mary anna LonGstreth

Born in Philadelphia, Longstreth (1811-1884) began her schooling at 2 years old, "according to the strictest traditions of the Society of Friends."   
At 13, Longstreth was already instructing her younger sisters in Latin.

At 18 years old, Longstreth founded a Quaker school for girls.
Founded in a private residence at 3 N. 11th St.,
​the School of Mary Anna Longstreth counted five pupils on its inaugural roster.

Educator and social reformer. A Quaker, she was a staunch abolitionist who devoted much of her life to ending the evil of slavery and to the care of the poor and destitute. Heavily involved in the Underground Railroad, in the mid 1850s she was seized by an anti-abolition, pro-slavery mob and brought to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia to be hung with other prominent Philadelphia abolitionists, and was only saved from death by the arrival of Pennsylvania Militia troops.

Mary Anna Longstreth

Richard Henry Pratt and Chief Spotted Tail with Rebecca T. Haines (left), Susan Longstreth (center), and Mary Anna Longstreth (right) at the Carlisle Indian School. The Longstreths and Haines were from Philadelphia and were known as "the Quaker ladies." Chief Spotted Tail was visiting the school in June 1880, which is probably when this photo was taken. 
​(Source: Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center)

Mary Anna Longstreth

Birth:  9 Feb 1811, Philadelphia
Father:  Isaac Thomas Longstreth (26 Feb 1785 - 6 Oct 1849)
Mother:  Mary Collins (27 Jul 1789 - 7 Jul 1865) m. 27 Oct 1808 in Burlington, NJ
Spouse:  Israel Morris
Marriage: 1839
Death:  15 Aug 1884
Memorial ID:  20490863

Siblings:

Susan Longstreth:  4 Jan 1813 - 30 Apr 1893
Henry Longstreth:  11 Jul 1814 - 25 Dec 1904 #73167301
Elizabeth Longstreth Morris:  28 Jun 1817 - 13 Mar 1898
William Collins Longstreth:  12 Mar 1821 - 25 Apr 1881


In 1829, Philadelphia Mary Anna Longstreth founded a school for girls on North 11th Street.

Mary Anna Longstreth was born in Philadelphia in 1811 to Isaac T. Longstreth and Mary Collins. In 1829, she and her younger sister Susan decided to start up a school for girls. During the summer, a private residence at 3 North Eleventh Street was acquired and the Longstreth's school began there with five children in September 1829. (The house also served as quarters for members of the Longstreth family.) The class size quickly reached fourteen in early 1830. To help with classes, Mary Anna and Susan were later joined by their younger sister. Elizabeth. She stayed with the school until she married Israel Morris in 1839, by which time the school had grown to accommodate several dozen students. In 1836, the school was moved to Eleventh and Cherry streets where a large house and garden were built.

Susan Longstreth retired from the school in the 1840 dues to health issues, and Mary Anna kept the school going until her own retirement in 1877. In 1857, further growth in the number of students at the Longstreth school prompted another move, this time to a larger building at Filbert and Juniper streets. There is remained until the late 1860s, when the school moved once more to Merrick Street (Broad Street) on Penn Square (City Hall). The Longstreth school closed in June 1877, and Mary Anna Longstreth died in August 1884.

Memoir of Mary Anna Longstreth 
by Margaret Newlin and Helen W. Ludlow

​"When, in the middle of August, 1884, the tidings of Miss Mary Anna Longstreth's
death reached the wide circle of her pupil-friends, there probably were few among them
who did not feel that with her life an important chapter in their own was closed.
'How much we and our children owe to her influence ! Our whole lives have been moulded by her teaching'
was the burden of letter after letter to the devoted sister who survives her."