Sophia Foord
Sophia Foord | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 8, 1802 Milton, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | April 1, 1885 (aged 82) Dedham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
Resting place | Brookdale Cemetery, Dedham, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Schoolteacher |
| Known for | Activism; association with Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry David Thoreau |
Sophia Foord (June 8, 1802 – April 1, 1885) was an American schoolteacher and activist from Massachusetts.
Biography
Foord was the daughter of James Foord, the clerk of Norfolk County, Massachusetts.[1] Born in the town of Milton, her family moved to Dedham by 1820.[2] She lived nearby James Richardson.[1] Foord became the first depositor at Dedham Savings.[3]
Foord taught in the Dedham Middle School (later the Ames School) in 1833 before moving the Northampton, Massachusetts, to join the transcendentalist Northampton Association of Education and Industry.[4] It was likely there that she met Amos Bronson Alcott, who convinced her to move to Concord, Massachusetts, to join a new school that ultimately never materialized.[1] She lived with the Alcotts in Hillside in 1845.[1]
While living with the Alcott family in Concord, she met Henry David Thoreau.[1] Despite being 15 years older than him, she fell in love with him.[1][5] She proposed marriage to him, but he declined.[1][5] She had feelings for him for many years, which she would write about in letters to Louisa May Alcott.[1][a] Ralph Waldo Emerson was so impressed with Foord's teaching ability that he hired her to instruct his children.[1]
Foord was politically active, including attending the first National Women's Rights Convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1850; was involved in the abolition movement in Dedham in the late 1850s; and chaired the town's Ladies Soldiers Aid Society during the Civil War.[6]
Foord spent the last years of her life in Dedham, living with her sister, Esther.[7] She died in 1885 and was buried in Brookdale Cemetery in Dedham.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Louisa May Alcott once worked in the Richardson home.
Sources
- Parr, James L. (2009). Dedham: Historic and Heroic Tales From Shiretown. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-750-0.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Parr 2009, p. 73.
- ↑ Saara, Jennifer (April 4, 2019). "Sophia's Family". A Sophia Foord Blog. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
- ↑ "SOPHIA FOORD — ABOLITIONIST AND TEACHER". Duke University Libraries. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
- 1 2 ""Sophia Ford: The Great Love Henry David Thoreau Didn't Want"". New England Historical Society. Retrieved June 4, 2020.
- ↑ "Sophia Foord: Feminist Activist". Dedham Museum & Archive. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
- 1 2 Parr 2009, p. 74.
Further reading
- Harding, Walter (March 1954). "Thoreau's Feminine Foe". Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 69 (1). Cambridge University Press: 110–116. Retrieved June 8, 2026 – via JSTOR.