Kendall Green at the Start

How the National College for the Deaf and Dumb Began

An unlikely series of events created the climate for Washington, D.C. to become the center of Deaf Culture in America. The first was the philanthropic interest of a wily politician and educator named Amos Kendall. The second was the availability of an ambitious young man, steeped in Deaf Culture, who was looking for a job. The third was a nation anxious to rebuild and reclaim its status after a devastating Civil War.

Amos Kendall

(1789-1869)

Amos Kendall (1789-1869) was an unlikely advocate for deaf education. An American journalist and politician, Kendall was postmaster general under President Jackson and a leading member of his "Kitchen Cabinet." As a young man, Kendall served as a tutor to Henry Clay’s children but in 1828 he changed his allegiance from Clay to Jackson and helped Jackson campaign for President. After Jackson won the election, Kendall became postmaster general, holding office until 1840.

An influential advisor to Jackson, Kendall helped shape the keys points of “Jacksonian Democracy.” In 1845, Kendall joined Samuel F. B. Morse to form the Magnetic Telegraph Company, cashing in on Morse's newly invented telegraph technology. The Magnetic Telegraph Company did so well that by 1860, Kendall was able to retire. He devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy.

In 1856, Kendall became aware of the plight of several abused deaf children in his hometown of Washington D.C.. A life long advocate for children, Kendall rescued the children and became their official guardian. In 1857, Kendall founded a school for deaf children like his new wards in Washington, DC. He donated part of his farm, Kendall Green, to serve as a campus. This two-acre lot was situated just northeast of the city limits. Using his politicaly savvy, Kendall successfully obtained funding for the school from the U.S. Congress. That same year he hired Edward Miner Gallaudet to run the school, with assistance from Gallaudet's mother Sophia.

Edward Miner Gallaudet

(1837 – 1917)

Edward Miner Gallaudet was educated at Trinity College in Hartford Connecticut. As a young man, he worked as a banker. Eventually, he left banking to join the teaching staff of the school founded by his father, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet--The Hartford School for the Deaf. teaching, he attended Trinity College in Hartford and received his masters and doctorate degrees. Fluent in sign since birth (his mother Sophia Gallaudet was deaf), Gallaudet quickly established himself as an effective teacher.

In 1857, when Gallaudet was only 20 years old, Amos Kendall hired Gallaudet as first principal of his new school for the deaf and dumb in Washington, D.C. Within 10 years of his accepting the position, President Abraham Lincoln signed a bill into law authorizing the school to award college degrees. As a result Amos Kendall's school, which would eventually become Gallaudet University, became the first college for the deaf. At the age of 21, Gallaudet married, Jane M. Fessenden with whom he had three children. After her death in 1866, He married Susan Dennison with whom he had five children. Gallaudet continued to lead the school for over 50 years, turning it into a college of national importance.

Sophia Fowler Gallaudet

(1798 – 1877)

Sophia Fowler Gallaudet was born deaf in Guilford, Connecticut. As teenagers, she and her sister Parnel attended the Hartford School for the Deaf. Here, in 1821, she married her teacher Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, with whom she had eight children. When her youngest child, Edward, was appointed head of the new school for the deaf at Kendall Green (the Columbia Institute for the Deaf and Dumb), she joined him as the first matron of the school on on May 30, 1857. She held the position for nine years, until August 1, 1866. As matron, she oversaw the education of the female students and did much to establish a rich and empowered culture at the school. While Matron, Sophia Gallaudet lobbied Congress to obtain funding for the creation of a college for the deaf, Gallaudet College, which joined the secondary school at Kendall Green.