Representative women of New England/Amy M. Bradley
AMY MORRIS BRADLEY, educator, was born September 12, 1823, in East Vassalboro, Me. When she was six years old, her mother died, leaving a large family of children. Amy being the youngest. In 1840 she became a public school teacher, continuing in the profession ten years. During the first four years of this time she studied at the academy at East Vassalboro in the spring and fall, teaching only during the sunuuer and winter months.
In 1844 she was principal of a grammar school at Gardiner, Me., later on she was an assistant in the Winthrop Granunar School, Charlestown, Mass., and afterward in the Putnam Grammar School, East Cambridge. Obliged on account of bronchial trouble to relinquish her duties, she spent a winter at the home of her brother in Charleston, S.C, and during the two years following she was an invalid at her old home in Maine. She needed a milder climate, anil, embracing an opportunity that came to her unexpectedly, she sailed for Costa Rica in November, 1853. Some months after, in San Jose, where among the mountains her health improvetl, Miss Bradley established the first English school in Centi-al America. This school she conducted successfully for three years.
Owing to the serious illness of her father, who was eighty-three years old, she returned to her home in Maine in June, 1857. Mr. Bradley died in June, 1S5S.
Early in 1861 she was in the employ of the New England Glass Company at East Cam- bridge as translator of the Spanish language. Miss Bradley was thoroughly patriotic, and after the first battle of Bull Run she offered her services to the government as an army nurse. She began her labors in September in a hospital near Alexandria, Va., antl was soon appointed matron of the Seventeenth Brigatle Hospital. In the spring of 1862 she responded to a call from the Relief Department of the United States Sanitary ConnnLssion, and went with Miss Dix to Fortress Monroe. She was assigned to service on the transport boats, and labored faithfully throughout the Peninsular Campaign.
Later in the year she became special relief agent of the Sanitary Conmiission at the camp near Alexandria, Va. Regarding her work here she wrote in her diary: "I entered upon my duties as .soon as the camp was moved to its present location, on the ITtli of December, 1862. The soldiers were in tents. No bar- racks had been erected. Many I found sick and stretchetl on the almost frozen ground in midwinter, with only a suit of ragged and fever- soiled clothes and one army blanket, with no nourishment that they could take, or that was suitable for sick men. . . .
" Making out requisition in form, I drew a quantity of woollen shirts, and on Sunday morning at inspection I went with the officer, and foimd in the line of men on that damp and chilling day, on the banks of the Potomac in midwinter, seventy-five with only thin cot- ton shirts. To these I gave warm flannels at once, and ever since the really needy have been supplied. Then I went through the sick tents, and immediately after sought an interview with the commantling officer, told him my plan, and asked for hospital tents. These were at once pitched and flooretl. Stoves were placed in them, and the sick collected and made as comfortable as possible. A squad of men was detailed to assist me, and every facility placed in my power."
In recognition of the value of her services at Camp Convalescent, the ability, faithful- ness, and entire self-devotion with which she performed the work intrusted to her charge. Miss Bratlley was presentetl with a handsome watch and chain, "a gift from soldiers to the soldier's friend."
Miss Bradley received many testimonials of regard, among them the following from Mr. John S. Blatchford, secretary of the Sanitary Commission: "Your impaired health, incurred in the performance of your self-imposeil and most arduous labors for the welfare of our sol- diers, is observed by your friends with solici- tude and regret. The service which you have rendered to the cause of humanity, antl the influence you have exerted, resulting in untold alleviation and comfort to those to whom you have ministered in many ways beyond the ordi- dary experience of women, are such as to secure to you the lasting regartl and love of all who have known you in your work. That work has been characterized by rare judgment, great efficiency, untiring zeal and devotion. It is above praise."
In 1866, under the auspices of the American Unitarian Association, Miss Bradley went to Wilmington, N.C., to teach jioor white children. The following is from an account of her work published shortly after her death, which occurred in January, 1904: —
She opened her school on January 9, 1867, in a very small building, and within a week had sixty-seven pupils. The condition of some of these was deplorable. Miss Bradley had literally to feet! the hungry and clothe the poor before she could minister to their spiritual and mental necessities, meanwhile establishing a Sunday .service in which .she was teacher, superintendent, and preacher. The school rapidly increased under her fostering care, and was soon placed upon a firm basis. Through the generosity of Mrs. Mary Hemenway, who had been interested in the undertaking from the first, the field of usefulness was greatly enlarged. The corner-stone of a new building was laid in 1871, and in 1872 the large, well-equipped Tileston School was opened to the public, the first free public school in Wilmington. Trained teachers were brought from the North, and so numerous were the applications for admittance to the school that many had to be turned away; but it was never the poor who were rejected. . . . In five years the school had grown from a small roomful of timid, half-suspicious, hungering souls into a large, crowded school of ten or twelve rooms, with all the modern educational appliances, for which Mrs. Hemenway had assumed the financial responsibility.
"Miss Bradley, in spite of delicate health, continued her work until the summer of 1891. Three generations have arisen to call her blessed. She was the friend, adviser, and helper of all, in matters physical as well as spiritual. That she was endowed with the sterling qualities we are wont to claim for our New England ancestors goes without .saying. . . . She was an ardent Unitarian, and welcomed warmly the transient few who strayed into the city. With quaint humor she would say, 'Ah, now you have doubled the number of Unitarians in Wilmington.' Miss Bradley died in the little brown cottage in the school grounds, which had so long been her home. The announcement of her death was received in Wilmington with reverent sorrow. . . .
"The body lay in state all day Sunday, January 17. The editor of the Dispatch, of Wilmington, thus spoke of her: 'She was one of Wilmington's foremost citizens, and the magnitude of her work stands out to-day as an everlasting monument. Miss Bradley was the mother of public school education in Wilmington. . . . Year by year her influence grew, and the aim of her life grailually rounded into success. The seed she planted over a quarter of a century ago grew and developed into one of the finest public school systems in the country. Her name will ever be held in highest reverence in this community.'"