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mcc-jrr_624-011
Unnamed Cemetery, 62-4 Summary Report, page 11
endeavor to acquire the method of instruction in use there, and of the open-armed hospitality extended to him by the Abbe De l'Epee at Paris, where every facility was afforded him to accomplish the purpose for which he had crossed the Atlantic. Having secured as his assistant Laurent Clerc, who had been a brilliant pupil and, later, a teacher in the Royal Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Paris, Mr. Gallaudet returned to New York August 10, 1816. These two spent the following eight months in visiting prominent places throughout the country to obtain subscriptions and to interest the general public in the cause of deaf-mute education, the accomplished deaf-mute exciting universal wonder and admiration. 4While Mr. Gallaudet was abroad, friends at home were active in forwarding the project. At the session of the General Assembly of Connecticut, held at Hartford, in May, 1816, an act of incorporation was passed in accordance with the petition of sixty-three citizens of Hartford, who, with their associates, were by it “formed into, constituted, and made a body politic and corporate by the name of the Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons, with the rights and powers usually granted to incorporations for educational purposes.” 5Under this charter the school was opened at Hartford, April 15, 1817, with seven pupils, increasing within a year to thirty-three, the first permanent school for the education of deaf-mutes in America. The inclusion of Rev. Gallaudet in this history indicates that a Nathaniel Terry had an interface with Dr.Thomas H. Gallaudet, namesake of Gallaudet University in Washington DC, a world-renowned institution for the deaf. This connection of Madison County to Gallaudet may possibly be comparable to the story of Hellen Keller in Tuscumbia. Apparently, a senior Nathaniel Terry of Connecticut helped to fund Rev. Gallaudet's travel to Europe to study how the Europeans taught their “deaf and dumb” disabled persons, and to begin the process of acquiring funding for an equivalent American institution. It should also be noted that another Madison County name, Nathan Strong was mentioned among those who met to fund Rev. Gallaudet's travels in this regard. It may be (but not proven) that our Madison County Nathan Strong was closely related to the Connecticut man of the same name, as may have been the case with the Nathaniel Terrys. The history of Gallaudet University is not presented here, but it is easily found on the internet. However, further history of the American Asylum -Hartford is presented below: 11 - (2309)