Nadine's Diary, "Halloween"

Wednesday Oct. 31.  Was Halloween.  In school.  Went to a taffy pull* in the evening at Misses Thomas' and Whitlaw's rooms.  Lucy and my self made the taffy.  Mr. Thomas bought the nuts, and went for butter.  We all pulled the taffy and afterwards, plaid kissing games*, and several other kinds of games.  Did not leave there till after ten oclock.  Mr. Hodges brought me home and Mr. Varne brought Clara Shafer.  We four took a walk.  I staid all night with Clara.  That night the boys did not go home till nearly one oclock.  I was glad when they went for I was sick of their spooning.  Will and I had the sofa.  Clara and I slept on the floor.

Taffy Pull

*Old Fashioned Taffy Recipe

*More about kissing games:

KISSING GAMES

The learning of skills was not an insignificant part before electronics. Social interactions were an inevitable and important part of them. A set of such playful interactions were kissing games which allowed forbidden actions to be experienced and practiced without social disapproval or consequences. 

POST OFFICE

One of the two best known kissing games, Post Office, allowed one player to go off from the group into another room and proclaim that there was "A LETTER FOR ____________" naming one of the group. That named person had to go into the private area to be kissed by the "POSTMAN" who had called that person's name. The person who received that letter became the postman and called another name to come and be kissed. Although the presumption was that kissing took place privacy ensured that those too shy to comply could pretend that they had kissed even when it was not true.

SPIN THE BOTTLE

This was a little less private and more immodest kissing game in which all sit in a circle and one player spins a bottle. When it comes to rest with its mouth pointing to one of the circle that person is kissed by the one who spun the bottle. But it had to be done then and there in full view. Some still kissed demurely or prankishly, but some took full advantage. 

THROUGH THE WINDOW

This activity involved a line of persons passing through openings made by other person joining hands. A song about passing in and out of the windows was sung and at its close "Windows" made by the clasped hands were closed by the grasping of that person "IN THE WINDOW". That person could then be kissed.  

Nadine's Diary, "Had a Good Time"

Tuesday Oct. 30.  In school.  The Club met in the evening at Misses Thomas and Whitlaw's rooms.  Messers. Clark, Kittle and Thomas were voted in as members of the club.  Mr. Hodges took me.  We plaid games and had a good time.  Went home a few minutes before 10 oclock.

Nadine's Diary, "Part Way Home"

Monday, Oct. 29.  In school.  Nannie came up in the evening.  I went part way home with her.

Nadine's Diary, "Saw a Pretty Fellow"

Sunday Oct. 28, 94.  In the morning Traxler and I took a walk down to Thomas' and Whitlaws rooms.  Came home for dinner.  In the afternoon Nannie and I took a walk, saw a pretty fellow and flirted with him, afterwards found his name to be Leland Moss.  Went to church at Memorial Hall with Mr. Hodges in the evening.  Wore my brown dress.  He came in after we came home and staid till the bell rang.  My room mate was in the room and scolded me because he did not go home sooner.

An example of an 1890s brown dress

Nadine's Diary, "Ice Cream and Cake"

Friday, Oct. 26, 94.  In school.  Went to the Cresent in the evening with Misses Dyer, Flagg, Fennimore and Rochford.  Staid a little while then came down to Mr. and Mrs. Fritz' rooms.  They gave a party, served ice cream* and cake*.  Met several young men.  Came home about 12 oclock.  Mr. Frink came home with me.

Ice Cream maker from the 1890s

*Recipe for Ice Cream from my great-grandmother Emma Tankersly's 1911 edition of Every Woman's Home Cook Book:

ICE CREAM--3

1 pint milk

1 quart cream

2 cups sugar

1 saltspoon salt

1 tablespoon flavoring

2 tablespoons flour

2 eggs

Scald the milk in a double boiler.  Beat the eggs, flour, and 1 cup of sugar together till light, and then turn into the milk.  Stir constantly till thickened, and then occasionally.  Cook 20 minutes.  When cold add the second cup of sugar, the cream and the flavoring, strain into the freezer and freeze.

General directions for freezing:  Use the best freezer, and have all things in readiness.  Allow ten pounds of ice and two quarts of rock salt to a gallon to freezer.  Put the ice in a coffee sack and pound very fine for the first freezing.  Set the cylinder in the tub, and pour in the cream, which should be very cold.  Cover, and turn the crank to see if it works right.  Put in ice to the depth of three inches, then one inch of salt, and fill the tub with alternate layers, finishing with a layer of ice.  Turn the crank slowly and steadily, but do not freeze the cream too fast.  In twenty or thirty minutes unscrew the crank, wipe off the cover, and remove the dasher.  Scrape down the cream from the sides with a broad knife, a wodden one is best, and beat hard several minutes.  This makes the cream smooth.  Replace the cover, plug the dasher hole, taking great care that no salt creeps in.  Drain off the water and repack with coarser ice and salt.  Cover with a thick piece of carpet and set away in a cool place.  Or, apck in moulds, and place in pails filled with layers of salt and ice.  Cover and set away.  Wrap a hot cloth around the mould for a few minutes and the cream will turn out readily.  Should the ice in the tub melt rapidly while freezing, drain off the water, add more ice and salt, see that it is packed solidly, and continue the work of freezing.  If any cream or ice is left in the freezer, pour it out into porcelain-lined pans, and keep in a cold place to ice again.  Great care should be used in keeping the freezer sweet and clean.

From the same cookbook, marked in Emma Tankersly's handwriting, "this one":

CHOCOLATE CAKE--2

3 cups sugar

1 cup butter

1 cup sweet milk

2 1/2 cups flour

5 eggs, reserving 3 whites

2 teaspoons baking powder

This makes 2 flat cakes.

Icing.

3 eggs, whites

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

6 tablespoons grated chocolate

2 teaspoons vanilla 

Nadine's Diary, "Wrote a Letter Home"

Monday Oct. 22, 94.  In school.  I wrote a letter* home and one to Lucy Linn.   

Tuesday Oct. 23, 94.  In school*.   

Wednesday Oct. 24, 94.  In school.   

Thursday Oct. 25, 94.  In school.

*This Canadian site contains interesting information about letter writing in the 19th century.

*Early College Women:  interesting article, "Early College Women:  Determined to Be Educated" produced by the American Association of University Women here.  Excerpts:

By 1890, 70% of all women in college were enrolled in coeducational colleges. This is not to say that women in college were a significant part of the population. In 1870 only .7% of the female population went to college. This percentage rose slowly, by 1900 the rate was 2.8% and it was only 7.6% by 1920. 

But for those pioneering women who did go to college, they loved the experience and the opportunity to create a new model for women, although they faced many critics. Some of the harshest were medical personal who felt that "...a girl could study and learn, but she could not do all this and retain uninjured health, and a future secure from neuralgia, uterine disease, hysteria, and other derangements of the nervous system," according to Dr. Edward Clark in his widely respected Sex and Education published in 1873.

This scientific reasoning added fuel to the arguments of those who did not want women to go to college for social reasons. Henry Adams, writing about women’s intellectual ambitions for higher education, commented on “...the pathetic impossibility of improving those poor little, hard, thin, wiry, one-stringed instruments which they call their minds.” In 1885 he complained bitterly in a letter of protest to the American Historical Association when he found a woman historian listed in the program of a AHA meeting...

Faced with the negative medical opinion, early college women had to prove that college life would not injure their health. They were helped in this by... the Association of Collegiate Alumnae. In 1885 the ACA published a study which concluded that "...it is sufficient to say that female graduates...do not seem to show, ...any marked difference in general health for the average health ... of women engaged in other kinds of work, or in fact, of women generally..."

Nadine's Diary, "Very Sentimental"

Sunday Oct. 21, 94.   Went to the Christian church in the morning with Nannie Whitlaw, Ella Traxler and Lucy Thomas.  Mr. Holz spent the after noon with me.  My room mate was not in.  He staid till supper time, and wanted me to go to church withim, but had an engagement with Mr. Hodges, so he came up after supper to bade me good bye.  He staid a few minutes talked very sentimental.  I kissed him good bye after coaxing me a while.  Mr. Hodges called in the evening to take me to church but did not go on account of it raining.  He staid till the go bell rang.  Room mate was not in.

from Hodges' personal collection:undated photograph of brothers
John Hodges and William Hodges.  John was the older brother
and is mentioned later in Nadine's diary.

Nadine's Diary, "My Blue Umbrella"

Saturday, Oct. 20. 94.  At home in the morning.  In the after noon Misses Harris and Chrisler, Mr. Frink and my self took a walk out to Sagers Pond.  Broke my blue umbrella. Was a lovely day.  We wore our summer dresses.  In the evening went to the Star Society with Miss Sinclair and Edna Nichol, but sat with Misses Thomas, Jones, Whitlaw, Traxler.  Mr. Holz did not arrive in Valparaiso in time to take me as he intended but brought me home.  He came in a few minutes.  The lamp had no oil in it and went out, and left us in the dark.  He wanted to kiss me goodnight but would not let him. 

An 1890s Summer Dress

An Indiana woman holding an umbrella, c 1890s.

Nadine's Diary, "Sweet Marie"

Friday, Oct. 19, 94.  In school.  Mr. Frink came up to my room a while, in the afternoon, and we went over to Mrs. Fritz room to practice (Sweet Marie*).  Mr. Stinson ask me to take a walk in the evening but declined, went to Cresent Society with Mr. Hodges, he ask me to go to church with him Sunday evening but declined because Mr. Holz would be here.

(medley of period music--Sweet Marie is the third featured) 

*Lyrics to Sweet Marie (music by Raymon Moor, lyrics by Cy Warman, 1893)
I've a secret in my heart, Sweet Marie --
A tale I would impart, Love, to thee.
Every daisy in the dell 
Knows my secret, knows it well,
And yet I dare not tell Sweet Marie.

When I hold your hand in mine, Sweet Marie,
A feeling most divine comes to me.
All the world is full of spring,
All the warblers on the wing,
And I listen while they sing, Sweet Marie.

Chorus:

Come to me, Sweet Marie.
Sweet Marie, come to me.
Not because your face is fair, Love, to see.
But your soul, so pure and sweet,
Makes my happiness complete,
Makes me falter at your feet, Sweet Marie.

In the morn' when I awake, Sweet Marie,
Seems to me my heart will break, Love, for thee.
Every wave that shakes the shore
Seems to sing it o'er and o'er,
Seems to say that I adore Sweet Marie.

When the sunset tints the west, Sweet Marie,
And I sit down to rest, Love, with thee,
Every star that studs the sky
Seems to stand and wonder why.
They're so dimmer than your eye, Sweet Marie.

Come to me, Sweet Marie.
Sweet Marie, come to me.
Not because your face is fair, Love, to see.
But your soul, so pure and sweet,
Makes my happiness complete, 

Makes me falter at your feet, Sweet Marie. 

Nadine's Diary, "We Organized a Club"

Thursday Oct. 18, 94.  In school.  Spent the evening in Miss Traxlers room.  Met Misses Whitlaw, Thomas, Critz, Bahl, and Mr. Hodges.  We organized a club of which I was elected Secretary and Mr. Hodges President.  He brought me home.  Ask for my company to the Star, but declined on account of Mr. Holz coming out from Chicago, but accompanied him to the Cresent*.

*Here is a September, 1894 Crescent Society publication from Pacific College in Newberg, OR.

William Hodges (center) posing with school chums.
"Jolly Ten Big Eaters, 6/29/1894"

Nadine's Diary, "In the Forenoon"

Wednesday, Oct. 17, 94.  In school.  Mr. Stinson came up awhile in the forenoon.  Mr. Garland was up a while after supper.

Nadine's Diary, "Singing in the Evening"

Monday Oct. 15, 94.  In school.

Tuesday Oct. 16. 94.  In school.  Miss Harris and I went to singing in the evening. 

Nadine's Diary, "Took a Walk Instead"

Sunday Oct. 14, 94.  In my room in the morning, Mr. Stinson came up in the afternoon, he ask me to go to church in the evening, but took a walk instead.

Nadine's Diary, "A Banjo"

Saturday Oct. 13, 94.  At home.  It rained nearly all day.  Mr. Stinson came up in the after noon, brought a banjo* with him.  He invited Miss Sinclair and I down to his room a while in the evening.  Met several young men there.  Went from there to Star Society.

*Banjo:  From The Half-Barbaric Twang:  The Banjo in American Popular Culture by Karen Linn:

It was not until the early 1880s that banjo music was commonly published; at the same time banjo caught on as a society fad.  Before that time buying banjo music took time and money.... By the 1890s publishers sold much of their popular music in arrangments for a variety of instruments including those ubiquitous banjo, mandolin, and guitar arrangements, either in solos or in different ensemble combinations.

an 1890s banjo

Nadine's Diary, "Amused Ourselves"

Friday Oct. 12, 94.  In school.  Entertained Messers Frink and Stinson in the evening.  We plaid cards and amused our selvs until the go bell rang when they had to go.  

From "World of Playing Cards".  Royal Playing Cards, mid 1890s, made
by New York Consolidated Card Company.

Nadine's Diary, "Waiting on the Supper Bell"

Oct. 11, 94.  In school.  Met Mr. O'Conner at Chapel.  Miss Sinclair and I took a walk after supper.  Mr. Frink came home in the after noon.  Miss Sinclair and I were standing on the stairs waiting for the supper bell to ring and she introduced me to him.

Nadine's Diary, "Went to Singing"

Wednesday Oct. 10. 94.  In school.  Mr. Stinson came up to my room in the after noon to tell me something Mr. Holz told him to tell me.  I also received a letter from him, went to singing in the evening, after taking a walk.

Nadine's Diary, "Trial at the Law Building"

Monday Oct. 8, 94.  In school.

Tuesday Oct. 9, 94.  In school, in the evening Miss Sinclair and my self attended a law trial at the law building it being a case of Breach of Promise, Miss Grace, Brown and Mr. George Glenn, being the characters.  Mr. Garland came home with us. 

c. 1898.  Law School Building at Northern Indiana Normal School.

Nadine's Diary, "Church in the Evening"

Sunday Oct. 7, 94.  At home in the morning.  Mr. Garland called in the after noon a while.  Edna Nichol was here a few minutes.  Miss Sinclair, Mr. Garland and my self called on Misses Cooley and Chapman in Union Hall.  Mr. Stinson took me to church in the evening at the Christian Tabernacle*.

AKA The Christian Tabernacle, from 1911, www.inportercounty.org

*On January 1, 1901, "The Christian Evangelist", "a weekly family and religious journal" reported that the Christian Tabernacle "seats about 1,500 people and during favorable weather has been filled to overflowing." The building was constructed in 1888 and is no longer standing.

Nadine's Diary, "Just Starving Hungry"

Saturday Oct. 6, 94.  In the morning Miss Sinclair, Messers Reed and Stinson and I took a walk out to Sagers Pond.  I tore my dress on the wire fence.  Miss Sinclair found a four leaf clover.  We came home about dinner time just starving hungry cause by the exercise of the morning.  In the afternoon Miss Sinclair and my self took a walk down town.  In the evening we went to the Star Society*.

*Star Society:  another literary society.

From Hodges' personal collection.  He labeled this 1897 photograph:
"Looking South on College Ave. Valparaiso, Ind."

Nadine's Diary, "A Basket of Fruit"

Friday Oct. 5, 94.  In school in the evening Miss Flag, Miss Nichol, Miss Sinclair and my self went to the Cresent Society*.  Mr. Holz called in the afternoon to say good bye.  Received a basket of fruit in the afternoon with Compliments of Mr. Holz. 

*perhaps the Crescent Literary Society.

from www.indianahistory.org
c. early 1900s, a birds eye view of Valparaiso, IN.  The Christian Tabernacle,
featured later in Nadine's diary, may the the building in the center.

Nadine's Diary, "The Go Bell"

Thursday Oct. 4, 94.  In school.  In the evening entertained Messers Holz and Stinson.  They brought us a basket of fruit.  We plaid cards, and indulged in the fruit until the go bell rang when they had to go. 

Nadine's Diary, "Riding a Bicycle"

In school--Wednesday Oct. 3. 94.  Went with Miss Sinclair sketching out to Sagers Pond.  The Art teacher gave me his sketching stool to sit on and I up set when I went to sit down on it. They all laughed and Mr. Wright said I must not be used to riding a bicycle*.  Mr. Holz came to our table in the evening to board.

Lover's Lane on Sager's Lake, Valparaiso, Indiana 

c. 1894, from www.lib.montana.edu

*An interesting issue of The Indiana Historian magazine is devoted to the early days of bicycles, the mid to late 1890s.

Nadine's Diary, "Registered and Arranged My Studies"

Monday, Oct. 2, 94.  Registered and arranged my studies in the evening.  Miss Sinclair and I stole some butter and some sirup off the table and made taffy.

Nadine's Diary, "I Arrived at Valparaiso Indiana"

Found among William Hodges' papers was a diary with this inscription:

Miss Nadine Reynold's diary while attending Indiana Normal College, 1894.  For this diary I paid a box of candy Dec. 7--1895.  Will C. Hodges.

In her matter-of-fact tone, Nadine describes her social life and, less so, her academic career at Indiana Normal College.  Lest we ever think that college students of the late 1800s were more buttoned down than today, a reading of her diary proves that wrong (with the exception that alcohol appears to have played no role).  Students skipped class, were in the unchaperoned company of the opposite sex, and, gasp, even smoked.  Hopefully a photograph of Nadine will surface in the Goodwood Collection.   According to her, she was thought to be one of the prettiest girls at the college.

Each day I will post another of her entries.  Mr. Hodges makes his first appearance in the diary on October 18, 1894.  Where possible, I will include photographs and other pertinent information.  Another note:  Nadine did not regularly use punctuation in her entries, which are usually one run-on sentence.  For clarity, I have added punctuation.  The diary ends on December 1, 1894.

And so we begin:

I arrived at Valparaiso Ind. Sunday morning Oct. 1, 1894.  Begin running with a young lady from Tennessee.  Her name is Minnie Sinclair.  She and I took a walk in the afternoon.  In the evening two young men called, Mr. Stinson and Mr. Holz.  We went to church.  Mr. Stinson went with me.  Went to Memorial Hall.  Mr. White of Chicago spoke.

Memorial Opera House (Memorial Hall) from www.preserveindiana.com 

Interior of Memorial Hall from www.preserveindiana.com

About Indiana Normal College:

Indiana Normal College (also known as Northern Indiana Normal School) of Valparaiso, Indiana, was founded by the Methodists in 1859 as the Valparaiso Male and Female College, a pioneer in co-education.  Due to circumstances brought about by the Civil War, the college was forced to close in 1870.  In 1871, the college was revived and renamed Valparaiso College in 1900.  It was recharted in 1906 as Valparaiso University.  Lutheran University Association purchased the school in 1925 and continues to operate it to this day.  In her diary, Nadine mentions these classes:  art, type writing, short hand, elocution, debate, grammar, penmanship, Latin, and law.