New Britain State Normal School

Following her parents' divorce, Annie grew up and went to college. She first went to the New Britain State Normal School (a teacher's college near Hartford, CT which became Central Connecticut State University) in February 1874. She graduated 30 June 1876, and her education cost about $675. She taught in a `mixed school' in Ridgebury until 1883 at the latest, for a total of 83 weeks. She received $9 per week. It is unclear if this was a mixed-race school, a mixed-gender school, or a schoolhouse in which one teacher taught all ages and subjects.

Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary

In about 1881, she went on to medical school at the Women's Medical College of the New York Infirmary. She graduated on 29 May 1885 (alongside the 10 other women in her class) and practiced medicine at the New York Infirmary for about a year afterwards. Dr. Keeler graduated alongside Dr. Kin Yamei, the first Chinese woman to graduate with an M.D. from an American college. Chinese Consul Ouyang Ming and Dr. Emily Blackwell both attended the graduation.

It is unclear where Annie lived at this time — she may have taken the (fairly new) commuter train to Brooklyn from Ridgefield or Danbury. The researcher has found no evidence that she and her father crossed paths in New York. In fact, she later stated that she and her mother had no contact with Halcyon from the time of the divorce until his death.

Sources

• New Britain Normal School. “Alumni Records.” In: vol. 3, p. 22.
• “Our State Correspondence: New Britain. State Normal School.” In: Connecticut Courant (July 1876).
• Connecticut State Board of Education. Report of the Board of Education. 1898. page 268. url: https://books.google.com/books?id=d7scAQAAIAAJ .
• Connecticut. “Connecticut School Document No 11-1909.” en. In: 1909, p. 28. url: https://books.google.com/books?id=dTafOEG73hYC .
• New York (State). Legislature. Senate. “Documents of the Senate of the State of New York.” In: v. 2. 1886, pp. 495–497. url: https://books.google.com/books?id=P5YlAQAAIAAJ .
• James Montgomery Bailey. History of Danbury, Conn. 1684-1896. New York: Burr Printing House, 1896. url: https://archive.org/details/historyofdanbury00baila .
• “A Chinese Woman Graduates. Taking the Degree of Doctor of Medicine at the Woman’s Medical College.” In: The Sun (May 30, 1885). url: https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030272/1885-05-30/ed-1/seq-1/ .
• American Medical Association. United States Deceased Physician File (AMA), 1864-1968. Indexed by FamilySearch. url: https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:WH99-C76Z .