Joseph Warren Healy and Straight University

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. 

Joseph Warren Healy

Jane  Hibbard (Clark) Healy

 In addition to working with George Whipple and Seymour  Straight, Joseph Warren Healy also  worked directly with local politicians and other constituency groups and stakeholders including the Afro-Creoles of New Orleans: “the poets, journalists, doctors, lawyers, philanthropists, faculty and civil right activists. “  Having previously established relationships with local afro-Creole leaders, when he set up the Board for the University he made sure that that the Board included professionals, both white and of color.  He was noted to spend time with them all as both professionals and as friends. Hart also notes that rather than imposing his view on the local community, Joseph Warren  Healy “proved so vital and effective in cultivating relationships with the local black communities and the newly formed Freedman’s Bureau that the AMA lent its support to him in establishing a college for African Americans.”  It would seem that while the AMA had limited funds, JW Healy gave them confidence that his goals matched that of the organization.  

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.  

 Please note that this writer is attempting to summarize the information in this dissertation with emphasis on our family member.  Any inaccuracies or misinterpretations are my own and are not the responsibility of Dana C Hart, the author of this doctoral dissertation.

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.

 [2] “Toward an Ideal of Moral and Democratic Education: Afro-Creoles and Straight University in Reconstruction New Orleans, 1862-1896”  by Dana C. Hart; Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 2013  https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3103/

[3] https://www.whipple.org/george/whipplehistory/revgeorge.html

[4] Hart, p 177

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_University

[6] Hart, p 188

[7] https://prcno.org/timeline-straight-university/

 

Robert A Richardson Writes of Life on Vermont Farm in 1871

 

 

 In mid-October of 1871 Robert and Rosina (Healy) Richardson of Vermont, replied to a letter from their daughter and son in law, David and Rosina Jane (went by Jane) Stevens who were living in Iowa at the time.  The family had just heard about the great Chicago fire the week before and were all worried about the several extended family members who lived in Chicago or who had been traveling there recently. 

 Rosina penned a letter all consumed with family and concern about the fire.  Robert wrote his own missive to the children, all about local business, his and theirs.  He remarks that he was becoming deaf so maybe he had not heard about the fire, but more likely he had left worrying about that to his wife and was intent on letting them know what was happening in regards to the family fortunes on the farm and to what he had done with the check they had sent to him. 

 David and Jane owed Dr. Smith money for something – maybe property; maybe past medical care.  The letter doesn’t enlighten us. It sounds like Robert had an additional $5 of their money from the past and added it to whatever they were paying to make the funds go further. But the letter, written by the old farmer, gives a sense of life on a Vermont farm as winter was approaching. And I love how after his recitation, he also tossed in the cat (who no doubt was critical to the success of the farm, specialist in rodent control!).

Topsham Oct 15 1871

 

Dear Children – I want to see you very much but cannot today - how soon I cannot tell.  I am getting Deaf.  I want but little, the grain crop is light, the wheat crop is from 5-10 bushels from a bushel sowing, oats about the same, corn is light, potatoes is good. They are worth from 20 to 30 cents per bushel.  Corn is worth $1.00, oats 45 cents, wheat $1.50, hay $15 per ton.  There is no sale for that, but tho at any price there is 10 sellers to one buyer.  Cows $25, yearling $14 to 15 this year.  12 to 25 oxen, one third less than one year ago.  Sheep in good demand, wool is rising.  It is worth 60 cents per pound.  Business is dull, money is scarce, but we got enough to eat and we nought to complain. We shall get along some way if it is a hard one.  We raised 55 bushels of oats, 125 potatoes, 20 of corn, 25 tons of hay.  We have 30 sheep, one pig, 7 cattle, one horse, 30 hens, one cat. 

            David and Jane we received your check and went to town to Dr. Smith the next day last. [Paid] up the interest for two years, the interest and bonus amounted to one hundred, $114 19 cents. I had 5 dollars of your money and I paid it.  The interest is paid to last August. The bonus until next August the 20^th. I think it is all right. 

                     I am your well-wisher
                                                        R. Richardson

 Robert A. Richardson.  This photo was taken on the occasion of his 80th birthday

 in 1885. He was born in Bath, New Hampshire January 8, 1805

and passed away on the 6th of April 1889. 

His signature from this letter above.

Above left are David and Jane Stevens.
Robert was the son of Robert Fletcher Richardson and Dorcas Hardy Richardson of Bath, New Hampshire.  His maternal grandfather Jesse Hardy, fought in the Revolutionary War under the command of Captain Gates.  His paternal grandfather, Zechariah Richardson former of Francestown, New Hampshire also fought in the Revolutionary War.

The Lament of Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens

One afternoon after my dad had passed away and after my mom's dementia had gotten to where we could no longer carry on a real conversations, I was rifling through a portfolio of "stuff" related to my mother's Tangen family reunion. (see July 2013 entry for photos of the last one).  My folks had done their best to put together a family history genealogy book and had poster boards showing family trees and a variety of other information that they would bring to reunion events.  While looking for something else I came across part of an old legal-length, hardbound journal that had obviously fallen apart years ago.  The pages were one stitched together section and only a small part of the original.  This is what I saw on the coverless first page --

 After a small space, she continued --

ENTRY ONE

            Died in Topsham Orange County, Vermont, June 4^th 1872 at two o’clock in the morning, Rosina M. Richardson, wife of Robert Richardson and daughter of Jane and Nathaniel Healey, age 62 years and six months, 12 days.  Rosina M. Healy was born in Haverhill, N.H., November 16^th, 1808.

            My precious mother thou art gone.  None can fill this void in my heart.  None knows how sorely I miss thee, My Mother, never again on earth can I see thee or listen to thy sweet voice in accents of love and tenderness, never read lines penned by your hand.  Oh mother:  how I miss your kind letters.  Oh:  My Mother ‘tis hard to say all is well, so let-it-be, my heart yearns for you.  I shall ever miss you, My Precious Loving Mother.  None can fill the place in my heart that you fill.  Time nor changes can cause my love for you to grow cold.  Few Mothers occupy such a sacred place in their children’s hearts as you do in mine.  I canst not forget you My mother.  Your pure spirit will hover about me to guide me and cheer me in the paths of Virtue.  You are now at rest with Our Father and he has promised to care for the orphans if they will put their trust in Him.  I rejoice that you are so unspeakably happy.  With Christ and the many loved ones gone before.  Our loss in your gain and I will try to murmur not, but be content by [illegible] has [illegible] sent. 

 I had no idea who the "Jane" was that signed the bottom of the page. My own mother's beautiful handwriting confirmed that this was written by Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens.  The only problem with that was that I had no idea who Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens WAS, so that was not particularly helpful.  Jane's agony of soul came through so clearly and, whoever she was she was, she was completely heartbroken over the loss of her mother.  I kept thinking "who is this person" but the people who would know were no longer available to shed light across my path. 

The second entry brought Rosina Jane to life for me even though I still had no clue as to who she was.  Her grief for her mother was still raw. 

ENTRY TWO

            I have visited my mother’s grave.  Watered the soil that covers her grave with my tears.   Have planted flowers over the place where she is laid.

            It was hard for me to leave the beautiful grave of My Mother.  Beautiful spot with soft stream of clear water goes murmuring by where they have laid my Mother.

            I trust the spot will not be neglected but kind hands will strew flowers over her grave, those flowers she best loved. 

            But while we visit her grave may we remember that and the tenement of clay lies there but the soul has gone to rest, gone to God who gave it.  He has recalled his own.  She is happy now, free from pain and care.  Let us all strive to walk in the steps she trod, remember her councils of love.  Let us bear the cross that we may wear the crown and meet our Mother in heaven.                                                                                                Jane

The need to know who this Jane was, and the Rosina of which she spoke, came over me in such a strong way.  I started poking around all the papers in the basement until I finally came across information that lead me to understand that this was my paternal Grandmother's Grandmother writing about the death of her own mother.  Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens was my great, great Grandmother and Rosina Healy Richardson was my great, great, great Grandmother.

I was captured by the idea that perhaps I could find her grave and I knew that there would be a "stream of clear water. . . murmuring where she lay."  This was the impetus for our first trip to "visit my dead relatives."  It was such a memorable time when we made our way to the Topsham town hall and discovered that Rosina Healy Richardson and her husband Robert Richardson were indeed buried there in East Topsham cemetery and the river really did run nearby. 

The trees behind me are on the steep bank running down to the small stream below.  The small river is named the Tabor Branch of Wait's River and runs through East Topsham, Vermont.  Tabor is the family name of the wife of the Nathaniel and Jane Healy parents of Rosina M. Healy Richardson.  Rosina's mother, Jane Tabor Healy, was daughter of Church Tabor who fought in the Revolutionary War and was one of the primary builders of the Washington, New Hampshire Town  Meeting Hall.  He worked particularly on the inside pillars of the building and the windows.  

 

The search for Jane (Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens)  has resulted in discovering so many ancestors who have contributed to the building and fashioning of this country.  As time has gone by I've learned all about Mayflower ancestors, New Amsterdam ancestors -- the Vandervorts and the Rapalje's, and later immigrants from Norway and Germany.  I have lots of Civil War soldier ancestors, some War of 1812,  and others of  pre-revolutionary battles.  I was surprised to feel more personally "anchored" as I have discovered these ordinary, yet extraordinary forebears.  They were amazing people who would definitely be surprised at how comfortable their descendants lives are now.   And what I love best is how they truly loved God and acknowledged him throughout their lives. 

 

What I learned about the author above was that Jane -- Rosina Jane Richardson -- had been born in Topsham, VT, where her parents still lived.  After marrying David Stevens she had moved with him to become  an early pioneer of Trempealeau, Wisconsin and then later of Elgin, Minnesota.  She and David had returned to Vermont in 1867 to adopt her niece, Julia Eldora Welch (daughter of Evi Welch and Mary Elizabeth Richardson) and had named her Ella Jane Stevens.  Ella was married twice and the daughter of her second marriage was named Susan Rosina after Rosina Jane. Susan Rosina was my father's mother.

 

Me, dad, Susan, Ella, Jane, Rosina - six generations and I had only known of the first three for most of my life.   Learning about one's own history is an extraordinary journey.  And everyone has a long and interesting past. 

 

you + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 + 1024 + 2048 + 4096 + 8192 + 16,484 + 32,968 + 65,936 . 

In just ten generations back we all  have over a thousand grandparents.  If we can find our way back just 15 generations, we have almost 70,000 grandparents.  All who lived and died and left their mark for good or ill on the generations to come.   It's never a question of having an interesting history -- only a question of what one can discover once they start the journey.

HOW THE GENERATIONS PASS - Healy, Richardson, Stevens, Sherwood

This week I've spent a lot of time typing up the entries of an old journal of my great-great grandmother - Rosina Jane Richardson Stevens, who went by Jane. It's difficult to read some of her beautiful cursive writing, but definitely worth the effort. She began writing when her mother died in 1872 and seemed to only take pen to diary when one or another family member passed on or a similar tragedy occurred. She sounds rather pessimistic in her writings, but her narrative shows that life was not easy. Their family made many moves while trying to establish themselves in farming or business; she lamented business losses (e.g., fire in furniture store, financial debts, cyclones wreaking havoc on their farm, and the loss of siblings and children. Theirs was not an easy life in the late 1880’s for those lower to middle class families who were trying to make it in either business or farming the land.

It’s wonderful that she left this short 18-entry journal. Two of the last few entries give lists of events with places and dates recorded. The first is an outline of the moves of her early marriage. Only 19 moves in 18 years – you can hear the satisfaction in her voice as she mentions that they were still living in Elgin, Minnesota six uninterrupted years later. It appears she actually stayed there many years more.

In her journal she hoped that her life would have value to someone who she had touched and due to her experiences, was always reminding herself that we need to be ready because “we don’t know at what day or hour our call will come” to pass on to the next world. Considering her brother, Nathaniel Healy, died of Consumption, while in London and reportedly feeling better; her sister Mary Dexter died suddenly of heart disease and dropsy, and a little unnamed but not unmourned niece or nephew died at the ripe old age of 22 months, her anxiety in this regard was not unfounded or exagerated. Reading this 134 years later, I’m struck with how her life did have the meaning she desired it might have to those who followed – and how her jotted notes of decades past touch my heart even now. We’re not so different, she and I, but I do feel more optimistic. But on the other hand, my life is much easier, so why wouldn’t I be.

Our lives have intersected in another way as well. She and her husband apparently couldn’t have children and they later adopted their six year old niece, Eldora Julia Dexter who they named Ella Jane Stevens. So she is my blood relative in a roundabaout way, but being my great grandmother’s mother, she is my true great-great grandmother as well. She was the one who was mom, even though her sister was her daughter’s birth mother. I have a slight interest in those first parents, the Mary who died of dropsy and her first husband, Levi, who passed away when Ella Jane was an infant, but it is enough to see great-great Grandma Jane reflected in my grandmother and later my father. Both, including the two generations before them, had strong faith in God and looked for His help and comfort in time of need. I don't know what might have happened if Eldora Julia had grown up and lived her life unaffected by grandma Jane, but Ella Jane is person our great-grandmother became.

In 1883 Great-great Grandma Jane wrote

"Elgin,[Minnesota], Nov. 8th, 1883

No cyclone here Sept 21st as predicted but one passed over us eastward, striking [illegible] in Wis., doing much damage. My health is quite poor and I feel it s my duty to divide some precious things that were our mothers. I am growing old. Soon the places that know us now will know us no more." This "predicted" cyclone would have been the one everyone feared after the devastating ones of July 21st and August 21st of the two months previous. Little did she know that her life would become easier as time went on. In spite of her feeling old and her own "prediction," she lived almost three more decades until February 1912 -- a few months before her granddaughter, my grandmother, Susan Rosina, graduated from high school. She had a long time to live before it was her turn to be the one passing on.

I'm loving reading her words, feelings her thoughts and feeling our hearts reaching out to each other across the century. Perhaps from the gates of heaven now, along with Grandma Susan and her son, my Dad, Great-great Grandma Jane watches me read her words and knows that all of them, and the rest of the family who are already there, live on in my heart. As Grandma Jane said when her sister passed on, "I trust to meet you there with many loved ones gone before."