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MARY MASON LYON (1797-1849)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 173 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MARY MASON LYON (1797-1849)  ,
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American educationalist, was born on the 28th of
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February 1797 on a
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farm near Buckland, Franklin county, Massachusetts . She began to teach when shewas seventeen, and in 1817, with the earnings from her spinning and
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weaving, she went to Sanderson Academy, Ashfield . She supported herself there, at Amherst Academy, where she spent one
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term, and at the girls' school in Byfield, established in 1819 by Joseph Emerson (1777-1833), where she went in 1821, by teaching in
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district
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schools and by conducting informal normal schools . In 1822-1824 she was assistant
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principal of Sanderson Academy, and then taught in
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Miss Zilpah P . Grant's Adams
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Female Academy, in Londonderry (now Derry), N.H . This school had only summer sessions, and Miss Lyon spent her winters in teaching, especially at Buckland and at Ashfield, and in studying chemistry and natural science with
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Edward Hitchcock, the geologist . In 1828-1834 she taught in Miss Grant's school, which in 1828 had been removed to
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Ipswich, and for two years managed the school in Miss Grant's absence . In 1828-183o she had kept up her winter " normal " school at Buckland, and this was the beginning of her greater plan, " a permanent institution consecrated to the training of young
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women for usefulness . . . designed to furnish every
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advantage which the state of
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education in this country will allow . . . to put within reach of students of moderate means such opportunities that none can find better." She was assisted by Dr Hitchcock, and her own mystical
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enthusiasm and
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practical
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common sense secured for her plan ready
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financial support . In 1835 a site was selected near the
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village of South Hadley and Mount
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Holyoke; in 1836 the school was incorporated as Mount Holyoke Female Seminary; and on the 8th of November 1837 it opened with Mary Lyon as principal, and, as assistant, Miss Eunice Caldwell, afterwards well known as Mrs J . P .

Cowles of Ipswich Academy . Miss Lyon died at Mount Holyoke on the 5th of

March 1849, having served nearly twelve years as principal of the seminary, on a
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salary of $20o a
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year . From her
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work at Holyoke sprang
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modern higher education for women in
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America . See Edward Hitchcock,
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Life and Labors of Mary Lyon (1851); B . B . Gilchrist, Life of Mary Lyon (Boston, 191o) .

End of Article: MARY MASON LYON (1797-1849)
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