Youth, 1842-1868

Childhood

 

​Ellen, the only child of Peter and Fanny Swallow, was born near the town of Dunstable, Massachusetts in 1842. As a young girl, she was a sickly child, a trait her biographers insist she inherited from her frequently ill mother. In order to cure her poor health, the family’s doctor prescribed a strict regiment of nutritious food, sunshine, and clean air. Ellen religiously followed the doctor’s orders and her health gradually improved. From then on, she placed nutritious food on a pedestal. Never again did she consider food to be a substance just consumed when one was hungry. Rather, she viewed nutrient dense food as materials that were capable of changing a person's life (20).  While the doctor’s prescription improved Ellen’s health and altered her perspective of food, it also had an unintended side effect on the girl. Spending time outdoors introduced Ellen to the unfamiliar world of traditionally male farm work and activities, such as pitching hay. Her mother was horrified with her daughter’s determination to help her father on the farm and sought to redirect her daughter to more womanly pursuits, such as the domestic arts. Under her mother's tutelage, Ellen mastered sewing, cooking, and baking by thirteen (20). 

Transition into Adulthood

 

In addition to training her in the domestic arts and the ins and outs of farming, Ellen’s mother and father oversaw her education until she was seventeen. At this time, the family moved to the larger town of Westford, Massachusetts in order to open up a general store. The couple chose to enroll their daughter in the Westford Academy, where she studied French, Latin, composition, and general mathematics. After graduating from the Academy in 1863, Ellen and her family moved to the city of Littleton, Massachusetts so her father could open another store. For the next five years Ellen took courses at a school in the town of Worcester, Massachusetts in order to prepare for college. During this time, she also helped at her father’s store and was periodically placed in charge of running her family’s household when her mother was ill. According to her biographers, this was an unhappy period in Ellen’s life. She often felt unchallenged and frustrated. However, this feeling of complacency vanished when she entered Vassar College in 1868 at age twenty-six (14, 20).