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1860 Handwritten Letter Joanna Watson Doylestown Searching For Teaching Position

$ 39.6

Availability: 100 in stock
  • Return shipping will be paid by: Seller
  • Author: Joanna Watson
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
  • Restocking Fee: No
  • Refund will be given as: Money Back
  • Year: 1860
  • All returns accepted: Returns Accepted
  • Item must be returned within: 30 Days
  • Modified Item: No
  • Location: Bucks county Pennsylvania
  • Subject: Women in Education
  • Condition: See listing for details

    Description

    Women in Education : pre Civil War
    Bucks County, Pennsylvania: March 1860
    A short and to the point letter written by Joanna O Watson to her uncle asking for his assistance in obtaining a school.
    It appears she was actually looking for a job teaching rather than applying to attend a school.
    Dear Uncle,
    I write to you for a little assistance in getting a school. If you would please see the directors of Doylestown Township or any one near there I would be very much obliged to you for I don’t want to get a school so very far from home. I went to Plumstead yesterday and was examined. I applied for a school there but did not succeed in getting one.
    My certificates stood thus.
    Orthography ...2
    Reading... 2
    Writing....2
    Mental Arithmetic ...2
    Written Arithmetic... 1 1/4
    Geography....2
    Grammar.. 2
    (Reverse: as pictured her name dated March 20/60)
    I believe this
    Joanna Watson
    (1842-1915) was daughter of Joseph Watson (1799-1858) and Rebecca (1804-1891) of Bucks County. In 1850 according to census records they lived in Buckingham PA and fear father was a lime burner. Her paternal grandparents John Watson (1774-1864) and Euphemia Ingham (1773-1816) her great grandfather also of Bucks County lived from 1752-1817. According to PA & NJ town records Her great grandfather was a Doctor.
    Joanna later married Richard Smyth in 1868 at Trinity United Presbyterian Church and they are buried in Buckingham PA. They had one son Joseph Watson Smyth (1871-1932)
    Plumstead
    Township was formed shortly after 1700 by English Quakers who immigrated to Pennsylvania to seek religious freedom. Plumstead Friends Meeting, founded in 1727, was the township's first religious establishment. One of the first to own land in the township was Francis Plumstead.
    Condition and notes
    Edge worn as shown: as perhaps she tore this from a notebook
    Both sides pictured
    Identity of her uncle unknown
    Age toned
    Creased heavily
    Some soiling
    No envelope
    An interesting piece of ephemera! Makes me wonder if Joanna was hired as a teacher in Doylestown
    Shipped in flat card stock mailer