Fiske, Fidelia, 1816-1864

Fidelia Fiske was born on May 1, 1816 in Shelburne, Massachusetts. She was the daughter of Rufus Fiske and Hannah Woodward Fiske. Fiske was educated in Shelburne district schools and spent one term at Franklin Academy. She taught in Shelburne's district schools before entering Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1839. Her education was interrupted in 1840-1841 while she recovered from typhoid fever. She returned in the fall of 1841 and graduated in 1842. After teaching for a year at the Seminary, she convinced her family that despite her poor health she was going to accompany Dr. Justin Perkins to Persia. She sailed from Boston on March 1, 1843. In Orumiyeh, Fiske was in charge of founding a girls' boarding school. The school continued to grow under Fiske's supervision from its opening in October of 1843 until her failing health forced her to return to United States in 1858. In the United States she was a teacher at Mount Holyoke between 1859-1864, until her death of "general inflammation of the lymphatic vessels" on July 26, 1864, in Shelburne, Massachusetts; she was forty-eight years old.

From the guide to the Fiske papers MS 0536., 1841-1866., (Mount Holyoke College Archives and Special Collections)