Background
She was born in Derby, Connecticut to Canfield and Hannah Gilett.
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Eliza Bridgman
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Graduating at age sixteen, she became an assistant teacher at the boarding school from which she graduated.
Career
She continued her career in education and was appointed principle at another boarding school at age twenty-two. After arriving in Hong Kong, Eliza soon met Doctor Review Elijah Coleman Bridgman.
Bridgman believed that Eliza was his answer to his prayer for a wife.
He proposed and the two were married on June 28, 1845 in Colonial Chapel. In 1862 she was forced to take a furlough in the United States due to health concerns after her husband’s death, during which she was run over by a sled.
Bridgman returned to Peking in 1864 where she opened up Bridgman Academy after obtaining substantial land. The Academy later became the Women"s College of Yenching University and is credited with educating a large number of female Chinese leaders.
Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman is buried in Shanghai next to her husband Elijah Bridgman.
