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19th Cent."sickness" response summary...



Hello all,

First, I'd like to thank all of you who replied to my query.  It was greatly appreciated.

Secondly, the overall opinion was that it could probably be assumed that this meant the student was credited for the days they missed due to illness.  This was my guess at the time and the responses helped support that idea. 

Third, for those of you interested, I have cut and pasted the responses I've gotten through today to the end of this e-mail.

Thanks again, Adrienne Marrah-Program Assistant for Museum

---I do not believe that 'in sickness' is a term that denotes any type of
payment. The term has not changed meaning and was in the same common
usage (e.g. in the marriage service 'in sickness and in health').
I would guess that this may be part of the record-keeping system at this
particular school - for example, students did not have to pay for days that
they missed due to sickness and these were credited to their account.

---This is just a guess, but pehaps "sickness" was the way in which the debit was forgiven. In other words, $7 was paid in cash and $4 was forgiven due to illness.
Susanne Lambert
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art

---This is only a guess, but it may be an accounting method. Let's say each
boy would owe the teacher $10 for his education per term. The boy was sick
half the time and attended school the other half. The teacher would "zero
out" his ledger by recording $5 as cash received and another $5 credited
against the annual fee due because of "sickness." One might assume that no
money was collected. And in this manner the ledgers are zeroed out by the
end of the year.
Our town's public school teachers in the mid-19th Century were paid on a
monthly basis by the school district, so unfortunately I have no similar
records on-hand. You might have better luck contacting some local
historical societies (?).
Interesting piece of history...
Paul R. Bergeron
City Clerk
229 Main Street
Nashua, NH 03060
Telephone: 603/589-3010
Fax: 603/589-3029
http://www.gonashua.com/

---We have transcribed a number of old ledgers of various types
including school however we have not run into the term "Sickness."
My guess would be that the student/s was/were absent because
of illness and thus were not charged for room & board while they
were not there - some of the medical problems of the time re-
quired lengthy recovery periods and some never recovered.
Sounds like an interesting project.
Leigh
Leigh C. Eckmair, Archivist
The Local History Collection
THE GILBERTSVILLE FREE LIBRARY
e-mail:librarian@stny.rr.com
http://www.gilbertsville.com/library.htm

---I've played in lots of these ledgers and have never run across the term.
Perhaps it means the debt was forgiven due to the student being ill and
unable to work? Did the students work at the school to pay off some of
their debts? Please post the answer to the list when you get it!
Best,
Sally Childs-Helton, Ph.D.
Special Collections/Rare Books Librarian
Butler University Libraries
4600 Sunset Avenue
Indianapolis, IN 46208
317-940-9265/Fax 371-940-8039
schildsh@butler.edu

---Hi. Just a thought, could it refer to sick pay?
Annie

---That's an interesting question. I checked the OED (Oxford English
Dictionary) and a possible answer may be found in the 6th entry.
6. attrib., as sickness allowance, benefit, insurance, repentance, summer,
year.
Perhaps students had to pay some sort of fee ahead of time and this is the
fund the money came from?
I have 19th century financial journals too and have never seen this (though
I don't get into them too often). If you get a more definitive response,
please forward it on to me--just in case I run into it.
Beth

---Could it simply mean a credit for classes not attended due to sickness?
Or is that too easy?

--->From a 19th Century Expert Kelly Falcone [mailto:kfalcone@wrhs.org] at the
Western Reserve Historical Society:

An attempt to answer your question:
Well, in the 19th century, sickness pretty much means sickness, so the only
thing I can figure, without knowing anything else about the document or the
type of school is that "sickness" actually means absence. Perhaps a
particular student was charged less for tuition because he (or she) was out.
Perhaps a student paid only $4 as opposed to 10 for a term of enrollment
because of an absence from school. I have seen sickness used in many ways
in 19th century sources; for example, U.S. census reports for an insane
asylum in Columbus, Ohio have entries for "love sickness;" in these cases,
the young women were admitted for only a short time, typically less than 12
months, so we interpreted these cases as pregnancies based on the length of
stay, use of the word "love," and age of the "inmates." The word "sickness"
in any of these sources was used in reference to a physical or mental
illness of some sort. In your case, I vote for "absence."
In terms of sources, I don't know what site you are at, but if you can get
your hands on a period dictionary or OED, you may be able to find the answer
there as well, if the meaning of sickness in 1850 is different than today,
but I don't think so.
Kelly Falcone, WRHS, Cleveland, Ohio.

---Hello, Ms. Marrah:
"Sickness" as a term....
I've run across that term in my inventory, and took it at face value. If a
student were sick and unable to attend evening meals for 3 days, as an
example, that would be a "credit" against the normal charge to the student.
Take a look at the credit side of the ledger and see if that student isn't
running a positive amount.
In some of my boarding house ledgers, the landlord will many times credit a
boarder for not being able to use house services: laundry, carriage stalls,
meals, ironing, etc.and enter it under a generic heading: sickness.
Let me know if this is applicable. I'd like to be corrected, if I'm wrong.
On another matter, since I have your attention, perhaps you'd like to see
some of the inventory I'm referring to:
www.writtenbyhand.com
There is a non-commercial, not-for-profit version of that subject matter
here, with members and discussion groups:
www.writtenbyhand@yahoogroups.com

Thanks.
Peter Pehrson

---Well, here are a couple variations on a possibility - it could be that
sickness means that either the student or the instructor was ill and ergo
the student was credited with the time that way vs. having to actually pay
for it.
And, given the amount of illness around at that time, it seems like a likely
explanation.
Did you find a more precise/accurate explanation? just curious.