"I returned once more to Benicia to sing at a concert given by the
Methodist Church. I sang in the same old Courthouse Hall where so
often we had our closing exercises. It was in this hall, June 12,
1856, that I sang Schubert's Serenade for the first time with
Johanna Lapfgeer, soprano, afterwards Mrs. Dr. Bryant of San
Francisco. I still have the programme which today is fifty-five years
old. My return was in 1898. After the concert I hoped to see many of
my old friends of Benicia, but there were but six present of all I
knew long years ago. I marveled at the small number left. The next day
I visited the old school. As I stood at the door I slowly surveyed the
scene and my thoughts went down the vista of time and filled my heart
with sadness at the dreadful dilapidation of the school where so many
bright minds had been educated and gone forth to make names and
reputations among the most honorable women in the state. After I was
admitted and allowed to survey the place I stood in the entrance of
the old schoolroom. In my mind I could recall the faces of the girls
as they sat at their desks long ago. The decay of the school was all
so dreadful to me I could not hold back the tears. I turned quickly
away and sought the old well where we had so often quenched our thirst
as girls, when life was young and hopes high. I found the friend of
long ago, but, like all the rest of the place, it was also in the last
stages of decay. I had become so sad at all this passing away I did
not feel the pleasure I had anticipated in visiting the school again.
The teachers that were employed during my time at school were: Prof.
P. Pioda, music and language; Mary Atkins, principal; Miss Cynthia
Vaughn, assistant; Mrs. Reynolds, teacher of the younger day pupils;
Miss Pettibeaux, painting and drawing; Miss Johanna Lapfgeer, piano
and German; Samuel Gray, bookkeeping; Margaret Kroh, writing and
drawing. The directors were: Dr. S. Woodbridge, B.W. Mudge, Samuel
Gray, Dr. Peabody, Captain Walsh and J.W. Jones.
"As far as I can recall them, the names of the former pupils were:
Emily Walsh, Benicia; May Emma Woodbridge, Benicia; May Hook, Benicia;
Mary Riddell, Benicia; Josie Latimer, Stockton; Minnie Latimer,
Stockton; Elizabeth Manning, Stockton; Frances Livingston, San
Francisco; May Livingston, San Francisco; Kate Grimm, Sacramento; Mary
Bidwell, Chico; Mary Church, Chico; Rose Reynolds, San Jose; Sallie
Tennant, Marysville; Mollie Tennant, Marysville; Althea Parker,
Stockton; Miss Rollins, Martinez; May O'Neil, Sacramento; Aggie Bell,
Sacramento; Maggie Kroh, Stockton; Sophia Dallas, Stockton; Mary
Dallas, Stockton; Nellie Meader, Stockton; Mary Vincent, Sacramento;
Ella Hunt, San Francisco; May Warren, San Francisco; Georgia Warren,
San Francisco; Grace Woodbridge, Benicia; Ruth Vaughn, Sacramento.
"The day pupils were: Mary Hastings, Benicia; Virginia Hubbs, Benicia;
Lou Boggs, Napa; Percy Garritson, Benicia; Maria Barber, Martinez;
Amanda Hook, Martinez; May Hook, Martinez; Mattie Carpenter, San
Francisco; Rebecca Woodbridge, Benicia."
The Benicia girls were seated at a table especially decorated for the
occasion. Through the thoughtfulness of Mrs. Mills, eighteen of the
old class were present at this time. This was the last meeting that I
ever attended of the members of the Alma Mater, for on September 1,
1901, I was thrown from a street car and made a cripple for the rest
of my days and my usefulness was cut short for filling engagements of
any sort. Since my recovery I have confined myself to voice teaching.
Only on a few occasions have I appeared in public. This was either on
Decoration Day or the Fourth of July, when my patriotism was aroused.
I was always ready to sing for Old Glory or help our boys who fought
in 1861.
[Illustration: Captain Charles Blake
AN ANCIENT SHEEPSKIN, FROM THE GRAND LODGE OF FREE AND ACCEPTED MASONS
OF LONDON, ENGLAND, 1811, THE FIRST ISSUED TO AN AMERICAN]
In 1855 when I left the seminary I returned to my home in Stockton. My
parents were getting along in years and I felt it my duty to aid them
if possible. There were many families in Stockton at this time and
young children were everywhere. I conceived the idea of an infant
school composed of little boys and girls too small to go to the public
schools. My suggestion met with approval wherever I applied, and I
soon had thirty pupils promised. I rented a cottage of one room across
the slough from my home. On July 1, 1856, I began and soon had a
school full of little folks, numbering thirty-five. I continued
teaching until September 17, 1857, when I also followed my older
sisters' example and was married to George H. Blake, the eldest son of
Sir Edwin Blake, who was Minister Plenipotentiary to England from
America at one time. My husband was also the grandson of Major-General
Benjamin Lincoln, a heroic officer of the Revolution and a skillful
diplomat in the councils of his country. Lincoln was born in Hingham,
near Boston, May 23d, 1733. In 1775 he was elected a member of the
Provincial Congress and was appointed on the committee of
correspondence. In 1776 he received the appointment of brigadier and
soon after that of major-general. He rendered valuable services in the
trying campaign and signalized himself in the battles on the plains of
Saratoga which proved so disastrous to Burgoyne. He was severely
wounded during these battles. In the battle that took place on
October 7, 1776, he was obliged to leave the army. He did not return
until the following August, when he was immediately sent south to
assume command of the army in that quarter, which on his arrival at
Charleston in December, 1778, he found in the most miserably destitute
and disorderly condition. But his indefatigable industry and
diplomatic energy enabled him in the following June to take the field.
Such was his popularity with the army and the whole country that when
he rejoined the army in 1781 to co-operate with the southern army, he
had the high satisfaction of taking part in the reduction of Yorktown
and of conducting the defeated army to the field, where they were to
lay down their arms at the feet of the illustrious Washington.
General Lincoln took the sword from Lord Cornwallis and delivered it
to his Commander-in-Chief, Washington.
[Illustration: Major-General Benjamin Lincoln, of the War of the
Revolution. He was the grandfather of Mr. George H. Blake and the
great-grandfather of George Lincoln Blake and William Ellery Blake,
sons of Mrs. Blake-Alverson.]
I feel justly proud with my sons, George Lincoln Blake and William
Ellery Blake, to claim such illustrious descendants of our great
republic, especially Lincoln, who gained such high recognition from
our government for his patriotism and diplomatic energy in the
beginning of our republic. He quelled the famous Shay's insurrection
in 1786-87. He held the post of Lieutenant-Governor, was member of the
convention called to ratify the new Constitution, and for years was
collector of port in Boston and besides filled many minor offices. He
received from Harvard University the degree of Master of Arts, was a
member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as of the
Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and was president of the Society
of Cincinnati from its organization to the day of his death. He closed
his honorable and useful life in the seventy-eighth year of his life
at Hingham, Mass., May 9, 1810.
This bit of history I have selected from the papers of Capt. Charles
Blake, who was the grand uncle of my sons, who died in 1859 during the
time I visited Boston with my husband to pursue my studies in music.
Capt. Charles Blake was the seventh captain of the Blake family, was a
man celebrated for his bravery and as a sailor was unexcelled in his
time. I also found among his papers a Masonic sheepskin (which perhaps
will be an interesting bit of information for the Masons of
California), the first one that was ever gotten for an American. It
could not be obtained in America, consequently it was secured in
England. It bears the faded marks of "Grand Lodge of Master Masons,
London No. 25, Registered on the books of the Grand Lodge in London,
the 11th day of September in the year of Masonry, 5011." The grand
seal is attached and signed by Robert Leslie, Grand Secretary: Edward
Harper, D. Gr. Sec. This is the oldest Masonic sheepskin of the grand
lodge in America. It was received by my uncle when he was twenty-five
years old and has been in my possession since 1869, forty-two years
ago, when we received his trunks after his death. I alone am able to
give these facts of our family history, which should be known to all
the members of our family. This is a family book as well as an
intimate history of my life. I have been received during my life in
California with so much affection and appreciation by the public I
have served, that when I write I consider those who read are my
friends, that we are of one common family, and I cannot look upon the
people of California in any other way, for the very fact that
everybody I meet or have any dealings with greet me with such courtesy
and warmth.
The death of sister Mary Matilda Kroh-Trembly occurred November 8,
1856, in the thirty-first year of her life at the old home on San
Joaquin street, Stockton. In 1855 she was married to Mr. David W.
Trembly of New York. They settled in San Francisco, but after living
there for several months the climate was found to be too severe and
she contracted bronchitis, for weeks being unable to leave her room.
At last she became so feeble that she was brought home to Stockton and
lingered for weeks. I was at Benicia Seminary still and in my last
half year when I received a letter to hurry home. Uncle William
Trembly came from San Francisco to Benicia to meet me, and together we
came up the San Joaquin slough, but unfortunately for us we had many
things to keep us from arriving in time to see her alive. At last the
steamer was fast on the hog's back, the tide was out and we could not
proceed. The sailors worked with a will, but it was not until three
o'clock in the morning that we were on our way once more. What a night
of suspense! I loved my sister to devotion, and not to see her alive
was more than I dared to contemplate, but so it was to be. She passed
into eternity at the time we were trying to get off the sand bar and
when uncle and I arrived in the morning, she was dead.
This was the first death that had taken place in our family. All of us
had grown to manhood and womanhood and had been mercifully spared all
these years until now the dearest one of all had to pass away and
leave us to mourn her loss. She was the embodiment of all that was
good in life, a pattern for all to follow. She was our second mother.
When mother was attending to the church work or visiting the sick,
accompanying father at baptisms, weddings, funerals or other offices
that fall to the minister's wife, sister was always ready to take her
place and see that all was well at home. She taught in the public
schools, gave music lessons, was German teacher, organist on Sunday
and teacher in the Sabbath school. Her life was always full of duties.
She had also been father's secretary and attended to all of his
correspondence in his absence. Never complaining, always there to
attend to all the duties devolving upon her, she was a happy spirit
of the home, as much missed as mother or father. She was my pattern
and guide and if I have ever achieved anything to merit commendation
during my life I owe all my best to her. She was my first music
teacher and I have never deviated from her principles of voice
placement. By so doing I am able to sing today with a correct
knowledge of perfect tone production and able to impart to others the
same tonal art that I have given to hundreds of pupils that have come
under my supervision during my many years of successful teaching in
California. Being so widely known and loved by all who knew her, when
she was buried the schools were closed and the children, two by two,
marched in procession and every conveyance that could be procured at
that time was used so that all who wished to honor the beloved could
do so. All the dear friends who were the instigators in procuring the
first piano for her were in the procession and were most sincere
mourners for the loved musician who always gave them so many hours of
real happiness.
She was the leading spirit of the pleasures which they had so many
times enjoyed in their loneliness away from their homes in the East.
The music that was rendered by our family was the only diversion and
happiness that came into their lives in the early fifties when the
world seemed to be populated by men alone, all seeking the one aim--to
get gold and go back rich men and then enjoy wealth and ease and
comfort and make amends for the struggles and deprivations they had
suffered. Now the spirit of this cherished friend had passed out to
join the Choir Invisible, and a befitting burial was given her as a
memorial of the affection in which she was held by those who owed her
so much of real happiness in the severe struggles of the pioneer life
when we were but a small colony of the first white women and men in
the City of Stockton.
[Illustration: Sacred to the memory of Mary Kroh-Trembly, pioneer
organist, Stockton, California, 1852.]