BLEDSOE-HERRICK FAMILY

Sophia McIlvaine Bledsoe, editor, author, and the eldest child of Albert Taylor and Harriet (Coxe) Bledsoe, was born March 26, 1837 in Gambier, Ohio. Though largely self-taught, she received her early education in a boarding school conducted by her aunt, Margaret Coxe . After the age of eleven she grew up in academic communities, her father being a mathematics professor first at the University of Mississippi and later at the University of Virginia. In June 1860 she married Reverend James Burton Herrick and moved to his mission parish in New York City . In 1868, unable to accept her husband's social views, which were leading him to the Oneida Community, Sophia assumed the responsibility of supporting their three children. She joined her father in Baltimore, first heading his girls' school (1868-1872), then serving as associate editor of The Southern Review (1874-1878). In 1879 she became an assistant editor for Scribner's Monthly, continuing with its successor, Century Magazine, until her retirement in 1906. SBH died in 1919.

From the guide to the Papers, 1750 (1819-1954) 1964, (Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute)