Helen Aldrich De Kroyft

Helen Aldrich was born in Rochester, New York, on October 29, 1818. She was the daughter of Obed and Melintha Hart (Potter) Aldrich, and was the oldest in a family of twelve children. She was a seventh-generation descendant of the Quaker George Aldrich, who came to the United States in 1630. Early in her life, her father, Obed, lost a great deal of money by "endorsing for a friend". De Kroyft attended Westfield Academy in 1832–36, and Genesee Wesleyan Seminary (now Syracuse University) in Lima, New York in 1837–43, where she was a valedictorian. In 1834, at age 15, she came up with a plan regarding how to pay for her higher education. She alternated between teaching school in the winter and attending school in the summer, ultimately graduating from the university. ==Career==

Shortly after leaving school, she married William De Kroyft, a young physician, on July 26, 1846, in Rochester. However, a carriage accident four hours after their wedding left her widowed. Less than a month later, she awoke to find herself blind from an eye infection. In religion, De Kroyft identified as Episcopalian. She was an honorary member of the Shakespeare Club in New York City. ==Death and legacy==

De Kroyft resided in Dansvllle, New York, and died there in October 1915. The Helen Aldrich De Kroyft papers are held by the University of Rochester. ==Selected works==

• A Place In Thy Memory, 1849 • The Story of Little Jakey, 1871 • Darwin and Moses, 1875 • Mortara, 1888 • The Foreshadowed Way, 1901 • The Soul of Eve, 1904 File:Mortara.png|Mortara File:The Foreshadowed Way.png|The Foreshadowed Way File:The Soul of Eve.png|The Soul of Eve ==References==