Read Part One HERE
In this post I focus on a woman named Mary Mason Lyon. She lived from 1797 - 1849. Mary was the daughter of a farming family in Buckland, Massachusetts. Her father died when she was five and the entire family pitched in to help run the farm. Mary was thirteen when her mother remarried and moved away. However, Mary stayed behind in Buckland in order to keep house for her brother Aaron, who took over the farm.
Mary attended various district schools intermittently and she began teaching in them as well in 1814. Her modest beginnings fostered her lifelong commitment to extending educational opportunities to girls from middle and poor backgrounds.
Mary was eventually able to attend two secondary schools, Sanderson Academy in Ashfield and Byfield Seminary in eastern Massachusetts. At Byfield she was befriended by the headmaster, Rev. Joseph Emerson and his assistant Zilpah Polly Grant. She also soaked up Byfield's ethos of rigorous academic education infused with Christian commitment.
Mary then taught at several academies, including Sanderson, a small school of her own in Buckland, Adam's Female Academy (run by Zilpah Polly Grant), and the Ipswitch Female Seminary (also run by Zilpah Polly Grant).
P.S. I will continue my stroy on Mary Mason Lyon in my next post.
Read Part Fifty-Three HERE
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