Nettie Bayless Courts Depp (November 21, 1874 – August 3, 1932) was an education reformer and the first woman elected to public office in Barren County, Kentucky when she was elected Superintendent of Barren County Schools in 1913. She served from January 1, 1914, through December 31, 1917.
Early life Depp was the daughter of John Burks Depp, a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, and of Mariba Elizabeth Reneau (1846–1928). She was one of six children, including Elizabeth Eola "Lizzie" Depp Allen, Mary Pitsy Depp Rowland, Tipton Hanson Depp, Oren Richard Depp, and Lillie Belle Depp Matthews. Her middle names came from her maternal great-grandmother, Mary Bayless Wood (1777–1863), and her paternal great-grandmother, Mary Hanson Courts Depp (1793–1840).
She was a member of Christian Church. Her grandfather, Isaac Tipton Reneau, was a well-known preacher in the Christian Church who served numerous churches in south central Kentucky and northern Tennessee.
Education Nettie B.C. Depp was educated in the common schools of Barren County, Kentucky. She was a graduate of Liberty Female College in Glasgow, Kentucky.
For more than a decade, Depp taught in various schools and concluded that expanding her own education to become a professional teacher would be her next goal. Depp enrolled at Southern Normal School, sometimes referenced as the Cherry Brothers' School (seminal institutions of Western Kentucky University), in Bowling Green, Kentucky to further her education. She studied under Dr. Henry Hardin Cherry, who became her mentor, and Thomas C. Cherry. As a student, Depp embraced the Cherry brothers' philosophies on education such as the Declaration on Principles and Policies for Southern Normal School which included goals such as:
To be a live school and to impart to its students a burning zeal to do and be something. To be progressive, to use modern methods and equipment, but reject all worthless educational fads. To let the reputation of the school be sustained by real merit. To fight against ignorance, and for higher education and the liberation of the human soul. To instill in the minds of the students the great truth that every person is created to do something, to be a producer. To lead the student to understand that a broad and liberal education is essential to the highest degree of success in any endeavor in life.
During her studies in Bowling Green, Depp became an advocate of Henry Hardin Cherry's efforts to have the school accepted by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as a state normal school. Depp wrote a newspaper column for the Glasgow Times for several years using the pen name "Ora Ethel" and frequently used the opportunity to promote Cherry's school.
In her March 27, 1907 column, Depp wrote:"There stands H.H. Cherry at the head of affairs; look at him, he has not so much avoirdupois as many, but he has the greatest influence upon a large student body of anyone I know. He controls that mass of humanity with the slightest effort. His power and influence is felt all over the city, county, and state; yes, and it broadens out until it reaches from ocean to ocean, for, are not there men and women from all parts of this grand old Union who are reaping the rewards from the self-government teachings that they receive here? No student can ever be in this school without realizing that self-government is in the soul, and that the un-governed spirit will never do much in this life. Within the walls of that building, boys and girls have been molded into educated men and women. Often upon entering, they could be compared to coarse rough ironware as it is dug from the earth. Here, they are placed under the best teachers that can be secured anywhere, and are carried through a thorough course of drawing out, until they, like the iron ore after it has been sheltered, heated and drawn out again and again, becomes the finest wrought steel."In the same column, Depp challenged her fellow teachers to advance their own education:"Teachers of Barren County, why are you neglecting your education? Why are you content to stay in the same old rut you were in long ago, when the State Normal offers not only you, but every teacher in the state such rich rewards.On June 5, 1908, Nettie B.C. Depp earned a degree in education from Western Kentucky State Normal School, the first Barren County student to earn a degree from the institution.
Professional career Prior to attending Southern Normal as it transitioned into Western Kentucky State Normal School, Depp taught in numerous schools including various Barren County public schools including Bethel, Temple Hill (where she served as principal), Glasgow Junction; three years in Enid and Waukomis in the then-Oklahoma Territory.
In 1910, Nettie Depp went to work in Scottsville, Kentucky as a schoolteacher. She went reluctantly and felt she was underpaid as reflected in a letter she sent to Henry Hardin Cherry, then president of the Western Kentucky State Normal School, and a supporter of women's rights. She wrote to him then of her success in public speaking on behalf of education reform: I tried to show the people the advantages the school gives and that they should use them as their own. If I only made one person see this in such a way that he will find his way into the school I shall feel that my little talk was not in vain. Throughout her professional career, Depp was an advocate for fair pay for school teachers. In one of her newspaper columns relating to tax dollars, she wrote:"Now, I can tell you why I place the schools first. It is this: We teachers take the children and teach them twenty days in the month for a little more than fifty-five cents each. Shame on you and all the rest of that class that would place higher value upon the sheep industry than you do upon the education of your people! How would you like to one child and care for it and train it for twenty days for fifty or sixty cents, say nothing of a whole community of them at the same low rate?"While she was educating her pupils and defending fair pay for teachers, Depp was also an advocate for education. In one of her newspaper columns sharing the recent success of Bethel School, Depp editorialized with a message to parents:"One word to school people, and most especially parents: Our governmental laws teach that wherever there is a right there is a corresponding duty. Parents, do you realize that one of the greatest rights your children can enjoy is the right to attend school? If it is a right it is indeed and in truth your duty to send them. You cripple them for life when you fail to educate them. Education means more than it did when you were children. Its value is above all the gold in the world. Then why not awake and give them what they need? It is in your power to give them a common school education, if no more. They need it and should not be robbed of their needs. Have a little less of this world's good rather than keep them away from school. This talk is for every parent, not only of my school, but of this county."In another of Depp's columns while she was teaching at Bethel School, she addressed both teachers and parents:
"Teachers, we must realize that we have not only the mental but the moral and physical powers of childhood to develop. If we fail along these lines what will our country be in a short time? Who will be to blame for the ruin? I am bound to answer: teachers and parents. Who is to blame for the corruption of today? Unfair and false teachers and thoughtless parents. Now this sounds hard, and doubly so when it is said by a teacher, but it is high time that the judgement was beginning at home. I know that I have failed many times in doing what was best, but I have tried to be true to my profession, and I shall continue to try. I am anxious that all teachers, and especially young ones, see the need of being faithful and true."
Running for office Back in the classroom, Depp apparently grew weary of the role of politics in public schools. At the time, local school superintendents were not selected by the elected members of the school board; rather, would-be superintendents were elected by the voters and were considered county officials. Kentucky's compulsory attendance law requiring parents to send their children to school were loosely enforced. Recognizing Depp as a popular educator armed with a degree, both the Democratic and Republican Party committees viewed her as a highly qualified candidate.
In September 1909, the Barren County Republican Committee selected her as their choice of candidates to stand for election to become superintendent of county schools. Apparently, Depp was unaware of a plan to nominate her and her polite refusal became news. She faced three awkward situations: no woman had ever run for public office in Barren County, she was from a well-known family of Democrats, and her brother Oren R. Depp had sought the Democratic nomination for superintendent the previous cycle and lost.
On September 23, 1909, Depp wrote to S.T. Young, Chairman of the Republican Committee:"My Dear Sir: I thank you people very, very much for the honor you have shown me. I believe you are sincere; I believe you are tired of rottenness - I know I am. Still under the embarrassing circumstances I cannot come out under either of the old heads at this time. Yours for success, Nettie B. Depp."With much publicity about the Republican nomination, Depp felt it necessary to give the public some explanation which she did through a letter to the editor of the Glasgow Times published on September 28, 1909:"'I'd rather be right than president,' are the words that have passed through my mind many, many times since last Monday night. Only the quotation was changed to suit my case. 'I'd rather be right than superintendent,' is the way I look at it. It would not be right for me to come out under another head after my brother running in confidence and trust under the one he did.
"While I thank the Republicans of my county for the honor they have given me, still I cannot accept their offer. Now, to make this plain to my friends, some of whom will be disappointed in my not accepting the nomination, I will say, that when I came home from Bowling Green from school last June and found you so eager for me to run for superintendent, I told you that I would come out if you would show me that the county was strong enough to elect me on a clean independent ticket. When I said that, I did not mean that I would come out under either of the old heads, but that I would come in the name of education.
"Since a child I have studied and studied hard to be a true woman. I have always tried to raise the standard of education above dishonesty and wrong. As it is, I feel that I would do wrong to accept the nomination. I want my friends to know that I am as true a believer in the Jeffersonian principles as ever lived.
"May God give us men and women that will work for true interest of their country.
/s/ Nettie B. Depp."The following year, 1910, Depp accepted a position teaching in Scottsville where she was warmly welcomed professionally and socially. While becoming superintendent in her native Barren County may have been in her mind, it was overshadowed by the fact that her brother, Oren R. Depp, planned to seek the nomination in the next election cycle. He was head of the Hiseville school district in Barren County when he suddenly died at age 32 in March 1912.
Following Oren's death, talk of Nettie running for superintendent reemerged in the summer of 1912. Determined to show that local voters would support her candidacy, her advocates produced a petition bearing the signatures of 85 Barren County voters. She accepted the challenge and agreed to run as a representative of the Democratic Party more than a year before the 1913 General Election.