This is a letter to Mary Belle Drach before her marriage first to Samuel A. Lauver, and second to Wm. D. Kennard. Mary Belle was mother to Anna Belle Kennard Rivers.It's dated August 4, 1871, not long after the Civil War's end. I believe the gentleman writing the letter is Joseph M. Reiman. It's difficult to make out his name. He is writing for the Board of County School Commissioners in Westminster, Carroll County, Md.
Here is the transcription of the letter that follows.
August 4th, 1871
Miss M. Belle Drach,
My Dear Young Lady:
In reply to your note of the 3d, I have to say that a certificate cannot be written until after the meeting of the School Board on Monday next, as my report of the Examinations will have to be approved by the Board when in session before the certificates can be issued.
I can, however, now say what will serve your purpose as well, that I shall recommend that a certificate be issued to you; and that any Board of Trustees in Carroll County is fully authorized to contract with you as the teacher of a public school.
I shall present your name with others to the Board and comment favorably thereon, but I cannot legally write the certificate nor class it until my favorable report shall have passed the Board, which will be done on Monday the 6th instant, and then, having been graded and classed, it will go on record here; and afterwards, when I shall be ready to prepare them, the duplicates will be sent to the teachers as soon as possible, possibly in many cases, not before the opening of the Schools in September, but before the close of the Fall Term. Indeed, as the certificates will be here on record, it will matter little to the teachers whether they have the duplicates or not. But these duplicates will be sent as soon as I shall be ready to issue them in order.
We have now six classes of certificates, each giving ___ teacher a different salary, from $50 per tem to $95 per term; and if I should mark yours now, I would not place the salary lower than $65 per term, but I hope that it will be $75, which is the highest paid to teachers of the second grade, no matter what is the character of their work at the examination. Very rarely are certificates of the 1st grade given to teachers without an oral as well as a written examination, unless they be graduates of the _____ (Abroad?) School, or of some respectable College, or have had much successful experience as teachers. Your work now on file does very well - very well indeed - and if you will wait for some early opportunity for me to hear you in some oral exercises, you will likely go into the first grade if your oral exercises shall sustain your written work. If this opportunity shall not occur before the schools open, I will embrace an early occasion to visit your school, and then I will hear you orally.
I wish to be your useful friend. I will put myself to some personal inconvenience to serve you in any way consistent with my duty; but for your own sake, I must not permit the impression to be made, that I favor you more than others. If you, with some friend, could call and pass an hour or two with me in oral exercises, or if I had time to pay you a visit of a few hours, it might enable me to give you a higher class that I can properly do without it. But there is no occasion for haste. I will place your grade and class as high as I possibly can; and you must so manage your school as to justify an elevated standard.
Enclosed, you will find a note which can be exhibited to any Board of Trustees; and it will be full authority for any trustees to contract with you, and if you make the engagement, I shall be highly gratified.
John Hammer, of whom you speak, has been here several times; but he will not be in your way. Excuse this hurriedly written note.
Truly Your friend.
Josseph M Rairman
Back side of letter follows.
