She worked during the winter, and
traveled during the summer to solicit friends and contributions to
keep the institution on that higher plane where she planned it should
be. She had the building well equipped with all kinds of apparatus,
utilized the ample ground for the teaching of horticulture, collected
a large library, and secured a number of paintings and engravings with
which she enlightened her pupils on the finer arts. In addition to the
conventional teaching of seminaries of that day, Miss Miner provided
lectures on scientific and literary subjects by the leading men of
that time, and trained her students to teach.[1] She hoped some day to
make the seminary a first-class teachers' college. During the Civil
War, however, it was difficult for her to find funds, and health
having failed her in 1858 she died in 1866 without realizing this
dream.[2]
[Footnote 1: _Special Report of the U.S. Com. of Ed._, 1871, p. 210.]
[Footnote 2: Those who assisted her were Helen Moore, Margaret Clapp,
Anna H. Searing, Amanda Weaver, Anna Jones, Matilda Jones, and Lydia
Mann, the sister of Horace Mann, who helped Miss Miner considerably
in 1856 at the time of her failing health.
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