It seems to me that time does fly so
fast.
-Carrie H. Blair, 1893
-Carrie H. Blair, 1893
When I was researching Carrie H. Blair’s
time at Grove City College, I happened upon a great find: old issues of a
periodical that was published by the college since its founding in 1876, The Grove City Collegian. While I didn’t
find any mentions of Carrie in the issues I had access to, some of the topics
she writes about in her letters also appear in The Collegian. Carrie likely had a copy of this issue, April 1893
(15 cents a copy or one dollar for the year), since that’s when she started at
the school. I looked through the extant issues from 1891 through 1894 to see if I could find any more
information about the people and topics in Carrie’s letters.
Smallpox
In her letter of April 21, 1893, Carrie refers
to a recent smallpox scare:
You, I presume, are all anxious to know
about the small pox. There has been but the one case, and I doubt if it was the
small pox at all. The young man was not a student, but he clerked in his
father’s store which is on the same street that the college is.
There was some controversy about whether or not it was smallpox. The April 1893 issue of The Collegian mentions the case three times. I have trouble understanding this editorial (the fourth sentence in particular):
The six men below recovered from a
smallpox “scare.” Does a scare mean that people thought it was smallpox but it
wasn’t (as Carrie implies in her letter), or that it was smallpox, but not
widespread?
I was unclear about the “loud color of
the Senior caps” so I googled “smallpox color” and found this book, Smallpox: The Death of a Disease, by
D.A. Henderson. According to Henderson, there is an ancient belief that the
color red can be used to help those suffering from smallpox. So it’s likely
that the senior caps were red, and that the superstition was well-enough known for
observers at the time to link the red senior caps to a possible smallpox
outbreak.
The case was also reported in a local newspaper,
the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. The
article is hard to read and cut off at the end, but it notes that the
physicians who treated the man who died determined that it was smallpox, while Isaac
C. Ketler, president of Grove City College, said it was not:
Music
Department
Although Carrie mentions a writing
(penmanship) class, most of her college observations focus on the music classes
she took and the teachers who taught them. She studied piano with Nora Naeter;
the director of the department, Professor E.C. Heffley, also took part in her
lessons.
I had to play on the piano yesterday,
with Prof. Heffley on one side and Miss Naeter on the other. And there was four
other girls there. I got so nervous Prof. Heffley said he thought I was not
naturly so nervous.
* * *
I took a music lesson to-day at 1:30.
Got along very well. Miss Naeter brags on my time very much, but I have some
trouble with my hands. The piano requires such a firm touch, but I think I can,
with practice, learn to play with more decision. I am working very hard.
* * *
I then had to take a lesson from Miss
Naeter this morning.
They
gave me Loschhorn’s Estudeux and I tell you it is hard.
My
fingers are very weak, not being used to a piano.
* * *
They
gave me a very high grade of music. Prof. Miss Naeter said that she thought it would
be too hard for me, but Prof. Heffley said he thought I was capable of taking
it though.
Grove
City College made a public effort to improve its music offerings two years
earlier. The June 1891 issue of The
Collegian, looking ahead to the 1891–1892 school year, reports:
It’s likely that Professor Heffley started
that year. The earliest mention I can find of him at Grove City College is
January 1892. While I’m sure this was an innocent encounter, I can’t imagine it
being worded quite this way today.
By the end of the year, as indicated in
this blurb from the December 1892 issue, the department was flourishing, with
Professor Heffley and Nora Naeter called out specifically.
Carrie also writes home about two music
classes she is taking:
Well I have just been down to the
college to take the lesson in History of music and I tell you it is hard.
* * *
I have to recite History of music at
3.00 o’clock this P.M.
* * *
I have just returned from the Ladies
Chorus Class. Like it so much.
 |
|
Music classes
were held in the Music Hall, on the left. The Recitation Hall is on the right.
Photo courtesy of Grove City College Archives, CollegeArchives@GCC.EDU.
|
The history of music class that Carrie mentions
above is noted in the December 1893 issue of The Collegian, which also provides an update about the Music Department overall.
The public music recitals were held twice
a month. It’s possible that Carrie participated in one or more during her time
at the college, but there are only two extant issues of The Collegian in 1893 — April and December — and she isn’t listed
in either of those. My guess is that she hadn’t been at the school long enough to
be ready to perform in April, and that she had probably left by December. But she did attend at least one of them, to hear Lois Belle Cory
sing.
Next Mon. at 2:20 o’clock the students
will give a music recital.
* * *
I had the pleasure of attending a
grand, free recital Mon. It was very nice. I just wish you could hear Miss Cory
sing. I did not like to hear her when I first came, but now I just listen spellbound to her.
* * *
The
recitals were most likely held at the Recitation Hall, seen here in a photo
from 1879:
 |
|
Photo courtesy
of Grove City College Archives, CollegeArchives@GCC.EDU.
|
Lois Belle Cory came to the school at the
same time as Professor Heffley and Nora Naeter. Both she and Professor Heffley
studied at German conservatories — she at the Dresden Conservatory, and
Professor Heffley at the Berlin Conservatory. Nora Naeter studied at the
Chicago Conservatory, but a 1902 newspaper article notes that she spent four
years studying in Berlin and was planning another extended trip to study music
in Germany.
Professor
Heffley seems to have left after the 1893 school year. The masthead in the
April 1894 issue of The Collegian shows that Lois Belle Cory is now the directress of the
Conservatory of Music.
I’ve tried to find out what happened to Professor
Heffley after this time, but I can’t find him in any census records or other
sources on Ancestry.
Lois Belle Cory (whose married name was
Thompson) became the Dean of Women in 1911 and died unexpectedly in 1933 of
heart failure. “[It had been] her custom to flash the retiring lights at 10:45
each evening.” When she failed to do so, someone from the Colonial House
Council went to her room to check on her, and found her collapsed on the floor. The
school was shocked at the loss.
Watch
Repair
Like most
college newspapers, The Collegian
contained a number of advertisements for local services that students might
need. Carrie needed to find someone to fix her broken watch, as she relates to
her father, O.S. Blair, here:
Pa, when I opened my trunk, the things
which you had put in with the watch and also the watch was just up side-down. I
have tried twice to get it to run but it won’t go more than 3 min. at a time. I
think it is broken. I will get it fixed because I need it so badly.
Maybe Carrie
went to this merchant, advertised in the April 1893 issue of The Collegian, to get her watch fixed?
Isaac
C. Ketler
Dr. Isaac C. Ketler founded Grove City
College, and was still president when Carrie was there. He was intimately
involved in the day-to-day issues of the college, judging from Carrie’s news.
 |
Photo courtesy of Grove City College Archives, CollegeArchives@GCC.EDU.
|
Dr. Ketler told me this afternoon that
a young lady would be here the last of this week or the first of next to be a
mate for me. To-night is prayer meeting at Chapel Hall for the students. And
Sat. night there is a social in the hall that is for the purpose of getting
acquainted.
* * *
The other morning Prof. Hovis, our
writing teacher, could not be there and Dr. Ketler came into our recitation
room and asked Mr. Daugherty to take charge of the class, which he did. He is a
good writer. (Both Professor Hovis and Mr.
Daugherty taught in the business department. The writing Carrie refers to was
most likely penmanship.)
* * *
In about three weeks you will receive a
card, with Dr. Ketlers opinion of me. You must write and tell me what it says
when you get it. I can scarcely think that our term is about one fourth gone
already. It seems to me that time does fly so fast.
Sources:
Henderson, D.A. Smallpox: The Death of a Disease. Prometheus Books, New York: 2009.
© Kristin Luce, 2017
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