Virginia Mason
Virginia Mason's signature, 1869 (SCSU Archives)
"Normal School Examination," St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, containing Virginia Mason's culminating essay (MNHS)
"A Sad Suicide," St. Paul Daily Globe, October 10, 1884 (MNHS)
Virginia Mason was born in 1848 in Indiana. By the 1857 Minnesota census, her father, J. A., had passed away, and she had moved to St. Cloud with her mother, who went both by Jane and Juliet, and her older brothers Henry and James. They initially lived in the home of Joseph West, who may have been James’s business partner. By 1860, they had moved into their own home.
Virginia enrolled with the Third State Normal School’s first students in September 1869 and graduated with its first class on June 30, 1871. Her culminating essay, “Free, or in Bonds?,” was the last read during the ceremony. In it, she argued that an individual’s biases, including the “unquestioning acceptance of inherited creeds and codes” limit their ability to fully grasp issues like women’s suffrage, and one can only understand an idea through recognizing multiple perspectives on it. The St. Cloud Journal printed her essay in full as part of its coverage of the ceremony.
Due to a “continued lack of health,” Virginia was unable to teach after graduation and was still living with her mother as of 1875. By 1880, however, she had found a teaching job in Minneapolis, where she was one of many professionals staying in a hotel owned by Enoch and Ann Dyer. She became engaged to Bryant Coe, the son of a city alderman. On the night of July 12, 1884, Bryant was murdered in a robbery while the couple were walking on the University of Minnesota campus. Virginia fell into a deep depression and was cared for by friends while living in Alderman Coe’s home. After several attempts, she took her own life on October 29, 1884. In the St. Paul Daily Globe, Virginia was remembered as a charming, intelligent, and admirable young woman. She was buried in Minneapolis’s Lakewood Cemetery, plot 24-7-6.5.
Sources
1857 Minnesota census, Stearns County, St. Cloud, p. 34, dwelling 80, family 6; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MN1857_5, accessed July 23, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1860 U.S. census, Stearns County, Minnesota, population schedule, St. Cloud, p. 857, dwelling 193, family 143; NARA microfilm publication M653, roll 574, accessed July 23, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1870 U.S. census, Stearns County, Minnesota, population schedule, St. Cloud Ward 1, p. 234, dwelling 91, family 91; NARA microfilm publication T132, roll 11, accessed July 23, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1875 Minnesota census, Stearns County, St. Cloud, p. 193, families 262-263; Minnesota Historical Society microfilm publication MNSC_16, accessed July 23, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
1880 U.S. census, Hennepin County, Minnesota, population schedule, Minneapolis, enumeration district 242, p. 257C, dwelling 99, family 105; NARA microfilm publication T9, roll 622, accessed July 23, 2019 on Ancestry.com.
Memorial page for Virginia A Mason. (unknown–29 Oct 1884), Find A Grave Memorial no. 33386095, citing Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Hennepin County, Minnesota, USA; maintained by Erice Wilcox (contributor 47002678); accessed July 25, 2019.
“Normal School Examination: Exercises of the Graduating Class,” The St. Cloud Journal, July 6, 1871, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 23, 2019).
“Opening of the Normal School,” The St. Cloud Journal, September 23, 1869, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 16, 2019).
“A Sad Suicide,” St. Paul Daily Globe, October 31, 1884, http://www.mnhs.org/newspapers/hub (accessed July 25, 2019).
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Alumni Directory of the State Normal School, 1908,” p. 1, series 6, box 10, folder 1, Records of the St. Cloud State Alumni Association, 1874-2006, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Catalogue and Circular of the State Normal School at St. Cloud, Minnesota,” 1884-1885, p. 5, series 1, box 1, folder 1, St. Cloud State University Undergraduate Catalogs, 1869-2012+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
State Normal School at St. Cloud, “Record Book” 1869-1885, box 1, folder 1, Admission and Records Records, 1869-1939, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.
St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections, transcript index, https://www.stcloudstate.edu/library/archives/histories/transcript-index.aspx (accessed July 16, 2019).
Third State Normal School, undergraduate commencement program, 1871, series 1, box 1, folder 1, Records of St. Cloud State University Commencement, 1871-2018+, St. Cloud State University Archives and Special Collections.