STOCKTON IN THE FIFTIES. BENICIA SEMINARY. GENESIS OF MILLS COLLEGE.
DISTINGUISHED PIONEERS. MARRIAGE
After this memorable Christmas our home was the center of musical
gatherings and the new arrivals to Stockton came into our large family
of young ladies. We were universally sought, and our musical
entertainments charmed young and old. Into our neighborhood there came
a Castilian family from Mexico, the Ainsa family, four or five young
ladies and a son. These young ladies had a musical education of the
highest order. Opera music was their chief delight. Mass music and all
classics were also included in their repertoire. A mutual friendship
was formed. They could not speak English and we could not speak
Spanish. Their voices had been thoroughly trained and we spent many
hours in their society. Very soon we learned to speak Spanish and
their visits were still more pleasant. They were devout Catholics and
in the mother's room was a sanctuary. She was helpless and unable to
walk. She sat in her bed and ordered everything pertaining to the
household. An altar was arranged in the room and they had worship
every morning and evening. Sometimes we would join them and sing the
songs of their church. It was beautiful to see the devotion of these
girls to their parents. We soon learned the vespers and masses and
often sang together for the mother when it was devotion hour and the
priest would say mass. After we moved from the neighborhood we did not
meet as often. After several years they married wealthy white men.
Senator Crabb married one. Afterwards he was killed in Mexico. Mr.
Bevan married one. Mr. Eisen, the flour man of San Francisco, another.
Anita died and Leonora married a wealthy Frenchman; later the family
moved to San Francisco. Miss Lola and Miss Belana sang in the Catholic
churches there. Another addition to the musical family was Miss Louisa
Falkenberg, a most excellent pianist. She afterwards became Mrs. B.
Walker Bours. Her son is also a fine pianist. He is director of the
choir of the Church of the Advent, East Oakland, at the present time.
In the month of March, 1853, we moved into our own home on San Joaquin
street, and most of our large family went with us. Cupid had been
playing pranks in the meantime and, June 18th, my sister Jane became
Mrs. Wm. H. Knight and the first break came in our family circle.
During the year of 1853 it was decided that I should have an
opportunity to finish my education, having left school at fifteen. The
Young Ladies' Seminary at Benicia was chosen, it being the only school
in California where I could complete my studies. I was one of
thirty-five pupils of the second term of the school's existence. Mary
Atkins was the principal, one of the best educators in California.
There was also a Catholic school in Benicia at the time, St.
Catherine's Convent for Young Ladies, and an Episcopal school for
boys. The public school of Stockton was for the lower grades, and I
had had these grades in the Cincinnati schools and had had one term
with my sister, Sarah, at Walnut Hill Seminary. Henry Ward Beecher's
father, Rev. Lyman Beecher, was at the head of the seminary and
Harriet Beecher was one of the teachers. My father and Lyman Beecher
and the members of the Longworth family, who lived opposite the
seminary and were members of the same church and congregation, were
old friends. When father started for California we were obliged to
leave school, consequently my education was not completed.
During my vacation in the year 1854, October 5th, sister Sarah became
the wife of James Harrold, one of the firm of Harrold, Randall & Co.,
of Stockton, and moved to San Francisco. The first class at Benicia,
of which I was a member, graduated. Near the close of the term,
November 7, 1855, my sister Mary married David W. Trembly in San
Francisco. They had been married but a few months when sister became
afflicted with bronchitis, the climate being too severe in San
Francisco for her. They came home, and on November 8th she passed
away. I was sent for, but was too late to see her in life. She died
while I was on the steamer, American Eagle, hastening to her. This was
my first great sorrow. I loved her to adoration and I could not
realize she had passed out of life. To her I owe my proper placement
of voice and art in singing. She was ever watchful of my progress from
the earliest years of my life until the end came. While I have had
several other teachers in voice, no one ever changed my method of
placement.
My first Italian teacher was Prof. Paul Pioda at Benicia Seminary. He
always predicted my success as a singer and told Mrs. Atkins that out
of all the sixty pupils there was but one singer, which was proven to
her in after years when I had attained my reputation. She was glad to
engage my services each yearly reunion until the end of her life.
While I was not her favorite pupil, strange to relate, I officiated as
a singer on four special occasions of great importance in her life and
death. The Sabbath she was baptized into the faith of the Episcopal
Church, Rev. Ingraham Kip, D.D., officiating, I sang for her a special
song in the church at Benicia. When she was married to Judge Lynch I
sang for her reception. The song was Call Me Thine Own. When she
passed out of life I was called to sing in the same church where she
had become a member, and one year after, when we had her monument
placed over her grave, I stood on the platform in the Octagon
schoolroom, where I could look out of the window and see the monument,
and sang the memorial song by G.A. Scott, There is a pale bright star
in the heavens tonight. After this memorial I never went back to the
old seminary but once and that was to visit the old spot where so many
memories clustered. To illustrate this visit I will here insert a
paper that I read before the commencement exercises at Mills College
in the year May 4, 1901.
Mills Seminary is the daughter of the Alma Mater at Benicia. At the
invitation of Mrs. Susan B. Mills the alumnæ of Mrs. Atkins-Lynch
Seminary attended the commencement exercises of Mills College of May
4, 1901.
The paper was as follows:
"My Dear Schoolmates: We who are still left of the pupils and
graduates of the old Benicia Female Seminary are assembled here today
at the request of our gracious hostess, Mrs. Susan B. Mills, to join
with her in the celebration of Founder's Day. As the children of the
pioneer of schools of California, it is a befitting testimonial for us
to meet in this magnificent institution which is the honored offspring
of the Alma Mater established in the year 1852. We are grateful for
the privilege she has extended us to meet again as school girls and
exchange greetings and talk over past reunions held yearly at the old
school in Benicia. I have been requested to say a few words in regard
to the school in my time. As I have only my memory to aid me, my
remarks will consist of a short historical sketch of the early years
of the seminary which I entered the second term of its existence,
early in the year 1853. Miss Mary Atkins was the principal and teacher
of all the classes of the school. The number of boarders were 35 or
40, the attendance being increased to 60 by the day pupils of
Benicia. The four years I spent at the seminary were years of struggle
for Miss Atkins, but her labors brought her the reward of seeing the
institution raised to the highest standard of excellence. The
unequaled reputation was firmly established for thorough training and
solid education. Before I left there were 75 boarders and a total of
150 pupils. More room was needed to meet the demand for admission, and
during the vacation the old buildings were enlarged and new ones
built.
"It was a special day of rejoicing, January 1, 1855, when Miss Atkins
assumed the sole management of the school. As I was the oldest pupil,
she often asked me to come to her room to discuss private matters with
her. Although I was only seventeen years old, I fully understood the
great task of establishing an institution of learning in those rough
days. The needs of all kinds were so great and the only way of getting
ahead was to work and wait. Later she had her reward in sending out
into California some of the best educated women to be found in any
land. It is with sincere pride I look back and see those splendid
girls who were, with but a very few exceptions, an honor and credit to
the school, to society and their homes, as wives of some of our most
distinguished statesmen, lawyers and merchants. In my graduating year
I was called home by the death of my oldest sister and was requested
to take up her labors in a private school of sixty pupils,
consequently my diploma was never received. However, at the last
reunion of the graduates, held in the year 1883, I, being the first of
her early pupils to gain a public reputation as a teacher and
vocalist, was unanimously voted honorary member of the Alumnæ, having
attended all of the meetings except those that took place during my
residence in Boston, Mass., from 1857 until the spring of 1862, during
which time I perfected my musical education. On my return I attended
each reunion until the end. I think we all felt at the time that it
was the last. Consequently it cast a gloom over the pleasures of our
last meeting, May 30, 1883. On the 14th of September, 1882, Mary
Atkins-Lynch passed away. I received a letter from Judge Lynch,
requesting my presence at the funeral to sing the last song for her.
[Illustration:
Prof. Joseph Trenkle
Prof. Beutler
Old Courthouse
Young Ladies' Seminary
Prof. Schumacher
Prof. Paul Pioda