Early life
Jennie Waters was from Michigan, the daughter of Albert Horace Waters, a lumberman, and Mary Geneva Canavan Waters (later Jones). She attended school in Benzonia, Michigan, and trained as a teacher in Cape Girardeau, Missouri."A Successful Probation Officer"Career
Probation officer
Jennie W. Erickson was chief probation officer of the juvenile court of Pulaski County, Arkansas from 1917 to 1920, in charge of mother's pensions and the county's juvenile detention home in Little Rock."Detention Home is Doing Much Good for Delinquent Children"Superintendent of Schools
From 1920 to 1922, Erickson served as the appointed superintendent of schools for Pulaski County, the first woman in that position, and reportedly the highest paid woman official in Arkansas at the time. One of her innovations was to arrange for 1000 laying chickens to be given to 1000 girls in the county, along with instruction to raise and care for chicks; the goal was to teach rural girls to produce better poultry and eggs for family nutrition and a supplemental income. She also took particular interest in the training of rural school teachers. She resigned the position in 1922.Other activities
Erickson was a dairy farmer and a schoolteacher as a young woman. She also organized a literary club for other farm wives. From 1917 She was also counted among Arkansas supporters of women's suffrage, and helped start a settlement house in Little Rock in 1915. In 1929 she was appointed to the board of the Arkansas State Hospital, and was chairman of that board in 1937. She resigned from that position at the end of 1937.Personal life
Jennie W. Erickson was married to Emil Erickson and the mother of daughters Carol (b. 1899), Ann (b. ) and Mary (b. 1903). She married again in 1921, to Frank H. Dodge, an attorney and judge in Little Rock.References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Erickson, Jennie W. 1876 births 1961 deaths People from Benzie County, Michigan People from Pulaski County, Arkansas Educators from Michigan American women educators