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Pluma Barstow Sumner

Other Name:
Pluma Barstow; Phronia Amelia Barstow; Phronia Amelia Sumner
Gender:
Female
Born:
March 27, 1803
Died:
May 26, 1847
Home Town:
Great Barrington, MA
Later Residences:
Great Barrington, MA
Marriage(s):
Increase Sumner (May 25, 1827)
Biographical Notes:
Pluma Barstow Sumner, the daughter of Samuel Barstow and Lavinia Wilcox Barstow of Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was born March 27, 1803. Her father worked as a doctor in Great Barrington, and also succeeded as a politician. He held the honor of serving as a Connecticut State Representative in 1808 and served as a Connecticut State Senator in 1812. In 1820 Pluma attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut and in 1827 she married Increase Sumner of Otis, Massachusetts. Increase worked as a lawyer, judge, and politician during their marriage, and he and Pluma had six children. Pluma passed away on May 26, 1847.
Education
Years at LFA:
1820
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
1820 Litchfield Female Academy Summer Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).
Secondary Sources:
Radasch, Arthur Hitchock.The William Barstow Family. Private Printing, 1966.

Vital Records of West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850. Boston: New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1907.

Vital Records of Great Barrington, Massachusetts to the Year 1850. Boston: New-England Historic Genealogical Society, 1904.
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