Angeline Lethridge was Bristol's first female teacher

Recently, someone asked me for more information concerning Mrs. Angeline Lethridge, Bristol’s first woman schoolteacher. It is true that little is written of her in my first volume of Bristol history. In response to this request, I will here give the “rest of the story.”
Mrs. Angeline Lethridge, her 4-year-old daughter, a younger sister Indiana Lethridge (she was called Anna) and her mother Andelissa Longmire Wingfield arrived in Bristol by stagecoach in early April 1855.
They were from Bedford County, Va. All three of the adult women were widows. Angeline and Indiana had married twin brothers. Strangely, these twin brothers died at an early age on the same day. It is assumed that they are buried in Bedford County.
It is said that the family was closely connected to G.A. Wingfield, an early settler and businessman of Bristol, Va. It has further been told that it was this Mr. Wingfield that persuaded them to come to Bristol thinking that the widows would have a good chance at making a living in the fast growing town.
They spent their first week in Bristol living in the new Columbia Hotel. This, the first hotel in Bristol, stood on what is now the parking lot directly in front of the First Baptist Church. The widowed mother was the first to find employment.
A.T. Wilson, operator of the Columbia Hotel, had just lost his slave cook by death. Mrs. Wingfield was employed to assist in the hotel kitchen and dining room. The family soon rented a house from Joseph Anderson. The house stood on the east side of old 4th Street, about where the Salvation Army is now located. The rent was $4 per month.
It was in this house that Angeline Lethridge opened her school for young children. There were then no public schools in Bristol. Teachers simply set up private schools charging nominal monthly fees for each student. Such fees at the time averaged around $2 per month per student.
She soon proved to be a very capable teacher and so had several students enrolled in her school within a few weeks.
Meanwhile, Indiana Lethridge, who was a skilled seamstress, offered her services to the town. She soon had a thriving business.
About 1858, the family moved to a cottage located on the Virginia side of the 500 block of Main (now State) Street. There, Angeline continued to teach school, while Indiana operated her sewing shop.
Many of her customers were railroad employees working in and out of Bristol. In off hours, Angeline also helped out with the sewing.
Meanwhile, the young Julia, daughter of Angeline, had become somewhat of a child prodigy. Without instruction, she could play the piano like a professional when only 7 years old. Folks came from far and near to hear her play.
The year 1860 brought great change to this family. In January that year, the mother dropped dead while hanging out the wash in the backyard of the Main Street home.
Hers was one of the first burials in what is now the East Hill Cemetery, but the grave cannot now be located.
In May that year, Indiana married Captain A.T. McSpadden. He was a conductor on the Tennessee and Virginia Railroad whom she had met as a customer in her sewing shop. She soon moved to his home in Lynchburg, Va. Late that year, Angeline and her daughter moved to Knoxville, Tenn., where she again opened a private school.
During the Civil War, she was married there to a Confederate officer, then after the war, they moved to his home in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Ark.
According to a descendent of the Wingfield family, Angeline taught in a ladies’ school there for several years and died there about the year 1900. This descendent further told that this first woman teacher in Bristol is buried in a large cemetery in that city (possibly the Rose Lawn Cemetery).
Before closing this article, I will tell that the young Julia grew up to become a renowned concert pianist.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.