Kalamazoo Legends:
Lucinda Hinsdale Stone
Kalamazoo Rotary Club
January 24, 2005
Lucinda Stone
• Born Lucinda Hinsdale - Sept. 30, 1814
• Last of 12 children
• Education
– Hinesburg Academy, Hinesburg, VT
– Middlebury Female Seminary
• Married James Stone in 1840 in
Grand Rapids, MI
– Former principal of Hinesburg Academy
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
• J.A.B. appointed as Minister of the First Baptist
Church and President of Kalamazoo College
(The Old Branch merged with the Kalamazoo
Literary Institute) in 1843
• Lucinda became the first principal of the
Female Department
• Classes were held at the Old Branch, later
Upper and Lower Halls (South St. and Michigan
Ave.)
The Old Branch
1861-1862 Catalogue
1861-1862 Faculty of Female Department
Mrs. L. H. Stone
Principal, and Teacher of
History and English Literature
Upper Hall
View of Lower Hall and Upper Hall
View of Lower Hall
Lower Hall Classroom
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
• Men and Women’s departments
remained separate until 1868
• Men and women moved easily between
the two departments, taking courses at
both during the Stone era
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
• James and Lucinda had 3 sons
– Clement Walker
– Horatio Hackett
– James Helm
• Editor-in-Chief of the Detroit Tribune
• Editor-in-Chief of the Detroit Daily News
First Baptist Church
Lucinda and J.A.B Stone – ca 1855
Contemporaries
Susan B. Anthony
Contemporaries
Frederick Douglass
Contemporaries
Abraham Lincoln
Contemporaries
Ralph Waldo
Emerson
Mother of Clubs
• Founded
– Twentieth Century Club
– Literary clubs for women throughout Michigan
• Column in many national newspapers called “Club
Talks”
– Frederick Douglass Club for African American
men and women
• Helped organize the Women’s Press
Association in 1890
• Chair of the General Federation of
Women’s Clubs
Ladies Library Association
Kalamazoo College
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Student enrollment declines after 1857
Tougher entrance requirements
Depressed economy
Financial mismanagement
Shift in the Baptist leadership
Unpopular liberalism of Mrs. Stone
Stones resign under fire in 1863
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
• James Stone
– Editor of the Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph
– First President of the Michigan Publisher’s Association
– Under President Grant became Kalamazoo Postmaster
• Their house burned to the ground in 1866 and
they moved to 144 E. Lovell, the site of the
Kalamazoo Gazette
• Lucinda had time to devote her attention to the
outside world
• She became a “teacher at large”
Lucinda Stone
• Conducted a private school at her
home for young women
• Organized travelling schools
– Eight educational trips to Europe
– Trips were 12-18 months in duration
– At age 76, Lucinda led a trip to Egypt,
Syria and Palestine
Lucinda Stone
• Worked to enroll women at the
University of Michigan
– Madelon Stockwell first female student
• Worked to hire women faculty at
the University of Michigan
Madelon Stockwell
University of Michigan in 1864
Lucinda Stone
• Lectured for the Women’s Suffrage
Movement
• Active abolitionist
Lucinda and J.A.B. Stone
J.A.B. Stone died in 1888
Lucinda Stone
• University of Michigan
– Received an honorary doctorate in June
1890
– Received the second doctorate given to a
woman from the school
World’s Columbian Exposition
Chicago, May – October 1893
Woman’s Building
Publication
World’s Fair
Advertisement
Fairground Map
Woman’s Building
Interior of Women’s Building
(Gallery of Honor)
Sewell’s
Arcadia
Fuller’s
Women of Plymouth
Lucinda Stone
• Member of People’s Church in 1894
• Friend of Caroline Bartlett Crane
• Organized a club for African American
men for the church
• Built up the Channing Library
• Lucinda died in 1900 at 85
Lucinda Stone – ca 1895
Lucinda Stone Biography
• Published 1902
Bronson Park
K Legend
Mountain Home Cemetery
Acknowledgements
• Gail Griffin, Professor of English, Kalamazoo College
• Elizabeth Smith, Archivist, Kalamazoo College
• Kathryn Lightcap, Graphics/Multimedia Designer,
Kalamazoo College
• Ladies Library Association
• First Baptist Church
• Jennifer Thomas, Archivist and Librarian, Albion College