By: A. Gail Merian
Figure #1 Ruth Benedict. World Telegram staff photographer – Library of Congress. New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c14649, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1276865;Ruth Fulton Benedict, who lived much of her early life in Norwich, was a famed anthropologist and author, authoring books that stressed the role of culture in personality.[1]
Ruth’s mother was Beatrice Shattuck, and her family owned the Shattuck Farm in Norwich, New York. In 1889, when Ruth was a baby, her father, Frederick S. Fulton died. Beatrice, Ruth, and her sister Margery returned to the Shattuck farm and Beatrice started teaching in Norwich before moving with her daughters to Missouri, Minnesota and eventually Buffalo, New York where she taught school and was a librarian.[2]
Figure #2 Map showing Shattuck Farm. File Chenango County Historian
Figure #3 Ruth Benedict Home Rt 12 Norwich, New York. 2022 Photo by AuthorHowever, they returned each summer to the Shattuck farm where her Aunt Myra lived, and it was the place Ruth considered home for “all her life.”[3]
In 1905, Ruth entered Vassar pursuing poetry and writing. She published poems under various names, of which the pseudonym Anne Singleton was the most well-known.[4] After graduation from Vassar, she traveled to Europe. Upon her return, she lived in California where she became interested in Japanese, Chinese and Korean populations and their problems.
In 1919, Ruth enrolled at The New School for Social Research in New York City to study anthropology.[5] Then in 1921, Ruth entered Columbia University, where she earned her PhD in anthropology. [6] One of her best-known works was Patterns of Culture published in 1934.[7] Ruth was the first woman to receive a full-time position at Columbia University and eventually received a full professorship there just before her death in 1948.[8]
After her husband died in 1936, Ruth continued her work and then, during WWII, worked with the US government. “With the onset of World War II, Benedict became involved with the war effort, writing on European and Japanese cultures for the Office of War Information.”[9] During World War II “…her research guided morale and (the) propaganda offensive in Europe and Asia.”[10] The Chrysanthemum and the Sword, a study of Japanese society, was published with research she had done during WWII. Then, in 1946, she was one of four recipients of the American Design Awards, and the same year awarded the Achievement Award from the American Association of University Women.[11]
She also studied various Indigenous tribes of the west, including the Blackfeet, Apache, and Pima. Ruth authored various papers including Tales of the Cochiti Indians and Zuni Mythology.
Figure #4 Ruth Benedict First Day Covers October 20, 1995. Collection of the author.Ruth was a remarkable woman, entering a field dominated by men and her book “Patterns of Culture” revolutionized anthropological study and became a standard anthropological textbook.
“The purpose of anthropology is to make the world safe for human differences.”
― Ruth Benedict
“No man ever looks at the world with pristine eyes. He sees it edited by a definite set of customs and institutions and ways of thinking.”
― Ruth Benedict
As mentioned, Ruth Benedict had close ties with the Shattuck Farm and her aunt, Myra Shattuck. “At one point in her young life, when she became discouraged, Dr. Benedict tells of returning to the Norwich Farm and earning a living off the garden, ‘I’m coming back primarily because I want to-because I can’t believe that a joyless life is a significant life’ .”[12]
Figure # 5 Myra Shattuck 1941 photo by Irma Shinners. Chenango County Historical Society CollectionMyra Louise Shattuck was born November 12, 1867, on the Shattuck farm on Norwich-Oxford Road Norwich, the daughter of John S Shattuck and Joanna Terry.[13]
Ms. Shattuck became interested in history and genealogy. Perhaps this is because she had six Revolutionary war ancestors, including Elnathan Terry who was descended from Thomas and Anna Rogers who arrived in America on the Mayflower.[14] Myra joined the Captain John Harris Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Chapter in Norwich, where she became an active member, and Chapter Regent in 1921[15] and 1923.[16] Myra gave the family information for “…the records used for the Unpublished Family Records compiled by Daughters of the American Revolution of New York State”[17] (Captain John Harris Chapter) that is held by the Local History Room in Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich.
As a DAR Daughter she gave presentations including a comprehensive history of the past 35 years of the Captain John Harris Chapter.[18]
Myra’s interest in her genealogy helped broaden her interest in preserving the history of Norwich and Chenango County and may even have helped spark her niece Ruth Benedict’s interest in anthropology.
To contribute to the preservation of history, Myra participated in a meeting with twenty-eight individuals at the County Courthouse on May 11, 1937, to discuss the organization plans for the Chenango County Historical Society (CCHS).[19] On the evening of February 17, 1938, a meeting at James S. Flanagan’s law office in Norwich officially established the Society.”[20]
Myra was a charter member of the CCHS and later served as its president from 1944-1946.[21] At first, the CCHS met at various places, while looking for a home to be a repository for their artifacts. In the minutes of the July 1940 meeting held in McDonough, Myra suggested that they buy the mill in Norwich, New York, or the Rockwell Mills to hold the artifacts of the new society to preserve them.[22]
Myra became well known for her knowledge of Norwich and Chenango County early life and history. The following are some articles she wrote and presented, many being published in the local newspapers:
- Myra presented her research on the Early History of Chenango County to the Captain John Harris DAR Chapter, later published in The Chenango Telegraph. She states that numerous early settlers who arrived after the Revolutionary period were from Rhode Island, and she proceeded to recount the story of Captain John Harris.[23]
- Myra combined her interest in religion and churches when she presented a program on Old Churches at the courthouse for the CCHS.[24] She tells how religion was brought to the area around 1810 by traveling preachers and Myra remembers that when she was a little girl, people would come from miles around to hear them. She continued to talk about early settlers settling by streams and building homes that had a chimney over a Dutch oven. Her grandmother used to make perlash biscuits. In her paper entitled “Home Crafts” found in the Shattuck file at the Chenango County Historian office, she detailed the process for making perlash, a substance used prior to the advent of baking powder or baking soda. Her grandmother would draw bright, hot coals out onto the hearth and would then place a handful of dry corncobs on them. When the corncobs burned to ashes, part of these ashes were placed in a dish, and a little hot water poured on them. This liquid served as a leavening agent when combined with sour milk or cream.
- At one CCHS Meeting held at the county courthouse, Miss Shattuck gave a presentation on the Chenango Canal where she said that local farmers along the canal furnished lumber and labor for the project, including her grandfather, Leroy Shattuck, who “…held a contract with the construction company whereby he and … his half-brother, were to furnish pine and oak timber for the lock on the Ransford Hicks farm.”[25]
- Another presentation was a paper on The Good Old Times to the Farmer’s Institute at the County Courthouse. She told it from the perspective of “well, I remember when” or I’ve heard my father tell.”[26]
- Myra delivered a presentation about the old piano factory in Norwich, describing the Haynes and Ryder piano that her father had bought. An elderly acquaintance tried the piano and noted, “This was built as an individual instrument; it was not assembled by pieces made by the hundreds.”[27]
- She also gave presentations to other organizations, as she spoke about the old school districts at the South Broad Street PTA meeting.[28]
Myra’s father was a deacon at the First Baptist Church in Norwich[29] where she attended church. Myra became involved with different programs and causes with the church, including being a Sunday School teacher. Other church activities included the Women’s Society[30] and the First Baptist Women’s Home Missionary Society, where she was elected as first vice regent in 1907,[31] as well as foreign mission secretary at the annual meeting in 1907.[32] She was re-elected as President in 1932.[33] In 1930, she was elected as president of the First Baptist Philathea society.[34]
In 1931 Ruth Benedict, accompanied her aunt to the Women’s Society meetings being held in the home of Mrs. J.L. Breed of Canasawacta Street in Norwich where Ruth performed a piano solo “Poupre Valsante” and Myra recited three readings.[35]
In addition, in 1936 Myra belonged to the 1936 Worldwide Guild, an American Baptist Women’s Ministry with a commitment to encourage and empower women and girls to serve God.”[36] This ministry is still active today, with the name changed to American Baptist Ministry for Girls in 1992. Ruth Benedict was an honorary guest and speaker at the guild meeting in 1936 which Myra attended.[37]
Figure #6 An Anthropologist at Work; Writings of Ruth Benedict Boston, Houghton Mifflin 1959 Page 308. https://archive.org/details/anthropologistat0000bene_d2c5. Accessed May 27, 2025.Ms. Shattuck held an open house to view her historic home and antiques. Sixty people attended, including members of the North Norwich home bureau. Ten dollars was collected for the young people’s summer conference fund at the First Baptist Church.[38] Myra also gave tours of her Colonial House to history students for at least three years, where over one hundred students came to her home.[39]
She donated items to various places such as four cans of pickles to the Canasawacta Home.[40] Then in 1914 “Miss Myra Shattuck … presented a cast drawing of Diana and another of Apollo to Guernsey Memorial Library.”[41]
Myra achieved notable success at the Chenango County Fair by winning several awards. For example, she entered the embroidery-canvas or cardboard Class 5 winning a prize for 25 cents for a linen tidy.[42] Another time she won a prize in the poultry division for one pair of Braham chickens for 50 cents.[43]
In 1945, Miss Mardula Grey, a friend from Greene, while visiting Myra discovered her deceased on the floor of her residence. [44] Her obituary stated that Myra was very active in the Baptist Church and a member of the Captain John Harris Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) Chapter. She was survived by two nieces, Ruth Benedict who had just left her aunt’s home the past Monday, after a summer visit, and Mrs. (Margery) Charles Poletti. “She was versed in the history of Norwich and Chenango County and was an authority on county history.”[45] However, Myra always felt that her real work was in the church.[46]
Figure #7 Shattuck Farm Roy Gallinger unknown newspaper article. Chenango Historian Shattuck file.Myra deeded the Shattuck land to Ruth Benedict in 1940 including the tenant house on the west side of Norwich-Oxford Road for one dollar.[47] In 1942, Mayor Frank Zuber acquired the Shattuck Farm and an adjacent farm. [48]
Unfortunately, after Myra’s death, Ruth did not return very often to the old Shattuck home and thus ended an important part of her life.
Figure #8 & #9 tombstones Ruth Benedect and Myra Shattuck Mt Hope Cemetery, Norwich, New York. Photos by authorI would like to thank Julie Kupris Chenango County Historian Clerk, Dale Storm, former County Historian, John Antonowicz Chenango County Deputy Historian, Connie Dalrymple Local History Room at Guernsey Memorial Library, Zac Greenfield Chenango County Historical Society and Kay Benjamin.