As revealed in personal interviews, periodicals, published and unpublished manuscripts, and school records, the teachers were the key factor in bringing education and culture to the frontier that was western South Dakota. Many teachers were girls of 16 or 17, inexperienced, hired from states to the east (Minnesota and Iowa), sight unseen. Beginning in 1862, teachers were required to be certified by taking examinations in reading, writing, geography, grammar, spelling, and arithmetic. Supplies and equipment were limited; there was usually a blackboard, a recitation desk, desks for children, a teacher's desk and chair, maps, sometimes a globe and piano or organ, and always a water pail and dipper. School books were furnished by the pupils so there was no uniformity in textbooks. At school the teacher was janitor, superintendent, principal, playground supervisor, office girl, producer and director of programs, and organizer of community picnics and social events. Social restrictions required that teachers observe a nightly 11:00 P.M. curfew. Living conditions provided little privacy or comfort; many teachers boarded with school families, sharing rooms with one or more of their pupils. Some teachers stayed in the schoolhouse, living out of a suitcase and sleeping on a fold-up cot. (NEC)