Educator: born in
Wolcott, Conn., Nov. 29, 1799.
He became a successful teacher of an infant school in his native State.
Removing to
Boston, he soon became conspicuous as a teacher of the very young.
He finally settled in
Concord, Mass., where he studied natural theology and the best methods for producing reforms in diet, education, and civil and social institutions.
By invitation, he went to
England in 1842, to teach at “Alcott House,” a name given to a school at
Ham, near
London.
Returning to
America, with two English friends, he attempted the founding of a new community, calling the farm “Fruit lands.”
It was a failure, and in 1840 he again went to
Concord, where he afterwards resided, living the life of a peripatetic philosopher, conversing in cities and in villages, wherever invited, on divinity, human nature, ethies, as well as on a great variety of practical questions.
He was one of the founders of the school of transcendentalists in
New England, and after returning to
Concord became dean of the famous Concord School of Philosophy.
He died March 4, 1888.
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