Recollections of a student

Recollections of Mrs. Harriet Gould Drake Tinkam, Moravian Seminary for Young Ladies student, 1817, copied from an old newspaper.

This article Ms. Harriet Gould Drake provides an interesting description of boarding school life in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania during the early 19th century as she takes a trip down the Susquehanna River on a raft, then journeys by stage over the mountains from Berwick, Pennsylvania, to Bethlehem, where she enters the Moravian Boarding School, the most fashionable school in the United States.

Harriet Gould Drake of Owego, NY, entered the Moravian Boarding School for Girls at Bethlehem in 1817. She was the daughter of Judge John R. Drake, Congressional Representative from New York, and later, wife to Owego merchant David Tinkam (alternatively spelled Tinkham).

 

The Following is her account:

 

In 1817 my father, who was then a member of congress, took me with him as far as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he left me in the Moravian Boarding school. We went down the Susquehanna River on a raft. On this was built a cabin to protect us from the rain. Our meals were cooked on the raft. At night the raft was tied up. We slept at taverns, which were located near the river for the convenience of the lumbermen, as the river was the great thoroughfare, all the surplus produce of the country being taken to market in arks and on rafts. Hundreds of raftsmen patronized the taverns along the river.

We left the rafts at Berwick, where a four horse covered wagon, called a stage, was waiting. We were three days going over the mountains from Berwick to Bethlehem in the stage.

The Moravian boarding school was the most fashionable school in the United States. Instruction was given in school hours as in colleges. Sunday morning we arose at six o'clock. Two girls of the same age occupied one room and a dressing room. This was our sitting room when not at recitations. Two teachers had the supervision of this room. The girls were never left alone, one teacher was always with them, whether studying, walking, or at play.

The school house was a large building with a hall and stairs at each end and one hall in the middle. All these halls opened from the front. The middle hall ran the length of the house. The dormitories were on the third and fourth floors. Each girl had a little wooden bedstead, with a frame of lattice work to tuck her bed in. This frame was separate from the bedstead. The beds stood two and two through the dormitory. After the girls retired, a teacher put these frames in their places and tucked the clothes so they would not get uncovered at night. Each girl said her prayers and the teacher walked in the hall until all were supposed to be asleep. No talking was allowed unless we wanted to speak to the teacher at night. When the house was closed at night, a stout German woman seated herself at the door of the dormitory and remained until morning.

At the ringing of the bell at 6 a.m., we hurried from bed, said our prayers, and rushed down to a room adjoining our sitting room, known by the name of the "next room". In this room we had left our dresses hanging the previous night. Water and conveniences for washing were in this room. We hurried through our ablutions, put on our dresses, then took our seats around two long tables in the sitting room where each girl had a seat assigned to her, and in the table in front of the seat a drawer. In this drawer we kept our ink, writing book, goose quill pens, and pencils. Also, wrapped in a napkin, were a coarse comb, a fine comb, a little brush to clean our combs, and a tooth brush. These drawers were carefully inspected by the room keepers. The scholars took turns as room keepers, two each week, to see that the shelves in the "next room" and our drawers were kept in order. Our school books were kept on a shelf in the "next room". In this room each girl had a bag for soiled clothing.

The breakfast bell rang at half past six, when each girl bounded from her seat and rushed to the hall, and a noisy procession two and two, went down the stairs to the floor of the dining room, then walked with great propriety to our seats. The tables were covered with clean white tablecloths. Each girl had a pewter plate, a white china mug, and a spoon. Thick slices of bread and butter (the bread baked in a large pan) were placed on pewter platters on the table. A waiter passed the bread and butter to the girls. The mugs of coffee with sugar and milk in them were standing by our plates. This was the breakfast every day in the year.

Every morning we returned to our sitting room, took out our combs, and arranged our hair by the aid of small hand glasses, which were kept in our desks. Then, as we finished arranging our hair, we left our seats, went to the "next room", brushed our teeth, and washed again. When it was time to prepare for church, we went to the "next room", and if it was summer, we put on our caps like those worn by Quakers, tied with a white ribbon. In winter we wore bonnets and coats with little capes.

The church was only a short distance away, and the walks were very fine flag ones. When the church bell rang, the oldest girls assembled in the hall, and with a teacher and one of the girls, with another teacher and scholar in the rear, very decorously went down the stairs and toward the church. As soon as they were out of the way, the next in order started, and so on, until the occupants of seven rooms had started for church. There they were seated on benches with backs.

We used prayer books and sang a hymn. A sermon in English was preached once a month, at other times, it was in German. The music was very fine, the singing being the greater part of the service. There was a fine organ. Once a month we had an invitation to "love feast". We always went to church, and took our seats in the same manner. After prayer and very beautiful singing, the sisters passed around large wooden waiters filled with cakes, like buns, as large as saucers. These were delicious. Pint mugs of delicious coffee accompanied the buns. After a brother returned thanks, we returned to the school. The brothers sat on one side of the church and the sisters on the other.

Soon after returning from church we had dinner. For Sunday dinner in winter, we had roast pork, a variety of vegetables, apple sauce and water. Of this, we had all we could eat, no dessert. In the afternoon we went to Bible class in the chapel connected with the school. After Bible class we could go to our rooms, read, sing, or talk. We could walk in the grounds with a teacher, but could not run nor play.

For supper we had bread and milk, or tea and bread and butter. On Sunday night we looked over our lessons, then the teacher heard every girl say her lessons. Those, whose lessons were perfect, were allowed to go to bed at half past eight; those with imperfect lessons were obliged to sit up until they had learned them. We had certain days for history, geography, logic, rhetoric, botany, and astronomy with celestial globes, paley's [sic] philosophy, chemistry, and grammar. Music lessons were twice a week, practice every day. Drawing and painting on velvet, worsted work, reading, writing, arithmetic, and spelling completed our studies. I was considered a wonder, because I could say the multiplication table as well as the inspector when I entered the school.

Monday morning we took our seats at our table, and looked over our lessons. When the clock in our room showed it was near recitation hour, we put our books away in the "next room" on our shelf, and waited in our seats until the clock commenced striking, when the door opened and everyone ran to her recitation room, seated herself, and recitation began. The first girl rose and repeated every word of a short lesson. If she blundered, the teacher said "Next". In this way she went through the class. Those who did not know their lessons at all were sent to the inspector; those who showed that they had tried to learn their lessons were allowed to go with the rest. When the clock struck the next hour, all ran to their next recitation rooms and recited in the same manner.

At noon we had dinner. Before dinner, the day keepers went to the dining room, arranged plates, knives, forks, tumblers, spoons, and all crockery necessary for the meal. If we were going to have soup, there were soup plates and spoons. All were fond of soup, and when the day keepers returned to their rooms the cry was, "What are we going to have for dinner"? "Plates and spoons" was the answer. Then we would all exclaim "Soup, good soup", etc. Every day at dinner we had an abundance of good meat and vegetables and good bread and butter, all we wanted.

Sometimes we had mush and milk for supper, at others hot boiled potatoes with plenty of butter, bread and milk. We could have bread and molasses if we preferred it to milk. Once a year we had apple pie. In the winter this was served at supper in pieces that would make three ordinary pieces. We would ask the waiter to put it away for us until the following day.

One afternoon of the week was devoted to drawing, another to velvet painting and music, another to worsted work and music, writing, reading and spelling, one afternoon, and one afternoon we sat in our sitting room and were taught darning stockings with as much care as we were taught embroidery. We also mended our clothes at that time. Every girl, big and little, was taught to mend her clothes.

The last scholar to arrive at the school was called the "new child" until the arrival of another. Her luggage was looked over by the day keepers and teachers. If it was not properly marked, on the day the girls sewed in their own rooms, the clothes were brought to the room, where the girls with marking cotton marked the initials of the owner.

A little circumstance which happened when I was day keeper has been a subject for wonder all my life. A "new child" from Kentucky came on horseback to Philadelphia, and by stage to the school, accompanied by her brother. Her brother said her clothes were to be sent from Philadelphia. The trunk came and was carried to the trunk room. It was an immense square hair trunk, with brass nails around the edges. When the trunk was opened a few quarts of hickory nuts constituted its entire contents. The poor girl looked aghast, and we day keepers laughed. It was unexplained. The Inspector wrote to the father in Kentucky, but he merely answered, diring [sic] Brother Steinhauer to purchase what was necessary and charge it on his bill.

On Saturday there was no school, but in the morning one teacher and two day keepers from each room went to the dining room, where baskets of clothing belonging to each room were placed. The teacher called out the initials on the clothing from the basket, and the day keepers who knew the initials placed them in piles. These were arranged on the dressing tables of the different rooms, and the girls were sent down for their clothes, which they carried to their trunks, after taking out what was necessary to change with that night.

Through the week the school closed at half past three o'clock. The girls would take seats around their table. The day keepers had gone to the dining room and loaded them with two immense platters of fresh bread and butter, which the girls were very glad to get. After this we went to the grounds for recreation. Swings, skipping ropes, hoops and see-saws were for our use, also boats on the Menocacy [sic] Creek. The grounds extended to this creek which were not deep. The grounds were laid out beautifully, and if any girl wished to plant flower seeds and cultivate flowers, she could have a little bed. We played tag, mumble peg and marbles.

After dinner Saturday, girls would combine to have a feast with their pocket money. There was a building connected with the school where an old man and woman sold cakes and little pies, candy, nuts and fruit. One could get six apples for a penny and other things in proportion. The crowning glory of the feast was boiled mackerel (we never had fish at school) which the cook purchased and boiled for us. She also made the coffee and loaned us all the dishes. The feasts we had in rooms on the same floor as the kitchen. The little girls were always separated from the larger girls on these occasions. It would make one laugh to see the selection and the abundance at those times.

Harriet Allen of Connecticut, Amelia Lavery of New York, Richard Henry Johnson's daughter, Rachel, Eliza Mulligan, Elizabeth Marquand of New York, Elizabeth Olds, and many other pleasant, agreeable, lovely girls were in my set. We could remain until tea time, when we had good appetites for our suppers.

There was a boy's school at Nazareth. Once a year the boys were allowed to have a ride. Sometimes they came to Bethlehem. Of course they visited the girls' school, when they were allowed to go through the school with their teachers and could speak to the girls in the presence of their teachers. It was the season for nutting at the time they came to Bethlehem during my schooldays, and their faces and hands were a perfect sight. They looked as if they had painted themselves like young Indians. They did not make much impression on the girls.

After my first year, my father and mother came from Owego in a two horse wagon. They came in May and remained a week. I was not well, and my father was advised by the Superintendent to bring me home for a month. My father wrote to Judge Benton that he would like to take his daughter, Stella Benton, home with us. He took Stella with us and found a letter consenting when we reached Owego.

When my father went to Congress late in the fall, he took me with him so far as Bethlehem. Here I remained another year, when my father brought his two horse sleigh and driver, and I was taken home, where I remained until the fall of that year.

 

Transcription by Jane Gill

Source document location: Bethlehem Area Public Library, Bethlehem, Pa.
Local History Collection