by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, March 12, 2021.
On a February day in 1881, 13-year-old Lillian Perkins signed her name on the roster at the Robinson Female Seminary. She and her cousin, Maude, were new students having only recently qualified from their sub-grammar class. Having grown up on her father’s farm on Perkins Hill, it was not inevitable that Lillian would attend or even complete the full course. Her parents, B. Judson and Sarah Giles Perkins, were not your average farmers. Judson had lost his left hand at the age of 16 while using dynamite to clear land. Perhaps thinking he might not be capable of farming, his father had encouraged him to attend Phillips Exeter Academy, where the boy excelled. He completed his studies in 1861 – having spent one year studying with Robert Todd Lincoln as a fellow student. He kept diaries for the years 1860 and 1861. He knew he would not be going to war due to his disability and turned instead to farming and courting a young schoolteacher named Sarah Giles. Even in his diary he was too shy to write her name, switching to Greek letters when he wrote about her.
The schoolteacher and the Academy graduate farmer married. Together they raised five children on the farm at Perkins Hill. B.Judson and Sarah helped found the first Grange in the State of New Hampshire. Judson served as a town selectman. Young Lillian found her bookish parents in good company – two of her aunts were also teachers. As she studied at the Robinson Seminary, it was probably taken for granted that she would become a teacher, as well. She could follow in her mother’s shoes and teach for a few years and then get married or she could teach for the remainder of her life. Either way, there was classroom time ahead.
Lillian graduated in 1886. By 1894, she was teaching in the Exeter public schools at the School Street School. Her sister, Mary, was teaching at the Kingston Road School, so dinnertime conversation must have been a whirl of talk about students, lessons, and discipline. Her classes, which were exceptionally large by our standards at about 48 students per day, taught the basics of reading, math, geography, penmanship, drawing and vocal music. The students were a mix of ages anywhere from 8 to 13 years old. It must have been quite challenging.
In her teacher’s report for 1900, she reported that there were 48 seats in the classroom – a difficult issue on days when the class swelled to 50 students. She stated that she had not attended either college or normal school (teacher training in earlier times). The State of New Hampshire was trying to encourage towns to hire teachers who had attended the Keene Normal School, but it does not appear that Lillian had any education after the Robinson Female Seminary. The report also noted any visitors to the classroom. One name turns up again and again: John A. Brown.
Lillian probably knew Mr. Brown through her father, with whom he served as a town selectman. Brown was 11 years her senior, had graduated from Phillips Exeter, like her father, but had gone on to Harvard, where his roommate was another Exeter boy – Henry A. Shute. Just before graduation, he suffered a bout of heat exhaustion and the lingering effects kept him from any kind of further education. Instead, he returned home to Exeter. He taught mathematics and Latin at the Academy when needed, and tutored students. He entered business, becoming the secretary/treasurer of the Exeter Cooperative Bank, and running an insurance agency. His interest in education never flagged. He was elected to the Exeter School Board. In this capacity, he was required to drop into the various schools to see how things were going. By 1900, when Lillian wrote the report that now resides in the Exeter Historical Society collections, he was visiting School Street School rather frequently. She resigned after that term. John Lyman, Chairman of the Exeter School Board, reported, “with eight years of faithful service in School Street Intermediate School to her credit, (Miss Perkins) resigned to be married. Miss Perkins still retains her interest in the schools as an advisory member of the school board.” Advisory indeed, she married into the board.
It seemed like her life would now be that of the supportive spouse – raising children, taking notes for her husband, managing the household, serving on various ladies’ committees – all in all, a good life. They quickly had three children, Mary, John Jr., and Margaret. Margaret had just turned one when John became ill. There was little treatment for stomach cancer in 1910. No doubt his kidneys and liver, already weakened from heat stroke, failed quickly. Lillian found herself a widow at the age of 42. Teaching would not pay enough to support her family and, in any event, as a widow, she was considered ineligible.
But the future did not become as grim as it seemed it might. The bank trustees immediately offered her her husband’s position as secretary/treasurer. It was an unusual move, although she was not the first woman to serve as a bank treasurer in Exeter. Sarah Clark had retired just that year after 19 years as treasurer of the Union Five Cents Savings Bank. Lillian also decided to keep the John A. Brown Insurance agency. Her sister, Mary, moved in to take care of the household and the kids while Lillian was at work. For decades, Lillian Brown was the premier businesswoman in Exeter. When she retired from the bank in 1951 – after 41 years of service – there was only a passing notice in the news. “Mrs. Brown has been a member of the board and an executive officer over 40 years. Upon the death of her husband, John A. Brown, in the fall of 1910, she took over his position and has had much to do with the bank’s success since then. Mrs. Brown’s friendly help and advice will be greatly missed by the bank and its patrons.”
Barbara Rimkunas is curator of the Exeter Historical Society. Support the Exeter Historical Society by becoming a member! Join online at: www.exeterhistory.org
Image: Lillian Brown found herself widowed in September of 1910. Within two months, she had decided to run her husband’s insurance agency herself. She remained a prominent businesswoman in Exeter for over 40 years.