The following article first appeared in the Hartford Current in 1940. Today, the strong culture of the School that was nurtured by our founder, Lillias Rumsey Sanford, endures. Louise Dunn, great-grandaughter of Lillias provided the article.
Sunday, May 5, 1940
THE HARTFORD COURANT MAGAZINE
THREE
Her Boys Were Numbered in the Hundreds For 40 Years, the Late Mrs. Lillias Rumsey Sanford Was a Second Mother to Youths at Rumsey Hall, Cornwall By DONALD W. SMITH When Mrs. Lillias Rumsey Sanford, nationally known woman educator and founder of Rumsey Hall, a boarding school for young boys at Cornwall, died on April 16, last, in her ninetieth year, hundreds of boys and grown men throughout the country were profoundly affected. It is safe to say they were not thinking of the facts, remarkable in themselves, that she founded the school when she was 50 years old, and had never taught a day in her life. No, it was more probable that they were thinking, wistfully, of the stately forceful woman who, despite a rather awesome appearance on the surface of things, could feel as keenly as they did when victory or defeat attended their lessons and sports. As you talk to Mrs. John Sanford, her daughter-in-law, who was associated
with the late founder for the past 21 years prior to her death, and who is now carrying on in the traditions she moulded, it seems as if her passing had not the note of finality about it one usually associates with death itself. One learns that Mrs. Lillias Sanford and Rumsey Hall were synonymous for the past 40 years, and that her dominant character, coupled with her love and understanding of the boys who came under her guidance, will always remain an integral part of the school in the opinion of those that knew her. The late Mrs. Sanford’s success in founding and continuing Rumsey Hall for two score years, the last eight of them in blindness, is all the more remarkable when it is realized that she did not come from a family with pedagogical leanings. Her father was a prominent manufacturer in Seneca Falls, New York, and the child Lillias grew up in an atmosphere of men who were industrialists. The late Mrs. Sanford attended Vassar, and was a member of the class of 1872, but she did not graduate. Mrs. Sanford was to have been a special guest of honor at Vassar’s seventy-fifth anniversary reunion this coming June. After her college career, she married the late LeonThis early photograph of Mrs. Lillias Sanford was taken ard G. Sanford on the steps of Rumsey Hall about the time she moved her school of 23 boys from Seneca Falls, N.Y., to Cornwall in and her life was 1907. She was to spend 33 of the happiest years of her life here.
A comparatively recent camera study of the late Mrs. Lillias Rumsey Sanford, founder of Rumsey Hall, a successful boarding school for young boys in Cornwall. This remarkable and nationally known woman educator did not start her school until she was 50 years of age, and had never taught a day in her life.
like that of any other young married woman of her position in life. It was in 1900 that some of Mrs. Sanford’s friends approached her with the idea of starting a school for girls. Mrs. Sanford liked the thought of operating a school, but she knew next to nothing about small girls. But boys were different. She had always had a soft spot in her heart for them. She had several small nephews of her own, and understood them thoroughly. So she decided to start a school for young boys in her father’s large home at Seneca Falls. Mrs. Sanford incorporated it for $2500. She commenced with 10 boys, ranging in age from six to 15. The idea was so successful that by 1907, she began to cast around for larger quarters in a more rural atmosphere. Finally, she decided upon the present location in Cornwall. The lovely countryside, with its outlying hills, appealed to her. She brought her 23 boys to Cornwall, and renamed the school Rumsey Hall.
It is interesting to note, in passing, that Frances Folsom Cleveland, now Mrs. Preston and then wife of the late President Grover Cleveland, was one of Mrs. Sanford’s close friends, and one of the original incorporators of Rumsey Hall. Later, however, Mrs. Sanford bought back the stock with which she incorporated, and thus became sole owner of Rumsey Hall. Although she never taught in her own school, being concerned with the task of administration, and that of looking after “her boys,” she knew how to obtain excellent teachers. Louis H. Schutte, present headmaster, and David G. Barr, assistant headmaster, have been with the school for 34 and 26 years, respectively, and it is to these men that the late Mrs. Sanford always gave deserving credit for the high scholastic standing maintained at Rumsey Hall. Because there were two Mrs. Sanfords at Rumsey Hall for years, the boys differentiated between the two women by referring to the late Mrs.
Lillias Rumsey Sanford as “Mrs. L. R.,” and the present head of the school as “Mrs. John.” Mrs. L. R., to use the term by which her boys best knew her, always tempered a strict sense of justice and discipline with a rare sympathetic understanding. She easily dominated everyone within her world which was Rumsey Hall. A boy might inwardly quake upon being summoned by Mrs. L. R., if his report card showed poor marks for the period, but he always felt an appreciative glow from the help and understanding she gave him. She might be stern in her disapproval of a mark in some subject, but she was never short on the encouragement she gave a boy. A practice she maintained throughout her long career was that of sending a letter of remembrance to every boy who had ever attended her school on his birthday. As the years passed, her birthday correspondence, of necessity, grew voluminous, but she never relinquished the habit. The first thing she did each morning upon arising was to get out her birthday book, and see to whom she would write to that day. Up until 10 years ago, Mrs. L. R. did all her own bookkeeping, and attended to the writing of all letters to parents. She did it all in longhand, and often stayed at her desk until midnight. Eight years ago her eyesight failed her, and she spent the rest of her life in blindness. But this did not stop her from taking as keen an interest as ever in the boys of her school, and she kept in touch with their records through her secretary and Mrs. John Sanford. In the early days of Rumsey Hall Mrs. L. R. dressed her boys in dinner jackets on special occasions, and at one time the boys were distinguished by the Etonian collars they wore. But this custom was abandoned when this type of collar went out of style. The late Mrs. Sanford was always on hand to say good-bye to a boy who was leaving for a visit or vacation period, and she was always on the front steps of Rumsey Hall to welcome him back again. She paid a great deal of attention to a boy’s personal appearance, and many a man of today can remember her when she gave his tie a motherly pat, or passed a critical eye over the way his hair
was combed. Prior to her blindness, she was always down to breakfast with the boys. She knew them intimately, all their little failings and weaknesses. She could be gruff upon occasion, but a strong sense of humor tempered her strictness. Rumsey Hall has ever been proud of the way in which Mrs. L. R. insisted that her boys use correct grammar, In a picturesque setting among the hills of Cornwall stands Rumsey Hall, where the late Mrs. Sanford moulded the lives of successive generations of growing boys. They profoundly mourn her whether in school death which occurred on April 16 of this year. work or correspondence with home. was as carefree from worldly matters of subjects. She was never content Even after the white-haired, stocky, as any of the boys on the field. And with an incomplete knowledge of but erect Mrs. L. R. became totally if Rumsey Hall lost she was as down- anything. If she was not sure of a blind, she covered it up in a manner in-the-mouth about it as any stripling particular subject, she left no stone characteristic of her. Those who did on the squad. Mrs. L. R. was always unturned until the matter had been not know of her infirmity were only interested in whether the Navy team clarified. made aware of it by noticing how had won, especially over Army. Her Very few knew that she composed the she groped for their hands upon a son, the late John Sanford, attended Rumsey Hall school song. Mr. Barr, leave-taking. Her eyes never lost their Annapolis, and rose to the rank of in tribute to her, played it softly at her direct, square-in-the face glance. a commander before his untimely funeral. She was also intensely paHer influence in helping out in all death 21 years ago. It was at that triotic and was especially fond of the sorts of ways was not restricted to time that “Mrs. John,” the present song “America the Beautiful.” her boys. The teachers that served head, came to assist her already fa- Yes, Mrs. Lillias Sanford and Rumsey under her were considerably in her mous mother-in-law in managing the Hall were one. You never thought debt. Perhaps this is best explained school. of one without the other. It is true by a portion of a letter of condolence The late Mrs. Sanford was not con- she dominated everyone in the ena former teacher at Rumsey Hall sent tent merely to write a birthday letter tire school, but it was a domination to Mrs. John Sanford, shortly after to each of her boys, no matter where blended with an affection that all Mrs. L. R.’s death. It said in part: they were. She followed all their who knew her will miss more than “Since Wednesday, I have read the careers, and was as proud when she words can tell. newspaper obituary, and to one who heard one of her former boys was a Stern taskmaster that she was, all the knew her as employer and friend it dad in his own right, as if the new boys loved her. A friendly pat on the seemed entirely inadequate. There child were her own. head or an arm thrown across a little was no hint of those qualities that She was extremely generous in a shoulder meant more to them than dominate my memories of her, no quiet way, as many a boy and adult the promise of an extra play period hint of the forceful character or the can attest. Not long before her death for good work done. underlying humanness. And sudden- one of her very old friends passed on. Perhaps the feelings of her family, ly I realized that a printed obituary is She asked the widow to name her that just grew and grew as the years not her monument.” late husband’s favorite charity. And went by, can best be summed up by a “Along with the education of hun- then she sent a check to the worthy few lines of a letter written by a fordreds of young boys, she launched cause, rather than spend the mon- mer pupil, when he learned of Mrs. dozens of young men on teaching ey on flowers. When Mrs. Sanford L.R.’s death: It reads in part: “It is careers; and various as must be their died, this widow reciprocated in a impossible for me to express how memories of her there will be, I am like manner. She knew the dominant much Mrs. Sanford meant to me sure, one memory common to all: spirit of Rumsey Hall would have while I attended Rumsey and how She was a definite force in their lives. liked that more than anything else. much I valued her friendship and adThis is her monument.” Those who know her will tell you vice after I left. To me she was the A strikingly handsome woman, she Mrs. L. R. was modest to a degree spirit and life of Rumsey Hall and I was the grand dame type in her later that almost amounted to shyness, will always remember her as a great years. It was not uncommon to see concerning her own good works friend and advisor who, in spite of her rooting for a boy at a football or accomplishments. She was re- many just causes, never at any time game, or some other competitive markably well read and could talk lost patience with a rather trying and sport. During those moments she brilliantly on an inexhaustible fund unappreciative student.”