Caroline Smith Page papers,
- Author:
- Page, Caroline Smith, 1823-1913.
- Call Number:
- MSS UA-802.008 local
- Abstract:
- The Caroline Smith Page papers consists of a nine page typed transcription of an autobiography of Caroline Smith Page, photographs of Caroline Smith Page, Stephen R. Page, and the Page farmstead, a copy of Stephen Rice Page's obituary from the Boone County Democrat, and the transmittal letter of Anne and Edward McCarthy accompanying the deposit. There is a brief description of Caroline Smith's education in the first class of the New York State Normal School at Albany and her subsequent teaching in public school in Troy, New York for four years. Of interest to researchers is Smith's description of racial relations in the South. She gives a description of slavery on two plantations near Natchez, the Boyd plantation and the Leslie plantation. As a northerner in the South, Caroline Smith Page felt some reluctance to speak on the issue of slavery with Southerners. She mentions the publication of Uncle Tom's Cabin, the effect that it had on popular opinion, anti-slavery agitation in the North and that "colored preachers" in the South "were prophesying war between the North and the South, and the slaves would be freed ..." Smith tells of an 1854 Yellow Fever epidemic in Natchez.
- Historical Note:
- Caroline Smith Page was born in Spencertown, New York on November 30, 1823 and died in Boone, Iowa, in May of 1913. She was the daughter of William Smith and Alice McIntyre. Caroline taught "family school" at fourteen, and subsequently in the district common school. She entered the New York State Normal School at Albany in December of 1844 at the age of twenty. She graduated with the first class, receiving a Diploma on August 27, 1845. After graduation, Caroline taught for four years in Troy, New York, public schools until 1849, when she accepted a teaching position at the Natchez Institute, Natchez, Mississippi. Caroline subsequently taught as a preceptress in an Episcopal ladies' seminary in Natchez until 1852 when her teaching career was ended by marriage. On September 7, 1852 Caroline Smith married Stephen R. Page, the son of a New Hampshire governor, John Page. Stephen Page was a graduate of Union College, New York and a fellow teacher in Natchez. Caroline gave birth to a son, Henry Lawrence Page, on June 22, 1853. Stephen Page continued to teach in Natchez until June of 1854 when the family left for Chicago. One daughter was born in Chicago while the family resided on Prairie Avenue. The family then moved to Champaign, Illinois, where they owned forty acres of land. Two more daughters were born in Champaign. After eight years in Champaign's malarial climate, Stephen Page's health failed. The family moved to Boone, Iowa, in 1867, the home of a relative, and purchased a farm. Caroline Smith Page lived in Boone until her death in May of 1913.
- Physical Description:
- .17 cu. ft
- Access Terms:
- Access to the collection is unrestricted.
- Notes:
- Part of the University Archives Collection. local
- Subjects:
- Race relations, Slavery United States, Women educators New York (State), Women educators Mississippi Natchez, Yellow fever Mississippi Natchez, Race relations, Slavery, Women educators, and Yellow fever
- Genres/Forms:
- Biography. aat and Photograph. aat
- Names:
- Page, Stephen R
- Corporate Names:
- State Normal School (Albany, N.Y.) and State Normal School (Albany, N.Y.)
- Geographic Terms:
- Mississippi Natchez, New York (State), and United States
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