2004-09-4
Portrait of Lucy Sheldon Beach - 1831
Anson Dickinson (1779-1852)

Lucy Sheldon Beach

Other Name:
Lucy Sheldon
Gender:
Female
Born:
June 27, 1788
Died:
April 7, 1889
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Marriage(s):
Theron Beach (1832)
Biographical Notes:
Lucy Sheldon Beach, daughter of Daniel and Huldah Stone Sheldon of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born June 27, 1788. From 1801 until 1803 Lucy was educated at the Litchfield Female Academy. In 1832 she married Theron Beach, a physician, as his second wife. None of their children survived. She inherited her father's house on North Street (now historically called the Sheldon House) and lived there for her entire adult life. Lucy passed away on April 7, 1889 at the age of 100 years.
Quotes:
"In her old youth she had not possessed beauty. In her old age she was handsome, and to the last pleasing to the eye." The Hartford Courant, April 9, 1889.
Additional Notes:
Journals, an album, and a copy book created by Lucy Sheldon Beach are located in the Litchfield Female Academy collection, Series 2: Student Papers, Records, and Documents, in Folders 3-8.
Education
Years at LFA:
1801-1803
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:
Lucy is mentioned as a fellow student in Maryann Bacon's 1802 Journal (Archives, Litchfield Historical Society).

"Beach, Lucy Sheldon (Mrs. Theron) 1802-1803 Journal" (Archives, Litchfield Historical Society).

1802 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 To 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
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