Eleanor Maria Blacker was the daughter of Peter I. and Abigail M.Blacker, who moved from Boston to Modern Times in the 1850s. They brought along their two children, Eleanor and Frank E. Blacker. Ellen Maria died from Pneumonia at age eighteen on March 16, 1855.   Eleanor became Modern Times first school teacher. Since the village had no school at the time(the first school house (Octagonal School) was not completed until two years after her death. She was also known for being feisty and rebellious. This led her to Henry Edger and his religion of Positivism (Edger was trying to convert residents of the village at the time,but Eleanor was one of only three people who showed interest).  Edger was impressed by Eleanor’s spirit and enthusiasm.

After her death, Edger wrote to his colleague Auguste Comte. “On March 16, 1855, died in this village Eleanor Maria Blacker, a young woman eighteen years of age, whose sprightliness and good humor made her the very life of the neighborhood… her death was a very heavy blow and great discouragement to me. Of her conversion to Positivism, at the ripe moment, I never felt doubt”. He was proud of her resistance to the “anarchical influences” of her parents and the village, and hoped that she would be “elevated into a local saint by our final sacrament” of incorporation, the reward of virtuous Positivists seven years after their death.  Comte replied that he deeply regretted Eleanor’s death and praised Edger’s admiration of her, “but the question of public adoration will require further study”.

-N. Zinno. Local History Newsletter. May 2009