Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1855 - 1856 (Creation)
Extent
1 folder
Name of creator
Biographical history
Mary Jane Sergeant was born August 24, 1837, to Gershom Craven Sergeant and Charity Ann Howell Sergeant in Raritan Township, near Flemington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. She was in the first class of the New Jersey State Normal School, beginning October 1855, when classes were held in Trenton City Hall before the new school building opened in the next term in 1856. Her first teaching experience was in Lambertville School in 1857-1858, before graduating from the Normal School in February 1859. Afterward, she taught in Copper Hill School in Raritan Township. On March 26, 1863, she married Dr. Cornelius Wilson Larison, also an educator, as well as a physician and proponent of phonetic spelling. He founded the Seminary at Ringoes and the Academy of Science and Arts at Ringoes where Mary taught mathematics and other subjects from the 1870s to early 1900s. They had two children: Mary “Polly” L. (Blackwell), and Benjamin. Mary Jane died on April 17, 1917. Her daughter, Mary Blackwell, donated her diary to then Trenton State College during the Centennial celebrations of 1955, where it was transcribed and portions were published in The Signal newspaper.
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
The handwritten diary of Mary Jane Sergeant (Larison) contains a series of journal entries from 1855-1856 describing her experiences and studies while attending the New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton, New Jersey. The diary encompasses the first term of the Normal School and provides a glimpse into the earliest days of its opening years, highlighting the variety of subjects studied including Latin, arithmetic, climatology and cartography and reflecting theory and practice in teachers' colleges in the mid-19th century. Some entries in the latter half of the diary appear out of chronological order. The diary makes mention of the laying of the cornerstone of the first permanent building at the Normal School, the first Principal Willian Phelps, as well as several instructional texts for teachers' education of the period.