Northumberland County Native Among the First Women To Receive PhD From Yale

The Milton Classical Institute in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, was founded in 1850, with Rev. William Theodore Wylie, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, as principal. He was succeeded by Colonel Wright, who continued the school until it was destroyed by fire in 1867. Rev. Wylie and his wife, Sarah Johnson Wylie, were the parents of Laura Johnson Wylie, born in Milton, on December 1, 1855. She was one of the most cultured women in America. Awarded a Ph. D., at Yale in 1894, she was a professor of English at Vassar College, her alma mater, from 1897-1924.

The Vassar College website provides this biographical information on Johnson Wylie.

“Laura Johnson Wylie spent her childhood on the move, learning from her father and caring for a growing collection of half-siblings. When she entered Vassar as a freshman, she was far behind her fellow classmates, later admitting that she hadn’t been able to spell and that she knew almost nothing about geography. She quickly caught up, graduating in 1877 as valedictorian of her 45-person class.

A member of the first group of women to receive, in 1894, the Yale PhD, she returned to Vassar in 1895 as an English instructor. Within two years, she had risen to chair of the English Department, a position she kept until 1921.

She was an author of educational works, as well as an editor, poet, and contributor to magazines. She died at Poughkeepsie, New York, April 2, 1932.