Oberlin's Women: A Legacy of Leadership & Activism

Adelia Field Johnston

Adelia Field Johnston (1837-1910, OC 1856) was an educator and abolitionist. She enrolled at Oberlin College in 1852 and graduated in 1856 after completing the Ladies’ Course. Johnston was employed as a teacher in 1856 at the Black Oak Seminary in Mossy Creek, Tennessee. While visiting her mother in Oberlin in 1858, Johnston was a witness to the Oberlin-Wellington Rescue. In 1859, she married James M. Johnston, an Oberlin College graduate. The couple moved to Orwell, Ohio, where her husband became principal of Orwell Academy. Johnston also worked at the academy as a teacher. In 1862, Johnston’s husband died and she became the principal of Kinsman Academy in Kinsman, Ohio. Johnston left her position in 1865. That year, she began working at the Academy at North Scituate, Rhode Island. Johnston left her position in 1868 to study the German language in Europe until 1870. She returned to the United States in that year and became a teacher and the principal of the women’s department at Oberlin College. She was the first woman to become a full member of the Oberlin faculty. She retired in 1907. Johnston is known for founding the Oberlin Village Improvement Society.

Sources:
Adelia A. Field Johnston Papers. Oberlin College Archives. March 2020. http://oberlinarchives.libraryhost.com/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=185&q=adelia+field+johnston

Student File (Adelia Field Johnston), Alumni & Development Records, O.C.A.

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