No image available
Fanny Smith Skinner
Other Name:
Fanny Smith
Gender:
Female
Born:
February 3, 1780
Died:
1844
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Later Residences:
Utica, NY
Marriage(s):
Thomas Skinner (1806)
Biographical Notes:
Fanny Smith Skinner came from a prominent Litchfield family. Her parents Dr. Reuben Smith and Abigail Hubbard owned a large home on North Street in town. Fanny's brother Eilhu Hubbard Smith followed in his father's footsteps and became a physician. He later published a diary in which he recounted life in Litchfield during and after the Revolutionary War including descriptions of the Law School, Female Academy and students who came to town to receive an education.
Fanny married Thomas Skinner and they moved to Oneida County, NY. In 1806, Fanny was present at the founding of the Whitestone Female Charitable Society, beginning her long and active career in benevolent work. Fanny and Thomas had no children and due to her husband's failure in business, she ran a boarding house for law ...
[more]
Fanny married Thomas Skinner and they moved to Oneida County, NY. In 1806, Fanny was present at the founding of the Whitestone Female Charitable Society, beginning her long and active career in benevolent work. Fanny and Thomas had no children and due to her husband's failure in business, she ran a boarding house for law ...
[more]
Education
Years at LFA:
1796
Profession / Service
Profession:
Social Activist
Benevolent and Charitable Organizations:
Whitestone Female Charitable Society; Utica Female Moral Society
Immediate Family (Why only immediate family?)
- Thomas Skinner
Husband - Abigail Smith Bacon
Sister
LFA (1792) - Abigail Hubbard Smith
Mother - Reuben Smith
Father
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:
Cronin, James E., ed. The Diary of Elihu Hubbard Smith , Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1973.
"Letter to Miss Pierce," June 19, 1806, (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
"Letter to Miss Pierce," June 19, 1806, (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
Secondary Sources:
Ryan, Mary P. Cradle of the Middle Class; The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1780-1865. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981.
Contact Us
Do you have more information for the Ledger?
If you have family papers, objects, or any other details you would like to share, or if you would like to obtain a copy of an image for publication, please contact us at curator@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.