February 6, 1849
Dear Reader,
It has been a very hard winter. The
cows have been kept in their stalls since the beginning of January as the snows
are so deep they wouldn't be able to make it to the shelter of the day-pasture woods. But with their body heat and the deep layers
of hay in the loft above them, there is always warmth in the barn. It is
sometimes more comfortable there than in the house.
Each morning, Mother sweeps the
chicken yard and broadcasts the feed corn.
The hens seem unperturbed by the cold air and rush screeching from their
coop to greet her. We continue to have a plentiful supply of fresh eggs --
enough for Mother to sell a few to Edick's feed store in town. At times, she barters with the old man and
takes any available newspaper in trade.
She has recently taken up the subject of
education as a cause - particularly that of the local girls.
My older brother, Jacob Jr. and
his wife, Mandana, thankfully have both their girls in school. Mother gives them praise while worrying over
the many other girls here in the valley who are kept home from school to do the
daily farm work.
She is fond of rehearsing the
example of the Smith family just 2 doors up the road.
"Morris and Ben Smith are in
school with our granddaughters every day while those boy's sisters, Rosetta and
Cornelia, are kept home. Their mother, Jane, says she has taught them to read
and write a little but their father, Ben, sees 'no reason for a woman to have
any learning other than how to keep a comfortable home for her husband and
children.'"
And with that, Mother vigorously concludes,
"And it matters not that they are black!
Many white girls will not be at a school desk tomorrow either!"
Mother has a copy of the Rev. William Holmes McGuffey's first reader of 1841. The boy
in this book is prompt, good, kind, honest and truthful -- virtues taught in fifty-five
lessons. Mother has raised the
possibility of sharing the book with Mrs. Smith. Father has been unusually firm in denying
Mother this intent as he says it might raise color questions more than
schooling ones.
At this
past family Sunday dinner, Mother had fresh fuel for her fire. The Friday Utica Observer ran the following article:
"On the morning of Tuesday,
January 23, 1849, a young woman ascended the platform of the Presbyterian
church in Geneva, N.Y., and received from the hands of the President of Geneva
Medical College a diploma conferring upon her the degree of Doctor of Medicine."
Mother read the article to all assembled in the sitting room
after supper and added, "Her name is Elizabeth Blackwell and she is the
first woman in the entire world to graduate from a medical college. And
she did it just as the men had to do -- she had to take the two 16-week courses
of lectures and then submit to written and oral examinations.
"See! That's
what an education can do for a girl! And from a college just 50 miles from our front door!"
Mandana and the girls applauded. Jacob and Father smiled and continued to suck
on their pipes.
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| Elizabeth Blackwell |
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| Geneva Medical College |
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