Amy Bradley
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Amy Morris Bradley (1823 - 1904)

Amy Morris Bradley
Born in East Vassalboro,Kenebec,Mainemap
Ancestors ancestors
Died at age 80 in Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 2 Nov 2021
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Biography

Amy was Civil War nurse, matron, lady superintendent and administrator of numerous field hospitals, transport ships, Soldiers' Home, and Convalescent Camps from Sep 1861 thru the end of the war; published the weekly "Soldiers' Journal".
Amy , immediately after the Civil War and against all odds as a northerner and outsider, founded and headed a free school system for poor children in Wilmington, North Carolina; "Mother of Public School Education in Wilmington."

Amy was born on 12 Sep 1823 in East Vassalboro, Kenebec, Maine. Her parents were Abired (a cobbler) and Jane Baxter Bradley. She was the youngest of eight children.

Amy had a determined and persistent spirit, unwilling to accept the limitations placed on women during her lifetime. Dedicated to education and helping others, she never allowed social norms or roadblocks to stop her.

She earned her teaching degree by the age of 16. In 1840 she began to teach at local schools, and within four years was appointed principal of a school in Maine. Between 1846 and 1849 she taught in Charlestown and East Cambridge, Massachusetts. A bout with pneumonia caused her to move to Charleston, South Carolina's milder climate and live with her brother. The change in climate did not help. In 1853 she moved to San Jose, Costa Rica, and her health greatly improved. Within three months of her arrival in Costa Rica, she established the first English school in all of Central America, and remained for nearly four years.

In 1860, Amy was living in Richmond, Sagadahoc, Maine, United States with William Randlett and his family. Amy is a teacher. [1]

Name Sex Age Occupation Birth Place
William Randlett M 51 Maine
Louisa J Randlett F 50 Massachusetts
William A Randlett M 21 Maine
George B Randlett M 18 Maine
Alice M Randlett F 16 Maine
Abuid B Randlett M 14 Maine
Harriet E Randlett F 11 Maine
May M Randlett F 8 Maine
Lena F Randlett F 6 Maine
John H Blanchard M 30 Maine
Sarah L Blanchard F 23 Maine
Maurice H Blanchard M 1 Maine
Amy H Bradley F 36 Maine

After the First Battle of Bull Run, Amy offered her services as an Army nurse. On 1 Sep 1861 she began working at the hospital tents of the 3rd Maine Regiment near Alexandria, Virginia. Here were four large tents filled with fever cases, the worst of which were to be sent to the General Hospital, until Amy stepped in and requested that instead, she be allowed to care for them. Shortly, she was transferred to the 5th Regiment. Her improvements to the hospital there and the care of the soldiers was noticed by the Brigade General who appointed her matron of the 7th Brigade Hospital. When the hospital was dismantled, Amy volunteered for the Sanitary Commission and traveled to Fortress Monroe in Virginia with surgeons and nurses, among which was Dorothea Dix. Upon arrival at the Fortress, Amy was appointed lady superintendent of the floating hospital Ocean Queen. On board were a thousand patients and several nurses, responsible for nursing and care of soldiers being transported from the battlefields to New York. She remained on hospital transports, including the Knickerbocker and the Louisiana throughout the Peninsula campaign in July 1862.

later in 1862, she was assigned as lady superintendent and administrator of a Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C. While at this Home, caring for and comforting soldiers awaiting orders, she visited other local hospitals and found horrific suffering at "Camp Misery", a neglected convalescent camp in Alexandria, Virginia and immediately began delivering needed supplies. She soon became one of the Sanitary Commission's special relief agents at the camp, whose official name was Camp Convalescent. While caring for the soldiers, writing letters to family, and helping them obtain back pay and discharge papers, she worked to accomplish disbanding Camp Misery and created two camps with much improved conditions nearby - Camp Convalescent and Camp Distribution (later renamed "Rendezvous of Distribution"). On 17 Feb 1864, Amy began publishing the weekly "Soldiers' Journal", providing poetry, military battles and personnel, letters from soldiers, camp and hospital news to the Union soldiers. The journal ran thru June 1865 and had a distribution of twenty-thousand subscribers, including Abraham Lincoln. She remained at the camp until the end of the war.

U.S. Sanitary Commission convalescent camp relief station, Amy M. Bradley in the doorway

After the war, at the request of the Soldiers' Memorial Society of Boston, she went to Wilmington, North Carolina to set up a free school for poor children and be its first teacher. Being an outsider and a northerner, she not easily accepted or trusted. An article posted on the front page of the Wilmington Dispatch stating that it was obnoxious "to have Yankee teachers in our midst, forming the minds and shaping the instincts of our youth – alienating them, in fact, from the principals of their fathers". It was clear that she was not welcome. Undeterred, Amy went door-to-door to engage parents in the benefits of the proposed school. She opened the school on 9 Jan 1867 in a small building with three children and within a week nearly seventy students were enrolled. Enrollment continued to increase. Additional teachers were brought in and new schools in new buildings opened. In two years, Amy had founded a complete school system with eight teachers, 435 students and three buildings, and the teacher training Tileston School. Poor health forced Amy to resign her position in 1891.

In 1900, Amy was living in Wilmington City Ward 4, New Hanover, North Carolina, United States. Also in the household is Francis Farrior. Amy was born in September 1823 In Maine, and Francis in January 1876 in North Carolina. [2]

Name Sex Age Status Relation Occupation Birth Place
Amy M Bradley F 77 Single Head school teacher Maine
Francis Farrior F 24 Single Servant North Carolina

She passed away on 15 Jan 1904[3] in the little brown cottage on the school grounds in Wilmington, North Carolina. The Wilmington Dispatch, the same paper that said she was not welcome in Wilmington, posted the following letter by the editor: "She was one of Wilmington's foremost citizens, and the magnitude of her work stands out today as an everlasting monument. Miss Bradley was the mother of public school education in Wilmington."

Sources

  1. 1860 Census "United States Census, 1860", citing Page: 22; Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Affiliate Publication Number: M653; Digital film/folder number: 005170030; FHL microfilm: 803448; Image number: 519; Packet letter: A; Indexing batch: N01729-7, FamilySearch Record: MDC9-MNF (accessed 21 August 2023) FamilySearch Image: 33S7-9B9J-YDQ, Amy H Bradley (36) in Richmond, Sagadahoc, Maine, United States. Born in Maine.
  2. 1900 Census "United States Census, 1900", citing Affiliate Name: The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA); Affiliate Publication Number: T623; Line: 95; Digital film/folder number: 004117836; FHL microfilm: 1241208; Image number: 923; Sheet number: 2; Sheet letter: B; Packet letter: A; Indexing batch: N00756-0, FamilySearch Record: MSBH-K7J (accessed 21 August 2023) FamilySearch Image: S3HY-6QDQ-ZNB, Amy M Bradley (77), single head of household in Wilmington, New Hanover, North Carolina, United States. Born in Maine.
  3. Memorial Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/28865960/amy-morris-bradley : accessed 02 November 2021), memorial page for Amy Morris Bradley (12 Sep 1823–15 Jan 1904), Find A Grave: Memorial #28865960, citing Oakdale Cemetery, Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina, USA ; Maintained by Cindy Hardy Sellers (contributor 47108948) .
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