OHS Newsletter

Anna Head
Founder of Miss Heads' Preparatory School for Girls, Berkeley, in 1887
(became Anna Head School in 1919)
6 May 1859 - 25 Dec 1932
73 Years Old

Historical Personalities
The Head-Royce School

Anna Head, daughter of Judge A. Edward and Eliza Head, graduated from Oakland High School in 1874 and the University of California at Berkeley in 1879, with a degree in education administration. From 1880-1886 she traveled and studied in Boston and Europe.

Much of her time was spent in Greece, which forever solidified her love of the classics. When Anna Head returned from her post-graduate odyssey, she had strong ideas about education. Critical of the tedious and trivial routines that were prevalent in many American grammar schools of her day, she sought to borrow all that was best from the much admired English and German educational systems and adapt it to the needs of her students. Source knowledge of the classics, languages, and the scientific method became the crux of her curriculum.

When she returned to Oakland she founded Miss Heads' Preparatory School for Girls in Berkeley.

All of this can be read on the Head-Royce School web site, but what is not there is far more interesting. Here then, is a bit of hundred-year old gossip, and a sadly tragic story of a poor little rich girl, taken from two New York Times articles:

ROMANCE OF AN HEIRESS.

California Girl to Marry an English

Lieutenant After Years of Waiting.

Special to The New York Times.

SAN FRANCISCO, Cal., July 16, 1903. --

Miss Anna Head, a California heiress, has started with her mother for London, where she will marry Lieut. A. Mounteney-Jephson, one of Stanley's assistants in the famous Emin Pasha relief expedition. [this is the Stanley expedition of "Livingston, I presume" fame] This is the climax to a love romance which began ten years ago, but which was checked for all these years by Miss Head's father, who refused to make any settlement unless the girl married a title. Mr. Head died recently, and now his daughter, who has waited all these years, will wed the man whom she loves. Her fortune in her own right amounts to over $500,000.

Lieut. Jephson was enabled to join the Stanley expedition through the liberality of his aunt, Lady Jephson, who paid 1,000 pounds. Stanley exacted from all his lieutenants a written promise that they would not publish any book until one year after his own book was published. Jephson wrote a good book, and he was the only one of Stanley's officers who came out of the expedition with any credit. Major Barteliot, the ablest officer of the expedition, proved to be a monster of cruelty and was killed by a native.

Lieut. Jephson's health was broken by African fever, however, and he came to California to recuperate. Here he met Miss Head, and they fell in love. As the girl's father refused to make any marriage settlement because Jephson had no title, the engagement was broken because Jephson couldn't marry without money.

©The New York Times

The story continues tragically a few years later.

LIEUT. JEPHSON DEAD.

King's Messenger Took Part in the

Emin Pasha Relief Expedition.

LONDON, Oct 22, 1908. --

Lieut. Arthur Jeremy Mounteney Jephson, who had been the King's Messenger since 1901, and prior to that the Queen's Messenger since 1895, died to-day. Lieut. Jephson commanded a detachment in the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition under Henry M. Stanley in 1887-90. In 1904 he married Miss Anna Head, daughter of the late Addison E. Head of San Francisco.

Lieut. Jephson was enabled to join the Stanley expedition through the liberality of his aunt, Lady Jephson, who paid $5000 for that privilege. Jephson came out of the expedition with credit, although some of the officers were charged with great cruelty. His health was broken by African fever, however, and he went to California to recuperate.

There he met Miss Head, but her father was opposed to a marriage, and it was not until twelve years later that Miss Head, accompanied by her mother, proceeded to London, where the marriage took place. Miss Head was said to have had a fortune in her own right of nearly $1,000,000.

©The New York Times

Anna Head retired in 1909. Now we know why.

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