Nineteenth Century

Eliza Wheaton Strong, the only daughter of Judge and Mrs. Laban Wheaton, died at the age of 39, on March 25. The judge’s daughter-in-law, Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, educated at the Boston Ladies High School, convinced him to found a female seminary in memory of his daughter.

In the end all the portion of Judge Wheaton’s property that was to have been Mrs. Strong’s was given to the Seminary, whereas, in the natural course of things, it would have come to Mrs. [Eliza Baylies Chapin] Wheaton’s own husband, so that in a certain sense, the money itself may be said to have been the gift of Mrs. Wheaton. Both Judge Wheaton and his son yielded completely to her influence in this matter, and the Seminary became one of the chief interests in their lives.

[Harriet E. Paine, The Life of Eliza Baylies Wheaton, Cambridge: The Riverside Press, 1907, p. 64-65]

The family consulted noted educator, Mary Lyon, about curriculum, rules and policies for the fledgling seminary. Laban Morey Wheaton, son and only surviving child of the Judge and Mrs. Wheaton and husband of Eliza Baylies Chapin Wheaton, oversaw the construction of a classroom building, later called Seminary Hall.