Smiths of Glastonbury
The Smiths of Glastonbury were two generations of women—a mother and her five daughters—residing in Glastonbury, Connecticut, in the late 18th and 19th century who were early champions of education, abolition, and women's rights. Kimberly Mansion, their former home on Main Street, is now a designated National Historic Landmark, and the family as a whole was inducted into the Connecticut Women's Hall of Fame in 1994.
The family
The mother of the family, Hannah Hadassah Hickok Smith (1767–1850), married a prosperous Nonconformist clergyman, Zethania Smith. Herself conversant in the classics, she saw to it that her daughters were also well-educated. She was an abolitionist and the author of an early anti-slavery petition.[1][2]
The five daughters were:
- Hancy Zephinia Smith (1787–1871), an active abolitionist[2]
- Cyrinthia Sacretia Smith (1788–1864), a horticulturalist[2]
- Laurilla Aleroyla Smith (1789–1837), a teacher at Catharine Beecher's seminary[2]
- Julia Evelina Smith (1792–1886), a teacher at Emma Willard's school who became the first woman to translate the entire Bible from its original languages; a suffragist; and the author of a book, Abby Smith and Her Cows, about a suffrage-related tax battle with the Glastonbury authorities.[3][4][1]
- Abby Hadassah Smith (1797–1878), a public speaker on suffrage and a protagonist in the tax battle detailed in her sister Julia's book[3][4]
References
- ^ a b "The Smith Sisters, Their Cows, and Women's Rights in Glastonbury | ConnecticutHistory.org". connecticuthistory.org. Retrieved 2015-05-05.
- ^ a b c d "The Smiths of Glastonbury". Retrieved 17 June 2016.
- ^ a b "Abby Hadassah Smith and Julia Evelina Smith | biography - American suffragists".
- ^ a b Encyclopedia of Women in American Politics. Phoenix, Ariz.: Oryx Press. 1999. p. 212. ISBN 978-1-57356-131-0.