Mary Lyon

Mary Lyon was born in Buckland in 1797. As a child, she worked hard on the family farm, learning all the skills needed by women of that age: baking, spinning, weaving, preserving the farm's fruits and vegetables, churning butter, making cheese, jam, soap and candles and curing meat.

She was fortunate that Buckland had a school that included teaching girls. She left school at age thirteen and then added to her education by "handfuls", courses here and there. Her dream was to establish a school of higher education for young women - it would be the first of its kind - but where would she get enough money to start?

Mary traveled all over Massachusetts seeking donations from all who would listen to her plans. When approaching men for money (women were still not allowed to possess either money or property and so could donate very little), she carefully used the word "seminary" rather than "college" because she found the idea of a college for women made some men nervous. Mary knew she would be teaching the same courses, from the same books, as the nearby Amherst College. She, herself, would teach chemistry.

Finally, in 1837, she opened Mt. Holyoke Seminary in South Hadley. The year started with about eighty students and the next year about four hundred applicants were turned away because there was not room for them.