CLERC, Mme. Henrietta Fannie Virginie, educator, born in Paris, France. 7th February. 1841. She is the daughter of Alexandre Louis Sulpice Clerc and Marie Josephine Virginie Grand-Fils. Her grandfather, Gen. Le Clerc, fought for the first Napoleon, and was knighted De Saint Clerc by him at the battle of Austerlitz. Sulpice Clerc was too strong a republican to bear any title. He was opposed to the Empire of Napoleon III and was
HENRIETTA FANNIE VIRGINIE CLERC.
one of the conspirators to take away his life. The plot was discovered, and those who escaped imprisonment were obliged to leave Paris, and all their property was confiscated. Sulpice Clerc and his wife lived in various parts of Europe until their children's education was finished. They had two sons and two daughters. Henrietta, the eldest daughter, was graduated from the Convent of the Dames Benedictines, where she had been since the age of five. The family then came to this country and settled in New York City. In April, 1861. Henrietta was married to her first cousin, Felix Clerc, who was killed the following July in the battle of Bull Run, having entered the Union army as a French Zouave at the outbreak of the Civil War. Since that time Mme. Clerc has supported herself by teaching, at first in a Quaker school in Bristol, then in the Packer Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, N. Y., and in St. Agnes' School. Albany, N. Y., in each of which schools she remained five years. In 1881 she established a school of her own in Philadelphia, Pa., where she is at present training a limited number of girls each year. For the use of her pupils she published several years ago a pamphlet entitled "First Steps in the Art of Speaking French." She is now editing a monthly paper, "l.'Étude." for those wishing to perfect themselves in her native tongue.