Mary F. Eastman

Mary F. Eastman (October 20, 1833 - November 1, 1908) was an American educator, lecturer, writer, and suffragette. A native of Lowell, Massachusetts, she resided in Tewksbury for many years. She taught in the high and normal school for girls, Boston, then at request of Horace Mann, she went to Ohio to aid in the work of education which he had undertaken at Antioch College.[1] She was among the first to be thought competent to teach and control the students of a winter school in Lowell. Her later teaching was in Charlestown, Massachusetts and Somerville, Massachusetts.[2] Eastman thought that suffrage was the highway to all other reforms.[3] She is remembered for her expertise in the lecture-field of women's rights.[4]

Mary Frances Eastman
Born20 Oct 1833
Lowell, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died1 Nov 1908
Tewksbury, Massachusetts
Occupationeducator, lecturer, writer, suffragette
Alma materLowell High School

Early life and education

Mary Eastman was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. She was the third child of Gardner Kimball Eastman and Mary Flanders Eastman. Two brothers had died in childhood. A sister, Helen Eastman (d. 1902), who was two years younger than herself, was her lifelong companion.[2]

The Eastman and Flanders families, from which Miss Eastman descended, were both of English origin. Their early representatives in the U.S. were among the pioneers who settled at Salisbury, Massachusetts, about 1640. Her father, Gardner Kimball Eastman, was born in Boscawen, New Hampshire. The "Genealogy of the Eastman Family in America," by Guy S. Rix, said he was called "Bonus." Her mother, Mary Flanders, was born in Warner, New Hampshire, the daughter of Philip Flanders. Her parents were Universalists, but were not church members.[2]

Eastman was an earnest student, and on one occasion appealed to an older cousin and her brother to clear the mysteries she found in studying interest and "the rule of three." They replied that they were ashamed of a girl that wanted to study interest. Eastman's education in earlier girlhood was received mainly in the public schools of Lowell, whose limitations were supplemented at the same time by instruction in private classes in drawing, painting, horseback riding, dancing, and later in the Lewis gymnastics. The public course ended with the excellent high school and a seminary for young ladies. An eager desire for the most fundamental mental training obtainable by girls led her, on the advice of a favorite teacher, to enter a State Normal School at West Newton, Massachusetts. There she found what she sought as to quality of instruction. This pledged her to the work of teaching.[2]

Career

Educator and writer

Directly after graduating from Lowell High School, she was invited to take charge of the high school at Brookfield, Massachusetts. When Antioch College in Ohio opened, under the leadership of Horace Mann, he urged Miss Eastman and a classmate at the normal school to enter as pupils. Notwithstanding their high esteem for Mann, the parents of Miss Eastman felt that Ohio was too far away. After she had become a teacher, President Mann invited her to come as instructor in the preparatory classes of the college, with mature pupils, most of whom were older than Eastman. She remained here till near the end of Mann's life.[2]

In pursuance of Mann's recommendation before his death, she was solicited by Minister Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, then representing the Argentine Republic in the U.S., to take charge of introducing into the South American Republic a system of schools substantially as it had been developed in New England. Eastman, after due consideration of her youth and inexperience, declined the important work. Returning to New England she took charge of the Female Department of the Lowell High School, her alma mater, which had nearly 200 pupils. After four years service, she resigned to take charge of a seminary for young ladies at Meadville, Pennsylvania, endowed by the benefactions of the Huidekoper family. During her seven-year stay here, she lived in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Huidekoper.[2][1]

Eastman prepared the biography of Dr. Dio Lewis and contributed the section on History of the Education of Women in the Eastern States, to a volume on Woman's Work in America. In Tewksbury, she served on the school committee and aided in establishing the public library and the Village Improvement Association.[1]

Lecturer and suffragist

She entered the lecture-field in support of educational, political, and other reforms, with lectures on travel and on literary topics, meeting with a cordial reception from the public.[1] One evening at a reception at the Unitarian Divinity School a group fell into a conversation which led to some consideration of woman suffrage. After the party was over, the students met, and voted to invite Eastman to give her views on the subject more fully in their chapel, and appointed a committee to extend the invitation. An audience gathered, and this was her first public address.[2]

On returning to Massachusetts, she was invited by Lucy Stone to deliver the address in New England. This inaugurated a work of many years throughout the country and its adjacent provinces that was lectured upon from the platform and occasionally from the pulpit. This work proved of the deepest interest to Eastman, who worked in this cause with Lucy Stone, Susan B. Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Mary Livermore, and their contemporary peers. From the platform, she spoke along the lines of reform in way of "Equal Suffrage," "Progress in the Aims and Methods of Education," "Rights and Wrongs of the Indians," "Duties of Government," "Literature," "Travel," and other miscellaneous topics. Her arguments were always logical and given with candor. She received encouragement from her audiences, the press, and from the leaders of thought throughout the U.S.[2]

Selected works
  • Representative women of New England, 1904

References

Citations
  1. Hurd 1890, p. 316-.
  2. Howe & Graves 1904, p. 484-.
  3. Stanton, Anthony & Gage 1882, p. 829.
  4. Old Residents' Historical Association of Lowell (Mass.) 1888, p. 28.

Bibliography
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Howe, Julia Ward; Graves, Mary Hannah (1904). Representative Women of New England (Public domain ed.). New England Historical Publishing Company. p. 484.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hurd, Duane Hamilton (1890). History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts: With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Pioneers and Prominent Men. 3 (Public domain ed.). J. W. Lewis & Company.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Stanton, Elizabeth Cady; Anthony, Susan B.; Gage, Matilda Joslyn (1882). History of Woman Suffrage: 1861-1876 (Public domain ed.). Fowler & Wells. p. 829.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Old Residents' Historical Association of Lowell (Mass.) (1888). Contributions of the Old Residents' Historical Association, Lowell, Mass: Organized December 21, 1868. 2 (Public domain ed.). The Association.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
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