In the 1922 edition of Cubberley's History of Education we find this: "In 1793 Katy Ferguson's School for the Poor was opened in New York, and this was followed by an organization of New York women for the extension of secular instruction among the poor."

So meagre were opportunities for education of any sort for the poor that this effort is given significant place in the early beginnings of American education. The Sunday School movement, originated by John Wesley and worked out in England by Raikes in 1780, had two years previous made a start in Philadelphia. Katy Ferguson, with no knowledge of the Raikes' movement, with scant material, and with no preparation save her piety and her warm mother's heart, gave to New York City its first Sunday School; and because Sunday Schools at first gave secular as well as religious instruction, her name is recorded with other early American educators.

For the fact that Catherine Ferguson was an ex-slave, we are indebted to Lossing's Eminent Americans, published in 1883. She was well known and highly respected in New York City. The accompanying cut is from a daguerrotype "taken in 1850 at the instance of Lewis Tappan, Esq., and later owned by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher."

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It was in about 1774 that Catherine Williams was born on a schooner. Her mother, a slave from Virginia, was being sent to a new owner in New York when she gave birth to the little girl who would soon be known as Katy. That child would show what a person with determination and generosity and very little else can accomplish.

At an early age, Katy’s mother taught her what she knew about Christian scripture, and it made a deep impression on her. Even after the two were separated, when Katy was eight, the child went to church services and became a member of the Murray Street Church in New York City. She was not, however, taught to read and write.

When she was sixteen, Katy was purchased by a white abolitionist, who gave her half of her $400 purchase price as a wage for one year’s work. A merchant named Divee Bethume helped her get together the other half and, by the time she was eighteen, she was free. Almost immediately, she got married and began to have children. Both of the babies she gave birth to died when they were infants. Her husband died not long after the children.

In the meantime, Katy had begun to make a living as a caterer and as a launderer of lace and other fine fabrics. But she was not satisfied with her modest financial success. Katy Ferguson had other concerns. She lived in a poor neighborhood near an almshouse. All around her were children whose lives must have wrenched her heart.

In 1793, when she was little more than a child herself, Ferguson started a Sunday school. She took forty-eight children into her home once a week to give them lessons in scripture and in the practical skills of life. She also did her best to find them homes.

Soon, the pastor of her own church, Dr. John M. Mason, heard about Ferguson’s work and offered her space in his basement. He also provided assistants who could provide the basic education that she, still unable to read and write, could not. Under Ferguson’s supervision, the Murray Street Sabbath School continued for forty years. It was New York’s first Sunday School.

Katy Ferguson died of cholera in New York in 1854. In 1920, the city of New York opened a home for unwed mothers and named it the Katy Ferguson Home.

Tag: Cathrine Ferguson