USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Litchfield > More chronicles of a pioneer school, from 1792 to 1833, being added history on the Litchfield Female Academy kept by Miss Sarah Pierce and her nephew, John Pierce Brace > Part 1
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35
MORE CHRONICLES OF A PIONEER SCHOOL
LITCHFIELD, CONN.
VANDERPOEL
1 GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY
W.B ly 8,1961 -
Lite 3 1833 02871 8762
Gc 974.602 L71va Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes, 1842-1939. More chronicles of a pioneer school, from 1792 to 1833
MORE CHRONICLES OF A PIONEER SCHOOL
Seven hundred and fifty copies of this Volume have been printed, of which this is
No. 640
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2019
https://archive.org/details/morechroniclesof00vand
THE LITCHFIELD FEMALE ACADEMY Built by subscription for Miss Sarah Pierce, in 1827, to replace the first one built for her in the same way and on her land in 1798 From a sketch in water color, probably by Mr. Gimbrede who was afterward an engraver in New York
MORE CHRONICLES OF A PIONEER SCHOOL FROM 1792 TO 1833
BEING
ADDED HISTORY ON THE LITCHFIELD FEMALE ACADEMY KEPT BY MISS SARAH PIERCE AND HER NEPHEW, JOHN PIERCE BRACE
COMPILED BY EMILY NOYES VANDERPOEL VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE LITCHFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY AUTHOR OF "COLOR PROBLEMS, " "CHRONICLES OF A PIONEER SCHOOL," AND "AMERICAN LACE AND LACE MAKERS"
NEW YORK THE CADMUS BOOK SHOP PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
1927
Allen County Public Libres 900 Webster Street PO Box 2270 Fort Wayne, IN 46801-2774
· Copyright, 1927 BY EMILY NOYES VANDERPOEL
TO MY GRANDSON FLOYD LEWIS VANDERPOEL WHOSE INTEREST HELPED TO MAKE THESE CHRONICLES POSSIBLE
FOREWORD
"THE "Chronicles of a Pioneer School" were compiled some years ago from all the material available at that time. Lately, some dozen manuscript volumes came to light containing additional names of pupils and valuable data as to their studies and charac- teristics, largely from the pen of Mr. John P. Brace, one of the principals of the school.
As it has been said by competent authority that the " Chronicles " furnish a valuable addition to the history of New England from 1792 to 1833, which was the period of the life of the school under its founder, Miss Sarah Pierce, it seems as if this new matter should be added to what has already been published for the bene- fit of that history and of that of the descendants of the girls who attended the school; especially as to the names of those girls. It was found impossible to collect a full list of the three thousand young women who came under Miss Pierce's influence, in spite of the most careful and lengthy research. Hence it seems wise to print these "More Chronicles of a Pioneer School" as an appendix, by way of adding to, and rounding out, the history contained in the former volume, now out of print. To make this work clear to readers who have not seen the "Chronicles" it is necessary to re- peat some of the leading statements made by authorities regarding its origin and the position it held in the country.
The names of those persons who attended Miss Sarah Pierce's School and which are mentioned in the first volume, "Chronicles", as well as those in this the second volume, are grouped together in alphabetical order in an Index of Pupils. This index precedes the general index.
While it has been known that pictures painted in water colors and embroidered on silk or satin have come down to us as part of early American Art, it is but lately that we learn of an ex- hibition of pictures, maps and charts forming a part of the closing
viii
FOREWORD
exercises of Miss Pierce's School. Mr. Brace writes that after the guests had fully examined the exhibition, the prizes, mottoes and diplomas were given out. Therefore, halftone reproductions from a few examples that may have been included in some of these exhibitions are added and speak well for Miss Pierce's and others' ability as teachers of art.
CONTENTS
Lists of Summer and Winter term scholars for the years
PAGE
1802
10-12
1814 - summer
12-14
1816 - summer
14-18
1817 - winter 18-20
1818
20-23
1819
23-29
1820
29-35
1821
36-41
1822
41-46
1823
46-52
1824
52-57
1825 - summer
57-60
1826 · summer
60-62
1827
63-66
1828
66-69
1829
69-70
1830
75-76
1831
76-78
1832
78-80
from the "Chronicles of A Pioneer School" and from Mr. John P. Brace's manuscript "Miscellanies" 10-80
Extracts from the "Private Journals of Mr. John P. Brace" for 1814 and 1815 and from "History of My Poetry," vols. 1, 2, 3, and 4, with comments on the girls, the school and the social life of Litchfield 81-163
Caroline Chester's Journal - June 1816. By the courtesy of her grandson, Mr. Seymour Cunningham 164-196
Julia Anna Shepard. Sketch from her life. 197-201 John P. Brace's Addresses
At the close of the school October 1816 202-206 At the close of the school October 1819 206-211
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CONTENTS
John P. Brace's Addresses PAGE
At the close of the school October 1820 211-214
To the Agricultural Society of Litchfield County, Oct. 13, 1824 . 214-220
Before the General Assembly of Connecticut. June 1825 220-223
Patriotic Address on July 4th 1826 223-232
Editorials from the "Hartford Courant" 1853-1861 . 233-253
Story: "Tale of Roaring Brook" 254-357
Index of pupils 359-374
General index 375-376
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
As the first volume "Chronicles of a Pioneer School" (published 1905) was fully illustrated, the following illustrations, mainly new ones, seem fitting for this appendix.
The Litchfield Female Academy Frontispiece
Congregational Church, Called the Meeting House,
Built about 1828, Moved to Torrington Road, 1871
Facing page 8
Phelps Tavern on the Green, built in 1787
16
House Built by the Misses Pierce in 1803 on the West Side of North Street .
24
John Pierce Brace. From a daguerreotype
32
Judge Tapping Reeve, Founder of the Litchfield Law School
40
Judge Tapping Reeve's House, built in 1774
66
48
Home of Elizabeth, Hannah, Laura, and Frederick H. Wolcott
66
56
House Where Henrietta Sophronia and Origen Storrs Seymour Lived, built in 1735
66
64
Dr. Daniel Sheldon, Well Known Throughout the State, Father of Charlotte, Lucy, Henry, and Daniel Sheldon, Jr.
66
72
Lucy Sheldon's (Mrs. Theron Beach) Home, North Street, built in 1783
66
80
The Parlor of Dr. Sheldon's House
88
Judge James Gould's House, the Home of Julia, Edward, William, George and Guy Gould, built in 1760
96
Home of Mary Peck, Where She Lived with Her Uncle, Dr. Abel Catlin, built in 1800
66
104
The Home of Lucretia and William Deming, built in 1799 112
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Home of Harriet, Maria, William, Henry
Frederick Augustus, Benjamin, Montgomery and Washington Tallmadge, built in 1775 .
Facing page 120
Home of Fanny, Erastus, and Augustus Lord, built in 1771 128
The Mansion House, built in 1801, Home of Flora Catlin .
66 136
The Earliest Known Diploma of the School, En- graved on White Satin
66 144
(1) Lucy Sheldon's Picture, Painted in Water Colors: "Hop-picking" 1 160
(2) Lucy Sheldon's Picture, Painted in Water Colors: "The Shipwrecked Boy" 1
168
The City of Quebec, Painted in Water Colors by Mary Ann Bacon, of Roxbury, Connecticut. She Married Chauncey Whittlesey, of the Same Place
66 176
The City of Quebec, Painted in Water Colors by Mary Ann Bacon, of Roxbury, Connecticut . .
66 192
The Finding of Moses in the Bulrushes, Worked in Water Color and Embroidery on Silk, by Emmeline Beebe, of Canaan, Connecticut, When a Pupil at Miss Pierce's School in 1816
The Holy Family Returning from Egypt, Done in Water Color and Embroidery in Silk Floss and Chenille. Made by Esther Lyman
66 224
"The Family Mourning Piece," Painted in Water Colors on Silk by Delia Coe, While at Miss Pierce's School
66 232
Lady with Harp, Done on White Satin in Water Colors and Embroidery
240
Map of the United States, Drawn and Painted by Caroline Chester in 1816, When the Mississippi River Was the Western Boundary of the Country
248
1 Still hanging in her home.
208
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1792-1793
CONTEMPORARY NOTICES OF MISS PIERCE AND HER SCHOOL
We know very little about the early stages of the school, and therefore the following extracts from contemporary writers give us all that can be learned about its origin and the reasons for its establishment. Tradition says it was begun with one pupil in Miss Pierce's dining-room in 1792.
[From the History of the Town of Litchfield, by the Hon. George C. Woodruff.]
"Miss Sarah Pierce opened a School in this town for the instruc- tion of Females, in the year 1792, which has very justly merited and acquired a distinguished reputation." 1 The school continued under her superintendence for nearly forty years, and its reputation has since been well sustained by her successors. It was incorporated in the year 1827, by the name of "The Litchfield Female Academy."
[From Hollister's History of Connecticut.]
To this pleasant little village among the hills came the very flower and nobility of American genius. Here might be seen Calhoun, Clay- ton, Mason, Loring, Woodbury, Hall, Ashley, Phelps, and a host of others, who were preparing themselves for the high places of the cabinet, the senate and the bench.
The influence of these sages upon the laws of the country was almost rivalled by the efforts of Miss Sarah Pierce, in another department of learning. This lady opened a school for the instruction of females in the year 1792, while the law school was in successful operation, and continued it under her own superintendence for nearly forty years. During this time she educated between fifteen hundred and two thou-
1 Morris's Statistical Account.
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sand young ladies.1 This school was for a long period the most cele- brated in the United States, and brought together a large number of the most gifted and beautiful women of the continent. They were certain to be methodically taught and tenderly cared for, and under her mild rule they could hardly fail to learn whatever was most neces- sary to fit them for the quiet but elevated spheres which so many of them have since adorned. Miss Pierce lived to the advanced age of 83. She was small in person, of a cheerful, lively temperament, a bright eye, and a face expressive of the most active benevolence. She was in the habit of practicing herself all the theories that she taught to her pupils, and, until physical infirmities confined her to her room, would take her accustomed walk in the face of the roughest March wind that ever blew across our hills. The intelligence of her death cast a shade of sadness over many a domestic circle, and caused many a silent tear to fall.
While these two schools were in full and active life, Litchfield was famed for an intellectual and social position which is believed to have been at that time unrivalled in any other village or town of equal size in the United States.
[From an Address by the Hon. Samuel Church, Chief Justice of Con- necticut, at the Centennial Celebration of Litchfield, Aug. 13, 1851.]
A new tone to female education was given by the establishment of a Female Seminary, for the instruction of females in this village, by Miss Sarah Pierce, in 1792. This was an untried experiment. Hitherto the education of young ladies, with few exceptions, had been neglected. The district school had limited their course of studies. Miss Pierce saw and regretted this, and devoted herself and all of her active life to the mental and moral culture of her sex. The experiment suc- ceeded entirely. This Academy soon became the resort of young ladies from all portions of the country - from the cities and the towns. Then the country was preferred, as most suitable for female improve- ment, away from the frivolities and dissipation of fashionable life. Now, a different, not a better practice, prevails. Many of the grand- mothers and mothers of the present generation were educated as well for genteel as for useful life, in this school, and its influence upon female character and accomplishments was great and extensive. It continued for more than forty years, and its venerable Principal and her sister assistant now live among us, the honored and honorable of their sex.
1 Mr. John P. Brace in his address, page 307, Vol. I, states the actual number to have been about three thousand.
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John Pierpont in his Centennial Poem (1851), says: Still, for her shrewdness, must the "Nutmeg State" As Number One, among her sisters rate; And which, of all her counties, will compare, For size or strength, for water, soil or air, With our good mother county? - which has sown Her children, broad-cast, o'er a wider zone, Around the Globe? And has she not, by far, Out-done the rest, in giving, to the bar, And to the bench, - for half of all her years - The brightest names of half the hemispheres? Nor have "Creation's lords" engrossed her care; Creation's ladies have received their share: - For, when to Reeve and Gould the former came, To Pierce the latter: - Pierce, an honored name! Yea, thrice and four times honored, when it stands Beside his name, who comes, with bloody hands, From fields of battle; though the applauding shout From myriad mouths - and muskets - call it out; Though by him, armies were to victory led, And groves of laurel grow upon his head! Bloodless the honors that to Pierce are paid: Bloodless the garlands on her temples laid.
To them, reproachful, no poor widow turns; No sister's heart bleeds, and no mother mourns To see them flourish. Ne'er shall they be torn From off her honored brows. Long be they worn, To show the world how a good Teacher's name Out-weighs, in real worth, the proudest warrior's fame! -
[Litchfield Eagle, June 23, 1823.]
The Law School in this place has not for a number of years been as full and as flourishing as at this time. The names of the Students will be published as heretofore, at the end of the term, and we believe the same remarks as to its healthy and flourishing state may be also applied to the Female Academy.
The reputation of each of these schools stands extremely high. - The number of either we do not know, but it is believed they have not for many years been better filled. It will be recollected that each of these schools have always depended solely on individual effort and talent, for their success. They have, with the aid of these alone con- tinued to flourish while others of similar object have dwindled, remained stationary, or ceased to exist with all the Legislative aid, or College endowments they could obtain.
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1798
SUBSCRIPTION LIST FOR BUILDING FIRST ACADEMY 1
By 1798 the school had become of enough importance to inter- est the prominent men of the town who got up the following sub- scription for the purpose of erecting a suitable building for its use. It was then dignified by the name of the Female Academy.
We the subscribers do agree to pay the Several Sums annexed to our names for the purpose of Building an House for a Female Acad- emy to be placed upon the land of Miss Sally Pierce said Sums to be paid by the first Day August Next to such person as shall be ap- pointed agent for the Purpose by the Majority of the Subscribers March 10th 1798
Dolls
Tapping Reeve
40-
Elijah Wadsworth
20- -
Daniel Sheldon
20 -
Uriah Holmes
20
Frederick Wolcott
20-
John R. Landon
10-
Elijah Adams
15
Aron Smith
20
Moses Seymour
15
Roger Skinner
15 -
Solomon Marsh
10
Asa Morgan
10-
Julius Deming
20
Sam1. Seymour.
10-
Isaac Baldwin Jr.
15
Daniel Starr
10
Moses Seymour Jr. 10-
Timothy Peck
10
Thomas Colliar
10
Daniel W. Lewis
15
Uriah Tracy
20-
Amos Galpin
10-
Reuben Smith
10
John Allen
20 -
James Morris
5-
John Welch
5-
Total
385 Dolls
1 Built just south of the Congregational parsonage.
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Unfortunately we know little of Miss Pierce's early training. We do know that she was one of the large family of John Pierce of Litchfield who had come there from Wethersfield, Connecticut. Her mother was from a family of note, the Patersons, whose ancestor helped to found the Bank of England. Mary Goodman was her stepmother, who seems to have been a woman of fine character. Her eldest brother, Col. John Pierce, was prominent in the Revolu- tion, paymaster in the Army, at Ticonderoga, and a friend of Washington. At the comparatively early death of his father he became the head of the family of fifteen children and seems to have shown real discrimination in having Sarah prepared to be a teacher, as he sent her and her sister Nancy to school in New York with that end in view. We know nothing of the school, but Col. Pierce's letters are illuminating in his advice to her on the subject. (See his letters in note in Chronicles.) Miss Pierce profited to the fullest extent by her brother's advice; began and carried on the school with some help from her sisters, and then sent a nephew, John Pierce Brace, to Williams College that on his graduation he might become her assistant.
He entered into his aunt's views of what we now call the higher education of women. These views seem to have been original with her. Also, they may have been fostered by the opinions and help of her fellow townsmen, broadminded men who must have thought that women should be given more education than had been con- sidered worth while before this time. One of them, Judge Tapping Reeve, the founder in Litchfield of the first law school in the United States, had quite advanced views on the subject, particularly as to women's right to hold property. These men showed sub- stantial interest in Miss Pierce's work by subscribing funds to build a schoolhouse in 1798 on her land on North street and again in 1827 for a second, "Female Academy," as it was termed.
Besides the Law School, which has been said to have been the first law school in the world for teaching the common law, and this pioneer school for girls, other movements were initiated in this little country town. Deep feeling arose on the subject of slavery, of missions, also as to temperance. The first temperance society originated here and the first medical society was organized here.
Miss Pierce's nephew, John Pierce Brace, was pupil, assistant teacher and finally Associate Principal in his aunt's school. He
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was a voluminous writer all his life, and although much that he wrote has perished, the manuscripts that remain contain material full of human interest in connection with the life and associations of the scholars at Miss Pierce's school. His records of the school contain lists of the pupils of some of the summer and winter terms, of the studies they pursued, their standing and the prizes earned by them.
Mr. Brace began very early to write verse of all kinds and on various topics. From his own statement in what he calls the "History of His Poetry" and from which the following selections are made, he was but thirteen years old when he wrote "The Fracas of Sunday Night." He seems to have continued this practice all his life, being greatly interested in poetry and its composition. Many details of the pupils of the school are introduced into these verses, some of which are satirical but nevertheless may be of sufficient value to the reader to warrant their preservation.
The earlier volume of Chronicles portrayed a school generally serious in character, but from Mr. Brace's diary of two or three years, we find more of the social side of the school, to which he added much of interest with his "bugs," his botany, min- erals, chemical experiments, poetry and other literary attain- ments, to say nothing of his fun and his susceptibility to the "tender passion."
The difference between the boarding school of to-day and this earliest one is also marked. At the Litchfield school the pupils, instead of being confined to the limits of one, or a few large houses, boarded with families in the village, walking to the schoolhouse for lessons. Scattered among the homes of the town, the pupils had greater opportunity for social intercourse than modern board- ing school girls have, and the character of the townspeople being high, intercourse with them was inspiring.
The rules of conduct and behaviour in the houses where the girls boarded were strict and the respect paid to the customs of the families with whom they boarded rigidly observed. Some of the families we know of in particular were very stern in their require- ments, the Misses Edward's house having been known as "the nunnery" by the students in the Law School. From a list of these rules, we copy, "Every person is bound to conform to the rules of the family where she resides. She must never go out of an evening without the permission of the heads of the family where she resides,
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read no books, engage in no amusements without their knowledge and approbation." 1
Miss Pierce's school is important historically, not only from the fact that it was the first school in the country for the higher education of women, but also that the girls came from many parts of the United States, from upper and lower Canada, from the West Indies and from prominent and representative families.
At the present time it is difficult to realize what travel meant in those days and how courageous the girls must have been who came from Michigan, Florida, Canada and other distant points. The majority travelled by stage coach, but some of the girls who came before stage lines were established arrived in Litchfield by horse- back, riding on a pillion behind their fathers. Instead of being at the end of a small branch road as it is now, a hundred and more years ago Litchfield was on the high road, traversed by many of the main lines of post coaches, then the only means of public travel.
The girl students in Litchfield added to the historical and social prominence of the town which was already established by Judge Reeve's Law School, the first in the country. Many of the names of the pupils of both of these schools have come down to us in history and the explanation might well be and no doubt is, the early education, training and association these young people were able to take advantage of while in Litchfield. It is interesting, also, to note that many marriages occurred from meetings and friendships in Litchfield.
To understand these Chronicles thoroughly, the reader will do well to remember that the material from which they are made was for the most part written many years ago and that since that time there has been a great change in the attitude of young men and women in this country toward each other. It is perhaps not easy to understand that what seemed quite natural in those days would now be classed as foolishly sentimental. Our matter of fact, outspoken young people would object greatly to the shyness and reticence of those days and the romantic gallantry of the young men. It would be misunderstood and treated with impatience. So Mr. Brace gives us fully the spirit of the times when he, a young
1 From Sarah Kingsbury's Copy of Rules of the Litchfield Academy in the "Chronicles of a Pioneer School."
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man of twenty-one, took upon himself the teaching of as many as sixty, eighty, or a hundred very youthful girls who before that time had not been away from the seclusion of their own quiet homes.
"Tale of Roaring Brook," the last story by Mr. Brace, pos- sibly will give the reader an idea of the background of the forebears of the girls at school, while the editorials selected from the two large scrapbooks of the Hartford Courant draw attention to the news of the day when the girls left Litchfield to establish their own homes. These editorials were written by Mr. Brace many years after he left teaching in his aunt's school, and when he was editor-in-chief of the Hartford Courant, a newspaper of prom- inence, and abound in progressive ideas which he endeavored to instill in the minds of his pupils in Litchfield and which undoubt- edly were influencing factors in their later lives.
The lists of scholars of the summer and winter terms found in Mr. Brace's manuscripts contain over two hundred more names which hitherto had not been found, and lists of intervening years of which there had been no record. No record of the names of pupils of the first ten years of the school seems to be in existence. From the assistant principal's records, it may be gathered that, fresh from Williams College, he no doubt introduced a system and program of instruction which had not been pursued before.
From the girls' diaries in the "Chronicles of a Pioneer School," from Caroline Chester's diary in the present book and from Mr. Brace's records, we find that the curriculum of studies included the following :
Addison on Taste
Arithmetic through interest
Chemistry
Composition
Cyphering
Dictionary
Dissertation
Drawing
Elements of knowledge
Elements of English Grammar - Webster's
Embroidery
Geography - Morse's
History - Miss Pierce's; Modern Europe; Rollins; Ramsey's American Revolution; Sacred.
CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CALLED THE MEETING HOUSE, BUILT ABOUT 1828, MOVED TO TORRINGTON ROAD, 1871
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Logic - Hedge's
Map Study Metaphor
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