This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Grant, Hitchcock, Lyon Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/4EB.2ACE/879.1 Message Board Post: Holland, Josiah Gilbert History of Western Massachusetts. The Counties of Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin & Berkshire Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles & Company, 1855. Vol. I, 520 pp; Vol. II 619 pp, three parts. Call number 974.4, H71 Vol. II, Part III. BUCKLAND. pages 325 – 327 Names found in this transcription: Grant, Hitchcock, Lyon page 327 ....From Buckland has gone out one of the purest, highest and most important influences of the day. It was the birth place of Mary LYON, the founder of Mount Holyoke Fe- male Seminary. A notice of her will be found in connec- tion with the description of that institution in the second part of this work. [Vol. I, pp. 489-90-91.] That her active and devoted mind was the initial point of an influ- ence greater and better than that of any other woman who ever lived in Western Massachusetts, none will doubt who contemplate the mass of educated, cultivated and christian- ized mind that passes into society every year from the walls of the institution associated forever with her name and memory. Vol. I, pp. 489-90-91. EDUCATION. ...In the town of South Hadley, formerly a precinct of Hadley, is located the MOUNT HOLYOKE FEMALE SEMINARY. This institution possesses many remarkable traits of character, and should receive a more extended notice than our limits will allow. Fortunately, the public have a full and graphic account of its inception, establishment and leading features, in the memoir of Miss Mary LYON, its founder and first principal, prepared by Dr. Edward HITCHCOCK, late President of Amherst College. A brief sketch of its history and some of its leading characteristics only can be given here. No intelligible account of this insitution can be presented without associating the name of Mary LYON with the very walls of the building, from the corner stone to its completion, and with the minutest details of all operations, from the day it was opened to the hour of her death. Born upon a "little rock-bound farm" in the retired town of Buckland, Franklin County, deprived of a father's care at the age of five years, the fifth of seven children, all dependent upon a very slender patrimony and the efforts of a widowed mother, her early advantages were exceedingly limited. From her child- hood, she exhibited those peculiar elements of character which were so prominently developed in after life, and gave her success in every enterprise in which she embarked. She acquired her early education by extraordinary efforts on her part, and commenced her career as a teacher near page 490 Shelburne Falls, receiving a compensation of seventy-five cents a week and board. After an experience of several years as a teacher, in various towns in Franklin County, she became associated with Miss Z. GRANT in the Ipswich Seminary, Essex County, Mass. Here she had acquired maturity of mind and character, which led her to look for- ward to the accomplishment of some important result. The great theme of her contemplation and the object of her labors seemed to be, to devise a plan whereby female education might be elevated, and, at the same time, placed within the reach of those possessed of humble means. After surmounting obstacles that would have crushed any mind of ordinary capacity and energy, the result of her efforts was the establishment of Mount Holyoke Female Seminary, at South Hadley. ....The funds for the erection of the building were obtained chiefly by donations, and its rooms were ready to receive eighty pupils in the autumn of 1837. The main building is ninety-four feet by fifty, five stories high, including the basement. A wing has been added to each end of the main building more recently, by which the capacity of the structure has been more than doubled. A very prominent feature of the institution is , that it is strictly a family school on a large scale, to which no day pupils are admitted, and in which no domestics are employed. The labor of the establishment is divided among the whole number, each young lady having her portion assigned her, for which she is made responsible for a given time. Frequent changes are made, that each individual shall have a suitable variety in her employment; and great care is taken that the strength of none shall be over-taxed. It will be perceived, at once, that perfect system and order are absolutely essen- tial to success, and these are carried through all the de- partments, both of labor and instruction. An error seems to prevail in many minds respecting the performance of la- bor here, viz: that it is one object of the seminary to teach pupils the science of domestic labor and management of household affairs, as a branch of instruction. All teaching in this department is incidental, each pupil performing that which she can do to the best advantage, the main object being to keep the expenses of the school at the lowest page 491 point practicable, and preserve or acquire habits of indus- try in the pupil. ....The course of instruction embraces three years and three classes - the Junior, the Middle and the Senior. No can- didate is received under sixteen years of age. The course embraces a wide range of studies, confined mostly to high- er English branches and mathematics, though Latin and French are among the studies prescribed, and can be ex- tensibely pursued; indeed, a through knowledge of Latin is deemed quite essential. Linear and perspective draw- ing and instrumental music receive attention. ....One grand object of this seminary was to furnish a sup- ply of well qualified female teachers. In this respect it has accomplished a great work, a large proportion of its graduates having entered this field of employment. The popularity of the school has been remarkably uniform, having never waned from the beginning, not even when many predicted its downfall, on the death of its founder and accomplished principal, Miss LYON, in 1849. At no time has its number been so great as during the past year, and never have so many been refused for want of room; -probably more than than seven hundred applicants were unable to obtain admission at the beginning of 1854. ~ ~ ~ ~ Transcribers note: the Mary Lyon house, pictured here, (you click on the links, and a separate window opens) is as Holland states, ""Born upon a "little rock-bound farm" in the retired town of Buckland,..."" in the 21st century it remains rock-bound and is remotely situated on a steep wooded road, with only a small sign at the base of the hill to indicate its location. Please refer also to the collection of letters written to Mary Lyon, they are in JPEG (picture) form and are from prospective students, colleagues of Miss Lyons, and parents of students attending the college. "Mary Lyon Collection - Correspondence & Writings 1818-1849 many Franklin Co. names here! 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