Lucy C. Eames (1811-1900)

Pioneer Literary Leader

“A Woman of Strong Personality”

A native of Watertown, New York, and the daughter of a Baptist minister, Lucy Celia (Morgan) Eames (1811-1900) traveled to Michigan in 1834 to visit her brother, Elijah W. Morgan, a prominent Ann Arbor lawyer and real estate developer. Morgan was one of the donors who helped establish the campus for the University of Michigan. Lucy was a highly educated woman “of strong personality and beloved by all who knew her” (Gazette). At the age of 15, she taught at a district school near Watertown and later taught for a time at the academy in nearby Lowville, New York, but had decided to stay with her brother for a year in Ann Arbor while she taught school there.

It was during her time in Ann Arbor that Lucy met Lovett Eames, a skilled manufacturer and inventor from Kalamazoo. In June 1835, Lucy and Lovett were married in Adams, New York, just south of Watertown near Lake Ontario. After their marriage, they settled on Lovett’s property west of Kalamazoo, where he was at that time pursuing the lumber trade.

After four rather difficult years on the “Grand Prairie,” Lucy and Lovett had gone to New York in September 1839 to visit relatives when they received word that their home in Oshtemo Township had burned. Rather than rebuild on the existing property while a disagreement with the neighboring Drake family ensued, the couple made plans to move their growing family from Oshtemo to the village of Kalamazoo. By the time the census taker came around in 1840, Lovett and his family were indeed listed among the residents of Kalamazoo Township. Soon after, Lovett opened a pump factory and mill on the west side of the village and built a house nearby as they awaited the arrival of their second child.

“Select School”

In April 1842, Lucy Eames opened a “select” (i.e., private) school for young women in Kalamazoo at a time when institutions of higher learning for women in the United States were rare. Lucy taught “different branches of English education” (Gazette) for at least a year in the rooms above Dr. Horace Starkweather’s drug store on Main Street in Kalamazoo, which stood where the Burdick Hotel was later built. One of her former students described her as “a lady to know and be in her company was to love, and esteem, admirable as a woman, a perfect scholar, no smattering of superficial knowledge, but a well grounded understanding of books herself, she studied deeply while she taught; we all loved her” (Gazette).

“Mrs. Eames will be remembered by old citizens as a teacher, and for her genuine noble character, lack of assumption, and faithfulness as a friend.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 21 October 1900

Kalamazoo College

Lucy and her husband both had a strong affinity for higher education and a long-standing association with Kalamazoo College. Lovett was a delegate for the Kalamazoo River Baptist Association’s eighth annual meeting in 1849 and served on the Kalamazoo Literary Institute (early K College) board of trustees from 1851 through 1853. Despite extreme hardships, their eight children (six boys and two girls) carried on their parents’ inventive genius and socially conscious tenacity. All were born in Kalamazoo, all were educated in Kalamazoo’s Public Schools, at least one attended Lucinda Hinsdale Stone’s private school, and most were Kalamazoo College graduates.

In January 1851, Lovett secured a 6-acre lot from the State of Michigan near the west end of South Street, where he built a modest home for their family. “We had a large orchard and garden,” recalled their daughter, Ellen, “and a wonderful barn with every possible mechanical device to save steps and labor” (Gazette). In response to the community’s desire to establish a separate “Female Department” at Kalamazoo College, Eames donated the west half of their lot to the school, which allowed for the construction of Kalamazoo Hall (later known as Lower Hall). The building opened in 1859 and stood for more than 50 years.

“Her mind was keenly alive to the benefits of literary organizations and the means of supplying them with information and stimulus to study, and in company with Mrs. Webster, Mrs. Stone, and other ladies of breadth of view and enterprise, organized the Ladies Library Association, of which she was a valued official for a long time.”

—Kalamazoo Gazette, 15 June 1900

“A Very Charitable Woman”

Following Lovett’s untimely death in 1863, Lucy remained at the family estate on West South Street while continuing to raise and educate her children. Contrary to her outwardly stern nature, Lucy was said to be a “very charitable woman” (Gazette) and was an avid supporter of higher education, especially for women. She opened her home for a time as a boarding house for Kalamazoo College students in need. As an advocate for literacy, Lucy was a charter member of the Ladies Library Association in Kalamazoo and served on its board of directors for many years.

After a lengthy illness, Lucy Celia (Morgan) Eames passed away in June 1900 at the age of 88. She was buried in the Eames family lot at Mountain Home Cemetery.

“She was a great worker, a reader of wide range and a charming conversationalist, and the papers she prepared for the club were of much interest. Mrs. Eames was charitable and gave a home to two girls not her own. In other ways she helped people and did all she could to benefit the world.”

—Kalamazoo Daily Telegraph, 15 June 1900

During its March 1956 meeting, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) paid special tribute to Kalamazoo’s pioneering women with a pageant called “Ours, the Heritage.” Dozens of Kalamazoo’s historical figures like Lucinda Hinsdale Stone (Kalamazoo College instructor), Caroline Bartlett Crane (first woman minister), Mary Upjohn Sidman (the first woman pharmacist), and Jennie Wolcott (first public librarian) were portrayed on stage with costumes and narration. More than a century after opening her “select school” for young women, Lucy Eames was recognized in the pageant for her role as a pioneer teacher.

Written by Keith Howard, Kalamazoo Public Library staff, April 2024