In the early 1830s, Benjamin Godfrey announced plans to build a seminary for women in Monticello, now Godfrey. Monticello Female Seminary opened in 1838 and offered women an academic curriculum patterned after that of Yale University rather than the domestic and social tutoring typical of the time. Its first principal was the Reverend Theron Baldwin, and beginning in the 1840s the position was held by notable women including Philena Fobes and later Harriet Newell Haskell, who is considered one of the Midwest's greatest early educators. Poet Lucy Larcom wrote in 1855 to Fobes that her years at Monticello had formed an epoch in her life and had given her intellectually a broader scope and firmer footing. The school founded by Godfrey later became Monticello College and closed in 1970-1971, and the site continues as Lewis & Clark Community College.