January 8, 1851

Back to school

 Jan 8^th: Wednesday 8^th

This day I attended school but my feelings were different from what they were on the Wednesday previous. I felt almost as if I had no friend, but Him who reigns on high. I attended to my studies during the day and in the evening again had the pleasure of seeing my intended brother. I was very much pleased with him indeed. Nothing of much importance transpired during this day, so we will pass to the next.

  Serena attends Wesleyan Female College, located on the west side of Vine Street, between 6^th and 7^th (Cist 68). She entered the college in 1847 and will graduate in 1852 (The Alumna 1860:155).

Liberal education for women is an experiment at this time. “No university had opened its doors to her, nor proposed a side annex for the talented and ambitious girl student. There was no Vassar, nor Wellesley nor Smith College. Clara Barton and her Red Cross were unknown, and Florence Nightingale had not yet started to relieve the suffering soldiers. There were no Protestant sisterhoods or deaconesses with their training schools, their systematic visitation among the poor, the sick, the prisoner, and the outcast with helpful deeds and hopeful words…” (Shotwell 494). Higher education for women was advocated by Dr. McGuffey, president of the first Cincinnati College and author of McGuffey's Reader, and Dr. Charles Elliott, editor of the Western Christian Advocate. The college was founded in 1842 by the Methodist Church (Shotwell 494). Departments of the school included primary instruction, a collegiate department, a normal department, to train teachers, and a “department of extras” such as music and the fine arts, useful for some but not all. The school was intended to be a Methodist institution, with the goal of such sound Biblical instruction that any graduate could become a Sabbath-school teacher, but “children whose parents do not approve it need not commit our catechisms nor receive our peculiar views; but they must conform to our mode of worship and general regulations.” It was also stipulated that “the institution should furnish all the aid in its power toward the education of poor female children and girls…” (Ford and Ford 176).

The Reverend Perlee C. Wilber, M. A., was engaged as the first president of the college, and he is there when Serena attends. The 1850 U.S. census lists 41 young women, ranging in age from 12 to 19, boarding at the school. Wilber, his wife, and young children lived at this address. There were also 3 young women, aged 22 to 24. One young man, aged 23, was identified as a servant. Day students, including Serena, attended. There are 437 pupils in 1851 (Cist 68). There will be 442 students enrolled in 1855 (Foote 67). In 1858, there will be 21 teachers, with a graduating class of 29. It is described as “one of the most thoroughly–organized and best managed schools in the country” (Clark 504).

Wesleyan Female College claims the distinction of coining the term “alumnae” for the world’s first organization of women graduates. Up until that time there had been no female college graduates. A male graduate was called an alumnus. He would belong to the group of alumni of his college. The women who graduated from Wesleyan Female College created the feminine counterpart for alumnus, alumna, with the Latin plural alumnae. These terms have remained in use (Shotwell 499). They take pride in the fact that no “gentleman orator” was ever invited to “save them the time and trouble of writing” for their meetings, and that music was always furnished by the members or the Professor of Music (The Alumna 1866:12).

Wesleyan Female College will begin to decline during the Civil War due to the loss of enrollment of Southern students. Improvements in the public school system and demographic changes, as the population spreads to the suburbs, will present additional challenges. It will go out of business in October, 1892 (Shotwell 31-32).

Lucy Ware Webb was a student at Wesleyan Female College from 1847 until 1850 (Marchman 1). She graduated in the class of 1850 (Catalogue for 1852-53). She will marry Rutherford B. Hayes in 1852, and become America’s First Lady in 1877 (Shotwell 500). When Lucy graduated, she read her composition, “The Influence of Christianity on National Prosperity” (Alumna 1859:54). Serena is two classes behind Lucy, but they are probably acquainted. Lucy described the school in a letter to her uncle, John C. Cook, in 1848. “The school is very large, numbering about three hundred and forty [students]. They have lately built a new schoolhouse; it is three stories [high], having on each of the lower floors six rooms. The third [floor] is nearly all taken up in the chapel. It is [a] very nice building. And the boarding house is also three stories. It is on Vine street between sixth and seventh. The yard is large and we have permission to play, or, to use a more dignified expression, to exercise” (Marchman 42). Lucy’s portrait at age 16 gives us an idea of how Serena may dress and style her hair.

The Alumna, An Annual Published by the Alumnae of the Wesleyan Female College. Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern. Vol. II, 1860. Print.

The Alumna, An Annual Published by the Alumnae of the Wesleyan Female College. Cincinnati: Methodist Book Concern. Vol. 4, 1866. Print.

Cist, Charles. Sketches and Statistics of Cincinnati in 1851. Cincinnati: Wm. H. Moore & Co., Publishers, 1851. Print.

 

Ford, Henry A. and Kate B. Ford. History of Cincinnati Ohio. L.A. Williams & Co., Publishers, 1881.

Marchman, Watt P. "Lucy Webb [Hayes] in Cincinnati: The First Five Years, 1848-1852." Bulletin of the Historical and Philosophical Society of Ohio 13 (January 1955): 38-60.

 

Shotwell, John B. A History of the Schools of Cincinnati. Cincinnati, Ohio: The School Life Company. 1902. Print.

Wesleyan Female College, Eleventh Annual Catalogue of the Officers and Students of the Wesleyan Female College of Cincinnati, Ohio, for the Session 1852-53. Cincinnati: Morris, Clawson & Co., 1853. Print.