Sophia smith was born on August 27, 1796, in Hatfield, Massachusetts. At this time, Sophia was the fourth child of Joseph and Lois Smith, but her older siblings died young and she became the eldest daughter.

Even though the typical role for the eldest daughter was to run the household, she didn’t get to be this because she was considered to be “too emotional” and “physically weak” and when her mother died, she turned to her sister to fill the role.

In the 1800s, education was limited for little girls, and if they wanted they could only attend classes after the boy's classes ended. At home, most of the education girls received was biblical.

Sophia loved learning and everything about it and strived to get whatever education she could. She loved reading and was stated to be an eager pupil. This love for learning and education lit a fire inside of her.

Sophia’s childhood was traumatic, her elder siblings all died and her parents did soon after. Death is a scary thing, at any age, and the deaths in her life left a big impact on her as a person. 

By 1861 Sophia was the last sibling alive and the responsibility that came with that was huge. She needed to find her purpose in the world, a way to give back the education that she received. 

Sophia had been deaf since she was a kid and had undergone many many surgeries to try and relive her of her deafness. These didn’t work, sadly, and she lived her entire life hard of hearing. But this didn’t stop her!

Her original plan was to open up a school for the hard-of-hearing, but those plans didn’t work out when another school opened up in Massachusetts for the deaf, and she didn't feel like another was needed.

Her second plan was to open a school specifically for the education of women, as they were a neglected group in terms of education. As a woman, Sophia felt like this was the perfect way to give an education to people who needed it the most! This was her purpose!