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Laura Farnham


Gender:
Female
Born:
April 30, 1800
Died:
May 4, 1820
Home Town:
Cooperstown, NY
Biographical Notes:
Laura Farnham was the daughter of Nathaniel Farnham and Anna Howard Farnham of Cooperstown, New York. After the death of her parents Samuel Huntington and David Carr of Hardwick, New York served as Laura's guardians. From 1815 until 1816, and again in 1819, Laura attemded Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. Little else is known about her life until her death at the age of twenty on May 4, 1820.

Education
Years at LFA:
1815-1816,1819

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
Other:
help The Citation of Attendance provides primary source documentation of the student’s attendance at the Litchfield Female Academy and/or the Litchfield Law School. If a citation is absent, the student is thought to have attended but currently lacks primary source confirmation.

Records for the schools were sporadic, especially in the formative years of both institutions. If instructors kept comprehensive records for the Litchfield Female Academy or the Litchfield Law School, they do not survive. Researchers and staff have identified students through letters, diaries, family histories and genealogies, and town histories as well as catalogues of students printed in various years. Art and needlework have provided further identification of Female Academy Students, and Litchfield County Bar records document a number of Law School students. The history of both schools and the identification of the students who attended them owe credit to the early 20th century research and documentation efforts of Emily Noyes Vanderpoel and Samuel Fisher, and the late 20th century research and documentation efforts of Lynne Templeton Brickley and the Litchfield Historical Society staff.
CITATION OF ATTENDANCE:
Mentioned in Catherine Cebra Webb's 1815-1816 diary as being a fellow classmate at the Female Academy (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).

1816 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The Univeristy Press, 1903).

1819 Litchfield Female Academy Summer Session Catalogue (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. More Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1927).

A "Miss Farnham" is mentioned in Charlotte Smith's 1816 diary. This entry may refer to Laura or her sister Nancy (Connecticut Historical Society).

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