jonas lane
Was there really a teacher who was hurt so badly by the Ritchie gang that he died? I haven't a clue.

In Farmer Boy, Mr. Corse accepts the teaching job at Almanzo Wilder's school only to avenge the death of his friend, Jonas Lane. There is no former teacher's name given in the manuscript, but there is the following about how the cause of death:

...The boys would not come to school until about the middle of the term and from the first were surly and rude to the teacher. They would act worse and worse until he would try to punish them. Then all together they would attack him, put him out of the school house and lock the door against him. Last winter they had struck the teacher's back across a seat and injured him so that he had died of it in the summer.

- posted by pioneergirl at 9:13 PM