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Mary Beecher Perkins

Other Name:
Mary Foote Beecher
Gender:
Female
Born:
1805
Died:
March 15, 1900
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Hartford, CT
Marriage(s):
Thomas Clapp Perkins (1827)
Biographical Notes:
Mary Beecher Perkins, daughter of the Reverend Lyman Beecher and Roxana Foote of Litchfield, Connecticut, attended the Litchfield Female Academy from 1816 to 1820. In 1827 she married Thomas C. Perkins, a lawyer from Hartford, Connecticut. The couple resided in Hartford, where Mary taught at the Hartford Female Seminary, and the couple had four children.
Additional Notes:
On August 7, 1826, after visiting Mary Peck, who was to be married in the fall, Ann Elizabeth Landon and Charlotte [Landon] Livingston wrote to Mary F. Beecher:

“Mansfield has been sick with a fever but is recovering fast.”

In that same letter, they wrote of Elizabeth Wolcott's (upcoming?) marriage to John P. Jackson:
“Jackson has been on with his mother to see Betsey and of course there was much palaver among the Wolcotts.”

Helen D. Perkins Collection Stowe-Day
Education
Years at LFA:
1816-1820
Profession / Service
Profession:
Educator
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
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:
"M Beecher" is listed as a cast member in a handwritten copy of the play "Two Courins" by Sarah Pierce. This may refer to Mary Beecher Perkins (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).

1816 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).

1817 Litchfield Female Academy Winter Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

1819 Litchfield Female Academy Winter Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

1820 ...
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