<\/p>\n
It is generally believed that. at the turn of the present century, college girls lived highly protected. strictly chaperoned and rather cloistered lives. They were permitted to see the other sex only under the most careful supervision. If they had any coeducational recreation, it was at very sedate parties on Saturday evenings. College girls had to be in bed with lights out by ten o’clock except for some very unusual occasion. That is the picture many people have of female college life in 1900.<\/p>\n
I assure you that picture does not coincide with the facts. Although I have long known of the discrepancy. I never had a better chance to prove it than by the contents of a letter that recently came into my hands. The letter came to me from a friend of half a century, George Perry of Camden. He and I were students together at Colby in the second decade of this century. I suspect few of you know George, but I assure you that almost everyone listening to this broadcast has seen him without knowing his identity, for George Perry is the man you saw driving the tractor in the opening scene of the movie “Peyton Place”.<\/p>\n
George had an older sister, Florence. who married Dr. W.H. Hahn and with him became a leading family of Friendship, Maine. Dr. Hahn was an avid collector of Maine books and manuscripts, and at the time of his death had the most important collection of such items held by any private person in our state. For several years after the doctor’s death Mrs. Hahn held the collection together, but about a year before she herself died. she asked three persons to serve as a committee for the distribution of the famous Hahn Library to institutions. Because she had once attended Colby, where her father was a prominent trustee, she wanted that college to share in the distribution and because Dr. Hahn had become interested in the University of Maine, she wanted the state university to have consideration. The committee to which she entrusted the task consisted of her Friendship neighbor, Dr. Frank Foster, Robert York of the University of Maine, and myself. We had only begun our task when Mrs. Hahn died, but her will continued our service, and we eventually distributed the precious items of the Hahn collection of Maine-iana to the University, to Colby and to the Farnsworth Museum.<\/p>\n
The letter which George Perry has sent me was written by that lady before she became Mrs. Hahn. It was dated February 18, 1900, and Florence Perry wrote it from her room at 14 College Avenue in Waterville. As I read you the letter, just note how busy a college girl could be at Colby 67 years ago, entirely apart from her studies. I want to read the letter straight through without comment. then call your attention to some of its salient points. So here is what Florence Perry, Colby freshman, wrote to her uncle. Dr. Sherman of Camden. on February 18. 1900:<\/p>\n
“I received your letter with the little calendar not long ago and I was pleased with the pretty calendar. I also got the Rockland paper which I read with great interest. especially the account of Florence Barry’s wedding. It must have been perfectly elegant. I can’t imagine how so much money could be spent just getting married. What will it cost them to set up housekeeping?<\/p>\n
“I imagine you have been having snow today. It is clearing here, but the snow is pretty deep. I got up this noon at 12:30 and had my dinner up in the room. The boy downstairs was kind enough to go over to our boarding place and bring our dinner to us.<\/p>\n
“During the last week I have had three moonlight sleigh rides getting back each time after midnight. The first was a week ago last night. Mr. Seaverns and three other Dekes hired two double-seated teams and took four of us girls down to the Yates mansion. It is about eight miles from here. The weather was perfect. We had a delicious supper, then played games. What fun we had! The Yates Mansion is the most magnificent home I ever saw. Parties go there for supper and to spend the evening.<\/p>\n
“My second ride was Friday night. We Sigma Kappa girls gave the Beta Phis a ride to the same place. It was a straw ride in two racks, 25 girls in each. The other rack tipped over, but no one was hurt. Our rack went down and back without mishap. I tell you when a lot of girls get together, they can have a pretty gay time. We ate our fill of chicken pie and ice cream.<\/p>\n
“Last night I had a third outing. Mr. Tillson, Mr. Chase and Bess Nickels and I went down to Tillson’s home and had a perfectly elegant time. His mother made hot biscuits, which we ate with strawberry preserves and milk, and topped off with big apples. It was indeed a great old time. It began to snow when we were about half way home, but I was so bundled up that I didn’t realize it was storming.<\/p>\n
“Tomorrow night the Colby glee club will give a concert in the City (Barn) Hall. I hope the weather will be pleasant. Tuesday evening there is a reception at Prexy’s. Wednesday is society night, and we Sigmas plan an interesting program. There may be an assembly on Thursday evening. So you see just how busy everything is. There are only four more weeks before vacation, and I don’t see where the time has gone.<\/p>\n
“Sherman has been down to see me this afternoon, and he is all right. Love to all. Your loving niece, Florence.”<\/p>\n
Now let us note what that letter tells us about the life of a Colby girl in 1900. First, it is clear that Florence Perry shared with another college girl a room in a private family on College Avenue. Foss Hall had not then been built, and Ladies Hall (that later became the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity house) located where the A & P store now stands, was too small to accomodate all the girls who needed rooms. Because the letter refers to “the boy downstairs”, we must assume he was of the family, because college boys and college girls were then not allowed to rent rooms in the same private home.<\/p>\n
How could a college freshman stay in bed until noon? Without cutting classes (and the penalty for that was then very severe) she couldn’t enjoy such luxury sleeping except on Sunday. And sure enough, in 1900 February 18 fell on Sunday. But Florence came from a devout Baptist family in Camden. Her father was a deacon of the church. Furthermore, church attendance was expected and officially required of all Colby students. Evidently the requirement was not strictly enforced, because Florence makes no pretense to being ill or housebound. She was just sleepy because she had been out late two nights in succession. So lenient were the regulations that the dining service allowed “the boy downstairs” to carry the noon meal in to Florence and her roommate.<\/p>\n
I am sure some of you are wondering where was the Yates mansion where Florence went with a group of Dekes and a few days later when the Sigmas entertained the Beta Phis. Florence’s letter says the place was about eight miles from Waterville. It was indeed a stately house at Getchell’s Corner in Vassalboro, near the junction of the Augusta road and the crossroad that led to the old ferry slip where a ferry crossed the Kennebec to the Sidney side. In the early 1900’s the place was known as the Yates mansion because it was long occupied by one or another of the well known Yates family.<\/p>\n
Whether any of the Yates still lived there in 1900, when parties assembled there for meals and entertainment, no one now recalls, but at least two of the Yates brothers are remembered in Waterville. Will Yates lived on lower Silver Street, in the house later occupied by Judge Charles Johnson. His brother, Alec Yates, lived in a large house at the southern end of Silver Street not far from the Memorial Bridge.<\/p>\n
Both Yates brothers were men of means. Their fortune had been built by overseas trade, and much of it is supposed to have come by importing ivory from Africa, both into England and into the United States. In fact it was generally supposed that it was in England, where both brothers spent much time, that their principal business was conducted.<\/p>\n
It is interesting that the only mention of anyone named Yates in the Centennial History of Waterville is a paragraph in the section of the book that deals with Waterville citizens who served in the regular peace-time army or navy of the United States. There we learn that Alexander F., son of the original Alec Yates, graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1899, served on a cruiser in the SpanishAmerican War, and later on the Oregon, the battleship that made the famous, rapid voyage from San Francisco to Cuban waters, going around Cape Horn, rose to the rank of Captain, only one step below that of admiral. He eventually<\/p>\n
Why the history makes no mention of his father and his uncle may perhaps be explained by their major interests being in England, not in Waterville.<\/p>\n
The first outing of that busy week of Florence Perry’s was with Charles Seaverns, the man who would later be in charge of the Bushnell interests, including the huge Bushnell Foundation, in Hartford, Connecticut, and who was a generous benefactor of Colby. For him was named both Seaverns Fields, the old one on the now abandoned original Colby campus, and the present one on Mayflower Hill.<\/p>\n
Did you notice that Florence’s letter said the glee club concert would be given in the City (Barn) Hall? That is an uncomplimentary reference to what Waterville’s City Hall was called in 1900. It was often referred to as the Barn. The reference was not to the present brick city hall and opera house. That building had not been erected in 1900. For nearly 20 years after Waterville became a city in 1887, the old town hall, that had been built for religious services and for town meetings, served as the city hall. It stood slightly south of where the present city hall now stands, and was, of course, more than 100 years old when Florence Perry wrote her letter. When the new city hall was built, the old wooden building was moved north facing Front Street, and was used as an armory for the National Guard as well as for public meetings, especially political caucuses. It was finally torn down to make room for the parking lot behind City Hall.<\/p>\n
Florence Perry’s letter ends by saying she has had an afternoon call from Sherman. He was her brother, who was then a junior at Colby. He came, as she puts it, “down” to see her, because he lived “up” on campus while she was “down” on the avenue. After graduating from Colby in 1901, Sherman Perry, named for the uncle to whom Florence wrote her letter, became a distinguished physician. In his memory there is now in use on Mayflower Hill the Sherman Perry Memorial Infirmary, occupying the south wing of the Roberts Union.<\/p>\n
Year: 1967<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Read the script for “Little Talks” program #716, Broadcast on February 5, 1967<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":405,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[752,35296],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8678"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/405"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8678\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}