Supporting Her Family

Laurette Goodrich became deaf as a result of a childhood disease when she was a year old. When she was 10 years old she left her home in Chatham (now East Hampton) to attend school at the American School for the Deaf from 1830 to 1834. Young women learned sewing skills and there was a tailor shop on campus until 1892. It is most likely during her time at school that Goodrich acquired the abilities she would need in her adult life.

Many years after graduation, Laurette Goodrich met a hearing man named Samuel Warriner and they were married on February 23, 1851. Originally from New Britain, he worked as a laborer and they gave birth to a hearing son named Nathaniel in 1855. In order to support her family, Goodrich worked as a dressmaker. She advertised in the 1861 Hartford Directory and stated that she boarded at 636 Main Street, which was formerly this near location. Later they would leave New England and move to Hadley, Illinois where she continued to work as a dressmaker until her death in 1880.

Credits and Sources:

Photos courtesy of:

CT State library – Hartford 1861-1862 Directory; Ancestry.com 1860 census; ASD.