1803 – 1864

by Charles K. (Ken) McCotter, Jr., Christ Episcopal Church, New Bern, NC, 2016

Arete Sitgreaves Ellis was the daughter of Maj. George Ellis and Amaryllis Sitgreaves Ellis, who were married in Craven County, NC, in 1792. George represented New Bern in the 1800 and 1801 House of Commons, and Amaryllis was the sister of United States District Judge, John Sitgreaves.

In the 1850 United States Census for New Bern, Arete was listed as a teacher, along with three other adults and seventeen female students. By 1860 the listing included 23 students and four adults. These students would have been attending the Moses Griffin Free Girls School, which was incorporated in 1833, then operated from 1840 until it closed in 1862 because of the Civil War. As Superintendent of this school, “Miss Arete” was listed as head of the household.

According to the entry for Moses Griffin in the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography by Gertrude Carraway, Griffin had left money and explicit instructions in his will for a lot, a building and a “proper schoolmaster” to teach indigent children. Besides being housed and taught, the orphans or other poor children were to be maintained and clothed. At age fourteen they were to be apprenticed to trades or other occupations. By the time the school actually opened in 1840, the executors had decided to educate poor girls instead of boys.

“Miss Arete” was selected as headmistress, and under her supervision the girls were housed, clothed, fed and given medical treatment. She taught them the regular subjects, along with sewing, knitting, spinning, cooking, housework, gardening, and liberal doses of Bible lessons and personal morality. Along with her St. Bernard dog, Miss Arete took her students on daily walks through the woods to collect and study wildflowers. Each Sunday she marched her charges, dressed in their school uniforms, to Christ Church. All the students received instruction in the Bible, religion and morality, and Miss Arete sponsored many for baptism.

In her memory one of the windows in the church honors her and contains the Proverb: “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” Hopefully it still stimulates others to “go and do likewise.”