Westtown Through the Years, 1799-1942 (review)

38 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION BOOK REVIEWS Westtown Through the Years, 1799-1942, by Helen G. Hole. Westtown, Pennsylvania. Westtown Alumni Association, 1942. 434 pp. ; many illustrations. $2.00. ÍÍOIX O'CLOCK on a cold winter morning. The harsh clanging of a O bell shatters the slumbers of a hundred boys, sleeping under the sloping roof of the long attic dormitory of Westtown School"— so begins the chapter introducing the reader to the first quarter century of life at Westtown, 1800-1825. The book reads from the very beginning like a story rather than a history without "resort to probabilities and reasonable guesses." In fact the details are based, as we are told, on a study of the letters, diaries and minute books of the period—even to beaver hats, nut-houses, pewter cannons, and pie portions. To those who have been the fortunate attenders of the school, the book must bring back all the delightful memories of picnic excursions, elocution contests, and classes with beloved personalities ; and to all readers it brings a remarkable and inspiring picture of the devotion of those men and women who have been able to maintain, through the 143 years of the school's history, a clear vision of the religious concern which first prompted the founding of Westtown School. The author of the book is especially well qualified for the work she has undertaken. She is a graduate of the school, has taught there for four years, and is now the wife of a Westtown teacher, as well as a descendant of three generations of Westonians. The book itself exhibits her devotion to her task through the two and a half years of her work upon it. Out of the immense amount of research it has entailed she has culled a picture with all the mellow tones of a Westtown sampler. It is the kind of book that would appeal not only to former Westonians but to all readers who find joy in discovering in the patterns of character, aspiration, and faith of earlier generations, the values that are eternal. In form, the book is very attractive, the type large and clear, and the illustrations well selected, including fascinating silhouettes and photographs of Westonians, maps and early drawings of the school, and appropriate pen-and-ink sketches at the close of each chapter. At the end of the text are detailed "foot-notes" on each of the chapters, a chronology, a list of teachers and administrative officers, carefully compiled by Susanna Smedley, and a complete index, all of which add greatly to the value of the book as an authentic historical reference tool. The text is organized into chapters covering broad periods of the School's history—the beginnings and the first quarter century, the middle years and the idyllic period known as "The Closed Garden," the Civil War years, and Westtown after the rebuilding of the school. The material is presented in "story" form with delightful word pictures of specific episodes interspersed with short biographies of the superintendents and Vol. 33, Spring 1944 BOOK REVIEWS39 teachers who were the dominant forces in determining the intellectual and religious pattern of the school. Such an outstanding character was Enoch Lewis, one of the first teachers at Westtown, and the one who set the pattern in the school for a love of mathematics and astronomy. It was he who introduced the students to the wonders of electricity and of the orrery, and it was he who explained to them the awe-inspiring phenomenon of a total solar eclipse when the entire school, with smoked glasses and basins of water for mirrors', watched one, on a half holiday set aside for the purpose. He became known to the students affectionately as "Enoch, the Star-gazer," and among those under his influence were such boys as Thomas Say, later a distinguished naturalist and one of the founders of the Academy of Natural Sciences. Enoch Lewis was a strong abolitionist and a devout Quaker. When offered a chair of mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania, he refused on the ground that his duties would prevent his attendance at Fifth-Day meeting. For many years he was editor...