The Remarkable Life and Career of Ellen Swallow Richards: Pioneer in Science and Technology

Chapter 2

Westford Ho

“What good does a higher education do a woman? Can she make a better pudding for it?”

~ Anonymous

Moving day meant saying good-bye to the animals. Except for the two horses that would go with the family to pull their heavy wagon to the village of Westford, the animals that had shared Ellen’s childhood with her would be left behind.

Peter, Fanny, and Ellen made countless trips in and out of the farmhouse carrying furniture, bedding, pots and pans, tools, and precious books. They packed as much as was possible onto their wagon. Some of the contents of the homestead would remain there for the next Swallows who would move in. Ellen left behind the wooden doll bed that she loved so that her younger Swallow cousins could enjoy it.

The wagon rumbled away from the farmhouse, the cemetery, and the pastures. It jounced over the hilly countryside and through the pinewoods. Although Westford was only ten miles away, life there would be very different for sixteen-year-old Ellen and her parents. The wagon clattered and rattled toward their destination, and the first thing that Ellen spotted in her new town was the bell tower on top of Westford Academy, the school she would soon attend. Paul Revere had cast the bell, along with a handsome weather vane. His son John had studied at that school.

Before the move, Peter had traveled to Westford and arranged to open a general store on the village green, conveniently across from the Academy. When the Swallows rolled into the small ...