Ipswich, Mass. March 3, 1854.
My dear Friend,
Mr. C & myself desire our Spring Greetings to you wherever you may be & wish you much joy in this beautiful season.
We have been casting around for a friend & colaborer who would come to our
aidhelp next term, commencing April 19th, & our eyes & hearts have rested on you. Miss Robinson, as you probably know, left usneaa year ago last July. Miss Dodge had become so experienced that she naturally & easily took her place. But she, having been here almost constantly for six years, had a desire to try her fortune elswhere [sic], & we obtained a situation for her a few weeks since in Hartford. We now therefore need a first assistant, one who will fill a general interest in the school & take a general care of it, one on whom we can rely, so that I can be absent a day, once in a while, and an hour or two, every afternoon, & feel easy - Mr. C & myself most cordially unite in soliciting yourserviceaid[.]We do not now ask you to engage to aid us more than the coming term of fifteen weeks, but if you find the situation to your liking, we have very little doubt that we shall desire your further cooperation. As to branches to be taught, there is enough to be done that you can do as well as any one, & you may to a considerable extent have your choice of classes. What we look to you for, first & chiefest is, general care a sort of Miss Robinson Supervision, which we know you have breadth & eyes to take & to survey - We will not pay you less than four dollars a week exclusive of board. Miss Stow of Elyria, Ohio, has charge of the Boarding House, & though she would be glad of your assistance in the management of that facility, still, as she is entirely competent to the task herself, and as we shall need your influence more elsewhere, we shall for this term certainly, so far as we can now see, prefer to have you board in a smaller family - Our school has increased in numbers & in character since you were an integral part of it, but we are apt to have considerable light trash in the summer - We have had a hundred or more scholars all the time for the last year. Miss Ferry remains with us as drawing teacher one term longer. I do not know whether you were here with her. She is a niece of Miss Hannah White and very able in her department -
We shall probably have as much as the whole time of two persons, besides yourself & ourselves, engaged in instruction in the studies of the courses exclusive of Music & the Fine Arts - But then we shall all have plenty to do, & I do not wish to convey any impression that any office with us is a science [?] -
Charlotte Waterman has been ailing for a year. Recently she has been so sick that her life has been doubtful. She was here among the last of her going out doors some six weeks since. She spoke of you with grateful affection. Her sister Louisa was with us till called home some two or three weeks since by Charlotte's precarious situation - Let us hear from you soon
Yours affectionately,
E. C. Cowles.[Mary Abigail Dodge graduated from Ipswich Seminary in 1850 and taught there for four years before moving on to Hartford High School. She was a writer and essayist who wrote under the pen name Gail Hamilton. Celia E. Stowe of Elyria, Ohio and Charlotte C. Waterman were both listed as students at Ipswich in the 1851 catalog. There is no listing for a Louisa Waterman in the Ipswich catalog. Hannah White was listed in the 1829-1832 catalogs as a teacher. There is no listing for a Miss Ferry in the Ipswich catalogs. The recipient of this letter, Ipswich Seminary alumna Anna M. Bronson, was listed as a teacher at the school in the 1855 catalog.]