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| Hattie Blakely |
On November
12, 1867, Hattie Blakely wrote to her parents, believing it to be her last
letter from Rutland High School.
“The school here is to close next week Wensday and I shall want Pa to come for me on Thursday the 21st of November. It may be sleighing by that time. It has been snowing here to day.”
This seems
quite early for the term to close.
Perhaps the change in weather made for such difficulties of travel that
the school authorities wanted to avoid them by closing for the winter. Still the students who lived in the city could
still attend. The next time that the
weather might be better would probably be May.
At the same time, Hattie inquires about the school in Pawlet.
“If the school begins next week it will be before I get home. By the way is Colby and his wife going to continue going to school in winter now that they are enjoying the bliss of matrimony[?]”
In Pawlet,
where students must travel daily from farms to attend school, a winter term was
beginning in mid-November. However, the
school teachers might not be available.
Colby Reed, to whom Hattie refers by his first name, may well have been
a distant cousin on her father’s mother’s side, but if he is married, he is old
enough to be called by a more formal term.
She says that he has recently been married. It appears that both Colby and Flora Reed had
been schoolteachers. In those days it
was expected that any female teacher would resign after being married so that
she could devote herself to being a wife and mother. But Hattie believes that both Flora and Colby
might continue.[1]
Is Hattie
considering going to school in Pawlet again?
After she has attended high school, however briefly, do the Pawlet
schoolteachers have anything more to teach her?
She only qualified for the preparatory level, so maybe she could benefit
from more schooling in Pawlet.
“Miss Barrett thinks I am improving in music and I hope you will think the same, for surely I ought to improve.”
Perhaps she attended
Rutland High School primarily for the opportunity to study the melodeon. And where can she continue those studies?
Hattie wants
to be a gracious young lady and show proper appreciation to Mrs. Brown, the
woman who offered her home as a private space for Hattie to practice the
melodeon.
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| blocks of butter |
“About a present for Mrs. Brown, by asking her in a careless way about butter I found they had made a contract with a man here for what butter they should want. I presume she expects no compensation, yet as she has been so kind to me I should like to give her something, but you must do as you think best; perhaps you will think of something else that would be acceptable. Aunt Mary thinks it is the best way to leave it to you to decide.”
Hattie seems
to have enjoyed her time in Rutland with her Uncle Marshall and new Aunt Mary. She seems genuinely fond of her aunt, and
knew she would miss her as well as the broader horizons of city life.
“Ma, you wished to know if Uncle and Auntie did not say anything about going to Pawlet. Aunt Mary says tell you she makes daily pilgrimages there in mind, but cannot tell you when she shall come in body.”
“I suppose this will be
my last letter, unless something happens.
ExAccept much love from us all.
I hope to see you next week. Your
affectionate daughter,
Hattie”
[1] In
the 1870 Federal Census, Colby & Flora Reed were listed living in Pawlet
with their two-year-old son Curtis (named for Colby’s father). He was a farmer and she was “keeping house”. It appears that it was, after all, necessary
for them to quit teaching. She was busy
as a wife & mother. For him,
becoming a farmer probably provided a better income than teaching grammar
school, even if he was likely to earn significantly more than a woman would for
the same work.
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