Susannah Thankful Smith was a student at Troy Female Seminary from 1849 to 1852, a pivotal time in history. Women were beginning to advocate for the right to vote, Troy was one of the most prosperous cities in the country, and Emma Hart Willard had ensured that there was a place for young women to get an excellent education. Susannah was right in the thick of it.
When Madame Willard presented her Plan for Improving Female Education to the New York State Legislature in 1819, she presented as one of the reasons women needed this education the notion that “if the female character be raised, it must inevitably raise that of the other sex,” and thus her plan promised to “elevate the whole character of the community.” Susannah Smith Morrissey was the embodiment of that promise.
John Morrissey was an uneducated, “barefoot and belligerent” boy, as Susannah once described him. He was known for nothing more than fighting and causing trouble in the streets of Troy and New York City. He was engaged in the illegal sport of bare-knuckle boxing and excelled at it. To anyone watching from the outside, he didn’t show much promise. But Susannah Smith loved him and knew he could be more.
The two met when they were youngsters. She was the daughter of Captain Levi Smith of the luxurious riverboat The Empire of Troy, and he was a stowaway and occasional laborer on the boat. She was a part of respectable society, and he was a criminal, gang leader, and gambler. After the two married, she set out to help John become the man she thought he could be.
In an 1879 newspaper interview, Susannah described the rigor with which she educated her husband. She established a daily routine of studying both basic reading and writing, as well as the speeches of great men and the news of the day. Her goal was that her husband would be so well-educated as to be worthy of serving in Congress. Not only did Susannah achieve that goal, her husband became the most successful of men: two-term Congressman, two-term New York State Senator, founder of the Saratoga Race Course, and The Clubhouse in Congress Park in Saratoga, a world-class gambling house now known as the Canfield Casino. She transformed the “bare-foot and belligerent” John Morrissey into an educated leader among men. In doing so, Susannah was one of many women who fulfilled Emma Hart Willard’s promise to the New York State legislature: to elevate the character of the other sex and of the entire community.
During their lives, Susannah and John Morrissey were considered royalty. She was seen traveling in carriages gilded with gold and pulled by horses gifted to her by Commodore Vanderbilt. Highly respected in her community, stories in the newspapers told of her generosity toward the less fortunate. However, by the time John died in 1878 at the Adelphi Hotel in Saratoga, his debts outweighed his assets, and Susannah was left penniless. Rather than despair, she went to work at the collar factory in Troy, as many other women in her position had done before her. As she fell ill and couldn’t work, those who remembered her tried to raise funds to help care for her. At the time of her death in 1898, she was buried with her husband at St. Peter’s Catholic Cemetery in Troy, but no funds were available to inscribe her name on the Morrissey monument.
More than 125 years after Susannah's passing, Saratoga Race Course historian and Front Stretch Tour Guide Lawrence Wilder happened upon the Morrissey monument while walking the cemetery with his dog Enzo. He started digging into the Morrissey story and quickly became enthralled with it. Through a series of contacts with others interested in the Morrissey legacy, Mr. Wilder made it his goal to ensure that Susannah’s memory was honored.
So it was that on a sunny summer day in July, the mayors of Saratoga and Troy and representatives from the Adelphi Hotel, Emma Willard School, and the National Racing Hall of Fame and Museum gathered alongside Uncle Sam and Saratoga Race Course icons to talk about the Morrissey legacy and unveil the inscription that would set Susannah’s memory in stone alongside her husband’s.
Over 170 years after Susannah Morrissey left Troy Female Seminary, Emma Willard School still fosters in each young woman a love of learning, the habits of an intellectual life, and the character, moral strength, and qualities of leadership to serve and shape her world. Today you will find students from over 30 countries and 20 states, in addition to local students like Susannah, gathering right here in Troy, their hearts and minds set on experiencing the growth and joy of discovery that generations of women have found on the heights of Mount Ida.
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