Queer Places:
Wellesley College (Seven Sisters), 106 Central St, Wellesley, MA 02481
Laurel Grove North Cemetery, 802 W Anderson St, Savannah, GA 31415
Elizabeth Bailey Hardee (September 28, 1873 – March 11, 1908) was the
daughter of William Pearson Hardee and Cornelia W. Richardone. She was educated at Wellesly College,
graduating in 1894. She was a teacher in Boston & taught mathematics at
Wellesley College in 1899 and 1900.
On March 11, 1908,
Sarah Chamberlain
Weed of Philadelphia shot and killed
Elizabeth Bailey Hardee of East Savannah, Georgia, and then committed
suicide. The two women had both attended Wellesley College, class of
1896, and then, together, founded the Laurens School, a fashionable boarding school for girls
in the Fenway district today. The bodies of the two women were found in
bed by Mrs Page, the matron of the school.
The Laurens School was
established late in 1907 by Hardee and Weed. On October 1, 1907, the
day the school opened, Weed broke down as a result of overwork, and
was committed to a sanitarium in Newton to be treated for nervous
prostration.
On March 10, 1908, Weed escaped from the sanitarium and
made her way to the school. She appeared to be badly deranged mentally.
A fruitless attempt was made to communicate with the authorities of the
sanitarium, and at length Hardee succeeded in getting Weed to
go to bed.
Hardee retired at the same time as Weed, and the
two women occupied Hardee's room. Both women were awakened by
Page at 6 A.M. and notified that they must get up if they were to catch
the 7:35 train, on which Weed was to be taken back to Newton.
Page then left them, and a few moments later the shooting occurred.
Page thinks the mention of returning to the sanitarium must have
excited and angered Weed and induced the shooting. Hardee had
been shot through the base of the brain, while there was a bullet wound
in Weed's right temple. A revolver with two chambers empty was
lying on Weed's breast. Medical Examiner Stedman, after viewing the
bodies, declared that Weed had committed suicide after having
killed Hardee.
The women had been intimate friends since their
graduation from Wellesley College, Hardee receiving her diploma in
1894, while Weed received hers a year later. Hardee was an
instructor of mathematics at Wellesley in 1899 and 1900.
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