by Barbara Rimkunas
This "Historically Speaking" column was published in the Exeter News-Letter on Friday, March 11, 2022.
In 1907, the trustees of the Robinson Female Seminary found themselves searching for a new French and German language teacher. Harlan Bisbee, the school principal, was pleased with the choice of Miss Fannie Perley and said of her, “Miss Perley has had the advantage of advanced study in modern languages in this country, in Germany and in France. She is, moreover, an experienced teacher, and conducts her classes in French and German in the vernacular.” She was also, at 37 years old, hardly a young whippersnapper. Born in Enfield, NH, in 1870, the first third of her life found her living with her parents and teaching. Her education after attending Enfield public schools is sparce. She earned no college degree and didn’t complete any teacher training at a state normal school. Year after year, the list of Robinson Seminary’s corps of teachers – which listed the academic degrees of teachers – would simply say “Fannie Perley – French & German.” Despite this, she was a dependable teacher at the school for 26 years.
Olive Tardiff wrote of Perley, “Although basically kind-hearted and humor-loving, Miss Perley with her above-average height and louder-than-normal voice could be intimidating. She could reduce to tears any girl who was unwilling or unable to do the classwork. Miss Perley not only expected her pupils to develop a pure Parisian accent, but to speak correct English. Margaret McAllister Ladd ’29 admired Miss Perley’s vocabulary. Mildred Gilmore Long ’18 remembered that girls in French class were never allowed to drop their ‘g’s.” Turning Exeter’s sometimes rough-and-tumble girls into multi-lingual sophisticates was a difficult goal, but one to which she was devoted. The years she taught, 1907-1933, coincided with great societal changes for girls and young women. The 1921 Seminarian mentions the very sudden, and nearly universal, hairstyle change after a single student arrived in January with bobbed hair. Within a week, there were three bobbed heads and by the time class photos were taken in the spring, most of the girls had adopted the new look. Miss Perley introduced language instruction to the younger girls. In 1910, she and Principal Bisbee introduced a purely conversational method. “Learning a language is too often made a prosy task,” wrote Bessie Copping in the Seminarian. “The pupil is given a dull grammar, and told to learn rules, conjugations, and declensions. The experiment of teaching a foreign language in the lower grades without the use of textbooks has been tried with gratifying success.
‘Guten Morgen, Classe,’ begins the teacher.
‘Guten Morgen, Fraulein Perley,’ comes the hearty response. The ringing voices make one feel that it is indeed a good morning to be alive and young with the world before you.”
Perley, the teacher without academic credits, spent her summers taking classes at Harvard and Middlebury College, honing her skills wherever she could. German was dropped from the curriculum after World War I and Perley was able to focus only on French. Dissatisfied with the available reading, she wrote her own. Que Fait Gaston: A Reader for Young Beginners was published in 1922 and Gaston Et Ses Amis followed in 1930. The girls of RFS dedicated the Seminarian to her in 1930.
Over the years, they’d gently ribbed their teacher. The girls of the class of 1912, “bequeath to our teacher in German, Miss Fannie Perley, a year’s subscription to the magazine, Styles in Hair Dressing and Foot Wear.” The Class of 1926 recalled, “Miss Perley once remarked that in gay Paree a young girl who wishes to become engaged carries a purple silk umbrella on rainless day. Last minute news described Miss Perley as sauntering down Front Street with her purple silk umbrella up an ‘not a cloud in the sky.’”
She helped organize and lead a group called the Community Council for Girls’ Work in 1927, a task she continued after her retirement in 1933. Like the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls, the organization encouraged patriotism, leadership, and healthy outdoor recreation. The group (perhaps overwhelmed by its competition) disbanded in 1942. She maintained close relationships with her friends and many former students. In 1957, the Exeter News-Letter announced, “At the home of Mrs. Florence Rowe, 35 Pine Street, recently Miss Fannie Perley was given a luncheon and handkerchief shower in honor of her 87th birthday” One can suppose this solved the problem of what to get her for gifts. This type of party needs to be revived. Maybe the modern form would be a lip balm shower. Her final years were spent at Eventide Home for women on High Street. In 1967, the Alumnae Association of the Robinson Female Seminary created the Fannie Perley Award for students of French. A fitting tribute to a woman who devoted her career to her students.
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: Fannie Perley, seen her in 1924 on the grounds of the Robinson Female Seminary, taught French and German in Exeter for 26 years.