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Title
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Towne, Laura Matilda (1825-1901)
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birthday
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1825-05-03
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Birthplace
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Pittsburgh, PA
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Death Date
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1901-02-22
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Occupation
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Educator
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Abolitionist
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Biographical Text
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Laura Matilda Towne was an educator and abolitionist who established the Penn School, the first school in the US for the education of freedmen. Towne grew up in Philadelphia, PA with her father after the death of her mother at an early age. She studied homeopathic medicine at the Female Medical College of Pennsylvania, and later enrolled in Penn Medical University. At the start of the Civil War in 1861, Towne taught at a school in Newport, RI. In 1862, following the Port Royal Experiment in which freed slaves worked on their abandoned land, Towne volunteered to educate those working, as well as provide medical services. Soon after her arrival, she formed the Penn School for newly freed slaves. It began in a small room with nine students, but quickly outgrew the space, moving to the Brick Church. Towne spent the next forty years in this position, working to maintain the school with her own money following the Civil War's end. She continued running the school up until her passing. In 1948, the Penn School officially became integrated into the South Carolina public school system, and a monument was erected in the Brick Church graveyard in Towne's honor.
Town passed on February 22, 1901 from influenza and was buried at Laurel Hill Cemetery.
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Contributor
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O'Neill, Iris
Laura Towne, Marker