Amherst Female Seminary

It is unusual for a town the size of Amherst to have such an advanced school for young women in the 1850’s but Amherst was full of   industrialists who wanted their daughters to be prepared for an elite role.  Although Charles E. Ratchford (1810-1889) receives the credit for the school in early documents it was in fact his wife Carolyn Ratchford (1813- 1889) and her sister Katherine Yates who developed and ran the school.  The sisters hailed from Albany New York and were graduates of the famous Emma Willard School for Girls in Troy, New York.  Charles, being the savvy political animal that he was, acquired funding from the provincial legislature in the early years of the Amherst Female Seminary to establish and run the school.  In the seminary’s first year, probably 1850, nine young women qualified at the Seminary to become teachers and six were already teaching in rural districts. 

Charles had married Carolyn in New York and brought her back to Parrsboro to meet his very successful merchant family.  At one time the Ratchford importing business brought goods from 163 ports to Partridge Island affording the family a large home, servants, schooners, and hotel. But by the time the Charles Ratchfords began a family, the merchant business was dwindling and Charles, being a barrister, moved to Amherst, briefly opening a store on Ratchford Street and  solicited for public service contracts from local politicians. So Carolyn’s family was young when she began the Seminary; Julia A born in 1837, Mary Alida in 1840 and C. Edward in 1845. Carolyn’s partner and sister Katherine never married.

Carolyn and Kate advertised in the British Colonist as well as the Islander.  They provided” board and washing” with instruction in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, grammar and composition, philosophy, astronomy, botany, and of course embroidery. For an extra fee one could also learn piano or Spanish guitar, singing, drawing and French.  Each of two terms was five months.  The Ratchfords advertised exercise and if requested, riding, and promoted Amherst as a healthy part of the country within walking distance of public worship.  Carolyn also boasted of some impressive references such as Thomas DeWolf and Rev. Charles Tupper.  The school employed 6 women instructors including a French teacher.  One of their teachers, Madame Carritt(e), wife of Dr. Thomas Carritte of Great Amherst Mystery fame, decided to branch out on her own, leaving the Seminary and offering a “Female Boarding School” also in Amherst.  Boasting of being one of the principal teachers of the Amherst Female Seminary, Madame Carritt developed a service in competition with same. One wonders how the sisters felt about that.

Before the establishment of Female Seminaries in Nova Scotia, daughters had to leave the province to seek higher learning.  Although today we accept women teachers as a majority in their profession, in fact in early Nova Scotian teaching, men were considered the more appropriate teacher. 

In many parts of Nova Scotia, it was the Scottish tradition of parish schools that prevailed where men only were required to teach, partly because women were not allowed a leading role in public religious tasks, a requirement of teachers of the day. It was the Baptist and Methodists who more readily embraced the role of women in secondary education, albeit to make young women better mothers.

While the employment of women in the public school system was not readily adopted in the rural areas of Nova Scotia, women as educators in the private realm seemed to be more acceptable, particularly if their charges were only girls.  For example, the provincial Normal School, opening in 1854, did not allow its many female students to take examination for first class licenses until 1869; first class licenses being for the teaching of lower grades only. By 1870 however, Nova Scotians generally accepted the role of women as educators and understood the importance of good teacher training for women in the profession.

The success of Charles Edward Ratchford’s request to the Nova Scotia legislature for funding  (on behalf of his wife) to support the Amherst Female Seminary, indicates provincial acceptance of women as educators and of the higher education of women.

During the mid 1800’s Female Seminaries could be found at Acadia (Grand Pre Seminary), Berwick, Bridgetown and at Mount Allison University.

Ratchford’s success with the Amherst Female Seminary is a testament to the hopes and expectations for economic growth of Amherst’s industrial elite.

Young students of Amherst Female Seminary