{"id":3987,"date":"2018-07-14T08:38:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T12:38:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/HatchetOnline\/?p=3987"},"modified":"2024-08-19T18:33:44","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T22:33:44","slug":"emma-lost-and-found-emmas-wheaton-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lizzieandrewborden.com\/hatchetonline\/emma-lost-and-found-emmas-wheaton-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Lost and Found: Emma’s Wheaton Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

First published in August\/September, 2007, Volume 4, Issue 3, The Hatchet: Journal of Lizzie Borden Studies<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n


\nIt was long assumed that Emma had spent her missing months at a female seminary. Mount Holyoke was the first best guess of Lizzie Borden scholar and author Len Rebello. But it wasn\u2019t until Kristin Pepe, Laboratory Director in the Psychology and Education Department at Mount Holyoke, launched her own investigation that she came up with the golden ticket when Wheaton College confirmed that Emma had indeed attended there. Now let\u2019s get Kristin onto finding Bridget Sullivan\u2019s inquest testimony, the real name of Todd Lunday, and the murder weapon.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

All Wheaton archive images courtesy of Marion B. Gebbie Archives & Special Collections, Madeleine Clark Wallace Library, Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Classroom
Classroom in Mary Lyon Hall (formerly Seminary Hall) on the campus of what is now Wheaton College. This is the room where Emma attended classes in 1867-68. This photo dates from 1878-80 soon after the room was renovated.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Emma Lenora Borden attended Wheaton Female Seminary, in Norton, Massachusetts, from April 1867 until July 1868\u2014four semesters in all\u2014starting when she was but 16 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Although Emma did not graduate from this four-year program of study (and few who went to Wheaton during this time did), she was exposed to the full range of the female seminary experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Mary
Mary Lyon Hall, formerly Seminary Hall, at Wheaton College. Emma\u2019s classes were held on the second floor in the front of this building.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like all students, Emma attended daily prayer meetings in the boarding house, and church every Sunday at the Trinitarian Congregational Church, which still stands today. She was not allowed to receive packages from home to make her stay there any different from any other girl. An official list specified what each student was required to bring, including clothing, a pair of sheets and pillow-cases, towels, napkins and napkin ring\u2014all marked with the owner\u2019s full name. Students could not correspond with anyone they were not related to, unless their parents had provided those names to the Principal.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Emma\u2019s
Emma\u2019s Classroom in Seminary Hall (now Mary Lyon Hall). This photo dates from the time of her attendance at Wheaton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every minute of a young girl\u2019s life was regulated at Wheaton, with 31+ bells demarcating the day\u2014from awaking in the morning at 5:45 am, to retiring at 9:30 pm. Student Elizabeth Morville recorded these schedules of times in her 1850-51 diary. The time notations here have been modernized:<\/span><\/p>\n

5:45 – RISE\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6:30-7:00 – HALF HOUR OUT [roommate\u2019s private devotion or study]\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7:00-7:30 – BREAKFAST\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7:40-8:10 – HALF HOUR IN [private devotion or study]\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8:15-8:45 – STUDY LATIN\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8:45-9:00 – PREPARE FOR SCHOOL\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9:00-9:30 – DEVOTIONS [including all students & teachers]\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9:30-11:30 – STUDY WAYLAND. PALEY.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

11:30-12:00 – READING OR MUSIC\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

12:00-1:00 – DINNER\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1:00-2:00 – RECREATION OR STUDY\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2:00-2:30 – RECITE WAYLAND.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

2:30-3:00 – STUDY\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3:00-3:20 – CALISTHENICS\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3:20-3:30 – RECESS\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

3:30-4:00 – RECITE PALEY\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4:00-4:30 – RECITE VIRGIL\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

4:30-5:00 – RECREATION\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

5:00-6:00 – SUPPER\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6:00-6:45 – RECREATION\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

6:45-7:00 – PREPARE FOR STUDY\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

7:00-8:00 – STUDY HOUR\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8:00-8:30 – HALF HOUR IN\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

8:30-9:00 – HALF HOUR OUT\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9:00-9:30 – STUDY HOUR\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

9:30\u00a0 <\/span>– RETIRE<\/span><\/p>\n

A student in 1875 recorded a list of sixteen \u201cRules and Regulations of Wheaton Seminary\u201d that ordered a young woman\u2019s life during her seminary years:<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule I. Pupils must not go to the Post Office without permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule II. Promptness in everything is required of the pupils.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule III. Rooms are to be visited only in recreation hours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule IV. Teachers must not be interrupted in study hours except in the case of necessity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule V. Pupils under 18 years of age are not to go to the store without permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule VI. All must keep Cash Accounts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule VII. Must not go riding without Mrs. M\u2019s permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule VIII. Can\u2019t go ride without permission from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule IX. No gentleman callers who do not bring letters of introduction are received.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule X. Must not answer the doorbell.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XI. No one to go out of their room to sleep without Mrs. M\u2019s permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XII. Pupils do not receive their gentleman friends in their bedrooms.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XIII. Must not talk in the library.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XIV. Not to talk from windows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XV. Nothing to be thrown from windows.<\/span><\/p>\n

Rule XVI. Must not borrow money or wearing apparel.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Sabbath was strictly kept and no one, including parents, was allowed to visit the school on Sundays.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Emma's<\/p>\n

Emma lived at the school, boarding with a roommate, although we do not know who this was. Most personal records, such as letters of application, have not survived and room assignment records are only available from the mid 20th century onwards. We know that Wheaton\u2019s boarding house could accommodate housing their teachers and ninety-five pupils, the others housed with families in Norton.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Privacy was at a premium and girls were granted only two half-hours alone in her room each day, expressly for religious prayer and devotion. While sparsely furnished, each student\u2019s room averaged fifteen feet by twelve and contained two bureaus, wash stand, pitcher and basin, a bookcase and a table. The bed was a double, and it wasn\u2019t until the 1880s that female seminaries switched to single beds. The 1866 sketch by Emma Cunliff of the room she shared with Mary S. Lincoln details the living conditions there. Wheaton College Archivist Zephorene Stickney is confident that Emma visited this room, as Emma was at Wheaton while both Cunliff and Lincoln were enrolled, and when the sketch was made.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sketch<\/p>\n

In the school year ending July 1868, there were a total of 157 pupils enrolled at Wheaton, with 122 attending the Fall semester, 101 the Winter, and 110 in the Summer. 86 pupils took French, 25 studied Latin, 25 studied Drawing, 2 took German, and 8 were enrolled in the Normal school (teacher education). Ages of the students ranged from 13 to 25, but the younger girls were mostly local Norton residents who lived at home and did not board at Wheaton.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Emma attended, she was one of six young women from Fall River. In her Junior Middle class were Laura W. Anthony, Kate H. Remington and her sister Sarah W., and Adelaide M. Brightman. In the Senior Middle class was Martha C. Brigham.<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as of yet, no photographs of Emma at Wheaton have surfaced. Since she did not finish her education, it is doubtful whether she would have appeared in any group photographs, which were usually reserved for those who completed the full course of study and graduated.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gymnasium
Gymnasium clothing worn by all students at Wheaton during Emma\u2019s attendance.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What does exist are Emma\u2019s grades and her Student Accounts, which detail how much Andrew Borden was charged for his oldest daughter\u2019s stay and study at the school. We also have a list of her teachers and their images, and a complete list of the textbooks used in the classes she attended.<\/span><\/p>\n

These documents are telling in that they open up a window onto the world of the post Civil War era educational system, and seminary life in Massachusetts in particular.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grades at Wheaton were recorded in a Semi-Monthly Report for each semester and a copy of each young woman\u2019s report of deportment and scholarship was sent to her parents or guardian twice a month. A year at Wheaton encompassed three semesters: Fall, which ran from early September until late November; Winter, which ran from early December until mid March; and Summer, which ran from early April until early July. It appears that there were no classes during the month of August.<\/span><\/p>\n

Grades were awarded in number format, with no one receiving greater than an 8, although it is believed that the \u201cperfect\u201d score was a 9. According to Wheaton archivist Zephorene Stickney, \u201cIn the Victorian Era it would never occur to any teacher that a student could possibly earn a perfect grade. There would have been some flaw in penmanship or structure or grammar.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The rating system is somewhat of a mystery, as numbers such as 7 \u215c, 7 \u215d, and 7 \u215e sometimes appear. On the Semi-Monthly Report, the scores were given for \u201cOrder of Room\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>(which indicated that teachers inspected student rooms on a regular basis), \u201cOrder of Wardrobe,\u201d \u201cCare of Health\u201d (which included physical exercise such as walking and gymnastics), \u201cPromptness,\u201d \u201cAccuracy of Accounts,\u201d \u201cDeportment,\u201d and \u201cScholarship.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Photograph
Photograph dating from Spring 1878 of dormitory room of Mary Clark Kilton at Wheaton Female Seminary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Emma\u2019s grades show scholarship points for only the Winter term of 1867-68, her third at Wheaton. She scored between 7\u00bd and 8 for each mark listed. For other areas of grading, Emma was only consistent in one category, \u201cOrder of Wardrobe,\u201d scoring a perfect 8 for all 9 marks during her stay. Her weakest area was in \u201cCare of Health\u201d\u2014her score descending to a meager 6 \u00bd on two occasions. Apparently, keeping active was a major emphasis at Wheaton, although many young women elected to forego their physical activity in lieu of more sedimentary pursuits.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Interestingly, Emma\u2019s next weakest category was \u201cDeportment,\u201d only twice in nine grades during her four semesters did she score an 8.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Emma\u2019s entered Wheaton during the Summer 1867 term, which occurred from April 9th until July 7th, as a member of the \u201cJunior\u201d class, equivalent to our freshman year.. She took the standard and required battery of courses in the \u201cEnglish branches, including Vocal Music,\u201d that is, courses that were not taught in foreign or ancient languages. She also studied the piano.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

According to Wheaton historian Paul Helmreich, the \u201cEnglish branches\u201d at Wheaton were purposely comparable, and often identical, to those studied by men at universities during the same time, even to the point of using the same textbooks. The \u201cEnglish branches\u201d included all subjects other than studio art, music, modern languages, and classical languages and literature. Courses falling under this category included Algebra, Ancient and Modern History, Moral Science, Plane Geometry, Logic, Moral Philosophy, Geology, Chemistry, Astronomy, English Grammar, Rhetoric, Natural History, and Natural Philosophy. A major expansion of Seminary Hall in 1878-79 provided additional space for physics, biology, and chemistry laboratories. Mathematics and Science were \u201cresolutely pursued\u201d throughout a student\u2019s years at Wheaton.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emma\u2019s second semester (Fall term) occurred from September 5th until November 25th, 1867. Again, as in all her terms, she took the \u201cEnglish branches\u201d courses, and added to her studies French and piano.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From December 10th to March 17th, Wheaton\u2019s Winter term, Emma again chose to pursue French and the piano in addition to her \u201cEnglish branches\u201d classes.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n