Charity Bryant’s family home in North Bridgewater, now Brockton, Massachusetts. This classic “New England large house,” two rooms deep on both floors, is representative of homes built in eighteenth-century Massachusetts. The house was identified as the Bryant home by Gerald Beals, curator of the Brockton Historical Society. Photo by author, July 2012.

“A View from the Falls at Otter Creek,” by Thomas Davies, 1766. The landscape surrounding Otter Creek remained rugged when Sylvia Drake moved to Weybridge, around 1799. With permission of the Royal Ontario Museum © ROM.

Silhouette of Asaph Drake (1775–1871). Middle brother Asaph pioneered the Drake family’s removal from Massachusetts to Addison County, Vermont. Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont.

Peter Bryant (1767–1820). Charity lived with Peter Bryant and his family periodically during her twenties, before she settled in Weybridge, Vermont. Bryant Family Papers, Bureau County Historical Society, Princeton, Illinois.

Sarah “Sally” Snell Bryant (1768–1847). Charity shared a close connection to her sister-in-law Sally Bryant throughout the women’s long lives. Bryant Family Papers, Bureau County Historical Society, Princeton, Illinois.

Locks of hair cut from twins Edwin and Emma Hayward, 1803. Charity Bryant befriended Sylvia’s older sister Polly Hayward in North Bridgewater, Massachusetts, during the early 1800s. The two became so close that Polly and her husband, Asaph Hayward, asked Charity to name their twins, who were born in 1803. Photo courtesy of Randy Hayward.

The poem presented by Charity to her lover Lydia Richards, before Charity departed Massachusetts to visit Weybridge in February 1807. Lydia and Charity had discussed establishing a home together in Massachusetts, but Charity abandoned the plan in order to stay in Vermont with Sylvia. Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont.

An acrostic for Sylvia Drake, written by Charity Bryant, August 17, 1807. Charity excelled at composing acrostic poems. This early acrostic was one of many Charity would write for Sylvia over the course of their lives together. Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont.

A page from Sylvia Drake’s 1821 diary. Drake squeezed as many words as possible onto her diary pages, using shorthand for clothing items the women sewed and initials for frequent visitors. Both Sylvia and Charity kept diaries throughout their lives, but only five years of Sylvia’s diaries are still extant. Charity’s diaries were all destroyed after her death. Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont.

Charity Bryant and Sylvia Drake used this adult-sized cradle to treat their frequent ill health. They sometimes encouraged guests who were feeling sick to rest in the cradle as well. Courtesy of the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History, Middlebury, Vermont.

A few years after Charity’s death in 1851, Sylvia left their rustic cottage and moved into her brother Asaph’s comfortable brick house in Weybridge, Vermont. She remained there until her death in 1868. Photo by author, July 2012.

Sylvia Drake and Charity Bryant are buried together in Weybridge, Vermont, under a single headstone. The Drake family showed respect for the women’s union by not only burying them together, but also spending extra money to have the women’s names embossed rather than carved into the monument. Photo by author, July 2012.