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9 



The Use of a Life: 



MEMORIALS 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



"Lord, thy pound hatli gained ten pounds." 




AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YOKK CITY. 



PREFACE. 



In preparing the first chapters of this memo- 
rial free use has been made of an article in 
•'Barnard's American Journal of Education" for 
September, 1880, by Rev. John P. Cowles, of 
Ipswich. Materials furnished by Mrs. E. C. 
Cowles to the first ''Life of Mary Lyon*' have 
also been drawn upon. That book is now su- 
persede. In this volume, Chapter VI. and por- 
tions of Chapter X. are from the pen of Mrs. 
Cowles. This work was undertaken primarily for 
family friends, and at their cost ; it is hoped it 
may promote interest in the Christian education 
of young women. 

The compiler returns grateful acknowledg- 
ments to those friends who have furnished letters 
and sketches necessary to the work. 

L. T. GUILFORD. 
Clbvbland, Ohio, October, 1885. 



359459 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. Childhood and Youth 3 

CHAPTER n. Mr. Emerson's School .... 31 

CHAPTER HI. Work at Derry 63 

CHAPTER IV. Miss Grant and Miss Lyon at Ipswich . 96 
CHAPTER V. Last Four Years as an Educator. iSsi-39 172 
CHAPTER VI. Mrs. Banister at Home .... 308 

CHAPTER VII. Ways of Doing Good 343 

CHAPTER VIII. A Year Abroad 297 

CHAPTER IX. The Sunset 321 

CHAPTER X. Fourscore and Beyond • • • • 359 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



CHAPTER I. 

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 

Among the slopes of the Green Mountains, in 
the northwestern part of Connecticut, lies the hill- 
town of Norfolk. Here, May 30, 1794, was bom 
to Joel and Zilpah Cowles Grant a daughter, the 
youngest of five children. 

After a course of more than eighty years, on 
December 3, 1874, the life begun in that Puritan 
home ceased on earth; but it was a life so full of 
vigorous mental activity, of wide-spread and per- 
manent influence on the training of Christian wo- 
men, of harmonious Bible ethics and graces, that 
to make some record of it has seemed a duty to 
the cause of Christian nurture. 

Those summit-towns of Litchfield County were 
scarcely thirty years from the wilderness. The 
smoke of many a fresh clearing still loaded the 
summer air, and the howl of aboriginal wolves 



6 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTKR. 

yet scared the winter nights. In a square brown 
house of one story, with a kitchen, a parlor, two 
bedrooms at opposite corners, and a lighted entry 
on the street, the child Zilpah was cradled. The 
dwelling stood half a mile from the present Grant- 
ville Station on the Connecticut Western R. R., 
high up on a long and wann slope opening far 
away to the south and west, and it commanded a 
large and goodly prospect of hill and dale, farm- 
house, field and forest, mill and mill-stream. 
Hard by, to the northwest, slept, and still sleeps, 
a beautiful pond, with a treacherous bog on the 
north, and at the south an outlet, whose stream 
supplied music and served a grist and saw mill 
before reaching a confluent. Four Gr.int bro- 
thers, with their well-filled families, children and 
parents not less than thirty, lived near the lakelet 
within gunshot of each other. Tradition delivers 
that these Grants were of Windsor stock, and came 
thence to Norfolk in the earlier emigrations after 
the middle of the last century. Many of them 
were strongly marked with the Scotch grit and 
toughness which lately have made the name a 
household word for the world. Several besides 
the subject of this memorial were gifted with in- 
tellectual grace and strength which might have 
fitted them to work and shine, as she did, in the 
high domain of mind. 



M^ 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 7 

Joel Grant was a thrifty fanner, and his acres 
of chestnut soil, rich, and still virgin, yielded the 
family a comfortable, though not a splendid, live- 
lihood. He was a powerful man, of strong muscle 
and brain, remembered with warm aifection and 
reverence as long as any lived that knew hira. 
His wife, somewhat reserved of speech, was ut- 
terly unreserved of work and care, her lips brim- 
ming with sacred hymns and loving-kindness, her 
mind ever full, and still freshly filling itself from 
the pages of Holy Writ. Their pioneer home on 
the hillside knew neither paint nor carpet; but 
it knew peace and love beyond many a lordlier 
mansion. The type of character of which Joel 
and Zilpah Grant, Aaron and Jemima Lyon, were 
examples lies embalmed in precious spices in the 
history of the church. The doctrines of the great 
refonners, laid down in their solid faith, formed 
the substratum of a soil which bore not only stur- 
dy oaks that were towers of strength, but luscious 
fruits of social happiness and sweet flowers of do- 
mestic love and joy. In such a garden did God 
plant this His seed. 

The stroke which removed from the child her 
earthly support and protector came before she 
was two years old. While a furious snowstorm 
was raging, March 16, 1796, her father was in- 
stantly killed by the fall of the well-sweep in his 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

own yard. Often must she Tiave tried to recall in 
childish vision the scene when her mother held, 
amid the driving snow, the lifeless, stiffened head 
in freezing hands till assistance could arrive to 
bear the dead body of the husband and father 
within. To the end of her days she mourned 
that she never reali?xd his care and love. When 
he was thus suddenly taken from life his oldest 
child, Elijah, not yet fourteen, took upon himself 
the care and much of the labor of the farm. The 
guardianship of the orphans and the counsel for 
the widow came upon her brother, Samuel Cowles. 
Never had widow a truer guide or wards a more 
kind and faithful gnardian. They loved and 
trusted him as a father, and were to him as chil- 
dren. 

The tie between mother and daughter is thus 
depicted by Mrs. Banister in a fragment written 
in advanced life: "My bereaved mother clung to 
me, her fatherless babe, with increased tender- 
ness, and kept me with her as a sleeping com- 
panion, treating me as an affectionate friend 
through my childhood and youth. Her ascend- 
ency over me was, perhaps, as entire as was ever 
that of a judicious mother over a confiding child, 
and I spontaneously rendered her the obedience 
of my heart. When she requested me to perform 
some uncongenial service, the remembrance of 



^ 
4 



CHII.DHOOD AND VOUTH. 9 

what I owed to her would lead me to go forward 
cheerfully and accomplish it. I have no recollec- 
tion of ever knowingly acting contrary to her ex- 
pressed will, though I remember her chiding me 
for being troublesome by playing with the articles 
of her work. I also remember being reluctant to 
answer her inquiries and of being guilty of equiv- 
ocation respecting how I came by a pair of scis- 
sors which I had taken from a schoolroom where 
they had been left She led me to see my fault 
in an odious light, and when she was chastising 
me for it I felt that she was doing it in love — was 
inflicting the punishment I deserved. Never be- 
fore or after this do I recollect attempting to con- 
ceal anything from my mother, or of choosing 
that she should not know anything that I said or 
did. Once when I adduced reasons for her grant- 
ing me some indulgence with my playmates which 
she had denied, she kindly said to me, * After I 
have told you that I do not think it best, you 
should never say anything further;' and, as the 
matter stands in my recollection, I never did. 
The filial confidence which my mother's charac- 
ter and treatment inspired in my young heart — " 

The sentence was never finished, but the por- 
trait of the mother is no uncertain one. Other 
touches are added by the pen of a descendant: 

*'Mrs. Banister's mother was a rare woman.* 



lO MRS, 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

I have heard from her children that she could re- 
peat the whole of Dwight's ' Collection of Hymns.' 
When spinning she had always an open book at 
the head of her wheel; when ironing, one upon 
her table; and was thus, while her hands were at 
work, reading or committing to memory some- 
thing of value." It is to be added that in her 
self-distrust she long delayed making a public 
profession of religion, uniting with the church at 
the same time as her daughter, and, probably, 
never prayed audibly with her children. Her 
habitual current of feeling had something of mel- 
ancholy, but this characteristic was certainly not 
transmitted to Miss Grant. The father was of 
Puritan stock, upright and downright in charac- 
ter. The oldest son lived to be Deacon Elijah 
Grant, of Colebrook, and was most highly respect- 
ed through all the vicinity. He was a great 
reader, with a remarkably accurate memory, be- 
ing able to give the year and mouth of most local 
and many historical events. A family legend 
preserves the history of a race between the little 
daughter "Polly," as she was called, and her 
next older brother, James, as to who should read 
the Bible through the quickest. She was beaten 
by a boyish "cross cut." He made one columu 
of the two. 

The schoolhouse and school were in the neigh- 



CHII.DHOOD AND YOUTH. II 

borhood of the Grants. Both are vivid recollec- 
tions in the minds of the few yet living whose in- 
fant feet were wonted to the place. The old New 
England schoolhouses had a family resemblance. 
The low, unpainted structure, having a battered 
door in the middle of one end, and a rough stone, 
tilted awry, for convenience of mounting to it, 
was usually located where two roads met. There 
was an entry for the boys' caps — overcoats were 
not in those days — a fireplace on the same side. 
Next, a closet for the girls' ** things," which also 
served, on occasion, as a place of forced retirement 
for the naughty. Long desks filled the other 
three sides of the square room, the higher bench- 
es placed behind and the lower ones in front — a 
gradation which, after all, left many of the dang- 
ling feet swinging free of the floor. Opposite the 
fireplace was a table, and a chair with a teacher 
in it. This was all the preparation; the rest was 
only live scholars and lively work. Here were 
throngs of athletic young men, who could handle 
scythe and rake, hoe and axe, as young men now 
handle bat and ball; fair girls, who could be kept 
from school only by violent storms, even then often 
brought and returned by the father's wagon, sled, 
or sleigh. Blackboard or crayon, globe or wall- 
map, there was none; nor any more were there 
school-registers or marks of any kind. No one 



MRS. Z. P. GKANT RANISTKR. 

hole where refractory scholars were let down. 
Possibly some recollections connected with this 
primitive penitentiary added force to the objec- 
tions she was afterwards wont to urge against 
the very young being allowed to teach. More 
than one graduate of Yale took in this summer 
school his early lessons from her Hps. Even then 
"she could not bear that a pupil of hers should 
not advance." With an equal love of learning 
and of teaching, her first experiment fixed her ca- 
reer. The summer of 1810 found her again in 
the school cabin at Paug. The next two sum- 
mers she taught in the adjoining town of Win- 
chester, where the Rev. Frederic Marsh was then 
pastor. The winters of these years, as she was 
developing into womanhood, were spent in the 
home with her mother, sharing the toil for their 
common support and reading with her the solid 
books that found their welcome way to the nar- 
row room. Thus the warp and filling for many 
a piece of flannel was spun as the two wheels 
buzzed side by side, and some version of the 
Psalms, sundry pages of Mason on "Self-knowl- 
edge," or Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted" 
were conned over. At intervals the daughter 
went abroad to spin, twirling meanwhile a 
thread of destiny that was to lead to other 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 15 

Prom the first dawn of thinking God and his 
law had been much in mind, and the youthful 
intellectual life was not more characteristic or 
more intense than the life of the soul. It was 
only when she believed good might be thereby 
accomplished that Mrs. Banister alluded to her 
early religious experience. The Holy One led 
her into the path of the just which she trod so 
long by a way he has conducted many of his chil- 
dren who excel in strength. 

She once related that, at five years of age, she 
felt condemned at having expressed a preference 
not to attend with her mother an afternoon meet- 
ing, and she remembered distinctly her pain of 
conscience as she stood by a chair after her mother 
had gone. It was the beginning of a mental strug- 
gle that lasted twelve years. 

That dutiful little girl, who lay so close in the 
love of a good mother, kept holy the Sabbath 
day, attended all church services, learned the 
Catechism with the proof texts, prayed, and was 
outwardly blameless. None the less, for all this 
fair conduct, did she see more and more clearly 
her guilt in the violation of perfect law. **At 
twelve," she said, **I had great solicitude. At 
periods it was intense. It became my custom to 
commit myself to the care of God in a prayer be- 
fore going out On one occasion, being in great 



i6 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT KANISTKR. 



haste, I thought, 'It can make no difference,' 
and omitted my devotions. I was thrown from 
my horse and narrowly escaped death. This 
seemed a divine reproof." In after life she was 
wont to draw a distinction between depending oti 
prayer and depending on God. 

These religions feelings were deepened when 
she found herself surrounded by the young im- 
mortals of her school. She soon attained a celeb- 
rity rare in that region, and was sought year 
after year, in Norfolk and the adjoining towns, 
for both summer and winter schools. Intuitively 
she had discovered the true means of waking up 
and drawing out mind in the culture and disci- 
pline of the attention. A paper prepared 'after 
1830 for a Teachers' Association unfolds the prin- 
ciples of her earlier as well as later practice. 
Parts are here given: 

" The power of attention or concentration of 
the mind to the object before it must first exist 
in the teacher, and it is one which every teacher 
may have, however humble her order of native 
talent or her acquirements. This distinctness 
and fixedness of apprehension will make itself 
felt by the pupil. 

"Here is a child taking Its first school lesson 
in the alphabet. 'What is that letter?' 'A.' 
The teacher wishes indelibly to fix and connect 



CHILDHOOD AND YODTH. 



17 



tliat form and that name in the pupil's mind. 
She will not frighten him by a hard tone or stu- 
pefy him by a dull one, bnt she will aim to make 
a vivid, permanent impression of that letter. It 
will be a prominent object till be has secured the 
idea of A. The scattering of attention by diffu- 
sing and multiplying objects more than the mind 
can grasp is a great loss of power. She may turn 
to another letter, but it will be for the sake of 
showing that it is not A. If it is the pupil's first 
lesson he will perhaps call it A. But the teacher 
says gently, 'No. Do you know that letter?' 
'No, ma'am;' for thus questioned nothing in the 
teacher's tone or manner makes him afraid or 
ashamed to answer simply. The teacher says, 
'When I ask you a letter that you don't know 
you may say so. What is that letter ?' ' I do n't 
know, ma'am.' 'That is right. When you do n't 
know always say so. Now (pointing to A again) 
what is this?' 'A.' 'Yes; you begin to know 
A," and her looks are pleased and congratulatory. 
She may then compare it with other letters, show- 
ing him differences, still without giving any other 
name, and returning again to the starting-point, 
perhaps a dozen times or more in one lesson, re- 
quire him to repeat it, then find it himself and in 
new places, till that initial letter of the alphabet 
and of attention is fixed for all that depends or 



i8 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



follows on it. The child returns to his seat with 
a happy consciousness of something gained since 
he left it. He has no idea probably of any other 
acquisition than to have learned the name of A, 
though he may have an undefined satisfaction in 
the conscious exercise of the faculty by which 
he has obtained it. But the intelligent teacher 
knows that with that single item of knowledge 
her pupil has been taking lessons in attention, 
comparison, discrimination, correctness, truthful- 
ness, independence, and firmness. The little tyro 
knows what he knows and distinguishes it from 
what he does not know. He honestly acknowl- 
edges his ignorance, and will be less likely an- 
other time to put guessing for certainty. Thus 
in this act of acquiring one of the first and sim- 
plest elements of knowledge may be laid part of 
the foundation for mental and moral habits of a 
high order. Let no teacher think that narrowing 
to a point is a limiting of power. Having gained 
a clew by this single instance, she has established 
a connection between the pupil's power of atten- 
tion and this faculty in her own mind. She will 
wisely hold and follow it with all the other clews 
it involves. She goes by it from letter to letter, 
fixing one at a time, and training the desired 
power by combinations. Though the pupil sees 
not all of interest the teacher does in the com- 






CHII.DHOOD AND YOUTH. 19 

» 

bining and classifying of letters, it is a precious 
encouragement that the use of any mental power 
is itself a pleasure. This is the more important 
to be borne in mind when, the nature of the lesson 
or the teacher's time admits but little opportunity 
for illustration, and the interest must depend on a 
voluntary attention. This exercise may make a 
lesson that seems hard and dull in the beginning 
an occasion of mental and moral delight. A 
teacher should not fall into the quite common 
mistake of weakening this primary element of 
power by too diffuse explanations and illustrations 
for the sake of interesting, instead of wisely con- 
centrating forces to the present point. However 
she may occasionally win and prolong attention 
or refresh weariness by amusing, she must not 
allow attention to depend on being amused. 

**The various subjects of knowledge and the 
various faculties of the mind have their adapted- 
ness, but it is the due presenting of objects that 
quickens the faculty upon which all definite 
knowledge of any subject depends. The teacher 
will aim so to present an object as to secure atten- 
tion. She will not rest until this is secured, 
when she may present additional objects or the 
same more fully. Though our present views have 
been chiefly confined to the application of atten- 
tion in the earlier stages of reading and spelling, 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTICR- 

yet it is claimed that the exercise of this same 
grasping, acquiring, persistent power is a main 
element of successful action in every branch aud 
stage of education, in every knowledge, art, and 
pursuit in life. It is a philosopher's key, an art- 
ist's tool, a steady, couquering power in every 
achievement. The teacher who is developing 
and exercising this faculty is training her pupil 
for life-long advancement, conquest, and useful 
effort." 

This paper gives the fundamental note of her 
method of teaching from the very first. Scenes 
like the one described were acted over every les- 
son from A to 2 in those little mountain school- 
houses. But it is far from sounding the whole 
chord. A letter written in 1856 gives the strong 
undertones; "When I had charge of a district- 
school, composed of differing sexes and ages, it 
was my aim to do as well as I could for all, for 
each committed to my instruction and guidance. 
The words of our Saviour affected me deeply, 
' He that is faithful in that which is least is faith- 
ful also in much, and he that is unjust in the 
least is unjust also in much.' As long ago as 
1811 I generally remained in the schoolhouse, 
after dismissing the school at the close of the 
afternoon, to ask myself whether for that day I 
had done as well as I could, and wherein I could 



4 
4 
4 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 21 

do better in future; also what advancement in 
application to study or improvement in conduct 
I should seek for the school, and what pupils 
needed personal attention. The next day I acted 
on the conclusions to which I had the day before 
come," 

A casual observer who passed her on the road 
as she went to and fro would perhaps have turned 
for a second glance. Her figure was tall, erect, 
and well proportioned; her head finely set on her 
shoulders. The forehead was high and dome- 
shaped, and the pronounced features comely with 
the expression of kindness, dignity, and power; 
dark, golden-brown hair, plainly arranged; pier- 
cing black eyes, luminous with life and intelli- 
gence; a composed and somewhat stately carriage, 
and a tasteful, iady-Uke dress, all made her a 
marked person at that age as ever after. 

The inner life of the young teacher so scrupu- 
lously watching over her little flock was filled 
with one desire. The hunger and thirst of her 
soul was after righteousness; the united longing 
of the whole being was for peace with God. With 
her there could be no half- reception of truths, no 
misty, undefined, or shifting sense of obligation. 
Heaven and hell to her were solemn verities. 
She believed in the existence of a personal, holy. 
Almighty Being as she believed in her own iden- 



32 HKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

tity, and her accountability before him was a real- ' 

ity as abiding as the force of gravitation. 

That retired rural society had already afforded 
what she had made the test of her own sincerity. 
It was the custom for the young people of the 
neighborhood to meet in lively intercourse at each 
other's houses and close the evening by a dance. 
Young Zilpah Grant was fond of this pastime, 
but when it was represented to her to be incon- 
sistent for one seeking religion, she gave it up 
wholly, though not without a twinge of conscious 
sacrifice. Her spiritual development is described 
in her own words: 

"During these years I listened with great 
eagerness to those who conversed or spoke on re- 
ligious subjects. There was a continual increase 
of religious anxiety. I went to prayer-meetings 
and prayed for my pupils that they might be un- 
der right influences, I might not find, but I 
would seek, and I decided that while my proba- 
tion lasted I would endeavor in everything to 
take a course suited to secure my salvation. One 
Thursday evening I sought Mr. Marsh and laid 
open to him my distress. The sense of sin was 
overpowering. ' ' 

Mentioning this visit in a letter to him, she 
wrote, "My definite object in calling was to re- 
quest your intercession in my behalf. In the 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



23 



world of woe to which I was hastening I would 
be saved from the reflection that, in the Jast few 
days of my probation on earth, I did not ask the 
prayers of one who had power to prevail with 
God." 

Fifty years later she again recalled to him the 
interview: " You remember that on Thursday 
evening, September 9, 1S12, when I was on the 
borders of despair, and expecting to sink by the 
weight of my own sin to perdition, and was feel- 
ing that my guilt in not acknowledging God, in 
rejecting Christ, and in quenching the Spirit was 
too great to be forgiven, you said in reply to Miss 
Sarah Benedict, who stated this for me, 'It is as 
easy for God to forgive ten thousand sins as one. 
If Christ had not died he could not have forgiven 
one sin. Now the way is open to forgive all sin.' 
This resuscitated expiring hope. After leaving 
your house I said to Miss Benedict {godly woman), 
' Do you think there can be any hope in my case?' 
She replied, ' Yes, surely there is great reason to 
hope, for God is merciful and ready to pardon and 
save.' Memorable nights and memorable days 
were those!" 

A characteristic crisis was near. 

"The next Sabbath morning, September 12, 
1812, I went into the schoolhouse to be alone. 
My mental agony was very great. At length the 



idea came, ' How beautiful is that justice wliich 
has denied peace to such a sinner!' I became 
absorbed in the admiration of God's justice. It 
was infinitely lovely, and I must for ever praise 
him in the world of retribution for not receiving 
so vile a being into the abode of purity and bliss. 
There was then no manifestation of Christ. I 
remember it was a beautiful day. After church 
I spoke with Mr. Marsh, and he gave me ' Dodd- 
ridge's Rise and Progress,' requesting me to read 
it. To the question put in a letter, on what prin- 
ciple I lived, I replied that I strove to do what 
was pleasing to God." Such were the first treas- 
ures of the kingdom revealed to this soul which 
was afterwards to enter so abundantly into pos- 
session. 

Like all who have enjoyed its fniition, she 
wrestled for this inheritance in the secret place of 
communion with the Father. To pray apart 
daily was a necessity from the beginning of her 
course. Often, in the small dwellings that were 
her abiding-places as a boarded teacher, time and 
retreat must be sought with care. Once it was a 
closet under the stairs where hung the farmer's 
extra harness and horse-trappings. There in early 
morning, before the family were up, she was un- 
disturbed. Wherever she might be, for sixty 
years she placed herself every day alone before 



CHILDHOOD AND VOUTH. 



25 



■'If ye call upon me 



the One seeing in secret. 
I will hear," saith the Lord. 

On the last Sabbath in February, 1813, she 
stood side by side with her mother in the church 
at Norfolt to take the vows of a Christian profes- 
sion. The pastor, Mr. Robbins, was too feeble to 
have anything added to the services of the regu- 
lar communion the next Sabbath. It was almost 
the last of his public ministratious. 

She received baptism at the time, and of course 
her baptismal name, EUpah Polly. Out of deli- 
cacy towards her mother's supposed preferences 
she said nothing of her wish to be called Mary, 
and did not learn till some time after her mo- 
ther's indifference on the matter. 

Between this epoch and the memorable April, 
1820, when she went to Eyfield, there were seven 
years of growth, of training and pruning by the 
Father's hand. In these years Mary Lyon, her 
after-time coadjutor and friend, grew up to wo- 
manhood among the secluded hills of Western 
Massachusetts. There, one May Sabbath, she 
went up on a hill-top alone and "dwelt upon 
God's wisdom and holiness and justice and truth " 
till peace came to her troubled soul, and she ex- 
claimed, " O God, thy ways are perfect ! Be thou 
my everlasting portion!" The two had chosen 
alike while as yet they knew each other not. 



36 



MKS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTQB. 



Miss Grant taught the next three years either I 
in Norfolk or Winchester, "having continually 
new views of God " and a deepening sense of re- 
sponsibility for the souls committed to her care. 
Her pastor, riding by the schoolhouse one morn- 
ing, was asked a question which had lain on her 
heart. "Would it be proper and right for her 
to lead the devotions of her pupils audibly?" 
"Right, certainly, and quite proper, if she felt it 
her duty," he said; and she was perhaps the first 
female teacher in the country who prayed in her 
school. " It was not done then," was her remark 
long afterwards. Her study to make the most of 
each one of her pupils, and her keen delight in 
watching the out-striking of thought in tliera, 
became permeated with the solemn conviction, 
" All this is for eternity !" The strong influence 
she soon gained over those young minds was 
wielded more and more to the end of their conse- 
cration to their Maker. 

In the summer of 1815, while teaching in 
North Goshen, a village lying near, there gath- 
ered over her "a great cloud of darkness," For 
weeks she struggled and fought towards the light; 
but between her soul and it there hung the im- 
penetrable veil of God's eternal purpose in elect- 
ing some to everlasting life and some to everlast- 
ing death. In her distress she went down to 



4 
4 



CHILDHOOD Al^D YOUTH. 2^ 

Winchester to the pastor who had more than once 
spoken the word in season. **I told him I was 
decreed to final banishment from God; that, just 
as this was, I could not cease to suffer in the 
thought of it. Then followed a season of re- 
pentance for sin which ended in a revelation of 
Christ as the Mediator in a light I had never be- 
fore seen him. ' ' Great alternations of feeling suc- 
ceeded; but the Sun of righteousness had risen, 
and that darkness fled for ever away. 

From childhood the Bible had been read by 
her habitually and large portions of it committed 
to memory. Its treasures of richness were now 
opening and revealing themselves to her mind 
and heart, and she was already fertile in devising 
ways to make her pupils know and love it. Thus 
to the verge of twenty-two, in the companionship 
of her wise mother, the character of this village 
schoolmistress was formed. The fear of God was 
its ruling motive; it was rational, strong, and 
winning. 

But He who sits as a ** Refiner" had prepared 
the purifying furnace. In April, 1816, having 
conducted the winter school in Winchester, she 
was seized with pain in the right side. For three 
months it gradually grew worse, but she did not 
relinquish her post till, in July, a more violent 
attack forced her to go home, where she lay for 



28 MRS. Z. P. GRANT HANISTER. 

some time dangerously ill with pleurisy. The 
pain did not really leave her for three years, and 
she became "diseased all through." Witli eqnal 
docilit)' and fortitude she underwent the severe 
medical treatment which marked the country 
practice of that lime. Great blisters were kept 
for weeks at work on the aching side, and doses 
of mercury produced the long-con tiaued "saliva- 
tion" then supposed to be beneficial. But the 
deep-seated pain continued. She w^asted away 
to a shadow and was told that she must die. 
*' For two years I looked into eleniily. I had no 
desire to live. I could not pray for life." It 
seemed that, while still young, slie had finished 
all God had for her to do, and the end had come. 
la the calmly-poised soul there was neither re- 
gret nor fear. It was God's will. It was right. 
Through the long months she waited quietly and 
solemnly for the coming of His feet who should 
summon her across the border of the spirit land. 
Still the message came not. Slowly the vital en- 
ergy- gathered itself; she rose from the bed of lan- 
guishing and looked out again on the world; but 
in the fifh'-eight years that lay before her she was 
never to know another day of re.ll health. Again 
and again was she brought to lie doH'n in the 
shadow of death. 

In the full success of her career she was forced 



CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH. 



39 



to give up the work for which she was most emi- 
nently gifted. She accomplished much, but it 
was because every moment of respite was crowded 
with well-ordered activity, and mind and soul tri- 
umphed over bodily weakness and pain. While 
she waited for the end of life God had made her 
ready to begin it. 

In the first summer of her illness a new pastor 
had been settled in her native parish. There 
came with him, to be present at his ordination 
services as a deeply-interested spectator, his in- 
valid brother. The visitor was a tall man, slight- 
ly lame, of an aspect serious and serene. His 
Christian sweetness of temper and desire for daily 
usefalness endeared him much to the hospitable 
people of Norfolk during the weeks he passed 
there. It was the Rev. Joseph Emerson, who 
was afterwards to exert so great an influence over 
Mrs. Banister's life. This man, who had pre- 
sented his first and well-beloved betrothed with a 
Bible and a Euclid's "Elements of Geometry;" 
who, in this journey for health, assembled every 
day a class of young ladies for profitable reading, 
would have had sympathy of soul with the sick 
one there, had he known how she had thirsted 
for truth. There was, however, at this time no 
communication between them. During her con- 
valescence, two years later, she read his work on 



3P 

the "Millennium." The pictures there drawn of 
the coming glory of the church awakened her in- 
terest in life, and she "longed to do something 
for God." While in this state a missionary des- 
tined to a foreign field invited her to accompany 
liim. A long and severe struggle, which passed 
through several phases of self-renunciation, 6nal- 
ly ended in a negative decision. Soon afterwards 
a prospectus of Mr. Emerson's school fell under 
her eye, and upon it she pondered. Her mother 
had married; she was alone. Her mind cried 
out, as it were, in its hunger for food, enticed by 
the certainty that more knowledge meant more 
power of doing good, stimulated by the desire to 
lay more precious gifts ou the altar. But how 
was she to gain it? The way would be opened if 
the Lord had further need of her, and she spread 
her wishes before him at the mercy-seat. Her 
pastor, the Rev. Ralph Emerson, sympathized 
fully in her feelings and efforts. Between them 
sprang up a mutual esteem and friendship, de- 
lightful and valuable to both. Under his guid- 
ance, in the winter of 1819, a group of youthful 
aspirants studied Grammar, History, and English 
Literature, and Miss Grant's toil in the school- . 
room did not prevent her being the leading spirit 
among them. 



MR. EMERSON'S SCHOOI.. 31 



CHAPTER II. ' 
MR. Emerson's schooi^ 

Far away in the northeast comer of Massa- 
chusetts the new "Female Seminary" had been 
opened. Its principal — the ex-tutor of Harvard, 
the ex-pastor of Beverly — was fired with a holy 
25eal in the work on which he had entered as a 
called apostle. In it he was a pioneer and an 
originator. His respect for the understanding of 
woman was sincere, and he seemed to forecast the 
power she might wield to bring in that millennial 
age on which he loved to dwell. He longed to 
open to her ardent, inquiring mind the truths of 
mathematics, of science, of philosophy to her yet 
unknown ; but to show her the treasure-chambers 
of Holy Writ was a more exceeding joy. 

It is impossible for this generation to go back 
sixty-five years and understand what a novelty 
was that institution of Rev. Joseph Emerson's at 
Byfield. As yet girls' high schools were not; 
there were no Protestant female seminaries in ex- 
istence. The college education craved for the 
sons was undreamed of for the daughters; and, 
except in isolated instances, no literary or scien- 
tific attainments were within their reach, beyond 



32 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



the ability to keep a summer, rarely a winter, 
district-school. The whole modem interest in 
the higher education of women, and the numer- 
ous and munificently-endowed institutions for its 
prosecution, have arisen since then. The enthu- 
siastic head of the Byfield Seminary was no un- 
important agent in this advance. 

Two pupils at least were waiting for his in- 
Btructious who afterwards manifested in their 
own persons the influence of consecrated and 
trained intellect in an ever- widening circle. 
What he was to Miss Grant will appear in this 
record; what to Mary Lyon those only can fully 
know who Iiave heard her say, " My dear teach- 
er ! now in heaven." 

The Norfolk educator looked with longing 
eyes towards the distant, newly-opened fountain 
of bright waters. She was twenty-five years old. 
It was a strange thing that a woman should wish 
to know more than she already knew, stranger 
still that one so old should wish to go awav to 
school. She shrank from anything like singular- 
ity or expressed independence of others' opinions. 
Though possessed of uncommon force of will, she 
was clothed with modesty and strongly conser\'a- 
tive, then and always. But she was "not her 
own." She committed the case lo the Lord, and 
laid open to her mother her whole heart, asking 



UR. EMERSON'S SCHOOL. 



33 



permission and counsel. The mother simply "did 
not oppose." The oldest brother, without whose 
approval she could not go, was to be won over. 
More than once she described the hours of thought 
spent in the problem. "I studied on what I 
should say to him as a lawyer studies his plea." 
It would have been an obstinate judgment which 
could resist the arguments so marshalled, and the 
assent was gained. With a like craving for 
knowledge, and resembling her in the natural 
constitution of his mind, Deacon Grant entered 
kindly into her plans for self-improvement. Had 
he been able he would gladly have saved her the 
struggles of the few following years, but it was 
only by unremitting toil and economy that the 
needs of his own large family were met. On one 
occasion at least he found a way to render pecu- 
niary aid to his sister, and she was never unmind- 
ful of the obligation. 

All obstacles having been removed, in April, 
1830, taking her whole fortune of fifty dollars, 
Miss Grant set out on the long journey of three 
days to that place distinguished in the history of 
female education and of Christian benevolence. 
She had once seen Mr. Emerson, and took a line 
from her pastor to him. He received her into his 
family, and she spread her wings in the new at- 
mosphere. 



34 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



Before US lies a pile of yellow manuscript- 
books, on the ribbed and rough-edged paper of 
three-quarters of a century ago, comprising more 
than six hundred pages of closely-written, but 
perfectly legible matter. A part of them are 
simply dated, "ByfieM, 1820;" a part labelled, 
"Notes written from the lips of Rev. Joseph Em- 
erson, in his familiar lectures on 'Intellectual 
Philosophy.'" Nothing could furnish greater 
proof of the writer's teachable and truth-loving 
spirit. We learn much of what was said in that 
school -hall to Zilpali Grant and Mary Lyon, 
Amanda White and others, their companions 
and friends — the "good seed sown in good 
ground." 

We may imagine the plain seminary building, 
a former meeting-house scarcely altered, with its 
fifty or sixty pupils, "ranging in age from gay 
misses of ten to sedate, grown women." They 
sit on long benches, at nnpainted desks; there is 
a simplicity of furniture and attire, where the tu- 
ition bills are twenty-five cents a week and the 
pupils sweep the room in turn. Before the 
mind's eye rises the tall, emaciated central fig- 
ure, slightly bowed, but instinct in every nerve 
with intellectual and spiritual life — the man of 
God, the instructor, revered as a father, beloved 
for his own unselfish love. 



MR. Emerson's school. 



35 



Those wlio saw and heard him remembered 
it long as day by day and in the weekly prayer- 
meeting he set forth with rapt reverence and ten- 
derness the truths of that Book which for twenty 
years had been studied by him as by few men 
save Baxter and Bunyan. Its words were ever 
crowding to his lips; to stamp its impress on the 
young heart was to him the beginning and the 
end of all teaching. 

"Oh, my mother !" wrote Mary Lyon in the 
first weeks of her pupilage, "I know you would 
be delighted to witness our devotional exercises 
both morning and evening, to hear Mr, Emerson 
read and explain the Scriptures, to receive such 
pious counsel from his lips, and to unite with him 
in his fervent prayers at the throne of grace in 
behalf of his scholars." 

We iind these time-stained pages thickly 
strewn wth principles of education which can 
lose none of their importance as generations come 
and go, because they are based ou the eternal laws 
of mind. They were not new to her who recorded 
them here. She had already practised them in 
those schools at Loon Meadow and North Goshen, 
but now she saw their length and breadth and 
depth in manifold applications, and tliey acquired 
new force botli from reason and from affectionate 
reverence. They are the principles and maxims, 



$6 URS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

the minor regulations even, which, extended and 
ramified, made the schools of Derry and Ipswich 
what they were, and their legitimate descendant, 
the Mt. Holyoke Seminary, what it is. They are 
put here simply, sometimes in question or illustra- 
tion in plain, familiar talk. 

Let us listen with her to the earnest voice in 
perhaps the first lecture, May 3, 1820. "Logic, 
the art of using reason well, is the parent of all 
other arts. If we would be thorough in logic we 
must use it every day. Even in so simple a thing 
as cutting a pencil I would have you exercise 
your reasoning powers." " As to your conduct, I 
do not wish to have many particular rules. Con- 
sult your own sense of propriety, your reason, 
your understanding, and the Word of God. Make 
fervent supplications to Him who is able to lead 
you in the right way." 

"I shall expect you to attend public worship, 
seasonably, solemnly, devoutly. 

*'You must not walk in the inclosures or 
fields without permission. ' It is best to leave 
contention before it be meddled with.' 

" Be careful not to hinder each other in your 
studies; on the other hand, endeavor to assist each 
other. We are placed in this world for this pur- 
pose. 

"Above all, endeavor to be instrumental of 



«R. EMERSON'S SCHOOL. 



37 



I 



each other's salvation. Literature compared 
with religion is vain trash, but when sanctified is 
of incalculable importance." 

"I shall endeavor to make my instructions as 
plain, interesting, and useful as possible, and to 
show you why one method of teaching is better 
than another, for I do not wish you hereafter to 
refer to me as your authority for particular meth- 
ods." 

Here is a lecture on " Chirography," explain- 
ing the system he had invented, very like the 
most approved modern ones. The pencil marks 
across these pages, the mention of rulers, penknife, 
pencil, plummet, dividers, and india-rubber in 
the list of necessary materials, remind us that ruled 
paper and steel pens have changed all that, but it 
is still true that "of one hundred degrees of ex- 
cellence in writing, eighty express legibility, 
eighteen rapidity, and two elegance." "There 
is nothing," he says, "in the structure of the fe- 
male hand or the female mind to prevent her 
making a pen," and advises to "follow the fash- 
ion in all your conduct, if the fashion is as good 
as any other mode." The hand-writing of these 
notes bears witness that tlie instructions were 
heeded. It changed from a cramped, crude char- 
acter evidently by painstaking, and became beau- 
tiful as engraving. After some years much use 



38 



MKS. Z. P. RBANT BANISTRR- 



of the pen modified its formal style, but it re- 
mained perfectly legible, easy, and graceful to 
the end of life. In a scries of talks on reading 
aloud, that art is pronounced "a wonder of won- 
ders, conveying by sounds ideas to the mind and 
sentiments to the heart." 

"Endeavorto understand every wordand phrase 
of an author. One book well read may give more 
instruction than a hundred read hastily." Again 
his enthusiasm is kindled on the subject of gram- 
mar. " It is a noble science, intimately connected 
with the characteristics of man, thougiit and 
speech. Rarely indeed do I read fifty pages with- 
out finding instances of bad grammar. Study it 
diligently, perseveringly. " In this "hills on hills 
and Alps on Alps are rising." 

Perhaps the long succession of pupils who at 
Derry, Ipswich, and South Hadleyhave been put 
through a rigid drill in English grammar owe 
something to this advice. Arithmetic, reading, 
spelling, definition — these last two he would have 
always go together — were lectured upon, and the 
best methods of learning and teaching them 
pointed out. A talk on the science of music he 
closes by saying, "In this lecture I have trod 
an unbeaten path." We can well believe it. 
There are many pages of closely-written notes on 
ancient history, natural philosophy, and astrono- 



4 
i 



ME. EMERSON'S SCHOOL. 



39 



my. One sermon, on the "Signs of the Times," 
is given in full. Among the good things of the 
era in which he would have them rtjoice is the 
formation of abolition societies. 

The first fourteen weeks Miss Grant studied 
arithmetic. Like her teacher, she could see that 
the "language of arithmetic is the most perfect 
and simple of all languages," and make her 
pupils see it. "Young people," he says, "should 
be trained in much composing." "Not every 
kind and degree of careless scribbling has a ten- 
dency to improve the mind, but I very much 
doubt whether any exercise is more important 
than careful and attentive composition. There 
is no way in which we gain so clear a knowledge 
of a subject as to write upon it." "You will be 
happily successful if you write the truth and 
nothing but the truth. As I advance in years I 
am more and more sensible that this is extremely 
diificult." 

Here are more than sixty pages of Mr. Emer- 
son's criticisms on the pupils' essays as he read 
them before the school. It is impossible to dis- 
cover which were her own. Over and over, with 
abundant illustration and emphasis, are given 
principles in which the pupils of Miss Grant and 
Miss Lyon were afterwards trained. "Mental 
improvement consists in subjecting the attention 



40 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



to the will. One effect of close attention is to 
perceive the relations of an object, and tlius to 
cause the remembrance of it. To that end each 
should be presented singly." But there was one 
plain point to which all lines tended. Was the 
discourse of reading aloud, we find, "If I read 
the ninetieth Psalm in the house of mourning, I 
ought to read it very differently from what I 
should to prove to you when it was written." 
Were the laws of motion and attraction the 
subject, "This study is suited to acquaint us 
with God. If a sparrow fall, the Christian who 
is a philosopher sees that God has caused it to 
fall, aud this knowledge comforts us in afflic- 
tion. 'Is there evil in the city and the Lord 
hath not done it?' " If he held in review the 
great characters and events of history and would 
animate them to know more, he tells them that 
"to investigate secondary causes is to trace the 
ways by which God operates in bringing his sons 
and daughters to glory." " Three-quarters of the 
Bible is history. If God dictates it, history must 
be important." Does he analyze for them the 
pleasures of taste, the emotions of beauty and 
sublimity, it is with the remark, "In the millen- 
nium there will be much more of elegance in 
houses, gardens, and fields than now. It would 
not be right now to devote that to ornament 



MR. Emerson's school. 41 

wliicli would be proper in a different state of the 
world. Then there will be no poor, comparative- 
ly speaking, none perishing for lack of vision." 
When lie leads them into the sublime order of 
the starry worlds on high it is to say, "If the 
study of astronomy does not render heaven it- 
self more interesting, remember that it is nearly 
lost." Does he point them to masterpieces of 
English literature, to Milton and Shakespeare 
(with a caution), it is but to emphasize the close 
study of a few books. Far enough from the 
course in any college are they now. " Edwards' 
' History of Redemption ' is the best book for in- 
struction that ever was written uninspired. I 
should like to have all of you who hope you are 
Christians, or may hope it, read ' Edwards on the 
Affections,'" Here is gospel. "If you would 
learn to think, read ' Dwight's Theology/ one of 
the greatest works in the world." And these 
were the books they did read. For recreation 
their poetry was "Young's Night Thoughts;" 
their romance was " New England's Memorial." 
The second term, "Stewart on the Mind" was 
taken up. Never perhaps was the science of the 
intellect pursued with a keener zest. Practical 
points abound in these notes. 

" If I could adopt the horrible opinion of Mo- 
hammed, that women have no souls, I would 



43 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



urge oil them tlie study of mental philosophy, on 
account of their influence in raising the other sex. 
It will as-sist us in improviuy the science of edu- 
cation, which is now in its infancy." "If a 
scholar commits with the idea only of reciting to 
his teacher, lie will soon forget; if with that of re- 
membering perpetually, he will be far more likely 
to retain his knowledge." "Those accomplish- 
ments which are calculated to gain the affections 
of a child are of great importance." Reference 
is often made to the scholars of that day — Dr, 
Griffin, Dr. Eiuniou!;, Judge Parsons. " Dr. Hop- 
kins could study eighteen or nineteen hours out 
of the twenty-four, and Dr. Dwight pore over 
books the ninht through without lassitude." 
"Mr. Noah Webster, who is probably one of the 
greatest scholars our cimntry nfTords, says five 
hours n day are snfTicicnt for any person to study. 
Mr. Stuart, of Andovcr, who lias n very superior 
mind and has lundc great improvenieut, does not 
study closely m) much an that', but lie leums as 
much in two or three hours as most persons learu 
in many." 

On a subject which Itnn (frctitiy exercised the 
gencrntioii.i since Ills liinc we find the following, 
dated September 14, iHan; "Tlie Psalmist prays 
that their 'diiughterH may he m corner-stones, 
polished uftcr the nluilliludc of (i palace.' Much 



MR. Emerson's scnoor.. 



43 



is meant by this. Females are the foundation of 
society; they need sound judgment, energy, and 
vigor. They may be, and oiiglit to be also, pol- 
lisbed. The education of both sexes is commit- 
ted to them. Ill half a century society must be 
composed of such as have been educated in great 
measure by females. Milton and Young have 
greatly mistaken the necessary character. What 
could Narcissa have done at the head of a family 
or with the care of fifty scholars? The man was 
made to govern, the woman to obey. Has the 
woman nothing to do but to obey ? It is not said, 
Children, obey the father, in distinction from the 
mother. Woman has far more of commanding 
than of obeying to do. The sexes are mutually 
dependent. It is worse than foolish for one to 
speak against the other. This is a subject upon 
which you will need instruction, and I hope you 
"will study it with prayer," 

Only a very independent man would have 
directed attention to this matter in the town of 
Byfield or any other at that date. It was a fre- 
quent remark of Mrs, Banister that Mr. Emer- 
son's side questions were wonderfully adapted to 
elicit thought. She preserved many, either her 
own or called out from his eager pupils. 

"Why do some emotions harmonize while 
others do oot? Is the improvement of taste ne- 



44 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



cessarily connected with every good and vittiions 
disposition? Why cannot the imagination con- 
template one object as sinj^le and alone ?" 

More frequently appear qnestions like these; 

" If the soul is an emanation of Deity, how 
shall we answer infidels, who say that God can- 
not destroy himself, i. e., he cannot destroy the 
soul?" 

" Does God do a thing because it is right, or 
is it right because he does it?" 

" What evidence have we that the tempter of 
Eve was literally a serpent ?" 

How many of these, and many like them, were 
propounded by the discriminating and logical 
mind which could put questions equal to any of 
Mr. Emerson's, we caimot decide. One little 
glimpse of conversation may be quoted entire. 

"Wednesday p. M., August 24, 1820. Ques- 
tion. What is the use of reason in relation to re- 
ligion ? 

*'Miss Pratt. It is of use to enable us to 
apply the rule of Scripture. 

"Miss N . To understand the attributes 

of God. 

" Mr. E . Does not the Bible teach us the 

character of God? 

" Miss Worcester. To convince of sin. 

"Miss Doty. To enable us to ascertain that 



MR. EMERSON'S SCHOOL. 



45 



the Bible is from God by examining the evi- 
dences. 

"Miss Frothingham. To prevent supersti- 
tion. 

"Miss Grant. To understand the Word of 
God. 

" Miss Sampson. To defend the faith." 

Two characteristic things appear in this. One 
is Miss Grant's own answer; the other, that she 
omitted the name of the person whose remark 
was criticised. 

November 7, 1820, was the close of her term 
as a pupil. With a loving hand she wrote out 
the concluding instructions of the day, whereof 
the opening sentence has a spread of old-fashioned 
sentiment: " Borne on the wings of time, we are 
wafted to that day to which we have looked for- 
ward with so much expectation and so much 
dread." There was the summing up and en- 
forcement of the daily and hourly exhortations 
which were to sound all along their future lives: 
"You are going from these consecrated seats to 
mingle with your friends. See to it that you use 
your influence for their good. Avoid sins of 
the tongue. Relieve the poor, be eyes to the 
blind and ears to the deaf. Be ready to watch 
with the sick, to give a kind look to the cast- 
down." "Exert yourselves to evangelize the 



46 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

world. How cheerfully must you be willing to 
labor and to toil that the destitute may be sup- 
plied with the gospel." 

"Read and study the Bible much. It is a 
deep mine, in which you may dig for ever and 
find the ore increasingly precious. Read some- 
limes large portions at once, as the whole book of 
Romans in a day. Attend particularly to passa- 
ges which you find especially interesting. Stop 
and feast your mind ou thera and enjoy a spirit- 
ual luxury. Read as though you were to be 
questioned on the Word, as you will be at the last 
great day. Read it through in course once a year 
with docility and devotion, looking to the Father 
of lights that he would enable you to know the 
truth." 

Mr. Emersou soon discovered Miss Grant's 
familiarity with the Book of his heart. He was 
at this time preparing for Sabbath -schools an 
Outline of Questions on Scripture History, the 
first of that class of publications ever written, and 
he eagerly sought her assistance. Instead there- 
fore of returning, as she had expected, to her Con- 
necticut home, she remained in Byfield through 
the winter and the ensuing summer of 1821, 
teaching certain classes, aiding in preparing the 
"Union Catechism" for the press, and reading 
under Mr. Ivmersou's directiou. 



I 



HR. Emerson's school. 



47 



la the early spring there appeared in the 
school a young woman, not three years her jun- 
ior, whom a like enthusiasm had brought thither. 
In person and manner the contrast between the 
two was great. The new-comer was of medium 
height, though her large head and shoulders and 
square-built frame made her seem rather below 
it Wavy, light auburn hair, great blue eyes, a 
long, clear-cut nose, and wide, expressive mouth 
were the features of a face out of every line of 
which beamed an ardent, benevolent soul. Com- 
plete inattention to conventionalities in manners 
and dress was joined with extraordinary energy of 
body and mind, both undisciplined. Such, in 
outline, was Mary Lyon when she went to By- 
field. The sweet solemnity of the place fell 
gratefully upon her. It was a summer of the 
visitation of the Holy Spirit. To her mother she 
wrote, July 21, 1821, 

"We have a prayer- meeting on Saturday 
evenings for those members of the school who 
dare to hope that they have an interest at the 
throne of grace, and these constitute about half 
our number. Miss Grant expressed her views at 
one of our meetings in a most affecting manner. 
She feared, she said, that the Saviour was here 
wounded in the house of his friends; that Chris- 
tians were grieving the Holy Spirit, and that thi 



MRS. Z. F. GRANT BANISTER. 

state of their hearts presented obstacles to His 
special presence and work. The solemnity, affec- 
tion, and tender solicitude with which she said 
this appeared to make a deep impression on every 
mind. Since that time a visible change has been 
in progress in the school." 

The dignity and spiritual elevation of Miss 
Grant's character, her Christlikc sympathy with 
every struggling soul, awakened Miss Lyon's af- 
fectionate reverence; and, on the other hand, the 
vast capabilities for usefulness that yet lay almost 
latent in the future founder of Mt. Holyoke Sem- 
inary did not escape the keen eye and full appre- 
ciation of Mr. Emerson's assistant. Between the 
two were soon formed the golden threads of that 
love which was to bind them iudissolubly to- 
gether. 

In the first days of November they parted, 
Miss Lyon to teach in the academy at Ashficld, 
with a new baptism of love for souls, Miss Grant 
to go back to her native hills. 

Neither could know then, or ever after, the 
far-reaching purpose in the divine plan which 
brought thera both at the same time under the 
influence of such a teacher as Mr. Emerson. 
There sprang up for him in the hearts of both an 
exalted feeling of love and veneration which was 
never lowered. 



MR. Emerson's school. 



49 



Miss Grant's greatest solicitude and her out- 
look into tile future were expressed in the follow- 
ing letter : 

" Byfield, October ii, 1821. 

"Rev. Mr. Marsh : . . . While you have re- 
ceived copious showers of divine grace we have 
not been forgotten. A number of the young ladies 
have been in some degree affected, and five in- 
dulge hope that they have been renewed in the 
temper of their minds. At present we witness 
nothing like general attention to religion. Some 
continue serious, others are becoming more stu- 
pid. Our hope is in Him with whom is the resi- 
due of the Spirit. 

"I have never regretted that I made so great 
an effort to come to this place or that I concluded 
to remain through the present term. I have found 
Mr. Emerson's instructions just such as I needed. 
His daily remarks on the Scriptures are to me 
very precious. ... I expect to return to Con- 
necticut before the middle of November. Should 
my health admit of the undertaking, I shall wish 
to be engaged three or four months in my favorite 
employment. I should like a subscription school 
of twenty or thirty young ladies in a situation 
within a few miles from my dear mother. Wliere 
I shall be, or what I shall do, I know not. I hope 
my Heavenly Father will direct my path, and I 



50 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



wonlc] not refuse to do whatever lie shall appoint. 
I earueslly solicit )our prayers that my way may 
be plain, prosperous, and useful. 

"P. S. For more ihan a year I have flattered 
myself that I should be able to -write next week, 
but it has been almost impossible to write a single 
letter." 

Mr. Emerson made offers she "did not ex- 
pect," urging her to remain; but her heart was 
steadfast to work in her native State. 

The school at Byfield had done its work. In 
May the Seminary was removed to Sangns, tlicii 
a retired village eight miles northeast of Boston. 
Shortly after commencing there Mr. Emerson 
addressed to Miss Grant a strong appeal: 

" I need more assistance and the best that can 
possibly be procured. My pupils are not only 
much more numerous, but much younger and 
less pious than usual. I often turn my thoughts 
to one for whose former assistance I desire to bless 
God, one who has done more than any other young 
lady to raise my semiuarj-, one whom my pupils 
are prepared to receive with respect, with affec- 
tion, with the utmost confidence. We wish for 
your assistance both summer and winter. 

" I have other reasons for desiring your aid in 
teaching my pupils and in attempting to instruct 
the public. I am more and more impressed and 



MR. EMERSON'S SCHOOI,. 



SI 



distressed with a view of the extremely injudi- 
cious, defective, superficial, and atheistic methods 
of teaching in common use. I use the word athe- 
istic in a negative sense. It is ray decided opin- 
ion that you and I can do much more towards 
effecting a reformation by united than by separate 
exertion. I hope your friends — I need not say 
you — will view the subject on the great scale. 
The united voices of earth and heaven, of present 
and future generations, seem to call you hither. I 
hope no lion will be in the way of your coming." 

Miss Grant was, however, already engrossed 
in her school at Winsted, taught in a single room 
of a private dwelling-house. In a letter of ad- 
vice, written long afterwards to a young teacher, 
is found a sketch of one of her plans at this time 
for awakening interest in the Bible: 

' ' For a year and a half subsequent to the au- 
tumn of 1821 I had charge of a select school in 
which the Bible had not been studied for recita- 
tion by the pupils. After securing their attention 
to their comrqon lessons and to their weekly Bible 
exercise, I began, without any prescribed plan, to 
give out, at the close of the afternoon school, a 
question for such pupils as might have time, after 
learning their other lessons, to ascertain the an- 
swers. I stated that my best time for attending 
to it would be before the commencement of the 



53 MRS. Z. P. GHANT BANISTER- 

regular school exercises in the morning, and that 
I would be at the schoolroom ready to meet them 
ten minutes before uiue. I was careful lo state 
distinctly that I chose no one should attend to the 
question before she had prepared her other lessons, 
and that I considered it uncertain whetlier any of 
them could find time for it The first morning a 
few came, and the number increased from day lo 
day, till in a short time nearly every member of 
the school was present at the appointed time. 
They enjoyed the exercise highly. In the course 
of the first term the way was so prepared that 
for the remaining time the whole school learned 
a short Bible lesson every day, devoting not less 
than two hours each to the one prepared on the 
Sabbath and recited on Monday morning. Dur- 
ing the ensuing year they attended to most of the 
historical parts of the Old Testament and some 
hooks in the New. In this study they gained 
more useful knowledge and more mental disci- 
pline than in any other. To this day some of 
those pupils refer to that school year as among 
the most delightful and the most profiuble they 
ever passed. 

"I will mention a few questions and topics 
that may aid you in selecting for yourself. 

"Where was the first cemetery mentioned in 
the Bible? (Show the place on a map of Pales- 



I 

\ 



Ma. KMKftSON'» SCHOOL 



53 



tine and the corresponding place on a modem 
map.) What objectsof beauty were in it? What 
in the conduct of the purchaser of the field showed 
him to be gentlemanly? 

"Where is money first mentioned? 

"What young shepherd killed a lion and a 
bear? (What was the effect on his own mind o£ 
the recollection of this act?) 

"In the history of which prophet is a lion men- 
tioned? (The facts in i Kings 13 are sufficient 
for one lesson, the case of Daniel for another.) 

" What man that lived to be aged had a repu- 
tation of strict integrity? (i Sam. 12. The way 
to secure such a reputation is to earn it — to de- 
serve it.) 

"On each topic prepare yourself before giving 
it out. Make it a point to show your pupils how 
God views things. Let the exercise in the Bible 
be cheerful. When truth obviously solemnizes, 
stand in awe and let naked truth do its work, 
the Holy Spirit preparing the mind. Select 
subjects of natural history more or leas. All 
should early learn to repeat in portions the names 
of the books of the Bible in their order, and finally 
to say them all as fast as they can speak. Teach 
pupils how to use a reference Bible and a Con- 
cordance." 

It was nearly a year after her help had been 



5+ Mns. & p. GRANT DANISTrR. 

SO solemnly adjured that Miss Grant ended her 
labors iu Connecticut and went in February, 1823, 
to be with Mr. Emerson at Saugus. Here she 
'* was busy fourteen hours out of the twenty-four 
every day in the week." But a place of work 
was being prepared elsewhere. The laborers had 
all unconsciously been girded, A year before, the 
first legacy ever left for the academic education 
of women had been made in Derry, New Hamp- 
shire. The trustees of the fund had during the 
summer erected a building. They were looking 
about for a suitable principal, and a committee 
of their number wended their way to the little 
seminary at Saugus, which had sent out teachers 
not a few. As they sat with the good minister 
and his family unfolding their desires, the name 
of Miss Grant was mentioned, A lady present 
spoke quickly, "Mr, Emerson can't spare her." 
Naturally the committee felt that the one Mr. Em- 
erson could not spare was the one they wanted, 
and they offered her the position. She took the 
matter into consideration, and bade farewell to 
the seminary in November. The present of a 
watch as a parting gift called out a note charac- 
teristic of her style at that time. 

" Saucus, June 91, 1S33. 
"Beloved Friends: Your benefaction has awa- 
kened my liveliest gratitude. . . The gentle wliis- 



MR. -rmkrson's school. 



55 



per of this almost breathing associate will never 
suffer me to forget your kindness, your assiduity, 
your punctuality, which I have witnessed with 
increasing satisfaction. Its quick and constant 
motions shall admonish me of the speed of mo- 
ments and of years and every day excite me to dil- 
igence. While time is ours may we so number 
our days that our peace may survive the catas- 
trophe of nature. That our friendship may con- 
tinue, that it may be ripened into the holy affec- 
tion of angels and consummated in their bright 
abodes, is the ardent desire of your grateful friend, 

"Z. p. GRANT." 

That winter, by invitation of the committee, 
she visited Deny. "I went," she wrote after- 
wards, "that I might gain the data for judging 
whether I ought to accept the proposition to take 
charge of the new institution. With a deep 
sense of my want of the requisite qualifications, I 
at length felt such a conviction it was the will 
of God I should engage iu the work that I did not 
dare decline, and it seemed to me I might expect 
direction aud strength from Him who said to mc, 
Go forward," 

Six weeks were spent in making herself ac- 
quainted with the possibilities of the academy 
and the designs of its founders. She made known 
to them that her aim would be not only the de^ 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTi 

velopmeiit of the intellect, but the training of the 
character according to the Word of God, and this 
that woman might be made worthy to render the 
service of a consecrated life to her generation. 
Her own gracious and commanding personal pres- 
ence, her elevation of thought and purpose, 
adorned by a winning benevolence, marked her 
to them as the one fitted to inaugurate the new 
enterprise. While the question was yet unde- 
cided her mind turned to the remarkable young 
woman whose character she had measured at Mr. 
Emerson's in 1821. She wrote to Mary Lyon at 
Ashfieid, laying open the subject and asking her 
friend to become her assistant. 

Miss Lyon replied December i, 1823: 
"From what I had learned of the general 
plan, I concluded it might be an eminent means 
of doing good. A few days previous to the recep- 
tion of your letter a secret desire entered my 
heart that you might be connected with that 
institution. Bnt I dismissed it as a romantic 
thought. After breaking the seal of your letter 
and eagerly running over the contents, said I, 'Is 
this a dream or the sober reality?' The induce- 
ments to accept your invitation are great. It 
seems to be a field especially adapted to my ca- 
pacity. The systematic arrangement which yoa 
propose would be highly gratifying to me, as it 



MR. Emerson's school. 



57 



perfectly meets my view. Finally, the pleasure 
of spending my time with you is truly inviting. . . 
I slept but little for one or two nights after I first 
heard from you. Since that time my mind has 
been remarkably calm. . . May the I/Ord direct 
our course. I cannot, I would not, choose for 
myself. ' ' 

In the early part of 1824 Miss Grant went to 
Ashfield to discuss their work more freely with 
Miss Lyon. The entire plan of the new academy 
had become fully shaped and definitely marked 
in her own mind and had been spread before the 
public A circular from her pen appeared in a 
local paper outlining the original featiures of the 
project 



THE ADAMS FEMALE ACADEMY. 

"This academy was founded by Mr. Jacob 
Adams in 1832. He made a liberal bequest for 
its support, and appointed the Rev. Dr. Dana, 
the Rev. Edward L. Parker, the Hon. John Bell, 
Dr. George Farrar, Alansou Tucker, James Thom, 
and Samuel D. Bell, Esqrs., trustees. 

"In June last, agreeably to his request, the 
trustees obtained from the Legislature of this 
State an act of incorporation. A large, commo- 
dious building is erected for the accommodation 
of the institution, pleasantly situated about a mile 



to Mas. Z. P. GBANT BANISTBR. 

The middle class will give some attention to all 
the preceding studies, but their principal time 
will be devoted to grammar, rhetoric, punctua- 
tion, composition, history, chronology, and a 
treatise on the improvement of the mind. The 
books studied by the middle class are abridge- 
ment of Blair's 'Rhetoric,' Whelpley's 'Com- 
pend of History,' Morse's and Parish's 'History 
of New England,' and ' Watts on the Mind.' 

"A general knowledge of the studies of the 
junior and middle classes will be requisite for ad- 
mission into the senior class. After rapid reviews 
of some of the branches already mentioned, the 
principal studies of the senior class will be com- 
position, history, natural philosophy, chemistry, 
and astronomy; the boots. Goldsmith's 'His- 
tory of England,' 'Conversations on Natural 
Philosophy,' 'Conversations on Chemistry,' and 
Bnrnap's ' Explanation of the Elements of As- 
tronomy.' Each young lady is requested to take 
with her such books as she has studied, an Eng- 
lish dictionary, ' Young's Night Thoughts,' and 
Thomson's 'Seasons,' 

"Those who have a thorough knowledge of 
the junior studies, and wish to go through a 
course of drawing and paiuting, may receive in- 
struction in these branches, 

"Instead of a treatise on ethics, all the mem- 



'MR. emkrson's school. : 6i 

'hefs bf the academy will every week devote some 
attention to the study of the Scriptures, especially 
to the historical part. 

* * Those in each class who may wish to become / 
qualified for teaching will receive particular in- i 
struction with a view to prepare them for that 
employment 

**The manner in which the pupils spend their 
time out of school will be reported to the precept- 
ress, to whom they will be considered responsible 
for their conduct while they are members of the 
academy. 

*'This institution will be committed to the 
superintendence and instruction of Miss Z. P. 
Grant, who in 1821 and in 1823 was employed as 
instructress in the Rev. Mr. Emerson's seminary. 
She will be aided by two experienced teachers. 

''Tuition, for the preparatory classes, at the 
rate of $3 for twelve weeks; for the three regular 
classes #4, with the addition of #2 for drawing 
and painting, to be paid at entrance. 

** It is earnestly requested that all who attend 
will enter at the commencement and continue 
during the term. 

** Young ladies may be accommodated with 
board in respectable families on reasonable terms. 

** Books and stationery may be procured near 
the academy at Boston prices. 



62 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

*'This early notice is given that those who 
contemplate attending the next season may, if 
disposed, become qualified to enter any of the re- 
spective classes. 

"GEORGE FARRAR, Secretary, 
" Londonderry, December 3, 1823." 



WORK AT DERRY. 



CHAPTER III. 



WORK AT DERRY. 



"To Miss Zilpah P. Grant: The Trustees of 
the Adams Female Academy, reposing especial 
trust and confidence in your fidelity and ability, 
have constituted and appointed you the precep- 
tress of the Adams Female Academy, hereby giv- 
ing and granting unto you, the said Zilpah P. 
Grant, all the powers and authority given and 
granted by the Act of Incorporation and By-laws 
of the Trustees of the Adams Female Academy, 
to have and to hold the said ofEce, with all the 
powers and privileges and immunities to the 
^me belonging, during the pleasure of the Trus- 
tees, with the compensation of Five Dollars for 
each week the Academy shall be kept during the 
year, and board during the same time, and thirty- 
six dollars each year for travelling expenses. In 
TESTIMONY WHEKEOF the Trustees have caused 
the seal of the said Corporation to be hereunto 
affixed. Witness, Edward L. Parker, President 
of the Board of Trustees, this eighteenth day of 
November, in the year of our L,ord one thousand 
eight hundred and twenty- three." 



I 
I 



UKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

On this stately document is placed the said 
seal, bearing the suggestive legend, " Drink deep 
or taste not." Thus was formally installed the 
first head of the first college for women in our 
country, if not in the world. * A resolution of 
the executive committee empowered her to name 
Tier assistants aud fix their salary. That of Miss 
Lyon was five dollars per week and board, with 
no allowance for travelling expenses. The ideal 
of her own, which had been talked over with Mr. 
Emerson in many an hour of earnest converse at 
Byfield, seemed to draw near attainment He 
had said to her that if she could introduce and 
commence the plan she had in mind she might 
accomplish more for the great cause in a very 
short life than by laboring for a long one in a 
temporary school, and added, "If you can put 
into operation a permanent seminary on right 
principles, you may well afford to give up your 
life when you have done it." 

The burden of her prayer for years had been 
that God would honor himself in an institution 
where women could be trained to serve him, as 
men were trained, in thorough, systematic courses 
of learning. This object she clung to through all 
changes and discouragements. 



J 



WORK AT DEHRY. 



65 



I 



If any are inclined to view with disdain this 
brief and antiquated course of study, it will not 
be those who have the best means of knowing the 
average real attainments of misses of thirteen in 
the year 1885, nor will any such put a low esti- 
mate on the scholarship of the pupils at Derry 
because "very few under fifteen could enter the -_ , 
regular classes." To study reading, spelling, ' 
chirography, defining, arithmetic, grammar, and 
geography as Miss Grant and Miss Lyon taught 
them to that junior class would be to many a girl 
graduate of our days a revelation of principles, a 
mastery of self- discipline most surprising and 
most beneficial. 

In that six weeks of looking over the ground 
the future preceptress had searched out the fami- 
lies who would take pupils as boarders, making 
sure that the responsible heads were in full sym- 
pathy with herself and assistants. She had also 
stipulated that she might employ one-seventh 
part of the time in Bible instniction. On this 
last turned the after-history of her life. The price 
of board was from $1 50 to $1 75 per week. The 
price of tuition, as the circular states, was from 
$8 to $12 per year. 

With the coming of spring over the New 
Hampshire hills, in the latter part of April, a 
group of sixty young ladies gathered in the n ew 




URa. t. p. GKANT DANISTER. 

building. Tliey were Ihe precious treasures in 
tlie txst Iioincs of the region round about, repre- 
Kcntnlivcs tlicmselves, and to be followed by a 
loHK line of others of the best blood of New Eng- 
latul. TIic plan of instruction had commended 
itwlf to ihe judgment of such men as Dr. Dana 
ami Pits. Wtxxls and their compeers, aud for the 
fifteen succeeding years of Miss Grant's teaching 
nuich of the nialcrinl coming under her mould- 
tug hand w-as wnnii witli that hereditary fire which 
\\.m tWhcd out along the history of many families 
of tht? ICaslern States. Herself polished and dig- 
uifi«^l in manner ami regarded by her pupils as 
t)ic iUi.Htcl of a lady, she had this advantage as 
Ik UMttiu to tUsw them at first; but the influence 
dke (aiiMd over the most as n-ell as the least cul- 
tivated w*S the product of combined intellectual 
«nd ^ritual qoaliUcswttidt soon drove all others 
oolofthvirnotiect The stm^ soul most akin to 
Wr own has Mt a name and impccss legible to alL 
tlw aboiindiaj* health, the cheerfiit spirits;, 
^ i^Karoio ftettUies of Mary Lyon, her wooder- 
tliX vxKnixvr abtltty awd her atdent piet>-, made 
hev t!A Mt:i» Otaut snA a hidper a& few have en- 
joy«(t Yet Mvss t.>^Mk, s^) CMphatkaQy **Ac 
d^ at Mtwet," had M!«d of «mdi whidh ^s 
tkimdl af har Inart i^w ta hier tln a^ ibh yvna 
Nanewho 



1 

i 




WORK AT DERRY. 67 

knew them both could doubt that this long con- 
tact with the consecrated spirit and the far-seeing 
and fertile mind of Miss Grant was an important 
part of the divine plan in the preparation of Miss 
Lyon for her great work. 

The principal of Deny had already passed 
through much discipline. Submission of thonght 
and deed to the will of God had become habitual, 
and the "Memoir of Mary Lyon" shows, amid 
much proof that Mrs. Banister suppressed, how 
the younger teacher was at that period wont to 
lift her own meditations and kindle her zeal in 
the thoughts and supplications of her "beloved 
friend." 

As to their work they were in perfect accord. 
Both received the young and tender minds com- 
mitted to their guidance as deposits of infinite 
preciousness for which they were to give account 
at the day of judgment. 

It was this feature of Miss Grant's seminary 
which distinguished it from others opened about 
this epoch of a great educational revival in oiir 
country. A spirit of improvement in teaching 
and teachers was waking on all sides. That was' 
the era of the first publication of the "American 
Journal of Education;" of the iirst advocates for 
normal schools. A most beneficent design placed 
at this juncture, at the head of an academy she 



was to make the leading one in New England, a 
woman possessed with a passion for elevating her 
sex to a lofty Christian ideal. 

The same Providence brought to stand at her 
side and learn of her one who would hand down 
that training, a priceless boon, to unborn genera- 
tions. The reputation of the institution rose rap- 
idly. Glimpses of its methods appear in Miss 
Lyon's letters, " In accordance," she says, 
"with Miss Grant's previous practice and deeply- 
cherished plan, all the young ladies give daily at- 
tention to lessons from the Bible. While exam- 
ining the classes at the commencement of the 
school they are occupied a part of every day in. 
the study and recitation of Scripture history. 
Every week of the term each pupil is expected to 
apply her mind closely two hours or more to the 
Scripture lesson recited on Monday. This study 
has excited more deep and universal interest than 
any other." 

Details are given of the plan for securing or- 
der, a system of self-reporting which was very 
successful, carried out by Miss Grant after lead- 
ing her pupils to feel the importance of being 
truthful and stating facts as they are. "Of 
course," the writer continues, "she would not 
adopt this plan unless the pupils eviuced a con- 
science both enlighteued and lively." 



WORK AT DERRY. 6g 

Miss Lyon afterwards, at Buctland, thought 
best to "borrow Miss Grant's plan to prevent 
whispering," and wrote about it, "I have an op- 
portunity this winter to see the value of what I 
gained at Derry," 

The opening months of the Adams Academy 
were filled with hopeful, animated labor; but they 
brought to Miss Grant an event more painful than 
any she had yet experienced. A letter was one 
day put into her hands with the warning words, 
"My dear friend, before reading this commit 
yourself to God." She unfolded it to learn that 
her beloved mother had died by an act of self- 
destruction. Too great a strain of the nervous 
system on the fearful night when she was made a 
widow had eventually resulted in Mrs, Grant's 
suffering from periods of mental aberration and 
in several attempts to talce her own life. The 
daughter kept silence always over the bereave- 
ment. Though her loyal, affectionate heart had 
been burdened by the menace of the calamity and 
pierced with a double-edged sorrow lyhen it came, 
she hid her grief in the bosom of fhe compassion- 
ate Saviour. 

Probably the first of many letters from her pu- 
pils on mission ground was received this summer. 
It was indorsed by Miss Grant, "Member of Rev. 
J. Emerson's school, Byfield, 1821." 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



"My Dear Miss Grant: With every feeling 

and affection alive, I take my pen to answer your 
truly acceptable letter, which came in a packet 
from Boston. The conversation to which you al- 
lude was at the time, I hope, profitable, and the 
recollection has often done me good since, I 
continue to love you as that consistent, decided 
friend which your affectionate exhortations then 
declared you. . . . The separation from my coun- 
try was attended with extreme mental suffering. 
The feelings of a woman were put to the severest 
test. Embarking among strangers to go twelve 
hundred miles by land, uncertain respecting my 
station or labor, having never before been seventy 
miles from home, without any knowledge of the 
world or any of that natural firmness necessary 
to bear trials, I shuddered lest I should sink in 
the parting hour, and placed myself quickly in 
the carriage, regardless of everything but the di- 
viding from friends and native land. I felt the 
criminality of such attachment to mortals, and at 
length was enabled to look to Jesus as an almighty 
Friend. I sometimes sigh when fancy paints 
your situation, surrounded by refined society and 
enjoying the sweets of civilized life; but I know 
there is not a spot on this globe where I should 



WORK AT DESRY. 71 

be as happy as in this school. I find the children 
capable of high improvement, and the women of 
refinement and delicacy of feeling. They learn 
to sew much easier ihau while children, such is 
their talent at imitation. All they need is proper 
instruction and the advantages of society to make 
accomplished young ladies, 

"Since I began this I have made two visits 
among the natives. One was to the family of 
Charles Reed, a brother in the church and a man 
of much influence in the nation. The road led 
through a delightful wood, six miles in length, 
and opened to an Indian cabin surrounded by 
cultivated fields. Everything around the dwell- 
ing was neat. We were received with a smile 
of welcome that told more than words. The lit- 
tle ones soon flocked around me, and I inquired 
their ages. The mother handed me out a clean 
Bible where I found the family record and so 
learned tlieir history. A few years ago this man 
was ignorant of the gospel. This has taught him 
to be the husband of one wife, and to support and 
educate the children of many wives. Four of his 
daughters have been members of my school. The 
poor man finds much difficulty in providing for 
and educating the children of those whom the Bi- 
ble has taught him to leave. They are yet heath- 
ens, have taken other companions, and claim their 



I 



72 MKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

children. It is delightful to see in him the effect 
of religion. He labors for the support of his nu- 
merous family and interprets for his countrymen. 
I walked about with him to see liis corn. One 
inclosure contains fifteen acres. The highest 
stalk we saw measured fifteen feet. The fields 
extend along the Tennessee River, which rolls 
by, bordered by trees that bend over it on either 
side. The land is fertile in most parts of the na- 
tion and promises a rich reward to the cultivator. 
We have abundance of melons, peaches, and ap- 
ples. The whole wilderness seems in the spring 
like a garden of Bowers. 

"I do not make many excursions, as I am con- 
stantly occupied with my little Cherokees, mostly 
under ten years of age. 

" Yours most affectionately, 

"SOPHIA SAWYER." 

These little girls of ten years were destined to 
be expelled from their beautiful native country 
before they had grown to womanhood. 

November i8, 1S24, there was delivered to six 
young ladies in the Adams Academy the first di- 
ploma for a finished course — so far as known, the 
first ever given to a woman. The fonnula, the 
same still used at South Hadley, was previously 
written out by the principal and submitted to the 
trustees for approval. These gentlemen, by a 



WORK AT DfiRRY. 



73 



unanimous vote, expressed to Miss Grant and her 
associates their high satisfaction with the ability, 
fidelity, and acceptance with which their duties 
had been discharged. The number of pupils rose 
to ii6. Two-thirds of them were from other 
towns. 

The next summer brought a pleasing episode. 
Lafayette was making his tour through the coun- 
try, and the trustees of the academy asked the 
favor of a call at Derry. Miss Chickering chron- 
icled the event in a letter to her mother. 

"Derrv, June 25, 1825. 
... "A messenger was stationed two or three 
miles distant to give us information what to ex- 
pect. At nine o'clock in the morning the young 
ladies all assembled, dressed in white, and wear- 
ing bunches of natural flowers fastened in their 
pink belts. Their heads were ornamented only 
by the combs that confined their glossy locks. 
We arranged them in five rows, the tallest at the 
back. To prevent the time seeming long Miss 
Grant read some extracts from the ' Life of La- 
fayette,' which increased our interest in the no- 
ble-minded marquis. Eleven o'clock arrived, 
but brought no news. At twelve several of the 
ladies in the neighborhood came in to share our 
chance of seeing the hero. From twelve to one 
we attended to recitations, but our thoughts often 



74 MRS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

wandered towards the turnpike. At last the com- 
pany went away, tired of waiting, and at two all 
looked fatigued. They had eaten at noon the 
lunch which, at Miss Grant's request, they had 
brought, and visions of savory viands hovering 
before the mental eye mocked their abstinence. 
Three o'clock came, but no message. In this man- 
ner we passed the day, reading some, reciting a lit- 
tle, and taking frequent relaxation and exercise. 

"The hours went by quicker than you would 
suppose. At five, however, every eye had be- 
come languid, and every countenance faded like 
the frail flowers at the girdle. All hope of seeing 
Lafayette vanished, and we went out on the grass 
before the academy and formed such a line as we 
expected to do if we met him out of doors. Real- 
ly, mamma, it was a beautiful sight. But all the 
sultry afternoon dark thunder-clouds had been fol- 
lowing each other towards the south. Now the 
whole sky became darkened, and we went in. 
Soon the vivid flashes of lightning and the heavy 
claps of thunder caused many a rosy cheek to be 
a little pale. 

"At this moment a horseman rode up at full 
speed with the intelligence that Lafayette was 
coming and would be in the building in a few 
moments. Terror was forgotten. He soon en- 
tered the room with a noble mien aud veteran- 



1 



WORK AT DEESV. 



75 



like air. Miss Grant and her teachers went for- 
ward to welcome him, and his cordial g;rasp as we 
were introduced wc shall not soon forget, A 
crowd followed him to the desk, and I turned 
to look at our pupils. A magician's wand could 
not have effected a more sudden or complete 
transformation. They had risen to receive him. 
Every eye glistened, every cheek glowed; every 
countenance was animated, though solemn with 
an expression of intense feeling. Amid almost 
breathless stillness Dr. Dana told him this was 
one of the public institutions in our country for 
the education of females, and taught exclusively 
by them, designed principally to give them a 
solid training, ' And,' said he, ' you will not re- 
fuse these young ladies, in common with others, 
the gratification of welcoming to our country the 
friend of man and the friend of America.' 

"The pupils came up in succession, and he 
gracefully shook hands with each, saying, ' I am 
happy to see you.' He remained about fifteen 
minutes, and departed with the last words, 'Fare- 
well for ever.' The unuttered response of each 
heart was, ' May you for ever be blessed !' 

"The clouds which had obscured the heavens 
were suddenly dissipated in the west. The sun 
broke forth with unusual splendor through the 
still falling rain and fonned a magnificent bow I 



76 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

the east. Its vivid colors were strongly contrast- 
ed with the dark masses on the horizon. The 
deep thunder was heard at a distance, and nearer 
the church bell was sending forth its most melo- 
dious peal. The effect of the scene and its asso- 
ciations was almost oppressive." 

That seventh part of the pupils' time and en- 
ergies which was to be given to the Bible was put 
to efficient use. It was the centre around which 
everything revolved. Lessons from the sacred 
pages brought home, as Miss Grant could do it, 
to the consciences of the young group gathered 
morning by morning in that schoolroom began 
erelong to be wielded by the Spirit in the recesses 
of the soul; and throughout the year 1826 there 
was constantly increasing seriousness. Prayer 
was made for the outpouring of the divine bless- 
ing by the teachers in a daily meeting, and by a 
number of mothers everj' Wednesday morning. 

It was Miss Grant's habit to make, during the 
first few days of the term, a division of the pupils 
on the questioH, "Are you a professing Chris- 
tian ?" She made it a point to ascertain as near- 
ly as possible the religious state of ever)' one. No 
school ever brought afterwards under either her- 
self or Miss Lyon had so small a number of church 
members. But one after another heard and obeyed 
the call to a more devoted life, and the careless 



WORK AT DSRKT. 



n 



awoke to eternal things. The work was quiet, 
deep, progressive. 

Sitting at Jesus' feet with her like-minded as- 
sociate, Miss Grant watched and prayed, giving 
thanks for what bad been bestowed, anxiously 
looking for a richer and fuller effluence till every 
soul should receive a share. It was remarked of 
her late in life that "her feeling in reference to 
spasmodic religion amounted to a horror," This 
had been true always, and here at Derry the di- 
versity of religious doctrine under which her pu- 
pils had been trained called her judgment and 
circumspection into full exercise. It was proba- 
bly an apprehension on this point felt by others 
that, in July, 1S26, called out from the executive 
committee a formal request that the "preceptress 
and each instructress keep a minute daily account 
of the time spent by each in religious and moral 
instruction, with the whole school or with any 
individual in or out of the school; also of the 
number of meetings of the whole or any portion 
of the scholars, and render the same in writing." 

Replies were accordingly returned. 

"Mv Dear Miss Grant: As you have re- 
quested me to make a statement of the religious 
and moral instruction which I have given to any 
members of our school, I cheerfully comply. 
Since last week on Monday morning I have kept 



78 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BAHISTBR. 

daily minutes and endeavored to render them cor- 
rect as possible. Last week, on Monday, when 
you were present, I devoted fourteen minutes to 
the recitation of the sermons. All the school 
were together. Last Monday I devoted seven- 
teen minutes to a similar recitation, and the same 
morning twenty-five to Scripture topics. When 
you were absent, last Wednesday morning,' after 
reading a chapter in the Bible I expressed some 
thoughts which arose in ray mind, occupying 
about fifteen minutes. 'Watts on the Mind,' to 
which the middle class have been attending, I 
suppose it is unnecessary to include. I believe I 
have now told you all that I have said on this 
subject either to the whole school or to any class, 
unless I mention that last Saturday, at the close 
of school, after reading a portion of Scripture I 
expressed two or three thoughts, not occupying 
more than two minutes. I do not, however, mean 
to say that I have in no case, during common re- 
citations, made an incidental remark which might 
be considered moral. To individual conversation 
on moral and religious subjects, since last week 
on Monday morning, I have devoted nearly two 
hours. In this time I have conversed with sev- 
eral, uniformly with each yonng lady alone. 
Perhaps you would be interested to know how 
this week compares with others. It being so 



WORK AT DERRV. 



79 



near the time of our separation, I am confident 
that I have devoted more time to conversation 
than usual. I am inclined to think that I never 
have conversed with so many individuals before 
in the same time. 

"I have not, however, dear Miss Grant, en- 
croached on any exercises of the school or any 
appointments of the young ladies, and if any of 
my moments can be called leisure, I believe such 
moments have generally been taken. Although 
I have now told you the time expended, I realize 
you cannot know what has been my influence 
without knowing the precise subjects of conversa- 
tion. Most gladly, my dear Miss Grant, would I 
have you know every word, that you might the 
better judge whether I have been the means of 
leading any of your interesting charge in a wrong 
path. But how can I tell you all ? To use ego- 
tism on a subject like this, to say on paper to you 
that I have done this thing and that thing, and 
that I have said this and that, must be trj-iug to 
any heart not lost to all sensibility. 
" Ever yours, 

"MARY LYON." 

"To the Eiecutii'e Commitlee of the Adnma Female Academy. 

"Within the last ten days I have spent two 

hours and forty minutes in lessons and instruction 

of a moral and religious nature. With the young 



4 



So 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



ladies, one at a time, and in compliance with the 
request of each individual, I have spent one hour 
and eight minutes. On Wednesday, July 19, I 
devoted about an hour and twenty minutes to 
several young ladies together, 

"On Monday, July 24, Mr. Parker spent a 
part of an hour in making remarks to between 
twenty and thirty that called at his house. Once 
a week a few of the young ladies have spent about 
an hour together in religious exercises, and I have 
usually been present. In the spring I recom- 
mended to these few individuals to devote one 
hour in a week to united prayer, in cases where 
it would be convenient without leaving their 
boarding-houses; but I do not know whether it 
has generally been practised. Whenever any 
member of the academy does not attend both ex- 
ercises of public worship on the Sabbath she gen- 
erally mentions to me the reason. 

"The preceding is a correct account of the 
time spent by myself in religious or moral in- 
struction with the whole school or with any indi- 
vidual; a!so of the number of meetings of the 
whole or any portion of the scholars for religious 
or moral exercises authorized or permitted by 
either of the instructresses since July 15, i8a6. 

"Z, p. GRANT." 

"During the next term," she wrote after- 



\ 



WOKK AT DEKRV. 



8l 



wards, "the religious interest was deep ^nd ex- 
tensive." Meanwhile the superior intellectual 
training given in the academy drew to it more 
and more attention. Familiar side-lights are 
thrown on the time in a curious correspondence 
over the difBculties in obtaining suitable board- 
iug-places for herself and teachers. A trustee 
writes, we hope with some exaggeration, " You 
are aware it is no easy thing to find accommoda- 
tion of three rooms where few houses have more 
than two in the whole." The difficulty was 
solved by ' ' cutting a door through the west side of 
Ely's tavern and building a genteel walk on the 
west bank of the house leading thereto," after 
which Miss Grant removed thither, having con- 
sulted the "D. D.'s," her correspondents, on the 
propriety of the step. Superfluities did not 
abound in the new building if the following 
modest request to the board is an indication. "I 
feel more and more decided that a clock in the 
academy would be very useful, and for ringing 
the bell quite indispensable. It would undoubt- 
edly be worth more to the institution than it 
would cost." 

During the winters of '24-'5, ^25-6, the va- 
cations at Deny, Miss Lyon commenced at Buck- 
land, a town ten miles from Greenfield, and at 
present a part of Shelburne Falls, that succession 



82 MRS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTEK. 

of schools which made her known to the people 
of her native region as a most original and able 
teacher. In December, 1826, she continued her 
work in Ashfield at Sanderson Academy. While 
there she received a message from her friend, rest- 
ing at Dedham. Efforts had already been made 
looking to her permanent location in Massachu- 
setts. 

Miss Grant to Miss Lyon. 

" February 29, 1837. 

"My Very Dear Sister; Your letter to 
Mrs. Briggs arrived yesterday. What has be- 
come of your letter to ine I know not, but I have 
not heard one word from you, either directly or 
indirectly, since we parted. By night and by 
day you have been in my thoughts. I could not 
believe you had forgotten me. But as you are 
spared, and, as I fondly hope, spared to me, why 
should I mourn the lost missive ? Rather let me 
rejoice in the goodness of God thus manifested. 

"Miss Lyon, you will not forget me; you will 
not forsake me; you will not leave me to labor 
alone. You will help me to bear my burden ; you 
will encourage me to remain faithful to my trust; 
you will cheerfully unite your interest with mine 
to raise the standard of mental discipline in our 
own sex, and, both by precept and example, to 
inspire those who look to us for instruction with 



L. 



WORE AT DEKRY. 83 

tlie vast importance of self-government and sub- 
mission to the will of God. Though your en- 
couragement and usefuluess the present winter 
may indicate that it is the design of Providence 
to employ you in that part of His vineyard where 
you now are a part of each year, do not make any 
engagement there for summers, nor give the trus- 
tees of Ashfield Academy any reason to expect 
they can obtain you. If our way should be 
hedged up there will be time for us to make fur- 
ther arrangements." 

There had been some premonition of the cru- 
cial trial this year was to bring, but she had no 
warning of the severe dispensation which accom- 
panied it. In May, while practising calisthenics 
with a class, a tendon in the heel was parted from 
its fastening. The suffering was great. For two 
years she moved only on crutches. Unable to 
stand or sit, the business wheels she kept in mo- 
tion suffered no disturbance, and the classes, that 
for several terms gathered around her couch to 
recite, were eager and enthusiastic as ever. 

She preserved but one letter of sympathy on 
the subject. 

Dr. Leonard Woods to Miss Grant. 

" And over, July 16, l3i?. 

"My Dear Miss Grant: Your long con- 
finement most, I well know, be a great affliction 



84 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

to you, and it has probably occasioned you some 
seasons of depression. But I trust you will be 
able submissively to say, ' Sliall we receive good 
at the band of the Lord, and shall we not receive 
evil ?' You have shared largely in the fruits of 
divine goodness, and it will be a most delightful 
exercise now for you to attempt to number the 
instances of God's kindness to you. I doubt not 
yon have often done this; but I am sure that you 
will never recollect or conceive one-half of what 
His infinite love has done for you. I think, be- 
fore you have done with these contemplations, 
you will fix upon this afflictive visitation as one 
of those instances of goodness. 

" Oh, this is a most just and reasonable view 
of God, and it is as delightful as it is just; for 
God shows his love even in those very things 
which are apt to cxxite discontent; so that the 
direction of the apostle has a sufficient reason — 
' In all things give thanks.' These thoughts are 
familiar to you, and doubtless they have been 
sources of comfort, and, if so, it will give you 
pleasure to have them suggested by one who 
wishes you every token of divine favor. 

"As to your school, which, I suppose, has oc- 
casioned you more anxiety than anything else, I 
beg you would compose your mind and commit it 
to God. Cast this care and all your other cares 



1 

i 



I 



WORK AT DERRY, 85 

on him. He will keep his eye upon it, and in 
some way I trust he will make this trial a means 
of good to your beloved pupils, 

"As soon as you are able would it not be ad- 
visable to put yourself under the care of Dr. War- 
ren? I woujd write a letter to introduce you. 
Give our best regards to Miss Lyon, whose duties 
have been very arduous, and who has, I doubt 
not, had grace from God according to her ueed. 

"With the sincerest affection and esteem, we 
are yours, 

"L. AND A. WOODS." 

Under her painful disability it was a peculiar- 
ly afflictive stroke that put her out of the field of 
labor, to which she clung; with all the tenacity of 
her nature. Passages from her letters will give 
simply the leading facts in this turning point of 
her life. It is to be remembered that a much 
larger proportion of time was given to Bible 
study at Derry than at any other educational in- 
stitution except a theological seminary. 

At the annual meeting of the trustees, No- 
vember 13, 1827, it was proposed to have instruc- 
tion in music and dancing introduced into the 
academy as a part of the course the ensuing year. 
Three days afterwards it was voted to employ 
Miss Grant at a salary of 1^350, with board, and 
half the tuition realized above an average of six- 



86 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

ty-five pupils. The committee had not consulted 
her as to the new department. She writes Dr. 
Woods, November 27, "I opposed dancing on 
the ground that, as we have a systematic course, 
and all parents would not wish to have their chil- 
dren learn to dance, the introduction of this ex- 
ercise would of course greatly derange our plans, 
and must be an evil; and I finally expressed that 
I could not consent to it. November 23 the 
committee voted that no teachers were engaged. 
This I did not expect." Willing to believe that 
the exceptionally large salary promised her had 
influenced the committee's decision, she addressed 
them a note, December i. 

"To the Executive Commillee of the Adams Female Academy. 

"Gentlemen: I take the liberty frankly to 
express to you that for the last four years this 
academy has been peculiarly dear to my heart, 
that its prosperity is of much higher consequence 
to my feelings than any pecuniary compensation, 
that I have a wish to execute more completely 
the improved plans we have attempted, and that 
- 1 shall be satisfied with whatever salary you think 
proper to give. Miss Lyon will assist me for six 
dollars a week and board during the time of in- 
strnction, 

"Yours respectfully, 

" Z. p. GRANT." 



\ 



WORK AT DEHRY. 87 

The committee were, however, prepared to 
make known the ground of their action, and a 
private circular was soon sent out, closing in 
these words, "It was the original design of the 
trustees to establish this seminary on liberal prin- 
ciples. They regret that the institution has ac- 
quired the character of being strictly Calvinistic 
in the religious instruction. This character has 
grown up in opposition to the sentiments and 
wishes of a majority of the trustees. It is their de- 
termination to select persons who will not attempt 
to instil into the minds of their pupils the peculiar 
tenets of any denomination of Christians, but will 
give that general instruction wherein all Chris- 
tians agree. The trustees give their preference 
to female teachers if such as are competent can 
be obtained; if not, a gentleman must be em- 
ployed. They desire early information of any 
petBons calculated to act as principal or assist- 
ant. ' ' 

On the date of this circular Miss Grant wrote 
Miss Lyon at Ashfield, " The prospect of my sep- 
aration from this institution has rent my heart 
more than you will readily conceive. Though 
I have long considered its interests interwoven 
with my tenderest affections, I was not aware of 
the strength of my attachment. And now, my 
friend, my sister, should you leave me what 



88 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTKR. 

should I do? If my dearly-beloved school should 
be torn from us I still hope you will not forsake 
me. Oh, that I may be more weaned from the 
world, that I may have a more lively faith !" 

A minority of the trustees strongly urged that 
BO change should be made in the administration, 
and for some weeks Miss Grant hoped the major- 
ity would be won to that opinion. Both sides 
honestly desired the good of the institution. To 
the one it seemed that the school of many prayers 
and conversions was about to be transformed into 
a nursery of worldliuess and frivolity; to the 
other, that its usefulness was to be cramped by a 
narrow and disturbing dogmatism. Miss Grant 
"hazarded a ride in the stage to Andover," but 
found that "even Gamaliel was afraid to give di- 
rect counsel," and " found it much easier to sym- 
pathize with than to advise her." 

January i, she poured out her heart to Miss 
Lyon: 

"What the Lord designs to do with me I 
know not. I am sometimes led to fear lest all 
should prove to be drass and I be utterly con- 
sumed in the furnace. Oh, that I may be purified 
and ever inclined to say, 'It is the Lord, let him 
do as seemeth him good.' 'Though he slay me,' 
may I be enabled to trust in him. Now, Miss 
Lyon, I want you to pray for me daily, but I do 



not want yon to be flSHr.n 'wf nr arrnns sckfit 
me. May eadi of «» adccc tSe ^am^rsip tr -lie 
Psalmist, ' My sooL kice 'faoL a ^k l^si. Lr 
my expectatkn is mm jcsl. 



•^ 



... "I bope TOO '•£1 acpsr isar j»: :fcvar 
ters increase mv vi 'Kl*ui tt ix ^vt. rx ^ 
is always tbc eficct* Wise 7511 jk^'** T-^Tti?^ r. 
me from week to week la^ 
gratifying. ScfOKtfasei. 
perusing your leTttTf. ftscasswjt V *tni-r:rt^ c, 
see if thetc was aot iuse wsi ern^^awK v r^ 
plied whick I did act ast far ajiinwrsrt r r^fc .* 
thought it would he vtHl fx ne r> i*:aK^ txx; 2^::.^ 
with like caie.*' 



1^ Wi** ,>y*0i 



'^ The great qvotMc it ^ ^si^r i^'.^^. ^> - 
connectioa widi ^k: AifiuDt f^aaofi^^ /A^^^gc^rwr- j. 
dissolved. I tkiak I Jurre it^«K ^i- *^ - ''^^/''« 
to save this htk ntA waasaary is^^nL % 4*: .'..-jv^. 
Should the imtitiitioec^ v^ jdgjrpyj^ ^r ^^ri^ - •. 
come a pnUic kana. J iSb^ xii'.e v*- ^^.f^r*-:* ^^ 

"In Novanber Jfc huh^inc ms^j^u\^, ^t%s^ 



90 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



at Byfield, applied to me to establish a school 
there, saying I could have the house formerly 
occupied by Mr. Emerson. The people are all 
interested and would board at reasonable rates. 
If no more favorable situation should offer, it 
might be better to sojourn there for a year than 
not to have the school in operation. I have, 
however, a degree of confidence that Providence 
will direct to a better place. My business, there- 
fore, for some time will be to scratch with a goose- 
quill and inform the public that I am disengaged. 
Perhaps you will say, 'How trying this must be!' 
But what I have already experienced has been so 
much more severe that the trial of writing these 
letters dwindles into insignificance. Pray for me 
that I may be spiritually minded and be directed 
in the path of duty." 

In the postscript of a letter to Rev. Joseph 
Emerson occurs the line, "My health is pretty 
good. I am still unable to go without crutch- 



Throughout the intimate correspondence of 
the time it is evident that. Miss Grant had for the 
trustees whose action had removed her the great- 
est respect, and her feelings were free from per- 
sonal pique. Neither was she lowered in their 
esteem. Two years after she quitted Derry they 
sought to recall her on terms honorable alike to 



WORK AT DERRV. 



91 



themselves and to her. Two or three of these 
proposals will indicate their character. 

I. Miss Grant to take charge of and manage 
the academy in her own way. 

II. Miss Grant to receive all the interest ari- 
sing from the fund of said academy, and all the 
tuition money, as a full compensation for herself 
and assistant teachers. 

VI. She must pay the interest on the debt 
due from the academy, which would be $30 an- 
nually. 

FOR THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, 

This last condition indicates the history of the 
institution from 1828 to 1S30. 

The question where she should place that 
Christian school of a high order which she was 
determined, by God's blessing, to see established, 
was a most important one. Travel she could not, 
but mind and pen were energetically employed 
for some weeks. 

The result is thus communicated: 

To Miss Lyon al Ashfield. 

" Derry, February 6, iSjS. 

"My Dear Sister: After considering sever- 
al applications I have at length concluded to lo- 
cate myself at Ipswich, Mass., though this situa- 
tion will probably be less lucrative than such as 



92 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

have been elsewhere offered. The place is con- 
sidered peculiarly favorable. It is situated on 
Ipswich River, twelve miles from Newburyport, 
twelve miles from Salem, and twenty-five from 
Boston. It is a thickly-settled village, and a 
place of very little business for so many inhab- 
itants. The academy is a large, new building, 
and, though it is not painted and has no blinds, 
it is well finished inside and will be very com- 
modious. Within a hundred rods of it twenty- 
five families would like to take boarders for the 
school, and more than a hundred young ladies 
can be accommodated, no more than two occu- 
pying one room. Many of the houses there are 
handsome, and some are elegant, but there is a 
large proportion of old houses which have never 
been painted. It is said, however, that they ap- 
pear better within than without. I understand 
that, as a people, they are rather dislingiushed 
for their good morals and steady habits. The 
place is very easy of access, from eight to twelve 
stages passing through the town every day. 

"The leading men of Ipswich wish to have a 
flourishing school there, partly because they wish 
that their building (which has cost four thousand 
dollars) may not be lost, partly because they think 
it will benefit the place to draw in strangers, es- 
pecially to draw in money, and partly because 



WORE AT DERRY. 93 

they wish their daughters to have the means of 
improvement. They think they shall supply 
thirty or forty natives. So many of them will 
belong to the minor classes that it will be neces- 
sary to have an extra teacher devoted to them. 
My confidence in the utility of the plan we have 
adopted, and in the improvement in female edu- 
cation which, with a blessing, I believe we can 
unitedly make, your preference to be engaged 
with me, and mine that you should be, leads me 
to feel no doubt that by uniting our talents and 
labors in the same school we may do more good 
than by acting separately. 

"Your path seems so clearly marked out for 
the winter that, though I expect to have a school 
that part of the year, I cannot say I think the 
greatest good requires you should be then with 
me, I really believe that in Bucklaud your 
sphere of usefulness would be uncommonly ex- 
tensive for so small a place. What you can do 
to elevate common schools in that section I con- 
sider of vast importance. I also fully believe 
that while we can labor so harmoniously to- 
gether we ought to do so a part of the year. I 
went to Ipswich the 22nd and returned the 31st, 
almost worn out. 

"I am glad you think of visiting Connecticut. 
You will thus have an opportunity for just such 



94 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTBR. 



improvement as you need. If you go to Hartford 
and Weathersfield you must have your ' Gros-de- 
nap-gown. ' What is tlie name of the representa- 
tive from Ashfield to whose care I shall direct it? 
Do inform me forthwith. Your Leghorn bonnet 
will be as well for you to wear at Ipswich as a 
new one. There is a kind of superfine gingham 
that is very fashionable now. Should you not 
prefer it to plaid silk ? 

"No teacher engaged here yet. The commit- 
tee are in pursuit of a real gentleman. Some 
evil things are reported of me, but you escape all 
censure. Oh, that I may have a lively faith, that 
I may not be wearied nor faint in my mind!" 

The sisterly oversight hinted in this extract 
was not without value to the woman who "did 
not know she had a body." There remains a 
note in which Miss Grant gracefully transfers to 
her successor at Derry a carpet given her by the 
trustees; and a carpet was not to be had again 
soon. But one thing, however, was needful. 



"Derry, February 17, iSaS. 

"My Dear Friend: What a fountain of 
consolation the Bible affords ! This precious 
Book has of late been to me above all price. 
How pure its doctrines; how elevated its pre- 



WORK AT DERRY. 95 

cepts; how rich its promises; how much more 
valuable and satisfying than pleasure, wealth, or 
lionor ! If I do not love the Bible I know not 
what I love." 

More than forty of the pupils at the academy 
followed Miss Grant to the newly-selected loca- 
tion. A trained and loyal body, devoted with 
enthusiasm to their teacher, their influence was 
most salutary over the less disciplined ranks at 
first collected after the transfer. They had been 
so imbued with Bible truth and Christian purpose 
that they aided her greatly in moulding the whole 
school after that divine pattern which she ever 
carried in her sanctified imagination. 



MBS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



CHAPTER IV. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 

Miss Grant used often to quote to her pu- 
pils a passage concerning Ipswich from Dwight's 
"Travels." Looking from the belfry of the 
church, he was struck with the resemblance of 
the scene to the aspect of an English landscape, 
in its cultivation, its scattered trees, and absence 
of forests. 

It is now a beautiful, quiet old town, lying on 
and among Iow,dunelike-hiHs, from whose round- 
ed summits can be seen the blue Atlantic. Tall 
elms shade its streets and white dwellings. The 
ancient meeting-house crowns an eminence in 
the midst. Many houses erected in colonial days 
are yet standing, ranged close to the street, from 
which one can step into the old-fashioned entry, 
if the inner rooms are still unchanged. They 
testify of times when households nestled together 
for protection against a common danger, when 
each man carried his gun to his allotted portion 
of land and ploughed and sowed where the town 
had decreed, his weapon all the time slung over 
his shoulder — the times of two hundred years ago. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH, g? 

To-day lovely walks and drives wander in every 

direction. The salt tide coining up the river 
brings freshness and tonic in the air, and a short 
boat-ride oo the changing waters, between green 
banks, takes one to the sight and sound of the 
ocean surf. 

Such, in its main features, was this quaint old 
town when it was moved and gently rocked by the 
advent of the seminary teachers. The young la- 
dies of the vicinity were not slow to avail them- 
selves of the opportunity for an education. The 
Kimballs and Dodges, the Lords and Parleys, the 
Caldwells and Stanvvoods gladly gathered around 
and gave themselves to their guidance and in- 
struction. Hither came also from abroad the 
Odiornes, of Maiden, the Hoveys, of Charlestown, 
the Treadwells and Haradens, of Salem, the Put- 
nams, of Danvers, the Lords, of Kennebunk, Me., 
the Darlings, of Henniker, N. H., and many more, 
both within and without the State. A goodly 
company were they all. 

The school commenced at Derry fully devel- 
oped at Ipswich its new and decided character. 
Familiar as the idea now is, we have seen that 
Miss Grant's was the first school for young ladies 
in this country, or any other, which arranged a 
systematic course of English study, examined for 
admission to its grades, and gave what is now 



I 



98 UKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

called a diploma at its completion. It was alone, 
among such schools, in securing the essentials by 
absolute insistence on the pupil's attention to 
reading, spelling, penmanship, mental and writ- 
ten arithmetic, grammar, United States history, 
and geography, when she was found deficient in 
either of them at entrance. Miss Grant, in the 
Emersonian spirit, regarded the ability to teach 
these fundamentals well as of prime value. Step 
by step, on this solid foundation, a highway was 
built into new regions of knowledge. This was 
done by making some fresh advance every year, 
the principal herself superintending. The course 
of study in 1838 had reached the extent and ele- 
vation here shown. 



IPSWICH FEMALE SEMINARY. 

COURSE OF STUDY. 

The regular course will consist of primary 
studies and a two years' course in the regular 
classes, denominated Junior and Senior. 

STUDIES AND TEXT-BOOKS. 
PRIMARY STUDIES. 
Written Arillimetic, Adams.' 

Algebra, Bailey's and Day's. 

English Grammar, Murray's, 

{Woodb rid He's Universal Geog- 
raphy and Atlas, and Wur- 
cester's Ancient Atlas. 
History of the United States, Goodrich's. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 99 

Covernmentofthe United Stales, Sullivan's Political Class Book. 



Modern and Aucient History, 



1 Elemems c 
J tory witli Grimshaw's France 
I and Goldsmith's England, 
I Greece, and Rome, 



I 



Botany, Commenced, 


Phelps'. 


Improvement of the Mind, 


Watts'. 


Rhetoric. Commenced, 


Newman's. 


Outiine of Geology, 


Mather's. 


STUDIES OF THE JUNIOR CLASS. 




Murray's. 


Rhetoric, concluded. 


Whaleley's. 


Poetry, 


Milton's " Paradise Lost 


Htiman Physiol t^y, 


Hay ward's. 


Euclid's Geometry, 


Simson's or Playfair's. 


Botany, concluded, 


Beck's. 


Natural Philosophy, 


Olmstead'B. 


Chemistry, 


Beck's. 


Astronomy, 


Wilkins'. 


Intellectual Philosophy, 


Abercrombie's 



Philosophy of NaluraJ History, Sraellie's. 

STUDIES OF THE SENIOR CLASS. 

Some of the preceding studies re- 
viewed and continued. 

Ecclesiastical History, 

Logic, 

Natural Theology, 

Moral Philosophy, 

Analogy of Natural and Ri 
vealed Religion lo the const 
tutlon and course of Nature 

Evidences of Christianity, 



Marsh's is preferred. 

Whaleley's. 
Paley's. 
Way land's, 

I Butler's. 

Alexander's. 



Neither Latin, French, nor piano music was 
ever taught at the seminar}'. The study of Latin 
was not introduced at Mt. Holyoke till 1840, and 
was first included in the required curriculum in 
1847. For many years the catalogues, first of 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



Ipswich, and afterwards of South Hadley, con- 
tained the announceineiit, "Those who have at- 
tended to instrumental music can have the use 
of a piano a few hours a week." Lessons in 
drawing and painting and in vocal music were 
3 part of the regular tuition, and were urged npon 
all. No extra price was paid for them. Select 
articles from the "Annals of Education," kept 
on file, were studied by advanced pupils that they 
might enter into possession of the best thought 
of the times on that subject. Pupils were re- 
quested to bring with them a dictionary, a mod- 
ern atlas, Worcester's Ancient Atlas, Burritt's 
Celestial Map, Cruden's Concordance, and stand- 
ard poetical works — a hint that they were to 
enter on habits of investigation. The testimo- 
nial given meant that every indicated study 
had been prosecuted with exacting thoroughness, 
and examination meant examination. There 
were no substitutions or omissions or excused 
exercises. The characteristics of Miss Grant's 
own mind appeared in the whole intellectual 
spirit of the place. Even when she knew, she 
presumed herself ignorant, and revised and deep- 
ened her knowledge. She was always inquiring, 
always acquiring; she could not skim; she loved 
to delve. 

Her sympathies were fluent as water, her voice 



I 



< 



MISS GHANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. lOI 

flexible and responsive to ]ier feelings as a reed to 
the wind. Her eye reached and read the expres- 
sion of every countenance in her audience. Hav- 
ing a clear insight into the minds of her scholars, 
full of exhilaration iu contact with them, and 
superabounding in all sorts of methods to reach 
them, she was the very best of class instructors. 
Her skill in teaching what she called simply 
reading would in our days have made her distin- 
guished as an elocutionist. 

The teachers whom she called to stand at her 
side were selected from her pupils and were in- 
spired with zeal like her own. She had a gen- 
eral's talent in discovering and employing ability, 
and her assistants were almost without exception 
women of rare endowments. Miss Eunice Cald- 
well (Mrs. John P. Cowles) stood with her hus- 
band for more than thirty years at the head of the 
school at Ipswich, succeeding Miss Grant's ad- 
ministration after an interval of three years. The 
teacher of painting, Miss Mary O. B. Dunning, 
was an enthusiastic artist whose exquisite works 
are now the prized relics of a most sweet and 
saintly spirit. Miss Martha F. Chickering, after- 
wards the wife of Rev. Henry B. Hooker, with 
the Miss H. Chickering elsewhere mentioned, 
were assistants at Deny. 

Miss Susan C. Farley, of Ipswich, who ex.- 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



erted a wide and lovely Christian influence 
Mrs. Maxwell in Tuscaloosa, Ala. , Miss Roxana 
Cowles, afterwards Mrs. Marshall, of Paines- 
ville, Ohio, and Miss Mary Grant, of Colebrook, 
Conn., the first wife of Rev. E. Burgess of Ah- 
mednugg;ur were among the teachers at Ipswich. 
Every part of the course was planned with the 
aim of a thorough and symmetrical training. 
"Woman," Miss Grant said, " is regarded not as 
designed to devote herself to any single depart- 
ment of intellectual effort, but to move quietly on 
in the silent discharge of very many different and 
highly responsible duties." The pupils were led 
to understand that the great object in the semi- 
nary was not to finish, but to commence educa- 
tion; not to furnish all the knowledge they might 
need, but to show where it might be gained. 
The discipline of reciting by topic enabled them 
to collect and present their information in a clear 
and forcible manner. Unfailing accuracy was the 
standard, and the majority attained it. No more 
than two or three studies were pursued at a time, 
and it was common to indulge a breadth much 
beyond the text-book. This was to be thorough- 
ly mastered, but mechanical recitations were not 
tolerated. Questions outside the lesson, but con- 
nected with it, were to be freely asked by the 
teachers and as freely brought by the pupils. 



as ^H 

aa ^H 



^t^ 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. IO3 

Those written and presented during six months 
of 1S29 exceeded seven hundred in number. 
There was lively discussion and growing inter- 
est; different answers coming in from all sides in- 
creased the excitement, and the close of the reci- 
tation hour came too soon for the highly-occupied 
minds and absorbed attention of the class. 

A few specimens of Miss Grant's own ques- 
tions win illustrate. They are taken from a mul- 
titude on "Upliam's Mental Philosophy." 

"What power can you mention that we do 
not possess over our simple ideas — i. e., ideas of 
time, space, etc.? Is an inch an idea? Are 
names necessary to numbers? If so, must not 
numerical names exist before the numbers exist, 
or at least as soon ? But who would make names 
without necessity, or who could adapt them to 
their use without knowing what they were to sig- 
nify? What is the benefit of examining casual 
connections of thought? What are the causes of 
the varieties of human minds? How can we ban- 
ish bad thoughts?" 

Excellent mental discipline and correct judg- 
ment were common fruits of this teaching. 
Every fourth or fifth lesson, the classes reviewed 
instead of receiving a new one. When they had 
finished about one-fourth of the text-book, that 
fourth was reviewed, and each succeeding fourtli 



104 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



in the same way. At the close the whole was 
gone over. This done, the text-book was laid 
aside, and no further preparation for examination 
on it was made at any future time. No formal 
division of classes existed in school; no academic 
prizes or honors were given, unless the final testi- 
monial be termed one. No individuals distin- 
guished themselves by special literary exercises at 
the time of graduation. Compositions were read 
by others than the writers. Nothing was done 
by principal or teachers to foster a spirit of rivalry 
or ambition. There was no talk whatever about 
marks and rank. To none but the highest and 
purest motives did Miss Grant ever appeal. The 
love of knowledge, the desire of mental power, 
the duty of doing good, of these she had long felt 
the force, and she knew how to apply them with 
potent effect. 

Three other peeuliarities, each of which was 
an essential part of the plan, may be mentioned. 
Of every pupil was required a weekly exercise in 
composition. Vocal music was regarded as an 
important part of the general instriiction. I,ow- 
ell Mason sometimes contributed his personal aid 
in lessons and illustrations. He furnished teach- 
ers of his own training, second to none for culti- 
vating the voice, and eminent even in the choirs 
of Boston, Education of the muscles and grace 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. I05 

and ease of motion were systematically taught by 
a series of calisthenics arranged by Miss Grant. 
They were performed usually with singing, and ' 
the various figures and movements afforded a 
lively and beautiful recreation. Thus were cer- 
tain modern improvements long anticipated. 

A second original feature of the school was its 
method of government. The seminary had no 
accommodations for boarding. The principals 
were at first received into the family of Rev. 
David Kimball, but in 1830 a large house, a 
quarter of a mile from the building, was ob- 
tained, and there the teachers and thirty-five pu- 
pils found a home. The rest, often more than a 
hundred, were received into carefully-selected 
families through the village. This distribution 
required frequent and healthful walks, and group- 
ing the members of the school in small circles 
promoted intimacy and comfort. But it removed 
the majority from the eye and easy reach of the 
principals and rendered the proper control of the 
whole much more difficult. Besides it was Miss 
Grant's fixed purpose to know each pupil inti- 
mately. Each, wherever she might board, was 
under the same responsibility to the principal. 
All had the same regular hours for meals, sleep, 
relaxation, exercise, and study. To accomplish 
this the scliool was divided into sections of eigh- 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

teen or twenty, and each section put under the 
care of a particular teaclier. It was her duty to 
acquaint herself witli the health and habits, the 
intellectual and moral state of each one of her 
section, to attend to the recitations of their Bible 
lessous, to be the friend and adviser of each. She 
met her section every day and received the reports 
of their performances in school and out The 
short meeting was made a pleasant, social inter- 
view, and was always closed with prayer. Teach- 
ers and principals were a unit in feeling and couu- 
sel, and thus it was that Miss Grant's plan was 
executed — "to exercise over the young ladies, 
both in and out of school, the same care and su- 
pervision as if they were her own daughters." 
She knew the antecedents, the attainments, the 
peculiarities of each one. 

An assistant and room-mate of Miss Grant's, 
at Ipswich, in a recent letter touches on some of 
these points. " It surprises me now wlien I re- 
call her minute knowledge of the recitations and 
progress of classes and her intimate acquaiutance 
with the doings and character of every one of her 
pupils. I recollect her telling me that I did not 
teach the 'Political Class Book' so well the third 
time as I did the second, and that I should have 
studied other books in connection iu order to 
have more interest myself and to impart some- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS I.YON AT IPSWICH. 107 

tiling fresh to my class. I should never have re- 
alissed that I had been deficient had she not made 
it so plain. I do not know to this day how she 
discovered it. One of her axioms was, *If a 
scholar does not do well, always look and see if 
the fault does not lie with yourself I have 
thought of that a hundred times and put it in 
practice as often. When I asked her advice as to 
managing a troublesome girl, she replied, *I al- 
ways take it for granted that every girl is trying 
to do the best she can, and speak to her as if she 
were.' Her interest in all sorts of persons, par- 
ticularly her pupils, was marvellous to me. I 
could not understand it, for it extended to the 
most stupid and unlovable. I would say, *Do 
you like such a one?' She never answered No. 
The love of benevolence was so pervading that 
the work of doing good to the disagreeable was 
made easy. Still her preferences were strong." 

In 1 83 1 one hundred and ninety pupils were 
enrolled, but as there were no suitable accommo- 
dations for so many the number was reduced by 
receiving none under the age of fourteen, by re- 
quiring certain qualifications for admission, and, 
finally, by limiting the number of boarders. It 
averaged for eleven years one hundred and six-- 
teen — the daughters of nearly every State in the 
then Union. 



io3 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



These young ladies were expected to conform 
faithfully to wise speciiied regulations. They 
were Jiot to make comniunicatiou or leave seats 
in school or speak loud or delay in spaceways in 
the seminary building. At their boarding-places 
they were not to enter family apartments without 
particular business or linger in any halls or en- 
ter each other's rooms during silent study-hours. 
These hours, at least two a day, were to be ob- 
served without speaking. They were to rise at a 
quarter before five in the summer and at a quarter 
before si.x iu the winter, and every light was to 
be extinguished at nine o'clock. They were to 
throw nothing from the windows, and place no 
marks on any part of the building or furniture. 
The wardrobe was to be in order on Saturday at 
sunset. Each room was to be tidily arranged 
early and kept so through the day. They were 
not to read books "of doubtful tendency," or make 
bills at shops or buy eatables, except fruits, or 
borrow money of each other. They were not to 
stop in the street, or visit any public place, or 
show themselves at front windows, or sing in ex- 
posed places, or be out in the evening, or go to 
ride without permission. They were to attend 
both Sabbath services, and study the Bible lesson 
both parts of the day. They were to be alone in 
silence, each in her room, a half-hour morning 



i 



MISS GEANT AND MISS I.YON AT IPSWICH. 109 

and evening. How were these regulations — they 
were never called "rules" — every one of them 
necessary to the formation of elevated character, 
to be inwrought into the habits of that youthful 
community ? The system of self- reporting, first 
practised at Ipswich school, has been a character- 
istic of all the institutions for which it has served 
more or less as a model. It was originated by 
Miss Grant when an assistant at Mr. Emerson's. 
He had requested his pupils not to whisper un- 
less it was very necessary, but they found it ne- 
cessary oftener than conduced to their highest im- 
provement. With Mr. Emerson's leave she took 
charge of this important item in school discipline. 
As she met one and another of the more docile 
and influential pupils, she said to her alone, " If 
you could avoid whispering altogether I think it 
would be an advantage to you and to the school." 
When the pupil said, "I will try," Miss Grant 
added, "Will you try for a week?" After a 
large number had pledged themselves to her she 
discussed the evil before the school, clearly show- 
ing it to be the flood-gate of idleness and disorder. 
When their minds were Jn the right state to give 
the right answer she put the question, "Would 
you like to try and avoid whispering, and all 
communication equivalent to It, till this time to- 
morrow?" On the morrow she bestowed 1^ Igj 



no MRS. 2. p. GRANT BANISTEH. 

and a word of commendation on those who had 
kept their resolve, and by such means in a few 
weeks banished the practice from the school. 

With equal wisdom and knowledge of human 
nature she brought the pupils at Deny and Ip- 
swich into one attainment after another in self- 
discipline. "Is it right?" " Is it in accordance 
with the law of love?" were questions continual- 
ly pressed home with regard to every measure, in 
the hope of leading the scholar habitually to ask 
them for herself. 

Near the commencement of the term Miss 
Grant or Miss Lyon would speak of the magni- 
tude of the work with which the teachers were 
intrusted in a very solemn and impressive man- 
ner. After showing that the responsibility lay 
on the scholars as well as on the teachers, the 
speaker would say in tones of love, "And now, 
my dear pupils, may we depend on you to help 
us bear this burden? Will you unite your efforts 
with ours in promoting the welfare of this beloved 
seminary? Your predecessors have made the 
school what it is; will you see to it that it does 
not suffer in your hands?" Every heart and 
every eye would answer, "Yes." "I thought 
we might. I feel that we may lean on you," she 
would say, and the words would send electric 
thrills from soul to soul. 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. Ill 



r and c 



r with each s 



Deeper : 

the thought sank into every consciousness, "These 
teachers are seeking not their own ease or profit, 
but my eternal welfare." Thus it was made pos- 
sible to submit all requirements to the pupils for 
consideration. Did Miss Grant wish to establish 
some new regulation, she would, perhaps, say, 
"When people come into society each one must 
give up somewhat of his natural rights. A man 
living alone may eat, sleep, study, or work at his 
own hours. When he is joined with others there 
is a general good to be consulted, and, if there is 
interference, the individual preference must be 
set aside." Having established, with argument 
and apt illustration, the general principle and se- 
cured such conviction as to shame dissent, she 
would bring forward her particular case: it might 
be silence in study-hour or in school, retirement 
at night, or rising in the morning. The pupils 
would see that what she had asked was wise and 
good. They would freely pledge themselves to 
observe it, and each one promise to keep a record 
of her success or failure. 

More than twenty years afterwards she de- 
failed the method pursued to secure the learning 
of lessons: 

" It was my practice to put a horizontal pen- 
cil mark before the name of each young lady 



tI2 MRS. Z, F. GRAIVT BANISTER. 

who, with the degree of talent and culture wliich 
she possessed, gave evidence of doing as well as 

she could. Early in the term, perhaps the second 
week, at the weekly teachers' meeting my inquiry 

was, ' Miss A , what young lady in your class 

ia Natural History can you mention who seems 
to be doing as well as she can?' Every teacher 
who had anything to do with the pupil whose 
name was mentioned would state her impressions. 
In the course of the first four or five weeks, in ac- 
cordance with the concurring testimony of all the 
teachers, I generally prefixed this mark to a great- 
er part of the names. In future teachers' meet- 
ings the cases of the remainder were considered 
individually, and each teacher was led to select 
some one, two, or three to labor for, personally 
and privately. Those regarded as hard cases, and 
not selected by any other teacher, I took into my 
own hands, and approachiug each as I would a 
sister or daughter, persevered in presenting one 
motive after another until I could reach some sus- 
ceptible point, on which I would bear down with 
tenderness and force. When I sought access to 
anyone personally, the thought, 'This is one of 
the lost ones whom the Saviour has employed me 
for a brief period to train; he can touch my heart 
and hers.' accompanied with a sense of his pres- 
ence and willingness to bless, led to expectation 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. II3 

from Him. Generally, in the course of the term, 
and ordinarily before it was half completed, all, 
except perhaps three or four, came up to the point 
desired. These few were followed with instruc- 
tion, with expostulation, with entreaty, and, when 
necessary, with warning;. For example, it was 
said to them plainly, ' You have not been doing 
as well as you can. Unless you come up to this 
point before long it will not be best that you 
should continue in school. After being away for 
a year or half a year, and doing what you know 
to be right, you may rise high enough to return 
and spend your mental energies to good advan- 
tage. I wish you well with all my heart, and I 
shall be happy in any way in my power to aid 
you in attaining the elevated character of which 
you are capable.' The scholars saw and felt that 
in this discipline the teachers had their good at 
heart. Most thus treated were saved to them- 
selves and the world, and some are now among 
the most cultivated and valued members of soci- 
ety. " " The government, " she said, ' ' is in- 
tended to be rather in them than over them." 

Had the conscience not been trained and 
quickened under the blessed instruction of just 
such teachers, the system of giving in accounts 
would have been a dangerous temptation. The 
young ladies made their report weekly to their 



r 



I 



114 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

section teacher on boarding-house or home regu- 
lations. These papers were carefully written, of 
a specified size, dated, and punctuated. Two ex- 
amples will show their character. 

" Ipswich, Monday morning, February 14, 1S3+. 
"During the past week I liave had my cham- 
ber in order seasonably, and have kept it so 
through the day; and both morning and evening 
of each day I have devoted the study half-hour 
according to the plan prescribed, and the half- 
hour for retirement I have spent in my room 
alone; I have called at other's rooms and doors 
only at the time specified; I have spent my recre- 
ation hours in accordance with the general plan; 
I have neither lingered nor made unnecessary 
noise in spaceways nor in the family rooms, and, 
I believe, I have uniformly behaved with propri- 
ety. 

"REBECCA E. GOODING." 

"August II, 1833. 
"During the past week I have kept my cham- 
ber in good order, and both morning and evening 
of each day I have devoted the study half-hours 
to close application in the study room, and the 
half-hour for retirement I have spent in my room 
alone. I have called at other rooms only at the 
time specified; I have spent my recreation hours 



MISS GRANT AND MISS tYON AT IPSWICH. I15 

in accordance with tlie general plan; I have 
neither lingered nor made unnecessary noise in 
the spaceways; have walked out but once with- 
out Miss Farley's approbation, and, with the ex- 
ception of laughing once at table, have behaved 
with propriety. 

"SARAH J. SIMPSON." 

The failures in school order were reported 
each week in the assembly room. A glance at 
the manner of this is given subsequently. We 
turn now to the third and most striking peculiar- 
ity of the Ipswich Seminary — the powerful reli- 
gious influence which was brought to bear on 
every member of it The Bible lesson of an 
hour on Monday morning, and its review on an- 
other day, held the first place of honor. Miss 
Grant, as well as her associate, was mighty in the 
Scriptures, both of the Old and the New Testa- 
menb Two or three mornings each week the 
principal occupied from fifteen to thirty minutes 
in illustrating and enforcing some passage of 
Holy Writ. The Ten Commandments, the Ser- 
mon on the Mount, portions of the Epistles, were 
dwelt on, clause by clause, with the searching in- 
tensity of one who saw invisible things. Proba- 
bly no two women among their contemporaries, 
perhaps none among their successors, had such 
power to bring out the weapons of the divine ar- 



mory 



and to make them felL "I never saw Mrs. 



I 
I 



Banister but once," said the wife of a prominent 
clergyman. "I heard her read a chapter in 
Chronicles, and I have never forgotten iL" Pro- 
fessors of reJigiou were gathered before the first 
Sabbath of a term, and, in a fervent and effective 
manner, urged to speed that holy day in a way to 
promote their own spiritual growth and to honor 
God before their impenitent companions. They 
were instructed together at a regular weekly 
meeting by the principal. They met as often 
for conversation and prayer, in circles of ten or 
twelve, led by one in whose piety and judgment 
they had confidence. They learned here to lead 
in devotions before others, became intimate as 
Christians, and went forth from school sympathi- 
zing fellow-laborers in the kingdom of Christ, 
Besides these meetings the professors of religion 
residing in the same family united for prayer in 
one of their rooms on the Sabbath. The " silent 
half-hour" grew of itself out of these deepening 
religious experiences. Under this constant and 
blessed biblical teaching many were awakened to 
ask anxiously concerning their own salvation. 
Night and morning one and another would be 
found in the entries, on the stairs, or in a family 
room, apparently out of her proper place. " My 
room'matc wished to be alone a little while," was 



MISS GBANT AND MISS LVON AT IPSWICH. II7 

the explanation. This became so frequent as to 
occasion an appearance of disorder; and an ar- 
rangement was made by which the pupils could 
have the use of a faraily-room for an hour in the 
morning and one in the evening. This became 
a permanent regulation. 

There was never a time when this opportunity 
to obey the command, "Enter into thy closet, and 
when thon hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret," was not called for by the 
state of feeling in the school. In the plans which 
Miss Grant drew for that New England seminary 
which she hoped to see endowed at Ipswich ap- 
peared those rooms with large, lighted closets 
contrived for this special purpose. It was never 
inquired how the time was spent, except that it 
was by each apart. They were ad\'ised to pray 
inaudibly, and instructed how to spread out their 
sins and recount their mercies before God. 

All the intercourse of the teachers with the 
pupils was in the spirit of winning souls. Was 
one seen going wrong, a teacher, taking pains to 
meet her privately, would ask her if she was do- 
ing as well as she was capable in that particular. 
The answer would generally be truthful. "And 
would you like to improve on this point?" was 
asked in a tone of kindness. The next time the 
same two met alone there would be the question, 



n8 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



"How did you succeed on the point of which we 
were speaking?" None but the untoward them- 
selves knew how this motherly way of proceeding 
bound the heart to the faithful reprover. Every 
unnecessary exposure of the faults and foibles of 
the pupils was avoided; tlie teachers never men- 
tioned such defects among themselves unless the 
good of the whole or of the individual required it. 
"Speak of them as if they were your younger 
sisters," was the direction to the newly-initiated 
teachers. Quietness of demeanor, correctness of 
deportment, sweetness of temper, and diligence in 
study were first sedulously cultivated as a prepa- 
ration for the descent of the Holy Spirit. To 
train them in self-denying action these young 
minds were led to the contemplation of the calls 
for charity at home and for the vast nnevangel- 
ized portions of the world abroad, till they felt the 
duty of enlarged benevolence in giving and re- 
sponded in yearly contributions. If they were 
faithful stewards of their little, it was believed 
they would not be unfaithful if trusted with much. 
The work of the seminary in home missions will 
be detailed in an ensuing chapter. 

Yet another means of moulding opinions and 
conduct peculiar to this institution were Miss 
Grant's familiar lectures to the whole school sev- 
eral times a week. They were on points of gen- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. II9 

eral information as well as on dress, health, and 
the domestic qualifications necessary to perfect 
the character of women. The snbjects of man- 
ners, personal appearance, grace of movement, 
voice, address, courtesy were freely dwelt upon, 
' ' as they only could be by a lady in the pres- 
ence of ladies. " 

A list of these subjects of general exercises 
was gathered from the recollections of the Senior 
class of 1829, and, at their fonnal request, printed 
in connection with the catalogue. It numbers 
150, Among them are: Economy, Institutions for 
the Deaf and for the Blind, Advantages of Math- 
ematical Studies, Art of Conversing with Interest 
and Profit, Duty to be Consulted in Dress, Beha- 
vior at Church and with Intimate Friends, Evils 
of Exaggerating Trivial Occnrrences, Discipline of 
Connecticut State Prison, Eminent living char- 
acters, Example of the Rechabites, Divine Gov- 
ernment, Sabbath-schools, Counties in Massachu- 
setts, Expression of the Countenance, Intelligence 
from Periodicals, Government of diflferent Coun- 
tries, Temporal advantages of the Sabbath, Po- 
liteness as taught by Paul, Obligations of all to cor- 
rect the faults of their companions. Unnecessary 
destruction of animals. This selection may give 
an idea of their range. Inattention or indiffer- 
ence — under her chosen speech, fresh illustrations. 



I20 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

and magretic benevolence — was impossible. Oft- 
en an apt question would strike out sparks of new 
meaning from some old phrase, and every eye 
would kindle. Never did that group separate 
from one of these lectures without some quick- 
ened thought or ennobled purpose, and these 
hours were remembered by them as among the 
most delightful and profitable of their training. 

The teaching and training of children was a 
subject which had "line upon Hue and precept 
upon precept." Many of the pupils had already 
been teachers; a most interesting class of them 
were looking forward to that office. Her own 
sense of its importance and dignity led her to ar- 
range much of the work in the seminary in refer- 
ence to this class and to give most copious and 
rich fruits of mind and experience for their bene- 
fit No better idea of them can be given than is 
afforded by a reprint, with some abridgment, of a 
small pamphlet at first made for private conve- 
nience. These condensed normal-school instruc- 
tions were based on sacred authority. Miss Grant 
would have had a text for every one of them. 

[The following suggestions for teachers were 
given in Ipswich Female Seminarj', in a course 
of instruction on education, and afterwards select- 
ed and arranged alphabetically from records made 
by pupils.] 



MISS GRANT AND HISS LYON AT IPSWICH* 121 

MAXIMS FOR TEACHERS. 

Accustom yourself to such entire control ov?r 
your feelings that impudence from a pupil will 
not occasion a ruby cheek. 

Adapt the length of your lessons to the capaci- 
ty of your scholars. 

Administer reproof kindly. 

Aim to make every lesson interesting. 

Allow others to speak to you of the faults of 
your scholars only as they would speak to a ju- 
dicious, affectionate mother of the fsiults of her 
children. 

Allow small children to study as a reward for 
doing well. 

Always form a definite plan hefore yon com- 
mence school. 

Always remember that good reading and pen- 
manship are more important in a lady's educa- 
tion than any definite branches of science. 

Always treat parents and teachers wh^; have 
preceded you with respect 

At the end of each week let the pupil* review 
the studies of that week. 

At the time of assigning a lowon, rt^muwiid 
to the class definite methods of IcarnUtu It, and 
state what parts nearly or quite all of the c\ut^ 
will, with attention, be able to understand. 



132 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

Avoid having favorites in school. 

Avoid such remarks concerning your scholars 
as could not safely be repeated to them. 

Be careful not to have children feel that they 
are to be paid for doing well. 

Be so quiet yourself, and so arrange circum- 
stances, that when you receive company into 
school, or have general examinations, your schol- 
ars will not be more than usually excited. 

Be not in haste to punish when a fault is 
committed. 

Be not hasty to command, reprove, punish, or 
to forget a fault. 

Be willing to devote your whole time to your 
school, and to make the best use of it. 

Before completing any book let each pupil 
mark every paragraph she does not clearly under- 
stand. 

Convince children that they have done wrong 
before you tell them that they have. 

Convince the scholars by your conduct that 
you are their friend. 

Consider your scholars as reasonable and in- 
telligent beings. 

Cultivate benevolent feelings by leading to 
benevolent actions. 

Cultivate in children a love for truth and hon- 
esty. 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 123 

Deficiency of interest in a class may generally 
be traced to deficiency of interest in the teacher. 

Deserve the confidence of your scholars. 

Do not forbid play as a punishment, but rather 
forbid study. 

Do not frequently mention particular faults. 

Endeavor to make your scholars punctual to 
all appointments. 

Endeavor to prepare each lesson so that you 
can make it plain and interesting to every indi- 
vidual. 

Execute all your good plans if possible. 

Give scholars an opportunity to bring written 
questions to the teacher at every recitation, but 
not propose them orally in the class. Instead of 
answering these questions directly, let the teacher 
endeavor to excite in reference to each of them a 
spirit of inquiry in the class and draw the answer 
from such of the class as can clearly express the 
idea, while she herself explains it so as to be adapt- 
ed to the understanding of the least improved. 

Govern more by kindness than by precept. 

Govern the large and small scholars alike. 

Have as few conflicts as possible with those 
under your direction even if you are sure of vic- 
tory. 

Have general exercises for the whole school 
daily which will secure the attention of every 



124 



. p. GRANT BAKlSTEa. 



scholar. By this means you will cultivate social 
interest. 

If a child is fretful, take special pains to save 
him from irritation, and in some indirect manner 
commend him for having been pleasant. 

If a child is indolent, exercise your ingenuity 
to occupy him pleasantly in some useful employ- 
ment and then commend him for his industrj-. 

If a pupil is awkward or negligent in personal 
appearance, kindly suggest to her what she can 
do to improve in different particulars, taking one 
thing at a time, but never tell her that she is 
awkward or untidy. 

If a pupil should be peculiarly deficient, never 
expose her even to the members of her class, but 
in recitations propose to her such questions as she 
can answer. 

If ascholarask a favor, examine the propriety 
of granting or denying the request before you de- 
cide, and abide by the answer you first give un- 
less there is an obvious reason for altering it. 

If possible root out the "proud spirit" from 
school. 

If the Bible be used as a reading book, let the 
children read such parts as will interest them. 

If yon have a dull scholar, endeavor to gain 
his attention even to some neglect of the others. 

If you have not time to attend to your whole 



i 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 125 

school let the older members recite to monitors, 
but attend to the younger members yourself. 

If you wish to have a plan succeed make it 
acceptable. 

If you have in school a little boy who is in- 
clined to vex and injure those who sit next to 
him, make it convenient to give him a seat where 
he will be removed from temptation, and at the 
closeof the day let him know that you feel grati- 
fied that he has not done wrong. 

In case a scholar is troublesome show him you 
place confidence in him by giving him something 
to do. 

In each study let the teacher pursue such a 
course as will lead the pupils to feel that their 
text-books contain only the elements of the study, 
and endeavor to inspire the scholars with a spirit 
to pursue the study more extensively in future 
life. 

In connection with every lesson have some- 
thing interesting to communicate to your scholars 
that is not contained in the book which they 
study. 

In correcting faults take such a course as will 
promote cheerfulness and a disposition to try to 
amend. 

In giving words to be spelled never pronounce 
a syllable separately. 



MKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

In speaking to a scholar use the potential in- ; 
stead of the imperative mode. 

In the government of a school pursue such a I 
course as will produce the most beneficial and 
lasting results. 

Labor to prepare minds for usefulness and 
happiness. 

L,ead children to realize that an unpleasant , 
countenance produces unpleasant feelings in 
themselves. 

Lead children to understand that you can 
judge of their feelings by their looks- 
Lead children to feel that when they wear an 
unpleasant countenance they diminish the happi- 
ness of those around them. 

Lead children to feel that they can do good 
while they are young. 

Lead children to govern themselves. 

Lead them to consider it a privilege to study. ' 

Lead children to feel that it is proper to inform 
the teacher of the faults of their fellow-pupils, 
that they may be corrected. 

Lead children to form habits of doing right 
before they can appreciate the principle. 

Lead every child to feel that he deserves no 
more attention than his companions. 

Let reason be your guide in making laws and 
in executing them, 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 127 

Let tlie first lessons be thoroughly understood 
by every member of the class, and the first review 
thoroughly recited. 

Let as much attention be given to individuals 
as may be necessary to this object. 

Make your scholars thorough in the ground- 
work of education before they proceed to the 
higher branches. 

Make every scholar a good reader unless he 
has some natural impediment. 

Manifest a lively interest in all the exercises 
of the school. 

Never allow your children to hold their books 
idly. 

Never allow your children to direct their own 
studies. 

Never allow little children to study more than 
a few minutes at a time. 

Never allow whispering or communication in 
school. 

Never allow yourself to speak in an angry or 
fretful manner. 

Never appeal to the principle of shame unless 
as a last resort. 

Never be in haste to believe that a pupil has 
done wrong. 

Never compare one child with another. 

Never congratulate yourself because your 



1^8 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 




pupils manifest for you a fondness of attach- 
ment. 

Never deprive children of play as a punish- 
ment. 

Never discourage a scholar by telling him his 
lesson is easy. 

Never frown on little children because they 
do not study. 

Never let your pupils think you are watching 
them. 

Never allow a scholar to object to one of your 
plans on the ground that the teacher who pre- 
ceded you had nothing of the kind. 

Never let your reproof be more severe than 
the necessity of the case requires. 

Never manifest anger, but show firmness and 
decision. 

Never make Bible study a punishment. 

Never make an employment in which a child 
should delight a punishment. 

Never magnify failings. 

Never make any contemptuous remarks cou- 
, cerning your scholars. 

Never provoke children. 

Never reprove a pupil before the school unless 
the good of the school requires it. 

Prevent an impatient child from manifesting 
his impatience either by words or signs. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 129 

Punish, rather than threaten. 

Regard your Bible recitation as more impor- 
tant than any other, and so arrange the school in 
relation to it that your pupils will learn to view 
it in the same light. 

Remember that your usefulness to your pupils 
depends upon your moral power over them, not 
upon their fond affection for you. 

Seat your pupils according to some plan of 
your own, and make all necessary changes in 
their seals yourself. 

So instruct your pupils that the best among 
them will see that the diffident and the dull will 
never be neglected or feel solitary. 

Study every lesson before you give it to be 
learned. 

Take an interest in the amusements of your 
scholars, contrive such as are suitable for them, 
and occasionally join in them yourself. 

Take your turn in reading with the class. 

Teach a child ideas, and teacli him to express 
those ideas in the best words. 

Teach a child to count, add, subtract, etc., 
before you teach him to read. 

Teach a child to articulate distinctly. 

Teach children not to study aloud or mate a 
noise with their lips. 

Teach children to cultivate kind feelings. 



iy> MRS, Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

Teach them to apply their minds vigorotisK-, 
and lead them to be accurate. 

Teach children to feel that they have not done 
their duty in correcting their faults till they have 
done all that needs to be done. 

Teach children to bear disappointments with 
cheerfulness. 

Teach your scholars to measure their own 
efforts to improve by their capacity, not by the 
efforts of others. 

Train your pupils to act from general princi- 
ples, rather than from specific. 

Treat a refractory child with great kindness. 

Treat a forward child with apparent indiffer- 
ence. 

When children have been accustomed to bad 
habits, it is better to keep a record of what they 
do that is right than of what they do that is wrong. 

When scholars do wrong, do not ordinarily 
appear to notice them at the time, but describe a 
similar case in general instruction. 

When scholars fail of doing their duty, let 
your first inquiry be if you are not yourself in 
■ fault 

When the lesson embraces difficulties which 
the class will not generally be able to sunuonut, 
let the teacher specify the pages or paragraphs in 
which these difficulties are contained. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 131 

When you have the care of little children, 
avoid looking out of the window and other like 
things that would not be suitable for them to do. 

Where scholars are in the habit of being tardy, 
have some interesting exercise a few minutes be- 
fore the regular hour for commencing school. 



I/Cssons of common sense and propriety, rules 
of every-day action, as well as strivings after ex- 
alted spiritual blessings, were enforced by words 
of Holy Writ. The second table of the Deca- 
logue was seen to command the 'care of the 
health, to forbid the defacement of others' prop- 
erty, the thoughtless remark to another's dispar- 
agement, the slightest tendency to immodesty in 
dress, the selfishness of ill-bred manners. 

For lecture or sermon she was never without 
material. Her chief and constant study was the 
book of human nature, and the pages of human 
life turned before her every day. Her passionate 
benevolence opened its own way to those cham- 
bers of the soul where strangers are not allowed to 
enter or intermeddle. The pupils confided to her " 
their dearest secrets. She did not know largely of ■■' 
books or tongues, but she knew girls and grown 
women and grown men. She knew religious 
experience, and was at home in all matters of 



132 MRS. ?,. P. GRANT BANISTKR. 

domestic economy, in all works of charity and 
mercy. She never appealed to the feelings, was 
singularly calm and well-considered in all that 
she said, and so far from everything sensational 
that her influence was always greatest over the 
highest order of mind- 
That was a happy group of scholars. The 
atmosphere of the seminary was luminous with 
divine truth and sweet with the glow of Christian 
piety. As Miss Grant, Miss Lyon, and their help- 
ers sowed, so they reaped. They sowed truth, 
and reaped transformations, new births, growths 
in character numerous as their pupils, lasting as 
life. 

In that school, as in every other, there were 
many wayward girls who had been indulged in 
selfishness, and whose minds were but receptacles 
of vain thoughts. Some such were awakened 
from their lethargy to see where they stood and 
to lay hold on the work of self-refonn. Under 
those efforts, blessed of God, the better nature 
struggled into life. They looked back in after 
years to realize the inestimable benefit they had 
received, as they could not know it at the time. 

Some remained essentially unchanged. They 
were but few, and even these could not be vain, 
frivolous, and sensual without unquiet pangs of 
conscience at every memory of their school-days. 



^ 



4 
4 



■r 

V MISS 

P Ma 



I 




MISS GRANT AND MISS I,VON AT IPSWICH. 133 

Many of the pupils were from families of 
wealth and refinement, daughters of professional 
men or of those in official position. These were 
sent by parents, under the new awatcniiig, for 
one, two, or three years. Often they had little 
thought of any object beyond enriching their 
minds and preparing themselves to fiU more hon- 
orably the duties of their position. Almost with- 
out exception they went back at the end of their 
school course to gladden the home with more me- 
lodious song, more cultured reading and conver- 
sation, and to adorn the social circle with a more 
cbvated example. Above all, they had been 
lifted to be partakers of the divine life, and would 
walk ever after under the widening and inspiring 
impulses of the question. Here am I, Lord; what 
can I do for thy poor, benighted, ignorant ones? 

Another large class were more or less depend- 
ent on their own resources. The expenses of the 
institution ranged from twenty to thirty dollars 
per year for tuition, and from one dollar and sev- 
enty-five cents to two dollars and twenty-five 
cents per week for board. These young women 
had raised this money by various expedients. 
Sometimes it was the bequest of a mother, or 
their portion of a deceased father's estate, eked 
out by industry; sometimes it was the loan of a 
brother, uncle, or friend, or perhaps the dowry 



134 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



intended for the marriage ; sometimes it ' 
earned by patient toil in a district school, or as a 
milliner or a dressmaker, or in tending looms and 
jennies in a factor;'. Often Miss Grant and Miss 
Lyon loaned to pnpils snms that were needed, to 
be paid when thej- ivere able. Not wliat were 
their circnmstances or who were their fathers, 
but what they were in themselves and what they 
could be made, was the question asked by the 
teachers coaceming all. 

These thirsty souls drank eagerly in the wa- 
ters by which they were led. They made the 
most of every opportunity. Talent was evoked 
and found its sphere of action. They went away, 
after one or two terms, to send out again in richer 
streams of beneficence what they had received. 
In hundreds of district schoob they woke np mind 
and trained character according to the maxims 
which had been lived out before them. In mul- 
titudes of homes, in Sabbath-schools, in every 
rank and sphere of life, they shone, often gems of 
the first lustre released by skilful hands from the 
imbedding rock. For successive years more than 
half who entered the school without religiotis 
chaiacter left it active Christians. Many of the 
remainder afterguards went into the Lord's vine- 
}-ard, obeying, as they testified, the call heard ia 
the morning worship, the silent hoars, the pray^- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPS'WICH. 135 

meetings of tlie Deny Academy and the Ipswicli 
Seminary. 

Having thus grouped the public educational 
work of Miss Grant and her associates, we turn 
now to her more personal history for the eleven 
years succeeding 1828, 

The academy building had been erected by 
subscription in 1825, and the control of the prop- 
erty committed to a board of trustees. Profit to 
the owners had been expected from the stock, but 
their consent was finally gained to lease the prem- 
ises to Miss Grant free of rent. 

She then assumed the sole responsibility of 
providing all instruction, the trustees agreeing to 
give such moral aid or cooperation as they could. 
She also furnished all the books, apparatus, and 
accommodations, with the exception of two valu- 
able globes, given by a gentleman in Boston, and 
twenty-five dollars by one of the trustees to begin 
a library. 

The school session of 28 weeks at Derry was 
lengthened to 40 or 44 at Ipswich. The process 
of transplanting the Institution and locating her 
pupils in new and untried families, of incorpora- 
ting a rush of strange elements, of opening a pri- 
mary department, made the first term a laborious 
one. At a recess in July Miss Grant and Miss 
Lyon together visited friends in Connecticut. 



136 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER, 

On their retura both were attacked with typhus 
fever, and for nine weeks of August and Septem- 
ber Miss Grant lay ill. Miss Lyon was scarcely 
less so, and was not fully recovered when she left 
to conduct her winter school in Buckland, It 
was the loss of her hair from this illness which 
occasioned Miss Lyon's wearing the turban shown 
in the portrait prefixed to her life.* 

Nothing more fully displayed Miss Grant's ad- 
ministrative ability than the fact that during her 
long illness and absence from lier post the reins 
never for a moment dropped from her hands. 
Miss Lyon was as entirely devoted to the school 
as herself. The two were always named together, 
but Miss Grant stood always at the head and gov- 
erned even from her sick-bed. 

Pupils of 1829 and '30 recall her as carried np 
the steps of the academy on a strong man's shoul- 
ders day after day, and then moving with dignity 
to the platform on her crutches. There the morn- 
ing instructions would be given, some lesson of 
wisdom from Genesis, some conscience-stirring 
words from Paul. At another hour she would 
lead their minds along a fresh, inspiring track in 
a familiar talk, enjoying to the full their anima- 
ted play of mind and feature. When it was over 

* The friends nC this time exchanged porlraits. Thai of Miss 
Grant, also on porcelain, and incomparably the best ever made of 
her, has been lost. 



MISS GRANT AKD MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 137 

they were dismissed to their rooms that she might 
without curious obbervers be borne out ia the 
same manner she had entered. There were reci- 
tations in her room in astronomy, and Porter's 
"Analysis," full of mental stimulus, and often 
the private interview with the weak and troubled 
ones, who went away strengthened and consoled. 

If there were wrestlings with impatience at 
her crippled state, the discipline was dwelt on in 
secret and ended in peace. Of the three associ- 
ates who had come to Ipswich with her, Miss 
Sarah Orr was soon removed. In less than a 
year she returned to domestic life. She died in 
Illinois, still young, leaving a noble son who laid 
his life on the altar of his country at Shiloh, and 
a daughter, Jennie Chapin, a faithful, capable 
servant of the Master at Peking, China. 

The first winter term at Ipswich pressed upon 
Miss Grant and her associate principal a point 
they both would gladly have avoided. Should 
Miss Lyon relinquish her school at Buckland? 
She rejoiced in her work there, and it was at- 
tended with striking tokens of the divine favor. 
Should she try to labor both there and at Ip- 
swich ? It would seem better to concentrate 
strength. Should she leave Miss Grant and, as 
she was entreated to do, establish a school of her 
own? Her heart and conscience both forbade. 



138 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

Should she give her whole time to Ipswich? 
These were questions both revolved. 

To Misa Lyon at Buckland. 

" Imwich, January 11, 1S39. 
" In your next do say something about your 
health, as I wish to learn every particular con- 
cerning you. I suppose you already know that 
my attachment for you has increased every >'ear 
since we were united, and that I have considered 
your assistance and friendship among my greatest 
earthly blessings. It is to me desirable that we 
should be together coiitiiniously. No other per- 
son can supply your place, and it does seem ad- 
vantageous to have this academy open in the 
winter, as many wish to attend who cannot de- 
vote their time in the summer. In view of the 
interest our institution has excited in the public 
mind it is important that our good plans be well 
executed, otherwise our course will not commend 
itself to the discerning, and much that we have 
already done will be lost labor. Were you with 
me we probably should not in one winter train so 
many teachers as if we were separate; but if we 
could take more time to replenish our own re- 
sources, and publish them for the benefit of oth- 
ers, we might, perhap.s, do more good than in any 
Other way. I am well aware there are many rea- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS I,YON AT IPSWICH. 139 

sons why you should prefer a part of the time to 
dwell amoDg your own people. Besides enjoying 
tlie society of many friends, your school would be 
composed of more substantial materials than are 
generally found in seaports. 

"After endeavoring to look at this subject 
candidly, taking into view your school and onrs, 
your health and mine, the situation of your 
friends and mine, our mutual and increased af- 
fection, our obligations to the world and to our 
Maker, I think I am doing right to say to you 
that I wish to have you labor with me in the 
winter," 

"IPHWicH, February 5, 1839. 

"My Dear Sister: I have designed to ex- 
press to you how much I want you constantly 
with me, if you can see this course to be right. 
I have wished also to convey the idea that your 
society and assistance would not contribute to my 
happiness, if you should greatly prefer some other 
field, or if you should feel that like Jonah you 
were fleeing from duty. If, after prayerful delib- 
eration, you should decide to engage at Buck- 
land for winters, I hope I shall acquiesce patient- 
ly, and I mean to try to do it cheerfully ; but if 
you should determine on laboring here I shall 
rejoice. I consider you bound to me for sum- 



14° MRS. Z. F. GRANT BANIST] 

"From your recent illness you are in danger 
of injury by fatigue. I affectionately request, nay, 
I entreat, I beseech you to relax your labors. If 
you love me, yourself, or the cause of education, 
avoid overwork. Within the last two weeks 
one of ray pupils in this family has evidently ex- 
perienced the strivings of the Spirit and thinks 
she trusts in Christ for salvation. Another has 
very serious impressions, but does not realize her 
lost state. Do pray that I may be revived, that 
I may have a spirit of prayer, and that I may do 
my whole duty. Pray for us all, that we may be 
born of God, and that his children may glorify 
him. Your friends here inquire for you daily. 
You have favor in the eyes of this people. 
"Your ever affectionate, 

"Z. p. GRANT." 
"Written with cold fingers but a warm heart." 
Three days before, Miss Lyon had written, 
" I hope you will be enabled to do as much this 
winter to correct the erroneous opinions of your 
teachers about schools, if they have any, as you 
have done to correct mine from year to year. 

"I have been rather encouraged about the 
spiritual state of our school, but this week ap- 
pearances are less favorable. Do pray for us." 

The next letter narrated a still, rapid, and com- 
prehensive work of grace, the memory of which 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 141 

made lier "fear to forsake that field of labor." 
She returned to it in the winter of 1829-30 for 
the last time. The final equipment and working 
point for the Holyoke Seminary was to be at 
Ipswich. 

While Miss Grant was giving herself to her 
iSo pupils, calls to various places were presented 
her. One of the most difficult to dispose of came 
from Miss Catherine Eeecher, then at the head of 
the seminary at Hartford. The correspondence 
began in May, 1829, and continued some months. 
Quotations from Miss Eeecher's letters show the 
character of her first appeals. 

"Ever since I have had the charge of this 
institution there has been a perpetual struggle in 
my mind to know what duty is in a case where 
great interests must be neglected in either of two 
courses. If my mind allowed the moral interests 
of ray pupils to take its proper place, the literary 
and scientific and mechanical departments must 
suffer. If, on the other hand, I made these the 
first object, the disposition, the manners, the 
social character, and above all, the religious in- 
terests of the school were neglected. The duties 
which now fall upon a principal cannot be prop- 
erly performed by one person. Division of labor 
is necessary. Will you agree to unite with me 
as principal of this institution ? to be its chaplain 



I 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



and direct and control its religious teaching? I 
will agree to secure yoit a thousand dollars a year. 
We should aim at a greater good than either 
of us could hope to effect alone. I know that in 
many respects your situation here would be much 
more eligible and inviting than it is at present. 
I know that I am seeking my own comfort, hap- 
piness, and usefulness; I believe I am also seeking 
yours. You will find a personal friend in every 
member of my family, and all that sympathy, 
kindness, and sisterly interest you will leave be- 
hind when you part from Miss Lyon. Give my 
best love to her. I need not tell her to act disin- 
terestedly in advising, for I have confidence she 
has an uncommon desire to be guided by duty. 
I am sorry that ray success should in any way 
interfere with the comfort of so kind and genei' 
ous a friend." 

Miss Grant carefully considered the matter and 
decided in the negative. But Miss Eeecher was 
not discouraged. 

Miss Grant to Mr. Joseph Emerson. 

" Ipswich, November ii, 1839. 

"Two weeks ago I called on Miss Beecher in 
Boston, and, in consonance with her late letters; 
she requested that I ' would reexamine the grounds 
of my decision,' that 'there were new arguments 



1 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 143 

in favor of my going to Hartford which would 
probably convince me and my advisers.' I final- 
ly consented, and therefore again request your 
thoughts and opinion. Since iny return I have 
received a copy of the votes of the Board of the 
Hartford Female Seminary, showing their design 
to cooperate with Miss Beecher. I also received 
a letter from Mr. Hawes. His main object seems 
to be to request me (and he requests me most im- 
pressively) to look at the question as one of duty. 
I have also received from Miss Beecher four sheets 
containing nine reasons for our union." 

In these fifteen pages of reasons Miss Beecher 
restates cogently the necessity of a special depart- 
ment for religious instruction, and continues: 
"The peculiar requisites demanded In a woman 
to take this station are such as I cannot expect to 
find in another case. It must be one I can respect 
and love, a woman of talent and experience and 
of established reputation, one who has gained that 
self-possession which will enable her to address 
the whole school in a way I have yet found no 
teacher prepared to attempt. ' Where can such 
another be found?' I have seen individuals who 
have been searching our whole country for such 
a one, and for three years I have been correspond- 
ing and inquiring with this end in view, and I 
am convinced, if I cannot obtain Miss Grant, 



144 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



^ 



there is no one else whom it is desirable for me 
to seek. ' ' 

She enlarges on the central and influential 
position of Hartford, "where the leading persons 
are distinguished for great judiciousness, and 
every good effort meets with unwavering sup- 
port," prophesies that an institution under her- 
self and Miss Grant "would draw pupils from 
families of wealth;" and, "other things being 
equal, a woman of piety and active benevolence, 
with wealth which enables her to take the lead 
in society, can do more good than another of 
equally exalted character without it." "If we 
caa establish a uniform dress, which will level all 
distinctions from such a cause, and bring that 
force of moral influence Miss Grant has learned 
to wield into operation, religion with correct no- 
tions of life and its duties can be extensively 
brought into circles from which it has been 
mostly excluded." 

No. 6 in the list points out, "It is important 
that a female seminary of really good character 
should be placed on such a foundation as to be 
permanent. Now if Miss Grant fails, everything 
is changed at Ipswich, and very likely all goes 
down." 

"This argument," writes Miss Grant, "has 
had so much weight lu my mind that I have 



I 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LVON AT IPSWICH. 145 

sometimes thought if this object could be effected 
its importance is such as to justify hazarding my 
future usefulness." 

The reasons of the daughter were set in a some- 
what different light by the father. 



I 



Dr. Beecher lo Miss GranL 

" Boston, November 23, 1839. 

"My Dear PriEnd: By the inclosed you 
perceive how the enterprise stands. They want 
some aid from you to raise an impulse, and you, 
if you were willing to go on condition they build, 
feel a delicacy in giving publicly hypothetical 
encouragement. 

" I have no doubt of the practicability and, I 
may add, the infinite importance to the interest 
of sanctified literature, of such an example as 
Catherine and you could set, and which being 
once set, is secured for universal use in all future 
time. By somebody colleges, academies, and 
high schools must be made nurseries of piety. 
The opportunity is the best possible, and the re- 
sult of well-directed effort, such as Catherine and 
yon know how to apply, is, to my mind, as cer- 
tain as summer and winter, seedtime and har- 
vest. Hitherto the education of the nation has 
been an obstacle to religion, and literature has 
been arrayed against it. Religion has been asso- 



146 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

ciated with poverty and ignorance, or, at best, 
with solid, strong, coarse, unpolished orthodoxy. 
^'I do not expect that taste and refinement will 
convert the soul, but who can tell how many 
have been repelled from religion by a want of 
them, aud drawn, on the other hand, by these 
attractions into the vortex of error and deatb? 
When the associations of taste and refinement 
with religion are not detrimental and are just as 
efficacious to adorn and to recommend religion as 
its opposite, why should not evangelical instruct- 
ors, as well as those who instruct for a liveli- 
hood or to propagate error, touch all those springs 
of the youthful heart and wield all those influ- 
ences which are so potent over the minds of men? 
One example, then, which in its result secured the 
actual conversion of pupils together with the high- 
est attainment in literature, would be worth worlds 
in allaying prejudice and in bringing those who 
are hereafter to be the springs of society into a 
willing subjection to Christ.; Now who is called 
in the providence of God to attempt this glorious 
achievement if it be not those whom God has 
qualified, who see aud feel its importance, and 
whose spirit God has stirred up? I am now per- 
suaded that without an explicit engagement, and 
with only a general belief that it is probable, if 
they succeed, you can be obtained, they will go 




MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 147 

on and build ; and I regard it as a matter of such 
vast import that they should go on I cannot for- 
bear the request that you will communicate to nie 
confidentially an answer to two questions. 

" r. Is it a settled point that, provided they 
build and give yon a regular invitation, you can- 
not accept it? This, if it were so, would end the 
matter. But, before you say this, if your mind 
should be verging that way, I hope you will drop 
in a line to me your reasons, and give me an op- 
portunity of doing the subject justice to you and 
your friends. All I wish is only that the merits of 
the case be fully understood. 

"a. May I advise, on, my own responsibility, 
that they go on without implicating you at all, 
but understanding myself alone from you confi- 
dentially that it is not certain that you will not 
come, and that it is probable, in the case supposed, 
you will. I wish to obtain the means of enabling 
Catherine to influence the gentlemen to go on. 
There is a reason in addition why it may seem 
to be your duty, even though you should not re- 
main more tlian a year or two ; for this wonid 
suffice to gain the point, to secure the experi- 
ment, imtil some of Catherine's older teachers 
could come in and take your place. Now con- 
sidering the great good to be hoped from success, 
is it not worth a year or two of your life, espe- 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER- 



\ 



cially when we consider that your reputation is 
so established that such a school as you have does 
not depend on location, but could at any time, in 
any suitable place, be called around yoii again? 
I foresee that the thing will fail or succeed now 
as you decide in your private communication to 
me. 

"Will you have the goodness to write as soon 
as possible, as it is importaut that something be 
done immediately? 

"I am affectionately yours, 

"LYMAN BEECHER." 

People unconsciously wrote Mrs. Banister as if 
she were at their own standpoint and would re- 
gard their interest as her own. 

"The reasons for and against uniting wi'.h 
Miss Beecher" were fully drawn out by her and 
submitted to Mr. Emerson. "I think, "she writes, 
"that this seminary was founded and has been 
sustained on Christian principles, and its influ- 
ence on its members has almost uniformly been 
such as to lead them to be more willing to per- 
form the active, domestic, and self-denying duties 
of life." 

"There is great need of such teachers as this 
school is suited to prepare." 

"The confidence of the public has been gained 
only by laborious, faithful, and continued exer- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. I49 

tion. It would take a long time to secure the 
same elsewhere. ' ' 

'*My scholars repose confidence in me, not be- 
cause I possess or claim to possess superiority of 
knowledge or intellect, but because they have 
convincing evidence that in simplicity and sin- 
cerity I occupy the talent which I possess by en« 
deavoring to labor faithfully for their good. ' ' 

*'Miss Lyon is now to me all, and probably 
more than all, I can be to Miss Beecher, and, after 
having labored harmoniously and successfully 
with her for six years, to give her up now by a 
voluntary act of my own seems like taking a step 
for which I should have a very important rea- 
son." 

^' Should Miss Beecher and I unite, labor suc- 
cessfully, have all the patronage we could desire, 
would that school be such a model one as is need- 
ed in New England ? The expenses must be ta- 
ken into account Three hundred dollars was 
not enough to support one young lady there one 
term last snmmer, and she was well clothed at 
the commencement Under such general influ- 
ence a law to regulate dress cannot place all 
right And can I, with my single hand, divert 
the current fixwn its well-worn channel 7^' 

The second No was decisive* 

In the winter of 1830 citizens of Greenfield 



150 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

opened negotiations for the transfer of the school 
to that town, a plan Miss Lyon was disposed to 
favor. 

Miss Grant to Miss Lyon at Bucklaod. 

" Ipswich, January 37, 1830. 

"My Very Dear Sister: ... I have little 
expectation we shall ever have a sufficient board- 
ing establishment here. Their accommodations 
at Greenfield are desirable. But French, music, 
and oil painting had better be excluded from our 
school till its character is entirely changed and it 
needs those appendages. Our past success calls 
upon us to show the world what can be done on 
our plan, and we must not sacrifice it for a hand- 
some house or for conveniences. If we could 
have all the advantages for executing it there 
which we have here, including the popular ap- 
proval, and we could have the boarding establish- 
ment in addition, there would be reason for con- 
senting to be plucked up and transplanted. But 
I fear we could not 

"After my last answer to Hartford I decided 
to labor here cheerfully, unless Providence opened 
a wide, plain door for my removal. They are 
ready to make proposals at Andover if I would 
hear them ; but the expenses must be high there. 
Tell me what you know and what you think 
about it." 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. I51 

The expression in the above relating to 
French, etc., was a strong protest against the in- 
anities and trifling that frittered away the goUen 
hours of forming mind in most, if not all, girls' 
schools of the period. "Ornamental branches" 
were pnt forward to disguise the lack of solid 
work. The teachers at Ipswich were striving to 
raise the standard to a level nearer that occupied 
by the educators of young men. 

In 1831 the number of pupils rose to three 
hundred. There was need of a sound body if it 
was possible to gain it. By the advice of Dr. 
Warren the injured Hmb was placed in a splint 
and the amount of both solid and liquid food re- 
duced for eight months to twenty ounces a day. 
Emaciation was extreme, but the mind was clear. 
Those hundreds of young women scattered in 
every available corner of the town were individ- 
ually studied, controlled, and guided in the paths 
of wisdom. The local ti"ouble was assuaged and 
the crutches laid aside. Weakness and pain, 
however, forced an absence from Ipswich of one 
year and a half. With a travelling companion 
Miss Grant set out on a journey southward, visit- 
ing Trenton, Philadelphia, Alexandria, Rich- 
mond, and other places. In October she was at 
Savannah, remained there three months, and then 
proceeded to the northern part of Georgia. There 



i 
i 



I 



152 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

she "studied Southern life on three different plan- 
tations." Her retentive memory held dates, per- 
sons, and incidents with accuracy, and her regu- 
lar habits of association caused the stores brought 
back from any journey to be always at her com- 
mand. Travel had its definite purpose; it was a 
mode of gaining ideas. She was eager for the 
wider mental horizon it gave, and she never 
ceased greatly to love it. During her absence 
she was kept informed of the details of the semi- 
nary, receiving all the particulars which might 
be chronicled to the absent mother of a large fam- 
ily. They were hers to love, pray for, labor for, 
wherever she might be. In quiet but strong de- 
sire she bided the time when they should be gath- 
ered into one household, in some place the Master 
would point out, and buildings, grounds, libraries 
be given to them in perpetuity. 

The conception was made reality in a way 
she had not dreamed, for letters of far-reaching 
import came to her in the winter of 1S33. 

Five years later Miss Lyon had established in 
the Mt. Holyoke Seminary the course of study 
and plan of instruction, the method of government 
and the means of religious training, the whole 
spirit and letter, of the Ipswich school. She had 
added to the plan one feature whose triumphant 
success marked it as a stroke of genius, the per- 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 153 

formaiice of the domestic work of the family by 
the pupils themselves. This relation of the first 
school to the secoud aud permanent one is evident 
to all who know both. It is plainly stated in 
Miss Lyon's first circular. Miss Hannah White, 
a co-laborer of both Miss Grant and Miss Lyon, 
uses in a paper written towards the end of life 
the following language; 

"Should any doubt that Miss Grant ever 
realized the accomplishment of her plans, but 
died without the sight, let them be referred to 
Mt. Holyoke Seminary as embodying them fully, 
while to all persons who understand what influ- 
ence Miss Grant had in forming Miss Lyon's char- 
acter aud shaping her views, the fact is plain." 

Dr. Hitchcock, President of Amherst Col- 
lege, who edited the first "Life of Mary Lyon," 
\vrote after the memoir was complete, ' ' Miss Grant 
has given herself to it. No one can read it with- 
out seeing that her plans and counsels formed the 
foundation and framework of the Holyoke Semi- 
nary, that she in fact originated it." This was 
evident to the compilers of the memoir, who had 
access to all the correspondence, plans for build- 
ings, etc., drawn by Miss Grant's own hand, but 
I think they failed so to present that influence 
that it is generally understood and appreciated. 
The benevolence and self-sacrifice of Miss Grant's 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



character were never more beautifully unfolded 
than in her cheerful yielding up material which 
belonged to her own history to aid in building a 
monument to her friend and co-helper. 

Oue of the compilers of that life put to Mrs. 
Banister the direct query, "Will you inform me 
precisely what part you had in originating the 
plan of Mt. Holyoke Seminary? With whom 
did the first thought or germ arise?" She re- 
plied, " I believed the system adopted at Derry to 
be formed on the great principles of mental phi- 
losophy and adapted to the wants of the church 
and the rising generation, and I had au intense 
desire that it should be fairly carried out. I clnng 
with ahnost a death-grasp to the hope that that 
identical institution would body forth my mental 
image of what I considered so important in female 
education. When we removed to a vacant school 
building in Ipswich it was my hope to eventually 
secure endowment there. Although Miss Lyon 
had a deep interest in inflnencing mind, it was not 
till two years after the commencement of our 
operations in Ipswich that she felt it a matter of 
importance that school propert;- should be per- 
manently invested, and was ready to ccoperate 
with me in trying to have our seminary procure 
a lasting home and live to do good when our la- 
bors should cease. After she was awake on the 



^ 



MISS GEANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 15S 

topic the hours we conversed on it were many, 
and it was presented to gain the thoughts of oth- 
ers who could judge. Miss Lyon at length en- 
tered warmly into the plan, and became at times 
quite absorbed in it. We had meeting after meet- 
ing at our boarding-house 011 the subject. At this 
time I was obliged to leave the school for a year 
and a half 

"During my absence, Miss Lyon relinquished 
all hope of this being accomplished in our day, 
and cooperated in the dissolution of all associa- 
tions under the name of trustees, committees, and 
friends that had been formed for the promotion 
of the object. Our purpose was to bring the 
higher and middle classes of society together for 
the mutual benefit of both. We hoped the ex- 
penses might be somewhat less than in any exist- 
ing institution, but we never presented this as a 
paramount or even a very prominent object. Af- 
ter Miss Lyon's mind approached the conclusion 
that the plans for which we had both labored so 
much must be given up, her imagination was 
active in new directions, in the channel of labor- 
ing mainly for those whose means would not al- 
low them to attend for any length of time any 
existing school." 

Thus we see Miss Lyon's persuasive energy 
established Mt. Holyoke Seminary, and it ■ 



156 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

stand for ages a monument of her benevolent ef- 
forts, but may not the desires in David's heart to 
build the house of the Lord, and the materials he 
collected for that object, have been as accepta- 
ble in His sight as the magnificent temple reared 
by Solomon ? 

This outline of events will be made more 
dear by detail. Miss Lyon, as Miss Grant 
wrote, "came into the project slowly," Many 
times between 1824-1829 she said, " Never mind 
the brick and mortar; let us have the living 
minds to work xipon. " The zeal of her associate 
at length kindled that of Miss Lyon. In Febru- 
ary, 1S31, the two prepared a joint letter to the 
trustees of the Ipswich Female Academy. They 
asked, first, for "a seminary building, containing 
a hall to accommodate 175 pupils, several recita- 
tion-rooms, laboratory, library, and reading-room. 
Second, a boarding-home for 150 young ladies, 
contiguous to the seminary and surrounded by a 
few acres of playground, the rooms so finished 
and fumished as to give ladies as favorable a sit- 
uation as is afforded to young men in our colleges 
or other seminaries." 

In the meetings for consultation Rev. J. C. 
Felt, of Hamilton, George W. Heard, Esq., of 
Ipswich, and Hon. David Clioate, of Essex, were 
enlisted as ardent friends of the project. Rcsolu- 



I 
I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. I57 

tions were passed and prospective trustees were 
appointed. Misses Grant and Lyon also printed 
and circulated a small pamphlet setting forth the 
necessity of the step. "It is true," they say, 
"that suitable boarding-places have in most 
cases been obtained. But this has been a very 
difficult and perplexing business, requiring an in- 
timate acquaintance with the internal arrange- 
ments, domestic management, and social and pri- 
vate character of all the inmates of a very large 
number of families in the neighborhood, and em- 
barrassed by continual changes, by opposite inter- 
ests, clashing expectations, and apparently con- 
flicting obligations to various individuals and 
families without whose favor and aid the institu- 
tion must fail. This is a department which can- 
not like any other be reduced to system; nor can 
the requisite skill In managing it be communica- 
ted from one to another. It can only be acquired 
by years of experience and much expense of time 
and strength. In fact, there must be devoted to 
securing suitable homes for the young ladies 
much of the best talent connected with the insti- 
tution and greatly needed for other purposes. 

*'The teachers have long been convinced of 
the great importance of the object under consid- 
eration, and while they have despaired of doing 
auything by their feeble voices alone, they have 



158 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTEa. 



been hoping in silence that the time would ar- 
rive when the testimony of scholars, parents, and 
friends would be regarded. That tSine seems now 
to have come. In a manner unexpected and sur- 
prising to all, the benevolent friends of the cause 
in Ipswich have come forward and pledged them- 
selves for about half the needed sum. If other 
and successful efforts are made immediately, be- 
fore the present tide of interest begins to subside, 
the object will be speedily accomplished. Other- 
wise the whole enterprise will go down, and noth- 
ing may again be attempted for years to come, 
perhaps nothing till the institution shall have fall- 
en to rise no more." 

At this juucture Miss Grant was forced by ill- 
ness to resign the labors of her position into the 
hands of Miss Lyon. It was now made fully evi- 
dent what this once unformed pupil of Mr, Emer- 
son's had become. Her developed intellect had 
attained a masculine grasp and comprehensive- 
ness unusual in either sex, and her affections 
flowed as full, as pure, and as spontaneous as the 
streams of her native hills. She had come to love 
teaching and to give herself to it as ardently as 
had her associate. From much study of the Bible, 
in opcu-cyed sincerity and with much prayer, it 
had disclosed to her its glorious scheme of re- 
demption in a beauty and wonder that shone 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 159 

clearly on her inner sky and lit her very counte- 
nance when she spoke of it. This evolution in 
her had been gradual, and not till the whole re- 
sponsibility of the religious instruction of that 
school was put upon her did she stand fully re- 
vealed as one crowned and anointed for some 
great work of Christian love, 

The school weut on, under the assistant prin- 
cipal, in its usual efficiency, blessed by the Holy 
Spirit to the renewing and upbuilding of many, 
as iu all its history, before aud after, it never 
ceased to be. Miss Lyon seemed to accomplish 
the work of two, but had a reserve force in her 
mind and heart always occupied on that funded 
seminary where her beloved associate and herself 
might rejoice in training minds for God and his 
cause. Both were saying, " If not here, why not 
somewhere else?" And Miss Lyon was thinking, 
"Why not somewhere near the scene of that pre- 
cious Bnckland school?" They prayed much 
over it, and were never silent to each other or 
to any one whom they could hope to awaken to 
its interests. The mouths wore away and it be- 
came evident uothing would be done at Ipswich, 
and the two prepared a circular, or prospectus, of 
a new institution. 



UU. S. p. GRANT BAKISTSK. 



NEW KNOIvAND I-'KMALE SEMINARY 
FOR TKACHKRS. 

Scvtnil friends of cdtication and of e/angeli- 
cnl rvligion nrc considering llie expediency of at- 
tfuipting lo raise funds to found a permanent 
retiialc Seminary in New England. 

GKNKRAI. OBJECT. 
The tnnin object will be to prepare young 
ladies of mature minds for active usefulness, espe- 
cially to iKConic icacbers. 

CHARACTER. 

I. Tlie religious ^aractcr is to be strictly 
tvangcUoal. 

ft. The litcntrj' character is to be of a higli 
orJcr. 

LOCATION. 

This has not >■€( been selected. An attempt 
'Bill lie matie to embrace as many of the follow- 
ing iiSTticn^ars as possible in the locatioii. 

I. That il he ccntrftl for Xew Eng^Umd. 

a. Thsi it be snrroonded bj- a commtmity 
marked for intelligence and pnblic spirit 

((, That a lihcral proportion oi the Jimds Ije 
raised ■b\ the ti-Ytt-n and its immediate vicimty. 

4. That the particnlar spot be healthy and 
pleasant, a little removed tram public bn si n^ s , 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH, ibi 

and so situated as to be free from all other en- 
cumbrances. 

FUNDS. 

The amount of funds should be sufBcient to 
furnish the following accommodations: 

1. Several acres of land. 

2. Buildings sufficiently capacious to furnish 
from lOO to 200 pupils with all necessary public 
and private accommodations, 

3. Furniture. 

4. A literary and scientific library, and corre- 
sponding apparatus, 

DOMESTIC ARRANGEMENTS. 

In all things there will be a reference to these, 
especially in the plan for the buildings. 

It is proposed that the various domestic de- 
partments should be under the direct superinten- 
dence of such persons as are qualified for the 
trust. In order to give as much independence 
and faciiity to the trustees as possible in organ- 
izing the establishment, and in order to avoid 
difficulties in filling the various offices from time 
to time, it is proposed that all the furniture should 
be owned by the corporation. 

PRIVATE ACCOMMODATIONS. 

The plan proposed for the buildings is suited 
to accomplish the following ends: 



F 



163 MKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

1. To give to the youn^ ladies superior privi- 
leges, both for retirement and for social inter- 
course, and in an eminent degree to promote ' 
health, comfort, and domestic happiness, and 
intellectual, moral, and religious improvement. 

2. To furnish each member with a small 
chamber exclusively her own. * The great advan- 
tages of such a privilege can scarcely be realized 
except by those who have often felt that they 
would give up almost any of their common com- 
forts for the sake of such retirement as can be 
enjoyed only by assigning to each a separate 
apartment. But to most persons of reflection, 
the advantages will doubtless appear much great- 
er than the extra expense, especially when it is 
considered that this institution is not designed 
for younger misses, but directly for the benefit of 
ladies of maturer age. 

FAMILY DISCIPLINE. 
The family discipline is to be entirely distinct 
from the domestic concerns. This, together with 
the general improvement of the pupils out of 
school, is to be committed directly to the teach- 
ers. It should be very systematic, but of a kind 
adapted to the age of its members. The whole 

• Mrs. Banister considers It more favorable In the formation of 
hahitB llial two young ladiea should occupy one room with a large 
closet adjoining, tlian that each should room alone. January, 1H50. 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 163 

might resemble a well-regulated voluntary asso- 
ciation, where the officers and members were all 
faithful to their trust. 

The plan which has been proposed for build- 
ings is particularly suited to render it at once 
easy, systematic, and pleasant. 

1. It is such that the whole family will natu- 
rally and necessarily be arranged in a convenient 
number of sections, of which each can be easily 
directed by an appropriate head. 

2. It is such as to bring all the young ladies 
under a direct and natural supervision. This 
will tend at once to secure order and propriety, 
and at the same time exclude all necessity of any- 
thing like apparent watchfulness or nice inspec- 
tion, even if the age and character of the mem- 
bers of the institution should not render every- 
thing of the kind needless. 



SPECIFIC OBJECTS TO BE ACCOMPLISHED. 

1. To increase the number of well-qualified 
female teachers. The present want of such teach- 
ers is well known to all particularly engaged in 
the cause of education. This deficiency is the 
occasion of placing many of our schools under 
the care of those who are not competent to the 
undertaking. 

2. To induce many who have already become 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTfiR. 



164 

teachers to make further iinproveinent in their 
education. This institution will furnish such 
ladies with a course of instruction, and with so- 
ciety adapted to their age and character, and v/ill 
give them a more suitable and pleasant home 
than can now be found connected with any of our 
female seminaries. 

3. To exert an influence in bringing as much 
of the labor of instruction into the hands of ladies 
as propriety will admit. This seems important 
on account of the many public demands on the 
time of the benevolent, educated gentlemen, and 
the comparatively few demands on the time of 
benevolent, educated ladies. 

4. To lead the way towards the establishment 
of permanent female seminaries in our land. 
That there are no female seminaries of this char- 
acter is, we believe, a fact. Those which ap- 
pear to have the most claim to such a standing are 
so dependent on their present teachers, and their 
funds and accommodations {even if they are lib- 
erally supplied) are to such an extent the prop- 
erty of private individuals, that it would not be 
easy to predict even their existence the next cen- 
tury. And are not such permanent institutions 
greatly needed to give system and character to 
the present modes of female education, especially 
in its more advanced stages? And if public in- 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 165 

stitutions of this kind are needed, and if a first 
attempt must somewhere be made, to what sec- 
tion of our country can we look with more hope 
of success than to New England? May we not 
believe that the calls of this noble and benevo- 
lent object will, at least, be allowed a candid and 
patient hearing? And may we not further be- 
lieve that the descendants of our Pilgrim fathers 
will most cheerfully lend all needed aid to an ob- 
ject so great and important? 

In behalf of the friends of the object, 

WARREN FAY, 
JOSEPH B, FELT, 
GEORGE W. HEARD. 

October, J831. 

Communications oil this subject may be ad- 
dressed to 

REV. WARREN FAY, Charlestown, Mass. 
REV. JOSEPH B. FELT, Hamilton, Moss. 
MR- GEORGE W, HEARD, Ipswich, Mass. 

At the bottom of a copy of this circular, kept 
by Mrs. Banister for reference, is written, "In 
this plan Misses Grant and Lyon were associ- 
ated." The feature indicated in section second, 
under private accommodations, was afterwards 
abandoned by Miss Lyon. Otherwise the pros- 
pectus represents the ideal for which Miss Grant 
had striven from the days of her association with 
Mr. Emerson. 



i66 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



In November, 1832, the Mt. Pleasant School 
at Amherst closed, and its buildings and grounds 
were for sale, or for rent at $600 a year. Could 
not the Ipswich school be removed there? was 
the question eagerly discussed between the cor- 
respondents. Could not that board devise some 
means of providing the rent for a few years till 
the experiment was tried and proved feasible? 
"If we could try it for three years there, I believe 
we could solicit the community for $40,000," 
wrote Miss Lyon. Her opinion was that Miss 
Grant had better move on her own responsibil- 
ity. She would even go forward herself, in Miss 
Grant's absence, but was soon persuaded by the 
arguments of her friend that it was inexpedient, 
and the project was given up. 

While the last hopes of it were waning the 
great thoughts in Miss Lyon's heart were taking 
shape. That class of young ladies at Ipswich 
who had made great sacrifices to be there even a 
few months were the glory and strength of the 
school. But Miss Lyon knew, and none so well 
as she, that New England was full of young wo- 
men who would gladly have toiled more than the 
live-long day, if it were possible, could they have 
earned the money to complete a year at Ipswich. 
Even the terms there were out of r' ' Her be- 
loved schools at Buckland wei with 



I 



MISS GRANT AND MISS I,YON AT IPSWICH. 167 

such. There was no school of high character in 
existence where these daughters, often of frugal, 
godly parents, could be educated. Could not 
something be done for them? Many little united 
rills of Christian benevolence among those of 
moderate means might make a supply. The 
conception was a fire shut up in her bones. It 
possessed her at length, a holy and consuming 
passion. Yet there was one condition in the be- 
ginning before which she hesitated long. In De- 
cember, 1832, there reached Miss Grant, in the 
heart of Georgia, a letter burdened with this 
thought: " Is it not your solemn duty, and mine, 
to review the question whether my services are 
needed as much in our beloved seminary as in 
some other portion of the Lord's vineyard? For 
some time after this query arose in my mind the 
trial of meutiouing it to you seemed greater than 
I could bear. I should need time to collect and 
arrange the fragments of improvement we have 
been enabled to make, tliat I might transmit them 
to you in the best order. I could have no object 
so very dear to me as that of leaving this darling 
of my heart, this beloved seminary, in the most 
favorable circumstances. Now, my dearest sister, 
the subject is before you. Will you commend it 
to our Heavenly Father every morning with me? 
I do not think there is one chance in twenty that 



l68 MRS. Z. p. GRANT RANISTKR. 

our great plan will succeed. If it should, a differ- 
ent course might be taken." 

Again, two months afterwards, "If Providence 
should ever make it plainly our duty to occupy 
dilTcrent fields of labor, I should deem it one of 
the greatest earthly blessings I could possibly en- 
joy to keep as many of the cords that now bind us 
together unbroken as could be; that we should as- 
sist each other in forming plans; that we should 
each feci that, next to our own field of labor, that 
of the other is the most endearing — the field to 
which we have pledged our services, our influ- 
ence, our hearts. A union like this would seem 
to save my bleeding heart under the stroke of sep- 
aration, and my judgment says that such a union 
would be suited to advance the great cause to 
which we have consecrated our lives." 

What Miss Grant said in reply we do not 
know; we only know what she did. Never was 
brotherly vow of "Red Cross" knight more sa- 
cred than the friendship between these two. It 
may be explained here that of Miss Grant's part 
of a correspondence which was constant when the 
two were not together for eighteen years, and fre- 
quent eight years longer, only fragments of half a 
dozen letters remain. With the methodical habit 
that seemed native to her she liad preserved on file 
those addressed to herself, and when, after Miss 



I 



4 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 169 

Lyon's death, she was called to aid in preparing 
a memorial, her treasures formed a rich and ines- 
timable mosaic picture of that inner soul. Miss 
Lyon had poured out to her heart's friend her 
fears, anxieties, and spiritual struggles over her 
Ashfield and Buckland schools, her sorrows and 
toils with and for her family, her encouragements 
and depressions in the mighty work on which we 
see her now about to enter, as if each and all had 
been Miss Grant's own. 

The messages on her part which called these 
out, as characteristic, as rich in suggestion and 
thought, were long since destroyed. Only this 
sympathetic receptivity of Miss Grant's nature, 
this power of putting herself in the place of an- 
other, could have won such revelations. The 
question of separation must have cost some secret 
wrestling at the mercy-seat; yet Miss Lyon writes, 
May 2, "I am very glad, my dearest friend, that 
you propose to endeavor to learn that you can do 
without me," 

She had already communicated in March that 
the hoard of prospective trustees for the further- 
ance of their "great plan" had met without a 
quorum, adjourned, and met again to dissolve. 
That New England Seminary was not to be — "not 
in onrday," they said; "but it is a good plan — one i 
which God in his own lime v.'ill own and bless.'' 



170 



HRS. Z. P. GRANT BAKISTSR. 



Fifty years ag;o only two such strong, earnest 
spirits could have moved at all under tlie inert, 
overlying weight of indifference and prejudice on 
the subject of endowed schools for women. But 
they had moved, and, here and there, the mass 
had felt it. 

Miss Grant joyfully came back, with improved 
health, to her post, in the spring of 1833, and 
Miss Lyon spent the summer months in journey- 
ing and visiting, her mind still intent on the 
great problem. She returned to Ipswich in the 
fall and remained through the school year. 

It was the portion of Miss Grant, during this 
year, to stand in her lot, to carry on her school so 
that its pupils might, in the words of that year's 
catalogue, "be trained to enjoy and impart ele- 
vated happiness," and also to give interest, sym- 
pathy, and firm standing-ground to her ardent co- 
laborer, who talked to her, to the teachers and the 
pupils, to the trustees and the friends of their 
school, of the plan for a new seminary-, carrj'ing 
everywhere conviction of its importance. For 
Miss Lyon had found the lever at last which, in 
her hands, was to raise the walls of Mt, Holyoke 
Seminary. With her associate she discussed the 
circular which unfolded to the public her proj- 
ect, and her " Appeal to the Friends and Patrons 
of Ipswich Female Seminary" was put forth 



MISS GRANT AND MISS LYON AT IPSWICH. 171 

with Miss Grant's concurrence and approba- 
tion. 

''Were the expenses at Ipswich," says the 
''Appeal," "reduced one -third or one -half, a 
large number would value the opportunities there 
presented more than silver or gold." It was pro- 
posed to found a separate institution for such, 
similar in character to the Ipswich Seminary. 
Its leading features would be: buildings erected 
and furnished by voluntary contributions; teach- 
ers to labor in the missionary spirit, on small sal- 
aries; domestic work of the family to be performed 
by the pupils; expenses to be placed at cost of 
board and instruction. 



174 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 




for frequent contributions from the Ipswich cir 
cle. The experiments and observations which 
you are making upon human nature in some of 
its most interesting aspects will enable you and 
your coadjutors to give me most valuable assist- 
ance, and I have from the beginning been intend- 
ing to make personal application for it, 

"There is oue subject I wish particularly you 
would discuss: the spirit and manner in which 
the instruction of a Sabbath-school or a Bible- 
class should be conducted. I do not mean in one 
single essay, but in a variety of articles. You 
might at one time request an intelligent assistant 
or pupil to take notes of one of your own Bible- 
classes, giving the dialogue and the incidents 
which should occur, and, at another, write down 
the substance of a lecture to your teachers; at an- 
other, make out a list of maxims, or enumerate 
some common faults. In fine, all that diversity of 
form may be adopted which you resort to in your 
daily instructions. I hope to see and converse 
with you on this subject. Please say to Miss 
Lyon that I consider this note intended equally 
for herself and you. 

"I am sincerely, 

"JACOB ABSOTT." 
She accepted the invitation and prepared sev- 
eral articles for the "Annals of Education." 



Xrsas an educator. 175 

The tidings of the death of Rev. Joseph Em- 
erson in May,iS33, caused tender emotions in the 
hearts of both his former pnpils. Both prepared 
for his "Memoir," published during this school 
year, discriminating outlines of his character. 
That written by Miss Grant mentions having 
"kept up an acquaintance with him as with an 
elder brother from 1820 till his death," Among 
his prominent characteristics she enumerates his 
"uncommon skill in leading those around him to 
think, and every conscientious pupil to feel her 
individual responsibility to serve her generation; 
bis peculiar faithfulness and tact in administering 
reproof and influencing others to t!ie correction of 
their faults, and the gratitude with which he re- 
ceived like hints from them." The closing pas- 
sages are quoted: 

"The communion of glorified saints with each 
other and with Christ seemed with him to be as 
fully a reality as the intercourse of members of 
his own family, and his view of the transforming 
influence on the redeemed of seeing Jesus as he 
is caused a vivid sense of the importance of a 
contemplation of the same character to promote 
sanctification on earth. It was his custom to 
speak of intellectual and holy pursuits in heaven 
as a continuation of the same on earth, and of 
going there as a change of state, but not of char- 



I 



I 



176 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

acter. Such expressions as these were frequent- 
ly falling from his lips: 'I never expect to un- 
derstand this fully till I go heaven.' 'We shall 
know more about this science if we ever reach 
heaven.' ' Probably Abraham, with all his faith, 
had low views of this subject on earth compared 
with what he has now.' " 

"The death of this good man seemed to his 
extensive circle of friends but as a transition from 
his place of sojourning here to a permanent resi- 
dence on high, and his arr'val there, with its con- 
sequents, as the natural consummation of his life. 
Nearly every individual, in speaking of his de- 
parture, has remarked, 'Mr. Emerson has really 
gone home; he now mingles with those ancient 
saints he so much admired and loved on earth.' 
If the anticipation while here of association with 
patriarchs and prophets was to him so delightful, 
what must the reality be? No other person's 
death ever seemed to me so much like a passage 
from one country to another as does his. Instead 
of thinking of him as being dead, I always think 
of him as being in heaven." 

A bit of autobiography is recorded, Tuesday 
evening, April 22, 1834, apparently the fragment 
of a letter to Miss I,yon. 

"In our private examination yesterday, and 
public exercises to-day, everything seemed to go 



IJi.ST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR, 1 77 

on prosperously. Sincere commendation was to 
some extent bestowed. After the close of the 

exercises I was introduced to L , Esq., the 

father of one of my pupils. This young lady has 
been a trial, and caused no little labor and no 
less heart-ache. For two or three months past 
she has done very much better than ever before, 
and in most things very well. Our hearts were 
encouraged. I mentioned her improvement to 
her father, expecting a response. On ascertaining 
that it would take her more than another whole 
year to complete the course of studies in this in- 
stitution, he appeared irritated, and remarked that 
he was not satisfied with the progress scholars 
made here. He had thought that if his daughter 
made tolerable proficiency she would have com- 
pleted the course in two years, that the principal 

of a school at , Vermont, had informed him 

that a younger daughter of his had completed the 
studies of a year in ten months. All this I heard 
with perfect calmness and without feeling inward- 
ly disturbed. I had never labored for Miss L 

for the sake of obtaining her father's approbation. 
I have tried to do my duty towards an immortal 
creature, and have labored to cultivate her moral 
sense so that her character should not be so mon- 
strous, her intellectual so vastly superior to her 
moral qualities, and I hope my labor has not been 



I 



XTS MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

ill vain. Oh, that she will not lose what she hai 
gained, but secure present and everlasting bene- 
fits, notwithstanding all opposing circumstances jj 
My heart aches a little. Is it because a father la- 
displeased, or is it because I fear his child will 
suffer by his influence? I think my painful 
emotions arise from the fear lest this child of 
anxiety will be injured by her father's failure to 
comprehend her highest good." 

In the summer of 1834, taking advantage of 
the last months of Miss Lyon's stay, Miss Grant 
made her first journey of observation in what was 
then "the West." It is outlined in a large folio j 
sheet 



"My Dear Miss Lyon: Your letter maile< 
August 30 I received last Monday, Septei 
15. No mail left Mackinaw while we were therfl 
except one directly on our arrivah It is desiraij 
ble j'ou should know soon that they will not t 
ready at Buffalo to employ teachers for their conJ 
templated female seminary till autumn, and whei 
they are ready it is doubtful whether they wilfi 
wish us to negotiate for them. Last Thursda)KJ 

Gen. P , a lawyer. Dr. B , a practisinoj 

physician, and Mr. C , a large land-holderj 

called and spent the evening iu conversation otti 



l^ST FOUR VBARS A3 AK EDUCATOR. I79 

education, general and particular, definitely or in- 
definitely. They seemed generally to appreciate 
the right views." 

" Weedsport, West of Ut!ca, 
Friday, Seplember zG. 

"We have come to-day 36 miles to the canal, 
and are now waiting for the packet, expecting to 
pass the Sabbath iu Utica. . . I have received 

yours, giving an account of L 's* release from 

this world. The providence in thus taking away 
the orphan of my charge comes very near, and 
seems to warn me to do quickly all in my power for 
the heirs of immortality. I greatly rejoice that a 
few months of her seed-time for eternity were spent 
in the seminary at Ipswich. Most unfeignedly do 
I thank you, my dear friend, for all your maternal, 
your sisterly, your Christian kindness to her since 
she has been with you. . . Many thanks to Mrs. 
and Miss Lovejoy and all the family for every 
kind action, word, and look they have bestowed 
on her, and I doubt not these have been many. 

"Shall I now tell you that she and our dear 
friend Miss Lucy Washbume entered the abodes 
of the blessed on the same day ? It is even so. 
After a fever of eight days, which she endured 
with Christian submission, she too was released 
from this state of trial. Ever after we left Ip- 

* A niece she was educaUng. 



jSo ItRS. K. P. GEANT EAtJIETi:^. 

swicli, till we parted at Granville, June 26, 
noticed the rapid advance of benevolent love in 
lier heart, and inferred that God was preparing 
her for some important earthly service in build- 
ing up his kingdom; but now I understand he 
was making her ready for the benevolent em- 
ployments of heaven. Miss Washbume gained 
many friends in Granville. Her memory there 
win be blessed." 



" I perceive tlie efficient part of those associa- 
ted in our united plan to lay a permanent founda- , 
tion for an institution to educate our own sex 
have enlisted in your favorite project. [Miss 
Lyon had written her a full account of tlie 
meeting in her parlor, September 6, and the ap- 
pointment of the first committee there.] \Vith | 
such coadjutors as they now have I hope they will ' 
meet with success. It seems to roe there should 
be several schools, embracing this idea of some 
domestic labor, in each Stale. Ever)' gentleman 
with whom I have conversed on the subject would 
greatly prefer to place his daughter in such an in- 1 
stitution rather than in one on the common plan, 
leaving expenses out of the question, I believe I 
wrote you that a proposition for such a school had 
been brought before a meeting of clergj-men in ' 



I 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. iSl 

ludiana. In the Oberlin Institute it is already in 
operation. All the work for the boarding estab- 
lishment is performed by fifteen female scholars 
and Mrs, Stuart, the domestic superintendent. 
Their number of male pupils is thirty-five, but 
all do not board in the establishment. Ever 
since my visit to Granville I have thought 
much about the importance of that location for 
a school of young ladies. It is the only place in 
Ohio, off the Reserve, that I have seen or heard 
of where the employment of teaching takes any- 
thing like its proper rank — indeed, the only place 
where it is considered truly honorable. I heard a 
lady, who justly ranks high for intelligence, re- 
finement, and social standing, and who hopes too 
that she is a Christian, remark of a young woman 
who left her home, where she had lived in com- 
parative inaction and uselessness, to engage in a 
school in one of the most pleasant towns in Ohio, 
' That is really a great coming down for her; she 
has been quite a belle.' It is a specimen of a feel- 
ing greatly prevalent throughout this and the sur- 
rounding States. So far as I can learn, nothing 
apparent has been eifected to correct this senti- 
ment by other schools. There seems, however, to 
be a kind of preparation for a better judgment, 
and, with the blessing of heaven in converting 
the scholars, this may sooa be spread abroad. I 



I 

4 



^ the scholars, this may sooa be spread abroad. I ^^^ 



IS3 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTEH. 



I 



almost tremble for the success of these young 
teachers who are going there, because each of 
them is so unpractised in miugling iu such socie- 
ty as she will there find. 

"At Granville it is honorable to do good. 
Some thirty or forty young ladies are now there, 
efficient and distinguished teachers of district 
schools, many of whom have stamina of character 
sufficient to render them capable of being quali- 
fied for anything. Others may be formed like 
them. All there may be raised to a high stan- 
dard of intelligence and true refinement, and pre- 
pared to gather in these white, whitening, and 
threatened fields. The people of these regions 
are to exert an influence ou our country extensive 
as the expanding wave. In spite of my better 
judgment I have a strong desire to occupy this 
post, and do all in my power to disseminate the 
principles and the active practices of true benev- 
olence. When I clearly see that I ought not, the 
inquiry involuntarily arises, 'Is not this the place 
for Miss Lyon?' Knowing you were so settled 
that New England shoilld be the place of your lo- 
cation, I have hitherto suppressed my inclination 
to suggest this inquiry lo you, but will do so no 
longer lest it may have been kindled for the gen- 
eral good. 

"May the Lord make your path plain i 




I 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDDCATOR. 183 

prosperous. We leave for Albany Monday morn- 
ing. Hope to visit the great school for yonng la- 
dies there. Love to each of the teachers and pu- 
pils that remain through vacation. 
"Yours affectionately, 

"Z. p. GRANT." 

Miss Grant brought with her two Ipswich pu- 
pils to take charge of the new seminary at Gran- 
ville. Doubtless this journey freshened and stim- 
ulated her purpose to direct the streams of Chris- 
tian influence she was so carefully feeding to the 
new regions of our own land. 

No ears heard mor.; plainly than hers the uni- 
ted voices which awoke in the first part of the 
19th century, and cried from all waste places to 
"break up the fallow ground " and "sow the good 
seed." She saw clearly, what few of her genera- 
tion divined, that the great West would soon be 
the centre of empire; that its evangelization was 
the most vital and important work of the Ameri- 
can church. In 1S35 was formed, by her personal 
efforts, an association called a " Society for the 
Education of Females in Ipswich Seminary." 
Its true title might have been "The First Wo- 
man's Board of Home Missions." The existing 
facts as to woman's work for the church were 
stated by a gentleman who had for a time resided 
at the West. 



184 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

" Among Protestants there is no system or or- 
ganization, as among Catholics, to secure and 
employ the benevolent energies of women in the 
cause of education. If a woman finds it in her 
heart to become a missionary, and to go away 
from her country to instruct the heathen, in most 
cases every facility is provided. Public senti- 
ment encourages her efforts; she knows to whom 
to apply for support. But if a woman becomes 
interested in her own country, and earnestly de- 
sires to labor for destitute American children, no 
such means or facilities exist as make it suitable 
or proper for her to do so. There is no individual 
or body of men whose appropriate business it is 
to aid her; and should any Protestant woman of 
wealth and standing express an intention to go 
West as a missionary teacher, so many obstacles 
would be presented as to be insurmountable." 

Previous to the formation of this society ten 
persons had been assisted by the principals at Ip- 
swich to complete the course, and had gone out 
as teachers. The loan had been faithfully repaid. 
Fifteen gentlemen were the subscribers to the 
funds of this primitive board, the largest annual 
donors being Mr. Samuel Hubbard and Mr. John 
Tappan, who gave, respectively, {Ssoo and $200. 
The Ipswich Seminary contributed, in the four 
j-ears of the society's operations, $430. The 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 185 

amount disbursed was $4,401. With this money 
41 teachers were sent otit. The loan to one indi- 
vidual could not exceed $200, and a note was 
given on interest after the first year. In cases 
where payment was impracticable the debt was 
remitted. The society provided for the protection 
and location of these teachers. Twenty-five of 
the number paid their debt in full, and six in 
part. Of the ten who had paid nothing after 
eight years, several died early, one was a con- 
firmed invalid, and some others became the la- 
borious, self-denying wives of ministers. One 
only had married without informing her hus- 
band of her indebtedness. The amount unpaid 
was $1,448. The average expense of educating 
these missionaries was, therefore, about $^6. An 
itemized statement of receipts and expenditures 
was left by Mrs. Banister, together with papers 
giving a history of the organization. These 
young teachers wrote to her their trials and suc- 
cesses, the particulars of the state of education 
and of religion in the widely-scattered places 
where they were sent. Letters from nearly every 
one of them were found, wrapped and labelled, 
among her last garnered keepsakes. They are 
often touching, unconscious revelations of self- 
sacrifice and toil. The faces of these folded mis- 
sives remind us that postage over 500 miles was 



i86 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



twenty-five cents. Miss W sends a draft for 

Sioo from South Carolina, which is worth $87 79 

in Boston, Miss B had taught two years in 

Alabama, was able to secure but a small part of 
her pay, and never received #50 that was sent 

her. Miss E. C taught for two and one half 

years in the institute of a town now a wealthy 
city in Illinois. The institute became bankrupt 
and could only furnish the means for her to reach 
Ohio. There, not far from Cleveland, in an in- 
corporated city of 300 inhabitants, she had the 
care of a public school of 40 pupils, from 3 years 
to 17 in age, for $2 a week. She finds it " very 
pleasant" There is Methodist preaching once 
in two weeks, a good Sabbath-school, and she is 
deeply interested in her Bible-class. Ten years 

afterwards, as Mrs. S , she writes from a town 

on the Wabash River, where the population is 
about 500. Her husband is a home missionary, a 
graduate of Lane Seminary, and has charge of the 
New School Presbyterian Church. There were 
four churches, and at the time of her first going 
there only nine male members belonging to them 
all. Of a large number of merchants but one was 
connected with a church, and of five lawyers and 
eight doctors not one was a professed Christian. 
Many had been members of churches in other 
places, but "lived there as if they had never ta- 



4 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 187 

ken the vows of God upon them." Fifty addi- 
tions were made to their own church during the 
year, and seventy had professed faith in Christ 
in a place where her husband preached once a 
month. When she gave these particulars she 
had just buried an infant daughter. Two years 
afterwards she was a widow, her husband worn 
out in the service. 

Miss H. B taught two years in what are 

now prominent towns in Ohio, returned to one of 
the large cities of Massachusetts, and labored 
some time in the public schools there. Her let- 
ter is a heart-broken account of her dismissal for 
"physical defects," results of illness in child- 
hood. 

Miss A. C married, in 1839, an agent of 

the Home Missionary Societj-, but continued her 
school, which, at its commencement, was the 
only one exclusively for girls in the State of Illi- 
nois. Miss R. H , in Western Pennsylvania, 

describes a work of grace which has changed the 
character of the school where she is. 

Miss S. C taught two years, in Southern 

Indiana, a school of fifty, mostly teachers, in a 
seminary building containing three rooms, two 
below and one above, and rejoiced greatly in her 
privilege; then married a home missionary and 
removed to another town in the same State. 



l88 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

She suspended teaching only a short time during 
ten years, though sonietimes so weak as to be 
drawn in a chair from one room to another. 
Usually from six to eight orphans had a home ia 
her family. 

Discount on Indiana money was laj per cent. 
The people were too poor to pay more than a 
pittance for tuition. Many mothers of her pupils 
could neitherread nor write. In 1846 Mrs. Banis- 
ter had sent her a hundred dollars to aid in car- 
ing for the fatherless in her school. In 1849 she 
returns a list of twelve orphans thus helped, and 
writes, "I have concluded best to require them 
to teach others free to the amount they are aided 
instead of refunding." "Two, who received their 

tuition free all the while I was in H , are 

now missionaries. Mr. C left for China this 

spring and Mr, H has been among the Sioux 

for four years." "Could I give you the history of 
those who were unable to pay for their instruc- 
tion since I have been at the West, you would 
rejoice that by God's blessing you were enabled 
to send light into so many dark corners of the 
world." In 1853 she had added eighteen to the 
number of her orphan wards. After this her hus- 
band with keen regret left his church on acconnt 
of weak lungs, and they went to Southern Mis- 
sissippi for the winter. They were in a region 



r 



■'^i 



IJi.ST FODR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR, iSg 

where there were neither "glass windows by day 
nor candles by night. ' ' There she took charge of a 
scliool, but after teaching four months was brought 
to the borders of the grave, and was not able to 
resume her favorite employment for almost a year 
after her return. We have space to mention but 
two more of these long-cherished records. One 
of them is a farewell letter on the eve of a depar- 
ture as a missionary to India; the other is an ac- 
count of the last day of one of these young lives 
just fitted to be made a blessing. 

Miss M. L , whose name appears among 

the beneficiaries, was a teacher at Ipswich, pre- 
paring thus for mission work, in a foreign land, 
when in April, 1836, the messenger of death came 
in a sudden distressing malady. We have a 
scene at that dying bed. "About ten Miss Grant 
entered and inquired of the nurse whether Miss 

L would probably understand a prayer. It 

was thought doubtful. Miss Grant then repeated 
in a siow, distinct manner a part of the 103 Psalm, 
' Like as a father pitieth his children,' etc. Miss 
h immediately fixed her eyes on the counte- 
nance of that much-loved friend and became calm 
as a little child. Miss Grant then prayed as the 
sick one might have done. Afterwards, in the 
intervals of the paroxysms of pain, the mind was 
wandering and could be controlled only by repeat- 



p. GRANT BANISTEE. 

ing portions of that blessed volume which had been 
her guide in days of health. Towards evening ef- 
forts were made by Miss Grant to awaken con- 
sciousness by low, soft singing, but without effect, 
till the hymn, 'There is a fountain filled with 
blood,' was commenced, when she evidently lis- 
teiied with great delight. At the stanza, 



slie joined in the last three lines, singing both 
words and tune correctly. After this she grad- 
ually sank away. About ten I commenced say- 
ing to her the verse, 'Oh, glorious hour! Oh, 
blest abode!' She repeated after me, 'Oh, glori- 
ous hour!' Those were her last words." The 
writer of this letter was Miss Hannah Lyman, 
afterwards the first lady Principal of Vassar Col- 
lege. Folded with it is another, labelled, "To 
be preserved." It is dated at Philadelphia, and 
gives the circumstances why Miss Grant's three 
letters had failed to reach the writer for nearly a 
fortnight. "My heart would have rejoiced," so 
run the words, " once more to look upon her face, 
to hear her voice. Soon I had hoped to revisit 
New England, but why should I now? Were I 
to yield to the gushing torrent of my feelings, they 
would roll forth in the lament of David, but lis- 
tening to her song of praise, I still the voice of 



LAST FOUR YEAKS AS AN EDDCATOR. J9I 

iny complaint. I cannot repay your kindness. 
Your letters are the last sad memorials of my 
M. L ." 

A report for the society prepared in 1835 by 
Miss Grant glances at the country's need and the 
work already accomplished, 

"West and south of the State of New York 
a million and a half of white children are grow- 
ing up destitute of any means of moral or religious 
instruction. In many places where the people 
are ready to support high schools they are unable 
to establish such, for the teachers cannot be 
found. So few young men have devoted them- 
selves to the profession of education, and other 
modes of enterprise so numerous and attractive 
are opened before them, it is not to be expected 
that an adequate supply for this acknowledged 
want can be furnished from their ranks. In 
New England there are many women at a suita- 
ble age who have the requisite talents, piety, and 
enterprise to prepare them to be useful in this 
profession, could they gain the additional culti- 
vation necessary. From 1830 to 1835 fifty-three 
ladies who have been members of this seminarj' 
were employed as teachers at the West and South. 
Several are married, and four 'rest from their 
labors.' Forty-two still continue to fill stations 
of high responsibility. Five are connected with 



193 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 






Berainaries in Eastern States; the remainder a^ 
yet in distant portions of our land. Several are 
the wives of professional gentlemen, but the low 
state of education wliere they are settled, the 
pressing demand for well-qualified labor in that 
department, induce them to remain steadfast to 
their noble work. Someact as principals of high 
schools, others as assistants with their husbands. 
One who was a member in 1830, her funds being 
exhausted, borrowed twenty-one dollars to com- 
plete the course. After having been useful as a 
teacher in Tennessee, she paid in 1834 the amount 
of her debt. At that time she was the wife of a 
Presbyterian clergyman and the second mother 
of seven children, still continuing principal of 
the seminary at a, salary of $700 a year. Rev. 
Dr. Wisner has said that each of these insti- 
tutions presided over by former members of this 
school are, in the opinion of intelligent clergy- 
men, 'doing more good for the cause of religion 
than any two of their own profession.' These 
teachers are efficient Sunday-school instructors, 
frequently commencing such schools where there 
were none. They have often excited a deep in- 
terest on behalf of the heathen in their pupils 
and others. Their influence is felt in the social 
circle and the prayer-meeting. It has also ex- 
tended across the mountains and been active in 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDDCATOR. 193 

their native regions. Their efforts have con- 
strained many to pray and labor for the West; 
some to contribute of their substance, others to go 
and work in that wide, destitute field. 

"The Holy Spirit has signally blessed these 
institutions the past year. At Anstiuburgh, at 
Chillicothe, at Granville, at Marietta, at Tusca- 
loosa, more than a hundred have consecrated 
themselves to the Lord." 

Fuii as Miss Grant's heart was of sympathy in 
the labors as well as the enthusiasm of these her 
daughters, there was no crowding out of interests 
nearer home. Reports made by one of tlie senior 
class give inside glimpses of the school. In the 
winter of i835-'6 "a large proportion of the pu- 
pils had review lessons in arithmetic and modern 
geography." The "studies of the term had been 
divided into three series" of six weeks each. In 
i836-'7 "all the pupils had devoted much time to 
spelling, more to composition, and still more to 
reading," "Although the disposition with the 
most had been such as to require restraint rather 
than excitement," yet, the writers confess, "we 
do not believe the present scholars in assiduity 
have gone beyond their predecessors." They 
had "received instruction in the care of health, 
and a society of correspondence for gaining and 
giving infonnation had elicited much inquiry." 



194 



MR3. Z. P. CHANT BANISTER. 



Miss Lyon was thinking out to her friend e 
she had always done, and receiving in return 
the written judgments and feelings answering to 
every phase of her perplexities or her hopes. 
Miss Grant followed each step of that "wandering 
life of two years," seeing that God was its shield. 
A proposal was made that she should stand with 
Miss Lyon at the head of the new seminary. 
The reply we can only conjecture, but know that 
her decision brought out from her old associate 
one of the loftiest and tenderest of Miss Lyon's 
epistles. 

When the building in South Hadley was half 
completed it was desired to make one special 
effort in Boston to raise funds, and Miss Grant 
addressed the following letter to Dr. Ander-J 
sou: 

" Irawicii, February 13, 1837. 

"Reverend and Dear Sir: I have jiisl 
learned that it is still undecided whether anj^ 
united effort shall be made in Boston in behalf 
the Mt. Holyoke Seminary, I do hope the I 
nevolent men in our metropolis will not disrais 
this subject without a careful examination. Thi 
question Is not whether the plan of that seminary^ 
in all its minutice, is adapte<l to their taste, t 
whether it is as gooA as their united wisdom coaki 
devise; but it is whctliet they will Ic 



LAST TOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 195 

hand in building up an institution founded on 
Christian principles and designed for the educa- 
tion of female teachers. 

"Woman, elevated by religion, was designed 
by Providence as the principal educator of our 
race. From her entrance on womanhood to the 
end of her life this is to be her great business. 
By her influence not only her female friends, her 
scholars and her daughters, are to be affected, but 
her sons, her brothers, the young men around her, 
and even the older men, not excepting her father 
and his peers. Considering the qualifications 
which the mothers in our land now possess, is 
there not a call for special effort from some quar- 
ter to render them aid in iitting their daughters 
to exert such an influence as is needed from this 
source on our infant republic, on our Christian 
country ? 

"Never before was the call for pious, well- 
qualified female teachers so urgent and so reitera- 
ted from every part of our land. Never before 
were there so many energetic, talented, benevo- 
lent women disposed to qualify themselves to do 
something towards educating the rising race for 
the service of the church. How shall the many 
destitute children in our country be rightly guid- 
ed without a teacher? How can women teach 
without beiug prepared ? And how cau a suffi-; 



IgS MRS. K. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

cient number be prepared without public aid? 
We ask, therefore, for aid, not for the sake of the 
individual, not for the sake of the sex, but we ask 
it for our countrj', nay, more, for the world! We 
ask it that our Redeemer may be glorified in hav- 
ing a more holy seed to worship him on the 
earth, and a larger and more glorious train to 
manifest his image and show forth the wonders of 
redeeming love to all eternity. 

"I know that calls are numerous and press- 
ing, but viewed in the light of heaven, is this ob- 
ject in the background ? Is it not rather because 
it has not been presented that it has not stood out 
in bold relief and been seen and felt in all its 
magnitude and importance? It may be said that 
buildings alone will never make useful institu- 
tions. We grant it. But is this a sufficient rea- 
son why college buildings shall not be erected by 
public munificence ? 

"From the delicacy of woman's constitution 
and the greater delicacy of her reputation, from 
the impropriety of her being subjected to delete- 
rious influences, and from the necessity of her be- 
ing under something like maternal guidance, it 
may be easily shown that during her pupilage it 
is at least no less important that suitable architec- 
ture should be provided for her accommodation, 
and that family arrangements sh ipt 



I 



I 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 197 

to her necessity, than that they should be suited 
to the wants of young men. It might be shown 
too that it is no less difficnlt for a woman to raise 
up and sustain a female seminary of 100 members 
without suitable buildings and apparatus than it 
would be for a man to raise up and sustain a col- 
lege of 100 students without these requisites. 

"I beg you, sir, will consider for a moment 
the entire lack of system in female education; the 
want of an enlarged, definite object in most pa- 
trons of our higher schools in relation to the edu- 
cation of their daughters; the consequent limited 
views and love of change in young ladies; the 
short time they are kept at school, and even this 
often divided between different institutions; the 
impossibility of obtaining Protestant women to 
sustain for a course of years different departments 
in a school, of retaining even one longer than 
time necessary to become independent in her own 
department. In view of these considerations 
must it not be judged even more difBcult to sus- 
tain a large school for young ladies, either with 
or without suitable provision, than to sustain a. 
college? 

"My soul kindles while I write; but I forbear. 
For the last twelve days I have been confined 
much of the time to my bed. My failure has 
been caused principally by a series of efforts to 




MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 
an institution without such me: 



198 

sustain an institution without such means as it 
would be ecouomy for the Christian public to fur- 
nish, and such as, I think, they would long since 
have gladly afforded if the subject iu its bearings 
could have been presented to their view. I have 
scarcely the shadow of a doubt that my labors 
will be curtailed many years in consequence of 
my increased burden for tlie want of what com- 
paratively small funds would have furnished. 

"When I shall reluctantly leave that course 
of toil which, for its results, I have ardently loved, 
with my last breath would I plead that the public 
would immediately do something to rear and up- 
hold Protestant institutions for the education of 
women. With high regard and esteem, 
" Yours truly, 

"Z. P.GRANT." 

This appeal was read by Dr. Anderson, in con- 
nection with some remarks, at a meeting in Dea- 
con Safford's parlor. Three thousand dollars was 
then subscribed. " Your letter," wrote Miss Lyon, 
"miikcs a fine impression, and is much suited to 
benefit the great object. I want leave to nse it at 
my discretion." In September S500 was needed. 
The mauncr in which she asked Miss Grant to 
lend it is noteworthy. "I do not suppose you 
can let me have this as well as not. I suppose it 
will cost you effort and care, and I regret to add 



LASr FOUR YEAKS AS AN SDDCATOR. igg 

to your labor in your present state of health; hut 
I thought if you knew just how much I needed it 
you would prefer that I should ask you." 

Miss Grant's letter to Dr. Anderson, a life- 
long, intimate friend, contains allusions to her 
own unavailing exertions she would never pub- 
licly make. It was but too true that her time 
was short in her chosen work. Slriviug to "view 
things as God views them," she was bringing her- 
self to acquiesce cheerfully in the failure of her 
own wishes and her own ability. 

Four teachers and many beloved pupils, the 
flower of the first graduating class at South Had- 
ley, went to join her former associate in the new 
institution. Overcome with weakness, it was to 
be her lot to see others carry out in lauded suc- 
cess the work she had inaugurated, the work she 
could do so well. In these months she was learn- 
ing lessons of true Christian humility, which 
became deeper and more beautiful as years ad- 
vanced. By the grace given to her she could, 
herself debarred, look on with thankful heart that 
the great cause was carried forward, and as the 
sowers went forth to their sweet employ she could 
stand by the wayside, willing to count as nothing, 
if that was God's will, in this the great seed-time 
of coming generations. Through most of the 
years i837-'38 she was too ill to assume the dur,. 



2CX> MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTEK. 

ties of her position, and though she rallied all her 
strength for the winter term of 1838, it was the 
last. The end came in April, 1839. There were 
127 pnpils. 

The sharp pang at giving up is hinted at in a 
brief passage written long afterwards. "Seeing 
that with the care of that institution on my mind 
I could never recover, and that Providence had 
hedged up my way, I resigned my ofEce, thus sev- 
ering the link that had long bound me to the 
world and abandoning the work to which I had 
devoted the energies of the best part of my life." 
It was with a deep significance she often re- 
marked, "Mr. Emerson used to say, 'It is better 
to be in the pulpit than to be in heaven.' " She 
was not alone in Jier tender retrospect. Few are 
yet among the living who mingled in those scenes, 
but their recollections will surely respond to the 
animated picture drawn by Mrs. Julia Reed Emo- 
rj-, who for almost forty years had carried it in her 
thoughts. It accompanied a bright, affectionate 
greeting on Mrs. Banister's eightieth birthday. 
"Dear old Ipswich ! How many memories come 
thronging upon me at this moment! We are 
in the schoolroom. Every pupil is in her place. 
How many teachers I see I more than could sit 
in the teachers' seats at one time. How tender- 
ly Miss Farley looks down upon us! Though so 



I 

I 

I 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 20I 

young, there are lines of silver in her dark hair. 
How sparkling are Miss Caldwell's eyes, and 
her whole face ia all its lines and dimples. Prof. 
Foote, how wise she looks, especially when old 
Mnrray is tinder consideration. How dreamy 
and forelooking are Miss Mary Grant's eyes, as 
if seeing a hand we cannot see that beckons her 
away. How retiting is Miss Shepard. How 
Miss Lord blushes! Miss Dickinson, how sweet 
but sad. Her life was set to music on a minor 
key. There too is Miss Leach, who never swerves 
from what she considers the line of right. How 
pale is Miss Parker! But they crowd upon me. 
I cannot mention half Dear Miss Lyon, how 
by earnest words and a luminous life she souglit 
to lead us to God and to right. Hark ! The great 
door opens. Miss Grant walks up the aisle with 
great dignity. 'Good morning, young ladies.' 
Every pupil is on her feet. The pink ribbons on 
your cap mingle in my mind with the tones of 
your voice as you give the Bible lecture. Talks 
on certain subjects are fresh in my mind now. 
Then the prayer. 

' ' A few items of business are to be attended 
to. 'The school may rise.' 'Those who have 
made no communication during the week may be 
seated.' Nearly all sit down. 'Those who have 
made but one, two, three.' Miss A — ■_ — seats 







MRS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

herself with a little swing and a little defiance 

in her face. 'Four, five?' Miss L still 

stands, and a question or two brings out the ac- 
knowledgment that though sure she has made 
as many as five communications, she is not sure 
she has not made as many as twenty. How inno- 
cent she looks, as though victimized by circum- 
stances over which she has no control ! Then 
come a few suggestions on propriety of behavior, 
and we are wondering what hit bird flutters as 
you speak of loud talk in halls, of laughter in 
the streets, of gossip with young men in stores, 
of crowding about windows, and of rudeness at 

the table. . . I wonder if Miss F has finished 

that stocking. As I remember, it was about time 
to set the heel, and hung from her hand, as she 
went from place to place and talked with one and 
another. How quiet and delightful the Sabbaths 
were in the dear old boarding-house ! Does Mrs. 
Lovejoy still live? I would go miles to see her. 
In my memory is a class in school of ancient and 
honorable pupils who had been teachers for years, 
but knew nothing of the new-fangled notions of 
mental arithmetic. We were in Colburn's First 
Lessons, and I recall now their names and the 
hopeless expression on their faces as I propounded 
the question, 'Two-eighths of seventy-two are 
of bow many fifths ol iort^T ^'bc 




LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 203 

ministers of Ipswicli, their faces and voices, were 
familiar indeed. I had a class of ladies at one 
time in Mr. Fitz' Sabbath -school, and during a 
course of years a class of young men in the one 
at Mr. Kimball's church. Long afterwards one 
of them sent me word from his dying bed in Prov- 
idence that he should be for ever grateful for my 
instructions there." 

It is possible that to some one the lively dis- 
cussions in the logic class of 1S37 may be brought 
back by the waifs of their written exercises. 

"Enthymeme. — The Epicurean loves the 
world supremely. Therefore the Epicurean can- 
not be the friend of God. 

"Sorites. — They who have most, desire most. 
They who desire most, are most discontented. 
They who are most discontented, murmur most. 
Therefore they who have most, murmur most. 

"Misapprehension of the question. — The im- 
mediate abolition of slavery is expedient and 
practicable, because slavery is an evil. 

"Fallacia accidentis. — Dancing is wrong, be- 
cause it is sometimes carried to excess. 

"Arguing in a circle. — We are free agents 
because we have the power of choosing. We 
have the power of choosing because we are free 
agents." 

From an article prepared by Miss Grant for 



the "Americau Quarterly" in 1838, it appears 
that 1,675 young ladies had been members of the 
Derry and Ipswich Seminaries. Of these, 21 had 
at that time, under the American and Baptist 
Boards, passed to foreign shores as missionaries. 
Four hundred had been teachers in the New Eng- 
land and Middle States and 88 had labored ia 
destitute portions of the West and South. Wide- 
ly they were scattered, even then, those young 
girls who had walked under the elm-trees and 
filled the rooms of the quaint old houses with 
laughing enthusiasm, melodious song, or earnest 
prayer. There was one who followed them each 
with loving, undying interest. Her last public 
work was to annex to the record of 1839 a list of 
the 146 graduates and give the latest intelligence 
from them in a separate column. Her own copy 
of the collected catalogues is interlined with an 
item at almost every name. Some of them are 
written in the failing hand of the last weeks of 
her life. The Society of Correspondence at Ip- 
swich prefigured the Memorandum Society of Mt. 
Ilolyoke, associations only possible when mem- 
bers of an institution had the attachment of a 
college fraternity. In what other seminary has 
there been for it love enough, pure and simple, to 
lead a nurabev of its graduates to gather and pub- 
lisli without fee or reward, every five years, the 



I 
I 
I 



LAST FOUR YEARS AS AN EDUCATOR. 205 

latest items of the whole sisterhood scattered over 
the wide earth and estranged through the length- 
ening decades? This spirit of benevolent interest 
in their companions so characteristic of both the 
teachers was stamped by them on the schools 
under their charge, an indelible and peculiar 
mark. Through her after life Miss Grant col- 
lected with care every fact in the history of her pu- 
pils, rejoicing when they were led in prosperous 
paths, sympathizing in every sorrow and bereave- 
ment, holding them in affection as tenacious as it 
was individual. Many of them were called to 
ride in high places of influence. They were the 
wives of foreign and home missionaries, of college 
presidents and professors, of clergymen, of princi- 
pals of seminaries, of wealthy merchants and 
manufacturers. One glory was greater than all. 
"This training," said Miss Lyon "makes good 
mothers. ' ' If there was at that time a lady of espe- 
cially correct reasoning, enlarged views, and Chris- 
tian zeal, fulfilling the duties of her station with 
eminent usefulness and grace, one would often 
Ijud she had been a pupil at Ipswich, or under a 
teacher trained there. More than one displayed 
organizing talent on a conspicuous field, and has 
left to coming generations the wise and beneficent 
results of her life, as did Marianne Parker Das- 
corab of Oberlin. The affectionate admiration 



MRS. Z. P. GRA] 




CHAPTER VI. 
MRS. BANISTER AT HOME, 

Miss Grant, as has been seen, continued at^ 

Ipswich for four years after Miss I^yon left her. 
In the lightening of her daily burdens and in lift- 
ing the school to heavenly heights, she could not 
but miss the mate and associate who had been to 
her as another self. She missed also the steady- 
ing influence in the school of that noble band of 
mature and earnest scholars who had heretofore 
resorted to Ipswich to learn the way of God more 
perfectly and prepare for enlarged usefulness. 
They drifted to the new seminary, which, becom- 
ing every year more and more a glory in the land, 
and charging for board and tuition only $60 a 
year, was very alluring to young women of large 
aspirations and small pecuniary resources. Still 
Miss Grant was a host in herself, and, with the 
aid of accomplished assistants who clustered 
around her and entered into her spirit, she found 
no difficulty in sustaining both the literary excel- 
lence of the school and its extraordinary reputa- 
tion for forming well-balanced characters. Choice 
daughters of choice families crowded lovingly and 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOMfi. 209 

reverently about her. Not a seat in the seminary 
was vacant, not an available boarding-place in 
the village unoccupied. 

It was a charming assemblage that responded 
to her happy "Good morning," an assemblage 
quick to learn, easy to teach, and ready to receive 
the great principles she so well knew how to en- 
force. When to her cheerful "Good morning," 
she added, "I have been thinking on my way 
here, if 'home is where the heart is,' this is my 
home," every eye responded, "We will do our 
best to keep it so." 

The motives for entering on the divine life 
which she presented to those susceptible young 
hearers were never their own gratification and hap- 
piness, but the reasonableness of God's require- 
ments, the glory and attractiveness of his charac- 
ter, their own need of just such a Saviour as he 
in his great mercy provides, and the transporting 
hope of doing right, pleasing God, and blessing 
the world. Under her guidance many of her au- 
ditors came to the fixed resolve that in the long 
hereafter before them they would, God helping 
them, wear the yoke and carry the cross, leaving 
their own happiness to take care of itself How 
sincere and ineffaceable was this resolve their 
lives and careers for half a century have made 
manifest. Her desk was as a pulpit, whence she 



could point out to coming women and show them 
how to point out to others, the true ends and aims 
of life. It was the foregoing this privilege that 
constituted her chief trial in resigning her posi- 
tion. 

Had her strength of body been equal to her 
strength of mind she need not have relinquished 
her work. When her health so gave way that 
any continuous mental effort was followed by in- 
describable distress, and she was assured that her 
only chance for relief was in laying down every 
burden, and when no helper appeared with whom, 
as in former days, she could leave her work and 
cares, there was nothing open to her but surren- 
der. "My Heavenly Father," she said, "made 
it as plain as though he had spoken in an audible 
voice that he no longer called me to this work.'* 
So, while seemingly in the full tide of success, 
she bade adieu to her sorrowing scholars, gave up 
to the trustees the edifice they had leased her rent 
free for eleven years, and, with pent up sadness 
but a calm exterior, turned for ever away from 
the place that to her and so many others had 
beeu the house of God and the gate of heaven. 

Wlien her resignation became known, other in- 
stitutions that had been lately incorporated and 
partially endowed craved her presence; but she 
knew that what they needed it was not in her 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 211 

power to give, and courteously declined their so- 
licitations. 

It was no small matter for Miss Grant, now 
forty-four years old, an invalid, and without a 
home, to be obliged to close upon herself every 
avenue to lucrative employment. The tuition- 
fees at Ipswich, from $25 to $30 a year, had been 
nearly her only resource for providing instruc- 
tion, apparatus, and other appliances needed in 
the school; her tithes to the Lord had been sys- 
tematic and generous; so, though she was by no 
means penniless, her savings would not long be 
adequate for her comfortable support. "I know 
only," she said, "that my bread and water are 
sure; nothing more is promised me." Her faith 
here, as always, was the outcome of that knowl- 
edge of God which was imbedded in the recesses 
of her being. Her trust in him was immovable, 
her delight in him at times ineffable. "If I were 
only sure there was a God !" said a grave divine 
to her, who had studied himself into an abyss of 
darkness. "Why, I am sure of it," she answered; 
*' I speak to him and he answers me. I know it 
as well as I know that I am speaking to you !" 

Her faith was a substance indeed; she did not 
fear life, death, pain, or poverty, because in what- 
ever betided her she saw the mind and hand of 
her God. To an afflicted and distrustful friend 



213 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

she said, "God knew millions of years before you 
were born just what your situation would be to- 
day; and he is looking to see how you conduct 
yourself in it. He has you ever in mind." This 
was the foreknowledge and foreordination which 
fed her strength and kept her cheerful, reasona- 
ble, and uncomplaining. 

At this juncture of her life she was made at 
home where she had been so received many times 
before. Miss Hannah Chickering, one of the 
older young ladies at Saugus, had been drawn 
there, after it was supposed that her education 
was handsomely completed, by the report that 
the teacher, Mr. Emerson, who had been a tutor 
in Harvard College, believed in educating young 
ladies on the same principles as young men. At 
Saugus she became almost enamored with the as- 
sistant of "the wonderful eyes" and silver tongue, 
whom the better she knew the more she admired. 
It was her first finding in a lady a large and easi- 
ly-working mind, coupled with the power to bring 
others to see as she saw, choose as she chose, will 
as she willed, and all consecrated to ennobling 
those who came near her. 

Miss Chickering's home with her mother, at 
the old parsonage in Dedham,with its high-toned 
inmates and guests — Miss Hannah's lover among 
the latter — was made henceforth free to Miss 



MRS. BANISTER AT UOME. 



213 



Grant She spent weeks and months there. Miss 
Chickering was married February a, 1826, to Dr. 
John Kingsbury Eriggs, and in her new home set 
apart a chamber for her beloved friend. It was 
called Miss Grant's room, and was ever ready for 
her occupancy. There while at Ipswich she often 
went for rest. The doctor, a man highly esteemed 
in his profession, made a study of her health, and 
advised drugs or diversion as he saw she most 
needed. Abounding in humor himself, he conld 
strike a like vein in her, and the play of wit 
would often do her more good than medicine. 

The fledglings that found their way into this 
cosey nest were like a part of herself. The first, 
along with John for his father, had also a Grant 
for her in his name. As soon as they could speak 
and go alone they learned to lisp her name and 
run to meet her coming. To Mrs, Briggs herself, 
immersed like all happy young wives and mo- 
thers in household occupations, these visits of her 
friend had been like bits of heaven. Each of 
them received succor, strength, and encourage- 
ment from the other. Their intercourse, unre- 
served and unselfish, full of love to God, to the 
children, and to one another, was an earnest of 
their fellowship in tbe clearer atmosphere of 
heaven. 
, Ladies who have been always "set in fa.'ccvl- 



F" 



214 



MRS, Z. P. 



lies" can hardly understand liow precious and 
welcome to Miss Grant, in her great weariness 
and enforced idleness, were these open doors. 
Her mother and sisters had been already trans- 
ferred to the honse not made with liands. Her 
remaining elder brother, thongh none could more 
enjoy a sister's society, had his honse too fnll and 
too busy for the permanent reception of an inva- 
lid. At Dr. Briggs' she was wanted; there too 
there was room for her friends; and, what helps 
hospitality to go in silver slippers, there too was 
good domestic service. She could live "like an 
oyster," as the doctors had bidden her, or take a 
hand in healthful work, or make merry with the 
fun-loving children. She could go and come as 
she pleased, without fear of being a bnrdeu or of 
wearing out lier welcome, for their friendship 
was of that divine type which use deepens and 
strengthens. 

It was at Dr. Briggs' that Hon. William B. 
Banister, who had long held her in honor, invited 
her to unite her life with his. The doctor took 
pleasure in watching the progress of the suit and 
in arranging for the sequel. Many of the invita- 
tions to the marriage went to their mutual friends 
in his own handwriting, flavored with his inimi- 
table humor. They were married at his house on 
September 7, 1841, by her former beloved pastor, 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



215 



Rev. Prof. Ralph Emerson, D. D., of Andover; 
Rev. Luther Dimick, D. D., Mr, Banister's pas- 
tor, officiating in the prayers of the occasion. 

Mr. Banister was a graduate of Dartmouth 
College, of the class of 1797. He had been a 
practising lawyer in the courts of Essex County, 
a member of the Massachusetts Senate, and held 
many important trusts. Honorable in his deal- 
ings, courteous and dignified in his manner and 
bearing, he might have been called a gentleman 
of the old school ; he was a true gentleman of any 
school. Like her, he had early set his feet in the 
straight and narrow way. They were both Puri- 
tans indeed. "What is right?" never "What 
win people say?" was the question they asked. 
Not with a blind idolatry of the printed page, but 
thirsting to know the will of God that they might 
do it, they loved and studied his Word. Careful- 
ly they looked for the prints of Christ's feet, that 
in them they might set their own. In all that 
was just and lovely they walked hand in hand. 
Add sweet temper, genuine sympathy, and recip- 
rocal preference, and was there anything wanting 
for a happy marriage? 

lu the matter of wifely reverence and obedi- 
ence Mrs. Banister had not outgrown the teach- 
ings of St. Paul. "Since the wife must see that 
she reverence her husband," she said to a maiden 



p. GRANT BANISTER. 

who consulted her on the supreme question of a 
woman's life, "she must see that she do not 
marry a man whom she cannot reverence." 
"Where there are only two there can be no ma- 
jority, and the supremacy must rest on one," she 
would say, and then quote, " The husband is the 
head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the 
church," as an end of all doubt. "Sarah, the 
wife of Abraham," she used to tell her scholars, 
"was praised for two things: her faith and her 
obedience to her husband, calling him lord." "I 
know," she said to Mr. Banister on her marriage, 
"that you have a rigjit to command; but I mean 
to be so on the alert that you will have no occa- 
sion." She took pleasure in promising the sub- 
jection that she could not think he would ever 
exact Certainly he never did. What chance 
can there be for it in a union where the wish o£ 
one is the law of the other, and both have reason 
and good sense? And such a union was theirs. 
Her study and care, like that of every good wife, 
was first of all to preserve and prolong his life 
and usefulness. She watched over his health, 
accompanied him on his journeys, aided him 
with her pen, and in every available way proved 
herself a help-meet indeed. 

Over the provincial mansion in which by her 
marriage Mrs. Banister was called the 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



217 



I 



elms and lindens of a hundred years' growth en- 
twined their arms. It stood near the wide, shaded 
street, the park-like grounds extending at the sides 
and in the rear. At present modem buildings 
crowd around it. Traditional for its hospitalities, 
among the guests had been Messrs. Reed and 
Matheson, the first representatives of the Congre- 
gational Union of England and Wales to the Con- 
gregational churches of this country. In their 
"Narrative" of this visit, published in 1835, they 
thus mention their host and his residence: 

"At Newburyport we were met by Rev. Dr. 
Dana and Mr. Banister, and were received with 
much courtesy and cordiality at the residence of 
the latter gentleman. He has a most comfortable 
house; it is not only like ours, it is quite English, 
but English in the olden style — the forms, carv- 
ings, cornices, and patterns such as I have seen a 
hundred times; and the beautiful limes in the 
fore-court were literally brought from England." 

This old mansion, in its spaciousness, its ele- 
gance, and its appointments, was unlike the tiny 
cottage in which Mrs. Banister had lived with her 
mother and sisters; it was not unlike it in the 
high thinking, the mutual confidence, and the 
exhilarating conversation which enlivened it, nor 
in making the most and best of every person and 
thing that came within it. Her genial presence 



ai8 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



( 



made it more a home than ever. Mr. Banister 

having been married twice before, and each wife 
having left one daughter, she now heard herself 
called "mother," and felt her heart swell in re- 
sponse to the endearing name. The elder daugh- 
ter, who had presided for many years in the house- 
hold, stepped gracefully aside to give place to the 
new queen. 

Miss Sarah, the j-ounger daughter, timid and 
shy beyond description, wrapped in reserve which 
few could penetrate, but loving much when lov- 
ing at all, received the new mother timorously 
but trustfully. As the years went by, bringing 
marriage and then early widowhood, then child- 
lessness and many subsequent losses, sorrows, and 
pains, she came to lean heavily on her mother for 
comfort and counsel. 

Though these sisters difTered from their mo- 
ther in some of their tastes and habits, the three 
had these best bonds in common: they believed 
in God as revealed in the Bible, they loved the 
best things, and they sincerely desired to do good. 
The daughters thought their father perfect, nor 
would they bear any insinuation that their mo- 
ther was imperfect. "She is our mother," 
flashed Miss Banister, when once something of 
the kind was attempted, "and I wish you to un- 
derstand that there is not a mean thread in her I" 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



219 



As for Mrs. Banister, her tongue would sooner 

have cleaved to the roof of Iter mouth than utter 
one word derogatory to these daughters. Their 
health, welfare, and happiness held a place in 
her regard second only to their father's. 

Mrs. Banister, with her natural good sense, 
took things as she found them, and, except fur- 
nishing her own room, proposed no changes in 
the home or its belongings. " I knew the house 
and the ways of the house," she once remarked, 
" before I came into it, and when I accepted Mr. 
Banister I of course accepted them." It had not 
been an abode of miscellaneous visiting and tea- 
drinking; she did not make it such. The daugh- 
ters had their own favorite friends; these she made 
welcome. Hospitality was the unwritten law of 
the house; she increased and multiplied it. Un- 
der her management a wise and elegant thrift — 
nothing wasted, nothing wanted — pervaded the 
establishment. If now and then some lady visit- 
or, whose life-work had been housekeeping, criti- 
cised hers as "too much elaborated, "her husband 
happily saw it with no such eyes; in his sight it 
was simply perfect. 

The spirit she invoked to make the law of her 
Penates is set forth in a small slip, evidently from 
her pen : 




MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANIS'! 

RULES FOR FAMILY PEACE- 

1. We may be quite sure that our will is like- 
ly to be crossed to-day, so prepare for it 

2. Everybody in the house has an evil nature 
as well as ourselves and, therefore, we are not to 
expect too much. 

3. To learn the different temper of each indi- 
vidual. 

4. To look upon each member of the family as 
one for whom Christ died. 

5. When any good happens to any one, to re- 
joice at it. 

6. When inclined to give an angry answer, to 
lift up the heart in prayer. 

7. If from sickness, pain, or infirmity we feel 
irritable, to keep a very strict watch over our- 
selves. 

8. To observe when others are so suffering, 
and drop a word of kindness and sympathy suited 
to their wants. 

9. To watch for little opportunities of pleasing, 
and to put little annoyances out of the way. 

10. To take a cheerful view of everything. 

11. In all little pleasures which may occur to 
put self last. 

12. To try for the soft answer that " tumeth 
away wrath." 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 2Z1 

13. When we have been pained by an unkind 
word or deed to ask ourselves, "Have I not often 
done the same and been forgiven?" 

14. In conversation not to exalt ourselves, but 
to bring others forward. 

15. To be very gentle with the younger ones 
and treat them with respect, remembering that 
we once were young. 

16. Never to judge one another, but to attrib- 
ute a good motive when we can. 

17. To compare our manifold blessings with 
the trifling annoyances of the day. 

A lady who was a long time an inmate of her 
house has given some recollections. "One May 
morning I was received in her home in New- 
buryport to spend the summer. Prof. Upham 
was in the sitting-room with her, and she was 
darning stockings when I was introduced. After 
a word of welcome, the conversation on evidences 
of personal friendship with Christ was resumed. 
' How can I know that I love the Saviour and 
am loved by him ? So far as I can trust my own 
consciousness, I remember consecrating myself to 
him as distinctly as any act of my life. I have 
never felt differently. Now, when I have finished 
some work he has given me to do, I find myself 
asking, "My Father, what shall I do next? My 



mm 



222 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTgR. 



Saviour, guide me." ' I sooh saw that she not 
only thus accepted her own work, but Iielped 
others to recognize in the commonest daily em- 
ployment a service to the Lord. She felt it a 
privilege to be thus intrusted with talents for the 
service, and she seldom spoke of her 'duty.' 

"In anticipation of entertaining a distin- 
guished guest from France, Monsieur Monod, 
who was to lecture in Newburyport, with Dr. 
Kirk as interpreter, she asked Mr. Banister if it 
would be in strict accordance with the law of 
love to have him all to themselves when so many 
would like to see him? The happy suggestion 
conveyed in her interrogatory resulted in a tea- 
taking with the stranger in the ancient parlor, at 
which several clergymen and teachers and their 
wives were present, the gentlemen prolonging 
their acquaintance by breakfasting with him at 
her table next morning, 

"Her hospitality was of the apostolic kind. 
At one time a very plain man came on some be- 
nevolent agency from the West, I do not re- 
member his name or errand, but, after family 
worship, Mrs. Banister said to me, ' It paid nie 
for all my trouble in entertaining him to hear 
him pray this morning.' ^^^ 

"Mrs. S , a widowed mi""'^^^"'— d her 

children found a home with her iths 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



223 



at that time. After she had assisted them to start 
housekeeping, as she was driving over to their 
home with a carriage full of comforts for them, 
she said to me by way of explanation, '"Remem- 
ber them that suffer adversity, as being yourselves 
also in the body." ' 

"She brought the lawof love to bear on dress, 
as on everything else, saying, 'Do you not know, 
child, that God is more honored and pleased when 
his creatures look well thau when they do not ?' 
In her dignity there was no trace of ascetic sol- 
emnity. ' Christ commanded his disciples to an- 
oint the head and wasli the face when they fast- 
ed,' was a remark of hers on this point 

' ' Her love of order and thoroughness was very 
marked, and she was, perhaps, so exact as to dis- 
please unfaithful eye-servants; yet her sweet, 
Christian temper was a blessing alike to all un- 
der her roof. I remember one evening at tea- 
table, when she had company besides her own 
large family, the servant was missing. She 
touched the bell again and again, till three calls 
at considerable intervals had brought no answer. 
I watched her then, expecting to see her a little 
ruffled. After long waiting the servant came. 
'Annie, your presence is too important to be dis- 
pensed with now,' she said, in her uniformly 
sweet-tempered way, putting every one at ease, 



I 



224 

and especially saving the temper of careless Ad- 
nie from rising. I never saw her equanimity 
disturbed a particle or heard a hasty, impatient, 
or complaining word. 

"Sometimes it would be necessary that the 
dinner-hour should be changed, that the young la- 
dies, who were going away on the 12 o'clock stage, 
might leave home refreshed. When the time 
came they would decide to wait till another day, 
and then a second postponement might ensue. 
The disarrangement for three successive days 
would be as cheerfully carried out the last time 
as the first. If, in an emergency, bread was to 
be made, or any food provided the servants were 
unable to prepare, she would quietly accomplish 
the duty, with suave tact turning off the remark, 
'Oh, mother, you ought not to do this.' And 
yet she had the energy and spirit that almost al- 
ways breaks out in hasty words with the best of 
people. 

' ' Her way of asking questions was very whole- 
some and quickening to young Christians in her 
family. We could not dislike it, they were so 
kindly put. This is a specimen: 'What would 
be the condition of the kingdom of Christ in this 
place if it were exactly in accordance with your 
prayers?' If a young person made a sweeping 
general statement, she would sometimes quietly 



MRS. BAKISTEB. AT HOMS. 



225 



call for verification in particulars by saying, with 
a smile, when they had finished, 'Such as — ?' " 

Another who shared the privileges of the fam- 
ily says, "Mrs. Banister brought to bear on it the 
same energy, principle, and benevolent thought 
that she had been accustomed to exercise in her 
schooh She aimed to make it a true service to 
the Master. It was a home that He in his flesh 
would have fonnd a congenial resort; and if, as 
in his visits to the home in Bethany, he had 
given hint of aught by which he could be better 
pleased, the suggestion would have been welcome 
as aid to the object she had in view." In her 
new work of serving tables she sought to serve 
Him; when the work was irksome and she was 
weary, she remembered that he said, "I came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister," and 
was comforted to be walking in his steps. Her 
conscientious painstaking well supplied any lack 
of genius. 

One change she inaugurated at Mr. Banister's 
desire. Doles had long been the fashion of the 
house, though some of the applicants would have 
scorned to be called beggars. The servants, hav- 
ing been long in the house and left much to 
themselves, had almost naturally come to feel as 
though it was their right to deal out gratuitous 
supplies as they saw fit to any who came for them. 



226 MRS. t. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

Miss Banister was generosity itself; never a heart 
melted quicker at a tale of woe. She would 
have made herself poor every day for those who 
were poorer than slie. The delicate state of her 
health had interfered too with her oversight of 
the outgoes of the house. All this Mr. Banister 
had confided to his wife, adding that not only 
were the expenses of the establishment more than 
he could well aflford, but he was afraid besides 
that beggary and pauperism were nursed at 
his doors. He suggested that on her coming ' 
as mistress she should ignore the past in this re- ' 
gard, and look after the expenses and charities .] 
herself. 

In such matters they were In accord. Both 
had a quick and tender sympathy with homely 
joys and griefs; both held that helping the poor 
to help themselves is the best charity; that indis- 
criminate giving may do more harm than good; 
that industry and thrift are better for both body 
and soul than laziness and waste. Neither of 
them had outgrown very old-fashioned notions of 
frugality. She could not throw the crumbs 
which would feed a bird into the fire, nor the 
nutshells that would kindle a fire to the ground. 
Oil or gas burning for no one's enlightenment 
was an eyesore to them both, nor was it necessa- 
ry to their feeling the smart that they would 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



227 



have the bills to pay. She could not forget how 
in that snug home in South Norfolk, where there 
were six open mouths, everj'thing they had was 
made to go around, that what they did not have 
they forgot to miss, and that anything that was 
left over found a hungry mouth or a waiting 
back. There the widow and the fatherless ate 
the bread of a royal independence, stood with the 
foremost, and had alms to bestow instead of alms 



That Mr. Banister had unwittingly set her a 
thankle-ss task did not deter her from attempting 
it. "What I ought, not what I like," was her 
habit of thought; oversight and thoroughness 
were ingrained in her nature. "I will see those 
who come for milk or fruit, or anything else, my- 
self," was her word to the ser\'ing women. "The 
one who wants to see me is the one I want to see," 
was her motto for kitchen no less than parlor. 
"With compassionate inquiries she mingled, ' ' How 
can this be helped?" and "What can you do for 
yourself?" When she denied, no less than when 
she gave, she sought to bless the applicant. A 
lady now crowned with silver hair, who was with 
her six years between 1830 and 1838, not only 
as pupil and assistant, but also as a travelling 
companion, writes, "Do you know, the first idea 
that comes with her, in my mind, is not of her 



g 



228 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



being SO particularly 'orthodox and evangelical,' 
but as being the personification of justice, yet 
justice alw.iys tempered with kindness; about the 
only awe-inspiring woman I ever saw, and whom 
I never for the first instant feared. Mercy blended 
with righteousness; she is magnificent to me on 
that account." 

No one could be more kind than she to Christ's 
own aged and suffering poor. She kept them in 
mind; her own eyes saw their lowly abodes, her 
own hands carried them supplies, her own sweet 
voice read or quoted in their ears the divine 
promises. Her face was like the face of an an- 
gel to the lone woman to whom she cheerily said, 
"It is to you, you know, that He is saying, 
' I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.' " 

But when it was the strong and rugged who 
came on a wintry morning, saying, "Please, 
ma'am, would you give me a quarter for to buy 
a basket of coal ?" she tasked her ingenuity to 
help the applicant with a wage instead of a gift, 
doing her a double service in housing her warmly 
while she earned "the quarter" she came to beg. 
If the woman went away muttering, that did not 
annul the benefit. "We can hardly expect such 
poor creatures to be reasonable," Mrs. Banister 
would quietly remark, and repeat the practical 
lessou of self-reliance the next opportunity. la 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



229 



all this course, however reproached by simple or 
gentle, she never apologized for it by explaining 
that she was carrying out her husband's wishes. 
That was not her way. It was enough for her 
that she approved herself to him, to her own 
judgment, and to God. 

These experiences and principles of Mrs. Ban- 
ister were not without their influence in the Gen- 
eral Charitable Society of Newburyport, which 
was formed at her residence and of which she was 
for a time president. It has been doing good 
work for more than a third of a century, and is 
now among the incorporated charities of the city, 
with a good fund at its command. In their re- 
port for 1S84 the ladies say: 

"On that February afternoon, thirty-five years 
ago, a little company of ladies met at Mrs. Banis- 
ter's 'to consult on the best means to be used to 
remove the evil of street-beggary, so alarmingly 
on the increase, to supply the present necessities 
of the suffering poor, who are mostly foreigners, 
and to promote their spiritual welfare.' 

"It was decided 'to divide the town into dis- 
tricts, and appoint a committee of two for each 
district, to visit the families of want and ascer- 
tain their actual necessities, to encourage those 
who are able to labor for their own sustenance 
to send their children to the public and Sabbath 



ajo 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



schools, and to attend public worship themselves.* 
The committees were also instructed ' to solicit 

means for the relief of present suffering from such 
as are blessed with a sufficiency for themselves and 
others.' Their first report, 1830, stated that up- 
wards of eighty families had been visited, from 
which some seventy children had been gathered 
into the Sabbath-school. 

"Thus humbly but hopefully the band of 
workers entered on their task. Friends were 
raised up to furnish the means for carrying for- 
ward the enterprise. Slowly and surely the ob- 
jects striven for, more particularly the suppression 
of street-begging — a topic which the late lamented 
Mrs. Banister never wearied of discussing — have 
been well-nigh attained. The question being 
raised at a recent meeting whether any one was 
now annoyed by begging at the door, some of us 
were able to say that we hardly knew what it was 
except by name." 

One inmate of the family, whose good lay very 
near Mrs. Banister's heart, was a young man, the 
son of devoted missionaries, whom Mr. Banister 
had taken to maintain and educate. He was re- 
fined, sensitive, conscientious, at the forming age, 
and the centre of many hopes and expectations. 
The daughters regarded him as a brother, and 
were perhaps in some danger of injuring him by 



URS. BANISTSK AT HOME. 



331 



I 

I 



over-indulgence. After he went to college Mr. 
Banister became afraid that this young gentle- 
man was spending money too freely and forming 
habits which might impede his success in life. 
"What can we do about it?" he said to his wife; 
"I wish, my dear, that you would see to this." 
What in her wisdom she saw fit to do was to pre- 
vail on the young man, in vacations, to go over 
the expenses of the preceding terms carefully with 
her, item by item, and squarely face his spend- 
ings. With her niece, who lived in the family 
in much the same way, she pursued a like course. 
She was seldom without one or more beneficiaries 
in school, college, or seminarj-, none of whom 
were excused from rendering to her an account of 
every dollar committed to them. She considered 
it a part of their moral training. If they could 
not do it she thought them hardly worth edu- 
cating. If they called her "particular" when 
they were trying to balance those account-books, 
they have blessed her for it since. 

An incident in her early life illustrates her 
exactitude with herself. One winter between 
two of her summer schools, when she was living 
at home with her mother, she set herself to study 
Murray's Larger Grammar four hours a day. Be- 
fore the winter was half gone she doubted the 
wisdom of her plan, but, fearing that to relin- 



iit 



HBS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTSR. 



quisli it would be a failure in perseverance, she 
decided to adhere to her original purpose. The 
grammar, she reasoned, could do her uo harm, 
but a faihire in perseverance would be a loss to 
her character. So she buckled herself anew to 
old Murray, and bringing the authors of her little 
library, one by one, under his "Rules," "Re- 
marks," and " Observations," she knew for life, 
before the snow vanished, what was, and what 
was not, good grammar according to him. When 
at Byfield Mr. Emerson asked her which she could 
soonest identify and locate, a quotation from Mur- 
ray's Grammar or the Bible, she replied, after a 
moment's reflection, '*One from the Grammar, I 
am afraid." 

The persistency which marked her life she 
expected to find in her beneficiaries, not merely 
in the keeping of their accounts, but in their ad- 
herence to whatsoever is just, pure, and lovely. 
She lived herself, and desired them to live, by 
the homely motto which she gave to generation 
after generation of scholars : 



A-ill gaii 



Her prescience in selecting and guiding them 
saved her from frequent disappointment. She 
still lives iu them, for they are leading others in 
the way they were taught by her to go, and in 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOMfi. 



233 



I 



some cases are able, like her, to join, with care- 
ful savings, a bounty large and wise. 

Tlie unwonted burdens that a large hospital- 
ity laid on Mrs. Banister were cheerfully borne. 
Guests were the rule rather than the exception. 
Relatives and friends, acquaintances and stran- 
gers, were welcomed to couch and table. They 
came for a meal, a day, a week, a month, not sel- 
dom for a season, and sometimes for a year. Often 
it was company, high-bred and elevated, whom it 
was an honor to entertain; again it was wayfarers 
whose best claim was that they were the servants 
of the Lord. "I was a stranger, and ye took me 
in," was graven on her heart. At one time it 
would be the widow of an honored clergyman, 
whose home had vanished with her husband; at 
another, a minister too much broken for repair, 
who, with his wife for a nurse, was made at home 
for months; now an old friend, then the daughter 
of a friend; again a missionary's widow with her 
children, next a godly woman brought from her 
two rooms to bask all winter in that sunshiny 
house. An orphan niece or au orphan friend 
would be accorded a daughter's privileges; then 
some poor young woman would be given a home, 
that she might go to school and fit herself for a 
higher sphere of usefulness; and, if to enable her 
to hold on in a class (arithmetic, for instance) 



234 



MRS. %. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



special aid was needed, some dweller in the liouse 
would be invoked to render it, or even some one 
brought iu from outside for this purpose. Allu- 
ding to Mr. Banister's having only a life-right in 
the house, she once remarked, " I have not a pin- 
hold here after he leaves it, but wlule I have it I 
mean to use it." His jiurse met all this ungrudg- 
ing hospitality. His tact, courtesy, and kindness 
were joined with his wife's and daughters' in har- 
monizing the guests when they chanced to be di- 
verse, in bringing out the best sides of all, and in 
making hospitality a handmaid to religion. It 
was almost impossible for Mrs. Banister to be 
thrown with any one for half an hour, in her own 
house or any other, and not be studying to make 
that person wiser or better or happier. Her de- 
sire to do good was always at a white heat. 

Some of the guests she enjoyed; when she did 
not enjoy them she gave no sign. Her niece, on 
one occasion, going to her with a request that had 
come in from outside for the entertainment of 
one who the young girl thought would be only a 
dead weight in the family, said, "Now, aunt, 
yon are not going to take that disagreeable man?" 
It called forth the reply, " Have you been so long 
time with us, my child, and do not yet know that 
the reason we * take folks' is not because they are 
agreeable?" Once when there were several vis- 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOMB. 



23s 



I 



itors in the house, she said to one with whom she 
longed to linger, "My mother used to say that 
the best thing we could give our company was 
ourselves, but I do not find all our company of 
this way of thinking;" and she went with alac- 
rity to look after the material wants of her house- 
hold. This was as near, perhaps, as she ever 
came to complaining. She stood in her lot, as 
she had often instructed her scholars to do, stood 
till she could stand no longer. 

Her innate faculty for seeing what people 
were good for and setting them to work was as 
natural as a bee's to build a cell. It had been 
one element of her success in her educational 
work : in her new sphere it could not be idle. A 
visitor saying, "Is not there something I can 
do for you, Mrs. Banister?" would soon hear, 
"Would you like to do this for me?" It might 
be button-holes to work, napery to dam, a letter 
to copy, an errand to go, or some other small ser- 
vice, but something that the person could do and 
do well. Mrs. Banister believed, and in most 
cases rightly, that such friendly cooperation 
would give the guests a home feeling and in- 
crease their happiness. If not always so taken, 
it was always so intended. Like all instincts, it 
was most busy when she was ill or weary or in- 
wardly perplexed. 



236 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

It was one of Mrs. Banister's luxuries to be 
able to share her delightful home with friends 
who had made her welcome to theirs. Of such 
were the Rev. Dr. and Mrs. Ralph Emerson, of 
Andover, He had been her pastor in early life, 
had heard her recite Euclid, had discovered her 
remarkable ability and foreseen her eminence, 
had saved her from at least one serious mistake 
and helped to give a happy turn to her life. She 
regarded him as at once father, brother, and friend. 
Never, after knowing him, had she probably ta- 
ken one important and decisive step without con- 
ference with him and his clear-headed wife, 
They had learned to value her counsel as much 
as she theirs. On the morning of her marriage it 
was Mrs. Emerson's tasteful hand that arranged 
the flowers that came in profusion from the neigh- 
boring gardens to beautify the house. To him, 
her early pastor and friend, she looked to perform 
the rite which joined her life to Mr. Banister's. 
These friends, tried and true, were ever welcome 
and honored in her new home. It was on his 
strong arm that she leaned when she followed the 
remains of her beloved husband to the grave. 

With pleasure no less unalloyed were Dr. and 
Mrs. Briggs received at the Newburyport man- 
sion. His lamented death, December 26, 1843, 
was the sad occasion for its doors opening wide 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 



237 



to Mrs. Briggs and her younger children when- 
ever she could be persuaded to enter them. 
Among her treasured papers was found, after her 
death, the following letter of Mr. Banister, which 
not only shows how cordially he seconded his 
wife's hospitable intents, but also gives a glimpse 
of his lovely disposition. 

"My Dear Mrs. Briggs: I am glad of a 
corner in this long letter that leaves me room 
just to put my veto upon all your apprehensions 
of being burdensome and troublesome with all the 
frolicsome mirth and gambols of Frank and Mary. 
I love to see and to make children happy, and 
much more do I delight in any offices of kindness 
and comfort to the mother of these above men- 
tioned. So far as social sympathy and satisfac- 
tion are to be promoted by your residence in our 
family is for you and Mrs. Banister to consider 
and adjust, but so far as I am concerned the bal- 
ance is all against me; I am debtor only. Should 
we attempt to make a monetary account of it, I 
should shrink from finding the balance, lest here 
also it should be against me. But in tnith, I do 
not mean to present either of these issues, but 
simply to dissipate, if I may, and prevent in fu- 
ture all such misapprehensions of burthensome- 
ness, etc., as you hint at in your last letter, by as- 
suring you that I shall consider your residence 



238 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BAKISTBR. 

with US, SO long as it can be pleasant and best for 
you, to be an obligation and favor conferred upon 
us and not by us. The addition of Prank and 
Mary but enhances the favor to us because it 
probably prolongs it, while at the same time it 
affords you the pleasure of their society and af- 
fords them the pleasure and profit of yours. Think 
then, I pray you, no more of trouble and burthen 
to us, but only how, and how long, you and Mrs. 
Banister can most and best promote each other's 
comfort and happiness, assured that thus will be 
promoted that of 

" Your friend and obedient servant, 

" W. B. BANISTER. 

"Love to Frank and Mary." 
Mrs. Briggs' presence, sympathy and compan- 
ionship were invaluable to her old friend. Her 
quick eye and ready tact rendered her a wise ad- 
viser and ready helper whenever and wherever 
she was most needed. With a genius for friend- 
ship, she became the friend of every member of 
the family. The daughters loved aud trusted her 
no less than did their mother. She had the rare 
and happy art of doing a favor to another as though 
she were doing a greater favor to lierself. In 
good time Hon, Samuel Fletcher, a friend and 
ally of Mr. Banister, found in her the companion 
he desired, and she, in her turn, was married at 



MRS. BANISTER AT HOME. 

the residence of the friends who had been married 
at hers. 

The children, "Frank and Mary," though 
lacking no welcome at the home of the new fa- 
ther, clung to "Uncle and Aunt Banister," as 
they were permitted to call them. Like his divine 
Master in the love of children as in everything 
else, these had wound themselves about his heart 
and won an easy entrance to his attractive man- 
sion. Both were much there after the mother 
left, the son as long as Mr. Banister lived. He 
found such favor with the daughters that Miss 
Banister made him her administrator; and Mrs. 
Hale, the younger daughter, at her death joined 
his name with that of her cousin Wra. A. Banis- 
ter, Esq., in the trust of private and confidential 
bequests amounting to many thousands of dollars, 
asking no other guarantee than her confidence in 
their personal integrity. 

Dr. Briggs' were by no means the only chil- 
dren who enjoyed the freedom of the house. First 
and last many small folks nestled in the shadows 
of those beautiful lindens. Mrs. Banister loved 
to have them around her that she might do them 
good; for this she looked on them as sent in her 
way. She was in her native element when she 
could be informing their minds, improving their 
manners, correcting their mistakes, employing 



340 



HKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



their bands or feet in useful tasks, dropping into 
their pliant minds seeds of propriety, morality, 
and religion, and planting their feet in the courts 
of the Ivord. No other work was to her so in- 
stinctive and sufficing. With reproof she min- 
gled words of approbation, bestowing the latter 
in the preface. If the will of the young person 
was set in a way she thought not wise, and yet 
not obviously wrong, she would yield rather 
than lose her influence, a lesson she said she 
learned of ' ' her good mother. ' ' Frequently, how- 
ever, she would grant not exactly the favor asked, 
but something like it, leading the child to admit 
that her plan was the best. If the children were 
a little restive, she was serene, loving, as she 
would say, "their whole being" and "intent on 
their best good." She yearned to see formed in 
them the image of tnie holiness, and enjoyed 
nothing so much as pointing them to the "little 
wicket gate," the path to which no saint ever 
better knew. 

Mr. Banister loved the children for them- 
selves, enjoyed their childish prattle, entered 
into their sports, talked with them so that they 
could talk back, honored them with a lovely 
courtesy, gave them of his sweetest and best, and 
drew forth their sweetest and best. They loved 
him, as he loved them, because they could not 



■ MRS. BANISTER AT HOMB. 241 

help it, and grew in grace without knowing it. 
The charms of that host and hostess, of mansion 
and gronnds, of garden and stable, were neither 
few nor small, and remain in the memories of 
such as enjoyed and luxuriated in them like a 
picture of paradise. 

Though this marriage episode of a dozen 
years in a life of eighty was not a season of rest 
and ease and brought with it its own perplexi- 
ties, it was unclouded on the side towards her 
husband. She bore its honors and its burdens 
alike with equanimity, seeing God in all. In re- 
gard to its trials she maintained what she would 
have called "the grace of silence." 

Mrs. Banister often said, "Death is not the 
worst that can befall ns or our friends. It is one 
of the things promised: ' Life or death, or things 
present or things to come, all are yonrs.' " So 
she looked on her husband's dissolution. He 
passed away July 2, 1853. For days after that 
event she was almost entranced in her sympa- 
thy with him in the ravishing sights and joys 
which were breaking upon his ransomed soul, 
and seemed, as it were, by his side in heaven. 
When the hope of a reunion was mentioned she 
answered, " On that point the record is, I believe, 
silent, but we shall see our Saviour and *be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is.' " 



^^^4* MRS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER- ^^M 

As she slowly drifted back to the dull, co1d|^H 
realities of widowhood she was necessarily occu-- ^^ 
pied with the painful changes it made necessary'. 
These accomplished, and herself settled with her 
one maid in her own smaller house, ever>- curtain 
up, every carpet down, everj'lhiug in place, the 
sense of her loneliness and desolation grew upon 
her until it nearly overwhelmed her. The friends 
nearest to her, keeping watch of her, saw her peril, 
and aroused her to see it. She looked at her own 
case calmly, as if it were another's, and inquired, 
"What is the best thing to do under the circum- 
stances?" Something besides herself to think of 
and do for was an imperative call of her nature. 
Her old scholars and friends, some of whom were 
connected with institutions of learning, were al- 
ready importuning her to visit them. The result 
was that, in an unofficial way, she entered largely, 
into her old lines of thought and activity. Hefjl 
hopes for the elevation and regeneration of the] 
world by means of women were quickened and 1 
strengthened. Many teachers and students werel 
enriched by her counsels. Though this revival I 
of the old train of ideas and emotions did not-.J 
cause her memories of her beloved husband t<fia 
fade and wilt, it yet saved her from a morbid des- J 
pondency and gave her a perennial youth. 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



CHAPTER VII. 



I 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 

Prominent among the gifts which Mi^. 
Banister dedicated to doing good was the art of 
conversation. It was a subject upon which she 
frequently dwelt with her pupils. Her first di- 
rection was, "Be a good listener." This she 
knew how to be; and it was at the same time al- 
ways an intellectual and spiritual stimulus to 
converse with her. "I never talked with a per- 
son," said a prominent educator, "who could so 
wake up thought." There were never, either in 
writing or discourse, any intensities of expression^ 
any strained or extravagant statements. In a 
high sense she loved tmth. Not more than three 
or four underscored words are found in her re- 
maining papers. Her talk did not lack Attic salt 
and humor; nobody enjoyed humor more. Speak- 
ing upon themes of which her mind and heart were 
full, she did not lecture, but drew out with skil- 
ful touch the deepest and best thoughts of others. 
Her logically-arranged ideas were expressed with- 
out mistakes or retracing; she spoke with anima- 
tion and graceful modesty. One fact must not be 



244 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

omitted. Quick and penetrating in her discern- 
ment of character, the law of love ruled her 
speech; no detraction found place in it. The 
faults and shortcomings of others were sealed in 
silence on her part. She would sometimes uien- 
tiou to those whom she loved the points on which 
she thought they might improve. One could al- 
ways be sure she had not talked with any one else 
about them, the absence of evil speaking was so 
marked a trait. 

Her religion was of a cheerful type. Though 
her own early experience had been so distressful, 
the future punishment of the sins of mankind was 
a subject to which she rarely even alluded. Miss 
Lyon's "Missionary Offering" would have been 
impossible to her from an unwillingness to dwell 
upon it. Yet out of a deep realization that from 
it she had been saved sprang an uninterrupted 
outflow of gratitude and praise. 

Her busy pen was also a consecrated instru- 
ment. She used it to influence for good on all 
occasions. A few passages from letters addressed 
to a niece whom she was educating will illustrate 
her modes of affectionate counsel. 

To Miss E. G— . 

"You know, dear E , that we are directed 

by the voice of inspiration to be ' careful for noth- 
ing.' Are you not in constant danger of disobey- 




t 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



ing this precept which God nieaat for you ? The 
preparation for your coming examination will be 
to j'ou a temptation. I have mucli more solici- 
tude lest you siu in this matter than lest you fail 
in recitation. If you have forgotten some things 
tiiat you ouce recited, and cannot by doing right 
leani them again, it is proper you should not 
know them now. Wliatever may be the reasons 
why others should appear to more advantage than 
you, God knows all about it, and he accepts ac- 
cording to what we have. Of all the qualifica- 
tions I desire for you, a meek and quiet spirit 
stands preeminent. It is, in the sight of God and 
of men, of great price." 

"The best way of leading others to love us is 
to love them and never doubt their love to us. 
We may show our own love by our conduct, and 
say nothing, ordinarily, about loving others or 
about their loving us — I mean to them." 

"Yotir minute schedule of time for a day, so 
that I might look in upon you at any hour, was 
the very thing I desired. How I should like to 
see you all in your room, seated around your 
study-table, on that nice warm carpet ! Will not 
you three room-mates cultivate each other's dis- 
cretion and self-denial iu leading yourselves and 
each other to obey the laws of health ? By the 
gospel the penalties for disobedience to moral law 



I 



346 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTHK. 

may be remitted to those who turn from their 
transgressions; but no snch provision exists for 
disobedience to physical law. If a child, in the 1 
overflow of filial affection, takes the care of a sick . 
parent, and in doing it overtaxes her physical J 
powers and neglects to secure the necessary rest, J 
the penalty of disobedience must come. Your \ 
body is for God's service," 

The "minute schedule of time" Mrs. Banister J 
desired would probably surprise most of the later j 
South Hadley pupils. The summary is as fol- 
lows: Study four hours, recitations two and on&. 
half, public exercises one and three-quarters, do- 
mestic work and walking two, meals and family 
worship two, silent hour one, dressing and care of J 
room one, recreation one-half, sleep eight and one- 
quarter. 

On accepting a situation as family governess: i 
"In a single family there cannot be that aid I 
to activity of mind afforded by social influence, I 
and it may be more difficult to secure mental ap- J 
plication. In some families it is expected the I 
teacher will have charge of the deportment of I 
the children at meals, and this, in the presence f 
of the parents, is very difficult as well as embar- | 
rassing. Besides, the labor of keeping children | 
tidy, attending to sewing, etc., is among her du- 
ties. In one family iu New Jersey, in which al 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



247 



I 



pupil of mine was employed, they did not expect 
her to associate with their friends, either when 
they made visits or received company, and she 
was cut off from the comfort or profit of culti- 
vated society. The family stood high in the edu- 
cated and religious community, but their notions 
of the position of a teacher made her situation 
difficult and uncomfortable. Parents in their own 
house want the aid and cooperation of a teacher 
to execute their plans; they wish the one in their 
employ to see that their children do this and that, 
and, in cases where parental authority is weak, 
the very things they wish effected are what they 
have not the moral power to accomplish them- 
selves. 

"Were it my object to lead one individual 
to make the greatest possible advancement in 
mental discipline and acquiring knowledge, I 
would, of choice, teach her in a class of ten of her 
equals, rather than to teach her alone. 

"If, my dear child, in view of the whole mat- 
ter, you should think best to make this change, 
you have my approbation; but I would have you 
go prepared to wear the yoke and bear the bur- 
den which in serving Christ in that field he may 
lay upon you." 

"I like the old method of learning to spell in 
columns; of having no one try on a word but 



34^ MRS. Z. p.'^'SXnT^Xnis*: 

^nce ; if wrong, let it pass on, and the one whofl 
spells it right go above those who fail; of hav- ' 
ing credit given for being at the head of the 1 
class at night, and then of having the one at the ] 
head go to the foot the next morning. Without- [ 
this a good speller might keep at the head and. ] 
discourage the rest. I found it was the best way f 
to lead each one to expect to learn every word in i 
each spelling lesson. On my Webster's Spelling- 
Book I place a Jiigh value, as like the one I stud-v 
ied in my childhood and tanght in my youth. I ] 
could better afford to lose many a more costly, J 
book. ' ' 

Referring to one suffering under physical in-i I 
iirmity: 

"My love toiler, with an assurance that I have J 
a full heart towards her which finds expressioa; I 
sometimes to our common Father, to our sympa- 
thizing Saviour. Do she and you have the sweet- 
ness of believing that our Redeemer was truly a. 
man, that he suffered in all points, sin excepted, 
as we suffer? Cherish this thought: he was. 1 
cramped by poverty, he was misunderstood, he 1 
was wronged, he was treated ill to his face, he. j 
knew by experience all our trials.' 

To a relative having the care of a young girl, ' 
one of her own many beneficiaries: 

"An immense amount of labor must be be- J 




WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



849 



Stowed on every generation of oar race to fit its 
individuals to be worth anything to themselves 
or to others. Many a word and many a silent 
effort have taken deep root in the mind of a 
child when the parent had no evidence that he 
might not be laboring in vain. The great thing 
is to secure self-improvement. You must not, 
my dear child, fail in a very important part of 
your duty; that is, in always knowing where this 
young member of your family is, even for a part 
of an hour. Dangers are thick both in known 
and unknown paths in this world, and she can 
have no idea of them.. Should ruin befall her oa 
her going out to see the daughters of the land, as 
was the case with the only daughter of good old 
Jacob, because you did not properly govern and 
direct her, you might go mourning all your days. ' ' 
A family event, already alluded to, is thus 
recorded : 

" fjKWBVStVTOKT, AugUSt J, 1847. 

"Dr. Hale lingered, gradually declining, till 
last Monday afternoon, when his spirit passed, as 
we hope, to the land of the immortal. Their 
babe has been with us since the latter part of 
May, and his mother is now here with him. In 
her bereavement it is a great comfort to have this 
child to love and care for," 

The correspondence with Miss Lyon, though 




GBANT BANISTER. 



less frequent, was never long; intemipted. A 
nearly fatal accident occasioned the first extract 
given Ijelow. In the summer of 1845, as Mr. and 
Mrs, Banister, in their carriage, were crossing the 
ferry, coming out of Boston, the boatmen neglect- 
ed to put up the guard-chain, and the horse, be- 
coming restive, suddenly backed off the boat into 
the water. Her husband was rescued by a rope; 
but as Mrs, Banister was not strong enough to 
hold it, there was a short delay. At the last in- 
stant, after sinking, .she was drawn out, her hands 
bleeding and her strength exhausted. Of her own 
accord she never alluded to the occurrence. 

Misi Lyon 10 Mrs, Banister. 

"July a, 1845. 

" I should love to tell you of the deep interest 
I felt in your remarkable escape. Oh, had you 
found a watery grave, you would not only have 
left us all to mourn that we could no longer enjoy 
you on earth, but tliat we could not even receive 
your parting blessing in a dying hour. But I 
have no time; suffice it to say that you know 
full well the heart cannot always find room and 
strength to utter its emotions." 

More than once the pupils at South Hadley ' 
saw Miss Lyou's face radiant as she said at the 
afternoon lecture, " My very dear friend Mrs. 
Banister is in the parlor. I would like to make a 



"WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 251 

plan that you should all see her." It was not 
uncommon for her to iUustrate some point in refer- 
ence to friendship by saying, "Do you not think 
I can and do love Miss Grant better than when we 
taught at Derry ?" Miss Fisk adds, "And we all 
believed her, ' ' One request was seldom omitted 
even in the most hurried epistle. 

"I have been thinking that you could do one 
thing as effectually as ever with only the strength 
you have to spare; that is, pray for us." 

December, 1842. "In spiritual things we are 
less favored. Pray for us that we may not have 
all our good things in this life." 

March, 1843, "I have one urgent request to 
make of you. It is that you would set apart a 
little time every day to pray in sincerity and in 
truth for us. Pray that God would in his own 
way do a great work here and give us a great 
blessing. Will you thus entreat till you hear 
from us, which shall be soon?" 

June 5, 1848. "I do want to commune more 
with your spirit on earth before we go home to our 
rest in heaven." 

January 19, 1849. "I reluctantly give up the 
prospect of seeing you just at present, a prospect 
cherished more tenderly in the warmth of my 
heart than in my judgment. There has been for 
a few weeks a progressive work of grace among 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

US. We greatly fear the effect of vacation. Do 
pray for us." 

Six weeks afterwards the great, loving heart 
was still. Miss Lyon died, after a short, painful 
illness, March 5, 1849. In the midst of her years, 
lamented by the thousands in this and other lands 
whom her life had blessed, she was laid iu a quiet 
spot near the walls she had raised. It will be a 
place of pilgrimage as long as any Christian educa- 
tor lives. For a year aud a half subsequent to this 
sore bereavement Mrs, Banister was occupied in 
aiding Mrs. E- C. Cowles and Miss Hannah White 
to prepare the memoir edited by President Hitch- 
cock, The result of their joint efforts was the sim- 
ple setting forth of a life which has stirred the 
hearts of multitudes, and will continue to be an 
uplifting force while the church endures. 

Throughout Mrs. Banister's life she was fre- 
quently sought for counsel as to moulding some 
educational institution. From one such corre- 
spondence in 1850 her views on two or three 
practical points are selected. 

"A school for young women would be more 
likely to have an elevated, influential character if 
isolated and a community by itself, so far from a 
college for young men that each may shine by its 
own light It may be hoped the current of pub- 
lic opinion and feeling in the school will become 



"WAYS O? DOING GOOD. 



253 



SO strong in favor of propriety and right that none 
will be willing to resist it and all will choose the 
right because they feel its excellency and beauty. 
If the two institutions were in close proximity, 
higher scholarship might be attained by some, but 
would this tell so much for the good of the world 
as the influence I have described? 

"Juvenile misses and grown young ladies can- 
not both be profited by the same course of disci- 
pline. Bright, intelligent little girls can often 
learn and recite lessons as well or better than 
many young ladies in the last half of their teens 
or over twenty. Supposing them to do so, no 
corps of teachers, whatever be their moral power, 
can prevent these same little girls from undue 
self-esteem. They cannot appreciate the deep 
moral principles by which the elder ones must be 
taught to govern themselves. Hearing instruc- 
tion which they cannot comprehend, they come 
to feel sooner or later, if they continue in school, 
that they have before heard these same things, and 
while older minds receive the truth into honest 
hearts, these little sophomores let them all slip, 
and valuing themseh'es according to their facility 
in reciting, glide and flutter along into woman- 
hood without solidity. To make good characters, 
and oh, how much greater a thing this is than to 
make good scholars I the immature in age, what- 



254 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

ever be their attainments, ought not to be mem- 
bers of such an institution as the highest one in 
your State should be. 

"Lectures on the sciences ilhistrated by ex- 
periments are valuable in their place, but attend- 
ance upon them by those who have but a small 
share of discipline and knowledge tends to give 
them wrong notions of their own attainments 
and make them satisfied with the superficial and 
showy. Young ladies who attend such lectures 
should devote much time to the study and recita- 
tion of the subjects treated, 

"It is better that two young ladies should 
room together than either alone. In future life 
the woman must share her accommodations with 
husband and children, and cannot, like a profes- 
sional man, have a study in which no other has a 
right. She should fonn her habits to yield cheer- 
fully more than half to one who has an equal claim 
with herself," 

The private correspondence of the time is full 
of indications that she was pressing towards the 
mark for the prize of the high calling of God in 
Christ Jesus. Who has not found this true: that 
"the attempt to please simply a human being 
without regard to God's will is not a motive of 
sufficient power to lead us habitually to overcome 
evil with good"? 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



255 ' 



" February, 1833. 

■'My Dear E : Not iaving been able to ■ 

speak to you of late, I have not unfrequently spo- 
ken of you. And to whom do j'OU think ? Gener- 
ally to our common Father, to Him who can sustain 1 
you in the trying hour, who can new-create your 
soul and the souls of all that appertain to you, who 
can sanctify you, adopt you as his child, comfort | 
you, provide for all your wants, and satisfy you ' 
with being himself your portion, your trust, your 
consolation, your all. He can so reveal himself to 
you that all else shall be comparatively as nothing. 

"An intelligent lady whom I once visited re- 
marked that she was afraid to unite in singing | 
that forcible stanza of Cowper beginning, 

" ' The dearest idol I have known,' 
lest God should answer her prayer in the taking 

away of her husband. I suppose, dear E , that 

while our husbands are spared to us and we have 
no intimation that it is the will of heaven to re- 
move them soon hence, we are not to test onr 
submission by the inquiry whether we are willing 
that they should be taken from us, but rather by 
our acquiescence in some present trial, by our 
choice to do God's will and to have it done in 
what he now appoints for ns. " 

A few months afterwards the trial she thought 
to strengthen her young friend for was her ow 



256 



MRS. %. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



To Mr, and Mn. Philllpe. 

" Newbl-rvpobt, Jaly 11, 1853. 

"My Dear Friends: Your kind letters of 
the 5th and 8tli must have a response. Though 
the waves of desolation roll over me and my heart 
is filled with sadness, I rejoice that the Lord reigns 
and does all things well. So much of mercy, of 
rich blessing, has been mingled with my bitter 
cup that most of the time gratitude and the sym- 
pathy of joy with my dearest earthly friend, now 
drinking freely from the fountain of light and 
love, fill my lacerated heart and exclude the an- 
guish which at times must have a place there. . . . 
For many montlis, and much of the time for the 
last two or three years, the sweet sense which this 
adopted child had of the presence and favor of the 
Father, the Son, and tiie Holy Ghost was such 
as to lead him to feel it would be better to depart 
and be with Christ. His sickness in February, 
March, and April was attended with great spirit- 
ual blessings, and the little season of health which 
followed was the richest in communion with heav- 
en that he ever enjoyed on earth. 

"I am living by the day, or, rather, by the 
moment, leaving ever^'thing temporal with Him 
in whose hand my breath is. I would have no 
other aim on earth but to do and to suffer the will 
of God. Having so many times been led in a way 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



237 



I knew not, I trust I shall be led externally by 
Providence, internally by the Holy Spirit, accord- 
ing to the Word of God which liveth and abideth 
for ever. For the future iu this world I iiave not 
an anxious thought. For the present I ought 
plainly to be quiet where I am, doing the duty of 
each moment in its moment, and when the time 
comes that I must take other lodgings on my way 
through the wilderness I expect that my course 
and my stop will be indicated by our Father who 
cares for us. Continue, my dear friends, to pre- 
sent me before Him who has all influences under 
his control, who can sanctify all my blessings and 
all my trials, and so purify me that I may serve 
him on earth and finally in the temple above. 

"Thus far some kind Christian lady has been 
with me. Mrs. Burgess* has been called home, 
leaving her husband at Satara with three mother- 
less babes. I will send you his letter to my bro- 
ther soon. 

" Your affectionate and bereaved, 
L " Z, p. BANISTER." 

I Four months later she writes: 

I "Our helpers are quiet, kind, industrious, 

■ skilful, faithful, such a trio as we never had to- 
m gether before in our establishment. My Heavenly 
I Father deals with me in tenderness, and sorae- 
H * Miss Lyon'i niece, Miss Abigail Moore. 



358 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

times gives me a glimpse of his own loving heart. 
When his children are not prepared for clearer 
vision, how does the little gliniinering of his man- 
ifestations 'through the lattice' strengthen and. 
encourage us ! 

"Mrs. Hale depends on me for company for 
herself and Eben to Norwich this week. I have 
shrunk instinctively from going abroad, and, 
though I must now feel keenly alone, the case is 
dear that I should go with the widowed mother 
and stay with her at a boarding-house a few days. * • 

To Rev. Mr, Marsh. 

"July, 1853. 

"My Dearly-beloved Pastor: Your favor 
of the 5th was truly precious. Let God the Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost be praised for making us- 
partakers of the blessings promised in the gospel. 
The Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, is teaching 
you and bringing to your remembrance just such 
portions of Holy Writ as you need. 

"There may be a work appointed for you by 
your divine Master in that blissful world in which 
'all his servants shall serve him,' for which you 
would not have been qualified without the keen- 
ness of discipline to which you have been subject. 
The lamented Dr. Justin Edwards, in his notes on 
the New Testament, remarks on 2 Peter 1:4, 
[Whereby are given unto us exceeding great aacl 1 




WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 259 

precious promises, that by these ye might be par- 
takers of the divine nature], ' The promises of 
God, heartily believed, have a mighty influence 
in making men like God.' 'He that believeth 
not God hath made him a liar.' i John '5 : 10. 
How great the salvation that can grant deliver- 
ance and forgiveness for such sin ! While I have 
had my feelings cut to the quick that my benevo- 
lence towards my fellow-men has not been ac- 
knowledged or understood, I have been blind to- 
wards the benevolence of my Heavenly Father, 
and must have deeply grieved him. Notwith- 
standing my clear view of the guilt thus incurred 
and my sorrow for it, I continue to commit the 
same offence. Oh, for the fulfilment of the prom- 
ise, ' I win write my law upon their hearts.' 

"To my excellent and beloved husband, loved 
and blessed of the Heavenly Father to the end, 
every good thing seemed to be granted. His 
transit from time to eternity seemed to me as 
much like a translation as Heaven could grant 
him. Of the * valley of the shadow of death' he 
probably knew nothing. Without a struggle or 
the distortion of a muscle of his face he slept in 
Jesus. I love to think of him as having entered 
into the joy of his Lord. May I too be made meet 
for a like inheritance. For the little remnant that 
remains to me below I would occupy the place 



36o 



HR5. ft. P. GKANT banister. 



and perfonn the work whicli was appointed 
me ill the counsels of eternity before I had a be- 
ing. The presence and blessing of the triune 
God, tlie indwelling of tlie Holy Spirit, is essen- 
tial not only for my progress, but for my present 
guidance and support, for everything required of 
me in time and eternity. How grievous that crea- 
tures should ever attempt to draw from them- 
selves! Our light, our life, is in a higher source, 
the Fountain of light and life. 

"I cannot now dwell on the soreness of my 
bereavement, on the keenness of my solitariness, 
in the loss of such a compauion and friend. My 
Heavenly Father has bestowed on us rich bless- 
ings. He does all things well, he disciplines in 
love, and beats down props that the soul may lean 
Only on almighty strength." 



To Mrs, Fletcher. 
". . . With all these and many unmentioned 
blessings you might say tliat my cup was fnll. 
Still my bereavement seems more and more real. 
This home is more pleasant to me than any other 
dwelling on earth, but it is desolate since the 
' house band ' was broken. What is done can no 
longer be done for the comfort and pleasure of its 
head. There must be a blank ever seen, ever 
felt. But my Heavenly Father has given me 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



261 



more of his sensible, gracious presence than for 
several years before. Communion with him has 
seemed like what it was when I was called to 
guide scores of immortals in the way of life. I 
am cheerfii!, notwithstanding the deep feeling that 
I have been stripped, that I am alone. There 
is but little for me to do now," 



To Mrs. Hale. 

" Springfibld, June, 1855. 
"In all my changes and unexpected delays 
you and your dear child have been upon my 

heart. I earnestly desire to know how E has 

been, and how you have been sustained since we 

parted. Mr. and Mrs, W manifest the deepest 

interest and sympathy for him and for yourself. 
Their tenderness is suited to soothe and comfort 
us, and to make us feel that our Heavenly Father 
can raise up for us all such helpers as we need. 

The extensive acquaintance which Mr. W 

has had with complaints like E 's, and his 

knowledge of physicians and attendants who have 
treated such cases with success, is a circumstance 
of no little moment. While I am sorely pained 
by evidence of the prevalence of this complaint, 
so threatening to the intellectual and moral as 
well as to the physical powers, it is a relief to 
learn that well-directed efforts have been crowned 



262 



MBS. 2. P. GEANT BANISTER. 



with success, and Mr. W seemed to feel that 

tliis loved ward of his can and must be saved. 
The object looms up to him as of immense im- 
portance. The solemuity of his countenance and 
the deep pathos of his voice wlien conversing on 
this matter could uot fail deeply to affect your 
heart Never before have I been here and there 
away from home when I liave felt so much solici- 
tude for any of our own household as I have felt 

for Frances, for you, and for E since I left," 

Considering her own age at the time of her 
first schools, the annexed is of interest. The i 

young person in question was fifteen. "If L • 

spells perfectly, reads so well that she could give 
the sense and force of what she might read aloud 
to a school or a family, is thoroughly acquainted 
with mental and written arithmetic so as to teach 
in any part without embarrassment, can recite 
and explain anything in modern geography, un- 
derstands, speaks, and writes English grammar 
well, can recite anything contained in a short 
history of the United States, and is well prepared 
to teach lessons from the Bible; if, as they should, 
her qualifications equal what I have described, I 
would on no account have her commence teaching 
at so early an age. She cannot have the judgment 
necessary to use the best influence on pupils for 
the promotion of their characters. She cannot 




WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



263 



do it, even if her temper is placid and sweet, 
and if she has the habit of self-control. I*et her 
persevere for the present in making acquisitions 
in study, in good habits, and in what is lovely. 
The Normal Schools will prepare many teachers 
of extended acquirements, and to be one of the 
poorest among poor teachers is far less honorable 
than to be a good nurse, a good seamstress, or a 
good hired girl. I want her to become able and 
skilful with her needle, to know how to keep a 
house in order, to cook, to wash and iron, to take 
care of children. These things she should leara 
before she teaches a school." 



To one having ibe care of a wayward child. 

" Yon want to give a note of warning as well 
as of admonition. It does no good to accuse a 
person farther than he can probably admit in 
particular things. Human nature is inconsis- 
tent. ' Out of the same mouth proceedeth both 
blessing and cursing;' out of the same heart flow 
feelings whose manifestations have the aspect of 
love and hate. After many a domestic jar the 
parties have the pleasure of becoming reconciled. 
Strongly ac they may have expressed themselves 
when excited and, for the time, estranged, it is 
not true that they never loved, though in their 
impatience they may have said so. In placing 



1 



254 MRS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

before another his errors, faults, or transgressions, 
for the sake of leading hiiii to repentance and ref- 
ormation, it is, perhaps, never the surest way to 
present the full view of wrong acts, only enough 
that he may see or fear there is something wrong 
iu the heart or defective in principle. When 
Nathan said to David, 'Thou art the man,' was 
there not mingled with his true courage a feeling 
akin to that which Jesus had when his look upon 
Peter touched the heart of the transgressor and 
led him to bitter weeping and repentance unto 
life? From the same divine source I trust you 
will receive a spirit of faithfulness, of compassion, 
and of wisdom, 

"There is something of the moral sublime in 
the address of Joshua to Achan connected with 
his promptitude to detect and put away evil: 'My 
son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God oi 
Israel and make confession unto him, and tell ma 
now what thou hast done.' Perhaps Achan died 
a penitent man. The precept, ' Fathers, pro- 
voke not your children to anger lest they be di&. 
couraged,' is applicable to you, to me, to every 
one of our race who labors to ttirn a sinner from 
the error of his way. In that same hour ma.y 
the Holy Spirit teach you what you shall speak. , 
May Jesus be with you. Daily are you in my 
heart. " 




WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 265 

A very different correspondence is intimated 
in the following: 

"Hartford, August 6, 1859. 

" My Dear Friend: I sent by mail the bal- 
ance of my book. I hope you have found time 
to read it and to mark mistakes. I shall be 
greatly obliged to you if you can thus help a poor 
speller and careless grammarian, not to say aught 
of my heresies. Write and tell me if you deci- 
dedly dissent from any of my views, and on what 
points. 

" Yours very affectionately, 

"C. E. BEECHER." 

It is no exaggeration to say that for many 
years every week brought to Mrs. Banister some 
appeal for help from a struggling church or 
school or benevolent society. The annexed are 
given simply as instances. 

"April 17, 1847. 

" My Dear Mrs. Banister: The 

Female Academy, on behalf of which I write, 
was founded sixteen years ago at a public meet- 
ing held in the Courthouse. . . . The building 
has cost thirteen or fourteen thousand dollars. . . . 
Five thousand was borrowed from the bank, and 
remained a debt at ten per cent, interest. The 
gentleman who paid this and now holds the mort- 



266 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



gage has subscribed one thousand, provided the 
rest is raised within six months. Could we ob- 
tain one thousand at the East we believe some 
way would be open for the rest. Will you not , 
aid us in redeeming this institution? I leave i 
the question whether not only what we have i 
done shall be lost, but what we are willing to do. | 
Would it not be possible to secure for this object | 
one or two hundred dollars in Newburyport ?" 

Variety to the application was given by the 
postscript. 

*' Will you pardon me for asking a frank ques- I 
tiou? Do yon know any lady whose health, edu- 
cation, piety, and experience fit her to be a use- I 
ful foreign missionary ? A friend of mine, of the 
highest qualifications, is under appointment and 
desires a helpmeet, and the West furnishes few 
suitable candidates. I have thought that among 
your former pupils some rare spirit might be found 
for such a work of love." 

"Jacksonville, May 17, 1S49. 

"My Dear Friend: On meeting you at 

E I was much surprised and gratified to find 

you had not forgotten me, though I was your pu- 
pil but a very short time. I remember with great 
pleasure the weeks spent at Derry and with strong 
affection my teachers there. You perhaps know 1 
something of our Female Education Society, 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 267 

Mrs. Wolcott (Sarah Crocker, at Derry, 1824) was 
one of its most efficient members while she lived. 
The society has assisted several hundred yoimg 
ladies, the majority of whom were either orphans 
or the daughters of clergymen of limited income. 
We are this year aiding thirty -five, several o£ 
whom are the children of returned missionaries 
from among the Cherokees and elsewhere. There 
are three from such a family whose father has re- 
cently died and left them penniless. Our semina- 
ries are now some of them of a high order, and 
we think girls born and raised here are better 
adapted to the West than many of those imported. 
Some of our hoped-for resources are likely this 
year to fail us, and we must make a vigorous 
effort to supply the deficiency. . . ." 

"Jacksonville, August 13, 1849, 
". . . . I must trouble you with an explana- 
tion of my seeming neglect in not replying earlier 
to your kind letter containing a draft for twenty 
dollars. I received into my family seven persons 
from St. Louis, driven from there by the cholera. 
Our number was then thirteen. . . . The disease 
has not visited us, though many places near here 
have suffered and we have had much serious and 
fatal illness. I have watched many nights. It has 
subsided in St. Louis after having swept off six 
thousand of the inhabitants I send you the 



368 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

report of our society. During the past year t 
valued home missiouaries have died, leaving fam- 
ilies that would have been helpless and dependent 
but for the education we have given their daugh- 
ters. One young lady whom we have aided two 
years was about nineteen when we received her. 
Having had no advantages, she was ignorant of 
everything but simply how to read and write. 
She passed the first year in a primary school, and 
applied herself with such assiduity that the sec- 
ond year she was admitted to the academy. There 
she has made great progress, and if we can aid her 
one year more will be thoroughly qualified for a 
good position. She is an orphan, lame in one 
hand, having had two fingers burned off in infan- 
cy, but she has worked for her board these two 
years. The career of a useful Christian educator 
is before her, instead of a life of ignorance and 
obscurity. Another young lady boarded with me 
for a while and slept with one of my children. 
Two or three times I had occasion to go in there 
late at night, and found her upon the floor study- 
ing, supported by her knees and elbows, because 
she could not keep awake in a comfortable posi- 
tion." 

Mrs. Banister made room in her charities for 
the adoption of this society whose successive sec- 
retaries had been her pupils. More than a thou- 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 



269 



sand dollars were sent by her to its funds in the 
course of a few years, and she was in communi- 
cation with it almost to the lime of her death. 
Many important points are treated to her letters to 
its committee. On the growing passion for crowd- 
ed study she wrote: "The human mind can no 
fflore be cultivated to good results by giving at- 
tention to many subjects at the same time than 
the soil can produce good crops by having many 
times as much seed sown upon it as it can nour- 
ish. The pernicious theory encouraging pupils 
to hurry over many books must be undermined 
and overthrown by the influence of something 
better. No inconsiderable part of this work must 
be done by mothers and teachers and such ladies 
as your committee. Public sentiment must be 
turned in the right direction by showing that the 
training which accords with the laws of God and 
the human mind tells upon our race everywhere 
with the highest and best results. Can it be right 
to carry in our arms and cherish in our bosoms 
any of the youth of our land for the sake of in- 
creasing the number who uphold the baneful 
custom of going over the greatest possible num- 
ber of studies in the least possible time? Are 
not the very parents who request that their chil- 
dren be put forward better satisfied when they 
learn thoroughly ? What father is not more grat- 




ified to have his daughter compute interest i 
accuracy and quickness than by her simply going 
through arithmetic and algebra? 



HINTS ON EDUCATION. 



The studying at school of seven branches 
erly will do more to aid pupils in self-education/ 
to the age of threescore, than simply learning to 
recite at a public examination seven times seven 
studies. Most ladies who study excitedly and hur>. 
riedly at school for the sake of present credit, 
to gratify themselves or friends by finishing the 
course, are not prepared to study, to think, 
even to read advantageously, after they leave 
school. Never having known the luxury of gain- 
ing clear conceptions of the ideas of others from 
books, lectures, or conversation, and still less of 
the delight of having twice as many ideas of their 
own as are communicated by others on the sub- 
ject before them, they have no inclination to re- 
view any study, still less to commence a new one. 
They have no such relish for nieutil discipline 
and useful knowledge as will lead them to make 
efforts to acquire either. Many ladies at the East 
and the West, who can show their testimonials of 



ation,'^^^ 



or 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD, 



271 



having completed a course of study, have never 
learned to think ; and their conversation is not 
essentially above what it would have been had 
they been employed an equal number of years in 
manual instead of mental labor. To prevent 
these sore evils it should be made a principle in a 
seminary to have every pupil become thoroughly 
acquainted with all the fundamental branches 
before proceeding to the higher. In reading, for 
example, sufficient time should be given, under 
competent instruction, to prepare them so to read 
as to interest the whole school in the thoughts that 
they read, and to read some things in such a way 
as to make not only the pupils, but their fathers 
and guardians weep. They should be able to 
write legibly for weak and old eyes; they should 
write rapidly, too, and with ease to themselves; 
and if they have the natural tact, it would be well 
to have their penmanship of such a degree of ele- 
gance as to excite the emotions of beauty. Young 
ladies should learn to perform with the pen any- 
thing in business that they may ever have occa- 
sion to do for themselves or their friends; they 
should be able to officiate as book-keepers at home 
or abroad ; should be so accurate and rapid as copy- 
ists as to be able to procure their support, and be 
ready in writing family or any other letters. Of 
course they should spell well, but this will not be 



372 



MRS. Z, P. GKANT BANISTES- 



attained by all without drilling. They should 
learn how to teach first lessons to children, and 
liow to develop their opening faculties by appro- 
priate studies. They should understand at what 
period and in what manner the child should learn 
reading, spelling, computation of numbers, and 
when and how they should learn natural history, 
arithmetic, geography, the history of our own 
country, Watts on the Mind, and English gram- 
mar. Whenever and wherever they take charge 
of children they should at the outset know how to 
make them acquainted with God's character and 
government as made known to us in the book of 
Genesis and some other parts of the Pentateuch 
and other portions in the Old Testament, and of 
the great plan of salvation as revealed in both the 
Old Testament and the New. These things, in 
the education of a lady, are, to say the least, not 
inferior as accomplishments to skill in the fine 
arts. The guardians and teachers of seminaries 
should give the training in these things so promi- 
nent a place, and so much time, that no pupil of 
fair talents can fail of good attainments in each. 

These common branches, thoroughly familiar, 
assist a lady more in conversation and give her a 
better appearance iu company than any ordinary 
or extraordinary amount of mathematical and clas- 
sical learning. By experieuce teachers are led to 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 273 

a higher estimate of thoroughness in the funda- 
mental branches. After Miss C. E. Beecher liad 
had cliarge of the Female Seminary at Hartford 
for about four years, she was so dissatisfied with 
the foundation in the training of her pupils that 
she suspended attention to the higher branches 
for half a year and secured to these common 
branches tlie whole time of a large proportion of 
the pupils. Miss Abigail Hasseltine pursued essen- 
tially the same course for more than one-third of 
a century in Bradford Academy, Mass. ; her niece, 
Miss Nancy Hasseltine, also, at the Female Sem- 
inary in Andover, Mass., from 1853 to 1S56; and 
Rev. John P. Cowles and lady in Ipswich Serai- 
nary since 1844. Hon. David Choate, of Essex, 
Mass., brother of R. Choate, one of the best of 
teachers, is not alone in the opinion that it is an 
error in any female seminary, however elevated in 
character or extensive in its course of study, to 
tnist to mere examinations in arithmetic 

Every new branch introduced into our course 
at Ipswich was taught before giving its name a 
place in the catalogue or in any way intimating 
to the public that it was to be studied. Our plan 
was to do more than we promised, and be known 
by our fruits rather than by our professions. 



m 



MRS. 2. P. OUANT BANISTER. 



" Haetpord, August 35, 185A. 

"I begin to question whether we ought not to 
discourage any individual from attempting the 
higher studies till her constitution becomes con- 
solidated. We have now much more schooling 
than education. What is the condition of that 
family which has at its head a feeble, nervous, 
sickly woman ? Of what use are her extensive 
acquirements when the only machine that can 
turn them to account is not in working order? 
How mucli more elevating the influence of a good 
common-sense mother, having a sound mind in a 
sound body, who understands the wants of the 
human being at all ages and can devise means 
for their supply!" 

Still another offshoot of that Ipswich society, 
which occupied her thoughts and pen at this pe- 
riod, was the Board of National Popular Educa- 
tion, organized in 1846 under the presidency of 
Ex-Governor Wm. Slade, of Vermont He gave 
to it a patient, Christian enthusiasm and the last 
twelve years of his life. Classes of young women 
■were collected at Hartford for a few weeks in the 
spring and autumn, and there listened to courses 
of lectures from prominent educators preparatory 
to being accredited and located as missionary 
teachers at the West. Mrs. Hauister gave to this 
society from the first a liberal annual subscription, 



1 




WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



275 



aod herself met the autumn classes of" '55, '56, 
and '57. It was a genuine love of the work that 
reenlisted her after sixteen years, though iu a 
large sense teaching had not been intermitted. 

The addresses to these teachers were such as 
she had given in her own school — practical, forci- 
ble, abounding in illustration, enriched with the 
observations and experiences of many years not 
only as a teacher, but as a lady prominent in so- 
ciety and at the head of a large establishment, 
Her heart went out to them thus going from their 
homes to obscure and unappreciated labor. She 
followed them with her prayers and addressed let- 
ters to large numbers of them who made known 
to her their trials or need of counsel. As a part- 
ing gift she handed to each "The Life of Mary 
Lyon." One, who went afterwards as an unmar- 
ried missionary to Africa, told her the struggles 
and heart-aches of her life there as she would 
have told her mother. 

In the autumn of 1855, after meeting the teach- 
ers at Hartford, Mrs. Banister, in company with 
Miss Hannah White, came into what she calls 
this "vast Western valley." To her the journey 
was most suggestive. Twenty-one years before 
she had travelled by stage and canal-boat to what 
was then the West. That survey of the new 
country had intensified her feeling of the neces- 



MKS. 8. P. GHANT BAHISI^R. 

sity for Christian educators everywhere to give a, 
right direction at first to the forming coinrauui- 
ties. She now saw high-schools, seminaries, col- 
leges, and State universities rising and shining 
where there had been at the time of her first visit 
scarce a spark of intellectual light. On this sec* 
ond journey she went from one centre of educa- 
tion to another, learning what they had done and 
what they aimed to do. With many of them life- 
long friends or old pupils were connected, and the 
lour was at once the renewal of delightful inter- 
course and the opportunity of learning how the 
great cause was going forward. There were often 
meetings of peculiar value. Under date of Octo- 
ber 25 she writes from Keokuk, Iowa : 

" Miss White and I are, fbr a day or two, in 

the family of Rev. Mr. W . He is absent on 

an agency, but his wife {formerly Miss A. L,, 

W , of Putney, Vermont, a pupil at Ipswich 

in and after 1S30) is at home with several of her 
seven children. At this moment she is hearing 
a class which she could not transfer to another 
teacher. She is so cheerful, so intelligent, and 
so Christian that it is refreshing to see her." 

During this and the two succeeding montha 
she visited the female seminaries at Jacksonville, 
at Rockford, and the colleges at Beloit, Oberlin, 
and Hudson. 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



fiyy 



To Prof. Joseph Emerson, BdoiL 

"Oberun, December i, iSjS' 

"Our travelling lias been valuable, our visits 
in private families vastly more valuable. It is our 
acquaintance with the people and the information 
we have gained from them that draws our hearts 
so strongly in that direction. Your infant literary 
institutions, which are yet to give character to 
"multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,' 
are each now taking their decided bent. 

"Those of you who are giving a right direc- 
tion to these institutions, and leading the pupils 
under your moulding influence to act from day to 
day in small matters from such motives as should 
guide them when they become men, are using a 
capital infinitely more valuable than money." 

On this journey, in the middle of February, 
1856, she reached the Cleveland Seminar}-, a 
school but two years established. Contributions 
had been solicited for it in New England, and she 
had made a donation of a hundred dollars. "We 
were at the time," wrote one of tlie teachers after- 
wards, "greatly depressed. The wife of the prin- 
cipal had recently died suddenly. We hardly felt 
like having a visitor, for she was a stranger to 
every one of us. One cold evening the tall, state- 
ly, well-dressed lady made her appearance. It 
was an era in the life of more than one of the 



978 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

hard - worked and perplexed band, who could 
hardly be said to welcome her. The next morn- 
ing she was ill, the succeeding day worse, with 
lung difficulty. It was evident her journey had 
come to an end, if the final stage of all had not 
been reached. But the sudden helplessness among 
strangers was met with perfect serenity. That 
sick-room soon became a resort to gather courage 
and faith for the whole household. Who would 
complain, hearing her say, after a painful vigil, 
'Oh, I had as much as two hours of refreshii 
sleep in the night. 

It was eleven weeks before she was able to 
leave us, but the time was filled with effort for 
the well-being of teachers, pupils, and domestics. 
From time to time she opened the Scriptures 
the school in the morning chapel, "uttering a fe 
of the many thoughts she would delight to express' 
to them," and made full notes of a course of leo»l 
tures on China by Rev. Mr. Bonney, not forget- 
ting the number of "Christian Almanacs" and 
"Pilgrim's Progress" which had been distributed,- 
or that eight ministers for the United States wouli 
equal what China now has, or, further, that Chii 
is mentioned in the Bible. Isa. 49 : la. Othi 
lectures on Europe were written out from memi 
and were most accurate in particulars. No younj 
mind could be more ardent in its love of learain; 



m 



WAYS OP DOIKG OOOD. 



37^ 



more eag;er to grasp after truth that bore any rela- 
tion to the great cause of evangelizing the world. 
Still, for herself she was looking beyond the veil. 
In March she wrote from her sick-bed to Rev. Mr. 
Marsh, alluding to some aged friends: "I think 
of them as near the land of the living, where all 
live day and night unto Him who loved them and 
washed them from their sins in his blood, and 
where all his servants serve him without impedi- 
ment of bodily intellect, will, or heart, without 
cessation and without end. Dear friends, one and 
all, shall we too erelong awake and find ourselves 
there ? God is able of these stones to raise up chil- 
dren unto Abraham, May we so believe his Word 
that it may seem to us living truth, and so believe 
as to be guided by it." 

When the warm spring days came she left the 
seminary. On her way to New York she ad- 
dressed G. R Institute at Austinburgh, Ohio. 
The journey was not without observations. 

" New Youk, June 37, 1356. 

"I began to recruit while a guest of Mr. and 
Mrs. Stanton at a cottage near the Ingham Insti- 
tute. Mrs. Emma Willard took tea with us there. 
Our ride to Elraira was reviving, as also our stay 
of four hours at the Elmira Female College, re- 
cently erected at a cost of seventy thousand dol- 
lars. At Qwego we had pleasant fellowship with 



38o 



HK5. S. P. GRANT BA^ld^R. 



Dr. Cox and his family at the beautiful place 
which he occupies, Vesper Clifif, ou the banks of 
the Susquehanna, 'That place,' Dr. Cox says, 
' would be an excellent location for a family 
school,' and he seems to hope that it may be ap- 
propriated to that use after he shall have entered 
on his official duties at Ingham Institute. In 

riding about New York with Mrs. H I have 

been impressed with the beautiful in nature here 
as never before. Indeed, I never before have s 
the streets of this city when the vegetable worl^ 
was in its glory." 

August found her in Hartford with her friea 
Miss White, using all her garnered strength in tin 
train ing-school . 

The summer of 1856 had brought little gain t 
the feeble form taxed by the autumn labors, ; 
it seemed desirable to avoid the Northern climate 
for a time. Two ladies who had been pupilj 
and teachers at Ipswicli, Mrs. Prof. Stafford and! , 
Mrs. Thomas Maxwell, were living at Tuscaloosa, 
Ala. They invited her to spend the winter with 
them, and on October 4 she embarked on a steamer 
for Savannah in company with Prof. Stafford and 
his daughter. "He endeared himself greatly'* 
to her on the way " by his kind consideration a 
unobtrusive attentions. ' ' 

Her obser%'ation5 on the place and its s 



WAYS dp DOING GOOD. 



28l 



were committed to writing. They showed her 
way of making simple facts speak for themselves, 
and. in the light of what soon followed, may have 
interest. Having outlined the early history of 
Tuscaloosa and its natural advantages, its schools 
of all grades are enumerated. She mentions such 
as have received "the effusion of the Spirit," and 
remarks o^ others, "The religious element ia 
these has not been generally manifest." The re- 
sults of "trial by single combat," on the business 
prosperity of the place are clearly given. She 
pleasantly describes the free social and brilliant 
parties where the conversation may "relax the 
mind of the student or the man of business," add- 
ing that "a Christian teacher need not commit 
herself so as to be expected at large gatherings, 
or to be at the expense for such a variety of 
showy and fashionable dresses as is common for 
young ladies." Among "the female portion of 
the community there is an elevated state of 
morals," "some devoted exemplary Christians, 
but the organized churches, especially the Pres- 
byterian, totter for want of supporting pillars." 
"Some would say there prevails a spiritual 
death." The paper thus closed; "Persons under- 
standing the influences that bear on the young in 
such a community made up of different races un- 
der the dominion of caste, would hardly dare to 



S82 HKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

send a lady tliere who would be likely to marry 
and train up a family of children under mould* 
ing power which caunot be entirely resisted and 
overcome. ' ' 

Sketches of character aiid notes of conversa- 
tion recorded without comment leave no doubt 
as to the penetration and judgment which saw 
with accuracy and weighed without bias the evil 
of slavery, a word, by the way, which does not 
occur in the whole. Whether she drew the por- 
traits of her own pupils who had for some time 
resided there, or gave the early school-life of 
Preston Brooks, relates conversations concerning 
mulatto servants, or the habits of lying among 
the blacks, there is significance in every line. 

"Just above Tuscaloosa the people generally 
cannot read. The county is 60 miles long and 
50 broad. Its home for paupers has five inmates." 
Southern mistress: "My woman came home from 
Methodist meeting and asked, ' Mistress, is that 
religion, to fall down and then get up and shout I 
Is that it?' I took my Bible and read to her pas- 
sages to show her that she must obey and do 
right, and endeavored to lead her to see that she 

must look to Christ also.' Mrs. B : " Is Miss 

X a Christian?" Hostess: " Yes, a Sonthem 

one. Never prays, as anybody knows." In No- 
vember Mrs, Banister wrote: "There is no lad 



4 



4 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 283 

of occupation here for the benevolent. I have 
access to an intelligent negro man, dying of con- 
sumption, who knows that he is a sinner and 
needs a Saviour, but finds no resting-place." 



To Rev. Mr. Marsh. 

"Tuscaloosa, January 23, 1857. 

"Dear Sir: You will readily believe that your 
favor, mailed the 8th, found a cordial reception. 
Surely our Heavenly Father, who gave us capac- 
ities for social attachments, is pleased to have 
us, while on earth, ' love one another with pure 
hearts fervently.' The nature of our early at- 
tachments is fully appreciated by him. Does not 
our glorified Redeemer, as man, know the satis- 
faction of being understood for a lifetime by some 
early friend ? And when we cultivate such long- 
continued friendship in his love, does he not 
smile upon it with that sympathy which the 
Holy Spirit who dwells in hira directs us to exer- 
cise one towards another? viz., 'Rejoice with them 
that do rejoice and weep with them that weep.' 
A few times in my life I have had a sustaining 
influence from a view of Christ's sympathy with 
me in my infirmities and trials. It was subdu- 
ing, satisfying. Is it in our suffering only that 
he sympathizes with us? In the earlier stages 
of the development of my mental and moral pow- 



MRS. K. P. GttAKT BAHIBTBR. 

ert you discovered aud fed the wants of my spi* 
itual being. It is natural, it is right, that yott 
should continue to look upon me with charity 
and tender regard. Though I may have had 
' teu thousand instructors in Christ, yet not manyJ 
fathers,' To this my heart has responded fot 
more than forty years of my pilgrimage. Tin 
nearer I come to its close the stronger and deepi 
is this response, and the more earnest my desira 
that you should know how tenderly I feel thai 
your debtor I am and ever must be. For yeattfil 
I searched diligently to find in myself all thaM 
fruits of the Spirit. But my internal analyzings 
was out of proportion and produced barrenness* I 
Too close or too continued a view of the evil ii|i 
myself, or any view of it that is not connecta 
with a commensurate or clearer view of the tner^ 
cy of God in Christ, unfits me for daily cheerfulJ 
service. To cultivate faith, hope, or love, I musftfl 
bring before my mind the objects on which it mayM 
fasten. My searchings of heart are mainly of thofl 
character to aid me to discriminate between whalfl 
is right and what is wrong in myself, that I majti 
carry all to the Fountain, some to be washei 
away and buried in the depths of the sea, 
the desire after good that would overcome evil " 
to be fed and refreshed and invigorated with new 
life and power. I have sometimes made a deliber* 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 

ate, conscious effort, day after day and month after 
month, to cultivate confidence in God ; that is, to 
make that filial confidence, which sometimes flows 
forth spontaneously, a permanent state of mind. 
The reason for exercising it is always the same. 
' Why should I break loose fro:n my moorings and 
expose myself to be tossed about on the treacher- 
ous sea ?' 

"I look back upon a life of mistakes, errors, 
faults, sins, and always with pain. Still it seeins 
to me that our Heavenly Father has seen that the 
leading purpose of my soul has been to know and 
do his will, that my choice has been to be saved 
from sin according to liis plan as revealed in the 
gospel, and that to eternity I would have all the 
glory of my silvation given to God, Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost My dear friend, do you come 
to God through Christ? If you do, all the bless- 
ings that Heaven can bestow on a redeemed sin- 
ner are yours. All onr defects were seen and 
known in all their extent and aggravation before 
the covenant of grace was sealed in heaven, per- 
haps long before our first father's fall. The com- 
placency which Jesus takes in his purchased ones 
is more in what they will be when his work in 
them shall be completed than in the character 
which they possessed while undergoing tribula- 
tion in the flesh. 



2C5 MRS. Z. f. GRANT HANISTER. 

" ^^y privilege of g:iving religious instructioiil 
in counection with the opening exercises of Mrs. 
Stafford's school of one hundred pupils has been 
to me a blessing. Generally it seems as if I had 
divine aid. I need grace for my own soul tliat 1 
may present truth appropriately. Teachers andf| 
pupils all need enlightening and sanctifying as ] 
do." 

Correspondence on educational subjects was a^ 
this time extensive. In the year 1856 a small " 
printed pamphlet, containing selections from let- 
ters, was sent privately to friends. Some of these 
have been already noticed. The custom called for J 
at Ipswich of securing a half-hour morning andf 
evening for private devotions had been copied in ' 
many of the new schools. On this point we find : 
"With a school consisting mostly of the gay and 
thoughtless or even indifferent I should not dare 
to require of them the form of secret devotion, 
lest it should pacify the conscience and lead to 
eternal min. Even after their hearts are openedJ 
I sliould prefer they would make the necessary 
effort to secure this time themselves." 

" Pupils must not be expected to report faith*i 
fully their own failures in regard to whispering 
anything else so long as they have many failures 
to report. It is never safe in any school to asl^ 
the pupils whether they have succeeded in oxa 



i 



I 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. 287 

particular and another before they have been led 
to control themselves so as to succeed, nor before 
their consciences have been carefully exercised on 
the point in question. Without this preparatory 
work, which it might require terms, if not years, 
to accomplish, pupils have been trained to care- 
lessness and indifference whether they speak truth 
or. falsehood. Ordinarily other methods are better 
than this," 

To a discouraged teacher in a section of coun- 
try called, on account of its moral darkness, Egypt: 

"You have noticed the account given of one 
of Miss Lyon's pupils on page 86 of her Memoir. 
I have visited the place where she taught that 
mixed school. Persons there of all classes speak 
of her influence with lively gratitude. While 
the present generation lives, and doubtless mnch 
longer, she will be held in high estimation. The 
day of small things is not to be despised. If you 
cannot have a school that requires all your ener- 
gies, can you not become acquainted with the 
mothers, and read to them selections from the 
Bible ?' ' Here is a point frequently urged : ' ' Many 
have broken down or impaired their constitutions 
by attempting to accomplish too much study 
while working for their board. Not a few have 
destroyed their elasticity, their natural sprightli- 
ness and buoyancy of spirit, and unfitted them- 




selves to be as useful or as happy ia any of t 
relations of life as they might have beeu. Young^ 
women, while bearing the yoke in their youth, 
shonld leani how to find recreation and rest for 
themselves, and then they will be able to inter- 
sperse innocent and refreshing ainnsement for 
their pupils with vigorous study. It is iniportant 
that a wife, a mother, a housekeeper, daughte 
or sister, should know how to provide for hers 
and others agreeable entertainment." 

Mrs. Banister returned to the North in JunM 
1857, stopping at New York to read over with I 
Hallock the manuscript of the uew edition of t 
"Life of Mary Lyon." From here she wrote^ 
"I look upon my time at Tuscaloosa as amonj 
the happy periods of my life. Fellowship with | 
few precious ones there was most sweet TJ* 
Lord bless them and quicken many others." 

In August and September she met the Hard 
ford classes for the third and last time. The deatl 
of Gov. Slade in 1859 practically put an end 1 
the operations of the society. But the idea wa| 
not to perisli, and in 1885 four leading Protests 
denominations are sending out and supportini 
women as missionary teachers among the fre 
men, Indians, Mormons, and New Mexicans. 

Work in the Sabbath - school was soon re- 
sumed. Large packages of notes, clearly written 



WAYS OF DOING GOOD. aSg 

out, sliow her studious preparation for meeting 
her pupils. Usually they were the teachers in 
Sabbath-schools in Newburyport, Concord, or 
Ipswich. 

As she advanced in life this privilege became 
an especially coveted and besought favor. Her 
mind was kept open to every fact which modem 
research has brought to illustrate the Sacred Text, 
and she studied it as earnestly at eighty as at 
eighteen. Unmoved from the foundation of her 
faith she saw scholarly criticism assail some of 
her cherished opinions. The secret of the Lord 
is with them that fear him. She knew in whom 
she had believed. With interest no less fresh and 
living she watched the progressive changes ia the 
methods and diffusion of education. In the new 
States, where in 1830 the wife of the home mis- 
sionary or the Christian teacher had gathered a 
few eager yonng women or stalwart, untrained 
boys in her one small room, and taught them 
arithmetic aud the Eibic, reading, spelling, and 
the evidences of Christianity, in i860 a geuera- 
tion of young people were passing through a 
course of high-school study from which all reli- 
gious instruction had been excluded by law. Oth- 
ers besides henself have believed that the imperial 
West and Northwest owed their political and 
moral soundness, their mighty advance in all the 



390 



MKS. Z. P. GKANT BANISTEK. 



conditions of human happiness, in no small de- 
gree to the first schools taught in many a new set- 
tlement by some humble, godly woman. Never 
from her lips was heard a hint that in any re- 
spect the former days were better than these. 
Still she urged with unwavering confidence by 
tongue and pen that not simply to "unfold the 
faculties," but to train the character, was the aim 
of all right education. 

In her sixty-seventh year the generation for 
whom she had labored was fast disappearing. 
The dearest friend of her youth, the companion 
of her middle life had gone. Many other voices 
of friendship and love were heard uo more. Wid- 
owed, she was left solitary in family connections. 
But her sympathy in the advance of the Redeem- 
er's kingdom was the perennial fountain of living 
thought and feeling which kept the shaded paths 
of age green and beautiful to the end. Too full 
were the mind and heart of that charity which 
"seeketh not her own" to leave a moment for 
repining, and the eye that was not dimmed by 
tears for herself could look tenderly into the sor- 
rows of others. The comfort she was able to im- 
part to the snfFering through her long life grew 
none the less abundant and precious as she drew 
near threescore and ten. 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



291 



To Rev. F. Marsh. 

" Ipswich, March 19, 1S60. 

"My Dear Friend; The companion of your 
life, whom you loved as your owu soul, has fin- 
ished her work and had her dismission. Never- 
more will she feel the infirmities of the flesh, 
nevermore the dulness or the waywardness of 
the spirit. To our Creator I would give thanks 
for the evidence that an entrance has been minis- 
tered unto her abundantly into the everlasting 
kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. 
In my youth, when I was occasionally an inmate 
of your family, my imagination was often occu- 
pied on what an entrance into the presence of 
Jesus must be ; how the redeemed spirit must be 
affected by seeing him as he is, by knowing that 
he has brought it into harmony with himself, that 
henceforward our choice, our affection, our joys, 
will be in entire unison with his, and that we 
may love, serve, praise, and honor him to all eter- 
nity. Since the beginning of the world men have 
not heard nor seen what the bliss of heaven is. 
Like the peace of God, Phil. 4 : 7, it passeth not 
only the knowledge gained by the senses, but also 
all understanding. Still, has not God revealed 
unto us the nature of this blessedness? In tast- 
ing that the Lord is gracious, and in being re- 
freshed by drinking from the living Fountain, 



293 MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

have we not sometimes felt that clearer manifes- 
tations of the divine character and favor, closer 
union and more intimate communion, and these 
continued endlessly, would be just such happiness 
as we want and all we want? Rev. 7 : 13—17. 
['What are these which are arrayed in white 
robes,' etc.] Our alienation from God all re- 
moved by the renewing of the Spirit, our sins 
forgiven according to the riches of liis grace by 
the blood of Jesus, our souls cleansed from all 
unrighteousness, our confidence in God entire, 
our conformity to his will and his image com- 
plete, will it not be sweet to unite with ten thou- 1 
sand times ten thousand and thousands of thou- I 
sands in saying with a loud voice, ' Worthy is the 
Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches 
and wisdom and strength and honor and glory 
and blessing'? 'He hath loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood, and hath madel 
us liings and priests unto God and his FatherJ 
To him be glory and dominion for ever and everJ^ 
Amen. ' 

"Though as much as we can receive is doubt-^! 
less revealed, it is true that 

" ' In vain [he fancy tries lo pninl 
TliL' monifntnflfrtkalli.' 

Do you remember what Adelaide Newton says a 
her longing to see Jesus 'face to face'? Whatj 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



293 



loss not to pass through the vale of death and, by 
this change which our Heavenly Father has ap- 
pointed, be prepared to behold the glorified body 
of the God-Man Mediator who is our advocate in 
the court of heaven ! Though our Redeemer has 
abolished death (2 Tim. i : 10) to the believer, he 
has not taken away its sadness to the survivor. 
In one sense 

" ' 'T is the survivor dies.' 
Jesus can enable us to say, ' Whom have I in 
heaven but thee? and there is none upon the 
earth I desire besides thee.' When by the grace 
of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit we shall be pre- 
pared, and our time for exchanging worlds shall 
come, shall we not then be willing rather to be 
absent from the body and present with the Lord ? 
Will we not now joy in the joy of our loved 
friend, and give her a sympathy fuller and more 
sweet and tender than we ever gave her while 
here in the body? 

" But oh, your riven heart! It must bleed, it 
will suffer. The enjoyment of the domestic affec- 
tions makes suffering by separation necessary. 
But we need not murmur. In Hebrews 12 there 
are truths and precepts for us. In Psalm 119, to 
which yon directed my attention September 12, 
1812, we find the utterance of the important truth: 
' The entrance of Thy word giveth light.' What 



294 K>S- Z. P. GEANT BANISTER. 

a contrast between the bereaved in a gospel s 
in a heathen land ! i Thess. 4 : 13-18. [' But T" 
would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, con- 
cerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow 
not,' etc.] My tender love to such as remaiit 
with you. Ma)' God show mercy to thousands 
generations of your descendants! 

"February 9, E. H. [Eben Hale], 14 yeais^l 
four months old, passed away. ' He was the onlyJ 
son of his mother and she a widow.' The only 
grandchild of Mr. Banister. The only great-J 

grandchild of Mrs. H 's [Hale's] mother's^ 

parents. Yonr companion in tribulation, 

"Z, p. BANISTER." 

July 15, i860, Miss Catherine Beecher wrotftfl 
to Mrs. Stowe: "I have had a most channinjjfl 
visit to my dear friend Mrs. Banister. Shi 
has been for years my chief resort for coum 
and sympathy, and to me .seems more like Je*l 
sus Christ than any earthly friend I ever knew. 1 
She has a strong, quiet, self-reliant commoni 
sense, a most elevated habit of communion withl 
our Lord, and a most tender and comforting sym-l 
pathy in everything that interests the thoughtsl 
and feelings of her friends, and she is so well bal-. 
anced and so clear and discriminating in intel-J 
lectual and moral perceptions that I always g 
wiser by communing with her. The only want ii 



WAYS OP DOING GOOD. 



295 



her cliaracter is the aesthetic element and a wider 
range of reading in that direction.* But no 
earthly friend is perfect. Jesus Clirist has each 
perfection that we find singly in our friends har- 
moniously united. 'The One altogether love- 
ly,'" 

To Mrs. Pliillips. 

" Newduhvport, August i6, iS6o. 

"My Dear and Deeply-afflicted E : About 

II A. M. your telegram and a most intelligent 
note from Miss Hinsdale were handed me. I 
think of the spirit of your husband as enjoying 
the highest blessing promised by our Lord, to be 
with him, beholding his glory, like him, sat- 
isfied. Is your sympathy with this beloved one 
still? The union between him and the One who 
redeemed liiui is now complete. To-night the 
presence of that lifeless body is like company in 
your house; after it shall be laid away to rest till 
the resurrection mom there will be a loneliness 
and desolation before unknown. This cannot be 
told to a fellow-creature. But the God-Man, Christ 
Jesus, knows it all. His eye is upon you; his 
presence is with you. Often is he with them of 

■ We scholars never for a moment ihouglit her deficient In it, 
though we knew il could be thrown into the shade by her stronger 
Instinct Tor the right. She was such a realist that she could not 
enjoy a work of art that contradicted facts, but she appreciated 
good pictures and good music. E. C. 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

lacerated hearts, and tliey know it not How far 
was Mary from supposing that Jesus was with her 
in her anguish! 'Tliey have taken away my 
Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.' 
"I hope you will not so personify Death as to 
think of hini as a grim monster, a tyrant. It is 
better to realize that He who formed and so long 
upheld the earthly tabernacle of the beloved one 
has now taken it down. Your tender, loving 
companion is not, for God took him. Has He 
not a right to His own? Is it not for him to say 
in what part of the universe his creature shall 
be? Is it not 



" Are you not thankful to the Giver of eve 
good and perfect gift that for so many years youra 
has been a happy married life? But do not, dearl 

E , live in the past. Looking moment by mo^ 1 

ment unto Jesus, receive his lessons. Seek f 
what you will value a hundred years hence, an 
inheritance on which you may soon enter. Wha^ 

can I, beloved E , do for you? How, that ] 

have not yet perceived, can I help you to bearl 
your burden? I mean only as a creature, a po( 
finite friend." 



A YEAS ABROAD. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



A YEAR ABROAD. 

In October, i860, Mrs. Banister crossed the 
ocean for a year's sojourn in Europe. It was a year 
of prized treasures of experience. On the steamer 
she was one day greeted with delighted surprise 
by a young French girl who had some years be- 
fore run away to America from her home in 
Rouen to avoid a distasteful marriage. She had 
finally drifted to Newburyport, where her appear- 
ance in church caught Mrs. Banister's observant 
eye. She took the friendless young creature to 
her house, instructed and cared for her charge 
till the girl left, after a time, grounded in Chris- 
tian principles and keenly grateful to her bene- 
factor. Why these lives touched again was appa- 
rent afterwards. At Havre Mrs. Banister found in 
the household of Rev. R. N. Sawtell, then chap- 
lain of the American Seaman's Friend Societv, 
what she was wont to call a "sweet home." Near 
them, on the beautiful shaded street which high 
overlooks the harbor of Normandy, lived at that 
time three members of a family widely known 
to Christians in France and America, Monsieur 



3IKS. Z. P. GRANT BANIST&R. 

Henri Monod and liis sisters, Misses Eliza an^ 
Betsy. Their mansion of rich simplicity, banked ' 
with roses, jjeraniums and heliolrope, was the 
abode of a fragrant, lovely piety. In these circles 
Mrs. Banister fonnd a rare and elevated com-, 
panionship seldom put in the way of travelleral 
abroad. Delightful indeed to her were those Sat-J 
urday evening reunions in the Monod salon, T 
While the ladies wrought some handiwork 
chapter of the Bible was read and expounded. .1 
Work was then laid aside and a prayer was of- J 
fered. A cup of tea and some small cakes wereil 
then served, and an hour of friendly converseJ 
dosed the day. The sainted Adolph had, in the 4 
respites of his toil, been wont to be among them, 
and now the brothers Frederic and Theodore from 
their distant fields came at intervals to tell the 
home group of loving ones how sped the cause of j 
true religion in France. It was a rallying-point'l 
of evangelical Protestantism nnder the reig^ of| 
Napoleon III. in the hostile camp of Romanists^l 
atheists,, and tourists. 

The first stay at Havre was short. She ; 
proceeded to Paris, joining there a friend, and! 
subsequently a travelling companion who haSm 
furnished some recollections of her in this foreig: 
environment. 

"Through Mr. Monod we found a home in j 



A YGAK ABROAD. 



299 



highly respectable French family, the father of 
Madame Serval having be«n musical instructor 
to the children of l,ouis Philippe. Two young 

English girls, the nieces of Lady C , with their 

governess, were also inmates, and tlie jolly three- 
year-old boy Serval, with the thoroughly polite 
monsieur, completed a most interesting house- 
hold. Before a week had passed Mrs. Banister 
had won the heart of the governess and they had 
enjoyed a quiet hour in our room, Bible in hand. 

"One of the lirst sights she wished to make 
sure of was the conservatories of the Jardin des 
Plantes. In this luxuriant wilderness of tropical 
exotics we spent some hours, wandering after- 
wards through the rooms where a million and a 
half of classified specimens of the auiuial and 
vegetable world are arranged. They did not fail 
to remind her of the wisdom of Solomon, who 
'spoke of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in 
Lebanon to the hyssop that springeth out of the 
wall.' Seated in the avenue of chestnuts, we 
told each other the little we had learned of the 
Republican presidential candidate, for it was elec- 
tion day at home. 'Who is Abraham Lincoln? 
Will he be chosen?' It was eight days before 
we knew, 

"She liked to walk when it was possible, as 
affording more opportunity for observation, and 



I used to fancy that her tall, striking; figure in its 
appropriate fur wrap attracted more than a passing 
glance of respect from the passers-by. For her- 
self she entered into everj-thing, looked at everj-- 
thing, from the same standpoint as ever. This 
■was to her a new and interesting part of the world 
for which Christ died. The morning and even- 
ing prayers in our room were full of supplica- 
tions not only for absent dear ones, but for the 
multitude about us, nor did she ever forget each 
member of the family under that roof. 

"Our visit to the palace of the Luxembourg, 
where were then conspicuously displayed the fa- 
mous picture of a prison scene in the Reign of 
Terror and two immense representations of the 
marriage of the emperor, and his triumphal entry 
into Paris, and our day at the Tuileries, restored 
and regilded from tlie ruin of '48 for the imperial 
residence, with its magnificent outlook over the 
gardens, the leaping silver fountains of the Place 
de La Concorde, down the Champs Elys^es to the 
Arch of the Star, were occasions of great enjoy- 
ment and suggestive remark. At the Louvre in its 
fifteen separate museums she singled out for atten- 
tion the winged sphinxes from Nineveh, the por- 
trait of Sardanapalus, the hawk-headed gods and 
cat -headed goddesses from Egypt, and two pictures, 
the Marriage at Cana, by Paul Veronese, and 



A YEAR ABROAD. 



301 



Rapliael's Archangel Michael. Her curiosity as to 
the ceremonies of Catholicism was satisfied by a 
grand High Mass at St. Roch. Once she attended 
French Protestant service, where she said she was 
'able to join in spirit' The exquisite architec- 
ture of the old Hotel de Ville, as well as its rich 
and brilliant internal decorations, afforded her 
high pleasure, as did also the Madeleine. Com- 
ing out of this, we were just in time to see a bridal 
party ascending the steps. Only a glimpse of 
the young lady's white dress beneath her wraps 
hinted that it was such, and Mrs. Banister re- 
marked the absence of display, for none but the 
very wealthy could afford to be married at the 
Madeleine. One day, lovely in soft autumn light, 
we wandered among the close-packed tombs of 
P£re-la-Chaise, fascinated by its gloomy trees and 
historic names, then turned back to the city 
to stand a while in the garden of an old convent 
where under a plain fiat slab rests the dust of La- 
fayette. She had told us how, for some hours, 
she exerted all her ingenuity inventing pas- 
time for the weary and expectant girls when he 
came to Derry. The beauty of the great parks 
and gardens seemed to fill her with a calm joy. 
This was the redeeming charm at melancholy 
Versailles. After glancing at the acres of gilding, 
frescoing, and painting within, and longer at the 



302 



MRS. 2. P. GRANT BANISTgR. 



closet confessional in which Louis XIV. freed hfi 
supposed conscience, and at the bed whereon he 

died, old and miserable, than at anything else, we 
walked for some time up and down the eight hun- 
dred feet of terrace, drinking in the fair scene of 
world-faraedfountainSjflightsof marble steps, green 
avenues of statues, and in the distance the shining 
waters of the Grand Canal. But we did not see the 
great streams play from these myriad jets on Sun- 
day. The precious historic souvenirs of Fon- 
tainebleau, from the dungeon-like chapel conse- 
crated by Thomas il Bcckct to the small round ta- 
ble on which Napoleon signed his abdication, long 
chained our attention, but I believe scarcely any- 
thing in France gave Mrs. Banister so much de- 
light as our drive through the paths of its miles 
of forest yellow and brown in autumn's sylvan 
beauty. Winding under the grand old monarchs. 
of the wood, at every eminence we could loolci 
through and over them to distant Paris, and but' 
for these glimpses and the tall crosses in the way! 
we might have thought ourselves in some primeval 
forest of the Alleghanies. Often her thoughts oill 
what we saw would take shape in a Scripture quo- 
tation. When at the Imperial Potteries we were" 
told that the pieces mnst be burned many times, 
and that the first painting gives one no idea of 
the final appearance, 'We arc as clay in th( 



I 



A YEAR ABROAD. 3O3 

hands of the potter,' said Mrs. Banister. Inter- 
est in educational and benevolent institutions 
was first with ber on both sides of the Atlantic. 
Her face lit up when she was told at the public 
reading-hall of the library that in the evenings 
it was crowded with readers, who sometimes 
waited in the vestibule an hour for a vacant chair, 
and she certainly enjoyed, in another way, our 
attempts to find Dr. Watts and Dr. Dwight in 
the names of writers of all nations cut in red let- 
ters all over the exterior of the building. 

She carried her habits of investigation into 
the miuutiffi of French housekeeping. Noth- 
ing of woman's work or duty was foreign to her. 
Facts like these gained in conversation always 
interested: If families live on an expensive scale 
they keep two servants, usually only one. The 
best receive twenty francs a month. The break- 
fast between ten and eleven is prepared by the 
domestic in a little recess like a closet with two 
or three pieces of charcoal on a range two and one 
half feet long. All the kitchen utensils might 
be put in a bushel basket. The elaborate dinner 
at six or seven is cooked at a restaurant and sent 
in hot. Everything to be washed is sent out of 
the city to the blanchisseitse. When sent back 
you think it has been to the blcuissmse. 

' ' Our survey of a Protestant benevolent institu- 



304 



MRS. Z. v.- GRANT BANISTER. 



tion showed her in a novel but natural roU. A pile 
of ordinary brick buildings inclosing a square was ~ 
occupied by a mimber of ladies called Deaconesses. 
Here tliey devoted themselves to the education of 
poor children, the care of the sick, and the recla- 
mation of degraded -women. All dressed in black 
with white caps and were pledged to a certain 
number of years' ser\'ice. The children, ragged 
and dirty, were gathered in a schoolroom, and Mrs. 
Banister made a short address which was transla- 
ted to theni. There was the same Heavenly Fa- 
ther, she said, and the same precious Saviour, in 
America as in France, and, young as they were^ J 
they could learn to love and ser\'e him. He wasa 
always watching to see whether they did right, and ■ 
was especially pleased with little children who tried 
to do always the best things they knew how. She 
had come a long way to see them and would never 
look on their faces again, but if they grew np good | 
men and women, that was the greatest good she J 
could wish them. We saw the admirable arrange-j 
ments for the hospital department, the little whitel 
cot-beds, the small, neat sleeping-rooms, each -v 
a chair, a stand upon which lay a Bible, and a t 
with a down cover. Separate rooms were p 
cd for the care of the scrofulous and a set for t 
reception of stranger ladies who might be ill i 
the city. ' So if I should be sick here, 



A YSAK abroad. 



305 



you take care of me?' asked Mrs. Banister with 
tears in her eyes. 'Yes, indeed!' said our sweet- 
faced young guide, with an answering glow. In 
leaving the visitor did not forget that the place 
was supported by voluntary contributions. Ou 
two special occasions of this kind she was, to her 
great disappointment, unable to go out. One was 
the ordination of a missionary to Africa in the 
obscure chapel of the French Methodists, when the 
detail of the simple services, where some fifty 
were present, affected her deeply. That such a 
call should be heard and obeyed in this apparent- 
ly godless multitude was a most precious proof of 
the enduring Word. The other was an excursion 
to the Salp^tri^re, an infirmary for aged women, 
perhaps the largest in the world. 

"The evening was passed in recounting par- 
ticulars we had learned of the immense asylum, 
its forty-five buildings and more than four thou- 
sand inmates, all women over seventy, all utterly 
penniless; some insane, some bed-ridden, but more 
scattered in cheerful, chatty groups everywhere, 
in tidy caps, washing, mending, cooking, doing 
the work of the establishment. It was great 
pleasure to go over to her every item of the beds, 
the laundry, the tables, the statements made that 
all had meat once a day and a little wine, that 
Protestants could have Protestant clergymen, that 



UStS. Z. p. GEART BAIOSTEK. 

those who were able could earn some pittance £ 
themselves making sacks and shirts. Her prayei 
that night for these unfortunates, that they might 
be comforted and be led to know the truth as it is 
in Jesus, was one to be remembered. It was almost 
the last evening in Paris, December 4 she re- 
turned to HavTe in company with Mr. Monod and 
his sister, whom she met for the first time. De- 
cember 18 she wrote, 'On my way from Paris I 
had some sweet fellowship with Miss Betsy Mo- 
nod, At her second call we arranged for an hour 
from II to 12 the ue-xtday, when we read together 
the eighth chapter of Romans and conversed < 
the rich truths there presented. To-morrow is 1 
be our first hour together from 10 in the momingjj 
for studying each Wednesday, for the present, t 
book of Hebrews.' " 

" Havbc, February i, 

" Must our fair heritage be given to reproachfl 
We had hoped that God would make our Ameri^ 
can Israel a missionary church. Oh, that it may 
yet be ! If people would pause and be quiet long 
enough to look at things in their true light, and 
consider their own good, hopes of better tim 
would be encouraged. There are, however, dai 
shades to the picture. For thirty years ' 
Carolina has been cherishing a desire to lead in g 
revolution establishing a distinct confederacy." 



A YEAR ABKOAD. 



307 



"If we go to Bngland I see no advantage in 
being tliere earlier than a few days before the an- 
niversaries in May. I care more about seeing 
some of those English good people than any other 
of the lions there. Sorry as I should be not to visit 
England and Switzerland, my only plan i.s to be 
in harmony with God in his Word, providence, and 
Spirit." 

The next day after penning these words she 
was stretched on a bed of violent illness, helpless 
in a strange land. For three months she did not 
leave her room. Miss Monod communicated her 
state March 13. 

(Translation) .... " She has suffered severely, 
and the physician speaks of having recourse a sec- 
ond time to a blister. This physician is a young 
man who has studied thoroughly, and came to 
Havre a year since provided with the best rec- 
ommendations from some of the first doctors of 
Paris. More than all, he is an excellent Christian 
and treats his patients with special interest, Ma- 
dame Banister seems to like him much and to 
have entire confidence in him. 

"It is a great relief of mind for us that she has 
now with her as nurse Mademoiselle E. Eertin, 
the young French girl who came from America 
with her, and who is strongly attached to her. 
It was a great goodness of God that this young 



308 



MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



person was not anywhere engaged, and tl 
was able to conic to our dear sick one, who 
rounded with all necessary care. 

"Dear Madame Banister has been truly sus- 
tained through these long weeks of suffering and 
of trial. It has been granted to her to accept 
everything with submission and to commit in 
peace into the hands of her Heavenly Father the 
issue of her malady."* 

In a note dictated the same day she says, "I 
have received from others just the kindness that I 
needed. For more than six weeks I have neither 
been able to read or write." Three weeks later , 
another dictated note states: 

"Since writing yon my right limb has beenJ 
a part of the time quite helpless, and must beJ 
moved by onr hands. It is now better. . . . Mjrl 
cup overflows with blessings. I have been tryinjfB 
to count them up; they are more in number thanJ 
I can specify. Family worship, moniing and evea»J 
ing, is attended in my room, and is to me an iU' 
valuable privilege. 

' ' The seeing of Switzerland is forbidden to n 
for the present. Do you remember the remark o 



• Mrs. Banister ofken reonllfd tlie providing of her travcUiiie 
companion in Paris, of this physician at Havre, and of her allen- 
dant tliruiiKh hi^r illness as among the Btiiklng insluncca of liir 
Heavenly Fathei 's care. 



A YgAS ABROAD. 



309 



Mr. Henri Monod, when he called on ns in Paris? 
It would be pleasant to look at the beauties and 
sublimities of the Alps, but this may not be essen- 
tial to the performance of our work here or to 
our preparation for another world," 

There were hours in these long weeks of help- 
lessness when the cup of consolation she would 
bear to another trembled in her hand. 



I 



" Havre, March ag, 1S61. 
"The billows of sorrow that at times roll over 
you are such as have seemed almost overwhelming; 

to many a widow. Can you realize, dear E , 

that I know' by experience the elements of the 
feeling that leads the heathen widow to choose 
to be consumed on the funeral pile with her hus- 
band? The object for which we have daily thought 
and labored is taken from ns. To him our life 
and love were of some consequence, but to whom 
that remains on the earth is our existence of any 
importance? But this is what Paul calls knowing 
our fellow-beings 'after the flesh.' It is God's 
favTir which is life. If he reveal himself to us 
as our salvation, our portion, our present help, 
we may rejoice and glory in him in all our 
tribulations. I hope the Bible truth you relish in 
Bushnell's Sermons may attach you to heavenly 



3*0 



MRS. Z. P. GKANT BANISTER. 



objects and lead your medttatioQ to heavenlg 
tlieines. May you serve the Lord in every act, 
the cares and labors of your household as well e 
the guidance of your children. 

" I still keep my bed, and write lying on i 
back.'* 

" It was the first of June when she began t 
move about By the middle of July she was s 
much better that the coveted trip to England was 
decided on. 

" During those last weeks of convalescence thei 
Wednesday Bible study with Miss Monod 
become a daily season of prayer. These houia 
of united communion with their beloved Redeem*] 
er and common Father drew them to sit togethea 
under His pavilion with great delight. 
French girl, Eugenie Berlin, who had by sud 
strange circumstances been prepared to be a nm 
by that sick-bed, was led into the way of hig] 
usefulness by daily instruction the last ten u 
of her stay in lessons recited to the invalid. 
Banister then took care to search out for her j 
larger sphere of employment. She went as i 
teacher to Malta, and at length married a mia 
sionary in New South Wales. 

"At our last Sunday service in the chapel Mrs. 
Banister was much touched at Mr. Frederic Mo- 
nod's account of a London barrister now in Pari 



A YEAR ABROAD. 



3" 



who calls those together that will hear, prays 
and sings, saying he can only speak three words 
in French to them, "God loves you." To the ties 
of Christian friendship formed in these months her 
heart responded ever after. We left Havre July 17. 
In the morning our pieces of baggage were mar- 
shalled with some trepidation before the custom- 
house officers at Southampton. Upon our word 
as to contents they were courteously passed. 
Soon after the tears were seen rolling down Mrs. 
Banister's face. Her explanation of this extraor- 
dinary loss of self-control was, ' They are tears of 
gratitude, my dear, that it is all so easy.' Our 
week in the Isle of Wight was one of unalloyed 
pleasure. The green, graceful downs flecked 
with sheep, the clumps of umbrageous trees, the 
embowered mansions and picturesque villages the 
white cliffs and the purple billows of the bound- 
ing sea, were often recalled in after days of re- 
tirement and infirmity by her whom they remind- 
ed of the heavenly country. Among its precious 
remembrances was our pilgrimage to the home of 
the Dairyman's Daughter. As did Legh Rich- 
mond, we approached the cottage by a 'little hill 
shaded with trees,' stopped at a dwelling before 
which were 'three tall elms,' and saw the hedged 
inclosure 'where two cows were feeding,' as in 
the story. Within was the fireplace, unchanged, 



313 UBS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

by which sat the venerable parents as they talked^ 
to the young minister of their great loss, and ' the 
little window where the ray of the setting snn 
came in' to glorify her dying face. I^ike multi- 
tudes before us, we followed the way of the funeral . 
procession, and stood by the spot where that child | 
of poverty and heir of God's kingdom was buried 
in 1801. As we turned away Mrs. Banister said 
with peculiar emphasis, 'The righteous shall be 
held in everlasting remembrance.' With scarcely 
less interest we visited the church at Brading 
where Legh Richmond preached, the scenes of the 
short life of the Young Cottager, and her lowly 
grave, only marked by the trodden grass around 
it An excursion to Black Gang Chine was the oc- 
casion of a characteristic incident. Mrs. Banister I 
was unable to descend the chasm, but on the return I 
of her companions communicated the informatioa 
she had gained from the gate-keeper. 'This man 
has been here twenty years. These walks are all 
kept in order by him. He has eight children and 
they live in the little house we saw coming down. 
The oldest son was at Sebastopol, and was spared 
to come home, he thinks, in answer to prayer, anda 
has since become a Christian. The pastor of thefl 
English church is a very good man, but he cannofJ 
tell whether he preaches the whole gospel or not, \ 
though, as they are both something of geologists, J 



A YHAH ABROAD. 313 

they see a g^Dod deal of each other. He attends 
the Wesleyaa church himself, hears the pure word 
preached, and hopes he loves it. His support is 
from the voluntary fees of visitors. This is some- 
times sixpence, sometimes a shilling, sometimes 
nothing. Once a person gave him a sovereign. 
It was Queen Victoria.' 

' ' August was spent in Ijondon, but she was too 
weak from her illness to accomplish what she had 
hoped. Short visits only were made, first to the 
Zoological Gardens, for her enjoyment of scien- 
tific collections was noticeable; afterwards to St. 
Paul's, Westminster Abbey, the Crj'stal Palace, 
the Houses of Parliament, and the Tower. She 
was so much alive when out that one forgot her 
feebleness at the time. An afternoon at the Na- 
tional Gallery filled us with delight and surprise, 
but its beauties could not enwrap us from the 
sharp pricks made by the remarks on all sides 
over the Bull Run battle, half sneering, half apol- 
ogetic ' Indeed, there was some pretty sharp 
fighting," sir, pretty sharp fighting,' was said 
with the air of a dog-fight referee. We could not 
trust ourselves to talk over home matters even 
when alone, 

"All her strength was gathered for the one 
thing she must see: somewhat of the benevolences 
of London. A lodging-house for working-girls, 



A 



314 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANTSTER. 

near St Giles, was first There they had clean,' 
comfortable beds, fire, lights, the use of kitcben- 
furnititre, the work-room and kitchen to sit in, 
and board over Sunday, for about fifty cents a 
week. They must be in before half-past ten- 
people usually sat up till midnight — do no Sun- 
day trading, be tidy, and bring no company to 
the house without permission. They could make 
bed-ticks at twelve cents each (sewing-machines 
were then unknown), and sometimes help about 
the work and receive an allowance on their 
board. Furniture was of the plainest, but im- 
maculate. Some women were gathered to hear 
the Bible read, to whom Mrs. Banister spoke for 
some minutes most feelingly. In answer to ques- 
tions the matron said she felt herself particularly 
called to the work. 

" From this place we crossed over to the ' Boys' 
Refuge,' once a large carriage-house. These 
boys were all taken from the street, utterly friend- 
less and destitute. Most of their faces looked oldj 
either from early hardship or early badness. W< 
watched them at their cleaning, cooking, shoe- 
making, and carpenter- work. Rigid economy of 
outlay ruled everywhere. A frame in the office 
displayed the daguerreotypes of fonner inmate^ 
who had graduated and gone into good situatioi 
some in Canada, some in Australia. The sin; 



I- 



A YEAR ABROAD. 



315 



lar tenderness and affection with whicli the super- 
intendeot, Mr. Williams, spoke of them was in 
keeping with his whole appearance and manner. 
Never had we seen a more interesting face above 
bent or straight shoulders. ' They are to have a 
picnic in a few days,' he said, 'a treat coming 
once a year.' He accompanied us through a part 
of St Giles to the ' Rescue House ' in Dudley 
Street. The swarming misery and squalor of 
those dens was something horrible. At the Res- 
cue girls could be placed at an expense of a shil- 
ling a day for not more than two weeks, till, if 
desired, they could be taken to some reformatory. 
The dieting was thoroughly Rnglish: breakfast, 
one-half pound bread and butter, or herring, with 
coffee; dinner, meat and vegetables, or soup; on 
alternate days meat or suet pudding; tea, one- 
half pound bread and butter with tea; supper, 
one-quarter pound bread and cheese. 

" In the streets we noticed boys with red 
shirts, numbered, like little firemen. These were 
all shoe-blacks, uniformed, and gathered into lodg- 
ings where they were cared for. We were told of 
evening schools and sewing schools, clothing soci- 
eties and penny banks and night refuges, and found 
it would require weeks to see one-half of them, 

"A glimpse of home-life was enjoyed iu a half- 
day spent with the fairiily of a retired merchant, 



5l6 HKS. Z. p. GKANT BANISTBR. 

to wliom Mrs. Banister had letters from a South-^ 
em friend. The couple were portly, wealthy, 
and childless. Three substantial meals occupied 
a good part of the afternoon and evening. Their 
Confederate sympathies were softly ignored byJ 
Mrs. Banister's tact, and they were drawn out c 
the glories of the British Empire. The house waj 
in the once Grub Street, and the lady accompaaie< 
us a few blocks off to see the dwelling, by line: 
succession, of the poet Milton. In the miserabl^l 
dirty court some old hags were washing. WS^ 
were afraid in the daylight. 

"Disappointments from various causes besides 
her feebleness were frequent. She had a letter to 
Mrs. Ranyard, the organizer of the first move- 
ment to send poor Christian women to read the 
Bible among their more ignorant neighbors — one 
of the ' good people ' she had longed to ; 
That lady, on the point of leaving the city, 
too much occupied with her half-dozen secretaria 
to give her any conversation. Strongly desiroiu 
of hearing Rev- Newman Hall, she was driven t 
mistake to Spurgeon's church. He preacbei 
'like himself,' she said, 'forcibly, profitably.^ 
But it was Mr. Hall's last Sunday in London fof 
the summer. None the less she excused the cab-" 
driver. 'He probably mistook Surrey for Spur- 
geon'r.,' was her gentle remark. A very long 



A VEAR ABROAD. 



317 



ride on another Sunday took us to hear Rev. 
James Hamilton. His brother preached instead 
of himself. It was a small consolation to be in- 
troduced to him after the service. Still another 
Sunday she missed, from the excessive heat, list- 
ening to an eloquent sermon, delivered with great 
unction, by Dr. Binney, and what was more, hear- 
ing the good doctor, fat and somewhat short of 
breath, pray right heartily for America, the 
unique instance of our journey. Most keenly of 
all she felt the denial of her cherished plan to 
spend some days witli Mr. Miieller, going over 
those orphan asylums at Bristol. It was more to 
her than all London; but she was too ill. It was 
the way she took these crosses that impressed us; 
never a word of impatience or repining. Our 
last look was at certain graves. Searching out 
Bunhill Fields, we found a tangled, neglected in- 
closure, higher than the street, and shut by a 
rusty, locked gate. Entering we gathered around 
a flat slab inscribed with the name of Isaac Watts. 
The long, dry grass almost concealed it. After- 
wards we discovered a tablet whereon was carved, 
'To the Author of Pilgrim's Progress.' No 
word beside. For the grave of George Fox we 
explored in vain. Thence we drove to Cripple- 
gate Church, where rests John Milton. The spot 
was covered by an immovable pew. 



3l8 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

" Next day we were on our way northwai 

revelliug in green fields and gardens and winding 
streams; through Oxford, the mantled, gray- 
walled old university town, quiet as a New Eng- 
land village, for the races were in progress cli 
where, and we wandered solitary through collej 
chapels, and libraries, filling them with ghostsj' 
through Stratford, to the beam - plastered birth- 
house of Shakespeare ; on to Edinburgh, of all 
the cities we had seen to Mrs. Banister the most 
fascinating. Standing on the parapet of the Cas- 
tle, o\n eyes took in that unrivalled prospect: Cal 
ton Hill and its monuments, the arm of the sea; 
the city, so strangely mingled of handsome modi 
ern streets and ' closes ' of the past century ; and Ar«' 
thur's Seat, green, rising in the midst. Its places 
of historic interest: the bedroom of Queen Mary 
of Scots, the narrow, high-timbered house of John 
Knox, the churchyard where was signed 'The 
Solemn league and Covenant,' the house at 
Morningside where lived Thomas Chalmers, he! 
us with a special charm. Nowhere had Mi 
Banister enjoyed more fully sights and insights 
things new and old. In the air, soft as June, 
saw Abbotsford and Melrose, and we cast many 
loving look behind as we turned towards Glasgoi 
and home. 

"The last great disappointment was that si 



ng- 



A YKAR ABROAD, 319 

could not see the Scottish Lakes. It was borne 
' like the rest. A Sunday in Glasgow brought the 
usual incidents. We wished to hear the Rev. A. 
Bonar; another preached for him. But it was not 
to us usual that in those crowded streets we saw 
only two vehicles the whole morning. One of 
these took us to Dr. Macleod's church. It was 
late, and the door was locked. * You '11 not get 
in,' said our driver as we turned the handles. 
* You see, this minister makes a good deal of 
himself.' But the sexton finally admitted us to 
standing-room just inside, and we heard the frag- 
ment of a powerful discourse. At its close the 
doctor read the notice of evening schools, and 
warmly urged all who could not read and write to 
attend them. That, at least, we should never 
have heard in America. 

" September 6. 

**The shores of Britain were fading from our 
view. Through all these new and varied scenes, 
in picture galleries or in sight-seeing excursions, 
she was as earnestly on the watch for service to 
her Master as in the schoolroom at Ipswich. The 
daily and nightly season of prayer was main- 
tained, and no untoward event or unjust annoy- 
ance ever seemed to shake her sweet confidence 
in God's guiding love. The benevolence of her 
nature made itself felt even in the households of 



3» 



MRS. Z. P. GKANT BAHISTEK. 



strangers whose tongue she could not compre 
Iteud. One of her first acts on reaching home'" 
was to send the young Englisli governess in Paris 
the 'Life of Mary Lyon,' and with Miss Monod 
she long maintained written intercourse. In 
liotels and boarding-houses we were uever two or 
three days in the same place that she did not find 
a way to come at the hearts of the domestics wbo^] 
waited on us and drop gently a loving word fori 
their souls, and not seldom did she meet a feeling 
response. Several limes, in some trying emer- 
gency, as when our trunks had not arrived from 
Loudon twelve hours before the steamer was t 
sail, and we could not find out where they wen 
she would say in our room, ' Let us have a littl^ 
season of prayer;' and, after a few petitions fot 
light and guidance, she would rise perfectly quie 
having committed her way imto the Lord. 
journey with lier became not only a pleasure totu^d 
but a moral and spiritual training." 



THE SUNSET. 331 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE SUNSET. 



Mrs. Banister's life was prolonged thirteen 
years after her return. A letter written near the 
end of her journey contains a characteristic judg- 
ment of herself as from another's point of view. 

To Mrs. P . 

"Edinburgh, Scotland, August 29, 1861. 

** Besides having had a long and severe ill- 
ness I have advanced in age. My memory and 
judgment are impaired by decrease of bodily and 
mental strength, and my perceptions are so much 
slower that perhaps my hearing is less quick than 
formerly. Failures of this kind must try my friends 
on my account and on their own. The trials of 
advancing years are many. Removals by death 
or by distance give pangs to many a heart, as do 
a thousand other events. But the decay of our 
own powers, especially powers of mind, is more 
keen an affliction to the person who suffers it 
than many others with which friends and the 
world generally sympathize. For myself, our 
Heavenly Father sees that further discipline is 

Mrs. Bftnlater. 2 1 



323 MRS. Z- P. GRANT BANISTER. 

necessary ; I receive it at his hand in the hope that 
lie will accompany it with the power of his Spirit 
Whether our trial is the loss of friends or of 
health, of limbs, senses, mental capacity, propertj', 
reputation, or employment, it is of divine ap- 
pointment Even so. Father, for so it seemed good 
in thy sight Let us try to look at the events of 
this life as we shall ourselves see them in the 
light of heaven." 

Notwithstanding this self-estimate, none who 
knew her could doubt that her journey had yield- 
ed thoughts and impressions that enriched her 
mental resources ever after. The form began to 
bend, but the black eyes lost little of their smiles 
and sparkle, and hearing was never to the notice ■ 
of others impaired. These last years were full of.j 
unabated effort for the highest well-being of all^ 
in her reach, of growing ripeness in the sweet 
graces of humility and love. It remains to gather 
some reflections of the spirit that illumined the 
evening-time of loneliness and advancing bodily 
infirmity. The old family mansion passed to other 
occupants and she had henceforth no home. There 
were some weeks of breaking up, "removing from 
their resting-places papers and various articles, 
once so useful and so tenderly associated." lu 
this sad task she was "led along step by step, 
strengthened and comforted." In December she 



THE SUNSKT. 323 

was established in the hired rooms at Newburyport 
which were her abode to the end. ' * My chamr 
ber," she wrote, **is large and commodious, the 
morning horizon and the rising sun and moon in 
full view, all of which I greatly enjoy." 

To Mrs. Phillips. 

"Newburyport, June 3, 1862. 

**How many families have' been called to 
mourning! How many wounded men have claim 
upon our sympathy and prayers ! Surely our Presi- 
dent, his Cabinet, Members of Congress, and mili- 
tary leaders must fail unless guided and strength- 
ened from above. Upon many of our Christian 
people has been poured out a spirit of grace and 
of supplication. 

* * It has been painful to see so much boasting, 
so much trust in men, expressed in our newspapers. 
How long this great nation must be kept in the 
crucible before it shall be purified is yet to be 
made known. May each one of us repent, humble 
ourselves, confess our own sin and the sin of our 
people, and look for forgiveness from Him who is 
mighty to save. ' ' 

*'The old homestead and that open field of 
grass are before my front windows. The great 
elm, the highest tree in town, in front of this side 
of the house, has been putting on its most beautiful 



334 V^- ^ ^* CKAMT BANtSTEa. 

drapery; it i3 an object to enjoy at evening twl^ 
light and at other times in my outlook. 

'*My having been without a companion hai 
opened the way for receiving most valuable kind< 

ness from a niece of Mr. T 's. Such has t 

my suffering that I chose to be much by myselt*^ 



" February 13, 1S63, 

"I am glad you are in school, called to aworl 
an angel might covet. Your pupils could, I su] 
pose, attend to your reading the first chapters 
Genesis and talking on the work of each day tii 
they gained a vivid conception that 'God madt 
owns, governs, and uplifts this world.' 

"Miss Fidelia Fisk labored two years for the 
girls in Persia, bringing them to apply thei: 
minds daily to divine trnth, before she saw any; 
evidence of their being affected by it. A convii 
tion was growing in her mind that she needi 
something besides the Bible to exercise their 
minds upon for the three hours daily which this 
had previously filled of their efforts. At this ebb, 
of her feelings the power of the Spirit was mai 
fested. Two of her pupils were brought under 
influence; others were soon inquiring the way 
life. When she left Persia, after a residence 
fifteen years, two-thirds of all she had taug] 



io-^^H 

le^l 



THE StJNSBT. 



325 



gave satisfactory evidence of union to Christ. 

All these were disposed to guide others to Him, 
all were ready to lead their sisters in prayer. 

" Missionary work, a work to be done by per- 
sons of whom the Saviour said, ' As Thou hast 
sent me into the world, even so have I sent them 
into the world,' is the same, whether in Japan, 
Newburyport, or Cleveland — that is, to lead oth- 
ers to understand and obey the Bible. Am I not 
as truly under obligation to labor for the salvation 
of the members of the family in which our Father 
has cast my lot as I should be if I had been sent 
here by an association of my fellow-creatures as a 
missionary? For some months before January 17 
I had access to them in a Bible exercise on Sab- 
bath evenings, and last Sabbath they came cheer- 
fully to the same. Ask for me an unction from 
the Holy One, and for them the power of the 
Holy Ghost in applying the word, 

"At Mt. Rural, Mrs, Hale's family residence, 
it was my privilege to read the Bible at morning 
and evening worship. My selections included the 
call of Abraham and prominent events in the his- 
tory of the Jews, till their final rebellion in going 
to Egypt. The hired man and woman, both 
Americans, drank in ideas as not before and got 
hold of principles of God's government in the na- 
The man commenced reading for himself, 



MRS, Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

and yesterday told me he liad proceeded to Sec-' 
ond Saiiiuel, I have this week found he hadi 
never seen a map of Palestine and I put a small! 
one into his hand, also Emerson's 'Biblical Out-l 
line.' This review has probably been more 
itable to me than to any one else. 

"For your own relief, spiritually, my belovei 
friend, I would suggest the careful perusal, daily, 
of a portion of God's Word, alone and in his real- 
ized presence as speaking to you from the written 
page, sitting under his shadow with steady repose 
long enough to afford the Lord Jesus opportunity 
to give you the blessing he waits to bestow. It is 
his choice to come in and sup with you for the 
gratification of his own deep love towards you. 
Rev. 3:30." 

In depressing circumstances it was a frequent 
remark, "Now let us count up our blessings.'' 
Letters of this period mention by name the friends 
who had been with her through weeks of sick- 
ness, " Onr Heavenly F'ather, who knows what 
things we need, is rich in resources. Shall we 
not remember the five loaves among the five 
thousand, and how many baskets were taken 
up?" 



I 



THB SUNSET* 327 

To Rev. Mr. Marsh. 
" Newburyport, November 16, 1863. 

" In 1852, at the approach of cold weather, on 
one chilly day a widow lady staying with us said 
to Mrs, Philippa Brown, * Do you not dread the 
winter?' This was said in a desponding tone, in- 
dicating a shrinking from present and future dis- 
comfort Mrs. Brown in a most cheerful manner 
responded, ' No; I don't know that I shall live to 
see it' This little sentence has ever since been 
to me a profitable lesson, 

*'Miss C. Pilsbury, 71, entered into rest early 
yesterday. For a long time she had loved me 
truly and prayed for me daily. I have a sense of 
loss. Do I really suffer loss by her absence from 
the body and her presence with the Lord ?' ' 

To Miss G — . 

" Mt. Rural, February 8, 1864. 

"I keep my Sabbath-school class. I do not 
care in what portion of the Bible the lesson is, 
every part is so rich. Of late I have had neither 
question-book nor Bible open for myself at recita- 
tions. Stein's ' First Number on the New Testa- 
ment,' published in this country, explains the 
Sermon on the Mount as precepts given from the 
first reception of the divine life, producing poverty 
of spirit, onward in its advance, as the growing 
Christian needs." 



3aS URS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

"June 13, >S&|. 

"Our Heavenly Father says, 'He that offer- 
eth praise glorifieth me.' Is not praise to God 
appropriate to what he is and thankfulness for 
what he does? In prayer and in meditation what 
proportion of mental action should we direct to 
ourselves and our wants, and what to his charac- 
ter, his words, and his acts? ... I have beeav 
reading ' A Present Heaven,' by Miss Dorai 
Greenwell, of Durham, England, and have a 
strong desire you should do so at your earliest 
convenience. We have just finished, socially, in 
ray room, taking an hour daily at evening, 
' Chronicles of Schonberg - Cotta Family.' It 
teaches the way of salvation through the right- 
eousness of Christ as the meritorious cause, and 
through faith as the instrumental cause, with all 
the clearness of Luther's Spirit-taught mind." 

"September 19, 1864, 
"Our united daily prayer-meeting for the 
country, held from 4 to 5 P. M., in eight different 
churches in rotation, began May 1 and continued 
daily till the middle of August; since then it haa 
convened three times a week. I have made it 
principle to be rested at that hour and to attend 
large portion of the time. In some meetings the 
entire hour has been given to pray 

[Among Mrs. Banister's filed papers were a 



I 



tHK SUNSET. 329 

number of letters written from hospitals at the 
front during the bloody campaign in Virginia. 
She had caused copies of them to be made and 
circulated in order to call out practical sym- 
pathy.] 

** At the expiration of a year with my Bible- 
class there came a written request from the fe- 
male teachers to spend with them an hour week- 
ly. This social time with them is a rich treat 
and brings treasures for profitable thought." 

" December 5, 1864. 

**The simple question is, 'Lord, what wilt 
thou have me to do ?' in reference to everything, 
whether labors for others, the care of our own 
selves, joining in social worship, in conversation, 
in plying the needle, or giving up mind and body 
to rest * He knoweth our frame; he remembereth 
that we are dust ' 

*' My stay in Connecticut in October and No- 
vember was made comfortable by kindness. Rev. 
Mr. Marsh drives to the neighboring towns in his 
top-buggy. In this he conveyed me here and 
there. He has lived since 1780. For three or 
four weeks I had daily a pleasant season with the 
pupils of my widowed niece. I read portions of 
the Bible connected with the ancient history they 
are studying of Babylon, Nineveh, and Tyre. 
For recreation they practised leaving and enter- 




UKS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 



iced, and^^l 
at 



ing a room, shaking hands, being introduced, 
especially sitting properly. Into these exercises 
they entered with spirit and glee. Many were 
the questions as to proprieties in public places, at 
meals, and towards their superiors. On my \va] 
back I had a most profitable week in the family 
of Rev. Dr. Anderson, at Roxbury, and anothi 
with the Wheelwright sisters before returning 
my lodgings. Miss Lyman, of Montreal, hi 

been with me a week. Mrs. F and I are 

reading together with interest 'The Christ of His- 
tory,'by Dr. Young, of Edinburgh. 'Woman and 
her Saviour in Persia ' and ' Memoirs of Miss 
Susan Underwood' are worth reading anywhere. 
' Attractions of the Cross,' by Samuel Hopkins, I 
read at Roxbury. For the last year and a half I 
have been studying the books of Esther, Ezra, 
and Nehemiah, and reading in connection with 
them more thoroughly than ever before. 

" It does not seem to me strange that chrono- 
logical clearness is not to be found in the history 
of our Saviour. This is of minor consideration. 
I have even doubted the wisdom of making the 
harmony of the Gospels very prominent in study- 
ing the life of Christ. Who he is and what he 
said and did, his precepts and doctrines, are what 
make wise nnto salvation. If the world could not 
contain the books narrating all that Jesus did, it 



THE SUNSET. 331 

was most natural that four recorders, each con- 
fining himself to less than thirty pages, should 
each omit or mention diflferent events. 

*' Wishing you grace, mercy, and peace, through 
our I/ord Jesus Christ, I remain, in the best of 

bonds, 

"Yours, 

" Z. p. BANISTER." 

At the date of this letter Miss Hannah Lyman 
had just been invited to become the lady principal 
of Vassar College, which was to open the follow- 
ing September. She referred Prof. Raymond as 
follows: 

"Montreal, February 6, 1865. 

**Will you not write to my old teacher, Mrs. 
W. B. Banister, of Newburyport, Mass., formerly 
Miss Grant, and ask her what she thinks of my 
adaptation for the post? In my young days she 
asked me to stand second to herself, and in later 
years our correspondence has been intimate. She 
has spent a month in my home, has heard me 
teach, and to her I have unfolded all my heart. 
Yet her high sense of responsibility attached to 
educational movements, and her extreme consci- 
entiousness, will enable her to speak of me as if 
she loved me not, and her opinion, which I have 
not yet received, would greatly influence my- 
self.'' 



33^ URS. Z. p. GKANT BANISTER. 

Prof. Raymond acted upon this request, an^ 
reports the result in a letter dated PoughkeepsieJ 
March, 24, 1865. 

"My easternmost point was Newburyport»l 

whither I went for the sole purpose of an inter- 
view with Mrs. Banister. It was my first meet- 
ing with that admirable woman, and I no longer 
wonder at the ascendency she has been wont to 
gain over the best natures and most inlelHgent 
minds, when brought into close contact with them. 
It is an intellect to govern the State or adorn the 
bench, yet informed by a spirit as womanly as it 
is truly Christian and broadly catholic. I spenU 
some three hours in conversation with her, aud! 
was gratified and encouraged to find how far my ' 
views, formed in large measure but recently and 
with so much reason for diffidence, were coinci- 
dent with and confirmed by her own." 

The difficulties of the task set before the firs 
administrators of Vassar College were fonnidable.1 
Trying to bring into one body under government 
two hundred pupils gathered without preparation, 
and this by a faculty of independent Professors 
without previous cohesion, was a bold experiment. 
These difiiculties were talked over by the friends 
in that week at Newburyport and were set forth 
by Mrs. IJanister to Dr. Raymond, who thus ex- 
pressed to Miss L)'man his appreciation of them: 



iit^^ 

lud^H 

ind 

.iici- I 

firs^H 

.ble.^H 

lent ^ 



THE SUNSET. 333 

** Mrs. Banister's leading thought on the right way 
to begin was not a new one, and the earnestness 
with which she presses it does not in the least 
surprise - me. So far as the sentiments and feel- 
ings are concerned, I could six months ago have 
adopted her entire letter as a transcript of my own 
convictions and purposes. The enterprise is in 
a different shape from what I would have chosen." 
''What I want is your help in meeting these 
difficulties." 

Miss Lyman's qualifications were of the high- 
est order, as the test proved. There was no prece- 
dent to guide in the rapid organization. Exactly 
what the lady principal was to do, and how and 
when she should do it, was to be discovered by 
tentative effort. The intercourse between herself 
and Mrs. Banister had been always affectionate, 
and during the years when she was holding her 
responsible position it was most constant and con- 
fidential. Mrs. Banister was consulted in every 
detail of the plans; she felt all the anxieties in- 
volved, and watched the steps of her beloved 
pupil with intense interest and fervent prayers. 
At Miss Lyman's urgent request she passed two 
weeks at the college within a month of its begin- 
ning. 

Her appreciation of the delicate and important 
duties which would fall to the share of the lady 



334 



URS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTKR. 



principal was only heightened by her knowledge' 
of the ordeal of the opening term. For more 
than five and a half years the communion which 
bronglit her into such close but unspoken relation 
with tliis great educational institution was most^ 
inspiring. 

Though her heart had many a pang at thi 
shaqi strokes of discipline she saw inflicted, there 
was the joy of a congenial spirit over the clear- 
sighted, energetic intellect, the magnanimous un- 
selfishness, and the strong Christian faith that 
marked Miss Lyman's character. None of Mrs; 
Banister's letters to her remain. A number passedi 
between Pres, Raymond and herself. 



■n I 

I 



" Newbubvpoet, August 8, 1866. 

" Dr. Raymond, Dear sir: I rejoice that yourd 
life is continued and that in this early course ( 
Vassar College you may labor at giving it a still 
stronger momentum in the right direction. 

"A considerable share of the moulding indu^'l 
ence upon the students must proceed from the in-] 
structions given to them when assembled in thd 
chapel. Besides the principles and truths present-j 
ed by yourself, laying the foundations deep and* 
broad, there will be needed in future years, as well 
as now, the particularizing and applying them by 
the lady principal. Many practices, that may 



The sunset. 335 

seem merely a matter of fancy or choice and free 
from any moral character, she may in some sim- 
ple way lead them to bring under the law of love. 
Forming their manners and character under the 
enlightened and sweet influence of this law can-* 
not fail to elevate them. To secure this end, time 
and place must be given for this maternal and 
sisterly influence as systematically as for any 
other college exercies. With your appreciation of 
the results, and with your influence at this stage 
of affairs, this element may become so established 
in the institution that by the pressure of lectures, 
kssons, and other matters it will never be crowd- 
ed out This being settled on the same ground 
as that history or any other study is to have its 
place, and not being subject to the vote of the 
faculty, may in time turn the scale in favor of 
the formation of the best character in distinction 
from the best scholarship, when, without its being 
thus firmly settled, it may be inclined otherwise. 
If at this period of the progress of the college 
there shall be a failure in establishing measures 
for meeting this moral necessity, it is not to be 
expected that hereafter place will be found for 
their introduction. An old institution may be 
so changed as to secure higher intellectual cul- 
ture more easily than it can be to elevate its 
moral standard. It was the request of Miss Ly- 



336 



GRANT BANIST: 



H man that I would send the result of my raedi- 

H tation ou this subject directly to you. My visit 

H with her at Nahant leads me to hope that she 

H will sustain her second year of devotion to the 

H college with increased comfort to herself and 

H profit to others," 
^L " With highest respect, yours, 

^L "Z. V. BANISTER.- 

I ° 

W I 



Dr, Raymond U 



Mrs. Banister. 
" Angelica, August 37, 1SG6. 

My Dear Mrs. Banister: I must not start 
on my unexpectedly sudden return to Ponghkeepsie 
ithout acknowledging your kind and suggestive 
note of the 8th, for which I thank you. If I do 
not reply at length to such communications froi 
your pen, I beg you never to infer that I do m 
appreciate them highly, and feel deeply grateft 
for the sisterly interest which prompts them am 
the invaluable lessons of Christian wisdom whii 
they embody. The thoughts and precepts in this' 
last friendly note commend themselves fully and 
strongly to my judgment. They relate to inter- 
ests of which, be assured, I do not mean to lose 
sight, and I hope that by the blessing of God 
they will be cared for in the administration 
the college. Do not cease to pray for us, 
we may be guided by the wisdom which is 




I 



in o^^H 



THE SUNSET. 



337 



above while settling the foundations of an insti- 
tution destined in all probability to exert a mo- 
mentous influence in the training of American 
women for generations to come. I am glad you 
have had an opportunity of conversing with our 
dear friend Miss Lyman. She has passed through 
a trying experience and needs the sympathy and 
counsel you would give. Her faith has at times 
(I do not wonder) been ready to fail. But light 
is sown for the righteous, and I think it will soon 
spring up in her path. 

"Again, my dear Mrs. Banister, accept my 
thanks for yoiur sympathy, counsel, and prayers 
for our success, I rejoice that God spares your life 
and strength thus to comfort and encourage those 
who are succeeding to your cares and responsi- 
bilities. 

" Your friend and brother in the gospel, 

"J, H. RAYMOND." 
" Let not thy left hand know what thy right 
hand doeth" was a principle so rigidly adhered 
to by Mrs. Banister throughout her life in regard 
to her charities that there was a possibility of 
misconstruction of her real acts, more especially 
as she likewise obeyed the maxim, Never destroy 
anything which God or man has made till its last 
value has been exhausted. Shortly before her 
death, when some misjudgment of her use of 



338 MAS. 2. P. GmANT BANISTER. 

money was made known to her, she said, ihe teai4 J 
coming to her eyes, "What can I say? Those! 
who know are all in heaven." There came a J 
time when she could give no more, for her posses- I 
sious were taken, but as long as anything was I 
lent her she used it as belonging to Him who ] 
had bought her with an infinite price. Some in- 
vestigation has proved that at least the follow- 
ing named societies received sums varying from 
two thousand to twenty-live dollars during ten 
years: Jacksonville Education Society, American 
Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, 
Seaman's Friend Society, Oxford Female Semina- 
ry, Cleveland Female Seminary, Society for Pro^ J 
motion of Collegiate and Theological Fducattonj 
at the West, American Home Missionary Society, i 
Foreign Evangelical Society, Monticello Female 1 
Seminary, Board of National Popular Education,' 
Christian Alliance, Massachusetts Home Mission- 
ary Society, Bowdoin College, American Tract^ 
Society, French Canadian Missions, American 
Congregational Union. To many of these she 
was a yearly contributor. Her relations, her 
church and pastor, her indigent pupils, her do- 
mestics, many a young woman sent to school, 
the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society, the 
ship captain who wanted a library, the retired 
minister whose expenses had outrun his income, 



THE SUNSET. 



339 



I 



the poor woman in need of coal, and the mission- 
ary's family without a home — these and many 
others could testify that her gifts were both g;ener- 
ously and delicately bestowed. Witli the general 
operations of the societies to which she contribu- 
ted she made herself familiar, particularly with 
woman's missionary work for women- 
After leaving Poughkeepsie Mrs, Banister was 
welcomed to the homes of a number of her former 
pupils. Among them was Mrs. Lewis Tappan, 
She left notes of conversation with Mr. Tappan, 
a custom with her when much interested in facts 
gained. An example or two may be of historic 
value: "What was the Origin of the Free Church 
movement?" "Five men met at my house 
and we raised fifteen hundred dollars for a free 
church, and soon had nine such churches. They 
all failed because there was not religion enough 
to sustain them," " I was providentially pressed 
into the Antislavery movement Years ago, Dr. 

said to me, 'Yon will not feel hurt tliat 

I do not call upon you to pray.' He requested 
that I would not present my letter for admission 
to his church. I was disowned by my kindred. 

Now I am greeted every day. Dr. wrote 

me, 'Now we see eye to eye.' I wanted him to 
say, as Dr. Spring did, ' I was wrong.' " 

At Newark, in the family of her nephew, 



»4o 



. GRANT BANISTEK. 




and at Westchester she passed some months. Atj 
this time her mind was much occupied with a 
pects of prophecy relating to the second comin; 

of Christ and the millennial glory, and she \ 
many notes of conversations on those subjects. 

To Rev. Mr. Marsh. 

" Westchestbr, January 30, 1866. 
"Before the dawn of January 26 my brother's^ 
wife breathed her last without a struggle. The 
services this morning are now passing there. 
Von and I are far advanced in the foreground, 
Hearing the tomb. In a little while may we not J 
expect that Jesus will come and receive us to him- 1 
self? Before he called us by his grace he had a'l 
view of our whole life with all its errors and sins. T 
Does he not forgive once for all, as when he was! 
on earth? Do not our longings to become better! 
that we may be prepared for death partake of self- f 
righteousness? In turning our attention to our- I 
selves, are we not ceasing for the time to look! 
nnto Jesus? 'This is the work of God, that ye;i 
believe on him whom he hath sent. ' My bereavetf,! 
brother would consider it a favor to see yoii,l~ 
but it is not probable either can visit the other. J 
You may offer prayer in his behalf and for hifl 
descendants also, and the answer will supply a 
their needs," 



TfiE StrNSET. 



341 



During this year she became greatly inter- 
ested in the publications of the Repository of 
Scripture Testimony, Philadelphia, and the Gos- 
pel Tract Depository in New York, and sent many 
hundreds of these and other religious tracts to 
friends and to young persons who she thought 
would read them, thus striving to "sow beside 
all waters." A few extracts from letters will 
show how the inward renewing went on apace. 

"How much better was Isaiah prepared for 
doing the work of the Lord after the vision he 
had of Him which led him to exclaim, 'Woe is 
me !' It was early in Paul's Christian career that 
he said he was not meet to be called an apostle; 
when he had advanced in the divine life, he said 
he was the least of all saints; and when the time 
of his departure was at hand, that he was the 
chief of sinners." 

"My present fellow-boarders are here but for 
a short time, and I see little of them except at 
meals. I am making it an object to become ac- 
quainted with our Lord Jesus Christ — what he did 
for us miserable sinners more than eighteen liua- 
dred years ago, what he is doing for us now, 
what he is ready to do. We should be looking 
unto Jesus ten or a hundred times to looking with- 
in once. ' Recollections of Mary Lyon,' by Fidelia 
Fisk, is very precious reading ; it leads me to 



34« 



Z. P. GELANT BANISTER. 

nyself in the dust of self-abase- 



wish to bury i 
iiient." 

"The visit of Rev. William Goodell at Miss 
Wheelwright's on his return to this country was 
apostolic. Hearing his words gave me a vivid 
sense of what it must have been for Mary to sit at 
the feet of Jesus. 

' ' I have often rejoiced that the name of Samson 
is among the worthies in the eleventh chapter of 
Hebrews, If one so inconsistent was owned and 
blessed of God and ranked among those of whom 
the world was not worthy, which of us may not 
pray, ' Bless me, even me also, O my Father!' " 

To Rev. Mr, Marsh, 

" West Winsted, June 

"Should you be called home to be for ever! 
with the Lord before my departure from this world, 
I shall remember with gratitude that in the same | 
house in which you presented my case before the I 
mercy-seat, September 9, 1812, it was my privi-, 
lege to be led again, June 4 and 5, by your heart! 
and your words to the Great High Priest My J 
dear friend, shall we not both of us, during the 
little remnant of probation, drink freely of that 
cup which you held to my lips more than half a 
century ago? In this state of being we can never 
walk by sight. Rev. A. Tucker, who passed to 



THE SUNSET. 343 

heaven from Newburyport a year and a half ago, 
said, *The Christian's approach to the unseen 
world, his nearness to it, give him no insight into 
the things not seen. It is an awful strain upon 
faith to come so near the time when everything is 
to be tested, and see nothing more than one has 
seen, or might have seen, all his life long; yet none 
but God knows how great the measure of faith 
he gives to any. ' 

' * Rev. Adolph Monod, in filial attendance upon 
his mother in Paris the last week of her life, said 
to her in reply to her earnest desires for more 
faith, * Mother, the promise is to faith simply, not 
because it is strong, but because it is real, however 
weak. ' 

'* Dr. Winslow, on the verge of eternity, wrote 
to me, *God does not accept you on the ground 
of a broken heart or a clean heart or a praying or 
believing heart, but on the ground of the atone- 
ment of his blessed Son.' Continue to pray for 
me as you did when I was ready to perish, and do 
not fail to give thanks that by your mouth sal- 
vation has been oflFered to lost ones, of whom one 
is your friend. 



It 



"Z. p. BANISTER.'' 

Pres. Raymond had kindly urged her presence 
at Vassar College in the spring of 1868, but a few 
days in June were the last she spent with Miss Ly- 




GRANT BANISTEK. 

man there. At this time her sympathies were large- J 
ly drawu upon by the increasing illuess of Miss! 
Frances Banister, the oldest of her step-daughters. I 
After a protracted and most painful period of dis- I 
ease Miss lianister died in April, 1869. 

This seventy-fourth year of her life brought I 
a trial of a different kind. In July she became ' 
aware that stocks and securities held in trust by 
her business agent had been used by him without 
her knowledge to aid a member of his own family, 
and that this person had become bankrupt It | 
called forth inquiry. 

"Weht Winsted, July 23, i8i 

"Mr. , Dear Sir: Many thanks for your I 

kind letter. May all your hopes for a favorable J 
adjustment of your affairs be realized. I stand J 
pledged to pay three hundred dollars a year ioi * 
the education of each of three half-orphan great- 
grandchildren of my parents. I expected to with- 
draw this from my principal and thus diminish it. 
Do you see any way in which this can be done? . 
You will bear with me, dear sir, and allow me to I 
inquire further against whom aud with what se- | 
ciirities do you hold the notes for one thousand I 
dollars you transferred at my request to Mrs. P— 

and the one thousand so transferred to Mrs. F ? J 

Yon have been patient, kind, and faithful in 
vising me hitherto, but my own course is so inter- ; 



THE SUNSET. 345 

woven with the bereaved, the desolate, and the 
destitute that I know not what to do without the 
light I seek from you. I* want to know what is 
knowable about my funds. At what time or times 
were those funds loaned to — ? When it has been 
reported to me that you were largely aiding busi- 
ness men in trouble by loaning funds for which 
you were trustee, I have thought. If it be so, I see 
not that I have aught to do about it. If I failed 
in doing all I ought, I hope I may see and repent 
of it I believe you will state to me the facts. 

* Yours most truly, 

"Z. p. BANISTER." 

There was mingled dignity, courtesy, and Chris- 
tian forbearance in the letters brought out by the 
knowledge that the entire fortune left her by Mr. 
Banister was lost It was perhaps no ordinary 
s^are of meekness that kept silence when the 
author of her misfortune congratulated her that 
she could bear her loss with resignation, having 
her treasure laid up' in heaven. In all this she 
* * sinned not with her lips or charged God (or men) 
foolishly." At one time, in the closing years of 
ilfe, a teacher who had been aided in 1837 returned 
to her the principal and interest of the debt she 
had been for many years unable to discharge. 
Mrs. Banister spoke of it as ** honey laid up in 
the rock." 





GRANT BANISTER. 

Days of active service were by no means ended. 
In October, 1868, the Woman's Board of Mis- 
sions held its first public meeting at Norwich. 
Conn. A lady from Newburjport was present at 
that meeting and went home detennined to start 
an auxiliary in her own church. She told her 
resolution to Mrs. Banister, who urged that a union 
society be formed, bringing together ladies from 
all the churches and thus awakening a truly 
catholic spirit in foreign missions. The final re- 
sult was that in February, 1869, a union society of 
thirty-eight ladies from five different denomina- 
tions was organized, Mrs. Banister was chosen the 
first president of this auxiliary, and she entered 
into its work with her old-time enthusiasm and 
all her energy. Meetings were held quarterly, and 
(luring the remaining six years of her life she 
was absent but three times. To the preparation 
for these occasions she gave much time, study 
and prayer. It was her last thought on earth. 
" Whatever success has been achieved in this so- 
ciety," reports the secretary, "has been due in 
great measure to her, ' My work will soon be 
done,' she often remarked to ns, 'but I hope you 
will have the privilege of laboring many years.' 
It was a great pleasure to be associated with her 
in this later part of her life." 

Practical hints are as abundant as ever in her 



4 
I 



THE SUNSET. 347 

correspondence. **It requires self-denying and 
perservering firmness, together with a submission 
to having things done poorly, to teach little folks 
to work." *' Transcribing legibly and accurately 
is an important skill for any child to acquire. 
They should form the habit of placing a date 
upon everything they write." 

**The late Mr. Davis, who taught some years 
in Westfield Academy, said, * Gratitude is a slow 
plant. It requires fourteen years to grow.' Do 
iiot expect to be paid twice for your labor. If 
you are now rewarded with the approbation of 
those around and the thankfulness of those for 
whom you work, look for no reward by-and-by.'* 

**Rev. Caleb Kimball, pastor of a church on 
Cape Cod, prayed that when the Lord would have 
him labor there no longer He would so hedge up 
the way as to make His will apparent Soon the 
hedging was clearly shown, and Mr. Kimball 
quietly withdrew. When our Father says, I will 
guide thee with mine eye, he means something. 
Total darkness sometimes shows us where not to 
go." 

**This is a day of great events in heathen and 
Christian lands. The worldliness of the churches 
and of the masses of our country is not yet equal 
to the omnipotent power of Jehovah. The texts 



343 IIRS. Z. Pt'GtiAXr BANISTER. 

concerning the ' proud heart ' and the ' lol 
Icxjks' of men are worthy of attention.'' 

" By all means let a literary institution begin 
small, become modelled aright in its incipient 
stages, and then have a natural and healthy 
growth. Only a portion of the funds applied 
should be invested in material things. Better 
have! Iheans to secure teachers that shall not for a^ | 
few years depend on the mnnber of pupils forf' 
support. It is hazardous to bring many minda, 
together that have guided different institutions 
and set them to guide one. If the corporate body 
is not drawn asunder, the friction may prove dis- 
astrous to some member. Study the arrange- 
ments of Miss Lyon for securing the working 
together of her teaching forces at the beginning 
of Holyoke Seminary. Said Archibald Alexan- 
der, just before his career closed, to the younjf 
ministers at Princeton, 'Mary Lyon had the righl 
ideas,' " 

"While yon have the use of your feet yon can 
visit the infirm for the good of yourself and them. 
Rev. Mr. MacMonagles, for several years in Cali- 
fornia, now preaching here, says he has had 
clearest manifestations of Christ and his loi 
when visiting the afflicted, not when alone.'' 

How naturally one turned to her for coum 
could be abundantly illustrated. 



I 

n 1 



THE SUNSET 



■349 



Dr. Raymond to Mrs. Bnnlsler. 

" FouoKKEEPSlE, December 15, 1870, 

"Mrs. E- P. Banister, My Dear Sister: The 

recollections of my first \'isit to you at your home 
in Newburyport at a time when I was pressed 
beyond measure under the responsibilities of our 
great undertaking, and of the many helpful aud 
appreciative counsels I received from you, both 
then and since, are very pleasant to me, and I be- 
lieve eternity will reveal that Vassar owes more 
not only to your counsels, but to your prayers, 
than either of us suspect. The judgment which 
you then expressed as to the choice of our first 
lady principal, and which my subsequent acquaint- 
ance has confirmed, went far towards determining 
the question both for me and the trustees. The 
disease, of which I believe Miss Lyman brought 
the seeds from Montreal, has steadily progressed, 
and our beloved friend has received tokens that 
the Lord is calling for her. Thank God, the 
prospect has no terrors, but what a loss to us ! Is 
there any one, I find myself asking, in the conn- 
try or in the world, who can make Miss Lyman's 
place good? The time has come to inquire most 
seriously who of all the women in the teacher's 
profession {or out of it, for that matter) combines 
in largest measure the qualifications of nature and 
grace required for this, by far the most important 




35° URS. Z. p. GRANT BANISTER. 

office in our college. Few have so extensive adl 
acquaiiitaace as yourself, none know better than" 
you just how great and rare are the gifts and 
graces we are about to lose, and just at what 
points we must look in a change. Your judgment 
would be influenced by nothing but a love for the 
institution and Him in whose honor it is founded. 
If your mind should be led to any person or to 
make any suggestion of assistance at this juncture, 
you will esteem it a privilege to help. Mean* f 
while pray for our dear sister and for us. 

"With sincere respect, your affectionate bro 
ther in Christ, 

"J. H. RAYMOND." 

Very touching were the last pencilled notes o 
Miss Lyman to her friend: "My work is slip«l 
ping from my hands. Pray that some one may b 
raised up to more than fill my place." "No one ' 
was ever more tenderly cared for. Think of Dr. 
Flint coming here!" "Never did I so need your 
love and >-our prayers. Every word >ou write is 
a comfort." Gradually the flame of life sank in 
its socket, and February 24, 1871, it went out. • 
Cheering had been the glow of Miss Lyman*^ 
love in Mrs. Banister's evening sky, and a sens! 
ble shadow fell across that darkening horizon. 

Just entering her seventy-sixth year, ha 
thoughts found expression to Mrs. Fletcher: 



THE SUNSET. 351 

*' At this period of my life, which I never ex* 
pected to see, I earnestly desire to be divinely 
taught what is revealed of the finished work. of 
Christ in redeeming and saving his people. Will 
you pray that I may be brought into union wth 
God? Is he not taking away props that my soul 
may lean only on him. The Lord maketh the 
earth empty and waste to individuals in his own 
way. Oh, the blessedness of those who have en- 
tered into the joy of our Lord !" 

There were sometimes messages cheering as 
the song of the first spring birds. 

" ChicagOi March 29, 1872. 

**My Dear Mrs. Banister: Among the 
sweet memories of the past I love to recall the 
confidence with which you honored me during 
our six years in Newburyport, the counsels with 
which you favored me, and which had really more 

influence * in shaping the character of the 

school than those of any of the trustees. From 
that time to this I believe I have been a better 
man, with higher, purer, more unselfish aims, for 
the influence which you then enstamped on my 
mind and heart. I thank you sincerely and 
heartily for it. What a blessed privilege it is, this 
reflective period of old age ! How incomplete 
would most lives be without it — ^a, day that should 



I 




353 MRS. Z. P. 

close at mom or at mid-nooa with no westering 
sunbeams I . . . 

" I am very desirous of receiving a letter fro 
you which will give me some of your ripe « 
rience, your retrospective views of life, and yoiD 
hopes and expectations of the future. 

"Very truly yours, 

'■W.H.WELLS," 

The following closed the earthly intercoura 
of sixty years; 

To Rev. Mr. Marsh. 

" Newbukvport, May S, 1871. 

"My Dear Life-long Friend: Not having 
■heard of your entrance into the gate where yo 
may see the King in his beauty, I have for some 
months past wished to commune with your spirit 
on earth. Since the first of last November I have 
had in my room a class of intelligent young ladies 1 
■for Bible study, and have been greatly refreshed 
by the manifestations of mind and heart in their 
young and vigorous life as sweetly expressed in 
their countenances and speech. In the vanis 
of many of their difficulties I have seen an illui 
tration of the text, 'The entrance of thy 1 
giveth light.' 

" Preparing exercises for them has left me liy 
tie strength for letter-writing. I have especiallal 




THE SUNSET. 353 

f 

wished to secure your prayers for the power of 
the Spirit to transform our souls into the image of 
God. I thank Him for revealing himself to you, 
in Christ, more and more in these later years of 
your life. Soon you will see him as he is and be 
like him. I wish you joy. 

**Ever yours, 

" z. p. B." 

In June she presided as usual at the mission- 
ary meeting, and paid afterwards a visit at what 
Miss Lyman called the "Saints' Rest, the blessed, 
beloved Andersons." This time she made there 
the last of those *' Notes of Conversation" already 
alluded to. They indicate that these occasions 
were indeed **rich spiritual feasts." One extract 
at the close only can be given. 

'* Mrs. B . What are some of the things 

you anticipate in heaven ? 

''Dr. a . To be free from sin, to have 

enough to do, and to do it in the service of Christ. 
I believe the atonement was for the universe, and 
that the work in heaven may be like that to be 
done on earth. Intelligent beings not of our race 
may be the objects of our efforts. Heaven must 
be a large place. Each will affiliate with conge- 
nial spirits. ' * 



Mrs. Banister. 



23 



356 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER- 

over again till it was time to go, while the young 
man sat by, a silent, interested listener. Both 
were affected at the adieu, as if they had been to- 
gether a long time and were finally separating." 

So from time to time the grateful heart re- 
corded not only refreshment and upholding from 
interviews with the friends and companions of her 

heart, but also these and like items: "Mrs. 

(a pupil at Derry in 1826) will make me welcome 

at her home;" or, " Mrs. (at Ipswich, 1827- 

1829) cheered me with her presence;" often giv- 
ing in a few sentences the leading events of their 
lives, as if the history of every pupil lay mapped J 

in her mind. 

To MisB G . 

" Newburvport, August g, 1871. 

" Miss Lord, with her own carryall and horse, 
took Mrs. Trask {born 178S) and Mrs. Fletcher j 
(born 1802) over here from Manchester, twenty 3 
miles, last Wednesday afternoon. They have left * 
us this morning. It was pleasant for us four to 
be together once more, and probably for the last 
time. Our communion was sweet and, I trust, 
profitable. We spoke freely of that better world 
to which so many of otir loved ones are gone. 

"Mr. Lewis Tappau, over eighty, paralyzed 
more than a year and a half ago, and at present 
able to read and to enjoy, but not to write, says, 
'I am crossing the river of death; but I fijid there 




THE SUNSET. 357 

are islands in it, and I seem to be resting on one 
of them.' Not long since he remarked to his 
wife, *I shall probably drop oflf suddenly and 
have no opportunity to give dying testimony, so 
I will give it to you now. All my reliance is on 
the Lord. I am satisfied to be in the hands of 
God, to die soon, or live and suffer, as he pleases. 
Sometimes I have very bright views of heaven. ' 
His message to me in his wife's letter of yester- 
day was, ' Give my best regards to her, and tell 
her paralysis has not reached my heart' 

** After Prof. Upham had a stroke, March i6, 
he remained unconscious six days, then opened 
his eyes and uttered distinctly these words, *My 
soul abides in God.' He never spoke aiterwards. 
On April 3 he once again unclosed his eyes, a 
look of surprise and delight came into his face, 
and he was gone. A collection of his hymns was 
published last winter. Mrs. Tappan writes, * In 
his other books he gives us the theory of holy liv- 
ing; in this we look into his heart and see it'" 

"January 3, 1873. 

*'For thirty-five years had Miss Louisa Lord, 
of Ipswich, been to Mrs. Trask a sister, a daugh- 
ter, a near friend, a nurse, now and then a house- 
keeper, and a loved Christian companion. She 
had loved me forty-four years, was as well as 
usual on the morning of December 11, and at 



FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 359 



CHAPTER X. 

FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 

In May, 1873, ^^s. Banister had passed some 
days at South Hadley, where her talks to the pu- 
pils, giving them the evidence that Miss Lyon felt 
she had defects and got the victory in many thin£;3 
after she was older than any of them, were greatly 
enjoyed. In September she was again for a 
month the guest of the seminary. 



To Miss G- 



" South Hadley, October 29, 1873. 

* * Three or four times a week I have met the 
twenty-seven teachers and two hundred and sev- 
enty-five pupils here assembled in the morning 
in the Seminary Hall. Miss Ward, the prin- 
cipal, is worthy of her position. Many of the 
teachers, a band of loving workers, seem identified 
with the Institution. Only one of them ever 
saw Miss Lyon. The wheels of this magnificent 
machine move on without much apparent fric- 
tion and the Spirit of our Lord among teachers 
and taught is manifest. The earnest attention of 
these hundreds to thoughts communicated to them 



360 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

lias been sufficiently inspiring to awaken associa- 
tions and bring forth from the treasure of the heart 
old things that do not change in value from gen- 
eration to generation. ' ' 

When this aged pioneer in the cause of the 
education of women sat on that platform, how 
the hours spent in that Ipswich boarding-house 
a half-century before, hours of talk and prayer 
with her associate over an endowed school, must 
have come back ! She alone in the world knew 
the process by which that soul had been led on 
till it found expression in the hallowed institu- 
tion around her. A quarter of a centur>' she 
with whose name her own had been linked so 
long had slept under the white tomb in sight of 
her window, and here, as the bells rang all day 
long, she knew they were calling ** the series," the 
recitations, the sections, the teachers' meetings, 
the Seminary Hall talks, the Calisthenics, the 
study-hours, the prayer-meetings, the accounts, 
the silent hours of the dear old Ipswich school. 
Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the 
one shall be taken and the other left. 

This last message, spoken in pain and infirmi- 
ty to the pupils at Holyoke, was the same she 
had long ago enforced; but it was mellowed by a 
more tender love, it was to rouse to wider plans of 
action, it was more utterly emptied of self. God 



FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 361 

had chosen to discipline her by means as incon- 
spicuous as they were severe. If she had come 
oflF conqueror, there were none to know it save the 
spiritual presences which must have attended at 
her side. 

Interest in others and in the great cause was 
unabated. To Prof. Joseph Emerson: '* May you 
labor in Beloit College for twenty-five years long- 
er. I once related to your father a statement I had 
read, that more than half the good done in the 
world was performed by persons under middle life. 
* Possibly that may be so,' he replied, *but Dr. 
Dwight after the age of sixty did as much good as 
an army of common men." 

To another friend : * * Spare yourself to bless the 
world by a life of faith, love, and obedience to a 
good old age. People do good by what they are. 

** We have no power of susceptibility to spare 
from work to which the Master calls us, and we 
cannot aflFord to spend it in joy or sorrow any 
farther than He would in like circumstances." 

There was an unconscious revelation when she 
signed herself **Your aged and happy friend," 
and at another time wrote, **0n all my way from 
South Hadley extra favors were so abundant as 
to make forcible the figure *He shall cover thee 
with his feathers.' " 

On her eightieth birthday a number of her 



362 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

friends gathered in Boston and placed in her 
hands a sum of money to furnish a room called 
by her name in the Home of the Woman's Board 
of Missions in Constantinople. It was the united 
commemorative oflfering of pupils scattered far 
and near. Never was a surprise more delightful. 
In her response she told them they could not 
have chosen an object more dear to her heart, and 
and in closing gave her blessing, in true apos- 
tolic spirit and style, not only to those before her, 
but to their children and to all with whom they 
stood in close relations, invoking on them and 
theirs the grace, mercy, and peace of God in this 
life and the next. To those present time was 
annihilated; it seemed to them that but yester- 
day they were schoolgirls under her charge, and 
that when they should next meet, though a hun- 
dred years hence, it would be but to-morrow. 
Mrs. Elizabeth Darling Ballantine, after thirty 
years of missionary life in India, had passed 
away just before this fondly-anticipated reunion. 
**Next to my father and mother," she had said, 
**I owe whatever good I have done more to Miss 
Grant and Miss Lyon than to any one else." 

Many letters expressing the same feelings ac- 
companied the joyful gifts. *'I should love to be 
with you," wrote one of the ** girls." *'I can im- 
agine you sitting in a big chair looking as nice 



FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 363 

as ever, and troops of people going in and out, all 
doing the proper thing. And here come the 
Doctors of Divinity, and they shower upon you 
the agricultural texts about the ' fading grass ' and 
'the blossoming almond,' and especially the 'ripe 
shock of com. ' You know I never could moralize, 
but only remind you the Hebrew scholars say 
there are five negatives in that promise, ' I will 
never leave thee nor forsake thee. ' 

"My husband sends a great deal of love. Prob- 
ably he will never know how much he owes to you 
in forming the character and manners of his 
wife, ' ' 

In another hand was added: "Your friend 

J 's husband does indeed thank you for your 

contribution to those qualities of mind and heart 
which now for six and thirty years have enriched 
and adorned his life, and joins in the congratula- 
tions of the day. ' ' 

Within a month of her decease Mrs. Banister 
confided to Mrs. S. L. Bowker that the reunion 
and souvenir had been a revelation of love on 
which she had feasted ever since. 

A beautiful wreath of flowers painted by the 
hand of the widow of her old pastor at Norfolk, 
Mrs. Dr. R. Emerson, of Rockford, Illinois, had 
come to her that day. 

I beg you," she wrote in acknowledgment, 



(( 



364 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

June 17, ** to accept the deep response of my heart 
for the gift — for the love that conceived, for the 
head, heart, and hand that executed it. Years ago, 
when you said to me that your children were partly 
mine, I seized upon the idea that they were mine 
to cherish in thought and emotion. That any one 
of them should ever be mine as your son Ralph 
has proved himself to be has been a revelation of 
the One *able to do exceeding abundantly above 
all we are able to ask or think.' I rejoice that 
our God shall supply all your need, according to 
his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Refreshed by 
remembrance manifested, I am doubly yours." 

In the last written expressions to be here quo- 
ted appear the dominant traits of her life. 

To Miss — . 
" Newburyport, August 27, 1874. 

**I have this morning finished the reading of 
Hebrews 11, with Scott's Notes and Observations, 
which I have found so deeply interesting and prof- 
itable I have a desire that, alone with God, you 
should read and carefully consider the facts and 
principles there recorded, God's testimony for our 
instruction. Possibly you may give one charac- 
ter after another to your pupils to study, and then 
talk to them morning by morning on this chap- 
ter. They can give attention to the biography of 



FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 365 

the diflferent persons mentioned, and be led to un- 
derstand that the faith of these descendants of 
Abraham made unseen things as real as is sub- 
stance to sense, and enabled them to * endure as 
seeing Him who is invisible.' " 

The time of her departure was at hand. In 
September and October she had been a few days 
in Connecticut and then with the Andersons, 
whence she wrote, November 9: ' * In my host and 
hostess there is manifestly a delight in bringing 
forth the fruits of faith on earth resembling the 
service of the ransomed above." Afterward, in 
the house of Rev. J. P. Cowles, at Ipswich, 
she found her wonted inspiring communion; '*not 
for many years had she seemed more full .of life," 
occupying herself all day with her pen or with her 
needle, and especially gathering facts about An- 
tioch for the quarterly missionary meeting, Decem- 
ber 7. Returning to Newburyport, she arranged to 
spend some weeks with her step-daughter before 
the seclusion and solitariness of the winter. Atten- 
dance on public Thanksgiving services and a visit 
to an aged woman who had once been a domestic 
in her family ended her activities. ' * I do not know 
when I shall have another opportunity," she repli- 
ed to an affectionate remonstrance from her daugh- 
ter against incurring so much fatigue. Soon after 
her return her heart began to fail in its action. 



366 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

Paroxysms of distress, at first somewhat alleviated 
by remedies, became more and more violent. For 
six days the conflict went on. She ceased to 
breathe the morning of Thursday, December 3. 

Through this long dying scene she was calm, 
natural, collected to the end. For two days she 
would have no medical .attendance,* and wrestled 
with her pain, bearing it in enforced silence, lest 
others should lose sleep on her account Hours 
after the doctor could find no pulse she was as 
busy dictating last messages and making final 
disposition of her affairs as she had ever been in 
her life. 

She had often said she had no fear of death, 
but could not look on an exchange of worlds 
without awe, and at first believing her recovery 
possible, she seemed to bring her mind slowly to 
the certainty that eternity was near. The rock 
of God's everlasting righteousness was that upon 
which her soul rested as it had done from the time 
when she first found Him. **A11 things are yours," 
whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world, 
or life or death or things present or things to 
come, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's," 
were words that dwelt on her lips. 

Turning to one at her bedside, she asked, 
**Did you ever notice how little is said in the 
Scriptures of the sickness and death of God's chil- 



FOURSCORE AND BEYOND. 367 

dren?' ' On the last afternoon, when billows of pain 
were sweeping over her, she said, " I am in such 
distress I cannot think; I have to trust in the dark. 
It will all be right, for God reigns. ' ' In the simple 
words of prayer oflfered at her bedside she gave 
no sign of joining; but during the closing hours 
repeated them again and again: ** Christ promised 
He would come for us, but he did not tell the way 
he would come. ' ' Her voice was clear to the last. 
* * It is well, it is well, ' ' fell upon our ears in the old 
familiar tones. At almost the verge there was an 
exclamation, * * Oh, for rest ! the rest of God. ' ' * *As 
the Lord will," was the last quiet, steadfast utter- 
ance as the tongue was silenced in death. 

In her simple coflSn, with its one wreath, the 
lips still seemed ready to say, **It is all right, for 
God reigns. " ' * I would not live alway, ' ' they sang 
softly over her in the church where she had long 
worshipped, and then laid her to rest with her 
husband and his kindred in the beautiful ceme- 
tery at Newburyport. 

Her plans as a Christian educator, moulding 
her own generation, are still the type of many 
institutions in our time. They have trained work- 
ers who have largely aided to open the present era 
of woman's active benevolent operations, and are 
now meeting its responsibilities. 

The ideal of womanhood of which through her 



368 MRS. Z. P. GRANT BANISTER. 

long life she was so largely a realization was a 
legacy of great value; the example of Christian 
humility and resignation which, ripened by advan- 
cing years, beautified an old age of disappoint- 
ment and loneliness, was a bequest more precious 
still. 

To the teacher her words of spiritual wisdom 
may be an inspiration and a guide; to the burden- 
ed one struggling for submission under open or 
secret trials there may come a strengthening 
voice from the soul-life of one child of God who 
leanied in these to say, "My Father, it is thou; 
do with me as thou wilt 1' ' 

SFP 2 1P20 



