principal of the high school at Saginaw in Northern Michigan. Here
she was especially successful in keeping order among unruly pupils.
The summer of 1877 she spent in Ann Arbor, studying for a higher
degree, and although she never completed the thesis for this work,
the university conferred upon her the degree of Ph.D. in 1882, the
first year of her presidency at Wellesley.

In this same summer of 1877, when she was studying at Ann Arbor,
she received her first invitation to teach at Wellesley. Mr. Durant
offered her an instructorship in Mathematics, which she declined.
In 1878 she was again invited, this time to teach Greek, but her
sister Stella was dying, and Miss Freeman, who had now settled
her entire family at Saginaw, would not leave them. In June, 1879,
the sister died, and in July Miss Freeman became the head of the
Department of History at Wellesley, at the age of twenty-four.

Mr. Durant's attention had first been drawn to her by her good
friend President Angell, and he had evidently followed her career
as a teacher with interest. There seems to have been no abatement
in his approval after she went to Wellesley. We are told that they
did not always agree, but this does not seem to have affected
their mutual esteem. In her first year, Mr. Durant is said to have
remarked to one of the trustees, "You see that little dark-eyed
girl? She will be the next president of Wellesley." And before
he died, he made his wishes definitely known to the board.

At a meeting of the trustees, on November 15, 1881, Miss Freeman
was appointed vice president of the college and acting president
for the year. She was then twenty-six years of age and the youngest
professor in the college. In 1882 she became president.