By J.J. Lamb
The Trotter sisters haven’t lived in Vail for almost sixty years, but their legacy remains strong in the Town Between the Tracks™. From 1931 through 1962 they taught school for the children of the railroad and ranching families living in and around Vail. It was visits to their older sister Julia who lived in Tucson that brought Esta and Lottie Trotter out west. The Trotter children had lost their father Daniel in 1915. Several of the six children were still young. Their mother, Rebecca, raised a close knit family who maintained strong connections to each other and to their family home in South Carolina as they grew into adulthood. In 1931 Esta and Lottie decided to take teaching positions in the rural community of Vail. This was the best of both worlds for them. They were close to their sister Julia and could spend their summers in South Carolina. They really had two home towns. Their mother, Rebecca, became a regular visitor to Tucson too, spending several months a year in the Old Pueblo until her death in 1963.
The Trotter sisters were active in Pima County’s Rural Teachers organization right from the start serving on the Language Arts committee. They arrived at the beginning of every school year from their home in Columbia, South Carolina, bringing with them an easy southern grace.
At the end of each school year they returned to South Carolina. Esta and Lottie lived in the “teacherage”, a small white house that had been built in 1908 by the Vail postmaster for his family. Today a basketball court has replaced the teacherage. The only “running” water was from a drinking fountain with a direct line to the school from a Southern Pacific Railroad (SPRR) water tanker car. Vail “villagers” hauled water from the SPRR tanker car as there was no well between the railroad tracks until 1992.
Miss Lottie had grades one through four, and Miss Esta taught grades five through eight. In the 1930s and 1940’s there were between 30 and 50 children. Students were brought to school in the earlier years by one of the moms driving a large, lumbering sedan that would make the rounds along the dusty, washboard roads finally depositing the children at the Vail School. Some students rode their horses or donkeys to school. They would use a fence post to help climb from or onto a saddle whose stirrups were too high for young legs to reach.
Esta and Lottie led the 4H program after school. Students gained leadership skills, learned to sew, cook, and they even participated in radio programs! The sisters were talented musicians. Esta played the piano and
Lottie had a beautiful singing voice. They participated in Tucson’s cultural life, and made holidays very special for their students. Every Christmas there were plays filled with crepe paper angel wings and tinsel, recitations and songs, sometimes as many as 200 would be in attendance! These occasions brought a welcome respite into the lives of hardworking ranching and railroad families.
School recesses at the Vail School were spent building ‘forts’ in the desert, or honing the fine motor skills needed for a game of jacks or marbles. Catching lizards was another favorite pastime. When rodeo time came around in February the children, and some of their parents, decked themselves out in their best western duds and climbed aboard the Rancho del Lago “Talley Ho” wagon for the Fiesta de los Vaqueros Parade in Tucson. The wagon had been specially commissioned from England by the Putnam’s for their beautiful Rancho del Lago estate. One year Lottie even talked her new husband, John Badger, into dressing like a caveman in honor of Colossal Cave for the parade.
The sisters retired after serving over 30 years teaching in Vail and moved back to South Carolina. Trotter Sisters Lane in Vail was named in honor of Esta and Lottie. Even over 60 years later, a love of learning, a desire to do one’s best and live by the “Golden Rule” is still reflected in the voices and eyes of those who remember their school days with Esta and Lottie in Vail’s two room schoolhouse.
J.J. Lamb is President & CEO of Vail Preservation Society. A U of A graduate, her family has lived in Vail since 1971. She was named an Arizona Culturekeeper in 2011 and an Arizona Friend of the Humanities in 2020.
