The Extraordinary Times is on a mission to explore the cultural and historical landscape of southwestern Ohio. This week, we’re excited to catch up with historian Jennifer Morris.
Morris earned her PhD at Miami University in 2004. Since then, she has taught at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati, Ohio and is affiliated with the Public History graduate program at Northern Kentucky University. She serves on the Executive Board of the Midwest World History Association and the Village Life Outreach Project, and is currently working on a biography of Priscilla Parker, co-founder of the Clermont Academy in 1839, which admitted both sexes and all races. * How have you been keeping this past pandemic year? The 2020-2021 academic year proved challenging, but rewarding. My university adopted a hybrid online course delivery format, so I spent a third of my class time in Zoom meetings while managing the rest via the online platform. It worked better than expected, and actually helped me to get creative and stay organized. I was also able to continue to research my current project on line, and take a course in Public History at Northern Kentucky University as well. As I reflected on the year, I decided it had been incredibly productive and fulfilling, and I state this with the full knowledge that I was very, very fortunate to be able to work from home and not contract the Covid-19 virus. So many of my students had to work to help support their families, and they worked 60-plus hours a week in addition to their academic responsibilities. They were truly extraordinary. * Who was Priscilla Parker, and how did you become interested in telling her story? Priscilla Mulloy Ring Parker was the co-founder of the Clermont Academy located in New Richmond, Ohio in 1839. I first became interested in her when I enrolled in the Masters in Public History program at Northern Kentucky University several years ago and learned about her as part of the excavation of the school site. Parker, who was born in Maine and migrated to Ohio in 1816 after the death of her first husband, Benjamin Ring, first stayed with friends in the area prior to meeting her future husband, Daniel Parker. Based on what I’ve learned about her so far, she was an incredible force both in her family and in Southwest Ohio. She and Daniel had eight children, owned a farm, and started the Academy together. Priscilla also owned her own oilcloth making business and she took on apprentices and was the single sales force for the product. One of my favorite stories about her was recalled by her eldest son, whom she took with her when she loaded up the oilcloths for sale each year. Priscilla travelled the area with her young son, selling her products and acquiring the items her family and household would need for the coming year. He noted that it was a special journey for him to accompany her. * What things do you most admire (or find interesting) about Priscilla Parker? There are so many things I admire about Priscilla Parker, it’s hard to find a place to begin. When she left Maine, she left behind an extended family who could have helped her after the death of her husband, with whom she had also had a son. That she chose to make the trip to Ohio with her infant son alone speaks to her courage, and that she somehow went on after losing her son as well is testament to her strength. Situated as she was on the US frontier, it’s clear that, as a woman, there were far more opportunities for her than there would have been had she remained on the east coast. Her roles included business owner, entrepreneur, teacher, school administrator, abolitionist, innkeeper, and temperance advocate to name a few. Her marriage to Daniel also defied convention, as she ran the farm and kept the books while Daniel pursued the “life of the mind.” Despite their religious differences, they clearly had a great deal in common both morally and ethically, and their relationship supported a family, a school, its students, and the wider community in which they resided. * How does your work on Parker tie in to other new research on abolitionism in southwestern Ohio? The work on Priscilla Parker will augment the scholarship and other work currently under way about the region of Southwest Ohio and the abolition sentiment that grew there. It’s becoming quite clear that the both the abolition movement and participation in the underground railroad that occurred in Southwest Ohio will be a powerful part of the narrative, and I’m fortunate to have found Priscilla Parker and to be able to tell her story. * Any other projects on the go or in the future? Other projects center around the same region, and into Northern Kentucky, where it is clear that there are many stories of the experience of enslaved persons that can be restored to history. There are a wealth of projects in the works at the moment, and I’m hoping to be a part of several of them!
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AuthorMatthew Smith, PhD (History). Public Programs at Miami University Regionals. Historian of Appalachia, the Ohio Valley, & the early American republic. Archives
February 2024
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