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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
CHAPTER XXIV.
FEMALE SEMINARY--MISS.
STRONG--MRS. WILLARD--INCORPORATED--MISSES MAHEW--MRS. COOK--MISS SWIFT--MR.
TILDEN.-- DR. LATHROP--S. HITCHCOCK--W. F. BASCOM--MISS GORDON.
ABOUT
the
time the Grammar School andCollege were established, and before the incorporation
of the latter, the citizens, in
order to complete their plans of providing institutions of a higher
order for all classes, adopted measures to establish a Female Seminary.
No
legal corporation
was formed to sustain it, but in the
spring
of 1800, through the agency of Hon. Horatio Seymour,
from the same place, and previously acquainted with her, they invited Miss Ida
Strong, of Litchfield Conn., who had been educated
at the celebrated school of Miss Pierce, in that place, to establish a
similar school
here. No building or other conveniences had been
provided,
and she opened her school in the court house. It soon
rose to such reputation as to attract pupils from nearly all parts of
the state. After a year or two, the school was removed to the north room of Dr.
Campbell's house, which had been used for a store.
The school had so rapidly increased, that the citizens felt the importance of
providing better accommodations for it. In the winter
of 1802-3, they formed a voluntary association and made preparation for the erection
of a suitable building. Mr. Seymour had
appropriated land, as before stated. The stock was divided into
shares, a subscription was circulated and the requisite funds raised,
and early in the season following the two story building, now occupied by O.Seymour,
Esq., for his residence, was completed. The
young men from the lawyers' offices, stores and mechanics' shops,
were not behind others in their enthusiasm. They were without
funds to take stock, but volunteered to build a plank walk across
the flat ground in front of the building, where the deep mud ren-
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
dered it otherwise inaccessible to female or male travellers; and in other ways
contributed their labor to promote the enterprise. Mrs. Willard, in a communication,
to which we shall again refer, says,--" In the records of female education,
it is Worthy of notice, that this academy was one of the very first in the country
which was built for that special object."
In
this building Miss Strong kept her school in successful operation until her health
failed. Pupils were gathered from all parts of the state, and many from the stets
of New York. When her health was too much impaired to continue her labors, with
the hope of improving it, she took a journey to Bennington County to spend a season
with some of her former pupils, and other friends, but she continued to decline,
and soon after, in October, 1804, at the age of 29 years, she died in the family
of one of her pupils in Rupert. Miss Strong was the pioneer of female education
in this state; and that she was a woman woman of no common talents, education
and energy, is evinced by her success in establishing a school of so much reputation
at so early a period in the settlement of the country. No distinct school for
the education of females in the higher branches had been established in this state
and very few in the country. The nearest, if not the only, school of that character,
to which Vermont females could resort, was Miss Pierce's school at Litchfield,
Conn.
There
remained a vacancy in the school from the death of Miss Strong, until the summer
of 1807. At this time Miss Emma Hart, from Berlin, Conn., -was invited by the
proprietors to take charge of the school. Although but twenty years of age, she
had an established reputation, and had been invited to several other places, but
chose to accept the invitation to come here. She continued in charge of the school,
with high and increasing reputation, about two years, and on the 10th of August
1809, she was married to Dr. John Willard, then marshall of the District of Vermont,
of whom we have before spoken. During the vacancy in the school above mentioned,
the Addison County Grammar School was removed to the building belonging to this
seminary. The lower story had been divided into rooms and furnished for the accommodation
of the ordinary exercises; but the upper story was
finished in one room for the
393
HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
more public exercises. The academy occupied the lower story, and Miss Hart's
school was commenced, with thirty-seven pupils, in the upper room. But the male
school was removed before the second winter. In the spring of 1814, Mrs. Willard
opened a female school at her own residence. At our request, she has furnished
us with an interesting communication, from which we quote so far as our limits
and the object of this work will allow. Her experience in her schools, her plans
and their results, will be best explaind in her own words.
"The
winter of 1807-8 was one of exceeding hardship for me. Tho' very cold, with
frequent storms and much snow, I had to walk from Dr. Tudor's, where I boarded,
to the academy,and when there to keep my school in a large long room, formed like
an ordinary ball room, occupying the whole upper story, while the only means of
gaining warmth was from an open fire, in a small fire place on the north end.
Yet that winter I had an increased and very pleasant school. When it was so cold,
that we could live no longer, I called all my girls on to the floor, and arranged
them two and two, in a long row for a contra dance; and while those who could
sing would strike up some stirring tune, I, with one of the girls for a partner,
would lead down the dance, and soon have them all in rapid motion. After which
we went to our school exercises again. The school had quite an increase in the
spring from different parts of the state, and amounted to sixty. Among them, and
from the village, was a remarkable band of young maidens, ranging from about twelve
to fifteen. I remained in this school two years from the time I commenced."
After
the dissolution of Mrs. Willard's connection with the school by her marriage,
Miss Esther North, from Goshen, Conn., was invited, and in October following became
the principal. She continued the school for several years, a part of which time
she was assisted by Miss Mary North, her sister. Mrs. Phebe Smith, before her
marriage Phebe Henderson, of Bennington, and since the wife of Rev. Joel H. Linsley,
D. D., of Greenwich, Conn., succeeded Miss North in January 1812. We have not
the
exact date of the close of Miss North's school, or of Mrs. Smith's. The latter
had
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
charge of the school in the spring of 1814, and probably closed it soon after,
as Mrs. Willard commenced her school at her own residence the same season. We
quote again from Mrs. Willard.
"It
was in the spring of 1814 that I began, at my own residence, the school which
I regard as the germ of the Troy Female Seminary. It was there that I devised
and wrote that
' Plan of Female Education,' which was first printed in the winter of 1818-19,
and addressed as a petition to the legislature of New York, and became the basis
of an extensive reform in female education. While I was in secrecy describing
the institution, which was my
beau ideal
for it, and was diligently considering what name I should give it, I heard Mr.
Merrill pray for our "seminaries of learning." I said,
'I
have it,-I will call it a female seminary.' That word, while it is high as the
highest, is also low as the lowest, and will not create a jealousy, that we mean
to intrude upon the province of the men. There are now female seminaries, not
only throughout the American Union, but in the islands of the Pacific and in Asia.
Many of these have been either directly taught by my pupils, or indirectly by
their scholars. As nearly as I can estimate, I have sent out about five hundred
teachers."
"My
boarding school at Middlebury attained to so considerable a reputation abroad,
that not only did I receive pupils from the first families throughout Vermont,
but also a number from New England and New York. In 1816 and 1817, I had five
from Waterford, N. Y., among whom was the adopted daughter of Gen. Van Schoonhoven.
In 1818, this gentleman being in Middlebury, invited Dr. Willard and myself to
remove our establishment to Waterford. Having then my plan of education fully
digested and written out, though known only to a few confidential friends, I gave
the manuscript into the hands of the General, and with Dr. Willard's consent,
the assurance, that if DeWitt Clinton, then Governor of New York, approved it,
and the Waterford gentlemen would bring it before the legislature, we would, on
condition we were patronized by that body, remove and commence in Waterford on
the plan proposed. Dr. Willard and myself, encouraged by Governor Clinton's warm
approbation and efforts, which, with those of the gentlemen
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
of Waterford, were in a measure successful, did remove in 1819 to Waterford
with our teachers and most of our boarding pupils; thus preserving the identity
of the school, which had only an ordinary vacation between its close, at Middlebury
and its re-opening at Waterford. Two years afterwards it was removed to Troy.
Now in 1857 it numbers about 330 pupils, and among those may probably be found
representatives from every State in the Union, besides some from Canada."
"In
a late account of normal schools, made by Mr. Ormiston of Upper Canada, he says
the first in the United States was founded in 1838, in Massachusetts. This was
more than twenty years later than the time when I began specially to prepare pupils
for teachers. In Middlebury, Elizabeth
Sherrill and Katharine Batty were trained
to become teachers in the institution which I was proposing to found, and they
were among my first teachers in this state."
After
the school was established in Troy, encouraged
by a very liberal and unexpected private patronage,but disappointed in the endowment
expected from the State, Mrs. Willard says,-" I ceased applying to
the legislature, and determined to spread in another manner, what I believed an
improved system. I then betook myself to the training of teachers. Young women
of
character and talents I received to board and educate, some of them to clothe
and some to pay travelling expenses; when afterwards they went forth, as recommended
by me, on
application for teachers, to our different states. They went pledged to pay me,
when they earned sufficient money by teaching; being however allowed to
retain of
their earnings sufficient to clothe themselves. In this way I continued to educate
and send forth teachers, until 200 had gone from the Troy Seminary before
one was educated
in any public normal school in the United States. Thus early was my system of
female education carried to every part of the country, and the school,
which in
1814 was begun in Middlebury, is fairly entitled to the honor of being the first
normal school in the United States."
While
her school was continued in Middlebury, Mrs. Willard introduced a new system of
instruction in geography, which she had partly written out and
prepared for publication, and which was af-
396
HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
terwards published in connection with
William C. Goodrich. She says also, " In the school at Middlebury, I commenced
teaching Moral Philosophy from Paley's work, Miss Hemenway being my first scholar.
There also was taught my first class in Intellectual Philosophy. My text book
was the entire work of Locke, and my first pupil was Eliza Henshaw, now Mrs.
Bushnell." While in Middlebury, she had not introduced the study of Mathematics,
" although, " she says, " it was in Middlebury, that the stream of lady-mathematics
took its rise, which afterwards went out from the Troy Seminary to every part
of the Union. I taught drawing myself in both my Middlebury schools. I had passion
for it." "But I felt my deficiency, in not being acquainted with perspective,
which I knew was the grammar of drawing. I purchased books of perspective, from
which I perceived, that without geometry, perspective must remain to me a dead
letter. John Willard, since a judge, for many years, of the Supreme Court in
this state, is a nephew of Dr. Willard, and was sent by him to Middlebury College,
and boarded with us, I took up his Euclid, when he was from home and was fascinated
with the study. Once after he returned, I said to him I was studying it ; I
had found no difficulty, but would like to see a little whether I understood
it as he did. He sat down for about half an hour, and pronounced my learning
correct. That was the sole teaching I ever had in geometry, a science which
I regard as more than any other the plough share of the mind. I afterwards for
years taught the whole of Euclid and trigonometry, with Enfield's Institutes
of Natural Philosophy." " If otherwise than as a teacher I have done any good
to posterity, for which they will remember me after my decease, Middlebury will
be associated with it. My theory of the circulation of the blood, by means of
respiration, now so extensively acknowledged, would never have been formed but
for events occurring in Middlebury. After my marriage, Dr. Willard's
office
of Marshall
called him to make long journeys from home. But his old medical library, with
Cheselden's Anatomy to begin with, remained at home. He had a passionate attachment
for these old authors, and talked to me in their language, and I kindled into
his enthusiasm, and prepared myself, much to his
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
delight, to respond, and to understand what he taught me, and thus I obtained
some knowledge of scientific physiology and medical practice as it then stood."
We
have indulged our inclination in quoting from the communication of Mrs. Willard
farther perhaps than some would justify as a part of the history of Middlebury.
But we may be allowed to add, what will be obvious to the reader, that she has
been a pioneer in female education in this country, and her incipient plans and
efforts were adopted while she was a teacher here. Her influence has not been
confined to her own personal instructions or those of the teachers whom she has
raised up ; but the numerous and popular books, which she has published have tended
to the same object.*
After
the removal of Mrs. Willard to the State of Now York in 1819, no general measures
were adopted for the revival of a female seminary until the spring of 1827. In
the meantime independent schools for the higher branches were occasionally kept
by different females. At the period above mentioned, a new effort was made to
revive the school and place it on a more permanent footing. The building, which
had been erected, as well as its location, was not satisfactory, and had been
given up to the Addison County Grammar School. Besides, it was thought desirable
to make it a boarding school. The citizens came together and formed a new association
and adopted a constitution and by-laws. The stock was di-
----------
*In
Barnard's American Journal of Education for March 1859, is published
an article on the
" Educational Services of Mrs. Emma Willard," by Prof. Henry Fowler, Rochester
University N. Y., extending to more than forty pages. It contains a detail of
her labors and success in enlarging the field and improving the system of Female
Education. She has, at different times, in various addresses to the public, explained
her views of the system she proposed; published very numerous educational books,
formed on her new plans of instruction, which have been introduced into the seminaries
through the country; educated a multitude of teachers, who, having become familiar
with her system, have gone forth every where to introduce it; and finally has
established a model school, into whose existence her principles are incorporated;
and has by her various labors, established a character,-to use Prof. Fosters language-as
a "REPRESENTATIVE
WOMAN,
who suitably typifies the great movement of the nineteenth century, for the elevation
of woman." We cannot do justice to this article without copying the whole, which
our limits will not allow.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
vided into shares and a new subscription was raised. The association was incorporated
by the legislature in October 182'7, by the name of the Female School Association.
The constitution had provided for
"
a board of trustees consisting of nine members, elected at the annual meeting,
one third of whom shall go out of office at the end of each year." To this board
was committed the general superintendence of the school. This and other provisions
were sanctioned and legalized by the act of incorporation. In the course of
that year the association had purchased the three story building erected by
Hon. Daniel Chipman for a law school, and repaired and fitted it for the school
boarding house. Misses Ann F. and H.B. Mahew, from Woodstock, were in 1828 employed
to take charge of the school. They continued in it about a year. They were succeeded
by Mrs. Harriet E. Cook, widow of Milo Cook, Esq. Before her marriage, as early
as 1801, Miss Harriet B. Latimer had been invited to come from Middletown, Conn.,
and open a school at Vergennes. After her marriage, Mr. Cook removed to the
State of Georgia, where Mrs. Cook was employed with her husband in teaching.
After his death she returned to Vermont, and again opened a school at Vergennes,
until she was invited to take charge of the seminary here. Under her administration,
the school was in great reputation, and increased to such extent that the room
which she occupied in the boarding house was wholly insufficient to accommodate
it. The stockholders and others, who took additional stock,early
in the year 1830, adopted measures to erect a separate building for the school.
The lot then
owned by the association did not afford sufficient room to admit the building
on the street, and
it was erected in the rear of the boarding house. During the administration
of Mrs. Cook,
Walter R. Gilkey, Esq., then carrying on the business of a saddler and harness
maker, as
successor of Capt. Justus Foot, had charge of the boarding house. The boarders,
as well as the
scholars, had so greatly increased that further accommodations were required
for them. On a
pledge of the future income of the establishment, a few individuals undertook
to erect an
addition to the boarding house. Toward that object, Dr. William Bass contributed
the lot next
east of the seminary, on which stood a two
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
story
dwelling house, estimated st $500 ; Rufus Wainwright contributed
nearly the same amount, and three others from one to three
hundred dollars each. The dwelling house on the lot received from
Dr. Bass was sold and removed to a lot on the same street, and is
now owned by Mr. Powers. The addition at the east end of the
boarding house was erected in 1831.
In August, 1834, Mrs. Cook resigned her charge of the school,
and afterwards opened a school in Bloomfield, New Jersey. She
was succeeded the following year by Miss Nancy Swift, who had
been engaged in a school in St. Albans. The school under her administration
was continued four years, with similar high reputation
and success. Miss Swift resigned, and for several years had
charge of a female school in Huntsvile, Alabama. A temporary
teacher was employed during the winter, and in the spring of 1840
Rev. Lucius L. Tilden, having been dismissed as pastor of the Congregational
church in West Rutland, on account of the failure of
his health, was appointed and took charge of the seminary as principal,
and was assisted by Mrs. Tilden, who had been a teacher in
the school before their marriage. They had charge also of the
boarding house. In the spring of 1845 Mr. Tilden resigned the
charge of the school, and was succeeded in the spring of 1846 by
Dr. S. P. Lathrop, who continued in charge of it until the spring
of 1849. Dr. Lathrop then resigned to accept the appointment of
professor
in the new college at Beloit, Wisconsin, and has since died.
Under the last two administrations the school sustained its high
reputation, but felt the influence of the frequent changes and unsettled
state of the institution, and the increasing reputation of neighboring
schools.
For
the next two years the school was kept in operation with only
temporary teachers. In 1851 Mr. S. W. Hitchcock from Burlington,
was employed, and designed to make it his permanent business.
In the meantime new measures were adopted to make extensive alterations and repairs
of the establishment, which resulted finally in the expenditure of a large sum.
At this time the school house was
removed to its present position on the street, and fitted up anew.
But Mr. Hitchcock was able to continue the
school for only about
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY
one year, when his health failed, and he died in the summer of 1852. Soon after
Mr. Hitchcock's death, William F. Bascom, Esq., who had then been engaged for
several years as principal of a public seminary at Potsdam, N. Y., was appointed
and entered upon the duties as principal. He was assisted by Mrs. Bascom, who
bad been a teacher in the school previous to their marriage, and by other competent
teachers. Under his administration, the number of pupils was large, and the
reputation of the school was high. But Mr. Bascom, having in the meantime been
admitted to the practice of law, in the fall of 1856, relinquished the school,
and the business of instruction, for his new profession. The school was continued
through
the winter by Miss Eliza Merrill, daughter of the late Rev. Dr.
Merrill, an experienced teacher.
In
the meantime, the board made an arrangement with Miss Agnes Gordon, who was
formerly a resident here in the family of her father, Mr. Joseph Gordon, and is
well known as a popular teacher in several states, south as well as north, and
appointed her
as principal. She assumed the charge both of the school and boarding
house, and with other distinguished and competent teachers,
opened the school on the 9th of March 1857. From the success,
which has so far attended the school under her administration, it is
anticipated that she will make it a permanent school of high respectability
and usefulness.
The
following are the present teachers, and the number will be increased as the necessities
of the school shall require.
Miss
AGNES
GORDON,
Principal and Preceptress.
Miss
M. J.
KNOWLES,
Assistant Preceptress.
Miss
E. C.
LAWRENCE,
Teacher of Drawing and Painting.
Prof. A.
BOTT,
(a distinguished musican and scholar from Germany)
Teacher
of Music and German.
For
the sake of making the faculties for acquiring an education as accessible as possible
to all classes of females, it has been thought necessary to keep the price of
tuition and board low. For this purpose
the
seminary needs a permanent fund of fifteen or twenty thousand
dollars, in addition to the present establishment; which, we think,
would keep the buildings and furniture in repair, gradually increase
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HISTORY OF MIDDLEBURY.
the library and apparatus, and secure a permanent school of a high order. And
this sum, or more, we hope some liberal and wealthy individual will soon be
induced to contribute to so
important an object.
Since
the above was written, we learn that the late
DAVID NICHOLS
of New York, son of the late David Nichols of Middlebury, has made provision by
his will for the education of females in his native town, to nearly the amount
suggested above. Mr. Nichols was a young gentleman, greatly respected here for
his amiable, courteous, and enterprising disposition and character; and in this
liberal provision has manifested his characteristic benevolence, and his regard
for educational institutions, and the prosperity and happiness of the place where
he spent his childhood and youth. Mr. Nichols died at Paris, France, November
27th, 1852, at the age of thirty-five years. His remains were subsequently interred
at Middlebury.