early years that we do not know. but we know that she was trained as a teacher in iowa, probably. you can imagine, as an irish immigrant, probably poor, it was her way into the middle class. then to find yourself in ward, colorado, a small mountain town, but bigger than boulder in those days. it had never had a school teacher. she was brought here by a guy who owned the mine and realize d that the workers that he had were starting to have children and they were not getting any education. the story goes, she taught in a saloon. during the day they cleared out all the evidence of the revelry in the night and then after school was over things would be moved back in. she taught in ward a couple of years and then moved to boulder and was one of the first teachers in the school district. it is hard to speculate about hannah and her motivations. but you cannot help but imagine what it must've been like to travel across the country, from iowa to boulder, shortly after the civil war. the train was a year from being completed to denver. she probably did not come by train, which meant horses, some kind of stagecoach. a pretty darn big adventure. she met her future husband and they married when she was in her early 30's. lived a fairly traditional life. she stopped teaching. he had a daughter from a previous marriage. they lived in this house. and then he died after less than 10 years of marriage. she was left a widow at age 39. then an amazing thing happened, she became one of boulder's first philanthropists. she was on the board of what was then the biggest bank in town. she became a property owner. she had a lot of financial activity. we are not quite sure where it all came from. an irish immigrant here in boulder, young widow, middle-aged widow. she was active with women's groups in town. everything from the women's christian temperance union to a group which got together every week in boulder to research topics and speak to each other about things that would broaden their understanding of the world at large. the story of hannah barker is relevant today as it reminds us that when you tell the story of a place, it is important to realize that it's not just the story brought to you by the men in the population. i think hannah's story was not well known up until the time that her house was landmarked. she was forgotten. we certainly have early pioneers, men pioneers, who were much more frequently mentioned. it is one of the great gifts the house has gotten, it is a way to talk to our larger community about a woman's role than. i think that reflects on women's roles today in boulder. >> we are on the front porch of the house that hannah barker lived in for 40 years. what was previously the town of highland lawn, which hannah barker planted in the late 1800's. we will be completely rehabilitating the exterior of the house and, as i said, we have shored it up structurally and doing some of the interior work as well. we hope to find a good long-term steward and turn it back into a single-family home, as it was used historically. the main goal is to bring it back so we can continue to tell the story of hannah barker, who lived here for over 40 years. hannah barker, to me as a woman in the community in particular, is such an important person to study and learn about. in a way there is this whole legacy in boulder of active and engaged women citizenry who really made a difference in our town. in a way to me it is a bit of a legacy that she has left. >> find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next online at www.c-span.org/localcontent. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. >> we visit the president woodrow wilson house which was home to the 28th president. ae exhibit features collection of world war i paintings and other art that helped shape public opinion. it was not until 1917 that resident wilson led the nation into what was hoped to be the war to end all wars. that is on american artifacts. the weekly program that takes viewers into archives and museums.