DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Adelia M. Hoyt memoir and photographs

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Page 15

UNFOLDING YEARS 15
confinement in a southern prison undermined his health and soon after returning home he developed tuberculosis. His young wife sickened and died -- and he was not long in following her. Alec's mother assumed the charge of the children and reared them with infinite care. The boys when grown struck out for themselves and Fred, the older, came to us one summer on the farm. He was a good worker although he made it plain this was just an interval in his life. To me he seemed quite an exalted personage -- for was he not from Boston!
How vividly I recall a dark autumn evening when I perched high up in the corn-crib. By the light of the lantern hung aloft, Cousin Fred shoveled in a load of freshly husked corn, and at the same time recited the Lord's Prayer in French for my edification. He had lived close to the Perkins Institution in Boston and for some strange reason he was much opposed to my going to a school for the blind. Evidently this had little weight with my parents and the matter was soon settled. 
It was a cold winter day when some literature arrived from the school at Vinton, thirty-five miles away by rail, down the Cedar river. There was a speller in raised print. I had already learned to read by touch the letters on bottles, our kitchen stove and some of the farm machinery, so I soon mastered the speller. Among the material sent was a list of the pupils enrolled. I was much intrigued by the names of the girls and immediately selected some about whom to weave all sorts of stories. 
My childhood chum, Ida Robbins, and her family who had moved into town, were still our visiting friends and we saw much of them. The next summer the Robbins family had a visit from a distant relative, named Lorana Mattice. This young woman was blind, had been a student at the school at Vinton and was now a teacher there. One afternoon Emma drove into town and brought Miss Mattice out to see me, and she stayed for supper. This was my first real contact with someone who couldn't see, and I fear I felt much as sighted people do when they first meet up with those who cannot see. I remember she took me on

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UNFOLDING YEARS 15 confinement in a southern prison undermined his health and soon after returning home he developed tuberculosis. His young wife sickened and died -- and he was not long in following her. Alec's mother assumed the charge of the children and reared them with infinite care. The boys when grown struck out for themselves and Fred, the older, came to us one summer on the farm. He was a good worker although he made it plain this was just an interval in his life. To me he seemed quite an exalted personage -- for was he not from Boston! How vividly I recall a dark autumn evening when I perched high up in the corn-crib. By the light of the lantern hung aloft, Cousin Fred shoveled in a load of freshly husked corn, and at the same time recited the Lord's Prayer in French for my edification. He had lived close to the Perkins Institution in Boston and for some strange reason he was much opposed to my going to a school for the blind. Evidently this had little weight with my parents and the matter was soon settled. It was a cold winter day when some literature arrived from the school at Vinton, thirty-five miles away by rail, down the Cedar river. There was a speller in raised print. I had already learned to read by touch the letters on bottles, our kitchen stove and some of the farm machinery, so I soon mastered the speller. Among the material sent was a list of the pupils enrolled. I was much intrigued by the names of the girls and immediately selected some about whom to weave all sorts of stories. My childhood chum, Ida Robbins, and her family who had moved into town, were still our visiting friends and we saw much of them. The next summer the Robbins family had a visit from a distant relative, named Lorana Mattice. This young woman was blind, had been a student at the school at Vinton and was now a teacher there. One afternoon Emma drove into town and brought Miss Mattice out to see me, and she stayed for supper. This was my first real contact with someone who couldn't see, and I fear I felt much as sighted people do when they first meet up with those who cannot see. I remember she took me on