Normal-School Educator

Youth.

Born in Perry Center, New York, on 4 October 1823, Edward Sheldon worked on his father's farm as a young boy. He attended the private Perry Center Academy and enrolled in 1844 at Hamilton College. When he was overcome with an attack of pleurisy, Sheldon was forced to withdraw from college in 1847 without having received his degree. He worked several months with the noted horticulturists Charles and Andrew Jackson Downing at Newburgh, New York. Sheldon then tried his hand briefly at the nursery business, but after disappointment with that venture and with his attempt to find employment in New York City, Sheldon returned to the upstate in 1848. His concern for the plight of the poor led him to establish in November of that year the Orphan and Free School Association in Oswego. He attempted, unsuccessfully, to convince local leaders of the importance of making...