No restrictions. Open for research.
Copyright is retained by the authors, or their descendants, of items in these papers as stipulated by United States copyright law.
[Identification of item], in the Martha C. Sawyer Poems, MC004, Marion B. Gebbie Archives and Special Collections, Wallace Library, Wheaton College, Norton MA, U.S.A.
Processed by: Ahsley Kuhn, October 15 2008
Encoded using Archivist Toolkit by: Hanna Juergens, September 2012
Encoding edited by: Megan Wheaton-Book, August 2012
Acquisition information not available for this collection. Collection inputted into database in 2008.
Martha Chickering Sawyer was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on September 16, 1820, the daughter of Peter and Charlotte Sawyer. Martha came to Wheaton Seminary in 1836, graduated in 1839, and returned as a teacher in 1840. She served as principal from 1842 to 1846, retiring due to poor health, although she remained a life-long friend of Mrs . Eliza Baylies Wheaton. When Mrs.Wheaton spent a month in New York for surgery, Martha remained at the Wheaton home, serving as housekeeper to Laban Morey Wheaton. Martha often traveled with the Wheatons.
She married the Reverend Franklin Holmes (pastor of the Trinitarian Congregational Church, Norton) on July 6, 1855, and together they had two sons. Reverend Holmes was a Wheaton Trustee from 1853-1859. In 1859, the family moved to Brooklyn, New York, where they were visited by the Wheatons. In 1892, Mrs. Holmes presided over the monthly meetings of the New York Wheaton Female Seminary Club.
The collection includes a book of Poems written for Martha by her family and friends (1837). The book originally belonged to Charlotte Sawyer and has passages dating from 1828 to 1878.
The following terms suggest topics interspersed through the entire collection.
Search for similar materials in Wheaton Library's online catalog.