Next to the Grange Hall in Florissant, which was the former Florissant School, sits a small house, the Teacherage, which used to house teachers who taught at the school.

Many visitors have visited the building to see what school was like in the 1900s, but for two recent visitors, the Teacherage provided a glimpse into the life of their grandmother and great grandmother, who was one of the teachers who lived in there while teaching the children of Florissant.

Kelly Orr, a paralegal in Portland, Ore., and daughter Kirsten, a schoolteacher in Beaverton, Ore., contacted the Pikes Peak Historical Society to visit the Teacherage where their grandmother and great grandmother, Leone Engelking Rowe lived from Dec. 1933 to June 1935.

“My visit to the Teacherage was very meaningful and something I will never forget,” Kelly Orr said. “I was quite impressed with the research into my grandma’s life as well as the restoration of the Teacherage by PPHS. Now I am even more proud to be Leone’s granddaughter.”

Leone Engelking was born in Colorado Springs in 1910 and graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1928. She continued her education at the State Agricultural College of Colorado (now known as Colorado State University) graduating in 1932. In Jan. 1933, she was hired as a substitute teacher at Bristol Grade School in Colorado Springs.

From December of 1933 to May 1935, she taught grades 1-4 at Florissant School District 4 in Florissant. She and her roommate, Adele Melber Sweet, lived in the Teacherage next to the school. It is believed that Leone met Sweet while in college as well as her future husband Robert Rowe. According to records, Sweet and Rowe were married in 1936. However, Leone’s wedding ring had the date 1932 engraved on the inside. It is not known for sure, but speculation is that the Rowes may have kept their actual marriage a secret to allow Leone to continue teaching.

After leaving Florissant, Leone held various teaching positions before landing in Guffey in approximately 1948 where Bob worked as manager of the established Rowe Cattle Ranch, which encompassed about 4,000 acres that spanned both Park and Fremont Counties. It is reported that Leone taught in the Guffey School and helped establish Platte Canyon High School in Bailey.

Parts of the land owned by the ranch was sold off in the mid-fifties, finally shutting down in 1962. The Rowes and their three children moved to California with her last school position at Ball Junior High in Anaheim. Around 1974, the Rowes retired and moved to Denver.

Through their childhood, Kelly and her sister visited their grandparents several times and would come to the mountains. One time Leone took them to the school in Florissant.

“We were just kids and didn’t grasp the significance, but now, my daughter and I wanted to find out more and in searching for anything related to Leone’s teaching in Florissant, we came across the PPHS website,” Kelly Orr said. “My grandma was educated, strong and more capable than most women of her time. Her loving, gregarious and warm spirit was loved by all who knew her.”

It was a heartwarming experience for Orr and her daughter Kirsten to be standing in the house their grandmother and great grandmother once lived and experiencing a small, but significant part of her life.

“It was very eye-opening to learn how public education has evolved since Leone was a teacher,” Kirsten said. “I’m impressed that she taught multiple grade levels and subjects at one time. It was also interesting to see how schools are/were different in rural areas.”