Whereas Jerusha my wife…

Transcription:

Whereas Jerusha my Wife, deluded by her old wicked mother, and her descendants in the family, as to cause the said Jerusha, to be seduced, by an old illiterate villanous imposter of the [mohegan?] choir who styled himself Doctor Quack Charon, whom we may conjecture was drowned at the time of Noah’s flood, & who not long since has made his appearance from Orcus, & and entered into a certain family, with a huge bundle of Roots and a number of Jew’s-harps, to reach the art of necromancy in said family, and who by his magic art, and the assistance of his good old aunt who for several years has been troubled with the hypochrondria, catarrh or dripping of the brains, and all smuggling together, has caused said Jerusha to make a misstep, and wickedly transgress against the laws of God and man, and to break the seventh commandment, as the old necromancer has left a living testimony in the family, as a proof thereof, for which reasons of guilt and shame, and the penality of the law, the said Jerusha has deserted my bed and board without any just cause of mine, and has fled into the state of Newyork to complete her studies with a Lady who has followed the art of coquetry for several years I therefore forbid any person or persons harboring or trusting her on the penalty of the law, as I will pay no debts of her contracting after this date.
SAMUEL DWIGHT
Arlington, July 16th, 1800
(as published in the Vermont Gazette, August 4, 1800)

Lucy Terry Prince: Early Vermonter and First African-American Poet

Originally published in the Times Argus/Rutland Herald Weekend Magazine, February 4, 2023 for the “Remember When” column with the title, Lucy Terry Prince

Lucy Terry Prince by artist Louise Minks

On August 14th, 1821, an unusual obituary ran in the Bennington’s Vermont Gazette. It was particularly detailed and for a woman, a black woman. Furthermore, this “remarkable” and “much respected woman” in whom “there was an assemblage of qualities rarely to be found among her sex,” was one of the first settlers in what would become the state of Vermont. 

If that’s not enough, she is considered this country’s first known African American poet. 

The story of Lucy Terry Prince is as fascinating as it is complex. The many twists and turns of her 90-plus years cannot possibly be captured here – what follows is the barest outline of a life that bore witness to the very beginnings of what would become the United States. (For a meticulously researched, in-depth study of her and her family, see Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina’s Pulitzer Prize nominated Mr. and Mrs. Prince: How an Extraordinary Eighteenth-Century Family Moved Out of Slavery and Into Legend.)

In approximately 1730, a little girl was born in Africa, who, when barely out of toddlerhood, was kidnapped and shipped off to the American colonies. Most likely landing in Boston, she was sold to Samuel Terry and given the name Lucy. From there she was sold to Ebenezer and Abigail Wells of Deerfield, MA, becoming an integral – but far from equal – member of the family.

Early Female Education: Because Women were Cheaper

Originally published in the Times Argus/Rutland Herald Weekend Magazine, June 18, 2022 for the “Remember When” column with the title, “Female education: From the home to the school house“

Sampler made in Orange, Vermont, with text: “Made in school A.D. 1814 by Roxcinda Richardson”
(Vermont Historical Society)

1800–20

Early Vermont women were far from uneducated. In the 1770s, literacy among females is estimated to have been at 60%, and by 1820, over 80%. But most girls educated prior to 1800 could only expect to learn enough basic skills to become a proficient housekeeper.

When Miss Ida Strong opened a girls-only school in Middlebury in 1800, it was the first of its kind in Vermont. The idea of designing schools and curricula specifically for girls was progressive and marked the beginning of a nascent trend in Vermont’s female education.

Educating women to be interesting wives

Originally published in the Times Argus/Rutland Herald Weekend Magazine, May 18, 2022 for the “Remember When” column with the title, “Female education, for happiness and cordiality“

Sampler made in Orange, Vermont, with text: “Made in school A.D. 1814 by Roxcinda Richardson” in the 9th year of her age.
(Vermont Historical Society)

“Whatever the fine ladies think of the matter, it is certain that the only rational ambition they can have must be to make obedient daughters, loving wives, prudent mothers and mistresses of families, faithful friends, and good Christians.” 

From the “Of the peculiar Management of Daughters” in the August 14, 1802 edition of Randolph’s Weekly Wanderer

At a time when schooling was usually limited to subjects and skills deemed absolutely necessary to their future roles as wives and mothers, the above statement makes sense. But it was actually in an 1802 article written in support of furthering the formal education of young girls. 

Two years earlier, Miss Ida Strong – considered to be the “pioneer of female education in this state “ by Vermont’s more famous first lady of education, Emma Willard – had begun instructing the “various branches of Female Education” at the Middlebury Female Seminary. And in her belief that girls should receive a more well-rounded and thorough education than had their mothers and grandmothers, she was not alone. 

When Vermont almost gave Frost the cold shoulder

Originally published in the Times Argus/Rutland Herald Weekend Magazine, April 23, 2022 for the “Remember When” column with the title, “When Frost almost got heaved.”

Robert Frost in the 1910s (Wikicommons)

One hundred years ago, long before April would be designated as National Poetry Month or March as Women’s History Month, the following little known story offers an interesting intersection of the two. In addition, our still sometimes not-so subtle resistance to “outlanders” has been brought into sharp focus over the last few years and so it is always timely to look to history to see just how far—or not—we have come. 

On April 17, 1922, Miss Fanny B. Fletcher of Proctorsville gave a lecture and poetry reading at Ludlow’s Fletcher Memorial Library. Miss Fletcher, who “spoke with the authority of one who had studied our Green Mountain poets well,” had been appointed by the Vermont Federation of Women’s Clubs to compile a list of potential state poet laureates. The “impelling motive” was that of “creating interest in Vermont verse.” 

Miss Fletcher’s talk, titled “Poets of Vermont” and “interspersed with humorous anecdotes,” was a follow-up to the Free Public Library Commission’s publication of Miss Fletcher’s candidate roster. Newspaper articles about the upcoming election encouraged Women’s Clubs around the state to study the poets’ work and then vote for their favorite.

This action would start a debate neither Miss Fletcher nor Mrs. O. H. Coolidge, president of the Rutland Woman’s Club and originator of the idea, could have anticipated. 

Biography of Frances Hawley Rastall, 1844-1920 (Manchester, VT)

Originally posted at Alexander Street as part of Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920.

By Joanna Tebbs Young, MA/MFA, independent historian

Biography of Frances (Fanny) Hawley (Mrs. John E.) Rastall, 1844-1920: National American Woman Suffrage Association: congressional chair for the state of Vermont & legislative superintendent (Manchester, Vermont), Milwaukee (WI) Sentinel: writer; Kansas Woman’s Christian Temperance Union: president; Kansas Industrial School for Girls: co-founder; Women’s Temperance Publishing Association: business manager; Entrepreneur; Bennington County (VT) WCTU: speaker & secretary

 

Frances (Fanny) Hawley Rastall, born in Leicestershire, England in 1844, emigrated to the U.S. in 1861 with her mother Elizabeth after her father, William, a dry goods merchant, died. Settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the age of 18, Fanny took a job at the Milwaukee Sentinel becoming one of the first “girl compositors in the United States.” When she became “indignant” at her editor’s views on women’s suffrage, she adopted a pseudonym in order to debate the unwitting man in his own column.

In 1868, Fanny married John E. Rastall, a Milwaukee abolitionist and veteran of the Kansas Free State Army. In 1877, they settled in Kansas where Fanny raised their five children (one son died in infancy) and John published the Osage County Chronicle.

Biography of Frances Rastall Wyman, 1869-1931 (Manchester, VT)

Originally posted at Alexander Street as part of Biographical Database of NAWSA Suffragists, 1890-1920.

By Joanna Tebbs Young, MA/MFA, independent historian

Biography of Frances Rastall (Mrs. E.L.) Wyman, 1869-1931: Vermont Woman Suffrage Association: President, Manchester, Vermont

Frances Rastall Wyman, eldest child and only daughter of Frances (Fanny) Hawley Rastall and John E. Rastall, was born in Burlingame, Kansas on February 23, 1869. With her parents both active proponents of prohibition and her mother a well-known suffragist, Frances unsurprisingly followed in her mother’s footsteps in the pursuit of the “woman vote.”

According to their 75^th anniversary publication, Frances attended The Academy at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1893 and 1894.*

In 1901, Frances married widower Edmond Lewis Wyman, a physician and surgeon 25 years her senior. Having met while he was studying a post-graduate course at Illinois College of Electro Therapeutics, they were married in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Rastall in Chicago. In approximately 1906, the couple moved to Dr. Wyman’s hometown of Manchester, Vermont, where he opened a medical practice and was appointed President of Factory Point Bank. In 1907, Frances joined the First Congregational Church of Manchester.