ABSTRACT
Belva A. Lockwood was born on October 24, 1830, in a log house in Royalton, New York, in the county of Niagara, about two miles from the Erie Canal. She was the second eldest as well as the second daughter among the five children born to Lewis and Hannah Bennett, both of whom had grown up in Washington County in eastern New York before settling as newly weds in Royalton in 1827, when Lewis was twenty and Hannah was barely sixteen. Belva attended various one-room schoolhouses, either at Royalton or in other nearby towns. At such schools the children were expected to “toe the mark,” to step up to the chalk line at the front of the room whenever they were called on to recite their lessons. Even before she graduated, the trustees of the Lockport Union School selected Lockwood to be their school’s next preceptress, and she accepted the appointment.
