0046
Gere, Charles Henry (1838-1904). Newspaper publisher; Cather's
employer during college. Charles H. Gere, born in New York,
graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA, in 1861 and joined the
Union army. In 1865 he moved to Nebraska, where his family had moved.
Politically active in the Republican Party, he moved to Lincoln, NE, and
founded the city’s first newspaper, the Nebraska State
Journal. He married Mariel E. Clapham of Washington, D.C., in 1871.
While serving as a representative in the first state legislature, he helped
found the University of Nebraska, for which he served as regent from 1882 to
1892. Cather wrote for his newspaper when she was a university student, and
became a friend of Charles and Mariel Gere’s three daughters, Mariel, Ellen,
and Frances. She remembered Charles Gere’s “kindness, his easy wit, the ease
and charm of his personality.”
0048Gere, Mariel Clapham
(1874-1960). Cather’s university friend; a teacher. Mariel Gere,
eldest daughter of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, born in Lincoln, NE,
entered the University of Nebraska's prep school in the same year Cather
did. She and her sisters visited Cather several times in Red Cloud, NE. Both
were members of the Union Literary Society until Gere joined the Kappa Kappa
Gamma sorority in 1892. Gere graduated in the science course and taught
chemistry at Lincoln High until 1941. She also served on the Lincoln City
Library board for many years. Cather and Gere remained friends and
correspondents; Gere defended Cather from accusations that she had been
arrogant and friendless during her university years.
0049Gere, Ellen Bladen
(1875-1941) (“Ned” or “Neddums”). Cather's friend. Ellen Gere,
the second daughter of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, was born in Lincoln,
NE. She visited Cather in Red Cloud, NE, with her sisters, and Cather
included her in her correspondence in the 1890s. Ellen Gere entered the
University of Nebraska in Lincoln around 1892, but graduated with the class
of 1899. In the 1920s she adopted two children, believing, with her friend
Dorothy Canfield, that women who wanted to be mothers did not have to be
married.
0050
Gere, Frances C. (1877-1965). Cather's friend. Frances Gere,
the youngest child of Charles H. and Mariel C. Gere, was born in Lincoln,
NE. She entered the University of Nebraska in 1894 and graduated in 1898.
Like her sisters, Mariel and Ellen, she joined the Kappa Kappa Gamma
sorority and lived in Lincoln the remainder of her life.