Maria tallmadge cushman
Maria Tallmadge Cushman Photograph

Maria Tallmadge Cushman

Other Name:
Maria Jones Tallmadge
Gender:
Female
Born:
March 25, 1790
Died:
March 19, 1878
Home Town:
Litchfield, CT
Marriage(s):
John Paine Cushman (1812)
Biographical Notes:
   Maria Tallmadge Cushman, daughter of Benjamin and Mary Floyd Tallmadge of Litchfield, Connecticut, was born March 25, 1790. In 1801 and 1802, Benjamin, a 1772 graduate of Yale College, had his daughter study at the Litchfield Female Academy in her hometown. In 1812 Maria wed John Paine Cushman, a lawyer from Troy, New York, who had attended the Litchfield Law School in 1808.

   Prior to meeting and marrying John Cushman, Maria was engaged to Virgil Maxcy, a law school student from Attleborough, Massachuseetts who studied in Litchfield in 1805. It is unclear exactly when the engagement was broken but letters between the two indicate that Maria was not as interested in Virgil as he was in her. A letter from Tapping Reeve consoling Maria on her decision ...
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Education
Years at LFA:
1801-1802
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:
Maria is listed as a fellow student in Maryann Bacon's 1802 Journal (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy collection).

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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