Sallie Darlington to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch, 27 December 1870

[From Sallie Darlington in Faribault, Minnesota, to Elizabeth (Abbot) Bowditch. She tells Elizabeth that she spent the previous summer in Milwaukee, where she was called on by Elizabeth's sister Ellen and Col. Bell's wife; thanks Elizabeth for sending a picture of Georgiana; talks about her school, her duties there, and the rewards; describes her health and the climate; and mentions that her nephew Walter was with her for the winter.]

Faribault, Dec. 27th/70

My dear Mrs. Bowditch,

I am resolved that the old year shall not close without my having sent you a few lines, so I seat myself in the midst of a general confusion such as we always have during the holidays, and shall endeavor to write you a short letter now, hoping to do better at some future day.

I rec'd your letter last summer whilst in Milwaukee, where I had gone to spend my summer vacation. My object in going there was to have an opportunity for speaking German. I was fortunate enough to obtain board in a very pleasant German family where no English was spoken, and I remained there eight weeks. Your sister Ellen1 and Mrs. Col. Bell2 called on me the week after I reached there; they knew of my coming, as Col. Bell3 had obtained me my boarding place. I returned their call in a few days, but your sister Ellen was out, so I did not see her again, and your sister Martha4 I did not see at all. As your sister and Mrs. Bell did not repeat their call, of course I had no opportunity for seeing more of them.

I thank you very much for the likeness of Georgiana;5 she must look very much as you did when I first saw you, some sixteen years ago, and yet I can also see a shade of resemblance to her father.6 She looks pure and good, and I know she must be a great comfort to you all. I wish very much that she had been in Milwaukee last summer, she could have told me so much about you, it would have been next best to seeing you yourself.

I am very sorry to learn that you have abandoned the idea of moving to Tarboro, as I know you would have enjoyed being with old friends there. I cherish a hope that I may sometime be able to visit you even in your present retired home; it would be so very pleasant to recall old times and to live over again in memory those two winters spent with you.

I am kept very busy this year. Our school is full - forty three boarders being our outside limit. All the discipline and all the responsibility of the intellectual part of the school work rest on me; of course I have nothing to do with the housekeeping department. But you can imagine what it is to have the care of forty three girls, night and day, to study their different dispositions, so as to be able to get an influence over them, and to feel that you will be held responsible, not only here but hereafter, for the proper use of that influence. Sometimes I am discouraged and feel altogether unequal to the work, but there are many bright spots, even in a teacher's life, and the love and confidence given to me by many of my pupils, together with the very marked improvements in the character and conduct of others, reconcile me to my work and cause me to feel that my labors are not all in vain, and that a blessing rests upon them, imperfect as they are.

My health is very good, the climate here being exactly what I require, cold and bracing. The mercury is now ranging from twenty to twenty five below zero, which, I presume, makes you shudder, even to hear of, but I, who have seen it at forty six below, consider our present weather quite mild and delightful. My nephew Walter,7 of whom you often heard me speak as he was my baby after his mother's8 death, is here this winter. I thought the climate would benefit him, as he had grown tall and weak down in the unhealthy part of Virginia, so I obtained for him a situation in a business house here, and he is much improved in health, and likes his new home extremely. Of course it is very pleasant for me to have him with me, as I have been living here eight years, entirely separated from all my family.

Let me hear from you again before very long, even although you may have nothing to say except that you have not forgotten me. Give much love to G'a,5 and remember me to Mr. Bowditch6 and to Nat,9 and believe me with much love,

Your sincere friend,

S. P. Darlington

  1. Ellen Louisa Abbot (1837-1887), Elizabeth's sister
  2. Harriet McClure (1841-1917), sister of Johnson McClure, Ellen (Abbot) McClure's husband
  3. Joseph McClellan Bell (1836-1900)
  4. Martha Eliza Abbot (1835-1870), Elizabeth's sister
  5. Georgiana Abbot Bowditch (1848-1927), Elizabeth's daughter
  6. Joseph Henry Bowditch (1818-1900), Elizabeth's husband
  7. Walter Franklin Darlington (1848-1924), son of Sallie's brother Edward C. Darlington
  8. Emily Franklin (1819-1850)
  9. Nathaniel Ingersoll Bowditch (1846-1913), Elizabeth's son