Louise Clappe (Dame Shirley)

Louise Amelia Knapp Clappe was born in New Jersey, spent most of her youth and young adult life in Massachusetts, and later moved out West to Quincy, CA in Plumas County with her husband Fayette Clapp. It was out West where she took on the pen name of Dame Shirley and wrote her widely known Dame Shirley letters. Louise and Fayette eventually separated, but she remained out West teaching for some time. Louise eventually returned to New Jersey where she lived out the remainder of her life, dying in 1906.The Quincy town plaza is named after her.

Clappe was born July 28, 1819 in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Moses and Louis (Lee) Smith. Her father Moses Smith, graduated from Williams College in Massachusetts in the year of 1811, and he once had the responsibility of being in charge of a local academy. Both Moses and his wife came from Amherst, Massachusetts. There is some speculation that her parents might be cousins, for both Moses' mother and wife shared the same maiden name (Lee). Both of Clappe's parents died before she turned 20, with her father dying in 1832 and her mother in 1837. Clappe was one of seven children, with three brothers and three other sisters. In 1838 she attended a female seminary in Charlestown, Massachusetts. The following two years she continued her education at Amherst Academy. Clappe was a good student, whose interests included metaphysics. Following in her father's footsteps, Clappe also got involved with education, teaching in Amherst in 1840. Around the same time, she was introduced to Alexander Hill Everett who happened to be at least twice of Clappe's age. Everett and Clappe's relationship was mostly an intellectual one, for Everett was a distinguished author. Between the years 1839 to 1847 they had exchanged forty-six letters. During this time Clappe also met her future husband, Fayette Clappe. When Louise told Everett about her new relationship, he was not pleased and things ended poorly.

Born in June 1824 in Chesterfield, Massachusetts, Fayette Clappe was five years younger than Louise. Fayette's family also had a different spelling of Clappe, and instead spelled it as Clapp. He started his college education at Princeton, but finished up at Brown University, graduating in 1848. He briefly continued his education, studying medicine at Castleton in Vermont. Similar to Louise's mother, Fayette's mother also bore the maiden name Lee. The exact date of their wedding is unknown; however, some believe it occurred in either 1848 or 1849. Louise and Fayette never had any children together. Her marriage with Clapp started to falter around 1852. While the two separated around that time and Fayette headed back East, their marriage did not officially end until some years later.