Annals of our ancestors; one hundred and fifty years of history in the ...

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ANNALS OF OUR ANCESTORS
William Cummings was a fine, industrious man, and I used
to watch him work, as the new building was in full sight of our
house. It has always pleased and interested me to see things
develop, and so I kept its progress in view till the last shingle
was on and the house ready to be opened. A young man from
Carthage engaged the school, boarding at home and walking
the three miles every day. Sister Ida and I, the Balsers,
Van Zandts, Browns, and the children of James Cummings
were among the pupils. The latter were MeHssa, Addie and
Emma, who went to school with me.
It is appropriate to write here about our sister's favorite
teacher. Ida says: "The very first teacher I can remember
who took a personal interest in her pupils was from Cincinnati,
Miss Kate Hickenlooper, a lady in every sense of the word.
She came to that country school as a real missionary, and we
surely needed her. She not only took charge of our lessons, but
instructed us how to stand and how to walk and in mannerly
behavior in general. She gave us lessons in the unheard-of
art of drawing; she opened school with song in the morning.
The seeds that were sown fell on good ground. She was past
middle age and not handsome to look upon, but she had
taught us but a few weeks when she was championed by the
whole school, and woe betide any luckless outsider who said
she was 'ugly!' Blessed is the memory of such a teacher!
I was once with this beloved teacher on her brother's twentyfirst
birthday; he afterwards became Gen. Andrew Hicken-
looper."
Our parents were anxious that their children should have
better educational advantages than they themselves had
known, and so they were ever interested in such matters. One
day in the spring of 1850, the exact date of which I do not remember,
Freeman Cary of Farmers' College came over on
horseback and hitched at our front gate. Seeing father in a
field near he made his way over the fence to unfold to him
some new enterprises of his concerning Farmers' College.
These were the attachment of an experimental farm to the
institution and the addition of lectures on agriculture to the
curriculum. The desire of this educator was to dignify and