Sophia Fowler Gallaudet

Sophia Fowler Gallaudet (March 20 1798– May 13 1877), was the wife of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. As the founding matron of the school that became Gallaudet University, she played an important role in Deaf history, even playing a key role in lobbying Congressmen in the effort to establish Gallaudet (then the "National Deaf-Mute College"). She was appointed to be the first matron of the Columbia Institution on May 30, 1857 and held the position for nine years, until August 1, 1866.

Her parents' names were Miner Fowler and Rachel Hall. She was born deaf, near the town of Guilford, Connecticut and first attended school at age 19, starting (along with her sister Parnel) at the new school for the Deaf in Hartford in 1817 and continuing her studies until the Spring of 1821.

She married Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet on August 29, 1821 and had eight children: Thomas H. (1822-1902) , Sophia (1824-1865), Peter Wallace (1827-1903), Jane Hall (1827-1853), William Lewis (1829-1887), Alice Cogswell (1833-1891), Catherine "Kate" Fowler (1831-1917), Edward Miner (1837-1917).

References

"Sophia Gallaudet," by Amos Draper, http://saveourdeafschools.org/sophia_gallaudet.pdf

Gallaudet family history, http://saveourdeafschools.org/gallaudet_family_history.pdf

Columbia Institution Ninth Annual Report, http://saveourdeafschools.org/columbia_institution_1866.pdf

Columbia Institution Twenty-First Annual Report, http://saveourdeafschools.org/columbia_institution_1878.pdf