Mary S. Yocom Papers, ca. 1919-1968, undated | Oberlin College Archives

The Mary S. Yocom Papers comprise a small collection organized into six series, as follows:

Series 1. Correspondence, 1933-36, 1949, 1963-64, undated

The series includes letters from Honolulu and China sent by Yocom’s friend Yuk Kon Mau, dating from 1933 to 1936. Some of the letters enclosed small snapshots. Mau was a graduate in the Oberlin College Class of 1931, and attended Yenching University on scholarship in the 1933-34 academic year. She stayed on in China as evidenced by letters from 1935 and 1936. She wrote of friends in common working at Oberlin Shansi in Shanxi Province, and other friends in Oberlin. She mentions H. H. Kung, Oberlin graduate and former principal of the Oberlin Shansi schools, who gave the Commencement address at Yenching University in 1934 when he was Finance Minister of China.

Additional correspondence in the series is fragmentary, with holiday greeting letters from 1963 and 1964, and a few other letters by Mary Yocom and others.

Series 2. Student and Alumni Records, 1939-47, undated

This series comprises records of kindergarten enrollment, a list of Kindergarten-Primary majors and their occupations post-graduation from Oberlin, and a list with addresses of members of the Class of 1933.

Series 3. Printed Matter, ca. 1919, 1927, 1947, 1959, 1968

The printed matter series comprises a pamphlet and a catalog from the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School, newspaper clippings, and the funeral service program for Mary S. Yocom.

Series 4.  Writings, 1961, undated

The writings series holds histories of the kindergarten movement and the training school in Oberlin by Mary S. Yocom and by an Oberlin student, as well as manuscripts on the education and home environments of children. Not all of the writings are attributed to an author, but a study of Yocom’s handwriting in the correspondence series enabled some identifications.

Series 5.  Miscellaneous, undated

A small amount of material consisting of poetry, songs for children, notes, and a set of cards for a speech has been combined in this series.

Series 6.  Photographic Materials, ca. 1930s, 1958

The materials in this series comprise 56 black and white photographs and 13 black and white negatives. The photographs and negatives dating from about the 1930s appear to be snapshots of children engaged in activities at a kindergarten-primary school.  These are smaller than 4 x 5-inch formats. The professional photographs in 5 x 7 and 8 x 10-inch formats, some dated 1958 on the backs, were taken by the Oberlin College photographer. These document student teacher experiences in kindergarten and primary school settings, or they might have been made to document a particular kindergarten-primary school in Oberlin.

Mary Sareta (Molly) Yocom, founder of Orchard Kindergarten in Oberlin, was born in Pennsville, Ohio, on July 9, 1894. She moved to Oberlin with her family in 1907 when her father, Eli King Yocom, opened Yocom’s Dry Goods Store. The store later became Yocom Brothers Co., and was operated by Molly’s brothers, C. Herbert (Oberlin College Class of 1909), and Ernest G. (Class of 1913), until the latter’s death in 1952.

Mary Yocom graduated from Oberlin College in 1916. She did graduate work at the University of Chicago in 1917-18 and then studied at the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School in 1918-19. She taught kindergarten in Youngstown, Ohio, in public schools in 1919-20, and taught for two years at West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon, Texas, in 1921 and 1922.

After receiving her master’s degree at Columbia Teachers’ College in 1923, Yocom was a supervisor at the Oberlin Kindergarten Training School (renamed the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School in 1927) until it closed as an independent school and merged with the Department of Education at Oberlin College in 1932. She established Orchard Kindergarten in Oberlin in 1925 to give students at the training school an opportunity for “on-the-job” training.

The Kindergarten-Primary major was available at Oberlin College until the academic year 1964-65. Yocom became an instructor in the Department of Education in 1933, and was promoted to assistant professor in 1941. She retired as associate professor in 1958. She was active in the work of the Methodist Church in Oberlin, was an officer of the American Association of University Women, and a member of the Child Study Association.

In April 1968, Mary Yocom and her sister Frances (Class of 1921) and their sister-in-law, Mrs. C. Herbert (Inez Willis), moved from Oberlin to Copeland Oaks, a retirement center owned and operated by the Methodist Church in Sebring, Ohio. She died on December 18, 1968 after a two-year illness.

Sources Consulted

Obituary for Mary Sareta Yocom, Oberlin Alumni Magazine, February 1969, 38.

Administrative history, finding guide for the Oberlin Kindergarten-Primary Training School Records, Oberlin College Archives.