Alice B. Ricker, Class of 1894


Class of 1890, Westbrook Seminary

Class of 1890, Westbrook Seminary
Item 29171   info
Abplanalp Library, UNE

Alice Belle Ricker entered Westbrook Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute in December 1890 at age 14 and graduated in June 1894 at age 17.

Her brother Paul, older by two years, also attended Westbrook Seminary.

Alice was from Falmouth, the daughter of Wentworth Pottle Ricker and Dorcas Ann (Merrill) Ricker. Her father was a farmer and peddler of corn.

He died of cancer before Alice could finish her education, and her mother remarried becoming Mrs. W. H. Barker.

The Seminary Building, Westbrook Seminary, ca. 1892

The Seminary Building, Westbrook Seminary, ca. 1892
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Abplanalp Library, UNE

Alice Ricker's course of study included Latin, Greek and French in addition to English, algebra, geometry, history and rhetoric.

Tuition for this College Preparatory coursework was $9.50 a term. Modern languages were an additional $2.50 a term.

There were three terms per year, and classes were held in the Seminary Building.

Required courses included elocution and physical culture -- elocution "to train the mind" and physical culture to promote "health to the entire body."

The old Chapel had been refitted as a gymnasium and it was "expected that henceforth systematic training in Physical Culture" would "be a prominent feature in Westbrook Seminary."

Westbrook Seminary, Campus Engraving, 1886

Westbrook Seminary, Campus Engraving, 1886
Item 29220   info
Abplanalp Library, UNE

A small library was located in the Seminary Building. Library fees were 25 cents per term.

Frost Library, so named because George Frost had donated his books, contained nearly 3000 volumes, and Reading Rooms within Goddard and Hersey were well supplied with periodicals.

Monthlies included Century, Scribners, New England Magazine and Ladies' Home Journal. Weeklies included Harper's Weekly, Scientific American, Sunday Times, and Life, and daily papers included the Portland Press, Eastern Argus, Lewiston Journal, Boston Journal, and Boston Herald.

Deborah Morton, Westbrook Seminary, 1897

Deborah Morton, Westbrook Seminary, 1897
Item 29224   info
Abplanalp Library, UNE

In the 1890s "Board" included fuel and light and was $3 per week.

There were additional charges for laundry.

Goddard Hall housed the young gentlemen, and Hersey Hall the young ladies.

Students furnished their own linens, bed coverings, soap, napkins and napkin rings. Parents were earnestly requested not to send provisions or confectionery to students, "for the practice of eating irregularly leads invariably to bad results."

Philomatheon Club, Westbrook Seminary, ca. 1911

Philomatheon Club, Westbrook Seminary, ca. 1911
Item 29170   info
Abplanalp Library, UNE

Alice Ricker was active in the school literary societies, participating in essay and debate.

She served as an associate editor of the school paper, "The Messenger," and was Secretary of the Class of 1894.

Teachers and students, Westbrook Seminary, 1892

Teachers and students, Westbrook Seminary, 1892
Item 29223   info
Abplanalp Library, UNE

In June 1894, when Alice was 17, she graduated from Westbrook Seminary and Female Collegiate Institute.

She continued her education at Smith College in Northhampton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1898.

Alice was married in Boston on December 26, 1907, to John Everett Keach, a graduate of Yale Forest School.

They had two children: John R. Keach, born in 1909, and Dorcas E. Keach, born in 1914.

Alice lived in Montana where her husband served as an assistant in the United States Forest Service.

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