>From a clipping c. 1908-9 in my grandmother's scrapbook. Her mother Franceise Loraine Fay Collins (1842-1918), daughter of Dr. Warren Fay and Freelove Matilda Palmer of Pavilion, attended Ingham before her marriage in 1863. I've edited the article a little but all of the biographical information is included. PASSING OF A FAMOUS SCHOOL Sale of some Buildings at Le Roy marks the End of Old Ingham University VILLAGE TO BUILD ANEW Was one of the renowned Institutions of Western New York and had 50 years of Usefulness The passing of a famous school of Western New York was recorded a few days ago in a dispatch in "The Express of Le Roy." This dispatch announced that the wooden buildings of Ingham University had been sold at auction to make room for the new $80,000 high school which the village is going to erect. The property had been bought by the village from Yale University, to which it had been bequeathed by the then owner some years ago. . . Mme. STAUNTON was born at Salbrook [Saybrook] Ct. in 1811. At her birth she was given in charge to her oldest sister Marietta, only 12 years old. . .The girl of 12 years developed into a woman of remarkable business tact, and as a result of her pecuniary profits, she was enabled to give her sister Emily a classical education. The child not only made rapid progress in school, but she also gave evidence of unusual Christian devotion and ardent zeal, accompanied by a cheerful alacrity borne up with the hope of becoming a missionary to distant Greece. A proposition was made to Miss Marietta INGHAM and her sister Emily, which resulted in a compromise, so that the sisters, instead of going to the Far East, came to the then known far west. In 1835 they started their journey, travelling by the Erie Canal to Brockport and then taking the stage road from Albany to Buffalo, and from there to Attica. Their capital consisted of $5000, the savings of the elder sister, and in 1835, these two sisters Marietta and Emily, with brave hearts and undaunted courage, hired two rooms for the summer, and started their school with a primary department alone, while the erection of their brick house was in progress. They entered this house in the following September. . . . They remained in Attica only two years. Citizens of Le Roy, . . .prevailed upon them to move their seminary there. They disposed of their house in Attica, and bought the Robert BAYARD house, a building of 37 by 46 feet and two stories high. It was situated on the east bank of the Oatka, a beautiful river flowing through the center of Le Roy and forming scenes for the artist's brush. . .as it wends its way toward the valley of the Genesee. They called their institution the Le Roy Female Seminary. There were 41 pupils that first summer in the primary department and 76 in the higher classes. Yet the school was little known at the time, as pupils came mostly from the neighboring cities of Rochester and Buffalo. However, there soon arose a general interest in the higher education of young women in Western New York, and similar institutions were organized at Attica, Canandaigua, Geneva, Albion, Auburn and Elmira. . . Among the list of expenses in the catalogue of Le Roy Seminary, published in 1842 is: "board and tuition, $75 a year in advance; and washing two shillings a week" or "the young ladies may [do] their own washing." . . . .There have been students from 29 different states or territories and other countries, besides Canada, the Bermudas, France and Greece, at this university; and it is estimated that the institution has given upwards of $30,000 to indigent pupils. The original building of 1837, two stories high, contained eight rooms. In 1849 a wing was built on the east. In 1851 University Hill was erected, and in 1852 the seminary was chartered as a collegiate institution. In 1847 the college was erected as a home [sic] for Colonel [Phineas] and Mrs. STAUNTON (Miss Mary E. INGHAM) [should read Miss Emily E.]--the same year as their marriage. In 1870 the Art Conservatory was built by Mme. STAUNTON in memory of her husband, who died [5 September 1867] in Quito, South America, while on an expedition for the promotion of science, and the Art College was erected in 1875. Ingham as it stood in 1875 was a monument of unselfish devotion to its founders; but about this time the school competition sprang into existence, and the gradual decline of Ingham became inevitable as it had no endowment. On December 14, 1875 Mme. STAUNTON presented the entire real estate to the corporation on behalf of education. In 1883 Mme. STAUNTON, broken in health and failing to secure an endowment fund for the institution, yielded all her claims to a new board of trustees, composed of business-men of Le Roy, Messrs LAMPSON, KEENEY, WELLS, PRENTICE and others. William LAMPSON, who held the largest mortgage at his death, willed Ingham in its entirety to Yale University. On November 1, 1889, Mme. STAUNTON laid down the burden of life, after 50 years of labor for the development of womanhood. Just six months before, in the month of roses, she blessed the alumnae on the feast of its golden jubilee. On that beautiful June morning, Mme. STAUNTON in her threescore years and ten, was the embodiment of the cultured soul. . . . It is 19 years since Mme. STAUNTON's death. Before time points its finger to the diamond jubilee of Ingham. . .a magnificent high school will have been built upon its grounds, and it will be inscribed "The Ingham High School, Le Roy, N. Y." [written by] ANNA J. R. SCANLON