Mary Lyon Pioneer Woman Educator

Originally Aired: October 6, 1937 Cavalcade of America #103, "Mary Lyon Pioneer Woman Educator," dramatizes the remarkable struggle of Mary Lyon to establish the first endowed women's college in America. Born in 1797, Mary works as a teacher for meager wages, saving enough to attend Sanderson Academy where her brilliance earns her free tuition. Despite Squire White's insistence that women's minds aren't suited for college work, Mary vows to prove that women deserve higher education. Seventeen years later, the now-famous educator stuns Mr. Abbott by resigning from her successful seminary at Ipswich to pursue an ambitious dream: raising fifty thousand dollars to create a school where poor girls can afford to study. Mary faces fierce opposition as she campaigns throughout New England. At a public meeting in Conway, Massachusetts, townspeople grumble that a woman making speeches is immodest and disgraceful. When the defiant Jeff Tompkins declares that women's brains aren't fit for learning and no daughter of his will attend an academy, Mary cleverly engages him about his five sons' education, attempting to demonstrate the vital connection between educated mothers and the future citizens they raise.