This index has been compiled from the Annual Reports to the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the years 1878-1900. Each listing shows the name of the teacher, the date the report was submitted (usually the first day of the school year), the archives location for the Annual Report from which the listing was taken, and the school district the teacher taught in. A few teachers taught in more than one school district in the same year. The introduction lists the 66 school districts in Boulder County prior to 1900, and gives details about what the Annual Reports include such as whether each school house was made of log, sod, adobe, frame or brick, what textbooks were used during the school year, and what kind of census of students was taken each year.

The Masons have a history in Colorado longer than the state or territory itself. The first Masonic lodges formed in the area were done so under dispensation from the Grand Lodges of Kansas and Nebraska until Colorado became a Territory in 1861 and formed its own Grand Lodge. Between the time Colorado became a territory in 1861 and a state in 1876, thirty-one Masonic lodges were formed with the help of more than 4,000 local men whose names are included in this index. The Proceedings of the Grand Lodge of Colorado often included news from Masons in other states, as well as the names of officers of the other Grand Lodges around the county. THeir names are also included.