![[3730384] 1899 to 1912 collection of letters by Gladys M. Manweiler studying at the College of the Pacific, San Jose, California with earlier correspondence to Rev. Dr. Hugh K. Hamilton, San Francisco Methodist minister. Gladys M. Manweiler, 1880–1965, Rev. Dr. Hugh K. Hamilton.](https://rareamericana.cdn.bibliopolis.com/pictures/3730384.jpg?width=768&height=1000&fit=bounds&auto=webp&v=1709234122)
1899 to 1912 collection of letters by Gladys M. Manweiler studying at the College of the Pacific, San Jose, California with earlier correspondence to Rev. Dr. Hugh K. Hamilton, San Francisco Methodist minister.
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A collection of 18 letters. The first 14 were written by Gladys M. Manweiler of Santa Cruz, California when she was a student at San Jose’s College of the Pacific during the 1912 Spring semester. Manweiler writes to her future husband, Rev. Hugh K. Hamilton, a 1907 graduate of Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley and a San Francisco minister.
Manweiler writes of girls’ college basketball; attending a concert by German-American opera singer Ernestine Schumann-Heink; women versus men (“The ‘Woman’s Pacific’ weekly is out now. The boys are ‘sore’ about it. There were several jokes about athletics, and they could not take a joke and are very indignant.”—March 21, 1912); reading Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice; and audaciously—as she describes it—registering to vote in early January 1912, women’s suffrage just having been enacted in California. She is also an officer in the college’s Sopholectia, a women’s literary society at College of the Pacific, and the local Y.W.C.A.
Manweiler engages in “shocking things” beyond registering to vote:
“I must tell you what father and I did Sunday evening. It is most shocking, I admit. My older sister says she will not be surprised anymore at anything I do. There was a Mr. Eddy, a Medium, at the opera house. Father and I both seemed to be possessed with a great sense of curiosity so what did we do but go, on Sunday night. I had my curiosity satisfied but paid for it, seeing ‘spooks’ all night long. What do you think of us? Mr. Metz went and had no chance to escape unseen for he was called upon the platform as one of the committee to prove that things were done OK. ... I have left the thing which I suppose will please you the most until last. Just be patient now and sit down if you are not already for you may not be able to stand the shock. Are you ready? Well, I will sum it up in just three words. They are these – Listen – now [dramatically continuing at the top of the next page] I have registered. Father took me down Wednesday morning. He wanted us all three to go but mother was sick, and Grace would not do it. I do not know whether or not I will be home to vote, but I will be able to if I am.” (January 12, 1911)
Manweiler recounts a campus measles outbreak and female students’ coordination in response to the college’s nursing policy:
“I received your letter this after-noon. Now don’t worry about me, please. I have not got the measles yet. I have been feeling mighty ‘bum’ the last few days but they are not measles symptoms, I don’t think. I am determined not to get them. I am going home next Tuesday sick or well. So far there are only three cases of measles here in the dormitory. They are all quite bad though, one of them especially so. Some of us girls became real desperate yesterday. Nothing was being done as a preventative and it seemed we were all doomed to have it. It would be dreadful to be sick with anything like that in this place. ... If we were going to be sick we wanted to be home where our mothers could take care of us. A delegation of about fifteen of us girls go together and went to Dr. Guth [college president William W. Guth] to lay our case before him. We found that he was in the city and our efforts in vain. Some precautions have been taken since and the doctor thinks that there is little danger of any more cases. I hope he knows what he is talking about. There are three others of the girls sick who haven’t the measles. Edith Dennett is getting better slowly, and is able to sit up a little every day. We are running a regular hospital here. Miss Ban says she’s going to put out a sign.” (March 28, 1912)
The final four letters in the collection were sent to Hugh K. Hamilton (see above) by his mother, during his time as an undergraduate and O.W.U. Cadet at Ohio Wesleyan University. These letters cover topics such as local church affairs, women’s temperance canvassing activities, and updates from home.
Description: 1899 to 1912 collection of letters by Gladys M. Manweiler studying at the College of the Pacific, San Jose, California with earlier correspondence to Rev. Dr. Hugh K. Hamilton, San Francisco Methodist minister.
Delaware, Ohio, 1899 and 1901 and San Jose, California, 1912. [63]pp. 8vos. Overall, very good with original envelopes.
[3730384]Refs. “Methodist Minister Emeritus Dr. Hugh K. Hamilton Dies” in Santa Clara Sentinel (Santa Clara, Calif.), Wednesday, September 29, 1965, p18. Also see in same, Wednesday, June 27, 1951, p4: “After Rev. and Mrs. Hamilton were married [ca. early 1910s?], Hamilton enrolled at the Boston university, where he received an STB degree. Later Dr. Hamilton received honorary degrees of doctor of divinity from the Pacific School of Religion and the College of the Pacific. The latter also is the alma mater of Mrs. Hamilton. For a number of years he was a member of the board of trustees of both institutions. He held pastorates in San Francisco, Berkeley, Hughson, Los Gatos and Lodi, in addition to Santa Cruz and Visalia. … Dr. Hamilton also served in World War I as army YMCA secretary at Camp Kearny near San Diego and later in San Francisco. For eight years he was superintendent of the Sacramento and Nevada Districts of the Methodist church, supervising about 60 churches.”
Price: $275.00