bloggod: Prudence Crandall, Freeman and Ophelia Bloodgood, Elk Falls Elk County Kansas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall

"Prudence Crandall (September 3, 1803 – January 27, 1890) was an American schoolteacher and activist.

She ran the first school for black girls ("young Ladies and little Misses of color") in the United States.[1]

When Crandall admitted Sarah Harris, a 20-year-old African-American female student in 1832 to her school,[2][3] she had what is considered to be the first integrated classroom in the United States.[4] Parents of the white children began to withdraw them.[2] Prudence was a "very obstinate girl", according to her brother Reuben.[5]

Rather than ask the African-American student to leave, she decided that if white girls would not attend with the blacks, she would educate black girls. She was arrested and spent a night in jail.

Soon the violence of the townspeople forced her to close the school and leave.[2]

Much later the Connecticut legislature, with lobbying from Mark Twain, a resident of Hartford, passed a resolution honoring Crandall and providing her with a pension.

Twain offered to buy her former Canterbury home for her retirement, but she declined.[6] She died a few years later, in 1890."

"On May 24, 1833, the Connecticut legislature passed a "Black Law", which prohibited a school from teaching African-American students from outside the state without town permission.[15]

In July, Crandall was arrested and placed in the county jail for one night—she refused to be bonded out, as she wished the public to know she was being jailed. (A Vermont newspaper reported it under the headline "Shame on Connecticut".[16]) The next day she was released under bond to await her trial.[2]

Under the Black Law, the townspeople refused any amenities to the students or Crandall, closing their shops and meeting houses to them, although they were welcomed at Prudence's Baptist church, in neighboring Plainfield.[10]:51. Stage drivers refused to provide them with transportation, and the town doctors refused to treat them.[15]

Townspeople poisoned the school's well—its only water source—with animal feces, and prevented Crandall from obtaining water from other sources.[2]

Not only did Crandall and her students receive backlash, but her father was also insulted and threatened by the citizens of Canterbury.[2] Although she faced extreme difficulties, Crandall continued to teach the young women of color which angered the community even further.

Crandall's students also suffered. Ann Eliza Hammond, a 17-year-old student, was arrested; however, with the help of local abolitionist Samuel J. May, she was able to post a bail bond. Some $10,000 was raised through collections and donations."

"After the death of her husband, Crandall relocated with her brother Hezekiah to Elk Falls, Kansas, around 1877, and[1] it was there that her brother eventually died in 1881.[20] A visitor of 1886, who described her as "of almost national renown,"[23] with "a host of good books in her house", quoted her as follows:

"My whole life has been one of opposition.

I never could find anyone near me to agree with me. Even my husband opposed me, more than anyone.

He would not let me read the books that he himself read, but I did read them. I read all sides, and searched for the truth whether it was in science, religion, or humanity.

I sometimes think I would like to live somewhere else.

Here, in Elk Falls, there is nothing for my soul to feed upon.

Nothing, unless it comes from abroad in the shape of books, newspapers, and so on. There is no public library, and there are but one or two persons in the place that I can converse with profitably for any length of time.

No one visits me, and I begin to think they are afraid of me.

I think the ministers are afraid I shall upset their religious beliefs, and advise the members of their congregation not to call on me, but I don't care.

I speak on spiritualism sometimes, but more on temperance, and am a self-appointed member of the International Arbitration League.

I don't want to die yet.

I want to live long enough to see some of these reforms consummated.[4]:528–529"

In 1886, the state of Connecticut honored Prudence Crandall with an act by the legislature, prominently supported by the writer Mark Twain, providing her with a $400 annual pension (equivalent to $11,400 in 2019).[4][24]

Prudence Crandall died in Kansas on January 28, 1890, at the age of 86. She and her brother Hezekiah are buried in Elk Falls Cemetery."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudence_Crandall

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"1880 Elk Co, KS Census

Elk Falls

p. 273D

Freeman BLOODGOOD Self M Male W 48 NY Retired Hotel Keeper NY NY

Ophelia BLOODGOOD Wife M Female W 37 NY Milliner NY NY

Elsworth BLOODGOOD Son S Male W 17 NY At Home NY NY"

http://www.combs-families.org/combs/records/ks/elk.htm

"ELK FALLS.

Elk Falls is situated in the Southern part of Elk County, on the line of the Kansas City, Lawrence & Southern Kansas Railroad, and about thirty miles west of the city of Independence.

The town is favorably located near the fork of Wild Cat Creek with Elk River, and in consequence enjoys the advantages of a large amount of surrounding valley land. The greater portion of the country surrounding, however, is rough and broken, much of it being useless for agriculture.

The town derived its name from the presence of a waterfall in Elk River close by, and which is formed by the falling of the water over a projecting ledge of rock ten feet high and about one hundred feet wide."

The first house for public entertainment was a two-story frame built and run by F. Bloodgood in 1871.(FREEMAN Bloodgood) After running the house about seven years,

it was sold to Josiah Carr, who kept it only two years, and it was again sold to H. C. Hitchen, and is now known as the Cape Cod House, under the management of J. M. Lufkin.

"Middleburgh, July 28. – Word has been received here that Freeman Bloodgood, ninety-two, formerly of Conesville, near Middleburgh, is dead at State College, N. M. Mr. Bloodgood moved to New Mexico in 1881. He engaged in teaming and hauled freight between Las Vegas and White Oaks.

He also hauled the first load of ore out of Kingston in New Mexico, when that place was a mining camp. The ore was hauled to Nut station before Deming was founded. At Kingston he was a crony of Doheny, the oil magnate.

He later conducted a ranch in the Mogollones, after which he went into the cattle business near Kingston. He was born in New York state.

About four years ago he fell and since then had been in poor health, making his home with his son, Dean Bloodgood. The later was a former student in Middleburgh High school before locating in the west.

Surviving are his wife, who was Ophelia A. Shoemaker, oldest daughter of Abram Shoemaker, formerly of Conesville, at that time called Stone Bridge; two sons, Dean Bloodgood of State College and Ellsworth Bloodgood of Kingston, N. M. He was also a brother-in-law of Weidman Shoemaker, eighty-five, of Middleburgh. Dr. Garrison E. Shoemaker of Cobleskill is a nephew. Interment was made in the Masonic cemetery at Las Cruces, N. M."