Sallie Darlington to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch, 12 December 1868

[From Sallie Darlington in Mansfield, Pennsylvania, to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch. She talks about her niece, who is studying at her school to be a teacher, and asks Elizabeth if there might be a teaching position for her at Mrs. Owen's school in Tarboro.

The end of this letter is missing, but from the content it's clearly from Sallie Darlington to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch via her husband Joseph.]

Mansfield, Penna.
December 12th/68

My dear Mrs. Bowditch,

I wrote to you some time ago, the last of Sep. I think it was, and I presume you received my letter. I then told you all about my present home and my reasons for coming here. Without waiting for a reply to my letter, I write again to ask you a question, which, when you have leisure, I would be glad if you would answer.

I believe I told you that I have a niece1 here at school with me; she was twenty-one last August, and is a remarkably intelligent, lady-like girl. She is studying very diligently to fit herself for a teacher, and I think she will make an admirable one. Now, what I want to ask you is this: Do you think that next fall there would be any probability of her obtaining a situation as a teacher in Mrs. Owen's2 school at Tarboro, and would you consider it a desirable thing if she could obtain such a situation? My niece's home is at Williamsburg, Va., and she wants very much to teach somewhere near her home, so that she could go home during the holidays, as, if she were living at the north she could not venture to spend the summer months at Williamsburg. She would be very competent to take classes in French, German, and beginners in Latin. She is particularly good at Mathematics; her teacher here in Algebra pronounces her the best in his class, and her opportunities here for study are very fine, especially in Mathematics, and I think by the end of the school year, she will be a very thorough, well-disciplined scholar. I feel quite certain that she would make a very conscientious, reliable teacher in every respect, one that would require no looking after, and that is a great desideration in a school, as I have found out from experience. I remember Mrs. Owen with so much pleasure, that it occurred to me, when I heard my niece say she would like to teach near home, that perhaps she might find a pleasant position there. I was in hopes, too, that by that time you would be settled in your old home, and felt sure of her finding kind friends in your family. My brother's3 circumstances became so impaired during the war that my niece prefers to exert herself rather than to be a burden on her father, and I encourage her in that idea. To enable her to meet her duties more satisfactorily, I am keeping her here for a year at my expense, and am therefore particularly interested in her future success as a teacher.

Will you be kind enough to write me whether Mrs. Owen's school is still flourishing and what you think in the matter? When I hear from you, if you think well of it, I will write to Mrs. Owen. It is a long while to look ahead, but sometimes it is best to do so, as otherwise good opportunities are lost.

When you write please tell me where your sister Ellen4 is. She and I carried on quite a correspondence during the war, when I could not hear from you directly. When I last heard from her she expected

[The rest of this letter is missing. At the top of the first page the following is written.]

Direct to State Normal School, Mansfield, Penna. I shall enclose this in an envelope to Mr. B.5 at Tarboro lest you may have moved and it should miss you.

  1. Katherine Lacey Darlington (1847-1923), daughter of Sallie's brother Edward C. Darlington
  2. Mary Blount McCotter (1811-1876)
  3. Edward C. Darlington (1819-1874), Sallie's brother
  4. Ellen Louisa Abbot (1837-1887), Elizabeth's sister
  5. Joseph Henry Bowditch (1818-1900), Elizabeth's husband