Edna Dean Proctor

Edna Dean Proctor became governess to the young Bowen children in 1854. She was twenty-five and a teacher at Woodstock Academy when Henry Bowen offered her the position. He wrote that “Mrs. Bowen and myself both wish to have you feel if you come into our family that you are one of us.  We wish to treat you as a companion and friend . . . .” In addition to her role as governess, she was an author and an editor at The Independent. She is best known for her poetry, especially in support of abolition and the Union cause. Response of the Colored Soldiers and The Hundred Days’ Men were published in 1864.