Known as Carrie to her family, Caroline was the brilliant, scholarly student among her ten siblings. The Mumford family farmed in Pleasant Mount, Pennsylvania, and, hoping for a stroke of luck, members of the extended family planned to build a toll road to run past a hotel they owned in Pleasant Mount. When the government put in a parallel tax-supported road, though, the family was ruined. Carrie's father and his children farmed the rocky soil for the remainder of his life.
Money was scarce for the Mumford family, but they still made it a priority to subscribe to the Atlantic and the New York Tribune. Carrie, much like her future daughter, craved learning. At seventeen, after finishing all that was offered within the Mount Pleasant schools, she obtained a teaching fellowship at the Wyoming Valley Seminary in Kingston, Pennsylvania.
Work was never finished for Carrie, either. During Seminary vacations, she taught in country schools and borrowed money from the Seminary to finish her own studies. She was even able to save enough money to assist in the continued education of some of her siblings.
After graduating, Carrie taught for a year at an Episcopal school for girls in Baltimore. She had bigger dreams of teaching in China, but was firmly dissuaded by her family, so was instead hired to teach at the Rock River Seminary in Mt. Morris, Illinois.
Still, anxieties were present within the Mumford family as they feared Carrie would never return home except to visit. They proved to be right as in Mt. Morris, Carrie met Dr. Thomas Winston, whom she married at age twenty-five on Christmas Eve 1861. He was thirty-two.
With the Civil War looming, Thomas would eventually enlist in the 92nd Illinois Volunteer Infantry to serve as an assistant surgeon. His enlistment came only three weeks after the birth of their first son and Carrie was left in Mt. Morris with the baby before returning to Pennsylvania by train.
Although letters were frequent, Carrie found their separation difficult. A two-week-long visit from her husband after seventeen months apart helped quell her feelings if only for a time. Thomas resigned from the regiment five months later and returned to his shared medical practice while Carrie continued teaching at the Seminary.
Six months later with the war still not ended, Dr. Winston felt compelled to reenlist and joined the 94th Mounted Infantry. This separation was more difficult for Carrie, who was pregnant with their second child. Eventually, though, assistance was found with Carrie's sister Mary Frances, who came by train from Mount Pleasant to help with the young Winston children.
After the doctor's return home, he took up his practice with another physician in Mt. Morris and the family eventually moved to the small rural community of Forreston, nine miles northwest of Mt. Morris.
Carrie felt the move was a setback. In a previous letter to her husband, Carrie had explained why she didn't want to stay in Mt. Morris.
My great objection to staying here is the mesmeric influence of the atmosphere in this little town. After living in it a few years one would feel like Rip Van Winkle just awakened if he ventured into some more bustling place. You know human nature is proverbially lazy, and where there is so little incentive to study, it would be hardly possible to make the same advancement as in some place where [you were] daily and hourly brought in contact with those fully as far advanced as yourself...
Carrie was quite concerned with the future of her children and educating her ever-growing family. She had survived long separations from her husband during the War, but the move to Forreston instead of to a larger city or even near her parents in Pennsylvania "nearly sunk her little craft." Gone forever were receptions, tea parties, and her status as Miss Mumford, the brilliant young teacher.
Although she was never strong, with a baby every two years and with a determination which became something of an obsession that her children would never have to remain on the Illinois prairies, she put most of her energies into studying whatever subjects she needed to prepare them for college.
And prepare them she did. Each of her children, although unique in their own ways of learning and their likes and dislikes, found they were shepherded toward higher education by their loving, caring mother.
All the Winston children cared deeply for their mother and each other. To her children, Carrie was a Saint whom they loved more than anyone else.
The Academy & the Winston Literary Society
