Henrietta A. Bingham (, Burrington; December 29, 1841 - February 18, 1877) was a 19th-century American writer, editor, and preceptress. She succeeded Phebe Ann Coffin Hanaford as the editor of the Ladies' Repository and the Myrtle, and was the last editor of the Ladies' Repository.
Bingham was born in 1841. On January 1, 1843, her mother died, leaving the children to the care of their elder half-sister, Rosalie. Bingham was precocious, easily mastering her school studies. The summer she was fourteen, she taught school in the Belden district and at sixteen, attended school at South Woodstock, Vermont. Many of her school compositions were written in verse, "Farewell Sixteen," "The Island of Dreams," and "My Mother," being of special mention.
On leaving the academy, she spent three years in Boston, and in 1864, went to St. Lawrence University as preceptress. The next year, she wrote the prize story "Mignonette," competing with such writers as Caroline Mehitable Fisher Sawyer and Jane Lippitt Patterson. In the spring of 1866, she married Rev. Henry Bingham, of Columbus, Wisconsin, who died the following autumn.
In 1869, Bingham became editor of the Ladies' Repository, of the Universalist Publishing House of Boston. She was marked for succession with Sawyer, Julia Kinney Scott, Sarah Carter Edgarton Mayo, Eliza Ann Bacon Lathrop, and Nancy T. Munroe. During the five years that she conducted that magazine, she developed a notable literary record. Her specialty was verse, but she also demonstrated ability with essay, editorial, short story, and sketch. One of her best poems was "L'Envoi," a midnight meditation on the passing year; "The Human Side" and "The Divine Side," were her greatest work, easily placing her in the front rank with writers of her time. In 1875, her failing health compelled her to give up writing and return to her old home town, where she died in 1877.
Early life
Henrietta Adelaide Burrington was born on December 29, 1841. She was the youngest daughter of the second wife of Asahel Burrington of Caledonia County, Vermont. By the first marriage of the father there were three children, Rosalie Martha (Hall); Lindley Murray, a Universalist clergyman; and John Quincy Adams. By the second marriage, with Louisa Chapin Rice, there were four children, Howard Rice; Lorenzo Lester, Professor at Dean Academy; Solon Orville, a physician, who was the nearest brother in age; and Henrietta, the youngest.
One year old when her mother died, Bingham became close to her half-sister. She was gentle and easily managed, and all went well for eight years, after which the father married. Soon after, the half-sister married and left home. Bingham never ceased pining for this sister.
Education
Bingham learned to read before she was five. She was always classed with those older than herself, and invariably stood at the head of her class. It was quite often, galling to her older brothers, who prided themselves on good scholarship, to have Bingham in their classes, and especially so when she had succeeded in solving some difficult problem, or unraveling some knotty construction in John Milton's Paradise Lost, which they had failed to fathom. When a child, she was a great reader, and eagerly read every book available to her. Indeed, reading was her greatest fault in those days, and she probably received more correction for reading while at work than for all other offenses put together; the greatest complaint of her step-mother was that "her head was always in a book." Her opportunities for reading were not great. Her father, being a farmer, had but few books, and there was no public library in the town; so her only resort was borrowing from her neighbors, which she indulged in quite freely.
At the age of 14, she taught at the Belden School. She was quite fond of teaching at this time in her life, and devoted a part of every year (the summer) to that work, until her school education was finished. It was during these years that she began to develop a literary talent. She amused herself during her leisure hours by writing little stories and sending them to her schoolmates to read, and occasionally wrote a little poem for their amusement. She was very shy in regard to these productions, and would never let any member of the family see them.