Susan Tolman Mills

Susan Tolman Mills (born November 18, 1826 in Enosburgh , Vermont , † December 12, 1912 in Oakland , California ) was an American missionary , educator and co-founder of the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, California (now Mills College ).

life and work

Tolman Mills was one of eight children of John Tolman and Elizabeth Tolman. Her family moved to Ware, Massachusetts in 1836 , where her father and brothers expanded the family's tannery business. In 1845 she graduated from the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College ) in South Hadley, Massachusetts , and remained there as a teacher until her marriage in 1848 to the Presbyterian missionary Cyrus T. Mills. On the instructions of the American Board of Commissioners for Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), she sailed with him to Sri Lanka. She supported her husband in his work as the director of Batticotta College, taught home skills to local girls, and helped run several day schools. She fell ill with amoebic dysentery during her trip abroad and traveled back to Boston with her husband in 1854 . By 1860 she had fully recovered and they traveled to the Hawaiian Islands. Here Cyrus Mills became president of Oahu College (now Punahou School ) in Honolulu for children of missionaries and she became a teacher at the school. Her husband's illness caused her to leave Hawaii and settle in California. In 1865 they bought the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia, founded in 1852, and converted it into a high-level girls' school. In 1871 the school was relocated to a more attractive and accessible location a few miles from Oakland . When the school was renamed Mills Seminary in 1877, it was given a Seminary Hall (later Mills Hall) as the main building. Mills was director of the seminary until her husband's death in April 1884, when she assumed the additional duties of a board member and an incumbent president. In 1885 the school became Mills College, the first women's college on the Pacific coast. Tolman Mills was elected President of Mills College in 1890, and throughout her 19 years of service she worked continuously to raise standards and ensure the school's recognition. In 1901 she received an honorary doctorate from her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, for her exceptional contributions to education. In 1909 she retired and was succeeded by Luella Clay Carson .

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personal data
SURNAME	Tolman Mills, Susan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Tolman Mills, Susan Lincoln
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American missionary, educator and co-founder of the Young Ladies Seminary in Benicia
DATE OF BIRTH	November 18, 1826
PLACE OF BIRTH	Enosburgh , Vermont
DATE OF DEATH	December 12, 1912
Place of death	Oakland , California