About this research
![RG8_1906_detail[1].jpg](https://archives.library.wcsu.edu/omeka/files/fullsize/Western_Connecticut_State_University_Photographs_and_Miscellanea_RG8/2091/RG8_1906_detail[1].jpg "RG8_1906_detail[1].jpg")
Standing in the back row of the 1906 senior class picture for the Danbury Normal School (first graduating class of the precursor to WestConn), there is a lone young African-American woman dressed somewhat differently from the other women and posed close to John Perkins, Principle of the Normal School, and Lothrop Higgins, Perkins’ successor. The identity of the woman was not recorded and persons who could identify her have long passed away. Determining the identity of a person from a 1906 photograph can be difficult, and while the WCSU Archives has a list of women who attended in that year and some admissions information, no records exist that indicate per se that anyone in the Danbury Normal School was a person of color besides the senior class picture. It was even conceivable that this woman in the photo was not a student. However, she was included in the class portrait so it was at least likely that she was a senior and appeared too young to be faculty. The task was then to match names of students in the 1906 senior class to persons in census records who could be this student.
Resources in the Danbury area were of tremendous value for this essay and assistance was gratefully received from Norma Vinchkoski, sexton, Wooster Cemetery; the City Clerk’s Office for the City of Danbury; Brigid Guertin and Diane Hassan at the Danbury Historical Society; and Mary Rieke (WCSU class of 1998), Assistant Archivist WCSU Archives.
The research that is contained in this article was undertaken in large part by Mary Rieke who was able to verify the identity of Katherine Butler through pluck and perseverance. A student working in the Archives, Kevin Carneglia (WCSU class of 2012), first was assigned to work on the project to determine the identity of the African-American woman in the class of 1906 portrait. Kevin did find a match between Catherine M. Butler of African-American descent in the 1900 census and Katherine Marie Butler in the senior class list; however, Ms. Rieke was able to verify that Katherine M. in the class list and the Catherine M. in the census were the same person. On a World War I draft registration, a Howard Butler (one of Katherine Butler’s brothers) whose race was indicated as “black” had listed his sister, a Katherine Butler Steadwell with the vocation of teacher, as a contact. This match provided the real foothold to proceed.
A note was sent to David Steadwell, now the only living child of Katherine Butler Steadwell, which outlined what research we had conducted and why it was being undertaken. So far, no response has been received. John “Count” Steadwell was still living in the Connecticut area when this project began, but unfortunately and unbeknownst to us, passed away during this research.
When compiling this article it became apparent that it would be important to identify the first African-American to receive a degree from this institution which meant going through each senior class portrait and looking for women of color. A student was found in the 1917 class portrait and the same course was followed that was employed in identifying Katherine Butler to identify Burchia Ellen Stewart. Stewart was more difficult. The class of 1917 was much larger than 1906 and 25 of the names had no or inconclusive matches in census records. Going back over those 25, an African-American family was found, the Stewarts, in Danbury in the early 20th century and they lived on Golden Hill Road. Though Burchia was not at first found in census records, there was an Alpha Stewart in census records who was listed as “black” and living as a “servant” with the Landsman family; however, in a 1920s Danbury directory, Alpha’s home address is listed as Golden Hill Road. When looking at families on that road in the 1920 census, a listing was found for a Bircha Stuart who was listed as “black” and the right age. From there, it was easy to confirm that Bircha Stuart was the Burchia Stewart in the DNS class list and that Alpha was Burchia’s older sister.
