Female Education

Cordelia Green Drumm fits into the larger field of American History in numerous ways. Her father, Squire Boone Green, who was originally from Kentucky, was one of the early businessmen in Liberty, Missouri. He founded the Green Hotel on the square of Liberty, and it was frequented by visitors and soldiers from Fort Leavenworth as Liberty was the nearest major town on the edge of the frontier. Cordelia's father died when she was five years old. Her mother, Mary, her brothers, and herself would continue to run the hotel thus her story is tied to the history of Liberty.

Further, her family, like many other prominent families in the area, valued a southern lifestyle and education. For girls, Clay Seminary was the premier institution. It was founded in Liberty in 1855 by Professor James Love, a graduate from the University of Missouri and his wife, Lucy, who had attended Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in Massachusetts. Cordelia was one of six to graduate on July 11, 1862, and by 1868, she was a music teacher at Clay Seminary. Little is known about Cordelia's life from these moments to her marriage at age 40 to Andrew Drumm, a successful cattleman in 1886. While much is known about her life after her marriage to Drumm; they will travel and found Drumm Farm Center for Children, there is much to learn about her experiences that illustrate the reality of living in a border state while navigating society as an unmarried woman. The letters, mostly to her, that were donated to the Clay County Archives provide a glimpse into her life and the lives of similar women who had lived through the Civil War in a border state and navigated life socially and economically while remaining unmarried for a number of years.