Carolyn Yates Ratchford and the Amherst Female Seminary

Maritimers have had a long term familial relationship with the New England states.  Almost everyone of my grandmother’s generation had a cousin or knew someone in Boston or New York.  Which is why Boston came to help when the Halifax explosion occurred and partly why hardly a shot was fired on the NB/US border during the War of 1812.  Carolyn Yates (1813-1889) of Albany New York had those same connections.  She probably met her future husband Charles Edward Ratchford of Parrsboro through her sister Alida who married Rev. William B. King of Windsor later a Parrsboro minister; and that marriage was probably prompted by a distant Parrsboro, New York family connection.  It’s a mystery that I have yet to discover.

Carolyn grew up in Albany with two sisters and one brother.  She can boast of a long lineage in New York to what looks like a prosperous family.  Descendants have wonderful painted miniatures of her and she was quite beautiful.  Carolyn and her sister Katherine were educated at the famous Emma Willard School for Girls in Troy.   It is her education that probably led she and her sister Kate to open the Amherst Female Seminary in Amherst Nova Scotia.  The school was run at a time when education had to be paid for and the elite of Amherst society sent their girls to Carolyn Ratchford for a well rounded education  Carolyn’s husband also ran a mercantile store on

Ratchford Street

in Amherst and was diligent in acquiring government appointments to supplement his income. Katherine herself was accomplished, publishing a book titled “A Course of Map and Terrestrial Globe Lessons with a Scripture Geography” printed in 1852.  I would love to find a copy of this book. 

Although Carolyn was an important figure in Amherst history, as was her husband’s family in Parrsboro history, it is her father that can boast of notoriety.  His claim to fame was a second marriage to the famous U S female educator Emma Hart Willard and subsequent scandalous divorce. Dr. Christoffer Yates (1799-1848) had four children with Anna Miller.  His only son Winfield (Carolyn’s brother) died of consumption at the young age of 18 and was deeply mourned by the family.  Considered a prodigy, Winfield is said to have studied Shakespeare at the age of 8 and at the age of 12 had compositions published in the local paper.

Carolyn and Edward Ratchford had three children, Julia Anne, Mary Alida and Charles Edward.  Katherine never married and is buried in Parrsboro with her father.