By Walter Lunt
In the early years of the 20th century, some residents who lived in the Windham
Center neighborhood called her “Old Mrs. Wilson.” They were half right. She was
elderly by this time, but her real name was Abba Louisa Goold Woolson. She was
born in the stylish colonial house with the Greek Revival wraparound porch and
attached ell and tower on Windham Center Road near the Nash Road, known today
as the historic Goold House. Old Mrs. Woolson had developed an odd reputation
since returning to her childhood home in the late 1800s.
The late Windham historian Kay Soldier once inquired of elderly Windham
residents who remembered Woolson; it seems the gossipy onlookers found Woolson
to be an “odd duck” who lit up the neighborhood with a huge bonfire every April
22 in honor of Queen Isabella’s birthday. And, they claimed, she would
occasionally “go out back (to) the family cemetery and open her husband’s
casket.”Strong willed and independent,
Abba Woolson helped lead an effort
to reform women's dress codes of
the 1800s, which she felt were
unnecessary and unhealthy. Many
historians rank her among the
distinctive Women of the Century.
She was born at Windham Center
in 1838 and published books and
articles into the 20th century.
COURTESY OF
ARCHIVESPACE.UNE.EDU
Born Abba Louisa Goold in 1838 in Windham, she was the second of eight children
to William and Nabby Goold; her father was first a tailor, then represented
Windham in the Maine legislature and Senate and later in life wrote history
books, including Portland in the Past (The Windham Eagle – Nov. 5,
2021).
Abba graduated head of her class at the Portland School for Girls in 1856. That
same year, she married the school’s principal, Moses Woolson; she was 18; he
was 17 years her senior. The couple lived in Portland where Abba began writing
poetry and teaching at Portland High School.
From 1862 to 1887, Moses answered the call for principalships in several cities
including Cincinnati, Ohio; Concord, New Hampshire and Boston, Massachusetts.
Abba, meanwhile, pursued poetry and began publishing essays. She became
Professor of Belles Lettres at the Mount Auburn Young Ladies Institute in
Haverhill, Massachusetts, taught higher mathematics and Latin while assisting
her husband at Concord High School and delivered lectures before various
literary societies on such diverse topics as English Literature, the historical
plays of Shakespeare and Spanish history. In 1871, Mrs. Woolson traveled to
Utah to interview Brigham Young for the Boston Journal (later the Boston
Herald).
By the early 1870s, Woolson’s essays were being published in book form with
each volume based on a theme. Her first was Woman in American Society, a
reflection of Woolson’s interest and concern for women’s emancipation. It
examined and critiqued certain cultural situations that placed constraints on
women. It drew favorable reviews nationwide. A follow-up volume titled Dress
Reform argued that women’s layered and cumbersome clothing of the time,
especially corsets, were both unnecessary and unhealthful. The book featured
essays written by women physicians, with recommendations for reform, such as
bloomers, or a two-piece garment comprised of a shirt and pantlet, which became
known as the emancipation suit. According to Woolson, “…the bloomer costume had
been resisted, not because it was unfashionable, but because it had originated
in America and not Paris.”
Woolson traveled extensively, both in America and Europe. One nation in
particular became a favorite topic, even an obsession: Spain, and the Queen of
Castile, Isabella I (1474 to 1505). Woolson visited the nation on two occasions
in the 1880s and 1890s. Enthusiasm for its history and geography prompted her founding
of the Castilian Club of Boston to promote the study of Spain. Isabella was a
strong-willed and powerful queen of Spain as Europe transitioned from the
Middle Ages to the age of the Renaissance. Woolson wrote, lectured, and
generally celebrated the queen for the rest of her life.
In the late 1880s, Abba Woolson served as president and co-founder of the
Massachusetts Moral Education Association, subject matter that was near and
dear to her heart – it sought to address certain social issues that led women
into prostitution.
Moses Woolson died in 1896. Abba lived on for another 25 years. She returned to
the old homestead of her birth in Windham.
As was the custom of those early times, private burial grounds were often
created near the family farm. Moses, who was 74 at the time of his death, was
placed in the Goold family tomb located on a ridge behind the historic house.
He joined veterans of several wars and several generations of the Goold family.
In 1912, a most unusual funeral procession took place there. It seems Abba kept
company with two elderly lady relatives. And with them, a beloved cat – who
died that summer. It was decided that the cat, named Buffy Greenleaf Clarke,
would be interred in the Goold family cemetery amidst grand pomp and ceremony.
Invitations were distributed – friends and relatives arrived dressed in
appropriate funeral attire – bouquets of flowers graced the beloved kitty’s
headstone – Buffy’s casket was lined in pink satin and the tiny feline rested
with a pink rose between her paws. Funereal protocol was expected of the full
procession. However, it is said that the three elderly mourners became “miffed”
when several of the gentlemen attendees failed to remove their hats during the
solemn event.
It is likely that this funeral exercise, the annual bonfires on the birthday of
Queen Isabella and the rumors of Abba’s visits to her late husband’s casket all
combined to encourage the neighborhood to form unfair judgments of the elderly
educator, writer and lecturer.
Abba Louisa Goold Woolson passed away in 1921, aged 83, and was interred beside
her husband, Moses, in the Goold family tomb on the high ridge behind the old
family homestead on Windham Center Road. They had no children.
According to the respected website geni.com, “Mrs. Woolson (had) a remarkably
retentive memory and a wide knowledge of literature and history, and is
probably the ablest woman that Maine has ever produced.”
So, as a matter of historical record, here’s to “Old Mrs. Wilson” – Windham is
proud of you.
Next time, an epilogue to our recently concluded series on the Cumberland
& Oxford Canal. <
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