Sweet Bells Jangled: Laura Redden Searing, A Deaf Poet Restored

A Brief Biography of Laura Redden Searing

A Brief Biography of Laura Redden Searing Judy Yaeger Jones Laura Catherine Redden was born with the soul of a poet on February 9, 1839 to Littleton John Redden and Wilhelmina Waller Redden in a sparsely settled area of Somerset County near Princess Anne on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.1 She was their oldest living child. Two younger brothers, Valerian “Val” Stuart and Alexander “Alex” Littleton would be added to the Redden family prior to Littleton’s murder on the Mississippi River in 1848, which left Wilhelmina a widow. Letters hint at a family dispute as the reason for the absence of kin to come to Wilhelmina’s aid. Perhaps it was the Waller family’s lack of approval of the adventurous Redden as a desirable husband for well-born Wilhelmina, whose Waller heritage can be traced to the area’s earliest arrivals.2 This tragedy of a father’s murder, leaving a near penniless mother alone with three children, would be the first in the series of three major events that would ultimately free Laura Catherine to follow her life journey as a poet and writer. While his family felt Littleton Redden’s loss deeply, there was now no authoritative male figure to curb Laura’s future penchant for a life beyond domesticity. Wilhelmina did what most women in her circumstances did and remarried Henry Ashbrook, who moved his new family to St. Louis, Missouri, where he had more accommodating relatives who provided a job. Ashbrook was a kindly stepfather and a hardworking man who did his best, but the family remained in impoverished circumstances. Wilhelmina bore six additional children, but only a daughter, Rose, ultimately survived to adulthood. Laura, in her letters, called herself “the big Sis” as other siblings were born. Laura never wrote of their deaths. Perhaps this early example of a woman’s life seen through her mother’s difficulties further nourished Laura’s reluctance to accept the domestic life and drew her closer into a world of books when she wasn’t helping her burdened mother. She expressed an early love of reading and reciting rhymes in a later series of autobiographical essays about the illness that took her hearing. Laura Redden was nearly thirteen years old when “brain fever,” probably spinal meningitis, left her deaf. The year is not in dispute; it was late 1851, just prior to Christmas. The doctor in attendance assured the family 1 that Laura’s hearing would return. After many months went by, Laura wrote that she had stopped using her voice, as any attempts she made to communicate by speaking brought shocked looks and cruel commentary from various unidentified family members. Soon, my school slate and chalk, or pencil and paper became my main method to communicate with others. It was as if I were born with a pen and paper in hand in which to express my thoughts. 3 Thus, the second heavily disguised opportunity to a future life in literary pursuits knocked, cloaked alongside a near-fatal and devastating illness. Becoming deaf and eventually, fortuitously, entering the world of deaf education opened up a life of literary potential for Laura Catherine Redden.4 At first, Laura adamantly refused to agree to leave home in order to attend the newly established Missouri Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, a name she abhorred. “Who wants to go to any asylum?” Laura angrily wrote. “If I am sent there I shall, indeed, become Dumb.”5 In actuality, the Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD) was established on the grounds of the nearby state lunatic facility, hence another historic example of mislabeling.6 Reluctantly, Laura finally enrolled in 1855, more than two years after her total loss of hearing. This proved to be a most providential step. At MSD Laura learned sign language and the American Manual Alphabet from bright, skilled deaf instructors. Her world was no longer frightening, lonely, and solitary. Deafness, the physical condition, and deaf 2 Sweet Bells Jangled A young Laura Catherine Redden c. 1860 education offered both the tools and the encouragement Laura needed to reconnect/reconstruct her changed physical circumstances with her early love of learning and literature. She received additional encouragement from William Dabney Kerr, a devout Presbyterian and MSD’s hearing founder/ director, and Susan Kerr, his wife, who served as matron of the school. Throughout her time at MSD, Laura communicated through sign language and expressed...