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C H A P T E R 5 • • • A New Frontier M oving nearly 2,000 miles in 1895 was not an easy task. For the new Mrs. Naismith, there was more involved than the physical move. Born and raised in the East, she had never lived anywhere else. She was close to her mother, and since the death of her father, that bond had grown even tighter. Still, her love for her new husband, and the desire to see him fulfill his dreams, overrode whatever fears and apprehensions Maude Naismith had about the move west. She knew that her father, who also had been an inventor, would have approved of her marriage to Naismith and would have encouraged her to make the move west with him. Maude’s father was like her husband in at least one other way: he never made much money from his most famous invention. Edwin Sherman had invented the reaping machine, a grain harvester , but had sold the rights to the machine to Cyrus McCormick before it became famous. After Naismith accepted the job in Denver, he and Maude decided that it would be best for him to go there alone at first— although accompanied by his pet collie—and get himself settled, 66 • Chapter 5 into both his new job and classes at the medical school, before being joined by his wife and baby daughter. The two communicated by mail, and in a letter dated October 1, 1895, Naismith said he was ready for his wife and baby to join him. He urged them to begin their journey by train by the 15th of the month. He also described his daily schedule. “I enjoy my studies more and more,” he wrote. “My day’s work is something like this: 8 A.M. physiology; 9 A.M. anatomy; 10 A.M. chemistry; 11 A.M. clinics or quiz; 12 P.M. to 1 P.M. is my office hour; 1–2 P.M. dinner; 3–3:30 office; 4–6 gym. . . . Then in evening on football field or in the gym. When am I going to have time to court my little wife? . . . I have not taken a day off nor an evening since I came, but have one reserved for my pets. I shall have every Wednesday and Sunday eves for you, my dearie.” He enclosed $20 with the letter, telling his wife to “spend it as you see best.” In a return letter, Maude Naismith told her husband that Dr. Gulick had come by their house to check on her and the baby: “He said, ‘Please tell the Reverend gentleman that I would like very much to hear from him.’ I said I didn’t know how you could study in the day for your time was so taken up, and he said, ‘Well remember he learns very easily, is very quick, if it is possible for anyone to do it he will, what would be hard for most people is easy for him.’” It was understandable that Naismith did not have time to contact his old friend and boss. In addition to his heavy school load, his work at the Y was demanding. When Naismith arrived, the Y was offering 34 classes a week in traditional educational subjects as well as in a variety of other topics that included banjo, vocal music, drawing, and first aid. More classes were soon added in art, science, foreign languages, business, and other subjects. The Y also offered weekly Bible and training sessions as well as Sunday school classes, and even conducted religious services at the jail. Naismith personally was eager to see a new group of young men begin playing basketball. A New Frontier • 67 By October 20, Maude Naismith was finally prepared to begin the trip. She wrote to her husband, “I start next Tuesday without fail. I dread the journey. It seems as if I couldn’t go alone but I suppose I must be brave. What other people do I can do.” The trip for Maude and the baby was eventful—she left her purse behind at one point and had to return to the train station to retrieve it—but Maude and Margaret Naismith successfully made it to Denver. Maude had been there for only two weeks when she wrote to her mother that she was terribly homesick. “When I got here I felt as if I wanted to take the first train back, and I haven’t gotten over...

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