Section 40:  Daughter Mary Goes to College

In the meantime my children were growing up. About 1864 or 5 my daughter, Mary having passed through the schools at home, I took her down to the "Pittsburgh Female College" under the care of Dr. Pershing. At first she had a violent attack of homesickness. I was holding a court in Kittanning at the time and at the end of the week I went down to Pittsburgh and took her with me to the hotel, and after staying with me over Sunday she became more reconciled and went back on Monday morning quite cheerfully and was never afterwards so much troubled with that miserable feeling. I could appreciate the lonesome feeling of the child for I had experienced it very forcibly when I first left the farm in 1831. But she was a good student and made satisfactory progress.

After remaining there a year or two, I thought I would give her the benefit of one of the highest female colleges of the land, and so I sent her to "Vassar" at Poughkeepsie, New York. Being engaged at the time I could not go with her and so she went up to Erie and her Uncle John Hallock went with her and got her introduced into the school, and she made good progress and had pleasant surroundings and every facility for mental and physical improvement.

The second year she was there, early in the fall term, typhoid fever broke out in the college and Mary caught the disease. We were telegraphed that she was sick and if she got worse we would be informed. A few days after I got a telegram to go on immediately. I thought of sending her Mother on but concluded I had better go myself, and in an hour or so after receiving the message I was on my way to Phillipsburg in a buggy, and there took the train and traveled as fast as steam would carry me.

I arrived at the college about the middle of the day on Sunday. I found her a very sick girl and flighty, but she knew me and by talking quietly and soothingly to her I thought she was not affected by my sudden appearance, and I was very glad to be with her. I made up my mind to stay with her till she got well if it took all winter. I noticed enough to know that she was carefully and tenderly nursed and had good medical attendance, and I believed from the report of the college physician she had taken the turn and would get along unless she changed for the worse.

In a day or two or three her mind was settled and she was rational and evidently on the mend. About a dozen of the young lady pupils had taken the disease nearly at the same time and caused quite an alarm, and the parents and friends of the sick came on and in a few days we had quite a society of people looking after their sick children. The worst case was a young lady from Burlington, New Jersey. Her father and her aunt were there and for a week or ten days it was thought she would die, but by skillful treatment and careful nursing she pulled through. Just as soon as she began to get better, her father who was a physician, became the jolliest fellow in our party, and I spent some very pleasant time in his company. Though there were about three hundred and fifty girls there, the building and accommodations were ample for all and no expense or care was omitted to restore the sick. I very soon made up my mind as Mary got better to bring her home along with me and I rejoiced to see her improve every day, but still I saw it would take some time for her to grow strong enough to travel.

As they got better, two or three of the convalescent girls were put into a common parlor with separate sleeping rooms opening into it and I went in and talked with Mary every day and fed her and her companions with oranges, and I thought the talking and laughing with them did no hurt and amused the girls.

I was there some three weeks in November, 1868; made my home at the Morgan House kept by a Mr. Putman, a very clever, obliging landlord and a good house, but I was at the college every day and long enough to form an idea of the institution, and while not attempting to describe it, I thought and still think little is wanting, if anything, to make it the most extensive and best female college in the United States, and I doubt if in all its arrangements for the health, comfort, exercise and mental, moral and physical training, it is exceeded in Europe. Certainly no expense has been spared to make it perfect. The 200 acres of ground besides the buildings proper, contain a gymnasium, a large pond of clear water with a fleet of boats, an observatory, a vineyard, and not least a flock of thirty milk cows kept in the grounds with a shepherd and his dog constantly with them to keep them off the walks and trees planted throughout the enclosure.

While staying at the Morgan House, I made the acquaintance of the celebrated "Josh Billings" and found him an entertaining talker and a pleasant companion. I got tired staying there, but at last Miss Avery, the college physician, told me Mary might be taken home, and one evening I got her into a carriage and taken down to a steamboat and got her into a berth and we steamed down the Hudson past Newburg and West Point and before daylight lay at the dock in New York, and slept on the boat till morning and got our breakfast; then took a street car down to the Courtland Street landing, crossed the river and got on to a pullman car and got a bunk for Mary to lie down and were on our way home through New Jersey by way of Easton and Reading.

At Easton I bought a tumbler of milk and some bread and butter for Mary, but she had not time to drink the milk before the train started, and I threw a quarter off the platform to the boy to pay for it and she brought it home and, I suppose, has it yet.

A lady in the car asked Mary if she had not been given any stimulant as medicine. She said she had been given wine. The lady said they had had a good deal of typhoid fever in their family and pure rye whiskey was always given during convalescence. She said she had some and proposed giving her some. On referring to me, I told her to do so, and she took it -- I think two or three times during the day. In the evening we stopped off at the Logan House in Altoona and stayed all night. The liquor seemed to have so good an effect that in the morning I bought a small bottle of it and allowed her to drink as much of it as she pleased. We took the morning train and got to Pittsburg at 1:40 P. M. and I was pleased to see that Mary had an excellent appetite for her dinner. We stayed that night in Pittsburgh and next day came up by rail to Weavers at Phillipsburg and stayed all night, and the next day, through snow showers but well wrapped in blankets, I brought Mary home in the stage, and never felt more relieved in my life than when I handed her over to her Mother, and found she was none the worse of her trip. At home she improved rapidly but went no more to "Vassar." She was then a pretty good scholar -- probably quite as proficient in the Latin as I had been when I graduated.