from letter written to Thomas Kilgore of upland Ca. 5/5/1993.
I understand that Carrie B. Kilgore's step mother believed that girls did not need an education and worked her quite hard in the kitchen, baking bread for a large family and factory workers. With the help of a friend she ran away from home, taking her younger sister with her. She got an education and eventually became a lawyer (the first woman lawyer graduated from the university of Pennsylvania) , worked in Damon Y. Kilgore's Law office and later married him. She also became an M.D. to enhance her knowledge of the subject as a teacher of biology. She had known Damon Kilgore as a teacher in Madison Wisconsin Interestingly the two of them wrote a marriage contract as to their responsibilities in the marriage. Damon Kilgore supported his wife in her court battles to obtain voting rights for women. Her argument was that the constitution giving voting rights to all freemen included women as the female of the homosapiens species. She gave historical evidence that the Greeks and Romans gave voting rights to women, but the courts did not see it that way, although they acknowledged that she had given a powerful presentation .
Carrie Burnham Kilgore My full name is Caroline Sylvester Burnham Kilgore. I am known in business and generally as "Carrie Burnham Kilgore". I wished to retain the name "Burnham" after my marriage and in writing my name, dropped the "S" (Sylvester) to avoid so many initials. I have scarcely ever been called "Caroline" but have been called "Carrie" since I was quite a young girl. My husband never knew me by any other name, and wished me to write my name in that way. For these reasons I have written my name since my marriage, both socially and in business, even on deeds of Conveyance as "Carrie Burnham Kilgore". I am now sixty seven years of age. I was born on the 20th day of January A.D. 1838 in Craftsbury, Orleans County Vermont. Craftsbury is about twenty five miles north of Montpelier. My earliest ancestor in this country by the name "Burnham" was Thomas Burnham (Sr.) who came to America by way of the Barbados from Hatfield Court, Herefordshire England, in A.D. 1649 and settled in what is now Hartford Connecticut, My great-grandfather, Benjamin Burnham was his great-grandson. I am informed that the "Burnham coat of arms" is still displayed over Hatfield Court in England. The Kinsman's, the Perkin's, and the Tracy's, all well known families in Massachusetts, and Connecticut. are of my "Burnham" ancestry. Members of these different families were engaged in both the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars. I do not know of their special work or bravery. My father's name was James Elisha Burnham his birthplace Norwich, Connecticut. He was the son of Elisha Burnham and Sally Ann, his wife nee Sally Ann Tracy, both of Norwich Connecticut. My mother's maiden name was Eliza Annis Arnold. She was the daughter of Sprague Arnold and his wife Dolly Annis Arnold, both of Hardwich, Massachusetts, in which place she was born. I do not know my earliest ancestor on my mother's side in this country, but my grandfather Arnold had a cane, which I frequently saw in my childhood and which he said was brought over in the Mayflower by one of his ancestors. Grandfather Arnold moved with his family to Randolph Vermont from Hardwick, Massachusetts, sometime Prior to the war of 1812 and he served in that war as a soldier from Vermont. My parents and grandparents upon both sides were members of the Free will Baptist Church. They were of Puritan origin but not of the Blue Law type. Sunday was always sacredly kept in our home but never made a dreary day. My mother prior to her marriage, had taught school, was something of an artist, and had spun and woven her own bed linen, specimens of which I am proud to possess. My parents were married in Randolph, Vermont, and immediately commenced their home life in Craftsbury Vermont where my father had previously secured a home in which he was supporting his parents. I have no remembrance of my mother, as she died before I was three years of age, but I have been told that she was a very attractive woman both from her personal appearance, her mental qualities, and her sweet and lovable disposition I know that she was beloved by all who knew her and that my father always mourned her loss deeply. At her death she left four little girls of whom I was next to the youngest the eldest one not yet eight years old, and the youngest but three days old. My grandmother Burnham died in our home one month after my mother's death, and although my father was devoted to my mother and to her memory during his entire life, it is no wonder that he brought home to us little girls a step-mother before I was four years of age I subsequently had two half brothers. my only own brother had died before my mother's death. I am the oldest one of our family now living. In my childhood I was taught as were all New England girls of good families, that all work was honorable, and that idleness and ignorance of how to do work, was dishonorable and a disgrace. My step mother knew how to make this teaching very effective and kept us always busy. She was not an affectionate woman, but was an excellent housekeeper and had considerable executive ability. She taught us to do everything necessary to be done in and about a house, housework, cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, nursing the younger children, planting and weeding the flower beds, filling the wood box night and morning and if the men folks were busy we children often drove the cows to and from the pasture morning and evening. Nevertheless, we were taught to be so systematic in the utilization of our time that we always had time for study and for play. from the time I was four years old up to the time I was twelve years of age I attended the Common District School during the summer and winter of each year the only time of year there was a school. I was a good student and was never satisfied if I was not the head of my class and generally I was at the head of the school in exercises in which the whole school took part. When five years old my grandfather was quite proud to have me take a weekly newspaper and read aloud to the family and other, thus exciting my ambition. My father was a manufacturer of woolen goods he was the first to establish a woolen factory in the northern part of Vermont he made not only flannel but a cloth for men's wear similar to broadcloth except as to width, and dressed the same for market. He also had a saw mill and clothier's establishment and was a very successful business man. We lived in the upper part of the village on a tributary of the Black River, our land lying on both sides of this stream which furnished the water power for my father's factory and mills. We raised nearly everything required for good living and we were 'good livers'. My father was one of the 'selectman' of our town and was very much respected by all who knew him no one could ever question his integrity in business dealings or anywhere. He was a broad liberal minded man, well educated for his time and always entertained at our home all the public men who visited our town, as also ministers of different denominations whether they came to preach or lecture. At Thanksgiving and Christmas our house was well filled with guests and relatives. We had a large house, the largest house in town and my father paid more taxes than any other man in the School District and of course the school teacher boarded at our house a large part of every school term. This furnished an incentive for good school work and our winter evenings were spent in study. Besides my father always inspired his children with the necessity for a good education and a determination to work for it. I have often heard him say that when he died he intended to leave his daughters with a good education, and extraordinary thought for a man in those times. It was as a safety and protection to us. He died when I was twelve years old. I had at this time studied all the branches taught in the Common District School and was often in classes with those several years my senior. Up to this time our home had been the envy of my schoolmates, although no one of them were kept at work as my step-mother kept my sisters and me at work. Although not a financial necessity at that time, I regard the habit of utilizing every moment and working to accomplish then acquired of great value in my work in life. After my father's death my step-mother attempted to carry on his business for the two years during. which his Estate was being settled and a number of the hands employed lived at our home. I was kept out of school a large part of each year either to assist in the housekeeping, or at work in our factory, as I could be best utilized. I remember well standing in a little chair to knead bread the summer after my father's death. I was then thirteen years old and made during that entire summer all the white bread that was used in a family of eighteen people more than half of whom were men. This was in our own home. The following summer and autumn, I was kept at work in our Factory attending the carding machines or the picking machines or at the burling board "burling" or "specking" cloth wherever I could be best utilized, or a hand was needed. The following summer, the summer after I was fifteen in January, I commenced teaching school, in a District School, several miles from our home although in Craftsbury and "boarded around" among the tax payers as was the custom. From this time, I had to get my education by my own efforts as my Guardian, soon after his appointment to that position told me that I could not have anything from my father's Estate with which to go to school as I "already had education enough for a woman". For several years following, I taught school during the summer and winter of each year, and attended school in the Autumn and Spring. In the winter I often walked from my boarding place (I boarded around) to my school house and built the fire. My sleeping rooms were often very cold and the sheets icy but the table was always loaded with excellent food. The wages received for teaching (it was not dignified by the term salary) ranged from one to two dollars and seventy five cents per week and board. I taught in Craftsbury, Greensborough, Danville and Newbury and attended school at Craftsbury Academy a Private Select School and subsequently at Newbury Seminary, then located at Newbury Vermont, but since transferred to Montpelier Vermont as the Wesleyan Seminary. While teaching I still pursued my studies sufficiently to go into my class when I returned to the seminary. My sister, another young lady, and I roomed together, and as we then called it "boarded ourselves", that is we bought our own food, cooked the same, did our own washing and ironing, and lived by ourselves. step-mother sometimes sent us down a box of provisions which was more than gratefully received, as with our books to buy, our tuition to pay and withal to furnish our own clothing, we could not have a luxuriant table. We had little money for food and almost no time for cooking. At that time there were no prepared cereals or cooked food to be bought, not even a bakery was in existence in that part of the country. Neither was it possible to buy any garment ready made for women. We did not have to spin and weave our linen as did my mother, but we made by hand every garment we wore, and even had to knit our stockings, as there was no hosiery made by machinery at that time, at least not any to be bought in the northern part of Vermont. I took the Classical course and kept up with my classes. There was but one other girl beside me in the Seminary who took Greek. Of course I had to work and study nights as well as days, and it was my habit to study as long as I could at night then go to bed, tying my arm to the bed post so as to wake and get up to study very early in the morning. Sometimes we sat and studied or sewed all night, and sometimes two of us would go to bed and the other one sit up until one or two o'clock in the morning studying, then that one go to bed, and the other two get up and work on. When this could not be endured any longer my sister and I both went into families and worked for our board and still kept on at the Seminary. All work well done was honorable to a new England girl in order to get an education, and while the young men who boarded at the same place could as young ministers or "exhorters" get enough money for Sunday work to pay their board, I had to work all the week getting up at four o'clock in the morning for work, .and studying until midnight every night. I was in the Latin and Greek classes with these same young men. Finally I had typhoid fever and was obliged to leave school. I then went to my grandfather Arnold's home in Randolph, Vermont, for the winter and in the following spring I went to another sister's home in Wisconsin, my grand-father furnishing me the money to go with. My youngest sister went with me the one with me at Newbury died in Vermont with "typhoid fever. We were one week on our journey to Wisconsin as the Railroad plan then seemed to be that no connections should be made. We went through Canada. Upon this journey I first saw Niagara Falls. Chicago was not then paved and when we crossed from the city to the Milwaukee depot, the cab went up to the wheels in the mud. I taught near Sun Prairie Wisconsin, near my sister's home for two seasons, then went to Madison to teach. I was first engaged to teach in the Grammar school and for a little time taught in the lower grades, however, the second term that I was in Madison I was transferred to the High School and I took the place of the man teacher in Latin, Greek, and the Higher Mathematics, the wonder of every one around that a young woman could do this. Very few girls studied Greek then, and hence the wonder of a woman Greek Teacher I occupied this position for several terms and when I was twenty two years of age, I prepared young men students in Madison High School in Latin, Greek, and the Higher Mathematics who entered the State University of Wisconsin one year in advance, an institution which was closed at that time to women Women are now admitted to the State University of Wisconsin upon equal terms with men. I subsequently taught in Evansville Seminary (I was the Preceptress) and Normal School, at Evansville, Wisconsin, where I was teaching until 1863. It was a co-educational Institution as were all the schools in which I had taught up to this time. I there taught in addition to the other branches, French and German, Drawing, Penciling, Crayoning, and Oil and Water colored Painting, some of which branches I had commenced at Newbury, but I had made myself proficient in all of these branches by private tuition, at least sufficiently proficient for the positions. for more info see separate file "carrie kilgor"

Carrie Burnham Kilgore
My full name is Caroline Sylvester Burnham Kilgore. I am known in business and generally as "Carrie Burnham Kilgore". I wished to retain the name "Burnham" after my marriage and in writing my name, dropped the "S" (Sylvester) to avoid so many initials.
I have scarcely ever been called "Caroline" but have been called "Carrie" since I was quite a young girl. My husband never knew me by any other name, and wished me to write my name in that way. For these reasons I have written my name since my marriage, both socially and in business, even on deeds of Conveyance as "Carrie Burnham Kilgore".
I am now sixty seven years of age. I was born on the 20th day of January A.D. 1838 in Craftsbury, Orleans County Vermont. Craftsbury is about twenty five miles north of Montpelier.
My earliest ancestor in this country by the name "Burnham" was Thomas Burnham (Sr.) who came to America by way of the Barbados from Hatfield Court, Herefordshire England, in A.D. 1649 and settled in what is now Hartford Connecticut, My great-grandfather, Benjamin Burnham was his great-grandson. I am informed that the "Burnham coat of arms" is still displayed over Hatfield Court in England. The Kinsman's, the Perkin's, and the Tracy's, all well known families in Massachusetts, and Connecticut. are of my "Burnham" ancestry. Members of these different families were engaged in both the Colonial and Revolutionary Wars. I do not know of their special work or bravery.
My father's name was James Elisha Burnham his birthplace Norwich, Connecticut. He was the son of Elisha Burnham and Sally Ann, his wife nee Sally Ann Tracy, both of Norwich Connecticut.
My mother's maiden name was Eliza Annis Arnold. She was the daughter of Sprague Arnold and his wife Dolly Annis Arnold, both of Hardwich, Massachusetts, in which place she was born. I do not know my earliest ancestor on my mother's side in this country, but my grandfather Arnold had a cane, which I frequently saw in my childhood and which he said was brought over in the Mayflower by one of his ancestors. Grandfather Arnold moved with his family to Randolph Vermont from Hardwick, Massachusetts, sometime Prior to the war of 1812 and he served in that war as a soldier from Vermont
My parents and grandparents upon both sides were members of the Free will Baptist Church. They were of Puritan origin but not of the Blue Law type. Sunday was always sacredly kept in our home but never made a dreary day.
My mother prior to her marriage, had taught school, was something of an artist, and had spun and woven her own bed linen, specimens of which I am proud to possess. My parents were married in Randolph, Vermont, and immediately commenced their home life in Craftsbury Vermont where my father had previously secured a home in which he was supporting his parents. I have no remembrance of my mother, as she died before I was three years of age, but I have been told that she was a very attractive woman both from her personal appearance, her mental qualities, and her sweet and lovable disposition I know that she was beloved by all who knew her and that my father always mourned her loss deeply.
At her death she left four little girls of whom I was next to the youngest the eldest one not yet eight years old, and the youngest but three days old. My grandmother Burnham died in our home one month after my mother's death, and although my father was devoted to my mother and to her memory during his entire life, it is no wonder that he brought home to us little girls a step-mother before I was four years of age I subsequently had two half brothers. my only own brother had died before my mother's death. I am the oldest one of our family now living. In my childhood I was taught as were all New England girls of good families, that all work was honorable, and that idleness and ignorance of how to do work, was dishonorable and a disgrace. My step mother knew how to make this teaching very effective and kept us always busy.
She was not an affectionate woman, but was an excellent housekeeper and had considerable executive ability. She taught us to do everything necessary to be done in and about a house, housework, cooking, baking, sewing, knitting, nursing the younger children, planting and weeding the flower beds, filling the wood box night and morning and if the men folks were busy we children often drove the cows to and from the pasture morning and evening. Nevertheless, we were taught to be so systematic in the utilization of our time that we always had time for study and for play. from the time I was four years old up to the time I was twelve years of age I attended the Common District School during the summer and winter of each year the only time of year there was a school. I was a good student and was never satisfied if I was not the head of my class and generally I was at the head of the school in exercises in which the whole school took part. When five years old my grandfather was quite proud to have me take a weekly newspaper and read aloud to the family and other, thus exciting my ambition.
My father was a manufacturer of woolen goods he was the first to establish a woolen factory in the northern part of Vermont he made not only flannel but a cloth for men's wear similar to broadcloth except as to width, and dressed the same for market. He also had a saw mill and clothier's establishment and was a very successful business man. We lived in the upper part of the village on a tributary of the Black River, our land lying on both sides of this stream which furnished the water power for my father's factory and mills. We raised nearly everything required for good living and we were 'good livers'.
My father was one of the 'selectman' of our town and was very much respected by all who knew him no one could ever question his integrity in business dealings or anywhere. He was a broad liberal minded man, well educated for his time and always entertained at our home all the public men who visited our town, as also ministers of different denominations whether they came to preach or lecture. At Thanksgiving and Christmas our house was well filled with guests and relatives.
We had a large house, the largest house in town and my father paid more taxes than any other man in the School District and of course the school teacher boarded at our house a large part of every school term. This furnished an incentive for good school work and our winter evenings were spent in study. Besides my father always inspired his children with the necessity for a good education and a determination to work for it. I have often heard him say that when he died he intended to leave his daughters with a good education, and extraordinary thought for a man in those times. It was as a safety and protection to us. He died when I was twelve years old. I had at this time studied all the branches taught in the Common District School and was often in classes with those several years my senior. Up to this time our home had been the envy of my schoolmates, although no one of them were kept at work as my step-mother kept my sisters and me at work. Although not a financial necessity at that time, I regard the habit of utilizing every moment and working to accomplish then acquired of great value in my work in life.
After my father's death my step-mother attempted to carry on his business for the two years during. which his Estate was being settled and a number of the hands employed lived at our home. I was kept out of school a large part of each year either to assist in the housekeeping, or at work in our factory, as I could be best utilized.
I remember well standing in a little chair to knead bread the summer after my father's death. I was then thirteen years old and made during that entire summer all the white bread that was used in a family of eighteen people more than half of whom were men.
This was in our own home. The following summer and autumn, I was kept at work in our Factory attending the carding machines or the picking machines or at the burling board "burling" or "specking" cloth wherever I could be best utilized, or a hand was needed.
The following summer, the summer after I was fifteen in January, I commenced teaching school, in a District School, several miles from our home although in Craftsbury and "boarded around" among the tax payers as was the custom. From this time, I had to get my education by my own efforts as my Guardian, soon after his appointment to that position told me that I could not have anything from my father's Estate with which to go to school as I "already had education enough for a woman".
For several years following, I taught school during the summer and winter of each year, and attended school in the Autumn and Spring. In the winter I often walked from my boarding place (I boarded around) to my school house and built the fire. My sleeping rooms were often very cold and the sheets icy but the table was always loaded with excellent food. The wages received for teaching (it was not dignified by the term salary) ranged from one to two dollars and seventy five cents per week and board. I taught in Craftsbury, Greensborough, Danville and Newbury and attended school at Craftsbury Academy a Private Select School and subsequently at Newbury Seminary, then located at Newbury Vermont, but since transferred to Montpelier Vermont as the Wesleyan Seminary. While teaching I still pursued my studies sufficiently to go into my class when I returned to the seminary. My sister, another young lady, and I roomed together, and as we then called it "boarded ourselves", that is we bought our own food, cooked the same, did our own washing and ironing, and lived by ourselves. step-mother sometimes sent us down a box of provisions which was more than gratefully received, as with our books to buy, our tuition to pay and withal to furnish our own clothing, we could not have a luxuriant table. We had little money for food and almost no time for cooking. At that time there were no prepared cereals or cooked food to be bought, not even a bakery was in existence in that part of the country. Neither was it possible to buy any garment ready made for women. We did not have to spin and weave our linen as did my mother, but we made by hand every garment we wore, and even had to knit our stockings, as there was no hosiery made by machinery at that time, at least not any to be bought in the northern part of Vermont. I took the Classical course and kept up with my classes. There was but one other girl beside me in the Seminary who took Greek. Of course I had to work and study nights as well as days, and it was my habit to study as long as I could at night then go to bed, tying my arm to the bed post so as to wake and get up to study very early in the morning. Sometimes we sat and studied or sewed all night, and sometimes two of us would go to bed and the other one sit up until one or two o'clock in the morning studying, then that one go to bed, and the other two get up and work on.
When this could not be endured any longer my sister and I both went into families and worked for our board and still kept on at the Seminary. All work well done was honorable to a new England girl in order to get an education, and while the young men who boarded at the same place could as young ministers or "exhorters" get enough money for Sunday work to pay their board, I had to work all the week getting up at four o'clock in the morning for work, .and studying until midnight every night. I was in the Latin and Greek classes with these same young men.
Finally I had typhoid fever and was obliged to leave school. I then went to my grandfather Arnold's home in Randolph, Vermont, for the winter and in the following spring I went to another sister's home in Wisconsin, my grand-father furnishing me the money to go with. My youngest sister went with me the one with me at Newbury died in Vermont with "typhoid fever. We were one week on our journey to Wisconsin as the Railroad plan then seemed to be that no connections should be made.
We went through Canada. Upon this journey I first saw Niagara Falls. Chicago was not then paved and when we crossed from the city to the Milwaukee depot, the cab went up to the wheels in the mud. I taught near Sun Prairie Wisconsin, near my sister's home for two seasons, then went to Madison to teach. I was first engaged to teach in the Grammar school and for a little time taught in the lower grades, however, the second term that I was in Madison I was transferred to the High School and I took the place of the man teacher in Latin, Greek, and the Higher Mathematics, the wonder of every one around that a young woman could do this. Very few girls studied Greek then, and hence the wonder of a woman Greek Teacher I occupied this position for several terms and when I was twenty two years of age, I prepared young men students in Madison High School in Latin, Greek, and the Higher Mathematics who entered the State University of Wisconsin one year in advance, an institution which was closed at that time to women Women are now admitted to the State University of Wisconsin upon equal terms with men. I subsequently taught in Evansville Seminary (I was the Preceptress) and Normal School, at Evansville, Wisconsin, where I was teaching until 1863. It was a co-educational Institution as were all the schools in which I had taught up to this time. I there taught in addition to the other branches, French and German, Drawing, Penciling, Crayoning, and Oil and Water colored Painting, some of which branches I had commenced at Newbury, but I had made myself proficient in all of these branches by private tuition, at least sufficiently proficient for the positions.
Soon after my father's death and when I was just past thirteen years of age, I joined the Methodist Church and during all those years of hard struggle I was very constant in my religious duties, always being at the church, the Sunday School, the prayer and class meetings, and a conscientious integrity pervaded every act. I fully intended to be a missionary to heathen lands and to read the Greek Testament in the original was the inspiring motive in the study of Greek. When at my sister's home in Wisconsin, I could not endure the privation of prayer and class meetings, and induced one of my young lady pupils to go with me to the school house for a prayer meeting, putting a light in the window. The first night one of the neighbors, seeing the light, came in and we appointed our prayer meeting again on the following week. I wrote a notice of the meeting and gave it to the minister to give out at the Sunday meeting. There was no regular meeting, nor minister at that time in this vicinity, but meetings were held as itinerant ministers of different denominations came along. As a result of our prayer meeting, a revival meeting of six consecutive weeks was held in my schoolhouse every evening, and to which people came for twenty miles around all the ministers of the different denominations joining in the work. Then came a quarrel among the divines as to which denomination should have the converts, which led me to wonder whether what had seemed to me the Spirit of God upon the people was really so, or whether it was excitement or psychological power. This was heightened by the reprehensible actions of some of the few who were very "gifted" in prayer. I continued to study, think and pray, until finally at Evansville I became quite convinced that there could be but one God and that Jesus Christ was not God and as I could not be a hypocrite, I withdrew from the church and of course gave up my class in the Sunday school, as I felt that I did not know what to teach and I could not teach the doctrine of the atonement as it was understood by the church. I have never since joined any church but have made myself familiar with the different religions both ancient and modern, and have investigated psychologic and spiritualistic phenomena. I now believe that there is one God and that His Eternal spirit pervades everything in the Universe. I also believe in the immortality of the soul and its individual existence after death. I cannot conceive it possible that the spirit within the human being can lose anything of its power by the transition called death. I also believe in the eternal progression of the spirit after death. "It is not meet that all good should be conferred upon", so says the Latin fable. I believe that all denominations have some truth, but my mind is not satisfied with the published creeds of any of them. The Hicksite quakers come as near to my thought as any denomination which I have knowledge, their special attraction to me being the silent worship, the inner lights of inspiration, and their faith as to the right of individual opinion and inspiration.
In the years 1862 & 63 many of the young men, in the school (Evansville Normal School and Seminary) went into the army (the school was co-educational the pupils ranging in age from fifteen to forty years of age). The Normal department of the school was closed and the Methodist Denomination resumed charge of the school. The Principal went into the army, and I opened the Fall term for them and got what was left of the school well under way. Then in November I went to New York City into the Hygeio Therapeutic Medical College to study. I intended to still continue my work, as a teacher and was studying for the knowledge, without intending to practice Medicine. I taught Physiology among other things, and I wanted to know the human system as I could a plant or flower in my botanical work. I was in the first class of women ever admitted to the Clinics at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. This was at a time when the Professors lectured to the class of five hundred men students at the clinics and about thirty women students, upon the very grave question as to whether the study of Medicine was a proper study for women and in support of his lecture, and in order to frighten the women out, he repeatedly exposed unnecessarily, the persons of both men and women patients after which it was quite customary for the men students to line up on both sides of the walk, down which the women were obligated to walk to go out of the building. We continued our studies without noticing apparently any of the insults heaped upon us, and in the Spring of 1865 I took the Degree of Doctor of Medicine, conferred upon me by the "New York hygeio Therapeutic College". Meanwhile I had taken the Course in Physical Training at Dio Lewis' Normal Institute for Physical Culture then located at Boston Massachusetts and received a diploma from that Institution, also in the Spring of 1865. From that time until the last of September I was at Dio Lewis' Health Institution tuition at Lexington, Massachusetts, as Assistant Physician. while there prepared considerable material for a physiological work which he subsequently Published, for which I received no credit.
In September of 1865 I came to Philadelphia, which has been my home from that date up to the present time. At first, I taught by the hour as a visiting teacher in different schools, and introduced the teaching of Physical Culture into a good number of schools. Philadelphia was at that time very much behind the schools of other cities in the East and also the West in the attention given to Physical and Physiological training in the schools, both public and private. Indeed, there was no attention given either in the Public Schools. The Principal of a Young Ladies Seminary near Philadelphia, in answer to my application for an opportunity to teach physiology (hour lessons) to the young ladies in his school replied" We don't teach Physiology in our school. It is obscene! The pinched waists and flushed cheeks of the young ladies told the result to them.
The following summer (1866) I bought our a "French School for Young Ladies" located on Filbert Street above Sixteenth Street, as site which was taken a few years later By the Pennsylvania Railroad in its approach to its present terminus at Broad and Market Streets. This school was composed of Young Ladies accustomed to and fond of society, whose parents were able to pay well and to whom locality was much. After working two years with a good corps of teachers, whom I had in my employ in this school, I was obliged to move the school because the building was needed for other purposes. This virtually compelled me to begin over again, and as a fashionable school for "Young Ladies" did not satisfy my highest idea of an education for girls I soon closed my school and was registered as a law student. I had commenced the reading of Blackstone in the Fail or A.D. 1865 when I first came to Philadelphia, and so far as I know, no other woman in the United States had commenced reading Law at that time. I think there is no doubt that I am the first woman to commence the study of Law. I was not registered as a Law student until November 1879, just after closing my school.
I was registered from the Law office of Damon Y. Kilgore Esq. whom I had first known as the Superintendent of the city Public schools in Madison Wisconsin when I was engaged as a teacher in Madison High School but Who was now a member of the Philadelphia Bar and in active practice in Philadelphia. Mr. Kilgore deserved great credit for assisting me in making this great innovation upon established custom.
For woman to be admitted to this most ancient, learned and honorable profession, the profession most closely allied to the judicial department of government, and in this most conservative of States, was an innovation which can scarcely be appreciated at the present time, so thoroughly are we now accustomed to the larger educational and industrial opportunities now enjoyed by women. These larger opportunities have not come by chance but rather by the struggles of the pioneer workers. My efforts at first excited the ridicule of the Bar, the Bench, and the Public Press. When this failed to deter me in my work, then an intense opposition followed still subsequently respectful discussion as to the right and expediency of the question not only in the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania papers, but literally from Maine to California. Even the London Times joined in the discussion as to whether it was proper and expedient for "Carrie S. Burnham to be admitted to the Bar in Philadelphia. A magazine in Italy had one article upon this very grave question, which I saw. One might have supposed that all the ancient landmarks of custom and religion were being endangered by my efforts.
For myself I felt that it was my work, indeed, a necessity laid upon me, to open the way for woman into this most learned profession, thereby securing to her the highest educational opportunities and the opportunity to labor where compensation should depend upon successful work and ability rather than upon sex. Having once commenced this work, I could not, would not fail. This work was continued, persisted in, for sixteen years as I was not admitted to all the Courts here, County, State, and Federal until June of 1886.
In the Autumn of A.D. 1871 1 made an application for admission to the University of Pennsylvania (Law Department) as a student-at-law. My application was refused. The Dean, who was generally very much of a gentleman in appearance, was nevertheless so outraged at the thought of a woman being admitted into this profession that when I presented my application to him, he' replied "I don't know what the Board of Trustees will do, but as for me if they admit a woman I will resign, as I will neither lecture to niggers nor woman".
In the Autumn of A.D. 1870 (the previous Autumn) I was registered as a Voter, and was duly assessed in the precinct in which I resided and paid my "Poll-tax"; the only time I think that a woman has paid a poll tax in this State. At the proper time, I went to the "polls" and offered my ballot, which was rejected by the election officers. I then went to the Court which was in session, for a mandamus against the election officers to compel them to receive my ballot. This was denied. I then entered suit against the election officers claiming damages for this refusal of my ballot.
When my case came before The Court for argument, I argued my case under my constitutional right to speak in my own case, first in the Nisi Prius Court and upon appeal upon the third and fourth of April A.D. 1873 in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania before a full bench of Judges. in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania before.
In A.D. 1872, prior to the argument of this case in the Supreme Court, I had competed the prescribed course of reading for law students and. went before the. Board of Examiners for an examination for admission to the Bar and was refused the examination because there was no precedent for the examination of a woman for admission to the Bar. It was therefore only under my Constitutional right as an individual citizen that I could appear and, argue my election case. The Supreme Court room was packed during the entire time of argument, nearly, all present being members of the profession the Ex-Chief Justice standing for over one hour to listen. Justice Agnew, subsequently Chief Justice Agnew, came down from the Bench and congratulated me upon my effort, and asked for a copy of the argument, if it should be printed. It was subsequently printed in book form and is a cloth bound volume of one hundred pages.
Senator Charles Sumner sent a copy of this argument to Harvard College Library with his compliments, which I regarded as a great compliment to me. "All white freemen of the age of twenty one years and of the requisite residence were entitled to the ballot under the Constitution of Pennsylvania at that time. I claimed that I was a "white freemen", that the word "freeman" was generic, epicene and that it was used only in contradistinction from the Word "slave" also that I was a citizen of the United States and That suffrage. is a citizen's right, under the Constitution of the United States, and showed the injury to the State and to women, not only as tax payers, but in the denial of their educational and industrial rights, which could not be denied Then, if they had this one and only means of defending their civil rights.
The Chief Justice in commenting upon my argument, pronounced it in open Court,"An able and exhaustive argument". This effort in Court, took my work for womans admission to the Bar out of the realm of ridicule and made the admission of women In the Eastern States at least a question of argument upon the basis of right and expediency. It was conceded that a woman could make a logical, legal argument. I was never ridiculed afterward nor was my work.
The following year, A.D. 1874, the Constitutional Convention met in Philadelphia, and changed the qualifications of voters to "Every white male citizen". I addressed this Constitutional Convention upon the "Citizen's right of suffrage" as a delegate from the International Workingmen's Association, an organization then entirely free from anarchist thought and very respectable.
That suffrage is a citizen's right, held in abeyance it may be until sufficient intelligence has been acquired for its use, is the fundamental and only safe basis for a republic, this in my judgment is unquestionable. It is the only basis which ensures the permanency of the republic. With my present knowledge and experience, I am quite sure that it was a mistake not to have taken this case to the United States Supreme Court for its decision. Several years afterward, the Attorney for Susan B. Anthony copied, without quotation marks, several pages of my printed argument, into his printed argument upon her case involving the citizen's right to vote.. He was an ex-judge and if he could have done better than I had done it is presumed that he would not have copied mine, already in print.
I kept on studying and trying, by my pen, and in every way, to create a larger industrial and educational opportunity for women, both in and outside the professions. As a member of the Radical Club of Philadelphia, a club composed of able men and women, and which was quite noted at the time, I memorialized the Board of Judges for the appointment of women upon the Central Board of Education. They were soon after appointed by the Board of Judges to those positions. About this time I was 'appointed Professor in Physiology and Hygiene in The New York Hygeio Therapeutic College (Medical College) which had been transferred to Florence heights, New Jersey. The President and Founder of this College died soon after, and as the College was without endowment, it soon ceased to exist.
That the "VIS MEDICATRIZ NATURAL" is inherent in the human system and not in drugs was the fundamental principle elucidated in the teachings Of this College, a principle elucidated in several systems of medicine and more or less recognized by all medical Colleges.
In A.D. 1876 I was married to Damon Y. Kilgore (22 February) and had A very happy married life until April of A.D. 1888 when he died.
Leaving me, his widow with two children, born respectively in July of 1877 and 1880. My work was not hindered by my marriage. I had a Bill before the Legislature of Pennsylvania, for three consecutive sessions for the admission of women to the Bar. The Sessions are held once In two years. Twice it passed the Senate, but was not reached in the House. The third time it was introduced into the Senate, the Judiciary Committee refused to report the Bill saying that the law was sufficient to admit Women to this profession. The Senator who had my Bill in charge arranged for a joint meeting of the two Houses at which I should Address them and on an evening set apart for that purpose in March of A.D. 1881 I addressed the House and Senate in joint session. The following day I went before the Judiciary Committee and answered many questions as to the apparent obstacles in the mind of the Court, to the right of woman to enter this profession and the expediency of allowing her to become a member of this profession hitherto, so exclusively enjoyed by men. They reported my Bill favorable at once, and again The Bill passed the Senate and was not reached in the house. I do not know whether this was intentional, but apparently it was not reached because of the difficulties arising in their effort to pass a Bill known as the "Bribery"Bill in which antagonistic factions occupied the time until adjournment of the Legislature was a necessity.
This address was printed in pamphlet form and freely circulated. My youngest child was then a baby about nine months old.
In the following Autumn, the Autumn of A.D. 1881, I made another effort for admission to the University of Pennsylvania as a Law student. Men students, graduated from the Law Department of the University of Pennsylvania were admitted to the Bar anywhere in the State upon the presentation of their Diploma. The Dean of the Law school who ten years previous had so indignantly refused me admission to this Department of the University had died, and a change in the administration had taken place in response to the growing liberal thought in the . community. A more liberal minded man was now appointed. to the position of Dean, not however to help the cause of women. He sold a ticket to me for the Course of lectures and made out a matriculation card in my name.
The first Lecture was, as usual, a Pubic lecture and my husband attended the Lecture with me The following day I comm