<P> The Bolling family, who lived in Virginia, were the most prominent colonists to send their deaf children to the Braidwood Academy . Thomas Bolling and his wife Elizabeth Gay (who was also his first cousin) had three deaf children, John, Mary, and Thomas Jr., as well as at least two hearing children . John was the first of the three children to go to the Braidwood Academy in 1771, with Mary and Thomas Jr. arriving later . The three Bolling children arrived back in the United States in 1783; however, they became ill shortly after arriving home, and John died on October 11, 1783 . Because of this, it cannot be determined how effective the ten years of oral instruction he received were . Mary and Thomas Jr. lived for at least another four decades, and comments about Thomas Jr. noted that he was a "miracle of accomplishments ." </P> <P> The next generation of hearing Bollings had deaf children, and they wanted their children to be educated in the United States . William, the last child of Thomas and Elizabeth, married his first cousin Mary, who bore five children, two of whom were deaf . The couple's first deaf child, William Albert, drove his father's desire to create a school for the deaf in America . William Bolling met John Braidwood, a descendant of Thomas Braidwood, after he arrived in America in 1812 . Bolling invited Braidwood to stay in his home as Braidwood sorted out a more permanent living arrangement . Braidwood discussed with Bolling his desire to open a school similar to the Braidwood Academy in America . After many setbacks, the Cobbs School was established in 1815 . It closed about a year and a half later, in the fall of 1816, when Braidwood's personal problems caused him to leave the school and Bolling could no longer financially maintain it . </P> <P> In 1812 in New England, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet met a little girl named Alice Cogswell, who inspired him to create a school for the deaf in the United States . In 1815, he traveled to Europe to gain insight on their methods of teaching deaf students . He attempted to learn from the Braidwood system, but the administrators wanted him to sign a contract, remain at the school for several years to be trained in oralism, and agree to keep the teaching methods of the school a secret; Gallaudet refused this . He attended a lecture in France by Abbé Sicard showcasing two successful pupils of Paris' National Institution for Deaf - Mutes, Jean Massieu and Laurent Clerc . Gallaudet spent several months at the school, and he convinced Clerc, a thirty - year - old assistant teacher, to return with him to Hartford, Connecticut . Back in America, they established the Connecticut Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, which was later named the American School for the Deaf, in 1817 . Gallaudet was the director, and Clerc was the first deaf teacher in America . Alice Cogswell was one of the first seven students . </P> <P> For most of the remainder of the century, education of deaf children using sign language, a practice known as manualism, continued to grow . Approximately forty percent of all teachers were deaf . More than thirty schools for the deaf were opened, the majority of which were manual . William Willard was the first deaf superintendent in America and founded Indiana School for the Deaf in 1843 . Gallaudet College (now Gallaudet University) was founded in Washington, D.C in 1864 with Thomas Gallaudet's son, Edward Miner Gallaudet, as the school's superintendent . Edward Miner Gallaudet strongly believed in the use of sign language and had a number of arguments with Alexander Graham Bell, an oralist . </P>

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