Nancy Sherrard (April, 1826 – March 10, 1914) was elected principal of the Washington Female Seminary in 1874. At the time of her election she was vice principal of the Seminary in Steubenville, from which she was graduated in 1851. Queer Places:
Washington Female Seminary, 143 E Maiden St, Washington, PA 15301
Union Cemetery
Steubenville, Jefferson County, Ohio, USA
Nancy Sherrard (April, 1826 – March 10, 1914) was elected principal of the Washington Female Seminary in 1874. At the time of her election she was vice principal of the Seminary in Steubenville, from which she was graduated in 1851.
Nancy Sherrard belonged to a family of teachers and preachers. Her father, Robert Andrew Sherrard of Steubenville, was a man of much originality and his journals, edited by his son, the Reverend Thomas J. Sherrard of Chambersburg, were an interesting reread of pioneer life in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania. Sherrard taught at Blairsville Seminary with it was first opened in 1851. In 1856 she accepted a position in the Sayre Institute, Lexington, KY. Sherrard was then for several years vice principal of Bellewood Seminary in Kentucky. At the break of the Civil War she was teaching at Lakeport, AR, in the family of a wealthy planter and large slave owner. On the fall of Fort Sumter, and when it became evident that the war was worsening, she moved back North. The famous Morgan raid was near Sherrard’s home in Steubenville, and she assisted her father in putting his horses in a place of safety, and went on foot to warn their neighbors of the approach of the enemy. Sherrard taught in Brooklyn, NY, and held many positions of honor previous to her moving to Washington, PA, in 1874. When she took charge the school was at the only ebb-tide it has ever had, but her strong and vigorous policy soon made itself felt, and from that day until her retirement in 1897 the school continued to grow in both power and popularity. Sherrard never married and her mother and sisters made their home with her in the Seminary, and until her death in 1889, her invalid sister, Sarah Sherrard, was the light and joy of the school and a most potent influence for good to the many girls who went to her with their joys and sorrows.
Nancy Sherrard died in 1914. She is buried in the Sherrard Mausoleum in Union Cemetery, Steubenville.
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