Documents on
Sophronia Crosby and the
South Hanover Female Seminary
(1838 and 1982)
Sophronia Crosby was the principal of the South Hanover Female Seminary from 1836 to 1841. Her school was similar to the all-male Hanover College of the time. For example, both schools offered preparatory courses for students who were not ready for college level studies. (In effect, some students graduated from their local elementary schools and then did their high school coursework at the same school where they could then continue with college courses.) Further, higher education (for men or women) was limited to the elite.
The excerpt from the catalogue of the South Hanover Female Seminary gives a sense of the coursework available for women in the Hanover area as well as the public's attitude toward women's education. College historian Frank Baker quotes a memoir from one of Crosby's students to convey something of her teaching style. According to Baker's sources, the energetic Crosby worked constantly for others, often quipping that it was "better to wear out than rust out."
For more information about women at Hanover College, see The Hanover Historical Review 8 (Spring 2000).
Transcribed from the originals at the Duggan Library, Hanover College, Hanover, Ind.
(NB. Paragraph numbers apply to this excerpt, not the original source.)
Course of Study
The regular course will, in future, consist of Primary studies, and a two years' course, in the regular classes, denominated First, and Second.
Primary Studies
Mental Arithmetic, Written Arithmetic, English Grammar, First Book of Euclid's Geometry, Modern and Ancient Geography, Government of the United States, History of the United States, Watts on the Mind.
Studies of the First Class
General History, Botany, English Grammar, continued, the Second, Third, and Fourth Books of Euclid's Geometry, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Rhetoric, Ecclesiastical History, Intellectual Philosophy.
Studies of the Second Class
Some of the preceding studies reviewed and continued, Algebra, Philosophy of Natural History, Human Physiology, Outline of Geology, Natural Theology, Analogy of Natural and Revealed Religion to the Constitution and Course of Nature, Evidences of Christianity.
Reading, Composition, and the Bible, will be attended to, through the course. Those who are deficient in orthography, will be expected to attend to this branch, whatever may be their other attainments.
Terms and Vacations
The year is divided into two terms, and two vacations. The Summer Term commences the first Monday in May, and closes the Friday before the last Wednesday in September. The Winter Term commences the first Monday in November, and closes the Friday before the last Wednesday in March.
. . . .
Government
This is entirely by principles drawn from the Bible, and of Moral rectitude, or by popular opinion in school, which is generally in favor of order and propriety. Those who are not with their parents or guardians, are considered under the special care of the Teachers.
. . . .
General Remarks
Pupils who are under the care of parents, or guardians, should feel themselves responsible not to interfere with the good of the school, by their irregular attendance, or neglected lessons. And unless this responsibility can be felt by parents, it would be better for such to find an asylum elsewhere for their daughters; as the little benefit they could receive would be far from counterbalancing the evil done to the school.
It is very desirable that those who enter the school should remain for several terms, unless they are far advanced in study at entrance.
It is truly to be lamented, that a young lady must be expected to finish her education in one or two years at most, after she leaves the common school. Yet much more lamentable is it, that parents should expect to have their daughters educated, by sending them one short term. However, it is to be hoped this feeling is gradually giving way, and the time not far distant when daughters, as well as sons, will be permitted to receive a thorough education.
Caroline Coulter on Sophronia Crosby, quoted in Frank Baker, "Miss Crosby's School for Girls," Madison Courier, 18 Mar. 1982, clipping, Archives of Hanover College.
[Frank Baker explains that Caroline Coulter "had a full course under Miss Crosby" as a girl and that she seems to have shared her knowledge and love of learning with her sons, John and Stanley Coulter, who "became world-famous botanists."]
Caroline Coulter: [Sophronia Crosby] did not teach as if it were a task, nor did she teach as one who merely delighted in [imparting] information, but she had the advancement of the individual in mind. . . .
She inspired her pupils with confidence in her and in themselves. . . . She was a woman of indomitable energy. . . .
She never forgot her responsibility to the Great Teacher, nor did she ever forget the worth of an individual soul. . . .
Every pupil felt that she was personally interested, not only in her advancement in her studies, but in her eternal welfare.