A few years ago I had come across a family history source that stated my great-great-great-great Uncle Joseph Warren Healy had moved to New Orleans specifically to establish a University[1] for educating former slaves emancipated by the Civil War. I had not been able to confirm him and his family anywhere in the 1870 US census in the country including Louisiana where I expected to see them if they were in New Orleans. Joseph Warren Healy was a Congregational minister and also a former professor who had taught at Topsfield Academy in Massachusetts before the Civil War. A lot of my information about him came from a Topsfield retrospective discussing what had happened to past faculty over the decades since that time. I thought that information was very interesting, but anyone can claim to have done something. Since that book was published after his death and seemed to rely on other’s memories of him, I wanted to find more solid information if I could. He was the brother of my great-great-great Grand-mother, Rosina (Healy) Richardson. Once the Civil War was over Joseph W. Healy who was very involved with the American Missionary Association knew that former slaves who had not been allowed to be educated at all or who has very minimal skills would need the opportunity to pursue higher education and advanced degrees in order to not only become skilled laborers but also to become professionals with the means to move into the American middle class or to gain whatever social strata to which they aspired.
You can imagine then how delighted I was to discover this year (while sheltering in place – Thank you Covid-19) on the internet a doctoral dissertation completed in 2013 by Dana C. Hart at Louisiana State University[2]. This dissertation specifically documents the passion J.W. Healy had for education for all, and describes his personal efforts to help create a University for former slaves. J. W. Healy’s name shows up consistently throughout the first 200 pages of this dissertation. After that the dissertation moves beyond the time of J.W. Healy’s involvement. However, this report shows conclusively that Joseph Warren Healy was personally involved in the establishment of the University. His correspondence with the renowned abolitionist George Whipple[3] formerly a professor at Oberlin College in Ohio and who had moved in 1846 to New York to found the American Missionary Association were documented. Before and during the Civil War the AMA worked for the abolition of slavery and when that was achieved and the war was over, they continued working to provide educational opportunities to educate those recently freed. Rev. J.W. Healy came to New Orleans as the Southwest Regional agent of the AMA and also came as pastor to the First Congregational Church of New Orleans in order to support his family. Technically the school began on June 12, 1868 at the Congregational Church. But there was a long way to go to get a University up and running. The AMA was generally funded by donations from lessor wealthy Americans (with exceptions) so it was challenging to raise funds. Also there were colleges needed all over the country so donations had to stretch. Healy realized that assistance beyond the AMA was needed. Seymour Straight was a wealthy cheese manufacturer from Hudson, Ohio. Dana notes that “Healy began a campaign to secure funding and support for a university in New Orleans and he urged Seymour Straight to lend him time, advice and money to advance the cause of education.”[4] Hart’s dissertation also documents the discussions that Joseph Warren Healy had with Mr. Seymour Straight[5] to identify and negotiate for the lands and buildings that were purchased. Healy wrote the Acts of Incorporation for the University as well.
Seymour Straight served as the first president of the Board of Trustees. Joseph Warren Healy was the first President of the University. The board designed the school to be integrated right from the start, with both white and black students from around the country – “without distinction of race, color, or previous condition.” And although the Missionary organization (AMA) that established the college was Protestant, most of the students in Louisiana were Roman Catholic, and Catholic students were welcomed to practice their faith on school grounds.
When the University was established the AMA and the
Freedmen’s Bureau and the free people of color held a ceremony to celebrate the
new University and to transfer the ownership directly to the Board. Reverend Healy accepted the transfer of the
property saying “I accept it with the sincere and profound conviction that the
educational design of the Government, in the erection and transfer will be
faithfully and sacredly carried out.”
Thus in February of 1870 Hart writes that “Straight University
officially be began its life as an integrated higher education institution in
Reconstruction New Orleans. “
Hart also reports that during the 1870-1871 academic year
Straight University had an enrollment of 1054 students of which 656 were males
and 398 were female. Joseph Warren Healy was quoted in the AMA Archives of
having said that “The purposes of the Corporation are the education and
training of young men and women, irrespective of color or race and to that end
the Trustees shall have the right to prescribe a course of study, and the power
to confer all such degrees and honors as are conferred by Universities in the
United States of America.”[6]
From the beginning curriculum was to include Geography (ancient and modern) Arithmetic, English, Latin and Greek, Grammar, Caesar’s commentaries, Cicero’s Select Orations; Homer’s Iliad or other equivalent authors. And just in case someone harbored racist views on the intellectual abilities of the students, the AMA report noted that the tests that the students’ took “vindicate the ability of the colored people to become scholars.”
At the same time, in addition to his responsibilities as President, Healy also served in the Theology Department as a professor. He recruited Reverend Charles H Thompson, a black minister and Oberlin College graduate, to help in the teaching duties and to take over leadership of the Theology Department. Once the University was set up the author of this 2013 dissertation goes on to talk about later history of the University. Joseph Warren Healy fades away from the story. However, in July of 1872 Joseph Warren Healy surfaces in our family history while visitingSwitzerland where he was vacationing and writing a letter to his sister Rosina Healy Richardson, not knowing that she had passed away almost two months before. Healy was either raising funds directly for Straight University or directly for the American Missionary Association. His work was based in London and had arrived in January of that year (1872) where he had worked for the first five months of the year.
Another source on the history of Straight University confirms the above but notes that “classes were first held in a congregational church but with the financial support from the Freedman’s Bureau, a governmental agency, that a main school building was erected on Esplanade Avenue and North Derbigny Street (1621 Esplanade). In the same year Straight opened a faculty and student boarding house and dining hall at 315 Claiborne Avenue (now 1423 N. Claiborne).” This source notes that students from all over the south moved to New Orleans to attend Straight’s esteemed law and medical schools for just $1 a month.”[7] The Plessy vs. Ferguson ruling changed everything and helped in the demise of Reconstruction, but not of the college. In the late 1870's – as the Union troops were leaving -- an arson fire destroyed most of the buildings and the College moved to Canal Street. In the early 1900’s the school merged with another school to become what today is known as Dillard University.
AN ASIDE FOR THESE 2020 CHALLENGING DAYS -- During these times of racial tension in this summer of 2020 it is good to be reminded that there have always been people of various races, cultures and circumstances who have worked hard to bring about positive change in the lives of other individuals and to our society as a whole. Joseph Warren Healy knew 150 years ago that slavery was indefensible and worked his small part to eradicate it. Many hundred thousand Americans had fought for the end of slavery during the Civil War and later many worked to try to help provide a means for those freed to obtain the education and resources they needed to provide for themselves and to build a life in true freedom. There have been many obstacles but Healy’s life illustrates that there are always people throughout our history who have tried to build bridges in society and to hear the concerns of others. May we continue to work towards an America with “Liberty and Justice for All.”
FOR
THOSE INTERETED IN MORE EXTENDED FAMILY HISTORY
Joseph Warren Healy was born in 1827 to Nathaniel Healy and Jane (Tabor) Healy. His father, Nathaniel Healy, was a teacher and came from a family of educators and pastors. He was apparently an excellent teacher as there were many pastors and educators in his and Jane’s large flock of children. My great, great, great grandmother Rosina M Healy (born in 1808) was the eldest child. Joseph Warren was the next to the last child and was born on April 11, 1827. The daughters in the family were educated just like the sons. The Healy family loved to write letters and writing poetry appears to have been a family hobby.
Nathaniel’s parents
(John Healy and Mary (Wight) Healy were originally from Dedham, Massachusetts
and Jane’s parents, Church Tabor and Elizabeth (Steel) Tabor were from Rhode
Island and Amherst, New Hampshire. Both
of these families participated in the settlement of Washington, New Hampshire
where Nathaniel and Jane were raised, met and married. After marriage in 1807 they moved to South
Hero, VT and later settled in Topsham, VT where they lived their remaining
years. Nathaniel died in 1841 and Jane
in 1870. Joseph Warren Healy was born while they lived in South Hero, Vermont. He married Jane Hibbard Clark in 1848. She also had degrees and taught alongside her
husband in Massachusetts. Jane Hibbard (Clark) Healy passed away unexpectedly
when she was visiting family in Corinth, VT in 1880. They were a devoted couple and JW Healy was
said to be “prostrated” at her loss.
Shortly thereafter he moved to California and was instrumental in
establishing Sierra Madre College. He then
married a widow, Ellen (Young) White, in 1884.
Joseph Warren Healy died and was buried in San Diego on April 26, 1887.
[1] By Original photographer not credited. - Photo c. 1900 via [1]., Public Domain, -TOP photo on page https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4201042 -- do not know whether photo is before or after (most likely) fire which burned many original buildings.
[4]
Hart, p 177
[6]
Hart, p 188
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