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THEY CAME BEFORE US: A STORY OF WOMEN AT
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY 1870-1895

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CHRISTY A. WEBER

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ABSTRACT

THEY CAME BEFORE US:
A STORY OF WOMEN AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY 1870-1895

By

Christy A. Weber

There are those that stand at the forefront of any movement who intentionally or
unintentionally lead the way for others and this is evident in the changing patterns of
American education. Prior to the late 18th century, education beyond rudimentary levels
provided in the home, was exclusively for men in early colonial colleges. The pattern of
education changed slowly as women began attending female seminaries in the 18th
century. From this time through the 19th century, men and women contributed to this
changing pattern by sharing perspectives both affirming and discounting female
education through various modes such as books, articles, public speaking and personal
correspondence. Some institutional trustee boards and state boards of education wrestled
with and began to change admissions policies opening the doors of private and state
colleges to women. In addition, parents began allowing their daughters to enroll in all-
women or co-educational institutions. The history of state colleges and universities
records their beginnings as other institutions of higher education before them. Initially
their doors were open exclusively to men with access for women later in their histories.
This was the case in the histories of land- grant institutions such as Michigan State
University (1855).

This research presentation highlights the early years of women’s enrollment at

Michigan State University from 1870-1895. These “first” women lived in relationship to

 

families and people in their community, college, state and country; these relationships
influenced their decisions to attend college in a time when most women did not. While
these women passed away years ago, patterns from their lives remained found in

documentation at Michigan State University Archives and the Michigan State University

Museum.

C0pyright by
CHRISTY A. WEBER
2004

For Steve who faithfully shares love and life
and
For Jessica, Jared, Lucas, and Josephine

undeserved gifts of love and life

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There were many who walked with me through the doctoral process and I am
grateful for their unique contributions. My parents, Richard and Myrta Holmberg,
provided the opportunity to engage in post-secondary education and Dr. John Lillis
offered the idea and the encouragement to attempt advanced education. I benefited from
Dr. Stephen Weiland who taught me to see that the walls of the classroom did not
boundary all learning. I am indebted to Dr. Kay Moore who sparked a love for history
within me and then prodded me to take my ideas and consistently “march” them through
my writing and presentations giving me impromptu opportunities to demonstrate these
burgeoning skills before my peers. Dr. Lisa Fine propelled me to think about the history
of women’s education as an important part of history. Dr. Kris Renn and Dr. Joyce
Ladenson willingly and excitedly accepted the opportunity to participate on my
dissertation committee. The staff at the Michigan State University Archives patiently
supplied voluminous copies of archival material and answered numerous questions
throughout the research process. My colleagues Ms. Jean Bailey, Ms. Kari Kahler, Dr.
Pamela Eddy, Dr. Karen Klumpp and others formed a quintessential cohort of support as
we completed courses and research together. Gail Duhon faithfully assisted me in
proofreading and production of research material and the dissertation. Finally Dr.
Marilyn Amey offered constant, consistent, and respectful support and direction that led
me through both classroom learning experiences and the dissertation process . . . I am
forever grateful to each of you for your contribution to my learning journey . . . and I
pledge to carry on the tradition and passion for leaming, sharing it with others in

whatever capacity or place I serve . . . thank you.

vi

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................

CHAPTER 1
“SCRAP BAG” YEARS BEFORE MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE,
1855 ....................................................................................................................................
Woman and Her Sphere ........................................................................................
Feminine Images .......................................................................................
Home Spheres for a Nation .......................................................................
Women’s Education in the Home Sphere .............................................................
Women’s Education for the Home Sphere ...........................................................
Women’s Education inside and outside the Home Sphere ...................................
Women’s Education outside the Home Sphere ....................................................
Women’s Education — A Woman’s Right ............................................................
Summary ...............................................................................................................

CHAPTER 2

GATHERING “SCRAP BAG” PIECES FOR MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE, 1855-1869 ...................................................................................................
Foundations of Education .....................................................................................
Foundations of Women’s Education .....................................................................
Foundations Leading to the Formation of Michigan Agricultural College ..........
Founding and First Years at Michigan Agricultural College ................................
The Dedication Ceremony ........................................................................
Michigan Agricultural College Described ................................................
Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1857-1869 ............................
‘ First Women at Michigan Agricultural College? ..................................................
Summary ...............................................................................................................

CHAPTER 3
OPENING THE “SCRAP BAG” AT MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE
1870-1879 .........................................................................................................................
Women “On Campus” ..........................................................................................
Enrollment Recorded ................................................................................
Enrollment and Dormitory Facilities ........................................................
Enrollment and Descriptions of Students ......................... , .......................
Support for Women’s Enrollment .............................................................
Women’s Education at Michigan Agricultural College ........................................
Classification and Course Requirements ..................................................
Home Sphere Requirements .....................................................................
Examples and Encouragement for Women’s Education ..........................
Women as an Experiment at Michigan Agricultural College ............................. 1
Women as Students — A Michigan Agricultural College Experiment ....1

vii

Women as Students — A Dangerous College Experiment ...................... 10

Michigan Agricultural College — A Successful College Experiment ..... 10
Michigan Agricultural College Students -— Men and the Experiment of
Women .................................................................................................... 10
Women’s Education at the Farmers’ Institutes ................................................... 10
Women Teaching and Learning at Farmers’ Institutes ........................... 11
Homebound Learners .............................................................................. 11
Learners Venturing out of the Home Sphere .......................................... 11
Labels for Women Leaving the Home Sphere ........................................ 11
Women’s Work and Education ........................................................................... 11
Women’s Work at Michigan Agricultural College ................................. 11
Women’s Home Sphere Education Promoted at Farmers’ Institutes ..... 12
A College Program for Women’s Home Sphere Work .......................... 12
Women’s Work in and outside the Home Sphere ................................... 13
Summary ............................................................................................................. 13
CHAPTER 4
SEARCHING FOR “PATTERNS” AT MICHIGAN AGRICULTURAL
COLLEGE, 1880-1889 ................................................................................................. 13
“Where” are the Michigan Agricultural College Women? ................................. 13
Comments from Board of Agriculture Leaders ...................................... 13
Comments from Faculty Leaders ............................................................ 13
Comments from F armers’ Institute Leaders ........................................... 13
Changes in Leadership ............................................................................ 14
“Where” will Women be in the New Era? .......................................................... 14
New Presidential Leadership .................................................................. 14
The President’s Enrollment Vision ......................................................... 14
Differing Views on What Women Learned ............................................ 14
“What” Should Women Teach and “What” Should Women be Taught? ........... 14
Educating Daughters — Mothers’ Responsibility .................................... 15
Education through Farmers’ Institutes .................................................... 15
Education for Young Women ................................................................. 15
“What” Can Women Do in the Home Sphere? ................................................... 16
Teaching Women What to Teach Daughters and Sons .......................... 16
Teaching Women How to Care for the Home ........................................ 16
Teaching Women about Efficiency and Effectiveness in the Home ...... 16
Teaching Women How to Learn in the Home ........................................ 17
“Where” Can Women Do their Work? ............................................................... 17
The Work of the Mind ............................................................................ 17
The Work of the Mind and the Hands in the Dairy ................................ 17
The Work of the Mind and the Hands in Small Fruit Management ....... 18
Work outside the Home .......................................................................... 18
A Profession — Teaching outside the Home ............................................ 18
A Profession in the Library ..................................................................... 18
A New Profession in theExperiment Station ......................................... 19
Summary ............................................................................................................. 19

viii

CHAPTER 5
FINDING “PATTERNS” AND “TYIN G THE QUILT” AT MICHIGAN

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 1890-1895 ................................................................ 196
Reflecting on Pieces and Patterns ....................................................................... 197
Finding Similar Patterns ..................................................................................... 202

New College Programs within the Borders of the State ......................... 203
Expanding Borders of the College through Farrners’ Institutes ............. 205
A Program from the Borders of the College ........................................... 208
Women within the Borders of the College ............................................. 210
Final Statements .................................................................................................. 2 14
Epilogue .............................................................................................................. 216

APPENDICES
A — First Women Students at Michigan Agricultural College — 1870 ................ 221
B — General Information — Michigan Agricultural Catalogues 1861-1869 ........ 222
C — Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1857-1869 ............................... 224
D —— Women Enrolled at Michigan Agricultural College 1870-1879 .................. 225
E — Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1870-1879 ............................... 227
F — Daily Schedule — Michigan Agricultural College Catalogues 1875-1877 ...230
G — Presidents of Michigan Agricultural College 1857-1895 ............................ 231
H -— Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1880-1889 ............................... 232
I — F armers’ Institute Essays ............................................................................... 234
J —- Farm Home Reading Courses ........................................................................ 237
K —- Farmers’ Institute Program (Paw Paw) ........................................................ 238
L — Farmers’ Institute Program (Monroe City) ................................................... 239
M — Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1890-1899 .............................. 242

REFERENCES
General ................................................................................................................ 247
Michigan State University Archives and Historical Collections ........................ 249
Oberlin College Archives ................................................................................... 253

ix

There are those who stand at the forefront of any movement who intentionally or
unintentionally lead the way for others to follow. This was evident in the changing
patterns of women’s education in the United States. Prior to the late 18th century,
education beyond the rudimentary levels provided in the home, was exclusively for men
in the early colonial colleges. However, this pattern began to change as women attended
female seminaries at the close of the 18th century. From this time through the 19th
century, men and women contributed to this changing pattern both affirming and
discounting female education through writing books, newspaper and magazine articles,
speaking in public settings such as church, political and community gatherings, and
sending personal correspondence to friends and relatives. Institutional governing boards
and state boards of education wrestled with and began to change admissions policies,
opening the doors of private and state colleges to women. Parents also began to allow
their sons to attend co-educational colleges and occasionally allow their daughters to
enroll at all-women or co-educational institutions.

The first young women in this changing pattern attended female seminaries that
many times mirrored what were later called high schools; the type of education they
received was viewed as preparatory for their future roles as wives and mothers.
Following them, other “firsts” attended all-female colleges such as Mt. Holyoke (1837),
the first college in which the founders attempted to offer courses at the same “college”
level as the all-male institutions. Some firsts attended early co-educational religious
colleges such as Oberlin Collegiate Institute (1833). The histories of state colleges and
universities record their beginnings, as other institutions of higher education before them,

where initially their doors were open exclusively to men with access for women later.

This was the case in the histories of land-grant institutions such as Michigan State
University (1855).

Broad research on the history of women’s education was found in works such as
Thomas Woody’s (1929) two volume A History of Women ’5 Education in the United
States, Willystine Goodsell’s (1924) The Education of Women: Its Social Background
and Its Problems, Louise Boas’ (1935) Women ’s Education Begins: The Rise of Women ’5
Colleges, Mabel Newcomers’ (1959) A Century of Higher Education for American
Women, Gerda Lerner’s (1979) A Majority Finds Its Past: Placing Women in History,
and Barbara Solomon’s (1985) In the Company of Educated Women. However, an
investigation to locate specific historical research on women educated at Michigan State
University produced no published books or articles or unpublished dissertations or
masters theses related to the first female students attending the College prior to the
introduction of the “Women’s Program” in 1896 (later named Home Economics). In
addition there are only brief descriptions of a few of these “firsts” and their course of
study in the early years in published histories of Michigan State University (Beal, 1915;
Gilchrist, 1947; Kuhn, 1955; Kestenbaum, 1976; Dressel, 1987). Typically the first ten
females enrolled in 1870 were listed along with the first female graduate (see Appendix
A). Therefore, this research is intended to give an expanded perspective of the first
women at Michigan State University during the initial years of their enrollment from
1870-1895.

Direction for this research, initiated by a general knowledge of the history of
women in the United States, was combined with a system of inquiry to further guide the

research related to the first women educated at Michigan State University. Why did

women need education? Who were the women that came, what did they do, and what did
they learn through their experiences? What were society’s expectations for their lives
and their education? What did their educational journeys look like? What pieces of their
educational experiences benefited others, especially other women? How did their lives
contribute to the broad story of education? These questions and numerous others
surfaced as the changing pattern of women’s education at Michigan State University
emerged. Regardless of where a man or woman received education, parts of society
especially those involved in agricultural work, were beginning to embrace the notion that
learning had a higher value if it was connected to practical application. The following
definition described this emerging trend in education at Michigan State University,
formerly known as Michigan Agricultural College.
The true idea of education is to be found in the derivation and meaning of the
word itself, which is to draw out, or to educe. It is not cramming facts into the
young mind; it is not learning dates of history and facts of science so as to be able
to repeat them at the crook of the parent’s or teacher’s finger; it is not storing the
mind with the principles of science or philosophy, as we now store our ice-houses
with immense blocks of ice; but education is the drawing out of the intellect, the
developing of the mental powers, and it consists in the discipline of the intellect,
the culture of the heart, and the development of the reasoning faculties.
By practical education we mean that development of our educable powers
or faculties which will fit men the better for the practical every-day work of life.
Such an education will “teach us rather how to think than what to think, ---- rather
to improve our minds so as to enable us to think for ourselves than to load the
memory with the thoughts of other men.” (Report BASM, 1878, p. 286)
A grounded theory approach was utilized allowing the material found, such as this quote,
to further direct the research process. The challenge began and continued throughout the
process to identify those pieces of societal perception that changed, rearranging the

pattern of women’s education and therefore, affecting the experience of women attending

Michigan State University in the early years.

 

The framework for telling this story of women’s education at the University
consisted of three goals. The first was an analytic goal demonstrated by discovering and
recording the enrollment statistics of the students and then analyzing the patterns of
women’s enrollment during this time. Their enrollment continued and eventually grew
despite the lack of general encouragement, educational programs related to their lives,
transportation systems, campus housing and recognition in the words used to describe the
students. In addition, other educational opportunities were uncovered and analyzed as the
walls of the classroom expanded to the borders of the State through the Farmers’
Institutes and community reading circles. The second goal was both analytic and
affective uncovering the benefit of women’s education to their families, society and
future generations. The women who attended the University modeled higher education
for women, even though most returned home after college portraying society’s approved
pattern. There were some who modeled a new pattern of life after college pursuing work
that took them outside the home. All exhibited new possibilities of education inspiring
and encouraging others to follow. The third goal was affective, discovering women at
Michigan State University whose contribution to educational history was as yet untold
and then adding their stories to the broader history of women’s education.

The first women to experience college, including the first women attending
Michigan State University, were not independent from society but lived in relationship to
their families and to the people in their communities, their states and their country. These
relationships influenced their decisions to attend college in a time when most women did
not. A primary influence of the day was the accepted concept and structure of the

“spheres.” Men worked and lived a majority of their lives in the public sphere outside

the home. This sphere was considered dangerous and evil and therefore, not appropriate
for women. Women, on the other hand, worked and lived in the safety of private home
spheres where their domestic duties and childcare kept them busy from early morning
until late in the evening. Feminine ideals were directly related to the relationships and
activities in the home sphere such as Adam’s Rib, Queen of the Household, Mothers of
the Nation and Mothers of Civilization. If women ventured outside of this acceptable
sphere for work or education, their actions were suspect; sometimes they were labeled
Amazons, depicting wild, uncontrolled, unnatural warrior-like creatures bringing
destruction to the home sphere by their actions.

One of the activities in the home sphere for which women were responsible was
sewing. This activity provided the metaphor of quilt-making used to describe the
unfolding process of women’s education at Michigan Agricultural College.

They were a bizarre mass of color on the sweet spring landscape, those patchwork
quilts, swaying in a long line under the elms and maples.

“Aunt Jane,” I called out, “are you having a fair all by yourself?” She turned
quickly, pushing back the sunbonnet from her eyes. “Why, child,” she said, with
a happy laugh, “you come pretty nigh skeerin’ me. No, I ain’t havin’ any fair;
I’m jest givin’ my quilts their spring airin’. Twice a year I put ‘em out in the sun
and wind; and this mornin’ the air smelt so sweet, I thought it was a good chance
to freshen ‘em up for the summer.”

I looked at them in sheer amazement. There seemed to be every pattern that the
ingenuity of woman could devise and the industry of woman put together, ----
“four patches,” “nine-patches,” “log cabins,” “wild-goose chases,” “rising suns,”
hexagons, diamonds, and only Aunt Jane knows what else. As for color, a
Sandwich Islander would have danced with joy at the sight of those reds, purples,
yellows, and greens.

“I’ve had a heap o’ comfort all my life makin’ quilts, and now in my old age I
wouldn’t take a fortune for ‘em. Set down here, child, where you can see out ‘o
the winder and smell the lilacs, and we’ll look at ‘em all. You see, some folks has
albums to put folks’ pictures in to remember ‘em by, and some folks has a book
and writes down the things that happen every day so they won’t forgit ‘em; but,

honey, these quilts is my albums and my di’ries, and whenever the weather’s bad
and I can’t get to see folks, I jest spread out my quilts and look at ‘em and study
over ‘em, and it’s jest like goin’ back fifty or sixty years and livin’ my life over
agin.” (Hall, 1898, pp. 55, 56, 57, 59)
The story of women’s education began much like the description “Aunt Jane” gave of
making of a quilt. When Aunt Jane decided she was ready to make a quilt she took all
the pieces and chose those that she determined belonged to the quilt design. The
metaphorical quilt had pieces of education such as women educated at female seminaries,
colleges, or co-educational institutions, and other pieces where a man or woman
advocated or dismissed women’s education. All of these pieces of education and many
more were kept in a metaphorical history scrap bag until the pieces chosen could be
arranged together to make a whole quilt -—-- a work of art depicting women’s education.
This quilt of women’s education will bring together pieces chosen by men and women
from the years before the founding of Michigan State University in 1855, from the early
years at Michigan State University before women attended from 1855-1869, and then
from subsequent decades finishing with 1895. Each era is identified as follows:
“Scrap Bag” Years before Michigan Agricultural College, 1855
Gathering “Scrap Bag” Pieces for Michigan Agricultural College, 1855—1869
Opening the “Scrap Bag” at Michigan Agricultural College, 187 0-1879
Searching for “Patterns” at Michigan Agricultural College, 1880-1889
Finding “Patterns” and “Tying the Quilt” at Michigan Agricultural College, 1890-
1895
This research process was much like Aunt Jane airing her quilts. Many of the

documents and pieces of information in this story are well over a hundred years old.

Some pieces have been aired before, but others are long overdue. In addition, just as

each quilt-maker determines the design and selection of material, this author selected
from available research material after many decades of people handled it, discarded it,
saved it for its special significance to them, or saved it randomly as some things are saved
over time. Therefore, it is understood that the information could only be partial and yet,
it is the desire of this author that the design and selection of material portray a thoughtful
version of the education of the women at Michigan State University from 1870-1895.

All of these college women passed on many years ago and, while most of their
feelings and thoughts passed with them, patterns from their lives remain seen in
documents stored at the Michigan State University Archives and the Michigan State
University Museum and from books, newspapers, magazines, and personal letters written
before and during the period of this study. All of the quotes taken from these sources
were kept in their original form with misspellings, italicization and indentations.
Michigan Agricultural College Catalogues and Michigan’s Board of Agriculture Reports
became key primary sources of information, which gave contextual understanding to the
education and lives of women at Michigan Agricultural College. The College Catalogues
recorded student enrollment statistics as well as program information. A large portion of
each Board of Agriculture Report captured numerous essays and lectures given at various
agriculture-related gatherings in Michigan, especially the Farrners’ Institutes established
in 1876. One essayist called these institutes “schools for the farmer” because they gave
learning opportunities to farmers from their peers and Michigan Agricultural College
faculty. The Board of Agriculture Report of 1878 contained an essay read by Mrs. C.
Gordon entitled “The Foundation Stone” in which she implored her audience to consider

the “tillers of the soil” as the foundation of the changes wrought in the previous 50 years

in the State of Michigan. She pressed the audience to think beyond the past and even the

current contributions and focus on the firture.
This meeting is representative of the prosperity of an agricultural people. We are
here, as tillers of the soil, to consider not only our present but our future
condition; not in arrogance and pride, but in the spirit of candor and firmness; to
do that which will not only be for our benefit but for the good those who shall
come after us. (Report BASM, 1878, p. 249)

This research is a look back at those who came before us, those first women who came to

Michigan Agricultural College, without the benefit of broad societal support,

accommodations, programs, and examples to follow.

CHAPTER 1

“Scrap Bag” Years before Michigan Agricultural College, 1855

“Did you ever think, child,” she said, presently, “how much piecin’ a quilt’s like
livin’ a life? And as for sermons, why they ain’t no better sermon to me than a
patchwork quilt, and the doctrines is right there a heap plainer’n they are in the
catechism. Many a time I’ve sat and listened to Parson Page preachin’ about
predestination and free-will, and I’ve said to myself, ‘Well, I ain’t never been
through Centre College up at Danville, but if I could jest get up in the pulpit with
one of my quilts, I could make it a heap plainer to folks than parson’s makin’ it
with all his big words.’ You see, you start out with jest so much caliker; you don"
go to the store and pick it out and buy it, but the neighbors will give you a piece
here and a piece there, and you’ll have a piece lefi every time you cut out a dress.
and you take just what happens to come. That’s like predestination. But when it
comes to the cuttin’ out, why, you’re free to choose your own pattern . . . The
Lord sends us the pieces, but we can cut ‘em out and put ‘em together pretty
much to suit ourselves, and there’s a heap more in the cuttin’ out and the sewin’
than there is in the caliker . . .

The same trouble’ll come into two people’s lives, and one’ll take it and
make one thing out of it, and the other’ll make somethin’ entirely different.”
(Hall, 1898, pp. 73-75)

The story of women’s education in America began much like Aunt Jane’s
description for making a quilt. The quilt-maker told the story of gathering many “scrap”
pieces of material left over from dresses or shirts or household items she made for her
family over a period of time and how she stored these pieces in a “scrap bag” until there
were enough for her to consider making a quilt. Just as Aunt Jane gathered scraps to
make a quilt there were pieces of life events or philosophies that were being gathered to
create a “quilt” depicting women’s education. There was an old piece in the scrap bag 0
life events from “here” such as the religious beliefs of the early immigrants, and there
were new pieces from “there” like the developing nation that offered new reasons for an«
approaches to women’s education. As the pieces were gathered, there was evidence that
a different educational pattern was being created for the newly forming American
society, and the values of society were the threads that stitched these pieces together.

Many men and women contributed to the decisions that determined which pieces becam

10

a part of the patterns and, eventually, the full quilt and which pieces were left in the scrap
bag. Some patterns were full of brilliant eye-catching colors signifying access to
educational settings previously blocked and others were muted and dark depicting closed
doors or descriptions of the perceived detrimental effects of educating women. But all
contributed to the creation of the new quilt of women’s education. Some scrap pieces
were put back in the scrap bag, never to be a part of the early quilt such as women who
were barred from entering certain colleges, who were not allowed to take certain courses,
who were not assigned the same course work as men, or who were not allowed access
because, although they were told they could enroll, there was no housing designated for
them. This section, “Scrap Bag Years Before Michigan Agricultural College, 1855” is
devoted to the pieces that began to go into the scrap bag and, through the selection
process, contributed to the creation of a quilt reflecting women’s college education in the
19‘h century. These pieces are described in the following sections:

Woman and Her Sphere

Women’s Education in the Home Sphere

Women’s Education for the Home Sphere

Women’s Education inside and outside the Home Sphere

Women’s Education outside the Home Sphere

Women’s Education — A Woman’s Right
Woman and Her Sphere

Colonial America was filled with a plethora of denominational groups such as the
Puritans, Separatists, Anglicans, and Congregationalists. They and others believed the

stories of the period explorers and left Europe in search of a new country where they

could worship freely and raise their families according to their chosen belief system.
Some of them found their way to what is now known as North America and, specifically,
the United States. Many of these early immigrants placed their trust in the God they
found in the Bible and based their lives on the patterns determined from their
understanding of Scripture. They reverenced biblical teachings because they believed the
Bible was delivered from God to men through divine means. “All Scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for
instruction in righteousness” 2 Timothy 3:16 (The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and
New Testaments, Translated out of the Original Tongues; and with the former
Translations Diligently Compared and Revised, 1860).

Included in this wave of immigrants was a significant number men who had been
educated in the finest English colleges. “Approximately a hundred Cambridge men and a
third as many Oxford men emigrated. to New England before 1646” (Rudolph, 1990, p.
4). Many of them had theistic and denominational beliefs that framed foundations for the
early colonial colleges. Puritans from Massachusetts founded Harvard following the
“English college precedents as closely and faithfully as [they] could; Harvard, in turn,
became the great prototype for all the later colleges of English America” (Brubacher &
Rudy, 2002, p. 3). Anglicans founded William and Mary, Presbyterians founded
Princeton, Congregationalists founded Dartmouth, Baptists founded the College of Rhode
Island, the Dutch Reformed founded Queen’s, and so on (Brubacher & Rudy, 2002;
Rudolph, 1990). The founders of these institutions unwaveringly believed that the
country “would need competent rulers, the church would require a learned clergy, and

society itself would need the adornment of cultured men” (Rudolph, 1990, p. 6). These

12

positions or areas of responsibility were designated for men and colonial college
education was crafted for them. Women were not allowed in these educational settings.

These men and women also believed their relationship with God directed and
influenced the course of their lives as seen in Rev. Wise’s instructional admonition to
young women.

[B]y surrendering yourself to the claims and influences of the Saviour, your life

will be as fruitful branch in a beautifirl vine . . . And you have no effectual means

of accomplishing so noble a task, but by communing deeply with the spirit of

Jesus. Resolve, therefore, to live at his footstool, and he will inspire you with

every high and holy quality necessary to enable you to fulfil your earthly mission.

(Wise, 1851, pp. 100-101)

Communion with God through the Scriptures became the source for understanding how
to live as a member of society, the church, and the family. Whether intrinsically
believed, imposed by family members or church leaders, or simply tolerated, men and
women in the colonial world lived in a theocentric society. From birth to death their
communication through words and actions demonstrated that they valued their
interpretation of divinely inspired, biblically determined life patterns. These valued
beliefs held together all of life, pervading even the student life in the early colleges; “All
the [colonial] colleges prescribed regular prayer, church attendance on the Sabbath, and
theological study” (Brubacher & Rudy, 2002, p. 42).

Feminine Images. In addition, colonial women were surrounded by images of
femininity that also had biblical roots. The interpretation of the scriptural account of the
beginning of human life crystallized these images for some colonists.

And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make

a help meet for him . . . And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon

Adam . . . and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.

And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and
brought her unto the man. Genesis 2:18-22 '

l3

The Genesis account described Adam as alone, unlike any other part of creation; God
stated that although all of the rest of creation was good, the aloneness the first man
experienced was not good. Therefore, God created a “help meet” for Adam, like him in
humanness and yet different from him in physical form. Some believed, based on this
account, that because the woman was the second human, the man held the primary role in
human relationships. It was not uncommon for colonial clergymen to refer to this
Genesis passage in sermons and wedding ceremonies reminding women of their role:
“She must be so much, and no less, and so much and no more” (as cited in Ryan, 1975, p.
21). The emergent order of life for early colonists was patriarchal where the “authority of
the family is vested in the elder males, or male. He, the father, makes the decisions
which control the family’s work, purchases, and marriages” (Ehrenreich & English, 1978,
p. 7).

After the creation of the first woman, the Genesis account gave the reaction of
Adam: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman
. . . Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother . . . cleave unto his wife: and
they shall be one flesh” Genesis 2:23-24. This union between man and woman described
what became known as the “institution of marriage” and was believed to be the
foundation of a family. However, it was believed that the marriage union between Adam
and Eve, their relationship to their Creator, and the work they were to do on earth was
significantly altered after an event described in Genesis 3. In this account, a serpent
engaged Eve in conversation and challenged her knowledge about life as prescribed by

her Creator. Eve described her understanding of her world, which the serpent again

14

 

 

challenged. The serpent said God was withholding from Eve the opportunity to become
as the gods,
. . . knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for
food, and that is was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with
her; and he did eat. Genesis 3:5b-6
After this action, the biblical record stated God questioned Adam and Eve regarding the
events with the serpent and then determined they had chosen not to follow the direction
He previously gave them. The final scene from this portion of Scripture described the
“LORD God” altering the relationships established in the work of Creation. The early
American immigrants took this hierarchical description given in Genesis 3 as the
Prescription for life between men and women, husbands and wives, and boys and girls.
“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in
SOFYOW thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall
11116 over thee” Genesis 3:16-l9.
Despite her basic role and functions . . . the social status of woman, her power and
prestige in the community, derived from and was inferior to the patriarchal head
of her household. Woman’s vow to obey her spouse was repeatedly underscored
by colonial writers and preachers. (Ryan, 1975, p. 40)
The early immigrants interpreted Eve’s failure to recognize the deception of the serpent
regarding God’s direction as a weakness of character and constituted her as the “weaker
Vessel” between the first created human beings. They believed this weakness of character
Was passed from Eve to every female born after her and translated into physical, moral
and mental weakness, especially when compared to men. The two biblical pictures, the

Cl“eation of woman from the rib of a man and the outcome of choosing to disobey God’s

cOmmand, resulted in church leaders, fathers, and husbands declaring and living the

15_

 

belief that all “weaker vessel” women were to live as “Adam’s Rib” in submissi
men and in the roles of submissive wives and mothers or unmarried women, exe
in the following admonition from an 18th century minister to a bride:
Bear always in mind your true situation and have the words of the apostl
perpetually engraven on your heart. Your duty is submission ---- “Subm
and obedience are the lessons of your life and peace and happiness will I

reward.” Your husband is, by the laws of God and of man, your superior
ever give him cause to remind you of it. (as cited in Ehrenreich & Englis

p- 7)

As symbolic ribs of the men in authority over them, women found their 1
responsibilities limited to those areas found in the sphere inside the home, whetl
domestic duties or duties related to the care and feeding of family members, esp«
children. This “help meet” role focused on providing emotional and physical su
her husband in all areas. The role also encompassed the activities a woman accc
for herself, her immediate family, and her community’s survival. For the coloni
Woman, this work included producing food from the ground to the table; manufa
clothing from the ground to the backs of her family members; making soap for t1
family, clothing and home; concocting medicines for the health of her family; ar
Providing emotional and medical support for other women in her family or comr
during pregnancy, childbirth, illness and death (Ryan, 1975).

In contrast to the private woman’s sphere, men functioned in the public 5
OUtSide the home whether in church, work, leisure or educational settings. This
hierarchical authority surrounding women in America in the 18005, specifically,

early years at Michigan State University, centered on the teachings of the churcl
0f the dominant White, Euro-centric race. The hierarchy began with the ultimatu

authority of God, then to church leaders, husbands, and, finally, to men in gener:

l6

“Within the church, all parishioners were subservient to the minister and found 1
destined places somewhere within the hierarchy of elders, deacons, and the gene
congregation whose pews were assigned according to their relative wealth and g
(Ryan, 1975 , pp. 40-41). This hierarchy of relationships and the gendered distir
location and types of functions represented structural pieces in the frame that he
quilt of women’s education in the expanding nation. God was believed by man}
Creator, giving direction through the Bible, and through creation. Although GO!
seen as the author of life and the Bible was seen as the handbook for life, some 1
also believed they had the ability to choose. They were in the process of choosi:
was important in building a new nation, and in that decision making process, the
continual change.
Home Spheres for a Nation. The boundaries of the feminine ideal of “A1
Rib” remained relatively unchallenged until the late 17005 and beginning of the
Then, boundaries of the home sphere began to expand as the land mass and, the r
the nation expanded. “The enlightenment faith in human potential, the America
ReVOIution’s emphasis on equality and individual rights, and the Republic’s des
create a wise and virtuous citizenry led some Americans to mount a concerted c:
for improvements in women’s education” (Skemp, 1998, p. 85). New pieces of
lives began to emerge in the form of the possibility of expanded rights, includin;
eClucation. Some of the first people to advocate for women’s rights, including t1
be educated, came from influential colonial women such as Abigail Adams, the
President John Adams. She wrote a letter to her husband on March 31, 1776, ur

as a leader of the nation about to be formally created, to promote the rights of w

17

the betterment of the nation. “Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and
favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the ban
of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could” (as quoted in
Moynihan, Russet, Crumpacker, 1993, p. 166).

Mercy Otis Warren, another social elite and a friend of Abigail Adams, further
the thought of expanding the rights of women to include the right to be educated when

she wrote her young niece.

It is my Opinion that that Part of the human Species who think Nature (as well
the infinitely wise & Supreme Author thereof) has given them the Superiority
over the other, mistake their own Happiness when they neglect the Culture of
Reason in their Daughters while they take all possible Methods of improving it
their sons. . . . when these temporary Distinctions subside we may be equally
qualified to taste the full Draughts of Knowledge & Happiness prepared for the
Upright of every Nation & Sex . . . (as cited in Moynihan et al., 1993, p. 170)
The distinctions that led to actions of tyranny and the belief of male superiority were
strong values threading pieces of life together because the immigrants believed these
values were biblically supported. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according
knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel” 1 Peter 3:7a.
Judith Sargent Murray, a contemporary of Abigail Adams and Mercy Otis
Warren, disputed the societal interpretation of women as “weaker vessels.” She also
disputed the description of Eve as a “weaker vessel” based on society’s belief that
because she was the first human to succumb to the sin of disobeying God, she was
therefore weaker than the only other living human, Adam. While she did not dispute t
scripturally founded belief that Eve sinned, Murray resoundingly dismissed that this si

had any affect on the capabilities of any woman’s mind. In a letter to Reverend Reddi

on May 7, 1801, she exhibited a moving exposition of her own cerebral abilities

l8

recognizing the physical differences between men and women while discounting any

distinctions of the mind.

I am, my dear Sir, apprehensive that you do not accurately comprehend my idea
relative to the sexes, I have conceived that the distinction male, and female, doe
not exist in Mind, and it appears to me that my opinion is sanctioned by the
imposing authorities of nature, reason, and scripture ---- I have thought that the
dissimilarity confessedly apparent, was merely artificial, entirely the result of
education, variety of pursuits, and uncounted accidental occurences . . . (as citec

in Skemp, 1985, pp. 174-175)

Although this description may have appeared to be an advocation for women’s educati<
later in the letter Murray clarified that an expansion of women’s education should not
change women’s relationship to men hierarchically or functionally. She stated that she
was not seeking to overthrow the “system” of God’s assignment to men and women in
the distinction of the roles and pursuits nor the order of subordination. However, over ‘
course of her life she bemoaned the lack of her own formal education, which was a
Constant reminder of the pieces that she wished had been a part of her life. She
desperately longed for these missed pieces, and she often referred to being deprived of
adequate education as in the following excerpt from a letter to her brother Winthrop in

se’Pternber 1803.

But during my first years, although our parents were, as you know, the best of
human being[s], they yet did homage to the shrine of fashion. Custom tyraniser
over the strongest minds ---- it was the mode to confine the female intellect wit]
the narrowest bounds, and by consequence, I was robbed of the aids of educatio
--- I shall feel the effects of this irrational deprivation, as long as I shall continu
an inhabitant of this world ---- I am thus unqualified to preside as the unassisted
instructress of my children . . . (as cited in Skemp, 1985, pp. 171-172)

Judith Sargent Murray referred to the mother’s role and responsibility of teaching the
Children in the home and her heart-breaking perception of her own inadequacy because

She did not have the opportunity for education outside of the home. This heart-break w

19

founded on the tension emanating from society’s expectation that children were to be
taught by their mothers.

It was common and even expected that mothers should know how to read in order
to teach their children; it was also common for these mothers to have little if any
education beyond reading and the practical education for life passed on by their mothers.
However, there were some like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Judith Sargent
Murray, members of society’s upper class, who had access to not only adequate but
superior knowledge. They knew how to write and utilized this learned skill by writing
letters to family members and friends regarding what they perceived to be desperately
needed changes in the rights for and education of women. Most women rarely if ever had
occasion to actually enter the affairs of business outside the home and very few knew
how to write or even sign their names. If these upper class women believed even they
were unprepared to train their children, they must have believed even more that the other
classes of society lacked the means to properly educate their young beyond survival
skills. In addition, most held the belief that even survival skills were not at the level they
should be if the woman was not formally educated for a time outside of the home.

Judith Murray’s description of her own inadequate education added another piece
to the scrap bag for the quilt of women’s education because she connected her
inadequacy to the detriment of future citizens and leaders of the new nation. She
believed, like many, that mothers held a primary role in the education of children,
focusing on the future male leaders of the newly formed nation. Her plea for adequate
education was a compelling argument for the education of women in order for them to be

the best “mothers of civilization.” “Murray agreed with leading advocates of women s

20

 

 

education like Benjamin Rush, who maintained that since women bore the primary
responsibility for raising children ---— especially sons ---- the future of the Republic was
in their hands” (Skemp, 1998, p. 88).
Women ’3 Education in the Home Sphere

As the 18th century drew to a close and the 19th century began many Americans
believed that women needed education for the sake of the nation. However, there were
questions as to where women should be educated and what should be included as
appropriate in their education. And of equal proportion was the question and ensuing
debate as to what a woman was to do with her education. Men and women began to
write books and articles in a quest to help young women become all they should be in th
Private sphere of the home and thereby, indirectly contribute to building the nation. Mo
often, writers directed young women to stay at home and learn all they could from their
mothers and through self-instruction. Sometimes young girls were encouraged to add to
these two modes, learning within the home and in formal educational settings outside thr
home, by learning in academies with young boys. Occasionally, some authors ventured
into relatively unmapped territory and encouraged young women to expand their home
leaI‘lling to aid them in their roles as wives and mothers by exiting the private sphere
briefly to gain appropriate scientific education.

Mrs. A. J. Graves (1841), author of Woman in America; Being an Examination
into the Moral and Intellectual Condition of American Female Society, described this
Pattern of educating women in the private home sphere in a chapter entitled “Intellectual

Women.” She depicted intellectual females as those who were self-taught. They

identified knowledge from reading, observation, or reflection and then continued to

21

cultivate the thoughts emanating from these activities, thinking deeply over their
lifetimes. Although she praised this group of women learning in the home, she stopped
short of advocating for women’s equal rights and education outside the home, contending
that both men and women should
. . . cultivate their intellectual powers as to make themselves in the highest
possible degree useful in the different spheres allotted to them. An intelligent and
highly-educated man, if his moral elevation has kept pace with the progress of his
intellect, will always occupy a position in society which will enable him to exert a
powerful influence for good. And the woman who to native strength of mind has
added the advantages of judicious and thorough culture, and whose character is
purified and exalted by religious principle, will in her appropriate sphere be no
less honoured and useful. (Graves, 1841, p. 167)
The central focus of women’s work in the private sphere of the home was for others and
not for self. The purpose of Mrs. Graves’ book as well as many others authored at this
time was for instruction “to be done decently and in order,” maintaining the spheres.
Mrs. Graves believed that self-education, resulting in increased intelligence, was a critical
component in the education of women because they held significant responsibility to
carry out their duty to God and Country to train children for their future roles -- sons for
work in public society and daughters for work in the private sphere of home. Women
were also to keep their husbands and sons from straying from moral decisions.
Whenever her husband or her sons are in peril of being led from the paths of strict
honesty by the force of worldly example or by the currentmaxzms of trade, let her
hold up to their view those uncompromising principles of integrity establrshed by

Him who has pronounced a curse upon every species of unfair dealing between
man and man. . . (Graves, 1841, p. 61)

 

Children were not the only benefactors of women’s education. Judith Sargent Murray,
Mrs. A. J. Graves, and others believed educated women made more compatible wives for
their husbands. “By strengthening the body and exercising the mental capacities, we

shall be rendered more capable of managing our families, of systematizing morality, and

22

 

 

of becoming the friends of our husbands” (Murray to Mrs. K., April 1802 as cited in
Skemp, 1985, p. 89).

Several male authors also addressed female education in their writings believing
with deep conviction that the perspective of Mrs. Graves was appropriate. One author,
Dr. William A. Alcott, a devout Episcopalian and vegetarian, wrote dozens of books and
pamphlets in which he expounded his beliefs to men and women on how they should live
in their current society. A sample of his work includes:

The Young Housekeeper or Thoughts on Food and Cookery

Letters to a Sister; or Woman '3 Mission

Gift Book for Young Women

Gift Book for Young Men

Young Husband

Young Wife

Young Moth er

Young Man ’3 Guide

Young Woman’s Guide
In his Letters to a Sister (1849), later renamed Gift Book for Young Ladies (1852), and
Gift Book for Young Men (1852), Dr. Alcott strongly admonished young men and women
to be self-instructed learners for a lifetime. The appropriate place for the onset OfIhiS
learning was in the home with one of the “mothers of civilization.”

I take the ground that the most efficient school of education is the domestic or
family school; and that the MOTHER, whether wise or ignorant, learned or

unleamed, healthy or sick, pious or irnpious, is the most efficient educator.
Especially is this school the first and the most important for female children.

(Alcott, 1838, p. 26)

23

 

 

 

 

The mother, whether she was self-educated or uneducated, in good or poor physical or
moral condition was the sole person held responsible for the education of her children.
This belief was commonly promoted by various authors in relation to raising daughter.
for their life roles and responsibilities in the home sphere. “For instance, the early
training of a daughter by a mother may do more to form her character than can be don:
by literature . . .” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 123). The work of teaching had a holy calling as
mothers were viewed as redemptive and creative agents mandated to create a different
world than their earthly mother Eve created by providing practical training and moral
character building. They were to join hands with the Creator and redeem fallen manki
through their efforts. “Woman’s mission, then, is to co-operate with the Redeemer of
men, in bringing back from its revolt, the same world which was lost by another speci:
of co-operation on the part of Eve” (Alcott, 1849, pp. 25-26). The life mission of won
was not solely philosophically based but included the practical activities in day to day
life. “She must regard herself as having a mission from God ---- and that mission the

care of her family” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 247).
Women ’5 Education for the Home Sphere

Young men and women attended schools in the years before the 1855 founding
Michigan Agricultural College and then entered seminary and the home housekeeping
sphere respectively. Dr. Alcott made visits to many schools and based on his
observations determined that they were deficient because they did not have opportunit
for physical labor and that reading and writing focused solely on what others wrote rat
than students creating their own lessons or joumaling their thoughts. He firmly believ

that self-instruction was what would sustain learning through life by reading books

24

acquired through the borrowing system of parish and school libraries, and activities in
lyceums, clubs, and debating societies (Alcott, 1852). Dr. Alcott (1838) did not confi:
exercising of the mind to young men only but also believed that young women should
think and learn continually; this became one of the purposes for which he wrote The
Young Housekeeper. “It is intended as a means of rendering house-keepers thinking
beings, and not as they have hitherto often been, mere pieces of mechanism; or, what ‘
little better, the mere creatures of habit or slaves of custom” (Alcott, 1838, p. 17). Dr.
Alcott utilized this passion for thinking, the exercising of the mind and self-instructior
the primary purpose for his book.

A principle aim of the following treatise has been, to elevate the important

profession for whom it is written, instead of sinking it below its present unwor

level. I should be glad to convince the most skeptical that house-keeping is as
much a science, and in view of its results in the formation of human health anc'
character, as deserving of study ---- and of hard study, too ---- as geography or

mathematics. (Alcott, 1838, p. 18)

In addition to mothers’ teaching, Dr. Alcott encouraged young men to know
themselves through self-instruction both physically and mentally and acknowledge the
inadequacy of their wisdom. They were instructed not to stop at acknowledgement bt
be on a continual quest seeking knowledge that would improve their understanding of
themselves and the efficiency and production of their work. Schools and seminaries
were, as Dr. Alcott described, only a part of young men’s learning through life; knowi
oneself remained central to their learning.

Young man, by these remarks, I beseech thee . . . . Invert not, thus, the whole

order of things, as the Creator established, or at least designed them. Know

thyself. Know every thing if thou canst ---- every thing, I mean, which is wort
knowing. But remember that though science and art are long, life at best is Sht
that whatever is worth doing should be done with all thy might. That it must,

moreover, if done at all, be done quickly; since there is neither knowledge nor
device in the grave, whither thou art fast hastening. (Alcott, 1852, p. 39)

25

 

Young women were not necessarily called to know themselves in Dr. Alcott’s wri
but they were encouraged to continue to focus on their divine mission and work or
improvement as a means to accomplish that mission. While schools were a part 0
education of young women in Dr. Alcott’s purview, advanced seminary education
exclusively for young men. In fact, Dr. Alcott maintained that schools were to tea
young women how to do self-study in their future lives as wives and mothers. If t
was an interim between their school years and marriage, he advocated teaching in
Sabbath school or in public school; however, this was to be only a temporary assig
(Alcott, 1849).

The separateness of the spheres was not to be violated, and it was believed
those who ventured out of the appropriate spheres brought destruction not only to
usefulness but to their own lives and members of their families. The physical sphi
the home and the activities within it were surrounded by nearly impenetrable bour
for women because “nature” had determined her place in the world. “As ladies arr
destined by nature for the supervision of home, they ought early and strenuously tr
CLlltiVate the love of home-duties” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 236). In addition, the nation
growth, sustenance and success were dependent on women who followed through
nature’s determination for their lives. “The duties and destinies of the house-keep
too important to be misunderstood. The elements of the nation, nay, of the world:
are prepared, to a very great extent, in our nurseries, and around the domestic fires

(Alcott, 183 8, pp. 18-19). Those who violated the appointed spheres were respon:
pred'ICtably jeopardizing the domestic tranquility of the home which, in turn, brou;

even’Cual downfall of their nation. Thus, women were expected to resist even the c

26

moving outside the sacred, nature-appointed sphere for the sake of self, family, home
Country and to allow men to reign supreme as God’s agents over the public sphere.
Many believed that a woman’s freedom was not in pursuing education outside the hor
or work outside the appointed sphere. Mrs. Graves advocated that if a woman
determined that anything was enticing her away from her home, she was to squelch th
desires for the good of her family and country, in obedience to her Creator.
Not a few of those who come forward to advocate the mental equality of the
sexes, do so in order to show that woman is entitled to the same political rights
and privileges as man; a doctrine which, if brought into practical exercise, wor
tend to the total disorganization of the family institution, and even more
effectually that the spirit of the age, dissolve the domestic ties, and destroy all
make woman efficient as moral helpmate of man. But were it even to be prove
that woman is man’s equal in intellectual capacity, it would only follow from t
that a responsibility is resting upon her proportioned to her exalted endowmen‘
and not that she is authorized to relinquish her own appointed sphere of action
that of the other sex. If the great Creator, from whom all our rights, as well as
capacities, are derived, has given to woman an influence that is almost without
bounds over the mind and morals of the community, He has no less evidently
conferred on man the supreme governing power in whatever relates to the exte
regulations of society. (Graves, 1841, pp. 167-168)
Therefore, Mrs. Graves and others believed that while women’s education was to be a
part of their lives and an expansion of their education was a continual request, it was r
to take the place of any of the previous domestic activities expected from a woman no
was it to take her physically away from the private sphere of the home. Giving
preference to the home responsibilities of women, Mrs. Graves devoted two chapters <
her book to “Domestic Women.” A central piece to life within the sphere was physicz
labor and domestic activities offered a plethora of physical labor for the wife and mot]

Mrs. Graves believed that physical labor was healthy for women and essential to build

and sustaining a strong nation.

27

The extreme fragility and early fading of American females have been a:
early marriages . . . but the most extensively operating cause is to be four
almost total neglect of active exercise, either in the house or in the open

Instead of the robust forms and rosy hue of health . . . we find, with us, g
pale and delicate women entering upon the trying duties of wives, mothe
housekeepers, wholly unprepared and unfitted for them; and need we we
so many of them so soon break, and droop, and die in early womanhood‘

1841, pp. 35-36)
Women ’5 Education inside and outside the Home Sphere

Writers instructing young women in the first few decades of the 19th cen'
including Mrs. A. J. Graves and Dr. William Alcott, provided a way for society
about the connection between women’s work in the home and the new burgeoni
of science. Many authors described how new scientific discoveries could mechz
“home” work, make it more efficient and effective thereby enhancing the produr
within the home. This in turn was thought to allow women to be more enj oyabl
companions for their husbands, better nurturers for their children and thus, also
contributing to nation-building. The insistence on the God-honoring, well-order
continually improving home Opened the door for Catherine Beecher’s book, the
edition written in 1842, entitled A Treatise on Domestic Economy, for the use 0]
Ladies at Home, and at School. Domestic education until this point in time was
training and activities done in the home passed on from mother to daughter. Bu
science was beginning to provide on-going improvements, it led some to believe
mothers could not keep up with all of the new innovations. Even the title of Be:
book indicated that some would more than likely prefer to use the instruction in
setting rather than in any school, a public setting. More than 800/8 of her book Vi
devoted to specific instruction in the following: Health — physical and mental, t

food and drinks; personal care —- clothing, cleanliness, exercise; care of family n

28

children, infants, sickness, accidents; care of the home — schedule and system for al
activities, construction of the home, fires, washing, starching and ironing, cleansing
dyeing; sewing, cutting, and mending; care of individual rooms -— parlors, breakfast
dining rooms, chambers and bedrooms, kitchen, cellar and storerooms; instruction i
culture —— manners, entertainment, duties; cultivation for beauty and food -— yards an
gardens, propagation of plants, cultivation of fruits (Beecher, 1851).

Catherine Beecher wrote another work titled Miss Beecher ’s Domestic Rece
Book, which was intended to be a companion book to her first adding another aspec
the domestic training of young women. She believed, when used in conjunction wi
another, these two “first textbooks” gave “a complete course of instructions on ever
department of Domestic Economy” (Beecher, 1851, p. 9). Her second book furnish
young female students with a wealth of the best original, tested recipes given in Ian,
that was descriptive, simple, and yet brief for their families and small dinner parties
addition, it was her desire to present a practical work that was a less expensive to y<
American readers in comparison to the popular 1,200 page, recipe-laden book by T1
Webster and Mrs. Parkes. Miss Beecher considered their recipes to be “so rich as t:
both expensive and unhealthful” and she felt the instructions for these recipes and 0
sections of the Webster & Parkes book to be partial at best and non-existent at wors
(Beecher, 1851, p. 355).

Domestic activities also provided a cyclic routine arranged by the seasons 0:
nature and life that dictated what was to be done, when it was to be done, and with ‘
it was to be done. The question of why certain domestic activities were done was

Pondered only when women were unable to do all that was expected. Answers wer

29

given in the form of more scientific, efficient approaches to particular domestic tasks 1
by asking whether some tasks were solely for “fashion” and, therefore, not essential.
When the home was well-ordered and efficient, not given to showy extravagance, it w
promoted as the model happy home for all the inhabitants. The husband, children,
community, and Country benefited from the wife who “rightly considered” the dignity
divinely assigned domestic duties and properly performed them. “Toil at home! yes,
thanks to Him who made us, this is at once our duty and our privilege; and may He, of
goodness, make every woman feel that it is also her highest happiness and her truest
dignity” (Graves, 1841, p. 59). Miss Beecher believed that American women had a di
not only to their homes, their families, and their God, but also to their Country. She
believed that the principles governing the people in the home, the religious life, and th
Country were one and the same.
There are some reasons, why American women should feel an interest in the
support of the democratic institutions of their Country, which it is important th
they should consider. The great maxim, which is the basis of all our civil and
political institutions, is, that “all men are created equal,” and they are equally
entitled to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
But it can readily be seen, that this is only another mode of expressing
fundamental principle which the Great Ruler of the Universe has established, 2
the law of His eternal government. “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself;”
“Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them,” are
Scripture forms, by which the Supreme Lawgiver requires that each individual
our race shall regard the happiness of others, as of the same value as his own; :
which forbid any institution, in private or civil life, which secures advantages 1
one class, by sacrificing the interest of another.
The principles of democracy, then, are identical with the principles of
Christianity. (Beecher, 1851, p. 25)
While Catherine Beecher agreed that women should be in the home sphere

fulfilling their domestic duty, she claimed the “fragility” Graves observed was resultai

from poor domestic education. This claim led her to write her first textbook, which er

3O

from the title advocated its use in both the private sphere of the home and the scho«

situated in the public sphere.

The author of this work was led to attempt it, by discovering, in her extensi

travels, the deplorable sufferings of multitudes of young wives and mothers

the combined influence of poor health, poor domestics, and a defective don
education . . . . The writer became early convinced that this evil results mai

from the fact, that young girls, especially in the more wealthy classes, are n

trained for their profession. (Beecher, 1851 , p. 5)

Catherine Beecher’s work contains a “spirit” seen many years before in the
advocation of women’s education by Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis, and Judith
Sargent Warren when they pleaded with leaders and ministers to teach young
women outside the home for the greatest benefit in the home, even if the
instruction included only domestic economy.

The rationale for this brief exit from the safety of the private home sphere t-
more public sphere was based primarily on the growing authority of science. Resp
scientific research and the resulting new discoveries created an anxious nation beer
was thought that mothers did not have this knowledge and were therefore, not able
adequately train their children from one generation to the next. Reading material 3
books, magazines, and pamphlets became primary teaching tools in addition to wo:
mouth. These tools connected people with the values, theory and practice of scient
advancements and improvements together applied to everyday domestic activities.
scientific theories and methodology propagated through books were additional pier
gathered into the scrap bag for women’s education. Books and their authors becarr
expert teachers in this changing pattern of women’s education. Later in the centurj

G. Baird the Secretary of Michigan’s Board of Agriculture described the quintessei

nature of books to the farmer and his family.

31

Every home should have a liberal supply of good books. There are many thin

that we can better afford to be without than books, and but few that we can so

afford to be destitute of. Books are not furniture, and yet they constitute the b

firmishing that a house can possibly have. A family that is content to walk on

cheap carpets and to have the plainest of furniture in order that they may have
fellowship of good books, at once rises in our estimation on our discovery oft
fact. Children learn to read in the presence of books, and as they read the low
knowledge grows.

In the farmer’s home more than in any other a library is an absolute

necessity. These homes are more or less remote from the circulating library 0

village and from the winter course of lectures. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 381)
Books, magazines, and pamphlets informed people on how to live and how to improy
their lives. After the Bible, many books advocating principles from biblical
interpretations on what a woman should know to be a good wife and mother were rea
young women desiring to emulate the sphere-bound feminine ideal as “mothers of
civilization” in the nation-building process. The accepted boundaries of the private h
sphere were described and promoted, and improvements in efficiency and quality of l
disseminated. These writings were pieces of education that did not call for dissolutio
the accepted sphere but advocated how women could do their work better within the
sphere. Authors described the home sphere as a safe place and considered the sphere
outside the home as not only reserved exclusively for men but also a very dangerous
place.

Dr. Alcott chastised mothers before and after Catherine Beecher’s writings, w
taught their daughters to read and write but also added other frivolous subjects promc
by those in the public sphere, which he considered to be of no value such as fashional
extravagant meals and decorating in the home. He believed reading, writing, book-

keeping, and joumaling were more appropriate subjects because these skills affored

women the ability to keep meticulous accounts of all expenditures and duties related '

32

the household and its members. These learned treasures allowed women to embracc
scientific approach as they carefully observed every process doing comparative stud
on each activity, then seeking more efficient ways as a means of improving their wc
and spending less time and money in the future. Mrs. Graves firmly established in 1
book the notions that time spent learning “frippery” was slavery and detrimental to
women and the Nation, and true freedom would only be realized when women staye
within the home sphere learning domestic activities that benefited their husbands an
children.
Then, if these lessons be faithfully inculcated and practiced, the daughters 01
America will be what woman in America ought to be: a model to her sex in 1
clime, exhibiting the effects of her country’s Liberty in her freedom from the
slavery of fashion, and of all the follies that once held her in bondage; and o:
country’s Law, in the beautifirl harmony with which she moves in her appoir
sphere, shedding the bright radiance of moral and intellectual light upon a h(
of order and of peace. (Graves, 1841, p. 93)
Mrs. Graves and Dr. Alcott wound together the values of God, His Word, and scient
like three threads in order to honor their Creator, follow His Word, and encourage vi
to fulfill their mission while building the nation and continually improving efficienc
effectiveness and productivity in the home.
Dr. AlCott combined housekeeping and science together throughout his bool
Young women and advocated that their study be given as much elevation as the stud
teaching. He believed subjects such as mathematics, physiology, chemistry, and na
history were key pieces in their education however, it remained up to women to gai
What they could from home or school before marriage and not after they were marri

at seminaries or colleges (Alcott, 1849). Catherine Beecher also pressed for the ele

0f domestic economy to be placed on equal footing with other studies but outside tt

33

 

home in schools designated for young women. Her point was two-fold in that she
advocated for education but only as long as it was devoted to the benefit of keeping
women in the proper sphere with other women and teaching them domestic economy
the proper sphere.
The measure which, more than any other, would tend to remedy this evil, wor
be to place domestic economy on an equality with the other sciences in femalt
schools. This should be done because it can be properly and systematically t:
(not practically, but as a science), as much so as political science or moral
science, or any other branch of study; because it embraces knowledge, which
be needed by young women at all times and in all places; because this science
never be properly taught until it is made a branch of study; and because this
method will secure a dignity and importance in the estimation of young girls,
which can never be accorded while they perceive their teacher and parents

practically attaching more value to every other department of science than thi
(Beecher, 1851, p. 6)

Catherine Beecher unashamedly promoted her book as a textbook for a more complet
education of women in preparation for their future lives. She referenced several notal
supporters of her textbook such as Massachusetts Board of Education that examined t
textbook and placed it in the Massachusetts School Library; some large and popular
female schools both in the East and West who utilized the textbook in classes; and
individuals such as “Mr. George B. Emmerson, one of the most popular and successfi
teachers in our country, who has introduced this work as a text-book in his own schoc
(Beecher, 1851, p. 7). This male teacher promoted Domestic Economy as a proper m«
for teaching such topics as human anatomy, health and nutrition, preparation of food,
management of children, principled teaching of children, proper construction and
Ventilation of a home, orderliness and cleanliness of the home, proper clothing, effici:
in time and expenses, and horticulture (Beecher, 1851). Although some questioned t1

formalization of women’s education, believing that the teaching of young women she

34

remain in the home, the redeeming quality of Catherine Beecher’s writing lay in
that women were being prepared for a life, which was not only to remain in the i
the home was to be the core of a woman’s life for a lifetime.

Other writers, such as Dr. Hosmer, author of The Young Lady ’s Book or
Principles of Female Education, believed “Education, however extensive, is the
all, and of one as much as of another” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 149). His conviction fi
educational rights included women’s education, and he believed this learning sh
focused primarily on preparation for the home sphere. Hence, he enthusiasticall
encouraged young women to aspire to exercise (use) their minds to the fullest m

Never can the domestic circle be what it should be, never can females sh

high intellectual aspirations for which their minds, no less than those oft

sex, are fitted, till by actual cultivation the desire of improvement becorn
paramount. (Hosmer, 1852, p. 127)

Women ’s Education outside the Home Sphere

Dr. Hosmer did not believe that women should find education solely in s
with other women such as the home or women’s schools or colleges. He deplor
limitations placed on women’s education contrasting it with the education given
that had “the highest practicable finish” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 115). He pointedly c
financial support of endowments, monies directed from states to their state mm
and the most qualified instructors solely offered for the education of men. He 3?
Concluded that these actions resulted in the fact that “woman may not approach
halls of science, her step would profane them, she must be reserved for a lower
(Hosmer, 1852, p. 115). He questioned the rationale for educating men and wo:

Separately when they entered more advanced learning environs because until th;

they had been educated in the same location. “Woman shares with him the con

35

 

school and the academy, but why is she excluded from college ---- from every coll
the land?” (Hosmer, 1852, p. 115) Those who dismissed the idea of educating me
women in the same location believed if they were taught together, women would I
information that was not only beyond their comprehension but also inappropriate 1
there was the potential that sensitive, personal information wOuld be conveyed. Tl
nay-sayers of women’s education also thought women would distract male student
men could be too familiar with the women and take advantage of them. However,
Hosmer reflected on a time in his not so distant past in which education was thoug
exclusively for elite males, and, in his estimation, this perception was proven not (
unacceptable but foolish.

If there is a common want and common fitness for education, why exclude

from the common opportunities? Nothing of this kind occurs in our primai

schools or academies, and it is therefore fair to infer that their exclusion frc
colleges has its origin in an impression that such advantages are unsuitable
the mingling of male and female in these higher institutions would be morc
than it is in schools of a lower grade, no one will pretend, unless influence<
preconceived opinion. Prejudice would no doubt say that such an arranger

must be disastrous; but let it be recollected that this same prejudice, not 101

since, thought all education dangerous to the masses. Experience has shov

folly of such narrow views, and experience will ultimately show the folly (

present course. (Hosmer, 1852, p. 145)

While Dr. Hosmer advocated for the practicality of women’s education ant
application to the home, he did not confine the scope of this education to domestic
economy. In fact, much like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and Judith Sarg-
Murray, he focused on the benefits of cultivating the minds of women to society it
general and to husbands and children specifically.

An enlightened mind would enable her very naturally to meet every reason

expectation; she would comprehend more clearly than others, the limits an
reasons of at least her own virtue.

36

. . . in the now generally educated condition of society, the woman who has I
other than this domestic instruction, is in danger of ruin. The first and most
important lessons have been imparted, but for want of the rest she must appe:
great disadvantage, and may finally be circumvented by the destroyer. Nor d
advocate literary education as a substitute for different attainments, whether 1
at an earlier or a later period. It cannot supply the body of morality, though i
give to that body greater efficiency, as well as greater security. (Hosmer, 185
pp. 123-124)

While there were many educational settings that seemed impenetrable by wo:
Dr. Hosmer believed that there were a few professions, such as some areas in the me
field, which needed properly educated women as well as men. The doctor based his
belief on the perception that if women were not in certain professions, they were in
jeopardy of being violated and thereby, in danger of damaging or destroyng their pu
and their marriages. “. . . [I]t is evident that there should be in every community enc
well-educated women to practice obstetrics, and thus give security to the family com
by allying all uneasiness and removing temptations to immorality (Hosmer, 1852, p.
206). Dr. Hosmer, like others such as Dr. Alcott, continued their concern beyond tht
purity of women and described the devastation husbands endured if their wives
experienced complete physical examinations by male doctors. This devastation incl‘
the Violation of the husbands’ property rights, who had no assurance that the violatic
Were induced solely by the doctors or that these actions were resisted by the violated
wives.

The wife is sacred to her husband. She can belong to no other except her Go

Be it that this tie is broken ---- this sanctity removed, and whatever may be t]

cause, the effect will be very nearly the same. The husband’s feelings must

endure the shock; he will know that his rights have been invaded, and that th

wife of his bosom is no longer sacred to himself . . . If females are left in suc

state of ignorance as not to provide for their own health without an improper

exposure of their persons to the other sex, those to whom they are united in
marriage must feel the weight of this exposure, and estimate their matrimoni

37

connections at what they may be worth under the circumstances. (Hosmer, 1
pp. 207-208)

While this advocacy from Drs. Hosmer, Alcott, and others appeared to be p2
a path for women to enter colleges for medical training, there were many challenges
including mixed messages. The changes in the advanced education of women had t
propelled by societal change that invoked a period of transition in which both the
education of women and their lack of opportunity for advanced education was prom
Because society was in the midst of this change and some of these expert-doctor-tea
authors were not devoted to entire sphere rigidity, their books and articles often sent
mixed messages to their female readership. Dr. Hosmer believed women were intel
beings capable of acquiring the knowledge needed for the medical profession, even
advocating for their medical training for their own and their husbands’ protection; h
disagreed with others who did not believe women could withstand the physical and
mental rigor of the training or of the performance of the occupation. Dr. Hosmer
illustrated his belief that women were not “weaker vessels” through the following
illustration of the process of childbirth.
It can no longer be questioned whether women have powers of mind equal t1
intellectual efforts. The names of More, Hemans, Sigourney, Baillie, Sedgv
Edgeworth, Somerville, Ellis, Sherwood, Gould, Child, Willard, Charlotte
Elizabeth, are more than sufficient to attest the capacity of woman. I shall
therefore conclude, that as to mental qualifications there can be no question,
only remains to inquire into their physical ability for the requisite medical a1
surgical operations. Obstetrics is the only branch in which a want of physic:
vigor can assume even the appearance of an objection. And what part of thi
performance requires any considerable strength is more than the faculty hav:
able to tell. The expulsion of the foetus is, on all hands, allowed to be the w
nature, and hence it is no gigantic effort of the physician. It may be said tha
females have not nerves sufficiently strong to perform such assistance in the
presence of so much pain. And this I suppose is the reason why we are curs

with men on these occasions. But this is a most base and groundless assum;
What, women lack firmness of nerve for these occasions? and are they not a

38

present? nay more, does not a woman bear all the pain and incur all the danger?

this be the case, cannot a well woman look on? cannot she bear to afford any

assistance? Indeed this contradicts the entire history of the case as it now stands
for women are always present and perform the most difficult parts of the require

assistance, as things are now managed. (Hosmer, 1852, pp. 192-193)

Another example of the mixed messages women received occurred in the area 0
public communication. It was not acceptable for women to speak in public settings
comprised of both men and women, but it was at least moderately acceptable for wome:
to write books and articles that could be read by any literate man or woman in either the
public or the private spheres. This prohibition of public speaking was taken and/or
supported from verses found in the Bible. “Let your women keep silence in the church
for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under
obedience, as also saith the law. And if they learn any thing, let them ask their husband
at home: for it is a shame for women to speak in the church” 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35.
Many authors instructed and warned women of the dangers facing their home spheres,
one of which was women working for pay outside the protected private sphere of the
home. This warning gave another opportunity for a mixed message. Although it was n
acceptable for women to speak in public settings or work in the public sphere, writing f
the public and receiving pay for this work was at least moderately acceptable (some
wrote under male pseudonyms in order to gain acceptance). Some female authors did I
advocate for the dissolution of the sphere; instead they wanted people to recognize the
influence women had over society while they operated in their home spheres. For

instance, Mrs. A. J. Graves wrote the following on the title page of the book she

authored: “Woman’s empire is Home; and, by adding spirituality to its happiness, dign

39

 

to, its dominion, and power to its influences, it becomes the best security for indivic

integrity, and the surest safeguard for national virtue” (Graves, 1841, title page).
Women ’s Education - A Woman ’s Right

Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, and others reco;
that society at large believed women’s influence in the home sphere on their husba
and children was the appropriate place and sc0pe for the contribution of women to
Nation. However, like these women, some also believed sphere limitations were b
on faulty assumptions and held in place by inappropriate legislation. They believe
women were individuals capable of making decisions on their own and acting on tl
decisions in the home sphere and in the public sphere. Their combined efforts led
first women’s convention in Seneca Falls, New York, in 1848 in which Elizabeth (
Stanton experienced a first in her own life.

I should feel exceedingly diffident to appear before you at this time, having

before spoken in public, were I not nerved by a sense of right and duty, did

feel the time had fully come for the question of woman’s wrongs to be laid

the public, did I not believe that woman herself must do this work; for won
alone can understand the height, the depth, the length, and the breadth of he
degradation. Man cannot speak for her, because he has been educated to bt
that she differs from him so materially, that he cannot judge of her thought:

feelings, and opinions by his own. Moral beings can only judge of others 1:

themselves. The moment they assume a different nature for any of their ov

kind, they utterly fail . . . . (as cited in Moynihan et al., 1993, p. 257)

Elizabeth Cady Stanton continued her passionate “right and duty” public appeal by
presenting rebuttals to the commonly held beliefs that man was intellectually super
woman, that he had options in his obedience to God, and that he was physically suj
to woman. Stanton maintained that men’s supposed superior intellect stemmed frc

fact that women were not afforded the same educational opportunities. She also cl

that God did not have different measures for good works but expected both men ar

40

women, in obedience to his commands demonstrate kindness, self-denial, morality
other virtues. Therefore, she stated women were not the sole character builders in
home. Stanton offered a balanced perspective on physical differences through rou
comparing the arduous work of Indian women and non-laboring elite males, and tl
challenged her audience to claim that these men could physically out perform their
female counterparts. She demanded rights just as the colonists had, rebelling agair
England in the previous century.
We as assembled to protest against a form of government, existing without
consent of the governed ---- to declare our right to be free as man is free, to
represented in the government which we are taxed to support, to have such
disgraceful laws as give man the power to chastise and imprison his wife, t
the wages which she earns, the property which she inherits, and in case of
separation, the children of her love; laws which make her the mere depende
his bounty. . .
And, strange as it may seem to many, we now demand our right to ‘
according to the declaration of the government under which we live . . . (as
in Moynihan, et a1, 1993, p. 258)
She also created and presented a “Declaration of Sentiments,” paralleling Thomas
Jefferson’s “Declaration of Independence,” which listed the history of women’s la
participation in the creation of legislation and the resulting deprivation of rights.
The actions taken by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and other women’s rights ad\
WGre in direct contradiction to many of the beliefs of authors of the day. These auf
ardently held to the separation of men and women into public and private spheres
reSpectively, for their daily work activities and their contribution to society. Rev.
Wise (1851) was one of the authors that wrote during this conference time, authon
YOung Lady ’s Counsellor: or, Outlines and Illustrations of the Sphere, the Duties,

the Dangers of Young Women. He devoted a chapter of this book to describing thi

PrOper sphere of women by defining two groups of women that portrayed leadersl.

41

spheres and with actions and dress that were acceptable (Lady Jane Grey, Queen
Victoria) and unacceptable (Joan of Arc, Queen Elizabeth). Rev. Wise deplored the
“agitators” of his era, most likely women such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who attempted
to change society’s View of women’s participation in society.

I should not have intruded the question of woman’s sphere upon your attention,
young lady, but for the claims so notoriously set up by a certain class of modern
agitators in favor of what is technically called “woman’s rights.” These invaders
of ancient ideas, who appear to regard everything as error which has the sanction
of antiquity, and everything as truth which is novel, would lead you on a vain
crusade, for political, governmental and ecclesiastical parity, with the other sex.
The ballot-box, the hustings, the bar, the halls of legislation, the offices of state,
the pulpit, are demanded as fitting arenas for the exercise of your talents. There
ought to be no barrier in your way to any position in society whatever, merely
because you are a woman. And you are wronged, injured and proscribed, so long
as you are debarred, either by law or prejudice, from entering any sphere you may
prefer. Such are the claims set up and advocated for your sex, by those who
would have you not a woman, but an Amazon.

Against these views I know that your woman’s nature utters its indignant
protest, which is endorsed with equal emphasis by your physical constitution.
And the voice of that sacred charter of woman’s rights, ---— her great emancipator,
--—— the Gospel of Jesus Christ, supports this protest of your nature, and rebukes
the audacity of these modern innovators. (Wise, 1851, pp. 84-85)

NOt Only did Rev. Wise denounce the idea of “parity” between men and women, but if a
Woman were chose to enter positions in society expressly given to men, she was deemed
unciVilized -- an Amazon. He went further and demonized the work of these invader-
teaChers through his own interpretation of the Bible citing that woman’s rights advocates
a130 violated God and his Word by stepping into the role of public teachers. His
perCeption was that women ministered to others through their work in the home and
influenced others to make a proper contribution to society. He cited examples such as
JOhn Adams’ wife, the sister of Pascal and the mothers of President George Washington,
JOhn Quincy Adams and the German philosopher Kant. Rev. Wise contrasted their

Contributions with the mothers of failed leaders, attributing the difference to inadequate

42

 

 

female training and support from mothers and wives. He ended his call to these young
women to remain faithful to God and society by vigilantly remaining in the home sphere
enacting their proper role. And if they remained faithful, Rev. Wise assured them that
they would receive their due honor and reward through the successes of their brothers,
husbands, and children.
Away, then, from your heart, young lady, with all the vagaries of these pseudo
reformers! Treat their crude opinions with the contempt they deserve. Glory in
the true greatness and real sublimity of the sphere you are called to fill. Labor to
qualify yourself to fulfil your mission with distinguished success. Obtain, by
persevering self-culture, those high qualities which lift one mind above another.
For you must not fail to remember, that you cannot communicate high qualities
and noble sentiments to other minds, unless they first exist in your own.
Cultivate, therefore, the loftiest virtues, the highest elements of great character.
Let them be chastened in yourself by that sweet sunniness of spirit, and that
affectionate gentleness, which command the avenues of the human heart. Thus
will you secure both respect and love. You will impress your image on some

precious masculine mind in whom it shall go forth upon the great theatre of life,
to act with blessing and power upon future generations. (Wise, 1851, pp. 99-100)

Summary

Prior to the founding of Michigan Agricultural College in 1855, many “pieces”
were gathered into the scrap bag that would contribute to the eventual creation of the
quilt of women’s education. The theocentric society based decisions about where men
and women lived and learned upon their interpretation of the Bible and upon the
propelling desire to build a new nation. The founders of this new nation, while pursuing
freedom, restricted it to White, European immigrant men relegating all women to live and
1eal‘n within the confines of the private sphere of the home. Yet, there were new pieces in
the scrap bag seen in the writings of the day that advocated for women to be taught how
t0 do a better job in the home or how to do home work from a scientific base. Yet, this

Was a time of transition in which feminine ideals were confusing. Was a woman Adam’s

43

 

 

rib or an Amazon? Was she a weaker vessel or one of the Mothers of Civilization?
Could she embody several images simultaneously?

Changing the pattern of women’s education was challenging and uneven,
sometimes occurring one person or event at a time. The process of gathering potential
pieces for the future education of women would ultimately result in the admission of
women to colleges such as Michigan State University. However, the perception of many
people during this period was that women were incapable and too emotional to receive
formal education outside the home. This perception needed time to be altered and took
time to actually change. Some recognized that women were capable and stable enough to
receive education and utilize it for their families, the nation, and ultimately for
civilization. This period of change included questioning and conversations, writing,
discussions, ideas, presentations, “firsts,” defeats, and successes prior to and concurrent
with the acceptance of the idea supporting broader opportunities for the education of
women.

People continued to struggle with many questions. Was it necessary for women
to attend college outside the home in order to be educated and have the skills necessary to
Work in the home and for the people in the home? Was it appropriate for women to
attend college outside home? What type of education should women receive? What was
the benefit of education for women taught outside the home? Where could women go to
reCeive education outside the home? What was a woman to do with her education?

These questions continued to perplex both men and women in the early years at Michigan

State University.

44

CHAPTER 2

45

“Scrap Bag” Years for Michigan Agricultural College, 1855-1869
“Things is predestined to come to us, honey, but we’re jest as free as air to mak
what we please out of ‘em. And when it comes to puttin’ the pieces together,
there’s another time when we’re free. You don’t trust to luck for the caliker to
put your quilt together with; you go to the store and pick it out yourself, any col
you like. There’s folks that always looks on the bright side and makes the best
everything, and that’s like puttin’ yur quilt together with blue or pink or white c
some other pretty color; and there’s folks that never see anything but the dark
side, and always lookin’ for trouble, and treasurin’ it up after they git it, and
they’re puttin’ their lives together with black, jest like you would put a quilt
together with some dark, ugly color. You can spoil the prettiest quilt pieces tha
ever was made jest by puttin’ ‘em together with the wrong color, and the best Si
0’ life is miserable if you don’t look at things right and think about ‘em right.”
(Hall, 1898, pp. 75-76)

Aunt Jane’s straight forward rendition of how she arranged scrap bag pieces of
material to create a quilt and then her unencumbered description of the relationship of t
piecing activity to the way people perceived the events in their lives aids in understand:
the events in the beginning years at Michigan Agricultural College. Many pieces were
gathered and stored in life’s scrap bag that, in retrospect, look like the “pretty” pieces
such as the decisions and actions taken by legislators and others to found a different tyj
of college in the new state of Michigan devoted to the study of agriculture, the primary
occupation in the new nation. Some might say there were “ugly” colors also such as th
exclusiveness of student admission where women did not have access to Michigan
Agricultural College during the first 13 years of student attendance from 1857 to 1869.
Many “pieces” of education were gathered during this time and decisions were made b'
leaders in the state; most Michigan residents had no control over the location of the
Michigan Agricultural College, the buildings constructed, the curriculum developed, ar

the hiring of faculty, administrators, and farm supervisors. Yet, people did have contrc

over their responses, whether positive or negative. Some demonstrated support by

46

 

sending their sons to attend the College and continued to support funding of the
institution through appropriations from the state. Others did not believe the Colleg:
should exist and advocated that it be a department within University of Michigan.

Leaders, such as the governor, legislators, Board of Agriculture members,
clergymen, and college presidents and faculty, comprised the group of influencers i
Michigan. They successfully expounded their beliefs through public speaking and
writing like the experts of the 19th century referenced in the previous scrap bag sect
influencing and directing the lives of women. Their prolific instruction to men and
women on what to do and where to do it continued to promote separate spheres for
and women. Men were to live their lives in the public sphere of the community
performing in the civil affairs of government, work, and church. Women were to li
the private sphere of home influencing their husbands and training their children to
proper contributions in society. Advocates of women’s education continued to gro‘
believing that women’s contribution to the developing nation could be more signifi
they were given opportunities to learn as their male counterparts.

In addition, during this period of the 19th century, American immigrants ant
descendents moved West across the country populating the land with cities, countie
establishing states. By 1855, thirty-one states had been established, and by 1869, s
more were added to their number for a total of thirty-seven states in the Union. In I
midst of their quest to build a nation, many people felt the need to create state syste
education that were different from the European systems they either experienced or
barred from entering. Pieces of this new system focused on education for young cl

both boys and girls, in academies or graded and common schools, and after these, i

47

 

 

normal schools, colleges or female seminaries. Leadership from each state determined
what pieces of education formed its state system and which students attended its
institutions. In the years prior to and in the years following the establishment of the state
of Michigan, scrap bag pieces were gathered for what would begin the development of a
state educational system. The Michigan Agriculture Society was an instrumental group
in the state’s early years, and influenced the formation of Michigan Agricultural College,
which became a quintessential piece of education for some women residing within the
state of Michigan (Transactions of the Michigan State Agricultural Society, 1856).

The years 1855 through 1869 were chosen for this section because they spanned
the beginning years at Michigan Agricultural College and also provided a natural break
between the years before and after women were allowed admission to the College. The
title for this section, “The Scrap Bag Years at Michigan Agricultural College, 1855-
1869” pictured the continuing work of gathering pieces including events, perspectives,
and philosophies that influenced and aided in the creation of the institution and in the
eventual admission of women to the College in 1870. The following “scrap bag pieces”
included in this section continue the process for a quilt of women’s education at
Michigan Agricultural College:

Foundations of Education

Foundations of Women’s Education

Foundations Leading to the Formation of Michigan Agricultural College

Founding and First Years at Michigan Agricultural College

First Women at Michigan Agricultural College?

Foundations of Education

48

The debate over whether religion should be a foundational element in educatio
began to escalate in the 18th century and came into full bloom in the 19th century. Thi:
sectarian debate was supported by the changing purpose of education. Since the initia
of collegiate education in America beginning with the establishment of Harvard Colle;
in 1636 forward, the early immigrants believed that dichotomizing education was
unproductive and inappropriate because faith was an integral part of the life of a WhOlt
person. Therefore, they believed that all subjects and approaches to education needed
foundation rooted in relationship to and faith in God. Evidence of theocentricity was
found in three primary documents of Harvard College. First, an early immigrant declz
in a promotional pamphlet for Harvard College, New England’s First Fruits 1643, that
God was their Protector on the journey from. EurOpe and directed various members of
their group to create places of worship, government, and education (as cited in Hofsta:
& Smith, 1961).

After God had carried us safe to New England, and wee had builded our house

provided necessaries for our lively-hood, rear’d convenient places for Gods

worship, and setled the Civill Government: One of the next things we longed f

and looked after was to advance Learning and perpetuate it to Posterity; dreadi

to leave an illiterate Ministery to the Churches, when our present Ministers sha
lie in the Dust. And as wee were thinking and consulting how to effect this gr:

Work: it pleased God to stir up the heart of one Mr. Harvard (a godly Gentlem

and lover of Learning, there living amongst us) to give the one halfe of his Est:

(it being in all about 1700.1.) towards the erecting of a Colledge: and all his

Library: after him another gave 300.1. others after them cast in more, and the

publique hand of the State added the rest: the Colledge was, by common conse

appointed to be at Cambridge, (a place very pleasant and accommodate) and is
called (according to the name of the first founder) Harvard Colledge. (as cited

Hofstadter & Smith, 1961, p. 6)

In addition, several of the nineteen laws of Harvard College called the Statutes of

Harvard (1646), were based on a theocentric foundation as noted by the

49

references to God or church and the inclusion of Bible verses as the rationale for
their existence.

2. Every one shall consider the main End of his life and studies, to know G
Jesus Christ which is Eternal life. John 17.3.

3. Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in se
seek wisdom of Him. Prov. 2.2, 3 etc.

4. Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day
seeing the Entrance of the word giveth light etc. Psahns 119, 130.

5. In the public Church assembly they shall carefiilly shun all gestures that

any contempt or neglect of God’s ordinances . . . .

6. They shall eschew all profanation of God’s holy name, attributes, word,

ordinances, and times of worship, and study with reverence and love carefL
retain God and his truth in their minds. (as cited in Hofstadter & Smith, 19¢
8)

Thirdly, the author of the Harvard Charter of 1650 attributed the founding of Harv.
College to God’s direction for the purpose of education in godliness and for prosel
the heathen.

Whereas through the good hand of God many well devoted persons have be

daily are moved and stirred up to give and bestow sundry gifts, legacies, lar

and revenues for the advancement of all good literature, arts and sciences i1

Harvard College . . . that may conduct to the education of the English & Int

youth of this Country in knowledge: and godliness. (as cited in Hofstadter‘

Smith, 1961, p. 10)

The majority of the early colonial colleges had similar theocentric foundin;
documents to Harvard College. Thomas Clap (1754), author of The Religious
Constitution of Colleges, also wrote “The Issue of a Denominational College, 175:
this article he stated that some maintained that potential male students would leaw
a“lend other institutions, perhaps even in other states, if they could not find an inst
of their particular protestant sect. As a result, some claimed the number of men tk

Could defend and lead the government would be depleted. As if in response to thi

Concern, many sectarian colleges emerged but still did not survive because they di

50

have adequate financial backing. Clap also believed that government support of a1
particular sect would be offensive and even injurious to other sects that were not g
charters or financially supported by the government (as cited in Hofstadter & Smit
1961). In the 19th century, the theocentric language and focus of the “old-time col
and the prolific creation of sectarian colleges were entering a phase of significant <
One major change was the coupling of the old theocentric authority structures witl
’ authority structures based on science; another was the desire to replace sectarianisr
science.

The same year as the founding of the University of Michigan (1841), the
Michigan Regents gave warnings against sectarianism in a committee report to the
Superintendent of Public Instruction; the first signer of the report was George Duf:
Presbyterian clergyman. The Regents said that the advent and elevation of science
scientific research promoted the belief that state education should not be in the bus
of proselytizing but in the business of learning and research for the good of state a
nation building. Further, they said that people began to believe that state educatio:
would be purer education because it would not be encumbered by debates betweer
religious sects. The Regents observed that people also began to shift in their pers1:
on the value of faith-based religion and gave allegiance to science and scientific re
because they believed this new focus did not require faith for sustenance. In addit
they believed that too many institutions had been created based on minor religious
differences that were not sustainable because financial support was uneven betwee
institutions. The parallel belief was that if one larger state institution was created :

state, financial support would be forthcoming from the state and federal govemme

51

and each of these institutions would not be reliant on fluctuations of support from
particular denomination (as cited in Hofstadter & Smith, 1961).

The common pattern in the founding of colleges and universities was that
were initiated and led by ministers who held presidential and faculty positions ant
continued to lead and teach, while influenced by their religious beliefs. This patte
remained until graduates of state institutions began to take leadership in state and
sectarian institutions. The University of Michigan, the first state institution, was i
the first non-sectarian institutions with a non-sectarian president in the nation (Ho
& Smith, 1961). Andrew D. White (1905), author of an autobiography on Dr. Ta]
the first President of the University of Michigan, noted the following.

The features which mainly distinguished the University of Michigan from
leading institutions of the East were that it was utterly unsectarian, that var
courses of instruction were established, and that options were allowed betr
them. On these accounts that university holds a most important place in tl
history of American higher education; for it stands practically at the begin
the transition from the old sectarian college to the modern university, and

the simple, single, cast-iron course to the form which we now know, in wt
various courses are presented, with free choice between them. (as cited in

Hofstadter & Smith, 1961, p. 546) ‘

White also described some of the challenges faced by Dr. Tappan related to the ne
sectarian approach to education.

The worst difficulty by far which he [Tappan] had to meet was the steady

opposition of the small sectarian colleges scattered throughout the State. 1
its own petty interest, dreaded the grth of any institution better than itse
stirred the members of the legislature from its locality to oppose all aid to

State university; each, in its religious assemblages, its synods, conferences
the like, sought to stir prejudice against the State institution as ‘godless.’ '
result was that the doctor [Tappan], in spite of his eloquent speeches, beca
butt of various wretched demagogues in the legislature, and he very rarely
anything in the way of effective appropriations. (as cited in Hofstadter & E
1961, pp. 547-48)

52

Michigan Agricultural College followed in the footsteps of the University of Michigan as
a public institution. Regardless of the fact that it was a state institution, theocentricity

was still a mainstay in its early years despite its non-sectarian status (TMSAS, 1856).
Foundations of Women ’s Education

Prior to the opening of Michigan Agricultural College, formal education in the
Nation evolved along religious, economic, gender, ethnic, and racial lines; in some cases,
these lines blended and in others, segregation was tenaciously held. National and state
educational systems showed signs of slowly shifting during the 19th century as seen
through the changing definitions and descriptions of educational institutions, as well as
changes in access for women and men of color (Boas, 1935; Eisenmann, 1997; Solomon,
1985). Academies were elementary and secondary schools focused on preparing boys for
college. Boys attended grammar schools in order to prepare or cram for Latin and Greek
college entrance tests. Seminaries, the name for early institutions such as Harvard, were
now primarily elementary and secondary schools for girls preparing them for domestic,
social, and religious life. Public Common Schools and Union or Graded Schools began
to replace the academies. A difference between academies and the new public schools
was the fact that students had to pay to attend academies, and the public schools were
free to all students. In addition, Union and Graded Schools, part of the public educational
system in Michigan, differed in organization from both the academies and the Common
School in that they had

. . . two or more departments, under different teachers, the pupils being distributed

to the departments according to attainments. It is not necessarily implied that a

higher grade of studies is taught than those of the ordinary Common School. The

fundamental idea of the Graded School is that great doctrine of modern Economy

---- “the division of labor.” (Twenty-Third Annual Report of the Superintendent
of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan, 1860, p. 24)

53

 

Normal Schools focused on the training of teachers for the Primary Schools in the State.
College was the name used to describe professional schools whose purpose was exclusive
training for young men in ministry, law, or medicine; early in the 19th century, women
were not allowed to practice these professions. Gender was not the only division as
college was not for men of color or low economic status but typically only the elite. In
addition, some schools called colleges were that in name only; in reality they had
elementary and secondary curricula and programs rather than post-secondary levels of
education (Woody, 1929). The same held true for the title of university because of the
unevenness of the types and levels of curricula leading to a lack of degree
standardization. Society also valued formal education for men more than women as
evidenced by the system of education and the changing definitions of institutions
(Solomon, 1985). The challenge for historians, such as Thomas Woody, was to
determine the accuracy and completeness of all of the changes because of the
fragmentary nature of records and the lack of categorization and standardization
(Newcomer, 1959).

Before the 19‘h century, women did not have access to formal, co-educational,
post-secondary schools. However, during the 19‘h century, changing roles of women
opened some doors to formal education. These changing roles were reflected in the
perception of the “ideal woman” that “emphasized innocence, modesty, piety, purity,
submissiveness, and domesticity” (Perkins, 1997, p. 183). Thomas Woody noted that
between 1750 and 1850 a great change in thought took place on the subject of women’s
education, and some people pleaded for more substance to “offset the usual fripperies in

education” and “fit them [women] for the home” (Woody, 1929, p. 328). It was believed

54

that a woman’s education curriculum needed to be designed in order to prepare them to
fulfill society’s expectations in their appropriate home sphere.

Society dictated “spheres” for both men and women, and education was a means
to better prepare them for life in the spheres. Society viewed the occasional formal
education of women in seminaries much like a finishing school or a way station on the
road to marriage. The “Republican Motherhood Era” characterized the antebellum years
1820-1860 as a time when mothers fulfilled their role as “ideal” women and helped build
a “new” nation by being good wives and mothers (Pahnieri, 1997, p. 175).

As professional white men competed for material gains . . . women accepted as

their female duty the obligation of providing husbands with a needed refuge from

the wider world. A wife at home was one measure of success and societal status.

But since she was also the keeper of spiritual values in the family, she was

expected to temper her husband’s drive for moneymaking. Indeed, an educated

wife, it was presumed, would be able to manage these sometimes contradictory
roles. Increasingly, the professionally educated man insisted that a bright,
educated female would make the best of wives, for she could use her learning and

intelligence as a partner and homemaker. (Solomon, 1985, p. 37)

Thus, if women participated in formal education, it was not primarily for personal
enhancement, but for enhancement of their future roles as “helpmeets” to their husbands
and as teachers of their children. A commonality in all of these emerging educational
systems was patriarchy. This patriarchal structure, evident in the dominant culture,
dictated that men held authority literally and figuratively in both public and private
spheres; therefore, formal education was primarily for elite, wealthy men, preparing them
for contributions to the nation as responsible citizens outside the home in professions as

clergymen, lawyers, and medical doctors. Women worked as wives and mothers inside

the home caring for children, preparing food, and engaging in other domestic tasks.

55

This gendered division of labor and career formed roles and acceptable
responsibilities related to women. For example, mothers were responsible for teaching
all of their children to read in order for children to learn about God and the Bible and
eventually follow their parents’ religious preferences. However, beyond religious
training, learning to read had very different outcomes based on gender. Boys were taught
to read to prepare them for college or careers, and girls were taught to read in order to
prepare them to stay in the home and teach their children to read, and mothers were
encouraged to see this preparatory work as valuable in developing their new nation. This
standard role indoctrination began to vary late in the 18th century when an ethnic group of
Moravians in Pennsylvania and a group of Catholic nuns in Georgia opened some of the
first female seminaries (Woody, 1929). While college education opened doors for young
men to professions, young women were not allowed access to these professions, and their
education was still seen as a means to help them in their sole career option as useful
married women effectively managing a household, raising children, and supporting their
husbands. The social significance of educating women was expressed by Charles
McIver:

The cheapest, easiest, and surest road to universal education is to educate those

who are to be mothers and teachers of future generations; . . . the proper training

of women is the strategic point in the education of the race; . . . and educate a man

and you have educated one person, --educate a mother and you have educated a

whole family. (as cited in Woody, 1929, p. 402)

Sally Pierce began this type of training for girls in her home in 1797 and later in
1827 incorporated her school naming Litchfield Academy, reflecting the possibility

education might hold for women. Other early women’s institutions included Troy

(1821), Hartford (1823), Ipswich (1825), and Rockford (1847) Female Seminaries.

56

These institutions greatly influenced women’s education early in the 19m century, and
each of them was a result of the work of women impassioned to provide education for
women in and beyond the home setting. In addition, the creation of women’s colleges
such as Mt. Holyoke, established in 1837, or religious co-educational institutions such as
Oberlin Collegiate Institute, established in 1833, created other forms of formal education
for women. While few women entered these alternative forms of formal education, even
fewer women chose professions after education other than those aimed toward domestic
duties of the home. The question of what were women “to do” with college education
continued to be an ugly piece in the scrap bag.

However, there were a few faint “voices” in society that encouraged exercising
the mind and advocated for educating women; these voices were becoming stronger. The
Yale Report of 1828 supported the idea of “exercising the mind” and students, including
female students attending Oberlin Collegiate Institute (1833), were encouraged to think,
to inquire, and to reach for higher understanding which, in turn, supported their
theocentric motivated desire to advance the Kingdom of God. In a letter written on
August 11, 1839, Oberlin student Betsey Cowles implored her sister Cornelia to exercise
her mind:

My own dear sister,

. . . Cornelia, I think it most lamentable that your mind is not disciplined
by Study; because nature has endowed you with abilities enough; and had they
been improved as they should be; you would be far happier and better. You
would although you may laugh at me; and what is of far more weight - in the seol,
you mi ght-have done much very much towards elevating the Female character.
Now it is true that woman in point - of intellect does not occupy the station which
was designed by her mother; and she never will until the standard of female
education is elevated. I like the training here; because the fundamental branches

are the first. Oh! I do hope the time is not far distant when females will feel and
act that they are made for something more than to flutter or to serve. If you teach

57

do endeavor to give your Scholars a permanent taste for reading and study. Could

you accomplish this; your time will not be mis—spent.

You will say I have given you a real lecture never mind . . . (Oberlin

College Archives, August 11, 1839, Papers of Betsey Mix Cowles)

Mary Ann Adams also highlighted the work of the mind in her experience as a student in
the early years of Oberlin Collegiate Institute. “We are taught not only to fully appreciate
the worth of an author but to think for ourselves upon the various subjects . . . the works
we investigate . . . are calculated to furnish discipline of mind and a supply of rich
thought” (as cited in Fletcher, 1943, Vol. I, pp. 460-461).

While “exercising the mind” may sound like a wildly radical activity for women
in the early to mid 18005, many valued educating women as long as it was a particular
form of education for a particular purpose. The form was domestic education for the
purpose of proper, productive activity in the home because society relegated the
education and the work of women to the widely proclaimed proper sphere of the home.
The occasional woman or man who believed the sphere of the home limited women
unduly and who sought ways to expand that sphere was seen as a violator of societal and
Godly order.

We lament the erratic course of many of our female reformers, believing that they

have inflicted deep injury where they intended good, by drawing woman away

from her true and allotted sphere --- domestic life. Nor are our female lecturers
and female politicians alone at fault; for it is to be feared that even some Christian
ministers, with greater zeal than knowledge, have, by their impassioned appeals,
sent woman abroad into the highways and by-ways of life, thereby deadening
their sense of home responsibilities and social duties, and teaching them to violate
that Gospel injunction which plainly declares that women should be “keepers at

home.” (Graves, 1841, pp. xiv-xv)

Catherine Beecher was perhaps teetering on the edge of falling into the category

of violator when she authored and advocated the book A Treatise on Domestic Economy,

for the use of Young Ladies at Home, and at School in 1842. She claimed that some

58

utilized the book as a textbook and that its usage could expand further. “Women will be
trained to secure, as of first importance, a strong and healthy constitution, and all those
rules of thrift and economy that will make domestic duty easy and pleasant” (Beecher,
1842, p. 6). Thus, the pieces in the scrap bag slated for the quilt of women’s education
dictated the forms that women’s education would take in the decades to come. Society
supported these pieces with hierarchy based on gender, role distinction based on gender,
nation-building work built on gender, and the desire of some men and women to create
advanced education for women outside the home. The process of shifting beliefs
pertaining to the education of women was uneven, yet there were places that evidenced
changing beliefs such as Female Seminaries, Oberlin Collegiate Institute, and Mt.
Holyoke College. These early examples of education for women provided possibilities
for others to consider the education of women within their particular settings, such as the

state of Michigan and eventually, Michigan Agricultural College.
Foundations Leading to the Formation of Michigan Agricultural College

The establishment of the state of Michigan occurred in 1835 and in the first
section of the state constitution Michigan’s governor was given the power to appoint a
Superintendent of Public Instruction upon a favorable vote from the Legislature.
Although federal legislation supporting the creation of land grant colleges was twenty-
five years in the future (passed on July 2, 1862), the second section of this newly formed
state constitution “made it the duty of the Legislature to encourage, by all suitable means,
the promotion of intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement” (as cited in Beal,
1915, p. 2). On March 18, 183 7, the state Legislature approved an act supporting

agricultural education and the constitution’s second section by creating the University of

59

 

Michigan with plans to hire a professorate trained in the liberal arts and agricultural
education. However, none of the agricultural education designed to instruct in practical
and experimental farming at the University ever materialized. By the late 18408, men in
the state of Michigan were committed to advancing the profile and profession of
agriculture and thus, formed the association and membership of the Michigan State
Agricultural Society. These events were documented in the Transactions of the Michigan
State Agricultural Society (TMSAS) report, published by order of the Legislature meeting
in the Hall of the House of Representatives in Lansing, Michigan, on March 17, 1849.
Mr. Dort offered the following resolutions, which were unanimously adopted, viz:
Resolved, That a committee of seven be appointed by the President, whose
duty it shall be to prepare and report, at a subsequent meeting, a plan for the
organization of a State Agricultural society, and that they are requested to report
such a constitution and by—laws as they may deem most suitable to promote the
legitimate purpose of such a society. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 2)
The Society was approved on April 2, 1849, “for the purpose of promoting the
improvement of agriculture, and its kindred arts” (TMSAS, 1849, p. 31). The address
given at this meeting by Lieutenant Governor F enton clearly indicated that the
improvement and upkeep of the farms in the state of Michigan were essential not only for
the betterment of farmers’ lives within the state but also as a part of God’s blessing. He
encouraged each farmer to
. . . lend his aid in the organization of a society, one of whose principal objects is,
to raise man from a state of ignorance, misery and want, to a condition better
fitted than any other for the full enjoyment of the blessings which the bounteous
hand of Providence has placed within the reach of all. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 14)
Raising “man from a state of ignorance” included seeing the land of Michigan as God’s

gift and recognizing education from the “scientific wor ” of Agricultural Societies in

Michigan counties and the newly formed State Agricultural Society.

60

One of the primary means of encouraging this informal on-going education was
the formation of agricultural fairs in which farmers entered their produce, livestock, or
manufactured items. Entries were judged and the best received ribbons and monetary
premiums. The Society meetings and this means of competition at the fair were intended
to stimulate and “exercise the minds” of the farmers and to motivate them to find
improvements in their livelihood.

The simple meeting together of those whose aim is the same, tends in no slight

degree to effect their object. There appears to be a kind of magnetism (be it

animal or spiritual, it matters not) in the contact of man with his fellow, of mind
with mind. They meet together, each communicates to the other his experience in
the occupation which is the subject of their thoughts and conversation----his
knowledge of the business in which they are engaged. Each incites in the mind of
his hearer a spirit of emulation in that in which he happens to excel. All learn
something they have not before known . . . It seems like a combination of minds
for the time being, the knowledge of each and every one of which is shared with

that of him who may not be so well informed. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 17)

The importance of agricultural work was not to be underestimated in Lieutenant
Governor Fenton’s opinion. In his address to the new Agricultural Society, he connected
agricultural work to the success within communities evidenced by people living virtuous
lives, adoring and worshipping God, loving the new country, and committing to be
Nation-builders. He saw the benefit of other professions, but the art of agriculture was
elevated as central and “most useful, most honorable, most universal, most ancient . . .
From the days of Adam until the present time it has been the chief source of wealth, and
the principle means of existence to man” (TMSAS, 1849, p. 22).

The main focus of the Lieutenant Governor’s speech was on men, both husbands
and sons, and he did not give a large focus to women and daughters. Nevertheless, there

was no confusion in the minor mention of what was expected of them. They, like their

male counterparts, were given responsibility in the work of the mind and the work on the

61

 

 

farm but the private sphere of the home was heralded as the appropriate location for
execution of women’s work. The central purpose for wives living on farms continued to
be supporting the work of their husbands. In addition, the expectation for daughters was
to learn from their mothers and thus, support the work of their fathers.
The wife and mother, not forgetting the due execution of her daily round of
household cares----not neglecting the spinning wheel or weaving loom, yet with
the assistance of a daughter, perchance just budding into womanhood, whose
mind has been freely stored with scientific and practical knowledge of botany and
its auxiliaries, adds beauty to the landscape, and comfort and elegance to the
residence of the husbandman. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 27)
Michigan’s state Legislature gave further support to the elevation of the profession and
education in agriculture by revising the state constitution August 15, 1850, as seen in
Article 13, Section 11:
The Legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific, and
agricultural improvement; and shall, as soon as practicable, provide for the
establishment of an Agricultural School. The Legislature may appropriate the
twenty-two sections of Salt Spring Lands now unappropriated, or the money
arising from the sale of the same, where such lands have been already sold, and
any land which may hereafter be granted or appropriated for such purpose, for the
support and maintenance of such School, and may make the same a branch of the
University, for instruction in agriculture and the natural sciences connected
therewith, and place the same under the supervision of the Regents of the
University. (as cited in TMSAS, 1857, p. 285)
This was a significant redirection of the focus for college education by Michigan’s state
Legislators in that the Morrill Act had not yet been passed. The support of the
Legislature was not just for the “idea” of an agricultural college, but as seen in Article 13,
Section 11 their early support identified both funding for land and maintenance of the
school and a potential governance structure. Of further note, links continued to be made

by these state leaders between the agricultural work in the community, the work of the

mind, and the new, burgeoning authority of science.

62

Engaged in the cultivation of the soil, and the cares attendant upon carrying on a
farm, the husbandman avoids the contagion of evil examples. Communities rise
with the early dawn, and retire to rest as the shades of evening fall upon the
landscape. There is no temptation to stray from the paths of virtue, and. at the
sound of the church—going bell on a Sabbath morn, they may be seen congregated
together in the sincerity of adoration to that God whose rain falls alike upon the
just and the unjust, who regulates the seasons, and rewards the toil of the
husbandman. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 21)
Biblical illustrations, such as Adam and his relationship with agriculture, references to
Bible verses or God combined with the work of the mind, and the improvements sought
through scientific research within appropriate spheres continued to denote a society in the
midst of changing values. theocentricity, nation-building, and exercising the mind
through scientific research and education formed the foundation for the creation of

Michigan Agricultural College. In addition, new pieces were in the midst of being
gathered as women’s spheres began to slowly expand.
Founding Michigan Agricultural College

The foundations of education in general and Michigan’s primary occupation of
agriculture both contributed to the founding of Michigan Agricultural College. The new
state Agricultural Society began intentionally and continuously advocating for
agricultural education in the common schools and for a state college focused on
agricultural instruction (Beal, 1915). On February 12, 1855, Act No. 130 in the Session
Laws of 1855 recorded the approval for the establishment of a state Agricultural School
complete with an experimental farm located near the city of Lansing and under the
supervision of the State Board of Education. Section 4 of this Act stated that the
institution’s “chief purpose and design” was “to improve and teach the science and
practice of agriculture” (as cited in Beal, 1915, p. 477). These significant decisions made

. by the state Legislators catapulted Michigan into the leadership position in agricultural

63

 

education. When the federal government passed the Morrill Act in July of 1862,
Michigan Agricultural College became the first land grant institution in the nation.
However, the College leadership did not confine the education offered solely to the
science and practice of agriculture in its early years but also included other courses as
those listed in the following.

[T]he following branches of education, viz: an English and scientific course,
natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, animal and vegetable anatomy and
physiology, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, entomology, veterinary art,
mensuration, leveling and political economy, with bookkeeping and the mechanic
arts which are directly connected with agriculture, and such others as the Board of
Education may fiom time to time see fit to prescribe . . . (as cited in Beal, 1915, p.
477)

This last statement provided a way to introduce future fields of study at the College and
perhaps an opportunity for the future education of women.

The Dedication Ceremony. Michigan Agricultural College, located three miles
east of Lansing, held a dedication ceremony on May 13, 1857 with the Governor of
Michigan, officers of the state, and many state citizens in attendance (TMSAS, 1857).
The dedication speakers, other participants, and the structure of the ceremony reflected a
theocentric perspective as well as a determination to elevate and combine the work of
science with the work of God in agriculture. The Hon. H. L. Miller, President of the
Board of Education, opened the ceremony with welcoming remarks expressing his
gratitude for the agricultural focus of College education and also recognizing “the
guardianship of that one Great Being, who is before all human powers” (TMSAS, 1857,
pp. 297-298). Next Rev. Mr. Willard, also a member of the Board of Education, read

Proverbs 3, a chapter from the Bible full of admonishments directed to the audience and

64

student-farmers to gain wisdom and knowledge from God, to fear, honor and trust God,
to be faithful to God and to share with neighbors.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own
understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine
increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out
with new wine. Proverbs 3:5-6, 9-10

Following the Scripture reading Rev. Mr. Mahon offered a prayer and then addresses
were given by the Hon. John R. Kellogg, a senior Board of Education member, Hon.
Joseph R. Williams, President of Michigan Agricultural College and Michigan’s
Governor Kinsley S. Bingham. The speakers connected the work of the new College
with the work of God, Michigan’s responsibility in building the new Nation, the
expansion of education in Michigan beyond the elite, the development of education
devoted to exercising the mind and body, the application of science to the work of
farming, and the central and sole contribution of men to all of these efforts. Capping the
addresses, a voluntary choir from Lansing sang “Song of Labor,” followed by readings
from Whittier’s “Seed Time and Harvest” and a original ode, by I. M. Cravath (TMSAS,
l857,p.322y

Hark! hark! hark!
Tiller of the earth!
Thy day of triumph’s come!
Science now owns thy worth,
And builds with thee her home.
Lo! at the gate of her temple she stands,
Thy sons she bids enter its walls and behold
Her search out the secrets of earth, till its sands,
Dissolved by her touch, are transformed into gold.
Hail to thee! hail! child of toil!
Shall Science forsake thee? No, never!
We pledge thee her heart and her hand,
And this, her fair Temple, forever!
Hark! hark! hark!

65

 

From the distant field
Is heard the plowman’s song!
The soil now its wealth shall yield ----
Labor shall here learn how potent the charms
For her are wrought out in this classical shade,
And Learning, well pleased with the Model of Farms,
Shall take for her emblems the plow and the spade!
Hail to thee! hail! child of toil!
Shall Science forsake thee? No, never!
We pledge thee her heart and her hand,
And this, her fair Temple, forever! (TMSAS, 1857,
pp. 322-323)
This ode, written in a similar fashion to the biblical Proverb that opened the ceremony,
captured the core of the work to be accomplished at Michigan Agricultural College with
science taking the dominant role and theocentricity taking the lesser. The farmer was
pictured as the obedient laborer who gained his worth from science, who would never
“forsake” him, and learning became the wisdom of the future in the “Temple” of
scientific education. Rev. Mr. Moore gave a benediction, and the official dedication of
Michigan Agricultural College ended.
Michigan Agricultural College Described. Michigan Agricultural College, one of
the first agricultural colleges in the nation, welcomed 123 male students from 24
Michigan counties during the first two-term year in 1857; 81 attended the first term and
101 attended the second term (First Annual Catalogue of the Michigan State Agricultural
College, 1857). Some the students attending the second term lived off-campus because
housing accommodations were limited to 80 students. This residential circumstance
indicated that there were no initial plans for female students because they would have

needed separate housing from the men according to the appropriate decorum set by

society at the time.

66

The requirements for admission consisted of passing “a good examination in the
branches embraced in a Common School Education, viz,: Arithmetic, Geography,
Grammar, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship” (T MSAS, 1857, p. 325). Although
people from other states applied, in the early years Michigan residency was a requirement
for admission. These requirements would not have excluded young women because they
were receiving the same types of education in the home and in the common schools as the
young men.

The College consisted of six faculty members, including the president, and one
administrator. Although women were a part of the College as wives of these employees,
there were no women employed in any of these areas of the College at this time. Only
one of the faculty members lived on campus as the college buildings included a farm
house, an original building when the land was acquired for the College, a newly
constructed main college building and boarding house, and an unfinished stable (Beal,
1915; MAC Catalogue, 1857; TMSAS, 1857);

The Faculty will be embarrassed, at present, by the fact that the Professors, except

one, are compelled to reside at Lansing, whereas the well being of the Institution

requires their constant presence. In the absence of residences near the spot, the

Board of Education have resolved to build four cheap Farm Cottages on the

estate, which will be occupied by the Faculty on such terms as shall be prescribed

by that Board. (TMSAS, 1857, p. 327)

The 676 acres of land designated for the College was covered with trees with the
exception of a few acres that were partially cleared just prior to the start of classes,
evidenced by the surrounding “dead and blackened trees” of a recent forest (Beal, 1915,
p. 28). While tuition was free, part of the attendance requirement included manual labor

for 10-15 hours per week at 5-10 cents an hour. Initially this labor included clearing

trees, erecting buildings, laying out a ditch or surveying work; the remuneration students

67

 

received for their work could apply to their room and board, which was limited to a
maximum of $2.50 per week (TMSAS, 1857).

The curriculum of the College focused on the technical work of agriculture with
specific applications to farming. Courses included instruction in natural sciences,
mathematics, English, rhetoric, history, moral and intellectual philosophy, political
economy, the elements of constitutional law; ancient and modern languages were not
required for admission or included in the curriculum (TMSAS, 1856). “Such a
curriculum, designed for farm boys, naturally did not interest girls, but at no time were
they legally excluded from the college” (Gilchrist, 1947, p. 2). Although women were
not technically excluded, they also were not accustomed to observing other women
pursuing education at public colleges and universities. Official records kept by the US.
Department of Education on the enrollment of women at the nation’s colleges and
universities were not recorded by until 1870 (National Center for Education Statistics,
2000)

Student behavior on campus was regulated by “rules and regulations” that were
“observed and enforced” by the steward, his family, and one of the professors (TMSAS,
1857, pp. 326-327). These rules and regulations included the prohibition of drinking
liquor and using tobacco on campus. They also required students to request permission
to leave campus, adhere to specific hours of study and labor, and attend chapel daily
during the week and a campus religious service on Sunday. While the dedication
ceremony clearly elevated science as a new authority in the lives of students and faculty,

there remained strong elements of a theocentric culture and Michigan Agricultural

 

College’s role in nation-building. There was no mention of the role women held in this
new culture focused on science, especially within the new “temple.”

Laws, procedures, experiments and other pertinent activities related to agricultu
work in the state were recorded each year beginning in 1849 in the annual Transactions
of the Michigan State Agricultural Society reports submitted to the state. These first
Michigan Agricultural Society board reports gave evidence of Michigan’s agricultural
citizenship devoted to defending and building the new nation.

The lovers of their country, for their country’s sake, when danger threatens our
institutions from without, or turbulence reigns within, we can rely upon the aid
such a community to resist every encroachment, and ward off every impending
danger. Virtue, intelligence, and that religion which is disconnected with
gorgeous pomp and show, animates and inspires them to be jealous of their
privileges, and ready to defend, if needs be, their homes, rendered doubly dear 1
their position, independent, as it must ever comparatively be, of all the world
beside. (TMSAS, 1849, p. 21)

This nation-building theme continued throughout the beginning years of Michigan
Agricultural College as evidenced in most of the Michigan Agricultural Society Board
reports. In 1861 , the “objects” of the institution were included in both the annual
Agricultural Society Board report and Michigan Agricultural College catalogues as list»
below:

1. To impart a knowledge of science and its application to the arts of life ----
especially the sciences which relate to agriculture and kindred arts.

2. To afford students the privilege of daily manual labor, the advantage of whicI
is, primarily, educational, as illustrating the principles of science, and imparting
taste for agricultural pursuits, but designed in some degree, as a means by whicl
students may partly defray their expenses.

3. To prosecute experiments for the settlement of various important questions
connected with agriculture.

4. In accordance with the organic law of the college as well as the Act of congrt
donating lands for agricultural colleges, to give instruction in the military art.

5. To afford the means of a general education to the farming class. (Fourth Ann
Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Michig
1865,p.227)

69

Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 185 7-1869. Enrollment statistics and
other descriptions of the College and the curriculum were included in the yearly
Michigan Agricultural College catalogues. These published documents provided
information on the early patterns for the education and life experiences of students which
would form the framework that women would have to fit into when they began to attend
the College in 1870. These catalogue records have been gathered and stored primarily in
the Michigan State University Archives with a few exceptions housed in the Michigan
State University Museum. The first four MAC catalogues published from 1857 to 1860
were hand-written in large script and the remaining years, 1861-1869, were published by
John A. Kerr & Co. (1861-1868) and W. S. George & Co. (1869).

The first catalogue (1857) included the names of students, their town and county
residences, dates for entrance and end of term examinations, the College’s opening
ceremony, hours designated for labor, length of terms, a list of the types of courses, a list
and description of the campus acreage and buildings, a description of the establishment of
the College library and the student-organized Lyceum. The second and third catalogues
(1858 and 1859) included expanded versions of the courses of study divided into terms
and years, and also a schedule of the daily routine of students. The fourth catalogue
(1860) included an additional piece of information describing the “radical change in the
character of the institution at the close of the year 1859, making the course professional
in two branches, agriculture and horticulture” (MAC Catalogue, 1860). Fruther, a
preparatory course was added for students enrolling without adequate preparation for
either course of study. Catalogues from 1861 to 1869, published by companies in type-

set fashion, included more descriptive and extensive information (see Appendix B).

70

‘

 

The first 123 students were all men, and there was no status (freshmen,
sophomore, junior, and senior) designation for the first two years. Male enrolhnent at
Michigan Agricultural College ranged from a high of 143 students in 1858 to a low of 49
students in 1860 with an average of 87 students per year for the 13 years prior to the
attendance of women in 1870. F orty-four of these male students graduated with Bachelor
of Science degrees from 1857 to 1869, with the first seven graduating in 1861 (see
Appendix C). The Civil War had a major impact on the enrollment of students and the
completion of graduates. Many young men served in the military and many died
affecting both enrollment and subsequent graduation. Enrollment at the College was the
lowest during four out of the five years of the Civil War and in 1863 and 1865, there
were no graduates.

Another influence on enrollment and completion of degrees during this time
included curriculum formation. Dr. William Beal, professor of botany from 1870 to 1910
and author of the first comprehensive History of the Michigan Agricultural College
published in 1915, stated that in the early years of Michigan Agricultural College it was
difficult to find appropriate textbooks and even more difficult to locate faculty with
extensive scientific and experiential knowledge of agriculture who were able to teach
both in the field and in the classroom. The College had an uphill climb to convince the
citizens of Michigan that the education it offered produced a better life and therefore, was
worth the time and efforts of their children. In addition, the reputation of Michigan
Agricultural College was questioned by many in the state; yet, the 1859 Board of
Agriculture report continued to attempt to give a broader perspective on those early years.

Thus the project of building an Agricultural College seems to have been
eminently wise and far-sighted. It has been doubted whether its establishment

71

was not premature, but the large number of students who have applied for
admission sufficiently attests that its organization was not in advance of the 1
demand. The real obstacles that have lain in the way of its success have beer
immature condition of the farm, and the great difficulty of obtaining in this
country, men of competent scholarship, united with practical skill as
agriculturists, to fill the various offices of the College. (Twenty-third Annual
Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan,

p. 14)
Even a decade later despite the support from the federal government in the Morrill 15
some state residents continued to question Michigan Agricultural College’s land gra
status and its use of state appropriations. These critics did not hesitate to hasten the
College’s demise as noted in the following excerpt from the Detroit Post newspaper
March 31, 1869.
The State of Michigan has through its Legislature invested $70,000 in the
education of young men at its Agricultural College. The amount to be expen
in dormitories might have been saved by uniting the College to the Universit
The dormitory system, handed down to us from the days of monasteries, is a
vicious one and is gradually decaying, as it ought. The total sum, $70,000, I]
have been employed in educating the students instead of building rooms fort
with part of it. If the College cannot infuse into the study of Agriculture muc
the enthusiasm of the scholar and of the refinement of mind and manners in <
departments of life, it will be a failure. That it need not be is our profound f2
that it will not our earnest hope. (as cited in Gilchrist, 1947, p. 2)
Several entries in President Abbot’s diary relayed similar critical remarks he read in
“Free Press,” the “Lansing Republican,” and the “Jackson Patriot;” leaders commen
in these papers recommended “that the Agriculture College be turned over to the
University” (Abbot diary, 1869, p. 449, 454). President Abbot also received person:
letters questioning the existence of the College, as seen in the following entry on
Tuesday, January 5, 1869.
Under this date a letter came from Seward Hawkins dealer in tin and sheet in

. . . He says “It has always been my firm belief and is now, that the whole aft
(Agr. Coll.) should be squelched, or at any rate should be under the State Urr

72

He wants a catalogue to see if it is “as big a humbug as it is reported and genera
believed in the locality.” (Abbot diary, 1869, p. 448)

Although this letter later proved to be a hoax, there were other legitimate sources, leade
in the state, who continued to question the existence or the operation of the College.
President Abbot met with some of them and recorded his observations on January 22nd
and the 26th in 1869.

Met committee on Senate of Agriculture and Education committee don’t quite

believe in the college but will sustain it. Mr. Pierce mailed report of receipts an

expenditures before acting said he was ready to support the college; so also said

Senator Norris who don’t believe in making class institutions; Mr. Philips don’t

believe in labor, says it don’t make any difference in the pursuit afterwards . . . t

W. Beckwith President of State Agr. Soc’y delivered his address before executi‘

committee of the society . . . It comes down on the college. (Abbot Diary, 1869,

45 1 -45 2)

President Abbot responded to the challenges regarding the College’s existence by WI'llll
a personal letter to President Beckwith and an open letter to various newspapers on the
management of the College (Abbot Diary, 1869; Office of President Abbot
Correspondence, 1869).

Instruction in agriculture was to be a part of the University of Michigan, but it
never materialized in the classroom. Many believed, as did the newspaper reporters an:
some state leaders, that there was no need for Michigan Agricultural College and actuai
thought it was an irresponsible use of state funds to have a separate agricultural college
Although agricultural production was the primary occupation of the majority of people
Michigan, many considered the agriculturally focused curriculum to be less scholarly
than the liberal arts curriculum offered at University of Michigan. However, founders i

the state of Michigan valued education, as seen in their first actions, to establish a state

system of instruction and a position to oversee this instruction. Later these state leader:

73

established both the University of Michigan (1841) and Michigan Agricultural College
(1855), supporting both with endowments of land and yearly appropriations.

Each catalogue from 1861 to 1869 each contained a section labeled “Admission”
in which a description was given outlining the requirements for enrollment at Michigan
Agricultural College. Enrollment in the Preparatory class was similar to the Full Course
requiring that a student had to satisfactorily complete examinations in “Arithmetic,
Geography, Grammar, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship” (MAC Catalogue, 1861, p.
13). Students desiring a Select Course of study needed to be “of suitable age” and were
required to attend “one or more of the regular College Classes; to perform three hours
labor in one of the regular work-divisions; and to be in all respects subject to the rules
and discipline of the College” (MAC Catalogue, 1861, p. 13). A sample of the sequence
and types of courses offered during the first decade at Michigan Agricultural College
follows.

COURSE OF INSTRUCTION.
PREPARATORY.

Higher Arithmetic,

Physical and Mathematical Geography,

English Grammar

Algebra,

Natural Philosophy,

Rhetoric.

COLLEGE COURSE.
FIRST YEAR.

Geometry,

Meteorology,

History,

Trigonometry and Surveying,

Elementary Chemistry,

English Literature, Book-keeping.

SECOND YEAR.
Physics,

74

Vegetable Physiology, and Horticulture,
Rhetoric,

Civil Engineering,

Botany, Horticulture, and Mineralogy,
Inductive Logic.

THIRD YEAR.

Drawing and Rural engineering,

Geology,

Mental Philosophy,

Astronomy,

Zoology,

Moral Philosophy.

FOURTH YEAR.

Analytical Chemistry,

Animal Physiology,

Political Economy,

Agricultural Chemistry,

Entomology, Veterinary Medicine, Economy of Domestic Animals,

Agricultural and Geographical Botany, Technology, Household and Rural

Economy (MAC Catalogue, 1861, pp. 15-16)

Upon completion of the Full Course and the accompanying examinations, students
received the Bachelor of Science Degree. Students who pursued three additional years of
study engaging in scientific studies received the Master of Science Degree.

The scope and sequence of courses was an important piece in the scrap bag
related to the future quilt of women’s education in that there were no direct connections
with the work in the home sphere. Certainly there were “exercising of the mind”
analytical skills that women could transfer to other activities in the home, but the
applications in the classroom or laboratory were directly related to the work of men
outside the home. Students were believed to be prepared in both theory and practice to
enter any profession related to agriculture. These professions were primarily designed

for men in the work on the farm, other occupations such as college professors in

agricultural colleges or departments, or teachers or administrators in common or grade

75

 

 

 

schools. There was little thought or option for inviting women to attend as the education
was not specifically suited for their lives after college.

While enrolled, students were required to “board” at the College, and they needed
to receive permission to leave the campus. All students had to contribute at least three
hours of manual labor as part of their enrollment, as well. Manual labor, a value
referenced earlier, connected many pieces of life. It was seen as a virtue from God and
was needed to clear land in preparation for cultivation and construction of campus
buildings. It was required in the curriculum because the faculty and administration
believed it was imperative to combine scientific theories with their practical application
in the natural setting. They believed that methodology was best learned in the field, and
comparative research was one of the best modes to validate and advance scientific
theories. In their minds, the “union of science and experiment” was foundational to
learning at Michigan Agricultural College (MAC Catalogue, 1861, p. 23).

The Farm is not only an important but an indispensable element in the educational

facilities of an Agricultural College.

It is a means of illustrating, in the most satisfactory manner, the principles
of science taught in the lecture-room; and of giving the student a practical
knowledge of their applications . . .

True science and practical agriculture must be united, and in their common
results many of the difficulties of the practical farmer will find a ready solution.
(MAC Catalogue, 1861, p. 23)

The faculty and administration at the Michigan Agricultural College considered
other requirements to be essential in the education of students. For example, they
regarded punctuality, proper behavior, and chapel attendance to be non-negotiable areas.
Therefore, when students were late in their attendance at College exercises or if they

influenced others in a “deleterious” manner, they were “reprimanded, suspended, or

expelled, at the discretion of the Faculty” (MAC Catalogue, 1861, p. 29). Evidence that

76

the value of theocentricity continued within the College was seen in the first specific
mention of religious services in the College catalogues, which occurred in 1862 in the
“Discipline” section. “Prompt attendance” at “chapel exercises” was an expectation and
if it was not met, carried the same penalty as missed recitations, lectures and field
operations (MAC Catalogue, 1862, p. 29). A new section entitled “Public Worship” was
added in 1863 and remained in the College catalogues through the end of this decade in
1869 and stipulated the following:
Students are required to attend prayers in the college Chapel every morning; also
public worship on the Sabbath, at the same place. A Bible Class, which all
students are invited to join, is organized each season under the instruction of some
member of the Faculty. (MAC Catalogue, 1863, p. 34)
President Abbot and other faculty members spoke on various topics related to
student life in the chapel times, Bible classes, and Sunday services. All of these

various pieces were added to the scrap bag as potential material for the quilt of

women’s education.
First Women at Michigan Agricultural College?

It is true that there were women at Michigan Agricultural College; however, they
were solely in the roles of wives and daughters or women employed in the homes of
professors or administrators at Michigan Agricultural College during the years 1855-
1869. All of the members of the Board of Education and the faculty and administration
were men. There were no immediate models for women after whom to pattern either
their education or their lives at Michigan’s newly established Agricultural College.
However, Michigan Agricultural Society’s Board of Agriculture reports contained
statements and articles that reflected similar “voices” heard in earlier years requesting

that women be given opportunities to learn for the purpose of training to become better

77

 

wives and mothers. One of these voices was heard in an article entitled “Prize Essay on
Domestic Economy” by Mrs. C. W. Greene written for the 1857 State Agricultural
Society report. The thrust of the writing maintained and advocated practical education
for women that instructed them in the necessary activities related to the appropriate
sphere of the home. “In the case of females, common sense would dictate that the object
of education should be to increase their qualifications for their own appropriate sphere of
usefulness, as arbiters, in the several relations they sustain, of the comfort and home”
(Transactions of the State Agricultural Society of Michigan, 1859, p. 282). Mrs. Greene
further explained that women were naturally endowed to be keepers of the home and that
any education attempting to advance that endowment should be crafted in such a way as
to combine both the theory and practice of domestic arts as well as education to enhance
their intellect.
House-keeping, by which is meant everything embodied in the domestic system,
is the natural avocation of woman, the art of all arts she should thoroughly
understand. This knowledge can only be acquired, as in the case of any art, by
application of personal labor to the various details which are essential to the
comfort and prosperity of every family. General rules and recipes may aid, but
cannot supply the place of experience; as well might a man unacquainted with
navigation, think to guide a ship aright, as for a woman, ignorant of domestic arts
and economy, to expect to guide, successfully, the welfare of a household; both
are liable, in nautical parlance, to find themselves among the breakers. (TSASM,
1859, pp. 282-283)
The thread of domestic education for women was sewn throughout Mrs. Greene’s prize
winning article; the needle guiding the thread remained the relationship of that education
to the plan of God which combined his wisdom with human labor. This divine human

cooperative aided in “the higher progression of the race” preventing a “retrograde into

barbarism, which is the inevitable result of inactivity” (TSASM, 1859, p. 283). Mrs.

 

Greene identified those who circumvented labor, “the guardian virtue of all the virtues,”

as “vampires and humbugs” who not only did not follow the Creator’s plan but also
extracted the prosperity and character of the Nation (TSASM, 1859, pp. 282-283).
Theocentricity and nation-building continued to be pieces gathered for the scrap bag,
especially related to women’s roles in the home sphere and their education for these
roles. The idea and possibility of educating women for appropriate roles within the home
sphere were parallel to the agricultural curricular focus at Michigan Agricultural College
for men because both were founded on theory and the practical applicability to farm
work, as seen in Mrs. Greene’s essay.

Core ideas about women including who they were, what they did, and the purpose
for what they did, were not relegated to local communities. Just as in earlier years of the
new nation, these ideas continued to be produced and propelled back and forth across
America through published books, newspapers and magazines, and personal letters.

Writers like Alice and Phoebe Cary from Michigan vied with Lydia Sigourney for

the honor of being America’s preeminent female poet. Western essayists and

novelists Eliza Famham, Caroline Gilman, and Margaret Coxe pronounced upon
the life and role of women with as much authority as their counterparts in the

East. Western writing might give greater play to homespun humor and rustic

details, but it shared the basic premise of the role assigned woman by antebellum

culture: “creating the home of happiness.” (Ryan, 1975, p. 142)

Alice and Phoebe Cary are of particular interest for this study because of their mid-west
roots -- born in Ohio and residing for part of their lives in Michigan. They were prolific
female poets who relayed the commonly held perspectives on appropriate spheres to be
occupied by men and women. One of the hundreds of poetic offerings from Phoebe Cary
was titled “The Happy Little Wife,” which displayed this common perspective of

husbands working outside the home and wives doing work in the home (Carey, 1865).

Husband “Gudhand” went to town to sell a cow for a profit of silver while the “happy

79

—

little wife” stayed at home in her safe, private sphere. Gudhand, instead of selling the
cow, traded her for a horse and continued a string of trades including a pig, goat, sheep,
goose, cock and in the end sold the cock and bought some meat. With each trade, the
happy little wife described how she could use the trade in her home for food, clothing, or
other provisions for her family. Each trade also brought praise from her lips for the wise
decision her husband made, and the poem ends with each kissing the other, promising “to
each other to be all in all through life”(Cary, 1865, p. 332).

Phoebe Cary’s poem conveyed the “home of happiness” but these were also times
of change and transition. As mentioned earlier, some women such as Elizabeth Cady
Stanton and Susan B. Anthony believed women ought to be independent individuals
making their own decisions related to marriage, childbearing, contribution to society, and
their education. Another poem entitled “The Bridal Veil” written by Phoebe Cary’s sister
Alice demonstrated the conflict in the lives of 19th century married women of individual
independence, submission to their husbands, and societal roles within their prescribed
home sphere.

We’re married, they say, and you think you have won me, —---

Well, take this white veil from my head, and look at me;

Here’s matter to vex you, and matter to grieve you,

Here’s doubt to distrust you, and faith to believe you, -—--

I am all as you see, common earth, common dew;

Be wary, and mould me to roses, not rue!

Ah! Shake out the filmy thing, fold after fold,

And see if you have me to keep and to hold, ----

Look close on my heart -—-- see the worst of its sinning, ----

It is not yours to-day for the yesterday’s winning --—-

The past is not mine ---- I am too proud to borrow ----

You must go to new heights if I love you to-morrow.

We’re married! I’m plighted to hold up your praises,
As the turf at your feet does its handful of daisies;

80

 

 

That way lies my honor, ---- my pathway of pride,

But, mark you, if greener grass grow either side,

I shall know it, and keeping in body with you,

Shall walk in my spirit with feet on the dew!

We’re married! Oh, pray that our love do not fail!

I have wings flattened down and hid under my veil:

They are subtle as light ---- you can never undo them,

And swift in their flight ---- you can never pursue them,

And spite of all clasping, and spite of all bands,

I can slip like a shadow, a dream, from your hands.

Nay, call me not cruel, and fear not to take me,

I am yours for my life-time, to be what you make me, ---—

To wear my white veil for a sign, or a cover,

As you shall be proven my lord, or my lover;

A cover for peace that is dead, or a token

Of bliss than can never be written or spoken. (Cary, 1865, p. 121)
Unlike the “happy little wife,” in this poem the new wife began her married life by taking
an active part in response to her husband’s responsibilities of continuously “moulding”
her life. She held him accountable not only to molding her but to his faithfulness to her.
She assured him that her commitment to him was not guaranteed if he chose “greener
grass,” and the result would be the soaring of her veil-flattened, wings, which could never
be caught by him again. While the choice of whether he was her lord or lover was the
husband’s, Miss Cary stated the young wife also held the choice to stay or leave the
marriage -- a bold statement for a 19th century woman. This was a woman not only
advocating for a voice in marriage but also for possibilities to leave the home if she was
not respected within it. One might say that women’s rights advocates displayed new,
brilliant colors and pieces for the quilt of women’s education.

The voices of Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren and Judith Sargent Murray

referenced previously and the notable Sarah Grimke’s voice as abolitionist and women’s

rights activist, continued to convey their longings for education through personal letters

 

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to family and friends. Even though these women were members of the elite class and
Sarah Grimke had even been educated by tutors, they all longed for more opportunities to
learn. Sarah Grimke expressed her lament later in life to a fiiend in a letter prompted by
her older brother leaving home to study at Yale College.
With me learning was a passion . . . Had I received the education I craved and
been bred to the profession of law, I might have been a useful member of society,
and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a
protector of the helpless. (Sarah Grimke to Harriot Hunt, December 31, 1852 as
cited in Lerner, 1998, p. 6)
The hindsight afforded by recorded history indicated that Sarah and her sister Angelina
Grimke had an immense impact in the national movements to abolish slavery and secure
equitable rights for women. However, Sarah believed her denied access to the benefits
and enjoyments of formal education, unlike her familial brothers, her resulting
deficiencies would lead to her dependence on others to care for herself and her property.

These were additional pieces added to the scrap bag for a quilt of women’s education

during the early years at Michigan Agricultural College from 1857 to 1869.
Summary

A piece depicting women’s enrollment at Michigan Agricultural College was not
yet a part of the scrap bag contents, although the pieces in this section contributed to the
eventual attendance of women at the College. The doors of the College were not open
for women until 1870, and there were many possible reasons that a formal invitation to
enroll was not extended to them earlier. Many believed there were great risks in
educating women at college because they would be violating their God- given spheres
venturing outside the home. Some of the educational work at the College such as the

dissection of animals, the study of human anatomy, and some forms of manual labor were

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deemed by society as inappropriate for women. Further, if women chose to do work
outside the home after college, they would continue violating their home spheres. It was
also assumed that women may disrupt classes because they would distract male
professors and students. In addition, medical experts of the day believed it was unhealthy
for women to use their brains and redirect physical energy away from reproductive
organs thereby, hurting the nation by decreasing potential population. Perhaps some also
believed that the reputation of Michigan Agricultural College, tentative at best during
these early years, was at risk if it appeared to have lowered admission standards or
requirements within the curriculum in order to accommodate the attendance of women.
Regardless of the rationale for keeping the doors closed to women in the first 13 years of
enrollment at Michigan Agricultural College, there were other foundations of women’s
education that were created that made the future idea of educating women at the College

a possibility.

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CHAPTER 3

84

Opening the “Scrap Bag” at Michigan Agricultural College, 1870-1879
Then there’s another thing. I’ve seen folks piece and piece, but when it come to
putting’ the blocks together and quiltin’ and linin’ it, they’d give out; and that’s
like folks that do a little here and a little there, but their lives ain’t of much use
after all, any more’n a lot ‘0 loose pieces ‘0 patchwork. And then while you’re
livin’ your life, it looks pretty much like a jumble ‘o quilt pieces before they’re
put together; but when you git through with it, or pretty nigh through, as I am
now, you’ll see the use and the purpose of everything in it. Everything’ll be in its
right place jest like the squares in this ‘four-patch,’ and one piece may be pretty
and another one ugly, but it all looks right when you see it finished and joined
together. (Hall, 1898, pp. 76-77)

Gathering pieces of leftover material in a scrap bag was an essential precursor for
the future creation of a quilt as described by Aunt Jane. When the quilt-maker was ready
to begin her creation, she opened the scrap bag, spread out all the pieces, and began
choosing those that complemented each other. At first glance the act of gathering scrap
pieces for a quilt seemed random, just a “jumble” of colors and odd shapes. Upon
reflection though there was a reason for the presence of each piece in the scrap bag --
someone in the family needed something, a shirt, a pair of pants, a coat, a blanket for a
new baby, a curtain for a kitchen window and on and on. Each piece represented the
woman’s response to a need in her family or to someone in her community. Initially the
woman could not identify the shapes because the pieces were wrinkled and misshapen
from time in the scrap bag, but as she began the process of quilt-making she ironed them
and cut them to fit her chosen pattern.

Aunt Jane provided another significant picture through the process of quilt-
making. Like the scraps taken from the scrap bag, women’s education seemed like a
“jumble” of pieces in the 18703. Some thought women should be educated solely by

their mothers or parents. Others believed they should have training outside the home.

And still others believed they should have the same learning opportunities as young men.

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In addition, just as Aunt Jane described “folks” who quit part way through the quilt
making process, there were the “folks” who initially supported the idea of educating of
women outside the home but then gave up on the possibility when it met resistance or
limited opportunities. There were also those like Aunt Jane who kept creating and
finding outlets to speak in favor of women’s education, encouraging others to keep at the
task. Some gave women’s education an experimental try, wary at first and then more
supportive later.

The previous two sections described the metaphorical gathering of scrap bag
pieces for the future creation of a quilt of women’s education. Those pieces included
religious beliefs of early immigrants, society’s emphasis on nation—building, an emerging
history of education in the new nation, the central focus of agriculture in the state, and the
establishment of Michigan Agricultural College -- all contributed to this metaphorical
quilt. This section, “Opening the ‘Scrap Bag’ at Michigan Agricultural College 1870-
1879,” describes programs, enrollment, and women’s work at Michigan Agricultural
College. It also includes their education from life experience presented in essays at the
College-directed Farmers’ Institutes. Throughout this section there are voices for and
against women’s education as pieces of the quilt depicting women’s education at
Michigan Agricultural College. The following pieces were selected to illustrate women’s
learning and its settings which formed the quilt’s back and forth pattern:

Women “On Campus”

Women’s Education at Michigan Agricultural College

Women as an Experiment at Michigan Agricultural College

Women’s Education at the Farmers’ Institutes

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Women’s Work at Michigan Agricultural College
Women’s College Education for Home Work

A College Program for Women’s Home Work
Women “On Campus”

Michigan Board of Agriculture Board reports (1870 to 1879), submitted annually
by the Secretary of Michigan’s Board of Agriculture, and Michigan Agricultural College
catalogues (1870 to 1879) provided information related to the on-going development of
education at Michigan Agricultural College and, more importantly for this study, a new
access for women’s education in Michigan. From the first year of the formation of the
Michigan Agricultural Society, the annual report included essays presented at Society
meetings or the Michigan State Fair. Beginning in 1876, selected essays read at the
state’s Farmers’ Institutes were also included in the annual Board report (Report BASM,
1876). Women wrote some of these essays on topics such as education for their children,
education for themselves; their work in the home sphere; and work possibilities outside
the home sphere. Each Board report also included a section describing the physical
changes of the College including new buildings, repairs to existing buildings and
equipment, appropriations from the state and the experiments performed during the year
as well as enrollment and graduation statistics.

Enrollment Recorded. While women were not specifically excluded fiom
attending Michigan Agricultural College, no women attended from the first year of
enrollment in 1857 through 1869 based on the records included in the Michigan
Agricultural College catalogues and the Michigan Board of Agriculture reports for these

years. Further, none of the College catalogues or the Board reports from 1849 to 1869

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mentioned women applying or desiring to attend. In addition, these primary documents
never indicated that there were any future plans for the development of curriculum,
housing, or activities for female students. Then ten young women petitioned Michigan
Agricultural College’s President Abbot requesting admission in 1870 creating possible
new patterns for women’s education (see Appendix D). The names of these students are
well-documented in primary historical records of the College such as the 1870 Catalogue
of the Oflicers and Students of the State Agricultural College of Michigan, the Ninth
Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Michigan
for the Year I 870, and secondary documents such as the History of Michigan
Agricultural College by Dr. William Beals (1915), and Michigan State: The First
Hundred Years by Madison Kuhn (1955). An entry from President Abbot’s diary on
March 11, 1870, recorded the beginning of this new pattern at the College.
March 11. At college A.M. also part of RM. to town from 4-6. All about the
application of girls for admission here to the college. Saw faculty in succession
except Prof. Cook. All thought we ought not to reject them. Went to town and
saw Mr. Jones. Mrs. J. sick and saw Mrs. Allen. Went into tea with Rev. Mr.
Allen. (Abbot Diary, p. 480)
After consulting with the College faculty and meeting with several parents of the young
women, the President granted their request. Three days later the faculty met, and the
President gave a report on the admission of the “ladies.” “Misses Mary Jones, Belle
Allen, Ella Brook, Katie Bacon entered and came to college, Miss Thrift rejected on
examination” (Abbot Diary, p. 480). Misses Steele, Daniells, Sessions, Hume, and
Dexter enrolled at various times in April, and Miss Howe began to attend in July 1870

(Abbot Diary; MAC Catalogue, 1870). While these first ten women petitioned for their

admission, they as well as the subsequent female enrollees met the College’s admission

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requirements as recorded in President Abbot’s diary. During nearly the entire decade of
the 18703, these admission requirements consisted of two criteria. Students needed to be
a minimum of 15 years old and to successfully pass an examination that included
“Arithmetic, Geography, Grammar, Reading, Spelling, and Penmanship” (MAC
Catalogue, 1870, p. 27). Another requirement was added in 1879 which stated that
“Candidates for admission into the Freshman Class must bring testimonials of good
character . . .” (MAC Catalogue, 1879, p. 40).

Enrollment and Dormitory Facilities. Admission was the first step for women to
gain access to a college education at Michigan Agricultural College. Although access
was achieved, women’s enrollment struggled to grow during the 1870s. Their enrollment
ranged from zero in 1874 and 1875 to 13 in 1878, averaging six women per year (see
Appendix E). There were challenges that stunted their numerical grth during the first
several decades. One of these challenges was the lack of campus housing. In the first
year, several of the young women lived with the steward’s family; subsequent years this
housing was not available. This challenge was masked initially by enthusiasm generated
from the completion of the men’s dormitory in 1870, as recorded in the 1870 Board of
Agriculture report.

The new hall which was erected through the appropriation of $30,000 by the

Legislature of 1869, was nearly completed by the opening of the term of 1870. Its

total cost was $34,550. The excess of cost over the appropriation was met by the

sale of swamp lands.

Anticipating further growth of the College, and necessity, perhaps, for a
new building for ladies or gentlemen, the dining-hall, kitchen, washing and
ironing rooms, etc., have been made large enough for perhaps double the number
of students that can now be received. The cost, therefore, of another structure will

be considerably lessened. (Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of
Agriculture of the State of Michigan for the Year 1870, 1870, p. 7)

 

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This report implied that there would be additional dormitories in the future, and to meet
the anticipated grth in enrollment, perhaps one of them would be designated for
women.

Acquiring living accommodations on campus or within a reasonable distance of
campus was a key determinate in enrollment for both men and women in the early years
at the College because basic modes of transportation were slow, uncertain, and influenced
by Michigan’s weather. These modes included walking, riding an animal or riding in an
animal drawn wagon or caniage. The roads were primarily dirt and even if they were
graded from time to time, weather conditions including rain and snow made travel
difficult. Therefore, there was a limitation as to the distance from which students could
travel to participate on a regular basis in the daily schedule if they did not live on campus
(see Appendix F). In addition, administrators and faculty as well as society in general
believed that men and women should be housed in separate locations if they were not
married. This became a substantial hindrance to accommodating female students because
all of the initial dormitories were built for male students. While women demonstrated the
desire for college education by applying for admission to Michigan Agricultural College,
the lack of designated campus housing continued to be one of the deterrents to building
the enrollment of women as noted in the following Board of Agriculture report.

The applications of ladies for admission were in many instances rejected for lack

of room for them.

Applications for admission of ladies have been and still are frequent and
urgent. The Faculty admitted a few, who occupy rooms on the floor of the

Steward’s family, or in private houses. (Report BASM, 1870, pp. 9, 12)

At the same time, the value of facilities growth to support faculty, male students,

and experimentation was evidenced during the decade as a men’s residence hall (1870), a

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horse barn (1871), a piggery (1871), a chemical laboratory (1871), a greenhouse (187‘
an ash house (1874), a small apiary (1874), and houses for the president, officers, and
faculty members (1874) were built and various other improvements were made during
18703; but there were no provisions made for dormitory residential living to
accommodate or support the enrollment growth of women. Lack of emphasis on
facilities for women was evident when an “unusually large” and subsequently funded
appropriation request of March 18, 1873, had no inclusion of future construction to he
women (Report BASM, 1873, p. 8). The commitment to educating more than a few
women each year at Michigan Agricultural College by providing campus housing was
a part of the pattern for the decade of the 18703. President Abbot gave details of the 3‘
appropriations for 1879 and 1880 in the 1879 Board of Agriculture report. His
statements ended with a cryptic remark regarding a hall for female students.
The bill as passed, and approved May 27, 1879, appropriates for 1879 and 188
For a professor’s dwelling-house, with furnace and barn, and for other expense
connected therewith, $3,000; for a botanical laboratory, $6,000, both in 1879;
current expenses of 1879, $4,971.80 and the same for 1880. For Farmer’s
Institutes of both years, $600; for insurance, $600; for the library, $2,000; fort
department of mathematics and civil engineering, $1,020; for the department 0
zoology and entomology, $800; for the chemical department, $1,000; for the
horticultural department, $2,810; for the farm department, $4,016.64, and for
buildings and repairs outside of the above name departments, $1,290. The
appropriation for 1879 amounts to $21,040.12; and for 1880, $12,040.12.

The Botanical Laboratory, the new dwelling, the Gardener’s rooms int
green-house and the propagating pits, for which appropriations were made, are
their way to completion.

The bill for the erection of a hall for ladies failed to pass. (Report BASI
1879,p.17)

Enrollment and Descriptions of Students. Another challenge was that the patte

to include women was not entirely formalized, and the transition from exclusion to

inclusion was not immediate as seen in the “Students” section of the Board of Agricul

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reports. These reports gave evidence of “ugly” pieces as women were either excluded in
student descriptions or designated to another category solely by gender. From 1870 to
1873, the categories used to describe the student population included the following:
resident graduates, seniors, juniors, sophomores, freshmen, specials, chemical
manipulations, and “ladies.” With the exception of two women enrolled in the Chemical
Manipulation course in 1873, all of the women were in the “ladies” category. The Board
report of 1873 included statistics on student enrollment according to the aforementioned
designations. However, later in the “Students” section the description of the student
population indicated the invisibility of the five women attending in 1873.
The character of the students remains as it has been for several years. They are
mostly the sons of farmers of limited means, and are for the most part largely
dependent on their own exertions for the means of gaining an education. (Report
BASM, 1873, p. 10)
The “ladies” student enrollment designation was dropped in the 1874 Board of
Agriculture Report, and there was no replacement that identified a program or enrollment
status specifically for women in the 18703. During 1874 and 1875, there were no women
enrolled in undergraduate programs at Michigan Agricultural College. In addition during
1874, the enrollment of men decreased from 138 in 1873 to 120 in 1874 (see Appendix
E).
The number of students was less by twenty than the number in attendance in
1873. The financial troubles that disturbed all classes is perhaps felt by none
more than by the farmers who send their sons to the Agricultural College. Of the
121 students, 49 represented themselves as entirely dependent on their own
exertions for means of support, and 101 have been accustomed to apply for the
privilege of working Saturdays at a compensation not exceeding 12 ‘/2 cents an
hours. (Report BASM, 1874, p. 24)

This was more than a low point in the enrollment of women. As indicated by this quote,

there were attempts to identify reasons why the attendance of men decreased by 13% in

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one year, but there was no mention of the 100% decline in women’s enrollment, no
rationale given to suggest the cause of this phenomenon, and no plan presented to change
this down-turn.

Support for Women ’s Enrollment. As time progressed, another challenge formed
as questions remained regarding the access of women even though they had been
attending Michigan Agricultural College since 1870. Evidence was found in the 1877
Board of Agriculture report in a resolution created by Farmers’ Institute attendees
recommending the admission of female students after a speech on the “Agricultural
College” given by College’s President Abbot.

The following resolution was presented, and unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the public sentiment of this county demands the admission of

female students to the privileges of the Agricultural College of this State, and in

compliance with this sentiment, we earnestly urge the Legislature and the State

Board of Agriculture to make the necessary provision for their admission. (Report

BASM, 1877, p. 199)

That same year others such as the Hon. E. L. Brown of Schoolcraft also advocated
for the education of the state’s daughters. He wrote and read a paper on “The Farmer:
His Position and Duty” in which he invited those in attendance to join him in honoring
the Michigan farmer. Throughout the essay he intertwined biblical references, historical
and literary illustrations, and the work and character of the farmer. A portion of his
speech was devoted to pleading for education for both young men and women as crafted
by the citizens of Michigan.

The facilities for education are open to all, and are nearly unlimited. Educate

your sons and daughters that they may be qualified to fill and adorn any sphere,

and convince them by the graces and amenities of your homes that there is no
sphere higher than your own. (Report BASM, 1877, p. 282)

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This expansion to sons “and daughters” was an emerging idea but was also supported by
the fifth of the five “Objects of the Institution” included in many of the Board of
Agriculture reports and in all of the Michigan Agricultural catalogues in the 18703. This
object stated that “The State Agricultural College proposes ---- To afford the means of a
general education to the farming class” (MAC Catalogue, 1870, pp. 13, 15). While the
“farming class” in this institutional objective included both the men and women engaged
in the agricultural work on the farm, there were continual challenges in how this was

communicated indicating either inclusion or exclusion of women.
Women ’3 Education at Michigan Agricultural College

Michigan Agricultural College female students entered a world of possibilities for
learning but this educational world was not wholly prepared for them. The classification
system was designated by gender, but the course requirements remained the same despite
the fact that society divided men and women into different spheres based on their roles
and work. Sometimes women were mentioned in essays about Michigan Agricultural
College students, but examples used did not fit life in their sphere.

Classification and Course Requirements. Instead of incorporating women into
the classification system already devised for the male students, they were categorized as
“Ladies.” There was no specific rationale given in either the Board of Agriculture reports
or the Michigan Agricultural catalogues as to why this decision was made rather than
incorporating women into the existing system. However, given that this was the first
attempt to provide co-education at the College and that it was considered an experiment,
perhaps there was the notion that it would be easier to track enrollment data to determine

whether the experiment was a success or failure. Further, there was no explanation

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provided in either the Board reports or the College catalogues, primary sources during
this decade, related to different programming or courses that supported a separate Ladies
class category. This omission was unusual given the societal expectations of separate
spheres for training and work in the adult life. For example, typically women would not
have been trained in public speaking or they would have been trained separately from the
male students. However, assuming women were required to complete “Language and
Literature” courses listed in the College catalogue, there was no indication that they met
in a separate location from the men.
Each student has an exercise in composition or declamation, every fortnight
throughout the course, the Juniors and Seniors speaking original pieces . . . The
members of the Senior Class deliver original declamations on the last Wednesday
of each month, and the members of the Junior Class on the second Wednesday of
each month. (MAC Catalogue, 1870, pp. 24—25)
An additional statement was added to the description of these courses in the 1872-1875
Michigan Agricultural catalogues stating that the “members of the Senior and Junior
classes deliver[ed] original declamations in the presence of all the students” (MAC
Catalogue, 1872, p. 26). These presentations before all of the students may have been
“cutting edge” for Michigan Agricultural College in that many places in society did not
allow or frowned upon women speaking in public where men were present. On the other
hand, it may have been that the institution did not initially need to deal with the advent of
women continuing until their junior or senior year because none of those enrolled in the
18703 advanced to that point until 1879, when Miss Eva D. Coryell was a senior and Mrs.
Mary J. C. Merrill was a junior. Both of these women would have been required to take

these courses, and, therefore, participate in the public speaking routine on the second and
{

fourth Wednesdays each month. It was also true that in some institutions of the day,

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instead of breaking the appropriate sphere, male students read the works of their female
counterparts. There was no record found as to which version occurred at Michigan
Agricultural College; however, because Miss Eva D. Coryell read an essay one of the
F arrners’ Institutes in 1879, one might conclude that her rhetorical skills were acquired in
the language and literature courses she completed at Michigan Agricultural College.
Michigan Agricultural College catalogues from 1870 to 1873 also included a
statement about the applicability of the course of study at the College. After completing
the College’s prescribed agricultural program, students were expected to be successful in
farming or whatever pursuits they chose because of the skill set they acquired as a result
of their college experiences.
It is believed that students who complete the course will be qualified to follow
agricultural pursuits with intelligence and success; or should some other
profession seem more congenial, they will have the discipline and scientific
acquirements that will enable them to pursue with profit the studies preparatory to
entering it. (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 25)
This was a noble and perhaps in most cases reachable goal, but it does not necessarily
apply to women’s education. Although women may have been prepared to enter any
field they chose, few options were open to them at this time in any profession. They
undoubtedly acquired some skills that were transferable to the home sphere of the
farmer’s wife. This thought was supported by evidence found in the overwhelming
enrollment of these first women in the “Select Course.” Students chose this course if
they had a particular interest and they did not desire completing the Bachelor of Science
or Master of Science degrees offered at the College.
Persons of suitable age and acquirements, who desire to pursue one of more of the
branches of study more closely related to Agriculture, (such as chemistry, Botany,

Animal Physiology, etc.,) may be received for a less time than is requisite for the
full course. (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 26)

 

 

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Most women, who attended Michigan Agricultural College, after the “Ladies” category
was eliminated in 1873, enrolled in the Select Course and pursued special topics rather
than a degree. It was notable that women continued to choose college education in their
pursuit of knowledge and learning opportunities as they strove to be all they were
expected be in the sphere designated to them.

Home Sphere Requirements. Education offered by Michigan Agricultural College
combined theory and practice but did not offer women courses directly related to their
work in the home sphere. On the other hand, the College coordinated Farmers’ Institutes
did provide practical education directly related to life on the farm as men and women
shared their work and life experiences through essays. A woman met society’s and in
particular her husband’s expectations by knowing what and how to do her work inside
and outside the farm house and to care for her children. Mrs. Perry Mayo addressed the
meeting these expectations in an essay entitled, “A Higher Standard of Culture for
Housekeepers.” She believed as most people in her day that the home was the
appropriate sphere for women, and in order for a woman to care for her home and family,
she needed to self-educate to be a better wife, mother, and citizen.

What our homes need to-day, my friends, is cultivated mothers. How many of us

know enough of chemistry to understand the simple science of our own bread-

making? How many of us understand enough of the medicinal virtues of our
common plants and herbs to apply in case of need? There is something wrong

somewhere, when we remember that one-fourth of our children die in infancy. I

know it to be a lamentable fact. Who has the sole care of these young children?

The mother. (Report BASM, 1877, p. 132)

Mrs. Mayo believed that the mode to accomplish the breeding of culture in the farm

woman of the home was not in dressing in fancy clothes, spending inordinate amounts of

time on her hair or face, or spending time doing these things for her children. She taught

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her peers that the answers to life and work were found by improving their minds through
reading and research, just as their husbands and sons did to accomplish their life tasks.

If we look about us we will find, as a rule, that the best mothers are those of

culture; the best home keepers, remember I do not say housekeepers, are those

who read, for some of the best house keepers I ever knew never looked into a

book from one year’s end to another; their houses were paragons of cleanliness

and order, but their husbands and children had no homes. Our husbands and sons
read much more than we . . . . Let us fill our homes with the best literature, ----
good, pure books and papers. Read it ourselves; read it as a duty we owe
ourselves and children. Don’t say you have not the time, but take the time, and

surely good will result. (Report BASM, 1877, pp. 133-134)

This type of reading and research was found in the agricultural program or Select
courses at Michigan Agricultural College. While women consistently enrolled in the
Select course throughout the decade, some observers did not connect college education to
women’s learning, such as George E. Breck who read an essay on “An Agricultural
Education.” He stated the benefits of melding scientific theories with practical work of
the farmer and he advocated for the farmer to view agriculture as a science and the
Michigan Agricultural College as a means to acquire the most effective scientific theories
and practice available at the time.

It is often the work of education to put so fine a finish on a man that he is good for

nothing but to be kept in a show-case . . . . To be a good farmer, men must know

something outside of books . . . . Men who think and toil always accomplish more

than they who merely toil. (Report BASM, 1877, p. 138)

While Mr. Baird’s perspective was logical and an encouragement to the sons of farmers,
there was no indication that women had any place in learning or researching at the
College. None of the reasons he presented for attending the College included women and

three of the six specifically excluded them:

1) It is cheap, and not injurious to health. There are few colleges to which
farmers are able to send their sons.

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2) A practical knowledge of the manner and expense of conducting the various
operations of the farm is gained.

3) The art of experimenting is acquired.

4) Science as taught there is illustrated in its direct application to the every-day
affairs of life.

5) It heightens the aspirations of men, gives them higher aims, creates in them a
taste for the beautifirl in agriculture, and enables them to derive more pleasure
from farm-life and approach nearer to success.

6) We mention that result from training in any school which is known as culture.
(Report BASM, 1877, pp. 138-140)

Examples and Encouragement for Women ’3 Education. When women did attend
Michigan Agricultural College, they had no women examples to follow. There were no
records of female professors, administrators, or Board of Agriculture members in the
18703 at the College. The wives of faculty and administrators or women that were
employed by these families to help with house work were the only women on campus.
The first female students created patterns for other women to follow by attending and
enrolling mainly in Select Courses. While only one woman, Miss Eva Coryell,
completed a degree in the 18703 she did begin a pattern for other women to emulate.
Perhaps the most pervasive education for women in the decade occurred at the Michigan
AgriCultural College Farmers’ Institutes. Women participated in these Institutes by
attending and writing and reading essays related to their work in the home and theirs and
their daughters education for the home sphere. Occasionally some even pushed at the
borders of the home sphere and offered options for women’s work that took them briefly
out of the home. There was no question, however, about women’s work in the home
sphere; they were the sole people responsible for caring for the home and their children.
Therefore, if a woman exited the home briefly for education at college or at a Farmers’

Institute or for work outside of the home sphere, she needed to continue to do all of her

work in the home sphere too. Many believed she needed the best education possible to

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be the most efficient, proficient, productive wife and mother, and that that education
could be found in the courses at Michigan Agricultural College and in the College’s
F armers’ Institutes.

Many times new initiatives received great attention during a first cycle and then
either faded into an anemic state or oblivion or they became part of the standard workings
of Michigan Agricultural College. The Board of Agriculture report from 1870 devoted
several pages to entrance of women to the College. However, the Board of Agriculture
reports from 1871 to 1879 gave evidence through attendance information that while
women continued to enroll at the College, the articles and specific language did not
acknowledge women as part of the student body and continued the promotion of specific
sphere and role designation. For instance, in the “Students” section of the 1871 Board
report, only the second year of the enrollment of women, there were only two mentions
of women. The first was in the attendance section “Ladies, 8” and the second was a
sentence regarding the limits for accommodating the women who applied, “All the ladies
have been received for whom room could possibly be made, and the applications of many
were rejected” (Report BASM, 1871, pp. 7, 8). In addition students were identified as
folloWs:

[M]ostly sons of farmers . . . largely dependent on their own earnings for the

means of securing and education . . . The labor [of male students] was well

performed, was largely expended on permanent improvements, and it is
confidently believed, helped to further the education of young men who, without
encouragement of this kind, would not secure the advantages of a course of study.

(Report BASM, 1871, p. 7-8)

The statements regarding the attendance of women in the third year mirrored the second

with the number and then an explanation and note of regret.

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4 ladies. No ladies have been received into the Hall the present year. The number

of the applications of ladies for admission is constantly increasing, and it is a

matter of regret to the Board of Agriculture, and to the Faculty of the College, that

we have not a hall for ladies, connected with the institution. Reference is made to
the Report of the Board for 1870, pages 12 and 13, for further remarks on ladies

as students. (Report BASM, 1872, p. 7)

Although many of the comments and observations of administration and faculty at
the College and the authors of the Board of Agriculture reports were positive, the
continuation of the “experimental” admission of women was not necessarily assured
should the experience have a negative impact on the College or the male student
population in the future. The final statement in the section “Ladies as Students” in the
annual Board of Agriculture report for 1870 reflected possibilities for future enrollment if
housing was provided for them and a statement of remorse that they could not open the
enrolhnent to more women. “[I]t is to be regreted that they cannot avail themselves of
the same privilege here that is offered the young men” (Report BASM, 1870, p. 13).

In addition, Michigan Agricultural College’s President Abbot presented an idea to
Michigan’s House of Representatives of the Michigan Legislature on March 4, 1875,
regarding a future department for women. He listed possible courses related to the work
in the home and the growing importance of blending science with the work in the proper
sphere. In addition, he also mentioned the oft repeated statement that there was a lack of
ability to accommodate female students who applied for admission to the College. This
was an interesting statement as there were no female students in either 1874 or 187 5. In
the previous four years as many as ten women were enrolled at the College at one time.

I am strongly in favor of adding a department for women, and can see no reason

why such a one should not be useful and successful. Our limited experience has

been in favor of the plan. Several other institutions report classes of ladies in

horticulture and other branches. Could we accommodate the ladies who apply for
admission, they might receive technological training in the application of

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chemistry to common household arts. Such applications are cooking, preserving
of fruits, utilization of materials usually wasted, cleansing by acids and soaps,
bleaching, dyeing, manufacture of soaps of different kinds, disinfection,
fermentation, neutralization of poisons. A course of lectures on dairying is
already given each year by the professor of agricultural chemistry. (Report
BASM, 1874, p. 67)

Although this idea was presented by the President of the College, it did not

become a reality in this decade.
Women as an Experiment at Michigan Agricultural College

While women did have access to enroll in courses on campus many times the
words, phrases, illustrations, and metaphors demonstrated that the new pattern of
educating women at the State’s Agricultural College was not fully embraced. Hope
appeared briefly in the first year women were enrolled in 1870 when a new hall was built
to house male students. This new hall met the immediate housing need for men and was
seen as a possible solution for the potential enrollment growth of women. But their
enrollment could not grow without the provision of designated campus housing, and there
would be no appropriations without the significant increase in enrollment. This circular
situation substantiated the belief of some that there were few state leaders who fully
supported in the idea of providing college education for women.

Women as Students — A Michigan Agricultural College Experiment. The words
used to describe the enrollment of women exemplified the challenge of fully including
women at Michigan Agricultural College. “The experiment of having women as students
has worked so successfully that there would be no hesitation in admitting them if there
were a hall for them” (Report BASM, 1870, p. 13). The use of the word “experiment,” in
an evaluation of the first years of women’s enrollment, denoted the tenuousness of

continued attendance if “scientific” evidence supported that college education was not

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useful in the work of their designated home sphere or if it proved dangerous to their
health, the health of their future children, or the “health” of the institution.

The word experiment was not unfamiliar to the faculty of Michigan Agricultural
College, the members of the State Board of Agriculture, the farmers of the state, or male
and female students. They understood that the word experiment did not mean an
unchangeable state. Theirs was a century of significant change in which science,
scientific inquiry, and experimentation were heralded as the foundation for learning and
growth of society. It was thought that all facets of life needed to be proven through
experimentation, evaluation and subsequent recommendation for action. The Michigan
Agricultural College catalogues included the purposes of the institution, and the third of
the five “Objects of the Institution” was “To prosecute experiments for the promotion of
Agriculture. Agriculture is the creature of experiments” (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 14).
Year after year the College catalogues supported the value of science and the
methodology of experimentation as seen in the types of courses offered and their
descriptions. In addition, a large portion of the text of the Board of Agriculture reports,
from the first report in 1849 to the 1879 report, was devoted to annual evaluations of
numerous experiments by both the College faculty and individual farmers.

Our experiments have been continued . . . . They were planned and carried out

after consultation with practical farmers and scientific men, and it is gratifying to

the college that they have received the highest praises from some of the best
known practical farmers and most esteemed writers in the country, for their

accuracy and practical value. (Report BASM, 1870, p. 14)

The word “experiment” illustrated the process to determine if the subject central

to the study demonstrated validity based on the resulting increased production or better

product and did not mean the subject was exempt from further experimentation in order

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to deterrrrine another better result. Because the word “experiment” was used to describe
the enrollment of women at Michigan Agricultural College, there may have been a subtle
deterring effect on women’s enrollment. If they thought their enrollment was only
experimental and in the future could have been altered or discontinued, some may have
thought it was not worth the risk. If men, whether employed by the College or other
citizens of the state, thought the participation of women at the College was just an
experiment, they may have taken a “wait and see” approach before sending their
daughters to enroll. Was this “experiment” going to be a success or a failure?

Women as Students — A Dangerous College Experiment. The use of the word
“experiment” was not unique to Michigan Agricultural College but was also found at the
University of Michigan where it was used in an even more detrimental manner by the
University’s Board of Regents during the years preceding 1870. Women sought access to
the University as early as 185 8, but their enrollment was resisted until 1870. One
primary reason stemmed from the debate over coeducation and the fear of the resulting
destruction of the female participants and the University. “By many it is regarded as a
doubtful experiment, by some as a very dangerous experiment . . . certain to be ruinous to
the young ladies who should avail themselves of it . . . and disastrous to the institution
which should carry it out” (Proceedings of the Board of Regents of the University of
Michigan, 1837-1864, p. 796). Describing the enrollment of women as a “doubtful or
dangerous” experiment perpetuated the perception in the state that their participation in
college and university education was at best temporary and at worst potentially

destructive to them and eventually to the colleges and universities that allowed their

entrance.

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Those grievous maladies which torture a woman’s earthly existence . . . are
indirectly affected by food, clothing, and exercise; they are directly and largely
affected by the causes . . . which arise from a neglect of the peculiarities of a
woman’s organization. The regimen of our schools fosters this neglect. The
regimen of a college arranged for boys, if imposed on girls, would foster it still

more. (Clarke, 1873, pp. 23-24)

Dr. Clarke and other medical experts claimed that colleges and large seminaries
that offered co-education endangered the nation by causing young women’s physical
bodies to be in conflict. “Medical men saw the body as a miniature economic system,
with the various parts . . . competing for a limited supply of resources” (Ehrenreich &
English, 1978, p. 126). They believed that the blood needed by young women’s
developing bodies, especially their reproductive organs, was diverted to their brains as
they immersed themselves in their college studies.

When this sort of arrest of development . . . occurs in a woman, it not only

substitutes in her case a wiry and perhaps thin bearded masculineness for

distinctive feminine traits and power, making her an epicene, but it entails a

variety of prolonged weaknesses, that dwarf her rightful power in almost every

direction. The persistent neglect and ignoring by women, and especially by girls,

ignorantly more than wilfully, of that part of their organization which they hold in
trust for the future of the race . . . In the education of our girls, the attempt to hide

or overcome nature by training them as boys has almost extinguished them as

girls. Let the fact be accepted, that there is nothing to be ashamed of in a

woman’s organization, and let her whole education and life be guided by the

divine requirements of her system. (Clarke, 1873, pp. 44-45)

Women’s college education outside the home sphere was seen as a risk to her and to the
future citizens of the nation. It was also considered dangerous because it was believed
that it distracted women from the work designed and designated for them by their
Creator. If women chose to participate in these educational “experiments” they were

threatening their own bodies, their future children, their homes, the state, the nation, and

the foundation of society. “Let it be remembered that this in not asserting that such

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methods of education are the sole cause of female weaknesses, but only that they are one
cause, and one of the most important causes of it” (Clarke, 1873, p. 22).

Michigan Agricultural College — A Successful College Experiment. Many in
Michigan would have known that even as the Board report labeled women’s education an
experiment, Michigan Agricultural College was itself an experiment. It was one of the
first colleges in the nation to attempt to provide agricultural education intended to train
students to combine scientific theory with the practical work of the farm. Chas. W.
Sheldon read a paper at a Farmers’ Institute in 1878 in which he described the early years
at the “Agricultural College experiment.”

Thus began the pioneer agricultural college of this country under many of the
most adverse circumstances one could imagine. Built in an ahnost wilderness,
surrounded by dismal swamps, twenty miles from any railroad, the large farm
which belonged was almost in a state of nature; the legislature deeming it an
experiment were afraid to be liberal for fear of its failure and barely gave it
enough to keep it alive, proposing to give it a liberal endowment when it should
prove itself a success, or, in other words, saying, “When you can support yourself
we will help you.” (Report BASM, 1878, p. 299)

While the skeptics of this experimental college did not initially show their support, many
changed their opinions after a couple of decades of proven helpfulness of the
experimental work of the College. As an example, Mr. Sheldon quoted Joseph Harris,
the author of “Walks and Talks.”

As a rule, the experiments at our agricultural colleges have been of little interest
or value. But the Michigan Agricultural College is a bright exception to this dark
picture. It has made some most important experiments. They have been planned
with great thought and after patient investigation. They are not haphazard
experiments, they are made with a definite object. They bear marks of scrupulous
accuracy. Nothing is covered up, nothing omitted. They are not pen and ink
experiments. No one doubts their entire trustworthiness. They are not common
experiments such as any of us can and ought to make on our own farms, they are
scientific experiments. (Report BASM, 1878, p. 300)

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The new experimental college, training students from the farming class in agricultural
education with the mantra of experimentation, appeared to be a success. Perhaps the
recognition that the Michigan Agricultural College experiment was successful continued
to burgeon the hopes for the success of the experiment of educating women at the
College. If women’s enrollment at Michigan Agricultural College was ever to move
beyond an experiment, there were pieces and patterns that needed to be discarded and
illustrations and words that needed to be changed for women to become visible in the
words used to describe the students at the College.

Michigan Agricultural College Students — Men and the Experiment of Women.
While women gained access to attend Michigan Agricultural College in 1870, it was also
common during the decade of the 18703 to find the word “men” used when referr'mg to
the students enrolled at the College. Occasionally there were attempts to include women
as Michigan’s Governor Bagley did in a speech he gave to Michigan’s Legislature in
January 1873. In the speech entitled “Education,” the Governor presented the need for
more technical education for college and university students in the state. He stated that
the current education was not broad enough to prepare students for the full slate of
experiences in life and the addition of “practical technical training” would provide the
necessary methods and means that would ultimately benefit the state.

There is an education that our schools, University, or Agricultural Colleges do not

yet offer, which we need and should have; and that is a practical technical

education, that will fit men and women to grapple with life as they find it, ----

earnest, laborious, and real. (Report BASM, 1873, p. 7)
Governor Bagley clearly included both men and women as the potential recipients of this

new kind of education that melded scientific theory with practical application in order to

more adequately prepare graduates with the appropriate knowledge to deal with the

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multi-faceted events in their lives as productive state citizens. However, as the Governor
continued his description of the effects of this new type of education, the picture changed.

No State in the Union needs, more than ours, educated farmers, mechanics,

manufacturers, architects, engineers, chemists, etc. Our forests and fields, our

mines and railroads, our manufacturing and agricultural interests, all require the
services of educated skill in their development and management, and offer to all
as remunerative employment, honorable career, and ultimate success, as what are
called ‘learned professions.’

Yet, with this vast field of labor inviting our young men to enter in and
take possession, a very large majority of them see these “learned professions”
instead, chiefly because our system of education, from the home to the University,
has pointed in that direction; also, because we have had no institution in which
they could pursue a purely technical and scientific course of study. (Report
BASM, 1873, p. 7)

While Governor Bagley’s passion for practical agricultural education was evident,
his language and descriptions altered to focus on “young men” and the sphere outside the
home using words such as employment, honorable career, ultimate success, and various
professions. The education for young women during this period did not include
preparation for activities outside the home in employment, careers, or professions, and
although the Governor’s speech included the prospects of technical education for both
men and women, there were no descriptors that gave women patterns to follow.

Governor Bagley’s speech and the following speech illustrated the continued
unevenness of inclusion and exclusion related to the female student population at
Michigan Agricultural College. It was not uncommon to find various words and phrases
used to describe students such as men, young men, and sons of farmers. For example,
during the 1874 commencement ceremony at Michigan Agricultural College, Washington
and Jefferson College’s President George P. Hays gave a speech entitled “Does

Education Pay?” He referred to the students as sons, men, young men, males, and boys.

There was one reference to females in the speech -- the word “girl.” The following

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excerpt from the speech recorded the depth of invisibility women faced as they
considered college education.
Every boy and girl who goes out into the world will find others equally keen, and
will stand a sorry chance for success in life without an education. Now to what
may we attribute this success by education? A person educated by himself, away
from contact with others, goes into the world a big boy. It is a college life that
educates. A boy is sent to school, but the school boys educate him. College
students criticize unmercifully, and though mortifying, it is extremely healthy to
the subject. A college is a miniature world; and when a student leaves he is not
only four years older in education, but forty years older in experience.
It is a common error that college life is ruinous to morals. Boys are ruined

at home, and then sent to college, and the latter receives the blame. (Report
BASM, 1874, p. 29)

President Hays promoted the benefits of college education for boys and later in the
speech claimed that manhood and the status of professional men were results of their
accumulated college knowledge. However, he also restricted women to the home rather
than college and actually blamed any moral failure of male students on their upbringing
in the home, the sphere relegated to women. The experiment of women attending
Michigan Agricultural College for their education continued to be questioned or

dismissed.
Woman ’3 Education at the Farmers’ Institutes

While it remained a broadly recognized societal expectation for women to remain
in the home, there were occasional opportunities for them to gain and to demonstrate
their knowledge in settings outside the home. One of these acceptable realms was at the
State Farmers’ Institutes which began in 1876 and expanded the walls of Michigan
Agricultural College classrooms to the borders of the State. The College’s president and
professors, leaders from the Michigan Agricultural Society, and other state leaders read

essays they wrote on topics related to the profession of farming and education. These

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meetings and the exchange of ideas were intended to both improve the relationship
between the farmers and the College and benefit both groups by sharing the results of
their agricultural experiments (Report BASM, 1884). Many of these essays were
published as part of the annual Board of Agriculture reports providing a reputable
scholarly publication communicating valuable information to farmers and their wives in
the state. Occasionally, women read essays that demonstrated their understanding of life
in the acceptable sphere and their knowledge of the work in the sphere. Some of these
female essayists actually attended Michigan Agricultural College on campus and others
were students who learned by participating at Farmers’ Institutes sponsored and.
coordinated by the College.

Women Teaching and Learning at Farmers ’ Institutes. Regardless of whether
these women were self-educated or obtained education through classroom or Institute
participation, they all recognized that public speaking for women in any setting where
men were present was unusual at best and unacceptable at worst. Many felt
uncomfortable and shared self-abasing comments to distract the audience from the
unusual or unacceptable setting as seen in the following essay introduction given by Mrs.
A. B. Dunlap at one of the first Farrrrers’ Institutes in Michigan.

Mr. President and Members of the Institute, ---- Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am here this evening as an evidence of my high appreciation of the honor
conferred upon me by an invitation to speak at this Institute. I am entirely
unaccustomed to such a position, but have accepted it the more willingly, though
deeply impressed with my disqualifications hoping my example may encourage
other ladies to make their first trial when they may be so politely invited.
The subject given me is poultry. I will entitle my talk

THE ROMANCE OF POULTRY. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 224)

Mrs. Dunlap saw this opportunity as both rare and an honor, but she also noted that her

qualifications were not at the level to warrant the honor. Notwithstanding, she

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straightforwardly admonished other women to respond favorably when invited to speak
at future Farmers’ Institutes. While given the opportunity to speak publicly, it is
worthwhile to note that the subject area, raising chickens and overseeing egg production,
was one that many times was the responsibility of women on the farm.

In addition, the title of Mrs. Dunlap’s essay gave evidence of an acceptable
feminine perception of the work in which she was engaged. She used “soft, feminine”
words and illustrations of romance, love, and inspiration, and opened her essay with the
phrase “To me the world is full of romance and poetry” (Report BASM, 1876, p. 224).
Her verbal pictures of birds, their sounds, and their appearance directed her audience to
consider viewing the care of chickens as an experience that provided food for the soul of
the caretaker while also realizing a profit. The entire essay was a rrrixture of acceptable
woman’s work and business knowledge pieced together with science and the sweat of
labor. In one illustration she pitted her experiential knowledge against the supposed
wisdom of an educated male counterpart.

To make any business profitable it must be understood. To find money in poultry,

---- and that is what the American has the credit of seeking in his every enterprise,

---- the conditions of its welfare must be assiduously cared for. Poultry

management is with some a success, with others a failure. This difference, other

things being equal, must be owing entirely to care and skilled attention, or the
neglect of it in their management. A “liberally educated” gentleman once said to
me, “I can’t understand why we have no eggs; we have hens and they have
nothing to do but to give us eggs.” He had yet to learn that they could return only
an equivalent for what they received. Egg-making is no easy work, and hens will
not do much of it without high feed. That fowls cannot be remunerative if half
fed is obvious. “Ex nihilo nihil fit, ” ---— from nothing nothing is made. (Report

BASM, 1876, p. 225)

Mrs. Dunlap viewed her experiences as opportunities for learning about the business of

poultry management which aided in the financial support of her home but also as soul-

inSpiration that made her, as the wife of a farmer, suited for an elevated place in society.

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Mrs. Dunlap and the other women who read essays and participated in the F armers’
Institutes were all part of the group of first female students in the expanded border of the
College. They were “students” learning in a new setting coordinated and supported by
the faculty of the College and appropriations from the state.

Homebound Learners. At the same time, many saw the study of agriculture as
less prestigious or not as valuable as classical education. The women who studied the
“science” related to the “home sphere” on the farm found acceptance because they
continued to remain in the home. A Farmers’ Institute essay given by Miss Miller on
“Farm Life” included statements such as the following aimed at bolstering society’s
perception of life on a farm. “It is within the power of farmers and their wives to make
farm life and farm homes so inviting that public opinion will change and the name of
farmer will cease to be a reproach” (Report BASM, 1876, pp. 337-338). Part of Miss
Miller’s plan for changing the negative perception of farming included educating her
audience about altering the boundaries of the accepted sphere for the farmer’s wife and
daughters by giving them “time” for something other than the work associated with life in
the farm house. This was accomplished by attending sphere-broadening Farmers’
Institutes and learning about acceptable farm home sphere work. Miss Miller believed
that these experiences would expand their knowledge and understanding of the family
members living on the farm, potentially endear them to farm life, and, in the future,
daughters would stay on the farm rather than choosing city life and its occupations. She
Suggested the “time” might also include self-education through activities physically
Outside of the house while women enjoyed nature’s beauty and fresh air as seen the

fOllowing.

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Instead of confining the girls exclusively to tiresome household drudgery, allow
them a little time each day for recreation, giving them an opportunity to cultivate
their taste for the fine arts; then instead of growing sullen and dissatisfied, they
will cheerfully take an active part in their assigned duties, feeling that life is not
all a dull routine. Flowers there are of many kinds which cost nothing financially,
and the little time required for their cultivation is just the exercise which that wife
or daughter needs after a wearisome day’s labor within doors, affording to many
the only opportunity for enjoying the pure fresh air, the country’s choicest
production. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 338)

Miss Miller also advocated for time to be spent in other types of self-education to offset
“household drudgery” (Report BASM, 1876, p. 338). She encouraged farmers to “take
good papers” for their families in order for them to cultivate their minds and broaden
their horizons without having to leave the farm to learn of the world (Report BASM,
1876,p.338)

Learners Venturing out of the Home Sphere. Miss Miller’s desire for farmer’s
sons and daughters to remain farmers by occupation did not exclude them from acquiring
a “scientific” college education which she saw as essential to approaching the work on
the farm, whether in the house or in the fields. She saw two major obstacles to sons and
daughters obtaining this kind of training. The first obstacle was the farmer’s
recalcitrance to spending money on his children’s college education because he did not
believe in the combination of theory and practice but valued experience over book
learning.

He considered it mere folly to spend any of his money in educating his sons and

daughters, saying that “book larnin” is well enough if a body has gumption

enough to get it, but it won’t fill the stomach, nor cover the back, nor make a man
any “honester or contenteder,” and for his part he will be pleased if his children
know enough to take care of what they get and mind their own business, as he
always tried to do. And he lived and died firm in this faith. But progress is the
watchword of the day; not quite as often do we hear the remark that he does not
know enough to be any thing but a farmer. The time is now past when a little

knowledge of “reading, writin, and rithmetic” constitutes the catalogue necessary
for a farmer’s education. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 340)

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—_——___—_—

The second obstacle observed by Miss Miller centered on educating farmers’
daughters and concerned the reshaping of the feminine ideal of the day, that of a wife
caring for the physical needs of her family members from within the sphere of the home.
She believed that women were beginning to refute false and mixed messages such as the
notion that they had lower mental capacities or that they had only the possibility of
fulfilling roles within the home as a wife and mother. However, when the changing
feminine ideal included college education for women, it also brought confusion to them.

But is this education now considered so necessary to be confined exclusively to

the sterner sex? The answer comes faintly, but truly, no. The olt-repeated cry of

woman’s mental inferiority is fast being silenced; for the present age is constantly
proving the fallacy of the theory. She has always been taught to consider showy
accomplishments as more to be desired than profound knowledge of science and
mathematics. She learns by intuition that as a general thing literary ladies are not
attractive to the other sex, and she desires, of course, to please them, as is
perfectly natural, so she only cultivates those branches that have a tendency to
make her pleasing in the eyes of father, brother, or future husband. After she
receives her diploma from some modern serrrinary, she firmly believes that the
further business of her life is to fall in love and get married. When this is
accomplished, and the round of domestic duties entered upon, how is she to bend
her energies to some new and unexplored field to keep pace with her husband. It
is a fact that many of the American woman are truly troubled Marthas. (Report

BASM, 1876, pp. 340-341)

The young women Miss Miller described experienced personal tension when they did not
avail themselves of roles and actions outside the accepted woman’s sphere. If they
learned solely the skills to please the men (father, brother, future husband) in their lives,
that of keeping an efficiently run house, they would be “troubled Marthas.” This was a
biblical reference in which Martha became distraught because her sister Mary was
listening to Jesus teach rather than helping her with the meal preparation. Jesus rebuked

Martha saying Mary made the better choice. Miss Miller’s reference to Martha pointedly

directed the listeners to embrace the notion that women needed education apart from the

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home sphere in both the Farmers’ Institutes and college, and she based her perspective on
a theocentric society’s belief in the irrefirtable words of Jesus. Miss Miller rebuked her
listeners to make the better choice and continue to learn beyond the home sphere.

Labels for Women Leaving the Home Sphere. Miss Miller continued to uncover
other tensions women experienced if they did not follow the patterns of their mothers and
grandmothers and ventured out of the boundaries the home sphere. She told her audience
that their actions were labeled and they were labeled. These labels were not supportive of
the continuance of their actions but were meant to compel these “firsts” back to their
perceived “God-given” roles.

Alas! If one dare step out of the narrow track in which her foremothers have

walked for generations, she is instantly dubbed as “strong-minded,” which,

spoken by masculine lips means everything that is indelicate and unwomanly, and
which, with its present significance, is a term of reproach. When mothers cease to
teach their daughters that marriage is the chief end and aim of their existence;
when society can receive a woman out of her teens without endeavoring to
mortify her by applying the epithet “old maid,” in a slurring manner, as though
she were in some way disgraced by living an independent life, then will woman
not only equal, but perhaps excel her brother in mental attainments. (Report

BASM, 1876, p. 341)

Miss Miller saw God-given roles from a very different point of view. She taught that
rather than a one-size-fits—all feminine ideal to be worn by every woman, each person
was created for a unique contribution in society. And from that perspective she deduced
that if women had only one acceptable role in which to participate, that role was not only
confining for many women, but it also violated God the Creator’s plan of a singular,
unrepeated design for each person.

Teach her that she as well as he has a noble work to do in this life, then the close

of her school days will find her fitted to commence some vocation in earnest,

rather than to sit down and idly wait for the coming man. Examples of smart and

talented women are not lacking to show us that woman can become both capable
and intellectual if she chooses. Thousands of women to-day are abominable

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housekeepers who would have shone resplendent in other work . . . I do protest

against the obstinate and intellectual waste of brain and talent that has so

characterized the past, ---- a waste that inevitably results from misappliance.

(Report BASM, 1876, p. 341)
Women speakers at the Farmers’ Institutes, such as Miss Miller, were teaching and
learning from each other and also advocating that both men and women in their audiences
consider education beyond the Farmers’ Institutes at colleges such as Michigan
Agricultural College.

Ideas contrasting Miss Miller’s view of woman’s place in society were also taught
at the Farmers’ Institutes. An example was “Farrners’ Homes,” an essay read by R. G.
Baird, Secretary of Michigan’s Board of Agriculture. Their essays were not the only
contrast. Miss Miller, an unmarried woman, would be expected to live in her father’s
home under his authority. On the other hand, Mr. Baird was a man, a citizen with voting
rights. He was also the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture and as such the editor of
the annual Board of Agriculture Reports. His opinion would most likely carry more
credibility with the audience at the Farmers’ Institute in comparison to Miss Miller’s.

While Baird believed in the relationship between the physical and spiritual
dimensions of life, he also divided life into separate spheres labeling them “true manhood
and womanhood.” He described the role of mother, the place of home, and the spiritual
realm of heaven as an inseparable, intertwined connected place that every individual

deserved.

Some one has suggested that the three words in our language which call up the
most tender and endearing associations are the words “mother, home and
heaven.” Did it ever occur to you how intimately these words are associated
together. For “what is home without a mother” as its very soul and center,
making it the one spot on earth where youth can unburden all its sorrows, and to
which memory recurs in alter years with a throb of joy, and will recur as long as
memory endures.

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Then the words “home” and “heaven” are hardly less intimately
associated, for when He who spake as never man spake drew that matchless
picture of heaven which takes hold of us as no other ever did or can, it was in
these words: “My Father’s house.” How suggestive of what our homes should be
and of what heaven is. The former to be the school of all excellence, a place
where dissatisfied looks and angry words should never come, where no kind
office is left unperformed, a place where the sky is always clear and the sun ever
bright; the latter a place where all the best things of earth shall be firlly realized.
(Report BASM, 1876, p. 375)

The words mother, home, and heaven were used to give a welcoming and inviting picture
of farm life. The mother on the farm was the “center and soul,” and the family members
on the farm would be not only lacking if she was not in the center but also without a
spiritual soul. Later in the essay, Baird clarified his view concerning the quintessential
presence of wife and mother to the farmer and to the destiny of the world.
If you are going to build consult your wife if you have one, and if you haven’t
one, get one. Somebody has said that God first made a man and then He made a
woman to tell him what to do. I think this is eminently true about the planning
and arranging of a house . . . there the wife and mother spends her life. Her work
is there . . . Not only is the house the woman’s workshop, and as such she has a
right to plan and arrange it, but it is also the scene of her pleasures and the seat of
her power; there she radiates those influences which are fixing the habits and
moulding the characters of those who are soon to mould the destinies of the
world. Every thing in the home and its surroundings that can contribute to its
brightness and its joy will tell through the mother beneficially upon the children
from the earliest beginning of life onward. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 379)
Baird stated that the wife of the farmer deserved the opportunity to contribute to the
decisions regarding the construction, floor plan, and tools used in the keeping of the
home and caring for the members of the family because it was her proper sphere, the
place she would work and spend her entire life. Within the boundaries of this sphere, the
mother was responsible for the character development of the children that would make

their contributions to society in the future. The weight of responsibility for this character

development was placed squarely on the shoulders of the mother because she held the

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power from the center of her home sphere. Therefore, if a woman was allowed to pursue
college education, it would have been during the acceptable interlude between her
father’s home and her husband’s home. Even if fathers granted daughters opportunities
to engage in training at college, these women found that work and activities during this

interlude also had boundaries.
Women ’3 Work and Education

The tie between women’s work and their education began to be stronger and
stronger as the decade progressed. Many believed that mothers could no longer give their
daughters complete training on the life and work related to the home sphere. In order for
their education to adequately prepare them for life in the home sphere, they would need
the emerging, scientific curriculum that was found at an institution like Michigan
Agricultural College that combined theories with practical application. But some
questioned whether the College had the curricular means to give women the specific
education they needed for their future home spheres.

Women’s Work at Michigan Agricultural College. Work was an integral part of
the educational approach and curriculum at Michigan Agricultural College; the second of
the five “Objects of the Institution” was “To afford to its students the privilege of daily
manual labor” (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 13). The founders of the College
wholeheartedly believed that students needed daily manual labor to keep the theory of
their studies connected to the practical world of work. In addition to the positive
contribution to the students’ health, they believed that students would more likely remain
engaged in agricultural work after college if they did not lose touch with activity of work

while they studied.

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Its [manual labor] first use, however, is educational, being planned and varied for
the illustration of the principles of Science. The preservation of health, and of a
taste for the pursuit of Agriculture, are two other important objects. It is well
known that students who pursue a college course very seldom thereafter engage in
any industrial pursuit. Four or six years of study, without labor, wholly removed
from sympathy with the laboring world, at the period of life when habits and
tastes are rapidly formed, will ahnost inevitably produce a disinclination, if not
inability, to perform the work and duties of the farm. But to accomplish the
objects of the Institution, it is evident that the students must not, in acquiring a
scientific education, lose either the ability or the disposition to labor on the farm.
If the farmer, then, is to be educated, he must be educated on the farm itself; and it
is due to this large class of our population that facilities for improvement, second
to none other in the State, be afforded them. (MAC Catalogue, 1870, pp. 13-14)

This elevation of the class and work of farmers translated to the everyday life of a student
in the daily requirement of three hours of work either on the College’s farm or garden.
There were allowances made to increase the hours to four or decrease them to two and a
half, and compensation could be applied to the expenses related to attendance. The labor
was “regarded as an essential part of the educational system of the College, and is [was]
performed with special reference to illustrating and applying the instruction of the
Lecture Room” (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 26). Michigan Agricultural College’s
President Abbot described the marriage of theory and work in his annual report to the
Board of Agriculture.
It is often said that all labor-schools have failed, or else have abandoned the
system. This may be true; but from the first the attempt has been made here to
make the labor as much educational as possible, without having it lose its
character of effective work. Class-room instruction and the labor are planned so
as to illustrate each other. The practical and theoretical go hand in hand. Class
instruction is given not in the class-room only, but in the bam-yard, the field, the
orchard, the greenhouse, apiary, vegetable garden, and other places where work is
done. I have, in several instances, met parties of students out upon the farm,
examining what had been brought to their notice in the class room. (Report
BASM, 1876, p. 69)
He then gave evidence that this type of education prepared Michigan Agricultural

College students with the breadth of scientific knowledge to encourage them to enjoy

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their agricultural work by stating that 50% of the graduates remained in farming after
graduation. “[O]ut of one hundred and twenty living graduates . . . forty-two are farmers,
seven are fruit-growers, and eleven are professors and instructors in agricultural colleges”
(Report BASM, 1876, p. 70). From the first day at Michigan Agricultural College, male
students participated in physical labor initially clearing the forest and constructing
campus buildings. Later they plowed, planted and harvested fields, cared for orchards,
and tended livestock and birds while conducting scientific experiments led by their
professors.

When women began to attend in 1870 the College catalogue recorded the
probable limits of their labor experience, in contrast to the experience of male students,
because society divided women and men and their work into separate spheres in and
outside the home. While the theory in the courses was intimately intertwined with the
practice of required manual labor, women’s experiences were not identical in order to
keep from violating the appropriate spheres of life. Although the courses and curriculum
open to men were also available to the female students, such as “chemistry, botany,
horticulture, floriculture, trigonometry, surveying, entomology, book-keeping, and other
branches” the application of the theory was vastly different (Report BASM, 1870, pp. 12-
13).

Many ladies would find our course of study agreeable and useful. They would

find a knowledge of scientific principles comprising as much additional interest

and delight to them in the practice of floriculture, the care of gardens, ornamental
shrubs, and orchards, in the operations of the kitchen, and in their general reading,
as it does to men. Women are frequently left in circumstances where they would
highly prize some knowledge of agriculture.

The applications of chemistry to women’s work are so many that a half
years course of daily lectures would not be too long a one. Among these

applications are, cooking, preserving of fruits, utilization of materials usually
wasted, cleansing by acids and soaps, bleaching, manufacture of soaps of different

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kinds, disinfection, fermentation, and neutralization of poisons. (Report BASM,
1870,p.13)

The application of their study was deemed appropriate because it remained in the
espoused gendered societal spheres primarily inside the home or in the “kitchen” garden.
For instance, “they prepared seed for the ground, cut potatoes, transplanted tomatoes and
flowering plants, pruned shrubbery, gathered small fruit, did some work in the green-
house” and various other paid labor (Report BASM, 1870, p. 13). In contrast,
opportunities for men’s paid labor included tilling fields, harvesting crops, cutting down
trees, pulling stumps and constructing buildings which also relegated them to their proper
sphere outside the home in societal—deemed appropriate manly work.

Further, if in the future women had the opportunity to live in campus housing,
there were different societal expectations as to their work within the dormitory when
compared with those expected from the male students as observed in the following
statement in the 1870 Board of Agriculture Report.

Should provision be made for them [female students], they should occupy the

present new hall, as it contains kitchen, dining-room, washing and ironing rooms,

etc., and should do the work of the hall. Another hall, without dining-room, etc.,
being merely a building of students’ rooms, could be built for the young men.

(Report BASM, 1870, p. 13)

If female students occupied the current dormitory built in 1870, their work would be
designated by their gender. This dormitory held rooms where the activities of food
preparation, washing and ironing, and “the work of the hall” took place. The future
additional dormitory, which would be built for male students, was slated to have only
students’ rooms and food preparation, washing and ironing were assumed by others and

not an expectation for the male students. The separation of activities by gender was

supported with the future plans for residential living.

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Women ’3 Home Sphere Education Promoted at Farmers ’ Institutes. Work
divided by gender to the appropriate spheres in and outside the home continued to
challenge those women who vacillated between contentment within sphere boundaries
and the desire to learn more outside the home in order to be more proficient in their home
work. Women found this learning in both the College and at the Farmers’ Institutes.
Education, whether at the College or the Farmers’ Institutes, enhanced the farmer’s
wife’s knowledge and understanding of her sphere as she was taught about and reminded
of her responsibilities for the care and development of her children. However, some
began to measure the success of education, regardless of where it was acquired, as the
capacity to amass money rather than the development of character. Mrs. S. T. De Forest
read an essay that deplored this notion of success and implored farm mothers to tend to
their duty of nurturing and educating their children beginning “nearly with the embryo.”
(Report BASM, 1877, p. 129)

It is the mother who gives the child its first impressions, ---- impressions that will

perhaps go with it to all eternity. She teaches the first lessons of love and

obedience, inspires with confidence and trust, and as the faculties of body and
mind unfold, should lead it step by step, onward and upward. (Report BASM,

1877,p.130)

There was no argument that the nation needed educated sons and daughters, and society
continued to press mothers to fill the role of developing their children’s moral character
and intellectual capacities. And while society believed mothers bore the responsibility
for teaching their children, they needed to do this in concert with teachers outside of the
home even though this had not been the past pattern for daughters. “Children must have

amusements and companionship; they must go out from the home circle, must attend

school. But parents should not relinquish their positions as teachers . . .” (Report BASM,

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1877, p. 130). As a practicing teacher of teachers, Mrs. S. T. DeForest strongly urged
mothers to train their daughters on the practical, necessary skills rather than frivolous

pursuits.

If so much depends upon the early training of our sons and daughters, and the
responsibility rest so largely upon the mother as to what they are and shall be, is it
not the girls of to-day that most need the special instructions? How many mothers
are there among the farmers who, broken down in mind and body, are spending
the last remnant of their once vigorous systems in bearing the burdens of their
household labors ahnost unaided; daughters, women grown, indulging in selfish
pursuits or idle pleasures . . . . Educated they are, but generally in a superficial
manner, understanding music some, and all the fancy needle-work of the day
better than the plainer kinds of work needed in the household; can sweep, dust,
and arrange the parlors, can cook some (for they expect to keep house some time),
but they understand the art of dressing best of all. In many cases the mother fills
the bill of laundry-maid, cook, dairy-maid, and general scrub, or more politely
speaking, woman of all work; while father, old and toil-wom, foots the bills.
(Report BASM, 1877, pp. 130-131)

Mrs. DeForest described the plight of the mothers if their daughters were not trained in
practical home skills. She claimed mothers would be over-burdened because their
daughters would not know how to do “home” work, and they would be wholly
unprepared for their future lives as house-keeping wives. She pushed these ideas related
to education further and stated that education needed to prepare women for any area in
which men received training because the future was unknown. It was not uncommon for
a woman to lose her husband to death or abandonment and then be the primary person to
care for the needs of herself and her family. Mrs. DeForest advocated for women to be
adequately prepared for these possible life events.

I cannot see why women should not be educated to fill any or every branch of

business that man can fill, even though it be to successfully manage a farm. Then

when she appears upon the state of life, if she does not find or will not have a

husband, let her have a courage and independence born of knowledge to strike out
a course for herself. (Report BASM, 1877, p. 131)

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This last phrase “let her have a courage and independence born of knowledge to strike
out a course for herself’ was in itself a bold and courageous perspective. Mrs. DeForest
exploded the boundaries of the proper home sphere to her Farmers’ Institute audience
when she proposed that a woman could be without a man, be independent, and gain
knowledge appropriate to choose her own life path. In contrast, the commonly accepted
life path for a woman was as one historian noted: “Female education was preparatory to
altruism rather that personal achievement” (Ryan, 1975, p. 150). A proper woman in the
appropriate sphere was not to seek education based on her personal likes and dislikes but
according to the way she could meet the societal expectations caring for her family and
home. The audience at the Farmers’ Institute, including the College faculty, may have
seen connections between the education Mrs. DeForest espoused for farmers’ daughters
and that provided by the Michigan Agriculture College.

Society believed that it was essential that women’s education have a solid link to
the home sphere and to the members of her immediate family and to the extended family
of the state, nation, and world. Some began to believe that a woman’s role and work in
the home warranted college education as Mrs. J. A. Upton portrayed in an essay she
wrote and read for a Farmers’ Institute in 1879 entitled “Polly and the Kettle.” Her
teaching included biblical references identifying the work of the farmer and connecting it
to a continuation of the work in the Garden of Eden.

[W]e are laboring to restore the Eden which our horticultural ancestors, Adam and
Eve, lost to us. With the garden went much of the knowledge and ability to “dress
and to keep” it.

To “dress and to keep it” required careful observation and skillfirl labor,
and we may well appreciate the helpfulness of those who devote their lives to the
study of sciences that throw light upon these labors; chemistry in its subtle, ever-
present, powerful effects, insect life as fiiend or foe, the wonderful working of
vegetable life, and thereby help to find the clew what will lead back through the

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winding ways of ignorance and difficulty to a blessed and fruitful inheritance in
which shall grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. (Report

BASM, 1879, pp. 85-86)

Despite these introductory statements, her paper did not focus on the agricultural work of
the farmer and his wife. Perhaps these opening comments were meant to make a
connection with listeners and to draw them into the primary focus of her paper which was
a rationale for the education of women.

Next, she told a story to her Farmers’ Institute “students” about a farmer named
Sheldon and his wife Polly whose morning meal preparation went awry because the
kettle, though on the stove, was not over the fire and, therefore, did not heat the breakfast
contents. Sheldon left to help another farmer but did not have a good day because he
started the day out “wrong” with a cold breakfast. “All this for lack of awakened thought
and proper discernment of cause and effect” (Report BASM, 1879, p. 86). Mrs. Upton
did not want the listeners to be misled or for the story to be misinterpreted, “Polly’s
purposes were good; she only needed to understand and be awakened, to make it possible
for her to do her best” (Report BASM, 1879, p. 86). She articulated several reasons why
Polly, and women in general, lacked scientific knowledge of home-making preparation
and sound resources. First, she cited that young women needed opportunities to learn as

young children.

[W]here best results are reached, and homes are most complete, there is felt the
power of an educated mind, an awakened, intelligent judgment, and a teachable
heart. If early days were not well filled with opportunity, there has been learning
by the way, and constant effort to improve every stray bit of information that can
be made available. This is an unsatisfactory course, but much better than none.

(Report BASM, 1879, p. 86)

Mrs. Upton believed learning solely in the home was “better than none” but continued to

be inadequate. Second, she implored every woman to read ferociously to not only

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increase their knowledge and understanding but also to “hold the respect of sons and
daughters who ever need the wise counsel and sympathy of intelligent mothers” (Report
BASM, 187 9, p. 87). Third, she encouraged each woman to appreciate herself by taking
care of her body and mind in addition to taking care of her family’s needs. And lastly the
essayist pleaded for women to receive home-making education prior to taking on the task
of being home-makers, and she stated that parents and the common school were
inadequate to do the task. “The woman in the farm-house needs to be better supplied.
with substantial education before she takes up the duties of her lot than any others; her
equipment in physical and metal qualifications should be as complete as is possible”
(Report BASM, 1879, p. 87). Mrs. Upton believed the appropriate time for this
education occurred in a young woman’s life in between her father’s home and her
husband’s home. She also believed the appropriate place was Michigan Agricultural
College and questioned recent decisions made by Michigan’s State Legislature to instead
provide a reform school for criminal girls.
An appropriation of $30,000 was made to establish a reform school for our
criminal girls, while a bill based upon the request of our State Board of
Agriculture that an appropriation be made of $10,000 to build a hall for ladies,
$2,000 to furnish it, $1,000 for lady teachers’ salary, and $600 for matron’s pay,
making a total of $1 3,600, so that our virtuous daughters might be given equal
opportunities with our sons at the State Agricultural College, was lost. (Report
BASM, 1879, p. 88)
Mrs. Upton illustrated her beliefs with the example of the wife of the President of the
United States whom she believed would not have been able to carry out her duties had
she not acquired education to prepare her prior to her husband’s successful election to the

presidency. She stated that every woman’s duty was as noble as the first lady’s because

each woman was responsible for her home and her children, thus carrying the duty and

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responsibility for building a stable, educated, prosperous nation, one child at a time. Mrs.
Upton exhorted her audience to provide education for women alongside of their
husbands, and she ended her speech with a passionate plea taking the listeners back to
agriculture, nature, and life illustrations and the story of Polly, Sheldon, and their kettle.
Ladies and gentlemen, these are matters that reach to the very core of every home
in the country, and we believe that the caution and carefulness that prompts you to
construct laws against Canada thistles, that arouses you to protect with law the
fish in our streams, and the birds and deer in our forests; the kind, thoughtful care
that provides that our public doors shall swing the best way so as to avoid trouble
in case of fire, will, when properly awakened to the needs of the times, prompt
you to lift swiftly the thick griddle of ignorance and indifference that is in the way
of our kettle and close the chasm that now divorces our gains from their best uses.
We will work for the day that shall so educate both Sheldon and Polly, and so
arouse the unawakened senses that both shall firlly understand and appreciate the
needs of their lots and labors, that they shall promptly and cheerfully put the kettle
over the fire, and so help on the stability and usefulness of our new homes.
“Happy is the people that is in such a case.” (Report BASM, 1879, p. 89)
Mrs. Upton saw the previous work of the state leaders in creating laws protecting nature
and people as evidence that these leaders would continue thoughtful, appropriate work
that would eventually result in the provision of a fuller education for women at Michigan
Agricultural College. Another essay by Miss Eva D. Coryell, also included in the 1879
Board of Agriculture report, seemed to be a viable answer to Mrs. Upton’s passionate
plea for educating “Polly.”
A College Program for Women ’s Home Sphere Work. Mrs. Upton’s passionate
plea for educating “Polly” was voiced by other women during the decade of the 18703.
Some were nationally known speakers and writers and others were local people such as
Miss Eva D. Coryell, who carried the distinction of being the first woman to graduate

from Michigan Agricultural College. Although several women began to take courses

from Michigan Agricultural College during the 18703 she was the only one who

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completed a course of study and subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Science
degree in 1879. QuestiOns continued regarding what type of an education did a woman
need and what was she to do after she was educated.

Miss Eva Coryell wrote and read an essay at a Farmers’ Institute titled “A
Practical Education for Women” which captured what she perceived to be the heart of the
issue of educating women in the last quarter of the 19th century. She described the same
type of condition that Mrs. Upton did in that they both felt that neither the training from
parents nor the education in the common schools was adequate to prepare a women for
tasks in the home. She mentioned that in the past mothers had passed knowledge to their
daughters much like the relationship between an “apprentice” and “master workman”
(Report BASM, 1879, p. 173). She perceived that young girls who attended common
school and college, while gaining some knowledge, still lacked because it was “in the
languages and the literature of the day, with a little knowledge of the sciences . . . with no
knowledge whatever of housewor ” (Report BASM, 1879, p. 173). Miss Coryell
addressed the challenge these young women faced.

What shall she do? Which education can she afford to neglect? Some say the

college, some say the home. I would say neither. Combine them in a school, and

thus combine the efficient housekeeper with the good scholar . . . . Can this be
done? There is no school of this kind in our State, but we see no reason why such

a one could not be carried on successfully.

Once the possibility of uniting practical farming with a college education
was a question of just as great doubts as this. Its success is beyond the
expectations of the most hopeful. Can we not have a school for ladies based upon
the same principle of uniting practice to theory, uniting labor and study?

It seems strange that our State thinks all leading pursuits of men of enough
importance to found special schools for their benefit, while that pursuit which has

widest range of all does not receive a passing notice. (Report BASM, 1879, p.
173-174)

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Many of the State’s Farmers’ Institutes’ essays reflected society’s belief that the fate of
the nation rested on the solid, effectual performance of wives and mothers in the home
sphere. Although Farrrrers’ Institutes were welcomed as teaching and learning
opportunities, some believed. that a more sustained, consistent, and complete education
was needed because there was no state college to educate them with a course of study that
embodied the work of women in the home sphere. Miss Coryell proposed that these
wives and mothers needed the same type of education that had been the mantra of those
purporting to start an agricultural college more than. two decades earlier: A practical
education. Informed by her recent college experiences as a Michigan Agricultural
College student, she believed that scientific theorizing could inform the housekeeper, and
this education could be provided by her alma mater as following possible course of study.
The school need not be changed at all from its present methods of working.
Substitute in place of agriculture some study suited to a girl’s education, and we
have an excellent lady’s course. The teaching of the chemical department could
scarcely be bettered in regard to its practical value to her. It now has a course of
lectures in dairying, teaches methods of canning and preserving fi'uits, how to
make jelly, best methods of cleansing, and many other things of equal value to
her. Of pure mathematics there is none too much for a lady’s course. The natural
sciences, French, moral philosophy and psychology are all necessary to a course
of studies for ladies.

Looking over the whole list of studies pursued at the Agricultural college
there are none objectionable to a ladies’ course, only the technical studies
pertaining to agriculture. Substitute domestic economy in place of them and we
have a better course for girls than any other college affords. (Report BASM, 1879,
p.174)

She added support to her ideas by referencing comments that Michigan Agricultural
College’s President Abbot had given to the State Legislature: “I am strongly in favor of
adding a department for women, and can see no reason why such a one should not be

useful and successful” (Report BASM, 1879, p. 174). Miss Coryell’s ideas were couched

in the comfortable and acceptable sphere of women in the home, yet these women would

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be better equipped than ever before with this potential education to deal with the various
challenges they faced related to food cultivation and preparation, care of the home, and
raising children. She concluded as many others did with a passionate plea for leaders in
the state to provide a more applicable, practical college education for the state’s
daughters.

Many others have eXpressed a similar opinion on this subject. Is not this a subject

that deserves our earnest thought? ---- a need that ought at once to be satisfied?

To fit humanity for the places which they are to fill is a noble work, and
always gives great results. Our State, in the advantages it gives to youths, should
not neglect the true culture of her daughters. Though woman’s life is secluded,
her work not often open to public gaze, yet fitting her for her duties will never be

a waste of means.

Not only should such culture be a blessing to herself: of homes, hundreds

would be brighter, of hearts, thousands would be lighter. (Report BASM, 1879, p.

174)

Women. 's Work in and outside the Home Sphere. Answers to the questions of
what should a woman study at college, what work should a woman do at college, and
What work should a woman do after college continued to evolve during the last quarter of
the 19th century. The first several Michigan Agricultural College catalogues (1870-1872)
included a statement regarding the work of the College graduates that seemed to be open
to either men or women; however, in the context of the day it would have been unusual
for women to enter most professions.

It is believed that students who complete the course will be qualified to follow

agricultural pursuits with intelligence and success; or should some other

profession seem more congenial, they will have the discipline and scientific
acquirements that will enable them to pursue with profit the studies preparatory to

entering it. (MAC Catalogue, 1870, p. 25)

If she was to be in the home sphere because she was the “center and soul” of the home,

there were obvious limitations to her opportunities to find or to create work or

occupations for pay. At the same time, the undercurrent created by the woman’s rights

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movement begun formally in 1849 in Seneca Falls New York by Elizabeth Cady Stanton
and Susan B. Anthony was felt in later years in Lansing, Michigan. Mrs. L. B. Baker
read an essay on a career possibility which, if embraced by society, would expand the

acceptable boundaries of the woman’s sphere to an area of paid labor.

Some years ago there seemed little else for the average woman to do, in the way
of self-support, aside from music, teaching, sewing, and household employments,
and the few who ventured beyond these were considered at least “strong-minded,’
very likely “masculine.” The question of woman’s rights is no longer
prominently before the public, but whatever one’s views may be, or may have
been upon the subject, its agitation has undoubtedly done good, leading woman to
consider her own abilities, and awakening her to the realization that whatever
other rights were denied her, there were fields of remunerative labor open to her
hitherto unrecognized. These, considering the barriers of custom, she has not
been slow to occupy; but there are still others given up to the monopoly of men to
which she is well adapted, and which in the progress of woman’s or human rights
must inevitably be shared with her.

Bee-keeping for women is of comparatively recent date, and judging from
the interest manifested, is attracting a degree of attention hitherto unknown.
(Report BASM, 1876, p. 431)

Acceptable remunerated labor included those activities associated with home work such
as cooking, sewing, cleaning, and teaching children. Mrs. Baker noted the labels and
stigma women faced if they chose occupations that were normally assigned to men. Her
essay also positively portrayed this new occupation of work in the apiary as she
specifically outlined the exact costs of the purchase of bees, hives, sugar, extractors, and
smokers as well as the profits from the sale of comb honey, honey, bees, and empty
combs. She gave credence to her new career because she kept herself in a proper
hierarchy related to men as she highlighted the instruction and support of experts such as
Professor Cook from Michigan Agricultural College and contemporaries Langstroth and
Quinby when she was beginning her business.

[A]nd to them [experts] [I] am indebted for whatever of success I have achieved; ,
but have since learned that in bee-keeping, as in other matters, there are many

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ways of accomplishing the desired end; consequently, I have sometimes ventur
to disobey them all, and thus far without unsatisfactory results. Notwithstandir
an acquaintance with the best authorities, there is still opportunity for every onc
learn by personal observation and experience. (Report BASM, 1876, p. 434)
As seen in these comments, Mrs. Baker gained confidence over time and she believed
that she, too, became not only competent but could be adventurous in experimenting or
her own. This was central to her understanding of what a woman needed when confinc
to work in the home. One of these needs was that of mental stimulation, and she belie‘
that the business of bee-keeping provided exercise for the mind. Mrs. Baker saw the
profession of bee-keeping as a venue for education as it demanded that the woman be 2
student of nature if she was to be successful.
Women often complain that there is no inspiration in their work; that it holds th
attention but does not prompt to study or investigation, thus affording little
opportunity for mental improvement. In this respect bee-keeping is in marked
contrast. A worker in the apiary is also a student, and is constantly meeting wit

surprises, and learning something new and intensely interesting. (Report BASIV.
1876,p.434)

Summary

Whether women learned through parental training in the home or from self-
education as that described by Miss Miller and Mrs. Baker or from a college education
such as Miss Eva D. Coryell experienced, women’s educational opportunities were int
midst of change. During this transition phase of new possibilities, college education
played a significant role as the college was outside the home sphere and was many timc
co-educational, as in the case of Michigan Agricultural College. College courses and
curriculum were designed for the agricultural training of male students espousing to be

future farmers; however, there were some female students who stepped into these cour:

without reserve.

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As these women entered college life, there were‘no places for them to live on
campus, there were no female professors that modeled or helped. them to navigate in this
mostly male world, there was little or no direct connection of their coursework to their
home sphere, and there was only one place “to do” anything with what they learned after
attending college, and that was the home of their husbands. Yet women persevered,
attending institutions of higher education like Michigan Agricultural College. Despite
the “voices in their heads” originating from recognized authorities in society such as
ministers, parents, and doctors consistently speaking out about the dangers of advanced
education for women or the inappropriateness or even the sinfulness of this education,
women not only attended but continued to enroll and learn.

They also found another more culturally acceptable educational setting. The
College sponsored Farmers’ Institutes allowed them to remain primarily in the home and
exit briefly to learn from each other and college professors. And despite two years in
which no women were enrolled at Michigan Agricultural College the “experiment”
continued on into the 18803 where the piecing together of their individual quilt squares
whether students at the College or at the Farmers’ Institutes became a part of the back

and forth pattern for the quilt of women’s education at Michigan Agricultural College.

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CHAPTER 4

134

Searching for Patterns at Michigan Agricultural College, 1880-188
But there never was any time wasted on my quilts, child. I can look at every (
of ‘em with a clear conscience. I did my work faithful; and then, when I migl
set and held my hands, I’d make a block or two ‘0 patchwork, and before long
have enough to put together a quilt. (Hall, 1898, p. 58)

Aunt Jane thoughtfully divided her time between her home sphere work and h
enjoyment of making quilts. She chose scrap pieces of material, trimmed them, arran
in patterns, and then sewed them together to form the quilt top, working faithfully unt
was completed. Her work mirrored the faithful work of creating the quilt of women’s
education at Michigan Agricultural College in the 18803. During this decade, pattern
were forming but there were some missing pieces and some dissatisfaction with the
outcome of the creation. Michigan Agricultural College was an “experimental” colle
because the focus on the study of agriculture based on scientific inquiry departed fror
solely classical curriculum. This new form of higher education was based on
experimentation. Although none of the professors had responsibilities for coordinatie
methodology, or evaluation, one of the College’s experiments was allowing women It
attend. The possibility remained that the results of this experiment could be as the
College’s President Willits described the first years of the College’s experiment statie
“Many are inconsequential and useless; many never see the light of day, but all contri
to the general knowledge of the subject. It is as important to know of a failure, and if
possible its cause, as of a success” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 33). If numerical growth
was an indication of success, the inclusion of women was not a “successfiil experime
in its first decade, varying from ten in the first year to no women for two years to eler

by 1879 (see Appendix B). These women continued to face challenges that the first I

students did not experience in both the type of education they received and where it v

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acquired. This portion of the research highlights some of the challenges to the success of
women attending Michigan Agricultural College during the 18803 in the sections listed
below:

“Where” are the Michigan Agricultural College Women?

“Where” will Women be in the New Era?

“Who” Should Teach Women and “What” Should Women be Taught?

“What” Can Women Do in the Home Sphere?

“Where” Can Women Do their Work?
“Where” are the Michigan Agricultural College Women?

Women gained approval to attend Michigan Agricultural College in 1870.
However, the descriptions of the student body, the curriculum and the campus facility
needs recorded in the College catalogues and in the annual Board of Agriculture reports
reflected a lack of invitation for women to come beyond the front doors of the institution.
As seen in these primary documents, the student body consisted of men, the curriculum
was to encompass scientific approaches to men’s farming work, and the campus facility
needs grew in proportion to the student body and the curriculum. Education was believed
paramount to learning scientific approaches to farm work; however, the “science” taught
at Michigan Agricultural College related directly to the work of the farmer and his sons,
not his wife or daughters. This was evidenced in the remarks by the College’s presidents,
the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and most of the College’s professors.

Comments from Board of Agriculture Leaders. It was common for the president
of Michigan Agricultural College as well as the secretary for the Board of Agriculture

and various professors to give lectures and write essays on various facets of the College

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as a means of communicating the scientific work of professors and students. The '
Board of Agriculture report recorded a lecture given by Secretary R. G. Baird at a
Michigan F armers’ Institute in which he spoke of the good education students rece
Michigan Agricultural College. He spoke of the affordability of the education and
advantages young men would find during their educational experience and after cc
He praised the state Legislature for their generous gifts to the College, which supp
the foundational scientific work of research and added that every gift asked for hae
granted. Secretary Baird referenced the work of graduates of the College and how
education contributed to their success after college. At this point in time, women 1
been attending the College for thirteen years; nevertheless, this speaker did not me
women students in his presentation or the lack of campus housing designated for tl
I think it is to the honor of Michigan Agricultural College that we find amc
graduates men who are in high positions as scientists, educators, and joum:
do not attach a very high degree of importance to the percentage of our gra
that go back to the farm, and I think the time is not far distant when but fev
care to ask how many of our graduates are farmers, but it is of vast importa
that the college should do the best possible work in fitting the young men c
industrial classes who attend it, by giving them a liberal and practical educ:
such as shall fit them for the “several pursuits and professions of life.” Not
many farmers does your college turn out, but how many useful, practical, e

men. This is what the college aims to do. (Report BASM, 1883, p. 184)
Secretary Baird stated that the aim of the College was educating men for professio
college. He did not take the opportunity to note that there had been women in atte
for more than a decade, that some of them had graduated in recent years, and that 1
second graduate was now the College’s librarian. The annual Board of Agricultur

report, which he edited, had a section describing the work in the library and a repo

supplied by the College librarian. There was no mention of these in his speech, pe

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leaving the audience to question whether women continued to apply and attend the
College.

Two years later, Secretary Baird included a short memorial salute to the Hon.
Hezekiah G. Wells, president of the Board of Agriculture for 21 years, in which he
recounted the president’s desire to see the continued development of the College
including the addition of a course of study for women. “The formation of a Ladies’
department was very much desired by him, but this he did not live to see” (Report
BASM, 1885, 'p. 21-22). However the College leadership and faculty, including the
secretary of the Board of Agriculture who was also a faculty member at the College, saw
their work again and again as exclusively “fitting” men of the industrial classes.

Comments from Faculty Leaders. Professor Frank S. Kedzie read an essay at the
same F arrners’ Institute as Secretary Baird in which he spoke on “Chemistry in
Housekeeping.” Women participating at the Farmers’ Institute were an “extension” of
the student body of the College and surely benefited from his talk. Yet, this topic would
also have been a “fit” for the women students who were enrolled at the College, if there
was a “Ladies’ department” like Hon. Wells desired. Professor Kedzie explained the
history of disconnect between chemistry and housekeeping.

Useful as chemistry has been, and wonderful in its advancement at the presenting

the arts, it is with extreme slowness that it is applied to domestic life. The reason

for this delay is apparent when we consider that domestic life had to exist before
either art or science. The preparation of clothing and of food was necessarily a
first attempt without any guiding principles, and succeeding with principles at
first, made the principles seem unnecessary as time went on. (Report BASM,
1883,p.199)

The professor continued by giving examples of the enlightening scientific characteristics

of chemistry on the work related to housekeeping such as the proper temperature to cook

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foods, the effects of yeast and baking powder when mixed with the components in flour,
the results of improper canning and jelly-making techniques, the impact of the air on
butter storage, and proper methods for making soap. For illustrative purposes, he focused
on the “excessive and unscientific use of soda as indulged in by many house-keepers”
who tried “to impress the district school teacher” (Report BASM, 1883, p. 201).
Although Professor Kedzie believed that the use of unscientific methods was not only
unproductive but formed the “domestic woes” found in many Michigan households, he
did not advocate in his talk for the inclusion of this type of chemistry in the curriculum of
the College or a program. for women in domestic arts and sciences (Report BASM, 1883,
p. 205).

Comments from Farmers ’ Institute Leaders. Although there had been no women
on the Board of Agriculture or in the College faculty, women did have a voice at the
Farmers’ Institutes. The same year Secretary Baird and Professor Kedzie read their
essays, Mrs. R. F. Johnstone also read an essay advocating for agricultural chemistry to
be added to the curriculum in the common schools. She believed as Secretary Baird and
Professor Kedzie that the practical application of agriculture to the daily lives of farmers’
sons and daughters would not only teach them skills but would endear them to the farm
and its associated work.

Let education be turned, especially in the common schools, toward making

farmers out of farmers’ children. Teach them that an educated farmer is as much

a success as an educated lawyer, and entitled to the same consideration, both

socially and politically. Show them that it is of as much importance to know the

component parts of the earth beneath their feet, as to know the countries meet in
their order in a circuit of the earth. If it is essential to know something of the
structure of man and of animals, it is quite as important to know how plants are
built up, upon what they feed, and why they fail and die. If the trick of

conjugating a verb can be learned, agricultural chemistry can be understood, and
what is better, become of practical value. (Report BASM, 1883, p. 212)

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While Mrs. Johnson advocated for a practical curriculum for women’s education, 31
stated that their learning should occur prior to college and marriage, which was a m
acceptable place and time for teaching young women.

Changes in Leadership. Many transitions had already occurred in the life or
College over the years since its inception; however, the College staff and faculty ch
listed in the 1885 Board of Agriculture report, were some of the most significant in
history of the institution. Michigan Agricultural College lost significant long-term
leaders through death and retirement. There were also major programmatic change:
through the addition of one entirely new department and “two more so much enlarg
from the former dimension as to be practically new departments” (Report BASM, 1
p. 17). All of these anticipated and unanticipated changes gave the College an
opportunity for creating new patterns, perhaps including and supporting women.

The year 1884 brought an end to an era in the life of Michigan Agricultural
College as President Abbot resigned after 22 years of service (see Appendix G). He
the distinction of being the president who gave the first women approval to attend t1
College in 1870; his diary recorded the event as a part of his daily decision making
duties. There were two places recorded in the 1884 Board of Agriculture report wh
highlighted the events in his presidency. The first was in the portion designated to 1
annual College reports entitled “Resignation of the Presidency” where he described
Board of Agriculture’s appreciation for his contribution Report BASM, 1884, p. 3(
President Abbot mentioned historical events such as the reorganization of the Colle.
1861 and the institution of the Morrill Act in 1862. He talked about forming “bond

fiiendship between the College and society in general” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 31:

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And he ended his thoughts with the following statement: “I have [had] the pleasure of
seeing several whose fathers were in earlier years themselves students of the College, an
more than a dozen brothers of students and graduates of previous years” (Report BASM,
1884,p.32)

The second place President Abbot’s remarks were recorded was in the section on
essays from Famrers’ Institutes. He talked about Michigan Agricultural College as “an
anomaly amongst educational institutions” because practical approach to studies was
utilized. “Studies essential to the development of the citizen and the man were to hold a
prominent place in the course” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 25 8). There was no mention in
either of these writings of the door he opened for the first ten female students or of the
women who continued to walk through that open door in the following years regarding
their course of study or their contribution to the College or the state. The College

continued to exist primarily for the education of young men.
“Where” will Women be in the New Era?

It was the end of an era of stabilizing the College during its early “experimental”
years; Dr. T. C. Abbot, president for 22 years, resigned; Hon. H. G. Wells, the president
of the Board of Agriculture for 21 years, and Rev. R. G. Baird, faculty member and
secretary of the Board of Agriculture for 10 years, both passed away. The college
experiment, educating students for agricultural pursuits, brought hope for young men ane
women to acquire a practical education.

New Presidential Leadership. Newly instituted President Willits, in his inaugura
address, began with a review of the 28-year history of Michigan Agricultural College am

a statement of exclusivity defining his term of leadership.

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It was the first Agricultural College on the continent. Other States had moved in
the same direction, but Michigan forestalled all others in the enterprise of
establishing an institution of learning whose sole object should be the intelligent
investigation and application of subjects pertaining to agriculture and the
education of young men into a higher and, if possible better system of farming, as
well as into a cultured, practical manhood. (Report BASM, 1885, p. 23)
He was accurate in his portrayal of the beginning years of the College; however, his
statements on the education of young men for a practical manhood left women who had,
who were, and who would in the future attend the institution -- invisible. There was no
inclusion of their 15-year history of enrollment in any part of his address. On the other
hand, he was enthusiastic about the future contribution of the College as seen in the
following statement. “But we have now passed the pioneer steps of our history, and we
stand to-day well equipped for work, and better able to meet all just demands than ever
before” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 25). He illustrated the worthy contribution of the
institution to society by referencing the occupations of the graduates yet never mentioned
Mrs. Mary J. C. Merrill, a graduate, and employee leading the library. He ended a
section on industrial education by describing the type of students he wished to welcome
and graduate from the student body as sons, again leaving no doubt as to the exclusion of
women.
We want no loafers here and we shall mourn over every loafer who carries our
degree with him into the busy world to which we accredit him. Therefore, we ask
the people of this goodly State to consider the matter, and if they wish their sons
to come to us we will try to equip them in mind and body, and to send them back
with this industrial purpose. (Report BASM, 1885, p. 32)
The President’s Enrollment Vision. The 1885 Board of Agriculture report also
contained the “Report of President Willits,” in which he described the agricultural focus

of the college and then gave his perception on the enrollment of the institution related to

facility usage. He calculated that 150 new students could attend in the current year, for a

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total enrollment of 230 to 250, if they placed “three students in a room, a matter
conducive neither to health nor satisfactory study” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 57). While
the enrollment at the beginning of the decade (1880 and 1881) was over 200, it had
dropped to fewer than 200 the following three years (1882-1884). President Willits
stated that the College’s physical plant cost approximately $400,000, and it “justifie[d]
and demand[ed] at least 500 students” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 57). He identified
limited student housing as the main barrier to reaching an enrollment of 500 students.

We are three miles away from Lansing and too far to secure quarters for the

surplus attendance, unless some easy and cheap means of transportation is

provided. The college is in a sparsely settled region ---- very few farmers’
residences within walking distance, and absolutely no buildings or boarding
houses or quarters for students in the vicinity of the grounds. (Report BASM,

1885, pp. 57-58)

He was so convinced that the institution needed to have an enrollment of 500 that earlier
he made his acceptance of the position of College president conditional on receiving
support for his vision of “500 students in five years.” President Willits suggested two
means to increase enrollment: They could “build a street railway to Lansing” or “build
more dormitories” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 58).

The challenges of travel and accommodations described by President Willits had
been the experience of women students for over 15 years, yet President Willits did not
mention women’s housing or their enrollment as a part of the plan to reach 500 students.
In the first year of his plan, the 1885 Board report reflected an increase in enrollment that
far exceeded his previous year’s prediction; there were 295 students enrolled in 1884 (see
Appendix H). He continued pushing toward his goal of 500 students in five years and

repeated the “pressing need for more dormitories or for a street railroad” because every

room had been filled and some of the students were “now obliged to live in the city,

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which largely impairs[ed] their usefuhress and is[was] a severe tax upon them, especially
in inclement weather” (Report BASM, 1886, p. xx). He did not believe the College or
state should expend financial resources constructing a street railroad, but he did believe it
would increase enrollment substantially and solve “the question of the attendance of
ladies” (Report BASM, 1886, p. xx).

A strong pressure comes from many quarters for accommodations for ladies.
Now, while the College is open to them, there being no special building for them,
it amounts to a practical prohibition. We have twelve lady students who find
rooms with the professors, or come from their homes daily from the surrounding
country. I believe that it is desirable that the number be increased. While the
administration would be more severely taxed in one way, there would be
ameliorating influences as a compensation in another direction by a larger
attendance of ladies; and I have no hesitation in recommending that measures be
taken to secure that larger attendance. But the College is now overflowing with
young men and the more serious need is felt to furnish accommodations for them.

(Report BASM, 1886, p. xx)
While housing had been secured for men from the first day the doors were open in 1857,
women had to demonstrate by increasing their enrollment, that their accommodations
were warranted. President Willits continued to promote his plan for 500 students in five
years at the 1886 Farmers’ Institutes by sharing the growth in enrolhnent and in facilities
during the past year. He also shared his perspective on the source of the enrollment
growth.
I believe that there is a constituency of young men in this State who want to be
not lawyers nor doctors, but farmers or mechanics, and that if the Legislature will
stand by us we can have five hundred students in five years and be ahead of
anything of the kind on the continent . . . Now we want your boys. I am gunning
for boys. (Report BASM, 1886, p. 219)
His passion for recruiting male students was evident as he concluded his Institute speech.

He believed that if the boys of the state completed the common school curriculum, they

should “come along and we will go with you the rest of the way” through the educational

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experience at Michigan Agricultural College (Report BASM, 1886, p. 221). There were
no statements in President Willits’ talk regarding the recruiting, retaining, or increasing
the enrollment of women.

President Willits continued to advance his vision in the 1887 Board of Agriculture
report by recording the highest enrollment of the institution at 323 followed by another
plea for additional student housing, noting the students’ responses to the overcrowding in
the dormitories. “The students have been patient, hoping for better accommodations as
soon as the new dormitory shall be completed” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 24). He also
stated that the dormitories had been repaired and were “in a decidedly improved
condition” and that their “general appearance” was “brighter and neater” owing some of
the change to students taking better care of them (Report BASM, 1887, p. 24).
Apparently, the residential students had changed their behavior fiom previous years and
were more respectful of their living quarters, the other buildings and grounds, and people
in general.

Not a single case of injury to property has occurred, nor a single “mad prank” to

annoy the executive. The voluntary attendance at the daily chapel exercises has

so far increased as to sometimes test the capacity of the chapel, and the attendance
on the Sunday Bible classes and the meetings of the Young Men’s Christian

Association has been satisfactory. The going to the city has become less frequent,

being on the average considerably less than once a week, and the relations of the

students with the police officers have so far improved that there is no conflict or
trouble of any kind. In other words, the general demeanor of the students has

been that of gentlemen. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 24)

Certainly the president was encouraged by the behavior of these students and by the
Legislature’s decision that year to give Michigan Agricultural College $10,000 to build a

new dormitory, which was expected to provide rooms for 75-100 additional students. At

the same time, the additional enrollment was exclusively male. There was no mention of

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that year’s highest recorded enrollment of women 20 or any future plans to ask for
appropriations for a dormitory designated for them.

The president’s report in the 1888 Board of Agriculture report recorded the
completion of Abbot Hall, the new men’s domritory named for former President Abbot.
However, President Willits brought no hope for a women’s dormitory in the coming year.
“From the present outlook there will be no application to the next Legislature for new
buildings . . .” (Report BASM, 1888, p. 27). President Willits resigned in 1889 to take
the post in Washington, DC, as the Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, and Mr. Oscar
Clute, a graduate and professor of Michigan Agricultural College, accepted the position
of president. His report for the 1889 Board of Agriculture report included comments
supporting the Board of Agriculture in asking the State Legislature for an appropriation
to construct a new building for the Farm Department. Again, no mention was given to a
future building for the female students even though their enrollment matched the
attendance in 1886 at 20, the highest on record.

Differing Views on What Women Learned. There was one College faculty
member in the decade of the 18803, Professor Lewis McLouth, who had a different
perspective regarding women’s enrollment and what they learned at the College. In his
department report, he noted the need for a “young woman’s dormitory” with a “model
kitchen and dining room” directed by “a competent lady as matron and instructor in
domestic economy and household art” (McLouth, 1886, p. lxii). He also advocated for
industrial training for women in “light handicrafts” such as “photography, type writing,
telegraphy, typography, wood carving, scroll sawing” and others to “enable them to learn

lucrative callings, should they choose to follow them” (Report BASM, 1886, p. lxii).

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Professor McLouth ended his report by connecting the education of women to their

contribution to the state.

I believe by doing this we can greatly enlarge the usefulness of the college by _

making it as helpful to the young women of the State as to the young men. There

is no argument needed, I know, Mr. President, to convince you or the Board of

Agriculture that women educated and trained in their duties contribute as much to

the prosperity and happiness of a State as do educated men. (Report BASM, 1886,

p. lxii)

President Willits did not agree with Professor McLouth as seen in a question and
answer time at the 1889 Lake Odessa Farmers’ Institute. One of the attendees asked
whether they could send their daughters to Michigan Agricultural College. The president
responded, “We have a few, but we have no accommodations for them. We would not
modify our course for them, as I think the education that is good for the boys is good for
the girls” (Report BASM, 1889, p. 371). The lack of housing accommodations and desire
to ask for appropriations to construct housing for women, and the perception that
whatever curriculum the institution offered was appropriate for all, regardless of spheres
society erected, was a major obstacle to President Willits’ accomplishing his goal of 500
students in five years. President Willits left Michigan Agricultural College to go to
Washington, DC, after his fourth year to take the position of Assistant Secretary of the
Department of Agriculture never reaching his fifth year or his enrollment vision. While
he reached some measure of success in enrollment growth, 369 students in 1889, the goal
of 500 was not realized until nine years after his administration in 1898, two years after
the industrial program of domestic education for women was introduced. In that record

enrollment year, women contributed approximately 18% (95 students) to the total

enrollment of 528 students.

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While women entered the initial doors of the institution in 1870, there was still
evidence 14 years later that some did not believe that they could or should acquire the
same skills as men. There was confusion over whether public speaking skills were an
appropriate study for women as seen in an essay read at two Farmers’ Institutes in 1884
by the College’s Professor of the English Language and Literature. Professor E. J.
MacEwan, former librarian at Michigan Agricultural College from 1880-1883, spoke on
the topic “Making a Public Speech.” In one of the longest lectures recorded in the Board
of Agriculture reports, he eloquently portrayed and pointedly stated that men were the
only viable candidates to make speeches. He mentioned women one time in his speech,
as wives and sweethearts listening in the audience.

The speaker is the man. Nothing little, weak, whining or sentimental must be

detected in him . . . There must be a man’s soul, and a man’s body as its welcome,

glad, well trained servant . . . No one can speak effectively without the manliness

of self-possession. (Report BASM, 1884, p. 241)

Professor MacEwan concluded his essay with the final charge to each young man in the
audience to “train and arm his mind with all the resources of knowledge, of method, of
grace, and of manly character to perform such service when opportunity is offered”
(Report BASM, 1884, p. 248). The content of his essay verbally excluded women from
entering into this facet of life in the community or at the college even though speeches
were part of the curriculum requirements. Perhaps this belief contributed to the self-
abasing comments that most women essayists at the Farmers’ Institutes exhibited as seen
in the following examples.

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, ---- The subject I am requested to bring

before this meeting is of importance enough to be handled by a more experienced

and abler pen than mine. Thirty years of hard work in a farmer’s kitchen is not

likely to develop a woman into a very brilliant writer; there, I shall ask very much
leniency in your criticism. (Report BASM, 1882, p. 281)

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Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, ---- I have tried in vain till the last week to

think of something to say on the subject chosen for me. I have repeatedly asked

myself, why did your committee want me to write anything on this subject when
there were teachers from our Agricultural College and the learned men and
women who might have been chosen from our city and vicinity . . . I think the
institute did not want a scientific answer, but simply a woman’s idea, so I will tell

you what I know . . . (Report BASM, 1883, pp. 227-228)

While education was changing and more women were walking through the doors
of colleges and participating at Farmers’ Institutes, they continued to hear most men talk
about the education of men. This was evident as Secretary Baird proceeded through the
benefits of applied science in his 1884 essay more than 14 years after women were
admitted to Michigan Agricultural College.

And first I observe that industrial education, by which I mean an education which

gives instruction in the line of the occupations in which the greatest majority of

men have to engage, produces a better type of manhood by developing what is
latent, and awakening what is dormant in the faculties of the individual. (Report

BASM, 1884, p. 251)

By this point of the history of women attending Michigan Agricultural College five
women had graduated with Bachelor of Science degrees, and the second woman to
graduate in 1881, Mrs. Mary J. C. Merrill, had become the first woman librarian at the
College. In addition, the 1884 Board of Agriculture report listed Miss Alice A. Johnson
as a speaker elected by her peers to represent the graduating class of 1884 at their
commencement ceremony. While these firsts accomplished much through their efforts,

there continued to be a lack of acknowledgement, support, or Visibility related to their

existence on campus.
“What” Should Women Teach and “What” Should Women be Taught?

Farmers’ Institute essays and discussions continued to provide learning

opportunities to participants throughout the 18803. Many presentations focused on

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questions regarding the role parents played in teaching, what schools and colleges should
teach, and who should be taught at these institutions. Some presented self-education,
learning from books and experiences in the home such as Miss Nettie Wood who read an
essay answering the question “What Shall We Read?” She stated that books were
essential for farmers to develop culture and deepen their knowledge of their work and
world. However, she cautioned her listeners not to read too much fiction because it
promoted “fiivolity, conceit, and little power of concentration” (Report BASM, 1883, p.
208).

Other lecturers continued to believe that education early in life was for both boys
and girls and should be taught by mothers and teachers, but advanced education away
from home at college was primarily for young men. Some thought a woman should be
educated in and outside the home to enable her to better fulfill her duty of caring for and
teaching her children and, thereby, also demonstrating loyalty to her family, her country
and the world. A plethora of essays were written during this decade to address what
farmers and their wives deemed a very serious issue -- that of young men and women
leaving the farm. There was heightened concern that when these farmer’s children went
away from the farm to attend college, they would not return to their roots.

Educating Daughters ~ Mothers ' Responsibility. Many believed that parents were
responsible to educate their children and that the Farmers’ Institutes provided a viable
educational setting to learn how and what to teach. Mrs. Millard of Palo prodded her
peers in an essay on “Lights and Shadows of Home Life.” She presented a picture of
Michigan’s sons and daughters going unprepared into marriage because they had not

been taught about real life or about themselves while growing up in their parents’ homes.

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The young husband was captivated by financially caring for his family and many times
he came “home worn and fretful from overstrain of nerve and mind . . . in no mood to
notice the tired, sad look of the wife, overburdened with cares which cannot be avoided”
(Report BASM, 1880, p. 120). Mrs. Millard claimed that both the young husband and
wife, overwhelmed by duties in their respective spheres, became weary and disappointed
with unmet marriage expectations that resulted in contracting “domestic leprosy” (Report
BASM, 1880, p. 121). The major component of her remedy for this disease was parents
educating their children in the home and modeling happy homes for them prior to their
entering maniage.
If we teach our sons and daughters the beauty of domestic happiness as
exemplified in our own home life, we shall almost invariably send out good
husbands and wives to bless and light up other homes, and they in turn send the
sunlight of love on its way to bless those that come after them . . . . The question
is asked by anxious mothers, how shall we secure the happiness of our daughters
when they go from the home roof to occupy homes of their own? The question is
perplexing and no satisfactory answer has been reached. It is high time we gave
this subject serious thought, and where a more fitting place to begin than in the
home of intelligent farmers! Let us look carefully to the education of our
children, and not by precept only, but by example . . . . (Report BASM, 1880, p.
121-122)
Mrs. Millard reviewed the results of parents’ learning, teaching, and modeling for their
children. The outcome of successfully completing these activities was the perpetuation
of happy homes to future generations.
Dr. George Pray also lectured the same year on “The Education of Farmers.” He
stated that “nations are prosperous and powerful in proportion to the general intelligence
and education of their people . . (Report BASM, 1880, p. 124). His teaching was

Similar to Mrs. Millard’s in that he said parents were responsible for educating their

Children while they were on the farm. He also encouraged parents to keep their homes

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attractive and to give their children wholesome activities in order to create a pleasant life
for them and thereby keep them on the farm. He proposed that if parents did this, some
children would not have to leave the farm because only a few of them had the capacity
for advanced education and most would have acquired all they needed for life from their
parents’ tutelage.

Do not let them be in a hurry to send their children away from home to any
school, for if they have done all this they are already educating them in a much
better way than they could be anywhere else. Let them endeavor to improve their
schools at home rather than to patronize schools away from home. When they
arrive at such an age that their capabilities can be properly estimated, if they are
capable of attaining a higher degree of knowledge than can be furnished by their
own schools, send them to an institution where the same lessons of industry and
frugality taught them at home shall be continued and enforced, where bodily vigor
and health shall be preserved, and where a course of studies shall be pursued
calculated to furnish at the same time a thorough mental discipline and such
practical knowledge as will be useful to them in after life and tend to make them
good citizens in whatever calling they may choose. (Report, BASM, Pray, 1880,
pp. 128-129)

Dr. Pray saw Michigan Agricultural College as a good fit for the intellectually capable

that needed further education; however, unlike his opening statement in which he

advocated educating a nation’s people, he saw this opportunity exclusively for sons.
The thorough mastery of the principles of such sciences necessitates a good
degree of mental discipline and culture, and when combined, as should be the
case, with a course of instruction in such other practical studies as have a
tendency to make their students intelligent and well informed citizens, it makes
not only intelligent and skillful artisans, but also educated, strong, and liberal
minded men, prepared to perform well and intelligently any duties which may
come in their way, whether in or out of their special calling. (Report BASM,
1880, p. 126)

A discussion followed Dr. Pray’s speech in which leaders such as President Abbot, future

Michigan Agricultural College president, Professor Clute, and former Michigan

Governor Sessions supported the perspective of an exclusive education for farmers --

men.

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Education through Farmers ’ Institutes. The activities on the farm and
agricultural education remained of high value as demonstrated by on-going commitment
by Michigan Agricultural College presidents and faculty to the Farmers’ Institutes,
created in the second half of the 18703. Numerous essays were read at Institutes during
the 18803 regarding the experimental and proven scientific methods for farming as well
as other practical topics related to women’s sphere work on the farm. When these tried
and true methods were implemented, farmers and their wives and the state reaped the
benefits. And if the young men and women saw farming as a successful profession,
many believed they would either stay on the farm or return to the farm after college.
Most held the belief that these young people needed to stay on the farm if agriculture was
to remain the foundation supporting the rest of the occupations in the nation.

The Michigan Agricultural catalogues from 1880-1889 contained brief general
descriptions of the Farmers’ Institutes, begun in 1876, and held in January or February.
The Board of Agriculture reports continued to record only six Farmers’ Institutes per year
compared with other states that held sixty or more. The Board claimed that the quality of
Michigan’s Institutes was very good, and their success was due to the “hearty co-
operation” of the farmers and professors resulting in “better farming, better feeling and
happier homes” in the state (Report BASM, 1887, p. 35).

Programs from these Farmers’ Institutes were found in several of the Board of
Agriculture reports in this decade. While some parts of these programs were similar to
typical church functions including prayer, music, and meals, there were also parallels to

classroom instruction at Michigan Agricultural College. The educational focus of the

programs included addresses and lectures from local mayors and the president and faculty

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of Michigan Agriculture College, as well as former students, lawyers, doctors, ministers,
and local men and women. College faculty coordinators and local committees made the
arrangements for the Farmers’ Institutes believing that the Farmers’ Institutes provided
opportunities to share results of their experiments that were useful to the hosting
communities and to the College professoriate.
President Abbot recounted the history of Michigan Agricultural College just prior
to his last days in office stating one of the main purposes for these Institutes. “[I]n 1876
these Farmers’ Institutes were inaugurated, by which the officers of the college bring
back to college labor the knowledge, and encouragement, and cheer which a Visit
amongst sympathizing farmers never fails to impart” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 260). The
primary purpose was to communicate the results of experiments carried on by the
professors at Michigan Agricultural College. The results of these experiments were
reported to the secretary of the Board of Agriculture, and he then organized and recorded
them in the annual Board of Agricultural reports. The 1885 Board of Agriculture report
contained a section on the “Law Regarding Reports” which included a law (8883, p. 184,
No. 173, SEC. 1) about the annual report submitted by the secretary to the State
Legislature and the Governor.
[This] report shall embrace all statements, accounts, statistics, prize essays, and
other information relative to agriculture in general, proceedings of the State board
of agriculture, of the State agricultural college and farm, of the State agricultural
society, and of the county and district agricultural societies, to be approved by the
board; that eight thousand copies of this report shall be printed and bound
annually . . . (as cited in Report BASM, 1885, p. 42)

President Willits presented a lecture at several Farmers’ Institutes in 1886 in

Which he re-stated the leading purpose of those gatherings as follows.

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It is our object to find out the problems in your way in order that the College may
address itself intelligently to their solution . . . We wish to discover in what ways
we can experiment for your benefit, and thus find how we can be of greatest
value; for the success of this College depends upon our knowledge of the needs of
the various localities of the State, and this we can get in these institutes. (Report
BASM, 1886, p. 215)
The main point of his talk supported this purpose by describing the value of the College
partnering with the farmers of the state to help them in their work. In addition, the
president spoke about the value of scientific experimentation in work both at the College
and on individual farms. Lastly, he demonstrated the value of an agricultural education
for the boys of the state. His words conveyed a pride in the state, in the Michigan
Agricultural College, and in the boys trained at the College. S. H. Angevine recorded
another address by President Willits from the 1889 Centreville Farmers’ Institute in
which his opening remarks gave the purpose for the Institutes as the “occasion to
compare ideas and experiences that our store of information regarding the science of
agriculture may be advanced” (Report BASM, 1889, p. 375). This main focus of the
reciprocal exchange between professors and farmers related to agricultural work
remained during the 18803. Their learning also expanded to other tangential subjects;
some were oft repeated during the decade such as how to keep boys and girls on the farm
(see Appendix I).

F anners’ Institutes attendees and essayists were students learning both the science
of farming and lessons related to life. They did not fail to encourage and cajole each
other to utilize the helpful educational information they saw and experienced in order that
they might bring even more advancements to be shared at future Institutes.

Do we come to these institutes to get permanent good, or do we simply come for a

little recreation and see our fiiends? If we are in earnest in the matter we will
give our whole attention to it and the practical hints we get, go home, dot them

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down, and when opportunity occurs make use of them and as we come together in

counsel year after year we will each have a new experience to relate. (Report

BASM, 1880, p. 141)

In addition to prodding each other to put the agricultural information from the Institutes
to good use in the future, some like Mr. Frank Aldrich encouraged parents through his
essay “Farrners’ Sons and Their Education” to invite at least their sons to the Institutes as
a part of their education. He believed that these young men would see and experience
farming from a broader perspective as noble and beneficial to the state.

Farmers, if attending these meetings broadens your views and elevates in your

eyes the dignity of agricultural labor, how much more will they elevate it in the

eyes of your children, who are younger, more enthusiastic and more eager to
learn. They may in these meetings form the resolution to become farmers instead
of looking farther and doing worse in the choice of a vocation. (Report BASM,

1880, p. 173)

In 1889 the members at the Grayling Farmers’ Institute passed two resolutions at
the end that year’s institute which reflected their perception and appreciation of the
meeting time with the expert faculty of the Michigan Agricultural College.

Resolved, That the organization of this Institute, and the attendance thereof, is of

the most substantial value to us as farmers.

Resolved, That we most highly appreciate the efforts of the Agricultural College

in our behalf and it its study of the peculiar problems presented in this region of

our State and in the location of an Experiment Station here connected with the

College. We can already feel the satisfactory effects of the work of the College in

our midst, awakening interest among ourselves and inspiring us with hope of

speedy prosperity through more careful treatment of our lands. (Report BASM,

1889, p. 366)

Farmers’ Institute attendees believed these gatherings provided another way for
those who were not students on Michigan Agriculture College’s campus to continue to

advance the work of experimentation and improvements throughout the state by essays

either given at the Institutes or recorded in the annual Board of Agriculture reports.

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Education for Young Women. Farmers’ Institute speakers identified societal
expectations related to women’s home sphere work including cooking, cleaning, teaching
children, and being the “friend of man” and the “companion of his mind” (Report BASM,
1884, p. 215). One medical doctor essayist placed the responsibility for feeding the
family squarely on women’s shoulders. In addition he claimed their poor cooking skills
led to the premature aging of their husbands and themselves and the premature death of
their children.

Every wife should be capable of superintending the culinary department . . .

Americans grow old early and die young, and one of the prime causes is that their

home cooking is not fit for man or beast. Using statistics in the rough, we say

one-half of the children born, die before the fifth year. We find among the chief
diseases causing this frightful mortality are bowel troubles and convulsions from

bad food. (Report BASM, 1889, p. 523)

Further, because women in the role of mother were the primary caregivers for children,
some believed it was their fault if children were ignorant. Therefore, because most
farmers’ wives were isolated from others, they needed to depend on themselves, and it
became a necessity for a mother to “know everything about everything” (Report BASM,
1884, p. 214). Although most believed that the teaching passed from mother to daughter
should continue, some thought that women could make their best contribution if they
were educated beyond the learning gained from their mothers. Avenues outside the home
included the common schools, Normal School, Chautauqua Literary and Scientific
Circles, Farmers’ Institutes, Michigan Agricultural College, and the University of
Michigan. Some advocated for industrial education in chemistry related to cooking and
cleaning. Tension resulted from this idea because if a woman went outside of the home

sphere even to increase her knowledge and abilities for her designated role in society,

there was the risk that her advanced scientific education would lead her away from the

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home sphere to a “lucrative calling” and “extravagance” (Report BASM 1880, p. 194;
1886, p. lxii).

Farmers’ Institute essayist Mrs. Perry Mayo responded to the question, “Does
Education Lead to Extravagance?” She suggested that a commonly held definition of
education, knowledge acquired from books, was inadequate when describing the
education parents desired for their children in high school, normal school, or college.
She believed that “true education” engaged the heart of the student as much or more than
the head. This real education developed the character of the learner and gave the
understanding of how to practically use the knowledge gained.

Education, my fiiends, and I mean true education, is at the bottom of all society,

all organizations, all progress, all reform, and ignorance is the stepping stone to

all extravagance, all misery, all crime . . . Then in the name of common sense
open every avenue of knowledge, improve every facility we have for acquiring
strength or character and fixedness of purpose. Give us and our sons and
daughters ourselves, ----refined, ennobled, cultured, educated for practical work,
and we shall have less Flora McFlimseys, and better mothers; fewer Boss Tweeds,

and better fathers. (Report BASM, 1880, p. 196)

She then gave several examples refuting the notion that education led to extravagance.
First, she claimed that the death rate of children, at 25%, would be reduced if mothers
and fathers were given education on child care. Second, she said that monies used to
support the poor could be reduced if they were educated with knowledge that would lead
to employment. Thirdly, she stated that for leaders to be leaders they needed education,
using the framers of the declaration of independence as examples. Lastly, she said that
slavery was abolished because men and women were educated.

Other Farmers’ Institute speakers, Professor Lewis McLouth and Hon. Webber,

considered experts at the Farmers’ Institutes because of their professions as professor and

judge, contrasted each other on views of education for women. Professor McLouth gave

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a talk in which he appealed to his audience to take an economics approach toward the
most important products of the farm -- the sons and daughters. He stated that it was
essential for parents to provide for the “education of these products” (Report BASM,
1887, p. 339). He defined education as the “training which prepares a man specifically
for the pursuit which he is to follow ---- though commonly meant it is for manual
occupations only” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 339). The professor then made another
appeal for adding a program in industrial education for young women citing historical
changes in education that opened the doors to all rather than just the elite. He believed
the industrial training provided by the College for young men was successful and a good
indication that this type of education would also be beneficial for its young women and
the state. He was also very concerned about how women applied their education after
college.
What is there now open for a young woman to do? She may teach. True, but that
one profession is so crowded by young women that wages for them have sunk to
starvation rates. Or they may marry for a living. Now, I have three girls, and I
hope that I may be able so to educate them that they shall not be compelled to
marry for a living. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 340)
He was both personally and professionally engaged in the question of what type of
education women needed as both a College professor and a father of several daughters.
He further illustrated his point by noting the benefit the state of Kansas was experiencing
because their agricultural college was teaching their “young ladies, daughters of farmers
and of city men . . . things as are by common consent held to be women’s work” (Report
BASM, 1887, p. 341). This industrial training included making dresses, “bread and

cooked meats, and practiced[ing] setting the table, and all such elements of home

comfort” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 341). The Professor believed that an injustice

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occurred if the College did not provide useful practical education for young women.
“What is the justice in doing so much for our boys and leaving our girls to shift for
themselves? Ladies, when you go home think this matter over and tell your husbands
how to vote on the subject” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 341).
Immediately following Professor McLouth’s lecture, the Hon. Wm. L. Webber, of
East Saginaw, gave a contrasting view of industrial education for women. While he
agreed with Professor McLouth’s definition of education and that men and women should
try to make each other “wiser and happier,” he believed that “the primary place for all
education was in the home” (Report BASM, 1887, pp. 341-342). He also advocated for
additional education for young men but not for young women.
One of the very first things a young man ought to learn ---- I say young men
particularly ---- is how to get a living. Prof. McLouth thinks a young woman
ought to know how to get a living too in order that she may take care of herself,
but I am inclined to think if the young men all know how to get a living the young
women can perhaps “jump on to the bicycle;” but you cannot make a nation such
as this country ought to be unless every man feels within himself the
consciousness that he is able to take care of himself. You must give him that sort
of independence . . . But if he feels that he is dependent upon somebody who
knows more about the proper thing to do than he does, somebody he has to look
to for his support, he ceases to be an independent American citizen, because he
feels his dependence, and as long as he feels that he can not act as though he
didn’t feel it; it is not human nature. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 343)
Hon. Webber’s remarks denoted the societal, yet unrealistic and false expectations that all
young women would eventually get married, that they would always have a husband to
support them financially, and that men’s life expectancy exceeded women’s.
At another 1887 Farmers’ Institute, Dr. Mary E. Green gave an expanded
perspective on this topic of “Industrial Training for Boys and Girls.” She opened her

essay by giving her audience a reminder of the hierarchy in society in which men were

the only voting citizens.

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We know we must submit to laws we do not make, to taxes we do not impose, to
justice we cannot administer. As mothers, wives, and daughters we may develop
all the best faculties of men, but we are not citizens. I believe the time is coming
when man shall be so grand and just under woman’s education and influence, that
neither will longer complain of injustice. Slavery always makes slaves of two; the
one who holds the chains and the one who wears them.

But in thought at least we are fiee, and with equal advantage of education,
with the knowledge that we have a voice in the education of our children, ought
we not to hope that great things may be accomplished?

If women would think and then act, we should at once have a more
practical education for our children. By practical, I mean an education in those
things that will tend toward giving one ideas whereby he can earn a living.
(Report BASM, 1887, p. 478)

Even though women could not cast a ballot in any of the local, state, or nation’s decision-
making process, she pointed to the fact that they could think, decide, and influence the
type of education given to their daughters. She believed that because they were taken
from their mothers at a young age to attend school and families were taxed for that
education, mothers had the right to insist on the schools giving young women a practical
education that would at least “fit” them for the home sphere.
I think you will agree with me in saying that for the class of people for whom the
public schools were established, a school should teach household economy, the
chemistry of cooking, how to cut and make garments and needlework. Such
knowledge, combined with her books, would be a revelation to a girl’s life
hitherto unknown. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 479)
Dr. Green said that if the poorer girls were not taught these home sphere activities, then
when they finally married they would not be able to cook or make clothing for their
families and they would end up “extravagant and wasteful” creatures who “live on
baker’s bread and watery potatoes and with bad cooking and a ceaseless outgo” it was
“no wonder some men [became] discouraged and [took] to drink” (Report BASM, 1887,

p. 480). However, because they did not have the right to vote, she advocated for women

in her audience to use their voices and “importune the school board to discard some of

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the practically useless studies from the curriculum” and replace them with “a practical
and manual training for the youth” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 481).

“What” Can Women Do in the Home Sphere?

Women attending Farmers’ Institutes were farmers’ wives and daughters,
mothers, grandmothers, and single women. All of them were students within the
expanded borders of Michigan Agricultural College by virtue of their participation at
these College-coordinated, sponsored events. The lectures they heard reflected society’s
expectations for them before they left their father’s home and after they entered their
husband’s home. If they should have the unique opportunity to go to college, the
expectation was that they would return to one of these homes and fulfill their duties in the
acceptable home sphere. Society had answered the question, “What can women do?” but
people were beginning to face a new inquiry “What can women do after college?” Many
believed there was one answer for both questions. A woman was to learn from her
mother while in her father’s home, then marry and demonstrate her learning in her
husband’s home while carrying on the tradition of teaching her own sons and daughters.
Others began to explore the possibility that the answers to both of these questions were
changing and the results were that women were having new experiences and that their
home sphere borders were expanding and occasionally disintegrating.

Teaching Women What to Teach Daughters and Sons. A primary responsibility
of mothers was to teach their daughters and sons in the home. Many of these teachings
were designed to pass along the skills necessary to successfully live on the farm such as
caring for a garden, food preparation, sewing, cleaning the home and clothes, and

Sometimes omamental activities such as beautifying the area around the home. The

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Farmers’ Institutes were settings created by Michigan Agricultural College where
mothers were taught new or revised lessons related to their work in the home sphere.
They returned home after the Institutes to teach the most up-to-date skills to their
daughters. Mrs. Sykes admonished women to investigate and find a system for her home
sphere, often called her “kingdom,” that was routine and efficient but also included some
time for the work of the mind in order to continue to find improvements and do her work
more effectively while combating “household drudgery” (Report BASM, 1884, pp. 218,
222).

A woman who has no system about her household affairs never gets her work

done. She goes each day her monotonous round, and each night is hungry for

intellectual food, but no time to seek it. A want of system and thoroughness is

what makes life a workshop without recreation. (Report BASM, 1880, p. 142)
Whatever drudgery existed in home work, the woman within the sphere was to make time
to create a better approach and then teach what she learned to her children, especially her
daughters. She was also taught at the Farmers’ Institutes that society evaluated her
teaching by the type of work her children performed and their behavior when outside of
the home.

Even women held other women responsible for the conduct of their children, the
development of daughters and sons, and the domestic training of daughters as seen in
Mrs. F. G. Church’s lesson on “Farmers’ Daughters,” in which she stated her credentials
as the daughter of a farmer and the wife of a farmer. She believed that the “welfare of the
country” depended on the women of the land, and she referenced the notion that
daughters developed according to the teaching and modeling of their mothers. The skills
mother were to teach and model included a “thorough training of girls to the work of the

house” so “that the homes be made pleasant and comfortable” (Report BASM, 1880, p.

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172). This training also encompassed learning the skills of washing and ironing, making
bread and beds, dressmaking and patching, music, milking cows, and chicken-raising.
Training daughters was only half of the responsibility of mothers; they were also charged
with raising their sons to be leaders and, again, they held each other accountable to that
charge. Mrs. A. M. Woodruff claimed that if mothers were all they should be, they
would be successful in nurturing the men that shaped not only the future of the country,

but of the world.

The position of woman is that which has always given the key to civilization. The
mothers of the men of the nation were noble women, the language of their prayers
being, “I ask not for my children riches or worldly honors or farm; but I ask that
they may be subjects of Thy converting grace,” the result being men of power. If
the mother is true and tender, loving and heroic, patient and self-devoted, she
consciously and unconsciously organizes and puts in operation a set of influences
that do more to mold the destiny of the nation than any man, uncrowned by power
of eloquence, can possibly effect. There is no other possible way in which the
women of the nation can organize their influence and power that will tell so
beneficially upon society and the State. (Report BASM, 1883, p. 231-232)

While this seemed a major contribution if the woman was successful, it became an

overwhelming burden and shame if her sons chose to go a different course other than to

benefit society, and the mother, rather than the child, was to blame.

Another essayist, Mr. D. M. Orr, wrote concerning “Life on the Farm” echoing
both Mrs. Church and Mrs. Woodruff’ 3 views by teaching and reminding his audience
that the home needed to be a pleasant place for mothers to teach both sons and daughters.
He claimed this education, primarily acquired from mothers, helped their children
develop true patriotism and love for their country. He promoted education that was
balanced between theory and practical application and a release from work. If this

balance was maintained, he believed young people would be prepared for their future

work in the appropriate spheres.

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Educate your girls, bring them up to habits of industry, give them a reasonable
time for rest and recreation, remembering that on them depends the welfare of our
country, for they are to be its future mothers . . . Nothing will do them more good
than out-of-door exercise during the summer months, and in the winter in-door
games, together with healthy literature should pass the long winter evenings

away. (Report BASM, 1883, p. 236)

Mr. Orr depicted society’s expectation for women: the baton of responsibility, for raising
sons to be true patriots and daughters to be mothers raising more loyal sons, was to be
passed from mother to daughter, generation after generation.

Mrs. Jacob Wartman’s essay on “Home and Surroundings” went further than her
fellow lecturers. She also expected that mothers should teach their children, but beyond
that she promoted the idea that they should be students of their children, studying their
individual tastes for learning, encouraging them, and providing ways for them to learn
according to their tastes. In addition, mothers should not do anything to “irritate or vex”
their children but should “help each one to find that employment for which he is best
fitted” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 224). She added weight to her comments by quoting
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps from St. Nicholas who believed that work that had purpose was a
key element in teaching young people, especially young women.

The girls with aims to study for, are those whose labor is richest and ripest. Ah!

you will never realize till you have tried it, what an immense power over the life

is the power of possessing distinct aims. The voice, the dress, the look, the very

motions of a person define and alter when he or she begins to live for a reason. I

fancy that I can select in the crowded street, the busy, blessed women who

support themselves. They carry themselves with an air of conscious self-respect
and self-content, which a shabby alpaca cannot hide, nor a bonnet silk enhance,

nor sickness or exhaustion quite drag out. (as cited in Report BASM, 1884, p.

224)

The notion that women were not necessarily destined to rely on the support of their

fathers or husbands portrayed a different path than society had socialized women for --

that women could live outside the borders of the home sphere. There was a freedom in

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the kind of life that Mrs. Wartman promoted that resulted in a woman’s contentment and
appreciation for herself that personal economics or health could not assuage.

Teaching Women How to Care for the Home. The teaching of daughters and sons
was intimately tied to women’s care for their physical home spheres. Mrs. C. H. Wines
taught her listeners about the difference between “House and Home” by dividing the
perception of family dwellings into two extreme examples. The house was one where all
of the articles needed for living existed, but they were only adomments because the
people within the house did not develop good character and love each other. The
opposite was true in the home that may lack costly beautifying adomments but there was
love and respect between family members. Mrs. Wines held both the husband and wife
responsible for creating a house or home but the tasks of the home remained the sole
responsibility and domain of the wife.

I have no sympathy with the many articles found in our papers, which make

almost the entire weal or woe of a household depend upon the wife. The care of

the house is her especial province; not so the happiness of the home . . . A house
in disorder would be but a poor place for social enjoyment and culture. A house

untidily kept is a poor aid to cultivation of manner and personal appearance. A

house poorly supplied with daily food will not best tend to evenness of temper

and amiable spirits. A house whose avenues of daily expenses are not well
guarded, will not be apt to furnish means for occasional luxuries. And as all
beauty acts with a moral influence upon our hearts, so I say, a house with naked
walls and destitute of the many little simple, bright adomings, which so enliven
and cheer our hearts, is not the best home in which to feed our moral natures.

(Report BASM, 1883, pp. 226-227)

These responsibilities of the wife tied her to her home sphere making any opportunity to
venture from it an addition to her responsibilities. This was a major reason the Farmers’
Institutes were quintessential learning centers. Women could gain knowledge from each

other and from the expert College professors. Although they could no longer leave home

to “go to” college, the college and its theories could “come to” them.

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Another woman with home sphere experience described her responsibilities using
literary terms in an essay entitled “Prose and Poetry in Life.” Mrs. H. Randolph was well
aware of the long hours of women’s work on the farm making beds, sweeping, dusting,
cooking meals, washing dishes “7 days in every week, and 52 weeks in every year . . .
365 days in each year, for 20 years perhaps” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 226). She
attempted to change the women’s perspective of their work through a re-defining process
using prose and poetry. Prose became the “necessary every day work, done in a dull,
common place manner, and poetry [w]as a polish on that work, making it bear bright
blossoms of beauty and joy” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 227). Mrs. Randolph found the
answer to meeting what some called the “drudgery in the home” in seeing the poetry
beyond the prose through the work of the mind. She portrayed the work of the woman’s
mind as striving to be content with her situation while continually studying time
management and methods. Her studies were intended to improve her cooking and
cleaning in order to provide a healthier home for her family.

A classroom—type discussion followed Mrs. Randolph’s presentation, and the
moderator invited only women, who naturally had the most practical experience, to
speak. Many “poetry” suggestions were offered by these women such as planting
gardens of flowers or encouraging husbands to help with some of the household duties.
Mrs. Bale suggested that the unpleasant “prose” tasks should be done quickly to get past
them, and Mrs. B. Murdock cautioned the group by saying she hoped they would “not
become so sublimated as to consider making beds and cooking, irksome tasks” because
she believed those were “the womanly parts” and they “should learn to do these well and

cheerfully” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 228). One man attempted to enter the discussion

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“but was promptly called down by the chair and was told that until the ladies had had
their say, he was to keep silent” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 228). Later he was allowed to
speak, sharing a perspective that supported those expressed by the women in the group.

He made a little dish-washing and sweeping go a good ways, and you would think

so to see his wife on the mower or hay rake doing the work as well as a man.

They canied this mutual exchange into their reading. They read to each other and

then talked of what they read, and he considered nothing so good to fix a fact in

the memory as an exchange of opinions on a subject. (Report BASM, 1884, p.

229)

Perhaps Mrs. H. C. Bailey read. or heard Mrs. Randolph’s call to see the poetry in
life and responded by composing the poem “The Poetry of the Farm” shared at a
Farmers’ Institute the following year. Mrs. Bailey included the man clearing the woods
and bringing a bride from the city walls to experience the freedom in the little clearing.
The bride surrounded herself with the work of a thrifty housewife sowing seeds in the
spring, caring for and harvesting fruits and vegetables in the summer and fall, and sewing
in the winter. Sometimes she thought of her life before marriage and the changes in her
home.

When comes the thought of other days,

And fiiends, once wont to blame or praise,

From full heart swells the rising tear

But all of home is centred here. (Report BASM, 1886, p. 15)
Mrs. Bailey continued with the beauty of the spring and the addition of a “tiny baby” on
“the pale young mother’s breast” (Report BASM, 1886, p. 16). The poem ended with the
older, wiser farmer’s wife reflecting on the good work she accomplished seen in the
children around her “Like jewels round a central stone” with “home . . . still their guiding

star” leading them back to the true center of life (Report BASM, 1886, p. 16). Based on

her poem, home was the only place for a woman, again making the teaching found at the

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Farmers’ Institutes a quintessential place in her learning and her ability to change how
and what she did in the home.

Mrs. E. W. Treat was not as convinced that the flowery poetry offered by other
women gave an accurate picture of the women’s work on the farm. She insisted that
“most of us are in a hot kitchen, hurrying with all our might in the early hours instead of
among the dewy flowers” (Report BASM, 1886, p. 186). She suggested that the biblical
passage of 1 Corinthians 13 was a more accurate picture of the life of the farmer’s wife.

I believe we may say a lady is one who “suffereth long and is kind,” a lady is not

“easily provoked, beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things.” But

it is hard to be all this when we are overworked and half sick. Often, rest and

medicine will do more to make ladies of us than a sermon or a book on etiquette.

(Report BASM, 1886, p. 187)

Mrs. Treat ended her essay by saying it is every woman’s choice to make her destiny and
the home sphere was the proper place. Professor Cook commented immediately
following her talk saying “The best of most homes is the woman in the home” (Report
BASM, 1886, p. 187). While his comment was intended as a compliment, it also
portrayed and fixed the proper place for a woman and her work.

Teaching Women about Efficiency and Eflectiveness in the Home. Mrs. Myron
Delano gave a teaching on “Household Conveniences,” in which she laid out methods for
efficiency and effectiveness in the home sphere. Her practical lesson began with the
floor plan of the house and the other buildings on the fanrr connected with the duties of
the wife. The location of the out buildings as well as their arrangement either helped in
efficiency or added additional burdens to the farmer’s wife.

Nothing can be more satisfactory than a commodious wood-house, one whose

height allows rooms above for stowing away Seed corn . . . and then a thoughtful

housewife will save many a hard cold by hanging the week’s washing there in
winter to dry. Spacious doors should open into the wood-house admitting large

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deposits of wood, and its proportions will allow ample room for all laundry
apparatuses, and utensils necessary to the dairy work that require good storage for
their own preservation . . . Instead, we have little or no wood-house. (Report
BASM, 1880, p. 221)

There were other household conveniences such as the wood-box located “near the stove
door” with the indoor “tight fitting cover,” the flour-chest for storing flour rather than in
the “common grain bag” and a circular sieve, the cook-stove ventilator, the casing hooks,
the force-pump to bring water from the cistern, a roller for towels, and the mop-squeezer
(Report BASM, 1880, p. 222). Mrs. Delano stated that all of these and many more were
priced so that they were “within the reach of nearly all,” and she believed they were
absolutely necessary for good wives to do good work. She also gave women another
practical lesson on how to obtain these essential conveniences by convincing their
husbands of the object’s necessity and making personal sacrifices. She said these
sacrifices would result in women living longer and thereby contributing for longer
periods of time to their families.
When we ladies can pass a millinery or fancy store, and willingly help ourselves, I
have faith we shall have the sympathy and cooperation of our husbands . . . I
believe that many a woman has brought upon herself sickness, the expense of
which would have gone far toward fitting her home with conveniences, and again,
that may have gone down to the grave worn outwith their own laborious tasks,
that might have been mitigated by conveniences, they spared to their families for
years. If our incomes will not warrant us in having both useful and ornamental
things in our home, in the name of common sense let us choose the usefiil.
(Report BASM, 1880, p. 222)
These lessons had both the theory, born through practice, and practical application that
were the foundations of education on the campus of Michigan Agricultural College.
Most of the women attending the Farmers’ Institutes would never have the opportunity to

go to college, and even if they did, there was no program designated to teach them

practical applications to their work in the farm home sphere. They were still learning, as

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students, as the borders of the College became the borders of the state through the
Farmers’ Institutes.

Teaching Women How to Learn in the Home. There were also some women who
saw some of the obstacles to this practical teaching. Mrs. A. A. Freeman’s essay on
“Woman’s Work on the Farm” depicted what she believed was a “fair and impartial
look” at the activities of a farmer’s wife (Report BASM, 1887, p. 486). She saw the
young wife as a woman who wanted to be different from her mother and engage in her
work in ways that included leisure time in her day to spend on improvements. However,
the reality of life was that the young wife soon became “faded and care worn” while the
young husband remained “hale and hearty” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 487). She saw these
differences as a result of the rigidity of the public and private spheres where the farmer
could enter the public sphere, when he needed a change of scenery, but his wife was
increasingly tied to her home.

The farmer is at liberty . . . to ride out into the busy world of men and be refreshed

by the contact, gathering strength for home duties and work; while his wife, as the

years roll on, is more and more unable to get away for the unceasing round of
daily toil and cares, until at last she loses interest for aught besides these same

cares and duties which, while they pertain to the well being of the family, have a

narrowing and belittling effect on the mind if there is no time or opportunity

afforded for other things. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 487)

Again, because women’s work tied them to the home, the Farmers’ Institutes were
opportunities for them to briefly exit their sphere, learn methods to do their work better

from college experts and peer-practitioners, meet other women like themselves, and take

a break from their work routine.

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Mrs. M. Benjamin’s echoed Mrs. Freeman’s perception in an essay on “Woman’s
Work on the Farm — Her True Position and Influence.” She also described the challenges
of the typical day in the life of the farmer’s wife.
Her cares require her to be “vigilant, in season and out of season.” And were the
eight hour system to be adopted, I do not know what would become of woman’s
work. Certainly no eight hours could accomplish the work, which now must be
begun at an early hour and ended only after the evening meal is cleared away and
the work prepared as much as possible for the next day. (Report BASM, 1884, p.
214)
In contrast to Mrs. Freeman’s remarks, Mrs. Benjamin offered a suggestion to
accomplish this long day’s work in the home sphere. She believed women’s work should
be directed by a well-planned scientific system that was the result of personal self-
cultivation, and she encouraged her peers to join her in this approach. “Sisters, the time
has come when we must cultivate our minds as well as our house-plants, and see to it that
our intellect has food as well as our calves and chickens” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 214).
This cultivation of the mind was not only a benefit to the farmer’s wife but also essential
to her work of raising children.
In the education of her children how necessary it is that she should know
everything about everything. To an observing child there is no place so
suggestive of questions as the farm, and they naturally turn to mother for
information. Then well is it for her and them if she has a well-stored mind! For it
is at the home that principles are imbibed which are carried out into the world,
and if ignorance reigns in the household, it will be the great thing carried into the
world. (Report BASM, 1884, 214)
Mrs. Benjamin encouraged her listeners to consider self-cultivation by multi-tasking.
She suggested reading while doing other work or making one less side-dish for a meal
and then spending the extra time studying. She believed these self-sacrifices enabled her

to be the mother God intended and also the companion of her husband’s “mind as well as

of his daily life, and be competent to give counsel in all that pertains to their mutual

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welfare” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 215). She noted that science had “done much to lessen
the labor of the house,” and if the “queen of the household” was also prompt and an
“inventive genius,” she would not only be able to properly care for her home sphere but
perhaps in the future be able to venture out and “deposit her ballot, without laying aside
her womanhood or in the least deteriorating in her home influence” (Report BASM,
1884, p. 216). Even though most of these women were unable to enroll in a college
course, they continued to learn science through experimentation in their homes and then
shared their findings with their “sisters” at the College-sponsored Farmers’ Institutes.
Mrs. J. J. Sumner shared her “findings” echoing Mrs. Benjamin’s thoughts on
self-education. She coupled them with her belief that household machinery was making
way for the farmer’s wife to have more leisure time to read and study. Although she and
her peers more than likely did not have the opportunity, Mrs. Sumner advocated for
education for farmers’ sons and daughters beyond that held by their parents through the
State Normal School, Michigan Agricultural College, or the University of Michigan
dismissing the notion that higher education was a detriment to life on the farm. “It is a
great mistake to suppose that an education unfits one for the common walks of life. Any
man can handle machinery better for knowing something of mechanics, and any woman
can cook better for knowing something of chemistry” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 216). She
pointed out to her listeners that they had a vast array of learning opportunities available
by daily studying nature or taking advantage of learning together in Chautauqua Literary
and Scientific circles. Those involved read books and then gathered together to discuss

what they read.

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Mrs. T. B. Fox also listed the Chautauqua circles as contributing to the change of
“small villages” and “dull towns” by “disciplining and cultivating thousands of minds all
over the country, and inspiring them with the same reaching out for a better and truer
life” (Report BASM, 1886, p. 198). She mentioned that some young girls in New York
were forming societies “for the purpose of self-culture and general development” in
which they posed questions such as “What two qualities are most essential to the
development of a noble womanhood?” and then debated the answers using the “strict
discipline of parliamentary rule” (Report BASM, 1886, p. 198). Mrs. Fox suggested that
these societies aided young women in discovering the duties they were to perform in life
if they were coupled with appropriate training from mothers and fathers in the home. All
of these “circles” were physically located outside women’s homes, and they offered
opportunities for acquiring knowledge from peers outside the home sphere much like

women experienced in the Farmers’ Institutes.

“Where” Can Women Do their Work?

Women’s work whether the work of the home or the work of the mind began to
push at the borders of the home sphere and occasionally find acceptable locations outside
the home sphere. A cadre of women in this decade found some work in the home could
be avenues to take them out of the home from time to time such as selling fresh fruits and
vegetables, eggs and chickens, honey and bees, silkworms, and processed food such as
canned fruits, vegetables, meats, jellies, jams and marmalades, as well as butter and
cheese. In addition, there were other women that ventured out of the home sphere for
their primary work such as teachers and librarians while still maintaining their duties of

caring for the home. Some of these women were not married which opened the

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possibility that perhaps women could contribute to society through means other than as
companions of husbands and mothers bearing the nation’s children.

The Work of the Mind. The Chautauqua circles were one means of pushing at the
borders and, in some cases, disintegrating pieces of the home sphere border. Mrs.
Naftzker wrote an essay on the “Chautauqua Influence on Farmers’ Homes” in which she
gave a brief history of the Chautauqua Literary and Scientific circles. The founder, Dr.
Vincent, created the circles in 1878 thirty years after he began his pastoral ministry where
he experienced feelings of humiliation because he lacked a college degree. Mrs. Naftzker
noted the challenges that farmers faced because they were “no longer satisfied with
simply accepting things . . . because their fathers and grandfathers did. They want[ed] to
know why, and if there [was] . . . a better way” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 232). She saw
the Farmers’ Institutes as an illustration of this “spirit of inquiry,” but farmers did not
have the luxury of leaving their farms for extended periods of time to attend college.
Instead she advocated for farmers and their wives, sons, and daughters to participate in
this “college at one’s own home” by reading and studying alone or coming together
weekly in community circles to discuss the readings (Report BASM, 1884, p. 234). This
“People’s College” had a monthly magazine called “The Chautauquan” that contained
most of the required reading and a year’s subscription. The tuition fee was $8.25 which
was less than a tenth of the average cost of attendance at Michigan Agricultural College
(Report BASM, 1884, p. 235; MAC Catalogue, 1884). Mrs. Naftzker thought women
would be particularly interested in the programs topics such as kitchen science, kitchen

art, and home stories in chemistry.

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Work of the Mind and the Hands in the Dairy. Some physical work required the
work of the mind and expanded the borders of the home sphere such as making butter.
Mrs. C. H. Stevens read an essay on “Winter Butter” in 1880 in which she gave her
perspective on the recent changes in the process of butter making that were done to meet
the public demand for fresh butter in both summer and winter. She commented on the
color and taste of winter butter as well as the methods for its production, the tracking and
comparison of profits, the statistics of input and output, the results of her work, and
precautions to take in handling butter. Mrs. Stevens described her small business by
relaying scientific facts and personal, practical experience just as professors at the
College melded theory and practice related to subject areas.

A few years later Mrs. G. M. Shattuck presented a paper at the annual meeting of
the Michigan Dutch-Friesian (Holstein) Breeders at Lansing in 1883 describing the
relationship between farmers’ wives and the cattle business (Report BASM, 1883). This
relationship was three-fold: a woman demonstrated loyalty to her husband by showing
interest in his work, she appreciated the beauty of the animal kingdom, and she was
interested in the work and financial benefit from the products of raising Holsteins. Mrs.
Shattuck gave statistics regarding the dollars invested in the dairying in the United States,
the number of acres required to sustain this investment, as well as the monies used to
purchase implements in dairy production. Although statistics used to describe the work
of the farm were typically ascribed to farmers (men), she said cows’ milk was used by
farmers’ wives and daughters in the production of the staples of cheese and butter.

In Michigan, very much of the butter is made by the women of the farm . . . Some

of these households have modern conveniences, good cellars, plenty of ice . . .
But very many housekeepers have none of these helpers, and yet they are

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expected to compete with the first-class butter-makers of the land. (Report
BASM, 1883, p. 330)

She stated that if farms did not have modern conveniences, farmers should consider
banding together to form cooperative creameries to serve the entire community. She
claimed that the butter produced by these cooperatives was “of a uniform grade, color,
and texture, and will command the highest market price” (Report BASM, 1883, p. 332).
She also claimed that improvement was needed because Michigan was lagging behind
other states such as Iowa that had 700 cooperative operating creameries. She believed
that if these creameries were created, women would potentially be released from
competing with the superior quality of creamery butter and the “dirt, drudgery, and care”
of butter-making (Report BASM, 1883, p. 331). As a result, she stated women would
also be able to give greater loyalty to their husbands and efforts to other areas that were
more financially solvent.

Toward the end of the 18803, Mrs. E. L. Lockwood spoke on the struggle of the
tedious, hard, old way of making butter. She said one woman found the task so arduous
that she considered placing the inscription “Died of Butter and Cheese” on her tombstone
(Report BASM, 1888, p. 402). Mrs. Lockwood would have considered using the same
inscription except one of her female relatives, a dairy woman from Vermont, shared some
life-saving information about new conveniences such as Hyde coolers, 100—gallon pans
with double bottoms through “which cold or hot water could circulate,” and pipes “which
conveyed the skimmed milk into a receptacle outside the room” (Report BASM, 1888, p.
402)~ She marveled that the milk of up to 50 cows could be whisked away without the

drudgery of carrying pail after pail. She imagined that the “dairy millennium” was being

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ushered in, and she “drew a sigh of relief and began to rest and, metaphorically
speaking,” rested ever since (Report BASM, 1888, p. 402).

Mrs. Albert Granger worked in “a farmer’s kitchen” for thirty years, yet she did
not feel qualified to share her experiences with her peers at the Hastings Farmers’
Institute in 1882 through an essay titled, “Management of the Dairy.” It was evident that
people were transitioning in their perception of experiential, practical learning when Mrs.
Granger asked her co-leamers to be lenient with her comments. She then proceeded to
give a detailed account of the business of the dairy. She said that the “foundation of the
dairy” was the cow and that the decisions made as to the selection of the breed of cow
would determine the profit of the business because the breed contributed to the outcomes
of milk, cheese, and butter. She noted other contributors to these outcomes such as the
pasture, various grasses, and the purity of the water. She believed the cleanliness of the
barn, the individual stalls, the straw, the type of feed, and the treatment of the cows aided
in the production process. In addition, she gave scientific and practical information
regarding the types and use of equipment and stated that more could be done to improve
the process.

That there are many defects in the present system of managing the dairy on many

of our farms is an undeniable fact, but in many cases I think it is more a lack of

conveniences than the fault of the farmer’s wife . . . I hope the day is not far
distant when creameries and butter factories will be established at convenient
distances through the country to take the milk from the farms, thus dispensing
with the drudgery incident to the care of milk, and leaving more time for the wife
and daughters to read and study and cultivate their minds, that if called upon to
write an essay for an occasion like this, they would not so keenly feel their

inability to respond to the call. (Report BASM, 1882, p. 283)

While she understood the process of managing a dairy and had some of the conveniences,

Mrs. Granger longed for the day in which large businesses might more profitably do the

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physical work individual women were doing and free these women to spend more time
developing their minds.

Mrs. E. P. F. Bradner offered a contrasting perspective in another talk on “Butter
Dairying.” She opened with a poem she wrote called “Golden Butter” depicting the
cream as “Melting, luscious, wholesome cream . . . That is changed to butter golden, Fit
to set before a queen” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 167). The “queen” referred to was later
identified as the woman in every home; these queens were also called dairy maids in the
poem. She saw herself an expert on butter-making because her mother taught her, and
she had taken this basic education and added her own practical knowledge. “An
experience of forty years, begun under the instructions of a mother whose butter equaled
the best product of to-day, is my qualification to speak on this subject” (Report BASM,
1884, p. 167). She believed that the best butter was made in the home with the recipe and
expertise passed from mother to daughter, not the “adulterated foods, butter substitutes . .
. [and] low grades of butter” found in the markets of her day (Report BASM, 1884, p.
167). Women in the audience continued to receive messages from some like Mrs.
Bradner to stay in their homes and do their work. Others encouraged women to find
ways to do their work in the home while taking advantage of learning related to their
sphere outside the home in places like the Institutes. There was the tension that women
were expected to do their work more efficiently while not having the benefit of a holistic
college program to aid them. Even though they did not have the benefit of college
courses, they were learning from each other and college professors through the College’s

Farmers’ Institutes.

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The Work ofthe Mind and the Hands in Small Fruit Management. Mrs. R. F.
Johnston, a contributor to an agricultural paper called the Michigan Farmer, was an
example of a woman pushing the borders of her home sphere. She attempted to expand
the perspective of her peers when she presented an essay on “Home Work for Women.”
She listed a variety of overcrowded areas of “feminine labor.”

There are more shop girls than customers . . . more painters of aesthetic pin

cushions and long—legged storks than buyers; more music teachers than pupils,

more telegraph operators, type-writers and copyists, than situations. There are
dressmakers ready to work at starvation prices . . . and washwomen begging for

work . . . (Report BASM, 1884, p. 210)

She stated that to overcome the challenges women faced from these burgeoning feminine
occupations, they should do “first-class faithful work” and uncover “neglected industries”
such as small farm businesses including raising poultry and small fruits, apiculture, and
floriculture. She believed these four had the most potential for profit, but a thorough
investigation of the following four areas was needed prior to taking on any venture:
Location of the closest market, the transportation needed to get to the market, the amount
of assistance she could expect from the men on the farm, and the financial support needed
for the initial investment. She maintained that these lessons and the resulting skills were
not only for mothers but also for girls in the event they did not marry and needed to
financially care for themselves.

Such women are found in every community, maiden ladies and widows without

income, living with relatives, doing hired girl’s service, without hired girl’s pay,

for the sake of a roof to cover them. They have not the daring to break away and
make opportunities; their’s is a passive, not an active temperament, but do you
think they are content? do you think they do not long to be independent, to help

themselves? Would you be content in their shabby shoes? (Report BASM, 1884,
p. 211)

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She continued with thoughts on the lack of independence daughters and wives
faced who attempted to find profitable home work but were led astray by “scamps who
advertise cheap and profitable employment for women at their homes, conditioned on a
small investment” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 211). Mrs. Johnston claimed that farmers’
wives and daughters could utilize a common form of women’s work on the farm and
create a lucrative business by marketing and soliciting orders for “home-made canned
fruits, jams, jellies, marmalades, mixed pickles, and spiced fruits” (Report BASM, 1884,
p. 212). However, she concluded her remarks by cautioning women to start small, to
keep going even if they had set backs in the beginning, to be patient in the process, and to
expect success.

But women and girls have succeeded and are succeeding in making themselves

self supporting through each and all of these neglected industries. And they are

gaining what is more than money, ---- greater health, more happiness, more
dignity of character, and wider views of the possibilities of life. (Report BASM,

1884,p.213)

Women continued to find expertise from each other at the Farmers’ Institutes as
there were no other program or degree options at the College. Mrs. J. G. Averill shared
her expertise on a potential small business for women through an essay entitled “What
Can Women Do with Small Fruits?” She believed her contribution would be different
than her counterpart male essayists who were theorizing experts because her knowledge
was gleaned totally from personal, practical experience.

Material for a dozen papers is readily called to mind by the subject of small fi'uit

culture, which actually has no limit; but the assignment to me of one special

department of it as a topic, allows me to leave the choice and preparation of land,
selection and setting of plants, methods of cultivation, merits and demerits of
noted varieties of all sorts of fruit, to the gentlemen who so often and so ably

discuss them, and to address especially the sisters of the institute. (Report BASM,
1884,p.206)

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She identified all of these theory areas, not as ones with which she was unfamiliar, but
just the opposite; however, the topic she had been given was confined to a specific area.
She noted that a “woman’s connection with this industry has been somewhat limited” in
the past, and her experience would demonstrate that women were capable of managing
the small fruit business. Her presentation included the decisions to choose certain small
fruits and not others because she lived too far from the railroad main line. She also
experimented with the distance to local markets and the types of fruit that retained quality
after drying. She outlined the activities involved with the oversight of a small fruit
business including the profitability of trial beds, the need for adequate tools, the best
berry pickers, the packing of fruit, the type of clothing to wear, book-keeping, and
finding and keeping good customers. She stated that women could do this work, perhaps
even better than men if they were patient, persevering, quick-thinking, hard workers.
My lady hearers . . . Mind, I am describing the woman fruit grower as she should
be. I am forced to admit that I have known a deal of profitable work to be done
by one whose loftiest achievements left her far in the rear of this ideal creation,
and who especially lacked, in trying moments with exasperating help and
unreasonable customers, the power to keep her mouth closed until she could count
twenty and conjure up the soft answer which should turn away wrath. (Report
BASM, 1884, p. 210)
Mrs. Averill maintained that regardless of how tired and worn she felt or how others
treated her, she should respond with the grace found in the Bible proverb “A soft answer
tumeth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger” Proverbs 15:1.
Mrs. R. D. Palmer offered another teaching on “Small Fruits” in which she invited
other women to take some “hints” and reap the profit from her twenty years of

experiences raising strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, currants, blackberries, and

gr apes. She believed that the activities of raising small fruits brought more than

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monetary profit but also health through eating the fruit and exercising outside of the

house. For those that were worried this would be an additional burden on farmers’ wives,

she retorted that it would actually physically strengthen their precarious health.
Do I hear the cry from many of these farmers’ wives, saying, for shame; do not
put any more burdens on us poor overworked women . . . If you did not stay in the
house from early dawn until late at night, and bake, dust, scrub, make and mend,
you would not feel so carewom. And stop that worry. It is that which is killing
our women, or making them grow prematurely old. Get out of that everlasting
round of a treadmill and breathe a little fresh air and sunshine; just try it for one

year, and get out an hour or more every day all through the busy season, and see if
you do not come out more healthy and cheerfirl in the end. (Report BASM, 1889,

p.458)
Mrs. Palmer gave technical information regarding planting, pruning, and picking and
prodded her listeners to see that these activities not only provided good food for their
families but good exercise for those involved in the business and might even aid them in
providing medicines so they would have less reason to go to the “drug store” (Report
BASM, 1889, p. 458). Mrs. Pahner and other women who were Farmers’ Institute
essayist-teachers provided valuable knowledge, support, and encouragement for each
other that was not available in on—campus programs at Michigan Agricultural College.
Work Outside the Home. People believed that it was occasionally acceptable for
women to be employed outside the home if their circumstances were so dire that there
was no other alternative. However, if tragedy did occur many believed that domestic
service was the appropriate employment as it kept women in “a” proper home sphere
even if it was not their own. The following was a mother’s perception of such a situation.
[I]f my daughter were compelled by necessity to go out from home to earn her
living I would a thousand times rather see her safely harbored in such a home, in
healthful employment, noble associations, with access to good reading and time to
read, than unsheltered from any home, with one or two miserably comfortless

rooms, to eke out a living behind some counter, or in a dark or poorly ventilated
milliner or dressmaking shop, bent over work from dawn till dark, poorly paid, in

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the mistaken notion that she was thereby preserving respectability or following a
higher calling. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 484)

The question remained as to where young women could receive this necessary training.
At this time, women found the Farmers’ Institutes as primary leanring centers.

Mrs. George A. Perry pushed the question of what a woman could do and where
she could to it even further. She spoke on “Woman’s Employment” from the perspective
of women venturing outside the home sphere and making significant contributions
through their employment to themselves, their families, and society. However, she said
there was opposition to women making this move because many feared it would be
detrimental to them and to the world. In addition, she quoted writers from the “North
American Review” and the “Popular Science Monthly” who said that there was a surge of
women neglecting and opposing the God-established order of work and marriage because
women found they could support themselves (Report BASM, 1887, p. 481).

Mrs. Perry gave many reasons why it was important for women to move out from
the home sphere and engage in other work such as wartime needs; singleness due to the
lack of worthy men; singleness because there were more women than men in the
population; and singleness through abandonment and death. Further, she offered the idea
that work, outside the home, provided ways for all loyal members of the country to meet
the competition from other countries. She gave numerous models of women who made
contributions to society such as Catharine Beecher and Mary Lyon founders of
institutions of higher education; scientists Caroline Herschell and Maria Mitchell; artists
Rosa Bonheur, Harriet Hosmer and Anne Whitney; mathematician Christine Ladd; as
well as Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman in the country to receive a medical

degree (Report BASM, 1887). She ended her essay by answering the questions of what

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should a woman do and where should she go? “’How far,’ we would say: Engage in the
highest employment of which your nature is capable and die with the consciousness that
you have done your best” (Report BASM, 1887, p. 486). Breaking the pattern of women
moving from their fathers’ homes to marriage and their husbands’ homes and then on to
bearing children was a daunting challenge. Yet, some women while affirming this
pattern also offered their listeners “respectable spinsterhood” as an option.

Let us teach our daughters the value of a soul, and when they are wives they will
not so lightly regard maternity as to take it upon themselves without a careful
physical and moral preparation . . . Is the coming man really growing into fitness
to associate with the coming woman. How many a young man goes to the saloon
to take a social glass, and puffs away at his cigar even in the face of the lady he
invites to ride or walk with him. Is a man with such habits a fit companion for a
refined woman? 13 the coming woman satisfied with the outlook? We hope not;
we think not. A woman better be a spinster and forego the honor of wife and
motherhood, than to marry a man with vile habits. In either case she lives an
imperfect life, but of two evils I would have her choose the least. (Report BASM,
1880, p.142)

Regardless of whether a woman was married or single, they were expected to contribute
to society, at least through their work in the home sphere. If women attempted to leave
the home sphere for work, they met philosophical and physical barriers. Mrs. L. E.
Cannon wrote a poem for the Rochester Farmers’ Institute presented on February 4,
1886, in which she succinctly portrayed the tension women faced as they transitioned to
places in society which were previously held exclusively by men.

“We are but women. What can women do?”

Over and over, all a long night through,

That simple statement and the question plain

Unresting kept my scarcely conscious brain,

‘Till, half awakened, half asleep, I thought

Of many deeds by noble women wrought.

“We are but women. What can women do?”

My soul made answer: “All she wishes to.”
It is but true when women want more “rights”

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They’ve naught to do but take them; for all heights,

All depths, all breadths, all compass that she will,

What place so e’er she chooses she can fill.

Time was when mankind said to her, “thus far

And no whit farther. There we place a bar;

And it would be unwomanly to try

To overstep the bounds or pass them by.”

But now the answer is, to all, so plain

None may repeat the words of this refrain.

“What can a woman do?” One need but ask

What’s to be done? No matter what the task

Or what required. Be it courage, skill,

Patience, discretion, wisdom, strength or will,

Through every avenue she enters in.

Where womenfail, men need not hope to win. (Report BASM, 1886, p.

200)

Mrs. Cannon encouraged women to go forward and try new opportunities where there
was work to be done. With the nation’s borders expanding from one ocean shore to
another, society deemed teaching children in district country schools as one of the
acceptable opportunities.

A Profession — Teaching outside the Home. Professor Briggs and Mrs.W. T.
Adams wrote essays that gave their perspective on the quality of teachers in the district
schools. Both referred primarily to female teachers in their statements and illustrations.
Professor Briggs noted that there was no standard criterion for hiring teachers resulting in
women receiving teaching certificates because they had “sufficient knowledge of certain
books” but insufficient knowledge on the mental development of children (Report
BASM, 1883, p. 214). He also said the examiners could not determine a teacher’s

“power of self-control and ability to manage, her knowledge and culture, her own

character and the force of her moral influence . . .” (Report BASM, 1883, p. 214). Mrs.

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Adams focused on the connection between the teaching that had taken place in the home

and the continued in the school.
It is of the greatest importance to have constant, conscientious teachers that the
children under their care may receive the proper training, both by precept and
example. The moral discipline that should be commenced in the home should be
continued and enforced by the teacher . . . (Report BASM, 1883, p. 228)
These teaching efforts were thwarted by the constant turnover of teachers attributed to
inconsistencies in certification, hiring, curriculum, and length of attendance. Professor
Briggs chose to address these issues by advocating for standardization in certification and
hiring criteria, and in the calendar year with fall, winter, and spring terms of three months
each. In addition, he stated that standardization was needed in grading and classification,
completion of coursework, curriculum, and record-keeping. Further, he believed a
system of oversight should be established in which each teacher’s work was inspected as
well as the system of each school. In addition to these details, Mrs. Adams saw a vision
of the benefits of education on farmers, their wives and their children.
If the farmer and his sons have nothing to think of above the work in their hands,
or his wife and daughters no thought only of the drudgery of housework and the
endless routine of getting breakfast, dinner, and supper three hundred and sixty-
five days in a year, labor loses some the “dignity” that many can see in it; if
uneducated, they never escape ignorant company, but, with a cultivated taste, they
can take some book of travel and make a tour of the world with the author for a
companion, and enjoy the society of the learned in the old world or the new.
(Report BASM, 1883, p. 229)
Like Professor Briggs, Mrs. Hettie Warner Bradley also pressed for the need the
country schools to do quality work in order to prepare young men and women for college
by creating a standard criterion for examining teachers. Without this base, she said that

teaching and learning were uneven, and inevitably students would be influenced

inappropriately because they were spending up to “six hours a day, five days in a week,

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and from seven to nine months in a year” with their teacher (Report BASM, 1889, p.
506)
Placed as teacher of a dozen or score of children of all ages, the examiner finds a
young, inexperienced girl, possibly a graduate form some high school, who
wishes to earn a little money, and review her studies, nevertheless sadly
incompetent to train the susceptible minds of children. She is often allowed by
the school board to follow the inclinations of her own sweet will while she reigns
therein, the result being generally poor scholarship and time irretrievably lost.
(Report BASM, 1889, p. 506)
Mrs. Bradley proposed a more appropriate, practical education to her audience in which
the students were taught to be patriotic, good citizens by “earning their own livelihood”
through training that would “fit them for actual life” in both their minds and bodies
(Report BASM, 1889, pp. 507-508).
A discussion followed her presentation in which President Willits, Professor Fisk,
Mr. Powell, Mr. Gorsline, Mr. Davenport, and others supported standardization of text
books and graded schools. Mr. Gorsline read an essay at the same Institute in which he
addressed the need for and the advantages of free text books for children in order to work
toward a more complete standardization of curriculum. He also noted the unevenness in
teaching through contrasting the teaching of two female teachers.
Miss Flora McFlimsy crowds all sail. Pupils are rushed through the book without
understanding or remembering the work passed over. The term closes, and with a
flourish of trumpets she leaves. Miss Faithful takes her place. To her dismay, she
finds the work must all be done over again. She is discouraged. The pupils
wonder why they have to work so hard, and yet do not make the progress they did
with the former teacher. Soon words of dissatisfaction reach her car from parents
that have never entered the school room and know nothing of the work
accomplished. Her term closes, and your verdict is: “She don’t amount to
much.” (Report BASM, 1889, p. 512)

Professor Briggs, Mrs. Bradley and Mr. Gorsline believed the answer to this demise was

in standardizing the examination of teachers, books, and grading. They also encouraged

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parents to take an active interest in their children’s education. Even though negative
comments were made about female teachers, it was noteworthy that women were not
barred from teaching.

A Profession in the Library. The work of the librarian also in the circle of
education offered another opportunity for women to venture out of the domestic home
sphere. Women librarians at Michigan Agricultural College modeled this profession for
their peers as early as 1882 when Mrs. Mary Jane Cliff (Merrill) became the first woman
to hold the position of librarian. Mrs. Merrill, a widow, came to the College as a student
in 1877 and became the second woman to complete her Bachelor of Science degree in
1881 (MAC Catalogue, 1881). While she was the institution’s librarian, she again
entered the classroom as a student and became the first woman to receive a Master of
Science degree in 1886 (MAC Catalogue, 1886). Her tenure as librarian spanned six
years from 1882-1888, and during that time she also became the first woman officer to
hold the position of historian in a club for graduates of the institution (MAC Catalogue,
1885). She married fellow student and faculty member Louis G. Carpenter, BS, MS,
Assistant Professor of Mathematics, and they moved to Colorado where she continued
her career in the library profession.

The work of Mrs. Merrill, the first woman librarian, and subsequent Michigan
Agricultural College librarians in this decade consisted of caring for the library’s “mail,
correspondence, book loan list and [giving] assistance to readers,” as well as re-shelving
books and creating and revising card catalogues used in locating books in the library
(Report BASM, 1884, p. 57). The 1884 Board of Agriculture report included a

description of Mrs. Mary J. C. Merrill, the first woman librarian at the College as “a

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graduate of the College, of the class of 1881” who gave “the library all her time. Having
passed through the course of study, she is able to render students much aid in their
investigations . . . [and she] has commenced the hard but very necessary task of
cataloguing the miscellaneous matter of the library” (Report BASM, 1884, p. 29). Mrs.
Merrill gave details of her weekly 48-5 8 hour contribution to the operation of the library
in the following report.

The work of the year has been done without assistance, other than that done by

the janitors, whose thoughtful attendance has contributed largely to the cheer of

the rooms and the comfort of the readers. The library has been open to students

from eight to ten hours daily, except Saturdays and Sundays, when it is open six

hours and two hours respectively. (Report BASM, 1884, p. 64)
She continued to expand her understanding of her work beyond the College library
during the 1884—85 winter vacation; she went to the library of the University of
Michigan, spending time with the librarian and his assistants “learning the best methods
of library work” (Report BASM, 1885, p. 93). In her 1885 report to the Board of
Agriculture she made statements similar to the previous year commenting that the work
in the Michigan Agricultural College Library was “done with but little assistance and has
required all the time” because the library was now open for a total of 70 hours per week
(Report BASM, 1885, p. 93).

Other women modeling the library profession followed Mrs. Merrill. Miss Mary
M. Abbot was the librarian for one year from 1888-1889 (MAC Catalogue 1888; Beal,
1915). She was the daughter of the College’s President Abbot and also a former student

enrolled at the College for three years in 1878, 1879, and 1881 (MAC Catalogues, 1878,

1879, 1881). Miss Jane S. Sinclair was the third female librarian employed at the College

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in this decade for two years from 1889-1891 (MAC Catalogues 1889, 1890, 1891; Beal,
1915)

A New Profession in the Experiment Station. The College afforded another
opportunity for women’s employment outside the home with the expansion work of the
experiment stations located in various locations throughout the state. The 1884 Board of
Agriculture report included a bill that was in the process of consideration by the Congress
of the United States for the establishment of agricultural experiment stations. The
purpose of these stations was to provide practical, scientific, and agricultural
experimentation information to the Department of Agriculture that could be disseminated
to the people of the United States for the improvement of the work on the farm. These
experiment stations were to be extensions of the land grant colleges established under the
Morrill Act of 1862, such as Michigan Agricultural College. Section 2 of this bill before
Congress specifically stated that experiment stations were to address the questions related
farm production; two areas listed were often women’s responsibility, butter and cheese
production (as cited in Report BASM, 1884, p. 16).

The 1889 Michigan Agricultural College catalogue and the 1889 Board of
Agriculture report recorded a new type of work for women offering support for the work
of the newly established experiment station. Alice A. Johnson, a graduate of the College
in 1884 worked at an Experiment Station doing the work of “tabulating and compiling of
the bulletins issued” (Report BASM, 1889, p. 35). The experiments preformed at
Michigan Agricultural College continued. In so much that President Willits went with

others from around the country to Washington, DC, to register his support for federal

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financial assistance through appropriations under the Hatch Act of 1887. This legislation

guaranteed federal monies would be provided each year for agricultural experimentation.
Summary

The decade of the 18803 was one of steady and significant change at Michigan
Agricultural College. There were major changes in the leadership brought on by the
retirement and death of men who held positions in the College or on the Board of
Agriculture for periods of time ranging from 10 to 22 years. After the resignation of
President Abbot in 1884, newly appointed President Willits gave stirring speeches
outlining his vision to more fully utilize the campus facilities through increased student
enrollment. The enrollment of men had declined from 213 in 1880 to 163 in the last year
under President Abbot; women’s enrollment remained in the single digits during this
time. President Willits was determined to change these trends and often shared a
campaign-like slogan that reflected his vision -- “500 in five years.” While enrolhnent
growth was the main component in the president’s vision, his focus was riveted on the
recruitment the state’s young men.

There was also evidence of this continuing pattern of exclusion of women when
describing the Michigan Agricultural College students in speeches from members of the
Board of Agriculture, faculty from the College, and Farmers’ Institute speakers.
Repeatedly these individuals referred to students as boys, men, and sons of farmers
although women continued to attend the College throughout the decade. This reflected

the views of people in the state on what women should learn and the location of their

education. Many believed women should teach their daughters domestic skills in the

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rome and the daughters, in turn, should repeat this pattern when they married and had
:hildren.

As noted in the 18703, an unexpected outcome of the Farmers’ Institutes was the
participation of women. These women continued to experience educational opportunities
1y exiting their home spheres for a few days each year and learning both theory and
tractical application, related to their home sphere work, from College professors, Board
if Agriculture members, local leaders, and other women. Topics ranged from
nprovements related to work they knew well such as teaching their children and to how
) most effectively care for their homes. Others topics encouraged them to fully engage
ot only their hands but their minds and learn new more efficient ways of doing their
ome sphere work. And lastly, women were introduced to new possibilities for the
)cation of their work. Some of these were primarily in the farm home sphere making
utter and cheese or raising small fiuits, and then leaving briefly to sell these products at
nearby market or to their neighbors.

There were some people who were concerned with women leaving their home
)heres and entering the dangerous public sphere. They proposed that women utilize
reir experience and knowledge of home work and find employment as domestics in
her home Spheres if their life situation warranted them leaving their homes to find
nployrnent to sustain themselves and their families. There was also the emergence of a
W professions that were viewed by society as acceptable places for the employment of
omen including teaching, working in libraries and in areas related to college education
1ch as Michigan Agricultural College’s experiment stations. The Farmers’ Institutes

ad extended the walls of the College to the borders of the state. But the main emphasis

193

was one of double duty. While keeping up’with their work in the home sphere they were
expected to also do the work of the mind, continuing to look for ways to improve their
skills and knowledge. For many women in Michigan, there was no opportunity to attend
Michigan Agricultural College to expand their minds, but opportunities came every year
through Farmers’ Institutes to learn from educators, including many of their peers. Based
on the changes in the 18803 at Michigan Agricultural College, the decade of the 18903

was full of possibilities for the expansion of women’s education.

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CHAPTER 5

195

“Finding Patterns” and “Tying the Quilt” at
Michigan Agricultural College, 1890-1895

There was a quilt hanging over the foot of the bed that had about it a certain air of
distinction. It was a solid mass of patchwork, composed of squares,
parallelograms, and hexagons . . . I felt sure that it had a history that set it apart
from its ordinary fellows.

“Where did you get the pattem, Aunt Jane?” I asked. “I never saw
anything like it.” '

The old lady’s eyes sparkled, and she laughed with pure pleasure.

“That’s what everybody says,” she exclaimed, jumping up and spreading
the favored quilt over two laden chairs, where its merits became more apparent
and striking. “There ain’t another quilt like this in the State 0’ Kentucky, or the
world, for that matter. My granddaughter Henrietta, Mary Frances’ youngest
child, brought me this pattern . . . .” (Hall, 1898, pp. 69-70)

One of Aunt Jane’s quilts was different from all the others. The pattern was
.nique and anyone who saw it questioned its origin. Aunt Jane’s special quilt illustrated
re unique metaphorical quilt depicting the history of women’s education at Michigan
igricultural College. Part of the pattern in this quilt was shaped by pieces and patterns
rat were similar to women’s education in previous decades such as the belief that they
eeded preparation for their appropriate future spheres, caring for the home and its
rembers. If women did not marry, their work was limited to areas in society that were
eemed appropriate such as teaching children or working in a library. There were also
ther patterns that remained the same in the first half of the 18903 as in previous decades:
i omen had no campus housing, no programs that focused specifically on their future
'ork in the home sphere, and they were often invisible in communication given to others
)out the student population.

However, a unique pattern was created by women who attended Michigan

gricultural College in that they did go college and the college they attended was the first

nd grant institution in the nation. Having done this study, it is important to broaden the

196

definition of students to also include those that were involved in alternate learning
environments associated with the College such as Farmers’ Institutes (1876), extension
classes (1891) and the Farm Home Reading Circles (1893).

There was a dramatic shift during the 18903 from previous patterns seen in the
records of the Farmers’ Institutes included in the annual Board of Agriculture reports.
Arlthough Michigan Agricultural College professors typically presented a larger portion
)f the essays and discussions, there were significantly fewer female speakers and essays
vritten by women in Board reports from 1890-1895. Even so, at a Farmers’ Institute in
895, Dr. Sabin, Miss Covey and Mrs. Custard advocated for a women’s program at
llichigan Agricultural College very similar to Eva Coryell’s suggestion 16 years earlier.
Ioupled with the depressed farming economy and two years of significant declining
nrollment of men in the agriculture program, the members of the Board of Agriculture
nd the College leadership agreed to add a Women’s program as one means to meet the
rstitution’s enrollment challenge. A summary of the pieces and patterns from previous

ecades and of the continuing patterns for the years 1890-1895 follows.
Teflecting on Pieces and Patterns

The section “Scrap Bag Years before Michigan Agricultural College 185 5”
lustrated the belief in the dominant culture, pervasive in period literature, that the world
as divided into two spheres -- the dangerous public sphere designated for men and the
fe and boundaried home sphere for women. The origin of the spheres was found in the
eocentric belief system of early immigrants and affected where women were educated,
3 type of education they experienced, and the purpose for their education. As indicated

the period literature, many people during these years before the founding of Michigan

197

Agricultural College believed that the proper sphere for a woman was the home sphere,
from birth to death. They promoted their perspectives primarily through books written
for the instruction of young women growing up in their fathers’ homes prior to entering
their husbands’ homes. If young women did leave home for educational purposes, their
training needed to be specific for their future roles of wives and mothers. These queens
of the household, mothers of the nation or civilization, were expected to carry on this
tradition in the training their children; their sons were to become patriotic leaders in the
new nation, and their daughters were to emulate their mothers, training their children
while caring on the domestic duties of the home and being faithful companions to their
rusbands. However, there were a few voices during this time like author Miss Catherine
3eecher who added a new piece to the scrap bag through her books created for the
rurpose of educating young women in either the home or at school. Educating young
vomen outside the home gave some the opportunity to change a pattern that was in
DI'CVIOUS centuries very improbable. However, if women chose to overtly promote the
vossibility of going or remaining outside of the home sphere, they risked being labeled
Imazons; wild, dangerous, uncontrolled women.

There were those who did not support the idea of educating women as seen in the
ection “Gathering Scrap Bag Pieces for Michigan Agricultural College 1855-1869.”
be general history of college education in the United States was exclusively for men
ntil the 19th century. Then, a few new pieces began to be added to the scrap bag
epicting opportunities for women to be educated at colleges like Mt. Holyoke or Oberlin
'ollegiate Institute. The founders of Michigan Agricultural College followed the general

attem of educational history providing education solely for men but they also launched a

198

new type of education that blended a theocentric perspective with science. Faculty taught
courses that were based on both theory in the classroom and practical application outside
the classroom. Although the wives and daughters on the farm could have benefited from
a practical education at Michigan Agricultural College, like many colleges at this time,
women were not made a part of the institution in the early years from 1855-1869.

“Opening the Scrap Bag at Michigan Agricultural College 1870-1879” described
1 new era at the College as the doors opened. for women to attend. Ten “firsts” petitioned
:o enroll during 1870, which appears to be the catalyst for other women to make
lecisions to enroll. Their participation was not because the College founders, the
nembers of the Board of Agriculture, the College president or faculty determined that
here were compelling reasons for their inclusion and actively solicited women’s
:nrolhnent. As evidence of this lack of institutional intention to promote women
tudents, when women first gained entrance to the College, there was no provision of
ampus housing, programs or courses specifically designed to prepare them to re—enter
reir appropriate home spheres and there were no female professors or other women
rodeling life patterns outside of the home sphere for them to follow. Further, when
escriptions of the student population of the College were given by Michigan
rgricultural presidents, faculty, or members of the Board of Agriculture in the Board of
.griculture reports, women were noticeably absent. As one might expect, their
rrollrnent during this time was unsteady, and for two years in the middle of the decade
ere were no women enrolled at the College.

On the other hand, many women found that there were places other than the

ollege classroom where learning could occur during the decade of the 18703 such as the

199

College—created state-funded Farmers’ Institutes, in which women were unexpected,
active participants. Institute committee members from the various counties set the
agenda, which included speakers and essayists such as the Michigan Agricultural College
president, several faculty members, and people from the county where the Institute was
held. These Institutes, begun in 1876 in six state counties, became quintessential events
for women to express how and what they were learning through their home sphere work
on the farm. They also shared their ideas and beliefs regarding love, the education of
children, and the need to keep their boys and girls committed to “a life on the farm” after
leaving home. There was also one essay given in 1879 by the first and only female
graduate of Michigan Agricultural College in this decade, Miss Eva Coryell. She stated
he need for a program for women, that the College could provide, which would more
rdequately prepare them for domestic duties in the home. She then suggested course
hanges in the agriculture program as an example of a firture program for women.
'inally, she compared what the state had been willing to do in the past to educate the
oung men of the state and firmly encouraged the leaders of the state to do the same in
re future for their young women.

The patterns observed in the 18703 continued throughout the next decade as seen
1 “Searching for Patterns at Michigan Agricultural College 1880-1 8 89.” Lack of
:sidential housing provided for women was one of these patterns. Those who attended
6 College were either the daughters of faculty members, or the president, or came from
insing or nearby farms. The women who lived off campus were limited to living within
small distance from the College because of rough country roads, primitive

Lnsportation, and unpredictable weather. In spite of this major challenge, the

200

enrollment of women continued to grow slowly and steadily during this decade fiom 8 to
29. These women left a pattern for other women to follow.

Another lack of inclusion pattern continued when the president, faculty, or Board
of Agriculture members spoke concerning the students of the College. Although the
names of female students were listed year after year in the Michigan Agricultural College
catalogues, typically students were called boys, young men, men, or sons of farmers. The
president of Michigan Agricultural College reinforced this lack of recognition of women
students at the end of the decade. He articulated that the existing agriculture program,
which had no specific courses dedicated to the domestic duties of women, was good
enough for the girls because it was good enough for the boys. He stated emphatically
that he had no intention of changing the curriculum. Therefore, women had to “fit in” if
:hey wanted to attend the institution.

The basic structure of the agricultural program remained and, therefore, did not
rave courses designed for a holistic approach to work related to the domestic work in the
rome; however, women in the state explored ways to expand the borders of their home
.pheres. They engaged in work that took them outside their home sphere boundaries and
.fforded them opportunities to potentially earn their own money. Border expanding
ptions included selling eggs, chickens, butter, cheese, canned fruits, and vegetables.
“hey shared their experiences related to these new sphere-expanding options with each
ther at the state’s Farmers’ Institutes.

Women also engaged in another option for learning that did not require them to
rend time on the College campus or spend their money for College tuition and still meet

eir desires to increase their knowledge. This community learning possibility was found

201

in the Chautauqua Literary Scientific Circles where groups of men and women from the
same area read books and came together to discuss what they read. If they chose, women
(and men) could also complete examinations and if successful, receive a certificate of
achievement.

A new pattern that began during this decade was one created by a succession of
Female librarians at Michigan Agricultural College. Beginning in 1882, and throughout
:he rest of the decade, several women occupied the position of college librarian. These
women modeled an acceptable career in which they worked outside the home sphere and

were remunerated as other employees of the College.
Finding Similar Patterns

The final years of this study, 1890 to 1895, were incorporated in the summary
rased on the information discovered in the research process. There were no significant
:hanges during these years from the decades of the 18703 and the 18803. Previous
rattems from these decades solidified with no campus housing for women and no
trogram for domestic education. In addition, communication from presidents, faculty,
nd members of the Board of Agriculture remained the same, excluding women. While
re pattern of women’s enrollment from 1890 to 1895 was stable, averaging 27 students
er year, the familiar challenges remained. The lack of campus housing for women
mited the number enrolled to daughters of the employees of Michigan Agricultural
ollege or those who lived in close proximity to the College. Without programs that
ere specifically designed for women to utilize after college, they had to individually
atermine how and what skills were transferable to their future home spheres. While

ere were no overt advocates on campus in the 18903, others in the state continued to

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plead for a women’s program that would be immediately and fully utilized upon
graduation. There are four areas, included in this section, that describe women’s
education at Michigan Agricultural College from 1890-1895:

New College Programs within the Borders of the State

Expanding Borders of the College through Farmers’ Institutes

A Program from the Borders of the College

Women within the Borders of the College

New College Programs within the Borders 0f the State. Extension classes began
in 1891 conducted by Nathan Corbin, Assistant Professor of History and Political
Economy at Michigan Agricultural College. These classes were “heartily endorsed” as
they were seen as opportunities for the college to reach “out to assist people at the homes
to do systematic studying” (Report BASM, 1892, p. 148). Although the professor taught
only two extension courses in 1891 in Lansing and Charlotte, the response from grange
societies led him to state that the College could increase the number of classes offered to
is many as they desired and could be serviced by College faculty. Corbin made a
number of observations regarding the format of the classes, such as the lecture should be
:he primary mode of delivery, discussions should be led carefully by competent leaders,
1nd the type of study was limited because there were no laboratory or library facilities.
Lastly, he stated that while there was an “eagerness for self-improvement amongst the
:‘armers of the State,” these classes should inspire the participants but not be considered a
'eplacement for “collegiate residence as a means to an education” (Report BASM, 1892,
). 150). Therefore, Corbin argued these classes should not be considered part of college

>rogram or lead to a college degree.

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The Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circles offered courses for another non—
degree granting learning opportunity available in the state; women who completed the
course received a diploma. Mrs. J. R. Blake, an essayist at a Farmers’ Institute in 1892,
explained the benefits of this course of study. Women who studied were seen as
supporting their children’s educational lives because they could converse with their
:hildren on the topics being studied. While some could not fathom going to college or
rdding another task to their already overflowing work day, Mrs. Blake claimed the work
>f the mind could be done in conjunction with the expected sphere work and was not
imited to a classroom setting. “But while the hand is busy, send the brain to other fields”
Report BASM, 1892, p. 521). Mrs. Blake also challenged men to be learners in
Ihautauqua Circles by sending them an alarm that women were entering occupations
Ireviously reserved for men.

Surely you are not sitting on the fence whistling, or at the corner grocery

smoking, holding a beer mug, or discussing the last bit of town gossip,

while your wife is busy with her Chautauqua corner. Do you know that

women are rapidly filing the places that a score of years ago you ahnost

monopolized. Ministers, doctors, aye, woman is coming to be ubiquitous.

Two generations more, and we shall have taken from your hands all the

brain work that is worth the taking. (Report BASM, 1892, p. 522)

Another extension of Michigan Agricultural College, similar to Chautauqua
iterary Scientific Circles, was the Farm Home Reading Circles begun in 1893. These
ircles were coordinated by the College faculty and found “hearty cooperation” from the
Erange Visitor” a grange paper circulated in the state (Report BASM, 1894, p. 26).
'ofessor Mumford directed the oversight of these Circles and reported to the Board of

griculture that in 1893, there were “5,000 short circulars and 2,000 large circulars,

ntaining detailed information of the plan and scope of the course” printed for

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distribution (Report BASM, 1894, p. 64). Neither the Board of Agriculture reports nor
the College catalogues gave an explanation for the creation of these Circles but it was
assumed that the readings were parallel to the curriculum at the College with both theory
and practical application components (see Appendix J). The books distributed to those
interested in learning through these Circles were different from the Chautauqua Circles in
that they focused on agriculture in general or specific topics related to farming, and
included information on the practical application of theories. Professor Mumford
relieved the involvement of the people of the state in these Circles was widespread
)ecause although only 125 people registered to participate, 500 books were purchased
luring the past year and many were requested by granges, farmers’ clubs, and libraries.
{is perception of the worth of the Farm Home Reading Circles echoed the perception of
rthers two decades earlier related to the Farmers’ Institutes. “The value of this course to
'armers actually engaged in the business of farming cannot be overestimated. Its
ommendable object is to bring the farmers and the College into more intimate and
riendly relations, which can but result in advantage to both” (Report BASM, 1894, p.
4). Extension classes and Farm Home Reading Circles continued the work of Farmers’
rstitutes by extending the walls of Michigan Agricultural College to the borders of
[ichigan.

Expanding the Borders of the College through Farmers ’ Institutes. While
[ichigan Agricultural College continued to sponsor Farmers’ Institutes throughout the
ate in January and February from 1890-1895, there were a few noticeable differences.
'0m 1876 until 1889, there were six or seven Institutes offered each year in various

unties in the state. In response to requests from Farmers’ Institute participants, the

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Tollege increased the number to 11 in 1890, 16 in 1891, and 20 short and two 4-day long
essions in 1892. The State Legislature’s commitment was also seen as they adjusted
apropriations from $500 in 187 7 to $1,500 in 1891. These monies were not given to the
ollege for faculty salaries but for “railroad fares and for hotel bills for the professors in
:endance” and “for one extra trip for each institute, to arrange preliminaries and
)grams” (Report BASM, 1892, p. 443). The Legislature, members of the Board of
ficulture, Michigan Agricultural College faculty, and Institute participants believed
t the F armers’ Institutes brought many benefits to the state. In addition to the
proved relationship between the state’s farmers and the College, the farmers and the
lege faculty discovered and shared theories and “new and improved systems of
ring” (Report BASM, 1892, p. 444). The work of the mind was combined with the
c of the farmers’ hands, and the results benefited the state by creating a workforce of
rghtful, educated people, capable of doing well all the duties assigned, through all
rades of official obligation” (Report BASM, 1892, p. 444).

There were other changes in the early years of the 18903 related to women
ling the Farmers’ Institutes. During the 18703 and especially in the 18803, women
and read numerous essays on their work related to their farm home spheres, and
assays were included in the annual Board of Agriculture reports. However, during
:t six years of the 18905, women were only occasional essayists, and because of the
rtial increase in Farmers’ Institutes, only brief summaries of their essays were
ed in the annual reports. Michigan Agricultural College professors, the College
at, or Board of Agriculture members became the primary lecturers and essayists as

d in the programs (see Appendixes K and L). While this diminished their

206

rarticipation from a lead role, there were secondary rolls women played in the Farmers’
rstitutes. For example, Professor Beal was accompanied by seven students, five of
'hom were women, who aided him in a presentation on botany related to wheat, other
aims, and vegetables (Report BASM, 1892). Women were given assignments such as
rving on music committees to locate individuals or groups that were willing to provide
rsic for the programs; many times the soloists or groups were women. In addition,
men gave recitations and began to participate more often in discussions that followed
essay presentations. And at least two times in 1892, women opened these discussions
feading “excellent paper[s] full of good thoughts and suggestions” (Report BASM,
2,p.455)

Michigan Agricultural College professors and other men lectured and read essays
raking and selling cream and butter and on the businesses of bee-keeping and
:ry. These speakers replaced all of the women essayists and their practical expertise
ese topics from the previous decades. There were very few essays written and read
rmen and very few ideas given by women that related to expanding the borders of
rome spheres. Occasionally, a change in women’s sphere work was mentioned by
ren and women speakers; one was the notion that instead of women shouldering the
sibility of dairying and making butter, local creameries could be built to insure the
nity and to better control the market prices of butter (Report BASM, 1895). Some
(1 women believed that this particular idea had the potential to significantly lessen
’8 work on the farm.
4 Program from the Borders of the College. The four-day Farmers’ Institute held

eville from January 29 to February 1, 1895, markeda defining event in the lives

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>f future women at Michigan Agricultural College. Dr. Sabin, Dr. Beal, Mrs. Alex
Custard, and Miss Sarah Covey gave substantive essays or comments on reasons women
:hould attend Michigan Agricultural College and on plans for a program specifically
lesigned for them (Report BASM, 1895). Thursday morning sessions of the Institute
regan with an essay on “The Value of the Farmer’s Wife” followed by Mrs. Alex
Sustard’s essay on “Planning a Course of Study for Girls at our Agricultural College”
Report BASM, 1895, p. 801). She began her essay citing the immense changes in
vomen’s education in the previous 25 years as most colleges opened their doors to
vomen. She then proposed the idea of providing the option for women to study related
0 their future work that she believed would be a great benefit to both the students and the
tate.

[G]ive the boys and girls alike as far as possible the benefits of the higher

education, teaching them to seek it for their own sake and its usefulness to

others rather than for personal gain, for only by education can the twin

giants, the labor question and the domestic problem, be met and

vanquished. Then let the course of study be one that will give to the State

well developed citizens, the ideal man and woman . . . We can never have

a race of great men until we have great women ---- the result of

symmetrically educated girls. (Report BASM, 1895, p. 810)
‘he courses she suggested related to both the theoretical and practical work of the home
)here alleviating the “labor question and the domestic problem” because women would
e more efficient and accurate in their work. These suggestions included chemistry
:lated to food, political and domestic economy, sanitary science, cooking, and fitness
)urses called physical culture. Mrs. Custard believed that all of these were essential to
re complete education of women because she envisioned their work as “wealth creators

1d producers” in the home; to effectively carry out that work, women needed to be

rentally and physically prepared (Report BASM, 1895, p. 810). The outcome of the

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curse of study she outlined was women who would be on “equal footing” with their
rusbands, “sympathetic souls” helping to build “ideal homes” (Report BASM, 1895, p.
:11). While a program specifically designed for women and their future work was seen
s positive forward movement in their education, it also solidified women’s education
.nd feminine ideals within the boundaries of the home sphere as seen in the following.

[H]e requires . . . young woman who has studied beside him in the

laboratory and dairy, one whose tastes are similar, one who understands

herself and her work and will never be a household drudge, but mistress of

the situation. She works never by guess but by rule. The result of her

labor is not “luck” but the natural result of a complete education. She will

be queen of the reahn, a happy wife, a willing wearer of the most sacred

title ever bestowed upon woman, “Mother.” That home will be a branch

of Heaven built on earth by co-education, and that woman will have

satisfied her ambition, for she will have found her glory and found it

enough, for it will transfigure the race. (Report BASM, 1895, p. 811)
nstitute participants, both men and women, responded very favorably to Mrs. Custard’s
ssay so much so that a committee was formed to create a resolution supporting the idea.
)r. Beal, professor of botany at Michigan Agricultural College for 25 years and manager
f this particular Farmers’ Institute, called the essay a “splendid paper,” and stated that he
as “deeply interested” in this idea (Report BASM, 1895, p. 811).

The next day, at the last session of the same Farmers’ Institute, Miss Sarah Covey
nd Dr. Sabin gave a presentation on “Some Reasons Why Women Should Attend our
.gricultural College with a Course Especially Adapted to their Needs” (Report BASM,
895, p. 801). Miss Covey advocated for a program that would teach women new
:ientific methods for their home sphere work because the “old ways” were outdated
Report BASM, 1895, p. 820). Dr. Sabin followed by asking the question of whether

romen should be educated to which he answered yes. He believed the education he

uggested was found at Michigan Agricultural College in the marriage of theory and

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)ractice, for the primary purpose of making “honres more attractive” and preparing
nothers to “better teach and train their children” (Report BASM, 1895, p. 821). This
nstitute ended with the adoption of resolutions on providing a course of study for women
it Michigan Agricultural College.

Women within the Borders of the College. There were fewer women who
nodeled as speakers and practical experts via reading essays at the Farmers’ Institutes as
nentioned earlier however, there was one woman whose name appeared on several
nstitute programs; Miss Margaret M. Sill, “a professional cook” (Beal, 1915, p. 152).
{he gave a series of three essays on cooking as it affected the “happiness, health and
ncome of the family” (Report BASM, 1895, pp. 800-801). Her perspective was that if
vomen were trained to cook properly, they could not only take care of their families but
ould also, if the need arose, have the tools for a “profession” that would enable them to
e gainfully employed in the safety of a home sphere, rather than in the public sphere of a
hop or factory (Report BASM, 1895, p. 698). Other women contributed during question
nd answer or discussion sessions related to practical tips on their work in the home
phere such as “wintering” celery or the proper handling of fruit to obtain “good prices”

: the market (Report BASM, 1895, p. 846).

One woman in particular appeared to be role model and spokesperson for
'omen’s education during this time. Mrs. Mary A. Mayo was a Farmers’ Institute
;sayist and as early as 1877 presented an essay entitled, “A Higher Standard of Culture
>r Housekeepers” in which she promoted the home sphere as a place of self-education
>r women (Report BASM, 1877, p. 132). She believed that a self-educated woman was

better wife, mother, and citizen. She read another essay in 1880 related to the outcome

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of education, “Does Education Lead to Extravagance,” in which she described true
education as that which engaged both the heart and the head and resulted in healthier
families (Report BASM, 1880, p. 194). Between these beginning years and 1895, her
influence grew as she became the “deputy lecturer of the State Grange” (Report BASM,
1895, p. 852). She was asked to give a brief comment on the education of children of the
state at the Farmers’ Institute at St. Johns in February 1895. She called the boys and girls
of the state the farmers’ “best crop” and posed questions paralleling their current
education with aspects of farm work.
What are you doing for your boys and girls? You cannot afford poor stock
on a farm, neither can you afford to neglect your boys and girls. Are you
training your boys for citizenship? Are you giving them as much attention
as you are your colts? I want to make a plea for the farm girls. I want
them to state side by side with their brothers. (Report BASM, 1895, p.
852)
Sometime during the mid 18908, she gave another speech where she again stated
hat women were “destined to become wives and mothers; to establish and keep
he home, care for it, work for it, live for it, and for this most important work they
hould be carefully thoroughly, competently trained” (as cited in Beal, 1915, p.
51). She firmly believed that “many of the social and poor problems would be
olved” if women were educated in “cooking, physiology, hygiene, [and] the
roper care of children and the home” (Beal, 1915, p. 152). Mrs. Mayo repeated
rese beliefs throughout the state for more than 15 years, pressing for a more
)mplete education for women.
Although the 1895 Board of Agriculture report had strong advocates for women’s

lucation, there were still patterns of exclusion in the description of the current and

ture students of Michigan Agricultural College by President Gorton. He gave an

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address at many of the Farmers’ Institutes that year on “Agricultural Education” in which
he called on the farmers of the state to continue to find ways to keep their “sons and
daughters” on the farm by providing them with the practical education in the home
(Report BASM, 1895, p. 707). In addition, he stated that their sons would be “successfirl
farmers” if they were “supplied with books” on agriculture as those “firmished by our
Farm Honre Reading Circle” and then followed by a practical education at Michigan
Agricultural College (Report BASM, 1895, p. 707). The word daughter was used once
and the word children a few times, but the emphasis of the speech was, as those of
previous presidents of the College, on the training of the farmers’ boys, sons, and young
men to gain a complete and practical education in preparation for their adult lives. There
were no direct examples of how a practical education for the farmers’ girls, daughters, or
young women could benefit them or the state and properly prepare females to enter
idulthood.

In 1889, former President Willits’ was asked a question about changing the
Lgricultural program to create a program specifically applicable to women and their
vork. At that time, he said that the agriculture program designed for the men was good
:nough for the women. In contrast, during a “Question Box” time at the Farmers’
nstitute in Bancroft in January 1895, someone posed the following question.

Q. Should the Agricultural College have a place for our girls?

A. Yes; the day is coming when our girls need just as much education as

our boys do, and if the boys need a scientific education, our girls need a

scientific education adapted to their needs. (Report BASM, 1895, p. 711)

lhile the record did not include the names of the speakers asking and answering this

uestion, the thread throughout the Farmers’ Institutes during this year was one of serious

212

consideration for adding a course of study in domestic education as an option for women
attending Michigan Agricultural College.

There was a single steady stream of examples of women working outside the
honre at Michigan Agricultural College in the library profession. Miss Jane Sinclair and
Mrs. Linda Eoline Landon carried the tradition of Mrs. Mary J. C. Merrill and Miss Mary
Abbot from the previous decade in the position of the college librarian. Miss Sinclair
was librarian from 1889 to 1891, and Mrs. Landon held the role for 39 years beginning in
1891. There was also one woman who was an adjunct instructor during the summer
session in 1890. According to a report given to President Clute, Professor A. J. Cook was
unable to “give the time required for instruction in Animal Histology” (Report BASM,
1890, p. 43). He contacted Miss M. L. Cummings, who was a graduate of Olivet
College, and she agreed to teach the course. There were nine students that enrolled in the
:ourse, and Professor Cook reported that her “instruction was most excellent” and stated
hat he acknowledged lrer “valuable service [which was] rendered without cost to the
:ollege” (Report BASM, 1890, p. 43).

As mentioned earlier, women’s enrollment at the College was stable ranging from

3 in 1893 to 31 in 1895. The low of 13 was an anomaly as the range of the other years
vas 26 to 31. While the enrolhrrent of women was stable, total enrollment declined for
rree years in a row in the agricultural program, and men’s enrollment was flat or
eclining (see Appendix M). Coupled with this declining enrollment was a depressed
inning economy in the state. The Board of Agriculture as well as the College president

rd faculty were looking for ways to turn this enrolhnent pattern around, and based on

213

the historical record, the most significant decision was that of adding a course designed

for the instruction of women. The “Women’s Course” began at the end of 1895.
Final Statements

When someone stands in the library stacks, he is, metaphorically, surrounded by
voices begging to be heard. Every book, every magazine article, represents at
least one person who is equivalent to the anthropologist’s informant or the
sociologist’s interviewee. In those publications, people converse, announce
positions, argue with a range of eloquence, and describe events or scenes in ways
entirely comparable to what is seen and heard during fieldwork. (Glaser, 1967, p.

163)

This research uncovered the “voices” of the first women at Michigan State
Jniversity. A major portion of primary documentation was found in the Michigan
Agricultural College catalogues and the annual Board of Agriculture reports located in
he University Archives. This archival material selected described the women as students
rn campus, students, essayists and speakers at the Farmers’ Institutes. They collectively,
.3 college students, Farmers’ Institute participants or essayists, or Reading Circle
rembers were the “first women” at Michigan State University creating patterns for other
Jomen to follow. Their efforts and contributions are part of the collective history of
ducation and the history of Michigan State University and as such need to be known and
remembered part of the institution’s history.

Women came to Michigan Agricultural College and they continued to enroll
espite the lack of campus housing, a program designed to prepare them for future work,
rd inclusion in the descriptions of students attending from 1870-1895 given by the
ollege presidents or faculty. They found other avenues for their education in addition to

rose in the College classroom such as Farmers’ Institutes and Farm Home Reading

ircles. Their lives modeled a pattern for other women to follow and became vibrant

214

pieces in the quilt of women’s education from the early years of Michigan Agricultural

College.

“I’ve been a hard worker all my life,” she said, seating herself and folding her
hands restfully, “but ‘most all my work has been the kind that ‘perishes with the
using’, as the Bible says. That’s the discouragin’ thing about a woman’s work.

Milly Amos used to say that if a woman was to see all the dishes that she had to

wash before she died, piled up before her in one pile, she’d lie down and die right

then and there. I’ve always had the name 0’ bein’ a good housekeeper, but when

I’m dead and gone there ain’t anybody goin’ to think 0’ the floors I’ve swept, and

the tables I’ve scrubbed, and the old clothes I’ve patched, and the stockin’s I’ve

darned. Abram might ‘a’ remembered it, but he ain’t here. But when one o’ my
grandchildren or great-grandchildren sees one 0’ these quilts, they’ll think about

Aunt Jane, and wherever I am then, I’ll know I ain’t forgotten.” (Hall, 1898, p.

78)

Aunt Jane’s quilts lived on after her as they were passed to her children and
grandchildren. When these family members saw them draped over a chair or felt their
warmth on a cold winter night they were reminded of her work, her love, and other
:pecial memories. Aunt Jane believed quilts were albums of memories created to be
Lhared with others beyond the lifetime of the quilt-maker. The same can be said of the
netaphorical quilt that the first women at Michigan Agricultural College created. The
fleets of their housekeeping work perished long ago but their educational choices left
ratterns for others to admire and follow.

Finally, the contributions of these early women at Michigan Agricultural College
an be an inspiration to current generations to consider what and how they are
ontributing to those a hundred years ahead of them in the year 2104. Women of
dichigan Agricultural College in the later part of the 1800s prodded each other to
onsider what they were doing that would contribute to future generations. One such

'ornan saw herself and her farm sisters isolated from each other but encouraged them to

:e their contributions to the future directly related to the work of their minds.

215

Isolated as many of us are, and spending many hours each day along the same
line, tends to keep us repeating our own mistakes, and our minds . . . will tell our
vocation. If we do nothing the live-long day but feed chickens, why, that is the
only thing we have to talk about . . . we are children all our lives.
Then, for the sake of the future, we need to brighten up our intellect.
Some one has said: “To educate a man you need to begin an hundred years before
he is born.” Then it is time to begin to educate our great grandchildren. Another
hundred years, and this America will be old. Nineteen hundred and ninety-one
will demand different house keeping, and more perfect sanitary laws. (Report
BASM, 1892, p. 520)
What will be written about “us” one hundred years from now? Will those ahead of us
affirrn the contributions of those before them? “They Came before Us: A Story of
Women at Michigan State University, 1870-1895” remembers the contribution of the
women who constitute the heritage of Michigan State University whether they were in
the campus classrooms or other classrooms such as the Farrners’ Institutes in the state.
They did come before us and continued to come despite year after year of no housing, no

program, and little recognition of their existence on campus as students. Yet, they
:reated a pattern for others to follow.
Epilogue

The importance of agriculture did not diminish from 1870-1895 or in the years
mmediately following the scope of this study. However, farming had begun change
lramatically due to the advancement of farnr machinery and science and the deve10pment
)f manufacturing and transportation (Perkins & Van Deusen, 1968). The result was a
‘shift from husbandry to machine-farming, and from subsistence to commercial farming”
Morison & Commager, 1962, p. 278). Farmers and their families were forced to
ompete in world markets rather than the local markets of previous decades as the
reserved food began to be mass produced in factories and dispersed by trains, ships, and

'ucks across the country and to foreign markets. These factors and others altered the

216

rles of women on the farm. The prospect of selling eggs, butter, fruits, and vegetables
rr profit diminished as women competed with the mass production of these products.
1though the number of people living on the farm increased, the percentage of people
ring on the farm decreased as they migrated to urban settings creating an emergent
iddle-class.

The perception of women was also on the verge of major changes from 1890
rrward. In 1893 the Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition was also the meeting place
E‘the World Congress of Representative Women. Frances Harper, a spokeswoman at
.is event made the following statement.

Today we stand on the threshold of woman’s era . . . In her hand are possibilities

whose use or abuse must tell upon the political life of the nation, and send their

influence for good or evil across the track of unborn ages. (as cited in Evans,
1997,p.l45)
‘his woman’s era included the possibility of attending college and rather than marrying
rd returning to the farm or an urban household, more women chose to remain single or
any later and have fewer children (Solomon, 1985). Some women exhibited a more
dependent spirit which was seen their style of dress, their participation in paid work and
rcial movements, and their determination to secure the right for women to vote.

Change was also evident at Michigan Agricultural College in the years
nmediately following the scope of this research. The vision of Miss Eva Coryell, the
rst woman to graduate from Michigan State University in 1879, became a reality. A
Vomen’s Program was created in 1896 for the purpose of educating women in the fields
f domestic art and domestic science. This education was intended to more adequately

repare them to fully engage in the work in the home sphere. While limiting in its scope,

[is new program also provided opportunities for women to become college professors

217

 

,d deans modeling acceptable work for their students that was outside the home sphere.
addition, Mrs. Linda Eoline Landon firmly established the legacy begun in 1884 by
'3. Mary J. C. Menill when she became Michigan Agricultural College’s librarian,
raining in that position for 39 years.

One outcome of adding a program designed for women was substantial growth in
allment. Total enrollment reached former President Willits’ (1884—1889) goal of
0” in 1898, just two years after the start of the Women’s Program. There were 95
men enrolled at the College that year representing 18% of the total enrollment of 528.
3e figures reflected the highest enrollment of women and the largest representative
ent ever recorded in the institution’s history. Changes in residential housing
rred as a result of influx of women students. Men were moved from Abbot Hall to
'halls and some men sought housing off campus. The College president believed
djustment was acceptable because transportation systems and vehicles had
oped and improved. Abbot Hall was used in 1898 to accommodate the increase in
:n’s enrolhnent and in 1900 a new hall was built. Morrill Hall was opened 30 years
he possibility of a hall for women was first mentioned.

Farmers’ Institutes continued throughout the decade of the 1890s as an alternative
iorral setting for women in the state. Seventy Institutes were held in 1896-97. Mrs.
an essayist in the early years of the Institutes and a constant advocate for women’s
on through her position as Grange lecturer, was asked to organize women’s
8 at the Farmers’ Institutes beginning that same year.

When asked how the plan . . . had appealed to her at first she said: “My heart just
throbbed. It was what I had long wanted to do” . . . Mrs. Mayo chose for her first

topics at these meetings, “Mother and Daughter” and “Making Farm Work
Easier.” She spoke usually without notes, talking simply and directly from her

218

heart and experience, face to face with those who came to hear her. The results
surprised the most sanguine. The meetings for women proved unique and far-
reaching. “Reports show that 5,309 women attended Mrs. Mayo’s sections that
first year at twenty institutes, including the state meeting. The reports were
overwhelmingly in favor of the continuance of the women’s section as a distinct
feature of our institute work. (Beal, 1915, p. 160)

Another quilt depicting women’s education at was in the process of creation.

219

 

APPENDICES

220

 

Appendix A

First Women Students at Michigan Agricultural College - 1870

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Name First Name City County ST
Allen Isabel Lansing Mm Ml
Bacon Catherine C. Lansing Ingham Ml
Brock Ella Lansing Ingham Ml
g Daniells Mary E. Wacousta Clinton Ml
Dexter Harriet A. lonia Ionia Ml
L Howe Gertrude Lansing Ingham MI
1 Hume Emma H. Medina Lenawee MI
1 Jones Mary L. Lansing Ingham MI
9 Sessions Elizabeth E. Ionia Ionia Ml
_) Steele Catherine E. North Henderson lL

 

 

.C Catalogue, 1870)

221

 

10.

 

Appendix B

General Information — Michigan Agricultural Catalogues 1861-1869
Preparatory Class — Students’ names, towns, counties
“Objects” Purposes of the Institution
Description of the founding of Michigan Agricultural College
Admission — Requirements to enroll at Michigan Agricultural College
Select Course — A specifically-focused, shorter course of study chosen if students
did take the Full Course (i.e. Chemistry, Botany, Animal Physiology, etc.)

Labor — Description of required labor

Course of Instruction — Preparatory, College Course listed by years and specific
courses

Departments of Instruction — Maj or departments listed with description of
curriculum (i.e. Chemistry, Botany, Horticulture, Zoology and Animal
Physiology, Mathematics and Civil Engineering, Mineralogy, Geology, English
Literature)

Facilities for Instruction — Types of facilities and descriptions (i.e. The Farm,
Kitchen Garden, Botanical Garden, Laboratory, Philosophical and Mathematical
Apparatus, Museum, Herbarium, Library and Reading Room)

Terms and Vacations — Dates given for length of terms, vacations, examinations

and rationale for the arrangement of terms

11. Commencement — Date for yearly commencement ceremony

12. Examinations — Timetable for exams

13. Degrees —— List of possible degrees

222

 

 

14. Discipline —— Description of action taken if students do not meet academic or
social requirements or expectations
15. Expenses — Cost and explanation of charges related to tuition, board, washing,

room rent, matriculation) and possible means of remuneration

(MAC Catalogue, 1861)

223

 

Appendix C

Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1857-1869

MAC Enrollment - Men
Enrollment Totals by Year & Status 1857-1869

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

. Administration 1857 1858 1 85918601861 1862 186318641865186618671868 1869
te Board of Education 4 4 4 4

le Board of Agriculture 9 9 10 1O 1O 1O 10 1O 10
m 6 6 6 4 4 5 6 8 8 8 8 8 7
ninistrators 1 2 2 4 2 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 4

al Board, Fac, Adm 11 12 12 12 15 15 18 20 20 20 21 21 21

. Students 18571858185918601861 18621863186418651866186718681869
duates 7 5 5 2 5 10 10
Iiors 7 8 5 2 5 10 11
iors 5 8 9 7 3 5 10 13 13
[homores 39 17 1 1 6 5 4 12 18 25 27
shmen 36 21 27 15 9 14 28 33 34 28
rhmen - 2nd Div 19

rhmen & Preparatory 24

raratory 29 25 26 33 45 51 24

rct Course 4 6 1O 22 10 7

flitudents 123 143 99 49 66 75 60 62 88 108 97 82 79

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AC Catalogues, 1857-1869)

224

'ear
870
870
870
870
870
870
870
870
870
870

871
|871
1871
I871
I871
|871
I871
|871

1872
1872
1872
1872

1873
1873
1873
1873
1873

1874
None

1875
None

1876
1876
1876
1876

1877
1877

Appendix D

Women Enrolled at Michigan Agricultural College 1870-1879

Last
Name

Allen
Bacon
Brock
Daniells
Dexter
Howe
Hume
Jones
Sessions
Steele

Allen
Bacon
Brock
Dexter
Hollister
Jones
Sessions
Rockwell

Allen
Hollister
Loba
Stone

Bigelow
Fairfield
Hollister
Gunnison
Wood

Baird
Wood
Bell
Weed

Coryell
Dunckell

First Name
Isabel

Catherine C.

Ella

Mary E.
Harriet A.
Gertrude
Emma H.
Mary L.
Elizabeth E.

Catherine E.

Isabel

Catherine C.

Eleanor
Harriet A.
Caroline A.
Mary L.
Elizabeth E.
Alice I.

Isabel
Caroline A.
Eugenie D.
Rosa H.

Jennie 8.
Frances E.
Caroline A.
Edna M.
Flora E.

Ella C.
Sarah E.
Hattie
Alice

Eva D.
Marcine

City
Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Wacousta
Ionia
Lansing
Medina
Lansing
Ionia

N. Henderson

Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Ionia
Laingsburg
Lansing
Ionia
Lansing

Lansing
Laingsburg
Olivet
Olivet

Lansing
Lansing
Laingsburg
Jackson
Mason

Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Lansing

Williamstown
Willliamston

225

County
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Clinton
Ionia
Ingham
Lenawee
Ingham
Ionia

Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Ionia
Shiawassee
Ingham
Ionia
Ingham

Ingham

Eaton
Eaton

Ingham
Ingham
Shiawassee
Jackson
Ingham

Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham

Ingham
Ingham

ST
MI
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
IL

Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
MI
Ml
MI

Ml
Ml
MI
Ml

M1
M1
Ml
Ml
Ml

Ml
MI
MI
Ml

MI
Ml

Status
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies _
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies

Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies

Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
Ladies

Ladies
Ladies
Ladies
CHEM
CHEM

FR
FR
SPEC
SPEC

SO
FR

77

77
77
77
77

78
78
78
78
78
78
78
78
78
.78
178
:78
:78

l79
l79
179
B79
179

I79
379

579
379
$79
379

Foster

Merrill
Baird
Bigelow
Wood

Merrill

Hinckley

Abbot
Baird
Coryell
Curliss

Fairchild

Foster
Gulley

Kennedy
Panndge

Smith
Wood

Coryell
Abbot
Baird
Curliss

Fairchild

Gulley

Kennedy

Merrill
Weed

Wheeler

Wood

Katie J.
Mary J. C.
(Mrs)

Ella C.
Jennie
Sarah E.

Mary J. C.
(Mrs.)

Clara S.
Mary M.
Ella C.
Eva D.
Adah
Agnes M.
Katie J.
Bessie H.
Anna

E. Winnifred
Nettie
Sarah

Eva D.
Mary M.
Ella C.
Adah
Agnes
Bessie H.
(Mrs)
Anna
Mary J. C.
(Mrs)

Alice
Harriet M.
Sarah E.

IAC Catalogues, 1870-1879)

Lansing

Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Lansing

Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Williamston
Owosso
Lansing
Lansing
Lansing
Covert
Bay City
Clinton
Lansing

Williamston
Lansing
Lansing
Owosso
Lansing

Lansing
Covert

Lansing
Lansing
Fort Wayne
Lansing

226

Ingham

Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham

Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Shiawassee
Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Van Buren
Bay
Clinton
Ingham

Ingham
Ingham
Ingham
Shiawassee
Ingham

Ingham
Van Buren

Ingham
Ingham

Ingham

Ml

Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml

Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml
MI
Ml
Ml
Ml
MI
Ml

MI
Ml
Ml
Ml
Ml

Ml
Ml

MI
Ml
IN
MI

FR

FR
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC

SO
FR
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC

SR
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC

SPEC
SPEC

SPEC
SPEC
SPEC
SPEC

Appendix E

Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1870-1879
(Statistics based on individual names in MAC catalogues)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Women 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
I ** BS Graduates 1
I Resident Grads
I Seniors 1
I Juniors
I Sophomores 1 1
I Freshmen 2 3 1
I Sgecial 2 3 11 10
I Ladies 10 8 4 3 Category discontinued
I Chem Manipulation 2 Category discontinued
ITotal 1o 8 4 5 o o 4 I 7 I 13 I 11
I Men 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
I ** BS Graduates 12 12 5 15 21 15 17 15 30 18
I Resident Grads 1 5 3 4 5 5 1 1 7
I Seniors 12 11 5 17 20 16 18 15 31 24
I Juniors 18 1O 19 22 16 21 16 31 24 38
I Sophomores 15 27 36 24 25 21 45 37 74 57
I Freshmen 36 81 53 52 45 82 68 55 76 63
I Sgecial 2 4 9 14 11 11 8 10 20 32
. Chem Manipulation 6 Category discontinued
g Preparatory Class 36 Category discontinued
Total 119 134 I 127 I 133 I 121 I 156 I 160 I 149 I 226 I 221
Total 1870 1871 1872 1873 1874 1875 1876 1877 1878 1879
** BS Graduates 12 12 5 15 21 15 17 15 30 19
Resident Grads 1 5 3 4 5 5 1 1 7
Seniors 12 11 5 17 20 16 18 15 31 25
Juniors 18 1O 19 22 16 21 16 31 24 38
Sophomores 15 27 36 24 25 21 45 38 75 57
Freshmen 36 81 53 52 45 82 70 58 77 63
Special 2 4 9 14 11 11 1O 13 31 42
Ladies 10 8 4 3 Category discontinued
Chem Manipulation 8 Category discontinued
PreparatorLClass 36 Category discontinued
GRAND Total 129 142 I 131 I 143 I 121 I 156} 164 I 156 I 239 I 232

 

 

1871 - Resident Grad category added

 

1871 - PreparatorLCIass discontinued
1873 - Chemical Manipulation categgry added
1874 - Chemical Manipulation category discontinued

1874 - Ladies categoq discontinued

227

 

 

 

 

** BS graduates are not included in grand totals.
(MAC Catalogues, 1870-1879)

The enrollment of men was unstable during the early years 1857 to 1869 but
continued to increase after women began to attend the MAC. During the decade 1870-
1879, the number of men enrolled reached new highs and ranged from 119 in 1870 to 226
in 1878 with an average enrollment of 155 men per year. This first decade of co-
education at the MAC saw total enrollment grow from 129 in 1870 to 232 in 1879 for a
44% total enrollment increase in this decade. Total enrollment ranged from a low of 121
in 1874 to a high of 239 in 1878. By 1879 one hundred and sixty men (160) graduated
receiving Bachelor of Science degrees, with a new record of 30 completing degrees in
1878. Ten women petitioned President Abbot to gain the approval to attend the Michigan
Agricultural College in 1870; nine of the ten women were from Michigan with five
originating from the immediate Lansing area, two from Ionia, one Wacousta, and one
from Medina. The first woman to attend from outside of Michigan was also one of the
first ten coming from North Henderson, Illinois.

Although these ten women began attending when the doors were opened to them
in 1870, overall the enrollment of women struggled to reach and maintain a critical mass
of female students during these years. Their enrollment ranged from zero in 1874 and
1875 to 13 in 1878 and averaged 6 women per year. Eleven women attended the MAC in
1879 for an increase of 9% or only one student since the beginning of the decade. From
1870 to 1873 these women were not identified by the same classification status
(freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior) as men but in a category titled “Ladies.” These

women completed the courses as the male students which could lead to a Bachelor of

228

Science degree in agriculture. However, their required labor while sometimes in the
garden was also completed in the kitchen, laundry or in other various household duties.
The retention of these women year after year until degree completion was also a
challenge. During the first decade of women’s enrollment at the MAC only one woman
completed the degree requirements. Miss Eva Diann Coryell began attending the MAC
in 1877 at sophomore status and in 1879 became the first female to graduate with a
Bachelor of Science degree. During the 1879 commencement ceremony a male graduate
gave an oration entitled “What Can Women Do?” and Miss Coryell read an essay entitled
“Home Politeness” (Gilchrist, 1947). She later married Mr. William McBain and lived in

Grand Rapids until her death on March 17, 1927.

229

 

Appendix F
Daily Schedule — Michigan Agricultural College Catalogues 1875-1877

DAILY ROUTINE
6 A. M. — Morning bell.
6:30 A. M. — Breakfast.
7 to 12 A. M. —— Study hours.
7 A. M. — President’s office open for students.
7:45 A. M. — Chapel exercises.
8 to 12 A. M. — Classes as in scheme.
12 M. — Dinner
12:45 P. M. — Students report for work.
1 to 4 P. M. — Work hours.
4 to 6 P. M. — Library open.
6 P. M. — Supper.
7 P. M. — Study hours (except on Fridays).
Extra Exercises.
Monday, 5 P. M. — Meetings of captains and lieutenants.
5 P. M. — Rehearsals of Seniors and Juniors.
7. P. M. — Monthly meeting of Natural History Society.
Tuesday, 5 P. M. — Rehearsals of Seniors and Juniors.
5 P. M. — Rhetoricals of Sophomores.
6:30 P. M. — Christian Union meeting every third week.
Wednesday, 5 P. M. — Public lecture, or orations, in the chapel.
Thursday, 5 P. M. — Rhetoricals of Freshmen.
Friday, 7 P. M. — Meetings of Societies.

Saturday is a partial holiday, having the usual programme varied by having chapel
exercises at 7 A. M., closing study hours at 10 A. M., opening the library one hour
earlier, and omitting classes and work.

Exercises on Sunday are as follows:
6:30 A. M. - Morning bell.

7 A. M. — Breakfast.

7:45 A. M. — Chapel exercises.

8 A. M. — Choir practice.

10 to 12 A. M. — Library open.

12 M. — Dinner.

3 P. M. — Sabbath services.

4 P. M. — Sunday school.

5:30 P. M. — Supper.

7 P. M. — Prayer meeting or lecture before the Christian Union.
(MAC Catalogue, 1875, pp. 37-38)

230

 

Presidents of Michigan Agricultural College 1857-1895

MAC Presidents
Joseph Rickelson Williams, A.M.
Lewis Ranson Fisk, A.M.
Theophilus Capen Abbot, A.M., LL.D.
George Thompson Fairchild, A.M.
Edwin Willits, A.M.
Oscar Clute, M.S.
Lewis Griffin Gorton. M.S.
Charles Jay Monroe

(MAC Catalogues, 1857-1895)

Appendix G

231

Dates
1857-1859
1859-1862
1862-1884
1873-1874
1885-1889
1889-1893
1893-1895
1895-1 896

Yrs

Acting

Acting

Pro—temp

Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1880-1889

Appendix H

(Statistics based on individual names in MAC catalogues)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
** Graduates — BS 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
** Graduates — MS 1
Resident Graduates 2 3
Seniors 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2
Juniors 1 1 2 1 5 3
Sophomores 2 1 1 3 3 7 5 1
Freshmen 3 2 1 2 4 2 9 5 2 10
Special 4 2 1 2 5 5 5 5 5 10
Total 8 7 5 6 1 0 12 20 19 20 29
Men 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
** Graduates — BS 6 32 27 29 29 30 13 21 31 42
** Graduates - MS 5 2 7 6 3 4
Resident Graduates 2 3 2 4 11 1 1 17 27
Seniors 32 28 30 29 32 31 21 33 46 35
Juniors 33 31 32 36 26 24 45 66 56 46
Sophomores 53 54 55 40 26 56 93 86 72 79
Freshmen 87 79 56 48 61 142 115 101 111 140
Special 8 15 4 1O 14 19 18 7 18 13
Total 213 209 180 165 163 283 303 293 320 340
TOTAL 1880 1881 1882 1883 1884 1885 1886 1887 1888 1889
** Graduates - BS 6 33 28 30 30 30 14 22 32 43
** Graduates - MS 5 2 8 6 3 4
Resident Graduates 2 3 2 4 11 11 19 30
Seniors 33 29 31 3O 32 33 22 34 47 37
Juniors 33 31 33 37 26 24 47 67 61 49
Sophomores 53 56 56 40 27 59 96 93 77 80
Freshmen 90 81 57 5O 65 144 124 106 113 150
Special 12 17 5 12 19 24 23 12 23 23
GRAND Total 221 216 185 171 173 295 323 312 340 369

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I_1882 - Master of Science degree added I
** Graduates BS, MS are not included in grand totals.

(MAC Catalogues, 1880-1889)
Total enrollment for 1880 was the sanre as the year before at 221 but the decade

as a whole saw drastic peaks and valleys ranging between a low of 171 in 1883, and a

232

high at the end of the decade, in 1889, of 369. The difference in enrollment for 1880 and
1889 represented a 60% increase in the number of attendees for ten years. Male
enrollment in 1880 was 213 and increased 60% to 340 in 1889. Their enrollment
mirrored the peaks and valleys of total enrollment mentioned earlier with a low of 163 in
1884 and a high of 340 in 1889. This ten-year span recorded 259 men receiving Bachelor
of Science degrees and 22 men receiving Master of Science degrees with the first two
recipients in 1885. There was little change in female enrollment from eight in 1880 to 12
in 1885. The last four years of the decade record some movement in female enrollment
with 20, 19, 20 and 29 respectively for 1886 to 1889. The change in female enrollment in
the 1880s represents a 262% increase. At least one female student graduated with a
Bachelor of Science degree in eight of the 10 years of this decade.

Mrs. Mary Jane Cliff Merrill came to Michigan Agricultural College as a widow
in 1877 and became the second woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Science degree in
1881. She continued her education at the MAC and in 1886 was the frrst woman to earn
a Master of Science degree. Mrs. Merrill also became the first alumus female librarian
for Michigan Agricultural College following Mr. George Thompson Fairchild, A. M.
(1872—1879) and Mr. Elias John MacEwan, A. M. (1880-1883). She remained the
institutional librarian from 1883 to 1888 at which time she married Mr. Louis G.
Carpenter and moved to Fort Collins, Colorado where she continued her career as a

librarian. She remained in Colorado until her death in Denver on July 5, 1921.

233

 

Appendix I
Farmers’ Institute Essays
(Michigan Agricultural College - Professor E. J. MacEwan
and Mrs. Martha W. Scott)

Professor E. J. MacEwan gave an essay at four of the six Farmers’ Institutes in
1882, beginning with a humorous poem citing the serious, scientific nature of most
institute lectures. While he saw his lecture as an important topic, “How Shall the Boys be
Kept on the Farm?” he did not take the same technical, scientific approach as other
professors nor did he use the self-abasing comments with which many of the women
essayists began their talks. Professor MacEwan stated that, although he had “no boy to
keep on a farm” and “no farm to keep a boy on,” he believed he was still qualified to
address the question. He gave his observations without reservation, positing that if boys
were kept on the farm, it naturally followed that the girls would stay also resisting the
attractions of city life.

If any nice young man from Detroit or Muskegon, with a blue neck-tie, celluloid

collar, and horse-shoe cuff-buttons, tries to hold your daughter’s hand on the

balcony, she’ll tell the dandy jack, clothed in a gilt vest-chain and some credulous

tailor’s coat, that her regular beau, who wears linen collars sewed on his shirt, has

promised “to save his money, and buy a farm, and take her for his wife;” and

she’s promised to him for the next waltz, and that any male biped who parts his

hair in the middle of his marble cocoanut, blacks his moustache, and is in debt to

his washerwoman, never was ordained by Providence to board with her father and

mother at the farm-house in Armada. (Report BASM, 1882, p. 406)
The professor described the young women of the city in the same fashion as he saw the
“dandy jacks.” He claimed it was imperative that the farmers’ boys recognize the
dangers of finding girlfriends or wives from the women in the city because they wore

clothes not suited for life on the farm and knew nothing applicable to the work of a

farmer’s wife.

234

 

And your son, so long as your neighbor’s sensible daughters are content to stay on
the farm, and he knows that life is made up of use, work, service, will never run
away from the farm and run the risk of pulling in a double harness with the
compound double-and-twisted starched, comical, artificial-touch-me-not
curiosity, that doesn’t know a wash-tub from a butter-bowl, mistakes the bread
tray for a baby’s cradle, and sews licorice lozenges on her brother’s coat for
buttons, ---- a deformed, half-breathing ornament, found in town, and by courtesy
called a young woman. (Report BASM, 1882, p. 406)
Professor MacEwan illustrated many reasons boys left the farm, which included hearing
their fathers discontentrnent with life on the farm, experiencing their mothers’ temper,
being treated like slaves instead of sons, not having a sunny bedroom like the daughters
but having to sleep in the stables, not having clothes as new or nice as the daughters or
city boys, not having food as good as city boys, believing there was too much labor on
the farm and not enough play time or social activities, lacking the value of practical
education and the profession of farming as a calling. Some of his remedies for keeping
boys, and therefore girls too, on the farm included having fathers to stop complaining
about farm work and involve the boys in the day to day activities such as making
decisions related to cr0ps or caring for animals or the sale of products to cultivate
ownership. Mothers were to treat their boys well and provide parties in order for them to
develop friendships and enjoy wholesome recreation. If these things were done, the
Professor assured mothers and fathers that “it will require no effort to keep boys and girls
on the farm” (Report BASM, 1882, p. 416).
Mrs. Martha W. Scott wrote about keeping boys and girls on the farm in her essay
“How to Amuse Young People on the Farms.” She gave a host of ideas to accomplish
this task including carefully selecting books for mental activity and discussion in reading

circles, creating reputable country schools, and balancing labor and leisure by having

games and parties as well as temperance lectures and spelling bees. In addition, she

235

 

encouraged mothers to treat sons with respect by giving them nicely fumished, heated
bedrooms. Mrs. Scott blended her theocentric world with scientific, intellectual work and
capitalism and saw the world worshipping paid labor and success.
To man is given dominion over the earth, he is lord of animate and inanimate
creation . . . Yet without cultivation the earth is little better than a barren waste . . .
To the trained hand and the cultivated mind must we look for help to lift that
burden which falls heaviest upon the mothers and children. (Report BASM, 1887,
pp. 477-478)
She encouraged her audience not to look to the past but to work together aided by the
work in the Granges and Michigan Agricultural College and continue to look for and
foster ways to usher in the future created by industrial education provided for boys and
girls.
When we look out and see the industrial colleges opening wide their doors to the
boys and girls from the farm and workshop . . . then we know that we have lived
generations too soon. When we contemplate the great advancement of the past

fifty years, the efforts made by thinkers and toilers, we can dimly see what the
twentieth century will usher in. (Report BASM, 1887, p. 478)

236

 

 

Appendix J
Farm Home Reading Courses

Courses for Men —‘

First year. — Types and breeds of farm animals; first principles of soil fertility.

Second year. — Fruit culture; farm accounts.

Third year. — Feeds and feeding; milk and dairying.

Fourth year. — Farm poultry; farm management.
Courses for Women —

First year. — Home economics; physical nature of the child.

Second year. — The art of cooking; bacteria in the home.

Third year. — Sewing and dressmaking; nursing.

Fourth year. — Domestic science; sanitation and decoration of school and home.
This information described a revised version of the Farm Home Reading Circles. “In
June, 1909, after Professor French had slightly changed the name he began to give
considerable attention to the subject. Letters came in showing a renewed interest in

reading courses by farmers and their wives who are keeping up with the times”(Beal,

1915,p.l75-l76)

237

 

Appendix K
Farmers’ Institute Program

Programme for the Paw Paw Institute
[January 16-19, 1893]

Monday January 16, 7 p. m., Lecture
Life and Education at the Agricultural College.
Illustrated by stereopticon views.
Tuesday, January 17, 10 a. m.Local paper
11 a. m.Small Fruits

l p. m. The General Purpose Animal

2 p. m. Wheat

3 p. m. The Chemistry of the Kitchen

7 p. m. Lecture

Travels in Europe. Illustrated by stereopticon views.

Wednesday, January 18, 10 a. m. Local paper

11 a. m.Breeding of Dairy Cattle

1 p. m. Rural Grounds

2 p. m. Wheat

3 p. m. Chemistry of the Kitchen

7 p. m. Lecture

President 0. Clute

Prof. L. R. Taft
Prof. P. M. Harwood
P. G. Holden

Prof. F. S. Kedzie
H. G. Reynolds

Prof. P. M. Harwood
Prof. L. R. Taft

P. G. Holden

Prof. F. S. Kedzie
Prof. F. S. Kedzie and
Prof. P.B. Woodworth

What the Microscope Reveals. Illustrated by stereopticon views.

Thursday, January 19, 10 a. m.Local paper
11 a. m.Bssentials to Success in Farming

1 p. m. Insects and Disease
2 p. m. Smut in Wheat and in Oats
3 p. m. Chemistry in the Kitchen
7 p. m. Local paper
Lecture

Prof. P. M. Harwood
Prof. L. R. Taft

P. G. Holden

Prof. F. S. Kedzie

Pres. O. Clute

(Thirty-second Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the

State of Michigan from July 1, 1892, to June 30, 1893, p. 466)

238

 

Appendix L
Farmers’ Institute Program

INSTITUTE AT MONROE CITY
January 8, 9, 10 and 11, 1895
Manager, Prof. Fred B. Mumford, Agricultural College

Program

J. H. Pickard, President. Albert Bond, Secretary. Mrs. W. Van Miller, Music Committee.

7:30

9:00

9:15

10:30

1:30

1:45

2:30

3:30

7:30

Tuesday E vening, January 8.

Music
Prayer Rev. J. Frazier
Welcome Address Rev. R. D. Brooke
Response Gov. W. D. Hoard
Music
Roads and Roadmaking Dr. W. J. Beal
Discussion opened by Hon. A. J. Keeney
F. Sill
Willis Baldwin
Wednesday Morning, January 9.
Music
Prayer Rev. L. B. Bissell
Spraying Fruits — How and When to do it Prof. H. P. Gladden
Discussion opened by Frank Atkinson
Music
Weeds Dr. W. J. Beal
Discussion opened by Henry W. Campbell and A. C. Tagge
Question Box
Wednesday Afternoon.
Music
Experiments in Sheep Feeding Prof. F. B. Mumford
Discussion opened by E. O. Grosvenor
Dairy Temperament in Cattle Gov. W. D. Hoard
Discussion opened by E. L. Lockwood and H. C. Kring
Music
A Knowledge of Cooking and its Relation to Happiness Margaret M. Sill
Discussion opened by Mrs. W. Van Miller
Wednesday Evening.
Music
Question Box
Country Schools Hon. Jason B. Hammond
Discussion opened by Prof. A. E. Arnes
Address T. E. Allen, County Commissioner
Discussion opened by Chas. H. Carrick
Music
239

Address Prof. A. W. Tresler, Sup’t City Schools
Discussion opened by Hon. Geo. M. Landon

Thursday Morning, January 10.

9:00 Music
Prayer Rev. Carl Franke
9: 15 Small Fruit Culture Prof. H. P. Gladden
Discussion opened by Chas. Greening
10:15 Grasses Dr. W. J. Beal
Discussion opened by Chas. Dohm and Wm. Burns
Music
1 1:15 Sheep Feeding Prof. F. B. Mumford
Discussion opened by Geo. Mortimer
Thursday Afternoon.
1:30 Music
Question Box
1:45 Modern Methods of Buttermaking Prof. C. D. Smith
Discussion opened by A. O. Barnes and H. A. Parish
2:45 Management of Dairy Cows Gov. W. D. Hoard
Discussion opened by J. H. Pickard and J. C. Sterling
Music
3:45 Hygienic Cooking Margaret M. Sill
Discussion opened by Mrs. C. W. Phelps
Thursday Evening.
7:30 Music
Question Box
Address W. H. Boyd
Recitation
Horses and Their Various Uses H. T. Cole
Music
Recitation
Friday Morning, January 11.
9:00 Music
Prayer Rev. J. Armstrong
Question Box
9:30 Potato Culture Prof. H. P. Gladden
Discussion opened by M. T. Cole and J. W. Morris
10:30 Forestry (Hints on Tree Planting) Dr. W. J. Beal
Discussion opened by D. D. Winkworth and Chas Ilgenfritz
Music
11:15 Swine Breeding and Feeding E. L. Lockwood
Discussion opened by Geo. Spalding
Friday Afternoon.
1:30 Music

Question Box
Election of officers of the Monroe County Farmers’ Institute

2:30 Barns and Stables Gov. W. D. Hoard
Discussion opened by E. L. Lockwood and Gen. Spalding
Music

3:30 Economic Cooking Margaret M. Sill

240

 

Discussion opened by Mrs. E. L. Lockwood
Friday Evening.
7:30 Music
Agricultural Education. Illustrated by Stereopticon.
Views of the Agricultural College President L. G. Gorton
8:30 Suggestions, Resolutions, and General Resume of Institute Work

(Thirty-fourth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the
State of Michigan from July 1, 1894, to June 30, 1895, pp. 688-690)

241

 

 

Appendix M

Michigan Agricultural College Enrollment 1890-1899
(Stats based on individual names in MAC catalogues)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Women 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
** Graduates - BS 1 4 1 5 1 2 6 3
’* Graduates — MS 1
Post Graduates 5 5 6 1 5 4 1 3
Seniors 4 1 6 4 7 3 4
Juniors 1 6 3 1 4 2 7 9
Sophomores 9 3 2 2 1 5 17 18 27
Freshmen 4 3 5 3 5 3 31 35 46 45
Specials 12 10 7 7 13 18 2O 22 20 27

Six week courses
Creamery & Butter-making 1
Dairy Students 1 1 Dis
Total 35 28 26 13 28 31 60 86 95 113
Men 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
** Graduates - BS 31 30 25 39 22 32 27 26 21 26
** Graduates - MS 7 2 5 4 1 7 5 1
** Graduates — DS 1
Post Graduates 32 22 29 6 32 27 1O 2 7
Seniors 33 33 46 31 45 72 55 29 27 21
Juniors 42 62 47 47 58 47 41 37 34 63
Sophomores 93 76 67 76 85 73 74 51 115 110
Freshmen 109 105 1 11 98 88 73 94 182 179 217
Specials 16 19 29 25 41 70 46 17 14 30
Sub Total (Male) 325 317 329 283 349 362 320 318 369 448
Six week courses

Cheese 19 13 17
Creamery 27 22 25
Dairy Students 17 29 18 7 5 Dis
Floriculture & Winter Ve etable Growin 2 Category discontinued
Fruit Culture 10 4 7 6
Live Stock
Husbandry 15 9 23 17
Sugar Beet 5
Sub Total Six wk. 17 29 45 66 7O 70
Total 325 317 329 300 378 362 365 384 439 518

TOTAL 1890 1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
** Graduates - BS 32 34 26 44 22 32 28 28 27 29
** Graduates - MS 7 2 5 4 1 7 5 1 1 1
** Graduates — DS 1 1
Post Graduates 37 27 35 7 37 31 11 5 7
Seniors 37 34 52 31 45 72 59 36 30 25
Juniors 43 68 47 47 61 48 45 39 41 72
Sophomores 102 79 69 78 86 78 74 68 133 137

 

242

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Freshmen 113 108 116 101 93 76 125 217 225 262
Sjecials 28 29 36 32 54 88 66 39 34 57
Six week courses
Cheese 19 13 17
Creamery 27 22 26
Dairy Students 17 30 18 7 6 Dis
Floriculture 8. Winter Vegetable Growing 2 Category discontinued
Fruit Culture 10 4 7 6
Live Stock
Husbandry 15 9 23 17
Sflar Beet 5
Six week Total 17 3O 45 66 71 71
Deduct Repeats 6 4
GRAND Total 360 345 355 313 406 393 425 470 528 627

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1893 - Six week course added in Dairy

 

1894 - Graduate digree listed as Master of Agriculture

 

1895 forward - Various Masters degrees listed
1895 - MS (4), Master of Agric (2), Master of Horticulture (1)
1896 - MS (3), Master of Agric (2)
1896 - Home Economics program added
(Women’s Course)
1896 - Three Six Weeks Courses added in the following areas:
Dairy
Floriculture 8 Winter Vegetable Growing
Fruit Culture
Livestock Husbandry

 

 

 

1897 - Two Six Week Courses added in the following areas
Cheese
Creamery

 

1899 - Six Week Course added in Sugar Beets

 

 

 

1899 - Floriculture 8. Winter Vegetable GrowirMiscontinued

 

** BS, MS, and DS graduates are not included in grand totals.
(MAC Catalogues, 1890-1899)

The decade of the 1890s reflected the nation’s standard of “change.” Change was
evident in the type of courses offered, the variety of masters degrees added, the
burgeoning of enrolhnent for both men and women, and the entrance of the first program
specifically designed for women. The new program was initially entitled the “Women’s
Course” and created new opportunities for women as professors and teachers. Overall
enrollment continued to expand to the highest numerical amounts than in any other
previous decade. In 1890 total enrollment for the MAC was 360 students and by the turn

of the century in 1899 it rose to 627 for an increase of 43% or 267 students. Three

243

 

hundred and three students received Bachelor of Science degrees, 33 students earned
Master of Science degrees, and one student became the first recipient of the Doctorate of
Science degree in 1898. Men’s enrollment grew substantially during this time aided by
the addition of focused six-week courses in various areas of agricultural work beginning
in 1893. In 1890 they numbered 325 and by 1899 their numbers grew to 518 with 70 in
the multiple-week courses (varied from two to six weeks) for that final year of the
decade. This reflected a 37% increase in their enrollment from 1890 to 1899. The
number of men earning degrees increased to new highs with 281 Bachelor of Science
degrees and 33 Master of Science degrees.

Women’s enrollment grew unlike the previous two decades aided solely by the
addition of the Women’s Course in 1896, which focused on domestic science and
domestic art. Advocates for a “course for girls at the College” came from many places
such as the State Grange, the Agricultural Society, the Farmers’ Clubs and in particular
Mrs. Mary A. Mayo (Gilchrist, 1947, p. 4). In 1890 their enrolhnent was 33 students and
by 1899 there were 113 women enrolled for an incredible 71% increase. Unlike the men
during this time there were only two women that participated in the short courses, one in
1898 and one in 1899. It should also be noted that as in the first decade in which women
attended the MAC, the category of “Specials” was a significant category contributing to
their overall enrollment. In 1890 there were 11 women in this category and in 1899 the
number had increased to 27, a 59% increase during the decade. The number of graduates
also more than doubled from the previous decade from 9 to 22 receiving Bachelor of
Science degrees. Miss Amy Bell Vaughn was the first woman to graduate from the

newly formed Women’s Course in 1897. Miss Lilian Wheeler, who previously received

244

a Bachelor of Science degree in 1893, was the only woman to receive a Master of

Science degree during this decade.

245

 

 

 

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246

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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan. 1870.
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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan. 1872.
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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan
together with other general. information concerning the college. Thirtieth year.
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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan,
together with other general information concerning the college. Thirty-fifth year,
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Catalogue of the oflicers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan,
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Catalogue of the oflicers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan
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Catalogue of the oflicers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan
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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan
together with other general information concerning the college twenty-eighth
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Catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural college of Michigan
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Fifteenth annual report of the secretary to the state board of agriculture of the state of
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First annual catalogue of the Michigan state agricultural college. (1857). Handwritten.

250

 

First biennial report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state of
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Ihirty-third annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state of
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251

Transactions of the Michigan state agricultural society, with reports of county
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T wenty-eighth annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state
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Michigan. From October 1, 1885, to September 30, 1886. (1886). Lansing, MI:
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T wenty-ninth annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state
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T wenty-second annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state
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T wenty-seventh annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the
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T wenty-sixth annual catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural
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252

 

 

T wenty-sixth annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state
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T wenty-third annual catalogue of the officers and students of the state agricultural
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T wenty—third annual report of the secretary of the state board of agriculture of the state
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Oberlin College Archives

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253

 

 

 

 

 

 

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