Louisa Neef Evans (1807-1860) was sister-in-law to two Robert Owen's sons. Her sister Caroline married David Dale Owen and another sister, Anne Eliza married Richard Owen. The sisters' father was ""born with the surname N�ef in Alsace, France, Joseph Neef fought under Napoleon Bonaparte. He was fortunate to survive a head wound--but carried the metal ball until, at his request, it was removed upon his death. During the lengthy convalescence from the wound, Neef was drawn to the educational principles of Pestalozzi. Neef became a teacher at the Pestalozzian school at Burgdorf, Switzerland, and on Pestalozzi's recommendation, he established an orphan school in Paris in 1802. William Maclure visited this school and was impressed with Neef's implementation of Pestalozzian methods. Under contract to Maclure, Neef opened a school for boys at the village, Falls of Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, in 1809. Although initially successful, this and subsequent Neef-Pestalozzian schools closed within a few years, and Neef turned, in 1821, to farming near Floydsburg, Kentucky. Two years after Neef's arrival in America he published a book now recognized as the first work on educational method to be written in English in the United States. At Maclure's urging, Neef left his farm and, during the winter of 1826, joined Maclure in New Harmony. There, the educational system consisted of three levels: infant, higher, and adult. Neef, following Maclure's curriculum, superintended the higher school, in which were enrolled up to 200 students, ranging in age from five to twelve." (https://faculty.evansville.edu/ck6/bstud/neef.html).