Abigail Gratia Coolidge – Sister of Calvin Coolidge
Cyndy Bittinger for the Rutland HeraldR
July 4, 2007

 July 4th was one of Abbie Coolidge’s favorite days since it was her brother’s birthday and the boys of Plymouth Notch were certain to capture and fire the cannon!  The boys of the Union and the Notch fought over the right to set up their 500 pound cannon to fire off in the early morning and wake everyone up with a start. Their firecrackers, mailed in from Ohio, kept the day sparkling with sound and noise reverberating in their tender ears!

 But what did the girls do for fun in the summer?  They might go to Rutland for a circus parade or Windsor to see the fast horses, big pumpkins and fat pigs. The Plymouth Notch Sunday School picnic was organized by Abbie and Calvin’s father, John Coolidge, with entertainment by an organist to inspire plenty of hymn singing. Often the Coolidges cranked out two quarts of ice cream while they watched the men play baseball. Abbie loved to pick strawberries, make candy and go to parties at different homes in town.

 In 1888, at age 12 Abbie taught school in North Shrewsbury for five scholars. Her diary entries for the year show school beginning in May and ending in early August. It did not end soon enough for the young teacher who had to shake the boys and “could scarcely keep from crying.” She was teaching children in the summer and then went to Ludlow’s Black River Academy in the fall to become a more advanced scholar herself. She wore a long overcoat and fashionable tam o’shanter hat in winter. She was the talkative one who tried to pull words out of her shy, contemplative brother already a student there.

 Abbie’s diaries from 1888 and 1889 show her interest in education and religion. She was anxious to become a member of Christian Endeavor, a youth fellowship organization in Ludlow. Females outnumbered males in churches in New England. As historian Nancy Cott has noted, women found Christianity as a place where they were treated as equals with men and their associations were allied with the church. Without access to world occupations, women could define themselves and find a community in their churches. With her zeal to teach and her strong faith, Abbie might have chosen to be a female missionary. Many of them preached in her Plymouth Union Church and may have inspired her.

 In March of 1890 Abbie became very sick with a condition we now recognize as appendicitis. Calvin got a ride to Plymouth from their school in Ludlow and watched his only sibling die at only the age of 14. He remembered her with these words, “The memory of the charm of her presence…will always abide with me.”

 This July 4th, as part of the Coolidge Foundation’s historical series on women in Plymouth, Abbie will be remembered with a special commemorative envelope and cancellation created by John Lutz.