Alice Freeman Palmer

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Alice Freeman Palmer (February 21, 1855 December 6, 1902) was an American educator. She was born Alice Elvira Freeman in Colesville, New York and brought up in Windsor, New York. Her parents both came from well-to-do families with interests in lumber, dairy farming and land. Alice was born a farmer's daughter but her father knew there was no future for him in farming, so he left the family to take care of the farm while he gained further education and became a doctor. He enrolled in medical school in 1861 and completed the M.D. in 1864. At Windsor, she met Thomas Barclay, a student at Yale who, to pay off his college expenses, was teaching at the time. He encouraged her intellectual curiosity and served as her mentor. They became close and were engaged by 1869. By 1871 however, she broke off the engagement to attend college. Alice showed determination ata young age by teaching herself to read by age four when she entered school. Her first job out of high school was at a private secondary school in Wisconsin, Lake Geneva Seminary. Alice desperately wanted to also continue her education.