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[[File:Helen De Kroyft.jpg|thumb|Helen De Kroyft]]
'''Helen Aldrich De Kroyft''' (October 29, 1818 – October 1915) was an American author. Becoming blind less than a month after being widowed, for 48 years, she traveled and wrote books. Principally her own publisher, the work that she prepared was dictated to a companion.
==Early life and education==
Helen Aldrich was born in [[Rochester, New York]], October 29, 1818. She was the daughter of Obed and Melintha Hart (Potter) Aldrich. Early in her life, her father lost a financial fortune by endorsing for a friend. Helen was the oldest in a family of twelve children.<ref name="DemocratChronicle-29oct15" /> She was a seventh generation ancestor from the Quaker, George Aldrich, who came to the United States in 1630.
De Kroyft attended Westfield Academy, 1832-36, and [[Genesee Wesleyan Seminary]], [[Lima, New York]], 1837-43 (valedictorian). When only 15 years of age, she conceived the idea of achieving a higher education by teaching winters and attending what has since become the [[Syracuse University]] during summers, and finally graduated from it.
==Career==
Shortly after leaving school, in July 26, 1846, in Rochester, she married William De Kroyft, M.D., a young physician. But a carriage accident, four hours after the wedding, left her widowed. Not quite a month elapsed when she awoke to find herself blind, from an eye infection.<ref name="rbscp" />
Confronted now with the necessity of doing something to maintain herself, she entered the New York Institution for the Blind to become an organist. In a few months, however, a card invented in [[Paris]] for keeping the lines straight was placed in her hands, and in less than three years, her first work was written, entitled: ''A Place in Thy Memory''.
Having no name as an author, no publisher would undertake to bring out her work without being secured for half of the first edition. She wrote a prospectus and personally solicited subscribers enough in New York to bring out her work with two engravings, all paid. Delivering the book to her subscribers, she saw that she had in her hand the means of travel by everywhere introducing her own work; and engaging a young lady companion, she went first, in February 1860, to Washington, D. C. to [[Washington, D.C.]]. Several of the New York papers announced her there, and one of the directors of the Institution gave her letters to his friends, Mr. Henry Clay, Mr. Samuel Houston, Mrs. Commodore Aulic, the Chaplain of the Senate, and so forth.
In March, 1850, she left for [[Charleston, South Carolina]] with letters from these and many others, including one from [[President of the United States|President]] [[Zachary Taylor]] at the [[White House]], introducing her to all his friends in the [[Southern United States|South]]. The following Christmas, Prescott, the historian, presented a case of wires such as he had invented for his own use. Aided by this, she subsequently published four other books, besides traveling almost constantly over the United States and Canada, everywhere introducing her own works, one secretary having accompanied her for 28 years. She was the author of: ''A Place In Thy Memory'', 1849; ''Story of Little Jakey'', 1871; ''Darwin and Moses'', 1875; ''Mortara'', 1888; ''The Foreshadowed Way'', 1901; ''The Soul of Eve'', 1904. She resided in [[Dansville, Livingston County, New York|Dansvllle, New York]].
In religion, De Kroyft identified as Episcopalian. She was an honorary member of the Shakespeare Club ([[New York City]]).
==Death and legacy==
[[File:Helen Aldrich De Kroyft (1900).png|thumb|1900]]
She died in October 1915.<ref name="DemocratChronicle-29oct15">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The Helen Aldrich De Kroyft papers are held by the [[University of Rochester]].<ref name="rbscp"></ref>
==Selected works==
* ''A Place In Thy Memory'', 1849
* ''Story of Little Jakey'', 1871
* ''Darwin and Moses'', 1875
* ''Mortara'', 1888
* ''The Foreshadowed Way'', 1901
* ''The Soul of Eve'', 1904
==References==
===Attribution===
* }}
* }}
* }}
* }}
==External links==
*
[[Category:1818 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:Genesee Wesleyan Seminary alumni]]
'''Helen Aldrich De Kroyft''' (October 29, 1818 – October 1915) was an American author. Becoming blind less than a month after being widowed, for 48 years, she traveled and wrote books. Principally her own publisher, the work that she prepared was dictated to a companion.
==Early life and education==
Helen Aldrich was born in [[Rochester, New York]], October 29, 1818. She was the daughter of Obed and Melintha Hart (Potter) Aldrich. Early in her life, her father lost a financial fortune by endorsing for a friend. Helen was the oldest in a family of twelve children.<ref name="DemocratChronicle-29oct15" /> She was a seventh generation ancestor from the Quaker, George Aldrich, who came to the United States in 1630.
De Kroyft attended Westfield Academy, 1832-36, and [[Genesee Wesleyan Seminary]], [[Lima, New York]], 1837-43 (valedictorian). When only 15 years of age, she conceived the idea of achieving a higher education by teaching winters and attending what has since become the [[Syracuse University]] during summers, and finally graduated from it.
==Career==
Shortly after leaving school, in July 26, 1846, in Rochester, she married William De Kroyft, M.D., a young physician. But a carriage accident, four hours after the wedding, left her widowed. Not quite a month elapsed when she awoke to find herself blind, from an eye infection.<ref name="rbscp" />
Confronted now with the necessity of doing something to maintain herself, she entered the New York Institution for the Blind to become an organist. In a few months, however, a card invented in [[Paris]] for keeping the lines straight was placed in her hands, and in less than three years, her first work was written, entitled: ''A Place in Thy Memory''.
Having no name as an author, no publisher would undertake to bring out her work without being secured for half of the first edition. She wrote a prospectus and personally solicited subscribers enough in New York to bring out her work with two engravings, all paid. Delivering the book to her subscribers, she saw that she had in her hand the means of travel by everywhere introducing her own work; and engaging a young lady companion, she went first, in February 1860, to Washington, D. C. to [[Washington, D.C.]]. Several of the New York papers announced her there, and one of the directors of the Institution gave her letters to his friends, Mr. Henry Clay, Mr. Samuel Houston, Mrs. Commodore Aulic, the Chaplain of the Senate, and so forth.
In March, 1850, she left for [[Charleston, South Carolina]] with letters from these and many others, including one from [[President of the United States|President]] [[Zachary Taylor]] at the [[White House]], introducing her to all his friends in the [[Southern United States|South]]. The following Christmas, Prescott, the historian, presented a case of wires such as he had invented for his own use. Aided by this, she subsequently published four other books, besides traveling almost constantly over the United States and Canada, everywhere introducing her own works, one secretary having accompanied her for 28 years. She was the author of: ''A Place In Thy Memory'', 1849; ''Story of Little Jakey'', 1871; ''Darwin and Moses'', 1875; ''Mortara'', 1888; ''The Foreshadowed Way'', 1901; ''The Soul of Eve'', 1904. She resided in [[Dansville, Livingston County, New York|Dansvllle, New York]].
In religion, De Kroyft identified as Episcopalian. She was an honorary member of the Shakespeare Club ([[New York City]]).
==Death and legacy==
[[File:Helen Aldrich De Kroyft (1900).png|thumb|1900]]
She died in October 1915.<ref name="DemocratChronicle-29oct15">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref> The Helen Aldrich De Kroyft papers are held by the [[University of Rochester]].<ref name="rbscp"></ref>
==Selected works==
* ''A Place In Thy Memory'', 1849
* ''Story of Little Jakey'', 1871
* ''Darwin and Moses'', 1875
* ''Mortara'', 1888
* ''The Foreshadowed Way'', 1901
* ''The Soul of Eve'', 1904
==References==
===Attribution===
* }}
* }}
* }}
* }}
==External links==
*
[[Category:1818 births]]
[[Category:1915 deaths]]
[[Category:Genesee Wesleyan Seminary alumni]]
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