Catherine Stratton Ladd
The News & Herald, Winnsboro, S.C. "A Living Example"
Dictionary of American Biography
Library of Southern Literature
National Cyclopedia of American Biography
Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography
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"Mrs. CathArine Ladd"
"The name that heads this article will call a thrill of pleasure to many hearts -- for this lady is 'one of the most noted and successful of the teachers of the State of South Carolina,' and hundreds of her old pupils, many of them now 'teaching,' scattered throughout the lands, remember her kindness and entire unselfishness. 'She is the most generous of women; her time, her talents, her worldly goods are at the command of all her friends,' says one of her ex-pupils."
"Mrs. Ladd is a native of Virginia -- was born in October, 1810 -- married when eighteen years old to Mr. Ladd, a portrait and miniature painter. Her maiden name was Catharine Stratton."
"For several years after her marriage Mrs. Ladd wrote poetry, which was published in the various periodicals of the day. For three years she was a regular correspondent of several newspapers, and published a series of articles on drawing, painting, and education, which attracted considerable attention."
"In 1842, Mrs. Ladd permanently settled in the town of Winnsboro', South Carolina, where she established one of the largest institutions of learning in the State, which sustained its well-deserved reputation until closed, in 1861."
"Mrs. Ladd has contributed tales, sketches, essays, and poems to various journals under different noms de plume -- as 'Minnie Mayflower,' 'Arcturus,' 'Alida,' and 'Morna.'
"During the existence of the 'Floral Wreath,' published in Charleston by Mr. Edwin Heriott, Mrs. Ladd was a regular contributor. Mr. Heriott, in a notice of the literary talent of the South, speaking of Mrs. Ladd's poetical works, said : 'They were sweet, smooth, and flowing, particularly so; but, like Scotch music, their gayest notes were sad.'"
"In 1851, she with ardor took up the subject of education, home manufactories, and encouragement of white labor, believing that the ultimate prosperity of South Carolina would depend on it. She reasoned from a conviction that South Carolina could not long compete with the more Southern and Southwestern States in raising cotton, and an extensive system of slave labor would realize no profit."
"Mrs. Ladd's plays, written at the solicitation of friends, and performed by them, were very popular. The 'Grand Scheme' and 'Honeymoon' were celebrated far and wide. The incidents and introduction of characters showed that she had more than ordinary talent for that species of composition. Mrs. Ladd has a wonderful knack of managing young people."
"After the commencement of the war, Mrs. Ladd gave up everything to devote herself to the cause of the South. She lived for the soldiers! Was elected President of the 'Soldiers' Aid Association,' which office she retained until the close of the war, and by her untiring exertions kept the society well supplied with clothing. Her pen was unused during the war, the needle and her personal supervision being constantly in demand. In Winnsboro', no church is built, no charity solicited, no ball, concert, tableaux, or fair -- nothing goes on without her cheerful and ever-ready aid."
"Mrs. Ladd is said to be 'homely,' and dresses to suit herself, never caring about the 'latest fashions,' ignores 'hoops,' and always wears her hair short. Her manner is abrupt and decided; but one instinctively feels it to be "kind."
"The 'Confederate flag' is said to have originated with Mrs. Ladd; the first one, we allude to. The fire of February 21st, 1865, destroyed the literary labor of thirty years. With the assistance of a Federal officer, Mrs. Ladd saved the jewels of the Masonic Lodge in the next house to hers; but the flame and smoke prevented her finding the 'charter.' By this time the fire had got so much ahead on her own premises, and the confusion was so great, that she lost everything."
"It is said that outside of the walls of her school, Mrs. Ladd was the gay, social companion of every young lady under her charge. Following her to the school-room, you instantly felt the change : though not perhaps a word was spoken, every young lady felt it. She has a powerful will and habit of centering every thought and feeling instantly on the occupation of the moment. The confusion of voices or passing objects never seemed to disturb her when writing."
"A friend of Mrs. Ladd says: 'Her quick motions show the rapidity of thought. Even now, at the age of fifty-eight, were you walking behind her, you might mistake her, from the light buoyancy of step, for a young girl.'"
"1869."
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Winnsboro, SC
September 14, 1887
"A Living Example"
"Messrs. Editors: Out of a volume styled "Living Female Writer of the South," which recently fell into my hands, the following extracts are taken from the sketch of the life of our esteemed friend, Mrs. Ladd."....
...."How gratifying to read these truthful words concerning this venerable lady! Now, she has to a great extent given up literary and educational work, and devotes herself to the problem of making a living by farming on the worn out lands of Fairfield. But even here she shows our people how to smooth the asperities of farm life by illustrating the charms of the country. Her grapes, pears, plums, peaches and other fruits claim much of her attention and give happiness to her family and friends. To the profitable and pleasant cultivation of fruits and vegetables she adds the delight of flowers and ornamental trees, and has probably given more care and labor to beautifying her home during the period of her life in the country than any farmer in Fairfield. Here, again, her example tends to increase the love for a home on the farm by making it more attractive and beautiful in its surroundings. In Mrs. Ladd's advocacy of the encouragement of home manufactories..."
G. H. McMaster
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Volume 13
Oxford University Press. New York. 1999. pages 19-20.
LADD, Catherine Stratton (28 Oct. 1808-30 Jan. 1899), educator and writer, was born in Richmond, Virginia, the daughter of James Stratton and Ann Collins. Her father, a native of Ireland, had been in the United States for only two years when, just six months after Catherine's birth, he fell off a boat and drowned. Catherine Stratton was educated in Richmond at the same school attended by Edgar Allen Poe. in 1828 she married George Williamson Livermore Ladd, a portrait and miniature painter, who had studied with S. F. B. Morse in Boston; the couple had two children.
The Ladds first settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where not long after their marriage, she began to write stories, poems, and essays, particularly on art and education. These were published under several different pen names--Minnie Mayflower, Arcturus, Morna, and Alida--in various southern journals, among them, Floral Wreath. As reflected in "Unknown Flowers" (by Morna), which was published in the second volume of the Southern Literary Messenger (Jan. 1836), her poems focused on nature and exhibited a religious zeal that was characteristic of her era:
Oh! many are the unknown flowers,
By human eyes unseen,
That bloom in nature's woodland bowers,
Of bright and changeless green...
And lovely birds, whose brilliant wings
Are bright with hues of brighter things,
Make music in those woodland bowers,
those Edens of the unknown flowers.
In addition to her poems and sketches, Ladd is said to have contributed articles to the Charleston News and Courier, in which she advocated the use of white labor and the development of manufacturing in the South. At least as early as 1851 she argued that South Carolina could not compete with the Deep South in raising cotton and that even with an extensive system of slave labor South Carolina cotton farmers would realize no profit. Ladd also wrote at least two plays, Grand Scheme and Honeymoon, which were performed by friends and reportedly were locally popular, though this cannot be confirmed.
After living in Charleston, the Ladds moved to Augusta and eventually to Macon, Georgia, where for three years she was principal of Vineville Academy. In 1839, after hearing that an unused building that was suitable for a girl's school had become available, the Ladds returned to Charleston. In 1840 she opened the Winnsboro (also spelled Winnsborough) Female Institute at Winnsboro, South Carolina. The Winnsboro Institute was one of the largest and best-known boarding and day schools for young women in South Carolina. During the Civil War the school had full enrollment; some students were from Winnsboro, but the majority came from other parts of the state. Music, art, literature, dramatics, and the social graces were especially emphasized. The "formal education of women in Winnsboro made a notable advancement" when Ladd opened the institute (Bolick, p. 66). Still successful ten years later, the institute employed nine teachers and had an enrollment of about one hundred students. Over the years her school--and home--became cultura and social centers for the entire community.
In 1861 the Winnsboro Institute was closed by the Civil War. As permanent president of the Ladies' Relief Association of Fairfield County, Ladd spent the war nursing Confederate soldiers, among whom was her son, Albert Washington Ladd, wounded at the battle of Seven Pines (Va). Ladd's husband died in 1864, and in early 1865 her home was burned to the ground by Union troops during General William T. Sherman's march through South Carolina. Winnsboro Institute was not reopened until 1870.
In 1880 Ladd retired to "Buena Vista Plantation," situated nineteen miles from Winnsboro, near Buckhead, South Carolina, and she died there almost two decades later. She had been losing her sight for some time and by 1891 was completely blind, but she continued to write, penning the following verse as late as 1898:
Though our way be dark and dreary,
Though life's trials press us more,
Thou hast mansions for us ready,
Homes where troubles come no more.
O, my Saviour, guide me, watch me,
Lead me by Thy loving hand;
Let me feel that Thou art near me.
Until I reach the Promised Land.
Ladd's ability to organize cultural, social, and educational activities outweighs any modern interest in her minor and now obscure writings. By supporting the arts and by spreading a knowledge and appreciation of music, art, literature, and drama, Ladd provided her region with a center of culture and stability in the years of great social upheaval just before, during, and immediately following the Civil War.
The Dictionary of American Biography refers to a scrapbook of Ladd's, said to contain undated newspaper clippings, family papers, and an autobiographical letter dating probably to 1898, but the scrapbook's present location is unknown. The South Caroliniana Library in Columbia, S.C., contains J.S. Bolick, A Fairfield Sketchbook (1963), and Katherine Theus Obear, Through the Years in Old Winnsboro (1940; repr. 1980), both of which include various anecdotal referencesto Ladd. For contemporary views of Ladd see Ida Raymond, Southland Writers (2 vols., 1870); Mary T. Tardy, Living Female Writers of the South (1872); and Mrs. Thomas Taylor et al., eds., S.C. Women in the Confederacy (2 vols., 1903-1907). Also see the Columbian State, 7 Mar. 1906, in which Ladd's daughter extols her mother's heroism against invading Yankees; and 12 Apr. 1912, which briefly notes Ladd's caring for Confederate soldiers.
Barbara Kraley Youel
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Dictionary of American Biography
Volume V
LADD, CATHERINE (Oct. 28, 1808-Jan. 30, 1899), schoolmistress and writer of fugitive prose and verse, was born in Richmond, Va., where her father James Stratton had married her mother, Ann Collins, in 1807, a year after his arrival from Ireland. Six months after her birth, he fell from a vessel off the coast and was drowned. She was educated in the schools of Richmond and is said to have been a playmate of Edgar Allen Poe. One of her most treasured recollections of Richmond was her meeting with Lafayette at the public reception given for him there in 1824. In September 1828 she married George Williamson Livermore Ladd, born in Plymouth, N. H., who had been a seaman ten years before; but having studied with S. F. B. Morse in Boston, he was then in the South as a portrait painter. Accompanied by her mother, she went with him to Charleston, S.C., where they arrived in time to witness the jubilee for the election of Andrew Jackson. From Charleston they went to Augusta, Ga., where they remained until burned out in the great fire of 1829. They then returned to South Carolina but later removed to Macon, Ga., where for three years Mrs. Ladd was principal of Vineville Academy. In 1839 she learned that a building had been erected in Winnsboro, S.C., for a girls' school but had never been opened, and she "determined to give it a trial." On Jan. 1, 1840, she opened the Winnsboro Female Institute, which in 1850 had nine teachers and about a hundred students, and she remained principal until it was closed by the Civil War.
She took a keen interest in public affairs and is said to have published as early as 1851 articles on the encouragement of manufacturing in South Carolina. She is also said to have submitted a design for the first Confederate flag. As permanent president of the Ladies' Relief Association of Fairfield, she did much for the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. Her son Albert Washington Ladd was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines; her husband died on July 14, 1864; and she lost everything in 1865 when her home was burned by Sherman's troops. In 1870 she reopened her boarding and day school, including among her subjects art, music, and dancing. Probably because of failing eyesight, she retired in 1880 and went to live on "Buena Vista Plantation," nineteen miles from Winnsboro, where she spent most of her time in her garden. On July 1, 1891, she became totally blind. She died at "Buena Vista" in her ninety-first year, and although she had been a member of the Episcopal Church, she was buried in the neighboring Salem Presbyterian churchyard. Mrs. Ladd's poems are characterized by religious feeling and love of nature. Her occasional letters of reminiscence and later poems, which appeared in the Winnsboro press, are signed Mrs. C. Ladd; but her earlier pen names are said to have been Minnie Mayflower, Arcturus, and Alida. Two poems of little merit, signed by her pseudonym Morna, appear in the second volume of the Southern Literary Messenger. She is said to have been a regular contributor to the Charleston News and Courier and to have published articles on art and education, as well as tales, essays, plays, and news-letters.
[ Printed sources include : Ida Raymond, Southland Writers (2 vols., 1870) ; Mrs. Thomas Taylor and others, S. C. Women in the Confederacy, vol. I (1903) ; the State (Columbia, S. C.), Mar. 7, 1906, Apr. 12, 1912. Mrs. Ladd's scrapbook is in the possession of Mrs. Joe Fee, Blair, S. C. It contains undated newspaper clippings, family papers, and an autobiographical letter dictated by Mrs. Ladd, probably in 1898.]
A. K. G.
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Library of Southern Literature
Volume 15, Biographical Dictionary, published1910.
LADD, CATHERINE. Educator. Her maiden name was Stratton. She was born in Richmond, Va., October 28, 1809, and at the age of nineteen married G. W. Ladd, a portrait and miniature painter. For several years she conducted successfully a select school at Winnsborough, S.C. She also contributed stories and sketches to the popular magazines, besides an occasional poem of rare grace, and also advocated in the press the encouragement of white labor and of manufacturing industries in the South. She wrote under various pen-names. During the war, she gave her whole thought to the care of the sick and wounded soldiers. Her school property was destroyed by General Sherman, but she resumed teaching for a while after the war closed and then retired to a farm near Buckhead, S.C.
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The National Cyclopedia of American Biography
Volume XXIV
LADD, Catherine, educator, was born in Richmond, Va., Oct. 28, 1809, daughter of James and Nancy (Collins) Stratton. Her father was a native of Ireland. She was educated in Richmond at the same school attended by Edgar Allen Poe. After her marriage in September 1828 to George Williamson Livermore Ladd, a portrait and miniature painter, she engaged in literary work. Her earliest efforts were essays, stories, poems and articles on art and education contributed to the "Floral Wreath" and other southern journals and magazines under the pen names of Minnie Mayflower, Arcturus, Morna and Alida. For three years she was principal of Vineville academy at Macon, Ga. In 1840 she opened the Winnsboro female institute at Winnsboro, S.C., of which she was principal until 1861 when she gave up teaching to nurse the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers. It is said that she designed the first Confederate flag. Having become convinced as early as 1851 that South Carolina could not much longer compete successfully with the Gulf states in the profitable cultivation of cotton, she urged through the press the necessity of procuring white labor and of engaging in manufacturing industries. In 1870 she reopened her school at Winnsboro, including among her subjects art, music and dancing. She retired in 1880 to a farm near Buckhead, S.C. Her son Albert Washington Ladd was a Confederate soldier. She died at Buena Vista, Fairfield co., S.C., Jan. 31, 1899.
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Historical Volume 1607-1896
(Revised Edition, 1967)
Ladd, Catherine, educator; b. Richmond, Va., Oct. 28, 1808; d. James and Ann (Collins) Stratton; attended Richmond Public Schs.; m. George W. Ladd, Sept. 1828, 1 son, Albert W. Prin., Vineville Acad., Macon, Ga., circa 1836-39, Winnsboro (S.C.) Female Inst., 1840-62; active supporter of Confederacy; pres. Ladies' Relief Assn. of Fairfield, during Civil War; lost her home and possessions during invasion of S.C., 1865; conducted boarding and day sch. for girls, Winnsboro, 1870-80; lived on plantation "Buena Vista" nr. Winnsboro, after 1880. Contbr. poems, essays, stories to Charleston News & Courier, from 1840's; contbd. 2 poems to 2d vol. So. Literary Messenger, many poems (under pseudonyms Arcturus, Alida) to Winnsboro newspaper. Died "Buena Vista," Jan. 30, 1899; buried Presbyn. Cemetery, Salem, S.C.
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Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume III, Prominent Persons, p.196.
Editor: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, LL. D.; Publisher: Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc.
"Ladd, Catherine, born in Richmond, Virginia, October 28, 1809, daughter of James and Nancy (Collins) Stratton, and granddaughter of James and Catherine (Foulk) Collins, of Philadelphia;her education was acquired in the schools of her native city; in 1828 she became the wife of
G.W. Ladd, a painter of portraits and miniatures; she established and was principal of a boarding
school at Winnsborough, Fairfield county, South Carolina, for twenty years, covering the period
between 1841 and 1861, she won fame as a writer, beginning her career in 1828, and in addition to
articles on art and education, wrote numerous stories and poems for the "Floral Wreath" and other periodicals, and in 1851, through the press, urged the necessity of procuring white labor and of engaging in the manufacture of cotton in South Carolina; during the progress of the civil war she nursed the sick and wounded Confederate soldiers, and she is said to have been the designer of the first Confederate flag; at the close of the war she resumed her work of teaching; in 1880 she removed to a farm in Fairfield county, near Winnsborough, South Carolina, where she spent the remainder of her days; her death occurred at Buena Vista, Fairfield county, South Carolina, January 31, 1899."
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18 March 2002, Brian Brown