Donovan, Josephine

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The Palimpsest

Schoolbooks for Sarah Gillespie

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Volume 28 | Number 4 Article 3
4-1-1947
Schoolbooks for Sarah Gillespie
Josephine Donovan
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Donovan, Josephine. "Schoolbooks for Sarah Gillespie." The Palimpsest 28 (1947), 113-121.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol28/iss4/3
Schoolbooks of Sarah Gillespie
When chubby four-year-old Sarah Lorinda 
Gillespie, one spring day in 1870, walked shyly into 
the schoolhouse, which had just been erected in 
Subdistrict Number Six, Coffins Grove Township, 
Delaware County, she was not in the least fright­
ened. With her was her six-year-old brother, and 
the teacher, Harriet Hawley, was her aunt who 
lived in the Gillespie home about a mile and a half 
away — a long walk, it would seem, for a four- 
year-old.
This is the story of the schoolbooks that Sarah 
Gillespie used during the years between 1870 and 
1879. These treasured volumes, long preserved 
at home, were deposited in 1945 in the library of 
the State Historical Society, with a brief autobiog­
raphy by the original owner, Mrs. Sarah Gillespie 
Huftalen, who was living on a farm near Man­
chester.
The first books, of course, were primers. Little 
Sarah had three of these. One, the American Il­
lustrated Primer, seems to have had only a paper 
cover, but someone carefully bound the edges of 
each sheet with a narrow band of heavy blue pa­
per. Lists of words to be learned (by a first
113
114 \ THE PALIMPSEST
grader or pre-school child) include dilemma, apos­
tate, and pollute. A second volume, coverless, is 
The Little Folks Pictorial Primer: And Child's 
Book for Home and School, dated 1856. Both 
primers were published by Kiggins, Tooker & Co., 
New York, and both are profusely illustrated with 
pictures of children whose faces are those of adult 
men and women.
The third primer, still in its bluish-green cover, 
is Sargent's Standard School Primer, part two, 
published in 1868 by John L. Shorey of Boston 
and copyrighted by John O. Sargent. The author, 
however, was probably his brother, Epes Sargent. 
Another brother, George B. Sargent, was one of 
Iowa’s early bankers and promoters. The title 
page informs us that it was ‘‘illustrated by Bill­
ings” but no further information concerning him 
has been found. The pictures in this reader show 
children with children’s faces, not those of men 
and women.
The collection contains five readers. First 
among these is Sanders' Union Reader ‘‘for pri­
mary schools and families ”, by Charles W. San­
ders, A. M. When Sarah had finished this reader, 
she was given a Second Eclectic Reader, by the 
famous William H. McGufFey, and then she was 
promoted to a third reader prepared by Epes Sar­
gent. She also used a fourth reader by the same
SCHOOLBOOKS OF SARAH GILLESPIE 115
author. The last reader in the collection is McGuf- 
fey’s New Sixth Eclectic Reader, containing ex­
cerpts from the works of such writers as William 
Shakespeare, William Pitt, Charles Dickens, 
Walter Scott, and Felicia Browne Hemans. A 
bookmark of colored floss at page 304 of this Sixth 
reader calls attention to “Discontent: An Alle­
gory”, by Joseph Addison, a story in which men 
are permitted to discard their own burdens and 
take those which seem lighter, only to find that 
they were in no better condition.
William H. McGuffey was also the author of 
the New Eclectic Spelling-Book from which Sarah 
Gillespie painstakingly learned to spell such words 
as “dis’-pu ta ble” and “pros e lyt ism” and write 
from dictation “After a dose he fell into a doze ’ 
and “It is certainly meet to mete out meat to hunt­
ers”. The type in this old spelling book is small 
and much space is given to the study of vowels, 
dipthongs, and tripthongs. Pronunciation was a 
mechanical process and to facilitate it, words were 
syllabicated and embellished with significant dots 
and figures.
Samuel S. Greene, A. M., “Professor in Brown 
University”, and S. W. Clark, A. M., wrote the 
grammars in Sarah Gillespie’s collection. These 
books have the small type of the period, but their 
contents do not vary greatly from the usual gram­
116 THE PALIMPSEST
mar textbooks. The Clark grammar, however, 
featured two intricate, circular “grammatic charts” 
which, it was claimed, presented “the entire Ety­
mology of the English language”. The Greene 
text includes a fascinating series of ungrammatical 
expressions “collected from a large number of 
schools”. These were to be corrected; but pres­
ent-day psychologists would probably frown on 
focusing the attention of pupils upon such glaring 
errors as, “I can’t get it no way”, “Where be I 
goin’ to set?”, and “I’ve larned it to her”.
A statement enclosed in James S. Eaton’s Com­
mon School Arithmetic indicates that the complete 
mastery of this volume required three years. 
Sarah Gillespie began its study in 1874 when she 
was nine years old. The pupils reached decimals 
the first year and percentage the second year. The 
third year they were supposed to finish the book, 
including square and cube root, geometrical pro­
gression, mensuration, and the metric system. The 
“examples” often seem complicated to us. Usu­
ally the answers were given to what were consid­
ered difficult problems, leaving the pupil to strug­
gle only with the process of arriving at them. “If 
a globe of gold 1 inch in diameter is worth $100, 
what is the diameter of a globe worth $6400?” was 
considered fairly easy; no answer was given. But 
the next one was considered more difficult. “Sup-
SCHOOLBOOKS OF SARAH GILLESPIE 117
pose the diameter of the earth is 7912 miles, and 
that it takes 1404928 bodies like the earth to make 
one as large as the sun, what is the diameter of 
the sun?” One can imagine twelve-year-old 
Sarah Gillespie struggling to come out with the 
right answer — 886,144 miles. Another problem 
was less astronomical. “A fox has 18 rods the 
start of a hound, but the hound runs 25 rods while 
the fox runs 22; how far must the hound run to 
overtake the fox?”
Another book on mathematics was a New Ele­
mentary Algebra, prepared by Horatio N. Robin­
son, LL. D. A note in the front indicates that it 
was purchased in September, 1877, when Sarah 
was twelve years old.
Sarah Gillespie used two geographies during 
her years in school in Coffins Grove Township, 
both published by Cowperthwait and Company of 
Philadelphia. D. M. Warren's A New Primary 
Geography, published in 1873, introduced the 
children to a study of the world in this wise: 
This is the beautiful land which God hath given 
us for our dwelling-place.” Descriptive materials 
are combined with questions to be answered from 
the text. The illustrations stimulate the imagina­
tion. One can imagine an Iowa farm child pour­
ing over pictures of a “tiger hunt in India” or 
ladies of Havana riding in a volante”.
118 THE PALIMPSEST
Warren’s Common School Geography, "the big 
g’ography", boasted of "an entirely new series of 
finely engraved Copper-plate Maps". And maps 
are omnipresent; in fact most of this geography 
is given over to maps and the questions to be an­
swered from the maps. But one can extract infor­
mation that is of interest today. In 1875 the pop­
ulation of the United States was estimated at 
40,000,000. In 1870, New York claimed 942,000 
people and London 3,000,000. Alaska had "500 
whites"; San Francisco was the largest city in 
California and neither Los Angeles nor Holly­
wood was mentioned. The population of St. Paul 
surpassed that of Minneapolis by 2,000 souls. In 
Iowa, Davenport, with a population of 20,038, 
was the largest city. Dubuque, cited as "the larg­
est city in the mining district", was the second 
largest city with 18,434.
In the appraisal of States producing "important 
staples", according to the 1870 census, Iowa ranked 
fourth in corn (topped by Illinois, Indiana, and 
Missouri), fifth in oats, third in wheat, eighth in 
potatoes, fifth in hay, and sixth in barley. Iowa 
was characterized as one of the most fertile States 
in the Union. In addition to the thirty-seven 
States, this geography listed ten Territories — 
Idaho, Washington, Montana, Dakota, Wyom­
ing, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and
SCHOOLBOOKS OF SARAH GILLESPIE 119
the Indian Territory — the District of Columbia, 
and Alaska.
Of Europe’s “sixteen states”, Russia, Austria, 
Germany, and Turkey were described as empires; 
Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Hol­
land, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece 
were kingdoms; and Switzerland and France were 
republics. The German Empire was described as 
having been constituted “for the purpose of repel­
ling French invasion.” France was rated as “one 
of the richest and most powerful countries in the 
world” while England, with colonies in every 
quarter of the globe, “unites under one sovereign 
a greater number of people than are ruled by any 
other government.” The Russian Empire was de­
scribed as “the largest in extent in the world.” In 
1875 Spain controlled many islands including 
Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines. The “Five 
Great Powers” in 1875 were Great Britain, Ger­
many, France, Russia, and Austria. The United 
States was not included.
A series of questions required that the pupil re­
member each statement and give the proper 
response when the teacher asked the question. 
“What is manufacturing?”, the teacher was to ask, 
and the pupil was supposed to reply, “Manufac­
turing is the art of adapting natural productions 
to the uses of man.”
120 THE PALIMPSEST
A. S. Barnes was the author of the History of 
the United States, down to the centennial year, 
1876. Sarah Gillespie and her schoolmates lived 
in the reconstruction period and the current topics 
at the supper tables included the Atlantic cable, 
Horace Greeley’s “Go west young man”, and the 
impeachment of President Johnson, but Barnes 
devoted much space to military matters. In 
the back of this history are two hundred and 
eighty-nine questions “for class use” and two hun­
dred under the heading “Historical Recreations”. 
Some of these were forerunners of our “informa­
tion please” questions. “What three ex-presidents 
died on the Fourth of July?” Another asked, 
“What President introduced rotation in office?”
WTat about writing? “We used the Spencer­
ian Copy Books”, wrote Mrs. Huftalen, “with 
their large lined pages headed by beautiful pen­
manship, principles of the letters, and the copies 
were fine mottoes to learn and follow. We also 
used slates with pencils of slate or soap stone.” 
Sponges and bottles of water were kept on hand 
by each pupil. Blackboard erasers were home­
made blocks of wood having sheepskin tacked on.
These books used by Sarah Gillespie in the 
seventies and eighties preserve something of the 
mother’s interest in her daughter’s education. On 
many of the fly leaves, in fine Spencerian hand­
SCHOOLBOOKS OF SARAH GILLESPIE 121
writing, are inscriptions such as the one in the 
arithmetic — “A present to Sarah for trying to 
learn. October 8, 1874. Thursday By E. E. 
Gillespie”. In the fourth reader Sarah’s mother 
made the same note and wrote below it this verse: 
“Play well your part and bear in mind 
A constant friend is hard to find 
When you find one that is kind and true 
Change not the old one for the new.
Emily E. Gillespie.”
The books show evidence of care and interest. 
“Our textbooks”, wrote Sarah Huftalen in 1945, 
“were neatly covered with remnants of cloth from 
our dresses, shirts, and aprons. They were not 
marked, soiled, or dog-eared intentionally.”
And so the schoolbooks of a girl in the seven­
ties mutely portray the standards and the prob­
lems of the period. Geography was learned by 
rote, not by trips; grammar was intricate not 
casual; reading was supposed to inculcate morality 
and information rather than stimulate the imagina­
tion; arithmetic dealt with such problems as labor 
costs, carpeting, or farm sales and purchases, not 
to mention mind-teasers. Education is the prep­
aration of youth for its own age. Sarah Gillespie’s 
books are history.
Josephine Donovan


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