Ellen Whitmore

Ellen Whitmore (Ellen Whitmore Goodale; Ellen Rebecca Whitmore; Ellen Goodale; Ellen Rebecca Whitmore Goodale) (March 2, 1828 – February 23, 1861) was the principal teacher at the Cherokee Female Seminary, and was a missionary in Hawaii. She, along with Sarah Worcester, were hired by David Vann (Cherokee leader) and William Potter Ross to teach at the newly built Cherokee Female Seminary in modern day Oklahoma.

Biography

After graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 1850 Ellen Whitmore Goodale traveled from Massachusetts to modern day Oklahoma to teach at the Cherokee Female Seminary. Her journey from Massachusetts started on October 5, 1850, and ended on November 13 of the same year when she, along with Sarah Worcester and David Vann arrived in Park Hill, Oklahoma. At Park Hill, Whitmore and Worcester were met by Worcester's father and step mother who were missionaries at Park Hill and had been waiting for their daughter to arrive from this cross country journey.

The seminary had only recently began construction, but at upon their arrival to the location of the seminary Whitmore wrote:

"The little room where I am writing, and which they call mine, is unfinished,—has neither paint nor plaster,—but it has a nice comfortable bed, a nice rocking chair and a bright blazing fire in the corner, and its occupant is very cheerful and happy. Three thousand miles!"... "I can see the building from the piazza of this house with my eye glass. It is a beautiful brick building with pillars on three sides of it and presents a fine appearance from here. I shall go as soon as I can to see it, and I look at it with a good deal of interest. The future is hidden from me—whether happiness or sorrow is in store for me in that school I cannot tell. If I can only see plainly that I am in the path of duty it is all that I could ask."

In May of 1851 the Cherokee Female Seminary opened for classes and began teaching it's first class or students, which consisted or twenty five students. Due to the "hot and unhealthy months" the seminary completed it's first term early with thirteen weeks out or twenty weeks of teaching being completed. While at the seminary Whitmore had to deal with a lack of funding, and a dwindling amount of student enrolment.

Despite only beginning her teaching in May of 1851, Ellen Whitmore wrote to John Ross (Cherokee chief) in March of 1852, and said that she was planning on resigning from her position of principal teacher at the Cherokee Female Seminary, and that she wished for someone to help her in finding someone to take her position at the seminary. Within her resignation letter Whitmore also said that she was planning on marrying someone from her home town n New England. Whitmore's co teacher Sarah Worcester also resigned from her position at the seminary two years after Whitmore.

In June of 1852, Ellen Whitmore and Warren Goodale (1826–1897) were married at the home of John Ross. After their marriage the couple traveled to Hawaii where they worked as missionaries, and worked with the Polynesian people of Hawaii. Goodale and her husband had five children, three of whom were Mary Edgell Goodale (1853-1908), Charles W. Goodale (1854-1929), and David Goodale (1861-1952). Ellen Whitmore and Warren Goodale were married up until Ellen Whitmore died in Hawaii in 1861. Ellen Whitmore was buried in her birth town of Marlborough, Massachusetts, and her husband and children are buried alongside her at the Spring Hill cemetery.

After Whitmore's death in 1861 her work, along with the work of her fellow educators at the Cherokee Female Seminary was brought recognition when her students were given exams on subjects they learned at the seminary. William S. Robertson was one of the people assessing the students, and after all of the exams were completed he stated that "They [the students] were a credit to their teachers & their Nation may well be proud of them."

Bibliography

Bowers, Lola, et al. The Journal of Ellen Whitmore. 1953.

Brad Agnew news@tahlequahdailypress.com. “Retaining Good Faculty Tough for Seminaries.” Tahlequah Daily Press, 2 July 2016, www.tahlequahdailypress.com/news/retaining-good-faculty-tough-for-seminaries/article_812d4a8c-6153-55e3-900c-b9a36d060bf4.html. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

“Ellen Whitmore Goodale.” Mount Holyoke College, 8 June 2012, www.mtholyoke.edu/175/gallery/ellen-whitmore-goodale. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

Laubach, Maria, and Joan K Smith. “Educating with Heart, Head, and Hands: Pestalozzianism, Women Seminaries, and the Spread of Progressive Ideas in Indian Territory.” American Educational History Journal, vol. 38, no. 1–2, 2011, pp. 341–357, go.gale.com/ps/i.do?v=2.1&it=r&sw=w&id=GALE%7CA284325082&prodId=AONE&sid=googleScholarFullText&userGroupName=mlin_b_massblc&isGeoAuthType=true. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

---. “Educating with Heart, Head, and Hands: Pestalozzianism, Women Seminaries, and the Spread of Progressive Ideas in Indian Territory.” American Educational History Journal, vol. 38, no. 1–2, 2011, pp. 341–357, go.gale.com/ps/i.do?v=2.1&it=r&sw=w&id=GALE%7CA284325082&prodId=AONE&sid=googleScholarFullText&userGroupName=mlin_b_massblc&isGeoAuthType=true. Accessed 4 Nov. 2020.

Mihesuah, Devon A. Cultivating the Rosebuds : The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary, 1851-1909. Urbana, University Of Illinois Press, 1998.‌

See also

• David Vann (Cherokee leader)
• Cherokee
• Cherokee Female Seminary
• Mary Lyon
• Mount Holyoke College
• Park Hill, Oklahoma
• Trail of Tears
• Seminary

Further reading

Mihesuah, Devon A. (1993). Cultivating the Rosebuds: The Education of Women at the Cherokee Female Seminary. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 9780252019531.