West Chester University - Serpentine Yearbook (West Chester, PA)

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CLASS NINETEEN FIFTEEN ftlJ.fhinflpr. J iiogfatiljifal $Mt } by lf.ffl.lftldtotn. |LLA M. long, Mrs. C. E. Ehinger, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, but while she was quite a child her parents removed from St. Louis to Quincy, Illincjis, and in this latter place she grew to womanhood. Thoug-h they lived in the West her parents were of good old New England stock, for her father was a native of New Hampshire, and her mother ' s birthplace was in Connec- ticut. Like many other ambitious young people of their time, the lure of the West called them, and leaving their own kindred and their father ' s house, they jour- neyed to that land of promise and of possibility, and there in due time the subject of this sketch opened her eyes upon this world. Her girlhood in Ouincy was a very happy one, and she looks liack with much pleasure to the many bright and joyous days she jjassed there, and still cherishes a deep love for the Mississippi River, upon whose banks and on whose waters she spent many a delightful hour in bygone days. On the wall of her living room there hangs a beautiful water-color i)ainting, her own handiwurk, representing a scene on her ever-loved Mississippi. Mrs. Ehinger was educated in the public schools of Ouincy, and though she was not graduated from the High School, yet in her Junior year she did much Sen- ior work. Considerations of health forljade her graduation, for while she was never really ill, she was at no time very robust. After leaving school she studied music and painting, and became especially proficient in work in water colors and in pastel. She worked at her art very assiduously for some years, as the numerous sketches in her home show, Init for a long time the multiplicit - of her activi- ties, home, school, and social, has precluded any inludgence in this favorite avoca- tion. In her early life at home she assisted her father, who was a jihotographer, in crayon portrait work, and with the money thus earned bought her first piano, an achievement which she regards with much pride. Reading is one of Mrs. Ehinger ' s favorite occupations, and from time to time she writes both in ])rose and in verse. Some years ago she pre])ared a little mono- graph iin instruction in cra ' on work, which was published in pamphlet form, and a copy of which is now in the School Lil)rary. l ' or the past four or five years she has written exery month a story for the i ' irst-day School of the High Street 13

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THE SERPENTINE Snapshots of Dr. Ehinger

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THE SERPENTINE Friends ' Meeting, of which she is a member, and these stories are now being pub- lished in Scatfcrcci Seeds, a monthly journal of the Friends. Last Christmas time she wrote a little poem, and this, inscribed on cards, was sent out by Dr. and Mrs. Ehinger as a Christmas greeting to their many friends. Dr. and Mrs. Ehinger were married in 1883, at Quincy, but the first two years of their married life were spent in Chicago, where the doctor was at that time prac- ticing medicine. In 1885, however, they returned to Quincy, where for some years Dr. Ehinger continued his work. Finally, thru some friends, he became much interested in the subject of physical training, and growing more and more con- vinced that it was a more hopeful and helpful task to educate people towards the prevention of disease rather tlian to try to cure them when they fell a prey to it, he determined to fit himself for the teaching of gymnastics. Mrs. Ehinger likewise, after pondering much over the matter, concluded to prepare herself for the same work. Accordingly they went for tliis purpose to the Brooklyn Normal School of Gymnastics and studied there under Dr. Anderson. Dr. Anderson ' s school was later moved to New Haven, Conn., and is now very widely known as the New Haven Normal School of Gymnastics. It was at Brooklyn, however, that Dr. Phil- ips, who was looking for some one to take charge of the work of physical culture at the West Chester State Normal School, met Dr. and Mrs. Ehinger, and he very soon engaged them both to fill the positions which for so long and so efficiently they have held. Upon first coming to West Chester they occupied the rooms which Professor and Mrs. Starkey now have. Here they remained for five years, and then re- moved to the house just across the campus, where Miss Martin now lives. In was in that house, in 1898, that their only child was born, and it was there also that the greatest grief of their lives came to them in the death of their little one when only two months old. In 1907, they built their present beautiful home, which was begun in the spring, but it was not until fall that they were able to take possession of it. How- e er, the day when they moved in was doubly a red letter day to them, since they took the first meal in the new home on the twenty-fourth anniversary of their mar- riage. But the loss of their child had left their hearts not only very empty, but also very loving towards all children, and a great desire to be of help to them, and so in 1903 they adopted a little girl, who has been in all respects as their own daugh- ter, and she has well repaid their tender love and care. In her long ' connection with the school, Mrs. Ehinger has made it her duty, as well as her delight, to do all she can to help the girls under her care, for she dearly loves girls, and in her yearly spring talks to the Senior girls she has led many of them to a new view of the more serious duties of womanhood. Often do her girls w rite to her asking for advice and counsel, and many are the expressions of appre- ciation of her faithful work. The dedication of the Class Book of 191 5 to Dr. and Mrs. Ehinger. in recogni- tion of the completion of their twenty-five years of work here, is indeed a fitting trib- ute to their high character, great efificiency, and faithful service, and we trust that their relations with the school may remain unbroken for many years to come. 14