This is the second in a two-part series on a key figure in East Lyme history.

Celeste Bush, an East Lyme native who spent three years in Virginia building an educational institution during the post-Civil War era, spent much of the rest of her life back in her hometown, originally moving home to Niantic in 1889 to care for her aging parents.

She soon became active in church service and made inquiries into the state of East Lyme’s schools. For the 1895-96 school year, she was appointed by the (all male) East Lyme Board of School Visitors as an Acting School Visitor. Her assignment was to evaluate the curriculum of study for all students and report on the condition of the school buildings.

Celeste was not impressed, and she produced a scathing report for the board. The schools in general were “... badly kept and poorly furnished and supplied ... none of them have the books and apparatus, that are necessary to good teaching ... most have nothing beyond the bare walls, desks, seats and a stove ... the outbuildings are generally filthy and obscene ... (there is) no uniform system in the town.”

There is “no reason why our schools should not be as good as any in the country.”

She urged widespread reforms.

First superintendent

In 1896, Celeste was appointed East Lyme’s first School Superintendent and to this date, the town’s only female superintendent.

In her first year as head of East Lyme’s schools, Celeste championed the idea of a new two-year high school that would extend compulsory education from eight to 10 years. Her proposal received a great deal of press coverage and dinner table conversation throughout East Lyme.

Costs would be the deciding factor, and when the formal debate opened at the town meeting of Oct. 5, 1896, the temperature quickly rose in the room.

First Selectman C.S. Davis led the assault on the idea: “(I have) a strong argument against the Resolution ... the town already expended over $4,000 for the schools ... out of a budget of $9,000. The officers (and teachers) could establish a (high school) at the larger Niantic School” (without additional compensation).

Superintendent Bush fired back by drawing attention to the fact that resources from the town’s “Miller Fund,” a longstanding educational endowment, had been diverted to other uses by the town fathers. She added that “... a high school would not cost the town more than six or eight hundred dollars a year.”

Before the vote on the high school resolution was taken, Superintendent Bush rose to an unusual but strategic parliamentary motion for “Divisions.” This rule changed the normal procedure for counting votes by having those in favor of the resolution leave their chairs and literally walk to one side of the room while those opposed walked to the other. Then the votes were counted.

Celeste likely knew that she had the votes to pass the resolution but was taking no chances with any vagueness that might result from a hand count of the votes with close to 200 people in the room. The resolution carried by a count of 104 to 84, and the new high school opened the following year.

Throughout her tenure as superintendent and in the face of strong opposition from the fiscally conservative town fathers of East Lyme, Celeste’s public statements stressed the positive benefits of modernization.

“The best is none too good for every pupil in the land, both the boys and the girls” and “superior schools make superior citizens.”

She introduced and enacted many programs that helped to modernize East Lyme’s schools. An elected School Board replaced the old appointed Board of School Visitors in 1897.

The nine district schools were consolidated to six, and a new modern school building was built. A uniform curriculum was developed for all students that would be evaluated each year. New classroom equipment was purchased and distributed evenly throughout the system.

Professional teachers were recruited, and Celeste advocated for higher salaries to attract top-tier educators. Following 10 years of effort, Superintendent Bush finally persuaded the School Board to purchase and lend textbooks to students rather than insisting that families buy books for their children each year.

In spite of Superintendent Bush’s repeated claims to the board that costs would fall when her reforms took full effect, her support gradually eroded and there were attempts to roll back some of her programs.

She was finally voted out of office for the last time in 1907, but not before much of her most important work had been completed.

Other leadership roles

In 1897, the year after Celeste was appointed School Superintendent, she joined with two others in founding the East Lyme Historical Society and was elected secretary of the organization. She would hold this post for 33 years.

Her carefully written minutes of Historical Society meetings for the period 1897-1930 can be found in the town archives today.

She also recruited guest speakers to present “historical papers” at meetings and led the society in adopting the task of cleaning and maintaining the Old Nehantic Indian Burial Ground that had been neglected for decades.

The Historical Society also provided Celeste with the opportunity to leave her greatest tangible legacy to East Lyme.

In 1914, Niantic’s Lee House, said to have been built in about 1660 and occupied exclusively by Lee family descendants for more than 200 years, was slated to be torn down by its owner. The house was one of the oldest and best-preserved examples of early colonial era architecture in the State of Connecticut.

It would be an exceptional acquisition for the East Lyme Historical Society, but the price was high and the owner was impatient to sell. He agreed to a price, but allowed the society just 90 days to complete the purchase or the house would come down.

Working with a local benefactress, Mrs. Alice Hunt, Celeste immediately set to work on the project. She personally wrote more than 500 letters seeking donations from individuals who had an interest in historical preservation.

She established partnerships with state and national historical organizations, and she solicited donations from dozens of Lee family descendants who had moved to many parts the country.

Success quickly followed. Well within the 90-day time frame, Celeste and her colleagues raised more than twice the asking price for the Lee House. These additional resources would be used to retain the services of the renowned expert on colonial architecture, Norman Isham, and to complete the recommended restorations to the house.

Formal dedication

A formal dedication of the Lee House took place the following year. More than 500 people turned up on a bright spring day to hear the Honorable William Howard Taft speak on the importance of remembering the past. Celeste followed the former U.S. President on the program.

The New London Day of June 10, 1915, reported: “Miss Celeste Bush of Niantic, to whose untiring efforts the success of the occasion was largely due, delivered the historical address of the day.” Following a summary of the history of the Lee House, Celeste explained to the audience that “We had not the slightest thought of buying the house. Our society had but 15 members and $12 in the treasury. But when we saw that venerable and austere interior ... (we thought) that if a thing was really worth doing and someone would make an honest effort to do it, help would come.”

Today the Lee House is the flagship artifact for the East Lyme Historical Society and has been open to the public since 1915.

In the years following the dedication of the Lee House, Celeste continued her service with the East Lyme Historical Society and she volunteered for numerous church and civic organizations including the Eastern Teachers’ Association and the Connecticut State Federation of Women’s Clubs. She also wrote historical articles for local publications and was said to know more about the history of the East Lyme area than any other individual.

Her last days were spent at her home that she had built on her father’s property in the shadow of her beloved “Toad Rock” from childhood. In fact, she designed her own home in the shape of a toad as a testimony to the warm memories of her own school days. Her home has stood as a residence in Niantic since 1898.

Celeste died in her sleep at her home in 1930 and today lies near her parents in Niantic’s Union Cemetery.

Celeste Bush was not a radical feminist in the mold of her more celebrated contemporaries like Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Carrie Nation and others. But like the Suffragettes and Temperance fighters, she understood that change in the status quo was necessary and possible with persistent, patient and forceful action.

She didn’t shy away from putting herself in the center of the arena and challenging accepted practices with better ideas. She often found herself on the other side of an issue that was supported by a room filled with respected men. But she stood her ground, picked her battles and brought about lasting changes that improved education, her town and American life.

LAST WEEK: Celeste Bush’s early life included a three-year assignment in Virginia to help establish a teacher’s college.

Ted Welsh is a member of the East Lyme Historical Society’s board of directors. He wishes to note the kind help of Liz Kuchta, town historian of East Lyme.