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Sorry, I haven't recorded this document yet.
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Alma says about her new job:
"All my predecessors in that place have college positions."
Mount Holyoke College - Alma's happily ever after - is starting to be a possibility.
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
(That's me quoting Keats, by the way.)
"All my predecessors in that place have college positions."
Mount Holyoke College - Alma's happily ever after - is starting to be a possibility.
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He star'd at the Pacific—and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise--
Silent, upon a peak in Darien.
(That's me quoting Keats, by the way.)
audio---images---comment---~TRANSCRIPT~---notes---links---site navigation
Canton O. July 8, 1903
Dear Will,
I have such a piece of good news that I will burst if I don’t tell it right away. I have received an offer from of the position as assistant in the Botany laboratory at Oberlin. Professor Grover wrote and asked me if I would take it. I will have to give from 3 to 5 hours a day to it and take about half my regular college work. I can’t graduate then until 1905 but they will give me my degree as with the class of 1904. For the two years I teach as an undergraduate I get $250 a year, paid monthly. If I keep on after I graduate I will get a raise and can do post graduate work for the A.M. degree. I think it is a splendid chance and I accepted it at once. I am so glad that I can help myself some next year. I am very sorry that I have made you have such a hard time this year. My expenses next year will not be so heavy as I expected because I will not have my graduating expenses. I won’t need more than $100 from you. I can pay for my board and clothes, but not my tuition, lab. fees, or books. Aren’t you relieved? It is a great honor to be asked to take that place. Prof. Grover said it was very unusual to give the place to an undergraduate but my work in Botany and my record in my other college work fitted me for the place. It is always given to a post-graduate student who is working for her second degree. As I am not a P.G. he said they could not remit my tuition or pay me the usual salary.
Mama is so elated over it that even Eva’s teasing scarcely keeps her down to earth. I am very glad to get it. It will make it so much easier for me to get a good position somewhere else when I want it. He asked me to take it for two years at least but I will probably keep it three and perhaps four. By next year I want Mama and Eva to come to Oberlin. I don’t think it would be advisable to try it this year. It would make our expenses to heavy by another year I think we could manage it.
I am so glad I am going to be in Oberlin for a few years more. I was so afraid I would have to come back here to teach and I hated the thought of it. The High School here is rotten. I may never have to teach in a High School now. All my predecessors in that place have college positions. Anyway I won’t have to do it soon. I am so relieved. I know I shall like the work at Oberlin. I know what it is like.
I came here yesterday morning. Everybody here is well. I am very glad to be home although I did have a splendid time at Ashtabula. I went out to supper six times and to dinner twice and had carriage rides and boat rides and bathing. I had dinner on board a boat - the J T Hutchinson - with the captain and also at a clubhouse on the lake. I never was so extensively entertained in my life.
Did I tell you that Lil is playing at a hotel this summer? She and Mabel Watson - Steenie’s roommate - are at the Red Swan Inn, Warwick, N.Y. It’s a fine place and they like it. They play three hours a day. She has invited me to come there in August. She can’t come here so she will pay all my expenses. I haven’t seen her for a year and I am very anxious to go. I will probably go about the 10th of Aug.
I am not going to work so hard as I did last summer - I intend to have a good vacation so that I will not be tired in the fall.
We are anxiously expecting a letter from you. With love -
Alma
Dear Will,
I have such a piece of good news that I will burst if I don’t tell it right away. I have received an offer from of the position as assistant in the Botany laboratory at Oberlin. Professor Grover wrote and asked me if I would take it. I will have to give from 3 to 5 hours a day to it and take about half my regular college work. I can’t graduate then until 1905 but they will give me my degree as with the class of 1904. For the two years I teach as an undergraduate I get $250 a year, paid monthly. If I keep on after I graduate I will get a raise and can do post graduate work for the A.M. degree. I think it is a splendid chance and I accepted it at once. I am so glad that I can help myself some next year. I am very sorry that I have made you have such a hard time this year. My expenses next year will not be so heavy as I expected because I will not have my graduating expenses. I won’t need more than $100 from you. I can pay for my board and clothes, but not my tuition, lab. fees, or books. Aren’t you relieved? It is a great honor to be asked to take that place. Prof. Grover said it was very unusual to give the place to an undergraduate but my work in Botany and my record in my other college work fitted me for the place. It is always given to a post-graduate student who is working for her second degree. As I am not a P.G. he said they could not remit my tuition or pay me the usual salary.
Mama is so elated over it that even Eva’s teasing scarcely keeps her down to earth. I am very glad to get it. It will make it so much easier for me to get a good position somewhere else when I want it. He asked me to take it for two years at least but I will probably keep it three and perhaps four. By next year I want Mama and Eva to come to Oberlin. I don’t think it would be advisable to try it this year. It would make our expenses to heavy by another year I think we could manage it.
I am so glad I am going to be in Oberlin for a few years more. I was so afraid I would have to come back here to teach and I hated the thought of it. The High School here is rotten. I may never have to teach in a High School now. All my predecessors in that place have college positions. Anyway I won’t have to do it soon. I am so relieved. I know I shall like the work at Oberlin. I know what it is like.
I came here yesterday morning. Everybody here is well. I am very glad to be home although I did have a splendid time at Ashtabula. I went out to supper six times and to dinner twice and had carriage rides and boat rides and bathing. I had dinner on board a boat - the J T Hutchinson - with the captain and also at a clubhouse on the lake. I never was so extensively entertained in my life.
Did I tell you that Lil is playing at a hotel this summer? She and Mabel Watson - Steenie’s roommate - are at the Red Swan Inn, Warwick, N.Y. It’s a fine place and they like it. They play three hours a day. She has invited me to come there in August. She can’t come here so she will pay all my expenses. I haven’t seen her for a year and I am very anxious to go. I will probably go about the 10th of Aug.
I am not going to work so hard as I did last summer - I intend to have a good vacation so that I will not be tired in the fall.
We are anxiously expecting a letter from you. With love -
Alma
audio---images---comment---transcript---~NOTES~---links---site navigation
1.
It is a great honor to be asked to take that place. Prof. Grover said it was very unusual to give the place to an undergraduate but my work in Botany and my record in my other college work fitted me for the place. It is always given to a post-graduate student who is working for her second degree.
Professor Grover knew a winner when he saw one. See:
1903-10-24 LETTER FROM ALMA TO WILL
I know as much as the other assistants my predecessors - but I feel pretty insignificant with Professor Grover.
2.
I had dinner on board a boat - the J T Hutchinson - with the captain and also at a clubhouse on the lake.
This boat shows up in Wikipedia’s list of shipwrecks of the 1913 storm, stranded in Lake Superior. Built 1901, 346 feet long.
3.
Did I tell you that Lil is playing at a hotel this summer? She and Mabel Watson - Steenie’s roommate - are at the Red Swan Inn, Warwick, N.Y.
Lil, Mabel, and Steenie are in the Non-Family page for Mabel, Lil, Steenie, and Orestes
For the Red Swan Inn, Google gave me the following from 2004:
“Originally built at the turn of the 20th century on land that is now the Warwick Country Club, the inn boasted 100 rooms. With its imposing architecture and dramatic vistas, the Red Swan became both Warwick’s premiere hotel and a well-known vacation destination for city dwellers.
"The inn’s glory faded over the years until it lapsed into disrepair and finally burned to the ground in the 1950s.”
4.
Rereading this letter, I realize that Alma's lab assistant job was important to her family as a whole. If she hadn't gotten that job, she would have had to teach again at Canton High School to save money, and that would have delayed the move of Mama Margaret, Fred, and Eva to Oberlin.
It is a great honor to be asked to take that place. Prof. Grover said it was very unusual to give the place to an undergraduate but my work in Botany and my record in my other college work fitted me for the place. It is always given to a post-graduate student who is working for her second degree.
Professor Grover knew a winner when he saw one. See:
1903-10-24 LETTER FROM ALMA TO WILL
I know as much as the other assistants my predecessors - but I feel pretty insignificant with Professor Grover.
2.
I had dinner on board a boat - the J T Hutchinson - with the captain and also at a clubhouse on the lake.
This boat shows up in Wikipedia’s list of shipwrecks of the 1913 storm, stranded in Lake Superior. Built 1901, 346 feet long.
3.
Did I tell you that Lil is playing at a hotel this summer? She and Mabel Watson - Steenie’s roommate - are at the Red Swan Inn, Warwick, N.Y.
Lil, Mabel, and Steenie are in the Non-Family page for Mabel, Lil, Steenie, and Orestes
For the Red Swan Inn, Google gave me the following from 2004:
“Originally built at the turn of the 20th century on land that is now the Warwick Country Club, the inn boasted 100 rooms. With its imposing architecture and dramatic vistas, the Red Swan became both Warwick’s premiere hotel and a well-known vacation destination for city dwellers.
"The inn’s glory faded over the years until it lapsed into disrepair and finally burned to the ground in the 1950s.”
4.
Rereading this letter, I realize that Alma's lab assistant job was important to her family as a whole. If she hadn't gotten that job, she would have had to teach again at Canton High School to save money, and that would have delayed the move of Mama Margaret, Fred, and Eva to Oberlin.
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- EVA: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- MAMA MARGARET: DOCUMENTS ----- Related
- NON-FAMILY: MABEL, LIL, STEENIE, AND ORESTES ----- Mabel, Lil, Steenie
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