deeply interested in her welfare, still often refers to her as a brilliant example of what a girl may do.
The year following the Rev. Dr. Reeve was called to Washington to accept the chair of theology in Howard University, and Miss Si lone returned to her home, but did not give up studying. A year later Mrs. Francis L. Girard, of Newport, Rhode Island, her maternal aunt, a lady well known for moral and intellectual strength of character, and revered by many students because of her hospitality and benevolence, made her a proposition which was accepted; and in her fourteenth year she went to Newport and became a resident of that beautiful "City by the Sea." Here she entered the highest grade of the grammar school, and maintaining her usual scholarship, the only colored pupil in the school at the time, she attracted the attention of Colonel T. W. Higginson, then a citizen of Newport and a prominent member of the School Board; of the Hon. George T. Downing, through whose untiring efforts the doors of the public schools of Rhode Island were thrown open to all without regard to race or color; of Thomas Coggeshall, Chairman of the School Board; of Rev. Dr. Thayer and wife, and many other persons of distinction.
The year following she entered the Rogers High School, of Newport, an institution which takes foremost rank among the schools of the land. Taking the four years' course in three, she graduated in the class of 1877, delivering the valedictory address and receiving the Norman medal for scholarship. She had the honor to be the first colored graduate of the above mentioned school, and here, as in the other schools which she attended, gained the love and admiration of her teachers by her demeanor and devotion to her studies. Her instructor in science considered her his brightest pupil, and especially commended her for her work in chemistry, a study in which she was particularly interested (although, if it were not paradoxical, it might be said that she was particularly interested in each study), and by doing additional laboratory work at odd hours under the guidance of her instructors became quite an efficient and practical chemist.
On graduating from the High School she was urged to take a university course. All of her own purely personal desires and inclinations led her that way, but from the beginning it had been her purpose to fit herself for teaching, and, if possible, to be not an artisan, but an artist in the profession; therefore, after reflecting calmly upon the matter, taking the advice of Colonel Higginson and other staunch friends, she decided to take a full course in the Rhode Island State Normal School. She was already well known in the capacity of an earnest student to the principal. Professor James C. Greenough, and found him and his able corps of teachers very willing to assist her to gain what she needed in the line of preparation for her professional career. In 1879, the only colored scholar in a large class, she graduated with honor from the Normal School. While attending this institution she entered a teachers' examination in Newport with sixteen Anglo-Saxon candidates, and came out of it with a general average of 94⅓ per cent. This, while not exceptionally high, was, according to official statement, the highest average that had, up to date, been gained in that city in a teachers' examination. A regulation certificate duly signed was given her, the first time that anything of this kind had occurred in the history of Rhode Island.
In the fall of 1879 she began her life-work as a teacher, and ten consecutive years were thus spent in an enthusiastic and self-sacrificing manner. Bight of these years were spent in Lincoln Institute, Jefferson City, Missouri, to which institution she was called by Professor Inman E. Page soon after he became its official head. He had been made acquainted with her success as a student through her former instructors. She was at once put in charge of chemistry and succeeded so well with this and other scientific branches assigned her that eventually the entire department of natural science was turned over to her. At the time of her resignation she was Professor of Natural Science in the before mentioned institution, at a salary of one thousand dollars per school year, and was, at that time, probably the only colored lady in the country holding such a position. During this entire period her summers were invariably spent in the East, where, seizing every opportunity offered by teachers' associations, summer schools and individual effort, she endeavored to find out the best methods by which to present the subjects she taught. It was not long before her work as teacher and author became well known to the public. It attracted, among others, the attention of such well-known educators as President Mitchell, of Wilberforce, Booker T. Washington, of Tuskegee, and the late Miss Briggs, of Washington. In 1886, Mr. Washington, feeling that she was just the one needed for the work in Tuskegee, urged her to become lady-principal of that institution, but, after giving; the matter careful thought, she decided to remain at Lincoln Institute.
In 1889 she resigned her position in this institution to become the wife of Professor W. U. Yates, Principal of Wendell Phillips School, Kansas City, Missouri. Mrs. Yates carried with her the love of the pupils and patrons, the best wishes of President Page and the Board of Regents, and all felt that in parting with her they were losing the services of an able and enthusiastic educator.
Mrs. Yates has many friends among the colored and white citizens of Kansas City, where she was well known in educational circles before her marriage. Previous to this event she had, on request, read a paper before the general section of the "Kansas City Teachers' Institute," a highly educated body, consisting of about three hundred white and thirty colored teachers. During the first winter of her stay in Kansas City she was invited by Superintendent Greenwood to read a paper before the "Greenwood Scientific Club," a circle composed of the leading educators and literary lights of Kansas City. Her doors and heart are always open to young people, for whom she has an intense sympathy and love, as many students in various States will testify.
In the midst of a round of social, household and maternal duties she finds time to pursue a regular line of study and of literary work; in this she has the full sympathy of her genial husband. He is. very proud of his wife's attainments, and she feels that his searching criticism aids her not a little in her efforts. Besides the work already referred to she has, during a portion of the time since her marriage, taught in Lincoln High School of Kansas City, performing the work assigned her to the entire satisfaction of all parties concerned. Reading French and German with case, she has made quite a study of the literature of both these languages, and a few years ago wrote a series of articles upon German literature which was very well received by the press.
Russian life and literature possess for her a peculiar fascination, possibly because of the large class of persons in Russia which, in some respects like the negro in America, is struggling for a more complete independence. Gogol, Turgénief, Tolstoi, Stepniak, and other Russian writers who set forth the cause of the people, find in her an appreciative admirer.
She has great pride of race, and fully believes in the bright future of the negro, provided the young people for the next quarter of a century are fully alive to the great responsibilities resting upon them. For years she has been a close observer of human nature and of the great problems of the age. As a writer her articles are characterized by a clear, vigorous, incisive style, and have embraced a wide range of thought, from the purely literary to the more practical, social, economic and scientific questions now confronting us. These have appeared in various periodicals, usually under the signature "R. K. Potter," a nom de plume which she selected while yet a student, and has ever since retained.
In some moods the poetic strain of her nature asserts itself, and several little gems have thus found their way into print. Among these may be mentioned "Isles of Peace," "The Zephyr," and "Royal To-day." During the early years of her work in teaching she made quite a name as a lecturer, and by many friends was urged to give up teaching and enter the field as a lecturer, but feeling that the class-room was the place where her efforts would result in the greatest good to the greatest number, she decided to remain there. Mrs. Silone used to relate that before Josephine could talk plainly, when asked what she wanted to be when grown, the answer would invariably be, "I want to be a tool-teacher."
Mrs. Yates is the mother of one child, a little daughter, and in the line of special study much of her work is done with the hope of being the better prepared to wisely direct the education of this child.