Mary Fletcher Wells | |
|---|---|
 Wells from A Woman of the Century | |
| Born | |
| Occupation | educator |
| Known for | Trinity School |
Mary Fletcher Wells (died September 14, 1893) was a philanthropist, educator, and founder of the Trinity School. [1] Wells was unable to formally matriculate at Michigan University and instead studied there under private tutelage. [1] She taught in high schools and seminaries in Indiana. [1]
Wells was born in Villenova, New York to Roderick Wells and Mary Greenleaf, the sixth of ten children. [1]
After the Civil War, she was determined to educate formerly enslaved people and their children, and relocated to Athens, Alabama, initially to care for wounded Union soldiers as a Baptist missionary. [2] She founded the Trinity School. [3] The school was sponsored by the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission and the American Missionary Association, located in a Baptist church in 1865. [4]
Wells initially taught under the protection of armed guards. [5] It was the only high school for black students in the county and the first school in the northern half of the state offering kindergarten for black children. [6] [4] The school had an integrated faculty by 1892. [7] Wells would teach, can fruits and vegetables for the winter, and return north to raise funds for the school in the summers. [4] She remained at the school for twenty-seven years. [1] Trinity was closed after court-ordered desegregation in 1970. [4]
While teaching at Trinity, Wells made the acquaintance of Patti Malone and Alice Vassar LaCour who performed with the Fisk Jubilee Singers. [4] She traveled with the singers for the first four months of their US tour. [1] She retired back to her summer home in Chautauqua, New York, where she was an early member of the Chatauqua Literary and Scientific Circle. [1]