In the “recent” history of our family, there have been many teachers, continuing to today.  Two of the women who taught primary school during the last half of the 19th century left us words that give us some insight into their attitudes toward their students and toward children in general.

   Lucy (Clough) Lewin was one of my four great-grandmothers.  She was born in 1856 on Grantham Mountain in New Hampshire, where she was famously – at least in Lewin family lore – courted by the handsome Curt Lewin of Plainfield, who spent two long years traveling up and down the mountain by horse and cart in order to keep Lucy interested while he was busy establishing a solid financial footing as a butcher.  Lucy had spent one term in high school (1872-3, according to records at Kimball Union Academy, where she is listed as a “non-graduate”) and had gone to work in a classroom by the time she was 14, according to my grandmother.[1]  During the years of Curt’s courtship, Lucy taught in the Plainfield schools, boarding around with her pupils’ families.[2] 

            We have Lucy’s Diary from 1875, beginning on January 1, where she writes lovingly of her students and hopes for a good year. 

“Friday, January 1, 1875 – A beautiful day.   Have been in the schoolhouse all day. The scholars have been good as they usually are.  This diary was a Christmas present from one of my scholars, Emma Sanborn.  I commence this new year with good resolutions which I hope will not be broken. “

            It appears that Lucy was staying with the Sanborn family, who spent most evenings singing together, to their boarder’s delight, sometimes until 2 in the morning.  As the winter term drew to a close in late January, she kept track of attendance, happy when it was high.  She grew increasingly anxious about “examination day,” when members of the school board would visit the class, plying them with questions and hearing recitations. 

“Monday, Jan. 11 – Got back to school [after the weekend], am glad to see these darling scholars again.  I do not see why I like these scholars more than any others.  I froze my ear this morning it was terrible cold.  Hope examinations will go well.

Tuesday, Jan. 12 – At school.  School did not go very well.  Hope things will go better tomorrow.

Wednesday, Jan. 13 – At school.  Terrible cold.  Burtie and Logan (?) froze their ears this morning.

Friday, Jan. 15 – At school.  O dear me how I dread examination.  Hope they will do well.”

Finally, the big day arrived:

“Saturday, Jan. 16 – Today has been examination. There were twenty-one in.  The scholars did splendid.  They were praised enough to do them good… I think of staying here another term…”

I think we can conclude that Lucy (Clough) Lewin had a warm relationship with her “scholars.”  This is in keeping with the great affection she inspired in her two daughters, Marguerite and Ruth, who spent their teenage years helping her run a boardinghouse for girls in Northampton, Massachusetts, where Marguerite attended Northampton High School while Ruth went to Smith College. 

            The other teacher who left us diaries and letters is Martha (Mattie) (Westgate) Quimby, who spent 15 terms in a Cornish classroom as a “popular and very successful teacher” before she married Elwin Quimby in 1892.[3]  Mattie herself had proudly graduated from Windsor High School in 1884, where she stayed on as alumni advisor to Windsor Wide-Awake, a student newspaper.  She also taught Sunday School, and there the news is not so good.  We have inherited, for better or worse, the reader that she assigned to her pupils at the Congregational Church in Cornish – the book was no doubt prescribed by church authorities.  Bessie’s New Heart, published by the Sunday School Union, features a little girl who listens attentively to the lectures of a sweet-talking visiting pastor whose lessons all involve the wickedness of little children, evil that can only be overcome by their accepting Jesus (and receiving confirmation in the church).

            Let’s hope that Mattie spent more time singing with the children at church than reading about Bessie… she often served as the organist there and was undoubtedly her son Arthur’s first piano teacher.  (Arthur Quimby became a professor of music at Case-Western and Connecticut College.)

            Mattie left us at least one comment about children, written in a letter to Mrs. Bower, mother of Marguerite’s supervisor at Connecticut College, where our grandmother taught math during the war. 

“August 4, 1954 – It has been ‘bedlam’ here, as all the children, grands and great grands, have been here, and to my mind none have been bro’t up to obey.  If they want anything that they shouldn’t have, they know that tears will bring it.  The two little girls couldn’t play together without yelling their heads off [that’s you and me, Sarah]…. The tiny babies behaved the best [that’s Lucy and Beth, no doubt].

P.S.  It’s unfair to leave you with the impression that Mattie Quimby was severe, however.  She was a much-loved second mother to my father, Conrad Quimby (1925-1997), who preferred his grandparents’ farm to city life in Cleveland, Ohio when he was growing up.  In fact, Dad spent all his summers on Dingleton Hill in Plainfield, helping his grandfather pitch hay and “dig stone.”  He was so fond of his grandmother’s cooking that he got Mattie to bring her cast-iron skillet across the dirt road from her farm to the honeymoon cabin where my parents stayed during the first days of their married lives to give Mom some cooking lessons. 

            Here’s what Dad wrote in 1982, when Mattie had been dead for 26 years:

“Can she bake a cherry pie?  That’s the first question you’ve got to ask… if she can’t she’s probably too young to leave her mother and become a daughter-in-law.  There probably are other qualities that count towards making a successful marriage (such as a deep appreciation for homemade shortcakes), but I can’t think of any right now. 

Before grandmother went to her deserved rest, she passed on some of her best recipes to her new grand-daughter-in-law.  They came complete with a cast-iron muffin pan and several glass pie plates.  Each card was handwritten with cryptic notes on the margins, like ‘a smattering of cinnamon,’ ‘a fistful of berries,’ and ‘cook ’til the fire burns out.’”[4]

It appears that Mattie was a teacher far beyond the classroom.

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[1] Marguerite (Lewin) Quimby, Our Mother, p. 1.

[2] For more on Lucy, see The Clough Sisters, by Gay Quimby Auerbach, reissued in 2022.  Lucy’s widowed mother Harriet (Gilfillan) Clough was also working as a teacher in 1875, trying to support her five daughters.  Lucy reports on Friday, January 8, 1875 that “Mother is tired – getting along well with her school.” 

[3] Biographical Review; containing life sketches of leading citizens of Merrimack and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire  (Biographical Review Publishing Company, Boston: 1897) under “William E. Westgate,” available on accessgenealogy.com.

[4] Conrad Quimby in “Off the Cuff,” Derry News, 5 August 1982.