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Subject: [MAWORCES] More The OREAD Collegiate Institute - first women'scollege in US
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2007 18:09:24 EDT

_http://www.wwhp.org/News/Newsletters/01summer.html_
(http://www.wwhp.org/News/Newsletters/01summer.html)

WWHP Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 12, Summer 2001

excerpt:

The Oread Institute

Oread Institute was built by Eli Thayer of Worcester on a piece of land known
as “Goat Hill” off Main Street in 1849. The Oread offered three levels of
instruction: primary, academic and collegiate. The four-year collegiate program
offered a classical, college-level curriculum and is thought to be the first
institution of its kind exclusively for women in the country. It was modeled
after the program at Brown University, Thayer’s alma mater. The Oread taught
women students for 32 years, from 1849–1881. Laura C. Spelman, later the wife of
John D. Rockefeller, and her sister Lucy M. attended Oread in 1858. It later
became The Worcester Domestic Science Cooking School (1898–1904) where, it is
reputed, shredded wheat was invented. The Oread was razed in 1934.

Oread graduates & administrators
Laura and Lucy Spelman

Miss Giles and Miss Packard
Sophia B. Packard (1824–1891) Educator, born in New Salem, MA. co-principal
of Oread 1864–1867. In 1877, Ms. Packard presided over the first meeting of the
Woman’s American Baptist Home Missionary Society and became treasurer and
secretary. In 1880, she moved to Atlanta and, with the help of the Home Mission
Society, opened a school for African-American girls named the Atlanta Baptist
Female Seminary in the basement of the Friendship Baptist Church. The school
received generous funding from John D. Rockefeller in 1884 and was named Spelman
Seminary after his wife, Laura. Packard became treasurer and President of
Spelman until her death in 1891. Spelman Seminary became Spelman College in 1924.
Packard is buried in Silver Lake Cemetery in Athol, MA.

Harriet E. Giles (1833–1909) Educator, born in New Salem, MA. Teacher of “
Ornamentals” and Music at the Oread from 1864–1867. Co-founder of Spelman
Seminary with Sophia Packard, she became its President after Packard’s death in
1891.

Helen Louise Kendrick Johnson
Helen Louise Kendrick Johnson (1844–1917) Hamilton, New York. Attended Oread
1863–1865. Wrote several children’s and travel books and, in 1897, Woman and
the Republic, a collection of articles and arguments against woman suffrage.
During 1894–1896 she edited the American Woman’s Journal and was founder of
the Meridian Club in 1886 and the anti-suffrage Guidon Club in 1910 in New York
City.

Abby Leach
Abby Leach (1855–1918) Educator born in Brockton, MA, attended Oread 1869–
1871. Graduated in 1871. Taught at the Oread from 1873–1878 and from 1876–78
was the “preceptress.” She took private instruction in Greek, Latin and English
from Harvard professors in 1878 and was one of the first students enrolled in
classes opened to women in 1879 at the “Harvard Annex,” which would later
become Radcliffe College. In 1883, she became instructor in Greek and Latin at
Latin at Vassar College. She became an associate professor in 1886, and full
professor and head of the Greek department in 1889. She remained at Vassar for
the next 29 years. She was president of the American Association of University
Women 1899–1901.

Isabel Florence Hapgood (1851–1928) Translator and writer. Born in Boston
attended Oread from 1863–65. She then attended Miss Porter’s school in
Farmington, Connecticut until 1868. By the 1880s she had mastered all of the Romance,
Germanic and many of the Slavic languages. She began translating in 1886, some
of her translations include works by Tolstoy, Hugo, Dostoevski, Gorky, and
Chekhov. She was a pioneer in introducing Russian Literature to English readers.
She was a correspondent, reviewer and editorial writer for the New York
Evening Post and the Nation for twenty-two years. She died in New York City and is
buried in Worcester.

Webster’s Dictionary of American Women, Merriam-Webster, Inc. New York, 1996.

History of the Oread Collegiate Institute, Worcester, MA 1849–1881. Martha
Burt Wright, editor. New Haven, Connecticut, 1905. From the collection of
Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester, MA.

Worcester Women's History Project - 30 Elm Street - Worcester, MA 01609
(mailto:) - 508-767-1852
=============================================================

Jacqueline Sleeper Russell
Website:
_http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SRCH&db=jacquelinesr&surn
ame=A_
(http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=SRCH&db=jacquelinesr&surname=A)




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