Claire Ackerman Vliet

Claire Ackerman is laboratory assistant in chemistry, and Amelia Benson in physics, at the college. Both are doing graduate work there, as is also Charlotte Jones.

1904 Program:

Graduate student Woman's College, 1903.
Present address: Alpheim Hall, Woman's College, Baltimore, Md.

Claire Ackerman is assistant in chemistry at the Woman's College of Baltimore.

June 1905 Kalends:

Claire Ackerman has been awarded the graduate fellowship from the Woman's College.

June 1906 Kalends:

Claire Ackerman, who had the alumnae fellowship for 1905-'06, received her master's degree June 5th from her Alma Mater.

June 1907 Kalends:

Clare Ackerman was married in May to Mr. Vliet.

May 1909 Kalends:

Claire Ackerman Vliet has a daughter, Margaret.

February 1915 Kalends:

Claire Ackerman Vliet has a son, Frank Pleet, born December 9.

March 1924 Goucher Alumnae Quarterly:

Born to Claire Ackerman Vliet, a son, John David, April 22, 1923.

January 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Just the regular routine life of a mother of five children, even if the two oldest are in Goucher now. My health has compelled me to drop church work and all Parent Teacher Association speaking. But one thing I have kept up, namely, active participation in the work of the Hamilton Township Library Commission. In fact I am just finishing my second term in rotation as president.
It may be of interest that Hamilton Township, lying just outside the city of Trenton, is reputed to be the largest, most pupulous, and most wealthy township in the United States. Seven years ago the need of a library was keenly felt. New Jersey was eduating the people to the value of county libraries, but Hamilton Township was considered large enough to support one of its own. With the help of the Parent-Teacher Associations in the sixteen schools of the township, the idea was brought before the voters, and upon peition the matter was made the subject of a referendum. It was carried by a tremendous majority. SInce that time the library has been functioning along the line of county travelling libraries, having headquarters and using a truck to transport books to and from the various 'centers' from which they are issued by card. There are over forty of these 'centers', including sixteen schools.
The good that has been accomplished can scarcely be estimated, but can be suggested. In one or two sections where live a number of foreign-born, books in other languages have been requested. For instance, a number of standard noves were supplied to one section in the Polish language. In another section, juvenile books were requested for the adult 'center' as being more easily read in English by foreign adults not yet equal to ordinary adult books. In all sections people have begun to read books who never read anything before.
If any of our alumnae want to know further about our Township Library, I shall be glad to answer any questions addressed to me."

April 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:

Two daughters of 1903 mothers were elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Goucher this spring. They are Janet Frost, daughter of Eda Briggs Frost, and Margaret Vliet, daughter of Claire Ackerman Vliet.

July 1930 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet, smiling, returned with the whole family, and a lovely family it is - so she has a right to smile. Claire had a daughter in the senior class, one in the Sophomore Class at Goucher. Claire is busy as a fine mother and thrifty housewife, yet has time to be President of the Hamilton Township Library Commission.
Margaret Vliet, Claire Ackerman's daughter, will be counselor at a Girls' Camp.

November 1934 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet agrees to make up for her absence at our reunion in June, caused by her daughter's illness, by telling us "all she knows." "First, Katherine (Goucher, '32) is nearly herself again and can enjoy life at Camp Willisden on the Delaware. It is a substantially built cabin on an island about eight miles from our home, easily accessible to my husband for overnight stays, with swimming and canoeing as his best relief from a city office. He doesn't like to have me call the place 'Willisden'- it sounds too much like something swanky whereas it only means that it is the little cabin formerly occupied by Jim Willis, the recluse, until his death. Now we occupy and enjoy it, from June to October each year.
Margaret (Goucher '30) received her A.M. at Drew last June. She still plans on going to India but says it will probably be two more years before she goes.
Frank, Jr., completed his first year at Antioch - forty weeks of hard work. Next year he must begin on the cooperative plan, working five weeks then returning to classroom for five weeks, etc. So he will have only twenty weeks of classwork, but will be getting plenty of experience.
I am still working as historian for the Ackerman Family Association. It is slow work tracing out families of nine or ten children. You just ought to see the charts showing famillies of Ackermans from 1747 to 1934. We have to tack them up on big bulletin boards at the annual reunion in Ackermanville, Pa.
My husband and I had a nice trip this summer by car to Buffalo, by boat to Mackinac Island. We stopped off at Detroit on the way home and visited Ford's American Village and again at Williamsport to visit Katherine MacCart Wilkinson ex '05, whom I hadn't seen for nine years."

November 1938 Alumnae Quarterly

Claire Ackerman Vliet is to serve this year as Secretary of the Trenton Goucher Club, and is now serving her fifteenth year as a trustee of the Hamilton Township Library Commission. She writes: "Just two weeks before the terrible storm that struck New England my husband and I toured the New England states- the Mohawk Trail, Vermont, Franconia Notch i New Hampshire, Portland,, Maine, and back again through Massachusetts and COnnecticut to Bear Mountain. My three daughters are all married. I have two grandsons, one of them in Bangalore, India."

July 1939 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet was at Reunion and is the same happy, hopeful Claire as in college days, proud of her children, of course, with one daughter a missionary in India. Claire does not tell, but others do, of her work and influence in Trenton. She has built a small colonial house along the Delaware, up from Trenton, to which she and her husband will go in several years for the rest of their lives.

July 1941 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet wrote at Commencement time, "Sorry I cannot be on hand for the laying of the cornerstone. But I am hoping Margaret can get there. Her boat (the President Jackson from Bombay by way of Cape Town and Trinidad) is due to dock at Hoboken tomorrow. So we'll all go over to greet the, the Reverend and Mrs. Conrad Heins and their two sons whom we have never seen. Conrad's people live at Arlington, Va. They will be up, too. And won't we have a happy reunion!
Mr. Vliet has not been a bit well sinc ehe had a severe heart attack in February. We had planned to move up to our dear little white cottage on the river bank at Titusville, N.J. but now that Mr. Vliet is not well, and that Margaret's family will make their headquarters with us, we have decided to remain in the old place. There is more room, and Mr. Vliet won't have to endure the fret of moving. Maybe next year he will feel better.
Young John graduates from high school in June. He is not sure what he wants to do.
Young Frank is working for General Motors, and attending Drexel night school in mechanical engineering. At the present time he is also attending a trade school two nights a week, learning the practical operation of lathes, milling machines, drills, and so forth, to become a full-fledged machinist, even though his ultimate aim is mechanical engineering. The two courses should complement very nicely. He is registered for the draft, but has not been called yet."

November 1945 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet sent me a delightful letter, as breezy as Claire always is. She has moved into her new home and her address is Titusville, N.J. Her home is named "Riverbrink." It is on a bluff along the Delaware River. It was built in 1938 (when they could get all conveniences and everything for building), but John, her youngest, wanted to stay in Trenton to finish high school. He graduated in 1941. Then Claire's husband was too ill to move. By the time he was well war came and gasoline restrictions, but at last they moved into their home this spring. As Claire said, "I grew lyrical thinking of all the conveniences and the beauty of the sunsets and river," The first few days after they moved in continual rains descended, the river was muddy, there was no sunset, the motor of the refrigerator went badm an electrical storm cut off currents for lights and electrical pump, and the Pyrofax gas sputtered out. I am sure by now all the troubles are over and all going well. Her daughter, Margaret Vliet Heins '30, with her two children, sailed on the Gripsholm May 31 and arrived at Bombay July 5. Margaret's husband had returned to India alone in Sept., 1943- and the family were anxious to join him.

May 1946 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet has had a beautiful trip to the West Coast. She travelled by plane to Los Angeles; and by chance met Mary Abercrombie Verner in Union Station, Los Angeles. Claire was planning to go to San Francisco for a short visit, and from there, by plane, to her home in New Jersey. She says that she is having a wonderful vacation, and it really sounds like it.

November 1948 Alumnae Quarterly:

"For myself, I report relief to have heard from my daughter, Margaret Vliet Heins '30, that their school, Vijaya Vidyalaya in Gulbarga, State of Hyderabad, India, has not suffered from the recent disorders in that state, although her husband sent home the pupils and opened the school as a refugee center for Indian Christians. Probably by the time you read this, the school will have been reopened."

Winter 1949 Alumnae Quarterly:

"I hope you all had as happy a Christmas season as we here at "Riverbrink." Ours was especially happy because my husband was home from the hospital after a serious stomach operation. His recovery has been remarkable. We have so much cause for thanksgiving."

Spring 1949 Alumnae Quarterly:

"Let us getthose buildings finished out at Towson. For once we get firmly rooted and grounded on our 421 acre campus we can give those other women's colleges some real competition. Formerly, and particularly recently, our lack of campus was an obstacle. The graduates of the last ten years are more aware of the unpleasant commercial atmosphere there on Charles Street than we of the older classes, whose memories are of quiet streets, interrupted by an occasional cart racketing over the cobbles of Lovegrove Alley, or the cries of the oyster vendor on Charlet St., or in early May the tantalizing call, "Straw-brees! Straw-brees! AnnArannal straw-brees!"
Clara requested that I put into the notes something about myself and family. So here goes. For 38 years I lived in Trenton, on Johnston Ave. ALl five of my children were born there. In 1945 we moved to the house we had built along the Delaware for our "old age." Margaret, the oldest, is in India, teaching biology and English in her husband's high school. She has 3 boys, and expects to come home on furlough in 1950. Katherine is living in Tenafly, N.J., doing a good job of raising her husband's twin girls. She has no children of her own. Claire, the trained nurse, lives in Drexel Hill, has two boys, and has just gone through the same sort of plaster and wallpaper mess that Jenny [Hyde] had, above. Frank Jr. is working in the tool-making department at Westinghouse in Lester, Pa. John, the youngest, is a senior in the School of Education at University of Pennsylvania. He wants to teach English in a high school. Neither of the boys is married yet. As for me and my husband, we enjoy the beauty of this place so much we cannot imagine wanting to live anywhere else. The sunsets over the water are wonderful. And we keep tolerably well so that we can enjoy it all. My husband seems to be completely recovered from his stomach operation. We are very thankful for all God's mercies to us."

Fall 1950 Alumnae Quarterly:

For myself, your correspondent, I have two joys to share with you. First, The Ackerman Genealogy is finally finished, as far as I could go. It took me 18 years, along with all my other work, to gather the necessary information concerning our forebears for the Ackerman Family Association. When I discovered that originally they were Mennonite I knew I had a lot of work to do, for they "kept themselves from the world" so well that one can search in vain through printed records. I found that one branch has largely remained Mennonite; and through the cooperation of one woman I received clues and information that helped a lot there. Tombstones and deeds to land were my main reliance for the oldest ones. Now at last it is finished--printed-and in the hands of various Ackermans who wanted it. I included a Chapter on Flicksville. From what I found I really do think that my grandmother Catherine Flick was some relation to Alice Dunning's husband. Next, we have Margaret Vliet Heins ('30) and her husband and three sons living with us during their furlough from India. We are so grateful that our daughter could return on schedule, for she was very ill with typhoid only six weeks before date of sailing. By the mercy of the Lord they were able to secure chloromycetin, which broke the fever and speeded her convalescence. The five of them managed a quick tour in Europe, seeing something of "blitzed" England and noting the contrast with un-bombed Switzerland.
Now they are home! You'd be surprised to see how we manage to stow seven people (and their baggage!) in a house meant for no more than three or four. The two oldest boys are in school; the youngest, only four years old, has no kindergarten to go to, and the nearest nursery school is ten miles away, so he manages nicely playing with neighbors' children. Margaret runs the house, and I am her assistant. It works out very well.

Winter 1953 Alumnae Quarterly:

"The members of the Class of 1903 would like to express their sympathy to Claire Ackerman Vliet and her family on on the death of Mr. Frank Vliet on October 23, 1952." - Alice Dunning Flick
"I want to take this occasion to thank all of you who so lovingly wrote of your sympathy after my husband died last October. Your kind thoughts gave my heart a lift." - Claire Ackerman Vliet

Spring 1953 Alumnae Quarterly:

"I had a wonderful Easter of hope and promise - my first Easter without Frank's bodily presence. From Tenafly, N.J. - from Drexel Hill, Pa., - from Springfield in Delaware County, Pa. - all my children came home. That is, all but Margaret who is in India. John, my youngest, still unmarried, lives with me. He teaches English at a school not too far away."

Fall 1953 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman VLiet, who has from time to time cajoled some of our classmates to write in the Quarterly, never did have much to say about herself, but turn about is fair play, so we extracted a bit for this issue: "The idea of a biographical sketch of everyone in the class is a good one. Too bad we did not start it before we lost so many members, but Alice and some of the rest of us have notes that could be drawn upon." (Note: You will be hearing more about this later. The idea is just hatching).
The heat this summer really had me stopped. After all, work will be here when I am dead and gone - so why get in a lather about it? I am having such a good time having a house built on the lot across from Riverbrink - not to live in, but to rent. Frank left me 4 little houses in Trenton which had become a porr investment, so I sold them and am applying the proceeds toward building one nice modern home, which I can ultimately sell at a profit, after collecting rent for a while. I have such a good builder; he'll never get rich, for he builds too well.
My daughter Claire's husband has a private plane - an Ercoupe- in which they planned to fly to Dayton to the Air Races, but the weather conditions over the mountains prevented them so they drove up here from Drexel Hill for the day. My gain."

Fall 1954 Alumnae Quarterly:

Claire Ackerman Vliet is happy over the marriage of her son, John, on October 2, "and we are all excited about it, even though I am only the mother of the groom.
Too busy to write much these days. John Heins, oldest son of my daughter, Margaret (Goucher 1930), in India, arrived July 13, and we spent much time in outfitting him for Hiwasse Junior College, in Madisonville, Tenn."

Winter 1955 Alumnae Quarterly:

"That grim looking Claire in the snapshot I sent you some time ago can now be replaced with this...I told John I felt sure he could do a better job than that, and here I am looking my full 75 years but trying to smile it off.
I was too busy to write much the last time, for I was getting my grandson ready for college, and after he left, I went to Williamsport to visit Katherine MacCart Wilkinson (ex '05). Then I had not much time left before John's wedding on October 2. His wedding was lovely. The earnest young pastor of Peggy's little Methodist church in Hopewell, N.J. made the ceremony the sacrament it ought to be. And Peggy is a girl after my own heart. Now I am well content, for all five of my children are happily married. Peggy's mother died 8 years ago, and she has been keeping house for her father ever since, even while working at Princeton University in the Industrial Relations Section. They will continue to live there - much the happiest arrangement for Peggy to continue where she has been mistress of the home for so long. And since I am not the "lonely" type, I do not feel at all forlorn, and I am doing many things which needed doing.
I have finally transferred my church membership to the Titusville Methodist Church. Even last summer I could help with the Daily Vacation Bible School by telling Bible stories before classes began. Now I have a Sunday School class of young adults, and feel once more that I am of some use."

Continued...