Generic_female
No image available

Cyrinthia Sacretia Smith


Gender:
Female
Born:
Unknown
Died:
1864
Home Town:
Glastonbury, CT
Biographical Notes:
Cyrinthia Sacretia Smith of Glastonbuy, Connecticut was the daughter of Zepaniah Hollister Smith and his wife Hannah Hickox Smith. In 1802 Cyrinthia nad her sister Laurilla attended Sarah Pierce's Female Academy in Litchfield, Connecticut. Little else is known about Cyrinthia's life until her death in 1864.
Additional Notes:
Hannah Hadassah Hockok Smith (Cyrinthia's mother) was the mother of the five famous sisters, she was a well-educated woman, reading French and Latin. She taught herself Italian so she could translate the classics. She was the force behind her family's commitment to the abolition movement. With a last name as commonplace as Smith, she and her clergyman husband, Zethania, decided to give their daughters fanciful first names. Like their father, the girls were theological non-conformists as well as abolitionists and suffragists. They lived by a rigorous code of ethics.

Cyrinthia's sisters Laurilla and Julia were teachers at the Troy Female Seminary. Her sisters Julia and Abby were involved with the suffrage movement in CT.

Education
Years at LFA:
1802

Related Objects and Documents
In the Ledger:
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:
Maryann Bacon lists "Two Miss Smiths" as fellow classmates in her 1802 Journal. This likely refers to Cyrinthia and her sister (Litchfield Historical Society - Litchfield Female Academy Collection).

1802 Litchfield Female Academy Catalog (Vanderpoel, Emily Noyes. Chronicles of A Pioneer School From 1792 to 1833. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1903).
Secondary Sources:
Shaw, Susan J. A Religious History of Julia Evelina Smith's 1876 Translation of the Holy Bible. Drew Univeristy, 1991.

Contact Us

Do you have more information for the Ledger?

If you have family papers, objects, or any other details you would like to share, or if you would like to obtain a copy of an image for publication, please contact us at curator@litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org.