Memories of the Coes 29 - Schools; "Cousin Josie"
We younger girls went to school at once in an old stone school house on East Main St., on the north side of the street. Cousin Josie, Mrs. Josephine Crocker Pratt, taught the school. She was considered one of the best public school teachers of her day. She began to teach when she was fifteen. She was nearing thirty when she married Peabody Pratt, a civil war veteran. He did no live very long. They had one daughter, Alice - Mrs Cartter Weaver of Pittsburg. She was home only a few years, and resumed teaching, continuing until she was about sixty. The last years she taught in preparatory department of the Le Roy Academy, which was later the Le Roy High School.
I think I went to her only that year. At her advice I was sent to Ingham the next fall. I received the prize for being at the head the most times in my spelling class. it was a pretty earthen ware basket broken long, long ago. In those days, we spelled orally. A line was formed and words pronounced. When a word was misspelled, the speller went to the foot. The one who was at the head when the class was dismissed at night received credit for being at the head, and went to the foot to begin over again. Spelling was easy for me and I took it rather a matter of course to be at the head the most times. Not long before my marriage my pride had a fall. Our literary society had a spelling bee. It was announced the words would be pronounced from a certain copy of the Le Roy Gazette. Partly from inattention and perhaps because I was a good speller, I did not look at the words, and went down on "linoleum" which I thought I had never seen. I certainly have become very fond it since. But this rather dates it, about 1883 or 4. We had oil cloth, which was used principally under stoves, and was printed in patterns like rugs. Sometimes there was an oil cloth, then directly under the stove a square of zinc.
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Patty's notes on this entry
Cousin Josie - Mrs Josesphine Crocker Pratt - Josephine E. Crocker (1843-1927) daughter of Henry Crocker (1819-1899) and Huldah Melissa Coe (1821-1902, daughter of Ezra Coe and Elizabeth Sornberger). She married Peabody Pratt about 1871. In the1870, 1875, 1892, and 1900 censuses, Josephine's occupation is listed as teacher.
Photo courtesy of Marion Sperry Howe
Peabody Pratt - Peabody E. Pratt (1838-1874) son of David Pratt (1791-1882) and Electa Gibbs (1796-1878). Peabody Pratt enlisted in Company B of the 100th New York Infantry at Le Roy on October 1, 1861. He served until September 22, 1862, when he mustered out at Gloucester Point, Virginia with a for general debility. He filed for a pension based on disability on November 24, 1862. His widow continued to receive his Civil War Pension for the remainder of her life after his death in 1874.
Peabody E. Pratt (1838-1874)
Photo from the U.S. Civil War Soldier Records and Profiles available on Ancestry
Alice - Mrs Cartter Weaver - Alice Louise Pratt (1872-1950), daughter of Josephine E Crocker and Peabody Pratt. She married Cartter Weaver (1871-1924), son of John DeWitt Weaver (1833-1910) and Nancy Elizabeth Cartter (1833-1914) in 1908. They had one son, William Cartter Weaver (1911-1986).
Le Roy Academy - Le Roy Academic Institute founded in 1864 and operated until 1891. The school provided classical and business education programs.
Ingham - Ingham University operated in Le Roy, Genesee County, New York from 1837-1892. It was the first women's college in New York and the first charted women's university in the United States
linoleum - Introduced in England in the 1850s and 60s, linoleum was a floor covering made from solidified linseed oil, pine resin, cork dust, saw dust and mineral fillers on a canvas or burlap backing. It became more popular in the United States after the first U.S. linoleum manufacturer opened on Staten Island in 1872.
oil cloth - Oilcloth was a waterproof material created from cotton duck or linen cloth with a coating of linseed oil. It was used as floor coverings, luggage covers, carriages and waterproof overcoats.
Next Post in the Memories of the Coes: Home at Judge Haskell Place, Home at Graves Place and New Permanent Home
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