Celeste Brackett Newcomer
A white woman with dark hair, center parted and dressed back to the nape, wearing a high-collared blouse with a dark overdress
Celeste Brackett Newcomer, from a 1922 publication
Born
Celeste Elizabeth Brackett

June 12, 1871
Harper's Ferry, West Virginia
DiedFebruary 19, 1951
Hillsboro, Virginia
OccupationEducator
ParentNathan Cook Brackett

Celeste Brackett Newcomer (June 12, 1871 – February 19, 1951) was an American educator, bank director, and clubwoman based in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia.

Early life

Celeste Elizabeth Brackett was born in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, the daughter of Nathan Cook Brackett (1836–1910) and Nancy Louise Wood (1842–1936). Her parents moved from Maine to West Virginia under the care of the New England Freewill Baptist Home Mission Society after the American Civil War, to set up freedmen schools and other services, and in 1867 Rev. Nathan Cook Brackett became first president of Storer College, a teacher training and vocational school serving Black students.[1][2] She graduated from Hillandale College in Michigan, where she also met her husband, a fellow Hillsdale graduate.[3]

Career

After college, Newcomer taught domestic science,[4] covering cookery and home nursing, to women students at Storer College.[5] She worked alongside her parents, her husband, two aunts, and her sister Mary Brackett Robertson.[2][6] She was also president of the local chapter of the Women's Christian Temperance Union,[7] co-founded the Bolivar Woman's Club,[8][9][10] and served on the board of directors for the Bank of Harpers Ferry.[11]

Personal life

Celeste Brackett married minister and fellow teacher John Curtin Newcomer in 1894.[12] They had four children, Mary Louise (1896–1999), Daniel (1899–1918), Lionel (1903–1988),[13] and John Nathan (1914–1992). Her son Daniel died from measles and pneumonia, while training at an army aviation camp in Texas during World War I.[14] She was widowed in 1937, and after several years of illness,[15] she died in 1951,[16] at a rest home in Hillsboro, Virginia, aged 79 years. The campus house she owned from 1929 to 1944 is now known as the Bird-Brady House, now on the grounds of the Harpers Ferry National Park.[17]

References

  1. ↑ Kennedy-Nolle, Sharon D. (2015-05-04). Writing Reconstruction: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the Postwar South. UNC Press Books. ISBN 978-1-4696-2108-1.
  2. 1 2 Newcomer, John C.; Newcomer, Thomas W.; Dungan, Anne Newcomer; Dungan, Gary (December 2017). "Redemption of a Race: Rev. Nathan Brackett and the Founding of Storer College". Jefferson County Historical Society Magazine. 83: 17–22.
  3. ↑ Hillsdale College; Hillsdale College Alumni Association (1908). Third record of the Alumni Association of Hillsdale College. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Hillsdale, Mich. : Hillsdale Standard. pp. 35, 165 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ↑ Allyson Perry (2014), "Country Schoolgirls: A Study of Rural Women and the Rise of Public Education, 1820-1914". Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 452.
  5. ↑ The Free Baptist Woman's Missionary Society, 1873-1921. Princeton Theological Seminary Library. Providence, R.I. : The Society. 1922. p. 31 – via Internet Archive.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  6. ↑ Powers, Nick (October 26, 2017). "The Legacy of Storer College (1867-1955), Part 1". The Museum of the Shenandoah Valley. Archived from the original on 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2021-05-30.
  7. ↑ "Bolivar and Harpers Ferry". Shepherdstown Register. 1913-11-13. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "Charters Recently Issued in State". Hinton Daily News. 1926-01-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ↑ "Heads Woman's Club at Harpers Ferry". Harrisburg Telegraph. 1936-04-11. p. 12. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ↑ "Bolivar". The News. 1938-01-20. p. 11. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ "First Woman Named". Harrisburg Telegraph. 1930-01-13. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ "Married". Shepherdstown Register. 1894-05-03. p. 2. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ↑ "Obituary for Lionel E. Newcomer (Aged 85)". The Morning Call. 1988-06-24. p. 30. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ↑ "The Death Record". Shepherdstown Register. 1918-02-14. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Among the Sick". The News. 1949-06-06. p. 8. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ↑ "Bolivar". The News. 1951-03-02. p. 3. Retrieved 2021-05-30 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ↑ Mark Barron, "Bird-Brady House", Historic American Buildings Survey, National Park Service; page 6.
  • Elise Schiller (April 23, 2020). "Uncle Danny 3: Danny Enlists" Elise Schiller, a blog post in a family history series about Celeste Brackett Newcomer's son Daniel, who died during World War I
  • Dawne Raines Burke, An American Phoenix: A History of Storer College from Slavery to Desegregation, 1865-1955 (Pittsburgh, PA: Geyer Printing 2006)
  • Catherin Baldau, “To Emancipate the Mind and Soul” Storer College 1867-1955 (Harpers Ferry Park Association 2017).
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